Chapter Text
9:37 Dragon
“Have we or have we not previously discussed what is expected, Guard-Captain?” Persephone templed her hands together as she leaned her elbows on the desk and stared at the woman who may have once been considered a friend.
“We have.”
“And what did we discuss when it came to mages?”
“The Guard is to request support from Knight-Commander Rutherford.” Aveline Vallen, Guard-Captain of the Kirkwall City Guard, looked at the man standing next to her. He shifted his weight under the attention of the two angry women.
“And?” Persephone prompted.
“And the Guard…” The woman trailed off and Persephone lifted her eyebrows. Vallen sighed, “Is to consider itself secondary to the Templars and their duties.”
“Bravo, Guard-Captain. You do remember. Then pray tell, why have I been receiving reports that you are not requesting the assistance of Rutherford here?”
“The Guard is capable—”
“Did I or did I not make myself clear?”
The guard-captain’s lips pressed into a thin line. “You did.”
“Be more specific.”
“You made yourself clear.”
“About?”
“About the Guard’s duties,” Vallen spat.
“If you cannot do a simple job, Guard-Captain, I will not hesitate to remove you from your duties.”
“But—”
“Investigate the crimes listed in the city’s legal code and defer to the Templars when you suspect mage involvement. If we have this conversation again, you will be stripped of your rank and sent back to foot patrol. Do you understand?”
“Yes, Hawke.”
“I have a title now, Guard-Captain Vallen, and I require that you use it.”
Vallen pressed her lips together and stared back. After a terse silence, she conceded, “Yes, Viscountess Hawke.”
Persephone waved her hand toward the door. “Dismissed. Get out of my office.”
Vallen set her jaw and turned on her heel, pushing past Knight-Commander Cullen Rutherford on her way to the door. As soon as she was gone, the man cleared his throat. “It’s technically my office.”
Persephone glared at him. “Don’t push it. I’m not happy with you either, but at least you do your job…and you’re competent enough.”
Cullen let out a light huff of laughter. “I appreciate the vote of confidence.”
“Don’t make me regret supporting you as knight-commander of whatever is left of this city’s Templars.”
Before he could open his mouth to respond, a knock sounded on the door. Persephone raised her voice to call, “Enter!”
“Still my office,” Cullen told her as the door opened behind him. Persephone rolled her eyes at him and then looked past at the newcomer. Her eyes were instantly drawn to the dark tattoos inked on his chin. Those were the most obvious, but when he turned his head, she saw there was another one on his nose. By the time she lifted her eyes to his, he was already focused on Cullen. Curious that his gaze hadn’t lingered on her, if he even looked at her at all.
“A message for you, ser. Arrived just now.” The words rolled off his tongue with the slightest hint of a Starkhaven accent. It was subtle, but it was there.
Persephone studied him as he handed a folded paper to Cullen. He was tall—taller than Cullen—and he had the dark tan skin of a northerner. He was clearly well built, even covered in full Templar armor. More than that, the man was unperturbed by finding her sitting behind his knight-commander’s desk. In fact, he’d hardly even looked at her all. A templar who hadn’t so much as blinked in the presence of a mage intrigued her, but a man who didn’t look twice at Persephone Hawke was a challenge.
“Who are you?” she asked as Cullen looked over the letter.
He turned to face her directly. There was a scar that ran across his right eye, but that wasn’t what made her pause; it was that when his gaze connected with hers, she lost all sense of time. It could have been no more than a second or it could have been minutes, she didn’t know, but the pale blue intensity of his eyes had Persephone’s breath catching in her throat. It was as though he truly saw her.
“Knight-Captain Rylen, my lady.” As he spoke, Persephone’s eyes dropped to his mouth, watching his lips move with each word that again flowed off his tongue in a way that had Persephone interested in learning more.
“Is Rylen your given or your surname?”
“Given.”
“And do you have a surname?”
“I do.”
Persephone waited for him to continue, but he remained stubbornly silent. Most people were afraid of her, which had the useful benefit of making them talkative in her presence, but this man didn’t seem to fear her at all. He merely held her gaze as though daring her to continue. “May I have it?”
His nostrils flared slightly in response. His nose looked as though it had been broken a time or two—it was hard and almost too large for his face. Thick stubble spread across his jaw even though it was still early afternoon. It wasn’t unattractive. No, she liked the rugged hardness of him.
His voice broke into her thoughts when he said, “Clacher.”
Persephone blinked as she lifted her eyes to his once more. She’d forgotten what they’d been speaking about. His name? Yes. “Well, Knight-Captain Clacher. That wasn’t so hard, was it?”
He set his jaw and stared back at her. Next to him, Cullen cleared his throat. The man had captured her attention so completely, she’d forgotten Cullen was still in the room. He said, “Knight-Captain, this is Lady Persephone Hawke, Viscountess of Kirkwall.”
Persephone held the knight-captain’s gaze as she leaned back in the chair. “A pleasure, I’m sure.”
One side of his lips—his full lips that once again drew Persephone’s eyes to them—lifted in amusement. “Then a pleasure it is.”
This one she liked. He would be fun.
“Oh, it will be.” Something in his eyes shifted and a charge leapt through the air between them.
“Rutherford, will you excuse us a moment?” she said.
Cullen didn’t argue. He wouldn’t dare, not after all they’d just gone through together. He turned to leave, but before he reached the door Persephone tore her gaze away from the knight-captain in front of her as Cullen pointed at himself and mouthed, My office.
When he’d pulled the door closed behind him, Persephone returned her attention to the man standing in front of her. “What brings you to Kirkwall, Knight-Captain?”
“I’m here to assist in the relief efforts.”
“You’re from Starkhaven?”
His eyebrows lifted. “I am.”
Persephone tilted her head and scrutinized him. “Do you know Sebastian Vael?”
He evenly met her gaze. “I know of him.”
“The question was not do you know of him. Do you know him? Personally.”
“I don’t.”
“Then tell me, what do you think of him? As a person? As your prince?” Persephone leaned against her right hand, keenly watching his facial expressions. The thick stubble was borderline a beard and she wondered what it would feel like under her fingers and her lips…and between her legs.
“He is reckless and fool-hardy. Not meant to rule.”
“Do you think he should?”
“Nae.”
Persephone smiled, pleased to see that they could agree on that at least. “Do you have plans tonight, Knight-Captain Clacher?”
She didn’t miss the way his brow furrowed at her use of his surname. There was something there, something unhappy in that name. Perhaps they had more in common than she’d realized. “I don’t, but the knight-commander—”
“I’m hosting a little party for the new prince of Starkhaven,” she interrupted. “Knight-Commander Rutherford will be in attendance as well. I expect you at the keep by seven. Don’t be late.”
She thought he’d argue, or at least as a question, but he merely lifted an eyebrow and nodded once before disappearing from the room.
Oh yes, him she liked.
***
“I was like you once, Hawke. Drinking and whoring my life away…” A hush settled over the room as Persephone snapped her eyes to the man who’d spoken. Sebastian-fucking-Vael, Prince of Starkhaven. That man had become the bane of her existence. She regretted the day she’d accepted his request off that board, and she regretted the day she’d avenged his family. If not for those days, they wouldn’t be here right now.
Her nostrils flared, but she took a deep breath to calm herself before she spoke. “For all your talk of forgiveness, Seb , you judge me quite harshly.” Sebastian opened his mouth to respond, but Persephone continued as though she hadn’t noticed, “It’s a wonder you ever followed me around all these years. Why, one might think you’re behaving so horribly out of jealousy.”
His jaw clenched as he stared back at her. She gave him a sweet smile. “I had nothing to do with your vows to your maker. Perhaps you should direct that anger at him.”
“The Maker has nothing to do—” he cut off when someone further down the table cleared their throat. At the sound, Sebastian gestured with his hand toward the others. “If only they knew what you really are.”
“What I am?” Persephone let out a sardonic laugh. “They know. They’ve always known. Just as you did.”
“Do they?”
“Of course. Why don’t you ask the knight-commander how we met.”
Cullen cleared his throat as all eyes at the table shifted to him. Persephone forced back a smile as his eyes darted around the table in a panic. He may be the highest ranking official in the city, after her of course, but she was entertained by making him squirm from time to time.
“How did you meet?” Sebastian asked, turning to face him. Persephone wasn’t certain which part of that initial meeting made a pink blush appear across his cheeks. She knew he disliked the memory of the hateful words he’d said to her after she’d just helped save his life.
“There was a recruit, he…he turned into an abomination,” Cullen uncomfortably began, pausing to give Persephone a helpless look.
She gave him a wry smile. “A recruit did turn into an abomination, that was terribly inconvenient, but come now, Rutherford. You must remember what happened next.”
The entire table held their breath as Cullen stared at her in shock. She flashed him a wider, teasing smile as she turned back to Sebastian. “I told him then that I was a regular at the Blooming Rose and was happy to help interrogate the young men and women there. The knight-commander has known since the day we met what I am. This whole city knows.”
“Aye, they don’t call you the whore of Kirkwall for nothing.”
A profound silence enveloped the room. Cullen’s face had gone from embarrassment to relief to anger, but he didn’t speak. He knew her well enough not to. Persephone took a deep breath and then rose to her feet. “I think you’ve overstayed your welcome.”
Sebastian started to sputter in protest, but Persephone nodded at the guards near the doors. They pulled them open and several more entered the room. He forced his lips into a thin line. “Some day, Hawke, you will regret what you’ve done.”
“I already do. Get out of Kirkwall,” she said.
Sebastian pushed away from the table, his chair toppling behind him as he stood. “I’ll go when I’m ready.”
Persephone tugged on the Fade around her, drawing its power to her. She would force him out if she had to. “Leave. Now.”
“I fear only the Maker’s wrath, not yours.” Sebastian threw one last spiteful look her way and stormed out. Several sympathetic nobles pushed back their chairs and followed.
“Anyone else?” Persephone asked.
Very few people at the table were willing to make eye contact with her, but no one moved to stand. Satisfied that was the last of them, Persephone sat back down in her chair. The scraping of the feet on the stone floor was loud in the unsettled silence. Taking a slow breath, she reached for her glass of wine with a hand that shook almost imperceptibly.
The new knight-captain she’d met that afternoon in Cullen’s office lifted his glass toward the center of the table. “A toast to Kirkwall, and to her viscountess.”
“Hear, hear,” Cullen said, lifting his own glass. The rest of the table quickly followed.
Persephone lifted her glass toward the knight-captain in thanks before bringing it to her lips. At least tonight she’d have a pleasant distraction from the mess she’d found herself in.