faderift | closed | a casual stroll y'know

To be honest, Ellana needs the distraction right now. When a beau becomes a former beau and the ink on her arm mocks her as a reminder of him, there's not much to do except wallow or try to get rid of it. Easier said than done, but possible here in Thedas just as it is in the land of some rifters. Well, not just like; there are no laser treatments here, but salt scrubs and a mixture of poultices that leave her arm stinging and bleeding. She's been chewing elfroot as a mild pain reliever, but having something to go out and do will help distract from it as well as the loss of her relationship.

She wears long sleeves pushed up to the elbows so no one can see the bandage wound around her upper arm underneath. No one needs to tell her the folly of making such a rash decision. Ellana knows. And this, like everything else, has been a lesson for her. Every day, she learns something new that broadens her horizons. She just takes this as a lesson to not be stupid again. She's really, really tired of being an idiot.

When Yngvi finds her, she doesn't have a book or her lute with her, as she usually does. Ellana is merely sitting and thinking, and thinking too much isn't what she should be doing right now.

"Yeah, let's go." She stands, no additional questions being asked. He can tell her more on the way.

Yngvi prattles about nonsense for most of the way out of the immediate vicinity of the Gallows and the Inquisition presence - the sort of gossip people would expect him to know but nothing they'd care about. Maybe Ellana cares about the price of the oil he's using for his traps or there's a maid from one estate having it off with the footman's son from a rival estate? It'd just be weird to walk in silence and he really can't do silence right now anyway without it going to a place he doesn't want it to go and they can't talk about things until he judges they're comfortably out from under the shadow of where they were.

"--so that's obviously causing ructions, word of subpar pins flooding in but you outsource to the bleedin' Anderfels and what d'you reckon'll happen?" Yngvi doesn't expect an answer because he's talking out of his arse, giving a glance around like he did last time. "So, right, been keepin' an eye out for things and got someone I know we can trust to keep an eye when I couldn't keep an eye. I was checkin' out the Lowtown Demons anyway but I might've leaned a bit heavy on it with that snotty Dalish one so it'd look like I was doin' my duty and all that.

"So, we're gonna head to Lowtown first, have a sniff about. Easier to talk here too y'know, less nosy folks." So if Ellana's done anything or heard anything then this is a chance and Yngvi hopes elf girls haven't just been running around Darktown when elves are going missing because he doesn't need his anxiety levels to creep higher.

It takes about half of the boat ride from the Gallows to the docks before Ellana realizes that he's just talking for the sake of talking and isn't actually divulging anything she should know. But she nods along, letting out grunts of acknowledgment from time to time so it looks like a real conversation and not a loony talking at someone.

Her lips twitch with a smirk, any former loyalty to Beleth all but gone after the way she treated Ellana. Yngvi can say whatever he wants about her and there'll be no protest or rush to defend here. But nor does she delve into his dealings with the head of scouting, since this is more important right now.

"I've been to the alienage plenty of times since I first learned of all this, but no more information is coming from there. I can't blame them for that." So no, she's kept her nose out of Darktown for now.

"Just let me know what I should be doing here. I don't want to screw anything up by saying the wrong thing." This is Yngvi's territory, and she's jumping into it without being sure of how she'll be seen. The less waves she makes, the better.

Honestly, enough people still know Yngvi or of him in certain circles that it could be forgiven if Ellana sat there in silence the whole time. He hasn't cut the best reputation for himself of late anyway. At least Beleth didn't outright forbid him from looking into things or do any sort of reassignment because given how their only public conversation went, he can imagine how him going behind her back to keep investigating would go. And even if he claimed he didn't have a choice - a strange benefit to Carta life, maybe, is that you don't have choices - that'd be a hard lie to keep hold of when he's having trouble holding onto himself.

"Face or two seems to have slipped off the map in the market," Yngvi says because he doesn't tend to go to the alienage much when he doesn't have any real reason to be there. Right now it might do more harm than good and people are a little too twitchy with new arrivals so he's been sticking to his beat. "But that's public so trying to get the ones there to talk about it when they're dealing with customers and a boss is hard. Folk in Darktown know about the Inquisition and...either way we're good and bad for business, that's all there is to it. My thing is a bit more bad for business because I was watching a little closer than they like."

Hopefully not much talking should be involved. Not that Yngvi can think of. Maybe playing dumb. "Say you've paid me to take you on a tour, people'll believe that, might've set that one up a bit." Might've already done sort-of tours in other places without fully intending but it's not far off the truth. "If we meet a dwarf woman with a really scarred face, don't react, she's fine. Unless I freak out. Then we go. But y'know read the room."

Ellana frowns at Yngvi's news, even though she knows it was a little too hopeful to think the disappearances had stopped. This many people gone and not one of their family saying, "Oh, they ran off to Par Vollen to join the Qunari" means they've been taken, and the chances of getting them back are slim unless they can find where they're being held in the city before they're taken someplace else.

"Okay, that works." That works well, actually. She's still working on not wearing her heart on her sleeve and hiding her expressions better. This excuse means she can be the wide eyed newcomer easily because it already comes naturally.

"I really don't want to see you freak you," Ellana says. Especially since Yngvi is pretty much always on the edge of an explosion, isn't he? So going full blown freak out would be intense.

"Had a few shake-ups with a few things down below, not on our end but when the Coterie got twitchy and people are squabbling for position then you throw something like an Inquisition in the mix?" He pantomimes an explosion, albeit quietly to not attract too much attention to them when they're an odd enough couple anyway. "Must've been away the past few weeks then," he mutters to himself because he can't stop himself, it's a problem but he's not exactly been quiet or subtle of late.

He gets himself moving, tucks his coat a bit tighter round himself to dissuade passerbys from having a butchers at him and what he's got on him.

"Gotta be local. Everyone in on this yeah? Doesn't work if they're not." It can't work any other way if people aren't local, they wouldn't know the ins and outs of Kirkwall well enough to pull off a scam, not even when she's listing like she is.

Ellana did take a trip out of the city last month. Maybe that's what he's referring to. Either that or she's just been completely oblivious to a dwarf smearing his issues all over the crystals like a child smears too much butter on bread. Look, she's going through a breakup here. She hasn't been paying attention to others' issues much. It's made for a nice change to always being there for everyone else.

"All the way to the top? Because the top can afford to pay locals off." Ellana has her theories about this. Orlesians have their nobles and chevaliers, so maybe the Marches also has its equally shitty nobles who like to treat elves like property and playthings. Or it could be Tevinter looking for a group of fresh slaves for blood magic. She doesn't think the Qunari have anything to do with this. They like when elves join up willingly, and if not that, then they go for all out battle, not stealthily abducting people to turn towards to Qun. So it's either elves getting shipped out far away to make them work, or getting shipped out somewhere else where nobles think elves are disposable. So any country, really.

If he can find a face or two he can trust this'll go a bit easier but they're not in Darktown yet, just making their way, taking in the mood of the city at this level as the smoke from the foundries starts to climb higher. There's no breeze coming in off the waters at this hour to waft it away and it hangs, that eerie perpetual half-gloom to make telling the hour hard and he used to (still does) tell visitors that it was a fog that rolled in that would one day burn away. It never does and there are places in the city's lower portions where the buildings are built in such a manner that the air never clears they're packed so tight in such a manner that the air tastes of soot and metal shavings and chokes the breath from you if you spend too long there.

"Leaves too much of a trail though." He nods to one of the merchants he knows and gets his boots repaired at because he gets them done cheaper than he would other places. "Can't just go snatching folk off the streets even in Kirkwall, that gets noticed, can't stir the pot too much or people do start to do stuff. Has to be quieter. Like when you cook up a crab in a pot - you don't dump it in boiling water, you heat it slow and it doesn't even realise it's cooking."

Yngvi's had good crabs, everyone has, he lives in Kirkwall and he was a mercenary so that's a comfortable one to admit to. That there's a time in his life that he knew better eating than he does presently with the Inquisition. "Don't know why now though."

"So it has to be as easy as breathing at every step," Ellana says, thinking she gets it now. "Which is awful; that it's so easy to do." So easy to disrupt lives like this.

"I couldn't begin to guess why now either." If anything, it's more dangerous to do now that the Inquisition is allowed within the city at large, and that Inquisition contains more than just indifferent humans.

Skirting past a few stalls, Yngvi makes a face at one or two of the merchants that clock either him (dwarf or Carta or both, not everyone's fond of dwarves in Kirkwall depending on who they owe coin to) or Ellana (elf and Dalish markings on her face) or just the pair of them and he moves past them to the part that's a little less in the light.

(Some of it almost has Carta fingerprints but no matter Yngvi's own feelings, Ellana's not the one he'd go telling any of those sorts of suspicions to.)

He stops them by one of the stands selling trinkets that supposedly do magical things though he's heard of far more exciting ways to turn your finger green than sticking on a dodgy ring. "Rosie," he greets, voice low to not draw attention to the any of them as he eyes the selection, "anythin' of interest in today? Got a new friend I'm showin' the sights to - never been to Kirkwall before, travesty, I know."

The elven woman manages a laugh but her eyes flit about before she coughs into her hand, a wet heavy hacking cough, the other gesturing to the selection. "Copper for copper, silver for silver, gold for gold."

Ellana's heart twists at the sound of the cough, but she can't poke into this woman's life to see if she needs help. She knows from her time spent in the alienage so far that elves are proud in their suffering (something the city elves have in common with Dalish elves). Most would rather die and let themselves be remembered as a poor soul than ask for help.

"I'm not sure I can afford much," she says apologetically, though she opens the pouch at her belt and jingles the meager coins inside. Meager because she would be stupid to carry a lot of coin to Darktown. "I have... three coppers. What will that get me?"

Give it the feel of a transaction, people'll turn a blind eye and well if Ellana's got coin she can go first, Yngvi'll dip in if he has to as he leans on the counter as if to hoist himself up a bit (elves are taller than him, he's stunted even by dwarven standards) so he keeps an eye out. Examines a ring while he's at it.

"Copper for copper," she repeats, gesturing to a selection of rings. "No charms on 'em but your complexion, goes nicer than silver and no one'll shiv you for wearing gold."

Yngvi can feel his face twist at that, the smile harder to come by. "Practical as always, missed you when I was away. Liadan sends her love." Bit of a gamble, maybe Ellana feels the tension in him coiling, him leaning in how he does.

The woman weighs it, sighs and holds in a cough as she holds out her hand for Ellana's coin. "Don't know if you'd remember her but Viola - Viola's a maid in one of them nicer houses, not all the way up but good enough, had food on her table and she could spare you a crust - well her girl would run messages. Ain't seen her." Whatever pain is in her voice is muted because this is life: elven girls go missing and who goes looking for them, Yngvi knows the story just as well but he's not the only one here now is he?

Ellana figures you can't get something for nothing in this part of town, and turns over the coins before selecting a ring and trying it on her fingers to see where it fits. It can be worn for now, but copper eventually turns green and she doesn't need her finger to match. She glances over at Yngvi, wondering if mentioning Liadan is some sort of code, because the woman immediately tells them something they needed to know.

"Poor Viola. I'll keep an eye out. What does her girl look like, if you know?"

Has to look like something else, always an eye on you in Kirkwall after all and Viola sighs as Yngvi makes a note of that with a mutter under his breath because well shit, it's another one isn't it?

"Dark hair, cropped short on one side but long on the other, shorter and slimmer than you. Pretty girl. Turned heads." Not always the best thing to do when you're a girl in the alienage running messages. "Headed your neck of the woods so I heard last."

"Mine?" Yngvi starts, recovers himself and curses. "Darktown?"

Not that Darktown wasn't on the list of places to look at because Darktown is always on the list but if this isn't a kick in the arse to go there then he doesn't know what is.

The hair is different enough that Ellana is sure she'll recognize her, even if this half shaved side thing is becoming a bit of a craze. She saw a dwarf with it just yesterday.

She glances back at Yngvi and-- uh oh. It's never a good sign when someone from a place curses at someone possibly being in that place too.

"Must have been an important message to send a pretty girl into Darktown," she says, though what she thinks is that that's fishy as all get out.

It's an iconic look okay, sweeping the nation until the Orlesians catch on and ruin it the way they ruin everything else, even tiny cakes.

"Important one." An air of finality as Yngvi nods, chewing his lip as Viola coughs again, wringing her hands.

"We hear anything," Yngvi slides a couple of silver in his palm as he takes hers, good cheeky grin on his face, "it'll be me or I'll send Jim. Maybe Hulda. One of the two. Bring you some of the good stuff y'know?" Which sounds enough like the usual deals that get made for people to ignore as he starts ushering Ellana away before Viola gets dragged in, woman's likely got enough going on with whatever she has rattling around in her lungs.

Out of earshot of the stall, he clears his throat, peering up at Ellana. "Mind that time you said your mate wanted to go have have a nosy in Darktown on her lonesome? Well it's pretty shit when I'm hoping it's all the usual reasons I don't want people who shouldn't be wandering Darktown alone to have happened y'know? Least we got a description."

"Yeah," Ellana agrees as they move away. Under the Inquisition's protection, Ellana feels she has a lot more choice in her life than this girl probably did. You do what you can for money in a city. It's not like living isolated in small communities that live off the land.

"What's the next step?" Because if she was seen in Darktown, then that seems like the next logical step, but it's also dangerous as all get out.

"We go to Darktown, would've had to go there anyway but now we've got a real reason to go look. You're just taking a tour of the real Kirkwall with me. The authentic bits." It'd be a bit easier with a human but Ellana looks Dalish so Yngvi can pull this one off if anyone comes asking can't he? That all said, he leads the way.

Stepping down into Darktown means the descent down roughly hewn stairs old enough that Yngvi has a good dozen stories at least for any occasion but now isn't the time for it. Just the cold and the damp that raised him, the musty smell that hits and sometimes steals the breath of a person new to it; dwarven eyes work in the dark no matter how much Orzammar might wish it made them less or that time on the surface ate it away, he can still see perfectly well down here in the gloom as they make the descent.

If his contact shows up, she shows up, Yngvi knows who he's looking for and having a certain swagger for him down here at least is key. People know him. Know who he's about. Know that if he walks like he belongs because he does then that means fuck off and leave me alone. Unfortunately he can't actually do that because no one's really meant to know that they're here so he hugs the wall on the way down.

"Contact might show up, if not..." He shrugs, they've done okay so far.

It's not exactly a familiar sight, but elven ruins have stairs full of cracks and missing pieces, and the scent of damp dirt clings to hair and clothes as the explorer descends further in. But Darktown isn't damp dirt; not yet. It's rotten bits of food not even fit for the rats. It's unwashed bodies because soap is a luxury and why waste money on it when you're just going to get dirty again? It's the smell of urine on the wall because who cares about waiting until you get home to use the chamber pot? It's all filth and darkness down here, and Ellana is amazed at how upscale and clean Lowtown feels in comparison. She switches to breathing through her mouth and moves close to the wall behind Yngvi, watching her steps.

"If not, maybe we'll hear things anyway," she says in a low voice. The darkness practically consumes her down here, but just because she can turn sideways and practically disappear and Yngvi is so short you can practically step over him doesn't mean they aren't being watched. Only a fool would be in Darktown and completely unaware of their surroundings. Three men stand in a semi-circle, their backs to the newcomers as they bend their heads over something, but Ellana has the feeling that each of those men has already seen them and come up with ten ways each to kill them and hide their bodies.

In fairness, it didn't smell as bad when it was a little less overcrowded but pack as many humans as they packed in here when they didn't fancy Lowtown and couldn't go anywhere else and you get squalor. Navigating is easy enough, the stone sense Orzammar wouldn't want him to have probably the thing that helps him, that dwarven sort of thing same as how he sees better in the low light too. This is home.

Being down here again after he spent so long doing things he didn't think he'd need to but apparently he really had to because that's what family is makes his flesh crawl but he forces it down. This isn't about him. It's about faces disappearing and people that don't matter enough for the guard to bother. Or people who can't or won't go to the guard or anyone else. He can stomach this for them. If he was alone he might say something to the men but he's not exactly willing to test their opinions of Ellana and hurries past them, nice and quiet. (Despite the mouth, the gesturing, he's a rogue at the end of the day, he did learn all this and he's good at it.)

"It's pickin' the right one, that'll be the pain in the arse. This is the great unwashed of Kirkwall, it all happens down here," Yngvi murmurs as he tries to look for faces he doesn't know. Which is going to be a problem because he knows too damn many and trying to sort them already is kind of distracting now that he's actually here and dealing with everything all at once.

Ellana learned about this from Leliana's spies. There's always a mark to follow. The trouble is knowing who's the mark, and who's just a random person. Since they're going into this pretty much blind, it's going to be a challenge. Ellana doesn't expect a young elf woman with a shaved side of her head to pop out of nowhere, safe and sound, but what will tip them off?

Most people ignore the two of them. They have their own lives to lead and don't get mixed up in things. A man walks towards them with a casual gait, but when he's nearly ready to pass, he suddenly does an awkward side shuffle, causing Ellana to glance up at him. Their eyes meet for a moment, before he turns his awkward movement into a spin away, heading back the way he came. Ellana slows down, watching him go.

"Did that seem weird to you?" she asks.

There's something that always happens to Yngvi in Darktown. His palms get sweaty, everything is louder and the press of bodies closer as he tries to move between them, aware of how long someone looks at him. Maybe it's just his imagination that the faces are familiar because realistically, not everyone lasts long in Darktown because you can't, not unless you're part of something and being part of something is a fine line. But it ages you the same as the face that came before, the desperate who can't find space even in Lowtown and Ellana almost has him jumping.

(Learned that lesson down here too, don't do that, don't you ever give yourself away like that over the gnawing hunger that was always the feral thing stalking behind you. Who needs to fear a hunger demon when real hunger is terrifying and painful enough?)

"Deserves a smack for that one," he says under his breath because poor marks friend but maybe that's just humans being soft on each other because there's always someone else you get to push around. "Either he's really offended seeing your face down here or he just doesn't want to be seen."

"That's the thing: I know all about people being offended I exist in their line of sight, but they don't usually turn tail and take off like that. They either say something or ignore me, but they don't go out of their way to get away from me." She turns and gives Yngvi a questioning look. "So do you think he doesn't want an elf asking him questions?"

"When there are elves going missing?" It could be a coincidence but Yngvi might be adept at playing the fool as and when he needs to and any other day, any other time he'd say yes, it's because you're an elf and this is the world we live in terrible as it is but no. Not today. "He doesn't want an elf asking him questions. Especially not an elf that looks like you."

Meaning an elf that looks Dalish. Vallaslin. Never again shall we submit. Someone with lurid stories he might believe who isn't used to living the way a city elf is accustomed to even if it'd still end the same way.

"That's our man."

Ellana gives a nod, adding, "We need to tail him. I have some tricks up my sleeve to go unnoticed, so do you want to split up and observe him? Or maybe you have an idea?" Of the two of them, Yngvi knows this place and she doesn't. There could be secrets around every corner, and he would know them.

This isn't the best sort of place to look as if he's looking around deliberately so Yngvi rubs at his nose, letting it cover his mouth to onlookers. "Disputed turf up ahead, mind what got you in on this before?" He can't come right out and say it but they're still squabbling over bits of turf here and there so splitting up isn't the best plan. "Carta sees us together and you'll get a free pass, still the big ticket in town. Do whatever tricks you've got on you, I know how to handle it if anything gets dicey at the rear yeah?"

Yngvi isn't an artificer for nothing after all, and not every trap is an elaborate production. A few caltrops spilled out of a pocket that's just sprung a hole? Deters a good few.

"Okay. I'm just warning you, you'll see me disappear at some point, but I'll still be here -- just cloaked in magic." In case he thinks she isn't heeding his warning anymore. Without any more delay, Ellana starts off after the man, moving close to the walls of buildings and tunnels without pressing up against them and making it obvious what she's doing. The man up ahead is tall enough that she catches sight of the back of his head and keeps him in her sight.

Her muscles are tense, like a cat waiting to spring on its prey, and she keeps aware of her surroundings so that as she passes by a darkened tunnel to her right, she casually steps in, casts True Stealth on herself, and steps back out, completely invisible. It won't last forever, so she speeds up, tailing the man much more easily and even moving beside him to check his face. He still looks agitated, and even casts a quick glance over his shoulder. Oh yes. She's definitely unsettled him. Time to move back towards Yngvi before they get too far apart.

About to ask if seeing her disappear defeats the purpose or if he's just misunderstanding the whole exercise she's already off. Half a mutter under his breath about standing around like a lemon but he follows, hoping he looks about as casual as a dwarf can look when the person they were with just ran off. Well he can lie if anyone asks. Dalish, thought she saw an heirloom of her people in all this, you know what they're like. Go get out your grandmother's spoons again, might work same as it did with those new surfaces. Why you lookin' at me like that, we all laughed! Something like that. Something to really sell it well.

All of it's different to how it goes with someone he's known for years, fought alongside for years; Melisende or Liadan he'd know by their breathing, their soft footfalls but he's good as blind until Ellana decides to end the spell but he's more able to deal with something physical than she is so that's what he prepares for. And when the man's gaze falls on him?

He rolls. Perfectly silent. (Didn't spend all that time down here so recently for the good of his health, some things you have to brush up on again where you come from.) Springs back up onto his feet and somehow that just makes their mark look even more disturbed but he's not wanting to look at either of them now.

By the time Ellana reappears, the man has sped up and is definitely walking somewhere with purpose. Before, when he'd been casually strolling through the streets, he'd been in his element. This was his territory, and any frail little elves could be put on his list, tailed, and nabbed. But then he saw the wild one with the squiggles on her face. And a savage like her is unpredictable; might have moves she learned in the forest and a lot of fight in those skinny bones. Then the whole scheme would fall apart. Oh, no one in Darktown would care if they saw him trying to forcibly abduct an elf, but if she got away... if she told other elves and they knew what to avoid...

So now he heads straight back to base. When he looked back and saw the dirty little dwarf, the elf was gone. Probably sick of the stench of the undercity and needed to get out to hug a tree or something. He thinks he's safe, so why wouldn't he head back and give his report? Nothing exciting out there, guys. Just a squiggly faced one who left.

Back beside Yngvi, Ellana watches the man get up close to the door and do a complicated series of knocks. The door opens and he slips inside before the door closes behind him.

"Now what?"

Had he the time to get hold of them without people disappearing, he could get Jim. Or Brunswick. Both of them and that'd be risking questions getting asked of him by people he doesn't want to answer to when it's something like this but it'd be handy to have them or even Hulda's scarred face with her faded brand. This though--

Flapping a hand at Ellana, Yngvi hurries over after a count of three careful heartbeats then presses his body to the door and listens. Listens carefully to footsteps falling away as he digs through a pocket to come up with as many caltrops as he can keep in his hand without risk of dropping them. Might work. Might not. But the steps all moved away and so did the voices and Yngvi didn't spend so many years trying hard to keep his dinners to himself to not know how to quickly memorise a signal knock on the fly.

"Just-- be ready yeah? Might get tasty," he warns her as he leans back from his listening spot. No telling how many are in there or what they're up to and she's a mage she's probably got shit she can get on with to help out. With the empty hand he knocks flawlessly. Not too confidently but casual, someone doing it regular. Waits. Waits more. And waits some more. Nothing. "F'fuck'sake," one quick oath under his breath, "what sort of operation is this meant to be? The Poison Tits do better work and they're tits." He tries again.

Waits. Waits again.

Stuffs all but one caltrops back in his pocket to get the brass knuckles on to go have a feel about for the mechanism, there's always something on this end because there has to be, it's how they were made and-- "Get in." Not that that's actually an instruction, he's just happy he found it and slightly alarmed because fuck him he's got the door open or unlatched an inch and now what.

Ellana is sure he's got a plan because look at how confidently he moves to the door, takes out his caltrops, knocks on the door like a pro...

...and nothing happens. Well, that's anti-climatic. She doesn't make a comment, however, choosing to wait to see what he does next. But it rapidly becomes apparent that he's making this shit up as he goes along and her eyes widen as the door opens. Well, they have to do something now. They're in the thick of it. So she moves in close and waves her hand, casting Silence Field over them.

"This lasts half a minute. We're in a magic field, like a big soap bubble. Anything beyond can't hear any sound we make. Come on." And with that, she opens the door. There's a dark entrance way before them, and thankfully no one there waiting. Ellana contemplates producing a mage light, but decides against it. She can see well enough and what's the point in being completely silent if you flash a light? She looks to Yngvi.

"Let's sneak around. Either he's in here, or there's a back door."

Knowing Darktown as he does means knowing all the things that might be lurking on the other side of the door for the unwary, the unwanted. Yngvi remembers the Qunari invasion after all. Never experienced choking on noxious things himself but everyone heard the stories and there were always rumours about where the barrels went, that they didn't get all of them. Lots of trapped doors, trapped plates, pull a lever and then anyone you don't want there meets with pain and unhappy ends.

He can't disarm what he can't see.

A spell being cast on him makes him frown in the dark (Amalia might've been happy with the fire and vicious with the healing but she tended to ask unless you were too out of it to reply if she did things to you or really close to you) but he nods. Dwarves see in the dark same as elves without the glowing eyes after all and he keeps his eyes out for traps.

"This is a warehouse, get lots of places like this built into where they used to mine," he says as loud as he dares even with the spell, nodding to where they find themselves, "we've got a few. Usually pretty stacked. Why's this one empty? Why d'you knock to get into a place with nothing much left in it?"

"I don't know," she answers, peeping around corners as she goes. "They can't be using it as a warehouse. Those places never run out of goods. This doesn't feel right."

It's so eerie in here; dark and abandoned, with no sign of the man or whomever let him in. As they move further in, Ellana notes daylight coming in from under a door and she points towards it.

"Maybe they left?"

"Cleared out fast enough." He feels for traps against the walls, then digging into his pocket drops a couple of nails ahead to see if there's any pressure plates to trigger.

Nothing. Absolutely nothing and that-- That's not right.

"Warehouses," he starts and turns mostly to face her, moving his hands to help explain, "get laid out specific ways so anyone who's meant to be in and out knows the layout and the traps. Anyone else loses a foot. If they're lucky. We can follow 'em, double back here if that doesn't pan out and have another pass at it since we know how to get in?"

Yngvi's fine with either but since she's got spells and it's elves going missing, he figures giving her more of a say is only right.

Ellana raises her brow in surprise because she had no idea warehouses were like that. No wonder he's been moving so cautiously. But wait. That means this warehouse is both empty and without traps. Why has it been cleared out?

"I say we follow them. There may be clues here, but if it's really been stripped completely, then we've wasted time looking when we might get answers from following that man instead. Let's go and come back here after we get some answers."

Only crooked shit. Only ever crooked shit if you come to an empty Darktown warehouse unless you're the one springing the ambush or doing the waiting for other folk to show up for the dead drop.

"Plenty of backstreets and shortcuts this way, 'sides I know the mechanism now and that nothing'll happen if I open it." That allows him to be confident about that bit at the very least which gives Yngvi the push he needs to get moving in the direction of the door which isn't locked. Because why would it be? Mechanism on one side in case anyone followed but once they're out then it'll maybe lock the other way-- well he can test it o the way back.

Keeping an eye out as he peers into the darkening street, he murmurs softly to Ellana, "How soon before you can cast again? Might need it."

"Very soon," she replies, feeling her mana returning to her. It's nearly enough to do the spell again. "Can you see our man anywhere out there?" She is, of course, only calling him "our man" since it's faster than any description of this person who beat it back to the warehouse after seeing her.

"On your signal, I can cast what you need."

Used to having to spot bodies taller than him in a crowd from little more to go on than the backs of their legs depending on the view, it doesn't take Yngvi long to nod, a careful elbow nudging Ellana's side. Kirkwall's a mess of stairways and alleys, tunnels and dead-ends but this particular set of stairs he's going down is steep enough that it leads only one way and that's--

"The hell's he going to the dock for?" Yngvi mutters aloud, more irritated than anything because life right now is boat rides if you're living in the Gallows or needing to go there, smalltalk with the ferryman, and now they're going to the docks? And they were in Lowtown. Looks weird. He pulls a face but does what he can to get lost in the crowd which works pretty well since he's a dwarf and most of the crowd is bigger than he is. At least this is the quickest way to the docks, doesn't go unnoticed by him either.

Ellana follows along, trying her best to both not lose Yngvi and not look like she's tailing some guy. It's not the easiest look to pull off, but she does her best. She just needs to look like she belongs here and has better shit to do than care what the people around her think. That's what everyone else does.

"Maybe something to do with why the warehouse is empty? They brought whatever was in there down to the docks earlier and now they're sending it out?"

"Yeah but--" Someone walks into Yngvi so at least he's as invisible as ever, good to know, "why was he that shifty about seeing you."

If it's just Ellana looking Dalish he'll owe her three sovereigns but he glanced back with a sceptical little scowl that says no, no it's not just being Dalish that got him all spooked. Hardened cons got superstitions but wanting to flee from someone they could punch without anyone saying a word? That sits wrong with him.

"Might catch a glimpse of we'll double back." Ah, smell that salt air? Almost there now. Ellana might want to cast now while the shadows favour them before they turn and duck through a narrow passage into the light.

"I really don't know," she admits, and not knowing the answer to that irks her. She just knows that this guy is shifty, elves are going missing, and she's an elf, and maybe there's a connection there somehow?

Recognizing that they're close, she moves her hand subtly to cast Silence Field and then says, "Okay, we're good for about half a minute now."

The Kirkwall docks are always busy since it's a port and it not being busy is a bad thing, usually when the Qunari were doing something or maybe after the Chantry blew up. Yngvi wasn't around for that one.

With the spell in place it means that Yngvi can be bolder about really getting a good look for their--

"Hey there scumbag, it's me, your dwarf," he says because he can when he spots their good friend Shifty McFuck weaving his way towards a mid-sized ship with several dwarves guarding it. "Ah fuck."

It looks like Yngvi is enjoying this bit of magic, since it gives him the opportunity to say what he really wants. She spots the man not long after Yngvi, and her eyes follow him to the ship.

"Um, not to assume all dwarves know each other, but it sounds like you know those guys? Or at least know what we're in for?"

Look. Look this is a whole new world of possibilities for him because getting to be all silent and hidden opens up a new world of possibilities for him? The amount of things he'd say just to get them out of his head even if other people weren't hearing him? Amazing. Absolutely amazing.

"It's Kirkwall, I probably do know every dwarf from here," he replies and he'd grin if this were any other sort of situation but he can't bring himself to as he nods at the dwarves in question. Sighing, he chews his lip before he continues, glancing between Ellana and the ship. "See them? Locals. Nasty brutes and we - being you and me - aren't going to be able to get too close. We might get the name of the ship but get too close and it'll be more harm than good, they're not good people."

If he's really into this silence field thing, she should start charging him for it to make a little bit of coin on the side.

"All right, we go about this the stealthy way. I can go invisible again. I should have enough time to run out close enough to see the name and at least get to cover to make my way back when I appear again. If the name's visible, I mean." There's no telling if the sea waves have stripped the paint off by now. "But beyond that, I won't have enough time to eavesdrop on them and get out unseen. What do you think?"

"Go for it. Don't risk listening in on them, they'll not talk shop out here and trying anything ends up with us knocked out or dead and this isn't, y'know, all sanctioned or anything." Who knows where you are right now Ellana, who you're with, what you're doing, when you should be back? Who'd think that it's not some secret assignment you had to fib about because you're a mage who knows weird stealth spells mages generally don't know? (He's paranoid, he doesn't like this, why are there people he knows here?)

So he counts whenever Ellana goes, keeps an eye out for anyone who might react and tries to just look like a dwarf who has a reason to hang out by the docks all casual like, just sorting through the contents of his pockets. If anyone bothers to come ask what he thinks he's up to mate then he's waiting for a lass, smell of the salt air overwhelmed her, you know how it is with some of them. Land ships and sailing ships, two different things and they'll both laugh, he'll feel bad but when does he not these days?
FOLLOW UP: who does the ship belong to, who does the captain work for, who owns that building, if they pursue the docks do they go back to the building and investigate it?

Off Ellana goes, casting when she's ducked behind a load of crates higher than her head. She jogs towards the ship until she's close enough, but still far enough away from the dwarves guarding it. The letters on the old wood are faint yet legible, and once she reads it off she heads back, having just enough time to duck back behind those same crates as before so it looks like she hasn't moved.

Returning to Yngvi as someone laughs and walks away from him, eyeing her up with surprise (What's she see in this scrappy bit of nothing? Oh well, everyone has a fetish.), she nods towards the direction they came.

"All done," she says in a normal tone, since the silence field has dissipated by now. Then under her breath, she murmurs, "Golden Arrow." Now they have a name. Time to do some research.

Rummaging through his pockets lends Yngvi something of the air of bored (right, fine, let's say harried) dwarf waits around, passing little gears, nails, and pins through his fingers to count the length of time she's been gone since tapping is too obvious here.

"There you are, don't have all day!" He says loudly for the benefit of selling this little pantomime when she returns, "There's plenty left on the tour, don't you want to sit where the great storied arse of the Champion sat?" Moving, moving, away from these shady people getting on the ship until they're not going to be something worth watching, he finally feels like he can talk. Chantry folk peddling about for coin are more note-worthy here. "A name's good, better than good. Back to the warehouse, see if there's more lurking there that's about the ship then I think we go somewhere we can actually talk."

Which means back to Darktown then back to the Gallows but at least they've got something to be working on for a while and that sits damned well with Yngvi who can crack the most sincere and genuine smile he's managed all day.

closed | a casual stroll y'know

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