Ma Atishan,
Word of your impending arrival fills me with great relief. Skyhold is too quiet without you here and, even filled with people and soldiers, it feels empty when you're gone. The children ask after you, you know? Somedays I go to visit them during their lessons and they bombard me with questions about when Lady Delani will return and if she will have more prizes. You've left quite the impression, and I cannot say that I am surprised. It is impossible to not feel changed by the light of your company. You are inspiring, and that cannot be helped.
There is a surprise awaiting you upon your arrival. But first, I want you to enjoy the hot bath that I will have ready for you, and the warm meal that will be set aside on your desk. I've made sure to remind everyone that you are not to be bothered with paperwork, so you will be free to decompress and relax from your travels. After you've bathed, and eaten, and relaxed, I want you to be ready for me, Delani. Because I have missed you, and I will show you just how much. I will relearn every inch of you. I will reclaim your every curve and valley with my lips, my tongue, and my hands. You do remember how adept those can be, don't you?
Watching you leave Skyhold's safety grows more difficult each time, but the anticipation of your arrival nearly eclipses it. I have been without your warmth for too long already, do not make me wait a second longer than is necessary.
Your heart's desire,
Cullen
Delani reread the letter for the thousandth time, her heart fluttering, her blood warming, an excited blush coating her features as strongly as it had the first time she'd read his letter. She wanted to smell the parchment, to hug it to her chest and squeal unnatural noises. The things that Cullen made her feel were unreal. He was unreal. Surely a man like him could not actually exist and also be hers. She was undeserving.
"Scar," Varric groaned from across the ashes of the put out camp fire. The smile in his eyes only hinted in his voice when he spoke. "Could you do us all a favor and keep the giggling to a minimum today? You're making my teeth ache."
Dorian emerged from his tent in time to join their conversation. "Or, at the very least, let us read what all the fuss is about." Simpering playfully at Delani, he admitted, "I want to giggle girlishly too."
Intaking an offended gasp, Delani rebuked, "I do not giggle girlishly," as she started to refold the letter again and tuck it into the pocket of her pack.
"Is there any other way to giggle?" wondered Cassandra, armored to the teeth and ready to set back out on their journeys and return to Skyhold.
"Ferociously," Delani supplied. "Maniacally, intimidatingly, anything but girlishly."
Dorian and Varric shared a look before a grin expanded over the Tevinter mage's face, and the dwarf simply shook his head. Twirling his mustache, Dorian gave Delani a knowing look and stated, "Dear Inquisitor, you are about as lovestruck as it gets. Why not just admit to the class that you are head over heels in love with the Commander?"
She immediately clammed up. When Delani admitted those words it would be to Cullen and not these vagabonds. And she would admit to those feelings, because they were too strong for her to continue to deny them to herself. As soon as Delani was back in Skyhold, after her bath and her meal, and whatever surprise Cullen had in store for her, she was going to tell him the truth. She was going to tell him that she loved him to the very core of her being. It didn't matter if he said the words back —although she hoped that he would— the only thing that mattered was that he knew that he alone had possession of her heart.
"And how goes your relationship with a certain Tal Vashoth friend of ours, Dorian?" Cassandra asked in Delani's defense and Delani could have kissed her. She would spare Cassandra the embarrassment, and that would have to be thanks enough.
Arching a perfectly maintained eyebrow in challenge, Dorian returned, "Do you truly want to get onto the topic of romantic lives, Cassandra? Because I don't think that you do."
"I don't know, Sparkler," Varric's smooth voice rumbled with a chuckle. "The Seeker enjoys enough romance to fill a book. Don't you Seeker?"
Cassandra's lips immediately thinned and the noise that fell through her clenched teeth was disgusted. Delani smiled at their playful repartee as she made sure that all of her armor was in place and that she wasn't leaving any of her possessions behind. The previous night had been the last one that they would spend away from Skyhold, and she was eager to return to the fortress for more reasons than just her reunion with Cullen; though, admittedly, he was what she was most looking forward to.
Her bed, for one, was beckoning her even now. She could not wait to sleep on the firm mattress, swaddled by her thick down feather comforter and pillows. These long nights spent on her bedroll were doing terrible things to her back. Once she was tucked into her bed not even the highest of high dragons would be able to pull her from between the sheets. It was going to be glorious.
As she fastened the straps of her boots, Delani's ears twitched. She felt a shift in the atmosphere. The air had suddenly become heavier, causing her hairs to stand on end. Tilting her head a bit, she strained to listen to the world around them, searching for sounds of fennecs and nugs running between the trees, of birds serenading the sunrise and hopping from branch to branch. The world was still, holding its breath. Delani had been a hunter long enough to know when she had become the hunted. She'd been tracked by enough wolves and wildcats to be familiar with the feeling of a predator's eyes weighing on her shoulders.
Without looking up from her boots, Delani softly asked the dwarf, "Is Bianca ready, Varric?"
There was a note of caution in his voice when he replied, "Always, Scarlett." He and the others finally noticed the tension in her features, and were starting to react in kind.
To Dorian, Delani instructed, "Slowly reach for your staff. Do not make any sudden movements."
Cassandra, frank and brave to a fault, had a more difficult time feigning nonchalance. "What is it, Inquisitor?" Her grip was tight on the hilt of her sword, ready to unsheathe it at a moment's notice.
"We're about to be ambushed," Delani released the buckles of her boots and stood to her feet, trying to act as casually as she could while stretching her senses in search of their pursuers. If none of them reacted they would have the element of surprise on their side. Their enemy wasn't expecting them to be prepared for an attack, and when they stormed into the clearing it would be to be met by ready and eager opponents.
When Delani noticed that Cassandra was about to furiously scope the area, she hissed, "Don't," before the other woman could. With all of her companions' attention on her, Delani instructed them to, "Keep a loose grip on your weapons and carry on as you normally would."
As if to emphasize how casually she wanted them to behave, she reached for her pack and slipped her arms through the straps. "When these bastards attack they won't expect us to be ready for them. Dorian, we're all going to need a barrier."
Pulling his staff into his lap, Dorian casually tilted it as he summoned the spell. There was a ripple of energy, a surge of power that cascaded down her body and made her hairs stand on end. Rolling her shoulders, Delani started to move toward the edge of camp, ready for the fun to begin, and felt the side of her mouth twitch at the sound of a dozen voices roaring a fierce battle cry.
An arrow zipped toward her, aimed to be buried in the flesh of her shoulder, but was deflected by Dorian's protective barrier. Humans ran into the clearing, bandits with heavy weapons storming the camp and into battle. They were met by force. Cassandra greeted them with a ferocious roar, pulling attention onto herself before stepping in front of Dorian and lifting her shield to protect him from incoming arrows.
Behind them, Varric was releasing a storm of bolts, stopping the bandits before they were able to flank the camp. Throwing down a smoke bomb, Delani faded into the battle and danced around, lithely moving through their attackers. Blood misted in the air as her daggers were met with throats, buried in chests, or sliced between vertebrae. With each step a life was taken, a bandit fell lifeless on the forest floor. But there were too many.
Despite Varric's best efforts, they were surrounded. The bandits had come in number and were prepared to be met with force. For every human that fell three more took his place. Delani searched for her companions on the battlefield. Cassandra was surrounded by half a dozen men, blood pouring from her hairline down the side of her face. Determination was fiery in her brown eyes. Dorian had summoned the dead to defend him. Bandits were fighting against their fallen brethren, trying to get to him before he tore them down with his magic. Varric was a blur, throwing down smoke bombs only to reappear out of range and take down more and more men with his crossbow.
Sweat and blood were falling from her companions. Delani had wanted them to be ready for an ambush, but she had not expected one of this magnitude. They fought tooth and nail for a foothold, to sway the tides of battle, but there were only four of them. Despite their skill, despite their teamwork, despite how hard they fought to cut down the enemy, there were just too many bandits.
A searing pain slashed through Delani's shoulder. She rolled forward, gritting against the pain of her injured shoulder hitting the ground. Untucking a throwing knife from her belt, she sent it flying into her assailant's eye socket. Four men came charging at her, swords drawn, ready for blood, and she reached for her grenade belt. She had one last bottle of Antivan Fire, she had to make it count. Gaze darting to where Cassandra was surrounded by even more men now, Delani pulled the grenade from her belt and threw it between the feet of Cassandra's attackers.
Delani's four pursuers were behind her now, swords swinging a hairs breath from her spine. Without warning, Delani fell onto her knees and lifted her arms with the blades of her daggers pointed backwards. Two bandits ran into her daggers, the sharp blades slashing through their femoral arteries and rolled back before the remaining two could retaliate with a swing of their blades. She freed another pair of throwing knives and sent them soaring into the back of the bandits' necks. The two men hit the ground with a thump.
When Delani was on her feet again it was to help Varric, who was currently using a bolt as a knife and burying it into eyes, ripping it out, into throats, pulling it free, into ears, only for another bandit to come at him for more once his last opponent was dead. She came skidding to a halt when a beast of a man stepped out in front of her, an enormous mallet slung casually over his shoulder as he stared down at Delani and laughed. Delani took in a sharp breath, assessing the situation.
If she engaged this monster in battle she would surely lose. He was twice her size and thicker than an elder tree. He would break every bone in her body with a single swing of that mallet and that would be the end of it. Delani did not have the stamina to fight him, she didn't have any bombs left, her throwing knives would do next to no damage. All she had was her speed, and that would only help her get away from him, it wouldn't help her fight.
Deciding that running was her only option, she twisted out of reach and ran across the battlefield. Delani's eyes searched the forest clearing for her companions, and her already racing heart flew into the pit of her gut. Cassandra was down with Dorian kneeling over her, his leg broken, blood spilling into his eyes, summoning his spells at a desperate and frantic pace.
Where's Varric, she searched the campsite, jumping over corpses as she tried to get within range of her other two companions. Delani couldn't find Varric. Was he already grounded? Was he dead? Her heart plummeted from her stomach to her toes, and Delani forced the thought from her mind. No, he wasn't dead. He couldn't be dead. They were going to make it out of this. She had gotten them out of worse. She would get them out of this too.
A bolt of electricity shot through Dorian's fingers as he sagged lower and lower to the ground, manna spent, energy fleeting. A soldier stepped up in front of the mage, blocking Delani's view of him. She reached for the belt where she kept her throwing knives only to find it empty. Fenedhis!
"Dorian!" she screamed, watching in horror as the bandit lifted his sword.
A pain jostled through her, starting at the back of her head before spreading through her skull like ink. One moment she was running toward Dorian, ready to throw herself onto the bandit to protect her friend, and the next her eyesight was completely blacked out. Delani felt herself fall to the ground, she felt her breath spilled from her lungs, she felt it as consciousness retracted from her body and sent her into a realm of shadows and nothingness.
Excitement sparked through him like shocks of static electricity. Delani was due to arrive any moment now and nearly everything was ready for her. There was only one last thing that he needed. Cullen descended the steps from the main hall to the undercroft. The mountain air was coldest here, even with Harritt's furnace constantly burning, ready to make whatever weapons Delani required.
The blacksmith had been surprised when it was Cullen who had commissioned him, even more so when he discovered what it was that Cullen wanted him to make. Harritt was a fine blacksmith and he crafted some of the sturdiest, well designed weapons and armor Cullen had seen. Cullen trusted no one else with this project, he only hoped that the smith had been able to finish before Delani returned from her travels.
"Hey, Commander!" Dagna happily greeted him, skipping from where she'd been standing near the crafting table to meet him at the bottom of the steps. The small dwarf woman grinned up at Cullen, eyes alight with an enthusiasm for life that was equal parts enviable and mildly grating.
Offering the stout woman a soft smile, he replied, "Greetings, Enchanter Dagna," and started to where Harritt was standing on the other side of the room.
She kept pace beside him, two steps for each one of his. "So, I hope you don't mind, but I took the liberty of improving your design for Inquisitor Lavellan's gift."
Cullen stopped short and turned to face the small woman. Features ironed out with distaste, he bit out, "You what?"
"I made it better," she lifted her hands in self defense. Gesturing to the other human man across the room, Dagna told him to, "Ask Harritt! Before it was functional, now it's fantastical."
Gruffly, Harritt joined their conversation on Dagna's behalf. "It's true, Commander. The dwarf knows how to work an enchantment into damn near anything. I'd say it was blood magic but she doesn't really have the talent for it."
Nodding that Cullen had heard the truth of it, she proudly pursed her lips and asked, "Have you ever heard higher praise come from that man's mouth?" Grinning, Dagna jumped up and down on her toes, her excitement was infectious. "The Inquisitor is going to love it! I'm so excited for her to see it! Can you bring her here? Can I watch her open it?"
Before he could answer any of Dagna's numerous questions, Harritt turned with a familiar, long wooden box in hand. There were elvish designs carved into the wood, branches and swirls, leafs and runes. The box's lid was carved with ancient Dalish text, words that Cullen didn't understand but Solas assured him was a prayer of protection to Mythal.
Cullen had offered to buy the box from Solas, but the apostate refused. Knowing what Cullen intended to do with it had made the male elf hand it over freely. "If it helps to put your mind at ease, Commander, even I am a little in love with you right now," Solas had said, an approving smile on his lips as he parted with what was obviously a treasure.
As Cullen took the box from Harritt, the blacksmith admitted, "That there may not be one of my most complex pieces, but it is my favorite." Glancing to where Dagna was still vibrating with excitement, a hint of a smile edged the corners of his mouth. "You'll let us know how the Inquisitor likes it."
It wasn't a question, but Cullen nodded in answer regardless. "Of course," he also glanced at Dagna and the smile that spread over his lips was more pronounced than Harritt's. "I don't think our enchanter would let me get away without a detailed account of Lady Lavellan's reaction."
"Ancestors' hairy butt cheeks, I wouldn't," Dagna fervently agreed. "She's going to love it."
He sure hoped so. Cullen thanked both of them before leaving them in the undercroft and climbing the steps back to the main hall. Nervous excitement was coursing through him like current's of electricity, making him fidgety. He hoped that Delani would arrive soon, if only to get this over with so that he could finally see how she would like her gift.
She'd been gone from Skyhold for nearly a month. Three weeks and a day to be precise. She and her companions had left in search of supplies for the Inquisition, looking for lodging and mining sites where they could gather resources so that the Inquisition could continue to rebuild and expand.
Being without her had grown more and more unbearable by the day. Already Cullen was at his wits end, patience gone, anxiety through the roof, and his men could tell. They visibly relaxed when he walked past the training grounds without stopping, and gave him a wide berth when he stalked past. Messengers were quick to the point, presenting all the details without having to be asked for them, because should he ask they would have to suffer his ire. Delani's return was almost as much of a relief for the soldiers under his command as it was for him. At least with the Inquisitor back at Skyhold, their commander would have a decent distraction.
Once he was in the main hall, Cullen started for the atrium. He had promised to show Delani's surprise to Solas as payment for the wooden box. And, honestly, he was too excited to keep it to himself. Halfway down the hall, the door to the rotunda opened and Leliana quickly found him walking her way.
"Cullen," she said, a shadow in her eyes that immediately set him on edge.
Cullen's feet picked up in pace and he met her part way. The second Leliana was in earshot, he asked, "Is it the Inquisitor?"
She nodded curtly, the gesture grave, tearing his heart right out of his chest and ripping it in two. Before he could ask, she grabbed him by the arm and turned him around. They were heading for Josephine's office, to the war room. Whatever had happened demanded strategy, but right then Cullen didn't care. All he cared about was what in the Void happened to Delani.
"Leliana," he growled, not liking being left to wait, not when it came to Delani. "Tell me what happened."
She shook her head, resolute. Looking around at the nobles littering the main hall, she murmured, "Not here," under her breath and ushered him into Josie's office.
The Antivan woman was at her desk, rapidly scribbling on her parchment as she wrote to this delegate or that noble. She didn't immediately acknowledge their arrival until the tension emanating from Cullen in tsunami sized waves hit her. Looking up from her quill, she was met by the serious faces of the other two advisors. Looking from Cullen to Leliana, she reluctantly asked, "What happened?"
"Yes, Leliana, what happened?" Cullen demanded, crossing his arms in front of his chest and turning to face the spy master.
Without looking at him, Leliana handed him a piece of rolled up parchment. As he unrolled the paper to read what was written inside, she explained the message to Josie. "The camp west of Lake Calenhad was attacked."
Josephine gasped, pressing her fingers to her mouth as she shook her head in disbelief. "Isn't that where the Inquisitor last made camp?"
Cullen grit his teeth, fighting back the nausea quaking in his gut. He reread the message, the words making less and less sense with each recounting. The camp had been attacked, the Inquisitor and her team were ambushed, the soldiers stationed there had been killed. Cassandra, Dorian, and Varric had all sustained serious injuries but they were alive. His insides were twisting into knots, his stomach rolling, anxiety, desperation, paralyzing terror were all sharpening their nails on the lining of his stomach. The bodies of Inquisition soldiers and the bandits had all been identified. Delani was not among them. She was missing.
"She's gone," he crushed the parchment in his fist before punching the wall. His emotions were wild inside of him, ferocious. They could not be repressed, they would not be tampered down. Delani had been met with violence, attacked in the safety of camp, and Cullen's instincts demanded that he retaliate to the violence in kind. Someone had thought to take Delani, to harm her, and the cost of that mistake would be blood. He would find whoever was responsible for this, and he would kill them. He would get Delani back, he would protect her.
It wasn't until Leliana's voice broke through the thick wall of fury and panic that he realized that he had not stopped punching the wall. His knuckles were bleeding, probably broken, and he didn't care. When he pulled his fist from the wall, Cullen's hand was shaking, his entire body was convulsing with outrage and terror. Delani was missing, she'd been abducted, and he was doing nothing to find her.
"What do we know," he asked Leliana, leaving Josephine's office with rushed and determined strides. Staring down at the wooden box still held in his hand, Cullen clenched his eyes shut and refused to look at it again. It was meant for Delani, a surprise, but now it caused him to feel unbearable dread. What if she never got the chance to open the box? What if he never got the chance to tell her that he loved her?
Cullen was pleased that Leliana and Josephine were both quick on his heels, following him into the war room where they gathered around the table to strategize what their next move would be. Leliana set down a marker on the location of where the attacked camp was on the map. He set Delani's gift down on the table, trying to ignore it as he inspected the map and worried over what would happen next. The three advisors shared an apprehensive look before they set to work.
"I've already sent our best trackers to investigate the campsite and determine which direction the attackers went," Leliana stated with a seriousness about her that Cullen had only seen once before, after Divine Justina V's death, and he appreciated that she was taking this as seriously as he did. Holding her hands behind her back, she finished, "With any luck, we will be able to intercept them and rescue the Inquisitor."
It wasn't enough. Delani was alive, she had to be alive, and her life was in danger. They needed to pour every last one of their resources into finding her. Staring at the map, Cullen said, "We need to station checkpoints on every major highway and well traveled road. No one will pass between here and the Amaranthine Sea without our knowledge."
"I will send messages to every Bann, Tyrn, and city mayor asking that they lend us men and assistance with these checkpoints." Josephine looked from Cullen to Leliana before observing, "Word will spread that the Inquisitor is missing. People will know that we are at our weakest."
Eyes narrowing with dangerous outrage, Cullen growled, "It doesn't matter, Josephine. The only thing that matters is bringing Delani home!"
Leliana reached out to Cullen and placed a placating hand on his arm. When Cullen shrugged her off of him, her lips thinned and she assured him, "We will bring her home, Cullen. But we have to find her first."
He scraped his nails through his hair and clasped his eyes tightly shut. A migraine was starting to take shape in his skull. Great, exactly what he needed on top of everything else. Irritably scratching the back of his head, Cullen stated, "I'm going to the camp. I need to hear from Cassandra and the others. I need to know exactly what happened."
When Josephine started to argue, "Cullen, I don't think that—" it was Leliana that cut her off.
"It is only a few hours travel, Josie. He needs to go." She looked at Cullen, holding his gaze, understanding shining in her blue eyes. Lifting her chin in a dismissing gesture, she said, "Go. Talk to them, find out what happened. Maybe it'll help us better understand who we are dealing with."
Cullen did not need to be told twice. Gathering the box from the war table's surface, he left the two women in the war room and headed for his office. He would stash Delani's gift before readying Delilah and leaving Skyhold. Urgency quickened his pace, panic narrowed his focus. Delani was missing. The love of his life was gone. She was alone and she was in danger. Cullen needed to find her. He needed to bring her home.
Pain throbbed through her cranium like waves crashing against a jagged cliffside. Delani's head rolled to the side and a soft groan escaped her. The pain was not only in her head, but in her shoulder as well. She hurt all over. Why did she hurt all over?
She could feel the earth move beneath her, could hear the steady clop of hooves scraping over the ground. Delani searched her mind for her most recent memory. The images came with some difficulty. The last thing she remembered was her camp being attacked. She and her team had been ambushed by bandits. Varric had been missing from the battlefield, Cassandra had been grounded, and Dorian had been on his knees on top of her, protecting her from the bandits. Her last memory was of a bandit stepping in front of Dorian and lifting his sword.
Urgency forced her eyes open, but she was met by darkness. Trying to blink the blackness from her eyes, panic started to form inside of her when her vision didn't return. Delani was blind. Creators, she had lost her eyesight. Swallowing down the panic that threatened to consume her whole, Delani tested the rest of her senses.
Trying to move her hands, she discovered that she was bound at the wrists. Her shackles were made of rope, not iron, which meant that even if the knots were tight she would be able to cut through them. Her ears twitched as she forced herself to listen. Upon the discovery of someone breathing over her shoulder, she realized that the warmth against her back was someone holding on to her as they rode. She was on a horse, secured against some bandit's chest, bound and blind but far from helpless.
Concentrating on the horse, Delani judged that they were moving at a casual pace, slow and steady. She felt the horse's hooves hit the ground, feeling the distance between the saddle and the earth beneath them. It was a standard breed, tall, but not overwhelmingly so. Testing her binds one more time, Delani formulated a plan.
She counted to ten, taking slow and steady breaths as she prepared herself for what would come next. When she got to ten, Delani threw her head back with enough force to break the nose of the man who had her pinned against him. Immediately his grip on her slackened, a surprised curse ripping through his throat as Delani launched herself from the horse. She landed on the ground with a roll, wincing at the sharp pain in her shoulder.
The moment that Delani's feet were on the ground she took off running. She couldn't see where she was going, she didn't know where she was, but she needed to put as much distance between her and these bandits as she could. With her bound hands held in front of her, Delani sprinted, stumbling over roots, her face and arms getting scratched up by low hanging tree branches. She got as far as a hundred feet before an arctic chill froze her muscles and held her in place.
Delani cursed. The bandits had a fucking mage. Fenedhis. She heard them as they dismounted their horses and started for her position. An authoritative voice shouted at the others, "The Inquisitor has the right idea. We should make camp."
She stayed frozen like that for some time, listening as the bandits moved around her, feeling the warmth of a fire being started, smelling the smoke waft over her. When finally the mage who had held her in winter's grasp snapped his fingers and freed her from her prison, Delani fell to her knees and was dragged some distance toward the camp fire.
She was unceremoniously thrown onto the ground. Her hair was tugged, her head pulled back as a sack was removed from her head. Delani let loose a sigh of relief at the discovery that she hadn't lost her eyesight. Being blind would have made escape much more difficult, and revenge even more so. With her eyesight restored she could properly teach these shemlan imbeciles why capturing her had been the singular worst mistake of their entire lives.
Delani looked around the camp, counting the bandits and locating their weapons. There were fifteen of them, probably the only survivors left after their ambush on her camp. Soon they would be reunited with the others in the afterlife. Delani just had to figure out how she was going to get free first.
There was a man casually lounging across the fire, staring at her as she examined the camp's every detail for later reference. There was a smirk on his lips, intelligence in his sharp blue eyes. Obviously, he was the one in charge of this soon-to-be-dead group of bandits. Good, she would save him for last.
When she had stored every detail she could about the camp and its inhabitants to memory, Delani moved her attention to the man across the fire. Even laying lazily as he was, it was easy to tell that he was a tall man. He was of medium build with minimal muscle definition in his exposed arms. His brown hair was combed back, and the beginnings of a beard warmed his jawline. He was tan, with warm brown undertones, the contrast to the blue of his eyes was startling. If the context of their meeting had been different, Delani might have called him handsome. Meeting his acquaintance the way that she had, however, allowed her to recognize the darkness in his eyes as malice, menace, and not roguish charm.
"So you're what all the fuss is about," he said, his accent was Ferelden. Eyeing her curiously, he shrugged his shoulders as though he were unimpressed by the sight of her. "You look like just another savage knife ear to me." He glanced over his shoulders to the other men loitering around the camp and wondered, "Doesn't she, boys?"
They made a series of agreeing noises before he returned his attention to Delani. Quirking a thick eyebrow, the man stated, "You have to be the most expensive rabbit in all of Thedas."
And he was the biggest idiot. He had better hope that Delani didn't get her hands on something sharp, because the moment she cut her hands free she was going to kill every last one of them.
The man sat up, a goading smile on his lips as he wondered, "What, got nothing to say?" A wicked smile carved over his mouth and he tilted his head as he made a suggestion. "How about an apology? You broke Wayne's nose. That wasn't very nice of you."
She felt the air shift behind her and cringed internally when a man lowered himself to his haunches and brought his mouth to her ear. There was a grin in his voice when he said, "I can think of a way you can make it up to me." He moved her hair over her shoulder exposing her neck to him, and Delani threw her head back again, knocking her skull into his already tender nose.
Wayne fell onto his ass behind her and Delani scowled at him over her shoulder. Pinning him with an infuriated glare, she warned, "Don't you fucking touch me."
The human pulled himself back upright before stomping back to where Delani was kneeling. Roughly gripping her by the back of the neck, he warned, "Bash your head into my face one more time, you knife ear bitch. I dare you."
Delani simply bared her teeth at him, showing the human how little he scared her. When Wayne released her with a shove, she caught herself before she fell face first into the dirt. Peering past the curtain of auburn hair at the bearded man across the fire, Delani wondered, "Who are you?"
"Oh, that's right. We skipped the introductions didn't we?" The man beat the heel of his palm into his forehead as if he were scolding himself for being so forgetful. A whimsical smile flashed over his lips as he regarded her and Delani was eager to rip it right off of his face. Placing a hand on his chest, the man started, "My name is Ayden McGregor, and these are the Faceless Few. You've already met Wayne, the others aren't really interested in getting friendly."
She ground her teeth as she eyed over Ayden. Delani had never heard of the Faceless Few. Thedas was full of small time criminals and mercenary bands. It was impossible to keep up with them all. It hardly mattered what these men decided to call themselves. They wouldn't survive the night, and then no one would remember their names.
"What do you want?" she asked, wondering why these men had captured her alive instead of just killing her with the others. Delani banished the thought. Cassandra, Varric, and Dorian were alive. They had to be alive. She didn't know what she would do if she'd gotten them killed. Delani would never forgive herself.
Ayden scratched his scruff, a lazy smile on his face as he answered her question. "I want what every man wants. To retire on a beach without a care in the world, surrounded by women and luxury." Smile growing, he pointed at Delani before explaining, "And you are how I'm going to get that."
Leaning back on the bedroll behind him, he cradled his head in his hands and grinned at Delani. Quirking an inquisitive eyebrow, he asked, "Tell me, knife ear, who do you think will pay the most for you; your precious Inquisition, or the Venatori?"
So it was a ransom that they were after. These fools had thought to whisk her away into the night and hold her hostage in trade for payment. Delani shook her head, pitying these men for the fate they had volunteered upon themselves. Their first mistake was ambushing her camp. Their second mistake was killing her friends —injuring her friends, they were still alive— and their biggest mistake was tying her up with rope. Rope could be cut through, all Delani needed was a knife.
"It doesn't matter," Delani said in answer to Ayden's question, shrugging to emphasize just how little his question had concerned her. "You're not going to see a single copper of that ransom money."
Ayden grinned, delighted by her spunk. "Oh?" he asked. "And why's that?"
She held his gaze as she supplied, "Because I'm going to kill every last one of you."
"That's some mighty big talk coming from someone in your position."
Shrugging, she rebuked, "I'm exactly where I want to be, shem." Dangerously narrowing her eyes, Delani allowed a wolfish grin to expand over her lips, watching as Ayden's eyes slightly widened at the sight of the promise in her gaze. "It'll make killing you a lot easier."
A laugh burst out of Ayden, heartfelt and amused. He wiped a tear from his eye as though Delani's promises of violent retaliation were nothing more than a joke to him. When his laughter subsided, he smiled at Delani and shook his head. "I don't think you fully appreciate the precariousness of your current position."
"And I don't think that you recognize that the only one in a precarious position is you."
Ayden lifted his gaze from Delani to the human that was still standing behind her. "Wayne," he said. "How would you like to show this knife ear the danger of making idle threats?"
There was nothing idle about Delani's threats. They were promises. These men were fools, and they were about to be dead. She was just biding her time until she found an opening, and then she was going to repay them for their hospitality, and she was going to find her way back to Skyhold where she would allow Cullen to help her forget that this night had ever happened.
Her heart lurched at the thought of Cullen. She wondered if word of her disappearance had reached him yet. She hoped not, she didn't want him to worry. As soon as she was done with these morons she would be back in his arms. They'd be together again and she would tell him that she loved him, not letting another day go by without saying the words. Delani would get the chance to tell him how she felt. She couldn't die without him knowing.
Behind her, Wayne excitedly shuffled his feet as he answered Ayden's question. "I'd like that very much, McGregor."
Ayden vaguely gestured at Delani with a wave of his hand and the instructions, "Have at it, my friend. She's all yours."
Delani braced herself as Wayne circled around her. His feet were the first thing that came into view and her gaze stopped at his belt at the sight of the knife tucked safely at his waist. She fought back a grin. This idiot. She prepared herself for his assault, readied her body for the pain that was about to come. When the human grabbed her by the shoulder and pulled his arm back, she held her arms up between them as though asking for mercy.
She knew that this beast would show her no mercy, it wasn't what she had been after in the first place. The second that Wayne's fist made contact with her face her vision flashed white and pain exploded through her cheek. He had likely broken her cheekbone. Delani tried her best to ignore the pain, bracing herself for his second punch. With her fingers on his belt, the second that his fist came powering down on her face, the force of his attack helped her to pull the knife free from its sheath.
Before he, or the many onlookers, could notice what she'd done, Delani tucked the knife into the space between her wrists. A smile finally broke free over her lips. Wayne could beat her bloody, but it wouldn't save him. He was going to be the first one to die, and it was going to be slow and painful. She would repay him for this, Delani would repay him seven times over.