serindrana - Scattered Coin :: F is for Fallout [Athenril ABCs]

28th January 2012

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F is for Fallout

“You could have gotten enough gold for her to make us all rich,” Tevin hisses as she steps off the dock and onto the solid stone of Kirkwall again. He fancies himself her second-in-command, but the truth is she’s never trusted anybody enough to fill such a position. He’s somebody she relies on, but she’s hardly dependent, and she hardly cares for his counsel.

She waves a hand dismissively and walks on, setting aside the Gallows and templar offers where it belongs - in the midden of her brain.

“Athenril,” Tevin presses, digging through the refuse to try and drag it forward.

“I’ve made my decision,” Athenril says. She has another meeting to get to, one Tevin is not invited to, just as he wan’t invited to this one. Perhaps it’s time to cut some tethers, shove the man out to sea and see if she’s taught him enough that he can swim. Or maybe that’s too dangerous - a weight around the leg, instead, to drag him down fast so he can’t take her with him.

“How much money did those bribes cost us?”

Because Tevin, apparently, refuses to understand, or to listen, and there’s a small worry that he’d turn bitter. “It’s none of your business,” she says, “because it did not cost us anything. It cost me. And she earns it all back, and then some.”

She thinks of Bethany, naive Bethany with the devastating eyes and the ability to set fires and freeze over a path in the harbor just when Athenril needs it. That’s who Tevin means, and it’s who the templars meant. The other mages rise and fall on their own merit, the one or two Athenril works with from time to time.

But she-

“I will not continue to work with dogs,” Tevin spits, and then he spits on the ground, too. She stops and turns to face him, arms crossed over her chest. “Especially ones who should be collared and leashed by templars.”

He’s a head again taller than she is, and broader, human and hairy and arrogant without enough balls to back it up. She doesn’t even grant him a tilt of her chin. “No? I hear they are quite loyal, even without a collar. Moreso than a gutter rat.”

His expression turns from dark to storming, brow twisting and face contorting. He doesn’t like it when she pricks at his pride; he thinks he’s useful, indispensible.

He’s not. Not enough to stroke him until he preens.

“When you catch their fleas,” he growls, “do remember that I warned you.”

“Last I heard,” she says, lips curling, “rats have fleas too.”

___

Rats have fleas. She can’t remember the last time her mouth got her into quite this trouble, and her breath stutters out, uneven and sharp, at the sound of metal-clad boots not an alley away. If it were a better day, if the job hadn’t gone absolutely tits-up, she may have been able to think it all just coincidence. But it’s not.

She knows it’s not.

She’s got pissed off self-proclaimed knights of the Coterie on her ass, and templars ready to shove down her throat, and Hawke is, as far as she knows, halfway across Lowtown, getting Bethany somewhere safe. Somebody had seen her face, torn off her veil, and it was too much. Athenril has to mobilize new bribes.

But to do that, she has to get out of this alive and not totally fucked.

Athenril backs up to a stack of building materials that are already rotting and will never be used, and she scrambles up them, aiming for the roof. It’ll be a miracle if the roof doesn’t cave in under her, but she needs the high ground. She’s got her fingers wrapped around the edge when she hears shouting, has herself half-hauled up when a weight strikes her back. Half-stunned, she scrambles to keep her hold but her fingers slip, and suddenly she’s tumbling backwards.

It’s not templars, she thinks as she hits the ground and shoves her calloused and practiced heel into her assailant’s groin. He grunts and lets go, and it’s her only chance to fall back, reaching for her daggers. She’s going to run, not fight, but she needs to keep them off her-

“Tell me where she is, bitch,” Tevin growls, and she almost laughs.

Coterie knights indeed.

—

[Masterpost]

Tagged: scattered coin athenril alphabet challenge dragon age alphabet meme dragon age 2