Vivienne walked up the path to the chantry thinking over her previous meeting with the herald of Andraste, when she opened the doors passing a young man in armour she noticed that the building was mostly empty except for a few priests and a pair of guards at the end of room. She approached the guards introducing herself to them they wordlessly nodded to each other before one entered the room briefly before exiting again to direct her in, she entered the room to find the room rather cramped with the large table and the members of the inner circle.
Vivienne raised an eyebrow subtly at the collection of beings in the room, besides the three advisors there was the herald and his soulmate along with another pair of elves a woman and a man with a male dwarf that she recognized as the famous author. The herald nodded a bored greeting before returning to his reading with the seeker trapped on his lap looking embarrassed at her seat while the others did not seem to care.
"Before we begin briefing you on everything that is going on and what we know at this moment it must be understood that what we are about to tell you must never leave this room or this group, if this information were to get out it would cause a mass panic and spark another series of wars. Do you understand that you are only being given this information because you will be joining Shartan in the field?" the spy mistress asked, and Vivienne felt a thrill at the idea of being privy to such knowledge nodded seriously.
"Alright to start my name is Shartan and I was not named after the elf from legend I am Shartan of legend, myself and solas are ancient elves from before the veil was constructed." Vivienne felt her jaw drop at the casual tone this man was using.
"You have had your joke dear but I would suggest something more believable than that for a joke." Vivienne said but saw that no one was laughing at what the man said.
"As hard as it to believe Vivienne I have but a lot of effort into finding holes in their stories but could find nothing they are telling the truth, not only that but these to created the veil and in doing so made Shartan incapable of dying and it turns out that Andraste was his lover as they were soulmates making the seeker her reincarnation." Nightingale said and Vivienne felt horror at the fact that she had been rude to this man.
"Relax Vivienne I can tell your worried but I am just a very powerful mage at this point, solas and I have lost most of our power because of the veil so he is no longer the dread wolf nor I the high priest of my soulmate goddess who wielded more power than most of the false gods, also Sera over there is my great grandkid just so you know." Shartan said soothingly and Vivienne felt a magic compulsion being used to calm her.
"Prove it!" She spat at the man not quite ready to believe that everything she knew about the world was being challenged.
"How?" was the simple reply.
"Tell me how the blights really started if you are as old as you claim you should know." She could think of nothing else that would prove to her.
"That is easy I helped cause them, when the magisters were attempting to enter the fade I offered my services in exchange for true death having grown tired of life. When we entered the fade they opened the golden city which was just a fancy prison that the old elven gods used to seal our enemies the dark ones, given how long they were there I should have known that they would have become monsters. The humans became tainted and felled the city and I sealed it behind us before it was too late, after that the sickness spread leading to the blights and Flemeth and I having to aid the wardens in ending the first one." Vivienne had not expected that but felt that he was telling the truth and said as much after that the meeting moved on to cover the rest and begin planning the next step.
Krem stood outside the chantry trying to deliver the chief's message but everyone who seemed important just rushed right past him and he way well past annoyed now, just as he was about to call it a day with the sun setting the herald stepped out with an arm around his soulmate's waist.
"Excuse me I am trying to deliver a message but no one is giving me the time of day." Krem called out making the pair stop.
"I am Shartan tell me who you are and your message and I will see It to the proper advisor fen enansal." The man said and Krem did not know what those last two words meant but ignored that in favour of getting out of the cold as soon as possible.
After he delivered the message the elven man looked him in the eyes and Krem got the impression that he was looking straight through him into his dark secrets, finally he blinked and the trance was gone. The man simply turned around heading back in stating that he was gone to deliver the message and the Krem should travel at first light to inform is boss that they would arrive once preparations were made for the travel. Krem walked off towards the tavern wondering if they made the right choice offering to this group if their herald seemed so cold, he sat and ordered a simple meal and ale. Watching the room, he saw this cute elven girl acting rowdy and moved to sit and talk with her for a bit, after a night next to the hearth and waking up to find the elven girl had crawled into his lap in the middle of the night he left to find the chief and give him some heads up along with asking dalish what that term yesterday meant.
The Iron bull was cursing the rain as he relieved another cultist of his head while nearly tripping on the wet rock, just as he started to turn to engage the next fighter he felt the air stir as a large fireball crashed into the enemy ranks a moment before a pair of person shaped battering rams crashed into them. The iron bull laughed as these new comers began helping the chargers, the tall elf swung his great sword around with an ease that was scary because of the experience it spoke of while the female warrior kept pace with him making the pair seem to dance around each other. The mages and archers fell in beside Dalish and began raining death on them while another human warrior crashed into the enemy lines further down helping those that already had wounds.
As the fighting wound, down he called out for numbers and received a good report as the large elven man came forward. "The iron bull I presume, your group is definitely varied." The man said bored as he drew level.
"Yeah but they get the job done and do a damn fine job at it." He said before signalling for the man to take a seat, a they discussed terms and once they covered the basics he revealed his connection to the qun.
"Alright that is fine but be aware a lot of the information you will need to know in order to be in field with me is not to be reported back to the qun, if you even think of it I will kill you in the slowest way that I can as I have no interest in seeing a war start while we are fixing this mess. Do I make myself clear the iron bull as if those terms are un acceptable then we leave and that is that?" the elf said in a dark voice with eyes filled with dark promise.
Bull wondered just what they could be hiding that was so bad but knew that this elf would make good on that promise if his eyes were anything to go by, after agreeing the man simply handed the iron bull of to the human mage to talk details while Shartan went to speak with the female warrior. The iron bull noticed that way the pair were speaking to each other and pegged them as soulmates, it was shortly after he finished telling Krem to seal up the crates when a shout was heard.
"Come on round up and move out I want to find those scouts and be back at camp before solas begins to smell to heavily of wet dog and starts whimpering!" The iron bull was confused by the words but saw the chuckle the dwarf made while the other male elf just scowled at Shartan who grinned madly at the look.