A/N: Angst, angst, angst, angst… with a dash of flashback. (insert standard disclaimer here)

Day 4

I hadn't expected the bandits to come back quite so quickly.

Justice woke me up from a light nap around midday and warned me of "another presence in the area." I barely had time to hide deeper in the cave before a group of ruffians trudged back through the camp I'd been borrowing for the past few days. They had brought back a substantial haul… one that made Justice twitchy. I knew why; they had most likely taken all the items of value in several houses.

They will feel justice's burn.

Not now. I knew Justice couldn't wait for a better time, but throwing ourselves at a group of bandits seemed like asking for trouble. Although… we'd certainly done stupider things since meeting the Hawkes…

After rooting out some nighttime thugs, I'd nearly been jumped by one of the stragglers. It had been my fault for falling so far behind the rest of the group, but that wasn't the only reason I'd made such an easy target. Despite Justice's protests, my thoughts had already been drifting to Lucia. She refused to wear robes, preferring trousers and a tunic. Made her harder to spot as an apostate, but also suited her well. I'd – embarrassingly – been shanked while pondering how… snuggly her latest outfit fitted her. I couldn't have been an easier target for the thug.

The ruffian got his knife in my side, too… before getting a face full of fire. The rest of the group had ganged up to finish him off, but Lucia immediately went to me. I'd been teaching her some techniques for Healing magic, and she was getting fairly good at it. Propping me up in the crook of her arm, she ran her hand over my side and stitched the wound back together.

I had tried not to think about how gentle she was, but, Maker, in that moment, I didn't really care. It probably had something to do with how much blood I'd lost. And then I'd fallen asleep…

Falling asleep was the last thing on my mind as the bandits slowly realized that someone had been using their campsite. I was suddenly very afraid, despite wanting to die mere days before. The cave was nearby, I hadn't covered my tracks, and they were more than likely to storm in there and tear me to pieces.

Well… not before I gave them a taste of a fireball. If I were going to die, it would be with a bang.

But they never came. From what I could hear among the echoes, those bandits were smarter than most and didn't pursue whatever had been sleeping in their camp. With apostates on the loose, they probably reckoned that was who had used their base… which was technically true.

They had moved on by nightfall. I didn't sleep soundly, but it was enough for the night…

"Thank you, Anders."

"What for?"

"Saving our brother."

I stopped walking for a moment, looking up at the ceiling of the Deep Roads. "Don't thank me yet. Joining the Wardens isn't a walk in the park."

"Still… better than what would've happened."

At that, I felt Lucia lean against my coat, tears soaking the feathered pauldrons. In that moment of sympathy, I'd laid my own head on hers… lightly, of course. She'd just lost a brother, and me… a friend.