[closed] if you're here and I'm here then who's flying the plane

[katabasis]

WHO: Flint & Yseult
WHAT: Trust exercises
WHEN: Immediately pre-hasmal invasion
WHERE: Near Hasmal
NOTES: will include content warning in subject lines if applicable

It's almost guaranteed that their contact has utilized the flow of refugees across the border and toward Hasmal as a cover to pass into the South, though they aren't meant to meet them in that. Doubtless every breed of intelligencier currently peddles their trade there, for if an agent of one secret network might slip in that direction then why not agents of all?

Rather, after crossing the broad width of the Minanter on one of the point-nosed ferries (in the company of a pilot with a near supernatural skill for weaseling extra coin out of pocket, but who tactfully neglects to intervene in the debate his passengers are engaged in), they hire a pair of horses and turn west toward what is allegedly an all but forgotten trading post by the name of Drake's Landing which is said to boast such luxuries as a nearly empty inn and the cheapest drink in the political tri-corner.

At some point—perhaps after the fourth or fifth narrow bridge that they have to coax the horses across, for the landscape is threaded through with twisting offshoots of the Minanter—Flint remarks, "If we come this way again, it would be faster to row in."

Maybe that's how the Venatori beat them to the Landing. Or maybe the ferry pilot had a raven in the little cabin at the back of his boat who had carried word of a certain notable captain of Riftwatch swiftly North.

Regardless—

Comments

[katabasis]

From the liminal space at the light's edge, Fidan says, "Yes, that's right. We're in the basement of the inn there now."

It's possible that's true. In the dark and the quiet, who's to say? Maybe the inn at Drake's Landing has somehow contrived to dig themselves a basement despite lying so close to the water.

"Will you tell me your name?"


"Flint," he says. "Will do. We both seem to be familiar with it."

He finally shifts his hands up off the arms of the chair, rubbing first one wrist and then then other—flexing his fingers, then making a fist as his attention travels briefly around the room. It isn't difficult to be a little slow. Between the thump thump thump of a headache and the thud thud thud of his pulse slowly catching up to the present circumstances, it would be more of a challenge to seem fully in possession of all of his faculties.

"The woman I was with. What have you done with her?"

[hassaran]

Yseult bows her head, attempting to get it low enough to feel at the side of her head where the lump has formed, fingers touching at the crust of blood already dried. Another point against Drake's Landing. She holds her head there a moment, balanced on bound hands as if it pains her to move it; that at least requires no deception.

"Nina," she decides, a name that both decreases the need for improvisation and provides options for later, depending on how this goes. "Where is my client? The man I was with?"


Ayaz watches Flint's hands, not with wariness, but with avid attention, as if there is some information to be gleaned from how he balls his fist. The question draws his eyes up with some degree of reluctance.

He shrugs, clicks his tongue against his teeth. "She is upstairs, dining with my companions. I am afraid you have misplaced your trust in that one. She has told us a great deal about you."

[katabasis]

It inspires a strange split impulse. The urge to laugh cut with— some more basic impulse. A flicker of uneasiness like a whispering crosswind. The corner of his mouth slants up all the same.

"Such as?"


"You mean Commander Flint?" Fidan sways faintly further into the slip of lamplight. There is something shadowed in her expression. "He's with the Magister. I don't think you'll see him again. I'm very sorry."

Her head tips faintly. It's a small thing—unconscious maybe, as reflexive as the sharp point of her study.

"What service were you providing him? I don't see why they should care to keep you if it isn't necessary."

[hassaran]

The Magister wiggles fingers in vague indication of 'many things, too many to list', rings glinting. "Your identity, to begin. Your career and your sad history, your island of Nascere, your work with the Inquisition. That is to say, Riftwatch. She has been particularly forthcoming. Was changing the name your idea? You have, as they say, form."

Maybe just for a second Yseult feels a real chill at the claim that Flint is dead or about to be. Either way, eyes widen and some of that tension returns, curling limbs a little closer to her body.

"A guide," she explains, "To Drake's Landing. He hired me at Wealdstone, said he'd never been and there might be some secretary work for me when we got here. You work for a Magister?" She says it like she's cursing in a Chantry, voice low and quick, mouth trying to touch the word as little as possible.

[katabasis]

It's possible she knows all that.

There are inquiries that might be made—that have been made, if what Byerly thinks he knows is any indication. It's possible they had consulted one another in some closed room in the Gallows. Maybe he had filled her in on whatever parts she didn't know. Or Yseult had gone looking herself, and the only difference between the head of Diplomacy and the head of Scouting is one displays the knife and the other carries it in unseen on her person.

Flint's attention has drifted absently upward. It returns as if recalled by the question, though he doesn't answer it.

"Can I ask what I'm being traded for?"


Somewhere else, Fidan gentles just a little in turn. With the air of a person well used to slipping along the margins of a place, she makes some minor step sideways that brings her fully into the sliver of lamplight. She crouches so they might be level with one another. And like a wary cat, she doesn't give Yseult's bindings enough credit to come within arm's reach.

"I don't have much choice in the matter." Then, more tentatively: "Did he say anything about why he needed to come here? What sort of secretary work? Any detail at all you remember might help in seeing you released."

[hassaran]

'Nina' tenses as Fidan first moves closer, not quite a flinch, and eases again at her tone. She frowns in thought, as if wracking her brain for anything that might buy her release. "I think there's a group he works for? He mentioned them--complained, really. That he couldn't trust his people with even things like this, he had to do everything himself." Always easiest to build a lie from the truth wherever possible, and so on.

The Magister lifts one thick brow at Flint's question, as if mildly puzzled by it. "Her freedom, of course. We do not really need you both. But she has not quite earned her prize just yet. You might still claim it if you liked. You are a man who knows many interesting things, I think."

[katabasis]

It is easy to imagine that these conversations occur perfectly parallel to one another; that Fidan gently asks What do you remember? while somewhere else the Magister says Tell me what you know. But it is conceivable, isn't it? That one might lag behind the other. Maybe somewhere in this inn at Drake's Landing, Flint has already said something to spoil her ruse. Would he tell them willingly, or will they have pried it out from under his skin?

Fidan breathes in, a soft sound in preparation for reply. And then from somewhere in the mostly-dark, there is a knock on a door. Straightening, Fidan slips from the sliver of lamplight and melts back into the anonymous shadows of the room.

From surprisingly close, for it seems the room isn't large at all, a door opens and a slash of light illuminates the smooth seamed masonry of the the storeroom's far wall and a rack of dusty bottles and a heavy cask, stamped with the trade mark of—

And then the door's opening is drawn nearly shut, Fidan having slipped through to the other side to hold some brief and muffled conversation.

"—Yes thank you. I will tell her."

Once more, that bar of light on the wall widens (—with the trade mark of three keys on a ring—), narrows, then closes entirely. From the heavier darkness which follows, Fidan says,

"Do you know how dangerous it is for me to offer to help you like this? It is very important"—she lowers her voice. Soft footfalls suggest she has moved from the door, lest someone beyond it overhear—"So it is very important that I be able to trust that you are telling me the truth. Do you understand that, Nina?"

[hassaran]

Yseult doesn't move. It's not worth risking the sound—carrying, or covering some scrap of conversation she might otherwise overhear—or that Fidan peeks back in too quickly and catches some hint of movement or even posture that doesn't fit. But she can slide fingers along the knots in her bindings to get the shape of them, and skim eyes from door jamb and the silhouette of a lock to the masonry and that rack of bottles, the cask with the keys, file it all away. At some point they will leave her alone here in the dark, and these things will be good to know.

When Fidan returns, Nina's brows lift, some uncertain wobbling between frown and fear. She swallows, head bobbing. "I understand. I'll tell you what I know but I don't—he didn't talk to me much. We argued. He didn't like the route I'd chosen. He said it was too slow, we were going to be late."

Whatever that conversation was about, whatever has led Finan to detour this slight distance from any detail at all to it is very important that I be able to trust you, it doesn't matter. The implication is clear, and it may even be true that they know she's lying. Flint might have let some hint slip, or traded her away for a new island, or perhaps some unknown traitor in their ranks has given them her name and face already, or they just recognized the crystal on its chain around her neck for more than one bauble among others. If that's the case, they'll make it clear soon enough. Until then, Plan A.

[katabasis]

"Did he give you any indication as to why the timing was so important? What he meant to find? How he planned to stop it?"

The shape of her voice from out of the dark is hushed and small, drifting as she pads in a quiet circle about the woman bound on the floor.

[hassaran]

How he planned to stop it. It's easy for Yseult to push on the puzzled frown of a person deep in thought, attempting to think back through everything she heard for some half-ignored snippet of information that will now reveal itself on a second look, some tiny glimmering facet newly catching the light as the angle shifts.

"I don't know," she says, teeth bit into lip, head shaken. Her expression screws more tightly together, as if more desperate in that hunt for something useful enough to buy her freedom. "Something about a message? 'In time for the message,' he said that once when he was grumbling."

[katabasis]

"Good," Fidan whispers in urgent reassurance as she circles behind her in the mottled near-dark. The air is cool and humid and if there was a hint of light seeping in from beneath the nearby door, it has gone now.

"That's very good. What else? Did he say where the message was coming from, or who might have sent it perhaps?" And then, more carefully still, "I promise I have almost run out of the questions they would like me to ask you."

[hassaran]

Fidan's circling sends a prickle of wariness down Yseult's spine, as does the prospect of her questions coming to an end. The danger of trying to convince someone you know very little is that success can mean they see no further value in keeping you alive. And if there is something in motion that might yet be stopped, the chance of them releasing even the most harmless of prisoners is low.

So Nina continues to visibly wrack her brains, but the shaking of her head this time sees it dropping into her hands with a little groan. "I'm sorry," she says, swallowing again, voice wavering more noticeably, "I'm trying to think but my head is pounding. Please, can I have some water?"

[katabasis]

"Just one more question," the voice assures Nina, floating forward around her shoulder as the elven woman completes her circuit.

When Fidan passes back into that little sliver of light and comes to stop before Yseult again, she makes no move to lower herself to the other woman's level before addressing her.

"Does Riftwatch know he was with you? Would they know to look for you, I mean. Should he disappear and you return to Wealdstone."

[hassaran]

"Riftwatch. That was it. The group he mentioned."

Still bowing her head, knuckles pressed into her brows, Nina considers this question and shakes her head again, a smaller movement than the last but accompanied by a shrug, as much as is possible bound as she is. "I don't know," she says, "I don't think so? I only saw him speak to my father and he didn't pass on any messages to him."

[katabasis]

Fidan doesn't move. She has settled there in that narrow bar of light which slips from the shaded lantern, blotting it out.

"That's poor luck," she says, shaded with sympathy. Poor thing. "I think the Magister might have been convinced to set you free. Your freedom in exchange for helping him to expose a few more members of Flint's company."

Fidan bends down. On the ground in that narrow slip of light between them, she sets a sending crystal which matches the one about Yseult's neck. Her smile is not unpleasant.

"Tell me again, Nina. Are you sure that's the story you've decided on?"


And somewhere else, right now or hours ago, Flint tells Ayaz Tagaris, "I'm afraid nothing comes to readily mind."

[hassaran]

"No?" Tagaris cocks his head at an angle, and then rocks back, hands spread. Heavy rings glitter on his fingers—a flame-shaped emerald, a pair of blood-dark garnets, a carnelian signet engraved with what might be a tree, its base a tangle of roots.

"Perhaps it is the blow to the head has disordered your thoughts. Begin with something simple. Tell me of your journey today."

[katabasis]

For a moment, Flint studies him—attention fixed and flat, something like the planting of feet in it. They don't know who she is. She either hasn't answered these questions or hasn't done so satisfactorily. So he might lie now, something simple such as 'We made our crossing, hired horses, and road East,' but what is the likelihood that she will have provided some other false thing and his lie will simply undermine hers? Tagaris has painted the ideal picture already. That one of them maintain some credibility, slip away and—

What then? He disappears. Yseult returns to the Gallows and says he is dead. That's simpler than even a knife in a dark alley could be.

(No, that's not true. She wouldn't risk leaving him with Tevinter. Not alive.)

Returning his hands to the arms of the chair as if to make himself comfortable there, Flint says, "I seem to have no memory of it. But if you like, I would be happy to discuss Nocen shipping routes. Those seem to have been ingrained well enough to have survived."

[hassaran]

Tagaris sits placidly under this attention, affect at odds with the continuing keenness of his focus. There is something owl-like too in the movement of his head, rotated sideways or projected forward in demonstration of interest as if on well-oiled ball joints, now smoothly retracted at Flint's response.

He makes no attempt to conceal his disappointment, settling back into his chair with a little sigh, a moue of displeasure. His head drops briefly toward a shoulder, and then slides upright once more, and he clicks his tongue against his teeth again.

"I see. It is a shame that you would choose this course; I had thought we might simply discuss matters in a civil manner. We are countrymen, after all. We both, I think, seek the good of Tevinter and its people."

[katabasis]

"Is that so? I can't imagine what good you could possibly be effecting for Tevinter's people at this moment."

Yes he can. At the very least, he can imagine a great slew of possibilities the man across from him might list. But there's little point in doing Tagaris' work for him.

[hassaran]

Tagaris draws back, chin angling toward shoulder, a stung look remaining turned toward Flint.

"Come now, there is no call for rudeness. Do not pretend you were any great admirer of the Imperium as it was. Sick and soft, a bloated old beast moldering in its grave. I will not believe you weep for those men it called masters, weak fools who stood on the shoulders of others but still could scarcely see out of their own pockets."

[katabasis]

He doesn't smile. But there is something in the flexing muscle of Flint's cheek or about the eyes which implies the impulse toward one of those unpleasant teeth bared kinds.

"Forgive me. Bending to hoist Corypheus on the old beast's back only seems a strange method for raising the thing out from its hole."

[hassaran]

"Is that what they say in the south?"

This time the magister's question comes with a little scoff, and he bends his elbow into his palm, chin perched on fingertips.

"I see. My, you have been misinformed. I shall forgive you the insult of your incredulity. You see, the Elder One seeks to restore Tevinter to vitality. Already, he has raised up men of vision and vigor to replace those content to wallow in the stagnant waters of dissipation. Wealth and breeding need no longer bar those with strength and commitment from seizing the power they deserve. I should think a man like you might find at least some small appeal in such things."

[katabasis]

"You and I both know that the south doesn't care who Tevinter's master is, only that they didn't select it. And if that much is obvious to you, I have difficulty imagining that you would be blind to the fact that your Elder One has hinged this restoration on him being at its head."

He does smile then—no teeth, actually. Rather, it is the paternalistic cringing sympathy of a man watching someone else lift something very heavy.

"If those men to whom you refer exist, then why should they be so reliant on being brought up by his hand in the first place?"

[hassaran]

Tagaris frowns, the re-angling of brows impossible to miss, but there is, again, more disappointment in it than any bristling offense. "Do you despise your crew for their willingness to follow you?" is a rhetorical question, but his pause lingers into an assessment that produces a shrug. "Perhaps you do."

"But all men serve something. A lord, a Maker, gods, some higher purpose, gold. We serve a being whose power we have seen with our own eyes, and who rewards our service in this life. Few can say more."

[katabasis]

Across from him, the spread of Flint's smile is a slow and lopsided thing. Tired, yes; inevitable, maybe.

"You are quick," he allows, a comment as if from this conversation's margins. "I'll grant you that."

But they're not here to debate the philosophy of the thing, are they?

"She told you herself. My history, that island. If there was a time where what I serve and what you do could be reconciled, then we are long past it."