Fenris had been assessing the state of the clinic while the rest of their lot had been bantering back and forth with one another. There was a marked improvement. It was much cleaner, and his markings no longer itched with the tell-tale feeling of off-key wrongness that signaled the same darker magic that permeated the stone of the rest of darktown, which meant that she had been about cleansing that as well. The locked cabinets that Isabella had investigated had been filled with canisters and jars of medicines, and lines of bleached bandaged hung out to dry in the back. The beds and benches for patients looked sturdier as well. When he looked over at her tending the line of patients her teacher had assigned to her, she seemed quite content, Fenris had to acknowledge, if only privately, that it was not a bad thing to see her happy with making herself useful. It was better than her feeling depressed and bereft for having left her clan.
"It looks like you've been hard at work here Daisy," Varricc, whose story-tellers eyes never seemed to miss anything said to her.
"Oh, yes thank-you," Merrill said as she settled down herself to enjoy some bread and cheese from the luncheon she'd prepared for her teacher. "It is difficult to get him to eat regular meals, but I manage. He doesn't put up near as much a fight as he used to."
Typically, Merrill had focused on the matter at hand, rather than what he had meant. In reply Anders gave a small shrug and a slightly ruefull and amused smile, adding
"I've come to recognise the futility of it, and... the puppy eyes."
"Oh dosh, there's no puppy eyes," Merrill defended.
"Sweetling, if your eyes were any more puppy, you'd have orphans wanting to adopt you."
"Well as long as you eat, I suppose I'll have to live with them," Merrill replied practically.
She promptly buried her pert little nose in some book the abomination had given her, some sort of magey nonsense no doubt, and Fenris sensed her sink into that focused state she always got into while reading. Apparently her teacher knew her well enough to know that Merrill reading books meant that she wasn't going to so much as glance at the food she was supposed to be eating.
"That's homework, you can read it later," he said, nimbly plucking the book from her grasp and snapping it shut. "If you're going to nag me about eating properly, its only fair I get to return the favor."
"Oh yes..." Varricc said dubiously as he glanced at the title of it. "I can see how anyone would be riveted at a book called "On the Proper Sewage and Sanitation of the Port of Luovre" especially over their meal. Daisy, you should maybe stop letting him give you books if this is what he picks out for you."
"I requested that one," Merrill replied honestly.
Fenris frowned, thinking back to his overheard conversation from a few days earlier.
So she was definitely up to something. She was always up to something. It was always meant with the kindest of intentions, but she had a very bad habit of taking on too much and biting off more than she could easily swallow. If her teacher wasn't wary enough to cotton on to when Merrill was planning something, then it seemed that it fell to him to curb her enthusiasm.
"Isn't the abomination keeping you busy enough with working in the clinic and all that magey nonsense he's trying to stuff in your head?" he demanded of her in irritation.
Merrill looked blankly back at him. Fenris looked at her impatiently for not having read his mind and understanding what he was getting at.
"Whatever it is you're thinking of doing, don't," Fenris said shortly, crossing his arms over his chest and glaring at her. "You have enough on your plate as it is, and you're probably not ready anyway."
Merrill looked offended. Fenris cut her off with a sharp gesture.
"I mean it. Focus on your studies and keep out of trouble."
"I'm not in any trouble," Merrill grumbled rebelliously.
Varricc and Anders both looked alarmed.
"Daisy, are you planning something?" Varricc asked warily.
"And why didn't you mention this to me?" Anders asked hard on the heels of Varricc's question.
"I'm only doing research right now," Merrill said soothingly. "There's still a very long way to go and a great deal to do before I'm ready to take any action."
"So you are planning something," Varric said. "And you didn't tell me? I'm hurt."
Merrill looked distressed over the thought of possibly having hurt her friend's feelings, and Fenris rolled his eyes. She was so sensitive.
"Well when you feel you are," Anders said in a teacherly tone that brooked no argument. "You'll come to me about it first so we can talk it over. If nothing else, I might be able to point out something you've missed. I am older than you, and I've spent a lot of time in places and seen things you haven't. It's always good to get another perspective."
"Oh..." Merrill said, a bit uncertainly.
It was clear from the look on her face that she was a bit put out about their butting into her apparently super-secret pet project. To Fenris' mind that was all to the good. She needed more people butting into her life to keep her from doing something stupid and potentially disastrous.