Cause I'm with you to the end of the line.

[issala]

WHO: Issala + OPEN
WHAT: Kas no longer exists. Issala has to keep up appearances.
WHEN: Kirkwall move and forward
WHERE: The Gallows + Kirkwall
NOTES: Warning for brainwashing and weirdness.

The letter was still in his hand when the snap in his brain sent a shiver of pain down his spine, almost as if draining something away. Blinking a few times, Issala rolled his shoulders a little bit to reorient himself within his own body.

So it was time. No more brief glimpses of control while the boy almost got himself killed, but now he was in charge of his own mind again. While it felt a bit strange to not be Kas any more, with all the things that had been going on - he had a duty to the Qun. He had trained for this ever since he was placed in the Ariqun at age 12.

Unfolding the letter again, Issala read the words once more to make sure he had not missed anything and to let it all sink in completely.

"Hey kiddo! It's been a while since we talked. We really hear a lot about your Inquisition back in Rivain. Mostly good stuff.

You better stay safe out there, you hear? Everyone's still in one piece here - well, mostly. Notas lost a few fingers in a brawl. At least he can't flip anyone off, right?

Anyway, No-Name wants your opinion on the names they've been interested in. They can't quite choose, so they wanted someone that's been outside the kith to help out. I think they still look up to you.

The names they were interested in are: Issala, Saam, Maraas, Katari.

We know you'll do your duty.

/Athlok + the rest"

It was a pretty sly way to implant his control words in what seemed like any other nice letter from the kith that didn't exist. With the Iron Bull in Skyhold, they needed extra eyes in Kirkwall, so here he was.

Ready.

Putting the letter in his back pocket, Issala left the room that severed as the barracks to fulfill the demands of the Qun.

A

Not much really changed. He continued his day-to-day duties while scouting and delivering messages, keeping up appearances as Kas. It meant, however, that he was withdrawing a bit more from 'his' friends, claiming being busy as the excuse.

There was no point in risking his cover unnecessarily.

Honestly it wasn't that easy to pretend to be Kas all the time, because things that would have excited the idiot boy didn't affect Issala as much. The struggle to be useful and the quest to date a girl was all muted or ignored.

Instead he set his mind into working hard. Bas teens were moody things, weren't they? He had good excuses.

...friends do not let friends act depressed, however.

B

'Kas' spent a lot of time down by the docks, talking to people. Many of the Viddathari there were excellent in providing information about the situations in the city and taking notes to send back to Par Vollen with his own gathered intel.

Issala brought some back with him as his work of 'scouting', although there was some misinformation in there as well. Little things to steer away from the Ben-Hassrath in the city, little things to direct the Inquisition to issues that needed to be tended to.

He doesn't really want company. Maybe you should come along anyway.

C

Training was still a thing that needed to be done, even if Issala had much more experience than Kas ever did. He still had Kas' muscle memory, however, so he had to learn how to combine the two in order to take full advantage of what the boy had learned from Zevran. That way he would be outright deadly in his knifework and archery.

First came his slight of hand, and the training locks he had gotten from the elf were all opened in his pack without the traps sprung, ready to be handed in.

The few training dummies that had been put up in the docks were good targets for his arrows, and Issala took his time to make pincushions out of them as he polished his form.

Join him?

D

Wildcard!

Comments

[lionheartedman]

"That's--' The knee jerk reaction to want to defend it has been passing quicker and quicker. This time, it's gone in only a moment. Cullen feels more or less the same way at this point. "Not a bad way to look at it. I'd say you'll get used to it, but some people never do." And some people do, and then become complacent, let it drag them down.

Which is not the point of any of this. "The archery, is that really all picked up since you came to the Inquisition?"

[issala]

Even Issala is a little confused for a moment at that reaction, but he read the books. Cullen had been here in this mess. With some thought to it, it wasn't that strange that the man spoke the way he did.

Letting it go, he instead decides to focus on what else the commander said. "Well, Zevran taught me some dagger stuff and opening locks, but archery is what I'm best at. Ser."

Right. Honorifics for bas.

[lionheartedman]

Mess is an understatement, in Cullen's opinion. There are no words to properly capture the absolute shit-show. To say he'd handled the aftermath badly would also be an understatement. His mouth quirks slightly at the mention of the elf. "Zevran is a good teacher. I don't think you could ask for better." Certainly not here, with their numbers diminished and the quarters so close. He's noticed that he's far from the only one not handling it so well. On the one hand, it's a bit of a comfort. On the other... not so much.

"How are you with moving targets?" The skill is impressive, the aim quite remarkable, but in the field nothing ever holds still. Nothing ever stops moving unless you've already managed to hit it.

[issala]

Zevran was indeed a good teacher. Issala was impressed how well-trained the Antivan 'ben-hassrath' were, and he had learned a lot from the elf. Even some of his basics had been corrected, which had been really impressive.

"Yeah, it was amazing to be trained by a friend of the Warden-Commander," 'Kas' says with a bit of an awed tone in his voice.

The mention of moving targets, however, has the teen rubbing the back of his neck. Kas wasn't terrible at it, but Issala would have to hold himself back a bit to not be too obvious in his skill. "Decent, I guess? I mean, I killed a few bandits and some other things on missions, but nothing too fast yet."