Imprints in Stone [AU]

[Varric]

Varric had been expecting it, had seen it twice already- mask and necklace- and was already moving while Cindy was stunned. "Still around?"she says as she takes the mask. "That's... wait, are you..?"

[Coquette Blacquin]

She hisses at him, her face melting into a silver mask, even as her hair unbinds itself. "I didn't open the roads so you could do this, Varric of Clan Tethras. I don't have to open them for you again." The voice deepens, and she takes a few steps back toward the balcony, drawing her rapier. 

[Varric]

"So that's a yes," Varric murmurs. "Do what? What did you see happening here?"

[Coquette Blacquin]

"You killed him," he says bluntly, as he backs into the night beyond the window. "You must have killed Liz, too. I won't help you kill again. The world ill-needs weaklings like Marian or Coquette."

Then the windows shut, and he is gone. There's no shadow pathway to follow; there's just an empty room, with only Varric and the mask.

[Varric]

"Right, because party-boy bandit was so much more in line with your Justice," Varric calls after him. "Asshat. Neither of them are dead," she mutters, perhaps more to himself than to Scale-Boy. Whatever, I should head back to the others.

[Isabela]

Downstairs, the room gets very, very quiet. Conversations die off, as if everyone but the three newcomers can hear or sense something. 

Slowly they become aware of a lessening of presence. Then after another moment, they notice empty tables around the edges of the room. They don't see anyone vanish -- but as their eyes dart from table to table, each time, more of them are empty. "Uh. This isn't good. Did he fuck it up?" asks the Undine, now wary. 

[Helene Dakesh]

"...was there a door when we entered?"

[Varric]

"So. Good news, I got another mask so I think I reintegrated Garrett back into Prime Hawke. Bad news, Scale got pissy about it- yeah, he can travel around too- and said something about not opening the ways anymore." Varric rubs her forehead as she takes a seat. "So that's a thing."

[Tethras Clan]

"Ah... I could go into Dark Truth, perhaps...?"

[Helene Dakesh]

"This one suggests trying things rapidly," says Helene, sounding slightly distressed. "Population is at sixty percent and this one cannot find an exit of any kind on this floor."

[Tethras Clan]

How did you math that fast? Why not just say half- right, focus. Zevran takes a deep breath, then tries to feel around for that veil sensation.

[GamesMaster]

It takes a moment -- but then he can find it, that sensation of velvet under the table. Seems it's attached to dim areas like shadows. As he pulls it upward, the table vanishes, revealing a dark corridor, an obsidian pathway.

And oddly enough, the others can see this, once he lets go of the shadow. Maybe because he intended them to? Regardless, it's clearly the way out, though where it leads is anyone's guess.

As they head onto the path, Varric -- always paranoid -- glances back to spy the room behind them melting and collapsing. Then it is gone, and there is only darkness. Seems like the areas they go through are collapsing after they remove the mask, if not as soon as the mask is generated. Good to know.

They emerge, after a frighteningly long time, in a warehouse. A dimly lit warehouse. Judging by the smell of fish, this is Glaley, not Nyra. They've come out behind some crates, but there's talk up ahead, hushed voices trying to keep quiet; peeking out around the crates, they can spy light coming from a smaller room at the end of the larger one, likely a guardhouse or an office back in the day. The big room is full of pallets and crates, all empty, clearly dumped here to get rid of them or possibly left behind when the goods were moved. Half the space is partitioned off, making the room long and narrow by warehouse standards.

[Varric: female elf; Helene: male kobold, Zevran: female half-orc, Isabela: male elf]

[Varric]

"Okay, starting to get really annoyed with this shape-shifting bullshit," Varric growls. 

[Tethras Clan]

"Really? I'm rather enjoying it," Zevran remarks just as softly. "Shall we ladies go peek at our new hosts?"

[Coquette Blacquin]

Their hosts, it seems, look like Cindy and another, a friend: the two are heads down on something spread across a desk. This back room has a cot tucked into one corner, and shelving along the walls hold potions, maps, papers, gear, and a pair of masks: one gold, one silver. 

The two are discussing, quietly, their plan for breaking into an office building. The girl has her hair braided back, wearing the blacks that go with the Scale's outfit, and the boy is very close to her, as though the two are lifelong friends or perhaps lovers.