CHAPTER 4: Yasmin Didn't Expect the Thedasian Inquisition
Hesitating for a fraction of a second, everyone was out of the war room and ran up through the short corridor and towards those terrible screams.
Having a slight head start, it was Lysette who flung open the door to Josephine's room: where she and Charter had placed the Herald on the bed. None of them were prepared to the sight that greeted them.
The Herald of Andraste stood tall, holding Chancellor Roderick by his throat with one hand in such a manner that his feet were inches off the ground. Her hair was slightly ruffled from sleep or from the confrontation, though her bandana was firmly in place.
Roderick was sputtering, his hands scraping at her arm. But it wasn't the cleric who had screamed; nor was it Yasmin for that matter.
It was the two Templar guards that had been accompanying the Chancellor had brought with him from Val Royeaux to Haven. They had stopped screaming, and were now twitching on the ground, whimpering; being tortured still, by some invisible power.
Without missing a beat, Yasmin's expression of contempt lessened somewhat as she inclined her head to acknowledge the group of people now crowded into the room. "Good morning, how are you today?" Yasmin asked with a dark grin at the newcomers.
"Release the Templars," Cassandra asked.
Yasmin looked down at the Templars in agony on the ground and using the hand that was unoccupied, she sharply closed her fist in a vicious gesture. The Templars' frenzied seizing reached a crescendo; and with a final jerk, they both stilled. All their movement stilled. Josephine, Charter, and Lysette gasped while Leliana just let out a heavy sigh. Cullen's hand drifted to the hand and a half sword on his hip, and Cassandra just looked mutinous.
"How?…" Charter breathed.
"That's not what I meant, and you fucking know it Yasmin," Cassandra growled.
"Put Roderick down please," Josephine beseeched softly; herself slightly sickened by the casual manner in which Yasmin had basically executed Roderick's guards.
"The Chantry will have you beheaded for this, maleficarum!," Roderick spat out as Yasmin lowered him slightly so his feet were no longer kicking at air.
Yasmin let out a dark chuckle. "Blood mage? No. I'm not one of those, or an apostate, or even a mage for that matter. Guess again, priest." Yasmin's voice was deceptively calm. She was still holding most of his weight off of the ground by herself.
"You're a Seeker of Truth." Cullen breathed out. He had not in fact had any contact with Yasmin, and neither Cassandra nor Leliana saw fit to mention Yasmin's former affiliation. Or perhaps they just forgot about it.
"Once upon a time, maybe. But that was years ago," Yasmin spared a glance for the blond commander. "Today however, you ordered your Templars to kill me. Presumptuous of you, no? Does the woman who silenced the Breach not even deserve a trial in Val Royeax? What a shameful time we live in when the Chantry murders its saviours," Yasmin drawled, tilting her head as a child would when asking a question with shamelessly false innocence.
"That's what we were going to do," Roderick said.
"Oh? I must've misheard you. I remember you telling that one," Yasmin said as she nudged the nearest Templar corpse with her bare foot, "when he suggested you do exactly that, you said. 'We can't take the chance. She murdered our Most Holy. Your duty is clear Knight-Captain, kill the heretic.' And like the fool he was, he raised his blade over my chest." Yasmin recounted coldly. "So I destroyed them."
Leliana watched this exchange with interest, the tension in her stance slowly receding. She'd never seen a Seeker kill someone with their powers like this before. Cassandra had incapacitated Templars, and a few apostates on Lyrium rushes, but this was so much darker. Even the hardened Bard had to admit it was unnervingly close to blood magic.
"Lies!" Roderick spat out.
Yasmin just rolled her eyes and turned her attention to Leliana. "The Breach…did I manage to close it? I don't remember."
"No. But it has stopped spreading. And no new rifts have formed since then," Leliana said with a small smile.
"Damn," Yasmin huffed in disappointment. "I guess there's still use for this then huh?" she asked about the softly green glowing gash on her left hand.
"Yes. There are multiple rifts being reported as far away as my scouts have managed to travel in the three days you've been…indisposed," Leliana said calmly.
"Are we just going to ignore the fact our Herald of Andraste murdered two Templars?" Cullen asked.
Standing off to the side, Charter and Lysette both exchanged a look that said, 'This shit is way above our pay grade.'
"Herald of who now?" Yasmin asked sharply. "What the fuck are you on about?"
Josephine found her voice as she tentatively explained, "After you emerged from the Fade, and then used the Mark on your hand to stabilize the Breach…well, people have begun to call you the Herald of Andraste. They believe you are…holy, for lack of a better word."
Yasmin was just gaping at her, an expression that seemed out of place on her face. Cassandra would've found her apprentice's shock hilarious if the situation they found themselves in wasn't so combustible. In her shock, she released the Chancellor who capitalized on his newfound freedom to hurl more ire at her.
"There is nothing holy about you. When the Chantry hears about how you killed the Divine, there will be a reckoning." Roderick persisted.
"Enough from you," Cassandra said. "I do not believe the Herald is to blame for the Divine's death or the destruction of the Conclave."
"Someone was behind the blast at the Conclave. Perhaps it was someone the Divine did not expect. Perhaps they have allies that yet live," Leliana levelled Roderick with a glare that nearly caused him to soil himself…more than he already had when Yasmin grabbed him.
"Me? You would accuse me of this atrocity?" Roderick gasped. For all his bluster and attempted murder, he was genuinely wounded by this accusation.
"You. And many others." Leliana reiterated.
"But not this monster?" Roderick gestured at Yasmin, who was still having obvious difficulty with processing Josephine's earlier words.
"When the Divine called out to her for aid, Yasmin rushed to her defence," Cassandra pointed out.
"And the mark on her hand, coincidence?" Roderick ground out.
"The Breach in the Veil is still a threat, and the Mark on her hand remains our single hope for closing it." Leliana replied with a reproachful look.
"That is not for you to decide," Roderick shot back.
Cassandra watched the back and forth for a while now before realising what she was still holding in her hand. She had brought it with her in the rush from the War Room. It was almost like providence. "Do you know what this is?" her voice was cold steel. "It is a writ from the Divine, granting us the authority to act." She brandished the tome so all could see what was happening.
Yasmin came back to her senses and sucked her breath in as she realized what Cassandra was talking about. "As of this moment, I declare the Inquisition reborn. We will close the Breach. We will discover, pursue, and put to the sword those who destroyed the conclave and killed the Divine. And we will do so," Cassandra took a short breath as she turned her burning gaze on Roderick. "We will do so without yours or the Chantry's approval if necessary."
Yasmin couldn't help but shiver at the chills raising the hairs on her arm and the nape of her neck. This was how history was made.
Chancellor Roderick took this as his cue to get the fuck outta there, and nobody stopped him. Cassandra looked like someone took the wind out of her sails for a moment.
"Warriors of a holy war, Cassandra? Is that what we'll become?" Yasmin asked.
Cassandra fixed her former apprentice with a glare, "You are, or were a Seeker of Truth. We can trace our order from mentor to apprentice in an unbroken line back to the first Inquisition. How is this much different?"
Yasmin seemed to consider a variety of replies before hissing and turning around to burry her face in her hands. Nobody was quite sure what to do now. Josephine tried to alieviate some of the Herald's obvious distress. "Yasmin, Leliana wasn't grandstanding to Roderick…much. You are our only hope at fixing the sky. Will you help us do that?" Josephine asked quietly. Yasmin seemed to deflate at that, so Josephine pressed her advantage. "I understand there are some complicated matters to get through, and soon. But we cannot do this without you."
Yasmin turned around to look at them: the two women, barely more than girls: the young elf and the Orlesian chevalier-looking woman were standing aside looking nervous and out of place. Former Knight-Captain Rutherford and Sister Leliana, were both looking grim. The Antivan woman with her soft voice garbed in golden ruffles. Cassandra was giving her a look she hadn't seen since she was a teenager and Cassandra presented her to Lord Seeker Lambert van Reeves, her ready to begin her Vigil and become a Seeker of Truth at last. Despite everything that had just happened, what Yasmin had just done, Cassandra was looking at her with pride, and that was enough for her to say, "Alright then."
She extended her arm as Cassandra mimicked her; they grasped each other's forearms in the classic warrior's embrace. After a moment they separated and Yasmin looked around the room. "If it's not too presumptuous, may I have some proper introductions? Most of you are unfamiliar to me."