"She's fucking gorgeous!" Garrett exclaims, too drunk to manage a whisper but the bar is too loud anyway for anyone outside their table to hear. Isabela agrees silently with the assessment, but prefers to keep her opinions to herself until she's had time to investigate the subject of the attention better.

First thing that she notices about the girl is how tiny she is, small and delicate like a bird, or a butterfly. Her hair is black, even darker than Isabela's own, and it frames her heart-shaped face in stark contrast. The girl has enormous green eyes, they shine with some ancient knowledge that seems out of place for someone so young, but Isabela finds fascinating. Intricate whorls are tattooed on her face, instead of taking away from her beauty they seem to just enhance it.

Varric coaxes her to join their table, and she sits shyly next to him on the opposite end from Isabela. Her name is Merrill, she says; she's twenty-three and studies anthropology, old pagan religious rituals in case anyone's interested. She doesn't talk much, but listens with wide-eyed wonder as Garrett and Varric each try to outdo one another In war stories. There is something beguiling about her naïveté, Isabela doesn't for a moment think she is faking it and that's when she decides she wants the girl.

She watches Merrill all evening, enchanted by the way she seems utterly oblivious to Garrett's attempts to flirt with her. At the end of the evening there's the usual debate over who goes where and whether anyone wants more to drink. Isabela walks over to where Merrill stands, waiting for someone to include her in their plans. She looks up at Isabela's arrival, green eyes clear and focused - she's had far less to drink than the rest of them - and there is something…a spark that gives Isabela the sign she's waited for.

"My apartment is just across the road and I would love company for breakfast," she leans in to whisper in a small, pointed ear, breathing in mint, lemon and some exotic flower she cannot name. Merrill shivers minutely and breathes a quiet 'yes please' before taking Isabela's hand in her own and following her out the door.

"Fucking gorgeous," Isabela whispers in the night against Merrill's pale skin.