The Dragon's Den

by Katy Katz

  "Are you serious, Haley? Is this your idea of proposing to me?" Isabela clung to her neck but never took her honey brown eyes off Haley's ice blue ones.

  "It's as close to ideal as I think I could ever get."

  "I think your right." Isabela closed the gap to kiss Haley. "I don't know the magic that brought this child to bear, but I'd be willing to try and let it run it's course if it's truly what you want, too."

  "A family? I guess if it's just you, me, and Bethany."

  "We don't have to give up hot sex and killing things. We wouldn't be us."

  "Then we'll try." The clock towers begin to chime. "We should meet the others.

  Varric looked pissed. He didn't like the idea that a Desire Demon had been messing with Merrill's mind and he hadn't noticed. Then again, they had all been under its influence at one point or another.

  They were trying to hash it out, and trying to figure out where the Demon had taken Merrill.

  Fenris showed up not long after Haley and Isabela, Isabela offered to apprise him, but he waved her off. He seemed in a mood, which was not unusual. Sometimes, he just wanted to be pointed in the general direction and told where to start tearing out hearts.

  Merrill was physically the weakest of all of them, and though she dabbled in blood magic, which was taboo to all none would see any of Haley's party left to the fate of a demon. With the Demon dead, there was telling if she would have ample food and water or for how long.

  More than likely the runner Haley had sent to Fenris' estate had told him the basics.

  Haley had sent word to Bethany to track down Feynreil. He may not have reached Tevinter yet. As a dreamer, he night be able to see where Merrill was. For the moment, the only plan they had was to head to Sunder mount and comb the mountain looking for the creature's lair.

  The place Haley had seen Merril had looked like it had been one of the underground places on Sundermount. If wasn't much to go on, but they had to have somewhere to start. Haley, Isabela, Anders, and Varric would start with Keeper Marethari in the morning to see if there was some kind of tracking spell that she could o on her former first. Like a phelactory or something. They were fairly desperate. Maren was upset and pretty exhausted. Varric had put her to bed in his suite in the Hanged Man.

  Since they were leaving early, it looked like Haley and Isabela would just leave from the Hanged Man in the morning. Isabela kept a room there she hadn't been using. They would kick out whatever riff-raff was there. More than likely Fenris and Anders would just bunk with Varric. None of them ever seemed to care. Everyone was headed up stairs and Varric was still muttering to himself about how he "couldn't believe how he'd been taken in by a demon he wasn't related to".

  Isabela gave out a quick cry as though she'd been kicked and grabbed at her stomach. Haley grabbed her, but saw her eyes seemed distant and far away. They were focused on something, but something not here.

  "There's more than one of them with Merrill. They've been planning this for a while. Something about an Inquisition." Isabela was out as though she had been struck.

  Anders said, "Let's get her upstairs."

  There was a trail of blood that ran down Isabela's mouth. He used a healing spell and a healing potion. He shook his head as though to clear it.

  They are using us to spy on each other.

  "What does that mean?" Fenris asked.

  "I'm sure it's a whole new unpleasantness we don't want to know." Varric stated.

  "It is. From what I can tell, someone is using time magic, distorting time. The rifts are from the future, but certain events that are inevitable have already happened and will happened. Varric and Haley you are in the future in an organization called the Inquisition. They are trying to stop something big, but it's something that hasn't happened yet. These things that have Merrill are also part of a mage rebellion that is caused by events here in Kirkwall. It's a future that's inevitable. I know about them. I cause them to happen.

  I think it's one of the reasons I can see the future. I don't know that all of you could. Merrill is in the middle of this matrix. These different types of demons are coming out of a hole in the fade in the future they are the ones that have Merrill. They are trying to stop Haley in the past from doing something.

  It's not clear. We need to get Merrill out of there, so they will lose contact with the you that is now."

  Haley sighed, "Is this the part where I should be grateful that I have a future?"

  "Your child might be mixed up in this too, Haley. I don't know if it's supposed to exist in the future, there's too many time endrals, but it looks like Isabela is alive in some futures, but without a child. You may have to choose."

  "Can't anyone look into the future and see puppies and bunnies or something?" Haley asked.

  "Only if they are covered in lyrium and set on fire." Varric said slapping Bianca on his back.

  "Thanks Varric." Haley said.

  "No problem."

  Anders had gently put Isabela on the bed. There was no riff-raff. "I've been having them keep the place clean." Varric said.

  "Thank you, Varric." Haley said.

  "For now, she is okay, Haley." Anders said. "I don't know what to tell you.

  We're about to walk into a great big mess."

  "How is that different than every other Tuesday?" Haley asked.

  "This has years of Tuesday's involved. And there are some really bad Tuesdays in there." Anders said quietly.

  "Any good Tuesdays." Haley asked.

  "It didn't show me any."

  Haley sighed, "Why would it?"

  ***

  Chapter 10

  It had been an exceptionally bad week.

  Varric and Haley had been taken for ransome. Haley's friend's had managed to get them back, but at a high price.

  A very high price.

  No one was really talking about.

  Isabela, least of all. She had gone just this side of insane. She'd been a few weeks away from delivering and probably shouldn't have gone, but no one could talk her out of it. What if Haley didn't come back?

  One of the mages that had arranged the thing ended up using a blood magic ritual with the fetal blood, it terminated the pregnancy and Haley got the opportunity to fight her own child as a demon.

  It had been beyond awful, even by Kirkwall's standards of awful.

  Haley's merry band of misfits had left going separate ways, and left Isabela and Haley to deal with it on their own as best they could, which wasn't well.

  When Haley walked into the Hanged Man a few weeks later Isabela on the verge of letting herself get passed around by three guys or gang raped depending on your point of view.

  It was clear she didn't care. She was drunk, and whether it was her idea or someone else's she was drugged.

  Varric and Haley were supposed to be gone to the Deep Roads, but had to turn back. It wasn't exactly suicide, but Isabela had decided to let the world have its way with her. It would have too, if Varric hadn't sent runners to Haley's estate.

  When Haley arrived Isabela was pretty near passed out drunk and close to be passed around by three guys

  Varric walked up when Haley entered. "I wasn't sure what to do. Just killing the guys won't fix the problem," he said kicking at the dirty floor.

  "It's a start." Haley answered.

  She used her fingers and the butt of her sword on the closest guy when she started to move past him.

  He said something that sounded a lot like, "Wait your turn." Varric shook his head. That was going to end up making him dead.

  Haley easily gouged out his eyes and dislodged windpipe as she passed. The regulars tried to warn the men. Even gave a description of Haley in case she showed up. No help was offered. They were warned early on. Isabela was the Champion of Kirkwall's longstanding lover. Anyone dumb enough…well no guard's man or citizen would be dumb enough.

  The next three went down fairly easily, and would recover eventually. The last took Haley by surprise and sheer force.
r />   He came from behind her and kidney punched her already using his blade to cut her belt from behind. He forced her neck down on a table punching his sharp elbow into her neck.

  "You may think you can take my boys, but you won't deny me what's mine. I'll get what's coming to me." The thug outweighed her by over twice again her body weight. His mistake was thinking she might be drunk, a target, or have any respect for a life of a man like him.

  Haley snapped her head back and busted his nose fresh blood gushing everywhere. He was stunned and swearing. The sting from a broken nose took even the most skilled and trained warrior a moment to recover. This man was neither. He was just a rapist and bully of women most of his life.

  Normally, she would make the killing blow clean and decisive. She didn't even bother with her own blade, she took his from him. It was somewhat dull, as he was lazy and she expected it to be. For the amount of force she needed to use it didn't matter.

  She removed his clothing, because she didn't want to accidently miss anything. Knowing full well what he had planned for her and Isabela she didn't think twice when she emasculated him. She threw him towel and let him decide whether or not he would allow himself to bleed out.

  Any man found with his privates removed from his body and shoved in his mouth had found the only justice he would ever receive, if he lived.

  Even in a tavern like the Hanged Man, that was too much blood and screaming for the local cliental. He was thrown outside. If someone merciful came along they might give him a blade, otherwise they might call a guard's man.

  Isabela has moved on to another guy at this point. She's just looking for punishment. Haley wouldn't treat her like the piece of shit she was. She'd have to find some thug for that.

  Haley pulls Isabela's dagger and shows the young man the handle, he scurries off. The young man recognized Haley from the man on the floor a few moments ago. He left a piss stain as a scurried off. Isabela took no notice and puked before passing out in Haley's arms before Haley took her up stairs. She can't protect her every night forever. She could try to protect her every night in the foreseeable future until, until Isabela stopped being so self-destructive. If that was possible, but Haley couldn't be around 24/7 and Isabela if she truly sought the punishment she wanted would get her wish. It was Kirkwall after all, the city of chains.

  Haley kisses her gently on the cheek as she laid her down on her bed. Haley's eyes stung with tears and the back of her throat ached, but she refused to give into emotions right now.

  Isabela's clothes were torn and there are scratch marks from dirty fingernails on her skin that were getting infected. Haley laid her out and undressed her and dutifully cleaned her cleansed her wounds as best she could.

  The tears stung, but Isabela couldn't see, so it didn't matter.

  The guys weren't the only one abusing Isabela's soft skin. Isabela was covered in dark bruises in varying degrees of healing, some fresh. Cuts are on her arm and inside her thighs made from her own blade. Some were deep. A few are showing signs of infection.

  Haley managed to remain mostly stoic until she was cleaning the weeping self-inflicted wounds inside Isabela's thighs.

  These have been covered by her highest boots she's been wearing for weeks that she hasn't taken off in front of Haley, and from the look of them, even to bathe.

  The pain would be a constant reminder, and in it's twisted way a comfort for the hurt that Haley couldn't bring herself to bear on Isabela.

  She knew their child was gone, but it didn't have to be this way.

  Passing herself off until she was beaten and raped as often as she could stand, or as often as Haley could stand. She would punish herself until there was nothing left. She would have done it tonight had Varric not sent a runner.

  Isabela took care to make sure none of the regulars would be there. Varric was supposed to be in the Deep Roads and Haley with him. Only a freak series of events had left them in town for the night. Her pirate queen was too drunk to notice when Varric stepped back into the bar.

  He could have stopped it, but where did you stop the killing, where did you even begin it. Isabela intended to do it to herself. It wasn't suicide per se. It was the closest thing to it. She would destroy everything she loved, and make herself unlovable. At least that's what Haley thought her plan was.

  Isabela was too drunk for any form of coherency. She wasn't completely sure, one of the men hadn't given her something else perhaps a root, or potion, or something. Her mind didn't seem quite her own even in her drunken stupor, and Haley had seen them all. She was pretty far gone from reality. She didn't even know who Haley was.

  "Just get it over with and let me pass out, whoever the fuck you are?" Isabela slurred.

  Haley quite moving about half way across the room to the basin on the way to clean out some of the rags she had used to clean Isabela's wounds.

  "If you're too daft to figure this out, just get the fuck out." Isabela was clearly out of her mind. If one of the patrons downstairs had decided to give her a little something extra, as if she needed it, and it hadn't been one of the men she had already taken care of, they would pay a heavy price of taking their own tonic, and being left to their own devices somewhere unsavory.

  Isabela threw a dagger at the back of Haley's head cracking the handle on her skull nearly knocking her out. Haley's mind had been racing. She had been thinking a million thoughts, and that was not one of them. The dull thud that nearly knocked her out, but it also brought her back to reality.

  Even she couldn't stop the reaction of slapping Isabela.

  "Like it rough, do you?" Isabela chortled. "Yeah, we could do that too."

  Haley felt shamed that she had slapped her. Too many years of battle. Too many scars. She had just reacted. She had never hit Isabela, outside of play in the bedroom.

  Haley's eye's stung away a tear. She had to get out of there. Haley managed to blink back her emotions and grab her sword and shield and start for the door. She didn't imagine she would see Isabela on the way there. It was Kirkwall. Even she could walk through the streets unarmed at nights.

  In that moment Isabela actually saw Haley.

  She saw Haley realized she was there, what it meant, and what had happened.

  Haley knew about the men.

  Haley knew about the cutting. Haley knew everything.

  Isabela's staggering drunken act and overture of gaudy sex was taken aback, by the reality of the situation. A reality Isabela hadn't been a part of, and hadn't known had existed. She had just been running on instinct until that moment. Get hurt, maybe get run through, leave this life, and everyone might be the better for it. There hadn't been a Haley in this life or in her head until this moment.

  When there suddenly was, the walls came crashing down. Isabela was destroyed in a whole new way. Not the way she had been seeking, but realizing Haley had witnessed everything she had been doing, and she didn't know for how long.

  Haley's shield drooped almost to the ground and her blade was loose in her hand.

  Both women wished for death and to be outside that room for just an instant, but that wasn't going to happen.

  Shame was powerful.

  Isabela curled and squatted on the floor, half screeching- half crying. It really didn't much sound like a noise a human could make.

  Haley could have left; Haley could have gone to her. Instead she stood there dumbly holding her sword and shield, barely holding it.

  "I just want to die, Haley. I never wanted any of this to happen. I never wanted to hurt you. I never wanted this to turn out this way. I don't know how I could have made it turn out any worse."

  "Stop it." Haley's voice was hushed, but it was all she said. Isabela cried like a wounded animal. The sounds were terrifying. Haley wanted to make them stop. She didn't care how; she just wanted them to stop.

  Isabela came up with a worse idea than any running threw Haley's head. Isabela was so drunk and fucked up on so many drugs; she was out of her skull at best, and emotionall
y at her worst. Rock bottom is never a good place to be. She grabbed the end of Haley's blade and partially impaled herself on it. It would have been overly dramatic if she hadn't been quite so successful. She ran it through to almost her back before Haley even realized what was going on and blood was spilling out of her mouth. "At least make it fast. You can do me that favor." She willed her weight on it pushing it as far as she could.

  Haley was slow to react. Almost nonresponsive. When she finally did it was not good.

  Haley yanked the blade free, when she probably should have left it in and applied pressure around it. Thinking wasn't on the top of Haley's list. She broke the door down and yelled for Varric who appear nonplussed. Years of being caked in blood together. She managed to strangle Anders name out for a healer. Varric nodded.

  Haley returned to the room, but Isabela was looking pasty already. She was bleeding out fast. What the fuck had she been thinking? What the fuck had any of them been thinking? Isabela was mostly unconscious and Haley was rocking what she was afraid soon would be her corpse.

  How had things gotten like this? They had gotten pregnant. They were going to have a family. Isabela lost the baby trying to save Haley, or Haley and Varric. More blood magic. They actually used their child's blood for the ritual. Haley had faced the demons that might have been their child, and then the world got weird, and strange, and scarier than it had ever been.

  She hadn't been able to be there for Isabela. She hadn't been able to be there for herself. Isabela took is as blame; it wasn't. Isabela rushed headlong into anything that would hurt her or get her killed.

  All Haley probably had to do was to explain, but she couldn't manage to do it. She hadn't managed to form words at all. Isabela was nearly dead by Haley's own sword and Haley had managed to do nothing.

  She couldn't even cry.

  Haley was too broken to move, much less comfort.

  "Maker." Haley whispered. "Please let her live."

  Varric took Haley and pulled her over to the bed and sat her down. "I don't know if he's taking requests today Haley, but if he owes anyone in this town, he owes you."