"Run!"
"Is he coming after us?"
"Just go! Allons-y! Go, go!" I said, my accent growing thick as my heart jumped in my throat. Making money honestly was harder than we thought, and so we took Kane's advice and tried to steal our dinner from a farmer growing seaside fruits on the outside of the city. Taking advice from Kane was the worst thing we could have possibly done, the man is an idiot. Of course the farmer had a Mabari hound. Of course it came snarling after us.
We ran for so long, and I have no doubt I bruised my sister's wrist, I was holding it so tight just so she would keep up. I didn't like doing it, and as soon as we entered the cave, I let go. Each of us took a few moments to catch our breath and listen for the snarling of the Mabari. It didn't seem as though it had found us, and the four of us sighed in relief.
"Well," Kane started, scratching his head as we all watched my sister, Sabrina turn to look at her own backside, where a hole was torn in the leg of her pants where the dog had almost gotten a hold of her flesh. In the light that came from the entrance, I saw a welt where one of his teeth had grazed her. "I suppose I should have thought that out a little more."
I stood straight, tall, and took a fistful of the raven hair on the back of Kane's head, yanking him towards me so we were face to face and on level—a cheap move, I am sure. Kane was more muscular than me, taller, and could probably crush my head in his arms if he flexed enough, but I was strong too. Years of having to run makes you ready yourself for anything. I readied myself to fight with my hands and with magic. These Marchers didn't know we were mages, but they wouldn't have to.
"Listen here, idiot," I said between grit teeth, "If you ever think again, I will reach down your throat and castrate you from the inside. Do you understand? Don't think. Don't speak."
Kane struggled with the hand in his hair, but it was the red-headed boy that tackled me to the cold, damp ground of the cave, and swung a punch at me. I jerked my head away and lucky for me, he grazed my ear and drove his fist into the ground.
Alexander: 1
Hunter: 0
Chaos ensued, with the three of us wrestling, bloodying and bruising one another like Carta Dwarves over Lyrium. It only stopped when Kane grabbed hold of me, and bloodied my nose, because Sabrina pressed her boot to his ribs and shoved him off, coming in the center of all three of us with her arms raised like a mediator.
"That's enough! All of you! You're all acting like children!" said the youngest in our group. Her eighteenth was not too many weeks ago, but she was the only voice of reason among us. Kane, the eldest of us lowered his head, a large man of twenty-three, and crouched on the ground like a scolded child. Hunter's pale and freckled face turned redder than his hair, which would have pleased me if I didn't feel like murdering him.
We mumbled our apologies and sat in silence for a long, which was broken only by the rumbling of our stomachs. At this, Kane drew a sharp dagger from his belt and dragged a thick branch in from outside. I saw he was carving it into a spear.
"I'll go find something. Maybe we will be lucky and find a Halla this far east. Or some nug. Or rabbit, or ram. Whichever I find first," he said. I wondered how he could see with both his eyes blackened, "then we can all sit and cook through a fire." He took extra steps to make sure the spear was as sharp as it could get before he left, bringing his equally stupid brother and Hunter's longbow with him, and not long after they had gone, heavy rain poured down outside.
I stood, wiping some dried blood from my upper lip and said, "Fuck it, it's going to be cold. I'll find a spot further in and make sure it's safe," I turned to look at my sister, and motioned her to make eye contact with me, "You stay in that spot, and you know what to do if anything or anyone comes at you. Freeze them solid. Do you understand?"
"Yes, I understand." She sounded agitated, but I left anyway, a fireball in my hand for light. Maybe there were nugs in the cave, they like the dark. The trek further into the cave was long, damp, and musty, but the fire I dangerously kept in my hand lit the way to an opening that was already lit, by candles in the corner. My eyes were drawn to it, a small corner with a table and many books laying around or stacked neatly in small piles. Towards the shadow, I shone my own light and observed a trunk and the sleeve of a shirt or a dress made from some silky material hanging out.
That's when I felt it, the tingle of some familiar feeling rising up through my toes towards the base of my spine, and slithering up to raise the hairs on the back of my neck. I turned sharply, my fireball flickering at my startled movement and crackling, as my spells usually would if I got my adrenaline pumping. The light reflected off of a crystal bound tightly to the staff she carried, which was almost too tall for her. It was pointed quickly at my throat, and I felt the heat of the magic inside of it against my skin, humming wildly at the wielding mage's command.
"Tell me why you're here before I sic my friends on you," The girl said, speaking clearly like a Ferelden. My light had gone out, but it had given me just enough time to catch a glimpse of lively emerald eyes underneath a head of dark hair. In the dim light from her candles I could make out five large heaps towards the back end of the cave, all heaving lightly as they slept. A moment's silence allowed for a yawn to be heard.
Bears.
"I didn't come here for trouble," I said with my hands in the air, "My sister and a pair of brothers we met in the Free Marches came to Amaranthine looking for the Inquisition, but some odd circumstances have drawn us to this cave. We were only here looking for shelter from the rain as we perhaps found something to eat as well. I was looking for nugs."
The Ferelden paused for a long while, and I felt her eyes searching me in the dark. I breathed more easily when she took the staff's focus off of my throat, "You have magic, which is familiar," she started, carefully choosing her words, "Yet you don't wear the robes of the circle or carry a mage's tool. Why is that?"
It would be better to tell the truth, I figured, and so I did, after taking in a deep breath, "A staff would draw unwanted attention. I'll admit, even as an Orlesian peasant, the spotlight was my place, but as an apostate, it's better to stay away from it. I was never in the circle, these are my only clothes," I looked down at the leather cuirass and pants I wore over a linen shirt that I had to mend countless times, then looked back up and grinned at her reassuringly. I think I heard her snort.
Tapping the blade of her staff once on the cold ground, she made the crystal illuminate itself so we could better see in the dark, and I held my breath at the sight of her.
She looked to be about my sister's age, but with dark circles under her eyes that said she did not sleep as much as Sabrina and I were allowed—which wasn't very much these days. Despite the circles, the rest of her skin was youthful, healthily and naturally tanned with full cheeks and pink lips. It was a pleasant contrast with her fine eyes, the color of lush grass, all underneath a head of dark hair done up in two thick braids on either side of her head.
I figured she must be a Ferelden-born Nevarran or Antivan for not being pale-skinned like the rest of us. Of course there was also the chance she was a Tevinter but I'd never met one, it's hard to imagine they'd ever leave the Imperium, especially if they were a mage. Mages are powerful there. I would go if I weren't afraid I would stumble over their speech and land myself in a position as slave to a magister to be possessed by demons or used for blood magic.
"Why are you staring at me like that?"
"What?" Her question interrupted my thoughts, temporarily startling me, "I'm sorry. Just getting used to the different light…" I looked over to her friends, "You have pet bears?"
"They're not pets, they're friends. They help me and I help them."
"Bears help you."
"Yes."
"Bears."
"Is it so hard to understand?"
I shook my head, "It's just different. I never heard of a mage being able to control animals. What school of magic is it? Is it blood magic?" I asked that last part rather hesitantly.
A finger went up to my face waggling to and fro rather angrily, "I am not a blood mage! You think only blood mages hide out in caves and use unorthodox methods of magic?"
"Likely not."
She huffed and turned to look around her shelter with her hair reflecting all sorts of colors from the light, red, purple, blue, black, silver… then she drew her robes closer around her body. If it weren't for them, I think her stature would appear rather small and slender. Anyone with enough meat on them wouldn't need such thick robes, but the gooseflesh on my arms would beg to differ even underneath my good linen shirt. It was rather chilly in here, despite the fact that there was a family of five enormous, fat-covered bears in close quarters with us.
"You said odd circumstances brought you four to the cave? Let's walk to the entrance, you may tell me about it."
"Whatever you say, Madame," I said with a nod, heading back the way I came through, and my new acquaintance following close behind me. We walked in silence for the first few minutes, but she soon grew impatient.
"Are you going to tell me or not, Orlesian?
"My accent is that obvious?"
"Disgustingly so."
"You dislike me for being Orlesian, but I've said nothing about your being a Ferelden dog lord. Just know I am not of noble birth, and have no fear of me hiring a bard to charm you until she can get a blade to your throat."
"Just tell me your story; I know how your kind likes to talk. Go on," It was surprising to hear the amusement in her voice, and I smiled as well.
"I took some bad advice from an idiot Free Marches farmhand my sister and I met in Starkhaven. He and his brother tagged along with us in our journey to the Inquisition. Unfortunately, I have chosen to forget their names, so I call one of them Idiot, and the other is Other Idiot… they do not know my sister and I are apostates. Sadly, news of Haven reached us after we had spent the coin to come to Amaranthine, so we came here anyway. I suppose not everyone in the Inquisition can be dead, so perhaps we may find them. I do not know. All I do know is that my sister and I cannot have stayed so near to Kirkwall for so long."
"The trouble with the Knight-Commander is over, though. The old bag is dead, turned to some crystal statue during her fight with the Champion," This was true, but I still shook my head at her.
"It is still very tense there, and it would have comforted me more if Lady Hawke had driven a sword in her gullet rather than fought until she turned herself to stone."
"That's very dark."
We had come upon the entrance where my sister was still sitting and Kane and Hunter had returned, soaking wet, but delivering freshly killed Fennec. Kane's bloody spear leaned against the wall behind him as Hunter tried making a fire with the small bit of dry tinder he had packed in his bag—the pages of a book. There wasn't any dry wood for a proper fire. I glanced at Hunter's longbow and imagined tossing it and his arrows into the flames as his hand inched closer to Sabrina's when he took a break from his work, sliding across the slab of rock they were seated on. She blushed and pulled her hand away. My blood boiled. I have played the role of father and mother to her for too long to let this slide, and my sister was still too young for romance—too busy. An apostate barely has time to worry for such things when they are running and I would not have my sister troubled by it if I could help it. Twenty-one, my age: that is an acceptable age for a young marriage. Freshly eighteen is too young, and when the time comes for my sister to be married, it will certainly not be to a pompous Free Marcher we barely know.
Kane stood when we approached, his hand twitching and ready to hold the spear he had crafted earlier upon seeing the new addition to our group of friends, and asked, "Who is that?"
I know he saw her staff, and as is the closed-minded assumption of any non-mage, I know he assumed she was a blood mage. This is the reason I prefer not to travel with anyone else but Sabrina. If they find we are apostates, the names they will shout sting worse than the cut of a blade. Blood mage, abomination, demon… Sabrina and I will have to abandon them somewhere soon.
"Allow me to introduce myself." The girl stepped forward, "My name is Jasmine. I was once part of the Kirkwall Circle of Magi, but escaped overseas and have been living in this cave since last year."
"You live in a cave?" Kane asked.
"That's what I just said, isn't it?"
"I heard a story from the bar tender at the tavern back inside the city walls that a blood mage lived in some cave out here."
"Ah," She laughed, "Amaranthine's very own Lady of the Soul's blood. Yes. A group of slightly drunken hunters were coming too near a bear cub, and so I persuaded them to leave using my talents. One of them set off their belt of grenades too close to himself and didn't make it back home. Rumor has it that a demon birthed me from the bear's mouth and I slit my wrists, sending my blood forward to tear him apart. Dramatic story, is it not? Not quite Hard in Hightown, but a story all the same," she put her free wrist forward and pushed back the sleeve, "I've never used blood magic a day in my life. I never plan to."
Everyone stared at her smooth wrist and nodded, as if confirming that indeed she was no blood mage. I, for one, held my reservations about this Jasmine and decided that I would trust her if she earned it. One look at the Marchers said that they held no ill will towards her anymore, but they were stupid…although, their ease in the presence of a known mage certainly landed points in their favor.
No. No. Trust no one.
I sat between my sister and the red-head, forcing them both to scoot towards the edge of the stone slab. Proper introductions were made, then and each of us went around to tell Jasmine our names. We all made nice and pretended to like one another as Kane skinned the fox, and I looked over towards his brother's work with the tinder.
"What are you doing," I asked, "What can I do to start the fire?"
He snorted, "Just gather some rocks to arrange the perimeter. I doubt you can do much else than that."
"What makes you say that?" I narrowed my eyes at him.
"Well, to be fair, you really haven't been much of a help. You make plans and talk to people, but Kane and I are the ones that do all the fighting and the running and the fetching and the hunting."
"I like to think today was rather progressive in the running category."
"He can certainly start a fire by himself," Jasmine interrupted from a seat she found on a drier spot of the cave, "Much easier than you can." I motioned to her with my eyes that it was certainly not a good idea. She didn't take the hint.
"Ha! Alex?" Hunter challenged her.
"Yes. Alex."
My eyes shifted over to Sabrina, who was watching in horror at what was taking place, thinking that our cover was blown. It was, I'd confessed to a mage whom I thought I could trust more than a pair of barely-literate Marchers that only knew how to kill and smash things with their hands and weapons. Sweat trickled down my neck, chilling the spine.
Then, I stood. With the toe of my boot, I drew a small circle and carefully arranged some rocks on the outline to contain the fire. Despite their vehement protests, I grabbed Hunter's quiver and Kane's spear, splitting them to make firewood enough to set the tinder on top of, and then swept that on top before fire formed in my hands on my command.
In the light of the flames, the brothers' faces were the most shocked faces I had seen in my life.