#rp; queue

It had been convenient to arrange the deal between herself and the youngling leech Kellen-Child when the creature was in her captivity custody. When the Tribunal settled the matter of the traitors, the presented problem became getting the information she had been promised. 

Milena knew without a shadow of a doubt that if she asked her Raven -- not just any of them, but Lilita personally -- to do the deed, it would be done regardless of the spy’s reservations towards their informant. It was the nature of their business. But with the sensitivity of their circumstances the Queen had decided against using a third party. The only way she could ensure a constant flow of information in the raw; that is to say information that had not been taken apart and pieced back together with new or missing pieces, would be to find a way to meet with her informant in person.

The idea of using the abandoned tower to the southeast had come to her on the precipice of a dawn. Milena had been able to gather information about the crumbling structure without raising any suspicion, and found it perfect: far enough for any of the Blood District’s Vampires to be out of earshot, and ancient enough to provide not only a place to meet but aid in escape with its fragility should they be discovered. Arranging the time of meeting through Lilita had been a child’s game afterwards.

The Bone Queen pulled the edges of her fur-lined shawl tighter against her skin as the night wind howled. The wind fought to push at the withered stones of the Watchtower, but Human architecture of old stood steady and refused to bow down. Though she could not see her, Milena knew Lilita was close -- her Raven had demanded to guard her even if it was from afar. 

Neither of them trusted the Vampire girl. Milena was simply better at masking it.

“You’re late,” Milena did not deign to turn away from the hollow skeleton of a window as she heard something else, something behind her, interrupt the war between the wind and the structure, “the sun set on the horizon some time ago. I don’t appreciate being left to wait -- unless you’ve forgotten you aren’t the only one risking something in coming here.”

It had taken them nights to actually reach the city itself.

That -- Parnus had suspected. Having to dig holes or find places to hide in to sleep during the day was part of a Vampire’s life. The fact that the Upyr even put up with it was a surprise to him, but he supposed she had her orders. But having to do it all with Zion Kellen-Child was a whole other matter. Why she had been the one practically chained to Parnus’ leg during this excursion was beyond his understanding, but he couldn’t exactly question it -- not trying to make peace as he was.

And though the trip there was uneventful and, frankly, maddening, it didn’t deter Parnus from the splendor of the ruined city itself when they arrived.

There were no gates, it had no sign -- it had no name that any Humans could remember. It started like the town he, Aurora, and Elise ventured to before the Storm and eventually simply grew into the ruins of towering buildings that still stood all these decades later. Something about them tugged at Parnus’ heartstrings -- they were aged, withered, and rusted. But still beautiful. Still beautiful.

“Sunrise’ll be here soon,” Parnus called out, noting how his eyes stung as he blinked while looking at the towering metal spears that seemed to want to touch the moon no longer overhead. “We need to find a base for suitable shelter. Some place we can return to.”

The amnesiac Vampire looked around. Lilita, the Upyr, was within sight. 

Zion... not immediately.

“Zion! Zion! Not again...” He called out, before looking at Lilita with a frown.

“Did you see which direction she went off in?”

All eyes on the boats. All eyes on the Lake. All eyes on the winners.

                     No eyes on the prizes.              Two eyes on the blonde.

Missing, they said. Nobody suspected the man who appeared and vanished in the smoke. It was useless to him anyway--he couldn’t read. But that wasn’t the point. It wasn’t useless to her. To the sweat that ran down the back of her neck, to the way her heart beat just those few extra beats, like a stutter...

                            Not missing. Taken.

Rayyad sat on the book for several nights until he decided properly what to do with it. There were things to learn first.

Her name: Ayanna. Keeper Ayanna. She was in charge of all of the tasty little morsels that he could only look at but not touch--and wasn’t that just the clincher. Her home: easy enough to find. But she lived across from a Vampire--a Vampire she was friendly with. Lived next to a Wicked... didn’t want to irritate that. But there were ways to get around those kinds of problems.

Humans... so trusting.

As soon as the sun set, Rayyad slipped into the Keeper’s home. The book; he placed like an offering surrounded by awkwardly picked flowers on her table. All weapons he put out of reach of the doorway. Then he made himself comfortable in a chair--a sock in hand.

                                     All that was left was to w a i t.

             Should he approach her? 

The question Emil had been asking himself all night--from the moment he saw the familiar face enter the Herald’s Rest. Isabela, famed companion of the Champion of Kirkwall. One of the brave few who had stood against Knight Commander Meredith’s corruption and had led to the freedom of all mages trapped in the Maker-forsaken Gallows.

But the risk of exposure was too great. If anyone knew his identity in Kirkwall... if anyone had shared...

Yet somehow Emil’s legs didn’t get the memo, and carried him over to where the pirate sat at Cabot’s bartop. 

The smell of fresh paint assaulted Emil's nostrils as he made his way down from the Library into the Rotunda. It was enough to pull him from his latest discovery--a tome on Tevinter family trees--which was a feat in and of itself. 

Bright eyes like fire flickered around the space before he found the source--a new addition to the fresco that had been developing ever since the Inquisition arrived in Skyhold; so said the transplants from Haven.

But it was a marvel to see the elf at work.

From sunrise to sunset Parnus kept his eyes wide open and trained on the doorway. Even as morning passed and the stream of constant sunlight faded away with the shadows he didn’t dare look away. 

Not because he feared being burned. Once the panic of the sun died down it was replaced with a much larger, much more fierce worry. Because as he searched and wracked his brain, as he replayed the events of his encounter with Rayyad Wolfgang-Child in his head, each time he came to the same conclusion: there was a gap of time he couldn’t account for.

He remembered struggling -- not for breath but for stability. He remembered ripping off the other Vampire’s ear. Falling to the ground, and standing up. Then... he was against the large slab and running for his life. There, between the ache in his jaw and the tips of his feet burning in his shoes, something was missing. Similar to the way everything else in his head was missing in a gaping, aching void. 

The mere thought that his memory loss could be a continuing thing shattered everything Parnus was all the way down to the bone. And he knew there was only one place he could go.

Not a moment after sunset Parnus dashed out of the Bone District and through the streets of Sanctuary. Like a blur he turned this way and that, interrupting those heading back from a day at the Market and disrupting those on their way to set up for Midnight. Through every disgruntled call his way he ran, and ran, and ran until he was clinging with ardent desperation to Ayanna’s front door. 

Nails scrambling, wood gathering underneath them, and then the forced push and thunk of a broken lock as he compelled the door to open for him and shoved his way inside.

The Humans didn’t like him. The Vampires didn’t want him. Where did that leave the Upyr?

Parnus had only seen them around during his shifts at the ruins and during the events the town had held in trying to make everyone get along. Beyond that, his interactions with Upyr had been limited. And now he found himself in the unique circumstance that he needed to be on one’s good side if it meant finding out anything more about the journal and her owner.

Ayanna had ruled out that they would need to find a way for him to enter the Bone Court in person to understand any further information, but Parnus wasn’t so skeptical. If anything, it was better to have a plan and not need it than to be floundering without one at all.

Floundering. An interesting word he didn’t know the meaning of, but knew how to use it.

He was running into a lot of interesting words like that lately.

He’d been casually tailing the Upyr woman for the better part of the night; skirting around the stalls she stopped at in the Midnight Market -- always near but never beside her, never in contact. And he didn’t figure he was being sneaky about it, either. 

She had to have noticed him, right?

A hope Parnus carried as he watched her head into one of the side alleys bordering the Blood and Bone Districts. Not bothering to conceal his footsteps or hide in the shadows. He wasn’t trying to steal anything from her. Except maybe a moment of her time.

pairing. setting. 3 sentence fic.

Though the party had died down hours ago, servants still carried trays of drinks around to those who were elbows-deep into their card games and those who milled about the halls. He plucked one from a tray and offered it to her with a kind smile.