"Magister Hawke? Anything to add?"
Ashley's gaze hardened as she overlooked the proceeding. She wanted nothing more than to melt that smug look right off of Danarius's face. But she owed it to so many more people to be worthy of her new position, her new title. The magisterium demanded a certain modicum of conduct—but then again, what kind of person would she be if she adhered solely to that? Perhaps she really does have too much of her father in her. This was her father's position just two weeks ago…and just last week…he was the one down there in chains…Ashley shook off that image, focusing herself back to the task at hand.
There were five prisoners this time. Two elven slaves, an Altus (at least he claimed to be but Ashley hadn't heard of his family name, leaving her to believe that he wasn't even from Kirkwall), and a Soparati who claimed not to know a thing about what was happening. Ashley was inclined to believe him at least; it was unlikely that a commoner would risk the ire of their Viscount. The last prisoner though was a rather odd one. She was a young elven woman wearing very simple clothes—too simple even for a slave. Judging by her facial tattoos, she was Dalish. Danarius never had an interest in the Dalish before. It begged a bigger question: what exactly was he playing at?
Ashley schooled her reaction back down. The last thing she needed was to have Danarius thinking his antics actually piqued her interest. "Even the commoners want to kill you this time, Danarius? My but what will the press say?"
Danarius huffed an arrogant laugh. "Whatever I want them to, my dear."
Magister Pavus sneered, slouching a little further in his chair. He muttered under his breath so only Ashley could hear. "If that isn't the truth."
The Viscount cocked his head to the side as he looked Ashley over once again. "I'd be remiss if I didn't hear your exact opinion, Magister."
As she rose from her seat, she glared daggers into him. It surprised her a little that she didn't even think about the defiance of such an act. But code of conducts be damned, she wasn't entertaining this charade. "If you want my opinion then listen well: if you've already exiled your greatest threat, then stop looking for daggers in the shadows."
"My greatest threat?" He seemed genuinely shocked only for a moment before a cocky expression took over again. "Such a callous way to refer to your former lover."
She knew what he was doing. He wanted to discredit her in front of the Magisterium. Perhaps a few months ago that would have worked. But with so long without Fenris…with the exile of her best friend, her twin brother, and then the death of her father…she was very quickly losing any reason to play nice. No more, not if it means that she slowly has to watch everyone she cares about fade away. Who's next, then? Bethany? Carver? Her grief-stricken mother? One of the few remaining friends she had left?
Was Danarius expecting her to deny it? To say she never cared about him just to save a little face? She adopted a smirk of her own, choosing her words very carefully. "Come now, Danarius, you can do better than the 'oh maker help us, she has an elven lover' card. But you're right, Fenris and I are very, very close."
The cockiness faded from Danarius considerably. "You speak of him as if were still alive."
"But how could he be? You saw him exiled yourself after all, which is itself a death sentence, yes? Worse than a death sentence actually, if memory serves…did you not wish that on him as you threw him outside the wall?"
"How could you have known that?!"
"Oh, wouldn't you like to know?"
"Tell me right this moment! Is Fenris alive?!"
"That's not fear I smell, is it?"
"Fenris is my property! I demand to know his whereabouts!"
Ashley's sneer deepened. It hadn't escaped her notice that the whole room was on the edge of their seats. She didn't care to look at them all, she already knew what they were doing: trying to pick a side. It must have been quite the sight, she mused. The sweet, quiet daughter of Malcolm Hawke verbally sinking her talons into the self-proclaimed Champion of Kirkwall. Danarius always claimed that he was the city's only hope. But that was about to change, if Ashley had anything to say about it.
"Well, if he were your property then I would guess his first stop would be paying you a visit, wouldn't it?" Danarius's eyes widened. The whole room fell silent for a moment. "My opinion, your excellency? Run on home and throw a proper welcome party."
His whole face turned red—she wasn't sure if it was out of embarrassment or rage. He turned angrily on his heel and stalked out of the room. Quite a few prominent magisters followed him out, Ashley studied them immediately, committing each of their faces to memory.
"Taking notes, Lady Hawke?" Magister Pavus stood up beside her, a proud smile on his face.
"Always." She glanced over the room again. Now that the fanatics had left with Danarius, it seemed the rest of them were looking to Ashley herself to address them. She gave a questioning look to Halward. Despite her issues with him—notably what he tried to do to Dorian—he seemed to be her only friend in this vulture's den.
There was a small chuckle in his voice when he responded to her quietly. "It seems that your adoring public awaits…"
She wanted to protest, but with all of their eyes on her it didn't seem to be the right time. Besides, her finishing this sham of a proceeding would go a long way to discrediting Danarius. It wasn't her goal necessarily, but it wouldn't hurt at this point.
She carefully concealed herself taking a deep breath before she addressed the room. "My fellow Magisters, in the notable absence of our very clearly distraught Viscount, I humbly accept the burden of judging the accused." Her eyes fell over the prisoners once again, each of them looked up at her with hope in their eyes. It struck a chord in her—the thought sparked that she could be the hope for the whole city, not just these poor souls. "Given the…erroneous nature of the evidence placed against you all, I hereby order your immediate release. You're free to go, all of you."
The guardsmen seemed completely uncomfortable by the order, but they obeyed reluctantly. The prisoners appeared to be in varying degrees of relief. The Altus praised her for her mercy, but the slaves and the commoner darted out of there like their feet were on fire. Not that Ashley blamed them, she could practically feel their fear from up here.
But the Dalish one…she did something curious. The girl couldn't have been any older than her younger siblings, now that Ashley had a good look at her. She rubbed at her wrists as she took cautious steps towards her. The guardsmen made a move to stop her but Ashley waived them off.
The Dalish girl smiled brightly up at her as she approached, making the other Magisters incredibly uncomfortable. As she climbed the numerous steps to her seat, she appeared to be muttering something. Ashley was unnerved by the behavior. For all she knew her kindness was about to be rewarded with an over-sized fireball to the face. But she stood her ground, no need to make the others think she wasn't in complete control. Play the game, she reminded herself.
When the girl got close enough, she suddenly fell to her knees in front of her. "Ma serannas, Lethallan! Asha'bellanar told me of your mercy!"
Ashley smiled as cordially as she could manage. Mercy wasn't something she was known for lately, today excluded apparently. That name was familiar though, it answered a few questions. And gave her more than a few more. What does the witch want now? How much is it going to cost me this time? Haven't I paid my debt at this point? How and why exactly did Danarius get a hold of her? "There's no need for that. Please, stand and tell me your name."
The girl stood up quickly, brushing her knees off. "Oh! I'm sorry, that was rude! Unless…it's not rude to introduce yourself to a human, is it?"
Ashley's smile came a little easier this time. "Be calm, girl. You haven't offended me."
"Right, yes! Um, sorry…I'm Merrill! First of Clan Sabrae…I, um, came to the city for…well, Asha'bellanar sent me to give this to you…" She grasped the pendant around her neck with shaky hands and offered it to her. "She said you'd know what it meant."
Well, shit, she thought as she flipped the pendant around in the palm of her hand. She felt the weight of the dozens of pairs of eyes on her, watching her every move. So, she reacted accordingly, smiling cordially and nodding to Merrill. "Thank you kindly, Merrill. I'd like to apologize again for all of this. Perhaps you'd care to follow me back to my mansion? It'd be a shame not to properly reward you after all you have done."
"I…uh? Oh, um, I can do that…I think."
"Splendid, follow me, if you will." Ashley shot a short nod to Halward as she turned quickly towards the chamber's large doors. But she didn't take more than a couple of steps before another magister stepped in front of her.
"Wait! The meeting…? Are we…done?"
Ashley gave the man an exasperated look. She recognized his face but not his name—he probably wasn't important enough to remember, she decided. She looked back at the room behind her, only to find that many of the others seemed to have a similar concern on their minds. She simply shook her head at them. "Tell me, are we Magisters or Orleasian Lapdogs? Even a slave understands when they're dismissed from a room."
A wave of disgruntled murmurings rumbled throughout the room. More than a couple choice words were floated around. Ashley registered them numbly. She marveled briefly at just how much of herself she had lost now…she might have been on the verge of tears had this happened weeks ago. How much more could she lose before she's no longer herself at all? She squared her shoulders as she addressed the room again. She spoke with as much confidence and authority as she could muster. "If I offend you pampered shits so easily, then perhaps you shouldn't be crawling in my shadow."
As she turned to leave again, she was met with that nameless magister standing in her way again. He seemed positively pissed now. "You can't speak to us that way!"
"I just did." She deadpanned, her arms crossing in front of her. Behind her, she heard Merrill make a small, anxious noise. Ashley cocked her head to the side, noticing a pair of the Imperial Templars approaching from behind.
"You disrespect hundreds of years of tradition! I won't stand for it!" He motioned carelessly to the templars. "Take her away, at once!"
Merrill muttered a curse under her breath, she took a step closer to Ashley. "Mythal'enaste…"
There was a noticeable shift in the atmosphere as Ashley turned towards the Templars. When she lifted her face to them, her eyes were blood red. Merrill wasn't sure what color they were before but she was positive they weren't…that. It truly unnerved her, she was silently very, very grateful that she was on her side.
Ashley shot the templars a menacing glare. "I wouldn't do that."
The templars did not heed her warning. The moment the first one touched her arm, his eyes began to bleed. He stumbled backwards, vainly clutching at his face as he started to scream. The second templar dropped his sword at the sight and ran out of the chamber. The nameless magister tried to follow him, but he suddenly found himself locked in place.
A stunned hush fell over the room. No one made a move to help the poor man. In fact, it seemed that all they wanted was to keep themselves out of the conflict. So be it. So far as Ashley was concerned, they were all insignificant if they weren't going to further her new agenda.
"M-Magister, I…humbly beg—"
The bleeding templar suddenly dropped dead to the floor. His blood flowed from his corpse violently towards the Magister. The blood wrapped around his neck like a tendril, tightening as it lifted him from the ground. He made the most undignified sounds as he gasped and struggled.
Ashley stared at him coldly, only vaguely registering that she should be feeling something resembling remorse as she watched herself murder this man. With a sharp twist of her wrist, the blood tendril snapped the magister's neck like a twig. She released her magic carelessly, allowing the magister's lifeless body and the blood fall to the floor unceremoniously.
The room was so quiet that Ashley was nearly convinced that there was no one else around. But as she looked back, she was met with dozens of wide-eyed stares. Some were seemingly incredulous or frightened, but a token few seemed outright angry. Ones to watch out for, she thought; but that would be assuming they'd have the balls to come after her.
She couldn't help but notice that the look on her new friend's face was a mix between respect and terror. The girl was smart, she mused, perhaps she could be useful? Ashley brushed her hands off casually, allowing her eyes to recede back to normal once again. She gave Merrill a friendly smile as she gestured towards the door once again. "Shall we?"