Part One: Lock Up
tl;dr warning
boring warning
"Is this where you bring all your dates?"
"You're a very clever knife-ear, aren't you?"
"My mom always told me I was special."
The prison guard shoved the knife-ear forward. "Shut up."
The elf stumbled forward. "Whoa. Easy, big guy. I might start to think you like me."
"Be more like your friend here and shut it!"
The elf glanced over to his right where an equally burly guard was marching another prisoner forward while carrying a torch. Brayan Lavellan had hardly spoken a word since being placed in custody. They were in what appeared to be a dungeon with the only light coming from a torch carried by the guard. Both elves had their hands tied in front of them.
"He's not my friend," the other elf chuckled. "You think because we're both elves we're friends?"
"Next he's going to say we look alike," Brayan said and gave a small grin.
"Well, that's absurd. You look nothing like me."
"Shut it!" both guards said at the same time.
The elves smiled at each other. They were in fact brothers and could almost have been twins. Brayan had strawberry blond hair that was getting long and shaggy. He was fairly tall for an elf, lithe like most of them, and had yellow tattoos on his face marking him as Dalish. His blue grey eyes seemed to reflect an air of boredom. His brother Bruce had a swept back mane of brown hair that had flecks of grey at the temples. He was a bit shorter than Brayan, with green and gold eyes that appeared to dance with amusement. Always the jokester, he usually had a smile on his freckled face. A few moments later they reached the bottom of some stairs where the guards stopped them outside a set of empty dungeon cells. All the others they had passed had occupants in them. Keys and metal clanged as one of the doors was opened and both brothers were shoved inside. Brayan stumbled, but managed to stay on his feet while Bruce was thrown to the ground. The cell door closed with a clang followed by the sound of a key scraping in a lock.
"You want to get rough, take me to dinner first," Bruce said to the guard as he picked himself up off the ground.
"I'll make it extra special just for you," the guard said.
He and his companions laughed as they walked back up the stairs. Brayan sat down against the wall as he watched the light retreat with the guards. It was completely dark. There wasn't even a window.
"Oi, tongue-tied, a little light?" Bruce said to the darkness.
"Give me a minute," Brayan said in a strained voice. "My tongue isn't the only thing tied here."
"I've got all day. Night? What day is it anyway?"
"I'm trying to...."
Brayan was struggling against the ropes that tied his hands together. He and Bruce had been picked up for 'disturbing the peace'. They had arrived in Antiva City along with other members of the Drinkquisition for a vacation. Most of them headed for the beach, Brayan and Bruce headed to the city center and found themselves in the middle of a tavern brawl.
"Will we be getting light any time soon?" Bruce drawled.
"You know, you could always untie yourself and give me a hand. You have no patience," Brayan said through gritted teeth. He was almost out of the ropes.
"I already slipped the knot."
Brayan chuckled. "Yeah, sure."
"And I have lots of patience, I just pick and choose where I spend it."
"Right. Ouch!"
He had finally managed to free his hands. Brayan took a moment to rub his wrists before using his magical abilities to tap into the Fade and summon a small flame. He had been careful not to use any obvious magic to avoid being handed to the Templars. He took a moment to look at his surroundings. Brayan was sitting down against the wall opposite the cell door. His brother was laying down on the dirty stone floor not far away hands behind his head. That punk had slipped out of his ropes.
"We have light," Bruce announced and jumped to his feet.
"Your grasp of the obvious never ceases to amaze me."
"I was always the smart one," he said as he began to examine the lock.
Brayan stood up and increased the intensity of the flame to give Bruce more light. "Any bright ideas, smart guy?"
"If only I had my picks...," Bruce furrowed his eyebrows in thought. "Fireball? Big enough to blast the door open, small enough to not burn us."
"How fond are you of your eyebrows?"
"Plan B then," Bruce chuckled.
"Wait," Brayan turned his head. Both brothers stopped to listen. The sound of armored boots could be heard coming down the stairs. Brayan went back to sit against the wall and closed his fist on the small flame in his hand. A glow of light could be seen coming closer as the sound of boots became louder.
"Brought you boys a friend to keep you company," burly guard said.
The cell next to them was opened and a petite figure was shoved inside. The guard locked the door and went back up the stairs. Brayan waited for the footsteps to fade before summoning another flame large enough to illuminate the two cells. He saw a familiar face smiling at him from the other side of the bars. It was another Dalish elf with long brown hair braided down her back. She had hazel eyes that glinted impishly in the light. She also had the same green tattoos on her face and neck that Bruce had.
"Maeve! So wonderful you could join us."
"You know me, I couldn't let the two of you have all the fun."
Maeve was a spontaneous individual with an adventurous spirit.
"I thought you got out before the city guard showed up," Bruce said confused.
"Ha! Ais and I ran into our own problem before we could."
"So, I take it she'll be joining us too," Brayan said.
"Yeah," Maeve's smile widened. "She, er, didn't go quietly."
Brayan and Bruce exchanged a confused look. Before either of them could ask what Maeve was talking about they heard more footsteps. Brayan extinguished the light. They also heard the voice of a woman echoing down the stairs. Brayan could tell the owner of that voice was not a happy person. They were keeping up a steady string of insults in the king's tongue and elvish. He laughed. Two guards were practically carrying a small figure between them. They tossed her in with Maeve. The string of insults was stopped as she hit the stone ground.
"Get comfortable, all of you will be here for a long time," the other guard said.
They disappeared back up the stairs, laughing as they went. Brayan summoned some fire again and stood up.
"Aislann!" Bruce said in an excited voice.
The woman groaned. "Oh, no."
"Ah, come on," Bruce laughed. "Aren't you happy to see me?"
"Oh, no. No, no, no, no, no," Aislann said. "After that exploding glass--"
Brayan, Bruce, and Maeve laughed. Aislann turned to glare at all of them. She had short dark brown hair that seemed to go in all directions. Her eyes were bright silver like moonlight and glowed with fierce intensity. She didn't appreciate Bruce's jokes which just encouraged him to make more. She was a fiery and stubborn elf.
"I'm surrounded by clowns," Aislann said as she rolled her eyes and sat against the wall.
"Lucky for you, a couple of those clowns have an escape plan," Brayan said.
"And when will we be seeing this plan?" she asked.
"As soon as Bruce gets out of the way," he replied.
"In a minute," Bruce said with an annoyed voice. "Mae and I haven't had a chance to play 'I Spy' yet."
"Aislann," Maeve said.
"Dammit!" swore Bruce.
"Alright, you've had your fun," Aislann said. "Can we get out of here?"
"Hold on," said Maeve. "I haven't had my turn yet."
"Oh, for--" Aislann rolled her eyes. "You can continue this childish game when we are out!"
"You're not having fun, Ais?" asked Bruce.
"Oh, I'm having a great time," Aislann answered sarcastically.
Bruce seemed like he wanted to keep pushing Aislann, but Brayan was not willing to take that chance. Even with a set of bars between them.
"Bruce," Brayan said before he could say anything, "let's get ourselves out of here first."
"Fine," Bruce said as he moved away from the cell door. "Do your thing Mr Magic."
"Artemis is missing the fun," mused Maeve.
"Fun meaning stuck in a prison cell with a clown and his mage brother," Aislann said, her voice dripping with sarcasm.
"I call that free entertainment," said Maeve with a smirk.
Brayan turned his attention to the door. It was a simple matter to hit it with enough force. Stonefist would knock the door off its hinges without a problem. He was about to release his spell when another voice joined the conversation.
"You know, there's an easier way to open that door."
The voice belonged to another elven woman who was leaning casually against the wall on the other side of the bars with her arms crossed. She had long, wavy strawberry blonde hair and orange eyes that almost glowed in the low light. Her lightly freckled face had a red tattoo and a scar on her eyebrow. Brayan noticed she held something in her hand.
"But I like my way," he said. "There's just something awesome about punching things with magic."
"How did you get down here?" asked Maeve.
"I sneaked in," answered Artemis with a shrug.
"Artemis, tell me you have a key," pleaded Aislann.
Artemis held up what she was holding--a ring of keys.
"I owe you a bottle of wine," Aislann said with relief.
Both doors were unlocked without further preamble. Artemis took out a dagger strapped to her thigh and quickly cut the ropes tying Maeve's and Aislann's hands.
"Well, that was...easy," Bruce said, almost sounding disappointed as he exited the cell.
"Definitely not as fun as busting out with magic," Brayan nodded in agreement as he followed.
"We'll find you some nice fools to fry before we leave," said Maeve as she patted him on the shoulder.
"Bruce was right," Artemis began as she placed the dagger back in its sheath, "that was the easy part. It's going to be difficult to get out."
They all looked at each other. Artemis would have had an easy time sneaking in on her own, she was the best at using stealth, but all of them getting out unseen? It was a tall order. Brayan was also not as good as the others at sneaking around. They were hunters, trained to stalk prey and remain hidden. He wasn't.
"What are we waiting for?" said Maeve with excitement. "Let's get started!"