Anri gazed up to Sera's cranky face. The brash elven woman, with the short, hack-cut, blond hair, stood over him with her hands on her hips, which were decked out with double-layered belts of sheathed lockpicks, small darts, and knives. The ceiling light highlighted the custom-made sylvanwood bow on her back and leather quiver fully of pointy arrows. Her dark hunter armor clung to the contours of her lithe body, with legs in tights and knee-high laced-up boots. One boot was raised.

  "Evening." He casually responded.

  "Tit. You said to meet you at the Hangman at nine. THAT WAS A FRIGGIN HOUR AGO!" Her boot left a stomp mark next to his head.

  Anri scrambled to sit up and scratched his head. He had been unaware of time being lost.

  "Sorry Sera. I didn't realize."

  Sera's crankiness eased into concern when she saw some of his short sleeves bunched around his half-arm. His skin looked clammy, like he was recovering from a fever.

  "What's wrong, Anri?"

  Anri didn't know where to start to explain that he was likely a host to a demon parasite. Magic and anything to do with the Fade scared the girl.

  "It's well, my arm; I don't think it recovered right." He lowered his eyes to where the cloth was a mess around the irregular amputation line.

  Sera heaved a sigh with understanding. The pains that Anri had managed when he had had that anchor magic on his body, and now having lost half his arm to it: this kind of magic taint wasn't something a normal person could easily recover from. Thankfully, he was normal now, more than ever, and that made him weaker than he realized.

  "Well, fine. We've got time anyway. Get your gear on; we got a tip that noble prick is handing off the slaves to Vints tonight."

  "Do you know who dropped the tip?"

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  "Some urchin, I was told. Who cares? If this noble is dealing in slavery, we need to stop it and free the poor sods. And get royally paid at the same time."

  Anri nodded; the tip was also a chance lead to Solas's forces. "Let me get ready, and we'll go. Don't want to waste more time."

  He hastily left the entrance foyer and ambled up the central staircase to enter one of the upper rooms.

  Inside an empty drawing room, he activated a fake-wall opening to reveal his personal armory.

  He donned his dark leather rogue armor and enchanter hood, which hid his face from view. A long masterwork obsidian, dual-end blade was slapped to his back holster. Compensating for his lack of arm was a specialized silverite crossbow Varric and Dagna had designed and made for him.

  He fitted the crossbow to his forearm and tested the trigger lever mechanisms, which would charge up the crystal barrel. The crystal was laced with ice magic runes, which would cast bolts of ice magic when the trigger was released. As long as the crystal remained intact, the number of bolts he could fire was unlimited. However, it required a big cost in stamina to fire a succession of bolts, so he used it as an offset. The crossbow arm was concealed beneath his long overcoat.

  He closed up the armory and returned to Sera, glancing at the scorched painting of the Tirashan and frowning when it got burnt and put out. Either way it wasn't an issue.

  "Let's go."

  Anri coolly led her out of the manor via the cellar and secret subterranean exits. But before they left the rocky tunnel to enter into the city, he grabbed a sack from a nearby food barrel.

  "Catch!" He chuckled as he tossed the foul-smelling sack at her.

  "Ugh!" She gasped and gagged at the stench assaulting her senses. She dropped the stinky thing.

  Both of them screwed up their noses as they peered at the sack at their feet. Anri said he had left it out in the summer heat to make it go ripe.

  "Arse. What's stinking up the sack?!"

  He stifled a laugh when he opened it to show rotting cheese and onions. "Thought we could use it to ward off evil, or, you know, stupid lackeys. Maybe sneak it into their stews to give them the runs. I don't know."

  "You're daft! Ugh, it does smell like someone shat their pants. Seeing Vints run around farting fires would be a laugh." Sera grinned at the fun ways to rescue the slaves and make the enemy look so stupid they would want to kill themselves.

  "Right! Lead the way." Anri gestured to the night scenery of the sea before them.

  Kirkwall's nighttime became a playground for Red Jenny's new duo.