Dangerous Thing
Dorian realized he was a void-blasted fool for knocking on a Qunari's door when the sun hadn't even properly risen. But sleep had been fleeting.
He had lay in bed for an hour, considering his position in Skyhold. The reports he had read had been encouraging but there was one underlying opinion which seemed to infuse most of them. It seemed Dorian Pavus was seen as a bit of a layabout. Oh, sure enough, when it came time to fight he was there and useful, but most of what people saw of him was drinking or reading or flirting. General carrying on.
Of course, to be fair, that had been by design. He had gone to great lengths to be seen. But things had changed. Dorian wanted his place in the Inquisition to be secure. He wanted people to know he was giving everything up to be here. Fitzwilliam, of course, knew that well enough. But the others? He supposed he would need to put on a different kind of show now. Perhaps there was some problem in Skyhold which he could solve? It would have to be something that would fail to register on the Council's radar, but was pervasive and important.
Maker knew they had enough supply problems, on the top of this blasted mountain. Food was getting to be less of an issue, since the gardens had been properly established. Even if all they grew at the moment were winter roots. Between them and the animal stock they were in fine shape as far as food. Metals for repairs and armor were harder to get, but they tended to utilize the troops to bring those in. And Dorian wasn't sure he'd be terribly helpful in that regard anyway. He knew some mages who could sense or work with ores but earthen magicks had never been his calling.
He'd mused for quite a while before realization struck. It was so simple yet so obvious. Elfroot. There was always a shortage no matter how much they gathered or grew. If Dorian could put his efforts to solving the shortage they would see how devoted he was to this cause. And how brilliant he was, naturally. It would be something someone like Dorian would see as beneath his notice. To pick something so small, but which impacted so many lives? That would make a statement. The right statement.
He'd even worked out how to do it – before he'd dressed. He might not have been good with earthen magicks, but manipulating energy? Finding loopholes in the laws? Well, that was practically his specialty.
Of course, that was not the reason Dorian was knocking on a Qunari's door at Andraste's ass crack of dawn. No, this was going to be terrible. He knocked again. Something thumped heavily against the door, rattling it in its frame. Dorian jumped, paused, and knocked again.
It was the wrong choice.
The door flung wide as Bull roared angrily. Dorian moved calmly back – one, single step. Deliberately. He certainly did not jump back in fear from the beast. Bull stopped roaring and looked at him with one, very surprised, eye. "Dorian?" He asked, rubbing it. "Wha?"
"Does the offer still stand?" Dorian asked before he could lose his nerve.
The Qunari covered his face with the palm of his hand and shook his head. "I thought we went over this last night, Dorian," he sighed heavily. "You don't want to do this to the Inquisitor. He deserves better."
Dorian furrowed his brow. "What?" It took him a moment to understand what Iron Bull was implying. "No! Maker, no! Bull, that's not what I meant." He hoped he looked as shocked and scandalized as he felt.
Bull lowered his hand and looked at him. "Then what offer are you…"
"To beat the fear out of me!" Dorian exclaimed. Maaaaybe we should have gone in the room. He thought as doors began to open.
Bull retreated, putting on his armor with the door swung wide, and then grabbed a large sack. It clanked in a worrying way that made Dorian swallow anxiously. "Better have a few elfroot bottles, mage," he said.
Dorian patted his belt. He'd thought of that. "That's not all I'd like your assistance with," he added as Bull walked out of the room, joining him in the hall.
"That so?" Bull asked gruffly as he led the way downstairs. He grabbed a hunk of some kind of meat off the bar on his way out. It appeared to have been there since last night. Bull didn't seem to care as he began gnawing on it.
"I'll tell you more once we're out of Skyhold proper," Dorian said, trying not to gag. Bull was making quite the display, chomping with his mouth open, grease smearing around his lips.
"Where we goin'?" Bull asked through a mouthful. Bits of flesh spluttered out of his mouth in a meaty spray.
Dorian sighed. "Somewhere where no one will hear me scream."
VVV
When they arrived at the clearing near the hot spring Dorian breathed deeply. This was a good place. A place of calm and solitude. What he had to do could be done and no one would even suspect he'd been here. He turned to look at Iron Bull. "Before we get on with the barbarian methods of your culture," he said lightly, "I have a favor to ask."
"That's how you ask for a favor? Maker, Dorian," but Bull was smiling.
The mage rolled his eyes. "I've been toying with a way of helping the Inquisition with the elfroot supply problem. I think I can encourage them to grow and spread. The problem is using magic that way… well I'm just as likely to burn them up without a conduit."
Bull's face was… well Dorian didn't know quite how to describe it. Confused, and baffled, and frustrated. "Do I look like a sparkly mage pansy?" Bull asked incredulously. "Really, I need to know. If I do I can go roll in the mud."
"Maker, no!" Dorian shouted and extended a hand. "I can hardly stomach you as is. Okay, okay, forget the logistics. Let's break it down like this:" He gestured to Bull. "You are strong. That strength is a kind of energy. I can, in theory, channel that energy into the earth and the elfroot in the area. With extra "food" they will grow. There will be much more elfroot much closer to Skyhold. Supply problem solved."
Iron Bull nodded, "I think I understand that. So the risk to me is…?"
Dorian tried to look unconcerned, "Negligible. You'll be tired, but no more so than if you had had a good fight. Probably less tired than when you fought the dragon."
"If you think this will make me too tired to beat you properly, Dorian," Bull warned in a low voice, "You will be disappointed."
Dorian shuddered, "Perish the thought," he said shakily. "This is an unrelated matter. Once done here you will take me to that cave." He gestured to his right, where a dark opening in the mountain stood. "And you can…" He didn't have the words. If he was honest the idea of Bull tying him up and beating the fear out of him was terrifying. But they had to face Coryphaeus soon. He couldn't afford to let his fear control him any longer.
"Deal," Bull said gently.
Dorian didn't waste time. The hardest part was feeling his way through the earth to find the elfroots. He knelt, feeling moisture seep into the knee of one trouser leg, and pressed his palm to the spongey earth. The weather had been getting colder, but this area seemed to rest in perpetual spring. Many thanks for that were due to the natural hot spot under them. It was from this Dorian would draw the energy needed, once he figured out how. Bull was here for the trial and error part, lending his energy instead of the roiling fire Dorian could sense below them. Once he stretched out his magical sense and located a small patch of the herb he held his other hand out to the Qunari.
Bull grunted but took the offered appendage, wrapping his larger fingers around the entire thing. It pinched a little but that hardly mattered. If anything, it would ground his mind in the present. He concentrated on the place where their skin touched and began the process. It was a hard thing to describe, more like pulling up a fishing net than anything else. Even when empty the net was heavy and unwieldy, and so it was with this particular kind of magic. The more he heaved, the fuller the net, the more it wriggled to be free.
He pulled Bull's strength through his body and poured it into the ground, directing it to the roots of the cluster of herbs. Nothing happened. He could feel that he had stimulated them, tricked them into thinking nature had come early, yet there was no change. He pulled just a little more from the mercenary and suddenly they shriveled up, as if burned by a summer sun. Bone dry.
He let out a small huff of annoyance. "That's a bloody fine line," he growled. He reached out his senses again looking for unspoiled roots and made another attempt.
It went on like that as the dim morning light brightened into proper day. If Iron Bull was tired he showed no signs. He stood patiently as Dorian worked. Finally, the patch of elfroot Dorian had been working with sprung into bloom. New leaves unfurled, new sprouts pushed out of the ground. It was brilliant. He jumped to his feet jubilantly and let out an uncharacteristic whoop of joy. "I am truly amazing," he shouted. He turned to face Bull and reached up grabbing his shoulders. "I am the best mage that has ever lived!"
"Don't know about that," Bull attempted to grouse, but his eye was wide with awe. "But I've never even heard of someone doing something like this." All around them the clearing was filling with new growth, bigger growth, and it was only the elfroot. Not the trees, nor the moss. Only the things Dorian had told to grow were heeding him. Dorian reveled in his success for a moment longer but it was short-lived. The low rumble of Bull's voice and the clanking of the contents of the sack brought him back to the present. "Ready?"
Dorian nodded and headed to the cave. Upon entering he lifted a hand and let a flame spring to life in his palm, illuminating their path. Eventually, the cave forked. Dorian turned right, which he knew to be a dead end. Upon reaching it he began setting up. He went over to the far wall and blasted out a couple of small divots in it. He drew a couple of candles from his sack and placed them in the holes before lighting them. It wasn't much, but it would be enough for now.
Then he turned to Bull, "I'm going to secure the entrance," he said in a shaky voice. "You do what you need to do here."
"Dorian," Bull said dangerously, "do I have to worry about you running?" His heartrate spiked violently but he shook his head. "Good," he said and dropped his sack. Something metallic clanged loudly. "It wouldn't work, and you'd just make things worse for yourself."
Dorian swallowed thickly, nodded, and moved toward the entrance quickly.
The purple energy barrier he erected there would do nothing for people trying to peer in, of course, but it would all but seal sound in, and it would be impenetrable. No one would hear him, and no one would come for him. "If the Qunari wants to kill me," he muttered to himself, "I've made it rather convenient for him." Regardless, he did not linger once his task had been accomplished. He had a feeling that would do him no favors.
He was already fatigued from his experiment but he managed to put up a good front anyway. He rounded the corner to find Bull gone. So were the candles. "Down here," his voice echoed oddly in the cavern. Dorian followed it down the left fork and found Bull, illuminated by the candles, about to nail a spike into the wall. Its purpose, it seemed, was to hold heavy chains and manacles in place. Dorian found himself rendered speechless with anxiety. "This is a better location," Bull explained in between swings. The ringing of metal on metal was deafening in the enclosed area. Luckily, Bull's strength meant one swing was enough to set a spike, and he had only four. "It's colder here," he explained. "You really made it hot up there with that little display on the walls."
Dorian's brain wanted to be witty. He could feel something about "always having that affect" brewing in the back of his mind but it seemed it had prioritized the impending danger.
"You just had spikes and manacles?" He asked. His voice sounded oddly pitchy to his ears.
Bull nodded and rummaged in his sack. He lay out several implements. "They're made to hold me, but all the same I figure they'll work on you. Not the cuffs, mind. I had to use my recreational ones. I'll commission Harrit for a new set." He gestured to the wall. "Strip and stand there."
"Strip?" Dorian asked. There was no pretending he wasn't trembling with fear, adrenaline surging through him.
"Unless you want me to ruin those shiny duds with your blood," he said casually. "No skin off me either way."
Dorian did as asked. Removing his clothing piece by piece and handing it to the Qunari who set it on a cloth of some kind. At least they would be clean.
"When we're done," Bull said, "you should probably drink a potion and go wash in the spring. I can help if you need me to."
Dorian had a moment of clarity, realizing suddenly, how strange this all was. He had no concern for being naked before Bull, and even his offer of help to the spring didn't register as ridiculous. He would probably need help, the practical part of his mind decided.
He stood facing the wall and heard Bull make an approving noise, as one might make for a well-behaved dog. Then the mercenary set about securing him. The manacles were lined with leather so they would not chafe. Dorian thought that was quite nice, despite what they were here to do. When all four had been locked he heard Bull moving around behind him.
"I'm going to start light, Dorian," he was explaining in even measured tones. "You have only two jobs during this. The first is to keep the fear at the front of your mind. Whatever fears you have. I don't need to know, but you may speak, for as long as you are able, if it helps."
Dorian nodded. "And the second?"
"You have to trust me to know your limits. If you cry for me to stop, I will not, unless I judge it is time. Do you understand?" There was no malice in that voice. Nothing hard and unyielding. He was merely a man explaining the rules.
"I understand," Dorian managed.
"We're going to start now. Think of your fear and tell me when you're ready." There was something soothing in the way Bull addressed him.
Dorian breathed deeply. He considered starting with something small but that was pointless. Instead he choose something he had lived with his entire life. The fear of being discovered. He held it in his mind as a clear picture – his father in a room set up for a blood ritual. "Okay," he whispered.
The blow came across his back fast and hard. He grit his teeth, groaned, but did not cry out.
The next blow came harder, the sound of the crack bouncing off the rock surrounding them. Dorian did cry out, that time, albeit softly. Father standing grim-faced, determined. Trying to trick me into a circle.
The third split his skin and he screamed. "Don't give in to the pain, Dorian," Bull was saying somewhere behind him. "Not yet. Focus on the fear."
"He tried to change me," Dorian whispered, his chest heaving.
Another blow came, rending his flesh, pulling shuddering screams from his lungs.
"Blood magic," he rasped.
And another.
"Weak mind. Weak will."
And another.
"I can fix you, son."
And another. He didn't have the air for words now. His breathing was rapid, his throat raw, ruined from pained bellows, but he could still see his father there, in his mind, trying to take him from himself. Bull continued, relentless.
His vision went white. There was nothing.
He blinked, heard Bull's voice muffled and far away. He was pressing something to his lips. There was command in his tone though he could not decipher the words. Liquid splashed into his mouth and he swallowed. It burned down his throat, and pooled, hot, in his stomach before the tingle spread through his limbs, and across his back removing pain he didn't even realize was there until it had faded. Elfroot. His brain managed slowly. Bull was saying something and it took Dorian a while to piece it together.
"Tell… you… happened…"
He was only getting fragments. But the potion was doing its work. Soon his mind did not have to focus on blocking pain and he could hear Bull properly. He was repeating the words slowly, over and over again. Finally, he caught them all.
"Tell me what you saw. What happened?" Bull's hands were smoothing across his bare skin comfortingly. Dorian let out a soft purr of appreciation for the gesture.
"I kept my fear for as long as I could," he said, turning to look at Bull out of the corner of his eye. His voice was still rough, though the rawness of his throat had been healed. "And then, when the pain took over, there was nothing. No father, no pain, no fear." The light was very dim and Dorian's eyes were blurred with fatigue but he could make out Bull's smile.
"That's good, Dorian," he said as his hands set about freeing the mage. "That's very good for a first session."
When the last cuff fell Dorian slumped. He would have fallen to the ground had the Qunari not caught him by the waist and supported him.
"How many times do you think…" Dorian asked wearily.
"As many as it takes, Dorian," he said. His voice was oddly tender. "But you did very well. I'm proud of you."
Dorian felt his heart swell with pride he didn't comprehend. Bull, it seemed had loaded the sack with the things they would need to take back with them to Skyhold. He didn't even need to prop Dorian against a wall to grab it.
"C'mon Vint," he chuffed, trying to get Dorian to walk their way out. It was useless, his legs weren't working. Bull sighed, but decided just to carry the mage. It wasn't until Bull was carrying him to the cave entrance like a sleeping child that Dorian remembered he was naked.
When they hit the barrier Dorian struggled to untie the magic he had put in place. It felt slippery. He hadn't been this exhausted since he was in training. But with a little concentrated effort he managed it. Bull carried him out of the cave and into the cool air of midday. Dorian shivered and tried to press closer to the Qunari. The man's skin felt like an oven next his.
"So cold," Dorian said softly as Bull lay him on the soft moss that lined the bank of the spring. The mercenary began disrobing. At any other time Dorian might have taken the time to observe his form but just now he wasn't capable. Bull climbed into the pool, then reached out and lifted Dorian, easing him into the warm water. He thought he might let him go then, expect him to do for himself in the warm wetness, but Iron Bull still held him close. His hands whisked over Dorian's skin lightly, washing the dried blood away.
"The elfroot will take some time to replace the blood you lost, Dorian," he was explaining. "You'll be cold. When we get back to Skyhold I'll stoke your fire. You should eat something and sleep."
"Skyhold," Dorian let out a weak laugh. "I'll never make it as far as that."
"You will," Bull said firmly. "I took you on. You are my responsibility. You will make it back and into a bed in a warm room. I will make sure of it." Dorian giggled deliriously, though it was weak. "What?" Bull asked.
"You're acting like I'm one of the Chargers," he said through the display.
Bull shook his head. "Not quite right," he said slowly, hands removing the last of the blood. "But it'll do for now, I guess."
They stayed in the pool until Iron Bull was satisfied with Dorian's heartrate and breathing. Then the Qunari dressed them both and lugged Dorian all the way back to Skyhold. Where, true to his word, he put Dorian to bed, stoked his fire, and even acquired him some food. The brute took his wine, however. He didn't have time to linger on that sour thought. He hardly got a crust of bread and a bit of cream inside his growling stomach before his eyes fluttered closed and darkness took him.
