The stone-walled room was warmly lit with candle light, glowing with colour from the lengths of brightly-dyed cloth hanging on the walls. Bethany curled up against the pile of cushions, watching in amusement as Merrill took down a swath of it with Isabela's help, and draped it around herself. "What do you think?" the elf asked, eyes bright with amusement. "It could be a dress."
"It would make a lovely dress," Bethany said, a touch enviously. It would be; the fabric was dyed in a patterns of mossy greens that were almost the exact shade of Merrill's eyes, one end of the fabric somehow printed in an ornate motif with what appeared to be gold leaf.
"I'll tell you two a secret," Isabela said, grinning mischievously. "This already is a dress."
"Really?" Merrill asked, surprised, and looked down at herself, holding her arms wide to spread out the lovely silken fabric. "But it doesn't look like a dress at all."
"I'll show you," Isabela said, and peeled out of her tunic and boots. She took the scarf that she normally wore around her waist, and quickly retied it halter-fashion around herself, then took a second length of cloth down from the walls, one patterned in blues with touches of white and green. Bethany blushed, taking in her friend's lush figure as she changed, while Merrill merely watched with interest.
Isabela tucked one end of the cloth into her waistband on her right hip, then wrapped it across her front and behind her back and around to the front again, before gathering it in several large soft pleats against her belly. She tucked in the pleats and the fabric all the way around, then ran the remaining loose length of fabric around behind her again. When she brought it back around to the front, she draped the gold-printed end up across her halter to hang down over her left shoulder. "You see?" she said, smiling widely at the two of them, and turning around to show it off. "It's from the far north; they wear clothing like this in the Donarks. Maker only knows how it found its way here; I took it off a gang of Tevinter slavers who didn't have any further use for earthly possessions."
Merrill clapped her hands delightedly. "It's beautiful," she exclaimed. "Can I try it?"
"Can I try too?" Bethany asked, and Isabela smiled warmly at her.
"Of course you may," she said, and gestured at the fabric-bedecked walls around them. "Pick out a length you like while I help Merrill."
Merrill was already stripping off her outfit, and Bethany hurriedly turned away to examine the lengths of fabric and try to decide which one she liked the most, feeling torn between a length of deep ruby red, and a second one patterned in dark blue. She turned to ask the others their opinion, and smiled to see the look of delight on Merrill's face as Isabela wrapped the green and gold dress for her, the elf using the scarf she usually had draped around her neck as a bandana-style breastband. That made Bethany frown in thought; her own scarf was too small to be used to cover her top, being little larger than a handkerchief in size.
"Picked one out yet, Bethany?" Isabela asked, looking up from tucking in the waist of Merrill's outfit.
"I can't decide between the blue, or the red," Bethany said, gesturing at each.
"You'd look lovely in either," Merrill said.
"Red is the Amell colour, isn't it?" Isabela asked. "Though blue would co-ordinate better with what Merrill and I are wearing. But the red would also be a pleasant contrast."
Bethany laughed. "You see my problem?" she said, and looked thoughtfully back and forth between the two lengths of fabric, until Isabela and Merrill came up on either side of her. She looked back and forth between their outfits and sighed longingly, then looked at the fabric again, and smiled, reaching out to finger one length of it. "The blue, to co-ordinate with my two friends," she said, then frowned, remembering her earlier worry. "But what can I use as a top?"
"We'll improvise, of course," Isabela said, and pulled off the kerchief holding her hair back, shaking it out and refolding it. It was just long enough to be used as a breastband by Bethany, and with Isabela's help she was soon wearing a dress of wrapped and draped fabric as well.
"We all look wonderful!" Merrill exclaimed, looking delighted again. "Like royalty!"
"Barbarian royalty," Isabela agreed, reaching up to touch the heavy gold jewellery around her neck.
"All we're missing is a royal feast and some handsome servants to wait on us hand and foot," Bethany said, smiling in amusement.
"I'm fresh out of handsome young men, unfortunately, but I might be able to turn up some acceptable snacks and beverages," Isabela said, and went digging among the containers stacked along one wall. "No sense in having a secret hideout that doesn't contain at least a few days worth of emergency food and drink," she added smugly.
They ended up lying down on the carpets and pillows again, Isabela's selections piled up on a large hammered brass tray between them. It was mostly things that could keep well for long periods of time, such as dried fruits and hard biscuits, as well as a small number of delicious treats, like hard candies made of sugar from the far north, and cookies made with spices and honey that Isabela said could keep for several years in their well-sealed tins. There was wine, too, a sweet straw-coloured wine that they drank out of a set of delicate blown glass goblets.
"Why haven't we ever done this before?" Bethany asked.
"What, been chased by thugs and have to hide out overnight in the bowels of an old factory?" Isabela asked, one eyebrow arching high as she smiled in amusement.
Merrill and Bethany both laughed. "No, I mean… just spend some time together, enjoying ourselves?" Bethany asked. "Dressing up and sitting around and just enjoying each other's company."
Isabela laughed, and rolled over on her back "I've invited you to join Merrill and I countless times before; you almost always said no. Too busy helping your brother raise money for his expedition."
"It was supposed to be our expedition, not his," Bethany pointed out a touch sourly.
"I thought it was Varric and Bartrand's expedition?" Merrill asked.
"It is, kitten, but it's Hawke's too, since he helped pay for it. As did Bethany."
"And got left behind anyway, despite all my help. But let's not talk of Garrett. Or any of the rest of them."
"Not even Varric? I like Varric," Merrill said.
"Everyone likes Varric. All right, we can talk about Varric," Bethany agreed. "What did you want to say about him?"
Merrill smiled and shrugged. "Just that I like him, I suppose. And the way he's always writing notes to himself. He must be very forgetful."
Isabela laughed. "He's not forgetful," she told Merrill. "He's taking notes for his stories."
"His stories?" Merrill looked puzzled.
Bethany looked at the elf with some surprise. "You haven't seen any of his books?"
Isabela snorted. "Of course she hasn't, can you imagine Varric ever showing them to her?"
Bethany frowned. "No, I suppose not."
"But you've seen them?" Merrill asked, looking troubled. "Both of you? But he never showed them to me? Why not?"
"Garrett has a lot of them, so I read them too," Bethany said. "They're… um… a little racy."
"Oh," Merrill said. "Racy… you mean they're about sex, yes?"
"Yes," Isabela agreed. "They're about sex."
"Then why wouldn't Varric show them to me? I know about sex," Merrill said, and laughed. "Or does he think I'm a total innocent?"
Bethany bit her lip. Isabela laughed. Merrill looked surprised. "He does? But why!?"
"Because you get so little of my innuendo and so few of his jokes, kitten," Isabela told her gently.
Merrill snorted. "Foolish man. Just because I'm unfamiliar with shemlen and durgen'len idiom doesn't mean I'm ignorant. I'm trained as a Keeper's First!"
It was Isabela's turn to look surprised. "And that makes you knowledgeable about sex?"
"Of course it does. A Keeper's duties include all aspects of the health and well-being of their clan, including the health of their relationships. I may have been too busy learning to actually take part in much sex myself, but I know a lot about it."
Isabela grinned. "Then in that case, maybe you should read some of Varric's books too," she said, and rose to her feet, dusting her hands of crumbs and crossing back over to dig through boxes again, returning in a few minutes with a small stack of books. "No secret hideaway is complete without something to wile away the hours," she said, setting them down. "Bethany, find one you particularly like, and I'll do the same, and we can take turns reading Merrill all our favourite bits."
Bethany laughed, and started sorting through the pile. For an evening that had started so poorly, this was, she decided, rapidly turning into her favourite night ever. She just wished it would never end. But she knew that it, like all good things, couldn't last forever; morning would come eventually, and a return to her normal life of being a reclusive apostate in Lowtown.
She'd enjoy tonight while it lasted though, she decided, storing up good memories against the lean times ahead.