(rhokesh, you are absolutely right. Kazar makes things go from fizzy to explosive. I try not to play favorites with any characters, but he's just so fun to write. :)
From here on out, there will be much more interacting and intermingling, so sit back and enjoy the ride!)
12. Winds of Change
"It's called a shell game, Marnan." Emmit bent over the table, shifting the three goblets where he had placed them face-down. Under one of them was a glass marble.
She frowned, perplexed. "But how can it be a shell game? There are no shells."
The other two Wardens chuckled as they looked on. They were at the adjacent table, sampling the Spoiled Princess's wares. The group had been frittering away the day there while Duncan visited the Mage Tower in search of recruits. Thus far, Marnan only found the surface world more and more puzzling.
"It's not the shells that matter," said Emmit.
"But it's called a 'shell game'," the exiled noble pressed. "How can the shells not be important?"
There was a low rumbling chuckle near the door, and the last member of Duncan's band made himself known. Marnan whirled a glare at him, wondering how long the duster had been lurking there. He had a habit of doing that: lurking. It was something about the way his coloring made him fade into the shadows.
"Maybe the term 'shell' is saying how thick the mark's skull has to be to fall for it," the casteless said with a smirk. He strode up to the table, giving Marnan a grin that was sharper than any sword. "You ever fall for one, princess?"
"I resent the implication, brand. I would challenge you to a duel of honor, except you obviously don't have any."
He laughed, and even that seethed with hostility… a sentiment she entirely returned. "And now neither do you." He reached over the table and starting moving the goblets around one another with the ease and swiftness of practice. When he was done, he said, "Now pick one."
Marnan sighed, but nonetheless pointed to the goblet on the right.
Garott smirked. "Wrong." He lifted the goblet to reveal no marble.
"How could you have possibly known that? You weren't here when Emmit hid the marble."
"Because, your royal highness…" (she winced) "…the marble ain't in any of them. That's the trick." He reached out and lifted the two remaining goblets. Sure enough, they were also empty.
"But, then where…?"
"In his palm the whole time."
Emmit smiled wryly and held out his hand, revealing the marble.
Marnan sat back in her chair, crossing her arms. "I do not think much of this 'shell game.' It seems a cruel one."
The casteless threw his head back and laughed, and Marnan wished the brand did not make her feel so wrong-footed all the time. Did it matter if these games of cunning were not her forte? When it came to cutting down darkspawn, there was none better, and that was what mattered.
"So where'd you go, anyway?" Ira asked the brand from the next table over.
Garott shrugged and dropped his pack down between the tables… a pack that Marnan realized was a great deal bulkier than it had been an hour ago, and it had a number of rather large weapons strapped to it.
Marnan narrowed her eyes suspiciously. "Where did you get those?"
To that, the brand grinned. "Battlefield. Just outside and up the hill."
"You looted the dead?"
"Hey, they weren't using 'em. I figured I might as well see they ended up in good hands. Namely, mine."
"You could not possibly have use for that sword. It's twice your height."
"'Selling it for money' is still a use, princess."
Marnan couldn't take much more of this. She jumped to her feet. "I've told you to stop calling me that!"
"And what does it matter what you tell me to do?" he sneered. "You can order me to walk into a lost thaig and die, princess, and I don't have to do shit but waggle my dangle at you and laugh. Because, like it or not, we're equals, princess. And there's not a damn thing you can do about it. Princess."
"That's it!" She swept her waraxe off the table and launched herself at him, but didn't get within melee range before the door opened and Duncan came in.
"At it again, are you?" He sounded tired, and Marnan aborted the attack, despite the way the brand was smirking at her, just daring her to strike.
Ashamed at her loss of control, Marnan replaced her axe back on the table. "I apologize, Duncan. I must…learn some self-restraint."
"Tempers are frayed all around, it seems." Duncan came into the room, a robed young woman trailing in more slowly behind him. She was looking around curiously, seeming to study every detail of the room with both scrutiny and wonder.
"How was your trip to the tower?" Marnan asked, watching the woman. "Successful?"
Duncan smiled. "Very. Felicity, would you like to meet your new companions?"
The girl named Felicity jumped, startled, then scurried over.
"I found two mages with a great deal of promise. I will be curious, Marnan, to know how you think it will be best to utilize their skills."
Marnan nodded, curious herself. She had never had a mage before in battling the darkspawn… simply because she'd never had a non-dwarf before. They sounded… useful. To say the least.
"Felicity, this is Ira, Rehg, Garott, Emmit, and Marnan. Ira, Rehg, and Emmit are Grey Wardens under my command, while Marnan and Garott are recruits like yourself. Everyone, this is Felicity Amell."
"How do you do?" Felicity said, smiling politely. "I am so very excited to have a chance to fight against the darkspawn. Granted, I don't expect to be in the thick of it, but I certainly have skills that will be crucial for seeing that there is as little loss on our side as possible."
"Felicity is a healer," Duncan supplied, mostly to Marnan.
"Well, I wouldn't say I'm a healer." The woman's dark skin flushed. "I'm certainly nothing compared to the more experienced mages, but I've dabbled a bit in it. Also in herbalism, though Duncan would not allow me to bring my full recipe kit…" She sighed sadly.
The corner of Duncan's mouth lifted in half a smile. "If I had allowed you to bring all the books and tools you wished to bring, we would have had to find a dragon to carry it all."
Felicity's eyes widened in excitement. "Oh, you don't suppose we'll see any dragons, do you? I've always been so curious about them… all that weight and yet still they can stay aloft indefinitely."
All the Wardens' faces darkened. "Oh," Ira said, "I can think of one dragon I'd rather not see any time soon."
Felicity's face fell, and Marnan frowned, confused. Then, she remembered what the Shapers had taught her about the nature of Blights, and what led them. "Oh, right!" she cried, causing everyone to look at her. She felt her face go hot.
And then, "You're dwarves, aren't you?" Felicity said, and everyone was back to staring at the mage. She also flushed, but continued on. "I haven't seen many dwarves. Only the traders who deliver lyrium to the tower, really, and they never stop to chat. But I've read so much about you… the history of the thaigs is tragic, and all the knowledge that was lost! Like golems! Would that we could find a way to recover the golems!"
Emmit gave a low whistle and quietly said, "Lot of lungpower in this one." Garott chuckled.
Felicity turned her attention to the male dwarf. "That mark on your cheek… that's a face brand, right? I've seen diagrams in my readings on the Orzarmmar caste system." Both dwarves stiffened. "Is it true that each child born takes on the caste of the same-sex parent? Does that mean that one of your paternal grandfathers was a criminal, or does it work differently for the casteless?"
Garott turned a sharp grin toward Marnan. "Well, look at that, princess. Someone more insufferable than you."
"Enough," Duncan said with some exasperation. He turned a reproachful eye on Garott, then Marnan. "Now, I need you two to promise me that you will behave on the journey south."
The dwarves exchanged a dark look.
"Very well," she said.
"As you say, boss," he said.
Ira frowned. "Duncan, you make it sound like you're not coming with us back to Ostagar."
Duncan sighed. "I'm not… at least not right away." The Wardens started to protest, but Duncan waved them to silence. "Shortly after I recruited him, Ser Jory mentioned a knight with some skill he'd met in Highever. As we are only a couple days southwest of there, I thought I might head over and scout him out."
"We can come with you," Marnan said.
"That will not be necessary. In fact, I suspect you will do far more good helping the king at Ostagar. No, tomorrow morning, you will all be headed south while I make my way north to Highever."
Marnan seethed, disliking the prospect of allowing her commanding officer to head off alone. Still, she supposed traveling the surface world alone wasn't as dangerous as braving the Deep Roads. And Duncan could certainly handle himself, even if it was.
"So just how many new recruits are you planning to have?" Emmit asked, taking a gulp from his mug.
"As many as it takes."
"I'm not complaining," Garott rumbled. "The more the merrier… though try not to pick anymore women, boss. I think your taste in 'em is a little skewed." He smirked at Marnan.
She fumed. "Is this your definition of 'behaving'?"
"We ain't on the road yet, are we? Besides, I'm just calling it as I see it. Not my fault if it's truth when I say you're a stuck up, hammer-brained bitch, now is it?"
Marnan had had quite enough of this whole exchange. "Go walk into a lost thaig and die," she snapped. Then, she stalked out the door to the sound of the brand's laughter.
The sun was setting over Lake Calenhad. As Marnan stepped out into the evening, she had to blink so that her eyes adjusted. It still caught her by surprise, how the surface's only steady source of light moved.
Two weeks, she had been up here while the Wardens worked their way down through the Frostback Mountains, and still she could not shake just how much everything on the surface… changed. The sun, the winds, the weather—life on the surface was just one change in situation after another, it seemed. It was unnerving at the same time that it was exciting. Who knew when water would next fall from the sky, after all?
And there was one thing to be said about the sun… it was quite pretty. Marnan especially loved the colors the sky turned when it was first cresting the world in the morning, or when it was slipping away in the evening. There was simply no equivalent back home.
And now, Marnan saw how the sunset sparkled off Lake Calenhad ahead of her, and she gasped at the sheer beauty before her. The Circle Tower was silhouetted against the oranges and pinks of the evening sky, surrounded by water that reflected the same. The sight was soothing, and wiped away all the frustration that had building up that day. As she strolled down to the lake shore and stood on the edge of the water, she completely forgot why she had stormed out here in the first place.
The sound of carefree laughter pulled her away from her admiration of the sunset, and she noticed that she wasn't the only one outdoors.
An elf was out on the water some distance to her left, dancing on top of the calm surface as if it were a solid floor. It took her a moment to realize that a shimmering sheen of ice coated the surface of the water where he frolicked, allowing him to stand atop the waves without fear of falling in.
He waved his hands about, drawing graceful lines in the air. In the wake of his hands glittered more icy tendrils, creating frozen sculptures made of arches and curves around him that glittered in the sunset.
He laughed again, tossing his head back and spreading his arms wide to the sky. Colorful sparks flickered around his hands, and he spun, showering them down upon his icy creations in a magnificent play of light on water.
It was during this twirl that the elf noticed her watching. He lowered his arms and stopped spinning, but the carefree smile on his face remained. He, like Felicity, was dressed in robes, though he had faint, fiery tattoos across his face that the other mage had not. Marnan wondered at the meaning of such marks, then wondered whether they had any meaning at all.
After a moment of the two just looking at one another, the elf said, "I've always wanted to do this."
"Do what?" Marnan asked softly, not wanting to disrupt the moment.
"Walk on the lake." He turned outward again to face the sun. "It was always so close, just outside the doors. But we could never reach it. It was like… a symbol, I guess."
"And now you're free of such restrictions," she hazarded, smiling.
"Yeah, free." He closed his eyes and raised his face up to the sky. "You have no idea how free."
Looking out at the sunset herself, she thought back to the world she had left behind. A world of intrigue and scheming. Where rank was everything, but cunning and manipulation were more than that. A world where Marnan had never been allowed to simply be what she was, free of the expectations of her birth and her caste. All cast aside, now.
"Actually," she said softly as she gazed out at the sunset, smiling for the first time in a long time. "I think I do."
