"This place is a death trap," Anders fretted, gripping his staff tightly as they gazed out at a blighted pit full of corpses. "If I have to step into the bushes to answer nature's call, someone's coming with me."
"As you're so easily frightened, perhaps you should have stayed in the Circle where you'd be safe," Nathaniel jabbed, Anders' complaints and so-called humor long since having worn on his nerves.
The Warden-Commander, who had seen first-hand the sort of safety one could expect to find in Ferelden's Circle Tower, knew damned well how stupid a thing that had been to say, but even she was surprised by the sudden venom in Anders' expression, not to mention concerned by the faint, but noticeable, electrical charge in the air. Maker, if she didn't separate those two soon… "Nathaniel, that was unworthy of you," Elissa told him sharply.
Exhaling slowly, the archer turned away. "It was. My apologies," he told Anders shortly, but then he paused, something catching his eye, and then moved off, soon kneeling to examine one of the corpses. "Commander, over here. This isn't Fereldan armor, and look, there are at least three others clad similarly. I think we've found that mercenary company that Mervis mentioned, poor sods."
"We really should go back and find that elf," Anders piped in, his usual easy-going charm returning. "She needs to know it was the darkspawn who attacked, and not the humans."
"Indeed," Justice added solemnly. "We must stop her from attacking more innocents."
"Agreed," Elissa said, though she paused to search the bodies, and was saddened to find a bloodied sketch of a smiling woman with a baby and a few other family keepsakes among the mercenaries' belongings. "For their families' sakes, we'll see these men avenged as well."
She bowed her head for a few moments and, without another word, led the way back to the Dalish camp. With the darkspawn, blight wolves, and sylvans dead, the Wood was eerily quiet. Though only a few patches of land had been poisoned, it seemed the birds and other small creatures had already fled.
Only when their destination was in sight did Nathaniel break the silence. "Strange," he whispered. "I was expecting an attack."
"She may yet," Elissa warned softly. Sword drawn and shield raised, she stepped past the now familiar sword embedded in the ground. She stopped short, however, for instead of the angry elf they were expecting, they found a lone figure in blood-soaked merc armor kneeling beside a corpse, her head bowed as if in prayer.
With a sharp cry, the woman leapt to her feet, drawing twin daggers as she turned to face them. She was slender for a human, with pale skin and cropped black hair on the verge of falling into bright sapphire blue eyes, and Anders' startled gasp and inarticulate whimper had Elissa stifling a grin. Even blood-spattered and poised to attack, the woman was a stunning beauty.
"Not darkspawn," she said with an audible sigh, sheathing her weapons. Hands raised in supplication, she added, "I didn't do it."
At the familiar phrase, Anders let out a single sharp bark of laughter.
"Yes, we…" Elissa began, but the stranger continued.
"Well, I mean, yes, I killed that woman," she said, gesturing toward the very elf who'd been attacking the caravans, "but in my defense, she was clearly mad and attacked me first. I even pointed out that only an utter moron could have missed how obviously staged this scene was," she added, gesturing next to the discarded Fereldan equipment, "but I don't think she appreciated the observation."
"You called her a moron, and yet wonder why she attacked you?" Nathaniel scoffed.
"What are you doing?" Anders whispered, elbowing the other man in the ribs. "Pretty girl! Don't be an… Actually, no. Be an arse; that could work in my favor."
"Give me a little credit; I didn't lead with that," she laughed, and then pulled a face. "The nutter was already trying to kill me by the time I started hurling insults."
"You sound Fereldan, but your armor isn't," Elissa cut in, smiling briefly at a mental image of her husband seizing upon the idea of weaponized insults. "We found a number of dead mercenaries, similarly clad, not far from here."
"I am Fereldan, it's a long story, and as there's no telling when the darkspawn will return, I'd rather not stick around long enough to tell it," the woman replied, finally relaxing her guard enough to show the pain she was in. "And, not to be rude, but could any of you spare a poultice?"
"I can do far better than that, my lady," Anders said proudly, approaching to work his magic.
"Oh, you are gorgeous; thank you," she breathed, her eyes fluttering closed as the pain lessened. When only a dull ache remained, she opened them again and looked up, their eyes meeting, and she let out a soft whimper. "Big brown eyes and pretty eyebrows, too. That's just not playing fair."
"It's about time someone noticed," he replied with a self-satisfied smirk. "I am also Anders. And you are?"
"Interested," she returned, voice still low. Blinking once, she seemed to recall their audience and spoke up. "I'm Hawke, Abigail, well, Abbie Hawke. Native of Ferelden, lately indentured to the Red Iron, a merc band out of Kirkwall. We were only meant to be guarding a shipment across the Waking Sea, but the ship was to stay in port for two weeks and our idiot captain had the bright idea of making a little extra coin."
"The long story you mentioned," Elissa noted. "I am Warden-Commander Elissa Theirin, and we also came to investigate the attacks. We thought this woman was responsible for all of the carnage, just as she assumed the humans were."
"But we investigated and discerned that this was a trap set by the darkspawn, and we did not attack her outright," Justice added indignantly.
"At a guess, I would suggest that you had the benefit of being neither mad nor set on exacting vengeance," Abbie offered, and then she took a knee and bowed to Elissa. "Your Majesty, I apologize for interrupting you."
"Oh, no, please don't do that. Unlike Alistair, I'm still an active member of the Grey Wardens. You needn't use my title," Elissa insisted, grinning as she extended a hand to the other woman. "Besides, I have too damn many of them and your talking over me was sort of funny. Still, to return to business. You were kneeling beside her body earlier. Did she tell you anything at all?"
"Mostly that her gods would wreak vengeance upon me," Abbie shrugged. "But she also lamented having failed her sister, Seranni. I… may have sworn to either rescue the girl or avenge her death."
"And yet you mentioned leaving," Nathaniel spoke up.
"Well, yes. Silly me, I know, wanting some actual backup before I went off hunting darkspawn," Abbie replied dryly, rolled her eyes. "You had yet to mention being Grey Wardens when I said that, and I'd thought to appeal to your Order at Vigil's Keep."
"Can we keep her?" Anders asked hopefully, Ser Pounce-a-lot mewing apparent agreement from inside his pack.
"We must aid this woman," Justice added. "While the elf earned her end, avenging her sister's death is a worthy goal."
"A fair point," Nathaniel muttered. "The darkspawn probably came from that abandoned mine," he added, gesturing behind them.
As if on cue, an ogre emerged from the mine, with several more darkspawn pouring out behind him.
Abbie darted past the Wardens, running full-bore at the darkspawn. At the last moment, she ducked into a somersault, coming up behind the ogre to embed her daggers in its ankles. With a bellow, the creature toppled forward, and she then leapt onto its back, shoving both blades into its skull, and then rolled off, narrowly avoiding a blast from a hurlock emissary.
The emissary was not so lucky, taking the full force of Anders' answering blast. "Suck on a fireball!"
"Oh yes, we can definitely keep her," Elissa muttered, half to herself, as she joined the fight.
"Another one for me!" Abbie called out a moment later. "We're keeping score, right?"
"From this point forward or total darkspawn killed?" Anders called back, and then he pivoted, catching a genlock with his staff blade. "Die, bastard!"
"If it means I can count Ostagar, let's go with totals!" Abbie shouted. "Another falls!"
When the last of their foes lay dead at their feet, Justice wiped off his sword. "It seems we are victorious."
Wiping her own blade, Elissa turned to watch Abbie, the other woman wiping her faceplate clean before she raised it. "You were at Ostagar?"
"Yeah, and I heard the king beheaded Loghain Mac Turned-Out-to-Be-a-Real-Arsehole," she replied, scowling. "Good riddance."
"I quite agree," Elissa sighed. She contemplated the mine for a few moments, and then pulled her archer off to the side. Privately relieved to have found a reason to separate Nathaniel and Anders, she instructed him to return to Vigil's Keep as swiftly and quietly as possible and apprise the Seneschal of the situation, and also transferred the sylvan samples and etchings they'd collected to his pack.
"So, um… Not to pry," Abbie said warily as the others moved off, having at last gotten a proper look at Justice.
"I am a spirit of justice," he began, by now used to explaining what had occurred.
By the time Elissa returned, the others seemed to be chatting amiably. Mentally crossing her fingers, she sent up a silent prayer. Please, Maker, let these three get on well. I can only bear so much arguing.
"Oh, yes, you are such a pretty boy," Abbie was saying, Ser Pounce-a-lot purring happily in her arms. "Perhaps it's for the best that I left Fluffy at home to look after Mother and Bethany."
"Fluffy?" Anders asked curiously. "You have a cat, too?"
"No! Fluffy's my mabari," Abbie replied, laughing. "He has the most beautiful, fluffy golden coat you'll ever see on a mabari."
"Mine's called Bruno," Elissa mentioned. "Though I wish I hadn't left him at home."
"Bruno," Abbie replied, scrunching her nose. "How depressingly ordinary."
"Yes, well, that's me. Depressingly ordinary," Elissa joked, laughing even as she shook her head. "Shall we?"
With that, the Commander led the way into the abandoned mine, her senses on full alert. "There are darkspawn nearby," she whispered, descending the stairs. "I am uncertain how many."
"A lot of them, got it," Abbie muttered as they reached the base of the stairs, her attention split between watching for traps and scouting the perimeter. "Above us, trap!" she hissed.
"Shh, sleep," said the darkspawn emissary that stepped out on a ledge above them. It stretched out its hand, and a glyph appeared beneath the Wardens (and their plus one). Soon, all fell unconscious.