Chapter 9
The note is pushed under the door of my quarters, and there is no indication on the front of who the sender might be. When I unfold it, I immediately recognize Adaar's hasty scrawl.
Meet me at the cliff tonight at first moonlight. Make sure you come alone.
Slipping past the guards is difficult. They rush about in hushed tones and it is clear that something is happening, though I do not know what it is. Several times I nearly walk straight into one and I silently curse Adaar for the risks she makes me take. She is fast and light on her feet, whereas I am bulky and less agile….it is much harder for me to move about unnoticed. When I do reach the cliff, it is full moon but there is no sign of Adaar. I look carefully and my trained scout's eye notice a slight indentation in the bushes on the east side of the slope, the leaves pushed back as if something had moved past it recently. When I walk over, a hand shoots out from the shadows, pulling me out of sight. Instinctively I reach for my sword, but the familiar scent of sage and sandalwood hits my nose. It is Adaar.
"Not so out in the open."
"I came on my own. No one followed me" I frown. "What is going on?"
"The Ben-Hassrath is looking for me. They know I'm a Saarebas."
My heart leaps into my throat, and I can see that Adaar, too, is fearful.
"How do you know this?"
"They came to the shop and asked for me. Alikur naturally said nothing, because he knows nothing. They searched my quarters and found….contraband substances."
I close my eyes in disbelief at her recklessness. The day we have both dreaded, yet expected has come. We will both be executed by morning.
"What substances? Adaar, what did you do?"
"There was….an elven merchant. He was selling his goods on the merchant road. I…I…bought some supplies from him."
A terrible suspicion was tickling at the back of my head, but to give her the benefit of the doubt I asked the question I knew the answer to.
"And these ingredients are what the Ben-Hassrath found in your quarters?" My eyes willed her to look at me, but she turned her face away.
"Yes."
"Vashedan!" I shout, and grab her by the shoulders. "How could you be so careless?" I resist the urge to shake her and instead let her go so suddenly that she stumbles backwards.
"You have to listen to me, Sten. They have all the evidence they need. I have no idea how they found out in the first place. They know nothing of you, of this I am sure. If I stay I will be dead by morning. I must leave Seheron. Today still. I am going to Ferelden."
My head snap up. It is unheard of for a Qunari to wonder the common lands without a Beresaad escort. The Tamassran does not teach survival in the wild to craftsmen and priests and their knowledge of the outside world is limited to gossip and rumour passed down from the Beresaad. An untrained Qunari would not last a week, even less if that Qunari is hunted by her own kind for being an abomination to her people.
"Why not just submit to the Karataam? This could have been avoided if you…." I shake my head and turn away.
"Don't be naïve, Sten. I will be killed on sight if I set my foot in the village."
"And you think you will fare better in Ferelden? "
She turns back to face me.
"What will you have me do? Fall on my sword and make the ultimate sacrifice? Return to the village and beg for mercy? I have knowingly betrayed the trust of my people, Sten. I can expect a lot if things from being captured by them. Mercy is not one if those things. I have some knowledge of Ferelden. I will find my place there."
I look at her incredulously. "No one has a place there, Adaar! Your books have made this clear. Their farmers wish to be merchants. The merchants wish to be nobles and the nobles become warriors. No one is content to be who they are! If the land's own people cannot find peace, how can you ever hope to achieve this? I cannot allow this; let me talk to the Ben Hassrath and the Arigena."
She shakes her head at this. "I am not asking your permission, Sten. I've made my decision. Nothing you say can change my mind."
I turn away from her, refusing to accept the inevitable. I cannot trust my voice to be steady, so I say nothing.
"Before I go, there is something I must give you."
I hear a rustling noise as she disappears behind me. It is quiet for a minute or so before she returns.
"Sten, please turn around."
I turn around slowly. The object in her hands is huge and wrapped in smithing cloth, the kind used to transport newly forged weapons of silverite. I push the cloth aside and my breath catches in my throat.
It is a sword. Two handed, judging by its size, and an incredible work of craftsmanship, even to the untrained eye. The silverite hilt is engraved with the crest of the Arishok, with small leather inlays to steady the grip of the warrior wielding it. Eagle wings fanning out into the cross guard to embrace a blade unlike anything I have ever seen before. The blade is long and wide, slightly more so than normal, and vitaar is imbedded into the ore, twisting and curling along the razor sharp edges of the blade. The vitaar was an incredibly cunning touch, not only did it enhance the blade cosmetically, but made it poisonous to any non-Qunari unlucky enough to meet the sharp end of it. It shimmers as if it was forged on an anvil of diamonds and dipped in a cauldron of molten pearls, the colours changing in the flickering light of the moon and stars above us. It is magnificent.
Adaar gestured at me to take the weapon, and my hand wrapped around the hilt, the grip molding to it as if it is custom made. It was heavy and I could smell the slightly acrid, chemical odour of the vitaar burnt into the blade. Everything inside me has gone quiet, a silence I would not have achieved in a hundred years of solitude or a thousand years of meditation. In that moment it was only me and the sword, even Adaar's presence faded, her voice a faint hum in the background. In that very moment, I became one with the sword, and I knew that this weapon would be my heart, my soul, my everything. My Asala.
I looked up at Adaar. She was gone.