Sisters of Tevinter

Quickdraw

    Solas glanced at Jor, as if surprised by her sudden tone. The scholar strode past both him and Bull down the tunnel, this time avoiding the occasional knot of webbing. 

     "Ooh, dog house," Kaisen hummed, grinning at Solas and punching Bull's arm. The qunari relaxed slightly, relieved at the lightening mood and the Crow's steady level of affection. Nothing had changed. He looked after Jor as she disappeared into the dark. At least, he hoped not. 

       Dorian plunged after the scholar, muttering about Maker forsaken insects and 'Andraste blast the creatures'. 

       Down the tunnel, light spilled inside the cave entrance. The abandoned mine shaft parted ways with a high shelf of sand and stone over the canyons below. The path wound and hissed as sand was snatched up by the hot desert breeze. Dane panted happily as he trotted beside Kaisen, her footsteps light and silent in the dust. The sun blazed down, unforgiving, and the companions continued down the archways of rock and sand. 

      Jor's palm flared slightly, icy pain igniting along her fingers. She blew out a breath behind her scarf. "Heads up." 

      "Ah. Consider my hopes dashed," Dorian mused, falling into step beside the scholar as he reflected on their early morning conversation. She smiled slightly beneath the stifling cloth around her face. Kaisen peered over the edge of the cliffside they walked along and clicked her tongue. "Found it."

       Jor followed the Crow's gaze. Below them, a rift of swirling green light licked experimentally at the cliff side, the magic flickering uncertainly. 

     "Alright." Jor glanced at the overhang above them that cast a shadow over half her path. She looked below them once more, noting a craggy ledge in the rock. "We seal this and move on." Then she threw herself off the edge of the precipice, the rift bursting open with a crack of thunder and a bright flash as she plummeted past it. 

       "Hh-!" Bull looked over the edge as demons spawned from wrathful light, looking to where Jor had landed in a crouch on the ledge, her palm alight, and laughed. "She's nuts." 

      He slid down after her. 

       Jor twisted the crackling light from the Anchor free of the seam. Shades staggered, dreamers hissed to life. A bolt of lightning cracked down over a smoldering rage demon from where Dorian stood at the high ground. Ice crystals formed a deadly cocoon to pin the rage demon to the rocks as Solas lifted his staff. 

        Kaisen was somehow already on the ground below them, twisting and weaving her way through the dreamers as she spun upward to kick a demon beneath the jaw, running up its chest and landing neatly in the sand. 

         Dane barked and paced beside Dorian anxiously at the edge of the canyon. Jor took hold of the rift once more and flexed her fingers. Bull spun his axe and knocked a shade straight off the ledge as it reached for the Inquisitor, sending it plummeting right into Kaisen's blades. 

         This went on for a moment or two more, before the rift snapped closed. Everyone was panting and hot and Kaisen spat blood in the sand. 

      Dane barked again, insistently, and Bull opened his arms to catch the mabari as he jumped. Gently, he slid down into the sand to place the hound beside his mistress. Kaisen smiled and wiped her mouth with her sleeve, her lip split and swollen but otherwise unharmed. "Well that was fun."

        Solas and Dorian made their way down the cliffside into the canyon as Jor stood still, flexing her aching fingers absently. The spellbinder ran a hand through his raven hair as he approached the Crow. "Oh, cousin, your poor face." 

       "I've had worse." Kaisen gave a bloody grin. 

       Dorian started to speak, then reeled back from the assassin and Bull with a scowl. "Ugh! Don't you ever bathe?" He wrinkled his nose at the qunari. 

        Bull was already walking down the canyon. He chuckled. "Occasionally. You'd like to watch, wouldn't you." 

        Solas and Jor exchanged nauseated glances. 

        "No, thank you," Dorian huffed.

        "Look, it's the heat. You're no fragrant rose yourself. Human sweat smells like pig shit." 

       "Well y- you-"

       Bull glanced back at him as the mage sputtered and fell silent. The mercenary made a big show of glancing at the sky, pulling an invisible watch from his belt. There was a beat of silence. "...No clapback?" 

        "Give me a moment," the mage muttered. 

       Jor smiled slightly and fell into step behind her companions. Her hair stirred slightly as the air was disturbed behind her. "Hey." 

        The scholar whirled at the same moment Dane yelped, the mabari and Dorian were dusted with a burst of shimmering powder and crumpled to the sand. Kaisen gave an enraged shout, vanishing, then reappearing as a heavy fist caught her in the gut, sending her sprawling. Someone sprang across Bull's back, pulling a cord tight over his neck. 

         Solas was thrown bodily into the canyon wall. Jor was faced with a blur of dull scarlet and a quiver of arrows, knocking aside her assailant's blade with a clash of her own. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Bull drop to one knee. Urgency and rage flashed through her as she smacked aside another blow. 

          The rogue in front of her was a constant blur of movement, deeply tanned skin and-- he was blindfolded. A red strip of cloth was tied tightly over his eyes, their ends fluttering like tassels as he twisted to one side, unslinging a bow from his shoulders and knocking an arrow with a click of his tongue. 

         Jor sprang at him, gripping his bow in both hands as he braced it against her chest. A ring of fire burst to life behind her in a blast of heat. Solas was down, Bull was losing consciousness, Kaisen and Dorian were curled in the sand. 

         Jor snarled, pushing against the bow with all her strength, her boots unsteady in the sand. The blindfolded rogue gave a wry smile. "'Night." 

         Something heavy struck Jor across the back of her skull. The world spun, darkness swallowing her vision as she was pitched into the dust.