It was just like they were back in the woods. Like when Snuffy had gotten scent of a squirrel she and Ashton had tracked. Except instead of a squirrel it was a band of thieves and instead of woods, brick surrounded them. Oh, and the entire city's well being depended on this particular quarry. So not even close, as it turned out. Still, Ashton treated it the same. If he thought about what all rode on their success, it would probably crush him with inaction. They followed the Mabari at a decent clip as her nose was planted into the hard ground. The scent was leading them deeper and deeper into Lowtown, the tension growing tighter and tighter with every step they took.
"When we get there, we need to get the book and get out. We don't have time to dawdle for long," Ashton said, though unnecessarily. If they were fast enough, maybe they could still save the city. Because if they didn't, then Kirkwall wouldn't escape the assault unscathed, no matter what the zealots thought. Belief was one thing, common sense was another. Snuffy took another turn into an alleyway and barked, letting them catch up before she continued to follow the scent.
Things had been strained between she and Rilien since her little outburst in his shop. Behaving normally seemed far more difficult than she'd thought. Even so, Sparrow followed closely behind Snuffy with Ashton and Rilien in tow, absently wringing her hands and pretending to check things out in the distance, only to jog back to them and resume her awkwardly quick pace. However important this task was—given that the entire city depended on them to retrieve this strange book—Sparrow found it difficult to focus her attention on it, as always was the case when it come to anything that was actually important. The surreality of the situation may have been at fault, as well. Qunari, zealots, magical books and impending doom just sounded like something straight from one of Rilien's hidden books.
In her opinion, it was always best to leave all of those concerns on the shoulders of those who understood impending doom; like Rilien and Ashton and all of the others. Should they need her mace to reach any of their goals, then she would fight with dogged abandon. Reflecting on what might happen should they fail had never been something she'd dabbled in. Better to steer forward and always expect victory. Perhaps, this is what she'd needed anyway. A means to release her growing tension, in the most intensive situation. It was somehow fitting. The trek towards Lowtown had been awfully quiet; and her usual banter seemed muzzled and distracted. She blamed it on the situation, though it might've only been half the reason.
“Book—in and out,” she repeated, staring ahead. Snatch the book from whoever had stolen it and possibly wreak havoc in the process. Then, they could prance all the way back to save Kirkwall in its entirety, gloriously celebrated as heroes. Maybe, they'd even be given fancy titles. Dukes and duchesses. Knights and a knight-woman. How bizarre that would be. She still managed to keep ahead of Rilien and Ashton, if only to avoid any unnecessary awkwardness. After all, she always had a habit of staring when there was something on her mind. Hopefully, she just appeared antsy to save the day. When Snuffy rounded the corner, into an alleyway, she broke into a jog and stopped short of the hound's heels.
As soon as they regrouped, Snuffy snuffled ahead. Her nose led them all the way to an eerily-abandoned warehouse in the Foundry District. Boarded windows and broken boards greeted them. Sparrow rocked back on her heels, studying the building looming before them. Snuffy did seem sure, though. Sniffing furiously at the edges of the door and turning back, tail flagged, as if she say that her doubts were unfounded. Her nose knew. From what little she'd paid attention to, she found it strange that thieves would simply run within Kirkwall and hole themselves up in an old, rickety building. Had she stolen some magical book, she'd have jumped on the first boat she could have, or flown back to the Wounded Coast. She gestured towards the door, eyebrows raised. “Er, should we knock, then?”
Surveying the building, Rilien could only assume that the thieves had holed up in here because it was unlikely to be a worthy target for Qunari takeover. What exactly anyone hoped to gain by stealing the text was unknown to him, which he took to mean it was illogical. It would only prolong their presence in Kirkwall, and it would be a thorough fool indeed who believed the forces here could contend with the army leaving the docks and win. There were some very accomplished warriors in Kirkwall, but of these, he knew less than thirty who were a match for so much as a single Qunari without a lot of luck or numbers—neither of which he would advise counting on when it came time to strategize. Scattered numbers were effectively useless ones, and the idea of this city mustering something as disciplined and organized as the Qunari ranks was foolish at best, deadly at worst.
But someone else’s folly may well be their good fortune—if they could acquire the book in time. Whatever the case, there was none of it to waste. “The three of you can stay together.” He showed no peculiarity at the notion of counting the dog as enough of a person to include. Perhaps if he still counted as one, it hardly seemed fair to say that a hound with that much intelligence was not. Hadn’t he been called such, not so long ago? Ser Lucien’s hound. He could find no offense in it. “I will find a back entrance, and flank.” In doing so, he should also be able to block any attempted escapes with the artifact—most of these kinds of buildings did not have more than one or two exits.
“Do watch your step, Sparrow.” He wouldn’t be there to notice the traps before she triggered them, after all, and he well suspected Ashton would be rather occupied picking targets to shoot. With nothing further to either of them, Rilien melted into the nearest knot of shadow, slipping around to the rear of the building.
"You be careful too," Ashton told him. Snuffy had done her job well, and for it earned an affectionate head rub, though this was where things got messy. He replied to Sparrow with a weak grin and subtle shake of his head. Any humor the archer might've had was drained by the recent days' events. All he wanted to do now was get the book and go home-- or somewhere. His home was in no shape to be lived in, as it were. "Let's not and say we did, yeah?" He said, slidding up to the door ahead. Pressing his shoulder gingerly wall beside it, he slid a dagger out from his boot and inserted it in the gap between the door and the frame.
A rusty pop and click followed as he unlocked the door, but before slipping inside he turned to speak with Sparrow and Snuffy one more time. "Be careful and quiet. Please? Just follow my footsteps," Ashton instructed, the plea bleeding through his voice. He of all people knew how not stealthy Sparrow was, but for once he hoped to get in close before their enemies were alerted. The closer they got before striking, the quicker they could be done, and the faster they can make off with the relic. "Ladies, good luck," He said with a nod of his head opening the door and slipping in silently.
Ashton stalked through the entrance, avoiding the upraised plate and even going so far as to point it out as he passed. He opted to ignore any and all noise that Sparrow had made for the health of his sanity. Fortunately, they made into the warehouse with no incident, with Ashton sidling up against the back of a nearby staircase. Snuffy settled in behind him, offering a low growl. He pressed a finger to his lips and she quietened. He saw them, the thieves were across the warehouse and talking amongst themselves in hushed tones. He thought he could make out the words "Qunari" and "Devils" but the words didn't hold his attention. The book being held under one of their arms was where his focus lay.
He drew his bowstring taut and turned to Sparrow mouthing only a few words. On me he said, turning back to the thieves ahead. Hopefully Rilien was somewhere else within the building, but he knew the tranquil wouldn't miss this fight. A moment passed as Ashton leveled in aim, and in the next the arrow was free. The impact was immediate, the arrow slamming into the book-holding thief's temple, crumpling him. "Now!" He belted, nocking the next arrow.
Idling near the doorway, Sparrow crossed her arms, uncrossed them and bounced on the balls of her feet. Impatient as ever, but conscientious enough to know that charging inside was not, and would never be, an ideal strategy—as she'd learn previously, setting off traps like a mouse trying to retrieve bits of cheese. However slowly, Sparrow was capable of learning from the mistakes she often made. When Rilien mentioned sneaking into the warehouse on his own, as he usually did in situations that required delicacy and grace, her mouth gawked open to protest splitting up. Stupid. When hadn't he gone on his own to do things? Her gaze drew away from Rilien and drifted back towards the door, and the crawling tension stiffened her shoulders.
“Of course I will.” As if to say that she always did. Before she had the chance to express her own quibble of concern, Rillien was gone. Vanished like a phantom. Probably already scrambling across the roof or slithering through the slit of an open window. Her mouth clamped promptly shut. When wasn't he careful? She'd never truly considered it before. Under the guise of caution, Rilien hardly hesitated. He was, perhaps, far more reckless than she was. Perhaps, much more thoughtless when it involved his own well-being. Disapproval gurgled from her throat in the form of a grumble. Her flagged eyebrows needled back down, creasing her forehead. “Yeah, quiet.” She followed behind him, waiting for Ashton to work his magic on the door.
They'd never let her live that down. She nodded curtly. Thankfully, with Amalia's handcrafted leathers, she wouldn't make such a racket whenever she moved; awkward sneaking-footsteps were much preferred to a tin of nails and creaking metal joints. As soon as he crept through the doorway, she attempted to mirror his movements, focusing on his feet. How the man managed to walk so quietly was beyond her capabilities. Still, she tried her best. She was not as quiet as Ashton, but surely on par with his faithful hound. Plate, ah, yes. She was familiar with those. This time, with his pointed guidance, she did not trigger any traps.
Peeking slightly over Ashton's shoulder, Sparrow eyed the assembled gang of... whoever they were, tossing startlingly offensive words; Qunari, devil. A brief blossom of anger twitched across her lips, until Ashton turned back to her and indicated that he was about to move. As soon as the next word left his lips, Sparrow had flown from her hiding spot like another hound loosed from its kennel. Another man scrambled after the discarded book while the others barked to each other, clearly rattled. Weapons unsheathed just as the mace found its way into her hands, swinging down from bellow to connect with the man's chin as he stooped low. The book fell once more and so did Sparrow's foot, hooking it with her heel, and skittering it back towards where she'd come. She twisted just in time to parry an oncoming blade.
Rilien had indeed entered through a window in the back, but he’d taken to the ceiling rafters very soon after, creeping along the wooden bars with the ease of—strangely enough—practice. Fortunately, they were not so far from the ground that a jump would be unsafe, though he was still trying to get the best position when Ashton and Sparrow entered the fray. Having little to no capability for long-range fighting, Rilien simply drew one of his daggers from his back, shifting his grip on it until he was assured that it would not cut him unless he landed very poorly, and settled back onto the balls of his feet to watch the progression of the fight, crouched on a horizontal rafter beam.
His companions seemed to have matters fairly well in hand, and the dog was currently halfway through dislocating the arm of a wailing smuggler. He supposed bites were not especially painless injures, though it would seem that another two were attempting to flank the hound, which had relatively few possible angles of attack compared to the others. As the book was mostly well in hand, Rilien used his element of surprise to drop down behind one of these, planting the dagger into his back with no hesitation. These were not professional fighters, clearly—it was unsurprising that they were overwhelmed by a force of four. The second man, or rather woman, it would seem, spun to meet his next hit, blocking the incoming dagger with a cheap longsword he would have dared not attempt to fold lyrium into. It would have shattered under the pressure.
Moving with the block, Rilien sidestepped, disengaging prior to any attempted contest of strength, unsheathing the second knife and sinking it into the side of a lung, giving the blade a twist and yanking it back out. The woman collapsed, and was promptly silenced by a quick slice to the artery at the base of her throat. A check revealed that the dog had fastened her jaws over her captive’s throat, and he was dead, too. Apparently, so were all of the others, and with a shrug, Rilien walked over to the book, plucking it from the ground by the spine and dusting it off before handing it to Ashton.
“I suspect this will be needed at the Keep.”
"Me too," Ashton agreed. He accepted the book and slipped it into the rucksack at his back and nodded. That was one thing done, now all they had to do was to deliver it. "Let's hurry and hope it's not too late," He said, whistling for Snuffy to follow behind. With that, the four made their exit.
"When we get there, we need to get the book and get out. We don't have time to dawdle for long," Ashton said, though unnecessarily. If they were fast enough, maybe they could still save the city. Because if they didn't, then Kirkwall wouldn't escape the assault unscathed, no matter what the zealots thought. Belief was one thing, common sense was another. Snuffy took another turn into an alleyway and barked, letting them catch up before she continued to follow the scent.
Things had been strained between she and Rilien since her little outburst in his shop. Behaving normally seemed far more difficult than she'd thought. Even so, Sparrow followed closely behind Snuffy with Ashton and Rilien in tow, absently wringing her hands and pretending to check things out in the distance, only to jog back to them and resume her awkwardly quick pace. However important this task was—given that the entire city depended on them to retrieve this strange book—Sparrow found it difficult to focus her attention on it, as always was the case when it come to anything that was actually important. The surreality of the situation may have been at fault, as well. Qunari, zealots, magical books and impending doom just sounded like something straight from one of Rilien's hidden books.
In her opinion, it was always best to leave all of those concerns on the shoulders of those who understood impending doom; like Rilien and Ashton and all of the others. Should they need her mace to reach any of their goals, then she would fight with dogged abandon. Reflecting on what might happen should they fail had never been something she'd dabbled in. Better to steer forward and always expect victory. Perhaps, this is what she'd needed anyway. A means to release her growing tension, in the most intensive situation. It was somehow fitting. The trek towards Lowtown had been awfully quiet; and her usual banter seemed muzzled and distracted. She blamed it on the situation, though it might've only been half the reason.
“Book—in and out,” she repeated, staring ahead. Snatch the book from whoever had stolen it and possibly wreak havoc in the process. Then, they could prance all the way back to save Kirkwall in its entirety, gloriously celebrated as heroes. Maybe, they'd even be given fancy titles. Dukes and duchesses. Knights and a knight-woman. How bizarre that would be. She still managed to keep ahead of Rilien and Ashton, if only to avoid any unnecessary awkwardness. After all, she always had a habit of staring when there was something on her mind. Hopefully, she just appeared antsy to save the day. When Snuffy rounded the corner, into an alleyway, she broke into a jog and stopped short of the hound's heels.
As soon as they regrouped, Snuffy snuffled ahead. Her nose led them all the way to an eerily-abandoned warehouse in the Foundry District. Boarded windows and broken boards greeted them. Sparrow rocked back on her heels, studying the building looming before them. Snuffy did seem sure, though. Sniffing furiously at the edges of the door and turning back, tail flagged, as if she say that her doubts were unfounded. Her nose knew. From what little she'd paid attention to, she found it strange that thieves would simply run within Kirkwall and hole themselves up in an old, rickety building. Had she stolen some magical book, she'd have jumped on the first boat she could have, or flown back to the Wounded Coast. She gestured towards the door, eyebrows raised. “Er, should we knock, then?”
Surveying the building, Rilien could only assume that the thieves had holed up in here because it was unlikely to be a worthy target for Qunari takeover. What exactly anyone hoped to gain by stealing the text was unknown to him, which he took to mean it was illogical. It would only prolong their presence in Kirkwall, and it would be a thorough fool indeed who believed the forces here could contend with the army leaving the docks and win. There were some very accomplished warriors in Kirkwall, but of these, he knew less than thirty who were a match for so much as a single Qunari without a lot of luck or numbers—neither of which he would advise counting on when it came time to strategize. Scattered numbers were effectively useless ones, and the idea of this city mustering something as disciplined and organized as the Qunari ranks was foolish at best, deadly at worst.
But someone else’s folly may well be their good fortune—if they could acquire the book in time. Whatever the case, there was none of it to waste. “The three of you can stay together.” He showed no peculiarity at the notion of counting the dog as enough of a person to include. Perhaps if he still counted as one, it hardly seemed fair to say that a hound with that much intelligence was not. Hadn’t he been called such, not so long ago? Ser Lucien’s hound. He could find no offense in it. “I will find a back entrance, and flank.” In doing so, he should also be able to block any attempted escapes with the artifact—most of these kinds of buildings did not have more than one or two exits.
“Do watch your step, Sparrow.” He wouldn’t be there to notice the traps before she triggered them, after all, and he well suspected Ashton would be rather occupied picking targets to shoot. With nothing further to either of them, Rilien melted into the nearest knot of shadow, slipping around to the rear of the building.
"You be careful too," Ashton told him. Snuffy had done her job well, and for it earned an affectionate head rub, though this was where things got messy. He replied to Sparrow with a weak grin and subtle shake of his head. Any humor the archer might've had was drained by the recent days' events. All he wanted to do now was get the book and go home-- or somewhere. His home was in no shape to be lived in, as it were. "Let's not and say we did, yeah?" He said, slidding up to the door ahead. Pressing his shoulder gingerly wall beside it, he slid a dagger out from his boot and inserted it in the gap between the door and the frame.
A rusty pop and click followed as he unlocked the door, but before slipping inside he turned to speak with Sparrow and Snuffy one more time. "Be careful and quiet. Please? Just follow my footsteps," Ashton instructed, the plea bleeding through his voice. He of all people knew how not stealthy Sparrow was, but for once he hoped to get in close before their enemies were alerted. The closer they got before striking, the quicker they could be done, and the faster they can make off with the relic. "Ladies, good luck," He said with a nod of his head opening the door and slipping in silently.
Ashton stalked through the entrance, avoiding the upraised plate and even going so far as to point it out as he passed. He opted to ignore any and all noise that Sparrow had made for the health of his sanity. Fortunately, they made into the warehouse with no incident, with Ashton sidling up against the back of a nearby staircase. Snuffy settled in behind him, offering a low growl. He pressed a finger to his lips and she quietened. He saw them, the thieves were across the warehouse and talking amongst themselves in hushed tones. He thought he could make out the words "Qunari" and "Devils" but the words didn't hold his attention. The book being held under one of their arms was where his focus lay.
He drew his bowstring taut and turned to Sparrow mouthing only a few words. On me he said, turning back to the thieves ahead. Hopefully Rilien was somewhere else within the building, but he knew the tranquil wouldn't miss this fight. A moment passed as Ashton leveled in aim, and in the next the arrow was free. The impact was immediate, the arrow slamming into the book-holding thief's temple, crumpling him. "Now!" He belted, nocking the next arrow.
Idling near the doorway, Sparrow crossed her arms, uncrossed them and bounced on the balls of her feet. Impatient as ever, but conscientious enough to know that charging inside was not, and would never be, an ideal strategy—as she'd learn previously, setting off traps like a mouse trying to retrieve bits of cheese. However slowly, Sparrow was capable of learning from the mistakes she often made. When Rilien mentioned sneaking into the warehouse on his own, as he usually did in situations that required delicacy and grace, her mouth gawked open to protest splitting up. Stupid. When hadn't he gone on his own to do things? Her gaze drew away from Rilien and drifted back towards the door, and the crawling tension stiffened her shoulders.
“Of course I will.” As if to say that she always did. Before she had the chance to express her own quibble of concern, Rillien was gone. Vanished like a phantom. Probably already scrambling across the roof or slithering through the slit of an open window. Her mouth clamped promptly shut. When wasn't he careful? She'd never truly considered it before. Under the guise of caution, Rilien hardly hesitated. He was, perhaps, far more reckless than she was. Perhaps, much more thoughtless when it involved his own well-being. Disapproval gurgled from her throat in the form of a grumble. Her flagged eyebrows needled back down, creasing her forehead. “Yeah, quiet.” She followed behind him, waiting for Ashton to work his magic on the door.
They'd never let her live that down. She nodded curtly. Thankfully, with Amalia's handcrafted leathers, she wouldn't make such a racket whenever she moved; awkward sneaking-footsteps were much preferred to a tin of nails and creaking metal joints. As soon as he crept through the doorway, she attempted to mirror his movements, focusing on his feet. How the man managed to walk so quietly was beyond her capabilities. Still, she tried her best. She was not as quiet as Ashton, but surely on par with his faithful hound. Plate, ah, yes. She was familiar with those. This time, with his pointed guidance, she did not trigger any traps.
Peeking slightly over Ashton's shoulder, Sparrow eyed the assembled gang of... whoever they were, tossing startlingly offensive words; Qunari, devil. A brief blossom of anger twitched across her lips, until Ashton turned back to her and indicated that he was about to move. As soon as the next word left his lips, Sparrow had flown from her hiding spot like another hound loosed from its kennel. Another man scrambled after the discarded book while the others barked to each other, clearly rattled. Weapons unsheathed just as the mace found its way into her hands, swinging down from bellow to connect with the man's chin as he stooped low. The book fell once more and so did Sparrow's foot, hooking it with her heel, and skittering it back towards where she'd come. She twisted just in time to parry an oncoming blade.
Rilien had indeed entered through a window in the back, but he’d taken to the ceiling rafters very soon after, creeping along the wooden bars with the ease of—strangely enough—practice. Fortunately, they were not so far from the ground that a jump would be unsafe, though he was still trying to get the best position when Ashton and Sparrow entered the fray. Having little to no capability for long-range fighting, Rilien simply drew one of his daggers from his back, shifting his grip on it until he was assured that it would not cut him unless he landed very poorly, and settled back onto the balls of his feet to watch the progression of the fight, crouched on a horizontal rafter beam.
His companions seemed to have matters fairly well in hand, and the dog was currently halfway through dislocating the arm of a wailing smuggler. He supposed bites were not especially painless injures, though it would seem that another two were attempting to flank the hound, which had relatively few possible angles of attack compared to the others. As the book was mostly well in hand, Rilien used his element of surprise to drop down behind one of these, planting the dagger into his back with no hesitation. These were not professional fighters, clearly—it was unsurprising that they were overwhelmed by a force of four. The second man, or rather woman, it would seem, spun to meet his next hit, blocking the incoming dagger with a cheap longsword he would have dared not attempt to fold lyrium into. It would have shattered under the pressure.
Moving with the block, Rilien sidestepped, disengaging prior to any attempted contest of strength, unsheathing the second knife and sinking it into the side of a lung, giving the blade a twist and yanking it back out. The woman collapsed, and was promptly silenced by a quick slice to the artery at the base of her throat. A check revealed that the dog had fastened her jaws over her captive’s throat, and he was dead, too. Apparently, so were all of the others, and with a shrug, Rilien walked over to the book, plucking it from the ground by the spine and dusting it off before handing it to Ashton.
“I suspect this will be needed at the Keep.”
"Me too," Ashton agreed. He accepted the book and slipped it into the rucksack at his back and nodded. That was one thing done, now all they had to do was to deliver it. "Let's hurry and hope it's not too late," He said, whistling for Snuffy to follow behind. With that, the four made their exit.