dragonagejinan:

Nadiya dar-Gaduna (depicted without full combat gear)

For the second night in a row, Palit dar-Fadim was overwhelmed by the unusually heavy rain. His black and white uniform was waterlogged; its weight a constant annoyance. More pressingly, the storm obscured the balcony across the square below, which was already shrouded in darkness. They had been watching it for several days, observing guard movements and hoping to catch a glimpse of their target. Frustrated by the cloudy view through his drenched spyglass, Palit tucked it into the dryer part of his tunic and rubbed the lens dry. When he could finally focus on the balcony again, he was shocked to discover the guard he had been watching was gone.

He nudged his resting superior. “Nadiya. Nadiya, the guard is gone.”

Her light sleep interrupted, Nadiya did not bother disguising her impatience with the rookie and snatched the spyglass from his hands.

“It’s just a shift change.” She frowned and dried the lens again, “Wait… that’s the same guard from before. Could there be only those two?”

“Seems to be,” he confirmed. As Nadiya peered at the balcony, Palit reached into his bag to retrieve his heavy coat.

“What are you doing?” she asked.

He froze in an awkward pose, jacket half-on, “We’re supposed to report back. Aren’t we?”

“Not with this advantage,” she said. “Two guards? They might have more by the time we get our orders. Now, Palit, is the time to strike.”

“But—”

Nadiya, pointedly ignoring his withering objection, slid her coat off of her shoulders and tossed it aside along with the spyglass. Palit gulped; he still hadn’t gotten used to the sight of his striking and shapely superior.

Nadiya quickly planned a route to their target and began to scale the side of the nearest building. Palit quickly shrugged off his coat and followed. The roof above offered a clear angle, and by the time he clambered onto the tiles she was already lining up her grappling hook. Timing the shot with a thunderclap, she expertly shot the hook from her left wrist and they watched as it latched securely to the top of the villa. Palit took the end of the rope and secured it to the building as Nadiya rotated her wrist tool clockwise, swapping the spent hook cartridge for a spring-loaded blade. 

“After you,” Palit said, nodding towards the rope. 

Nadiya grabbed at the rope and slid down, dramatically gaining speed as her momentum carried her across the square. The guard they had been watching did not have time to react before her boots landed on his sternum and he collapsed. Not wasting any time, Nadiya thrust her blade through the guard’s exposed throat, silencing him.

Palit followed down the rope, dropping clumsily beside her on the second floor balcony. She spared him an amused grin before hiding it behind her protective mask. He donned his own, and simultaneously they opened fuel valves and lit the pilot lights under their right wrists.

Nadiya shuffled over to the door leading inside.

“Flash bomb,” she whispered, voice muffled, “then we grab the target.” 

As she gently cracked the door open, Palit drew the stun device from his belt loop and rolled it through the opening.  After waiting what he thought was the appropriate amount of time, he kicked the door open. Unfortunately, his timing was off, and the flash bomb exploded in his face.

Typical, Nadiya thought with a sigh.

She charged in past her stunned comrade and quickly surveyed the room. She stood on a narrow second level with a view down into the first floor. Three green-clad guards wobbled in their places surrounding a table in the center of the room. As soon as they regained their sight, she and Palit would be outnumbered. Looking up, a massive gilt chandelier loomed over the table and she took aim with her flamethrower, which launched a plume of fire at the rope fixing it to the ceiling. The rope quickly caught flame and, in a matter of seconds, snapped. The chandelier crashed down atop all but one disoriented guard.

Nadiya vaulted over the handrail and landed gracefully on the floor below.  The guard had recovered enough to confidently draw his sword before swiftly closing the gap between himself and the intruder. 

She parried his first swipe with her wrist blade and followed up with a kick to his chest to create some distance between them. Judging she did not have the time to draw her sword nor the space to set him ablaze, she smothered the pilot light and sprayed liquid fuel into the charging guard’s face. Stunned and blinded again he instinctively turned away, which gave Nadiya the opportunity to grip his head and twist. With a sickening crack he fell limp, and his body landed on the floor in a heap.

The fire started by her destruction of the chandelier had grown rapidly and embers had begun descending from the ceiling, spreading the blaze everywhere. It was then she heard Palit shout: “There he is!”  He pointed down a hallway toward their target.

Brushing the smoke from her field of view, she caught a glimpse of the figure fleeing down a stairwell as Palit descended from the balcony in pursuit of him.

Before she could follow, another door swung open and four more green-clad men poured into the room between her and her comrade.  She did not have time for this and wasn’t about to waste any. Snatching a grenade from her belt, Nadiya threw it beyond the enemy reinforcements where it ricocheted off the wall and landed at their feet before unleashing its devastating destructive properties, sending the guards flying and damaging a column already weakened by fire. Thoroughly compromised, the structure began to give in all around her and the roof over the stairwell leading to the basement caved in, blocking her off from Palit and the target.

With no option other than to escape, Nadiya searched for the nearest way out and observed a clear path towards a glass window on the opposite end of the building.  She burst forward, building up steam and bringing her arms up to protect her face before launching herself through the window.  As she landed, she tucked into a roll and was covered in a thick layer of mud and shattered glass before finally coming to a halt.

She saw reflected in a puddle next to her the image of the burning building, and silhouetted against it, a dozen figures marching towards her. She whipped her head around to get a better look at the threat, but she she recognized their uniforms as her own. With a sigh, she picked herself up out of the mud and straightened her posture to meet the icy stare of her commander, Haifa dar-Fadim.

“This is the last ‘accident’ of yours we will ever be cleaning up.”

Blurb by upsettingshorts, art by psdo.