When the chevalier had been freed, he wrapped a sheet around his waist and fled the scene. They returned to Florianne's former quarters and felt their way through the darkened hallways, until they reached a room partly lit by the moon peering through curtainless broken windows.
Ellethir halted. "Did she say the door on the left or right?"
A man's shouting from the direction of the door on the left answered for her. "You painted Orlesian assholes! When I get out of this, I'll butcher you like the pigs you are! Fuck!"
Ellethir shoved the door open and ran out with the rest of the party hot on her heels, all skidding to a sudden stop. From every direction, archers aimed their arrows at them, and the tower shields held by two or three warriors depicted the sigil of a dragon intertwined with a serpent baring its fangs. Venatori. Beside them, a Fade rift crackled in the air.
"Inquisitor! What a pleasure!"
They looked up. Florianne stood proudly on the balcony at the back of the courtyard. "I was not certain you would attend. You are such a challenge to read. I had no idea if you had taken my bait."
Ellethir nodded, unsurprised but unimpressed. "So, this is your part in all this."
"Oh, poor rabbit," Florianne cooed. "It was cruel of your handlers to send you to be trampled underfoot. My thanks for walking into my trap willingly, I was so tired of your meddling. Corypheus insisted that the empress die tonight, and I would hate to disappoint him."
"You think Orlais is the centre of the world," Ellethir scoffed. "Why would you help Corypheus attack your precious empire? What exactly is in this for you?"
Florianne giggled. "You think so small, Inquisitor. Why settle for an empire when Corypheus will remake the entire world? I admit, I will relish the look on Gaspard's face when he realizes I have outplayed him. He always was a sore loser. I will deliver the entire south of Thedas, and Corypheus will anoint me," she boasted. "When he has ascended to godhood, I will rule all of Thedas in his name, united and guided by the attentive god we deserve."
Now it was Ellethir's turn to laugh. "You seriously believe Corypheus would share any of his power? He returned for his sake alone, he told me so himself."
"You poor, deluded thing. Look at where you are standing. In their darkest dreams, no one could imagine soft, useless Florianne would assassinate Celene myself." Florianne sneered. "All I needed was to keep you out of the ballroom long enough to strike, and here you are, on a silver platter. A pity you will miss the rest of the ball, Inquisitor. They will be talking of it for years. Kill her," she added nonchalantly with a wave of her hand as she left. "Bring me the marked hand as proof. It will make a fine gift for Corypheus."
Fae's arcane barrier flew up just in time to catch the volley of arrows aimed at Ellethir, who cast her hand out and pulled the rift open with the Anchor. Suddenly the Venatori were too focused on defending themselves from the demons who spilled out of the rift, enraged and snarling, to pay enough attention to the Inquisition taking them down one by one. The demons turned their claws to the ones who felled their prey, but the Inquisition had a great deal more practise with fighting demons and Fade rifts that the Venatori recruits did not.
When it was over, Cassandra aimed her sword at a man sprawled on the ground, hands bound. He panicked and tried to back away. "Wait! Wait! I'm not with the duchess' people! Andraste's tits…"
The Seeker scowled at his blasphemy, and the man blanched.
"Who are you?" She growled.
"The mercenary captain, I presume." Ellethir answered, kneeling down to untie his wrists.
"That's right," he huffed. "Alden's the name, captain of the Denerim Demons, but I ain't ever seen no real blasted demons before, let alone a baker's dozen. There aren't any more coming, right?"
Ellethir offered him a brief smile. "No. Not from the Fade, anyway."
"Maker's balls! I knew Gaspard was a bastard, but I didn't think he'd feed me to eldritch fucking horrors over a damned bill."
"Grand Duke Gaspard lured you out here?"
"Well, his sister, but it had to come from him, didn't it? All that garbage she was spewing didn't make any sense." The Inquisition exchanged glances with each other.
Alden noticed. "Gaspard had to be the mastermind, right? This whole coup was his idea. Wanted to move on the palace tonight but he didn't have enough fancy chevaliers, so he hired me and my men. He had to offer us triple our usual pay to come to Orlais, stinking poncy cheesemonger. I got the directive to come to this garden and him and his yellow-feathered fucks never bloody showed up. Then his sister comes along and gets her thugs to beat the shit out of me and tie me up."
"Would you tell the empress what you just told us?" Ellethir asked, helping him to his feet.
Alden saluted her. "You saved my life. I owe you. And Gaspard still hasn't paid me. You want me to talk to the empress, or the court, or sing a blasted song in the chantry, I'll do it."
"As long as you leave the blasphemy out of your rendition," Cassandra grumbled.
"Apologies, uh, Sister." Alden gave her a short bow.
"I have one more question," Fae asked.
"Fire away, my girl."
"Did he have you kill one of the emissaries of the Council of Heralds?"
"What? No? I mean, I knew he threatened them, but as far as I know he hadn't discounted the possibility of having them on side if things went as planned."
"Then it was probably Florianne who didn't care if she was caught, not Gaspard," Fae concluded. "She knew how vocal he'd been about his threats against the council of heralds. So, she had the council of heralds' vassal killed with a knife bearing the family crest, to frame Gaspard if he tried to turn against her."
"The bell will ring sooner rather than later, we should return to the ballroom," Solas pointed out.
"Right, yes, we should go. Oh, shit, wait," Fae looked down at her dress, and then at everyone else's clothes. "We have blood and demon guts all over us."
"It's fine, we'll just say we had a big group hug and the red dye came off the Inquisitor's dress or something," Varric said, swinging Bianca over his shoulder. "The royal coup is about to become the focus of everyone's attention anyway."