There was something so raw, so desperate about the way Anders thrashed about in their bed that when Mardessa woke up several nights later, she thought they were back in the Deep Roads. She pried his cold, clammy fingers from the bed sheets and smoothed his hair away from his damp forehead. His features twisted in pain and when he spoke again, his words were thickened not from slumber but from fear. Mardessa clamped her eyes shut at the words spilling from his lips and set about waking him as gently as possible. Straddling his hips, her hands roamed the planes of his face down to his shoulders where she shook Anders firmly, whispering endearments against the shell of his ear.
Mardessa was fluent in nearly every tongue in Thedas. Tahl-Fvren had advised her years ago that the foreign guilds would be more willing to accept and respect her if she took the time to respect and accept them. She had spent countless hours with language tutors from all over Thedas learning their dialects so she could better communicate with the other Guildmasters. Her tutor had been pleased to discover that, among her other less scrupulous talents, Mardessa was also quite proficient at languages, and only found a few to be exceptionally challenging.
One night as Dessa and Anders lay tangled and sweaty waiting for the night air to cool them after their lovemaking, he murmured promises of devotion against her hair in Anderfeln. For all the years that they had been together, it hadn't been until that moment that she had heard Anders speak in his native tongue. She had begun to think that Trade Tongue was all he knew; another ill effect from a stolen childhood in the Circle. Grinning against his chest, Mardessa answered him softly, willing her mouth to speak the clumsy words. The effect was powerful and immediate. Anders almost growled as he pulled her up for a hungry kiss, making appreciative noises in the back of his throat as he moved to cover his body with his once again. It had been a long, passionate night that lasted well into the morning; it was a memory Dessa kept close to her heart.
Pressing herself flush against his writhing body, Mardessa crossed her arms over his chest and threaded her fingers in the sweaty locks of golden hair that clung to his shoulders. Pressing her cheek against his, she murmured words of affection that were both forgotten and familiar to him. His forehead creased as Anders knit his brows together and made another keening plea to whatever or whoever was terrorizing his sleep to stop and get away from him.
Dessa shook his shoulders a little firmer and sat up to study his face in the sliver of moonlight that fell across their bed. She swallowed the lump in her throat and clamped her legs down tighter against his hips. "Anders?" His name came out more like a command than a question and Mardessa immediately sucked in a breath as if she could return the word with it. She tried again, softer but louder. He was talking faster now and his hands reached up to claw at his face and pull at his hair. Mardessa caught his hands and pressed them into his chest. "Anders? Lover?" His eyes cracked open but were unseeing, their usual bright amber distant, foggy and clouded by some unseen horror.
Fear coiled around Mardessa's heart like an icy fist. Panicked, she gripped the sides of Anders face and begged him to wake up, promised him in him every dialect she knew that she loved him and he was safe, and struggled to keep his thrashing form from tumbling out of the bed. His fingers dug painfully into her wrists as Anders continued to fight against his nightmare. Finally, his eyes snapped open as a desperate pleading wail erupted from his throat. In an instant, Mardessa was beneath him, shielding herself against the Spirit Bolt Anders had cast against his unknown assailant. As the spell fizzled out against the stone wall behind their massive Orleasian headboard, Anders blinked several times as if to clear away any spirits that may have followed him out from his dream. His eyes, now clear and bright in the moonlight focused on Mardessa's face and the sticky, bloody mess that used to be her right ear.