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Lyos was asleep still, half using Bull as a pillow- and the Ben-Hassrath wasn't entirely interested in moving himself, even if he wasn't nearly so exhaustively sated. It was good to just enjoy a little quiet, and watch his Kadan sleep, peaceful and sound rather than in a manner that could have him awake with blade in hand at even a slight disturbance or change in his surroundings. Though by now the sweat, oil, and come had dried, the bed, and both of them, still smelled of the sex- Lyos overlaid as well by the charged smell of lyrium. While most of it had been undone, cast aside in loops or tangles, there was still a little silk rope wrapped and knotted around one of the elf's wrists, and in the faint light of the lantern, bruises on tan skin.
He had to admit, with a soft, rumbling chuckle, that the lyrium's lightning-strike smell had become not quite a weakness since the dragons of Crestwood and the Storm Coast, but- shit, certainly a temptation to get a little carried away as Bull. And tonight, Lyos had been in a complicated mood, thanks to dwarven curiosity becoming a gesture of friendship that the elf hadn't ever expected. Complicated, but mostly good- and he'd even had suspicions that Bull had been quietly involved too, which had meant a particular kind of gratitude being shown...
Lyos slowly was getting more talkative around the other companions that traveled with him regularly, though still seldom about his past- at least when out in the middle of nowhere, and maybe during a game of wicked grace late at night- but he still really only opened up when alone with a close friend or lover- and no matter how much he respected and even liked the Seeker, or any of the other humans in his inner circle, .there would be unconscious barriers between them that didn't exist if he was dealing with Bull, or even Varric- Sera and Solas both created their own distances, getting left out a little as well.
It had meant that none of them fully understood or realized how someone as mage-friendly as Inquisitor Lavellan, with clear distrust of the Templar order and Chantry, who supported Cullen's breaking off lyrium whole-heartedly, wouldn't listen to their warnings when given the offer by a Templar trainer to go ahead and get addicted himself. They all thought of it as anti-mage, because of how Templars had been used and held themselves- but Bull understood it was anti-demon.
Lyos seldom showed any emotions in a fight at all, cold, calculating, and concentrated- but under that, Bull knew he had a thrill for most fights, challenges, and a hatred of demons that meant he didn't even need to use a war cry to get the attention of rage ones. Even before being lovers, he'd known how to listen so that even someone as silent as the elf wanted to talk, with the bonus that even if he was openly a spy- he wasn't openly an author to the public like the dwarf was.
Both a mother and a twin sister gone, specifically because of demons- even with Lyos' distrust, almost hatred of Templars because of how they'd never even allowed his sister's body to be returned to the clan- it hadn't been hard for the Ben-Hassrath to, without ever seeming to fully approve either- make Lyos also think about a few rough encounters his new, makeshift 'clan' had had with them.
The elf was an adult, and fully trained warrior, he didn't really need approval- just understanding, to wind up on what could easily become a leash if he ever didn't have the resources of an Inquisition backing him.
And now thanks to Varric's- and Dorian to a lesser degree's- open curiosity about why and how a Dalish warrior spent so much time with his nose in books, and a few offhand remarks, there were some new books in Skyhold- copies in the library, and here in Lavellan's room.
With Lyos still dreaming beside him, Hissrad reached to pick up one at random, leafing through the opinions, observations, and messages written down by the Inquisitor's father. Who was the one that had taught his Dalish kids about the world outside of their clan and how it worked, then had left his son alone to be always a bit of an outsider. Lyos didn't really recognize himself the scar that had left along with the others- he'd chosen to stay a scout and protect his mother's clan rather than let his father talk him into something that might have been safer.
Yeah, the choice to possibly wreck himself with lyrium if it meant keeping others a little safer, taking out demons a little easier- it makes even more sense now.
A father who might even be found by the Ben-Hassrath, if he was still alive, and the final book hadn't been something like a suicide note or message from a deathbed, if he kept in touch with the publishers at all, or if his main editor there knew more of the names he went by beyond the Dalish Vallasan or the human-sounding pseudonym they published him under.
Just in case knowing who and where he was ever was useful- or what he knew about his son or the clan Lavellan itself.