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“Chargers, stand down!” The big Qunari unceremoniously wiped the worst of the blood and gore off the blade of his huge axe with the hardened leather sole of his boots as he turned his eye to his approaching lieutenant. “Krem! How’d we do?” he demanded casually of the human.
“Five or six wounded, chief. No dead.”
Nice, he thought approvingly. The Tevinter bastards had been a bit better equipped than they’d first thought and some had masqueraded as ordinary scouts when they actually were mages. They would’ve done just about fine, of course, but the sudden arrival of the small reinforcement was handy. “That’s what I like to hear. Let the throatcutters finish up, then break out the casks.” Krem gave a nod, acknowledging the order, before heading off. Now then, where was… The crunch of gravel came closer slowly. Well, seems like someone had dared approach after all and it was… His mouth twitched. Yeah, the rumours were true.
The woman drawing closer was indeed one of his people. He began laughing heartily. “Hot damn, it’s true! The Chantry must love you.” Well, she apparently wasn’t scared off as she returned his grin with a careful smile. A recent report out of Val Royeaux said there’d been a big hoopla in the Summer Bazar due to the Inquisition visiting. The templars leaving had also been mentioned but it hadn’t been as interesting as some of the other pieces in there. “Hah! A Qunari mercenary is the Herald of Andraste. Who’d’a thought?” He shook his head. It was almost ironic how that had happened. Of all Qunari and Viddathari in the south, a Vashoth just happened to fall into a position of power? It was as amusing as it was frustrating and he imagined that sentiment being tenfold up north.
“Shenedan, Sten.”
He felt the surprise rush through his system but didn’t let it reach his face. Instead he gave her a careful once over. “Uh… yeah, let’s try to keep that to a minimum, shall we?” He wished he didn’t have to request that because those two words just sounded far too smoothly delivered… Then again, the rumours said she was a Vashoth so whoever her procreators were, they could have taught her Qunlat. Then again… He wasn’t sure, it’d been too few words and the noise around them had been a tad too loud, but it’d almost sounded like she had an eastern Par Vollen dialect. Of course, again, children picked up speech patterns and sometimes even dialects from the people who raised them. Dialects were just far more rare to pick up as it was an individual thing brought on by the region you lived in for any length of time. Maybe he’d hear more of her speech pattern and figure out that one later. In the meantime, as she did seem a bit let down… “Makes the boys twitchy,” he supplied and she nodded in understanding.
“As you wish.” She had a Free Marcher accent to her Common, that he could tell immediately, but there was something else softening it that spoke of her having another birth language. Bilingual people could sometimes mix two languages nearly seamlessly but he wasn’t sure yet if that was her deal. He threw a nod at some nearby stones before heading over there and taking a seat. Krem’s approach had Bull waiting for the lieutenant before getting down to business. It also gave the opening needed for introductions.
“I’m Asala Adaar… most members of the Inquisition calls me the Herald of Andraste though,” the woman said with a hint of a defeated tone. She apparently didn’t like the title. Interesting. Another interesting thing was her name. Her procreators had chosen an interesting one, that was for sure. Not that much else was known about them. To be fair, he hadn’t really been in a position to go digging himself and there hadn’t been too much time for any other agent either. Maybe they were looking into it at home, trying to track down whoever could’ve given birth to her. She had to be in her mid-twenties, making her birth not that long ago. Lest information had been destroyed, or her procreators just hidden themselves really well, it should be a feasible enough task.
“The Iron Bull,” he returned with a nod as Krem arrived beside her. A test, he guessed, could be whether she added on the definite particle to his name or not. He made a quick introduction of his lieutenant before listening to what Krem had for him. As the report flowed into their usual banter, he kept the woman in his peripheral vision. Krem knew which side to stand on when it came to people they weren’t familiar with, making the effort easy. Asala regarded the two calmly enough. It was interesting but, so far, he could either read her a bit or… not at all. It left a few possibilities, one of them being that there wasn’t much to read on her, period. Then again, that seemed unlikely due to her sudden promotion to power. No one raised in the south was immune to that. What spoke in her favour of being resistant to it was her supposed history as a Vashoth. Supposed because he didn’t have definite confirmation or even secondhand sightings of her procreators yet.
“So… You’ve seen us fight.” She returned her attention to him from having watched Krem leave. “We’re expensive, but we’re worth it… and I’m sure the Inquisition can afford us.” Here came the part with selling the company. The Inquisition had come, which meant he already had their interest but a premature victory had never helped anyone.
“The Chargers seem like an excellent company,” she agreed. There was proven information on a mercenary company called the Valo-Kas and that they’d had a mage that was of his people, so that part of her background checked out. She also appeared to have something to compare the Chargers’ performance to, making it another point for her having been a mercenary herself. One thing that didn’t match with a mercenary background was her so far careful nature. It wasn’t that all mercenaries threw themselves at any danger they could get paid for, he knew that from experience, but there was just something about how she carried herself that said she either hadn’t been doing the gig for long or, if she had, that it just wasn’t for her. Maybe it’d been a necessity. Maybe she’d had to leave her home for some reason early on and taken whatever work she could. That theory was supported by her being a mage born in the south but not in a circle. Of course… the circles had recently been disbanded. She could have been in a circle and escaped or left, taking up the mercenary life. That supported not much being known about her procreators but he felt that ought to be more well-known. A Vashoth in a Southern circle? It’d never happened before far as he knew. The Southerners themselves should’ve known more about her in that case. He’d leave it for now. When he got the contract settled, he’d have more time to figure it out because he would get it, from her or somewhere else.
“They are,” he assured her with a confident smile. It was the truth, no bragging. “But you’re just not getting the boys. You’re getting me.” She raised a brow at that. It was a somewhat amusing picture when she got that faintly confused look upon her face that, without a word, requested further explanation. “You need a frontline bodyguard? I’m your man, whatever it is – demons, dragons?” He stood up and she followed suit. “The bigger the better.” Bigger was always better. It was far more satisfying to see them fall. “And there’s one other thing. Might be useful, might piss you off.” He watched her carefully as he continued. This would either break the whole thing off or not. If she wasn’t who she claimed to be, beyond being the Herald thing, she’d most likely tell him to get away. She frowned but nodded for him to go on. “Ever hear of the Ben-Hassrath?”
She froze.
As telling as that reaction was, it wasn’t telling him anything in particular. Except for that she knew of them. She was suddenly watching him very warily. No surprise there. Mention the Ben-Hassrath to any Vashoth who knew about them, and especially Tal-Vashoth, and they’d get jittery. “I…” She halted and half a second passed before she tried again. As far as hesitation went, it wasn’t very telling about anything. “I heard about the Ben-Hassrath from my parents,” she confirmed with a nod before giving a quick explanation of them. She was fairly correct on that one, he admitted. She was still on high alert though, almost as if she was expecting someone to jump out at her. It was time to see how far she could be pushed.
“Yeah, that’s them,” he confirmed, not taking his eye off her. “Or, well, us.”
It took all of half a second for his words to hit her and then she staggered half a step backwards, golden eyes growing larger with every heartbeat. Considering it looked as though her heart was jumping up and down in her throat like an overly excited child, that meant her stare got huge pretty quickly. She obviously hadn’t expected that comeback even after all this. Interesting. Most Tal-Vashoth were paranoid to a T… and would’ve acted a bit more angrily. She appeared more horrified than anything, much like Southerners could get in the presence of Qunari.
“Y-you…” He regarded her calmly as she stared at him, trying to find her voice. “You’re a… spy and you just… told me?” He shrugged massive shoulders at her. She wasn’t proving archetypal in her manner, which made getting a definite read on her slightly more complicated than he’d first thought. He hadn’t met many Vashoth, mostly because where he’d been, there’d been an over-abundance of Tal-Vashoth. He was, however, the closest agent the Ben-Hassrath had at hand that'd fit this role and he was damned good at his job, too. Choosing him for this task wasn’t that odd. He’d just need slightly more time than a short post-fight meeting to get a good understanding of her and this Inquisition, something that meant he needed her to calm down a bit and take on the Bull’s Chargers.
“Whatever happened at that conclave thing, it’s bad. Someone needs to get that Breach closed.” Her response to that was so immediate and unguarded he raised a brow.
Huh.
Interesting.
He managed to reset his expression into calmly neutral again before she heaved a sigh and looked up. Her bitterly delivered comment earlier was genuine enough that he believed it. If she’d been trained as a Ben-Hassrath, he might’ve given it some doubt or at least tried to look deeper. The silence stretched as he watched her and it didn’t take long before she started to look uncomfortable with it. Some people told you more about themselves in a space of a few silent minutes but apparently not her. He broke the silence with something that hopefully would put her a bit at ease and also make his case. “In that case, whatever I am, I’m on your side.”
She frowned at that but remained silent. Thoughts were rushing through her head, that much was obvious, but what they were exactly he couldn’t say. Then, suddenly, she spoke. “Why did you confess to being a spy?”
Bull raised his brows. That wasn’t obvious? He couldn’t help the short laugh that escaped him. “Hide that kind of information from something called the Inquisition? I would have been tipped off sooner or later,” he said with a quick grin. “Better you hear it right up front from me.” Those of his company who knew had agreed that they preferred being told over finding it out themselves, proving his point several times over.
“I guess so…” She trailed off before asking the very logical question of why the Ben-Hassrath were interested. Fair enough, it was in the South after all and very far from any Qunari settlement. Then again, this had to do with demons and they could walk. If it spread, it’d be bad and a weakened Dam could mean every saarebas in the world was at risk. He was as interested in knowing the worst case scenario as the people back home. He explained this to her but in a summarised fashion.
“I’ve been ordered to join the Inquisition, get close to the people in charge, and send reports on what’s happening.” As he finished he could see the light change in her eyes. Apparently that, out of everything, seemed to do something for her. Interesting… Making a quick decision, he chose to push his luck both with her and his superiors. They really wanted to know what was happening and he was just making sure he got as close to the information source as possible. It was also a valid enough test to further confirm or dispute what he thought he’d seen just now. “But I also get reports from Ben-Hassrath agents all over Orlais. You sign me on, I’ll share them with your people,” he added as he watched her. She had stopped being careful in favour of outright staring at him. Well, damn.
“You’ll confer with the spymaster on what can be safely said in these reports.”
He wanted to raise his brows in surprise but refrained. So, she was going to take personal discomfort if it benefited the organisation she was a part of despite her obviously being seen as part of the leaders by most. Very few Southerners held that trait, especially if they got into power quickly and even more so if the position was a high one. She was being called the Herald of their greatest believer, someone who, to the Southerners, meant as much as the prophet Koslun did to those under the Qun. Yeah, he had to look deeper into this.
“Of course.” For a second she looked as though she’d hoped for something else but it quickly disappeared.
“Don’t make me regret this,” she warned him. Bull refrained from smiling at his victory.
“Doubt you will.”