No, I'm the Dark Wolf

The trip to Amaranthine had been an awkward one. In an effort to not harass Cullen about meaningful things, Elly had harassed him about inconsequential ones instead. She'd wisely fallen silent when he'd shouted: "I can't believe that idiot apostate complained you were too quiet on the road!" In the ensuing silence Cullen had started humming some kind of marching tune. It wasn't long before it began to grate on Elly's nerves. Both were relieved when the city finally came into view.

They'd just passed the main gates when a nervous looking guard thrust a letter into Elly's hands. "My pardon, ser. I was paid a whole sovereign to give this letter to you." The guard waited to make sure Elly was going to read it. "I told him, I did, there are easier ways of getting a message to the Commander of the Grey."

"Thank you for the message," Elly told her. "Good day." She waited until the guard had walked off before opening the letter. Cullen leaned over her shoulder. "I think this is from the Dark Wolf," Elly whispered. "I hope it means he's found something.

Cullen nodded, and the two of them set off through the city. Elly's stomach rumbled as they passed the Crown and Lion. "Oh, I hope we have time to stop for a meal. The food they've been serving at the keep…"

"Makes rations look appealing," Cullen finished for her.

"That's not a bad idea actually. Eating rations instead."

They stopped when a suspicious looking guard nodded at them. His helmet wasn't standard issue; it covered his entire face, leaving only a slit to see out of. He waited until the pair of them drew close. "I see you got my letter, Commander. It's an honor to meet you."

Elly frowned. "An honor to meet me? Who was it I met before? Your partner?"

"I have no partner," the man told her, his voice echoing oddly behind the helmet.

"But I paid the Dark Wolf thirty sovereigns a few weeks ago! To find out which nobles wanted me dead."

"Please lower your voice, Commander. I'm afraid you are mistaken. I am the Dark Wolf, and we've never met before today."

"Well, if you're the Dark Wolf, who was the other one?"

"I could find that out for you," he said, "but I'd much rather pursue certain confederates of the late Arl Rendon Howe." Elly couldn't disagree with that. "To unearth their identities, I'll need resources. Fifty sovereigns."

"What?" Elly exploded. Both men motioned for her to lower her voice. "Are you kidding? How do I even know you're the real Dark Wolf this time?" The man shrugged. "Ugh, blighted helmets! I hate talking to helmets!"

Cullen shrugged at the stranger as if to say 'What can you do?' To Elly, he said, "If you can think of something else…"

"No," Elly groused. She glared as she handed over the coins. "You'd better be worth it. You'd better be fast."

"The fastest," he assured her. "Just give me two days." And then he was gone, weaving extremely quickly through the streets, considering the armor.

Cullen glanced at the city around them uncertainly. "Two days… I guess we wait?"

"I'm going to find that other Dark Wolf and get my money back," Elly declared, stomping back in the direction they'd come from. "After a real meal."

After enjoying a dinner she could actually identify for once, Elly sat back and traced the carvings left in their table by former customers. "If only Sigrun was here. She'd know just where to look."

Cullen frowned. He hadn't seen much of the female dwarf around the keep. And Sigrun was good at not being seen when she didn't want to be. "I thought she's part of that Legion of the Dead, goes around killing darkspawn? Sort of like the Grey Wardens, but below ground?"

"I guess it is. If you mean the part where many wardens are conscripted convicts, murderers, thieves…"

Cullen choked. "Nobody got around to telling me that part."

"The Orlesian Wardens probably didn't get the chance. Did you at least get to hear about the griffons?" Elly pointed at the heraldry on his breastplate. "That's my favorite part."

Cullen sighed. "Sigrun," he reminded her.

"Oh. Well, she's from Dust Town. It's kind of like the alienage, only even worse. You have to steal, cheat and kill just to survive. All because you were born casteless. Orzammar is... not a nice place." She noticed Cullen was silently staring at her. "What's the matter? Am I talking too much again?"

"This is fine. A lecture on eight herbs for better digestive health and how to find them is not…"

"Right, sorry about that." She paused. "Why are you still looking at me funny?"

"I'm just wondering how you accomplish anything at all with a drunkard, a burgling noble, a cut-throat thief, and a dangerous apostate…"

"Well, we do," Elly said, a little defensively. "And they're loyal friends."

"So far… But if I were you, I wouldn't turn my back."

Elly rapped the table in annoyance. She'd enjoyed the meal but now it seemed to be curdling in her stomach. "If your goal is to antagonize me, you succeeded. Pleasant evening over. Back to work now."

Cullen stiffened. "No."

Elly waited for the rest. There wasn't any more. She let out a breath loudly. "No? Just 'no,' that's it?"

"No, my goal is not to antagonize you," he said steadily.

Elly rolled her eyes to the ceiling. "And now he channels his inner qunari. I'm going to ask Constable Aidan if he has any leads."

She heard his chair scraping back before she'd gotten halfway to the door. "You can't go by yourself; people are trying to kill you!"

"When aren't they?" she grumbled as she grabbed the handle.

The only useful tidbit she'd gotten from the constable was that the smuggler's cave hadn't been sealed yet. Refugees had been using it as a place to sleep, sometimes sneaking through into the city if the guards weren't careful. It wasn't much, but it was something. And she really needed something to do. Elly hurried towards the dilapidated building she knew housed the trap door. She wanted to search the area before it grew dark and the refugees taking shelter there retired for the night.

If the place was being used by shady characters again, they probably hid there during the day and came out after dark. Or so she hoped. She wanted to catch them before they snuck out for the night.

Elly picked up the skirts of her robe and ran. Cullen - weighed down by his heavy armor - was about a block behind and yelling for her to slow down. She almost kept going, but thought better of it. If there was someone inside, they might hear the shouts. She stopped by the building and turned to make a shushing motion at Cullen.

Cullen was in no mood to be shushed. "What are you doing? Are you out of your mind?"

"Shhh," Elly insisted. She crept into the building and slowly pulled open the trap door.

Cullen clenched his fists in frustration, but quietly. He grabbed her arm before she could start down the ladder and pulled her away so he could descend first.

Elly didn't object to the man in heavy plate armor going down first. She did tap her foot impatiently, grimaced when she became aware of the motion, and constrained herself to stillness. If she couldn't relax for one evening, she wasn't sure how she was going to get through another whole day.

When Cullen reached the bottom she shimmied down after him. It was a lot easier if you weren't wearing a load of armor. Cullen motioned for her to stay behind him as he crept around a curve leading to the large hollowed out portion of the cavern.

He stopped when a group of hooded figures came into view. He sighed, quietly, and whispered, "Do you always find these things in the first place you look?"

"Against all odds, yes." Elly grinned ferociously. If that fake Dark Wolf was here, she was going to enjoy having someone to take her anger out on. She stepped out into the open part of the cave. "Hello there," she called to the group. "I'm looking for somebody…"

One of them stepped forward with a wicked smile. He flourished a set of daggers and said, predictably, "Well you found somebody." He looked between his group of six and the two wardens. "Easy pickings. Get 'em boys!"

Elly frowned. She hadn't gotten a chance to ask them about the fake Dark Wolf. Apparently a group of two didn't give pause the way a group of four did. But there was plenty of water in the cavern. All she had to do was… Elly let out a shriek of protest as Cullen shoved her back into the tunnel behind them. "Stop it, I'm trying to cast!"

Cullen cursed as two of the rogues reacted to her words by pulling up bows and trying to line up a shot on her. He used his shield to bash the first man with the daggers out of the way and charged at one of the archers.

Elly scrambled to recover her balance. Ducking low, she scurried back into the cavern, to find limited cover behind a stack of crates. For the moment, she could see the water but the archers couldn't see her. That was all she needed.

Before the other four men could take advantage of Cullen's exposed back, water began to flow up over the smugglers' docks and into the body of the cavern. As it poured around the villains' feet it froze solid. The second archer was distracted by the cold clamp of ice around his feet and failed to properly prepare his shot; the arrow grazed his fellow bowman's leg instead of hitting Cullen. The man cursed and grabbed his bleeding leg. Cullen simply let his momentum bowl the wounded opponent over. After he'd spun past, water closed over the downed archer and began to freeze.

It finally occurred to one of the men stuck in the middle of the cavern to throw his daggers instead of holding them uselessly. Cullen called out a warning as the man wound back to throw.

Elly ducked and rolled to the other edge of the crate. As she lost her concentration, the ice covering the cavern floor split with a resounding crack. She peeked around the side to mark the position of the other archer. Now free of the ice, he was spinning around to line up a more precise shot on Cullen. Elly chilled the moist air in his lungs, sending him into a wracking coughing fit.

Cullen gave a roar worthy of Oghren and charged the remaining four opponents. Elly had to wonder if the dwarf had been giving him lessons, the way he fought with such reckless abandon. He used his shield less as a source of cover and more as an instrument to pummel with. The mage shook her head and focused. The water had receded, but the men's light armor was still soaked. One by one, Elly blasted them with a cold strong enough to ice over their armor, hampering their movements. She delicately worked around Cullen, afraid the former templar might react to her magic as an attack.

Hindered by ice, the men gradually fell to Cullen's wild swings. He spun around to check on the archers. One wasn't moving at all, and the other drew in a last, gasping breath before he, too, fell still.

Elly scanned the cavern with a frown. Things hadn't gone to plan. And using magic in front of Cullen made her nervous. She cautiously watched him approach, waiting to see what his reaction would be. His expression was enough to make her retreat to the wall.

Cullen had a half-crazed smile on his face, and his eyes gleamed with battle lust. Elly closed her eyes, not wanting to see the sword if it was coming for her next. There was little she could do against a prepared templar. She jumped at the sound of the sword smashing into a nearby crate. Suddenly something pushed her against the wall and she felt a pair of lips crush hers.

Elly's eyes opened wide in surprise. Cullen was kissing her. It was shockingly fierce but wonderful at the same time. After a moment she kissed him back. He smelt of sweat and blood, but he was warm and urgent and right there. She wanted it to last forever, but somewhere, disconnected from the rest of her body, her conscience niggled at her. No, she argued with herself. This is good. This is perfect. Niggle. Niggle. Niggle. Blight it. She escaped his mouth with a sigh. "Uh, Cullen?"

He jumped back from her like she'd bitten him, leaving her to stumble for balance. At some point she'd stopped leaning against the wall and started leaning into him instead. He shook his whole body, like a dog drying off. Cullen collected himself, passion suddenly bunched up and hidden away, like a pair of dirty knickers. "Are you alright? The fight, the adrenaline, I…"

"Well it's not like you tried to kill me." Unless he'd been trying to overstrain her heart, which was still galloping. Elly sighed and walked over to the docks. She peered over the edge at the water below, wondering if it would be chill enough to cool her off. If not, she figured she had just enough mana left to fix that.