A/N: Sorry about this, I try to avoid author's notes whenever possible, but I realized this was erring really close to something similar to Dawn of the Seeker. I just wanted to say that this story has nothing to do with the movie, nor do I ever intend to have it do so. I've never seen the movie, so if it ever does, I'll probably make some errors or ask some of you guys questions before writing it in. The chapter does refer to its events towards the end, and if any of you have seen Dawn of the Seeker, please feel free to correct any errors I may have made in the conversation so I can go back and fix them for other readers. Thank you for reading and putting up with my horrible update schedule! Hope you enjoy the chapter!
Leliana decided she hated their sleeping quarters. They were drafty and the people she slept near couldn't stop complaining about their training. Leliana didn't think it was perfect, let alone fun, but she was used to training, all sorts of it. She learned to deal with it without complaint at an early age; these fools didn't know how to shut up. No wonder they were always exhausted.
The ground was hard, but she didn't mind it. It was better than not getting any sleep whatsoever. They had agreed on watch shifts, which Leliana was grateful for (she was still recovering from her lack of sleep on the way to the tower) and she was assigned to the latest round. Jasper would rouse her somewhere around two in the morning, and she'd keep watch over him and Aedan until daybreak. It had worked well enough the first night, so they stuck to it on the second, and agreed to keep this rotation as long as the three of them were on the road together.
Jasper had woken her a few hours ago for her shift, and now she was sitting away from the dim lighting of the coals. Anyone looking for her could probably see her, yes, but anyone who wasn't trained properly would most likely stumble right on past her to get to their camp. It was a good position to be in, allowing her to focus on the land in front of her rather than that behind her. Still, after years of waiting to be stabbed in the back, Leliana checked more often than she could have. And every time she did, it was clear in both directions. She supposed she should be grateful for that.
She was watching the faint grey light that signified the rising sun, waiting for its first rays to hit the earth before going to rouse her companions. They could use as much sleep as possible, Jasper in particular. The middle shift was the hardest, and even though he had volunteered for it, Leliana still felt badly that he missed four hours of sleep in the middle of the night.
As she got up, she stretched and made her way over to Aedan. Her hand fell on his shoulder and he jumped instantly, bolting upright with a curved dagger in his hand. Leliana recoiled, skirting back a few feet, and frowned at him. After his eyes came into focus, he sighed. "Sweet bloody Maker, Leliana! How did you do that?"
"Do what?"
"Sneak up on me!" he hissed. "I sleep lightly enough so that I may be woken up by even the slightest noise!"
She shrugged. "I just walked over here."
"Maker's breath, woman," he said, letting out an exasperated breath as he relaxed. "If you walk so quietly all the time, I'll have to learn to expect it."
"All day, everyday," Leliana said, allowing a small smirk to creep over her features. "Start getting ready to leave. I want to get to Highever as soon as possible."
"I'm going, I'm going," he grumbled. The templar was on his feet the next instant, stretching and yawning as he went about gathering his gear. He was making enough noise for a small army by the time Leliana got around to waking Jasper, who looked like he could sleep for the rest of the day and still be tired when he got up.
"Mmh," he mumbled. "W-what time is it?"
"Almost seven," Leliana reported. She had since moved to Onyx to begin saddling him, but now she pulled out a strip of dried beef and tossed it to him. "We have enough food to last us until tomorrow evening. If we're not at Highever by then..." She trailed off with a shrug and gave Onyx's girth strap a good jerk, tightening it plenty. "Well, you get the idea."
Jasper leapt to his feet. "Let's get a move on, then."
Aedan grunted. "Can you give me five minutes?"
The two Seekers simply rolled their eyes and went about their business. Meanwhile, Aedan occupied himself with fighting to get into his armor, and it was an uphill battle. Leliana eventually stepped in (without his consent) and yanked on his shoulder guard, securing it, albeit a bit roughly. He glared at her as she returned to resaddling Onyx, but she didn't notice...or at least, he didn't know she did.
A few more irritated grunts and pulls, and Aedan was ready to move. He, unlike the others, had kept his horse saddled, but whereas he had taken off his armor to sleep, they had stayed in theirs. It worked for them; in the time it had taken Aedan to get into his armor, Leliana and Jasper finished saddling their horses.
"We should reach the teyrn's land by noon," Aedan said as he mounted his horse. "There will be an outpost just off the road. If they question us..." He shrugged and trailed off. "Just let me do the talking, all right?" He gave Leliana a pointed look at that, but she only raised a brow.
"As you say." She looked back at Jasper. "Ready to go?" He nodded once, kicked his horse's flanks, and took off in the direction of the road. "How about you, templar? Think you can keep up?"
"Easily," he replied, picking up on the teasing right away. A grin crept over his features. "Are you sure you can keep up, Seeker? I saw you lagging behind yesterday."
Leliana scoffed. Just as she opened her mouth to reply, she spun Onyx around and sent him after Jasper, shooting Aedan a challenging look over her shoulder. "Come on, Aedan! Keep up!" He stared after her for several moments, dumbstruck, before rolling his eyes and flicking his horse forward.
The grass they cut through rippled in waves, reminding Aedan of the sea he grew up so close to. It wasn't far; if he focused, he could smell the saltwater on the air. It brought that grin back to his face. He was home, or close to it. Highever wasn't far, nor was the Waking Sea. Maybe only a half hour ride, and he'd be on the shorelines again. He hadn't seen the clear waters since he was...what, fourteen, maybe fifteen? Either way, Lake Calenhad was nowhere near as beautiful as the waters he grew up around.
His horse slowed to a walk as he approached the road and he sat up straighter, inhaling deeply. The air was crisp and clean, carrying that familiar scent of the ocean breeze he loved so dearly. He had never been homesick, but sitting here, so close to Highever, he finally understood how people could miss their homes. After he joined the templars, he rarely thought of Highever, instead focusing on becoming the best templar he could. He had joined rather late in his years; most joined at ten, sometimes younger, and he had to work harder than the rest of the recruits he was lumped with. But he was glad to be doing something important with his life, and he would never regret joining the Order.
Leliana trotted up beside him, having noticed his lack of a presence, and Jasper was waiting for them much farther down the road. He glanced at her, catching the faint glimpse of an amused smirk, but it was concealed beneath the hood she wore with her armor, and as soon as she shifted, he couldn't see it.
"Feeling all right, templar? Upset that I beat you?"
Aedan blinked and shook his head. "I haven't been to Highever in almost a decade."
She looked back at Jasper, back to him, and then up to the sky, taking a rather large breath just as he had moments before. "Homesick?"
He shook his head again. "Just...odd. It doesn't feel real. I never thought I'd come back here. I made it clear when I left that I was glad to, and I'm not sure how my father will feel about..." He trailed off, sighing, and closed an eye when the clouds moved out of the sun's way. A hand came up to shield his other eye. "I suppose it doesn't matter, though."
"Well, it might," Leliana said, turning her horse back around. "I heard what Ser Bryant called you back in Lothering, and I'm not dumb enough to forget who rules what teyrnir."
"What did he call me?" Aedan sounded confused, and he was. He didn't pay much attention to what happened, aside from being forced to having Leliana tag along with him and Marcus. Aedan fought the urge to cringe at the memory of his friend.
"Cousland," Leliana said flatly. Her horse danced as Aedan pulled his alongside him. "You're the teyrn's son, yes? Any issues you may have with Teyrn Cousland might become problematic."
As they started off at a walk, Aedan turned to look at her, one brow arched. "You notice a lot more than you let on, don't you?"
"No one survives in Orlais otherwise," she replied. "The trick is to know when saying so is safe."
"And you think it's safe now?" he questioned.
She flicked off her hood to fix him with a stare. "Should I be led to believe otherwise? Are you going to...I don't know...stab me in the back for pointing out your surname?"
He chuckled. "Is that what they do in Orlais?"
"More or less. Usually a bard would be the one doing the backstabbing." The sun hit her eyes and she made a face similar to the one Aedan made a moment before. "Though I suppose I could fit that description if I really wanted to."
"You're a bard?"
"Once, in a life I choose to forget," Leliana said softly. "Why? Is that a problem?"
"No, just curious," Aedan replied. She nodded and he noted how subdued she became at the mention of her past. This was the first time he'd seen her smirking and somewhat carefree, and he definitely liked that side of her more than the threatening one. He figured it would be smarter to prod while she was already like this than to wait and put her in a sour mood later. "So, how does one go from dashing bard to a scary Seeker?"
She laughed at the way he described bards, shaking her head in amusement. "It's a long story, and definitely an unpleasant one." After a moment, Leliana took her eyes off the road to look at him. "How does one go from nobility to templar?"
"Boredom," Aedan said. "I'm not the sort to sit around and do nothing with my life when I could be making a difference somewhere."
"Ah," she said thoughtfully. "You joined so you wouldn't become a guard...or a soldier."
"To an extent. I wanted to do something with my life," he repeated. "Becoming a soldier when there was no foreseeable wars in the future would be a waste. Guarding something was always boring. But the templars? Even with guard duty, what we do is important. We protect Thedas from mages and the dangers they present. I can think of no nobler cause."
"I can," Leliana said. "But only two."
He raised a brow. "And what would those be?"
"Protecting the mages from the templars," she said. He sighed and nodded; he should've expected that. Leliana wouldn't be a Seeker if she didn't see a point to it.
"And the other?"
"Protecting Thedas from the darkspawn."
He gave a laugh. "The darkspawn are gone. The Wardens defeated them at the Battle of Ashleigh."
"Did they?" she asked. "Would they remain if there was no threat?"
Aedan paused as he thought through her question. "No, I suppose not," he decided aloud. "But then where are the darkspawn?"
"Where the darkspawn have always been and always shall be until we have another Blight. Underground, battling the dwarves of Orzammar and the dwarves of Kal Sharok." She looked at him again and he squirmed under the intensity of her gaze. "Have you ever seen one? A darkspawn?" He shook his head and she sighed. "I should've guessed. Otherwise you'd know why the Grey Wardens still existed."
"Have you?"
"A dead one outside of Val Chevin," she said. "It was far too rotted for us to make out what it was specifically, but the black blood and the reek was proof enough. Jasper's seen live ones before; he told the rest of us what it was. Apparently it doesn't take much to recognize them."
"Jasper's seen darkspawn before? When? Where? How?"
Leliana laughed. "You think I know? Aedan, the only Seeker I know anything about faced a similar situation to the one we do now and is currently the Right Hand of the Divine."
"Oh. Well...what do you know about him?"
"Her," Leliana corrected. "And Cassandra is a frightening woman to most. She comes from Nevarra's royal family, the Pentaghasts. Seekers tend to only accept high ranking templars or young initiates, but she was accepted because of her noble status. She and another Seeker I've forgotten the name of put down another blood mage uprising, and she was, in turn, made the Right Hand."
He frowned. "If you were a bard before..."
"No, I was never a templar, and no, I wasn't given to the Chantry at birth," Leliana said. "I joined of my own free will on the good word of a Revered Mother. She was the one who convinced me to do something meaningful with what remains of my life. And when I went to—" She cut herself off. "When I went to join the Seekers, she was the one who made it possible."
"I see."
"If I could tell you where I went, I would," she said. "But where we train is a secret. You've heard of Therinfal Redoubt?" Aedan nodded. "Secluded fortresses such as Therinfal are common places we go to train and learn. I've never gone to Therinfal, nor has anyone I've trained with. We've been in Orlais and Nevarra, though, and I must say, I can see why the Right Hand was so irritated with the Pentaghasts to leave. Cumberland alone is full of nobility who scramble to remind everyone of their relation to King Markus." He was smiling at her, but she chose to ignore it. "As a matter of fact, I'm almost entirely sure you're the first nobleman I've met who hasn't thought it necessary to tell everyone he's nobility."
"You're really something, you know that?"
She blinked and frowned, head snapping around to face him. "And that means?"
Aedan shook his head, making a face, and looked back to the road. Jasper was walking his horse along at a pleasant pace; the two of them could catch up should the need arise. "Nothing. You're just...different. I've never met someone quite like you."
"Ah," she said, voice full of mock suspicion, and he scrambled to correct himself.
"I-I only meant it in the nicest of ways!" he exclaimed. "It's just that..." He sighed and looked down at his hands. "I've never been able to think of a Seeker as a human being."
"Well, it's not like we try to give off that impression in the first place," Leliana quipped. "It's easier to be intimidating if everyone who knows of your existence finds you absolutely terrifying."
"Oh, now that I know, I'll have to tell all my friends," Aedan retorted, smirking.
Leliana shrugged. "It's no matter. Few templars ever get so close to a Seeker to think of them as a person."
"Hey, I didn't say person."
Leliana rolled her eyes at Aedan's laughter. "You're such a child."
"You make it too easy, my friend," he said, biting back his laughs. "Besides, what's wrong with a little laughing?"
"It makes me seem like a human being," she retorted, quite obviously biting her tongue to keep from laughing herself. "And we can't have that."
"Of course not!" Aedan said conspiratorially. "You've got to keep the impression that you're demons in disguise."
The two laughed at their jabs, and for a brief moment, Leliana was able to forget what she was doing. She could forget that she was looking for the people who murdered one of her closest friends, she could forget that she was hunting down a cult of blood mages and their supporters, and she could forget everything in between. All she had to do was look at Aedan and hear how easily his laughter came, and she could pretend the entirety of her life wasn't about keeping secrets. She could feel like she was a person instead of some mindless beast driven to survival, and she could pretend moments like these would always be at her disposal.
But then she remembered that when this was all said and done with, she'd return to Orlais to continue her training, and her newfound friend would stay here to continue his career with the templars. It was a bitter thought, one that dampened her mood quickly, and she eventually stopped laughing as the merriment gave way to her usual detrimental thinking. What kind of fool was she to expect something so wonderful would last? She knew it wouldn't; the Maker was never so kind to her, and even if He might have been, her duty to the Seekers would draw her away.
She couldn't even get a moment where she could laugh with a friend without becoming so pessimistic.
"What's wrong?" The sound of Aedan's voice snapped her out of her thoughts and she looked up, brows knit together.
"Nothing," she said carefully. "I'm fine."
He frowned. "That's a lie if I've ever seen one. Leliana, tell me. What's wrong? Is it your friend? The Seeker that died in Highever? Are you thinking about him?"
She sighed. "More or less."
Aedan tugged his horse to a stop and took Onyx's reins from her. The stallion flicked his ears, glancing back at his rider, but she did nothing to tell him to run, and he remained where he was. "We will find the people responsible for his death. We'll find the people that killed Marcus, and find the people that have taken your other two Seekers. They won't get away with this, Leliana. I promise."
"There are three of us," she said bitterly. "Three of us against Maker only knows how many blood mages and the people driving them to such madness. What chance do we stand?"
"Your friends plan on joining us in Highever eventually, yeah? Then there will be eight of us," Aedan replied. "Seven Seekers and a templar. I know I'm not much compared to the rest of you, but I'll see this through regardless of what I told the Knight-Commander."
Leliana was about to call him an idiot for going against his superior's orders, but Jasper called out to them and wheeled his mount around to return to them. "We have a problem," he said, breathing heavily, as he came to a stop in front of them. "I've seen footprints in the dirt and barely caught myself before York walked into a tripwire."
Aedan's eyes narrowed and he reached for his sword, searching the hills around them. "Bandits."
"It looks like a lot of them," Leliana whispered.
"What?"
She pointed to the rise Aedan was now staring at. "Ten or more. We can't take anything over twelve."
"Well..." Aedan let out a shaky breath. "Looks like this'll take some careful maneuvering."
"And loads of bluffing," Jasper said. "Leliana?"
"I can handle it."
She wasn't as confident as she made herself sound.
