A Candle in the Darkness (A Dragon Age: Inquisition fanfiction)

His Fellow Qunari

26 Solace, 9:44

Antonia tried her best to focus on the talks, she really did, but it had been a late night the night before, the pregnancy was wearing on her, and Teagan's list of the Inquisition's 'crimes' against Ferelden seemed practically endless. Her eyelids drooped.

It seemed more than evident that whatever the Inquisition had done to help Ferelden was long forgotten, and the animosity that practically rolled off the Arl made Antonia simultaneously sad and nauseous. Lord Cyril was positioning himself carefully to seem more reasonable than Teagan but to avoid sounding as though he was in favor of the Inquisition continuing as its own independent entity.

Then a blonde elf in Inquisition scout armor crept in, crouching at Antonia's elbow. "Inquisitor, your spymaster requests your presence."

"Right now?"

"He says it's very important."

Antonia tried to hide her elation as she leaned over to Josephine. "Can you get by without me?"

There was both outrage and resignation in Josephine's eyes. Poor thing, she deserved a much more politically able Inquisitor.

"My lords, please excuse me. A pressing matter requires my attention." She ignored Teagan's loud protests as she left the room, breathing a sigh of relief as she exited. Phoenix got immediately to his feet. "Come on, boy, let's go see what Bull needs."

The Iron Bull was kneeling over the body of a heavily armored and very dead Qunari. "Hey, boss."

"How did a Qunari get into the Winter Palace?" Antonia asked.

"You got me." There was an odd expression on the Iron Bull's face as he looked at the dead warrior. "First time I've seen one of my own people in ... a long time, and he's dead as a fucking doornail."

"You all right?"

"Yeah. Just ... not what I expected." He sighed. "I wish I could tell you something about why this guy would be here, but I haven't heard a thing in a long time. He's a karashok; where there's one, there's always more." He nudged the body over onto its side. "Most of these wounds come from magic, but a few are from a blade."

"Doesn't narrow it down much."

"No."

Antonia sighed. "Deadly mysteries at the Winter Palace. Haven't we already done this?"

The Iron Bull gave her a distracted half-smile. "Seems like it." He got to his feet, searching the ground around the body. "There's blood here. And more there." Squinting his eye, he said, "There's a trail of it. You want me to get Dorian and Varric?"

"Yes." She looked down at her formal uniform. "Time to retire this, as well. I'll go change and meet you back here."

The elf who had come to her in the Council, one of the Iron Bull's people, was detailed to watch the body and the blood trail, and they both headed off to get the team ready for whatever they might find.

Following the blood trail once they had reassembled, Antonia said, "I feel badly leaving Josephine to handle the Council alone."

"Not to worry," Dorian said breezily. "It'll be all speeches and posturing the first few days. If they get down to any real business at all, it will be just at the end when everyone's so tired they'll agree to anything just to get out of those uncomfortable chairs."

"The Divine will make sure they don't decide anything in your absence," Varric assured her, and then actually flushed as all three of them turned to grin at him. "What?"

"Nothing. You can tell me all about it later," the Iron Bull said.

"In your dreams, Tiny."

The trail led them to an eluvian. Antonia stared at it. "How in the Void does a Qunari warrior come to the Winter Palace through an eluvian?"

"Found one in the jungle somewhere?" the Iron Bull suggested.

"And then learned how to use it?"

"Could've, maybe from an elven viddathari."

"I guess we'll have to go through." Antonia sighed. Couldn't anything just be in the real world, nice and straightforward? She was suddenly envious of Thomas Amell getting to fight a big dragon. She could fight a big dragon.

"After you, boss."

"Right." And she stepped through.

As so often seemed to happen, the straightforward turned into the complex; strange elven ruins, a long series of eluvians to go through ... and then more Qunari, who attacked on sight, calling out for "the Inquisition" to be killed in their tracks.

The Iron Bull mowed through his fellow Qunari with as much enthusiasm as he showed for anything she asked him to fight, but she had to wonder. He'd been away from Seheron, away from the Qun, away from people who looked like him, for such a long time. Surely he must feel some conflict about it.

When the Qunari were down, he stood over them, panting, his sword thrown across his shoulder. "They're not Tal-Vashoth, boss. I don't know what they're doing here or what they want or why they want you dead so bad, but they think they're following the Qun."

"Is that helpful?"

"It might be. Or it might mean we should be bracing ourselves for a full-scale invasion."

"You're such a ray of sunshine, Tiny."

The Iron Bull shook his head, his face somber. "Just telling it like I see it, Varric. They're acting like we're at war."

"Are we?"

He shook his head. "I don't know, boss. I wish I did."

"I suggest we do our best to stop that from occurring," Dorian said.

"I'm with you." Antonia took a moment to squeeze the Iron Bull's arm, and then they descended together into the depths of the ruined temple.