Good lord, i tried to post this yesterday but everytime i went to sign in it timed out and wouldn't let me D:
They had spent most of the day in the Emporium and by the time they emerged from the Undercity into Darktown the sun was setting. Rays of light reflected off of the bronze statues of slaves hanging from the cliffs Darktown was set in, even still it was very dark when Anders bid them farewell and they made their way to Lowtown.
"Either of you coming to the hanged man?" Hawke asked Nero and Fenris as they passed by merchants closing down their stalls for the night.
"Oh!" Isabela exclaimed, "I forgot! Varric had wanted to speak to you, Nero. Sorry." she added the last bit sheepishly.
Hawke nodded, "how about you Fenris?"
Back to Fenris now are we? The elf thought curiously. He considered joining them, but decided against it. He needed to think. So he declined and made his way to Hightown alone.
Isabela linked arms with the two men and smile mischievously. "So, how much convincing would it take to get you both into a bed with me at the same time?"
Hawke laughed but didn't answer, and Nero did not want to go there so he took the opportunity to quickly change the subject "I think I saw it. The gray hair!" He exclaimed, pretending to part her hair for a closer look.
Isabela quickly dropped her arm from around Hawke's and grabbed Nero by the shoulders, he almost felt guilty about the look of anguish on her face. But mostly he found it funny.
"No. Please tell me you're lying, please!" she begged.
When he said nothing she screeched and ran towards the hanged man, leaving Hawke and Nero laughing as they followed her.
Varric was, unsurprisingly, sitting at the head of the table in his room looking over some papers Bartrand had given him relating to the expedition. He set them to the side however as Nero and Hawke sat down on each side of him.
"Maker's breath Nero, where have you been? I've been trying to get a hold of you all day." he asked.
"I got a letter about a shop in the Undercity and brought him along, I was going to ask you to come as well but you weren't here this morning." Hawke told him.
Varric rolled his eyes, "some of us were working while you were shopping." he smiled.
"Nonsense, I didn't even buy anything."
"Anyways," Nero cut in, "what was it you needed, Varric?"
"Well," He began, tossing a letter in front of the other man, "I got word from some contacts in Tevinter that it is not uncommon for a magister make phylacteries for their more valuable slaves. Apparently there are often multiples, and they are cataloged and kept in some vault in the Archon's castle. Of course I'm sure there are some illegally kept ones, but where you are his property I imagine yours would be kept of course that you have one."
Nero frowned, "It seems more likely than not. Mauris."
"Thats what I thought. But, " Varric smiled, "I was informed today while you were all traipsing around in the Undercity that there is an abandoned shack in the woods between the city and Sundermount. There were a few old opened letters with the Archon's crest on them that blathered about payment and whatnot."
"Oh, really." Nero laughed, "it looks like I'll be going for a walk one of these days then, doesn't it?"
"I thought you might find that interesting. This definitely explains why there were no personal things in the Blooming Rose. That being said though, the only thing found in the shack were the letters, if there was anything valuable I'm sure that someone already found it and sold it. But I think it's still worth checking out."
"Thank you for looking into these things for me Varric, I do not know how I can ever repay you." Nero gave a small smile of gratitude.
"Oh shucks Violet, if you keep going on like that I'll start to blush."
Nero raised an eyebrow in question "...Violet?"
"Yeah he's been referring to you as Violet for a while now, he's got an obsession with nicknames." Hawke explained.
"Should I be insulted? Isn't it kind of girly?"
"Not at all!" Varric laughed, "violet is a rare color, a regal color. You love it, admit it."
Nero chuckled, "I'll pretend I do, just for you."
...
"It's no ocean, but it's nice to get away from the city." Isabela decided.
"I don't know, I feel like we're being watched." Varric said, glancing around.
"Oh, those are the squirrels, watch out for them. They can be vicious little bastards."
Nero chuckled, "The last time we were out here we had to face angry corpses, I think squirrels would be easy to handle in comparison."
"Oh no," Isabela laughed, "they're tiny and flitty. And for all you know we're going to find ourselves in a nest of angry and vicious squirrel corpses."
"Lets not give fate any ideas." Aveline said sternly.
It was just the four of them making their way to where Varric had been told the hut was. Nero had finally met Aveline for the first time that morning when he arrived at the Hanged Man, it was her first day off since the previous Guard Captain had been sacked and she was visiting the dwarf and sipping on some of the bar's ale. Nero found her amusing, between her dislike of Varric and Isabela's occupations...or lack thereof and her dry sarcastic humor he was enjoying himself quite a lot.
It was a warm sunny day, with a cool breeze sweeping off the mountain barely penetrating the trees that surrounded them. Nero was finding himself strongly hoping that he didn't get covered in blood, it would put quite a damper on his mood.
Isabela was positively bounding for joy at her escape from the city walls. She had been complaining quite frequently that she missed being on the sea and her mind always seemed drawn to it. This partly explained her goading Aveline on her new position in the guard.
"Well, 'Captain.'" she had grinned . "Can I call you captain? You can call me captain."
"I won't be doing that." was the terse reply
"Neither will I. Because you're a guard captain. No real authority. Not like on a ship."
"Well, you would know about having a large number of men under you."
Nero and Varric snickered from in front of the two women, Isabela simply smiled, "You've been waiting to use that one. Did you practice?"
Aveline groaned, "shut up."
Before Isabela could say anything more Varric spoke, "I hate to interrupt this conversation, I really do. But is it just me or does that look like an abandoned hut?"
"By the god's Varric, I believe you are correct." Isabela said as she slapped him on the shoulder, "lets go snoop, I love snooping...but not swooping, swooping is bad. Onward!"
She giggled as she lead the way to a barely discernible path in the underbrush and overgrown grass that seemed to lead directly to their destination. The shack could barely be seen from the road, it blended into it's surroundings easily due to the thickening of the forest and the moss and foliage covering it.
For a moment Nero wished he had come alone, finding himself thinking that some how some way there was going to be something in there that would reveal something about him that he did not want the others to know. He shook off the feeling, assuring himself that they likely wouldn't even find anything.
"I think," Nero began, in an effort to distract himself, "that you have started to bring up things sea-related more than you are bringing up things sex-related."
Isabela looked appalled, "truly? I'll simply have to endeavor to talk about sex on the sea."
"That's...not what I meant."
Isabela laughed as she pushed a branch out of her way, nearly hitting Nero in the face when she let it go. He grabbed it just in time, but scowled at her anyway.
"Oh stop it, you're starting to make me miss the elf. He's much better at that than you are." she smiled.
"Where is Fenris anyway?" Aveline asked, "I've been meaning to speak to him."
"He wasn't home when I left this morning." Nero said as Isabela opened the door to the hut and he stepped in. "for a place looking so decrepit on the outside it really isn't all that bad in here. A lot roomier than I expected too."
It was darker inside due to the windows being blocked, but sunshine still found its way in through the leaves, allowing them to see the single room in all it's empty glory. There was a shelf lining the wall opposite the door with a couple of crates on it, cupboards with broken doors above it, a small round table and a couple of chairs against one wall with an obviously abandoned bedroll beside them.
"Well, since we clearly don't need four people to poke around in here, I'm going to just go outside and enjoy myself." Isabela said with a shrug as she left.
Aveline pushed down on one of the chairs before sitting in it and leaning back, "this does seem like a terrible disappointment doesn't it?"
"For an abandoned shed in the middle of a forest I think it's quite comfortable." Said Varric as he pulled one of the crates off the shelf. Plopping it down on the floor in front of Aveline he added with a smile, "maybe you'll find something exciting in there."
"Probably nothing relevant, it doesn't look like it's been touched in ages." She replied before pulling a pot and a handful of papers out of it.
"Maybe we'll uncover some dirty secrets. People pay to keep dirty secrets secret you know." Varric said as he too dug into a crate and began to scan over some receipts and letters.
Nero searched the cupboards, barely paying attention to the conversation taking place between the other two. He could faintly hear Isabela humming to herself outside, absentmindedly he tried to place the tune but found he couldn't. He pulled a child's book from one of the cupboards after passing over a broken jar and a few feathers. He looked it over and paced slowly while Aveline chatted with Varric.
"Do you do anything?" She asked.
He groaned, "am I the next stop in your career evaluations? Joy of joys."
"You watch and you talk. Is that it?"
"You are dismissing hallmarks of both the utterly ineffectual and the incredibly dangerous."
The woman shook her head, "I don't know what you mean."
"It means coins flow when I talk and when I shut up." the dwarf explained, "like if you got paid to guard or unguard.
"That makes no sense."
"Good. What the void are you doing, Violet?" Nero looked up from where he was pressing his foot on a single board on the floor, a quiet squeak protesting the pressure.
"It sounds different than the other ones." He replied before setting the book on the table and kneeling down. Blowing away the dust he noticed a hole in the board and, sticking his finger in it, he pulled the board out.
Varric whistled, "that is the kind of thing we're looking for."
Inside there was a locked tin box, a large candle, and what felt like lots of paper wrapped in oiled leather, tied closed, to protect it's contents to the environment. Nero sat on the floor with the leather bundle and Varric set the box on the table, pulling out some picks to unlock it.
Aveline shrugged, "I'm going to go make sure the pirate wench is still alive." Outside she found Isabela sitting at the foot of a tree with her legs crossed in front of her and her eyes shut, a small smile on her face. Aveline watched her for a moment before sitting on the other side of the tree.
After a few minutes of silence between the two of them she asked, "how are you so successful with men? You're not that pretty."
Inside the hut Varric was working on the lock and Nero was holding some of the papers flat on the floor while he looked over them. He was going over a few letters with the Archons crest pressed into the broken wax seal when he heard the question Aveline had asked Isabela outside, he looked up and met Varric's eye as the dwarf did the same.
"That was harsh." Nero said quietly.
"She doesn't have a lot of tact," Varric replied, "she doesn't like Rivaini very much either though."
"Cast a wide enough net, and you're bound to catch something." they heard Isabela chuckle.
Nero scowled and muttered, "I am not a fish." Varric chuckled at this and returned to picking the rather finicky lock.
Outside Aveline laughed, "at least you're willing to admit it."
"Trust me. I've heard, 'Get away from me, you pirate hag!' more times than I care to count." Isabela said.
"Doesn't that bother you?"
"Why should it? They don't know me. I know me."
Silence descended outside and Nero found some papers detailing what he looked like, what he could do, who he was to be returned to when captured, and where he had previously been seen. It was a long list of places, he had dragged them all over the place. He found himself smiling.
Outside Aveline was continuing the conversation. "You're right," she said.
"About?"
"About knowing who you are. I'm the captain of the guard. I'm loyal, strong, and I don't look too bad naked."
"Exactly. And if I called you a mannish, awkward, ball-crushing do-gooder, you'd say...?"
"Shut up, whore."
Isabela laughed, "that's my girl."