The occupation of a bard was a deceiving one. To those unknowing, Erika appeared as an entertainer. With her brilliant, ornate Orlesian gown in which she strummed a lute and sang softly for a group of Val Royeaux aristocrats as they danced without a care, she seemed to simply be a part of the evening’s musical entertainment. However, to the trained eye, a spy could be found prying for information. 

It was silly, really, how carelessly these Orlesian nobles seemed to let slip their most secret information. An underground shipment of weapons, you say? Templars making deals with lyrium, hm? Or perhaps Erika had simply gotten too good at her job. She never asked why her clients wanted the information they requested, she simply did her job and took her gold at the end of the night. 

It would appear that Erika had forgotten the original intention behind her work, the real reason she had left home. For now, all she did was lurk in the shadows to turn Val Royeaux’s top aristocracy against one another. Once upon a time, she had wanted to make a change, do something that would make her parents proud. She feared now that she had lost that desire.

The party wound down, and Erika had the information she needed. Her lute was tucked away in its case and she exited the building as if she were never there. As she turned a corner in an alleyway, her hand found the dagger that swung softly at her hip. Pulling it from the sheath, she turned and pushed a dark figure behind her against a wall. 

“Who are you and what do you want?” She demanded. 

The hooded figure put its hands up in a non-threatening gesture, and remained calm. 

“Erika, put the dagger down.” A familiar voice came from behind a hooded face. 

“Leliana? What in Andraste’s name are you doing here?” Erika questioned, releasing the woman and putting her dagger back in its sheath. Erika had not only trained some with Leliana around Val Royeaux, but when she was able to find more honorable work with the Chantry, it was Leliana who gave her the assignments. 

“I’m here to offer you a position, Erika.” She said, handing her a piece of paper. 

Erika stared down at the piece of paper, which held nothing more than an insignia of which she had never seen before. “What is this?” Her fingers traced the shiny gold-stamped paper as she looked at it.

“Your chance to do something better. Join the Inquisition.”

[hr]
It had been several months now, and the days of lurking around the shadows of Val Royeaux seemed far away to Erika. In its infancy, the Inquisition was little more than a handful of people, all of various skills, commissioned by the Divine to remain at the ready should things between the Mages and the Templars escalate any further. Now that tensions between the two groups have in fact risen, Justinia has made sure the Inquisition has been steadily growing in the days leading up to the Conclave. That means investigating things of interest that have been neglected due to the war throughout Thedas. 

One of these investigations founds its way to Erika’s assignment list, as she now navigates through the soggy forest of the Storm Coast as a soft rain thuds ever so constantly against her hooded robe. Red lyrium. Nasty stuff, it is. Seems like the Inquisition wants to get to the bottom of who’s mining it and for what purpose and have it destroyed before any more of it is used for who the hell knows what. 

That’s where the members of the espionage and spy division come in, under the orders of none other than Leliana herself. The point here is to not draw a lot of unwanted attention. Get the information the Inquisition needs about who’s mining the Lyrium and why, and then destroy the stuff without leaving a trace that they were there. 

The anticipation of the mission almost made Erika forget about the bone chilling cold that came behind the rain. Almost. A shiver ran down her spine as she continued through the wet forest, moving carefully as she did so. Surely she was almost there… her instructions were to meet another member right about…

Erika emerged from the thick tree line, pushing branches out of her face in order to move into the clearing. Once she didn’t have pine needles poking at her eyes, she could see a dwarf standing with a mace and shield at the ready, eyes trained on her. 

“Flint!” She said, reluctantly pulling the hood from her head. “Put down the mace crazy, we’ve got work to do friend.” Erika said with a grin. She reached around her back and drew her longbow, keeping one arrow ready should she need it. 

“I don’t suppose you’ve seen any crazy lyrium junky miners around, have ya?” She asked with a raised eyebrow. “No? Good, hopefully we can find that mine and get in and out without much trouble. You know how the boss likes it, nice and tidy.” 

They didn’t have much time for pleasantries at the moment, they could share a drink and celebrate a mission gone well later. Now, they needed to move while they had the cover of night to their advantage. Erika headed towards a cave nearby that was, if her information was correct, part of a cave system that would lead them to the lyrium mine without being detected, even with Flint’s less than stealthy approach to things.