Sisters of Tevinter

Buzz

    "You know," Dorian began suddenly in the din of the tavern, a mug settled in his lap. "I've been doing some digging. Jor, Kaisen, it turns out we're related." 

     "What now?" The Crow looked up from her plate of mutton.

      "Now this I've got to hear," Varric said, grinning. 

       "Don't get overexcited," the mage said, smiling slightly. "But there was a Pavus somewhere in the distant past of the Trevelyan tree. We're not second cousins or anything, nothing so intimate-" He cast Jor a look that danced with laughter. "But someone's great great grandfather must have known someone else's brother's step mother."

      Kaisen snorted into her ale. "Inbreeders, all of us. God, I hate nobility." 

       Dorian frowned playfully. "Such harsh words. And here I thought you were a woman of culture." 

     "Well, cousin, I must have inherited my tact from your side of the family." 

      Dorian chuckled and glanced at Jor. "And you? No tearful reunion?" 

      "Uh... yay?" Jor was bleary eyed and exhausted, her chin resting on her fist over a tall mug of mead.

      "Indeed! Yay!" 

      Solas, who had touched neither drink nor food, was watching the exchange with a kind of detached interest. Jor noticed his eyes settle on her for the third time that evening, and she glanced up at him with a curious half smile. The elf held her gaze for a moment, blue eyes amused and mystified, before he turned to listen as Varric spoke to Bull of the mountains in the south. 

      Jor, stubbornly ignoring the heat in her throat and her cartwheeling pulse, took another long pull from her mug. She finished off the last with a sigh and Krem wordlessly slid her another. Jor was eternally grateful. Keep them coming. Can't pause, I'll start thinking. She made a soft noise, almost a laugh. That would be bad. 

       Another hour passed, drowned in drink and idle chatter. The sun had sank completely behind the mountains, the sky was a soothing layer of black velvet. Jor was drooping slightly over her fist, half asleep, warm and comfortable in her chair beside Krem and her giggling sister. 

       "Another thing," Varric began musefully, holding up a finger, seeming completely sober despite being on his third stone cup of something strong. "Who the hell invented honey? Bees, right? But what poor bastard in their right mind looked at a hive full of stinging insects and said; Those buzzy sons of bitches are hiding something good in there. I know it."

          Kaisen erupted into another flurry of giggles, burying her face in her hands. Solas smiled slightly, still and silent as usual. 

            The tavern was nearly empty now, it was only a few barmaids cleaning up and the crowded table of companions in a corner turned to molten gold by candlelight. Krem glanced up from his tea, he'd stopped his flow of alcohol a while ago. "Speaking of animals, I wanted to ask you something, red." 

        Kaisen looked up, her shoulders shaking with stifled laughter. "H-" She cleared her throat, grinning. "Hm?" 

        "You're a thief right? An assassin, you could have any name you want- Why 'the Crow?'" 

       "Well I thought about the 'Dragon's Tits' but that just didn't have the same ring to it." 

        Bull burst into guffaws. Varric chuckled and sipped from his cup. 

        "In all honesty," Kaisen continued, her cheeks flushed and warm. "I thought it was terribly clever. A crow to Leliana's ravens."

         "I approve!" Dorian declared, a red tinge to his nose. The mage was halfway through his fourth stein. "It's a statement. A grand visual gesture, some class- and black is very slimming you know."