With the windows in Sera's room open, talk in the courtyard was easy to hear. Hard not to hear, really. A good thing, most times - a chance to hear some gossip, learn something new, not be bored. If the noise bothered, she could always close the windows. But she hadn't taken a room one floor up from a busy tavern because noise bothered her much.
Right now, she was half-listening to a few of Cullen's folks just leaving the quartermaster's. They'd just been on a mission. Saved a messenger or an old scroll or some such shite.
"Are you sure you won't join us for a drink, Luka?" Sera knew that voice. The elf stopped in at the tavern for a drink now and then. So elfy, but at least not as in your face about it as Solas.
"No! I want to repack my mines. Something's wrong with the powder. Not a big enough explosion." A woman's voice, cheerful and unfamiliar to Sera. Explosion talk got her attention, though. She listened more closely.
"Not big enough? One of those blasts took the hem off my robe!" That was the human mage. So full of himself, Sera was amazed that he fit.
"You should stay further away, silly!" The same woman's voice. They were moving past her room. Sera was going to need to move if she wanted to hear more about the explosions.
She really wanted to hear more about the explosions.
Stepping quietly, she ducked through her window and onto the lower roof of the tavern. (Now that was a reason she'd taken this room. Never boxed in, with a roof exit.) There went the elf and human, striding through the rectangle of light in front of the tavern door. Their former companion, where had she gone? Sera looked again and saw a small dwarf heading across the courtyard. Small dwarf, ha. Like a large giant or a burning fire, that was.
She dropped quietly from roof to ground, then ran for a moment to catch up with the dwarf. "Explosions, yeah? You were just saying?"
Sera was used to people being caught off guard when she appeared, but the dwarf looked at her as if it were entirely normal for people to appear out of the night and ask about blowing things up. Then, to Sera's surprise, the dwarf went up on tiptoe to sniff her sleeve.
She broke into a smile. "You smell of cookies! And, hmm, leather and salt. I'm Luka."
"Sera. That's me. Do you smell everyone you meet?"
"Smells tell you a lot. They don't lie," Luka said cheerfully. "So, you want to see my mines?"
"You have mines?" Sera asked, wrinkling her nose in confusion. "Like, carts and pickaxes and sweaty miners?"
"No, not that kind of mines," Luka said. "The kind that explode." She pondered for a moment, hands toying with the pouches at her side. "Well, I guess the other kind can too, but I mean the kind that are supposed to."
"Oh! Yes, I want to see your mines," Sera said. It seemed like a response to a very strange pick-up line. She giggled.
"They're in the Undercroft," Luka said, gesturing vaguely downward.
"I'll mine your Undercroft, heheh," Sera muttered, and broke into more giggles.
Luka seemed unperturbed. "I'll take you there."
Sera had never been down to the cavern underneath Skyhold. The Inquisitor already dragged her through more than enough caves for her liking. She could imagine this one being pretty, though, with the big opening at one end. Right now it was mostly dark, elf eyes or no. Luka took a small white stone from a pouch and rubbed it against her tunic. The stone lit up with a soft glow.
"What's that? Magic of some sort?" Sera asked warily.
Luka shook her head violently. "Oh, no. It's glow-in-the-dark stone. I don't know if scholars have another name for it. I discovered it when I was trapped in the Vimmark Mountains."
"How'd that happen?" Apparently she was going to spend all her time with Luka asking questions. It was like her and the Inquisitor, but backwards.
Luka frowned and started fiddling with her pouches again. "I was working for the stupid Carta. Things blew up in their face and I got stuck in the tunnels. They had lots of down, but no out. That's how I worked out my mines, trying to blast my way out of there."
"How long you were down there?"
Luka shrugged. Her hand movements seemed more agitated. "I don't know. Years, at least."
Years in the dark, with all that stone pressing down on you. Sera shuddered. "Shite."
Luka shrugged again. "Here they are!" she said, holding the glowing stone above a workbench covered with colorful glass spheres. Each sphere was filled with a powdery mixture.
Luka picked up a red sphere and, without warning, tossed it on the floor. Sera flinched despite herself. With a loud pop, it burst apart, covering the stone around it in flame.
"Nice!" Sera said. Her mind was racing. Good for combat, sure, but also good for making nobles lose their lunches. She was going to need some of these. "What are the colors for?"
"They make them pretty! Oh, and they help me tell them apart. I've got three different kinds - one burns, one freezes, one shocks. If someone's coming at me, though, I usually just throw a double handful at 'em."
"Oh, I'll bet!" Sera was going to need a lot of these.
"You want to see what else I've made?" Luka asked. Sera nodded vigorously, but Luka had moved on to the neighboring workbench without waiting for her reply. This table was half-covered with vials full of viscous liquid. "These are my flasks."
"You drink these?" Sera was dubious. Looked more like something you'd curse your luck for stepping in, they did.
"Oh no no, that would be a messy way to die," Luka said cheerily. "I put them on my armor. It's got to be prepped first, though. Dagna helped me figure that out."
"And then, it does what?" Sera was feeling Inquisitorial again.
"Covers me in fire or frost or lightning!" Luka said, opening her arms in a broad gesture. Sera quickly reached out and grabbed a flask before it hit the ground. Luka didn't seem to notice. "Depends on the flask. Now anything that tries to hit me will get frozen or burned. Or shocked! Once I get the lightning one working. Right now it just makes my hair stand on end."
"Foes that get up close," Sera mused, "that's a nasty surprise for them, innit? They're all, 'I'm gonna squash the archer,' and then I'm, 'The flaming archer,' and they're just, "Aaah, it burns!'" Sera and Luka both grinned gleefully at the thought. "But… don't you get burned or frozen yourself?"
"Only a little," Luka said. "Hard on the armor, though. Have to keep bothering Morris for dwarven leathers. Then Dagna helps gets them ready."
Wouldn't be a problem for Sera. The Inquisitor kept finding new suits of armor and offering them to her like candy. "Who's this Dagna, then?"
"You haven't met Dagna? You should! She's down here all the time making stuff. She's amazing. Likes a good explosion, too. Not like Harritt, he just complains." She put her hands to her face in imitation of the smith's beard. "'Aggh, I can't breathe in all this smoke!' Anyway, you can take some mines now, and we'll get you ready for the flasks later."
Sera grinned at her. "I can't wait. Luka, I owe you."
Luka smiled back. "Let me know if you think of any improvements. Or find something new we can throw at enemies!"
That, Sera could help with right now. "Bees! Let me tell you about bees…"