A Little Lighter
"My dear Leliana," Zevran said as he stepped out of the shadows, "you certainly have developed an interesting sense of style during your time with the Inquisition."
"What, you don't like the rookery? I thought you'd feel right at home here," she replied with a wink.
"Oh, were you trying to make me comfortable? How hospitable of you." Zevran's tone was mirthful, but his eyes guarded. "I must admit, your message intrigued me, although it was light on the details. Are you perhaps in need of my services? I would have thought a bard of your calibre and her spies would have no need of a master assassin."
She hesitated a moment before replying, "It is a bit of an unusual situation, one I cannot attend to myself, and, as skilled as my agents are, this involves an Orlesian assassin's guild and a dear friend of mine."
"I see."
His tone invited further clarification, and she quickly elaborated. "You have heard of the House of Repose?"
Zevran nodded. "The guild works only for the Orlesian nobility, I believe. Interesting business model, that."
Leliana chuckled. "Yes, well that's part of the problem. It seems some time in the past, a feud started between the Du Paraquettes and the Montilyet family over a pair of star-crossed lovers. It was quite vicious, as most Orlesian feuds are, and resulted in the deaths of dozens of family members on either side. The Du Paraquettes hired the House of Repose to drive the Montilyet family out of Orlais and target anyone attempting to reinstate them."
She leaned against her desk and crossed her arms. "Apparently, that contract is still valid over a hundred years later, because when the Inquisition's ambassador, Josephine Montilyet, attempted to do just that, her messengers were murdered and the documents they were carrying destroyed."
Now it was Zevran's turn to chuckle. "Well, you cannot fault their work ethic, now can you?"
"Josephine prefers no bloodshed, and I would wish to honour that request, but my top priority is her safety. Naturally, I thought of you."
"Naturally," Zevran agreed. "I know of the Montilyets, of course. Josephine was the Antivan ambassador to Orlais until the Inquisition lured her away." His expression turned thoughtful.
"The Inquisition will be happy to pay-" Leliana started, but Zevran waived her away.
"Of course. Do not worry about it, my dear; consider it a favour to an old friend. I only ask that you cover my expenses, and those of my associates."
"Oh, did you bring some of your…" Here she trailed away, not quite sure of the nature of that relationship, and not wanting to hazard a guess.
"'Associate' is as good a word as any. You may have heard of my new nom de guerre?" He continued without waiting for a reply. "You perhaps will not be surprised to hear that many assassins are unhappy with the Crows, and are amenable to my plans to rid the world of them.
"But I must confess," he continued, "I am surprised you were not aware that I brought two of my top men with me, considering I sent them in yesterday to scout out Skyhold."
"My agents did not bring that news to me," Leliana admitted, "but it does confirm my decision to involve you."
"Very well, I will attempt to resolve the matter without bloodshed, but of course I cannot promise that." It was, in fact, a welcome stipulation. "I will start at once."
oOo
The House of Repose was a very different animal from the Crows. As the guild had never recruited children against their will, most of their assassins lived in their own personal residences. The Crows were really a loose federation of houses, with only the outward appearance of a monolithic entity, and as such, each house had its own compound. The House of Repose had only one, however, and among other things, it housed the vault where the guild kept the original copies of all their contracts.
This both made it easier and more difficult to resolve this without bloodshed – easier, because otherwise there would have been no end of assassins to eliminate as one after the other would have taken the place of the original assigned to execute the contract. However, as the House of Repose was a single entity, their only compound would be heavily guarded, with assassins coming and going at all hours as they bid on contracts and returned for payment, or met to discuss guild business.
The compound was located southwest of Val Royeaux proper. It sat perched atop a rise overlooking the Waking Sea, the land falling off steeply behind it to meet the sea. With excellent views on all sides, it would be difficult to approach without being spotted, but it was better than being in the capital, where you couldn't throw a stone in any direction without hitting a spy or bard.
Leliana had been able to give him some information on the compound's layout before they'd left Skyhold, although it had necessarily been sketchy. It was unclear if the Repose's archive held their blackmail files and secret poison recipes as well as their contracts, as the Crows' did, but it was likely to be just as filled with cunning traps. Although he understood Leliana's anxiousness to have this business resolved quickly, he would not be hasty. Zevran and his companions rented a modest room in Val Royeaux, masquerading as spies of average talent who were trying to pass for minor nobility, so commonplace they would be deemed unworthy of anyone's attention.
During that time, they took a small fishing jaunt down the coast, the sort minor nobility sometimes indulged in, and they were gratified to find that although the cliff behind the Repose's compound was steep, it didn't appear unclimbable for someone of their fitness level, and looked to be only a few stories tall. As Zevran wasn't entirely convinced they could bluff their way into the compound, they would have to scale the wall regardless of the direction of their approach, so they might as well take the side least likely to have the guards' full attention.
oOo
The trio chose a night when there would be just a sliver of moon in the night sky, and rented a dinghy large enough to hold them and their equipment, but small enough to hug the coastline and light enough to carry. They muffled the oars with cloth so as to make no sound in the oarlocks. If everything went according to plan, it would also allow them a means of escaping unnoticed.
They brought the bare minimum, but each piece of equipment was versatile: strong, lightweight ropes; lightweight harnesses they could use both for belaying and for carrying the tools of their trade; and cams for creating anchor points in the cliff face. All of them were wearing half-finger leather gloves and thin, flexible shoes to help them climb. As an added benefit, the shoes would also help muffle their footfalls, although Zevran still regretted not being able to wear his boots.
They reached the small, rocky beach without incident, and stowed the dinghy upside down as far from the water as they could, in case the tide came in before they returned. Zevran looked up uneasily – from this vantage point, the cliff looked far steeper than it had during their scouting.
"Here," he heard Marcelo say. Zevran turned to find him a few paces away, having found a small area relatively clear of large rocks. He and Carlos joined him.
"What do you think?" As the beefier of the two humans, it would be Marcelo's job to belay the lead climber, but the site would only be workable if it was under an area suitable for climbing.
Zevran looked up again, searching for a path that would offer both footholds and places to anchor. The assassin's superior eyesight and lighter weight made him a natural to be the lead climber, and he and his team knew how to use the equipment, but this would still be difficult. "I think this will do."
Marcelo threaded the rope through the belay device on his harness and passed the end to Zevran to attach to his own harness, neatly coiling the rest of the rope next to him to make sure it didn't hang up as he paid it out through the belay device. When all was ready, Zevran started up, taking time to locate suitable footholds before each move, and keeping one hip pushed against the cliff face to help keep his weight over his feet. A few yards up he found what looked like a suitable place for their first anchor. He felt around the chink in the rock carefully to make sure the stone wouldn't flake or crack. Satisfied that it was solid, Zevran pulled out a cam, squeezed the sides together, inserted it into the crack, and released the spring-loaded trigger, allowing the lobes to expand and contact the rock. He gave a hard tug on the loop attached to the cam and felt no give, so he attached one end of a carabiner to the loop, hooking the other end around the rope so the rope could slide easily through it, and continued upwards.
By the time he was halfway up the cliff face, his muscles were screaming at him. His foot slipped, and before he could recover he was free falling. As the last anchor point was only a yard below him, he only dropped a couple of yards, but it was enough to jerk his belayer off his feet. Marcelo had anticipated that, naturally, and Zevran glanced down to see him hanging a bit off the ground, both feet firmly planted on the cliff face. Marcelo pushed off, using his weight to land on the ground, then said something briefly to Carlos. Carlos looked at Zevran and gave him a thumbs-up, letting him know that Marcelo was set again, and it was safe to proceed.
Zevran hadn't been seriously hurt when he'd hit the end of the drop and his body had swung back to the wall like a pendulum, but he had banged a knee, which hurt like the Void and made the climb ten times more difficult. He eventually made it to the top, but it took more time than he would have liked to get there. His men had less difficulty, not having to lead climb, and they all made it safely.
There was only a short strip of land between the edge of the cliff and the wall of the compound, but it was wide enough to stand on. Marcelo got into a half-squat and cupped his hands together, intertwining his fingers. Zevran darted towards him and planted one foot into Marcelo's hands like a step, and Marcelo boosted him up, giving him enough momentum to grab the edge of the wall and pull himself up and over. Carlos did the same, then attached one end of a length of rope through a loop on his harness and threw the other end over the wall. He braced himself as Marcelo used it to scale the wall and pull himself over.
They were in!
The building that housed the vault was set two-thirds of the way back from the main gate, meaning they now only had to traverse a third of the compound to get there. The team had memorized the layout ahead of time based on the information they had, and they made it to the building housing the archive without incident.
oOo
Zevran peered through the window to find it was set high on the back wall of a long room, which at first appeared to actually be the vault. It was lined on both sides with shelves from floor to ceiling filled with neatly labelled boxes. Rows of bookshelves ran most the length of the room, their shelves filled with the same types of boxes. At the head of the room, in the middle, sat two long tables of the type commonly found in libraries, with chairs on either side. A guard was stationed on the left, near the room's only door, and a large vault the size of a small room stood to the right.
He was standing on the shoulders of Carlos, who in turn was kneeling on the shoulders of Marcelo. He motioned silently to his men, before first crouching and then sliding down Carlos's back and dropping lightly to the ground. Carlos followed, and the trio hunkered down, Marcelo rolling his shoulders and neck to get the kinks out.
Zevran quickly sketched the layout, using pebbles and dried leaves to stand in for objects in the room. "There is only one guard, sitting at a small desk here," he said, pointing to a leaf standing in for the desk. "There are a couple of tables in the middle, and a vault on the opposite side," he finished, using a small stone to indicate the vault's position relative to two twigs representing the tables. Zevran looked at them. "I admit, I am surprised. Only one person to guard their prized possessions? And the shelves are lined with what must be contracts. After all, the guild has existed for hundreds of years. But if that is so, what is in the vault?"
They all sat back on their heels as they considered the matter. Carlos was the first to break the silence. "Perhaps the contracts you saw on the shelves are the completed ones? And the ones that have not been executed are in the vault? It would make sense that the completed ones are archival only, and therefore there would be no need to keep them in a locked vault." He looked at Zevran. "And it sounds as though the safe you saw would be big enough to hold all their current contracts, yes?"
The assassin nodded thoughtfully as Marcelo piped up. "In that case, it makes even more sense that there would only be one guard, and a token one at that. After all, they are in the middle of their fortress, protected on one side by the sea, and well-guarded," he said cheekily.
"And filled with assassins," Carlos added with a grin. He turned to Zevran, serious again. "How will I find the contract once I have the vault open?"
"The boxes on the shelves are labelled, so perhaps there are labelled boxes in the vault as well, and if not, I suspect they will still be stored neatly, and likely in alphabetical order, as that would be the most logical way to find a particular contract when needed." It was unfortunate, but there was no way to be absolutely certain until Carlos was in. Still, it was a reasonable assumption and would have to be enough.
"I only saw one door, near where the guard was sitting, and no other windows." The door had to be the exterior door they'd found on the other side of the building. "The window is too small for either of you to fit through, but I can make it. I will have to put the guard to sleep first, however, to make sure I will not be heard climbing in." Although they'd brought a minimal amount of equipment, they still had their daggers and other supplies on them. Shimmying through a window that narrow would likely make a small amount of noise, no matter his skill.
Luckily, he had just the thing. Their blades were coated with a potion that, once inside the bloodstream, would cause the victim to fall into a deep sleep, but not die. However, it was not so easy to ensure that they would be able to cut shallowly enough to keep from killing anyone, so Zevran had improvised a weapon using darts coated with the same substance, and blowguns to deliver them to the target. It had the added advantage that they could strike silently and from afar, making them harder to detect, and the wound would be nearly bloodless.
"It appears that their archive takes up most, if not all, of the building. Once I'm in, I'll unlock the door from the inside." Zevran didn't like it, but it would be safer than having Carlos attempt to pick the lock on the exterior door, which was fitted with a high-security lock with hardened cylinders. It might not be impossible for his man to do so, but it would take considerable time, and he'd need every moment to open the vault. At least the presence of a guard implied no traps, else they would be a threat to the guard himself and limit his movements.
"Let's go."
oOo
Zevran was pleased to see that the guard hadn't moved, and appeared to still be engrossed in a novel. He loaded the gun, took a deep breath, and shot the dart, aiming for the man's neck. Unfortunately, the guard sneezed at just that moment, and the forward movement of his head caused the dart to fly past him, landing on the floor and skittering across the marble. He couldn't see where it ended up, but it must have rolled out of sight, because the guard looked in that direction but didn't immediately become alarmed. He did stand up, though, and as the guard's back was now to him, Zevran took the opportunity to try again. This time, the dart landed squarely in the middle of the back of the man's neck.
The guard swiped at his neck, and his hand brushed up against the dart and pulled it out. "Hey!" he exclaimed, looking around wildly. "Hey, what's-"
But Zevran never got to hear the rest of that question, because before the guard could finish, he swayed, took a half-step back, and fell, landing neatly sitting back in his chair, his words dying in his throat. Better his words than his body, yes? The guard would hopefully never know how lucky he was that Zevran had been sent at the behest of someone who did not wish bloodshed.
Zevran squirmed through the window and made his way to the front of the room, travelling over the tops of the closely spaced bookcases to avoid any traps, just in case. He got to the front of the archive without incident, then jumped lightly to the floor next to the guard's desk. The assassin listened at the door for a moment but heard nothing. Opening it a small crack, he peeked out, but there was only a shadowy foyer, little more than a mudroom, leading to the exterior door. Well, the room behind him was filled with old parchment, he mused, and their archivist did seem the fussy type, judging by all the neatly lettered labels.
He unlocked the door and waved his companions in, locking the door behind them.
oOo
Carlos went to work on the vault while Marcelo checked the rest of the archive, searching for any hidden threats. Zevran went back to the window to snipe, if necessary, although his vantage point was limited. Still, it was better than nothing and less risky than trying to set up outside.
It wasn't long before Zevran heard the telltale click of the vault door being unlocked. Followed almost immediately by soft swearing. He raced back to where his man was. "What happened?"
Carlos had frozen just inside the vault. He looked over his shoulder. "Trigger plate," he explained. Zevran could hear nothing, however.
"Must be a silent alarm. Hurry!" Zevran replied.
Just then, Marcelo returned. "I found a hidden panel at the back of the archive," he reported. "It appears to open onto a tunnel. Perhaps the Orlesians are unaware of it?"
"Possible, but unlikely. However, it may buy us a few moments." With only one door in and out, it was their only option.
"Aha!" Carlos emerged from the vault, document in hand. "You were right, the contracts were alphabetized." He handed it to Zevran, who tucked it away into an inner pocket.
The sounds of boots on cobblestones, quickly followed by pounding on the door and shouted orders to surround the building, reached them as they raced to the hidden exit. Zevran heard the grating sound of a key turning a lock as he took a moment to close the panel behind them. Thank the Maker the bookcases were between them and the exit, or else they would have been spotted immediately.
Luckily, the guards' attention was first drawn to the open door of the vault, buying them precious seconds. Zevran's heart was in his throat. Leliana's layout hadn't included any information about this, and there was no telling where they would end up, but it was their only hope.
oOo
Zevran dug out a small lamp and held it aloft. In the dim light they could make out a short flight of stone steps leading down to a narrow passageway. The trio moved as fast as they dared, following the passage as it twisted and turned, but at least it stayed relatively level.
After one last twist, the tunnel abruptly ended. Zevran put his ear to the panel, straining to make out any noise on the other side, but all was quiet. He located the latch and slid the panel back just enough to see that they were in the pantry. Which meant they still had to find their way out of the compound, get to the wall, and then somehow scale it unnoticed, and it was unlikely to be anywhere near where they'd left their rappelling equipment. He swore under his breath. Would the complications never end?
He turned to his men. "We are in the pantry, but I can't see any doors from here. Carlos, you go to the left, Marcelo and I will take the right. Signal if you find something."
Carlos discovered the door to the kitchen at about the same time that he and Marcelo found another that led to a loading area used to bring the compound's provisions directly into the pantry. It was too late at night for that now, thankfully. They were still on the wrong side of the wall, but it was not far off, and they quickly scaled it, expecting to be spotted at any moment.
They found themselves on the east side of the compound, with the main entrance on the north side, and the Waking Sea to the south. The trio raced to the sea, reached their equipment, and rappelled down one at a time. Zevran was just starting to believe they would be able to escape undetected when they heard shouting coming from the guard towers. Abandoning all semblance of stealth, the trio carried the dinghy to the water's edge and climbed in, arrows raining down around them.
oOo
"I believe this is what you were looking for?" Zevran said, as he stepped out of the shadows of the rookery for the second time.
Leliana hurried around her desk to take the contract as Zevran continued, "You may reassure your friend that the mission was completed without a single drop of blood shed." Technically there was that one the sleep dart caused, but that wouldn't have sounded nearly so polished or dashing.
By the time they'd reached Ferelden, Zevran and his team had been exhausted. It simply would not do to not make an entrance, however, so he had spent the final evening prior to arrival getting cleaned up.
"Thank you, Zevran. If you ever need a favour from the Inquisition or me personally, you have only to ask."
Zevran smiled and gave a half bow. "I will keep that in mind. I must admit, this was the most challenging mission I have had in quite some time. I must take my leave now, but if you are ever in need of my services again, please do not hesitate to contact me." As much as he had enjoyed the change of pace, it was time for him and his crew to return to the business of dismantling the Crows. It felt good, however, to use his talents to help a friend, and do so without harming anyone. A balm for his soul. He slipped back into the shadows, a little lighter now.
A Little Lighter is a 2020 Secret Santa story written for Shakespira. Thanks to Suilven for beta reading, the title, and all your help with the ending, and my husband for suggesting the guard's sneeze. xD