The quiet sound of leaves shifting underfoot woke her. It wasn't loud, by any means, but Siara was accustomed to the possibility of an ambush, so it didn't take a lot to wake her up. As soon as the sound reached her ears she was awake, eyes open, hand reaching for the sword closer to her.
"Cullen."
"I heard it."
Siara slowly stood up, eyes searching the tree line. The fire was now just embers, glowing warmly in the cold morning gloom. The sun was only just starting on its journey across the sky, not yet visible above the trees. Cullen stood next to her, searching the other side of the path, his sword in one hand, shield on his other arm. Neither of them were wearing any armour. Sleeping in armour wasn't exactly comfortable, but that had left them pretty vulnerable to attack in this situation.
"Do you see anything?" Cullen asked quietly, his voice low.
"Not yet. But I can still hear something," she was frowning slightly, "and smell something."
"What do you smell?"
"I don't know. It's hard to tell. The smoke from the fire and lyrium from you are overwhelming it a bit. I think I recognise it, though."
"Do you know if it's dangerous?"
"Maybe."
Cullen had hoped for a more solid answer, one that would decide if they actually needed to be on guard or not. But he supposed that Siara couldn't help that. Her sense of smell was impressive enough, he couldn't expect it to be infallible. They both spun around as someone stepped out of the tree line. Or, more accurately, stumbled out. Both of them had their swords pointed at the man, a small frown on Siara's face as the man lifted his head to look at them, panting slightly as he straightened.
"Ah, it is you," he greeted. "I was wondering when I'd see you again."
Siara slowly lowered her sword, Cullen glancing around at her.
"You know this man?" he asked, sounding a bit surprised. The man was well dressed, even if the clothes were a bit covered in dirt and sticks after his trip through the forest. His hair was mostly pulled back away from his face, but it was obviously well cared for. But there was generally something that felt off about him. Siara pulled a face, then shrugged.
"'Know' him might be going a bit far," she said. "I've met him once. He's a client of mine."
"A client?" Cullen lowered his sword, but didn't put it away. "This is the kind of person you work for?"
"I work for anyone who pays me enough, Cullen. You should have worked this out by now."
"Enough of the chatter," the newcomer interrupted. "I wanted to talk with you, Blade. I want an update. And who is this with you? Where is the Bow?"
His eyes darted from Siara to Cullen and back, never resting on either of them for very long before flicking back to the other, sometimes flicking off into the trees surrounding them. Cullen assumed he suspected there was someone else hiding in the treeline. Perhaps they could use that to their advantage.
"This is Commander Cullen Rutherford of the Inquisition. And as for where my brother is, your little job got him killed," Siara scowled, "for a measly thirty gold. You know, I think I want the other half of my pay now. Call it compensation."
"Have you finished the job?"
His eyes were trained on Cullen, a sharp gleam to them, not trusting anything. Especially not someone he probably knew was a templar.
"You've heard about what happened at the Conclave, didn't you? And you've seen the giant hole in the sky? I've been a bit busy, I honestly don't even know if your buddy Eston what's-his-pants is even still alive."
"Siara, who is this?"
"Hush now, Commander. The adults are talking," Cullen stared at Siara disbelievingly. "Now, Maric. Are you going to pay me what you owe?"
"You never finished the job, you admit it. If anyone is owed anything, it's me. You should give back the money I paid you if you have no intention of finishing the job."
"Oh, I'll make sure Eston gets what's coming to him. But you got my brother killed. So pay me the thirty gold," she paused. "Actually, no. I'm not going to give you the nice friendly discount I gave you earlier. Pay me the full seventy."
"Siara, are you sure you know what you're doing?"
"Sure. I've dealt with blood mages before. And the majority, if not all of them, were a lot smarter than this idiot."
Cullen's blood ran cold.
"Blood mage?"
"You call me an idiot?" Maric sneered. "You're a fine one to talk. You must be stupid if you think I'm going to pay you all that money for a job you failed. If you're lucky I'll let you leave with your life." Siara shrugged, too causually for Cullen's liking.
"If that's how you want to play it," Siara smirked before speaking much more quietly to Cullen. "We have two options here. Option one, you use your fancy templar skills to block his magic."
"I can't," Cullen muttered back.
"I guess we have to go for option two then."
"And what's that?"
"You keep him busy."
"How am I supposed to do that? It's you he wants dead."
"I'm pretty sure he worked out in the first ten seconds of conversation that you're a templar. I think it's safe to assume that he wants you dead, too," she pushed Cullen out of the way as a fireball flew towards them, spinning to get out of the way, "Hey! We weren't ready yet!" she yelled at Maric.
"Do you really think that I'm stupid enough to let you and your templar form a plan?" he demanded.
"Well, you did choose a spell that'd take a while to cast to start with…" Siara muttered, a dark look on her face.
"Do you want to get us killed?" Cullen snapped, half stepping in front of Siara and lifting his shield as another fireball flew at them. The Blade shrugged.
"I'm not just standing here waiting to die, am I?" she asked. "I just want to get what I'm owed. If that involves killing this guy and handing his head over to King Ali-boy, then so be it. Now be a good little Commander and keep him occupied."
She had already slunk off before Cullen could object.
Jacen watched on as Cullen scowled and centred his attention back on the blood mage. He could remember the conversation he and Siara'd had with him what felt like a lifetime ago. Maric had seemed pretty friendly back then, but the personality change wasn't too unexpected. They'd experienced this before.
The important part of this fight would be restricting the amount of blood magic that Maric could use. Any magic, really, but the blood magic was certainly the most concerning factor in this battle. It was apparent that Cullen understood this. It was unfortunate that he hadn't had the time to get into his armour, but it couldn't be helped. Jacen watched as Cullen raised his shield a bit more, starting to circle around. Maric frowned, his eyes flicking from where Siara vanished to Cullen.
"So your friend is leaving you?" he taunted. "To be honest, it doesn't particularly surprise me. She doesn't really seem like the type to stick around for any reason."
"I don't think you know the Blade as well as you think you do," Cullen replied, still slowly moving around the mage. He got a shrug in response, as well as a blast of ice at the ground in front of him, stalactites of ice bursting forth and almost impaling Cullen. The commander dodged back just in time, slicing his sword through one of the spikes as it almost reached him, cutting it cleanly before it caused any damage. He turned once more to face Maric, launching forward between the ice stalactites. A sword formed in Maric's hand and the mage stepped forward to meet Cullen's blow.
"I can sense your weakness, Templar," Maric hissed. "You have no chance of winning this."
Cullen pushed forward with his shield, taking Maric off guard and sending him stumbling back a step before he launched forward again, not wanting to give Cullen any openings.
Jacen idly wondered if he should be doing something to help the commander, thinking of what he could possibly do. After all, no one could see him, and he couldn't interact with the physical world. He watched as Cullen and Maric battled each other, watched the conjured sword in Maric's hand. If only Jacen had his bow. A couple of well placed shots and Maric would be incapacitated.
If he could get past the commander. But that would be a simple matter. Jacen always had been good at archery. It was his forte. Even if that fact was becoming increasingly difficult to remember.
He watched as Maric managed to find an opening in Cullen's guard, watched as Cullen stumbled, falling to his knee. The half smirk, half grimace on Maric's face. Jacen stepped forward, reaching out a hand, catching the ethereal sword before it could hit the commander. A look of confusion found its way onto Maric's face as he tried to drive the sword down, Jacen holding the blade firmly between his hands. He would not let the commander fall. He was needed. He was important.
The next moment the sword vanished. Jacen looked past Maric to Siara, who stood there with her sword inserted between the man's ribs. She didn't say anything as she pulled it out, Maric turning to look at her. She didn't say anything, grabbing a fistful of the blood mage's hair in one hand, swinging her sword and decapitating him neatly with the other. She looked down at Cullen through Jacen as Maric's body fell to the ground, still holding his head in her hand, lowering it to her side.
"You okay?" she asked.
"You cut that one a little close, didn't you?" Cullen asked, using his sword to help him to his feet. Siara shrugged.
"Sorry. Had to be careful, else he'd have heard me and probably set the whole forest on fire to kill me," she headed over to their horses and grabbed a sack, unceremoniously dumping Maric's head in it. Jacen knew why. Proof of who she had killed so that she could successfully collect the bounty.
"We're not going to take that with us, are we?" Cullen asked, sighing. Siara didn't look around at him.
"Gotta prove we killed him, right? Best way to do that is with his head."
They'd had to do it before, though Jacen couldn't say who with. He couldn't remember that little detail.
He looked down at his hands. He'd managed to stop the sword. Had managed to prevent the commander's death.
Jacen had managed to interact with the living world. Now if only he could figure out how.