Varania had been trying to shake Fenris out of his slumber for a while now, but knowing all too well the reason for this rude awakening, she felt a certain degree of sympathy for her brother.
''Leto! Come on, master Denarius is expecting us to clean up the library!'', she uttered as she lifted the wool blanket from his grasp.
Fenris mumbled and sat on his bed.
''It's the dreams again, ain't it? 'Bout the burning village and the woman in white... grandfather had them too. He became so obsessed about figuring out who she was, what she wanted, but never did. Thought he was receiving messages, was given a quest. Just forget about them, or they'll end up driving you mad, like they did to him''
''I don't care about them, nor their significance. What's important now is that you and mother will be freed soon. You'll be happy at last", he lied in a sleepy voice.
She smiled "We'll come for you, we will. Maybe go live with the Dalish? Have you heard of the Dalish?", said Varania enthusiastically, as they were heading to the magister's library.
Once the siblings arrived to their destination, Fenris decided it would be best to focus on the task at hand and please his master with a job well done. Three other Tevinter slaves were scattered around the room, dusting the books and shelves. Fenris had worked hard to get in Denarius' good grace, and it allowed him to be given the opportunity to deliver his only remaining family from a life of slavery. Being women, they had it rougher than he did, and that's saying a lot. He didn't know what it was he had to do in exchange, and frankly, he didn't care – if Denarius wants to take his life for that of his mother and sister, we would gladly spread it before him. He walked to a shelf where no one else was working, next to a light-haired woman known as Edel, whose clumsiness was rumored among the circle, figuring she might be in need of assistance were an unfortunate blunder to occur. She was heavily scarred around the upper arms and back, and the other slaves attributed it to a result of her incompetence. It wasn't too unexpected when she accidentally angled a top ledge whose support was loose from wear, making all its book content fall over her, but the spectators apprehended with a slight discomfort the consequence of this careless mistake. Hadriana, who was supervising the activity, approached Edel, as she was examining her scrapped knee on the floor.
''Up, knife-ear'', she shouted with a hint of gratification in her voice.
Frightened, the slave obeyed. Hadriana picked a needle from her pocket and stabbed Edel on the shoulder; then she proceeded to lift her staff and with a magical force, pushed the needle into the inside of her body, making it move around. While the victim's shrieking put her in a state of sadistic solace, Hadriana's grin soon disappeared once she noticed that all the other slaves were immobilized by fear.
''Get back to work or you'll be next!'', she threatened, while walking away.
Once Denarius' apprentice was out of sight, Fenris offered Edel to help her clean up the mess, which she declined, but something else caught his attention. To this day he is quite uncertain whether it was mere luck, fate, or divine intervention. On the floor, among the dozens of volumes spread around, one was wide open and displayed the detailed ink sketch of a girl - the girl from his dreams. He rushed to grab the book and asked Edel if she could read what it said.
''Of course not, Leto. Nobody can 'round here, besides the mages. Even if I could, we ain't got no time to study magical things, got a job to be done'' she responded in a voice that was still shaky from the physical punishment she had received only minutes ago.
On a sudden rebellious impulse that was very unlike him, Fenris ripped out the pages that seemed to cover the topic and hid them quickly in his jacket. Noticing Edel's outraged facial expression, he added:
''Tell someone about this and you'll regret ever having been born'', and continued sweeping the shelves, surprised at the hostility of his own intimidation.