No Such Thing As Fair Game In Politics

Marble floors in the likes of which could pay for hundreds or more homes for those who had nothing in their lives to which to call their own. Expansive halls with expansive doors and expansive egos hidden within. It all could drive a person crazy, especially with the guards who were moving to intercept the little lady and her entourage. They were almost to the doors of the room the King met people when a man moved in front of the woman and stared down at her.

"The King is in the middle of negotiations and cannot be disturbed."

Nygozy turned her head to look at her group, a feral grin showing on her face which made Drake's head tilt forward just an inch, eyes directed at the closest guardsman as she turned back to the men in front of them.

"Is he in negotiations or is he declining to meet with me?" She said loud enough in an authoritative voice that could be heard through the door, "You see, I had been told this morning that Ali would be free at this time. I do not believe the message that I wished to speak with him got through or he'd have his royal ASS out here to speak with me."

"You will call him by his royal directive. Not a childish terminology. As for that, something came up." The man said, noticeably lying as he put a hand on her shoulder.

Within a moment a knife was at his throat and one pointed at where his liver dwelled beneath his skin.

"No touching the Hero."

The guards moved to intercept and that is when the fun began.

((Have fun with the guards gang. You can choose how many there are and play as any of them as you wish. These guards will not be pushovers like the ones who went for the horses though. They are all in full plate and well trained.))

Griffinhart acted instinctively the moment the guards set to moving. His cloak blossomed, a dark flower against the light of torches in the hall. Ghostly flames sparked around him and his being tore itself into the Fade, becoming nearly insubstantial; his was the shadow of a nightmare in motion. In the same moment as his transubstantiation, the warrior moved with alacrity from his position in the line and slammed into the nearest guard. The King's man had drawn a mace and was unhooking his shield, but Griffinhart was surprisingly weighty despite not existing wholly in the same physical reality. The shield arm was on the outside, while the mace was caught in the crush of two bodies, wholly unusable in the tight quarters.

The swordsman was not sure if his no-kill order had been rescinded, and chose to err on the side of caution; instead of having drawn a knife in his motion and finding a chink in the plate armor, Griffinhart applied his knowledge of the humanoid form and slipped his right leg, leading, between the guard's legs; hooked the limb outward; pulled with it; and pushed with his upper body, all in a smooth flowing motion. The guard tumbled backwards and downwards like a toppled tree, but Griffinhart was far from finished; even as the soldier hit the marble floor in a crashing cacophony, the Weisshaupt Warden slid forward with the falling man (for his leg was still entangled), and came down low. He dragged his back leg forward and slammed it down on the guard's mace-arm, pinning the armored limb, and drew his two swords in smooth cuts.

Griffinhart was in a terrible situation, but only he knew the extent of just how bad things were. He had no mobility, now. It would take him a moment to disentangle himself from his foe, and he could not twist entirely around to intercept any blows from the back; he was low on the ground, and was not equipped to block or bear impact blows from above; comrades stood too close in these tight quarters, denying him the use of his most powerful magics; and worst of all, he did not know if he could kill any aggressors, further limiting the magic that he could apply. And he had drawn just as much - if not more - attention from the guards as Nygozy had.

The left blade stayed even, upwards, ready to ward off any incoming blows. The right blade turned, point downwards, and hovered in the air above the guard's face, still as stone. It was a question that Griffinhart hoped he did not need to voice: how much blood was he allowed to spill in these halls?

Bowen charged, like a mad bull and shield in front. As usual. With a frightening war cry and his usual amused smirk. The enormous shield pushed hard four or five guards that were trying to block the hall and stop them, and they all fell with tingling sounds, like fallen cans. At last some fun!

He barely heard Calliara ordering again to not harm anyone, but he wasn't trying to anyway. Even him was intelligent enough to know that it won't be wise to start killing every living being in the King's palace, even if they could deserve it. After all, they were following orders, just as them. It wasn't personal.

The Nevarran knew as well that he made them fall just because they weren't expecting such a crazy movement. Luckily he had his massive armor, helmet and all, and so he stood in front of them and protecting the others, like a rock wall.

''I suggest you to let us pass'' He said gently

''No killing. And don't use agresive magic here'' Calliara ordered, serious, just before the fight began. Knowing that Kai would protect Nygozy, as if the Commander needed protection she thought, she looked around. Bowen was charging like a bull, as usual. It wasn't a surprise, and that way most of the guards fell when the enormous Nevarran pushed them.

Griffinhart was reacting as well. Creators mercy but that man was efficient. She kinda liked him, in some way. It didn't matter that he didn't talk much. Neither did her. But now he had problems.

Without thinking in the still horrible pain in her lungs, in a second she was next to Griffinhart, her cloak moving with her and almost hiding her movements. One soldier was going directly to the warrior in problems, determined to attack him, but one kick on the back of his knee made him almost fall. The next kick came quickly to the other knee and the warrior turned to face a wolvish smiling Dalish, whose eyes looked like ice.

The guard tried to hit her with the sword hilt, but the Dalish was not there. She knew she was no real enemy for a guard in full plate, and she couldn't use her bow, so she just distracted him to give Griffinhart time to stand up. The other guards were busy with the others or trying to get up from the floor after Bowen's charge. It was a matter of time that the guard would grab her, or hit her, and maybe hard, but well... That was part of the fun

The King's palace was a grand place, but not so very impressive. The King's palace in Antiva was a sad place, barely fit for a minor nobleman. Any show of wealth he had was in his clothing, but his residence was poorly fitted. The Antivan people spared little expense on the king, knowing full well that he held little more than symbolic power. Now, the homes of the Merchant Kings - Caterina had seen one once, and it has sparkled and shined such that she would never forget the sight. That Palace - for, small as it was, it was a Palace in everything but name - had shamed this Ferelden castle.

It seemed almost a pitty to sully a grand place like this with battle, but Caterina couldn't really bring herself to care. She had no qualms about insulting the King by bringing violence to his doorstep - he was not her King, after all. And the fight, well, after riding so long, she was eager to unsheathed her blades.

The guards were fully armored, even in their ceremonial garb, and so her knives did little more than distract them. She danced around them like a shadow, and her feet seemed to touch the ground only for moments at a time as she flew from one man to the next. At the very least, it was a very impressive force, amassed in such a small amount of time.

Caterina didn't need Calliara's shouted warning not to kill the guards - they were only doing their duty. She would have been more inclined to kill them if they had been so cowardly as to not attempt to protect their king. Even if she had been trying, though, to do real harm, it would have been difficult. Had she been accustomed to using a longsword, she might have been able to do some damage against the well-wrought armor, or if she'd been seriously looking for weak spots to hit with her daggers, but right now, only Bowen and Griffinhart were able to do any real damage. She and Calliara were good enough for distractions, however, and they were doing an effective job of giving the guards a harder time of it.

"Will your King see us now, soldadito?" She asked harshly of a Guard she'd tripped as he was running for her, sinking low to knock his feet out from under him with the flat of her blades. She smiled wickedly at him before winking and striking him across the helmet with her arm. If she hadn't been wearing a leather bracer, it would have hurt - with the helmet on, the man was only rattled a bit, but it was enough.

If Macha had only heard that a group of traveling warriors had entered town, then she might have ignored it and gone on with her daily life. She was, after all, fairly busy in trying to contact Nygozy - who was somewhere off in the Frostback mountains, last she'd heard - to tell her that she'd acquired a new recruit for the Wardens (or, at least, to their cause). The party at the Arl of Denerim's estate last week had ended in disaster, when, the very next morning, Bann Varrick had been discovered dead in his room. Three days later, it had come to light that poison had been used, but by that point, Macha had already known the culprit. Finding Fremelda had been the hard part - the woman was clearly an assassin of great skill, and had known well enough to make herself scarce before her deed had been discovered. But Macha had known that Bann Varrick was a corrupt man, and no love was lost with his death. Still impressed with the red-head's skill, she'd offered her a choice - fight, and have Macha turn her into the authorities (they would need little in the way of proof, in their desperation to convict somebody of the crime, and they would have Macha's word as a Cousland and a Warden that she had seen Fremelda at the party), or relent, and agree to join the Grey Wardens. It would instantly absolve her of her crime, and would also put her skill to good - and legal - use.

Since then, she'd used her time to instruct Fremelda in the ways of the Warden, and had tried to contact Alistair to tell him of her recruitment. In her eyes, he would always be the somewhat dorky but sincere Warden she had shared battles and bread with, and she had to constantly remind herself that he was now King, and no longer as accessible as he had once been. She remembered with some fondness of the time he had asked her to marry him - it had seemed logical, with his becoming king. They were friends, though not lovers, and it would be a happy marriage. As a Cousland, she would have the name and respect needed to be Queen. It had confused her at the time - she had known that Nygozy and Alistair had been together during their journey, and as King, he would have the power and right to marry her. She hadn't known they'd even broken apart, and didn't know the circumstances. So, in the end, she had known that she couldn't marry someone she didn't love in that way, even if he was a dear friend, and she'd never wanted to be Queen, anyway. Continuing with the Wardens was the only thing she could have ever envisioned herself doing, and so, continue she did. Unfortunately, he had never returned her letters concerning Fremelda, and Macha had to wonder what was keeping his attention.

Naturally, contacting Nygozy had been her first order of business, even before messaging Alistair. As her friend and Commander of the Grey, it was her right and duty to know of any potential recruites as soon as possible. But even there, the few messengers who had returned from the Frostback Mountains with her letters, had said that there was no sign of her there. It was frustrating to be so in the dark, but she was making due.

And now, nearly a week after confronting Fremelda, a band of warriors had been seen entering the city, riding as if Fen'harel was on their heels for the Palace. And even more importantly, they were seen heralding the seal of the Wardens. Upon learning that, Macha had dropped all the she was doing (drafting another letter to Nygozy, as it were), and had raced to the castle as quickly as possible, Argos right on her heels. She hadn't even paused to put on her newly acquired Warden light-armor, a special make with the Gryphon crest from her good friend Wade (who seemed to drop everything he was doing to work on her orders, when she was around). If anything happened in the many alleyways she took as shortcuts, her nobleman's long-coat and pants wouldn't do much to protect her.

Getting to the Palace took a cursedly long time. Even with her shorcuts, it was clear that the travelers had already long entered the castle, if their horses tied outside were any indication. She swore an oath under her breath without knowing why she felt so ill-at-ease, and then all-but flew up the steps to the main gates.

The guards manning the gates took one look at her at opened the iron-wrought doors at once. If she thought they looked especially nervouse, she didn't pay much attention to it. After that, getting through the palace doors and into the main Hall took less than a minute.

Macha froze in the doorway as a scene unfolded before her. The combatants were strangers to her - she only knew a few of the palace guards by name and face, and the less-ornately dressed fighters were completely new to her. One figure, on the other end of the hall, however, was quite intimately familiar.

"Nygozy?" She huffed under her breath, still strained from running all the way. If she was in Denerim, then that answered her question as to why the Dwaren Warden had not answered her letters - she was not in the Frostback Mountains to receive them. But that was a trivial matter, at the moment. The real question seemed to be, why on earth were the guards confronting the band as if they were intruders - as Commander of the Grey and her (supposed) companions, they should have been given a nobleman's welcome.

"Guard!" She shouted, and the young man nearest to her snapped his head in her direction. He was lucky that none of the fighters had had their eye on him, or he would have left himself completely open to attack - a novice's mistake. It was no matter, though. "I demand to know why you and your men are attacking a distinguished guest of the King!"

He seemed about to answer, had started to - "But m'um, they're not at all gue-" - but an attack from the side cut him off. For the briefest of moments, Macha thought it was Zevran who had descended upon the man with daggers flashing like teeth - dark skin, white hair, and a slight build all brought the man to her mind. But a heartbeat later revealed the assailant to be a woman. Perhaps Nygozy had seen something of the Crow in her, to have commissioned her aid. At the very least, from the restrained way in which the (presumably) Antivan woman struck at the guard, none of them seemed intent to kill or greviously hurt any of the guards. Not all sanity had been lost, then.

"Are you here to block the Commander's way as well, soldada?" Even if the word wasn't familiar, Macha could hear the familiar sound of the Antivan tongue in the last word - she was Antivan, then. The white-clad Rogue had stopped long enough in her attack on the guard nearest to Macha to look her in the eye, danger flashing in her golden gaze. Macha stood firm, and did not show any sort of intimidation.

"I am not," she answered firmly. "I only wish to know what insanity has risen here." The white-haired woman scoffed, and turned to re-enter they fray. Macha could just hear her mutter "I would like to know the same," before she was gone.

It was clear well before they met the senshal who had been at the door of the meeting room that things were not going to go well and the slight grin from Nygozy confirmed his thoughts. She was incensed but not so much as to kill. This was fun time for her and Drake knew that if one move was out of place it would end up in a brawl.

With this in mind it came as no shock that everything happened almost at once right after his friend had given him that look.

That was when he was off in movement, forcing a guardsman to rush backwards to evade his dual blades which whipped out of the sheaths with a speed almost unnoticeable. He switched tactics as he heard Calliara move, the sound of her actions having caught his attention immediately so that he moved backwards, swung around and hit the man who was attacking Calliara with the pommel of one sword.

"Hilt for a hilt." He said with a growl as the man stumbled and fell to the ground, noticeably dazed, "That should help emma lath fen." He then put his back to hers so they could watch both directions and keep Griffinhart covered, "Na reth him emma revas."

Dammit! Why did his system have to choose now to make him have to go to the potty? Sinjan had wanted to be there to see the king get waylaid by Nygozy's questions and here he was, running along in the palace with a grimace for having had to rush off to another section of the palace. He felt silly with Torture taking up the rear, huffing and making sounds as if he were laughing at the fighter.

"Cut it out willya?" He snapped at the Mabari which only made the animal sound like he was ready to die from amusement, puffing out air as he tried to run and make those horrid, almost laughing sounds with a tiny bark at the end of each one.

Then he heard the sounds and skidded to a stop behind a raven haired beauty. What the ...

"Macha?" A lopsided open smile came upon his face making him look almost as silly as a Mabari which was laughing, "Well, burn my britches! What are you doing here? Hey ... I'm missing a fight."

Torture pounced around Macha then at Argo, barking happily and ignoring the fighting going on down the hall. He didn't smell Nygozy's blood and he knew she was safe with Kai so it was no problem to reaquaint himself with the other Mabari.

A voice from behind made Macha tense (old habits never died, and a rogue never wanted anyone at their back). But a heartbeat later, and recognition hit her. Before she could turn, Argos barked happily, and she knew she'd placed the voice correctly - Argos never barked unless greeting a friend, and would certainly never sound so happy to see another guard.

She spun on her heel, her smile already spreading across her face. "Sinjan! I was right then - it was you and Nygozy who'd riden into town! But," she sounded (and felt) even more confused now. "Why is everyone fighting?" She turned halfway to look back over at the brawl in the hall. "Didn't Alistair invite you? Isn't that why you're here?" While Argos danced around Torture at her feet, playfully biting at the other mabari's ears in greeting, Macha felt much more subdued. As wonderful as it was to see her friends again, the situation was too strange for her to find any comfort. Even not knowing the situation, her hands itched for her longsword - it felt strange to see Nygozy and Sinjan fight without fighting alongside them in their well-coordinated dance, learned only from fighting many battles side by side.

Sinjan chuckled at Macha swirling to see him and backed up while a guard fell and waited for the man to get back up and into the fray before turning back to her, "It's a long story, Machie." He grinned then looked serious for a moment, "It seems that Alistair is being a dink. It's not bad enough that he'd tossed Nyggy at the Landsmeet ... oh. You weren't at the Landsmeet were you? Well, he broke off with her 'out of duty to the kingdom' and now had the gall to send her a personal letter which peeved her off and tried to have our horses taken from us."

Torture was growling playfully, not taking much note of the fighting, and wagged his tiny tail while nipping Argo back.

"There is something Nyggy hasn't told us further than that about the letter but I have no clue what she isn't saying. Oh ... Drake is here too." He indicated the noticeably stolid man with Calliara then slapped a guardsman's sword back from hitting Macha, "Fight is that way idiot." He pointed, waiting to see if the man would listen.

Macha's eyebrows shot up at what Sinjan had said, and she only just managed to sidestep the guard who'd gone after her before SInjan could pull him away. Alistair had what? That . . . that didn't sound like the goofball she'd known. Admittedly, Macha hadn't seen any of them since just before the Landsmeet except for one or two short occasions but . . . was it possible that things had gotten that bad? If they had, then Alistair had more than a little explaining to do, King or not. To her and, she suspected, to Nygozy and the rest of the team, Alistair would always just be 'Alistair,' not 'King Theirin III." In retrospect, that was probably what had sparked the fight - if Nygozy had come in here as if she'd owned the place and demanded to speak to Alistair, which Macha highly suspected, then no wonder the guards had overreacted so drastically.

That knowledge, finally made clear to her, finally moved her hand. Reaching for the dagger she always kept on her, she battered away the next guard who'd run at her, no doubt thinking her another foe, seeing her converse with another of the defending group. If it had been a guard she'd know, he would have understood her position, and would not have done such a thing. As such, Macha felt no qualms about teaching the pup a lesson.

As soon as she sprung into action, Argos was all business. One hundred and fifty bounds of muscle and teeth suddenly tensed, forgetting Torture's friendly greeting as he ran into the fray beside his mistress. It was a simple matter for him to trip up or ram the guards to the ground. Biting them was out of the question if serious injuries were to be avoided, but a threatening growl was usually enough to convince a man to get down and stay down.

Even though there were nearly twice as many guards as there were of Nygozy's group, with the men coming back from being beat down because of the lack of leathal force, the band was doing very well for themselves. It was clear that the guards were outmatched - though they were no untrained slouches, they had probably never seen much real combat, or at least, not as much combat as their group had seen. Macha almost thought the fight was a little one-sided.

"This is insane, you know," she called over to Sinjan, flashing a wry smile his way. "I just wanted to make sure you were aware of that." Of course, that wasn't going to stop her from fighting by their side.

Torture was surprised with the sudden reaction of Macha and Argo as he could smell that Nygozy was actually having fun. What was this? Was his mistress in trouble? That woke him up and he tore through the guards like a knife through butter to get to her.

"Of course it is insane! They told us this morning that Alistair would see us this afternoon but I guess either he forgot or they lied that they told him." He called as he started wading through the guards then cocked his head to see something just under the man's ears. His eyes narrowed as he took his pulled the man's helm off and then threw the man up against the wall by the throat, "Where did you get those tattoos?" He yelled in the man's face.

As soon as Sinjan yelled the guards became more deadly. It seemed that they too were holding back but now they were pulling weapons to use lethally.

One man cut at Sinjan's side as he held up the one he had yelled at and Sinjan grunted with pain. It did not go through his armor but it did hurt. Sinjan turned just in time to get his attackee in front of the attacker that was trying to cut into Sinjan's head now.

Up until the melee had erupted, Sophia had been willing, if not content, to wait in the shadow of her larger comrades, quietly fuming. It was the Mistress's place to speak to Alistair so, (they were old friends, after all,) and the Willowy Mage was a nug if she thought that the attempted theft (really, there was no other word for it,) of their horses had been justified. However, the rampant use of force, even without loss of life, had been rankling at her throughout the entire ride to Denerim. Surely, the incident could have been averted with a few choice words and a timely bribe: in her experience, such events always possessed at least one such loophole. Guards had a way of telling other guards of their experiences, which in essence was the same as telling their master, and being guards their experiences had a tendency to get blown wildly out of proportion. When the armoured doorman refused Nygozy entry, Sophia was hardly surprised. Who would want a possibly violent individual, one who had slain an Archdemon, no less, within an entire league of the King? For all they knew, this particular knight might have been told that the dwarven woman before him was responsible for the deaths of some of his comrades, or at the very least their grievous injury. From the instant the King's Men rode up to claim the horses, the entire proceedings had been nothing less then a fiasco. Sophia's smile faltered slightly. In fact, if she had been of a paranoid mind...

Then the doorman grasped Nygozy's shoulder, and the entrance hall descended into insanity.

At first, it seemed like a typical squabble: maces and sword-hilts flashed as the Mistress and her cohorts waded into the guards in a display of non-lethal fighting that would have put a seasoned bar-fighter to shame... but then Sinjan's exclaimation changed everything.

"Where did you get those tattoos?!"

Time enough to find out what he meant later. Weapons were gleaming in hands that had previously been bare: these 'guards', whoever they served, meant business. The Mistress, and possibly the King, were in danger. She should have trusted her instincts! Sophia's eyes went pale with fury. This had been a set-up, an elaborate snare meant to destroy Nygozy and her friends. If she hadn't been so incensed, the willowy mage might have admired the idea. As it was, she had little choice but to assume it to be true.
It was quite a distance from the back of the hall, but if she sprinted, slid under the shield of that guard there, bounced off Bowen's shoulder and turned on her heel just so...
The guard menacing Sinjan blocked Sophia's flying heel superbly. With his right ear. Guard, sword and all, crashed to the floor in a heap of oaths, curses and one very angry mage. Rolling to her feet, Sophia clamped a hand over his face, offering the man an apologetic, chilling smile.
"A fact you might wish to know... metal conducts electricity. Observe."
A single bolt of eldritch lightning later, and the guard knew more about the phenomenon then he had ever wished to. Wrinkling her nose at the scent of evaporating metal, Sophia straightened up to check on her comrade.
"Sinjan? Are you alright?"

It seemed as if everyone in the hall's attention had been arrested by Sinjan's exclamation. For the briefest of moments - in truth, barely a second passed within it - the whole hall seemed to freeze. The guardsmen stopped to look towards their discovered ally, and their entourage stilled at his surprised words. Then, all at once, the fighting began in earnest. A guard - the same she had tripped up not a minute ago - came at her with a very clear intent to kill. Now, Caterina refused to stay her hand.

She didn't spare a look to any of her companions. They would fare as they would, and there was little she could do about it with two men coming upon her. She did allow her thoughts to dart to Bowen, but that thought, too, faded as she shifted her dagger to block a guard's sword, before excecuting the highest jump she could manage with her balance caught off guard, leaping almost to the guard's chest to avoid the blade of a man who came at her from behind. They two men clashed in the space she'd just occupied, and she landed and spun on the ball of her foot, dashing back forwards as they were caught off guard. Her fist - dagger and all - found the joint at the nearest guard's elbow. He shrieked and dropped his sword, and Caterin'a face set into a hard look as she kicked him forward, clutching his arm as he stumbled into his companion.

"Do we kill them now!?" She shouted to her companions, not looking away from the man she was dashing towards now, wanting permission to do more than maim. She wanted desperately to see what was under the masks that had left Sinjan so startled, but she hadn't the time to stop and divest one of the guards of their helmets.

As she turned to face the man who'd come at her from behind - just now pushing the man with the wounded arm off of his body - Caterina glimpsed the black-haired woman enter the fray in earnest. Well, at least that was one more who'd fight on their side. Sinjan had had a brief but obviously friendly exchange with her, so she could not have been all bad. In fact, considering the familiarity with which they had spoken, Caterina would assume that they'd even fought together before.

Ah. No time for thinking of that, now. As the raven-headed woman slashed and struck at every man near her with a warrior's skill, despite her nobleman's clothing, and dodged around her massive mabari's crunching and crushing attacks with a learned experience, Caterina turned flashing eyes back to her own foes. Damn, but they had all stepped up their game. Well, she would simply have to step up hers.

It started out as a basic fight and Nygozy was enjoying it, working with Kai to keep the guards nearest them off balance. She was clearly not even working up a sweat, letting everything happen casually almost as if she really did not care. She heard Sinjan talking to someone and Torture excited about something but it didn't clue in right away as her mind was on the fighting. That was until Sinjan yelled about a tattoo.

A tattoo? Her eyes flicked to the side to see if Kai caught the reference as well then tripped the man she was fighting and slammed down onto his arms with her knees. She quickly looked him over knowing that Kai would have her back. Then she noticed it, just under the ear behind the jaw and another on the other side. A stylized bird. One red and the other black.

Nygozy slit the man's throat as Caterina yelled the question of killing at which point Nygozy called out in her authoritative voice, "These are imposters. If they have the bird tattoos under the ears they can die. Keep the senshal alive for questioning."

With that note she rolled out of the way of a sword which was close to having hit her.

He had heard, above the din, the elf call out for no killing. Well then, there would be no killing on Griffinhart's part, not until he was told otherwise.

That was all and good, but the fact of the matter was that several of the guards were trying to kill him. Those behind him were warded off, for a while, by Calliara and Drake, but even they would be soon overwhelmed; further, they could only cover his back - his duty was to not get gutted in the chest by the advancing armored figure. He briefly considered the idea of encasing the man in a crush of ice - but the order was also no magic.

Time slowed to a crawl for the warrior as he calculated everything he could possibly do in his predicament. His cover was faltering under pressure. There was an advancing enemy. He was trapped and nigh-immobile. There was only one way he could move: forward. He would have to trust in himself, and his attunement to the Fade, and in so many other things.

Trust is a weakness.

Both blades slammed, point-first, into the marble floor, a testament to the swordsman's strength. He pulled on them, using the swords for leverage and extricated himself from the pinned guard with raw strength, putting all of his weight on his lead foot, on the man's arm. As his hapless foe cried out in agony, Griffinhart used the momentum generated to propel himself forward, into his next, charging foe. The two collided - one a hunk of steel and sinew, the other a ghostly, inhuman comet. The guard was not ready for such a maneuver - he had charged, expecting his foe to be in a single place, expecting his prey to be immobile. He had not foreseen this course of combat, and that was what saved Griffinhart from being neatly cleaved in twain, displaced into the Fade or not.

The collision left both on the floor, dazed and nearly out of the combat. Griffinhart was no longer acting - he shed both mind and body, ignoring the pain in his bones and the darkness that clouded his vision, and let years of bone-bred training and instinct take over; the only reins on the beast that possessed his form were now "no killing" and "no magic". With nothing but pure force, it heaved the semi-conscious guard off itself, throwing the man a full three feet high and into a wall. The tattered cloak whipped around it, half miasma, half shadow, and traced a black flame through the air as the beast leapt back into the fray, barreling right by Nygozy as it heard those fateful words - "They can die."

If it weren't for the helmet the body wore, the ghastly smile that crept onto the beast's face would have chilled the bones of any who saw.

With a speed barely short of teleportation, the beast leapt onto the back of a distracted "guard" and went to its terrible work. Hands - nearly claws - grasped around the face of the helmet and tore with inhuman strength, ripping the head back as straps burst, bearing a neck that bore the tattoos in question. The beast grasped the man's jaw from behind and above with its right hand, keeping his neck wide open - and brought down the opposite elbow, driving a three-inch long spike through the exposed flesh, ripping away without mercy nor care for a "clean kill".

There were no such things as "clean" kills in battle.

The beast had aggressed, but with barely any thought for itself. Dropping from the toppling body, it whirled around and instinctively raised both hands, catching a two-handed maul by the shaft. Another "guard" had come up from behind and tried to land a killing blow; it was only speed that kept Griffinhart's body from being pasted onto the marble floor. Instead, the beast's block altered the pivot of the strike, and it merely glanced onto the beast's back - not harmlessly, but causing far less harm than it could have - and forced it down onto a knee. It and its assailant faced each other, low on the ground.

The beast lunged forward and slammed its head into its foe's, and again, and again, using its entire body as a weapon, trying to force the man back and out of the lock they had gotten each other into.

[OOC: Griffinhart, it was Calli, not Caterina]


Those foes had the tattos, the same tattos she saw when ambushed going to Orzammar's market, the same tattoos the thugs that attacked Griffinhart when Bowen and the other met him had, those tattoos that yelled that those were imposters.

So the Wolf bit hard with her fangs.

Calliara had her skinning knife in her hand even if she didn't remember how or why. Their oponents had full plate on them, she wasn't strong enough to use her long swords against them. So, she started to dance between them just as Caterina. One cut here between the helmet and the neck's protection, another cut under one arm and deep into the side, another cut here and there...

She faced the dark haired woman that was yelling with Sinjan and fighting by their side. She was a human, and a noble if her clothes said anything about her. Calliara never trusted human nobility at first sight, too many insults she had heard from them in that very palace years before.

''I don't know who you are, but unless you're sided with us, move out of my way'' She snarled, eyes staring without blinking, like a merciless wolf. There was no tenderness or mercy in the elf right then, just a predator.

Argos was his own weapon. As Macha's shrill whistle pierced his ears, he didn't even need to stop and look at her before falling back behind her, attacking the men she left in her wake. For the men who's helmets she knocked off, revealing black marks on the faces, she made a downward slash with one hand, and he took care of them, his teeth mauling as they'd been designed to hundreds of years ago. Argos was her weapon, too.

Macha was worried. Impostors. She had entered the fray, expecting a fight between some gaurdsmen who'd simply lost their senses but - if the guard had been replaced with spies, then was Alistair well? Safe? Alive, even? He'd "forgotten" about Nygozy's meeting - being held hostage, then. Her eyes narrowed as she drove her knife into the soft mail at a guard's collar bone, not enough to kill immediately, and shucked his helmet off. Tattoo. Adjusting her knife in hand, she turned the blade swiftly across his neck. No need to keep that one alive. A man she'd encountered earlier had had no tattoo, though he wore the same murderous expression as the spies. A traitor, then. She'd left him alive, and Argos had done a quick job of wrapping his jaws around the man's legs, crushing the un-armored bones. Traitors needed to be kept alive, so that Macha would have the pleasure of seeing them hang.

An elf faced her then, and it was all Macha could do to still her hand before it struck out automatically. She almost smiled as the woman snarled - a graceful sound, even in such a harsh tone - and nodded her head resolutely. Civility could not be expected in the midst of a fight, and it was best to act quickly when asking if one was friend or foe. Courtesy could wasily mean a slit throat.

"I am a friend," she said, word short but with all of her conviction and truth pushed into them. "I am a Grey Warden. For now, that will have to be enough." Hopefully, assuring her that she was a Grey Warden would truly convince her that she was on her side. She didn't wait for any response, however. She'd turned away immediately, spinning into a crouch and ramming her dagger into the kneecap of a man coming towards her. She might have made quicker work if she'd had her longsword, or even just another dagger to work with. Without armor and under-armed, she felt more than a little exposed. She'd already gotten cuts across her arms and legs. Nothing bad, yet, and nothing to restrict her movement overmuch. She would simply have to be more careful than usual.

Deadly weapons slashed through the air connecting with bone, skin, sinnew and tendon as well as countless other body parts belonging to both friend and foe. It was an exhilerating experience, that place between life or death where you had no clue whether you would succumb to the spirit world or remain within the land of the living.

Even though Nygozy was no berserker she still had the madness that could be used for the skill and she tended to go into her own little world when fighting for her life and for those around her. She and Kai worked together in a fluid mix of bodies and weapons. He did his best to protect his charge as she did her own part in tearing into the fighters.

It was noticeable soon into the fight becoming deadly that the imposters were congregating towards the front where more guards came in.

"They are targeting you, Hero." Kai said calmly as he found a chink in a man's armour, "We have to get you out of here."

"No." Nygozy said back to him as she sliced through a man's neck not noticing the assassin giving Drake a quick look as Torture got to them and became just as much a weapon as Argo was.

Kai growled under his breath as they continued to fight then kicked the wall, opening a secret doorway, grabbed her by the wrist and flung her in following on her heels.

(OOC: Hey guys, it's been a while hasn't it? Sorry, life is being...life)

Kai followed Nygozy in, he was angered by all of the events leading up to this fight, that was good he'd been able to use that in the fight. But, here in the secret little door he wanted to move quickly, unsure of just how secret it truly was and how safe they were.

"I am fully aware you are our leader, you have the command, but it is also that fact that is the reason you must stay safe. Normally I have no place to give orders, but it is your life at stake. As your guard I have to decide what is best for your saftey, and I'm afraid I have to demand your full co-operation. Now, those guards are after you and I will not let them take you. "

Nygozy was too startled to say anything at first as Kai directed her along the hallway. The guards were already trying to get into the secret passage and she realized how much of a risk it was since Kai had taken that action.

"There were more than I saw, I take it?" She said as he stayed in her way, "That means that Ali is probably in trouble too. We have to find a way to get to him. I don't want him to die before I give him a good swat across the head for being an idiot."

Now she moved, taking interest in dealing with this problem, "How did you find this? Or did his majesty tell you about these?" She snorted about Alistair possibly even knowing of something like this. He wasn't one to look into secret passages like she was, "I'd bet on Zev showing you rather than Alistair though."

Kai nodded a silent agreement to finding Alistair. He proceeded swiftly along side the hero, keeping an ever vigilant watch on their surroundings. "It was Zevran who showed me these tunnels. I highly doubt he knows they even exist."

"I would be surprised if he did." Nygozy looked at Kai to see what was going through his mind, if there was ever such a way to do so with an assassin, but she felt they were doing well with each other. He certainly was always there for her whether it was just to talk or to keep her safe.

But that's his job.

Nygozy turned her head suddenly at that thought wondering why it disturbed her so much but kept her eyes on the hall ahead, "So where do we go to get to Alistair's sitting room, work room ... or whatever you call that damn room."

She slowed down and looked back knowing the hunt was not too far behind, "We have to get out of here soon."

kai noted the subtle turn of Ny's head and gave a slightly curious look to her, but he soon became serious again. He'd have to ask what crossed her mind later, other things were more important right now. "I know. Just follow me." He took a gentle but firm grip on her hand and lead her down halls and turns, reaching Alistairs rooms and opening the door.

((Nyggy and Kai have gone here: https://dragonageafter.forumotion.com/t186-more-politics#2192))

Sinjan was fighting for his life instead of a regular battle as he was off balance holding onto the now dead man he'd used as a shield. There was a sound of crunching and a flash of movement he did not quite catch but once Sophia was on the ground with his attacker and teaching him the true meaning of lightning the fighter was able to breathe easier.

"Thanks Sophia." He said as he countered an attack to the slight woman, flicked the sword around and cut off the soldier's hands. He winced at the scream, "Ouch. Remind me to never piss you off." He said as he turned to get back into the fight.

The former soldier was doing well now, having been given the chance to drop his quarry. He noticed motion at the end of the hall and growled, "They're after Nyggy."

He could hear Torture going crazy as Nygozy disappeared up ahead. All Sinjan could think was that she was being overwhelmed as he knew nothing of and could not see the hidden passage.
He tried to force himself forward but there were still too many fighters in his way.