Love and Lyrium

Vir'Abelasan

After Bull read over his reports from the time they were away, he came to her immediately with an offer from the Ben Hassrath. The Qunari wanted an alliance with the Inquisition. For the Qunari to reach out to any other race other than their own was something that had never happened before. She was honored. The meeting and the mission did not go as planned however. The trial was for her and Bull and her team to work with the Ben Hassrath representative to clear a section of the storm coast while Bull sent the Chargers to secure the second area, allowing the Qunari dreadnought to sail into the area and sink the Tevinter ships threatening the coast. Evelyn refused to allow the Chargers to be killed as a second wave to Tevinter mages were able to get onto the shore after the dreadnought destroyed their vessel. She had Bull call off the Chargers and the mages blew up the Dreadnought. No alliance was worth the lives of Bull's men. She had bonded with them, drank with them, made friends with them. The Ben Hassrath representative angrily declared Bull a 'Tal-Vashoth', which in Qunlat meant he was a traitor and no longer welcome under the Qun, before storming off.

When they returned to Skyhold, Bull called her to a meeting on the battlements. He approached her quietly, his shoulders slumped. "You wanted to see me?" she asked softly, her eyes catching movement behind him. He spun quickly, grabbing hold of a man dressed in Inquisition Scout armor. He punched the man, knocking him down. Another Scout threw a knife, end over end that embedded itself in Bull's shoulder, making him grunt and step back with a spray of blood. He pulled a small axe from his belt and slung it into the man's chest as the first attacker got back to his feet. "Bull!" she shouted, moving to help.

He held up an arm, grunting. "I got it!"

The stumbling man held his bloody nose and shouted. "Ebost Issala, Tal-Vashoth!"

Bull grabbed the man and tossed him over the battlements into the snow hundreds of feet below. "Yeah, yeah. My soul's dust. Yours is scattered all over the ground though, so..." He gripped his injured shoulder, pulling the knife free and pocketing it. With a grunt he said, "Sorry, boss. I thought I might need backup." He shrugged and grinned bitterly. "I guess I'm not even worth sending professionals for."

"Are you alright?" she asked stepping toward him to reach for the wound.

He waved her off. "Fine. Hurt myself worse than this fooling around in bed." Evelyn thought about Dorian and grinned.

"What if they used poison?"she asked, crossing her arms.

"Oh, they definitely used poison. Saar-Qamek. Liquid form. If I hadn't been dosing myself with the antidote, I'd be going crazy and puking my guts up right now. As it is, it stings like shit, but that's about it," he assured her.

"I hoped the Ben Haassrath would let you go," she sighed, knowing this was all her fault.

He chuckled, looking at her with a thankful grin. "They did. Sending two guys with blades against me? That's not a hit, that's a formality. Just making it clear that I'm Tal-Vashoth." he shrugged and then hung his head. "Tal-Va-fucking-shoth..."

She patted his arm with a reassuring grin. "Tell Cullen and Leliana what happened. We'll tighten security."

"Will do, boss..." When she turned to leave, he called her back. "Boss? Whatever I miss, whatever I regret... This is where I want to be." He grinned widely. "Whenever you need an ass kicked, The Iron Bull is with you."

She returned the grin and then he turned from her, likely to head for the tavern for a drink.

After Varric led them to a leak that allowed them to shut down another Red Lyrium source for the Red Templars, Evelyn began to feel like she was sitting on her hands waiting for Corypheus to find another way into the Fade. Leliana had spotty reports that he and the Red Templars had been seen in the Arbor Wilds, but no one knew why. One morning as they were pouring over the War Table, Evelyn sighed in frustration. "It's time to plan our next attack... What's the state of the Inquisition?" She was tired of waiting. Something had to be done.