CHAPTER 11: Aggressive Negotiations

"All they have is their united voice. If you take that from them, well…" Mother Giselle trailed off as Yasmin nodded her head. Lysette and Cassandra were standing beside them, watching the mage healer tend to the injured peasant Giselle had previously been treating. Solas and Varric were milling about the refugees.

"You're oddly eager to bring down your fellow clerics. Why is that?" Lysette asked with wide eyes. she cleaned the blood from her sword, which she then re-sheathed horizontally on her lower back.

Giselle's brief disapproval of the casual weapon cleaning vanished from her face when she said, "The Chantry as it is has nothing to offer but fear. Those of us who were well-respected and influential died at the Temple of Sacred Ashes. I've known Sister Leliana for years, and I trust that this endeavour, this Inquisition is something that can change things for the better in a way that Divine Justinia never could."

Yasmin cocked an eyebrow, but didn't seem perturbed by the answer she got.

"Very well. Will you stay here or join the faithful in Haven?" Cassandra spoke up.

Mother Giselle didn't need to think about her answer much, "I shall make for Haven. With the fighting here having mostly been quelled, I feel like my use will be better served closer to the Inquisition."

Yasmin looked like she wanted to ask another question, but she shook her head and held out her hand, "Welcome to the Inquisition then, Mother Giselle. Leliana will be delighted you've decided to join us." Yasmin turned away, but then changed her mind to say one last thing before heading back to the I fear that Chancellor Roderick's behaviour and slander has soured the perception of the Chantry for some of our number. You might have your work cut out for you," Yasmin grinned as she received a solemn nod from the Reverend Mother.

The trip to the Hinterlands had been mostly uneventful other than Varric and Cassandra bickering; much to the amusement of Lysette. Less than amusing was the fighting they had found when they arrived. Neither the apostates nor the Templars heeded calls for a ceasefire, and so they fell to the Inquisition's blades. Yasmin was glad the talk with Giselle went as good as she could hope for. At least Leliana wouldn't be on her about spurning a potentially influential ally.

Closing rifts was still painful. Though by the third rift, Yasmin could feel the pain lessen with each rift sorted…minimally. She said as much to Solas, who replied, "I know not why. Perhaps it is your body becoming more in tuned with your connection to the Fade?" Which wasn't exactly the response Yasmin was hoping for.

She wasn't sure what to make of the elven apostate. When he touched her arm, Empathy's powers allowed her to see flashes of things in his mind that were confusing. She knew he definitely wasn't what he seemed to be. He was an old one. Like, a proper old one. And he knew something about the explosion, but that was shrouded in regret. The image from his head that stayed with her was the one of Solas in a castle in the mountains holding a glowing green orb, and using it to shatter the sky in a burst of green that consumed everything.

Yasmin did not know what the hell this was. It was certainly fascinating, but it wasn't…it didn't make sense without context. Not for the first time she wished she were a mage with a proper and reliable connection to the Fade. Perhaps she'd be able to see more of this memory of his. She wasn't sure what to make of it exactly, and she didn't know how the Mark affected her body yet, or how it was only Solas who seemed to have any clue about it. She had to admit to herself that she needed him around for the moment for that reason alone, in case it acted up again for some reason. Perhaps she'd voice her concerns to Leliana down the line, when there was a stronger bond between the two.

Several days later the motley crew trudged back to the farm camp, covered in fade-touched wolfs' blood. The missive for the construction on the farm had been sent and Cullen's men had come and built the towers. Luckily Haven wasn't longer than a few days away by bird. By horse though? It was another matter. Yasmin may have some deep problems with Cullen, but he was at least efficient when it mattered.

Yasmin wasn't too happy with how things were going. There was so much death here. On the second day, after having sent Giselle on to Haven with a small detachment of Scout Harding's people, they stumbled across the Templar stronghold. "Please, lay down your arms. We don't mean you harm if you stop fucking killing people!" Yasmin had yelled at them. She was already drenched in the blood of their brethren who had preferred to die by the sword.

"You would leash us again. The apostates must be culled! Just look at the carnage they've wrought on Thedas! There can never be order so long as they yet live!" was the response that was shouted back from the Knight-Captain who was apparently leading this contingent.

Yasmin let out a disgusted grunt to rival Cassandra, and Varric just barely held in a chuckle. "It seems violence is all they know," Solas lamented.

"They've lost their way," Cassandra said softly. She was heartbroken over the situation. She'd served with Templars and around Templars her entire adult life. To see them regress to the bloodthirsty savages they were now fighting was a tragedy.

"What happened to protecting mages? Wasn't that your true purpose? Are there none of you who would show mercy to the mage children uprooted by this conflict?" Solas called out as the Templars began to rally.

A small volley of arrows was the reply the elf received; though the barriers he erected around himself and the party shattered the arrows on contact. "This is all wrong," Lysette said softly. The young recruit raised her voice, "I'm a Templar too! Please, there is a better way!" she beseeched them even as the opposing Templars interlocked their shields, no doubt preparing for Solas to use fire on them.

"And you're working with the Heretic and a wild knife-ear apostate? Where is your shame?" the Knight-Captain spat back.

"I'm sorry Lysette, Cassandra. But they're going to die now," Yasmin said.

"I've heard worse from peasants, don't let your anger on my behalf drive you. Though I am touched by your kindness," Solas said.

Yasmin shook her head. "The Knight-Captain was dead the moment he talked about culling all the mages. The rest will die for following him and defending that hateful rhetoric." Yasmin turned to Lysette. "This will be different than the few skirmishes we've gotten into in the ruins around here. This will be close-quarters and horrible. There is nothing wrong with you if you choose to step back for a bit. These your former compatriots after all; I can't ask you to help kill them without question. It will not be easy for you, and I'm not talking about the actual combat."

Lysette's lip trembled with indignation at being singled out as the weakest link even as she was thankful and touched that Yasmin didn't have any judgement in her voice. Cassandra spoke up, "It sounds like you've experience in this area, something to share?" Yasmin turned to Cassandra with anger in her eyes.

"Later," Yasmin bit out curtly. The others were put slightly on edge by her tone. She turned back to Lysette, expression softened. "Lysette?"

"I will handle it. I said I'd walk beside you, and I'm a woman of my word," Lysette said stubbornly as she drew her two handed sword.

Yasmin regarded her for a moment before nodding and turning to their enemies. "Last chance!" she called out. The battered their shields with their blades in taunt.

The Herald of Andraste clenched her jaw and sprung into action, she whipped out her spear and used it as a make-shift pole vault and sailed over their shield barricade. Before the Templar Knights could turn to face her in their heavy armour and five-foot-tall heavy shields, she dew her sword in a wide arc through their lower spines and the occasional kidney, if they were shorter than her. The screams were instant, the ones she cut with that maneuverer were on the ground convulsing in agony, even without her even touching her Lyrium-affecting powers.

The ones that turned to face her immediately regretted it as Varric's bolts and Solas' magic tore through the rest of them. "Fist wave down," Yasmin muttered as she plunged her boot downward to crush the throat of the screaming Templars at her feet.

Yasmin returned her to her spear, which was still quivering in the ground from where she used it to vault over the Templars. She pulled it out of the ground and returned it to the mount on her back. She then briefly wiped her blade on the sleeve of a downed Templar before moving forward to the Templars further into the camp. The blade in her hand was only twenty-eight inches, so it didn't have the cumbersome nature of most longswords that were wielded one-handed by most warriors. But it made up for its size in the sharpness enhanced by the speed at which she was capable of bringing to bear.

She turned back to her compatriots and grimly said, "Let's press forward, there are more up ahead."

Cassandra watched her former apprentice cut through the Templars in seconds with a dual sense of horror and pride. She wasn't sure which emotion she was more ashamed for. "Wow," Lysette murmured as she stood beside the Seeker. Cassandra didn't think Lysette intended that to be said aloud, so she ignored it.

"Let's follow our Herald then, yes?" Cassandra intoned as Yasmin's four compatriots trudged forward after their leader.