#dramasplosion

[tumblybumblyfennec]

"Add tags to help people find your post"

Tumblr, let me shake my thoughts out of my brain in peace without worrying that someone is gonna start a flame war over whether pineapple on pizza is less or more cursed than kiwi in anything and I'm gonna be in the epicenter of the dramasplosion.

[rayaarchive]

[unforth]

Not so friendly reminder that if you think it's okay to be horrible to real people because they ship something you don't like you should fuck right off my blog.

[rayaarchive]

Beau tries to convince cullen not to date raya

done by Sam but I can never find things on her blog

Cullen’s eyes were wide with worry as she stepped back into the small office space and she watched him shift a little helplessly under the Phoenix’s bulk. “Did you…?” his voice was small, but had none of the rasp of smoke breath it had before. The honey and tonic must have been working.

“How are you feeling?” despite the thickness in her voice, she still remained coolly professional. Or would have been if the wet tracks down her face weren’t a telltale giveaway.

“Better, the tea has helped…are you crying?”

Beau’s hands few up to scrub at her wet eyes, and she sniffled audibly. “I think I may have said some things I regret.” The confession was small, her accent thick with tears. She shut the door and seated herself beside the Commander. He yelped slightly as Baldoin shifted across his lap, drawing himself onto the Medic’s thighs, chittering softly to her.

He could sense her turmoil, splaying himself out over both of their thighs, tail curled possessively about the pair of them.  

She curled her fingers in the Phoenix’s feathers, stroking the creature until it trilled. “But I still feel strongly on others.” Beau’s expression remained strictly neutral and she continued to rub her fingers in Baldoin’s silky plumage. “I rescind everything I said before. She isn’t good for you Commander. Not if this is how it is going to happen.” She exhaled sharply, shutting her eyes. “Shes a danger to even herself is she doesn’t get her temper in check. I understand yelling, but magic shouldn’t be used in anger.”

She bit down hard on her lip, and didn’t dare look at the man beside her. He had looked crestfallen when she had entered, let alone with what she was telling him. She knew the depths he cared. He had explained it several times during some of their tea chats. “I cant stop you Commander.” Her voice was soft, and she shook her head. “You’re a grown man and capable of your own decisions.” She exhaled softly and as she heard him breathe in to speak, cut him off once more.

“However, Cullen.” His name tasted strange on her tongue, thick and wrong. But she needed the effect, and she reached out a shaking gloved hand to touch his. “As your friend. I just want you to be careful.”

All his bluster deflated, and she could see the exhaustion once more lining his face. Cullen’s shoulders slumped and he leaned against the mage’s. “It’s never that easy.”

[rayaarchive]

Just a Fight I guess

Raya boiled with rage as she stormed the halls of Skyhold. Every step scorched the rugs with near perfect imprints of her bare feet and the heat she radiated made it near impossible to pass her, leading to a clear path before her and the smell of papers singeing should they be near.

She shoved open the half crooked wooden door, leaving deep scalding marks where her hands had been.

“Makers breath woman!” Cullen gasped with the suddenness of heat in his room that stole his breath from him,

“Calm down, before you kill someone!”

Raya’s glare hardened further u til she was snarling, cuing Cullen’s complete stop of everything. He knew well enough that an angry mage was a dangerous one, let alone Raya and her tantrums.

“Will you ever put anyone before the Templars?”

He could have sworn on anything holy, that no snake held that much venom and quickly did a mental run through anything he might have done to slight her. Unfortunately for him he came to no conclusion,

“What?” His exasperation turned to panic as papers started igniting left and right,

“Damn it all, will you stop!?”

“No!” She flicked her hand in his direction and lit the whole desk aflame,

“Why should I have compassion when you have none!?”

As much as he tried not to, Cullen couldn’t help the panic seated in his stomach as he tried to pat down the flames in vain.

“First damning the mages to Corypheus now sending the Templars -of all people!- to Fahleon’s clan!?”

Gold eyes whirl to the girl in their own fit of anger,

“Fahleon!?” He stormed to her, flames be damned, “You’re going to burn Skyhold to the ground because of the Inquisitor!?”

“Yes.” A window shattered somewhere behind them but neither flinched in their deadlock, both glaring the other into submission and failing,

“You must have a demon’s heart of ice,” Cullen’s breath caught as his body stiffened with frost and his chest heaved as the air in his lungs froze, he looked down to see she had only lightly touched his armor, “to be so cold to those who suffer.” Her voice matched the frost in his body and try as he might, he couldn’t muster the energy to growl at her for it.

The flames cut off dead and frost encapsulated the remaining glass of the windows. He wondered if it might be warmer out side even,

“Raya-“

“You know Templars hunt Elves as much as they hunt mages, and still you send them and call it an act of kindness?” She was shoved off, lucky for Cullen and his lack of proper armor, but her eyes remained just as Icy as of it hadn’t happened and it chilled him further.

“Wasting effort-“

“Wasting!?” They glared at each other, equally in disbelief of each other’s actions, until Raya shook her head and headed out of the room.

“You can’t tell me that if the person in danger was your sister rather than his clan, that you wouldn’t charge in yourself.”

She had meant it as a parting jab, but he caught her wrist painfully and yanked her back into the room to look at him; she did, dead in the eye and refused to back down from him even when he looked over her as he did.

“I would, want to, but I know where I’m needed and the whole of Thedas is more important than family. It’s my duty-“

“Exactly.” She cut him off,

“It’s your duty. You signed up for it. For the mages, the demons, the danger, the rules. What did Fahleon sign up for?” No answer, he knew it would be in vain to speak any way,

“He never asked for this. He tried to get away from it even! He didn’t ask for this command, the inquisition, he never even asked to become a warden, but there you fucking Templars are. Always forcing innocent people to suffer.” She snarled a bit, yanking her wrist back to her own chest and stepped back.

“Fahleon doesn’t cry… and he won’t ever again if I can help it.”

[rayaarchive]

I’d like the company

It’s been weeks, she’s still hiding her face and staying in the kitchens. She won’t serve the food because she doesn’t want to face more people than she has to, but the other kitchen maids know her well enough to see past the hair and dye, and she knows they gossip.

She’s surprised with how long she’s left alone, more surprised when she turns to dump a bowl of fruit into a pot and she sees him.

Blonde hair, gold eyes, and sleeplessness stained under his eyes. She wants to run, hide anywhere where he can’t see her, but he’s blocking the only way out.

It makes her shake, makes her think he might strike her down for ‘being one of those mages’.

“You dyed your hair?”

Why was that every ones first question?

Raya nods curtly, avoiding looking at him. She keeps her eyes trained on the bowl of soaking fruits.

“It May be out of place, and I wouldn’t want to upset you again- maker maybe I should just stay quiet.”

Damn her curiosity and her temper.

“What?… just say it.”

She could hear the metal of his armor shift against the leather of his gloves, the cotton of his over shirt, and she thought he might come hit her - for a moment - but his sigh caused a reflexive glance and he still stood at the door way, hand rubbing the baby hairs at the back of his neck as he looked off in thought like he always did when unsure. It made the corners of her mouth quirk, even as she tried not to.

He shrugged and she looked back down as he looked back at her, her heart sped in fear that she may have been caught.

“It’s cute,” a silent beat, “but I like it better white.”

An embarrassed happiness colored her cheeks at his answer, forcing her lips to quirk into a small smile. She touched her hair that hung over her shoulder and felt it’s gritty ness from the dye she’d made.

“I do too…” She mumbled back, chancing a look up at him. He wasn’t wearing his armor and she thought it must have been how she used it against him and frowned deeply.

“I… um,” she sighed, shifting her weight to one foot and the bowl to its opposite hip, “I’m sorry.”

They shared a rather pitiful look for a moment, before Cullen broke it to busy his eyes with anything else.

“Beau… she said- or rather, she thought… maker, I don’t know. I think she’s right though.”

Raya’s begins both boiled and froze at once; something else in her life being meddled with.

“Oh? She has more to say does she? Seems she has quite a lot of things to say about me. What is it this time?”

He stayed silent for a long time, enough time to let Raya assume he’d never speak and moved on with her chores.

“She said I should stay away from you.”

Raya kept her snarling to her own mind but failed to keep the storm from her face.

The fire under the cauldron lit itself ablaze, starling Cullen enough to loose his footing for a moment and clutch his chest,

“Oh yes, because a mage with fade in her head is FAR less dangerous than I am!” She thrust the contents of her bowl into the cauldron then tossed it aside on the counter.

“Sure She was resurrected, but hey, trust a half dead, brain washed, git over someone who’s known how to stay under the radar her whole life.” She sifted ingredients on shelves angrily and piled them up on the isle while she spoke, “surely she’s the better mage than I am. And surely better than Morrigan or an other non circle refugee. It’s not like we didn’t have our own fears and torment, we clearly didn’t learn anything at all, did we!?”

Tears filled her eyes and anger in her hands as she mixed the contents in her bowl. Quickly, she growled and tossed it back to the table again, throwing herself backwards to the counter behind her to burry her face in flowery hands. Her fingers gripped what hair that dared get close enough and a whine slipped out of her throat. She wouldn’t cry, not really, she was too stubborn to let it get to her.

When had she gotten to tightly strung like this?

She hadn’t heard his boots on the cobble or the soft flutter of his jacket, but he was around her. For a moment she feared he was attacking, but then settled into it. She hadn’t realized in her bristling, just how much a hug would have helped. Why hadn’t they done this more? Sure they had hugged, but it was always with her arms around his neck and his hands seated low; this was different… safe. She didn’t deserve that.

Unsteady hands pushed at his chest; he moved back, but only just.

“You should keep your distance from ‘mages like me’….. you haven’t washed the damn coat have you.” The smell of smoke lingered still and twisted her stomach.

“Not when I asked the Inquisitor, of all people, to find you. I’ll not have wasted the loss in ego to gain nothing.” She could hear the joke in his tone but still felt guilt from it.

“I’m sorry… I didn’t mean for all this.”

“I’m sure.”

“I didn’t have the whole story…”

He didn’t answer, not for several beats, and she wasn’t sure if it was her heart she was counting on that bided in anxiety or his that stuttered and lulled her.

“Do you want help?”

She looked up, confused, into his face only to have him glance at the half mixed bread.

She snorted and rested her forehead on his chest. It was much better with out the armor, and his hands with out the gloves as the ran through her hair,

“Yeah… that’d be nice actually… I’d like the company I think.”

[rayaarchive]

Bye

Fine. Fine! If everyone in Skyhold wanted to come yell at her because her boyfriend was insensitive, her best friend didn’t tell whole truths, and her temper got pushed out of control, then it wasn’t worth sticking around.

Raya thrusted herself out of the chair she’d brought up weeks ago to sit with Cole -who usually helped- and caused it to shriek with the sudden movement.

“You might hurt someone.” He commented as she walked straight for the ledge, having had easy access to her mind already and know what she planned to do.

“Good. Fuck them.” She snarled and have a small hop off the ledge to the floor below.

She landed with a hard thud and her knees buckled nearly completely, but she was able to recover quickly and ignore the stinging in her feet at the fall.

She walks calmly on the outside, with a face of fire and stone, leaving no room for any one to question her or stand in her way. She ignored the murmurs around her until she was well out of Skyhold and let her anger wash over her and lashed out at snowbanks and rocks unlucky enough to jut out and be seen. She had the full intention of melting the stone, if she could, but it quickly just became too much and with the exertion of her earlier fit.

She hadn’t noticed just how much mana she’d used till just now, as the cold hit her full on.

She didn’t quite care in all honesty. If no one wanted to see her side of things, just yell at her and not hear her, the all of them could be damned for all she cared.

“They’re just scared, you know.”

She couldn’t even feel him now and it made her stomach lurch; she’d never used all her magic up before. It felt as if she were half dead.

“Fuck them.”

“You should say something. Not now.”

“Don’t you have people to help?”

She appreciated how he did t take offense to her tone, as it wasn’t truly Aimee at him, but it also twisted her stomach and heart, knowing he gave up his ability to see human emotion the way a person could. She had tried to ignore the choice for him to become fully spirit, and intentionally never asked if it was his choice or Fahleon’s, and it but at her to think the choice wasn’t cole’s to make.

“I do.” He said with the same lack of emotion he’s had since then, “but you need help too.”

She glared into her lap as her head was teased on her knees and arms limp at her sides,

“Clearly I’m not important enough for you to care about, go help the others. Surely they’re more hurt than I am.”

“You can’t measure hurts.”

And that was it. They sat silently for what seemed to her to be hours. Long enough for her fingers to sting and burn with cold and fresh snow to start filling the spaces she’d melted.

“Maker take them all,” she bit, standing to her feet on the uneasy numbness that were her feet, “I’m leaving.”

She got at least five feet before she turned back and saw him still sitting in place. It unsettled her a bit, she expected him to leave her there, but glad he stayed none the less; she would have regretted leaving him like that.

She eased back through the snow to drop to her knees in front of him and wrap him in her arms,

“To you, I’m sorry.” She had to specify. At least he listened to her, understood her reasoning and didn’t attack her for it with out question. She wasn’t sorry to any one else.

“I know.”

He stayed, until he couldn’t see her trough the snow any more, as she stumbled her way down the mountain. She didn’t have a destination in mind, or rather she had many… maybe to keep him from knowing where she’d go.

[rayaarchive]

Bar Maid

She wasn’t sure how long it had been since she made it to town, weeks maybe, and she nearly regretted everything from all the groping and cat calls she had to deal with as she served drunkards day in and day out. She hadn’t been ignorant to the perks dating the Commander had given her… Yet it was a living. Enough to change her clothes and dye her hair as not to get recognized, she had even let it grow out a bit and hid her ears.

No one here knew her, and somehow, she saw the familiar face of a Red Kite who looked as long faces as her owner. She scowled, minutely, and sighed.

Excluding herself, leaving her dish rag on the counter with the bar keeper, she took her break and headed outside to retrieve the bird. The long sleeves of the tunic she’d acquired lessened the sting of Ada’s claws into her arm that had been offered out as a perch.

“Fahleon here?” She mumbled, not wanting to seem daft to any passerby. There was no screeching answer, only a disconcern with her and then preening. Raya took it as a no and left it at that for now; she took her around back and into the kitchen for a quick moment before returning outside as not to be seen, and offered up some form of meat that had yet to be cooked. She wasn’t in charge of the meals here so she honestly had no idea what kind of meat it was.

“I suppose writing a not telling him ‘no thanks’ would be useless?” It was half rhetorical but Ada looked at her in a way that could only be ‘well duh’, had she been human.

She pecked at her hair, pulling a few strands free and covering them in bits of blood from the mystery meat.

“Ew… yeah, I dyed it so I wouldn’t be found… clearly didn’t work.” She commented, using her sleeve to rub the red out of the rutty brown she’d made it. She absolutely hated the color, she missed looking like herself.

She kept Ada for as long as she would stay, even making a few coppers here and there by showing her in the bar, careful not to let any one too close to her, but it was a different friend she’d made that kept the men away from her.

A half starved Possum had been getting into the waste behind the bar, causing a bit of trouble for her employer, so she took to catching it. It had taken weeks for it to trust her, eventually eating from her hand, then allowing her to pet it. She’d named her Hara’Nal, and kept her as a pet until she discovered, due to a customer, that she had far more potential than just a companion pet. They taught her to pick locks and pockets. An investment of worth if she had to say. Worth the coin it took to teach the animal.

As always, her contentment was shattered; at least this time it was gentle this time, with the absence of Ada. She wondered how long she had stayed with her but quickly decided it didn’t matter when she saw who would be her patron today.

Not a single soul in Thedas could copy nor mask The Iron Bull.

She stood in the door way, contemplating just leaving, until her boss called her over.

“Fake name?” Odd greeting, but warranted.

“Fake name.” She parroted, Confirming the question.

He motioned for her to sit next to him, and light as the business was so early in the morning, she lacked an excuse not to.

“Nice hair… ugly cat.” He grimes into his pitcher and she snorted as she pet Hara’s butt,

“She’s a possum… a very useful possum.”

She needed that; how long had it been since she cracked a smile? Everything was so stressful at the castle, and every ones mood rubbed off on her piece by piece until she couldn’t handle it any more. She knew she didn’t used to have tantrums so often, she used to be fine in her place, with her work… but that was before the world started falling apart.

“Are you hear to bring me back or kill me.”

“Neither,” he shrugged, poking at Hara and causing her to snap and screech at him,

“I just promised Beau to come look for ya and the Inquisitor that is find his bird.”

“You’re not a good liar for a spy.”

His laugh caught her off guard and she nearly fell off her stool and damned it’s backlessness.

“Am I now!?”

Raya squinted at him and scrunched her nose and mouth,

“Yes, you great oaf -don’t scare me next time- and Fahleon would never trust any one with Ada, so you have to be lying.”

Bull whipped a finger under his eye and nodded,

“That’s true, you got me there, but Beau did send me. And the commander, though indirectly.”

Raya only soured more and loomed off out the window as not to aim it at him,

“Then I’m glad you’re not here to take me in, as I care for neither of their opinions.”

“And why would that be all of a sudden?”

She rolled her eyes, knowing what he was doing as it was something her mother did as well. She’d play along simply because it was easier than fighting him.

“Why should I care for their voice when they wouldn’t hear mine?”

He stayed silent for a beat before humming a note to himself,

“That seems fair.”

For a long moment, Raya wanted to just scream. She didn’t want to deal with this and she didn’t find it fair that no one listened to her, every one was older and treated her as if she were something to be swept aside or used as decoration as needed… the whole of Skyhold lately had felt as neglectful as her father had been. Even as much as she knew she had been a ‘spoiled slave’ she knew she was also completely inept at acting like every one else who had never had that sort of confining life. Instead, she sighed and leaned into Bull’s shoulder and stared blankly at the bottles of spirits on the shelves across them.

“I don’t want to go back… but i don’t want to not go back either……….. what are they saying?”

“The inquisitor And Lilliana managed to change the rumors, Beau cried about you dying for a few days once you left,” he chuckled as he tried to spit out the next bit, “and the food is god awful!” Raya grinned into his arm in attempt to hide it, “For my sake, come cook for us! I can’t stand another day of yeast loaf and mincemeat.”

A beat of content silence settles between them before it was broken.

“Any way I can go unnoticed back home?”

“Possibly.” He took another drink befor sighing with weight Raya didn’t quite understand, “Any chance you wanna tell me why you attacked the commander? There’s rumors of course, but I’d rather hear it from you.”

He looked at her expectantly and she nearly bulked for a moment before chuckling and shaking her head.

“Out of everyone in Skyhold, you happen to be a pillar of sanity ina sea of politics and spite ridden alliances.” How amazing was it that the o e person she hadn’t trusted at first was the only one she could trust now?

“Shortly, It was half truths and misunderstandings.”

“And longly ?” He prodded a bit more.

“Fahleon left the war room in a tizzy -not his normal pissy mood but a real special occasion- so I asked Lilliana, she said cu- The Commander has sent Templars to rid some bandits that were harassing the Lavallen clan, and how it would have been better for her spies to go but no one listened to her plan…. I may not be a whole elf, but I know how horrifying Templars are… I know what they do to people… to elves. It’s nothing good.” She looked up at Bull with misty eyes and a wavering voice, “They’re probably dead.”

He placed a hand on her shoulder and promised her that they weren’t.

“I… I went to deal with Fae, and he was crying and I tried to help even though he never wants it even when he needs it. I promised not to tell any one, and I didn’t! He said yelling at Cullen was the same thing though, that no one respects him now. I didn’t even set anything on fire, the world Dow busted and the papers caught from the heat, then … ok, yeah, I set the desk on fire Cus Cullen liked it and he kept trying to silence me and tell me I don’t know what’s best, like a human can speak for an elf!” People we’re watching, murmuring, “I don’t get to claim either! Not elf or human! It’s not fair for every one to take my voice!” She’s crying and her hands are covered in frost as they’re fisted on the table in front of her, “and fucking Beau, uses magic on me while saying not to use magic on others. The circle has soured her brain and made her a pawn.” She spat. She saw the offense in his eyes and set in the corners of his mouth, but also that he -on some level- also understood.

“She’ll speak to you when you come back. She’s promised to hear you this time, if you care.” He offered, paying for his drink and rising to his full height.

“Not right away, and I’ll come back.” It was hardly a negotiation, more a demand.

“Deal, just do it eventually.”

[rayaarchive]

post dramasplosion

The Inquisitor’s quarters had seen more use in the past month then they’d seen in the entire time Fahleon had occupied Skyhold, despite his hatred of the drafty windows and the permanent chill. He was chased from his preferred couch in the library from Dorian’s constant conversation and the kitchens were growing to be more of a pain than a refuge. Too many people had learned of his patterns and Fahleon found himself more and more interrupted in his hunts through the pantry - and without Raya to fight them off or point him to the better tasting things.

Not that there was anything of the sort, anymore. It almost made Fahleon miss her. Or her cooking, at least. The fruits he liked were eaten, and what was left was dried up or rotten. The other kitchen hands didn’t bake the bread the same, either, and the looks they have him were sharp when he snuck in at odd hours. He appreciated the quiet, though. The time he had to himself was more than he’d ever realized since he stopped being dragged into her adventures, or pulled her out of trouble. No one else bothered him outside of Cullen’s men with their ever expanding reports or Josephine when he was needed to oversee some plan or another on the war table. It left him with…not much else to do beside hunt, now that Ada was back. Unharmed and untagged, and the fact that Raya was at least safe had been enough to quell the uneasy roll of some emotion in his gut.

He was -dared he say it? - bored. And bored meant weaving his way through the halls to the kitchens in the futile hope there was something to nab.

An ear twitched at the sound of signing and Fahleon hugged the wall before he was seen. He slipped further down the hall to catch sight of whoever laid in wait around the corner. The sharp song of jewelry accompanied the humming voice and Fahleon caught himself before he rushed the last few feet to the door. The sight of white hair and a flowing dress confirmed his thoughts and his feet moved of their own accord.

Something warm and energizing flowed through him to heat his belly and quicken his steps. Fahleon didn’t know what to call it. He was happy to see her, he supposed. It meant he was finally relieved of eating whatever the shem servants called food. It meant he’d get the fruits he liked again. It meant the routine of hiding from the advisers and staring out the windows from his room was over. It meant…Raya was back?

What would she say when she saw him? Was she angry at him? Was she still angry at Cullen? Time had changed the rumors that had frustrated Fahleon, but had it done the same for her?

Raya spun on her toes in a tight circle and he flattened himself against the wall before he was seen. He felt his face heat and he frowned. What did he care what she thought?

Why did he care what she thought?

Fahleon watched her a moment later and turned back the way he had come. He passed by the head cook on his way and he paused before taking them aside, a request for pie on his mind.

Raya sighed at her garden, she’d finally mended it back to a suitable state that meant she could work properly again, and tossed all the molding food off a cliff. As apparently no one had the good sense to do so! The dried fruits she could still work with, though they would have to be reconstituted. No issue.

She touched a leaf to a basil shrub she’d worked with with specific attention, as she always needed it for something or another, and plucked it. The crisp healthiness if it’s snap from the stalk pleased her, but it dad make her wonder just how much magical energy she gave off with out thinking about it for the gardens to turn so horrid in only a few months of absence. Had no one the right mind to tend it? At least place some glyphs to aid it and protect it from the forever-winter chill?

She brought the leaf to her nose, in hailing and letting the herb lift her mindset and spirit before rubbing it between her hands as to let the juices in it soak them and leave it’s scent on them. Pleased with it, she set to returning to her work, newly filled basket in hand and headed back to the kitchen to feed the horde.

The kitchens were her safe haven, no one went in there unless they needed to be, and she could hide from them simply by turning and busying herself. She wasnt in charge so any business that came down here wasn’t hers to burden herself with.

She was blessed in that her only visitor up until now had been Cullen and that it had ended rather smoothly, all things considered.

She’d also noticed the rumors, which she failed to hear the originals of but could easily imply, had changed in favor of the inquisitor… not so much for herself or Cullen though. It weighed on her but at least Fahleon wouldn’t have a reason to keep yelling at her.

She busied herself with baking, as she had lately, to distract from those thoughts. She hummed one of the religious songs she heard from the small church seated in the castle, she wasn’t quite sure what the words were, but she’d heard it enough times to know the tune.

She felt him, she feared him a bit, but she still waited for him to come in when he hid around the corner. She pretends not to notice him, but she knows he’s there. Cole would have just shown himself and Solas would just walk in as if he owned the place, there was no one else it could be.

Then he just left; she felt him recede and slowed her work to a near halt. Was he still mad? It had been some time, maybe she underestimated how angry he was… or how long he would hold a grudge.

Maybe she had fooled herself into thinking they weren’t as ‘strangers’ as she thought. She sighed as he left her range of attention and couldn’t feel him any longer. She sighed and completely missed what [forgot her name] said and only realized she was being spoken to when she snapped her fingers in front of her face.

“What?!” Raya jumped, startled and wide eyed, giving her her full attention now.

“I said,” she she emphasized unnecessarily, “The inquisitor has asked for you specifically to make him a pie. Also that you would know what he wanted.”

She grinned and nodded curtly, “yes ma’am!”