The fort wasn't the biggest in the world. It was pretty tall, and large enough that it had strong walls surrounding it, but there were certainly larger forts out there. Siara regarded the area just inside the walls idly as she waited for the rest of the new troops to file in. Her eyes lingered for a moment on the people currently running through drills, a few more off to the side shooting at targets.
"Blade!" someone called out, Siara's head snapping around at the voice, a small frown on her face. Dorian stopped next to her as a young man walked up to them, a grin on his face. Siara's face melted into a small smile at the sight of him.
"Someone you know?" Dorian asked.
"Eh, a little," she replied, stepping forward and grabbing the man's offered hand in a firm handshake. "Good to see you again. Sorry, your name is escaping me right now."
"Adam," he said. "Maker, it's good to see you again!"
"Likewise," Siara grinned. "Is Frost around?"
"Nah, she's been posted somewhere else. Somewhere quieter. I think the fire shook her up pretty good."
Siara nodded in understanding. She'd had a couple of nightmares about that night, but they weren't too bad. She hadn't been trapped inside the flames like Frost had.
Dorian cleared his throat next to her, and Siara rolled her eyes around at him, shaking her head.
"Adam, this is Dorian. Dorian, Adam. We met on the way to Kildarn's estate."
"A pleasure," Dorian greeted with one of his most winning smiles.
"Careful, Dorian," Siara warned, a teasing note to her voice. "What would poor Bull think?"
Dorian almost sighed at her, looking at her as thought almost bored.
"I've been meaning to ask, how long have you known about us? I didn't think we'd been that obvious."
"A while," Siara grinned innocently, turning back to Adam, who was now looking around and frowning. "What's wrong?" she asked.
"Is this it?" he asked. "Is this all the men Skyhold sent?"
Siara raised an eyebrow at him, sharing a quick look with Dorian.
"Yes. Why?"
"We need more than this," Adam muttered. "Come with me. Captain Wiggins will want to talk to you."
"What's going on, Adam?" Siara fell into step beside him, allowing him to lead her inside the building.
"A lot. We requested backup because local bandits have been attacking us more, and they seem to be stronger recently. The captain is getting concerned that we might not have enough people to hold them back much longer."
Siara threw a tired look back at Dorian.
"Commander Rutherford gave me the impression that he doesn't know any of this," she said. "Has he been informed?"
"We tried to inform him not long ago. Seems that the report may have gotten lost," he stopped and knocked briskly on a door.
"What?" a tired, frustrated voice called.
"I've got one of the people sent as backup to talk to you, Ser," Adam called back. "There's been a… problem."
Siara could hear a couple of footsteps and the door was thrown open, a stressed, bedraggled, exhausted looking man standing there. There was a hint of panic in his brown eyes as he regarded Adam, Siara, and Dorian.
"I don't need another problem right now, Lackner," he said.
"Sorry, ser. I suspect that our latest correspondence has been uh… intercepted."
Captain Wiggins held his head in his hands for a moment before running them down his face, then back up and through his already scruffy blond hair, dark purple rings under his eyes.
"Intercepted? What makes you think that?"
"We didn't get sent the men that you requested," Adam explained, sounding apologetic. "We got maybe half that."
It looked like Wiggins was trying not to collapse to the floor, his already pale face growing more pale.
"When was the last time you slept?" Siara cut in, eyeing the captain up. He looked at her in surprise.
"I… I'm not sure. A couple of days?"
"You're new at this, aren't you?" Siara stepped into the office, Dorian not far behind her. Adam hesitated a moment before also stepping into the office and quietly closing the door behind him.
"This is my first posting as Captain," Wiggins admitted, stepping around his desk and collapsing into the chair, head in his hands. "What am I going to do?"
"Step one is take a breath. Commander Rutherford wouldn't have given you this position if he didn't think you could handle it."
"He said that it would be an easy posting! He said it would be a nice, quiet way to ease me into a position of authority!"
"That may be so, but he would also have faith in you that you can handle things going wrong," Siara did her best to speak in a soothing voice, watching Wiggins closely. "Now, I am going to give you a rundown on the men that travelled with Dorian and me. After that, you are going to tell me about the situation on our hands. And after that you're going to go get some sleep. You'll be able to think clearer when you're less exhausted."
Adam looked at Siara appreciatively, getting a quiet nod in response while Wiggins grabbed a sheet of parchment and a quill, dipping it in ink before looking to Siara in tired expectation, Siara started to fill him in on the men that had travelled with her.
Siara looked out over the surrounding area, arms folded across her chest and a frown etched deep on her face. Dorian came up next to her, darting a look at her serious expression and leaning on the wall.
"Well, this is a delightful situation we're in!" he exclaimed.
"You didn't have to come," Siara glanced at him with a raised eyebrow before going back to observing the area. A guard passed behind them, observing silently for anyone approaching before continuing on.
''Someone had to keep an eye on you."
"Oh, please. Jacquelyn is days away from me, I'm not about to leap on a horse and go galloping back to Skyhold with a dagger clenched between my teeth so I can scale her tower wall to stab her in her sleep," Siara scoffed, Dorian looking around at her in amusement. "Cullen said that this would be an easy assignment. That the biggest problem was a few bandits. From what Wiggins and Adam are saying, it definitely sounds like a bit more than a few bandits."
"I can set a few glyphs around the place," Dorian said. "It might not do much, but it will slow a few of the bastards down."
"It's a start," Siara sighed, rubbing her face. "We need to send word to Cullen somehow. Get him to send backup. We don't know when they're going to attack again."
"We haven't even seen them attack once."
"I'd rather believe what Adam and Wiggins have been telling us than assume they're wrong and end up in deep shit. Assuming they're right, we don't have enough people here to hold off an attack for more than maybe a few days. Which means we want to send word to Cullen sooner than later."
"And how do you suggest getting word to him? They already tried. We know that the last word successfully sent was when our troop was sent."
"I don't know," Siara muttered, turning around and leaning back against the wall, silence falling between them for a moment. "What can you tell me about Dreamers?"
"Dreamers?" Dorian looked at Siara in surprise. "Whatever do you want to know about them for?"
"Because I don't know much about them," Siara shrugged. "Isn't Solas one?"
"Yes, from what he says he is," Dorian straightened and regarded Siara closely. "Dreamers can enter the Fade at will. The more powerful ones can shape the Fade to their desires, sometimes able to drive people mad."
"They can move through the Fade as they wish?"
"I suppose," Dorian narrowed his eyes at her. "Why do you want to know?"
"I don't suppose you're a Dreamer, are you?"
"Ha! I wish. You still haven't answered my question."
"Because it'd be really handy to have one here so we could get a message to Skyhold without relying on Leliana's usually reliable birds."
"We might have to risk sending another bird," Dorian muttered.
"You're a mage," Siara stressed. "Surely there's some way to contact another mage."
"Oh, there is. But I don't really want to huff lyrium to walk through the Fade and maybe find someone asleep in Skyhold that we trust enough to pass the message on to that we are in deep shit here," he shot Siara a slightly dirty look, trying to stress how unimpressed he was with the idea. "I might be brilliant, but I know where my talents are."
"I had to get stuck with a necromancer," Siara grumbled, only half joking. Her companion watched her closely.
"You're not trying to come up with some other hair-brained idea that could get us all killed, are you?"
"Depends on your definition of 'hair-brained'," she admitted. "I'm contemplating sending a test report out. Something subtly fake to Cullen to see if he receives it. I don't want to alert these bandits that we're up to something, but we can't just stand around doing nothing."
"Perhaps we should try to send a message to someone not in charge," Dorian suggested.
"I suspect that all our correspondence will be getting intercepted, if the bandits are still intercepting," Siara ran a hand down her face. "If they even are bandits."
"You think they're not?"
"I think there's a chance they're not. There are so many of them, and from what Wiggins and Adam were saying they seem extremely well equipped. I know it happens sometimes, but not very often."
"Do you think they have something to do with Corypheus?"
"Possibly. Or someone else entirely. Qunari are still a threat. Could be some lord or other disagreeing with the Inquisition that we don't know about. Wouldn't surprise me if Kildarn has finally decided to be a prick again," Siara shrugged. "Come on. Let's go try draft up a normal enough letter that no one outside our friends would think strange."