She knew where Cullen would be. His office was in one of the towers clinging to the top of the wall, and the only way to get to it was up a creaking staircase. She started stomping on the wooden steps, and she heard them crack as she went up. Her hands were balled into fists, her face was frozen with rage.
She couldn't believe Cullen! Running around and telling everyone that Solas hit her, what the hell was he thinking?! Did he honestly think that Talyn would let him get away with it?!
"Inquisitor?" Fenris' gravelly voice interrupted her internal raging.
"Not now." She growled at him over her shoulder.
"Where are you going?"
She stopped, and turned around to face Fenris. He looked concerned.
"I'm going to kill Cullen!" She said with mock cheerfulness.
She turned around again and continued her angry stomping up the tower. She heard Fenris' footsteps, so she turned her head to see his spiky white hair and green eyes.
"What are you doing?"
"I'm coming with you." He replied, " to make sure you don't murder the best Commander you have."
She looked straight forward and walked faster. When they were at the top of the staircase, Talyn lifted a foot and kicked in his door. Splinters of wood flew in all directions at the impact.
She stormed into the room, and faced Cullen, who was standing with his sword in his hand. At the sight of her, he immediately sheathed his blade. At first he looked surprised, but then his face paled with fear at the murderous look in Talyn's eyes.
She went up to him, and Cullen started to back up.
"What the fuck is wrong with you?!" She shouted at him.
Her tattooed hands lit up and she shoved him. He flew backwards into a chair by a blazing fireplace, and both him and the chair crashed into the wall. A picture slid down the wall and landed on the back of it. Then it fell forward, and the heavy frame landed on top of Cullen's head.
He hissed in pain and threw the painting off him. He rubbed his scalp while he scrambled to his feet. He looked over at Fenris helplessly. The elf man was leaning against the wall opposite of the angry Inquisitor and her victim.
In response to Cullen's look, he shrugged and said, "don't look at me. I'm not the one you pissed off."
She started shouting at him in elvish. "ma ememonnoengonuntohendirthgalin o ma' edhconvem!"
Cullen looked back and forth between Talyn and Fenris.
"What is she saying?!" He asked Fenris.
Fenris raised an eyebrow, and spoke over Talyn's shouting. "Does it look like I actually know any elvish?"
Talyn stepped forward, invading Cullen's space.
"Ma're a munpalar!"
Fenris paused for a moment with his head tilted to the side. Then he smiled.
"She just called you a pig fucker."
"You had no right!" She shouted in the common tongue. "No fucking right to tell everyone about my private business!"
"I'm sorry Talyn-"
Cullen tried to apologize, but she cut him off.
"You know nothing about me! Pala ma! Fenhedislasa, ma palaken a mun! Ma'regaroenel!"
"Fuck you, go fuck a pig." Fenris translated the part of her elvish he could understand.
"I'm sorry!" Cullen shouted.
His outburst shut Talyn up. She glared at him. His sapphire eyes were full of regret.
"It was idiotic! I wasn't thinking! I honestly didn't think-"
"That I would find out?!" She shouted, interrupting him.
His face was nothing but sincere as he said, "Inquisitor, I apologize. I should have known better."
"You're damn right you should have!" She was still yelling.
"It will never happen again!"
"It better not! Or you'll have more than just a headache!"
She turned her back on him and headed for the exit. Before she left, she squeezed her hand into a fist, and slammed it into the wall right beside the doorframe.
"That was... interesting." Fenris mused when they got to the bottom of the staircase.
She growled. "I'm done talking about it. If you want an explanation, talk to Bull."
She paused, her anger cooling as she remembered who it was she was talking to.
"I'm sorry about Stroud. Are you and Hawke doing alright?"
Fenris shrugged. " I didn't know Stroud well. But Hawke was close to him. He left Skyhold a few days ago. Hasn't been back yet."
She didn't miss the worry on his face.
"He'll be okay, eventually."
Fenris gave her a small smile. "I know. But I miss him."
She wanted to do something to take his mind off of Hawke. "Tomorrow at first light Bull and I are going to the Storm Coast. You should come us. We're fighting Vints."
The elf's face lit up with glee. "I look forward to killing Tevinter scum."
Unfortunately, Solas wasn't nearly as happy as Fenris was about fighting Vints.
"There is no freedom in the Qun, no room to make your own choices! They want to convert the entire world to their warped religion! And you want to help them?!"
Solas was pacing, his brow furrowed in anger. His desk was littered with ancient volumes stacked high enough to be as tall as he was. Talyn was standing in front of him, her arm crossed over her chest.
"I don't like them either, Solas. But the enemy of my enemy is my friend."
He gave her an incredulous look. "Your "friends" happen to be glorified slavers."
Talyn's eyes narrowed. Her nerves were still burning from Cullen's loud, lying mouth.
She snapped, "if you don't want to go, that's all you have to say. I'm perfectly capable of doing this without you."
His voice softened. "I will never leave your side, ma alas'en, you know that. But I don't see how helping the Qunari is a good thing."
Her harsh tone also melted away."We need allies. That's why it's a good thing. Bull has given us useful information because of his ties to his people. Because of them we know that there are red lyrium mines in the Graves."
The Qunari went against everything that they both believed in. Just from the brief explanation Bull had given her of the Qun, she knew that it was no better than Elvhenan when the Evanuris reigned. She wouldn't make him go. Just because she was tossing her morals out the window didn't mean that he had to as well.
"It's better if you stay here anyways." She continued, "we need to know where the other Foci are before another human gets any ideas about them."
"Time scattered them. The world has changed so much since we last walked it's roads." Solas looked at his stack of books, and his expression hardened. "I will find them."
Their farewell at dawn had a sense of melancholy. Talyn almost changed her mind about leaving Solas behind. She had just returned from the Storm Coast, and they had a millennia to make up for. But she forced herself to leave, because the fate of Thedas was more important.
Two weeks later, Talyn was standing on the damp shore of the Storm Coast once more. The wet sand was hard underneath her boots. The waves were roaring and slamming against the tall stones that grew from the water like fossilized trees, and from her view, she could see seagulls nesting on top the rocks.
Fenris and Bull were standing on either side of her as they faced Bull's comrade, whose name she had already forgotten. He was an elf, his hair was the color of chestnuts and his eyes were too squinted for her to tell what color they were.
The moment she laid her eyes on him she knew she didn't like him. From the look on Fenris' face, he felt the same.
They exchanged pleasantries, saying what an honor it would be to be each other's allies and whatnot. Just like that mage who had greeted them in Redcliffe, his voice sounded like a forked tongue would be popping out of his mouth at any moment.
"Hissrad! I almost thought you went Tal-Vashoth." He joked with Bull.
Fenris and Talyn both looked to Bull for an explanation.
"We have no names in the Qun. Just titles. I'm Ben-Hassrath, so Hissrad can be translated as 'Master of Illusion' or-"
"Liar." The elf cut him off matter-of-factly. "It means liar."
Bull's eye narrowed, and there was a slight tone of offense in his words. "You didn't have to say it like that."
Talyn felt pity for Bull in that moment. She knew what it was like to have a name that brought shame on the shoulders of it's owner.
The Chargers were standing behind them, and she didn't look back to see their faces, but she could feel their own confused emotions at this encounter.
"What's the plan?" She asked the elf, eager to change the subject.
"The Vints are going to be coming onto the shore soon," the elf answered. "Hissrad's... "Chargers" are going to be on the shore, acting as decoys, while the four of us and the Dreadnought come in from behind." He smirked. "They won't know what's coming until it's too late."
Bull and Fenris explained to Talyn that a Dreadnought was a powerful Qunari ship made out of metal. It was a menacing force of power, and the Vints below them didn't stand a chance as long as their mages were distracted.
So, they got into their positions, and then waited patiently. From their vantage point on the cliff, Talyn could see Krem and the others on the shore. But she couldn't see the metal ship hiding in the grey sea.
She spotted ships with the blood red flag of Tevinter moving with the wind. She saw three of them.
She met Bull's uneasy eyes.
"They're outnumbered. If those ships reach the shore..."
"They'll die." Fenris finished for her.
"We have no choice. The Qun demands their sacrifice." The squinty-eyed palar answered her.
Talyn shot him a glare.
"Bull, call it off."
Bull looked at her in surprise.
"Hissrad, if you do it, you'll be turning your back on your comrades. You'll be a traitor. TalVashoth."
Talyn could see the war waging within Bull. This was the moment he had to choose between between Hissrad the Ben Has-rath, or Iron Bull, leader of the Bull's Chargers.
It was a choice that he had to make on his own. But she couldn't help herself.
"We have enough dead friends, Bull. Don't let that evil little imp add more to the list."
His face tightened with emotion. Without a word, he lifted his hand to his mouth and whistled.
That was when Talyn finally got to see a Dreadnought. As the Chargers left the shore, it creeped out from behind a cluster of rocks. Black smoke billowed into the air from a dark chimney, like it was a dragon gliding along the surface of the sea.
Talyn was in awe of that magnificent weapon of destruction. She jumped as the boom of it's cannons echoed into the sky, but it was too late. The Tevinter mages reacted, shooting fire spells at the massive ship. It burst into flames, and then it exploded. It sent millions of shards of metal into the sea, along with the bones of the crew on board.
The impish elf was furious.
"You're dead to us now, Iron Bull."
Talyn grabbed Bull's muscular arm and started to pull him away from the elf.
"And the Qunari will never ally themselves with the Inquisition!" He shouted after them.
She let go of her friend to turn around and lift her middle fingers in the air.
"Fuck the Qunari!" She shouted back.
They walked down the damp hill to where the others were waiting for them. The horses kicked at the ground and hopped, as if they were as ready to leave as Talyn was.
"Boss... What have I done?" Bull spoke quietly.
What have I done?
She understood that question more than he would ever realize. She put a hand on his shoulder and kept it there, as if she could make the dark cloud hanging over his head disappear.
"You saved your Chargers, Bull. That's what you did."
"But at what cost?" His voice was little more than a whisper.
"Bull..." Talyn struggled to find the words she wanted to say.
"Chief, what happened?" Krem was the first to reach them.
The confusion on their faces was clear as the Chargers ran up to them. That confusion only grew worse when they saw the look on Iron Bull's face.
"Change of plans." Talyn answered him. "We're going home."
She felt something sharp prick her arm. She frowned and looked down to see a metal sliver sticking out of her skin.
As the world began to darken around her, she heard inhuman growls and saw flashes of red.
WOOOOOOOOOO! FINALLY GOT ANOTHER CHAPTER UP!
So, I haven't really mentioned this before because it's a little embarrassing. But, as you all know updates are pretty slow with me for a bunch of reasons, but also because... well, uhhhhhh...
I never actually finished DA:I. I cheated, watched the Solas romance on YouTube, and my heart was shattered into a million damn pieces. So I started Talyn's story instead of finishing the game! But, I am happy to inform you that I ACTUALLY FINISHED IT! :D :D :D :D
As always, thank you so much for the support and putting up with my procrastination. Love you guys!
C.J.