Who: Cadi Seris Where: the Bannorn When: 9.45 Dragon; 13 Molioris Summary: Cadi takes what sounds like a simple job. It is, but her employer left out a few details. Rating: M for violence and mentions of torture
More than six months in, Cadi was still barely remembering to watch her blind spots. Another arrow arced through where Rhys should have been, and she only dodged it in time because the moron in front of her paused to smirk. Not a fatal mistake; none of them had been, a decade's worth of experience and her will to survive pushing past the grief just enough to pull Cadi out of the way of anything capable of sending her to join her lover. Unfortunate, maybe: if Rhys's death hadn't crippled something in her permanently, it was certainly taking a long time to heal.
Somewhere below the grief, though, the part of her that loved a fight-- loved winning-- was still running along just fine, so Cadi used the momentary pause while the bandit's thoughts shifted from good, she's about to die to crap, she dodged; what do I do now? to land a blow against his ribs. Not hard enough to cut through splintmail armor and kill, but the pain would throw him off-balance. Cadi's next strike was against his sword hand, brought up in reflex to defend his weakened side. Her third knocked him to the ground, and the one after that slid through the gap between armor and helmet to sever his windpipe, and then she struck out at the man next to him before he could fully process that his comrade was dead.
Cadi clung to the offensive through the rest of the fight. So long as she kept attacking, she could wrap that little part of her mind that kept whispering “he should be right there” in the rage and heart-pounding rush and bloody glee that always came so easily in a fight and pretend she couldn't remember what it was to fight with a friend at her side instead of near strangers.
The rest of them went down quickly, three on Cadi's sword, four with arrows through their throats (Cadi soothed the proud, competitive part of her mind with a reminder that archers always went for the easy kills and, anyway, Mr. Look At My Awesome Piece of Wood would have been dead three minutes ago if she hadn't kept the really tough guys busy), three by Laeli's hand (which didn't bother Cadi's ego nearly as much; maybe they'd get a chance to spar after this was all taken care of), and two on the knives of the man their employer had sent along as a tracker. Make that one from the tracker: Cadi could see the flicker of the last enemy's eyes as he tried to blink blood and dust away. She shrugged and started to wander over; Dary'd been good enough at navigating them through this patch of the Bannorn that Cadi didn't mind much if he couldn't finish his kills.
She did sort of object to patching them up, though. “What are you doing?”
He didn't glance up from applying bandages and some sort of liquid from an expensive-looking bottle to the gash along the bandit's arm. “We need him alive for questioning.”
Oh, hell. He was that type of tracker. “Fine.” Something in Cadi's stomach twisted a little at the thought of torture and settled in with the anger that was brewing at the thought of having been kept in the dark on some part of the job, but she'd gotten good at ignoring those sorts of things in the last twelve years. Or at least at picking a good direction to head off in until the screaming stopped.
She paused on the way to a promising-looking cluster of bushes to let clanking footsteps catch up with her. Laeli, from the sound of it.
“Seris, I know this is a little... upsetting, but we need to act professionally here. We were going to kill him anyways, and Dary's only asking a couple of questions. He probably won't need to use... anything extreme. We'll be back in Denerim and plenty richer soon-- I'm sure you'll get a nice bonus for this, and no one's asking you to do anything, just don't cause us any problems.”
Cadi let the other woman finish, rubbing away a few spots of blood on her shield while she waited. “I'm going to scout for spots to camp tonight, and see if there's a stream somewhere we can clean up in,” she said, voice flat. Not an answer, but she didn't want to get into a long, pointless conversation where the two women tried to convince each other that they weren't bothered by what their fellow hired sword might end up doing, except for a little bit, because feeling a little bad about letting someone torture someone else somehow made them better people.
“Oh.” Laeli seemed relieved at the non-answer. Maybe she didn't want to have the big, pointless conversation, either. “I'll come with you, just in case we run into more trouble.”
Cadi shrugged and started walking again. It was an excuse to get away from whatever Dary was doing to get the bandit to talk; there likely wasn't anyone else in the area. But there were always bears and wolves, and Laeli seemed to know more of which of the local plants were edible than Cadi did. Maybe they'd have something better than dried meat and stale biscuits for dinner. The silence on their way to what Cadi hoped might be a stream was awkward-- or at least that was what Cadi assumed, based on the number of times Laeli started to say something and then cut herself off before she'd finished the first word. Cadi didn't care much either way. Whatever hope she'd had for developing some camaraderie with the group had been soured by Dary.
There was indeed a stream hidden by the bushes, just deep enough for the water to run clear and free of mud. A little disappointing: Cadi had been hoping to at least rinse out her hair. It would do, though. She filled their waterskins and splashed some water on her face while Laeli busied herself digging up a few of the plants. Cadi wasn't sure what made them stand out from the surrounding plants-- they were taller, maybe, and had a few barely bloomed purple flowers-- but the other woman claimed the roots were edible and at least decent tasting.
By the time they reached Dary and Patrick, the bandit was dead. Dary looked tired but not especially unhappy, so Cadi assumed the questioning had gone well. For him, anyway. Patrick's face kept flickering between angry and queasy. Damn. She'd been hoping to avoid listening to a pointless-- in her mind, at least-- argument over something that couldn't be undone.
“We found a stream over that way running south-southwest. If it's not out of the way, I think we should follow it until we're far enough to avoid any scavengers and set up camp,” Laeli announced. Cadi assumed it was to cut off any chance of Patrick starting a “torture is so much worse than killing people for a living” rant, and decided she liked the woman. For a human, anyway.
Dary checked a piece of paper-- he must have made the bandit draw a map before he killed him, glanced at the sky, and nodded. “We have time,” he decided. Cadi hid a face at that. Yeah, she'd been hired to hunt down their merchant employer's lost merchandise quickly, but wandering around unfamiliar, bear and wolf-filled wilderness during an overcast night hadn't been part of the contract. No point in objecting when he'd already agreed to do what she wanted, though, so Cadi kept her complaints to herself and followed Laeli as she led them back toward the stream.
-------
The sky was starting to redden by the time they decided they'd traveled far enough and picked a campsite, so they split up, Laeli to gather firewood, her staying behind to guard their things, and Dary and Patrick heading off to the stream to fill their skins and a cookpot and clean up. Which was going to be a disaster, but they didn't have time to send a babysitter to head off a fight between the men and get a fire going before night. Maybe Patrick would be finished venting by the time he came back, and she wouldn't have to listen to him.
The men returned first. Patrick looked angry and Dary annoyed, but there were no signs of injuries on either of them, so Cadi decided she didn't care about whatever argument they might have had. She waved Patrick over, gesturing for him to set the pot he was carrying down. “Laeli said to let these soak for a couple minutes before boiling,” she said, waving at the pile of roots she'd been cutting up before dumping them in the pot. “Laeli has some dried venison, and I'm donating some peas. What do you two have?”
“Potatoes,” Patrick said after a minute. Cadi gave him an odd look-- what type of person carried potatoes around in their pack when there were lighter and already cooked foods to be had-- and ordered him to cut up a few. Then, she stared at Dary until he offered some jerky, and went back to cutting up Laeli's roots.
Her companions were blissfully if sullenly quiet until Laeli came back and then quiet again after they'd set a watch schedule. During dinner, Laeli tried to start a conversation, so Cadi humored her with slightly longer than one word replies until Dary joined in. Afterwards, Laeli made an elaborate show of yawning and Dary muttered something about an early morning. Cadi didn't bother coming up with an excuse and slipped into her tent as soon as she'd emptied her bowl. There was nothing else to do, so she curled up and went to sleep, hoping she wouldn't dream.
Some time later, someone shook her awake. Cadi nearly stabbed him before she realized it was Patrick. It was true night, now, and he didn't look panicked, so it must time for her watch. Someone would have to explain to him the wisdom of not leaning over a sleeping mercenary later. She shoved her knife back in its sheath and rolled to her feet, fumbling for her sword and shield. When she was done, Patrick was standing just outside her tent. “I'm up,” she told him impatiently, waving vaguely towards his tent.
He shuffled his feet, looking awkward. Oh, Maker. He wanted to talk. “Um, can I ask you something?”
“Sure,” Cadi replied, not smiling. She might have to be civil, but she didn't have to pretend to be happy about it.
“Okay, well, about that... thing today, has that ever happened to you before?” Patrick's eyes were fixed on hers. Cadi made a point of scanning the area behind him and waved for him to follow her as she paced the campsite's edge, looking for a good spot to sit out her watch.
“A few times.” She shrugged and sat down on a promising looking rock.
“Oh. What did you do? The first time, I mean.” Patrick didn't sit down next to her. Good. Maybe he'd stop talking soon. She wasn't in the mood to reflect on old times that night. Or ever, really.
“My job.” Patrick made a noise halfway between a swallow and a gurgle. Cadi glanced up to make sure he wasn't choking and sighed quietly. She'd have to do the whole speech. “Okay, I guess you're looking for something to make this easier. There isn't anything. Maybe you could have turned down the job if the client had bothered to tell us what he wanted to do to get his stuff back quickly.” Cadi cut off at the sneer in her voice and took a deep breath. No point talking if she sounded just as angry as the kid. She picked up again a moment later, hoping Patrick hadn't taken it as a sign she'd side with him if her decided to do something. “But he didn't, so your choices were to object and risk not getting paid or having Dary kill you in your sleep if he decided you were too angry to be trusted, physically try to stop him and definitely not get paid and probably get killed, or let things happen. You probably wouldn't have stopped him whatever you'd done, so you chose smart. Now, you can let things go, get paid, and never work for the man who hired us or with Dary again; or you can make a fuss, which won't undo anything that happened and might get you not paid or killed.”
Patrick didn't speak for a few minutes. Good. “This will happen again, though, won't it?” he said eventually.
“Probably. We kill people for money. Most people don't see much of a difference between that and torture, and they figure you won't either.” Cadi watched a cluster of bushes ten yards away. Was that...? No, rabbit.
“But...”
“Patrick, if you want moral clarity, become a templar or a town guard.” Cadi watched the rabbit hop away. Too bad she didn't have bow; bunny stew would have been a nice dinner.
“Why didn't you?” he asked, a little heat in his voice. Cadi wondered if he'd leave her alone if she pissed him off enough. Probably not.
Cadi tapped her ears. “Not a lot of job openings.” And she didn't care enough.
“Oh.” Patrick sounded sheepish. “Goodnight. Thanks, I guess.”
Cadi waved at him but didn't look up. When she heard the sound of his tent flap opening, she leaned back and spent a moment studying the stars. Maker, she hated conversations like that.
-------
Midmorning found the mercenaries walking along one of the narrow dirt roads the Bannorn seemed to be riddled with. Dary had woken them when the sky was just beginning to lighten and hurried them through breakfast. They'd eaten and broken camp in near silence-- probably due to grogginess, though Patrick had kept glancing at her with the oddest expression when he thought she wasn't looking-- and then trudged after Dary. He'd set a fast pace for the first three hours until some signal had him waving them to a stop while he slipped ahead. Cadi had hoped that meant they were close to the bandit's hideout, but after the third time he'd halted them to scout ahead, she'd stopped getting excited.
Dary signaled for them to stop again. Cadi started looking for a nearby tree to count leaves on while she waited, but this time he was pointing to a nearby cluster of rocks instead of heading off on his own. “That the entrance?” Laeli asked.
Dary nodded. “Back entrance. Seris and I will go around to the front and flush them out. You and Patrick wait until you hear something and then come through here and stop anyone who tries to escape. Only kill the adults.”
Cadi frowned at that; were they slavers as well as robbers? She was really starting to hate this client. It galled her to think that she'd probably accept work from him again if she had to, and that she would probably have to if he offered. Maybe she'd take a break after the job was over.
For now, though, she trailed obediently after Dary as he led her towards what looked like the entrance to a cave. It was just tall enough that a human could walk in without crouching and only a little wider than the wagons traveling merchants favored. It was probably a hassle for the bandits to bring their loot back-- assuming they were bandits at all-- but it meant Cadi could be fairly sure no one would be able to slip past her. She stepped forward to go in first but Dary held up his hand.
“They've probably set up a few booby traps,” he said. She shrugged and stood back so he could walk in first.
Dary turned out to be right; there'd been a couple of tripwires hooked up to nasty spiked things and one that looked like it was meant to set off an explosion. They were all clustered towards the front of the cave, though, so apparently the robbers were overly confident in either the secrecy of their lair or in their trap-making skills. Or maybe they were just lazy. Cadi trailed after Dary through the rest of the tunnel, listening as a handful of faint sounds turned into raucous laughter and a clatter of... plates or dishes, maybe? Were they getting drunk at this hour already? Good, that'd make things easier.
When the sounds were clear enough for Cadi to make out conversations, Dary gestured for her to take the lead. She stepped forward just far enough to make sure that their targets really were around the corner and ignored Dary's confused glance as she stopped and took a deep breath. Cadi pictured the face of the condescending, lying jerk who'd hired her, imagined hitting him with the hilt of her sword, and let out a battle cry. Distantly, she heard Dary swearing as he rushed after her, but she was already racing forward to meet her first opponent. Cadi shoved his knife away with her shield-- really, a knife against a swordswoman?-- and put her sword through his chest. She tugged it back quickly and swung it up to block the next man's attack before pushing him back with her shield. He stumbled and fell to the floor with a satisfying thud, and Cadi took the opportunity to stomp on his sword arm before dispatching him with a blow to throat. And then the fight was over. Five bodies? Had they killed the majority of the men yesterday? Odd.
Cadi was distracted from wondering why the cave had been so poorly guarded by a child crying. Andraste's tits, there had been a kid after all. She put her sword and shield away, wondering what she was supposed to say to a panicked child who'd just seen her kill two men.
Dary, knew apparently, because whatever he whispered to the girl got her to stop crying. She was a thin girl for a human, maybe ten or twelve years old, and dressed in good quality, though dirt-stained and torn, clothing. Too high quality, Cadi realized, memories from her (fortunately long ago) years as a lady's maid pegging the silk dress as the sort of thing a wealthy girl might wear to a party.
“Our client's daughter,” Dary said in response to three curious stares. That set off a round of complaints about the secrecy and demands for an explanation from Laeli and Patrick. Cadi considered joining them, but the first thing Dary said in response was “you'll all be compensated for the inconvenience, of course”, which was what Cadi was concerned about. That was followed by some sort of explanation, but she was too busy collecting the bandit's no longer needed coin and supplies to pay attention. Finally, the noise settled down. Dary gestured at a collection of stamped crates and announced that they really were the customer's lost merchandise, and the four of the sat down to divy up the rest of the bandits' goods.
-------
The two days' travel back to the nearest village was oddly pleasant. Part of that might have been that they'd found a mule and wagon with the bandits' other belongings, so they'd been able to alternate riding with the goods and the girl instead of having to lug crates with them and deal with a whiny child. And they'd agreed that since the roast rabbit, apples, and cheese they'd found in the cave would spoil soon anyway, they'd eat it on the trip back instead of dividing it with the rest of the spoils, so dinner was considerably better than a soup of bland roots, peas, and dried meat. Dary was probably relieved that everything had gone smoothly despite the deception. But Laeli seemed oddly relieved, and Patrick was downright cheerful, as if finding the girl had somehow wiped away his anger from the day before. Cadi found it annoying, though she wasn't certain why. Maybe it was because Patrick has made her give that stupid speech and reflect on things she preferred to ignore, only to have none of it matter a day later. She kept quiet and pasted on a small smile, though, forcing herself to think about how nice the weather was whenever she particularly tempted to say something.
They reached the village in late afternoon and Dary handed them each a bag of coins. “As agreed, the job officially ends here, though you're welcome to accompany us back to Denerim. We'll be meeting up with a merchants' caravan, so you'd be stuck in town for a day or two.” Cadi turned him down; Dary had been professional and reliable, but he still unsettled her, and she didn't want to spend a week traveling with him. Patrick seemed to hesitate, but Laeli opted to travel with the group.
Patrick cornered Cadi afterwards when she was tracking down the local inn for dinner and somewhere more comfortable to sleep than a bedroll. “Cadi, I was thinking, we seemed to work well together. Do you want to look for another job together?”
So that's what the weird looks had been about. Cadi bit back her instinctive reply and attempted a faint smile. “I have some personal business to deal with. Sorry.”
“Oh.” He looked disappointed. “Well, um, thanks for talking with me. Maybe we'll see each other around.”
Cadi waved him goodbye and the went to rent a room to hide in. Maker, she couldn't wait to get away from this place and these people.