ACT III: In Darkness Dwells
"Oh, it is a joy to have you in my arms again, love." Dorian's smirk twitched under his nose once he drew me into his awaiting arms. Cullen slipped from my side and took long strides to exit the floor before another partner took him up for a dance.
"I was in your arms not half a glass ago." I teased and settled into his hold. "Speaking of, please tell me you heard the rumor you've become a homewrecker in mine and Cullen's supposed relationship."
Dorian perked up, "Oh yes! I did hear that one, I was delighted to be so highly desirable. Dear Cullen, he has had quite the time of it tonight."
"Oh no," I chuckled and settled one of my hands on his palm and the other on his shoulder, "has he been accosted?"
"Darling, he and Blackwall have been fighting the good fight, fending off most of the eligible women in this room alone." Dorian laughed deep from within his chest and drew me up to his torso, his arms sure and steady.
"Yikes," I hissed, chuckling, "I didn't know it was so bad as they had to tuck tail and run."
"I believe it is only so due to the nature of their relationship and proximity to you, my love." Dorian explained, his feet leading us toward the middle of the floor and his hand on my hip wandered further down the middle of my back. My brow rose in surprise.
"Appearances, love." Dorian grinned wickedly. "It has been wonderfully entertaining watching the scandal grow in everyone's imagination." My eyes rolled gently because I very much doubted anyone found it as entertaining as Dorian did; perhaps Solas and Bull, but that was the end of the list. We spun across the dance floor and fell into a pattern of twist-and-turn as Dorian deftly led us through the song.
"I do have several pieces of news for you, darling." He smiled, but the corners of his eyes were smooth. "After the incident in the palace garden, Solas and Sera had made a point of inspecting the outer wings for any trance of our attacker."
"Please tell me they found them and this whole thing can be over and done with?" I pleaded quietly, knowing full well it was entirely wishful thinking. Dorian spun me away with a small sigh and brought me back with a small shoulder shrug.
"Alas, the hell continues. No. Sera had found a trail of blood in the guest quarters and followed it to a room that contained missives between Gaspard and Celene." Dorian twirled us hip-to-hip with his hand at the small of my back. "In it, Gaspard alludes to Briala having a weapon that would turn the tide of the war, every war."
"We have confirmation that he knows about the eluvian." I echoed as I recalled Dorian's hints that the mirror could be at play amongst the three heads competing for power. "Alright, that doesn't change what we suspected."
"It does not, but it means your dance with the Grand Duchess will have to wait." Dorian continued, slowing us down as the song trembled to its soft ending. I squinted up at him, confused.
"The occult advisor would like a word with you first." Dorian tacked on as the song finally died. He eyed me with a touch of concern. "Her reputation proceeds her, as much as legends and tall tales allow. Be cautious of her, my love."
Morrigan.
"I will be, don't worry." I replied softly. Shit, I had enough to worry about already, I hadn't expected to take up dancing with another devil so quickly. Between Leliana's less-than-stellar review and Cullen's cautious warning, I could feel the metaphorical feathers along my spine spike in anxiety. I pressed my lips tightly and gave Dorian a nod of reassurance. He tipped his bow over my hand and kissed my knuckles in farewell.
Released into the wild, I escaped up the stairs nearest me to get off the dance floor before being accosted into another dance by someone else. My coat swept behind me and I yanked my shoulders back to tighten my spine and project an aura of 'I'm busy, fuck off' as politely as possible. Most of the crowd along the landing turned away from me or snapped themselves to the railing to avoid my path.
Maybe Josie was onto something about my scars that splattered over my face.
The issue now was that I was on the hunt for a person I had never met or given the description of, so I was hoping I gave off enough of an aura of importance that Morrigan would approach and catch me as I prowled through the venue. The lanterns still burned brightly and the crowd ebbed and flowed like an indecisive tide under the flicker of the candlelights.
I swallowed, willing my nerves to settle. The drawback to being handed around like a swaddled baby between my companions meant that suddenly being without one at my side left me cold and itchy, uncomfortable to the point of distraction. It helped, I supposed because the scowl on my face only grew with every step I took.
"Well, well, what do we have here?" A sultry, low voice fluttered in from behind me. On my heel, I turned to focus on the stairs that led up to roped-off areas of the palace. My gaze flashed up from the edges of the purple and dark green skirts to the pale face of a woman. Her dark hair and painted lips did nothing to distract from the spark of golden yellow in her eyes.
Predator, my lizard brain supplied. I swallowed again and waited at the foot of the steps as she glided down to me. That assessment wasn't wrong. Her smile was painted on politely, her hands clasped together at her navel, and her shoulders slid from her neck in a graceful, sinewy decline. All things I barely noticed under the weight of her golden gaze that peered at me and through me.
"The leader of the new inquisition," she smiled slowly, "fabled herald of the faith. Delivered from the grasp of the Fade by the hand of blessed Andraste Herself." Her words tipped and teetered between sincere and mocking. The hairs on my arms and the back of my neck rose as my skin puckered like gooseflesh. She landed on my level and refolded her hands at her waist, as I had been taught to do. My tongue felt glued to the roof of my mouth.
"What could bring such an exalted creature here to the Imperial Court, I wonder? Do even you know?" She paused a polite pace away from me.
"I heard there was a Game involved, figured I'd start my bets." I answered finally, the words thick at the back of my mouth.
She chuckled, "Such as it is, its intrigues obscure much, but not all. I am Morrigan. Some call me advisor to Empress Celene on matters of the arcane." She gestured with a lithe arm and turned us away from the stairs and an oncoming party of gossipers. I followed and instinctively locked my palms over my stomach to hold against the panic.
"You have been very busy this evening," she continued, one golden eye spying me from the corner of her vision as we walked, "hunting in every dark corner of the palace and yet in plain sight."
"I do tend to get lost," I murmured. She smiled again, her painted lips smoothly shifting into amusement.
"I think perhaps you and I may be hunting the same prey." The words were dressed like a question, but there was a confidence to it that only gave an illusion of a choice. I squared my shoulders and hooked my thumbs together anxiously. Something, somewhere, in her gaze or her tone, or her mere presence set my nerves to ice. She wasn't hunting me, I didn't think, and so I inhaled deeply to smother my shivers.
Leliana was hostile at the mention of Morrigan, but I couldn't be sure how much of that was The Past versus an actual assessment of Morrigan now. Cullen had been cautious, as had been Dorian, it was enough warning to avoid making myself a fool. What, then, was I supposed to do on my own if everyone around me was in fight or flight mode around this woman?
Well. Except Vivienne. Her electrified voice and hardened gaze swarmed back into my memory, her hands gentle and steady against my tear-streaked cheeks weeks ago.
"When you leave this tent, do not allow them to shame you for your decisions. Do not allow them the grace to think they would have done anything better or different. You survived, and you will remember that."
Vivienne didn't give a shit what anyone's position was as she was certain only of hers. I squared my shoulders again, firm under the weight of my black coat and train. I loosened my hands and released the tension in my shoulders before settling back into the seat of my spine.
"I'm not sure, Lady Morrigan. Are we?" I asked politely, channeling as much of Vivienne as I could. Morrigan laughed, soft and sweet, her shoulders ticked under her ears like a gleeful confidant.
"You are being coy." She teased and turned to face me fully.
"I am being careful," I answered truthfully with a note of boredom etched into my words, as Vivienne was wont to do.
"Not unwise, here of all places. Allow me to speak first, then." Morrigan stepped to my right and slipped her arm carefully and precisely through mine. Her eyes flashed down the path that circled the ballroom and I could see Leliana glaring at us from the distance. Morrigan led us back to make another circuit of the ballroom opposite our audience.
"Recently I found, and killed, an unwelcome guest within these very halls. An agent of Tevinter." She said softly. A checkmark flashed through my thoughts; the rogue that Sera had found in the palace gardens, perhaps?
She continued, "So I offer you this, Inquisitor: a key found on the Tevinter's body."
Carefully and with a practiced sleight of hand, she placed a key into my palm as she laced our hands together, a performance of affection and closeness the other nobles would not dare with me. She slipped from our locked arms and paused to stand in front of me, her hands folded and returned to her navel. Quickly, I tucked the key into the folds of my sleeves, the metal icy cold despite the warmth of our hands.
"And what is it for?" I asked.
Morrigan shrugged her slender shoulders. "Where it leads, I cannot say. Yet if Celene is in danger, I cannot leave her side long enough to search. You can." I pondered the pointed edge of her words. I couldn't leave the ballroom any more ably than Morrigan could, but she wasn't entirely wrong; everyone else already skulking around the place could test every lock and door while I stayed visible.
I need to get the key to Sera or Solas, then.
"Why did you kill the agent?" I asked, for information and confirmation. "He might have had useful information, no?"
"I would not have slain the man on sight had he not attacked me first." Morrigan huffed. "And why? Undoubtedly I caught him in an illicit act in a place that was not available to the public."
"Noted," I replied, thankful that Morrigan and Sera had not crossed paths.
"I did not know from whence he came until after the battle, and regret only that I could not capture him alive." She sighed but pinned me with a sharp look. "What intentions the Imperium has here I suspect you know far better than I."
Christ, I thought with a wince, did I wish that wasn't true.
"Point taken. And Celene? You've left her alone all this time now, is that wise?" I asked and held my neck steady to keep from looking around for the Empress.
"I must return to her anon, but she is safe enough… for the moment." Morrigan shook her head, amused. "'Twould be a great fool who strikes at her in public, in front of all her court and Imperial Guard."
She wasn't wrong. Gaspard was a grandiose showboat, sure, but he was still a tactician in his right and would avoid making any undue moves until it gave him the greatest benefit. Briala, though not a commander of war, was still skilled enough in her espionage to avoid making any public displays that would point the finger at herself or her elven brethren.
The Grand Duchess, though? A public display tailored to noose the neck of either of her opponents was exactly up her lane. What was to stop her from placing the blame on Briala and then hanging her brother a moment after, eliminating both parties with only herself to spare?
That seems too obvious. I was missing something. The Duchess couldn't afford to leave herself as the only survivor of the assassination and the destruction of both her brother and Briala. One of them would have to survive for her to seize any power over Orlais for Corypheus. It was most likely to be her brother, who didn't suspect her of duplicity just yet.
The key I had been given burnt its outline into my wrist, this must lead into the servant's quarters, then.
The package and slaughter slowly painted out into a puzzling picture. The urge to share the information with Morrigan nearly slipped off my tongue, but as she was neither my advisor nor ally, I refrained.
"Proceed with caution, Inquisitor. Enemies abound, and not all of them aligned with Tevinter." Morrigan warned. She led me toward one of the many massive doors that dotted the ballroom and palace space that bled from one area to the next like valves of a heart. She paused and turned to me, her cunning gaze sharp as it had been upon our meeting.
"What comes next will be most exciting."
"Inquisitor." Solas appeared at my left like a shadow blinking in the candlelight. Startled, I turned to my companion with a pinched nose and he dared to smirk at me before gesturing off to one of the tables that lined the walls.
"More bad news?" I asked quietly. I shifted to gently lean against the table and take my weight off my heels for a moment; my feet were beginning to burn in my boots from the extended amount of time I was spending on them, walking and dancing around every inch of the damned ballroom.
Solas remained out of the lantern light, "Perhaps. I was able to speak to Briala, she had made herself available in the courtyard among the other courtiers."
"That's bold as brass." My brow shot to my hairline. "She just making friends, then?"
"Unlikely. Far more likely is keeping an eye on our movements and eliminating herself of suspicion." Solas countered. He was probably right, as long as she stayed somewhere in someone's eyesight, she would have an alibi to fall back on when and if everything went up in flames.
"What did you manage to get from her?" I prompted. Solas shrugged.
"Very little that was not already assumed." He explained. "She seems to understand the precarious position she finds herself in; despite her… disdain for the Empress, she would be scorned either way if she appeared or was absent of the invitation to attend."
"Because being here means she could be pinned for Celene's misfortune, but being away means the same thing." I rubbed at one of my eyes with a sigh. "Damn if you do, damn if you don't."
Solas chuckled. "Precisely. She seems to disagree with Celene's need to be reasonable, to compromise, but knows that her death would only cast suspicion onto the elves and every alienage in Thedas would burn for it."
"Because someone's gotta be the scapegoat, why not." I rubbed both eyes this time, the exhaustion made them burn in their sockets. A presence stepped up behind me into my shadow, and for a brief moment I tensed in anticipation of some form of harassment, but Solas barely reacted, his gaze shifted up to our newcomer with hardly a twitch. I relaxed and turned to our newest addition, but when my eyes landed on a broad chest, my gaze shot up with my grin at the familiar sight of horns.
"Look at you, with barely a scratch, you must be surviving the party well enough." I teased my Qunari.
"Comedian." Bull snorted in amusement. "I take it we're up to date on the field, hm?"
"Briala did not have much to confess, I'm afraid." Solas answered. "And your conversation with Duke Gaspard?"
Bull shrugged, nearly popping out of his uniform. "About the same. Fluff and banter, brothers-in-arms, all that crap. Did take a bit of a dig at me for being Qunari and a mercenary, but it was low-hanging fruit."
"Rude of him," I snorted, amused.
"Oh, it was well said, even called me well-practiced for all my savagery. He's not as good at weaponizing his polite disdain as Red, but it was passable."
Solas' nose scrunched. "I daresay I could do a touch better."
"Oh sure, you could. You don't, but you could." Bull teased.
"Ass." Solas grumbled.
"Gents, hello." I sighed and bit back laughter. "Imminent, world-ending catastrophe scheduled by end of tonight ring a bell?"
"Gaspard had shit-all to say, boss. Honestly, I think he's a bit clueless of what's happening around him." Bull redirected seriously.
"Typical of a chevalier," Solas sighed. "I would surmise that of the full party, Lady Morrigan is most educated on the current events and possible catastrophe with Briala a close second. The Empress and Duke Gaspard are too concerned with each other's Game to be concerned about anything else."
"Hm." I reached into my sleeves and swiftly pulled out the key. "Speaking of, a gift for you." Without pause, Solas' deft hand reached up to take mine and secure the key as he brought his hand close to his face as if to kiss it, feigning the movement.
"Do we know who from?" Bull asked quietly, his body a shield against an unwanted audience.
"The good Lady Morrigan," I replied, "she didn't say who from, precisely, but I'd gather a guess it would be from her mistress."
"A most generous gift," Solas continued the word-play, "very well, I will see it appropriately appreciated."
"Please," I tipped my head. Solas bowed perfectly and slipped away from the group and back into the crowd to do what he would with the key. I folded my hands back over my navel and looked up at Bull as the Qunari hadn't stepped away as expected.
"So," Bull grinned at me, horns tipped to one side, "you're surviving all right, looks like. No threats of murder or smiting, I gotta say I'm very proud."
"You're," I held my tongue as a pair of nobles drifted past us like the eavesdroppers they were and once they had moved on, I finished: "an asshole."
"Of course I am. If people here are gonna look at me like I'm a problem, I can't help but be one, right?" His grin was firmly in place and I rolled my eyes at him. I was relieved to have him with me, even for a moment. The tension throughout the night had rolled into my shoulders and twisted my muscles tightly, so having him as a shield for just a few minutes was wonderful.
"I guess that means no dancing for us, huh?" I teased. In an instant, his eyes widened and jaw muscles tightened as he swallowed. My nerves fired up, startling me with how quickly my attitude switched from humor to arousal. He leaned over my head slightly, his grin morphed from laughter to hunger. My throat snapped closed and my fingers twisted together.
"If you're offering, I would love to have a dance with you." His eyes roamed from the top of my head, burned a path down my neck, past my chest, and over the rest of my torso before they snapped back up to lock with mine. C'mon, Jams. Pull up your game face. Channel Vivienne, channel Vivienne.
"Then stop drooling and behave," I drawled. I placed a hand on his chest to push him away as I walked past. For a moment, there was some resistance as if he meant to challenge it, but relented at the last second.
"You're the one making a scene by walking away." He teased darkly. "One day I'll enjoy taking that dress off of you."I would admit, I only felt as brave as I did because my back was turned toward him and the darkness of the hallway offered a lot in the way of hiding my face.
"Not before you working under it, you won't."
His barking laughter was obnoxious.
NOTE: Holy shit, I'm alive.