(A/N, Sorry for missing last weeks post. Life happens)

(Talc's POV)

I raced back to my cabin. I was sure if Melina's short little legs could've kept up with me, she would've made me turn over the photo book. When I looked back, she was no where to be seen.

I guess she trusts me to keep the book, I grinned.

I was glad Melina had finally clued me in on something. Could the game really kill off the Herald? I knew it the game was relationship based but could a bad relationship with everyone get Melina killed?

Everyone but Cassandra was on good terms with me so I felt confident thinking I would be okay. But from what I could tell, Melina still had a ways to go to get them completely on her side. As upsetting as things had been till now, I didn't wanted any of her fears to come true. Now that she had given me something concrete, I could help her somehow.

I'm pretty sure she'd skirt the issue if I asked any specifics. I smiled as I reached the cabin. It's not like I needed her help anymore. I had Reece. Reece knew this game. She had played the other Dragon Age games and she had played some of this one. And a little information in the hand was worth more than all of Melina's secrets.

I swung the door open and found Reece and Taran seated around a small table. Taran was excitedly chatting away and Reece had her head on the table, not really listening. I was surprised to see Taran so chatty. I guess being treated as a partner more than a slave at the forge was giving her a massive confidence boost. She definitely was not as timid as she was when I first bought her.

She stood to greet me as I entered the room.

"Master! You're back. I prepared you food!" she said happily. She indicated the spread she laid out on the table. I took notice that she had laid out fruit, a roasted leg of..something (I still wasn't sure what these people ate. I still had no idea what Nug was) and an assortment of roasted vegetables. It looked and smelled divine. Way better than the dried rations we ate on the road.

"Thank you, Taran." I said patting her head. I took a seat at the table as Taran bowed and quickly left the room to continue whatever other duties she decided needing doing to keep my cabin liveable.

I loaded my plate with food.

"There are no fast food places on the road." I smirked at Reece's up turned nose.

She was having one of her moods. No doubt her very rude reception and Taran's incessant talking had pushed her to it.

I put some food on another plate and handed it to her. She poked at what I thought had to be a purple potato and chased it around her plate.

"For someone as into gaming as you are, I thought you'd be a little more excited to meet your favorite characters." I mused as I sat back down again.

She gave me an indifferent shrug, but I saw her eyes wander to the door of the cabin.

I shrugged, "It's too bad, you know, Varric is really handy with that big sword of his."

Reece's eyes went wide as I talked

"Despite the tin suit, Cassandra is such a goof. You'd like her. She plays a lot of pranks."

Reece's jaw worked to make some utterable sound but nothing came out.

"That Solas is an idiot though. His mind is as empty as his bald head."

"NO!" Reece finally jumped up, "They're not supposed to be like that! A sword?! What happened to Bianca?! Varric always has Bianca!"

I smiled as she paced furiously around the table, "Cassandra is the coolest woman in the world! She's the highest in the Templar Order. They didn't hand that to her on a plate! She fought to be the Seeker! She's not supposed to be a clown! She's my girl-crush!"

She clamped her hands to her face, "Solas. Oh Solas." She moaned sadly, "You were so smart and wonderful what happened to you? We were so perfect together! Why is this game ruined!?"

I raised an eyebrow, "What now?"

She looked at me suddenly like she had forgotten I was there. She blushed.

"In my game, they're my main party. They're great fighters...I'm the female Herald.." Her voice trailed off

"Uh-huh." I urged her.

She looked away and tapped her fingertips together. "He's my man." she turned a deeper shade of red which popped out strikingly against her pale white skin.

"Your man?" I chuckled gently. Reece always got super involved in her games. Once, I had asked her how her weekend went and she proceeded to tell me a story about some characters in a game that was so raw and full of emotion I thought the events had actually happened to her. She cried. It was that intense.

"Yeah, he's a romantic option for a female elf. You can date and all of that."

Oh, she meant like... for real for real, he's actually her man!

"You can date people in Dragon Age?!" Consider me floored.

She nodded and the dreamy look returned to her eyes. "Solas is so great. He's the smartest and the most handsome. He's the best fighter."

"CueBall?!" I sputtered. "So you can date Solas? He's not a villian or some kind of psychopath?"

She looked at me like I'd lost my mind, "What? No way! Why would you think that? Is he like that here!?" She ducked behind a chair and looked fearfully out the window.

"No. He's great! I just thought – the Herald said – no, nevermind. What's he like in the game?"

Solas was definitely her favorite subject of all time. For half an hour she went on and on about how great Solas was. He was the strongest mage. The smartest man. The wisest, the kindest, the bravest, etc..

I wasn't really listening. I was hatching a plan. Melina didn't belive that the group could trust her and she didn't trust the group because of it. Melina needed to get in deeper everyone and her shady behavior wasn't the charm she thought it was.

If I could get Melina together with Solas, she'd worry a lot less about being made tranquil. If Solas wears the pants in the group, according to Reece, then there would be no problems if she could just stop treating him like a criminal.

That being said, if Solas was to decide he didn't want to be in the main group because of Melina, it would be harder for me to get his help with the Fade. I knew Melina better then she knew herself!It would be the easiest thing to try to get them together. Why hadn't she told me about the relationship thing in Dragon Age?

A mischievous smile snaked it's way across my face.

Yaaaas. I'm going to have fun with this.

I realized I was rubbing my hands together like an old-school villain.

Yup. That's exactly why she didn't tell me.

Reece eventually noticed I wasn't listening. She crossed her arms in a huff, "Well, you don't have to like him. There's Cullen, Cassandra, and there's loads of other people."

"Cassandra too?!" I didn't know if I should laugh or be disgusted, "What would dating her even be like?"

I switched to a manly voice, "Cassandra, my love, I would die for you."

I switched to Cassandra's snobbish accent, "Well, huff, if that's the best you can do."

Reece barked a laugh, "That's so her!"

I rolled my eyes, "They thought of everything for this game EXCEPT where to put the dragons. You'd think a game called Dragon Age, literally, the Age of Dragons, would have dragons somewhere."

"You haven't seen a dragon?" she asked

"No, but I've been looking everywhere!"

Her eyes suddenly lit up. "I know where the dragons are! I fought one with my group while wandering through the Hinterlands. They don't appear on the map, you just kind of stumble onto them."

My heart skipped a beat. "Could you find it on a map?"

"You bet I could!"

She was jittery with excitement. A real life dragon. She used to draw them all the time. I doubt she would pass up the opportunity to see one in person.

In one swift motion, I summoned the world map. It hovered in the air like a hologram. "Great. Show me."

"That's so Awesome! I wish I could do that!" she cried passing her hand though the map. Its shape wavered every time she touched it.

"There!" she declared tapping her finger over an area I had yet to explore. It wasn't far from the road to Val Royeaux. But it was in an area that was pretty secluded.

"The dragon lives in a valley. It was a hard fight. I died a million times." She laughed.

The smile ran away from her face.

"I died a million times." she repeated, absolutely horrified. Her lip started to quiver.

I grabbed her hand. "We aren't going to die because we aren't going to fight it."

I had a few tricks up my sleeve. I wasn't planning on doing any fighting with a dragon.

"We're just gonna go see it?" she asked shakily

"Just gonna go see." I assured her.

Her face broke into a smile, "This is gonna be SO cool!"

"It gets better. You wanna learn some magic?" I asked knowingly.

She turned and raised an curious eyebrow.

I picked up a knife from the table and opened my ink well. I drew a rune on the knife and it tripled in size.

Reece fell backward out of the chair. "H-h-ha-How!?"

I drew another rune in the air and a tiny gecko popped into being surrounded by a shimmer of blue dust. I caught it before it hit the table. It gripped onto my fingers for dear life. Reece's eyes nearly popped out of her head.

I drew two runes on opposite sides of the tabletop and dropped the knife into one. It was swallowed by one rune and spit out by the other.

I held out the gecko. Reece gave a tiny, delighted squeal as it crawled into her hands. I guess we both thought the gecko was adorable.

"There are limits to what I can do. I can only summon things within my power level or I'll die. My power level is on the rise as I gain experience, but I've only been able to summon small creatures. The biggest thing I've tried so far was a small dog."

I had tried summoning things while I was on road with the others. While everyone slept, I use my time on guard duty to practice with my powers. They were useful on inanimate objects, but summoning living things was more difficult than I had originally thought. They had a time limit before they disappeared back to where ever it was they had been summoned. I had tried enchanting the ink itself as Foresight had taught me and it seemed to lengthen the time limit, but it also took a heavier toll on me. So far, the longest I could summon a creature was for 15 minutes if it was small.

"WOW! Can you show me how to do that?" She lovingly cradled the gecko.

"I'll certainly try." I told her as I unrolled my scroll.

"We'll start the way I started." I announced. "We'll start with something simple like a flower." I began drawing the rune for a sunflower. "I already know the name of the sunflower and I created a rune to summon it. One unique rune for each individual item." I finished drawing the rune. It faded into the soft leather and a second later a sunflower popped into existence.

Reece Ooh'd and aah'd as I brought a sunflower into existence.

"So the way magic works, or at least the way my magic works, is by names." I began. "If you know the name of something, you should be able to summon it by drawing a rune specific to its name." I wondered if that was an oversimplification.

Reece nodded eagerly. I figured it should be easy to do. Even if the game never gave her an avatar identity or a classification, it should still recognize my style of playing. According to Solas, I wasn't a mage. My approach must be hacking the system somehow. If I could do it, so could Reece.

Reece was a very diligent student. She listened eagerly to everything I said.

At least, that's what I would have liked.

She started off eager enough, but right at the important bits she always became distracted by the gecko. Once he disappeared she became engrossed in untangling bits of her hair.

I decided explaining the 'how' of things would have to wait. I held out my quill and ink well to her after I had turned the Sunflower into a soft jelly-like structure that flopped down on the ground.

"Use the rune I showed you to make your own sunflower."

She took the quill and sloshed it around the ink well. The ink spilled over the edges. She pulled out the quill, dripping ink over everything, and began drawing the rune.

She stated off well enough and soon finished the rune. It was sloppily done.

The rune didn't vanish or show any sign of magical energy. We both stared at it for a moment.

"So...?" she started, "Did it not work?"

"ah...maybe if it looked less sloppy." I dipped the quill and made sure to wipe of the excess ink. I handed it back to her.

She hunkered down and copied the rune I had made in another spot. She was way more artistic than I could ever hope to be so it didn't take her very long.

The rune didn't disappear. It lingered on the scroll...and lingered. She pouted. I pouted.

That should've disappeared.

I looked over the rune. It was an exact copy of mine.

I tapped the paper to indicate she should try again.

"Really think about the name of the flower you want. Sunflower. Dont just draw the rune. Really think about it."

She nodded, her excitement beginning to wane, and tried again.

Still nothing.

I frowned.

Why is this not working? Is it because she has to know more about the actual code name? Was I going to have to teach her actual coding?

I looked at the runes. I reached out to touch them. There mush be some reason they weren't working, maybe the lines weren't straight enough?

The moment I touched them a jolt of energy raced through me. The Rune reacted with a bright flash and a loud POP. A sunflower had come into burst into life and exploded in the same second covering both of us in green goop.

Taran heard the sound and rushed back into the room.

"Master! What happ-"

She stopped dead in her tracks. Goop covered every piece of furniture and dripped from the ceiling.

Reece whooped

"That was amazing!" she cried shaking a glob of goo from her hands. "That was great. Did I do that? Lets do it again!"

I wiped the goo out of my eyes. I had taken the whole blast to my face. The goo covered every inch of me. I have never felt so disgusting in my life.

"Nope...I think we're going to move on to other things."

I tried to wipe the goo off my neck and chest. It had to be at least 2 inches thick. So gross. Like I'd been sneezed on by a giant. Taran hurried to being wiping the green sludge off the walls.

"Alright." I said after resigning myself to the reality that the goop was there to stay the time being, "I'm going to teach you basic coding. That was just a test. I expected you to fail." I lied, "I failed at first, too." Not a lie.

I summoned up my query list. The screen hovered angelically at my eye level. I talked Reece through some of the actual coded names for certain items followed by a few lines of simple syntax. After an hour or two, I had her try to code something simple.

"And that's going to be the best way to code a rock." I finished. She nodded eagerly. Hopefully, this would work.

She scrunched her nose up with a determined gleam and set to writing.

A few moments later, with a few corrections on my part, she had written the code I asked of her.

As far as I could tell it was complete and correct. Still the inked letters sat lifelessly on the face of the scroll.

Reece looked up at me expectantly. "Do I say a magic work or something to make it happen?"

I laughed in an attempt to hide my confusion, "You could certainly try."

This code should work. Why is this not working?

"A LA-KAZAAM!" Reece shouted pointing the reed at the page like a magic wand.

At the same moment, I touched the scroll.

A bright flash and Ping announced the arrival of a gray pebble.

"I did it!" Reece jumped up and down.

"LOOK OUT!" I pulled her back as the rock zipped up suddenly into the air. It almost took my face off. It broke right through the ceiling and kept on going. Taran almost fainted.

"Master, we'll have no home!" She cried as bits of the ceiling fell to the floor.

I agreed. I looked at Reece. Maybe she couldn't do magic at all. It would make sense. She didn't even have an avatar. Why would the game even recognize her or grant her any favors? She could write codes, but she would need me to use my ability to make it work. The Runes weren't reacting if I wasn't touching them.

"Is that coming back down?" Reece asked looking up through the hole in the roof.

"Nope."

After I apologized profusely to Taran who stayed pretty shocked about the whole goopy mess in the cabin and the hole in the ceiling, I dragged Reece out to a field to make her practice archery.

"Are we going to see Solas?" she hummed, "I can make stuff explode. He should find that pretty cool."

"I don't think Solas would appreciate that as a special skill. We should probably get something more concrete under your belt so they all have a reason to keep you around."

I stopped to summon my inventory and pulled out a quiver full of arrows and a beginners bow. It had a light weight, maybe a 30-50 lb bowstring. I was sure she could use it. I doubt it would do much damage against Fade demons, but rogue Mages and wild Templars were more my concern. It could at least throw them off long enough for her to get away should the need arise.

"Woah! You can do anything! Lets summon something crazy!" she urged me.

"That's not how it works. You'll learn to use these." I told her.

She gave me a look that reminded me of Grumpy Cat.

"I don't want to."

"It's sort of a requirement." I said holding the quiver out to her. "In case you don't remember, It's a war-zone out there with the Mages and Templars. The game is programmed to kill the players. That means you too now."

She huffed and took the bow.

She did pretty well... eventually. I was no expert on bows, but I knew the basics well enough from gym class when I was 9.

"Auugh." she whined after a while. "This is so not cool! Why can't I just be able to do it like in the game? My arms hurt. I keep hitting myself with the bowstring." She whipped her arm out to show me the large red area on her forearm.

"Your arm is too stiff and hyper extended." I started to explain but she gave me a look that told me we were most definitely done for the day.

"I guess we can take a break." I offered.

She grinned at me. "Awesome! I can't wait to go find a dragon! Best birthday ever!" she squealed tossing the bow at me. I caught it before it smacked me in the face.

She gripped my arm. "I'm glad it's just the two of us." she smiled

"Oh?" I asked

"Whenever Melina is around I feel really ignored. She treats me like I'm some kind of third wheel. But this time. I know we'll have a great time because it's just you and me!" she laughed, "We're gonna have an adventure!"

I laughed nervously, "Right. Just the two of us..."

(A/N, and so begins Talc's new plan. Do you ship Ayla and Solas? I kinda like Sayla myself. Let the fun begin :D )