Hisame needs to meld through the wall beside the door, and that's slower than just turning into a ghost.

Hisame's clone, on the other hand, is still standing in the crowd, and proceeds to also swap with the Keres.

If that's the way she wants to play it-

Blink up, an unseen hand taps both Hisames-

And eighty-seven seconds later, the Keres is waiting for her inside the tower.

"Well played!" Hisame says, laughing. "Did you just pause me? That's exceptionally weird, by the way, having two of my bodies offline, but not the third."

"A temporal lock of random duration, yes. I imagine it would be odd to have one's consciousness split like that. Are you experiencing any issues with resynchronization?"

"Not at all, but I'm used to shadow clones - usually they have separate consciousnesses that re-merge when they're destroyed. The syncing is a new power."

"Good, then. I would have hated for our little game to cause you problems."

"It would've been good to find out if it did, though, when we're relatively unpressured."

"Still, you won, fair and square." Teasingly: "I suppose you get a prize, now."

"Do I now? And what manner of prize might that be?" Her smirk says she knows exactly what sort of prize she wants.

She steps closer, until she's in the Keres' space a bit, looking up through her eyelashes. Soft, quick kiss, and then stepping back to smirk. "A little taste, perhaps."

Though from her posture she doesn't look like she'd react hostilely to someone declaring that too little a prize.

She matches her step back.

"I am not one," she says, bending her head down to be level with Hisame's, "to be satisfied with a taste."

"Oh? How much do you plan to take, then?"

"As much as I can, naturally." Her breath is soft and hot on Hisame's lips, and she's smiling as she leans in to close the final gap.

Hisame might give her another few challenges for anything past kissing, but for now, kissing is quite delightful.

Quite.

They're not exactly in friendly territory, so she won't push beyond that. For now.

She breaks off the kiss with a self-satisfied smile and steps back. "There."

That is a very good kiss. Hisame is not usually the taken.

She smirks. "I think we're off to a good start."

"Onwards to chaos, death, destruction, and the buildup to the grand finale?"

"Perhaps not immediately if we wish to recruit any mages. But far be it from me to say no to you."

She laughs. "I'm fine with building tension for a while."

Then it's off to explore the Gallows. The fortress isn't terribly labyrinthine, but it does get a bit crowded when they get further in. The city of Kirkwall is home to around a hundred and eighty mages and close to five hundred templars, and they all live here.

She makes a bit of a game of avoiding people - having already dismissed the non-dwarf-seeking clone - but she can use the chameleon technique, so.

Any of the mages exceptionally interesting?

A group of young mages practicing spells against target dummies, under the watchful eyes of their templar guards. Some in the library, studying. A few shut away in their quarters, furtively reading strange books. A pair shut away in their room having sex. First Enchanter Orsino, a grey-haired elf doing paperwork in his study, muttering imprecations against Knight-Commander Meredith under his breath.

The furtive ones seem most promising for a little revolution, though Orsino might have levers they can push...

Does the Keres have insight on what they're reading about?

Illegal erotic literature, a history of Tevinter, and... a book on forbidden blood magic.

...Oooooooooh.

(At the blood magic. Erotic literature might be fun to steal as a pet, though, depending on the literature.)

She wants to go spy on blood magic mage closer!

(The literature is blandly vanilla and not all that well-written.)

The blood magic mage is taking notes and keeps glancing somewhat nervously at a knife laid to one side of the bed.

(Too bad. Well, she'll keep looking.)

Hisame wants to at least scare the blood mage, if not recruit them.

...She moves the knife while the mage isn't looking. Just a little.