BioWare owns all but what I made up. : )
And the Scath have all taken the problem in hand and come up with a solution that will even help Kai their Scathach heal from Erys's treachery. It helps to have a "sneaky witch thief," as Alistair once called her, who knows blood magic working with you. And it is back to Denerim to meet with Master Ignacio, and the mysterious and cheeky Zaeed, plus all of Kai's new Scath.
Oh, and future shout out to Night Hunter MGS next chapter. Hehe, you are a clever person, my friend, and with wicked sense of humor. : )
I thank you all for sticking with me, for putting my story on your alerts, your favs, but especially taking time to review. Really, if I start second guessing myself, I re-read them, or when suffering from doubt about how I'm doing. I wonder if Hemingway suffered self-doubt, and he was a master, not a fan fic writer, LOL! I love the reviews, they fuel the fire, plus, you have all given me such great ideas to build on. Thank you, thank you, thank you, I have the best fans. Your ideas help keep me inspired, so please throw them out there in reviews or pm me, and don't be shy! : )
And sorry for the lateness of a chapter, I know I try and get these out every day, this weekend did not help me do that, more damned real life crapola, and more WoW than usual, dammit. I had to save some people's bacon with my mad healing skills can I have your tots? I got some sweet jumps in, LOL! : D Liz my alli are on Argent Dawn, Horde on Feathermoon. Doh, yes, I am a gamer girl. ; )
So sorry all for the lateness, I promise to try and not be this late again. : ( I don't know how good I'll be at keeping it, but I'll try.
Oh, if you want to go back and read the scene again where everything starts to go BOOM and especially where Kai is holding a dying Lelyth, do it while listening to Moby's "My Weakness" from the album "Play", if you want more to make you cry. I forgot to mention it before, but I was listening to my IPOD tonight and it came on again with my play list. It just goes well with the whole gray and rainy day with the sadness of death and destruction. : )
Blessings!
Kai along with Zevran, Leliana, Naseel, Jarren, and the few Scath who were stationed in Denerim were taking up the two back rooms in the Gnawed Noble Tavern while they reserved the front room for Ignacio. It seemed fitting to her to have their meeting in the same room as before, it had certain symmetry.
Since Kai had shown up first to their previous rendezvous, she would give Master Ignacio that privilege this time. She didn't figure him to try anything after all the trouble that he'd taken to make sure her demands were met. Besides, Zaeed and a few of the ex-Crows from Antiva City would be with him. They would be taken to one of their hideouts in the city to get their vallaslin tattoo after the meeting. Kai had Zaeed inform all the Scath of the vallaslin before they got to Rialto. She'd told him that if they didn't want the vallaslin, there was no judgment; he was to simply give them money and book passage for them back to Antiva City. Those who continued would be getting their tattoos when they got to Ferelden.
Kai absently rubbed her own vallaslin gently. It itched slightly, like any skin wound, which wasn't a surprise to her, she expected it to react that way, the markings on her face done by the elven man in Highever felt the same way after she'd had it done. The Dalish used tools made from wood and a bear's tooth for the more solid, larger areas and a wolf's tooth for smaller, detailed work, the sharpened teeth with little prongs sawed into them at the ends were dipped in woad-as the in case of the one on her chest, and brown ochre on her face-and then tapped into her skin with a small wooden mallet. It had been a whole new pain experience and an interesting one at that, especially on the delicate skin of her face, the one on her chest didn't hurt as much. The prolonged pain caused her brain to shoot chemicals into her system similar to feeding the twins. It had become an almost meditative experience, with the repetitive tapping, followed by pain, and then endorphins.
Her Scatach vallaslin was more complex than the other Scath to represent her rank as leader. Her crescents bore intricate knot work and spirals inside the crescents, again, something her Scath devised on their own. She allowed a small smile to play along her lips at the thought of their ingenuity and loyalty. She couldn't be more humbled and proud to be counted amongst them, aside from the fact they still wanted her as their leader, which to her was amazing indeed.
They heard a soft knock on the door, and Jarren stuck his head in, motioning to them that Master Ignacio was ready to meet. Kai and the rest followed Jarren down the hall and into the room in the back. Jarren and Leli walked in first with Kai in the middle and Zev and Naseel flanking her at the rear. Kai walked in to find Ignacio sitting in the same chair he had occupied in their previous conversation. He too had a chest next to his chair, when she sat herself before him with her back to the fire, she saw he had another flanking his chair on the other side. The room had a particularly pleasant perfume to it, different from the last time she was in here, maybe something the innkeeper cleaned the room with maybe?
Zevran stood with his back to the fire to her left, and Leli to her right. Naseel went and stood next to Zaeed, whom Kai recognized immediately, though he was much more handsome when his head wasn't slightly distorted by the procul globe. In fact he looked enough like Duncan to be related, except his hair was curly rather than straight and he was younger. It gave Kai a kind of mental vertigo and she wondered, wildly, if Duncan ever had an indiscretion in his past. Zaeed sported a goatee and mustache-instead of a full beard-and a small, gold hoop earring in one ear. He looked like a Rivanni pirate. He bowed and saluted her with a cheeky grin and a raised eyebrow. She smiled back at him and winked. His inner mirth was infectious.
"Would you like me to ask Duncan, my love, if he ever dallied with an Antivan woman?" Alistair's voice sounded with mirth in her ear.
"Don't you dare! And thank you so much for trying to make me blush when I am meeting with a Master of the House of Crows, you saucy rascal." Kai couldn't help but laugh at him.
Ignacio rose from his chair, smiled and brushed his lips along the knuckles of her hand, "My lady, so good to see you again."
"I didn't expect you to say that, Ignacio, after our last parting, I hope you bear me no ill will. As you Crows say, it was business, not personal?" Kai grinned at him, "Except that my business was very personal, I'm afraid." She waved a hand in Zev's direction, "Though, I've always had a certain affection for you, Ignacio."
Ignacio laughed a throaty laugh, "I must admit I have nothing but admiration for you, lady, and great deal of respect from our past associations. Once I managed to put my stomach back where it belonged, I took the situation as an opportunity, as you so helpfully pointed out I should do when we met. You are, without a doubt, one of the most formidable people I have ever run up against. You wield your power like a finely honed blade, it is a thing of beauty to behold, though I much prefer when it is not being used on me." Kai grinned even more widely at him, "And may I say that it makes you one of the most beautiful women I have ever met?"
Kai laughed, "What is it with Antivan men? You all flirt with abandon, you must drink charm in the water, and your addiction to danger and beauty is simply amazing. But neither of us are here for seduction or the art of lovemaking, now are we?" Kai cocked her eyebrow at him smiling.
He grinned at her, "I was taught a man should always tell a beautiful woman she is a goddess, to keep it to myself is a sin. I have so many other sins. I do not need to add that one to my list, no? You must admit that our relationship has certain rewards." He walked over to the table in the corner and picked up a round bodied green glass bottle, "This time I brought the refreshments. It was only fair as I swigged your fine cognac like it was cheap tavern ale. I brought a different, though no less delightful beverage with me, this one is from Antiva. It's a sparkling sweet wine, which we call 'Spumante', and it goes extremely well with fruit and fish, which we eat a great deal of in Antiva, being so close to the sea. I asked your Scath to order us these things for our repast."
Jarren walked in with a tray bearing fruit, fish, bread, and cheese, which he set it down on a small table he carried in his other hand to place between their chairs. He smiled at her and his hand signals told her the food was not poisoned, though how he knew that, Kai did not want to think about. Having one of them be food tasters for her left her with a sour taste in her mouth, even if they had taken it upon themselves. "I would also ask that you check the bottle for any puncture marks or broken seals," He smiled and handed her the bottle.
Kai grinned at him and rolled the bottle between her hands while looking at the cork and its wire seal for any signs of tampering, "I will, though I doubt we went through this dance just so you could poison me when we both just got what we wanted." She was about to hand it back to him, when Zev's quick and nimble fingers took it from her to give it another look while standing in the firelight.
"Ah, Zevran Arainai, we will be speaking your name with wonder and awe, I believe you are now infamous, the man for whom all of Antiva was brought to the brink of destruction. The one who caused our whole way of...what was that quaint term you used Warden, the man for whom our way of 'doing business' has changed. I hope it is not a disappointment for you, as I suspect you always wanted to be infamous for your skills in love and death." Ignacio smiled a warm smile with no malice in it, "But it seems Fortune has other ideas for you, no?" He took the bottle when Zev held it out to him.
"Only if Fortune's name is Kaidana Cousland, and if I have to be infamous for the change in the Crows, well, I cannot complain, no?" Kai could hear the smile in his voice, his hand on the back of her chair stroked her hair, rubbing the nape of her neck where Ignacio could not see. It was the first time she had ever heard Zev use her given name.
Ignacio smiled at him, "But before I pour this delicious wine and we break our fast, I believe we have some contracts to look over, no?" Ignacio put the bottle on the table next to a set of tall, thin glasses before going to one of the chests and pulling out a stack of papers. "We each get our own copies, and there are six copies for each of us, six now that there are two fewer houses in Antiva. House Cresconio is no more, and after you sent word about Lady Aldonza, her house took a sudden downturn when the lady herself suffered a sudden case of death. You will no doubt wish to make sure the copies are all identical before you add your own signature and seal to them." Ignacio handed Kai a stack of twelve papers.
She took one to read and handed the rest to Zev who handed a copy to Leli and the rest to Naseel. Kai was pleased. It had everything she had asked for and then some. Antiva apparently wanted to stay on her good side, and it appeared they were anticipating a victory against Anora, offering money and supplies to help rebuild Ferelden when Anora was off the throne. Money and goods would continue to flow back and forth between Antiva and Ferelden, as long as the contract lasted which was the four hundred years Kai demanded, she almost choked on her own amazement. She'd just thrown out the number in a fit of cold rage over Zevran's torture, she hardly expected them to actually make good on it, but it would secure a working relationship between their two countries for a long time.
What pleased her most were the things she asked for regarding her Scath. They could return to Antiva and would not be molested or bothered, they still had a home to go to when they wished it, home, if they lived long enough to retire from being a Scath or if they just wanted to leave, one should always be able to go home. It was their way back, she would not have seen that closed off or denied them. And even though it hurt to think it that meant Zevran could go as well.
The Crows would no longer make slaves of their employees, all would be free to come and go. Kai suspected that this had as much to do with a monster like Vimaro rising to power by committing horrors on his own Crows as much as almost bringing about the downfall of an empire. It had just taken an outsider like herself to point that weakness out. They would be more careful about letting walking abysses take over control of Crow cells in the future.
All of the Crows from Vimaro and some from Aldonza were hers. Kai was inheriting half of Inez Aldonza's cell of Crows. The rest would go to House Serracino, with their consent of course. Kai felt her eyebrows climbing up her forehead, Ignacio just smiled at her. She handed her contract copy to Zev who handed his, hers and Leli's to Naseel. Her second would take all the copies to her Scath waiting in the other room to read over them carefully to make sure they all were identical before Kai signed them and added her Scath seal in wax to bind it all.
"So, my lady, did you like what you read? I assure you that Lady Serracino and I worked hard to ensure that you would get all you wanted and more. Lady Serracino looks forward to having you as her guest sometime in Antiva, as an honored and protected guest of course. And, she asked me to extend the hand of friendship from House Serracino directly to you and the Scath." With this Ignacio produced yet two more pieces of paper and handed them to her. Kai looked them over, it was another contract, a direct alliance of the Scath and House Serracino. Kai's eyebrow cocked up as she looked at Ignacio, who shrugged at her, "My lady was most impressed, and she wishes to learn from the woman who bested them all."
"And to secure an exclusive alliance between us which would give Lady Constanza Serracino an advantage over the rest of the noble houses of Antiva would have nothing to do with the offer," Kai laughed. She handed the contracts to Zevran to look over.
Ignacio laughed, "Si, I would be lying to you if I said no. But I assure you, she is intrigued by you as well, she has an admiration for you. My description of what you have done for us here before the Blight and then what you said in our meeting may have had something to do with that." He just smiled at her, "Shall we have some of this wine and delicious food while we wait for your Scath to read over the contracts?"
Ignacio went to the table, removed the wire casing from the cork and put his thumbs under its edge. The cork shot out with a loud 'pop' and he poured a pale yellow wine which foamed as it flowed into the glass. He handed one to her, and Kai looked into it carefully, just in case a finger should appear in her glass.
Ignacio must have guessed what she was doing and laughed a full throated laugh, "No, my dear lady, I did not bring Ines Aldonza's finger for you. Though that might have been amusing, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, no?"
Kai smiled and took a sip from the tall thin glass. The bubbles tickled her nose in a pleasant way as the slightly sweet wine bubbled on her tongue.
"Do you like it?" Kai nodded at him and took some fish baked in butter and spices on a piece of bread, while Ignacio handed glasses of Spumante to everyone in the room, "Shall we have a toast?" Ignacio raised his glass, "Salud!" He sat down and looked at Zevran, "So, does the contract pass muster with our former Crow?"
"Si, I see nothing here that could potentially hurt Kai or the Scath, which makes me wary." Zevran handed her the papers, but with a reassuring smile and a nod. Kai took them after carefully wiping her fingers. Leliana handed her a quill and ink and some sealing wax from the table that had held the wine. She signed the papers and melted the wax over a candle flame after pulling off her Scathach ring. When the wax was ready, she dripped wax onto both contracts and pressed her ring into it, she smiled as she handed them back to Ignacio.
He grinned and put them into his shirt, walked over to the table and reached under it, and pulled out a beautiful climbing rose with petals the color of a sunset, growing in a copper pot. The blooms bore soft red outer petals, going into orange, ending in a heart of golden yellow that almost glowed in the light, and it was the source of the lovely perfume she'd detected earlier. "This, my dear lady, is a rose from the cutting of the original bush that has belonged to and is a symbol for House Serracino since the founding of Antiva. This rose comes from one bush, which the Lady Constanza's family guards jealously. She is giving you one as a symbol of her good will and her veracity. This rose is the only one of its kind existing outside of the family and Antiva itself, we hope it prospers, as we hope you do."
The door opened and Naseel walked in holding the contracts, "They are all good, my lady." Naseel looked her with shining eyes. She handed them to Kai and watched as she repeated the process of adding her signature next to those of all the noble houses of Antiva and the masters of their Crows.
Kai also put her seal into wax on every copy. She handed them to Ignacio with a smile, "I suppose our business is finished, then?"
Ignacio smiled, "Almost, dear lady. In this chest," Ignacio put his hand on the chest to his left, "Are the trinkets and papers Vimaro thought most important. And the other chest has a few gifts I wanted to give you, one of which you asked for to give to one Zevran Arainai, no?" Ignacio smiled and went to the chest on the right and put the chest on his chair, opening it. He pulled out a big glass jar with the head of who she guessed must be Adulfo Cresconio, and in honey no less. Kai laughed, and Ignacio grinned at her as he handed it to Zevran, "She demanded proof that she could hand to you, my dear fellow, and I do not ever want to disappoint this lady."
Zev took the heavy jar and looked at it, his mask in place, but for the cold smile on his lips, his amber eyes unreadable, "Hm, he looks a little shorter than I remembered." And he put the jar down on the floor next to Kai's chair with a slight nod to Ignacio.
Ignacio reached into the chest once again and handed Kai a stack of papers, which had the stamp of the country of Antiva. She opened up the first of the folded papers. It turned out to be three different documents. One was a birth certificate for one Zevran Arainai, the other was a contract listing the sale of same from a whorehouse called The Golden Fan to the Crows in House Cresconio, and the third document was Zevran's own slave papers marking him as a Crow for that house.
Slavery all made to look so official and business like, goods and services, not really owning other living beings, no not all. They are tools, toys, chattel, it took everything she had not to crush the papers she held in a fist and then toss them into the fire, well, all but the birth certificate. However, they did not belong to her, they belonged to Zevran, and now he was truly free. That freedom was a gift she was not going to let her temper sully for him. She gave the rest of the stack a quick look. The whole of the pile looked to be all the papers on her Scath, hadn't she told Ignacio to bring them? The man was as good as his word.
Kai simply handed the stack of three to Zevran behind her without looking. Part of her wanted to know what his expression would be, happy, would he consider truly leaving now? She asked him to wait on getting a vallaslin, she wanted him to hold off until after they met with Ignacio. She wanted him to be really free before he made any decisions about his life. Part of her always wondered if his choice to stay after killing Taliesin had been made on the spur of the moment due to the Blight and how fast everything had been moving to a head before the Landsmeet. Kai also worried that he made it out of a sense of obligation, just as he'd made their earlier bargain to save his life. To Kai's mind, that still wasn't a real choice. He should have all the cards in his favor, with no outside pressures, and the time to come to the first real choice regarding which way his life would go. The first, she hoped, of many he would make in a lifetime.
"I have one more thing, lady, "It was actually Zaeed who found it while packing up the things from Vimaro, he thought you might like to have it." Ignacio handed her two more pieces of paper, both with the wax seals of Vimaro and Cresconio, and one with the royal seal of Ferelden. Kai felt her eyebrows shooting up her forehead, she opened the first to find the contract on her and Alistair, it was signed by Vimaro, Cresconio, Loghain, Arl Rendon Howe, and one Zevran Arainai. The other was the contract signed by Taliesin to kill Zevran Arainai. He never intended to let Zev go back to his life after all.
"Since all the parties involved with these contracts are dead, save one, and that one person has no intention of fulfilling it, I would say the contract in null and void, no?" Ignacio laughed, "Consider yourself the only person to actually have avoided death by The Crows of Antiva, dear lady, the only one so far in our assiduous and quite lengthy time of doing business. Do you understand why we hold you in such esteem now, my dear?" Ignacio smiled and removed the chest and sat back down, "So, shall we drink to that and so much more? I brought two cases of Spumante, and we can have more food for all, I think this calls for a celebration, don't you, Warden?"
Kai smiled and saluted him with her own glass. "Indeed it does, my dear Ignacio, indeed it does."