"Hey, Butch," I groaned and swatted at the gloved hand poking at me. A harder jab at my side had me squealing and flopping off the bed.
"Graceful, Butch," Varric commented.
"Fuck off," I muttered.
"Not a morning person, huh?"Varric shook his head at me as I grabbed a blanket from the bed and hid underneath it.
Varric navigated my limbs on the way to the door. "Our spymaster wants to see you, I'll wait outside," he opened the door. "Did he just squeak?" he muttered to himself as he exited the door.
I lie there a few more seconds and throw the blankets from my face and sat up. Out of habit I held the blankets up to my chest as I stood up by the windows as Varric had apparently opened the shutters. I laughed darkly at myself, remembering my flat chest.
Do they have coffee here? Hell even tea. I hate tea but caffeine is important to me.
Grumbling to myself I got dressed into my mismatched gear and glanced at myself in the mirror. At least I lost some body fat, I noted. Pulling my gloves on I exited the door and found Varric outside.
'How long does Krem take to bind? I'm freezing my balls off here,' Oh, Bull. I looked at the massive stone wall directly in front of us. He must be the other side or something.
"Are you coming?" Varric motioned me to follow him. We walked through a bustling village, one glance up to the sky showed that it was early morning. I deduced that everyone here was insane for being awake when the sun was barely up.
Varric led me to a large tent facing their Chantry and motioned for me to go ahead. With a slight smile he turned and left.
I approached the purple clad figure pouring over some maps and reports.
"Uh, hi?" I managed; the morning sun was disagreeing with me.
"You must be Lewis, yes?" She said in a French accent, no, Orlesian.
"Yup, at your service," I lent in an exaggerated bow.
"Enough, the herald has told me you have some unique powers, mind reading. I would like to know more details," She stood imposingly and crossed her arms staring at me expectantly.
I almost groaned out loud from the sheer amount of times I have had to recount this to strangers. I told her everything, from when I woke up on the Storm Coast, finding Bull, the Venatori attack and what I heard from him, mine and Varric experiments on the limitations of my skill to now. The only thing I left out was the gender issue. Given the Venatori were looking for a woman it was likely to be me, but how the hell do I explain that?
Leliana stood patiently and let me speak, her expression mostly stuck on annoyance.
"Who are they looking for?" she muttered.
"A girl? They said they sent her here from somewhere else" I supplied.
"Are you sure they said a girl? Your timely appearance and memory loss is far too convenient to be a coincidence," she turned away and inspected the reports once more.
"I am sure, I mean I was in a panic so I could be wrong but still," I looked longingly in the direction of the tavern as Leliana made a fine impression of a thundercloud.
"You will likely be needed on the Heralds journeys, and especially to interrogate prisoners. I offer you this. We can keep you safe and attempt to understand your abilities if you in turn offer your services to us," Leliana turned to face me, her piercing gaze not wavering.
"I don't have much choice but to accept," I bowed my head to her. She seemed satisfied.
"Go to Harritt, he is the blacksmith. He knows I sent you and has been making you some suitable armour and some better gloves," she paused and eyed my attire critically. "You don't even match," she said exasperated, her stern demeanour shifting.
"Oh I know, it's been driving me insane. I mean what is this? Tan leather with a shirt that was probably once white. I don't know, kind of hard to tell. And what even are these shoes? They look like thick mouldy socks," I broke off and glanced at the spymaster who was currently giggling behind a delicate hand.
"I am sure the blacksmith can come up with something the same colour at least," she said solemnly with no small amount of mirth in her eyes. I laughed and bowed once more and exited her tent.
I stood there for a few minutes lost, where the hell do I go now? I walked past the Chantry and descended the steps there. The next half an hour consisted of me opening random doors and scaring the crap out of people going about their business. I could have just asked for directions I know but that is far too simple.
My investigations had now led me to a pair of large wooden doors, in truth I was watching the merchant barter with someone and had walked straight into it, but that does count as finding something so I am going to take it.
Logic dictates that the smithy would be somewhere near the barracks which were near the soldiers training outside. I pushed against the heavy wood and slipped through the gap I had made with my weak ass.
"Hey, how you doing?" I familiar voice called out. I had already heard his thoughts of course since I walked up to that stupid door.
"Hey Bull," I answered back and walked over to him. He was standing with Krem and a few others from his company I vaguely recognised from his memories.
"How did the meeting with Red go?" He queried, leaning back against a fence that held horses.
"My clothes don't match," I said bluntly.
"Yes, you've only just noticed?" he raised an eyebrow.
"No, just pretended that they were at least a similar colour so I wouldn't go insane and start stealing peoples shirts until I found one that still retains its original colour," I said deadpan and grinned widely when Bull's head declared me having lost my mind.
I squealed when I saw the blacksmith was only a few metres away and left the bewildered Qunari and his men behind.
I flounced up to the blacksmith who eyed me with suspicion and distaste. "Hi! Leliana sent me," I smiled at him.
"Yes," the surly man confirmed and led me to the chest in the corner of the little area he had set up. "I had them dyed dark grey and black for the most part given you will have to be hiding for most of the fighting. You are not trained at all but I have made you a couple of daggers regardless, just in case. I nodded along and he handed me some gear.
He pointed to the cabin next to the smithy. "Go in there and change, I want to see that it fits fine and I know about your little thing so don't go touching me." He gave me one more thing, "Your undershirt as well." I nodded, gauging its purpose.
After falling over 3 times getting the breeches on and smacking my head on a low beam doing the buckles up on the chest piece, then realising I forgot the undershirt and starting over until I mostly had it figured out and wondered outside to Harritt.
"Seems to fit ok but you've put it a bit loose," he tugged on some straps and swear something cracked. He nodded to himself and handed me some matching gloves and a cloak.
I smiled, "at least I match now."
The next day we were on the move again, this time to the Hinterlands. The vast greenery and farmland reminded me a bit of home but on a much larger scale, only with more pissed off mages. I became adept at hiding and sneaking during battles. Varric spent most of the time teaching me how to blend with the shadows but I needed so much more practice. On the plus side I no longer felt the need to pass out every time someone died, which was a lot really. I swear, every mile, the herald and crew would kill at least half the population, it's a wonder people even bothered going outside anymore when they hear her coming, or even that there were enough people to do so.
At this current moment in time I was sitting by a broken bridge waiting for them to finish clearing out the templar encampment. Their rogues were far better than me by a long shot and from what I was told, we were heading off towards Redcliffe. I looked over the map Varric had given me, not far to go really, a few days at least.
"I am telling you darling, that shirt is far too low cut for your stature," Vivienne, the tall imposing mage was telling Varric.
"I am not letting you design my outfits, Iron Lady," Varric chuckled. The herald had found Vivienne at an Orlesian soiree before meeting me. The woman had rubbed me up the wrong way almost immediately after meeting her but she grows on you. After a while I came to appreciate the directness of her speech.
"Shall we continue?" She asked Lilia, who was picking some elfroot and handing it to me to put in my pack with the rest of the foliage we gathered. She nodded and walked up to the bridge and lithely jumped over the break. I groaned, there was only one way this would go for me, and I can't swim.
Hell even Varric managed the jump unscathed, I, taking no chances ran at the gap and hurled myself over landing flat on my front on the other side. But I made it.
"He will never make a good rogue," Varric commented idly as I hoisted myself up. Vivienne smiled, she had simply fade stepped over, saying that a woman should not demean herself without necessity.
I childishly stuck my tongue out at the two of them and continued on walking after Lilia and Bull. We rounded the corner and came out from in the middle of a formation of rocks to see Redcliffe castle in the distance, still standing strong despite the war raging on its lands. I took a deep breath and continued on after the rest of them, one step closer to the mission of gaining the mages support.
Authors note
Thanks for the reviews QueenOfDenway and Gemini-Fantasy :). We are heading up to Redcliffe now as you may have gathered but I may need to replay some of the begining quests so I can remember what order they were all supposed to go in.
Thanks for following and favouriting :D