Before we start I just want to give a massive thank you to DevilishJune on Instagram/Twitter for beta reading this chapter for me!
Whilst not a required read to understand what is going on, there is a short one-shot on my profile called "Silent Regrets" that takes place before chapter one of this story if you would like to give it a read first.
10:60 Breach
Find the Mage who enchanted the safe, kill the mage, find the chest, and get out. Easy enough.
Or at least it should have been.
A brunette elf that was currently outfitted in some servant clothing moved swiftly through the main hall of the Winter Palace. Careful to avoid eye contact with any of the masked Orlesians as she attempted to find her way toward the servant's entrance.
She underestimated exactly what her client wanted her to do here. She figured it would be simple enough - thinking the palace wouldn't be much bigger than the Denerim palace.
But oh, how wrong I was.
The castle was both as massive as it was difficult to navigate. If it weren't for the abundance of servants present for the coronation, she doubted she would've ever been able to get a grasp of even the general direction of the servants' entrance.
It took roughly a half-hour of trying to remain inconspicuous before she figured out where the servant's entrance even was. She quickened her pace immediately in an attempt to get there before anyone decided they needed her assistance.
But of course, it would never be that easy.
A man grabbed the elven woman by the arm - startling Nela, but successfully stopping her in her tracks. Nela cast her brown eyes upon the masked Orlesian man, forcing herself not to do anything rash in retaliation at being touched and risking blowing her cover.
"Get me my drink knife-ear, I've been waiting for almost five minutes now." The man demanded in irritation, his Orlesian accent prevalent as he spoke.
"Right away, ser." Nela forced herself to respond, casting her eyes downwards as the man released her, muttering angrily in Orlesian under his breath as the woman quickly moved towards the servant's entrance as she had previously intended.
The elf let out a short exhale of relief as the doors shut behind her, moving her hand with the intent to run it through her hair before promptly remembering that she had tied her hair up before entering the palace. She dropped her hand shortly afterward, taking a moment to take in the area, paying careful attention to the elves around her.
They didn't pay her much mind, however, despite her not being a familiar face. Nela didn't doubt that it wasn't uncommon for new servants to be coming in and out of the palace somewhat frequently. Especially with the coronation of Princess Angelique currently happening. No one gave her a second glance as they funnelled in and out of the main room.
Easier for me I guess.
This felt so beneath her, scuttling around the palace dressed as an Orlesian servant. She was an assassin, a thief, not some prissy nobles lapdog. If it had been up to her, she wouldn't have even been here. But her client had asked her to perform a job for him in Orlais - a promise of a large number of sovereigns following the offer, she really couldn't convince herself to refuse. Only the maker knew why the man was so set on sending a Fereldan (to his knowledge anyway) elf on the assignment and not an Orlesian Bard was entirely lost on her. But the money was good, she couldn't really complain.
It took a while, to figure out exactly how to get to the upper floors. The hallways that littered the palace didn't get any easier to navigate as she got deeper in. How she managed was a miracle. But how she intended to get out of the palace… Well, she'd tackle it when she got there.
The first goal of course was to find the mage. From what her client had told her, the man was an Orlesian elf from the circle with little to no interest in being present at any of the events the Winter Palace would host. So, finding him should be simple enough - find his office, take out his guard quietly, then take him out. After that, the hunt to get back downstairs and to the basement would begin.
She had been given rough directions on where the office was. On the second floor to the northwest end of the castle. But the directions themselves were difficult to work with considering her issues navigating the castle, to begin with.
Maker, I'm never taking a job in Orlais again.
During her wandering of the Castle, she came across very few to no guards. Any she did come across were either easy enough to sneak around or take out if necessary. Easily hiding bodies in various rooms if the latter became her only option.
Also during the trek, she obtained a companion of sorts (if you could even call the creature that). A slick, brown and beige cat with large ears had watched her as she killed one of the guards - the creature's eyes seemed to shine with curiosity as it hopped off the window-sill it was sitting on to follow after her. Nela would admit she found it weird that there was even a cat within the upper halls of the Winter Palace. Even more, the animal appeared keen on following her as she snuck around the palace.
She wouldn't complain however, the animal easily stayed out of the way and undetected. If the cat wouldn't be a problem, she had no reason to be annoyed with it coming along. If anything, she liked the company - it made the job a little less lonely.
Nela did eventually find the office she was looking for, easily taking out the guard at the door before going inside. The mage was a little more difficult to kill - having lost the element of surprise. But she managed, only walking away with a burn on the top of her right arm. The fight wasn't loud or long enough to alert any of the guards that might have been within earshot (something she honestly doubted as she killed the majority of Guards around the office).
With the death of the mage, she stuffed both the bodies of him and his guard in a cabinet at the corner of the room, hoping to bide for time so she could get into the basement and out the Palace undetected - and then she was off again.
Backtracking back down onto the main floor proved a bit easier and faster than getting up onto the second floor. She had a vague idea of how she got up there, which mixed in with a severe lack of guards to sneak around just made the whole trek a lot quicker than the first time.
Once reaching the main floor again, Nela found herself letting out a bit of a frustrated huff - moving to a stop at the bottom of the stairs and casting her eyes towards the cat who still easily followed after her. "You don't happen to know where the basement is, do you?"
The cat simply stared up at her silently after reaching the bottom of the steps. Tilting its head up at her curiously.
"Of course you don't, you're a cat." There were a few seconds of silence that followed the statement. Both elf and animal made silent eye contact before the assassin added a quick. "And I'm talking to you like you can understand me, great."
Finally peeling her eyes away from the animal, Nela continued on her hunt for the basement. It was becoming clearer that most of the guards were focused on the coronation of Princess Angelique rather than the rest of the palace - whilst there were guards present, there weren't nearly as many throughout the palace as there were stationed around where the guests were currently.
It took maybe twenty or thirty minutes to finally find the basement. The guards were more of an issue on the main floor than on the upper floors, but the stairs that led directly into the basement proved to be much easier to locate.
Once getting into the basement, the strong lack of guards was very apparent. The underground floors seemed to mostly be used for storage and the wine cellar. Compared to the rest of the castle, the area seemed to be a hell of a lot smaller. Heading into the basement consisted of a long hall with quite a few doors. The one directly at the end of the hall was the wine cellar (which was indicated by the two elves who quickly hurried past her with some crates holding bottles of wine).
Carefully looking around to make sure no one else was coming down into the basement, Nela began moving down the hall, counting each door as she looked for the correct one for what she was looking for.
5th door on the left… 5th door on the left… Here we are.
The elf stopped in front of the door she was supposed to be heading into, pulling her lockpicking tools out of her closet and setting to work on the door. Her new-found cat companion was seated on the floor next to her as she worked on the lock in front of her.
It took about a minute of tinkering with the lock, but eventually, she was able to get it open. The door gave a soft click before Nela attempted to open it.
Once the door was opened, the elven assassin moved back to her feet, beginning to scour the room for the chest that had been mentioned to her. Reaching the back of the room she caught sight of the shape of a chest covered with a cloth. Pulling the cloth off of it, she looked down at the no-longer enchanted chest and much like the door, went to pick the lock on the chest - which opened easily after a few moments of messing with it.
Pulling the lock off, she opened the chest, taking a glance inside. Inside the chest sat a single amulet made of rope with a peculiar green stone tied at the bottom of it. Picking it up, Nela examined the jewelry carefully, trying to deduct exactly what her client could possibly want with it. The stone at the bottom of it was in a square shape, the stone itself sporting a large crack from one side that went all the way around the top to the other side.
"A damaged amulet? What could possibly be important about this…?" Nela found herself questioning out loud, her eyes still scanning across the item curiously. Occasionally, a soft red glow would overtake the stone - the only thing indicating that the item was in fact, enchanted.
The brunette was about to stand back to her feet and get out of the palace when the cat from before had stepped in front of her, both its front paws resting on her legs as the animal took the rope from the amulet into its mouth.
"No, that's not yours," Nela spoke, her tone stern as she moved to pull the amulet from the animal's mouth. She didn't get far, however, as the animal in front of her was engulfed in a white light. Its place stood a brown-haired dalish elf of all things.
"I can't let you take that!" The dalish elf who appeared to be a mage spoke up, the amulet having been pulled from Nela's hands amidst the transformation. It was clear the mage was nervous. Though she had attempted to keep her tone confident, it had wavered with her last word.
Nela stood to her feet so she was now standing face to face with the women, not allowing the surprise from the transformation to keep her off guard for long. She let out an irritated scoff, standing her ground as she narrowed her eyes at the elven mage.
"I don't think that's for you to decide." Nela held a lot more confidence than the other elf did, having been in somewhat similar situations in the past. She didn't bother questioning the elf on why she was there, that didn't matter. What mattered was that she was now standing in the way of her completing her job.
Neither elf had been paying attention to the Amulet dangling from the mage's hands as it began to pulse a harsher red in response to being in direct contact with the shapeshifter's magic. The mage in question had opened her mouth to respond, but she never got the chance. The enchanted amulet reacted, the charm floating up a bit before a bright red portal opened, pulling both women through it with a flash.
The only thing left behind was a burn mark on the floor where both elves once stood.
A/N: I skimmed through the winter palace section a big part due to the fact I don't know how to navigate it at all myself lol.
Not entirely sure how good this is. Honestly, this isn't my writing style at all (If you've seen any of my previous stories, I don't tend to skim things as much as I did here). - but I was enjoying writing this so I gave it a shot. As of posting this chapter, I have about half of the second chapter written (about 8 and a half pages in at the moment).
I can't promise when the next chapter will be out as I am taking my time and it is a lot longer than this one. So I hope you enjoyed it!
Chapters are always posted on Ao3 first! Though this series can be found here, Archive of Our Own & Wattpad! My username remains the same on all three platforms (Constellasaur)!
Wanna chat or see what I'm up to? Check out my Dragon Age Twitter & Tumblr both under the username; "TimelessDA"