A/N: Well, it's December and I'm officially off of media blackout and back to typing! Had a lot of fun playing DA:I and I plan on having even more fun. Might even have some fanfics that take place during the plot, but it's all theoretical atm. This will definitely go into DA2 after finishing DA:O, but I'm still working on whether or not I'll do Awakening. I guess I'm thinking too far ahead, but that's just the way my mind works.

Anyway, this chapter has more dialogue than usual and features my personal views on religion, so sorry in advance if I offend anyone.

Hope you enjoy!

I walked through the gate that led to the market, checking over my shoulder to make sure that I hadn't been followed. I had a feeling that no one would try anything in the market because of the guards there, but that didn't really help the feeling that I was still being chased. Considering how I had been chased through the city, it probably made sense that I was a bit jumpy. I wanted to tell myself that it was just my imagination getting the better of me, but I knew that it wasn't true. Well, maybe it was, but that didn't mean anything since it was entirely possible. It seemed that even when I was with Lyna or Alistair I wasn't exactly safe.

But then, when was I ever really 'safe'? I thought back to when I got chewed out by my parents because they didn't want me walking along certain roads, which was more often than I'd actually admit. They always said that their reasoning behind them not wanting me doing that was because they didn't trust other people's driving. I always told them that I was always watching the people driving and I was being careful. I could take care of myself.

Well, maybe back then, yeah, but that's because I had grown up in that world. This was something else completely. I managed to almost get killed on my first day, not to mention several other times. I was probably closer to getting killed today than I thought.

I shook those thoughts from my mind. Thinking about it that way wasn't a really good way to think about it at all. That kind of thinking was what kept people in constant fear. Separating what could've happened from what actually happened wasn't all that hard for me, considering how I considered them to be two different things. I could've died at any time, but I didn't. You have to take what you can get.

I ended up at where the merchants were, noticing Alistair and Lyna standing near the area where I had gotten into the fight with that asshole earlier. It looked like they were talking about something that Lyna didn't like. I had a pretty good idea what it was.

I walked over to them and Lyna looked past Alistair at me, quickly going past him and heading toward me.

"There you are!" she said. It looked like she was relieved. "Alistair told me what happened and I was just about to go looking for you."

I shrugged. "Got a bit lost on the way back, but I found a…. short cut." I noticed Alistair was standing behind Lyna's shoulder now. "Thanks for ditching me, by the way," I added sarcastically.

He half-shrugged. "Sorry about that, but I know the city better than you do and you're faster than me, so splitting up was the better idea. Besides, I took a bit of a detour to lose those thugs."

I shrugged again. "I still got lost."

"You're here now, aren't you?"

"Alright, fair enough."

"Where exactly were you going in the first place?" Lyna asked looking at me, then Alistair.

"I was taking him to the docks," Alistair explained. Considering how he didn't tell me beforehand where we were going, I had to take him at his word.

"Why?"

"Well, I wanted to show him around. Get him out of the market for a while."

It seemed like he was trying to avoid telling her about the fight I had gotten into, and I wasn't really planning on telling her either, so I kept silent. That could be considered a lie of omission, but honestly, I preferred that. They were easier to maintain than straight-out lies.

It seemed like Lyna was alright with Alistair's explanation. "Well, from now on, if you're going to walk around Denerim, take at least two others with you." Alistair nodded in response. "Good. I had Leliana get us some rooms at the tavern so we wouldn't have to sleep outside tonight."

"Don't the Dalish prefer to be closer to nature?"

Lyna crossed her arms. "We sleep in our aravels, Alistair. We don't sleep on the ground if we can help it."

"Aravels? You mean your landships?"

She sighed in response. "Yes. Morrigan and the others are in the tavern right now. I'm going to check by the Chantry board to see if there's any way we can make some extra coin. I'll be back later." Before we could say anything, she walked around me and left, leaving me and Alistair by ourselves.

"I guess she doesn't like Denerim much, huh?"

I shrugged in response. "Guess not."

"Maybe I shouldn't be surprised. The Dalish and human society don't mix well."

I remembered what Lyna had told me about the history between the Dalish and humans. It wasn't exactly pleasant. "Considering their track record, it makes sense. But then, I'm cynical like that."

"You? Cynical? I'm shocked."

"Hey, at least I have a sense of humor. Just look at Morrigan."

"I'd rather not, if that's alright with you. She almost took it the wrong way once; I'd rather not repeat that."

I started laughing at hearing that.

"It's not funny! It was awkward. I was just lucky that I was able to turn it around on her."

"How?" I managed to ask.

"I told her I was looking at her nose. Then I told her that it looked like her mother's. That really annoyed her." He started chuckling.

"I could help you annoy her, if you want. I'm really good at annoying people." I smirked as I said that.

"You know, that sounds like a good idea. Well, except for the possibility of her electrocuting us. Or burning us. Or turning into a bear and mauling us."

I thought about that for a minute. "I guess we'll have to be careful, huh? 'Death by annoyed Morrigan' isn't very appealing."

"Death in general doesn't sound very appealing, you know."

"Good point."

We laughed a little bit before heading into the tavern. It was… loud. Not as loud as the market, but still pretty loud. It smelled like what I assumed was alcohol and it looked like more than a few people were drunk. The tavern itself looked nice. It looked clean and organized, a rug laid out on the floor in front of the door. The seats looked more like those you'd see in a regular restaurant, only they didn't seem cushioned and were all made completely out of wood. Same with the tables.

I looked over and saw that Leliana, Sten, and Morrigan were sitting at a table, Elgar'nan lying down next to it. We walked over and sat down at the table. Unfortunately, I ended up sitting across from Morrigan and next to Sten. I cursed under my breath.

"Ah, finally decided to join us, have you?" Morrigan started. "Had enough of exploring the 'wonders' of the city?" The way she said that made it seem like she was annoyed. Perfect opportunity to add to it.

"If you don't like the city, why don't you leave?" I asked tauntingly. "The door's right over there." I pointed toward the door with my thumb.

She just glared at me and I smirked in response, leaning back in my seat.

I noticed that Leliana was looking at Morrigan in a…. weird way. I wasn't exactly sure what to make of it, but it was… well, it was different.

"You are very beautiful, Morrigan," she finally said. … what? I raised both my eyebrows instantly as Morrigan looked at Leliana.

"Tell me something I do not know," she replied. I looked at Alistair and he looked at me, shrugging. I looked at Sten and immediately realized that he knew less about what was going on than I did.

"But you always dress in such rags. It suits you, I suppose. A little tear here, a little rip there to show some skin. I understand." I glanced at a certain… area on Morrigan, but I quickly looked away as soon as I remembered who I was looking at. Nothing more than a second's glance. I sort of saw the physical appeal, but personality was what counted for me, and Morrigan was more of a 'hell no' than anything.

"You understand I lived in a forest, I hope?" Well, that would explain a lot.

"Maybe we could get you a nice dress one day. Silk. No, maybe velvet. Velvet is heavier, better to guard against the cold in Ferelden." I looked at Alistair again, but he just shrugged again. I had a feeling that this was going to go somewhere awkward pretty soon. "Dark red velvet, yes. With gold embroidery. It should be cut low in the front of course; we don't want to hide your features." And that's when my mind took a trip to the gutter.

Morrigan's face twisted like she had tasted something sour and I noticed that Leliana's eyes had wandered a bit. "Stop looking at my breasts like that. 'Tis most disturbing!" This was so hilariously awkward that I just had to start laughing again. "'Tis not funny!"

"You don't think so? And if it's cut low in the front we must put your hair up to show off that lovely neck."

"You are insane. I would sooner let Alistair dress me."

I turned to Alistair and said, "I guess we should start thinking of something, huh?" Alistair immediately started laughing with me.

"It'll be fun, I promise!" Leliana pleaded. I was still laughing along with Alistair. "We'll get some shoes too! Ah, shoes! We could go shopping together!"

Morrigan just groaned loudly and left the table, Leliana looking disappointed as Alistair and I calmed down enough to stop laughing. I looked at Sten and he seemed… confused? Yeah, I guess that was it. I thought it was kind of weird that I was the youngest one at the table and I seemed to be the first one to start laughing at the hilarity of what just happened. Then again, considering how I was raised on innuendos, my mind probably went a route that Alistair and Sten's hadn't. I guess it was official. I had the dirtiest mind out of everyone. Not completely surprising, but still at least a bit surprising. Well, considering how serious Sten was, it made sense that he wouldn't find any of it funny.

I looked back at Alistair as I heard Sten say, "Why are you here?" I looked back at Sten and saw that he was focused on Leliana.

"What do you mean?" Leliana asked in response, sounding more confused than I was.

"Women are priests, artisans, farmers, or shopkeepers. None of them have any place in fighting."

Before Leliana could respond, I butted in. "Hang on a minute. You don't like women fighting?"

He looked at me. "It is not done. There is no more to it."

I chuckled incredulously. "I'm pretty sure we've all been fighting for the last week."

"Men fight. Why would women wish to be men?"

"... that makes no sense. People fight for a lot of reasons. I'm pretty sure gender doesn't have anything to do with it."

"It is the way of things."

"No, it isn't."

"Yes, it is. And you did not provide an answer. Why would women wish to be men?"

I groaned inwardly. "They don't want to be men. They want to be women who fight."

"Do they also want to live on the moon? That's as attainable."

I chuckled somewhat condescendingly. "Give it time."

He furrowed his brow at that before returning to his usual neutral expression. "Parshaara. This conversation is pointless."

"You're the one who started it."

"And now I am ending it." Before anyone said anything else, he stood up and left, following Morrigan's example.

"Well… that was… unexpected," Alistair said.

"Tell me about it."

He looked like he was thinking about something for a moment. "What did you mean, anyway, when you said, 'Give it time'?"

Ah, shit… I completely forgot that even the concept of bikes would completely go over the head of anyone here. Cars would be even more outlandish, planes even more-so. Space flight? That'd be pushing it even for me if I was in their shoes, and I was already a very open-minded person. I needed to tone down on referencing modern tech. Actually, mentioning anything more modern than Dark Age weaponry would be a bad idea.

I had to think of something to say. Something that would be good enough to get Alistair and Leliana to forget I said that. Would have to use it for Sten as well in case he wanted to know what I meant too. "Well, I just meant that anything can happen if you give it enough time," I finally said. Hopefully that worked.

"Hmm… I suppose that's true." He seemed to lean back in his seat and relax. It looked like that was a good enough answer for now.

We just sat at the table for a few more moments. A waitress came by and asked if we wanted anything and we told her what we wanted before she left. I started to wonder where Lyna was when Leliana got my attention, saying, "I'm curious about something, Jason... Do you believe in the Maker? You certainly don't seem very religious."

I leaned back in my seat somewhat. Alistair had mentioned some things about the Maker and the Chantry, but it was enough to basically tell me that it was close enough to Catholicism and the Church, so I knew I wouldn't be much of a fan regardless. "That's because I'm not religious at all. The whole thing with the Maker just doesn't make much sense to me."

She seemed… surprised, I guess. "But this can't all be an accident. Spirits, magic, all these wondrous things around us both dark and light. You know these exist."

"So? Just because all this stuff exists doesn't mean it had to be created by someone. Besides, the Maker's supposed to be gone, right?"

"Yes… that is correct. But that doesn't mean He does not exist."

"It doesn't mean He does exist either. I don't know about you, but I need actual proof before I believe anything is real."

"But cannot see the air. Do you believe it doesn't exist too?"

"You can feel it when it's windy. It affects the world in a physical way just like you or me."

"So it is all random? Just a happy coincidence that we're all here?"

"I wouldn't say it's a 'happy coincidence', but yeah, it is completely random."

"Well, I don't believe that. I believe that everyone has a purpose."

"That's the thing about religion. It's best used in hindsight. It's really hard to disprove because of that. Kind of like luck."

"So what do you believe, then?" I heard Alistair ask me.

"That the world's a fucked up place and nothing's going to fix that. You just have to grin and bear it."

"You can't be that cynical."

"Think about it like this: every problem that gets solved leads to more problems. There's no way to make everyone in the world happy forever."

"There has to be some way."

"No, there isn't, because people are people and they always want more than they have." I heard the door open and turned around to see Lyna walk through before noticing us and approaching the table. I looked back to Leliana and Alistair and said, "I guess we're done talking about this now." That's when I noticed that the waitress from earlier was heading for us too. "And here comes our food."

A/N: Yep, I'm not a fan of religion, in case you didn't know that already. Please don't post reviews about how you disagree with my views. I'm not trying to offend anyone or say that your views are wrong, so there's no real call for that. You don't like it? Feel free to stop following this. Simple.

Anyway, I'll try to be more steady with the updates from now on. No real guarantees because of DA:I, but I will try.