Sisters of Tevinter

Legacy

   Max nearly spilled his drink, sides heaving in painful throws of laughter that left him unbelievably breathless. Bull's throaty chuckle bounced off the walls of the Herald's Rest, neither of them were sober. Far from it in fact. 

   It had started as a kind of unspoken competition-- The Iron Bull continued to buy and drink, and Max continued to indulge in each new tankard as it came, because farbeit for the captain of the Denizens to be out drank by another guy. Besides, the Qun had great taste in liquor, so whatever it was they were both filling steins with burned and soothed in equal measure. Max hadn't thought about Dorian or his father all night. 

   Commander Rutherford watched them giggling like idiots, smiling slightly from where he sat on a stool against the wall. He was still on his first drink, he barely touched the stuff-- Max was certain he'd only seen the commander take two sips in the last three hours. He was beginning to look a little flushed, maybe it was too strong for him or unsettled his stomach. Delicate as he was. 

  This fleeting, incoherent thought made Max laugh harder as he wiped his eyes. "Okay-- okay," he wheezed. "Tell me again." 

  The tavern floor was empty, it was only an hour or two before dawn. Bull's massive shoulders shook with suppressed laughter as he grinned. "The bastard choked on a chicken bone. After all that. The prophecy, the feathers, the pitch-- the fucker choked. I didn't have to do a damn thing." 

  Max cackled, throwing his head back, his hair falling into his face.

  Bull grinned and took another long pull from his stein. "He deserved it." 

  "Well sure after you were so atrociously underpaid for that kind of job-- when you're hired to kill a man," Max slurred, suddenly a drunken semblance of seriousness. "You need more than two gold, let me tell you." 

   "Eh, those parts of town you're lucky with whatever you get." 

   "That's what you think." 

   "Well you're so adorable, I bet people paid you just to bat your silver eyelashes at them, captain." 

    Max blushed, laughing again, the sound loose and free. "Thank you."

    "You're welcome. The Trevelyan family's a pretty group of pricks, I'll tell you. Lucky. Y'know what bothers me?" The qunari leaned back in his chair, regarding the mercenary with a single glittering eye. "You all look so different-- for fuck's sake, white, gold and red hair, but your eyes are all green." 

    Commander Cullen spoke quietly, for the first time in hours. "Different greens. Kaisen has blue in her irises. Like sapphires." 

    Both mercenaries turned to look at him then, jaws slack. Bull started to laugh. "Yeah? I never noticed. Jor's got some kind of jade thing going on-- gold veins and shit. You're all emeralds, pretty boy. Grass and malachite," he said to Max. 

    Max blushed, laughing. "Whatever. I don't think it matters-- as for the hair, I got that from Mother. Father was gold tresses-- Jor got those. Kaisen's some kind of alchemical monstrosity." 

    Rutherford winced, grinning. "I think there's worse reactions in genetics, don't you?" 

    "You," Max began, gesturing at him unsteadily. "Are hitting on my sister. Now, I'd expect that from him." He jerked a thumb in Bull's direction, and the qunari only grinned, taking another pull from his tankard. "But the commander?" 

     The templar laughed. Actually laughed. It was funny-- and sweet. Just a low, rippling chuckle like a pebble tossed in the smooth water of a pond. "I apologize. I don't need your permission do I?"