Bad Penny

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"Don't take this the wrong way, Henry," Rosamund smiled at her cousin who paused in stretching beside the library window. His crystal blue eyes darted over to her so she could continue, "But I will be glad to resume the road tomorrow."

Rather than grumble at the slight, her cousin smiled wide and let a soft laugh escape, "Given the rising tide of...all of these requests, I do not blame you." He tipped into one of dozens of petitions for the Arl to deal with the darkspawn problem. Most came from Banns concerned about loss of revenue, but a few were delivered by the mouths of those who lost homes or worse in this sudden scourge.

"In fact, I am almost tempted to trail you to...the New Dales, I believe?" he turned to her in the chair swamped by all the parchment she could leave behind. Her cousin did not seem to be of the same mind as Cailan, who'd already written up his estimates on the costs of answering each one and considered the matter settled.

"Yes," Rosie nodded her head, "the New Dales."

"Delightful, we can see what new waterwheel their head elf will proudly show off," her brother complained. He'd fallen sideways onto a chair, one mud stained boot dangling off the armrest while he kept fiddling with a small gear that rotated with each flick of his finger.

Rosie sighed and tipped back to the arched ceiling, "I could always leave you behind. There's reams and reams of paperwork I'm certain Henry would love to bury you in."

Her brother's ice blue eyes rolled over to her, the sockets darkened as if the man was up the entire night. She really didn't want to know why. "You jest but it's tempting. Far better than having to sit on the ground, listen to their ear shattering songs about dead gods, and eat bugs for dinner."

"The Dalish are not..." she began when Cailan flopped to the side and glared at her.

"It's been, what, forty years since they had their scrap of land yet somehow the concept of a town eludes them. Father suggested they try walls along their borders and what do they do? Plant a bunch of trees! Then stick up some of those dog carvings as if that will solve the problem. It's foolish."

Her brother banged the back of his head against the chair and sighed, "It's simple math. Their population has expanded beyond the nomad lifestyle, so blighted well behave like it."

"Cailan!" Rosie hissed, well aware that in a lot of ways the New Dales was one of their father's favorite projects which he oddly kept out of. Though, he'd often try to swing by and see how things were going. The New Dales was always on the itinerary as if it was as important to the crown as Highever or Redcliffe. Even Gwaren wasn't getting a stop this time, the Teyrn laid up with another round of gout, poor man.

Her brother didn't answer her chastisement, simply darted his hands through the air as if he was weaving with them. That'd be the day. Trying to take command of the subject, and suddenly aware there were a good dozen others in the room with her, Rosie turned to Henry, "Have you visited the New Dales?"

"On occasion. They're not wild about us humans popping by, but the Keeper is more open than most. The waterfall there however is breathtaking," he stepped beside Rosie, his hip perched upon the desk at a friendly distance, but the man paused and his eyes darted over to the dark form leaning upon a slice of empty wall. Anjali cut through him, her arms crossed in anger, until Rosie smiled and the assassin faded to an easy stance.

As if she had a scratch, Anjali drew her thumbnail against her cheek, until reaching her lips. Puckering them, she imprinted a kiss onto her thumb and locked eyes with the Princess. Doing her damnedest to not blush, Rosie spread her fingers over the pile of work as a distraction. Being on the road would make it much easier for her to slip her handlers, another very good reason to be excited to leave Redcliffe.

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