The inquisitor’s pale white skin shone in the sunlight as she moved through the water towards the waterfall. She had heard a rather suggestive poem circulating in Val Royeaux about her flawless milky skin. Yet another piece of art for the ages revering her "perfection", to be placed among the numerous, paintings and statues already made.
Josephine encouraged this as a strategy to raise support for the inquisition, but Leria was very quickly getting tired of all the people quite literally kissing her feet.
The water pooling below the waterfall was deep enough to reach the short elf’s chest and her little pink nipples shivered as the water touched them. She stopped and quickly dunked her whole body inside the pool, bursting out of the water with a great gasp. This bath was just what she needed.
She looked at her face in the clear water, examining the tattoos that adorned her face, moving her finger along one of the branches. She wasn’t Dalish herself. She was born in the Dennerim alienage, but she always heard stories of the elven past and always dreamt of leaving the filthy streets and racist slurs for the great forests the Dalish liked to roam.
The tattoos were a new addition, given to her by a clan of Dalish she helped in Orlais, marking her as an honorary member of their clan.
Leria closed her eyes as she moved underneath the falling water. The waterfall wasn’t particularly tall, so the water, rather than hitting her with force, softly caressed her body as it fell.
She spent several minutes in the soft embrace of the cool water, caressing her body as she did, moving her hands slowly from her shoulders, over her chest, along her stomach and down between her legs. She moaned softly. She momentarily regretted not taking Blackwall with her, but only for a moment.
She shook her head, dove down into the water and proceeded to swim down the stream, surfacing by her camp with a gasp. She threw her silver hair back, wiped her face from the water and turned to her camp. The fish seemed to be just about done from the looks of it, its roasting scent filling her nose.
She stepped towards the shore, draining the water from her hair, when she noticed something was off. She could have sworn she left her clothes on a large rock by the fire, but the rock was as bare as before she undressed.
Maybe they slid off? She checked behind the rock to no avail.
Maybe some stupid animal made off with them? She knelt down to look around for animal tracks in the mud only to find a set of deep footprints.
The distinct sound of crackling leaves under a heavy boot snapped the inquisitor up to find herself staring down a pair of armed men, their weapons drawn.
Armed was a compliment though. Their weapons were rusty and cheap, and their leather armor was practically falling apart, dotted here and there with what seemed like scavenged Templar plate armor. One of them even managed to find himself a damaged Templar helm and a shoulder plate.
The two men stepped forward.
Without hesitation, Leria sent shards of ice screeching through the air, spearing one of the men through the arm and into a tree and glancing off the other’s scavenged Templar shoulder plate with enough force to knock him down.
She stepped towards her knocked opponent.
Said opponent, seeing her approach, scrambled for his dropped blade.
As his arm reached for it, a block of ice completely engulfed the hunk of rusted metal, leaving the man to lurch back and try to scramble away from the approaching figure of the naked inquisitor, which was now surrounded by blue flames of pure magical energy.
A shard of ice buried itself into the ground in front of the man as he tried to escape into the brush on all fours.
He turned around unto his back to face the looming, blue-flame-covered figure of Leria above him.
She wondered if the men were bandits, or perhaps leftover Templars from her cleansing of the caves. Regardless, they were trash, just like the countless opponents she dispatched on the Storm Coast before. They couldn’t even hope to get through the magical barrier around her body.
This was an easy win.
And they better have not done anything to her clothes!
The bandit below her moved.
The idiot was trying to kick her. His steel boot flew towards Leria’s shin.
He was going to find out the hard way how strong of a magic barrier she could produce around her body. It could even withstand a little of dragon fire—
Pain.
Sharp, crippling pain hit the inquisitor together with the steel boot.
It hit her so hard, both literally and figuratively, that she found herself face down in the mud from the impact.
The bewildered blue-flame-covered mage tried to push herself up, but suddenly felt the touch of a cold ring of steel around her neck. Before she could even lift her face, the ring snapped together.
The blue flames surrounding her body vanished instantly.
She heard a great sigh as the assailant in front of her stood up.
“Andraste’s tits that was close,” he said.
The Herald of Andraste tried to force herself up, but the same steel boot pushed her face back into the mud.
“Eat some mud you stupid cunt!”
She tried to summon her powers and spear the man with ice right through his stupid groin.
But… nothing happened.
“Hey Brand! Ugh… A little help here maybe?” the man stuck to the tree groaned.
“Quit your whining you pussy! That ice should disappear any second,” Brand replied as he stepped off the inquisitor’s head and knelt down to pick up his now defrosted sword.
“Ugh!” the other man groaned as he dropped to the ground, the icicle gone.
“Oh for fuck sake,” Brand said and stepped over to help his comrade up. “It’s a flesh wound.”
Leria slowly pushed herself off the mud and unto her feet.
Brand looked to her as she raised her hands, fully preparing to turn that entire side of the forest into a mass of icy spikes.
But again… nothing happened. She stared in bewilderment at her hands.
Brand laughed. “Not so thorny now, are ya?”
“What the fuck did you do?!” she barked at him.
“I told ya raiding that Templar cave was a good idea, didn’t I?” he said to his injured accomplice.
“Could have found me a shoulder plate too you bastard. Ugh.”
“Fuck your shoulder, we got ourselves a stupid little elf now, who can’t throw nothin’ at us no more.” Brand took off the Templar helmet and threw it on the ground. “Fuck! This shit is hot. How do those fuckers walk around in it all day?”
Leria stood there, gathering all her focus and willpower to spear that stupid man right through his face.
Nothing.
She grabbed the collar around her neck and tried to yank it off.
“Good luck with that,” Brand laughed, turning back to his victim. “Dem collars are magically sealed ya see.”
Leria looked at him with seething rage. “What the fuck did you do to me?!”
“Not much,” Brand said, stepping towards her, prompting her to step back. “Just snapped some Templar collar on ya. Blocks magics and stuff. This is only the second time I seen it workin’.” He looked down to her chest. “Damn those look fine!”
The inquisitor covered her small but perky breasts with her arms in shame as she stepped away from Brand. Her eyes darted around, looking for anything she could use to defend herself.
“Oh,” Brand said.” Ya lookin’ for this?” He stepped back towards the brush and produced Leria’s magic staff, waving it tauntingly in front of her.
Leria’s eyes narrowed in anger. “Fuck you! Give that back, and maybe I’ll let you leave with your balls still attached,” she snarled.
“Oh, ya will fuck me,” Brand replied, grinning as he looked her up and down. “Been a while since I had me an elf whore.” He licked his lips.
The Herald of Andraste moved one of the arms to cover her crotch as she stepped farther back from the man.
This was bad. Without her magic or her staff, there was not much she could do.
She glanced around.
With the stream behind her, and her assailants in front, all she could do was try to dash down-stream and into the brush.
She looked at Brand, sizing him up. He probably won’t be able to catch her with all that armor. This was her best choice.
“What ya thinkin’ about you dumb knife ear cunt?” Brand taunted her.
Leria greeted her teeth, turned and dashed down the stream. There was no way he’d be able to catc –
A sudden strike to her legs, with her own staff no less, sent the inquisitor tumbling once again, face first into the mud.
“What a stupid cunt,” she heard Brand laugh as he used the butt of her staff to push her face deeper into the dirt.
Inquisitor Leria, Herald of Andraste and lord of Skyhold, the slayer of dragons and monsters, defeated by a pair of common thugs, lay there, naked and shamed, her flawless milky skin and silver hair covered in mud.
So much for her bath.
