'Is there anything else?' Ariane thought if she had to go over the story one more time she might go mad. Her feet itched to stand on something other than a stone floor, and she felt as though her eyes would give out from trying to see in that dark room. She needed to get back to the clan.
The Seeker considered this thoughtfully. 'Is there anything else you wanted to say?'
Ariane had a great deal she wanted to say. She wanted to ask why, after so many years of leaving her people alone, the Templars had come for their Keeper, the last access they had to their cultural identity. She wanted to ask why, when there were so many fighting people in Fereldan, they were killing each other instead of the darkspawn that still lurked in the fringes. Ones such as that which had killed Banic. She wanted, most of all, to ask how this woman had known the Warden. Whether he had given any clue to where he might have gone.
Instead she asked, 'What am I supposed to call you? Or is it just Seeker?'
The woman smiled again. A small scar near her mouth looked odd on her sweet face. 'Among the agents of the Divine I am known as Sister Nightingale. But...' She twirled a braid thoughtfully. 'Seeing as we have so much in common, I would like it if you would call me Leliana.'
Ariane frowned. 'We don't have a lot in common.' This woman – Leliana – was more different from herself than she could imagine. Ariane was barely comfortable with the petty squabbles and secrets among the clan members. The idea of intrigue on a national scale – as she was certain this woman dealt with – made her head ache.
'We have the Warden in common,' Leliana pointed out. 'That is a lot, I think.'
Ariane shifted uncomfortably. 'Is Finn here?' she asked suddenly. It had not occurred to her before, but the Seekers would doubtless want to corroborate her story. 'Florian Aldebrant,' she clarified, pronouncing the name carefully. A horrible thought struck her. 'He's... alright, isn't he?' The past few years had not been easy ones for any mage.
Leliana nodded reassuringly. 'He's here. Those who stayed loyal returned to this Chantry with the last Templars, when they left the tower.' She left it unspoken what had happened to those who had not been loyal. Ariane shivered.
A knock came at the door. Leilana rose as the door clanked open. The bright light from the corridor made Ariane squint to make out the newcomer. A taller woman with short dark hair stood in the doorway, clad in the same Seeker plate as Leliana. She carried a sheaf of papers, and looked as though smiling was an entirely forgein concept.
'How did it go?' Leilana asked in her soft voice. The other Seeker shook her head shortly. She dropped the stack of papers on top of Leliana's own documents. Ariane felt suddenly invisible.
'We must speak,' said the dark-haired seeker in a clipped, accented voice. Leliana followed her into the corridor, where Ariane could hear them conversing in hushed tones. She strained to hear, but could only make out scattered words.
'Mage...hiding... not finished...'
'...same report... done here.'
'...suggest... formal trial...'
A chill ran down her spine. Were they talking about her? She couldn't think of anything she'd done that could possibly warrant a trial, even by mad human standards. Maybe it was Finn? The mage had been so nervous and scattered all those years ago. Times must have truly changed if he was a real threat.
Her eyes alighted on the papers in front of her. She leaned forwards to get a better look. Her reading was out of practice, at least when it came to human scripts, so it took a moment to interpret. She felt her heart sink as she scanned the page. Seeker Cassandra – the dark-haired Seeker, she was sure – had painted a fairly damning picture of Finn as a maleficar, and Ariane as her accomplice. The Eluvian had been linked to another, in Kirkwall, owned by a known blood mage and supporter of the mage rebellion. She had even stated that Finn was associated with those who had started the civil war in the Free Marches.
Ariane was desperate to shuffle the pages and see what Leliana had written about her, but she realized that the conversation had quieted and lurched back into her seat. Leliana entered a moment later, her expression sober. She looked questioningly at Ariane's pale face, but only said, 'Thank you for your time, Ariane. You are welcome to leave whenever you wish.'
Ariane's head was still spinning. Clearly there would be no trial for her, which left only Finn. She was certain he couldn't have done anything to justify a Chantry inquisition – but eight years was a long time. 'Is Finn – Florian – free?' She would have to be sure. 'I would like to say hello before I leave,' she said, willing herself to smile.
Leliana smiled back. Ariane couldn't detect any suspicion in her face, but she had never been the best judge of human emotion.
'Only if I may say hello to your Mabari. I had not expected to see him again.'
Ariane nodded, keeping her smile fixed on her face. She stood, ignoring the cramp in her back, and headed into the hallway, past dour-faced Cassandra and up the stairs into the temple proper. Looking at it one would never know that it had been rebuilt after the Blight. The walls looked impassably solid, and the golden details on the alter gleamed. Ariane had never understood why humans felt the need to trap their god in stone buildings. Surely if he had any meaning, he was everywhere, not just inside Chantry walls.
Ariane reclaimed her equipment from one of the temple sisters. After a brief check to ensure both her blades were present, she headed to the door of the Chantry. Dog was waiting outside, his bullish head resting on the floor as he dozed. Twilight had already fallen. She her tongue at him and he lifted his head, barking enthusiastically.
She rubbed his ears affectionately. Dog had been one of the many things Cousland seemed to have left behind when he went after Morrigan. He had never told her the Mabari's name, and it hadn't seemed right to give him a new one. She hadn't even been certain the dog would come with her. When she and Finn had left the cave where the Eluvian had stood, Dog had still been waiting on the rocks, patiently waiting for his master's return. He had come back to her a week later, and had not accepted food or water for days. Finally, he seemed to have accepted her. She still knew he would never really be 'hers'.
'A lady wants to talk to you,' she told him. He looked at her curiously. 'She says she knows you. When you're done, go wait for me at the bridge, alright?' She pointed in the direction of the huge stone bridge which bordered Lothering. She had long ago become used to the fact that Dog clearly understood much of what was said around him. Besides, even if he couldn't find the bridge, he would always be able to find her.
She felt a presence behind her and turned to see Leliana, reaching one hand out confidantly towards Dog. 'Oh, hello!' the Seeker cooed. 'I have missed you so!' Dog sniffed her hand suspiciously, then, after a pause, barked and began to wag his stumpy tail. 'Yes, you are still so handsome!' the Seeker agreed. Suddenly seeming to remember Ariane, Leliana smiled at her. 'Your friend is upstairs, with a few other mages. Just say I said it was alright, they should let you in.' She returned her attention to the Mabari.
'Traitor', Ariane mouthed at Dog. He ignored her, preferring to drool on the Seeker's gauntlet. Gathering her things, Ariane walked back inside the temple and up the stairs. This part of the Chantry looked newer, with less stone and more wood. She reached a wooden landing lit by smoky lamps. A scant few Templars sat around a table in the first room she glanced in. All of them looked distinctly worse for wear. She continued down the hall, seeing a few lost-looking men and women milling about the other doors. Loyal mages, she assumed.
She finally located Finn, in a small room near the end of the wooden hall. The narrow chamber was stacked with books in various states of falling apart, and furnished only with a sagging bedframe. The floor, unlike the slightly grimy state of the hallway, was aggressively clean, and the room was lit with candles instead of smoggy oil lamps. Finn was sitting on the bed, lips moving silently as he read from a leather-bound tome balanced on his crossed legs. He started as she came into the room and looked up in alarm. She lifted her palm in greeting, suddenly unsure of what to say.
He visibly struggled to place her for a moment, then his jaw dropped open. 'Ariane!'
'Hello,' she said, feeling awkward. A quick visual sweep of the room revealed very little that could be of use. She did see a wooden staff leaned against the corner, which she vaguely recognized as the one the mage had been so attached to all those years ago. A bundle of yarn and needled inexplicably poked out of a bag in the corner. Her eyes fixed on a small window on the opposite wall. A plan began to form in her mind.
'I didn't know you were here,' Finn said, still looking shocked. He set the book aside. 'I would have cleaned up...' He gestured at the spotless room.
She smiled despite herself. 'It's fine. Really.'
Finn seemed at something of a loss for words as well. Not something she remembered ever happening to him. He fiddled with his sleeved and smoothed his robe, and finally leaned over and extracted a multicoloured... thingfrom the knitting bag. 'So were they asking you about...' he said, digging around for needles.
'The Warden, yes,' she answered. The small room suddenly felt stifling.
He nodded, eyes slightly unfocused. 'Me too.'
'How did it go?' she made herself ask. Maybe things hadn't been as bad as the Seeker's notes had suggested. She wanted nothing more than to return to her clan as soon as possible, but she wasn't sure she'd be able to forgive herself for leaving Finn here alone.
'Oh. Um. Okay, I think,' he said vaguely, his cheeks colouring. 'So what have you been doing?' he asked, hastily changing the subject.
Ariane's heart sank. Her clan would have to wait. Either they would both leave here or neither of them would. 'Not much, I suppose.' She walked over and opened the tiny window. It's polished glass gleamed, and a rush of cool night air made the candle-flame shiver. 'What are you making?' she asked. Finn's knitting project was completely baffling. It looked vaguely like a wide scarf, but seemed to be about thirty feet long, with at least eight different yarn colours visible.
'Oh,' he said, looking down at the string in his hands as though surprised to see it there. 'Nothing.'
Ariane was suddenly reminded of a halla she had once seen in a pen while her clan was trading with some shemlan farmers. The animal had paced back and forth in the same pattern for so long it had worn grooves in the earth.
'They said I could go,' she said, filling the silence in case anyone was listening. 'I just wanted to say hello.'
Finn smiled distractedly. 'It's nice to see you,' he said, needles still clicking.
'You too,' she said. 'You look... older.' It was true, sort of. Finn's face was still pale and young-looking, dominated by wide hazel eyes, but he seemed taller and lankier since the last time they had met. His clothes remained pathologically neat, but his red hair was dishevelled and the vague smile she recalled had been replaced with a look of sad bewilderment. 'Older' sounded better than all that. Ariane wondered if the years showed on her face, too.
He shrugged. 'It's been eight years, I suppose. No, wait. Seven and a half. Is that right?'
Ariane leaned her head out the hallway, stretching her arms casually. A quick check revealed it was empty. Night had fallen for real now, and stars were appearing in the sky outside the window. It was time to move.
In one motion, she pressed her hand to Finn's mouth and grabbed the weird knitted item out of his hand. 'How fast can you be ready to go?' she hissed. He said something incoherent into her hand, his eyes huge with alarm.
She quickly tied the end of the scarf-object to the leg of the bed, and threw the other end out the window. The staff she seized and bound to her pack with a length of cord. There was no time to collect proper supplies – the Seekers would be wondering where she had gone.
'What?' said Finn, his voice rising in volume. 'What are you- '
She clamped her hand over his mouth again, pulled him forcefully to his feet, and shoved him over to the window. 'We're getting out of here,' she whispered in what she hoped was a reassuring tone. I sound completely psychotic, she realized. Then she shoved him out.
Thank-you for reading! Again, please let me know if you have any advice. I was planning on getting into a twice-a-week posting schedule with this fic, so the next chapter will be up in a few days.
