Mhairi gave him a look and Alim shrugged. "Hey!" Anders smirked at him and Alim had to resist the urge to tug at his earring. Why had he never realised he had the same hairstyle as him? "I remember you from the circle!" Surprising. You never spoke to me there... "I know what they've been saying about me.." I doubt it. 'But this... not my doing." Alim raised an eyebrow at him and felt a grin start. Anders? Worried about hurting Templars? Anders seemed to see what he was thinking and the smirk deepened. "Oh don't get me wrong, I'm not broken up about them dying, to be perfectly honest. Biff there made the funniest gurgle when he went down..."
"Not too fond of them, huh?" Alim said. He couldn't deny that seeing those particular templars in bloody heaps was giving him a warm feeling around his belly. If they were the same ones who usually brought Anders in they were no loss to humanity.
"Oh, I know, I know. Most people enjoy being kicked in the head to be woken up each morning. Me, I'm just picky." The mage surveyed his handiwork with a smug look. There were at least ten darkspawn corpses surrounding him. Even with the templars' help, it was an impressive feat for a non-warden. Alim started to get the first glimmering of an idea... "I am..."
"Anders. I remember," Alim interrupted. "You threw up on Irving's boots once."
The blond man's eyes opened wide and his smirk turned into a grin of delight. "Indeed I did... one of my finest moments I do believe. You're... you're Alim right? I remember you from..."
"Your remedial healing classes," Alim finished for him. He couldn't resist calling forth a blue ball of healing magic. "I've improved since then."
"Nothing beats practice in the field," Anders said, eyeing the light with a professional nod.
"An apostate, at Vigil's Keep?"
Repeat the bleeding obvious, why don't you Mhairi? But Anders had eyed the girl and Alim could see his other persona slotting into place. Four years hadn't changed him one single bit.
"You weren't here when we arrived. I'm sure I would have remembered such a lovely woman as yourself."
"So...you're not a warden? You're just an apostate now?"
"Just an apostate?" Anders looked hurt. "That's what they call someone who doesn't believe in being chained up in the Tower, so yes, I suppose I am. The Templars captured me..."
"Again?" Alim said, raising an eyebrow.
"Yes. Again." Anders looked annoyed. "And enough with the judging. How many times have you escaped the Tower, any way?"
Alim examined a fingernail, smirking. "Just the once, actually," he said.
Anders narrowed his eyes. "Yes. Well. They were taking me back to the Tower and then darkspawn attacked. Could be a sign, yes?" The older man fixed Alim with a look that held something more than his usual humour.
"I could use your help here, Anders," Alim said. Anders' shoulders slumped in what looked like relief.
"Then you have it," he said.
"Are you sure about this, Commander?" Mhairi hissed at him.
"I know him," he said, not bothering to lower his voice. Mhairi blushed. "He's an apostate, but he's harmless..."
"Harmless?" Anders sounded royally offended.
Alim snorted. "Well, as harmless as a serial monogamist with the attention span of a lyrium addled gnat can be," he muttered. "Good at magic, not good at hurting people," he said out loud.
Mhairi eyed the dead Templars.
"Templars are different," Anders said airily. "And in any case, I didn't kill them. Darkspawn got to them first. They wouldn't let me out to help until it was too late."
Mhairi still looked deeply suspicious. Alim smiled at her. "Trust me, Mhairi," he said. "Anders... is a good sort. He'll be a lot of help. And I'm running low on lyrium and mana. If we run into more shrieks like the ones outside we could be in a lot of trouble..."
She shrugged, eventually.
A few more waves of darkspawn later, and Mhairi was wholeheartedly happy about Anders being around. An emissary caught her in a crushing prison. Alim winced - he couldn't dispel it fast enough, he was down to staff bolts only and he well remembered how painful that particular spell was. Anders saw she was in trouble and dispelled it before she'd been stuck for more than a few seconds.
Then, of course, he smirked at her.
Alim knew why he was so angry, but it didn't help him stop feeling that way. Oh the things that Zevran would have to say about Anders... Alim almost smiled thinking of them - before the pain hit and brought him back down with a thump he was surprised wasn't audible.
When they finally got back to the entrance hall of the keep Alim felt a little better, but being confronted by an obviously unhinged dwarf who seemed to have explosives didn't help his nerves any. "What's with this place?" Anders said. "I thought the Wardens were supposed to be organised."
Alim shrugged. "Don't blame me," he said. "I only got here a couple of hours ago."
"That was Dworkin," Mhairi said. "He... he has a brother who's been helping with the upkeep of the Vigil."
"So what was Dworkin doing? Blowing bits of it up to keep his brother in business?" Alim said. The warrior looked uneasy and Alim sighed. "Don't answer that, recruit, I wasn't being serious." He blinked water out of his eyes and prodded one of the darkspawn corpses with his foot. "There are at least another six darkspawn up ahead," he said. "How are we going for stamina?"
"I'm fine, Commander," Mhairi said immediately.
"Lying will get you dead, recruit," Alim said bluntly. Mhairi winced. "That emissary had a few lyrium potions. Anders can you manage a rejuvenation? We could use it."
Anders nodded and called forth power immediately - with that same effortlessness that used to infuriate Alim in the Tower. He'd thought all senior mages were like that - until Wynne had shown him otherwise.
Everyone accesses their magic differently, child. You CAN heal, you just believe you can't. It will never come easily to you, but there's no reason why you can't be as good a healer as I am...
The rush of Anders' spell hit Alim and he closed his eyes in pleasure. It was nice to feel another mage's magic again. He wriggled his fingers, feeling the flush of power wanting to manifest in destruction the way it always did. He forced it into healing magic and let a small burst of creation flow through him to ease away the worry and the pain and the aches before he squared his shoulders.
Anders was looking at him and Alim grinned. "Nice," he said. "You held back a bit in the Tower I see."
"No point wasting good magic on apprentices," Anders replied, pushing a few errant strands of hair away from his face.
Alim heard it first - after another couple of rooms of darkspawn and a few civilian survivors were dealt with, an unmistakable, roaring bellow. He felt himself grinning before he could stop it. Surely there were other beserkers who sounded like that? It didn't do to get his hopes up - but when he saw the red head and legion armour he couldn't help but let out a chuckle that turned into a full belly laugh as Oghren turned and waved at him.
"Friend of yours?" Anders shouted, unslinging his staff and starting to cast.
"Definitely," Alim replied, doing the same.
"Do you attract insane dwarfs or something?" Anders said as he let off his first spell. "Is there a cologne I should be avoiding?"
Once the darkspawn were dispatched and Oghren turned to them Alim had to resist the urge to clasp the dwarf in a hug. His memory wasn't that bad and the dwarf usually had some interesting odors about him.
"Ah ha! There you are!" the dwarf said. "When these darkspawn showed up, I thought, just you wait until the new commander gets here and you'll all be spitting teeth out of your arses." Alim heard a snort from Anders, although whether it was repressed laughter or something else he wasn't sure. "Followed the screaming, and sure enough, here you are. Good on ya!" Alim chuckled. Mhairi and Anders, however, despite the impressive display of battle prowess Oghren had just given them, looked uncomfortable.
"What are you doing here, Oghren?"
"Came here thinking I might try my hand at becoming a bona fide Grey Warden," Oghren said. Standing up straighter. His green eyes were clouded, however, and Alim wondered what he was keeping secret.
"He was here when I left," Mhairi was saying. "I can't believe the Wardens didn't kick him out."
Because we use any means necessary, Alim thought. You'll understand that eventually. If you survive.
"Hey! If it isn't the recruit with the great rack!" Oghren leered and Alim sighed.
"Yes. A prize for the Wardens to be sure."
"Don't judge by appearances, Mhairi," Alim said softly as Oghren approached them. The dwarf planted his fists on his hips and looked up at Alim's companions. Alim watched him take in Mhairi's calm warrior stance, then Anders' fancy robes and his eyebrow shot up.
"Who's the mage?" he said looking back to Alim. There was an unspoken question there that Alim didn't want to answer. "Boyfriend? Should I leave you two alone?"
Anders crossed his arms over his chest and tilted his head to one side, obviously ready for the challenge. "Wow. A dwarf that smells like a brewery. You never see that anywhere."
"Huh," Oghren replied, grinning and glancing at Alim. "A mage comedian. Thought those usually died young."
"I've missed you, Oghren," he said.
"I find that hard to believe," Anders muttered.
"As do I," Mhairi agreed.
Oghren slid in beside him as Mhairi and Anders went up ahead.
"So where is he?" he said, with surprising gentleness.
"Oghren, I don't want to talk about it," Alim replied. "Unless you want to tell me where Felsi is as well?"
The dwarf grunted. "Slippery bastard," he said. "Fine, if you don't want to share. But I'm getting you drunk later and you're telling me everything."
"Count on it, Oghren," Alim said, smiling sadly.
