Author's Note - Ta dah! FINAAALY AN UPDATE!
"Zevran, do you have something in particular against the Dalish?"
"Why do you imagine this to be so? I am as welcoming as anyone can be to a group that appear quite ready to cut my throat, I assure you." Zevran gave a deep sort of chuckle, "It keeps me on my toes." He added playfully, shooting her a charming sort of smirk.
"They wouldn't have killed you, Zevran." Laeti rolled her eyes a grin spreading across her features despite herself. How foolish he had to imagine her, some little child who couldn't tell the difference between love and lust. Some stupid child fascinated with flirting with an assassin throughout the vast majority of her days.
Fereldon had better have another hero in reserve, she doubted she'd make it to the end of this venture with this accursed mind of hers.
"Oh, ho, are you so sure?" Zevran quipped as he climbed over a fallen and partially rotting tree that had fallen to its resting place directly in the way of the path. Landing with a pointed look her way Zevran stood on the ever twisting withered path, a sharp sort of smile upon his lips. "There was that one.. Nawyen, yes?" He pondered aloud as he held out a tanned hand in a wordless offer to Laeti.
Laeti waved the hand away, shaking her head slightly in a declination. She knew for absolute certainty that her mind would take no solice in the act of taking his hand, and instead demand for more. Looking rather put out, the man took sulking rather dramatically, the corners of his lips turned up in a playful sort of sultry smirk. Observing her unsteady but determined movements, a wider smirk spread across his features, making an obvious effort to not quip shortly on her balance, simply watching her carefully with an amused air about him. "She's younger than ten years old!" Laeti muttered slowly, in a drawn out, thoughtful tone as she moved her feet carefully to the nonrotting portions of the wood.
Sickly, her foot sank through a rotting portion of the fallen log, unbalancing the woman further to a considerable degree, rocking her body forwards from her own momentum. Zevran lurched forwards, clasping either hand on her shoulders to steady her. Electricity shot from his touch, and Laeti soon found her face as hot and as flustered as ever in his presence.
Yes, Fereldon had better have another hero in reserve.. She wasn't going to last long.
"So she'd have you believe." Zevran stated smartly, a fliratacious grin across his features, eyes flashing in a charming manner. "Are you well, warden? If I didn't know any better, I'd accuse you of succumbing to my roguish charm."
Laeti flushed even heavier, swearing for the life of her that an archdemon wouldn't have heart pounding against the inside of her chest so intensely, had she faced it down in her small clothes, armed with a Thorny Rose. "You, oh.. I..- Hemh." Laeti quite gave up on fumbling with her useless tongue, giving a sort and frustrated noise as her ears sank down on her head, moving as if a cat's.
"Hemh?" Zevran inclined an eyebrow, a wider smirk across his features as he helped her over the log, her legs seemingly composed of jelly.
"Hemh." Laeti stated, after all, she couldn't take it back..
However much she may want to..
They spent some time merely following the path in silence, Laeti cursing herself continously in her mind, and Zevran all too pleased to wear a particularly smug expression upon his features when regarding her. After a fair amount of such time, Laeti took a breath, and decided firmly that they'd act as though nothing had transpired, "Nawyn can't even REACH your throat! She's half your size! She would need to stand on a log, or something."
Zevran laughed heartily, "Even so, one gets the sense that had a fellow Dalish not accompanied us, our entire party would have quite the battle after entering this forest."
"That is true, I suppose" Laeti shuffled her attention elsewhere, telling herself quite firmly she was merely scanning the abandoned path for werewolves, and most certainly not avoiding looking at the man who seemed to pride himself on getting a blush on her features.
Bah, some Dalish she was..
"I digress, Warden, you have failed to answer my question."
"Ah, yes" Laeti nodded her head in a rather formal fashion, the silence stretching between the two as she desperately searched her flustered mind for the question he'd supposedly asked. Coming up empty, she shot him a sheepish sort of smile, "What was it again?"
Zevran grinned widely, "Just why is it you imagine that I dislike the Dalish?"
"You seemed rather eager to be rid of their company and join mine." Laeti shrugged her shoulders in a short answer, her long red hair settling on her open back with the movement.
"You underestimate yourself, my dear warden." Zevran practically purred, his exotic accent playing on his low voice.
Oh.. She couldn't even HEAR him talk! Oh, for the love of sanity! He was an assassin!
Not that that made much of a difference..
Laeti fought the urge to be flattered, he after all, had such sweet words for anyone willing to listen, "You were scared of the ten year old, weren't you?" Laeti teased,
Zevran threw his head back laughing, though as ever careful to keep his voice from carrying and alerting the impending werewolves, "Indeed I was, dear warden!"
"In truth, I know little enough of the Dalish, other than the fact that my mother was one." Zevran continued musingly, "Or so I was told. She'd fallen in love with an elven woodcutter, and accompanied him back to the city. Leaving her clan behind for good. And then, of course, the woodcutter died of some filthy disease and my mother was forced into prostitution to pay off his debts. Oldest tale in the book." He said such things as if they were trivial, meaningless tragidy that blended in with the countless others in his life.
She didn't know which was worse, how he said it, or the story itself.
Laeti knew she could have said something, anything that could have helped. But instead the only words that came to mind came, "Zevran, that's.. That's tragic." tumbling from her mouth.
Poetry.
"Is it?" Zevran seemed rather surprised at this idea, "It seemed normal enough a tale growing up." He explained, continuing, "No different than any of the other boy's in the whorehouse. I didn't know my mother either, of course. She died giving birth to me. My first victim, as it were. We were all raised communally by the whores. It was a happy enough existence, ignoring the occasional beating. Until eventually I was sold to the Crows. I brought a good price, so I hear."
"I.. That should never have happened."
Oh gods.. Who gave her mouth permission to speak without her consent?
"That is very kind of you to say, but it is not necessary. It could have been much worse, should I tell you of the other whorehouse boys who didn't fetch a decent price with the Crows?" Zevran continued, once again rather baffled at the idea of her horror to the tale, and her sympathies for such, "Surely your life has not been so idylic?" He frowned lightly, gesturing between the two of them with a hand, "People like you and I are not the product of happy lives of contentment, after all."
Laeti fell silent for a long moment, misery flashing behind her eyes as her gaze turned downwards in quiet speculation. Few others seemed to understand it, and were simply content with the idea that a random Dalish had left her clan to join Cailen's Army in Orzammar, survived, and took it upon herself to lead a group to complete the task of a hundred thousand men, with less than a dozen. All of this, they imagined, was for some noble reason that struck her upside the head absently as she walked down the paths of the Brecilian Forest.
Like some rock that flew from the sky.
"My original point is that my mother's Dalish nature was always a point of fascination for me. Through all the years of my Crow training, the one thing of my mother's that I possessed was a pair of gloves. They were of Dalish make. I knew that much, and beautiful. I had to keep them hidden, of course, as we were not allowed such things. Eventually, they were discovered, and I never saw them again."
"That's.. Oh.. that's just wrong. There must have been SOME joy in your life, Zevran!"
"Oh, there has been plenty. To tell the truth, it is because I expected nothing more." Zevran spoke smoothly as his eyes rested on her features contentedly. He paused a moment, before continuing, "Still even I thought it would be better for me if I ran off to join the famous Dalish when one of their clans drew near Antiva City. Naturally, the reality did not match up at all to the fantasies I had constructed as a boy, staring at those gloves. But, such is life." He shrugged his arms shortly. "But enough talk of the Dalish, I have another matter to speak with you on."
"Aren't you just chatty today. Usually you're making some remark on small clothes by this time," Laeti teased shortly, hoping for the life of her that this subject would be one that was not as dark, praying, perhaps, that it was something she could change. She couldn't, after all, go back in time, and beat the hell out of all those who had wronged him.
No matter how much she may want to.
Zevran chuckled, though a darker tone bubbled over him, as if he were contemplating serious matters. In fact, he moved his hands as if nervous as to the answer for the pressing question. "Well, here's the thing. I swore an oath to serve you, yes? And I understand the quest that you are on and this is all very fine and well.. My question pretains to what you intend to do with me once this buisness is over with, as a point of curiosity."
Laeti stopped where she stood, a rather baffled expression and perhaps an offended one crossed her features. He only stayed in her company, for an oath?
Why, she hadn't even remembered it until now! But, oh, how everything suddenly made sense.
What a stupid woman she was.
"Why do you ask?"
Zevran stopped before her, settling himself on the path,"One simply assumes that once your grey warden business is finished, you would have no need for an assassin to follow you about, am I wrong?" He sounded to the end of the statement almost hopeful, as if desiring her to answer in a specific manner.
Was her company truly so terrible?
Sure, she travelled with belching, smelly dwarves, and condescending old mages, and sarcastic, younger mages, and cheese obsessed templars, with a gore dripping dog insistant on leaving half eaten hares in packs-
Actually, she supposed, she wouldn't travel with her either.
"Zevran, let me make this clear," Laeti held her arms out in a 'very clear, serious business' manner. "I hold you to no oath. You can leave any time you like, regardless of a completed quest."
OoOoOoOoOo
"Oh? I made the oath willingly, but if that's how you see it, then that's all the better." He answered almost dryly, "For the moment, it's still best I stay, considering my standing with the Crows." He pondered aloud, turning over each word endless times in his own mind, it seemed a reasonable enough excuse, in truth. He'd half desired her to demand the oath be upheld, giving him an excuse to remain at her side, even when she no longer required his blade for the good of Fereldon.
A moment passed before he could convince his reluctant tongue to inquire that last question that he feared the answer to, almost as much as he feared the desire to ask it.
"But," He allowed, thoughtfully, "Let's assume I didn't desire to leave when the time came, what then?" Zevran pressed wonderingly.
"Why wouldn't you go, if you had the chance?" Laeti gave him a strange sort of look, the very idea of someone staying of their own will, particularly one who remained in her company for an oath struck her shocking. "To be honest, I would, if I could." Laeti admitted a bitter tone sneaking into her words, as she strode down the path once more, Zevran in pace beside her, a sly sort of smile on his lips. "It is difficult to say, is there no one I might stay for?"
Laeti seemed at war with herself for several long, heart pounding moments, before she simply turned to him, a friendly sort of smile on her lips. "I can think of one."
"So can I, I should think." Zevran felt a wide sort of grin spread across his features, "It is good to know what my options may be, but that is for another time. For now we have much to do, yes?"