Private Trials within Trials.

[Serina Calis]

Trials within Trials.
Location: Dorvalla
Objective: Test Leliana
Allies: ???
Opposing Force: ???
Tags: Leliana

The Tsis'Kaar believe they are the architects of secrecy, the masters of deception. But even the cleverest spiders forget that webs can be burned. Let them think they are shaping you, my little shadow. Let them think you are theirs. And when the time comes… we will remind them that shadows do not serve. They consume.​

The room was bathed in shadow, save for the cold glow of a single red hololight flickering in the center of the chamber. The Tsis'Kaar never wasted time on unnecessary theatrics; their entire existence was theater—an endless play of deception, where only those who understood the game survived long enough to enjoy it. And yet, Serina found herself indulging in the moment, standing just beyond the edge of the light, cloaked in the darkness that always welcomed her home.

She did not announce herself. She did not need to.

From her vantage point, she watched as the final preparations for the briefing took place. The handler, a woman known only as Veyna, moved with the practiced efficiency of a spider tending its web. The flickering holodisplay cast its sickly red glow over her sharp, angular features, highlighting the deep-set lines of someone who had spent far too many years in the shadows. A voice clipped and precise, she dictated final security protocols to the unseen operatives monitoring the room, ensuring that nothing—not a whisper, not a flicker of sound—would leave these walls.

Serina found it quaint, how the Tsis'Kaar clung so desperately to their veils of secrecy. As if their hollow little games could ever truly escape the reach of someone willing to tear them apart from the inside.

Her gaze drifted to the holodisplay, where the mission details were now being finalized. Kyren Vale. A man whose name had been spoken in hushed tones, only to be promptly buried beneath the weight of an execution order. A Tsis'Kaar agent turned traitor, so they claimed. Caught in a web of his own making, they said. But Serina already knew the truth. Kyren Vale was a loose end, and in the Tsis'Kaar, loose ends were meant to be severed.

But not today.

Her lips curled at the thought. This was Leliana's trial, the first test of who she would become under the Tsis'Kaar's watchful gaze. Would she be a blade—sharp, obedient, and disposable? Or would she prove herself something else entirely?

Serina had a vested interest in the answer.

She shifted slightly, unseen in the darkness, her body a mere specter against the far wall. Every detail of this moment had been meticulously arranged—every whisper, every directive, every step leading Leliana here, to this room, where her future would begin to take shape.

And just as the final lines of data solidified on the holodisplay, just as Veyna straightened, her mask of detached professionalism settling into place, the chamber doors hissed open.

Leliana had arrived.

Serina did not move, did not breathe a word. She merely watched, her amusement curling like smoke in her chest, waiting to see what her little shadow would do.