BioWare owns all but my character's , her dog, and the Master's names. : )
So join Kai for yet more adventure to try and save our beloved Antivan flirt. I hope you continue to enjoy. : ) This is another long chapter; I suppose again, I could have chopped it up. But, I thought it would take away from it. Hopefully you find it entertaining enough you don't notice the length. Enjoy!
I apologize for getting the last installment out at 4:30 in the morning on a Sunday. But I bitten by the muse and had to write it early, so it may seem like I am one day behind in getting one chapter out a day. But really I am still getting out one chapter a day, even with work taking up most of it.
Again, thanks for all your support. And I apologize to Violet Theirin, I always meant to say thank you for wishing you could pay me for writing this, that was really sweet of you to say. That made my day. All of your reviews make my day, and my week. So please keep them coming and thanks for taking time out of your days to write them at all. You are such a wonderful group! : )
Blessings!
Kai and her group made their way into the innocuous looking building. It survived the hordes of darkspawn, like many of the back alley areas, apparently with an archdemon's intelligence to guide them. The darkspawn didn't bother with inconsequential locations. Otherwise, they were like locusts, mindless destroyers.
The building looked much as she remembered it, like an occupied home, and it probably was. The last time she was here, children's toys littered the floor, but it looked to be occupied only by adults this time. Kai had some Scath hanging out in civilian clothes keeping an eye on the doorway to this building and on the rooftops out front, and since Kai had the advantage of having been here before, she left Scath on rooftops and around the back alley exit at the end of the labyrinthine maze of rooms.
Kai went to the bookcase which slid back to reveal a hidden doorway leading to a staircase down. She wasn't sure how many Crows from Master Vimaro's cell were here from Antiva, so she thought it best to be cautious. Some of the Scath who were rogues went first, insisting that the leader should not put herself into danger unless absolutely necessary. Kai wanted to protest, after all she was a Grey Warden who had survived the Blight and the horde, but they would not hear of it, Eamon and Teagan must have spoken to them, blast it!
"It is just as well, my love. I know I would have, if I thought you would relay the message," Alistair's voice contained a hint of sarcasm. Kai gave a mental snort, she was hardly defenseless. "Be that as it may, I would not have you join me in the Fade before the twins are at least old enough to take care of themselves," he admonished her, "As much as I miss you." Kai gave him a mental chuckle.
One of the Scath returned to signal all was clear in the first few rooms. Kai made her way down the steps and walked through the doorway into a small rectangular room, she saw one unmoving body lying on the floor, and she shut off the part of her mind that wanted to empty her stomach. No matter how many dead she encountered, she still never got to the point where it didn't bother her. She supposed that was a good thing, the day she stopped caring was the day she should hope for a crossbow bolt in the eye.
Kai and the rest of her companions continued to wend their way through the building following behind the scouting Scath. So far they had met with a minimal number of Crows, all wearing the heraldry of the noble house they served, and that of Master had been plenty of traps, but those were all disarmed with ease, perhaps Vimaro hadn't brought the main body of his cell after all.
This hope turned out to be wishful thinking, the first large room they ran into had been converted into a training room. Wooden targets, chests full of weapons, tables laden with poisons, and all the accoutrements of a well-supplied band of killers greeted them, along with a large group of the killers themselves that lead to an all-out nasty, close-in fight.
Kai found herself fighting two while backed up against the wooden wall. It would have been three, but Argus had knocked the third person down and was savaging the Crow, tossing him about like a rag doll. Kai's mind only had a moment to register his terrified and pained screams before a blade cut through the leather of her armor, making a shallow cut on her shoulder.
Kai grunted and felt the slow seep of blood sliding under her leathers along her arm. Thank goodness she was wearing all black so it didn't show blood as much. The part of her mind that remained detached wanted to giggle. Kai used her boot to kick the man in the "daddy bags," as Oghren had once called them, while blocking her second opponent's blade with her own. The man she so inelegantly kicked in the stones started to take in great gasping gulps of air his eyes wide, with good reason, Kai's boots had toes of Dwarven steel in them. She grabbed the hand holding his blade while he was occupied with trying to breathe and deftly caught her second opponent in the rib cage sliding the captured blade between bones and into the heart. Blood coursed out of the female Crow's mouth as she too began to gasp, eyes wide. Kai merely kicked the impaled Crow off the blade and used it to jam it into the man's own gaping mouth driving it up and through his palate into his brain with a sickening crunch of bone. Hot blood fountained over her hand, running down her black leather-clad arm.
Kai immediately pulled the blade out, letting the man's own weight from falling back do most of the work. She pushed herself away from the wall and found herself facing an elven woman with sleek black hair pulled back from her pretty face. She had a small scar under her right eye, which was a pretty green, while the other eye was a lavender blue. There was no emotion on her face, but her eyes were deadly serious. This one would make no foolish moves from the start, she was cautious, as Kai continued to size up her newest foe. The girl stayed crouched, but fluid, she rested on the balls of her feet and keeping her shoulders relaxed.
Nope, she was not going to make this easy. "Kill that bitch, Naseel, she's their leader!" Kai heard a voice yell out from behind. She watched the girl's eyes spark, aha, this young one has one thing that is a possible weakness, she wants to prove herself and, from the looks of it, badly. She waited circling the girl with the same readied stance, Kai was older with more battle experience, and no need to prove she was the best, so Kai waited for Naseel to make the first move.
The elf gave a feral growl and struck out when it was apparent that Kai was not going to do so first, with the dagger in her right hand, she swiped at Kai's face. Kai raised her left arm and allowed the leather clad arm to brush off the swing to her eyes, while using her right to slice down on Naseel's left arm where the real threat was. Kai knew that move, she had used it many times herself, distract with one blade, and come in with the other.
Naseel's only indication of the deep cut Kai had given her was a sharp intake of breath in a hiss, the girl did not let it distract her. So, she was very disciplined as well, Kai was certainly more impressed with this opponent than her last two. She also, like Kai, did not let the cacophony of battle along with the screams and moans of the wounded and dying break her focus in any way. For all intents and purposes, they could have been alone in the room. Kai and Naseel continued to dance and feint with each other, and soon it was very clear that they were evenly matched. They were both sporting mostly shallow wounds, along with some deeper cuts, exchanged in their little dance, but neither had the advantage.
It was then that Kai decided to take a chance that her opponent was not schooled in the open handed martial arts of the Qun monks. Sh had been taught their style by a follower of the Qun, a Rivanni man visiting Highever who had been caught when the Spring rains had flooded most of Ferelden one year when she was young. The monk had told her that their priests and monks were not allowed to carry weapons, but they had trouble with bandits and even the Tal'Vashoth, those that abandoned the Qun and became mercs. Because only soldiers were allowed to carry weapons, the monks or priests had developed a weaponless fighting style using kicks, blocks, punches and acrobatics to disarm opponents and incapacitate or kill them if necessary.
Kai sheathed her blades and stood watching Naseel, she could see the shock, then curiosity spark in the girl's mismatched eyes. Again Naseel feinted with her right blade, Kai merely leapt out of the way of it. While the blade rushed past her front, Kai knew the left blade was headed towards her kidneys, so she back flipped up and over it as Naseel swept it towards her. When Kai hit the ground, she came up with her right boot and caught Naseel in the ribs with a bone crunching kick.
Naseel's eyes widened in shock as she cried out and started to go down on one knee, but she quickly recovered and turned to face Kai once again. She guessed right, the elf wasn't aware of the Qun fighting style. Naseel's lips pulled back from her teeth in a feral grimace etched with pain, still she did not drop her blade, but gripped her upper arm more closely to her injured side. This girl was tough, Kai couldn't help that one part of her mind admired the elf for it, she reminded Kai of herself.
"Yes, another you, just don't let this you kill you while you admire her," Alistair's voice sounded in her ear.
"Huh, I can't believe I understood that, it must be love." Kai just huffed into her own head. "I have other plans for her, if they work."
"Oh no, you aren't going to do what I think..." Alistair's voice cut off as Kai sprang into motion. She rushed Naseel and used her left arm to block the girl's attempt to stab her charging opponent, with her right hand, she aimed an open handed punch at the girl's chest. The power behind the punch caused more sickening, bone crunching sounds while slamming Naseel against the wall with so much force it knocked dust from the ceiling. Before the girl could get in one gasping breath, Kai had lashed out with her right boot and crunched the elf's left hand under it, causing her to cry out and drop the blade. Kai continued forward and reached out with her left hand, grabbing Naseel's still-armed right hand, she pulled the girl forward and past her before swinging her around by it as if they were in some folk dance. She slid her right hand into the crook of Naseel's elbow while Kai used the girl's momentum to spin the elf around, Naseel found herself with her back to Kai's chest and her own dagger still in her own hand held to her own throat.
"Are you quite done dancing, Kadan?" Sten's stoic voice inquired. Kai looked around the room to find that all of her group and most of the Scath were standing and watching her and Naseel. Kai just grinned at him, his comment echoing her own thoughts about their battle. "I am if Naseel is."
Kai allowed the blade to prick the girl's throat, just enough that a drop of blood ran down the elf's delicate neck. Kai could smell the lavender soap the girl had used and the girl's sweat. "Naseel, I need to ask you a few questions."
"And why should I answer them? You will just kill me anyway, what is the point?" Kai could feel the girl's breath on her hand.
"What if I told you I would rather not kill you? What if I told you I hate your master as much as you probably do, maybe even more?"
Kai could hear the girl's smirk, "And why would you think I hate my master? I am a Crow, I have a reputation, he trained me, he supplies me with weapons and poisons and work, what is not to like?" But Kai could hear a hint of doubt, and even hope, in her voice.
"Yes, but does he give you a choice, could you walk away whenever you wanted, or are you nothing more than a well-armed slave?" Kai asked a softly tapered ear. "I know of the masters of the various cells of the Crows, some are better than others, I have worked with the Crows myself. Your master and his cruelty are beyond even the usual, iIs that not true?"
Kai felt the girl nod, "Yes, and he plays with all of us in one manner or another, no matter how young we are, we have no choice." Kai felt Naseel shudder as if at a bad memory, "So again I say, what does it matter? He will not let me go, no more than your foolish friend, your lover, we belong to him until such time as he chooses to dispose of us." Kai felt her heart beat faster at the mention of Zev. "He will always find me, and his vengeance is great."
"What do you mean?" Kai's voice felt as if it wanted to get caught in her throat.
"Master Vimaro plays with your 'friend' like a cat does a mouse. He toys with him to punish him and to remind us all that he owns us, to remind us who really has the control. He uses Zevran as an example, in this case, he will play until he gets bored and then your love will be dead." Kai's arm involuntarily tightened, causing Naseel to gasp as the point of the dagger dug a little deeper, Kai relaxed her arm.
"Your master cannot hurt you if he is dead." Kai made her voice calm and cold, "I offer you a choice, Naseel, something you have never had before now. I offer you the chance to join a group of spies and assassins local to Ferelden, I offer you the chance to join such a group of your free will and to leave it at any time you should wish. Or I offer you the chance to limp out of here, alive, do with your life what you will. If it is to go back to the Crows in Antiva, so be it, but we will not heal you, and you will be on your own, but you have my word that none of mine will harm you. And if that is your choice, one of mine will escort you so those outside don't shoot you in the back, what say you?"
"Why would you do this?" Naseel's voice held suspicion and more...hope?
"Because your life should belong to you, not another, no one has the right to own anyone else. And power can only be given away, not taken." Kai released the girl and bent down to pick up the elf's fallen dagger so she could hand it back to her. She flipped it over, offering it to Naseel pommel first while looking her in the eye.
The elven girl merely looked at Kai for a moment then took the dagger and sheathed it, she bowed slightly. "I will join you then. I swear on my blood and my life, to serve you until such time as I..." here Naseel stumbled over unfamiliar words, "Until such time as I choose to leave. Until that time, my life is yours." Naseel blushed and made another bow, "As you know, I am Naseel, and you are?"
"Kai, welcome to The Scath," Kai grinned at her. She then directed Wynne to heal Naseel and any of the others that potions wouldn't do for and bid those healthy enough to scavenge the room and bodies for any and all useful items, what was it Daveth said so long ago, waste not want not. She had the Scath rogues scout ahead again to disarm traps and count the opposition still remaining, if there were any that hadn't joined the fray when all the noise started, she was surprised that more hadn't shown up.
"Ugh, I knew it, you are taking her in just like you did with Zevran, you don't even know you can trust her!" Alistair's voice fumed in her head. "At least the last time you convinced me because we really needed the help, but you don't this time!"
"Calm yourself, my love, I find that extending a hand of friendship works best when it is contrasted to the cruelty they have been given. I have good instincts, do I not, look how it worked out with Zev," Kai soothed him, "Trust me."
"Ugh, trust me, you always say that."
"Yes, and how did that thing with Loghain and the Archdemon work out again?" she asked him sweetly.
"Point taken," he grumbled and then went quiet.
"Naseel, I'm familiar with this place, but I don't know how many from your former cell there will be here and where is Vimaro holding Zev?" Kai watched while Wynne's glowing hands healed Naseel's broken wrist.
The elven girl was fascinated by the bones knitting together while she watched, but she answered readily enough. "Master Vimaro has him here, but further in the hideout, in the rooms closer to the Master's bedroom and the dining hall that leads to the back alley. Since you are familiar with this place, the room he keeps Zevran locked in is after that U-shaped portion, we found dog cages in it, he holds him in one of those."
Kai felt her rage turn from hot anger into ice. It was the kind of anger that touched the cold, dark abyss that lived in every soul, the one that would have no pity, no mercy and no compassion, holding the ugliest, darkest kind of rage. Sister Moilol, the priest at Highever's chapel, had likened it to the darkest shadow called the penumbra, the same color of the Black City in the Fade.
"He brought most of his cell of assassins, and though it is a smaller one, it still is formidable, even though the other masters try not to let him have many of the new recruits. They only give him enough to keep the politics among all the houses of the Crows running smoothly, since what affects us affects the nobles who are our patrons, it would not do for us to have in-fighting and give the nobles of Antiva a chance to take back the true power of the body politic," Naseel gave a cynical little smile at this.
"I would say you have killed about a fourth of those he brought here, there will be another fourth, when last I saw my fellows, spread throughout the rest of the hideout. The other half are still in Antiva protecting the noble who is our patron, except for a few small number who are scattered over Thedas providing 'services'. When Master Vimaro got word about Zevran Arainai being alive and living in Ferelden, he was livid, and embarrassed. He had been made a fool of, and he wanted to come here himself, so he got permission from our patron to come and attend to 'personal business,' as he called it." Naseel looked at Wynne and smiled, "Thank you, mage."
Wynne smiled and patted the girl's hand, "You are welcome, child." But the look that Wynne shot Kai was not so friendly.
Kai looked at Wynne as well. "Is she good to go?" Wynne simply nodded. Kai could tell Wynne was dubious about taking Naseel along, but she was willing to wait until they were in private to say so. For now, Kai knew, the mage would defer to her judgment.
Kai rounded up the rest of her group along with those Scath still able to continue, those who were not able went back out the way they had come in to inform those on the street what was going on. They made their way through the twisting rooms. The resistance they did run into was light, and only one or two people, easily handled by the rogues scouting ahead.
Sod it, sod it, sod it! Kai fumed to herself, the closer they got to the room where Zev was supposed to be held, the fewer Crows they came across to offer any fight, a situation which led her to believe that Master Vimaro had gotten word and taken off, the only question remaining was did he take Zev with him or kill him.
Kai's heart thumped in her chest when she opened the door to that room, steeling herself, expecting to find the bloody corpse of her dear friend. But the room was empty, one of the cages was open, a pile of filthy blankets covered in old and new blood was a makeshift bed, and a used chamber pot and a plate of greasy fatty meat sat on the floor. So, he was alive.
She let out a breath she hadn't realized she had been holding. It took everything within her to buckle down the emotions all roiling inside of her like the Waking Sea in a storm, fear, disgust and that cold, cold rage all warred in her. Finally, when she once again had her face set into a neutral mask, she turned back to the others, they all took a step back. Her face must not be as neutral as she thought.
The scouts came back with word that they had only run across three more Crows, who were dispatched with relatively no problem, apparently, they were young, new, untried recruits who had wanted to prove themselves and whose practice with real battle had not ended well for them. Kai caught one of the Scath whispering to Sten while casting worried looks at Kai out of the corner of their eyes.
"What is it?" Kai asked as casually as she could, Sten looked at her, his face immobile as always.
"Kadan..."
"What is it," Kai felt her hands curling into fists. Maybe they had found his body after all.
"They found another room, he is not in it, but I do not think you want to see it." Sten continued to study her with his lavender eyes.
"Show me." Kai stared back at him.
The Scath led Kai to another long rectangular room across from the room they had held Zev in, the blood mages had used this room for spell work, and it had been covered in blood then too. This time it had a rack, a brazier with hot coals and branding irons, and a table with all kinds of implements Kai didn't even want to look at, along with shackles to keep prisoners immobile. Her vision went dark and the room started to tilt, she put her hand against the wall and bent over and emptied her stomach, she didn't care who saw.
When she was done and bile coated her throat, it was Naseel who spoke, "All of this blood doesn't belong to Zevran, lady. Master Vimaro has taken other jobs here in Denerim, he and his lover, Concha, tastes run to torture. Doing so adds...spice...to their love making. They take the poor, the outcast, and the ones who wouldn't be missed, which is very easy to do because of the way Anora rules, as there are few city guards. Zevran he has been healing and keeping alive so he can continue to make him an example. I know it is small consolation, but most of this is from other people he has taken for his sick pleasures."
Kai wanted to be sick again, even as relief washed over her for Zev, along with a goodly amount of guilt for feeling relief that it was others who had suffered so much and not him. Kai turned to Naseel. "Who is this Concha, besides being the sick and perverted lover of your former master?"
"She is a Crow, lady, but not a rogue, she is beautiful, cruel and completely without a conscience. She and Vimaro feed each other, her skills lie in seduction and the art of poison, not fighting. She does keep several daggers secreted around her person, but she can be easily disarmed, as she relies on her beauty and charm." Naseel put a hand on Kai's arm, "And she was not here when you raided this place. I believe she went shopping, she should be returning, provided of course she does not spot your people."
Great, an evil version of Leliana, a cruel shop-a-holic, "She won't spot them, they are too good," Kai told Naseel. "Will she use the front or back door?"
"Neither, Master Vimaro had this place modified slightly. He had a secret door put in his bedroom as an escape route, he is paranoid, and with good reason," Naseel added.
"How much does Vimaro value this woman?" Kai looked at Naseel.
"As much as anyone as cold as he can, she is a toy and a possession, but he seems to hold her above us all, since she shares the same sick tastes and the same black heart."
"Then let us wait for the lovely Concha, shall we, we might just have a bargaining chip." Kai smiled a cold and grim smile.