Zindrafel picked her way through the empty streets of Lowtown; this was her first visit to Kirkwall and she hoped it would be her last. First impressions of the city were not positive, there was something foreboding about the port city beyond the chains and wrought iron statues that guarded the walls. The idea for her trip was a last minute decision; she'd arrived late last night with Alistair and Teagan as the usual royal entourage. She kept herself out of sight during any official royal business and had slunk away while the two men were attending a meeting. In recent years she had tried to be involved less and less in any official Ferelden business; and more involved in her own business as a Warden Commander. The pull of Kirkwall however required neither role of her. This time she was here for personal means; there was a loose end that she still felt needed tying up before she could finally put it to rest.
Her leather gloved hand hovered above a scum covered hand rail; the depths below led to the worst section of the divided city. She dare not put her hand on the rail itself for fear of catching something unsavoury. An unknown face rushed past her and darted up the stairs; instantly giving the small elf relief that she carried her overly large bow with her. Feeling rather befuddled with the maze of the Undercity before her she stopped to ask a child for directions, the child pointed around the corner as best as it could, but was quickly scooped up by it's young mother who shouted at Zindrafel who carefully raised an eyebrow at the woman and passed her quickly, unphased by the insults towards her elven heritage
Upon seeing the lights she'd been told about she felt her breath catch, nerves rising in the pit of her stomach. How many years had it been since she'd seen the face she'd been searching for? Six years at the least. Bolstering her courage she pressed the clinic door open and the sights within nearly brought her to her knees. There was nothing within but the suffering of those who could do little to help themselves. Carefully Zindrafel picked her way through the people who'd come here for help, apologising as she pressed her way forwards; she lent against a crate as she waited for the human to finish his tasks, not wishing to disturb or startle him.
After some time of waiting, the crowd thinned and someone approached her; not the man she was waiting for but a youth helping him organise people.
"You here for Anders?" They asked her in broken language.
"Yes, but I can wait." She told him. "I am not in a hurry."
The youth nodded to her and moved onto the next person waiting who would take priority over her. Zindrafel watched the Shemlens as they went about their duties, her gaze never lingering for too long on any one particular group but always returning to the one she was waiting to speak with. She knew that he had seen her, and after a time it was more than clear that she was being ignored. She was making it just as clear that she wasn't going to go anywhere until they'd spoken.
It was unavoidable; the moment that the last client waiting had been seen to and healed Zindrafel made her way over to the taller human and standing before him with warming smile upon her face she commented. "Anders, you look tired."
"It's been a long day, Commander." He replied, and despite the ignorance of the day she hadn't expected his cold tone to cut as harshly as it did.
"What? I didn't mean..." She then looked down to the blue and grey mantle that lay across her armour and sighed. For all the diplomatic immunity the Grey Warden uniform gave her she sighed that she had it on her now. Carefully she slipped the cloth from underneath the straps of leather and over her head, screwing up the cloth into a ball she repeated her statement. "You look tired, Anders."
"It's been a long day." He answered again in parrot fashion, she wasn't the only one that could repeat herself.
"I don't just mean today." She answered again. "World weary." She added leaning slightly to the side so that she could look over him easier, her words were a weighty greeting but she knew Anders would expect nothing less from her.
"And you look exactly the same, Zindrafel. Must be an elf thing. You've not changed a bit, well, maybe your hairs grown half an inch?" Anders replied with a lot less hostility.
"Oh Anders, it's good to see you again." Zindrafel said with a small sigh, pleased to hear the more jovial man that she remembered. She drew closer to him and gave him a brief friendly embrace which he reluctantly returned.
"Your not here to take me back?" Anders asked
"I won't lie, I've had some eyes on you, but no." She answered honestly.
Anders nodded. "Then why are you here?"
"You were once a good friend to me Anders, you were there for me when I felt abandoned and no one else would listen." Zindrafel said fondly. "When you left with Justice I gave you distance to find yourself but when I read reports that you were living here, you deserve better than this."
Anders regarded the shorter elf carefully as she spoke.
"Look, lets not talk here. Do you know somewhere we can get a drink and talk like friends should?" Zindrafel asked as Anders remained quiet; which seemed strangely uncharacteristic for him.
"Give me a minute." Anders told Zindrafel, picking up his staff and preparing to leave the clinic.
Zindrafel gave Anders the space he needed to prepare and waited outside for him, looking to the scrunched up uniform in her hand; she still bore the crest of the Wardens over her shoulder, but at least her gesture had had the effect she'd desired. She stashed the tunic into her pack carelessly looking up cautiously as the door beside her opened, closed and then was locked.
"The Undercity isn't as bad as first impressions go." Anders tried to defend his home.
"I'm sure it's not." Zindrafel commented as she fell in step to his long stride, following him back to the less pleasurable area of Lowtown. "I've been spending far to much time in Denerim castle and Vigils keep." She said with a smile. "Places like that make you forget what the real world is like."
"I imagine they do." Anders replied as he led the way through the dirty streets of Lowtown to the only place that he cared to hang about in long enough to have a drink; The Hanged Man. It wasn't the nicest of watering holes, but as long as you didn't mind the odd floating bits that inhabited your ale it wasn't so bad. He held the door open for Zindrafel and she made her way past him. She stood in the doorway trying to take in as much of the place in as possible; then regretted her wandering eyes instantly. The place was a dive, but if you ignored the muck and grime she assumed it wasn't so bad. Friendly, to the right people.
"This way." Anders called to Zindrafel her gawking had left her behind him. As usual she smiled to him and caught up. "A friend of mine has a room here, he won't mind us talking; he might even join in."
The room itself was fairly large, an expansive stone table and matching chairs were the centre piece of the room, it was obvious that the owner of the room liked entertaining guests. Various mugs hadn't been cleared from the night before and the embers in the fire still hummed a dull glow. Off to the side was a private room hidden behind a curtain, just visible was the corner of a bedpost. Zindrafel, like she had done with the bar looked about, running a hand across the top of the fireplaces mantelpiece.
"Your friend is a dwarf?" Zindrafel asked as she took a seat in one of the high backed stone chairs.
"What gave it away?" Anders asked with a raised brow.
"The obscene amount of ale tankards." Zindrafel commented looking across the table. "He must be quite the talker." She added.
"That's Varric, loves nothing better than sharing tales of a great adventure, and adding more than enough artistic license to patch up the less interesting parts of a story." Anders signalled over one of the bar staff to bring them a round of drinks. Moments later an elf returned with two tankards to go with the rest.
"When I first arrived here, I thought that she was you." Anders confessed, and as Zindrafel paid the waitress a bit more heed she could see why. "The resemblance between you two is uncanny, she could be your twin."
Zindrafel watched as the other elf moved away and shook her head. "I don't know. You think so?" She asked.
"You said you were still hanging about Denerim and the Keep?" Anders asked without answering the small-talk question.
"That's right. I am between the two places depending on where Alistair needs me." She answered looking back to the blonde before her, picking up her tankard in a silent toast.
Anders returned the favour taking a pull of the refreshing, but dubious tasting drink."You're still with him then?" He asked seeing as Alistair had been mentioned.
"If you can call it that." Zindrafel answered with a sigh. "It's not gotten any easier with the Queen on hand, and breathing down our necks. We take the moments we can get. It's not perfect, but it's all we can afford. What about you? I can't imagine someone like you being alone for long."
Anders didn't exactly ignore the compliment, but he smiled through it. "There was someone for a while, but with Justice it's complicated; they were a fellow apostate wanted by the Chantry and every time I saw the injustice they'd caused her it brought him to the surface. She had to flee Kirkwall and in the end I think it was for the best; but I still think about her a lot."
"I'm sorry to hear that Anders." Zindrafel comforted him, hearing the pain in his voice. "You really do deserve better."
"Do I?" Anders asked her leaning back in his chair. "I've done a lot I'm not proud of since I left the Wardens." He added.
"You saved my life once Anders, more than once. You do good work for the poor here where others would shun them. I've not seen everything you've done since we last spoke, but what see now. You do."
"Your kindness will be your downfall," He warned.
Zindrafel gave a small sigh. "I know." She said, looking away from her friend; she'd not always been as friendly as she was now. When she'd first joined the Wardens she'd have sooner spat on a human than be sat in a scummy-bar drinking with one. When she'd changed she couldn't say, but her bitterness had been misplaced and her judgement of others wrong on many levels.
"I don't know if I want to ask this of you, but; how is Ser Pounce-a-lot?" Anders asked, looking eager to know the answer despite his reluctance to ask.
Zindrafel couldn't help but laugh openly as he asked. "I am afraid to say he has been put on a lot of weight since you left. I think he is still grieving." She answered about the Vigil's cat. "He walked about the Keep mewling until the early hours for months. Nearly drove Oghren to madness. More madness." She answered.
"Kirkwall doesn't seem to have any cats." Anders said sadly, "Not in the Undercity anyway."
Of all the things that Anders had said to her that could have wrenched her heart for her friend, it was the lack of cats that pulled at her heartstrings the most and she was at a loss for words to speak in comfort to him. Thankfully she didn't have to as the inhabitant of the room returned, with another friend of theirs in tow. The dwarf wasn't how Zindrafel would have imagined, for one there was no long flowing beard that marred his handsomely square jaw and he walked with an air of confidence that she'd never encountered on a surface dwarf before. The man that accompnied the dwarf was one of her own race, but different. His markings lighter than the ones that graced her own features, there was something about him that she could only describe with the word; broody.
"Hey Blondie." The dwarf greeted Anders as the mage got to his feet, "What brings you here?" He asked, prying but friendly.
"Varric." Anders nodded to him. "I hope you don't mind, a visit from a friend who would benefit from a bit of privacy."
"Not at all" Replied Varric as he took a seat at the head of the table. The elf remained standing for the time being. Another round of tankards was brought into the room without the waitress needing a summon, the waitress placed the tankards in front of each of them careful not to spill any of the contents before hurrying off again, the conversation between the group having stopped as she did so. Zindrafel felt the eyes of scrutiny over her the moment the waitress had departed and she pulled a silly grin towards Varric.
"So, Blondie, your friend?" Varric started to question lounging into his seat.
"I am Zindrafel." She answered for herself as Anders sat down putting the new tankard next to his old barely drank one.
Fenris with some level of renewed interested looked over the elven female as she introduced herself, and Varric frowned lightly. "The Zindrafel?" He asked, with some level of awe in his voice that wasn't easily achieved.
"The only one I know of." She replied.
"Zindrafel and I served the Grey Wardens together, she was my superior." Anders explained, the words sounding uncomfortable as he spoke them.
"The Hero of Ferelden, as I live and breathe." Varric whistled. "All the tales I heard pegged you as human, and a mage." He added, looking over her. "You're an archer I see. I should introduce you to Bianca." He smiled.
Zindrafel raised a hand to Varric and tried to hush him the best she could. "I doubt you are usually so easily impressed, please just call me Zindrafel." She pleaded with him. "Saving Ferelden was many years ago, maybe I am being modest but time tarnishes all tales. I'm just a Warden Commander now, I would rather it stay that way between friends."
"A mage couldn't achieve what the hero of Ferelden did without running to demons for help." Fenris put into the conversation from where he was standing. Upon having a reason to remain in the group he took a seat.
Zindrafel could see the seething from her friend from across the table; knowing how to deal with the rising choler from Anders she interjected. "I count many mages among my friends, some of them are as dangerous as you claim elf, others are not."
"I've yet to meet one that is not." He added, his voice was deep and he spoke with an arrogance that only elf kind could accomplish.
"Hawke?" Anders questioned. Zindrafel assumed that was the name of another companion of theirs. Whatever the case, the interjection of the name seemed to have soothed the elf.
"I didn't catch your name." Zindrafel asked the tall male.
"Fenris." He answered with a single word, guarded.
She nodded to him but turned to Varric; she kept her thoughts neutral to Anders elven friend, but was certain that there was more to the unlikely companionship than met the eye. "You mentioned a woman? Bianca, an archer herself?"
"The best!" Varric enthused, happy for the switch in conversation. The mage crisis was rife enough within Kirkwall without it being argued during precious drinking time.
Zindrafel, catching the note of challenge within the dwarves voice she rose to the bait. "Oh. Really?" She grinned.
Varric lent forwards and unstrapped the crossbow from his back, the contraption was certainly of dwarven design and for a while it had Zindrafel confused; compared to her very own simple compound bow the crossbow was the most complex thing she had ever seen. She eyed it carefully and waited for Varric to explain; which he didn't. She could see the pride in his face for the fine weapon and she smiled towards him. "I'll have to challenge her sometime." She stated, knowing that if Varric was any kind of archer, with any measure of pride he'd rise just as she did.
"My dear, that is something I nor she will never turn down." Varric nodded to her and she couldn't help but smile back to him, yet she turned back to Anders.
"You must have been on some fine adventures with friends such as these, Anders." She asked, wondering what her friend had been doing with his spare time.
"When not in the clinic or helping the mage underground where I can." He answered, the look from Fenris wasn't entirely ignored.
"You knew about this?" Fenris asked Zindrafel, wanting to know her opinion on the mage front further than just claiming to know mages both good and evil calibur.
"Yes." She nodded. "When Anders left the Grey Wardens with Krist... Justice," She corrected herself carefully. "I thought he, Jutice, would persuade Anders into being more active in his role to aid mages. I don't know what to think entirely of mages and their powers, but I do know that I would never act against an entire race of people for the sins of the few." She thought back to her time and refusal to enact the rite of annulment in Ferelden. "As a Grey Warden, I am impartial to the plights as mages and their guardians. As an elf, I know that there are better ways to treat mages than the oppression that the humans make their own suffer." She couldn't tell if her words placated Fenris and his clear alternative thinking.
"Are you not married to a Templar?" Fenris asked, and Zindrafel almost choked on the pull of ale she'd taken.
"I am not married, and even if I were we are separate identities." She stammered to answer. "And Alistair never too his templar vows." She added as another thought, though knew that Fenris had her on the defensive after his statement. She sighed. "I know that the Templars have a difficult job, and the choices they have to make about mages cannot be easy. Yes, there are dangerous mages that lust for nothing but power, but is it really right to cage them all for the choices only some of them make?" She returned, but dreaded the answer.
"Yes." Fenris returned to her. "They will all give in to the temptations behind their powers; just like the Magisters."
Zindrafel nodded.
"You've been caged like an animal Fenris, only to do what those who command you demand. You of all people should have a measure of sympathy towards those in bonds similar." Anders protested.
"Blondie, you should know better than to think sympathy is in Fenris' vocabulary." Varric defused once again.
Zindrafel placed her tankard on the stone table and added. "I don't think it's a topic we should dwell on." Feeling that a compromise couldn't be drawn between them, she didn't wish to pull a barrier between the companions.
"Agreed." Fenris replied.
"Whatever shenanigans you've been getting up to, they can't have been alone. Tell me of your other companions?"Zindrafel asked leaning onto the table conspiratorially.
"Only if you tell me what's been happening with yours." Anders agreed leaning over himself.
"Deal!" Zindrafel offered her hand in mockery of a real merchant deal. "You first." She added before Anders could break away from the agreement.
"I can't start this conversation without mentioning Hawke; the champion of Kirkwall. He is really the one that brings us all together." Anders said, although Varric would like to have been the holder of the bringing together title. "He saved the city from the Qunari problems, he has the classic rags to riches tale about him. Funny too, almost to a fault." Anders explained. "He's a mage, but his views on the Chantry and Templars isn't what you'd expect."
"He supports the Chantry whole heartedly." Fenris added, but his words went ignored by Zindrafel; who could feel a rising distaste for the assertive elf.
"Well, Nathaniel is still serving the Grey Wardens." Zindrafel returned the favour of gossip about people they know. "He is currently on assignment not too far from here, in the deep roads." She saw Anders shudder at the mention of the dreaded place. "I should tell him to drop by when he is done."
"And what would we talk about?" Anders asked, looking hurt. "You know we never really saw each other right, he was always far to serious. More so than you!" He teased.
Zindrafel returned the pouting hurt look towards the jest. "I am not serious. All the time." She protested, but took the jibe to her personality with perfect grace.
"Then there is Captain Isabela." Anders commented. "She was stranded here many years ago and I think she just stays for the sex."
"I think I know who you mean." Zindrafel thought, dragging up some old memories. "Big breasted girl; liked to flaunt her... talents."
Anders laughed. "That sounds like Isabela."
"She tried to sleep with Alistair and I once, we refused." Zindrafel stated flatly. "Oghren, although he became a Warden like he wanted to, returned to Felsi. I've lost track of him. I can't say that I am sorry." She admitted to Anders. "I just couldn't get used to him. I tried. Maker knows I tried." She lamented almost dramatically, even throwing her hands up for emphasis.
"Speaking of the Maker; we also have Sebastian. The most devout man I've ever met. You'd like him." Anders assumed.
"Oh? Whatever gave you the impression I was religious?" She asked with a raised brown, uncertain where her friends assumption came from.
"He is an archer, a good one. I've never seen a man so good with a bow, shot papers right out of the Grand Clerics hand. A few too many inches away from her head for my liking, but beggars can't be choosers." Anders could hear Varric scoffing at the claims of Sebastian being a better archer than he was.
"So says you!" Varric voiced his opinion on the royal archer.
Zindrafel nodded towards the dwarf and smiled. "Another to our challenge it seems!" She put down her empty tankard onto the table which was quickly replaced by another; she could feel hreself becoming merrily light headed due to the strength of the ale, but with the fine company and finer gossip she couldn't say she minded. "Velanna." Zindrafel let out a tense sigh. "She still blames me for the loss of her sister; she left the Wardens a few years ago."
"I'm sorry." Anders said genuinely. "I know it was hard for you." He added, knowing they were from the same heritage, but so torn apart from one another.
"It was." Zindrafel admitted "I feel that I should have tried harder to get along with her."
"There's also Aveline, she is captain of the Kirkwall guard. A useful person to know, she doesn't exactly turn a blind eye to what we do but Hawke manages to keep her off our backs somehow."Anders gave a little shrug. "I don't know how." He shook his head.
"Anyone else?" Zindrafel asked whistfully.
"Merrill." Fenris interjected, keeping to his one word answers.
Instantly Zindrafel perked from her leaning position.
"Merrill?" She asked, her voice hesitant, but excited.
Anders looked to Zindrafel curiously. "She's a Dalish like you, do you know her?"
"Yes." She answered, the bite of nerves growing once again in the pit of her stomach. "We were part of the same clan, before I was conscripted into the Wardens. It seems so long ago now, I doubt she'd even remember me. She was always seemed to be away with the fairies; her thoughts troubled." Zindrafel recalled about the fellow Dalish, and she felt instantly guilty for her gossip about Merrill, but seeing a nod from Anders relieved her.
"She's fallen into Blood Magic." Anders chastised the elf.
"Foolish girl." Zindrafel commented, turning serious. "Help her, if you can?" She asked of the mage across from her.
"She is well beyond my reach." Anders told Zindrafel with sadness.
Zindrafel nodded, but there was little she could do to help her own. She hadn't seen the strong-willed elf in many years and their ways of life had taken rapid changes for better and for worse. It would be hypocritical of her to suddenly turn up and start offering advice and trying to turn her away from the darkest of mage arts when she'd been forced to leave the clan for her own dark reasons.
"You were forced into the Wardens then?" Varric chipped in.
"Yes. At first I hated the idea." Zindrafel answered. "The idea of running around doing the work of Shemlens being forced out of my home sickened me. I was hostile towards most of my other Grey Warden comrades initially and said some very unfair and cruel things to Duncan; among others. All I wanted was to go home. Then they were all killed, nearly all killed, at Ostagar and the stopping of the blight was more or less my sole responsibility. When it's the world that's endangered, it doesn't matter if it's a clan or a shelmen town that's in the firing line; everything would have been burned if the archdemon hadn't been stopped. Then of course, I fell in love with King Alistair and my dubious opinions on humans changed and the rest, as they say, is history."
Once again she turned to Anders. "Do you remember Ser Everard?" She asked, turning the conversation away from herself once again.
"The disgraced Templar?" Anders asked, he knew all too well who Zindrafel meant, he'd taken great delight in tormenting their former comrade for the little time they'd served together.
Zindrafel nodded. "Yes, he is still with us. It took him the longest time to adjust to the Wardens ways of thinking and for our sins we paired him with an extremely talented, and equally as stubborn blood mage." She smiled despite the looks of disapproval. "He still lectures her from time to time; and is always reminded of his place!"
"Serves him right if he gets preachy." Anders noted.
"He's not so bad," Zindrafel said with a shrug. "I felt for him being outcast in the way he was." She offered rather vaguely
"It was his own fault." Anders interjected.
"I know, I think that's what hit him the hardest; you have to admit though, as far as Templars go there are far worse out there."
Anders nodded as a form of reply, "And they all live in Kirkwall," he noted gloomily.
"Hang in there, Anders. " Zindrafel once again offered her friend comfort with a warming smile. "You are here for good reason, I'm certain." She committed.
The tolling of the Chantry bell disturbed the conversation with Fenris getting up from his chair and with few words excused himself from the small gathering claiming he should return before the hour got too late for a safe walk through the city. Politely Zindrafel nodded in the male elfs direction thanking him for the company in elegant manner that the royal court had taught her.
"Varric..." Zindrafel thought to herself allowed for a moment. "Tethras." She added, bringing the dwarfs surname out of the air. "You ventured into the deep roads some years ago. I should have recalled sooner."
"The one and only." Varric motioned to himself grinning broadly.
"You ventured further, deeper, than anyone ever has into the Deep Roads. What was it like?" She asked, genuinely curious despite knowing that her fellow Wardens would be retracing the steps in months to come.
"Horrible!" Anders answered and Varric quickly agreed.
"Nothing down there but trouble." He stated with little humour.
"You went as well Anders?" Zindrafel asked, shocked that the mage made such a venture.
"With Varric, Hawke and Fenris." Anders answered. "Never again." He added.
"You've said that before." Zindrafel teased. "I knew there was an adventurer left in you." She couldn't help but beam with some measure of pride.
Anders was taken aback by her statement but knowing there was no one else who would understand his next words, he had to speak them to her or keep them to closely guarded for the next flying visit; which may never come. "It's a nightmare down there Zindrafel, the voices call so much louder than the mild whispers. They shout so loudly it's deafening."
Zindrafel instantly knew what Anders was speaking about; the taint. She looked down into the swirling liquid of her tankard, it was a difficult subject for her to speak on. Aside from Alistair she was the eldest of the Ferelden Wardens, she kept catching nervous glances from her fellow Wardens like they expected her to take the long walk into the deep roads any day now. "The nightmares come from time to time, just like they always have. Quiet, subtle; but always threatening." She confided in him. "I can't imagine how difficult they must make things for you, on top of everything else."
"Compared to everything else they are a blessing." Anders tried to play down the effects that the tainted nightmares had on him. "They don't visit me often enough to be a problem. The Darkspawn don't tend to come to Lowtown market for their weekly shopping, you know." He joked and Zindrafel laughed to his quick wit.
Although Varric had listened intently to their conversations and joined in where he could he sensed that there was a topic approaching that the two friends would rather speak on with their own company; he'd also noted that Isabela had walked into the bar, looking a bit more dishevelled than her normal self. He could tell there was a story behind it and was more than curious enough to pry it from her. He excused himself, just as Fenris had done; and Zindrafel took his departure with more enthusiasm than she had done the other companion.
Zindrafel settled back in her seat and rested the tankard on her knee before she spoke. "You've mentioned Justice a couple of times, I am no mage but even I can tell he isn't here, what happened?" She asked, worried for the other friend she thought she may visit during her time in Kirkwall.
"He is still here, in a manner of speaking." Anders started to tell Zindrafel, feeling somewhat ill at ease with the topic.
She gave him a questioning glance, not letting her question drop so easily.
"With Kristoffs body failing, rotting; he was trapped outside the fade. He needed a host and I offered." Anders continued. "But my anger consumed him, warped him from Justice, into Vengeance." His head was lowered as he spoke, although years had passed since their merging, he still felt a great shame for what had happened.
It was Zindrafels turn to fall silent, once again uncertain how to take the information that she had just heard, she wasn't even sure she understood entirely what she had been told.
"Does that mean, he is still there?" She asked after a moment of thinking.
"Yes and no." He couldn't help but sigh. "They are the same, yet different, and it's getting harder and harder to tell the two apart. Soon, I won't be able to." He added weightily.
Zindrafel rose from her seat, putting the tankard down on the table, Anders followed behind her. "I can't pretend to know what is going on, what drove Justice to Vengeance, if it was something inside you or something the spirit did to you." She spoke her voice hushed as she walked with the mage to the door of the tavern. "But you need to be strong Anders." She concluded once they were stood away from the ears of the patrons inside.
Once again Anders hung his head as he listened to the elven maiden. "It's so difficult." He answered, trying not to sound bitter towards for making his plight seem so easy.
Zindrafel lifted her head towards the sky, her eyes catching on the impressive building of the looming Chantry. "There is something looming over Kirkwall, something terrible. You can feel it in the air, see it in the faces of the people here." She stated. "When the storm clashes, the people here; your companions will need your strength more than ever."
Never being one to entirely withhold a truth from a friend Anders replied, "I don't know if I can." A touch of her hand gently on his arm pulled him from his thoughts.
"Whatever is happening in Kirkwall, I hope; I pray that you are far away from it when it happens." She soothed but the sadness of the smile she was returned with told her more truths than she would glean from his words.
Zindrafel nodded back to him, she felt a rising sadness for events that were to follow and the fact that she wouldn't be able to stand beside her friend during his time of need. Carefully she stood on her toes to kiss him softly on the cheek. "It has been good to catch up with you again Anders." She complimented once again and she pressed; "If you are ever in need, seek me at the Keep."
Anders nodded to her, standing at the door to The Hanged Man giving the back of his friend a wave long after she had disappeared towards Hightown.