Closed to [fortheloveoffalondin]

[adaaradaar]

The Exalted Plains were the worst. Fire and demons and soldiers everywhere, and they were being sent into some forgotten elven ruin after some forgotten elven artifact that maybe wasn't even here.

Ataashi huffed and waved a cobweb out of his face, then had to duck through a partially collapsed doorway so he didn't whack his forehead on the stone. Adisa was walking ahead of him, the crystal on her staff alight with enough magic to bathe the room she was stepping into in cool blue light. The rest of the band was checking out a different ruin, so it was just himself and his twin sister. Not that Adisa really needed his help, but he wanted to go with her anyways.

"Another dead end?" He asked, keeping on Adisa's heels. She flicked her staff and the ball of light that was the end of her staff brightened, illuminating the whole room more clearly.

"I don't think so," she said, walking the perimeter of the room. The corners were drifted up with debris, something that looked like a globe in one of them, and there were the remains of a table along one wall. She crouched and sifted through the mess. She stood after only a few moments, something glinting with the light from her staff held in her hand. "I think this is it."

Ataashi stepped forward to get a better look. It was a necklace with a small pendant on the end. It was warm to the touch, despite Adisa not having touched it. "Let's get out of here, then, and meet up with the others." As he turned, though, there was a scuffling from the direction they'd come from. Footsteps on the stone floors. If it were their men, they would have called out if they were coming down at all. This was somebody - or something - else. He drew the axe strapped to his back, holding it low across his body with both hands. He glanced to either side to check the space he had to move in.

Behind him, Adisa dimmed her light and moved closer in, one hand on his back, just below his neck, staff raised. She could sling lightning or fire in an instance, but if they were facing demons, it was better to know what kind first, instead of feeding fire directly into a rage demon.

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[fortheloveoffalondin]

Fortunately for all involved, at the same moment that they'd been heard, the little party of four had heard the mercenaries that were already occupying the room that held the globe that they'd been searching for. Likewise as soon as the band had stopped moving, so had the elf and his companions.

"Ready weapons," the qunari standing just behind the leader murmured, pulling his own massive, modified drakestone axe from his back. Rather than doing that, though, the Inquisitor had stepped forward with his hand up, intending to peek in and see just what they might be dealing with. Soldiers could be dispatched easily. Demons, slightly less so. There was a soft clearing of throat from further back, and the party's other elf stepped forward with his staff raised, the orb nestled at the end glowing just as Adisa's was. At least on this, the two of them agreed: caution and investigation before brandishing blades.

"Ho there," the Inquisitor said quietly, lifting a gloved hand as soon as he spotted the pair there in the room bathed in light. He wondered what he should call them, briefly; Bull, he knew, was Qunari. But that didn't apply to all large, horned people, he'd learned. There was a voice from behind him, calling out, "Red, I don't know if being friendly's the best option right now," but given that they hadn't been attached within seconds, the elf seemed to have decided that these people might be worked with.

[adaaradaar]

Two elves, a Tevinter magister, and a Qunari. It was instantly apparent who this ragtag group was. There really wasn't anybody else it could be. Ataashi glanced back at Adisa - her face was lit on one side by magelight, but she looked fierce and dangerous anyways.

She, too, took in the group in the doorway, their own weapons out, but didn't lower her staff. She leaned a bit on the hand on Ataashi's back, but didn't come off guard. The fact that this was the Inquisition didn't necessarily mean that they wouldn't be attacked still.

Ataashi lowered his axe a little, out of a ready position, but not holding it lightly either. "Not looking to start a fight with the Inquisition," he said finally. They would fight back if they were attacked, however, and lose their lives miserably, but there wasn't a way out of this room that wasn't past the Inquisitor and his men.

[fortheloveoffalondin]

There was a moment of pause, then a grin of relief lit up the forward elf's face and he straightened up. He didn't even have the greatsword at his back drawn, he just held himself in a ready enough stance that he could grab it if he needed to. He ducked around the doorframe, followed closely by the elf and mage, and had to wait a moment as the Iron Bull worked his own way in, having to sidle in thanks to the width of his shoulders and horns.

"The Inquisition isn't looking to start a fight with you either, if it can help it," the Inquisitor assured the two of them, his hands coming up to show that he wasn't armed. He glanced around the room in case there were more of them, then spotted the little globe on the opposite wall. "Solas, there it is. Activate it and we can get back into the sunlight." The taller elf nodded and moved around, keeping one eye on the pair that was still facing the other three.

[adaaradaar]

Ataashi straightened after a moment, then lowered his axe fully. He didn't put it away, but Adisa did lower her staff, the lightning that had been building up near her hand dissipating as she relaxed. She had her eyes on the other mage - Solas - but Ataashi was watching the others. After a moment, Ataashi realized he hadn't imagined recognizing those horns.

"Bull?" He asked, leaning forward on the hilt of his axe. "The Iron Bull?" Then he grinned, and Bull had Adisa's attention as well.

Adisa flipped her staff into the holster on her back and Ataashi took it as his que to put his axe away as well. "I heard the Chargers were with the Inquisition now," she said. "You always did find the most interesting employers." She stepped forward, around Ataashi. Her brother instantly deferred to her, taking a half a step to the side and behind her.

[fortheloveoffalondin]

Salem was looking between Bull and the other two, who Bull had seen fit to fix with the smuggest-looking smirk possible.

"Well, you know. I go where the money goes, and right now, the big money's with the Inquisitor." The elf nearly buckled when one of Bull's hands came down on his shoulder, but he held himself up and punched Bull in the side for it. The qunari didn't even react to the hit. "If you're looking for something out here, your best bet's with these guys too actually. They're good at taking weird shit in stride."

"It's been nothing but weird shit since I started in this," Salem snorted, eventually just shrugging Bull's hand off. His head tilted some as Ataashi stepped back, but he knew better than to ask just now. This wasn't the time or place.

[adaaradaar]

"We have what we came for," Adisa said, but didn't reveal the locket. "Thank you for clearing out the Plains for us, this is easy money. We came overprepared." She stepped in, then offered her hand to Salem. "Adisa Adaar. This is my brother, Ataashi. We used to work under Iron Bull. How's Krem?" She directed the last to Bull.

Ataashi, meanwhile, had his eyes on the other mages - mostly on the magister. Even lit only by the cool blue magelights, his skin was golden brown, his hair dark and a bit wet-looking. Ataashi's eyes narrowed a little. He and Adisa had come into contact with Tevinter magisters often enough. They had grown up in an isolated part of the southern Anderfels, but working in Southern Thedas as mercenaries had brought them into contact with magisters often enough. Ataashi had some rather wicked burn scars on his back from one of them, and Adisa had spent 8 months posing as a captured Saarebas with one particularly nasty group - her scars were much more extensive and even now there were pockmarked scars around her mouth from where her mouth had been sewn shut.

Hard to see in any light, but they were there.

Ataashi tried not to think about it, and they had never told their mothers about the ordeal.

[fortheloveoffalondin]

"Alive and fighting," Bull replied, heading over to Ataashi and offering his hand in kind, reaching to clap the other warrior on the shoulder. Salem was looking down at the massive hand offered to him, before he reached out and grasped it as firmly as he could manage when his own admittedly long fingers barely fit around her palm. He was looking her in the face, and had to really strain to see some of the details, particularly the pocks around her lips. Best not to ask, he decided.

"It's good to meet more of Bull's troupe, past or present," Salem was saying, keeping his expression a little more neutral, though it was clear that he was delighted to be meeting the two of them. "Where's the rest of your company?"

[adaaradaar]

Adisa grinned when Salem shook her hand and closed her other hand around his for a moment, enveloping it completely, before releasing him. Beside her, Ataashi was slapping Bull's bare back, hard, grinning. They were always proving themselves to each other, and it had been a neverending thing back when they were still with the Chargers.

"In another ruin, looking for what we found here." Adisa looked to the side, at the globe that the two mages were crouched over, inspecting it. Then the elf reached out to touch it and she immediately felt the rush of magic and the Fade, before it dimmed. "Did that just strengthen the veil here?"

[fortheloveoffalondin]

The back-slapping man-off that was happening to one side amused Salem, but he was more interested in Adisa at the moment. Not only was she a mage, she was talented, sensitive enough to feel the Veil getting, as Sera had put it, more 'veily'. Solas looked similarly impressed as he straightened up, nodding once, his tone clipped and formal. "Yes. We are attempting to prevent tears from forming here in the future. The fewer there are, the less danger there will be for others to occupy this place." He seemed less than thrilled about the latter notion.

Salem, in the meanwhile, had retrieved his hand, though the warmth around it lingered, making him smile a little wider. "Perhaps you should find your men then. They'll likely want to know that they won't have to keep searching for whatever it was."

[adaaradaar]

"I'm sure they scuffed around a few rocks in the first room they found and then gave up," she said with a grin and a shrug. Then she turned, and with a sharp bark of "Hey!", Ataashi and Bull both straightened up like children caught misbehaving.

She turned back to Salem and gestured towards the broken doorway, "After you, Inquisitor." Really, her men were more disciplined than that, but a few of them were prone to believing superstition.

Ataashi stayed back as the rest of the group headed back up the stairs, but finally went ahead of Bull. "Of all the places to run into you at," he said, looking back over his shoulder at Bull. "Some ruin in the Exalted Plains..."

[fortheloveoffalondin]

Salem snorted quietly as he headed back out into the sun. Bull had friends that were more his size and speed, that was good. The Vint was looking the siblings up and down with a mostly unimpressed quirk of his brow.

"Please, please just call me Salem. I don't think I've heard my name since the Inquisition was formed," he pointed out, then started back in the direction of the camp nearest to the ruins.

"With all due respect," Dorian started as he jogged to catch up with the Inquisitor, "do you really think it wise to be leading a new group of heathens back to our people?

"Relax, Dorian. If they have other ideas, I'm sure we'll be fine."

[adaaradaar]

"Neither of us have a death wish, Vint," Adisa said to Dorian. "But if you want to start a fight, I'd be glad to end you." She said it calmly, almost like it wasn't a threat.

"Adisa," Ataashi said quietly, ducking his head, and she snorted, looking at the wall as they headed up the stairs. When they emerged, Adisa immediately started walking in the direction of the ruin they'd left their men at, and Ataashi was left to hang back. "She doesn't get along that well with magisters. Me neither, to be honest, but you're Inquisition, so you can't be that bad."

[fortheloveoffalondin]

Salem was perfectly content to follow Adisa's lead, happy not to have it thrust upon him mat least for a little while. Dorian had a sour look on his face at Adisa's words but he chose not to dignify it with a response beyond 'Really.'

Salem was keeping his hands behind his back, though he was ready to pull up his notebook, bound with a belt at his hip, to record anything new that would be of relevance. "We may be massive now, but we can always use more connections to the outside world. All the better to be a presence to help out here. We've made efforts to protect the Dalish up north and the Orlesians westward. We've also been scouting further out in the hopes of finding some untapped resources that The Breach hadn't tainted." He continued on, explaining where he could without giving up what Leliana would likely call sensitive information what they were doing out here, and elsewhere. He didn't seem to mind having to jog almost to keep up with her stride.

[adaaradaar]

"Well, if you like Bull's company, mine should get along pretty much the same way. We work hard, we take our pay, we don't cause trouble. We're good at firepower. Do quite a lot of work fighting for nobles. They want a show of muscle, we're good at that. They want some actual muscle, we're good at that too. I'm the strongest mage in Southern Thedas, and my brother's pretty good with an axe." Adisa pulled out a folded piece of parchment from an inner tunic pocket and offered it out to Salem. "Here's our rates, by the day, or by the month. You pay me, I pay my men, I'd be glad to work out the particulars with your ambassador, Montilyet. Soon as we deliver this amulet to our patron, we can come to Skyhold or station ourselves wherever or with whichever company of yours you want."

Adisa's tone was firm, and businesslike. There was no overwelling of pride of boastfulness, just a sense that she was telling the truth. Even her claim that she was the strongest mage in southern Thedas seemed like she was stating it as simple fact, not some ruse to lure in a patron.

[fortheloveoffalondin]

He could absolutely see why Bull would choose to work with these guys. They didn't beat around the bush, they had good business sense, and they legitimately did look like they could kick every ass in Thedas if they had the right motivation. They were exactly what the Inquisition needed when it came to hiring on mercenaries. The commander of his forces might frown at him some more about bringing in more mercenaries, but he had once made the point to the man that it was a lot harder to scare mercenaries off a job if they were getting paid well, whereas there were a lot of very unsure, very untrained soldiers under the command of some rather unsure commanders (present company excluded, he had assured Cullen).

"Excellent. I can pass the information to our Ambassador as she'll be the one to set that up, and then I'll look forward to seeing you at Skyhold." He sounded extremely confident that they would take this up. It was hardly a longshot to think they would jump on this, given both the pay and the company.

[adaaradaar]

Adisa nodded. "That's fine to me." She turned back to Ataashi and made a hand signal at him. Ataashi nodded and grinned, then nudged Bull in the side.

"My men can stay outside in your main camp, but Ataashi and I will stay inside the walls, so if you need us to move out there's no need to seek us out."

They were coming up on another ruin, and there were a few men outside this one. Adisa sped up, outpacing Salem's shorter legs rather effortlessly. She gestured, "Pack up the camp, we're heading back to deliver this amulet, then we're heading out." The men nodded. One went down the steps into the ruin, and the others headed for the hill, where a string of healthy horses of no determinate origin were tied, grazing. Adisa crossed to a paint gelding, an obvious war horse and suitable to carry her tall, strong frame, and dug around in the saddlebags.

She pulled out a wooden box and transferred the amulet to it, then closed it and sealed the box with magic before replacing the box in the saddlebags. Another moment of digging around and Adisa came up with a sheaf of papers. "This is a more comprehensive breakdown of our rates and services. I'll send one of my men to Skyhold with it, he'll beat us there by a week or so, since we have to detour and play the game with our current patron." She offered them out, but didn't honestly expect Salem to take them - it was boring, lists of expected expenses, timelines, rules and exceptions to certain services. Not the stuff for the patron, but the patron's man or woman in charge of handling things like the actual hiring of mercenaries.

[fortheloveoffalondin]

Salem did take them, but he only gave them a cursory glance over before he handed them back. "Of course. If you'll send along a copy of this with him for Ambassador Montilyet I'm sure she could make much better sense of it than myself. She'll certainly be amenable to any new forces for the Inquisition. Personally, I just want to be able to go back and rest a while. This place is..." He grimaced a bit, looking back over his shoulder at the almost barren landscape around them. "If you can finish your business with your patron, best to do it quickly."

He reached his hand out to her once more to shake, looking over at where Bull was still talking Ataashi's ear off about nothing in particular. Good; Bull needed more actual friends.

[adaaradaar]

Adisa shook Salem's hand firmly with a nod. "As quick as we can," she said with a small grimace that meant 'quick' might not actually mean quick. Then she turned and called to Ataashi, "Come over here!"

He obeyed, breaking off from Bull with a small frown. "What is it?" He looked between her and Salem a bit warily, but took the papers she passed him.

"Take these to Skyhold for me." She smirked when Ataashi's face split into a wide grin.

"Alright," he said, rolling them into a ball and dropping them into a tube on the side of his own horse - a bay gelding, the same size as his sister's.

[fortheloveoffalondin]

When Salem realized that they would actually be taking Ataashi with them, he grinned once more, scooting over to the other large mercenary and offering his hand to shake. "It's a long ride, but I'm sure you'll be good company. Ataashi, right?" He was pretty sure he'd heard that right, when Bull had said it from the other side of the room.

Bull was busy saddling the massive workhorse he'd taken to riding when the Inquisitor brought him out to these places, chatting with Adisa with a fair amount more deference than he ever showed Salem.

[adaaradaar]

"Yes sir," Ataashi said with a smile, shaking Salem's hand - his grip was warm and dry and firm, and his thumb and forefinger touched around the narrowness of Salem's palm.

He looked over at Adisa and Bull, then returned his attention to the Inquisitor. He smiled. "Qunari are matriarchial. He's always going to listen to a strong female Qunari more than you, sorry." His smile widened into a grin. "Being her brother doesn't save me from it either. I'm the only male in my family, our mothers run the place at home."