"…I really don't mind rain, but this cold misery is trying my patience," Rush muttered under her breath as she pushed sopping wet hair out of her eyes, pulled the leather armor closer to her body and desperately tried to keep up with Bull's fast tempo.
At least the other members weren't faring much better.
Poor Rocky almost had to run to keep up with their Chief's long strides. Only Stitches didn't seem too bothered. But then, from what she knew of the man, there weren't many things, aside from Darkspawn it seemed, that bothered him. In the short time she's been near him, she has never seen him become truly excited over anything. There was something to be said about composure. Maybe he'll teach her his trick someday?
Still, Stitches wasn't nearly as surprising or interesting as the Iron Bull.
Despite the way he accepted her as a Charger, she still thought he will have a problem with her magic. She expected awkward silences every time they had to spend more than a couple minutes together, or for him to watch her when he thought she wasn't looking, just waiting for her to turn into a demon. Instead, he actually wanted her to use her powers more. More than even she was ready for. That was… something. She didn't know whether to be pleased or uncomfortable.
She settled on pleased.
Rush now felt more certain than ever that she wanted to be a Charger, for as long as she could. So long as Iron Bull led them, she had no problem being a mercenary. His mercenary.
"Here we are," Bull commented idly as he took a deep breath of the salty sea air.
Rocky bowed down, put his hands on his knees and panted. Seeing he won't be able to speak anytime soon, Stitches asked, "What exactly are we looking for, Chief?"
Iron Bull grinned and gestured at the entire Storm Coast, "A crashed ship."
All three of them groaned. The Storm Coast was full of crashed ships no one ever bothered to clear out. The most clear-up anyone ever did was when scavengers or mercenary groups like them came to salvage precious cargo. Finding the correct ship would be like searching for an elf in an alienage. You'll find a heap of them, but never the right one.
"Any way to tell which one?" she asked dryly, amused despite herself.
"Sure," he agreed amicably, giving up on his teasing. For now. "We're searching for a ship with a carved crest and a flag of the Adlebrent family. It looks like a nug on top of a bag of money."
Rush couldn't help it; she snorted.
Bull's grin got wider, "As far as crests go, that's not even the craziest or stupidest one I've seen. Orlesians always need to be original, even if it makes them look idiotic."
"It's times like these I'm glad I'm not Orlesian." She commented idly with a smile.
Rocky finally found his breath and looked up at Rush, "That's right! You're a Marcher noble. Are they that different?"
Rush paused for a second. How did they know she was a…? Oh. Krem or Bull must have done some background research on her as well. "Not really." She admitted readily. "Marchers might not be as flashy, but they are still nobles. Ridiculous one-upmanship is kind of their thing."
"Really?" Rocky's eyebrows climbed up at the frank way she said that. As if he expected her to get defensive. Rush frankly didn't see the point. She was not a noble anymore, not really. "But aren't you…"
Rush snorted. "Hardly. I might have joined the Circle later than usual, only once I was fifteen, but I gave up on being a noble long before then. Really, I'm no more noble than you."
"Hey! I resent that. I'll have you know that I'm definitely a noble." Rocky waved a fist at her mockingly, but smiled anyway. "Proper deshyr and everything. Or… at least I used to be."
Stitches inserted with a snort, "Until you blew up the Shaperate."
"Not the whole thing!" Rocky defended himself feebly. "Maybe just a couple shelves. Not like anyone was reading those books anyway. Really, I just gave them… more space. To do their research properly."
"Yeah, well, you'll have your chance to 'make space' here on the coast, soon." Bull interjected not unkindly before they could get lost in bickering. "Once we salvage the ship, you can blow it up right and proper."
Bull and Rocky exchanged a grin, while Stitches only rolled his eyes at them with a long suffering sigh. "I'll stay here with Rocky," Stitches added dryly. "Make sure he doesn't blow himself up preparing his fiery little surprises."
"Right," Bull agreed, "Have fun, men, and be ready to blow shit up when we signal you."
"Will do, boss," they saluted him.
Bull started walking and Rush followed close behind. "Now, this could get ugly, so we need to set some ground rules," he said and turned to face her.
Rush only nodded. She wondered what kind of rules he wanted to set. Hopefully not something like 'Don't touch anything'. That would make investigating a bit hard.
"Stay close enough for me to hear you if something goes wrong. We're going to salvage anything that looks even remotely valuable, but the main goal is to find a sack…"
"Sack?" she couldn't help but ask him incredulously.
He only grinned. "Sack full of jewels." Oh. That explained it, she thought with a mental eye-roll. Orlesians. "But there is more. As I'm sure you noticed, there are some issues with our orders that just don't fit, making me suspect that finding the sack is not our actual goal here. So, keep an eye out for anything that looks out of place. If you find something, call me over and we'll check it together. Understood?"
"Yes, Chief," Rush agreed readily.
These rules were actually much better than what she hoped for. She was not used to people treating her… like a person, really. First she was the overlooked last daughter of a minor noble family, not even good enough to barter away in a prestigious marriage, then a mage and so not trusted with anything more complicated than lighting a candle. Most days not even that.
And now she had a Qunari mercenary captain trust her with an investigation.
She felt a wave of warmth spread over her chest. Bull just continued to surprise her. These few days of knowing him revealed a kind and competent man who looked out for his people, but still allowed them enough freedom to do their jobs properly. Honestly, that was better than the way most husbands treated their wives. She'd bet that if they ever had sex, he'd treat her…
Her thoughts screeched to a halt.
Where did that come from?
Sure, she noticed his… powerful physique, she'd have to be blind not to, but that was nothing more than simply enjoying the view. A natural reaction to seeing such a well-built man walking around shirtless. Or watching a bow-legged serving girl leave his room with a huge smile on her face. Completely natural. But a few brief spikes of lust were not enough to make her consider letting someone that close. Not even for one night.
Definitely not only for one night.
So no matter how delicious he might look shirtless, there was no way they would…
Bull paused and turned back to her when he noticed her falling behind. "What's the matter, Rush? The Coast too rough for you, oh noble lady?"
Rush looked at him, half-turned towards her as he was, with his huge, muscular arm on display… and blushed. Bull's raised eyebrow and answering grin only made her blush harder. She hurried to catch up to him, trying to hide how shaken she felt, without much success. "Hardly. I just haven't been here before. I was merely enjoying the view." 'Oh, wait, that sounded like…'
"I bet you were," he grinned at her mortified look. "You can enjoy the view later. Now let's find the ship, shall we?"
If her blush got any worse, she'd burst into flames, despite the cold as ice rain. "Yes, Chief," she murmured. Seemed the safest thing to say right now. Only after she said it and saw Bull's grin grow even wider did she realize it kind of implied she wanted to 'enjoy the view' later. Dammit, there really was no way to safely get out of this. She shut her mouth and decided to stay quiet for now.
They found the ship easily enough, all things considered. It was hidden just behind the bend, pressed into the steep rocks.
Rush wondered how exactly it got there; the waves wouldn't have pushed an entire, unbroken ship this far. The huge hole molded perfectly into the shape of the rocky cliff suggested that it was here that the ship crashed.
But that was impossible.
Not only did the ship only 'reappear' now, it was also supposed to end its journey in the bay, not this far north. What was the captain doing, when he crashed this far away from his goal? The fiercest storm couldn't be blamed for navigating into this cliff. Her eyes narrowed in suspicion, then she looked at Bull.
He seemed just as suspicious as her. For some reason, that gave her comfort. At least she won't have to try and persuade her leader to examine things closely. But then, they both came here suspecting something wrong already.
"Let's get to it, then," Bull stated grimly, aiming in the direction of the hole in the ship's side. Rush quietly followed behind him.
They climbed inside through the stinking seaweeds that gathered on the rim, easily finding purchase on the rocks and the broken planks. Once inside, they looked around the lower deck. It was full of crates, ropes and other supplies. How come no one came to take these supplies away yet?
"Bull?" Rush asked pensively. When he turned his massive head towards her, she continued, "When exactly did this ship crash?"
He gave her a thoughtful look, "About two weeks ago."
Rush couldn't keep the questions inside her any longer. "This is a bit too… easy. How come the ship has been here for two weeks and only now were we sent to salvage? Why did no one come to take it apart before, when it was so easy to get inside? How could it have 'reappeared', when it's obvious that this is where it crashed? What is it doing so far away from the bay? If everyone died here, then where are all the bodies?"
Bull waited patiently for her to run out of questions, then turned to look around once more. "Those are all excellent questions, Rush. I'm hoping we'll find more answers inside the cabins." He turned to look at her and when he noticed her worried expression, he smiled softly and put his hand on her shoulder, "We will solve this."
Rush nodded to him, grateful for the support.
With nothing more to say, they got to work.
At least in this, Rush felt she already had some experience. Navigating Circle politics for years has taught her to look for anything that didn't fit. She hoped she could make herself useful.
The hull of the ship held nothing of interest. A few molding crates and ropes, some supplies that weren't worth much to anyone but the most desperate scavengers. If there was more to be found about the cause of crashing, it would not be here.
She turned to go, but paused and looked around once more. Some of the crates and chests looked intact. No one but some thieves will ever come by to take anything useful. And not even they will have the chance to take it away, as Rocky was already preparing his explosives. Maybe she could take a few useful things with her?
She looked around, but Bull was already ahead, climbing the stairs. Instead of following, Rush went over to the closest chest and tried to open it. Locked.
She took a careful look around, but as expected, she was alone here, with Bull's heavy footsteps echoing somewhere above her. She pulled her tools out of the discreet pocket in her new leathers and got to work.
At times like these, she was glad she hid her powers from her family for so long. It gave her the opportunity to learn how to be something else, aside from being a mage. Too bad her parents eventually found out, or she might have managed to stay away from the Circle her entire life.
The chest contained some pots and pans, dried herbs (now soaked through and turning black), some books so heavily damaged they were unreadable… and several vials of poison. She grinned and pocketed them for later. Would make for some nice extra pay. Or maybe she'd give them to Skinner, for all her advice on wielding dagger from before.
Several chests and caskets of useless garbage later, she found something strange. It was a qunari-sized harness, something that could only be the famous Vitaar paint used by the Qunari and several strange smelling jars full of an unknown balm. What were these supplies doing here? Did ships like this routinely employ Qunari warriors to protect them?
She decided to bring this to her Chief's attention later and pocketed a couple of the jars; maybe the Iron Bull could use them.
Then she moved up the stairs with purpose. Time to find out what really happened here.