"A moment, my dear."
Elisa stops in her path to the bedroom she shares with Dorian and hesitates before turning toward Vivienne. Madame de Fer was an Orlesian noble and the young warrior always tried to give the woman a wide berth because of it. Not only that, but her insistence that Circles were necessary annoyed her as well. Elisa may not have known how magic was viewed when she first arrived in this world, but after hearing what Southern Circles were like from Cullen and Cassandra, and Circles in Tevinter from Dorian, she decided that as flawed as the Imperium was, they showed that mages were not too be as feared as they were. Of course they did dabble in blood magic, but so did southern mages.
"I have been wondering about your relationship with Dorian."
Elisa inhales sharply. "What about it?"
Vivienne turns from the balcony and steps over to a chaise to settle on it before motioning toward the adjacent seat. Elisa chose to remain where she was. "I've noticed he has a bit of a temper when you are involved, and while he has not lost control of his magic, he brings it forth when he gets emotional." Vivienne ignores Elisa's narrowed eyes as she continues. "I've watched you both and I know you are not a Templar so I wanted to know how you keep him in check."
What? Elisa stares at the woman in disbelief. Keep Dorian in check? She hasn't done anything of the sort and she was offended that Vivienne even suggested it.
The ravenette seethes. "I do not keep him in check."
"You've pacified him with a simple touch on more than one occasion. I only wanted to know how you do it. It could be used in Circles-"
"I trust him Vivienne. My simple touches are exactly that."
"No one trusts a mage so easily. You have seen firsthand what they are capable of."
Elisa folds her arms. "Yes. I've also seen what Templars, assassins, and desperate farmers can do. Especially those Templars you put so much faith in. Infected with red lyrium." She digs her nails into her arms. "Where I come from, magic can be used by anyone. To me, blood magic, any magic, is just the same as science." Vivienne frowns at this. "It can create, destroy, alter…but I've learned to fear the person, not the tool."
"I do recall what Dorian told us all after his first accident. You can't tell me you have no fear of this science."
"There will always be some…but the same can be said of the blades used on me. Everyone here is afraid of something, but most of them don't let it rule their lives."
"What about the mistakes he made? You still trust him even after that?"
Elisa unfolds her arms. "He fixed those mistakes." She walks over to the closest door leading to her room and then looks over her shoulder. "I think your problem is that you don't trust your own people."
Elisa then walks through the door and along the battlements before Vivienne or she could say anything else. She was almost positive the woman just held a fear of the power she and other mages wielded and put up a front to hide the fact. She was controlling and Elisa knew she had other judgements about her relationship with the Tevinter mage, but she refused to listen to them. As far as she was concerned, everyone could keep their opinions to themselves. Elisa had heard enough from 'concerned' acquaintances, but she had said nothing because she knew Dorian was getting hassled about it himself. She wasn't about to add to his stress.
Elisa shoulders the bedroom door open with a scowl and Dorian looks up from his potion brewing with a raised eyebrow. When she says nothing, the mage finishes his task and fills some flasks before walking over to the younger and slipping a couple of lyrium potions into the loops of her belt. Dorian had a bit of a bad habit of using mana he didn't have so Elisa took it upon herself to keep some extra lyrium on her person as a precaution. To her relief though, he hardly needed to use her reserves.
"You don't usually get angry enough for it to show. Do I need to give someone a good zap?"
"It would only make things worse."
Elisa walks over to the fireplace when she notices a parchment wrapped box on the table between the two chairs, and she opens it only to wrinkle her nose in disgust. The box was full of candied dates that Dorian seemed fond of, and she had no idea why. The things were disgusting.
"We need to have a talk about your idea of refined taste."
Dorian snatches the box from her and takes one of the dates out before closing the box and returning it to the table. "You wouldn't know refined if it—"
Elisa points at him. "Don't you finish that sentence!" The mage chuckles and pops the fruit into his mouth. "I hope you don't feed those to Kit."
"Of course not. Now tell me who soured your mood."
"Vivienne."
"Ah. I was under the assumption that you were avoiding her like the plague."
"She stopped me."
Dorian tilts his head and Elisa waves her hand at him. Only for the mage to grab her wrist and look at her with concern. Well so much for not adding to his stress.
"What did she say?"
"She just thinks I have a special way of keeping your magic in check."
Dorian releases her. "Old news pet. She is not the only one with that particular idea."
"Really? What did you tell others?"
"That you beat me into submission of course."
"DORIAN!"
The mage chuckles. "I jest. I jest." He kisses the top of her head as an apology. "I don't say anything. It would be a waste of breath since they will think what they want anyway."
Elisa sighs. "I don't know why I didn't think of that."
"You said something then. Do tell."
"It's nothing."
Dorian observes her for a few moments, and thankfully says nothing as he turns to retrieve his staff from the corner. He picks up her blade and hands it to her and Elisa looks at him curiously. The Inquisitor probably sent for them, which meant they were leaving Skyhold again.
"Where to now?" She takes her blade from him and Dorian sighs heavily.
"The Emprise. I can tell you what goes through Nolan's mind."
Elisa smiles. "What's that?"
The younger attaches a couple of blades to the necromancer's belt. While she kept lyrium for Dorian, he kept blades for her.
"Mountains. Cold. 'Let's bring Dorian!' He's lucky I adore—are you laughing?!"