They didn't speak again until they made it to the final door before the common area that made up his group's safe house. When they reached it, Zevran set his hand to the wood, stopping Lyna's forward progress.

"If we don't know each other, why are you here? Why would I agree to work with you?"

"Can't think of a good story yourself?"

The question had no heat behind it, simply her usual curiosity, but Zevran felt himself bristle with defensiveness anyway. "I don't doubt my ability to create an interesting lie, Warden, but Nico will know it for what it is if I come up with your story."

Lyna canted her head slightly even as one of her brows lifted. "You two are close?"

"Are you asking if we are in a relationship?" The word 'relationship' sounded vile on his tongue.

"No," he stated before she could reply. "I have learned my lesson with such things."

She gave a slight nod, her face remaining passive when he offered no further explanation. She reached up to tap the door near where his hand was still pressed. "So, I'll come up with something."

"What?"

"I don't know yet," she replied and tugged at the door till he relented and stepped away. "I'll have something before they ask though. I always do." She smiled with her words, and he resisted the urge to sigh.

"Look, I know you don't trust me, Zevran, not when it comes to you, or why I'm here, or thousands of other reasons that I'm sure you won't tell me about, but this. This you should know I always do well."

"Lie? Yes, you might even be better than me."

She paused then opened the door and passed through, letting the comment go without response.

He could hear laughing even before they rounded the corner in the hallway and stepped into the open space that was filled with tables and food barrels and crates of supplies. Dotted around the items were his people who all turned to look at them as they entered.

He saw the confusion then curiosity even as Lyna lifted her arms slightly and turned in a tight circle as they came to a stop.

"Oh! This is even better than I thought it might be. Bigger definitely."

She smiled brightly and focused on the table where Esta sat. "It's you. I remember you. It's so good to see you again!" The words were light, friendly, as she reached out a hand to grasp the older woman's.

He watched, fascinated as he had always been at her changes, while she beamed at Esta before moving to the others, shaking hands and rattling on with unimportant words and greetings that soon began to bleed into each other.

Nico extracted himself from the group as soon as he received his own hand shake and came to stand next to the table where Zevran had stopped. "So you've gotten us a new member?"

Zevran gave a distracted nod as Lyna moved to Carman and held out a hand to him just as she had Esta, Nico, and Armond. Seeing his blushing hesitation, she leaned forward and whispered something in his ear that had the youth giving a vigorous nod before grasping her hand and pumping it a few times as if he was agreeing to some pact.

She would have no problem on that front it would seem.

"Do you know her?"

He turned his head to reply but stopped when Lyna's laugh burst out loud enough to echo around the room. Refocusing his attention he watched as Tomasso finished saying something, then bent Lyna's knuckles over his hand and kissed them.

"Si usted está tratando de seducirme usted va a tener que hacer algo mejor que un idioma que usted piensa que no entiendo y sonrisas bonitas," she replied, still laughing, and Tomasso's grin widened.

"You speak Antivan."

"I speak Antivan. Mostly. I'm a bit rusty." Lyna smiled as she spoke, and Zevran found himself gritting his teeth as he remembered their "lessons" in his language when they traveled together.

"She speaks several languages. It's one of the reasons why I brought her here. We always need to be prepared for anything, yes?" He forgot about Nico's question as he moved closer to the group proper and waited until the archer dropped his ex-lover's hand.

"You did mention you speak others, didn't you?"

"I did," she answered without missing a beat, and began to tick off the number on her fingers. "Common, Antivan, Elvish, Qunlat, Some Dwarven and Riviani, and I'm hoping to learn Tevene and Orlesian someday also.

Silvano sidled up beside his brother and offered his own kiss to her now free hand. "Aren't you clever."

"I do try to be."

Zevran waited a moment for the others to decide if Lyna was being funny, which he knew she wasn't , before turning back to Nico even as he spoke to the room in general. "She knows different languages, seems charming enough, and can shoot a bow and use daggers, or so she says. She also wants to go against the Crows. It would be silly to not at least see what she could do, no?"

Nico and Armond nodded agreeably. Cara seemed decidedly less sure, her black eyes rolling.

"Anyone can tell us they know how to shoot a bow, Zevran," she bit out, her hands settling on her hips as she sent him a look that stated she thought he hadn't been thinking properly. "Did you actually see her in action?"

Yes, in a thousand different situations. She's probably saved my life more times than I could actually keep track of.

But the thoughts were held in his head and he gave an irreverent shrug, his lips tipping into an amused grin. "I didn't , mi bella. Where would I have done so that would be better than here? That way we can all see how well she does."

He moved to her and set a friendly arm around her shoulders before turning his attention to Lyna, offering her a mocking half bow and falling into his usual role easier than he expected he would. "If you're willing to give us a show."

Lyna didn't look at him, rather she kept her gaze on Cara. He could feel the tension in Cara's arms as the steady, assessing eyes glanced over her. She had never been one to trust easily, she had no more reason to than any of them did, but she was prickly with her distrust.

Finally, Lyna looked away and drew her bow off her shoulder. "Of course. I'm Dalish after all, so I have no doubt in my skill."

Tomasso made a dramatic gesture with his hand before hooking it around her waist to pull her towards the training room. "You, lovely Lyna, may be a woman after my own heart."

"He likes women who are sure of themselves. We both do," Silvano added from her other side before all three of them disappeared through one of the rooms many archways.

The others followed more slowly, Zevran let himself lag behind them as they walked through the hallway and into the training room. Target dummies were set against the back wall, their over-sized torso's packed between sacks of sand and bales of hay, while cabinets and caches of weapons and armor lined the rest of the available walls. Lyna stopped in the middle of the room with the twins, then waited for the others to form a loose circle around her before taking out an arrow and setting it to fire at the dummy that sat in the center of the wall.

Zevran stayed back, leaning against the wall near the door, content to let the others assess the skills that he already knew were there.

"Tell me Lyna, what clan do you hail from?" The question was Nico's, his serious face passive as Lyna let her arrow fly even as she glanced at him.

"The Sabre clan, though I would be surprised if you had heard of them."

"Do you have family there," he continued, probably not content with the short, unhelpful, answer she had given.

"I consider my whole clan my family. It is how the Dalish usually are."

"But what of parents or siblings, or perhaps a husband? You don't seem too young to marry."

Lyna set another arrow, her eyes still on Nico and a faint smile graced her lips, a defense against showing her feelings. "My parents are dead, as is my intended. What do you want to learn exactly? Whether I might run off in hopes of being reunited with someone?" She made a scoffing sound that seemed to grate against her throat and fired the arrow so that it landed nearly side to side with the first. "That is not something you need to worry about."

"So you've lost your family and your love, so you've come to try and what? Find glory?" This came from Cara, the words harsher than they needed to be.

Lyna laughed and fired another arrow. "So you all are trying to distract me. Alright, I can play that game. I have no need for glory." She readied another arrow and Zevran could just see the almost invisible clinch of her fingers around the bow string. "I don't want it. I simply want to do what is right. I have had run-ins with the Crows and I found it bothersome. The best way to solve that is by finding people I can work with who are facing them head on."

She loosed her arrow and followed it quickly with another before she dropped her arms and walked forward to collect the ones she had shot.

Armond called his question after her. "How can you have had issues with the Crows? You are what, seventeen?"

"Nineteen, but if you are going by experiences to age me then I would say I'm damn near a hundred."

"Everyone here has issues with the Crows, that's a simple fact," Esta stated, voice curious. "What did they do that you want to go against them so badly?"

Lyna dropped the arrows in the quiver, her expression still pleasant, but when she spoke her words were distracted, as if she didn't know how to say them. "They took something from me."

"And you want it back?"

Lyna laughed at that and Zevran could see Cara narrow her eyes.

"Oh, no," the warden finally replied, moving back to everyone. "I have already found it. I just want to make sure that, should the chance arise, they can't take it again."

Zevran damn near smirked at the statement.

"This is stupid," Silvano interjected, hands moving to pull his dagger from his belt. "We don't need to know how well she can shoot a target. We need to know how well she can fight."

He lunged at her, dagger flashing in an arch that she was just able to block with the shaft of the arrow she still carried in her hand. The wood of it cracked under the force of Silvano's dagger, but she parried to the side and set the near ruined arrow in her bow, firing.

It landed in the wall near Zevran's head with a dull thunk.

Everyone froze.

Lyna was the first to move, her bow going across her shoulders before she spoke again.

"I don't need to kill any of you," she stated, voice amused as she looked to each of them. "I don't even need to make sure I survive if I'm deceiving you. I simply need to make sure he dies." She pointed to Zevran, eyes glancing over him as if his life was inconsequential to her. "He's the leader. The reason you are all here? That makes him the weak point, so don't insult me with pressing questions and halfhearted attack attempts like I'm not bright enough to know what you are trying to do. I like to think I am, and I like to think you all are better than that."

And with that she walked out of the room and back to the common area, leaving the silence to press down around them.

Carman was the first to break it, his voice small and too young for such things.

"Well, I like her." And then he was off and disappearing after her.

The others followed after Carman, Zevran falling in behind yet again, until they could see her seated at one of the tables, her hands folded under her chin.

"Kicking me out?"

No one answered, instead Armond went to her and lifted a hand to run over the curve of her bow where it leaned against her chair.

"Good wood, strong build, but it's too big for you, and you draw it as if you were trained on something smaller and quicker."

"I was."

"I can get you one that is better suited."

"I don't want a different one."

"But-"

"No." The word was said too fast, too loudly, and everyone could see how her hand reached out to grip and tighten around the wood. Lyna seemed to take a long breath before speaking again. "I appreciate the offer, I do, but I have no need for a different bow, and I do not want one. Thank you though."

And then she was smiling, bright and carefree as if nothing that had happened so far had any effect on her, but her hand remained on her bow.

Tamlen's bow.

Zevran remembered her telling him about it well.

He shook it off and made a point to move closer to the group. "If that is all settled I say we talk about actual jobs, you all know how much I enjoy good assassinations."

They all turned to him, expectant, worries about the new woman, temporarily at least, forgotten.