A small, dark room of the Antivan brothel smelled like tobacco, sex and cheap wine. Closed window kept stale air in the confined space and if one were to enter the room, he wouldn't even notice people playing cards upon the small trestle table. When Ben kicked the door open, card-players looked at him, blinded by daylight.
„Hello there, fuckboys! Get your pansy-asses ready! We're going to Val Royeux tomorrow!" he yelled, heaving as if he'd just ran a marathon. Brown haired Fereldan with weak beard and piercing stare, Damien, folded his cards and raised his brow in a feigned excitement.
„Really? Val Royeux? How exciting! "
This obviously offended energetic Ben.
„Stick the sarcasm up your arse! This time, I have a written contract-" he said, taking the rolled out paper from his cloak, "and you are going to do your job, Damien!"
Young Fereldan let out a very long sigh, openly showing his annoyance with the news. Dark skinned half-elf on the other side, Sayo, put a card on the table, taking few silver coins from Damien, receiving a killing stare. After taking Damien's money, he asked: „Why do you hate Orlais so much? There are beautiful virgins there just waiting to be plowed, exquisite wines, and if all else fails you can always take a piss below one of those Maferath statues. " he said, with a wistful stare in his eyes.
„Too fancy for me." Damien said, licking his wounds after losing money.
Ben was still offended by Damien's reaction.
„Oh look, look! It seems like I don't care if you find it fancy or not! Both of you get your shit together and meet me at the docks, tomorrow morning! Is that clear?" Old man was clearly annoyed. He walked out the room and loudly slammed the door.
„Sayo?" Damien finally broke the awkward silence surrounding the room.
„Hm?" Sayo replied, still looking at the door with a puzzled look on his face.
„What ticked the old man off so much?"
„I wanted to ask you, too. What's up with him?"
„Maybe he got his dick bitten by some whore in Royeux, long time ago." Damien said barely suppressing his laugh.
„That is… hard to imagine."
They both laughed at the image of their tutor with a woman chewing on his phallus and started packing for a trip.
„Don't be so grim, Dam. Maybe you will find something interesting there." Sayo said, throwing him few silver coins as a consolation.
„You wish." he said, pocketing the money.
Dawn's dim daylight illuminated the waking city of Antiva. Grey docks, whore-houses, golden streets and slums slowly filled with life. Sayo was awake for some time now checking his luggage one more time. "Where is that idiot?" he thought to himself. For whatever reason, Damien was late. Perhaps, Sayo reckoned, he found some cheap whore or spent the rest of the night drinking to hide embarrassment from losing yet another party of Wicked Grace. They should've been on docks by now.
He decided to go check on him.
As he entered his friends room, the scene made him puzzled. He veered between anger and laughter. Damien was still sleeping! Naked! With a whore by his side! Floor was filled with empty bottles of brandy, obstructing the movement. A stench of alcohol, body fluids and sweat almost made him faint.
"DAMIEN!" he screamed as hard as he could.
"What…" Damien answered with sleepy voice, confused by the sudden scream.
"What the fuck are you doing? You should be ready for the trip!"
"As to what I was doing, it was this lovely redhead… and then I passed out, I guess." Damien said pointing at the naked, young redhead lying next to him. "You should've seen how much she can drink. And things she can do with…"
"I don't care, you arsetard! Get dressed and come to the docks! And pray to whatever god you Fereldans worship that Ben doesn't kill you!"
"Fine, fine, spoilsport. I packed up last night… won't take long."
As Damien and Sayo reached the docks, they saw an elderly, familiar figure in the distance. The figure, indeed, noticed them and started yelling, from a distance: "You're late! Of course you're late! How could I even hope you won't be?" Ben shouted looking at Damien with raging eyes. People on the docks gave them puzzled looks. "Can you listen to me for once! Did I raise you to be an idiot or a responsible man?"
"You raised me to kill people for money, and spend that money on whores and drinks. Which is one of the reason why we're…AUGH!" Damien's soliloquy was abruptly stopped by Ben's hand, smacking against his parietal bone. Even while his eyes filled with tears, he could still see his mentor's angry glare. Old man was, indeed, extremely tense.
"I'm sorry…" Damien whispered, holding his hurting head.
They've boarded a huge vessel, Saint Dominica, once a trade ship but now used to carry passengers, as well as a cargo of questionable legality. However, it was still a beautiful ship, with its weathered mast and sides made of polished, dark cedar. Seeing new passengers, old captain gave the sign and ship sailed out against the murky sea.
Damien stared at the captain's cliché peg leg, and face which would fit a pirate more than a captain of passenger ship. Since captain was very fond of the Crows, he gave them the best cabins on the ship, as Damien noticed once they passed open doors of low-level cabins where sailors slept on rope cots.
"Something is very wrong with our master." he finally broke the thoughtful silence, after Ben retreated to his room.
"Not even a bard would say it better. I say, he'll lose his mind soon this way. What if something really happened to him in Orlais?" Sayo scratched his head, looking at Damien with a concern in his silver, big eyes. Damien broke the gloomy atmosphere with sudden burst of laughter.
"What?" Sayo was confused by a sudden outburst of laugh.
"Nothing. Just love that wannabe-serious-grumpy-elf look on your face."
"Arsetard…"
Days were slow on the open sea. Luckily, winds were their friends and waters calm to the point where the sea once even turned into a mirror. Sailors manned the oars, softly steering their ship against the sunlight. All this time, Ben was strangely quiet. If he had to speak, the words would be formed with such spite that even the grumpy sailors avoided him. Damien and Sayo followed sailors example. Well, not Damien. He enjoyed prodding his master for fun, and earned so many smacks and punches that Sayo worried he won't survive the trip.
"I am so BORED!" Damien, energetic Damien, hyperactive Damien who could not stand being at the same place for too long said this sentence every hour for past two days. This time he was laying on a yardarm. Turns out, he loves climbing and he's the best climber Sayo had ever seen, which meant he would regularly climb on, well… everything. Other Crows jokingly named him The Spider.
"Just two more days, Dam." Half elf tried to make him feel better, although he knew it won't help. Sayo didn't believe it himself.
"You said that two days ago!" Damien moaned, hugging the yard with comically bored face.
"Say, Dam... Did you try to grow up, perhaps? It's loads of fun, trust me."
"Fuck off!" Damien showed him a middle finger.
"If the winds favour us, we could be in Val Royeux tomorrow", a sailor who looked through the spyglass on observatory nearby tried to ease the tension.
"Tomorrow is so far away…"
"Why don't you play some cards to pass the time?" sailor asked.
"I can't. This wretched little knife-ear took all of my money yesterday."
Late at night, Damien and Sayo woke up at the sound of trouble. The footsteps of worried sailors thumped loudly against the wood above their heads. All the time, a weird sound could be heard, as if the sea itself came alive and started eating on the sides of a ship. Damien felt the terror inside his heart, and Sayo was even worse. His face looked contorted in horror, as he stared through the small window on the side of a ship.
"We're stranded!" Sayo yelled.
"Finally, a land!"
"No, you idiot! We're not in Val Royeux!"
"Finally, an adventure!"
"They say even death can't cure an idiot." Sayo quoted.
As they reached the main deck, they noticed something strange. Along the shores, hidden in the darkness was a bunch of darker shadows. The sailor who tried calming Damien down yelled: "Monsters! We are beset by monsters! Join the fight, you scallywags!"
One of the sailors in front of them fell down, hit by a dark black, thorny arrow. Another arrow hit the face of a sailor who just talked to them, splattering his head like a ripe melon. Ben had just used his long scimitar to cut the throat of an unknown dark beast that had just climbed the deck.
"You two! Use your bows, now! They attack from the distance!"
Ben's apprentices didn't even wait. Loading their bows, both Damien and Sayo jumped down under the deck railing. As one of the beasts dipped their arrow in an oil, setting it aflame, for a moment Damien saw its face. He wished he didn't see it. It looked like a man, but at the same time it wasn't. Monster's eyes were sunken, just two dark spots under the light of a torch. Its face looked like a skull, with a set of wicked, sharp teeth and a long, sharp tongue which lolled out of its open mouth, like it's tasting the air.
Damien didn't wait for it to unleash a fiery arrow and burn the ship. He put an arrow right between its eyes, and its blood was completely black.
"Maker's balls… those are darkspawn! Don't engage it in melee!" Damien yelled. Once, when he was a kid, a group of farmers ganged on a stray darkspawn and killed it with their pitchforks. They lived near his home, and he saw a body himself. It was terrible, and it gave him nightmares for weeks.
"That's WHAT?" Ben screamed. He didn't notice it before, but now it all made sense. His hands were sticky with a black, viscous blood.
"Those are darkspawn! Whatever you do, don't get into the direct contact with their blood!"
Even under a dim moonlight, Ben's face looked terrified. And as he turned around, gigantic darkspawn wielding the huge jagged battleaxe cleft a way across his gut.
"BEN!" Damien screamed, kicking a huge Hurlock right in the face. The monster dropped its jagged, large axe. However, it didn't retreat. It had a monstrous strength, and kicked him down the deck. When Sayo noticed Damien falling down, he let a carefully aimed arrow right through monster's gullet. Huge Hurlock started gagging and wheezing, and it gave Damien enough time to climb onto it's back, stabbing a dagger into a tough, leathery skin of its neck. Monster didn't retreat, however. It went berserk, throwing Damien away, lunging at Sayo. It grabbed a discarded weapon, bleeding all over in a berserk rage.
"It's going to kill us all! Fall back!" one of the sailors exclaimed in horror, dropping the morale of the crew. Sailors started skittering around, trying to abandon the ship. Just as the situation seemed desperate, Ben finally managed to gather enough strength to stand up. Huge Hurlock already raised an axe with both hands above Sayo, who tried hitting it with bolts that just bounced of its heavy, black plate. Monster didn't notice Ben creeping up its back, and he mustered all of his strength to push a dagger in the crack between the plates of its primitive armour. Ben studied humanoid anatomy, and had a rough idea where its heart would be. Of course, he was right.
As his dagger found a way inside of a dark, sinewy flesh, monster screamed in pain. After a several confused seconds, it toppled on a side, crashing on a deck with a heavy thud. When other monsters realized that their leader is dead, they retreated. Suddenly, unnatural silence fell upon the ship. With their attackers escaping the fight, very air around them was blighted and dead. Surviving sailors did their best to push the ship away from the shore and as they did and the ship sailed away from the cursed island, suddenly the moonlight became brighter.
"Ben, are you alright?!" Damien yelled. Sayo stepped closer.
"I'm fine…. Don't worry so much, it's annoying." Ben said, grabbing his stomach. Luckily, the blade hadn't really passed through his gut – it was slowed by a thin silverite chainmail above his studded leather armour. Even with that, a wound bled badly, but wasn't fatal. However, Damien couldn't help but worry. What if Ben got sick, what if some of that black blood came into contact with his?
"I can help." Sayo said.
"Hmm?" Both Damien and Ben said.
"My mother was a dalish elf. She knew a lot about herbalism. I have some herbs in my pack which can staunch bleeding and disinfect the wound. Let me help."
Grumping, Ben undid the straps on his armour. Now, the wound looked worse than with armour on. It cleft his flesh apart, revealing profusely bleeding, fleshy tear.
"He almost cut you in half. And you're saying you're fine?" Sayo asked his mentor.
"I'm not a baby. I suffered worse wounds during my training." Ben muttered.
Sayo took a mortar and the pestle from his backpack, grounding a bunch of elfroot to the paste, adding a bit of the powdered crystal grace flowers. After it all became a pasty grease, he applied it around Ben's wound and it immediately stopped bleeding. After it was finished, Sayo chanted a simple cantrip above the rest of a paste, and mortar started filling with water. He sipped it into a small flask, letting Ben drink it.
"So it's a healing potion?" Ben asked, throwing an empty flask to the sea.
"Yes. It will cure your wound."
"I suppose those vagrants from the bushes are good for something, at least." Ben muttered.
"Dirthara'ma, Ben! That's my mother you're talking about!"
Ben looked at Sayo, and then at his wound. He cursed something under his breath and said:" Alright. Whatever you say."
"Mala suledin anas. Now you must endure. Go and take a rest." Sayo said, walking away, looking at the island which became smaller as the ship sailed towards Orlais.
Few hours after, Ben still restlessly paced across the deck, back and forth. Sayo tried his best to convince him to sleep, and Ben finally caved in, retreating to his chamber. After all that exertion, dark-skinned half-elf needed some fresh air. As he got to the main deck, he noticed Damien looking at the horizon with a grim look upon his face.
He recalled Damien's encounter with a darkspawn, and the second encounter which almost took Ben away. If their master didn't wear that 'faggoty silver mail', as Ben used to call it, he would be dead. Sayo knew how much their master meant to Damien – he was like a father to him.
"Are you alright?" he asked.
"I'm fine. How's the old fart?"
"He will live… at least for now. Truthfully, I don't know if he's got a blight disease, or not."
"Too bad. I hoped that old fart will finally kick a bucket." Damien said, but his voice showed a concern. Afterwards, they stayed on the main deck, gazing at the silent distance.
The dawn broke out, carrying the sound of the distant seagulls and the murmur of waves. In the distance, they could see Val Royeux with its golden domes, blue roofs and gleaming, marble buildings. When the ship finally reached docks, Damien was so thrilled that he jumped all around the harbour.
"Land! Oh sweet land, I missed you so much!"
Sayo helped Ben with his luggage. As Sayo reckoned, old man was weak, even after the rest. His skin was pale, with sunken eyes and he looked even older than before.
"Damien! Come here!" Ben yelled, but his voice broke and he coughed. He tried yelling again, but in the end, it fell to Sayo to get Damien's attention.
"Listen to me, and listen closely. People we're about to meet are very, very dangerous. One wrong step, one wrong word and they will slit your throats while you sleep. So I'm asking you as sincerely as I can: behave yourself! Remember The Game. Never say what's on your mind. Never reveal your true motivation to the other players. " Ben said, having a worried look upon his tired face. Worry didn't suit him – they've never seen him like this. Ben took Sayo to the side, whispering:
"As for you Sayo. You will make sure he behaves! If he does anything stupid, you have my permission to stab him."
"With pleasure, master." Sayo happily replied on this gruesome task and almost burst into laughter when he saw frightened look on Damien's face.