Chapter 2
Commander
Muriyl did not know how many hours had passed since she was sitting in the cell. Cole had left just as quickly as he came and she did not know what to make of it. She looked at her tied hands and let out a sigh, before going at another search of the cell. She saw a small dagger on the floor and let out a wide smile as she walked over to it and began to cut her hands free. After she accomplished that she rubbed her wrist and put the dagger in her boot so they would not take it, she wanted to return it to Cole if she ever saw him again. Muriyl walked over to her cell door, stuck her hand through the bars, and felt for the lock. She then reached up in her red hair, pulled out a small lock pick, and then started to pick the lock.
"And there we go," Muriyl smiled to herself as the door clicked opened and she put the lock pick back in her hair. "I hope Maxwell is okay," she then closed the door and began to look around the dungeon. She opened a few of the remaining cells, found some miscellaneous items, and pocketed them before she heard footsteps coming towards her. Muriyl quickly turned and got back in her cell and closed the door and relocking it with the lock pick and put it away just in time to see the door open and saw Cassandra with a man.
"Is my brother alright?," Muriyl said as she leaned on the bars and realized that she didn't put the ropes back on her arms, but hoped they wouldn't notice.
"Who are you," Cassandra said ignoring her question at first.
"Muriyl Trevelyan, is my brother alright?" she asked again.
"He is weak, he collapsed after atempting to close The Breach," Cassandra said "This is Commander Cullen, he is here to help deicde if you are dangerous, since we do not know how you fit into all of this."
"Why were you at the Conclave?" Cullen asked.
"I went to see if my brother was there," Muriyl said "He was taken when I was little as a child, I…just wanted to see him after all those years." She then looked down in the cell "That's why I was there."
"Do you know what happened?" Cassandra said.
"No, I just remember seeing my brother and then nothing," Muriyl said "Please let me see him, then you can put me back in here if you want." She then noticed Cullen was looking around the dungeon.
"You do realize Cassandra, that all the other cells down here are unlocked, I think if she wanted to she could have escaped long ago," Cullen said and Muriyl gave them a nervous smile.
"So you are not a Mage, like your brother," Cassandra stated.
"No, archer and a rouge," Muriyl stated "Good with a bow, been shooting since I can remember."
"Trained?" Cullen said.
"No," Muriyl said "Self-taught. Please let me see my brother."
"Commander?" Cassandra asked and looked at Cullen who had a thoughtful look on his face.
"I doubt she will cause any trouble," Cullen said as Cassandra looked at him and nodded and opened the cell. "Perhaps if she is as good as she said she can help train the new recruits."
"I will gladly help if I am just allowed to see my brother," Muriyl said "Please?"
"I will take her Cassandra, I have to head that way," Cullen said.
"Commander," Cassandra said and left the two of them alone.
Muriyl walked out into the light and rubbed her wrist again to get more of the feeling back from before.
"I do apologies for Cassandra, she tends to think last," Cullen said as he noticed Muriyl's wrists "We can have someone look at it if you like."
"No I am alright," she said with a soft smile "I've had worse," Muriyl then noticed something about Cullen "Could I ask you a question Commander?"
"Just Cullen," he said "And go headed," as they walked out of the Chantry.
"Did you use to be a Templar?" Muriyl said.
"Yes, as a matter of fact I was till Cassandra asked me here," Cullen said and sideways glanced at her "How can you tell?"
"Just something I've picked up from watching the Templars in Ostwick," Muriyl said as she thought for a moment "It is the way you hold yourself, I watched them a lot since they took my brother away. One Templar helped me keep in contact with him."
"If he would have gotten caught, it would have been bad," Cullen replied as they turned a corner.
"I know, at first I didn't want to use him to get my letters through," Muriyl said as they climbed down a set of stairs "But he insisted, he was one that took my brother away. He told me he wanted to make it up to the little red headed girl that he could not get out of his head."
"I'm sorry," Cullen said as they stopped in front of a small house.
"It's alright, it was a long time ago," She sadly smiled and noticed Cullen had gotten a slight awkward look on his face "Thank you Com….Cullen."
"Eh…well yes, if you should require anything please let me know," Cullen nervously said realizing he was staring at her smiling and hurried off leaving Muriyl to smile to herself.
Muriyl entered the house and saw her brother lying on the bed with his eyes closed. She hurried over and looked at the notes on the table. Most of them just said he had the sweats, but he was stable and a sigh of relief left her body and a smile. Maxwell was going to be fine.
"Thank the Maker," Muriyl said as she looked at her brother sleeping and noticed a green glow on his hand. "What's that?" she reached down and picked up his hand and touched the mark.
"We have another uninvited guest," A deep voice said "Get rid of her, and quickly."
Muriyl quickly jerked her hand back and landed on the ground next to the bed, breathing heavy. Her face contorted in pain for a moment as a strange pain shot through her body.
"Andraste tits," She gasped out and put a hand over her heart trying to stop the pulsing. "I am not going to touch that again." She then got up and saw that Maxwell was still resting and she headed out of the door. "What was that…" she then turned a corner and saw someone familiar next to a camp fire "Varric?" at the name he turned and Muriyl hurried over and got him in a tight hug "Oh Varric, I've missed you!"
"Easy Red," Varric gasped, "I'm not made of steel you know."
"Oh sorry Varric," Muriyl said and released him "I didn't expect to see you here. I missed you."
"I know it's hard to resist me Red," Varric said with a smile and Muriyl just laughed and kissed his cheek.
"It's true I only missed your chest hair," Muriyl said as she looked at his chest hair and smile as Varric let out a laugh.
"I told you, it hurts me when you think of my body that way. I am not an object, but a living being," Varric said as a thought suddenly came to him "Wait, your brother is that mage?"
"Yes, I thought I told you about that Varric," Muriyl said and shook her head "You don't listen to me sometimes do you Varric?"
"I listen to you well enough Red," Varric said "You are always more talkative when you got some good ol' ale in you."
"You promised to not mention that…ever again Varric," Muriyl wined as a thought came to her "Oh is Hawke okay?"
"She is as good as she can be I suppose," Varric said, "I bet she probably has Fenris with her, those two cause trouble wherever they go."
"That is very true," Muriyl said, "She's been through enough, I hate to see anything happen to her."
"Don't worry about it Red, Hawke and Fenris are probably on an island somewhere seeing how far his Lyrium Tattoos go," Varric said.
"Thanks you Varric, I needed that mental imagine," Muriyl said as she held her head in her hands.
"So I saw you walking with Curly, a Templar huh, never pictured that would be your type." Varric said with a smile towards her and a wink.
"Varric!" Muriyl said and slapped him on his arm and then Varric got a serious look on his face.
"You okay Red? I mean I heard you were found with your brother," Varric said "What a reunion huh?"
"Yea I'm okay, I just wish I knew what happened," Muriyl said, as she looked into the campfire "I don't know what to make of it. I'm not a good fighter Varric."
"Horse shit," Varric said "You are damn good Red, don't let anyone tell you different. Shit, what did your father do to you when you got back home?"
"Later Varric," Muriyl said as she turned back "So anything knew besides being here in Haven, probably against your will."
"Funny Red, actually I started a new book," Varric said and Muriyl looked at him.
"Really?" she said "Another Hard in Hightown?" and gave Varric a look with a smile.
"Nahh I will tell you about it later," Varric said with a sly smile "Why don't you go see the Curly for a bit, you can get him so red behind the ears." He saw Muriyl give him a frown and he just let out a laugh.
"Shut up," Muriyl said, "I'm going to the Chantry," and left Varric and headed towards the Chantry. As soon as she opened the door, Cassandra came towards her.
"Good you're here," Cassandra said "This way." She then grabbed on to Muriyl arm, dragged her through the Chantry until they came to a door at the end, and opened it to see two other people inside before she was pushed in with Cassandra closing the door "This is Lady Josephine Montilyet, and you already know Commander Cullen and Leliana."
"Hello," Muriyl said and looked around and nodded to them.
"We are just waiting for your brother to awake," Josephine said, "I heard you saw him."
"Yes, I did he still seems to be resting peacefully," Muriyl said, "I have faith he will awaken soon."
"That is good to hear," Josephine said with a nod.
"Could I ask to why I am here?" Muriyl said, "I mean I am glad to not be locked in a cell down stairs."
"Your brother has proven his innocence," Cassandra said and Muriyl had a look of realization on her face.
"And I have yet to prove mine, I gather," Muriyl said looking around at the four of them.
"Exactly," Cassandra said, "Though I doubt you were there to cause harm, but you do not seem to be affected in the same way as your brother."
"I wish I could tell you, I really do," Muriyl replied, "I would be happy to stay in the back ground and let Maxwell take the forefront."
"He is being called the Herald of Andraste," Cassandra said, "The women they believe that was in the Fade Andraste herself."
"It very well could have been, I honestly don't know," Muriyl said, "It's all a blur, and full of darkness." Cassandra stood there for a moment looking at Muriyl before turning to Cullen.
"Commander, take Muriyl and test her skills," Cassandra said "In the meantime while we wait for your brother to awaken and more will be discussed then."
"Okay," Muriyl nodded and saw Cullen looking at her and she just smiled.
"Very well, this way," Cullen said and walked to the other side of the table and let Muriyl step out of the door first and they walked through the Chantry.
"I'm sorry about all of this," Muriyl said as she kept her gaze forward "I know it's probably the last thing you want to do, besides waiting around waiting for Maxwell to awaken."
"I don't mind," Cullen said as they headed out of the gate and towards the frozen pond. "I do believe you are innocent, you have given us no reason otherwise." He then side glanced at her "You could have escaped those cells a while go from what I saw."
"Picking locks does come in handy," Muriyl said as she saw a few tents lined up and some targets some distance away.
"We will test your accuracy then your distance that you can hit," Cullen said, "So I can get a feel for your skills," he then handed her a longbow and 10 arrows "10 shots of each will do, for each test. Accuracy first."
"Sounds fair," Muriyl said as she took the bow and put the arrows in the ground next to her.
Muriyl tested the bow for a moment without arrows to get use to the unusual bow; she had to remember to ask later what happened to her bow. Muriyl looked at the target that was close and she took her first arrow, drew it back with a breath and then let it fly a second later hitting slightly off from the bull's eye.
"Sorry, first time with the bow," Muriyl said and then adjusted her angle and stance slightly and shot again hitting the bull's eye the second time, and then another and another.
After the fifth bulls eye in a row Cullen looked at Muriyl with some astonishment on his face. He did not know that she was rather good with the bow. Muriyl went to hit her next four arrows in the bull's eye with two splitting and arrow that was already there.
"Impressive," Cullen said as he watched her face go slightly red "Now distance," he then pointed to the targets further away. Again, Cullen was impressed with how far and accurate she could shoot. He heard a whistle behind them and saw Varric standing there smiling on his face.
"See Red, you are good, if not I dare say amazing," Varric said and Muriyl just blushed again and couldn't look at Varric "Right Curly,"
"She is very good," Cullen said.
"More than good Curly," Varric said, "She is just too modest to brag about her skills with a bow."
"I didn't realize you both knew each other," Cullen said looking back and forth between Varric and Muriyl.
"Oh Red and me, yea we know each other," Varric said with a sly smile "The Seeker is looking for you Curly, something about her brother being up and to meet at the Chantry."
"Maxwell is awake," Muriyl said and dropped the bow and hurried off towards the gate and leaped three stairs at a time making it up them in no time and taking off disappearing from sight.
"She is, a good rouge," Varric said as he looked at Cullen. "Better if she had her own bow."
"She was found with no weapon," Cullen said as he looked at the dwarf.
"Shame really, that bow was a gift," Varric said as he turned his back to Cullen and started to walk before he stopped and turned back "Meant a lot to her. Chantry, Curly, don't want the Seeker to get her panties in a twist." He then gave Cullen a wave before heading back to his spot near his campfire.
Cullen took a moment and looked at the bow lying on the ground and then looked up at the targets and saw all the ones at a distance were dead center in the bull eyes. Cullen could not believe it, Muriyl was better than she thought she was. He was not sure what role she would play in the future but Cullen knew she was one to watch. She may not be a mage but she held her own type of strength and he could trust that.