52. Drawing Closer
Zimri was insufferable. Of course, Jowan had known that before they even left Kaiten, but it wasn't even halfway through the first day of travel before he was fervently praying the man would lose his voice. The warrior's attitude toward mages was irritating enough, but the near-constant diatribes against magic in general, blood mages in particular, and Commander Marius' sanity as a side note were made a thousand times worse by his nasally accent.
Even Sweeney's lectures weren't this bad, Jowan grumbled to himself as he tried to tune out the monologues. And at least in the Circle, if a lecture got too long or boring-or both-he could let his mind wander, or doodle in the margins of his spellbook, or if they were truly bored, pass notes with Miri. None of those were options on the road, so he was forced to settle for attempting to ignore Zimri's droning voice.
It wasn't working all that well.
"Tell me something," Jowan finally interrupted, beyond fed up with the man. "If you're so bloody convinced magic is evil, how do you reconcile that with the fact the Maker's the one who gives it to us?"
"The Maker gives many gifts," Zimri retorted, sounding peeved at the interruption. "Some are abused more than others, no?"
"Oh, I know that, believe me," Jowan replied. "But it's what's done with magic that gets defined as 'evil', so is it really fair to say magic in general is evil? I've saved lives as well as taken them with magic," he pointed out, remembering the Crow attack that nearly cost Rahna her life.
Zimri snorted derisively. "A blood mage who doesn't think magic is evil. What a surprise. I suppose, compared to what you must have done, regular magic would seem tame, maleficar."
Maker, is he trying to make me angry, or is he really just that biased? Jowan shoved down his rising temper and raked one hand through his hair, stopping just short of wrecking his ponytail. "There isn't much in this life I regret more than turning to blood magic. My reasons at the time were, admittedly, selfish. But, again, I've saved lives with it as well as taken them, so while it may be evil, it may be my absolute last resort, I've come to consider it a necessary evil."
"A necessary evil is still evil," Zimri scoffed.
"Perhaps. But me, Miri, Ashe, and Vincent would all be dead if I didn't know blood magic. I don't like to use it, but I will if I have to."
Zimri muttered under his breath in Orlesian. "Pointless to argue with a mage..."
"Then why are you doing it?" Jowan asked.
The warrior snorted. "You are the one who started arguing, no?"
"Am I supposed to just listen for hours as you run down everything that makes me and my best friend who we are and not say anything?" Jowan stared at the other man incredulously when he didn't answer. "Not many people alive who will just take that in stride. And I am not one of them." Not any more, at least... A thought occured to him. "Just so I'm clear, if something happens to attack us on the way to Amaranthine; bandits or wolves or whatever, do you want me to not use magic? Or is this one of those 'necessary evil' things?"
Zimri glared at him. "I don't see how you would have a choice, mage."
Jowan bit back a smirk. "Alright then, a follow-up question: if, theoretically, you were to get hurt, am I allowed to use healing magic? Because I'm decent with spells, but not so great with conventional healing; y'know, bandages, needles and all that."
Zimri looked just shook his head angrily and muttered in Orlesian again before storming ahead.
At least he's not talking anymore, thank the Maker, Jowan reminded himself, grinning behind the warrior's back and practically able to feel the waves of pique rolling off the other man.
Silence really was golden.
oOo
Neither of them knew it, but Gabriel was thinking the exact same thing. Syn had been chattering at him for the past two hours, so he practically dropped to his knees to offer a prayer of thanks when the dwarf drifted back to talk to Kiv-again. The Rivaini elf was the only one in their band who didn't seem to mind in the slightest listening to the woman chatter on. It made sense, far as Gabriel was concerned; he could listen to Miri talk for hours on end without complaint, so if Kiv liked Syn, it stood to reason he'd feel the same about her.
But Gabriel was glad for the break. His thoughts drifted-as always-to Miri as he followed Stroud. The closer they got to where she might be, the more he missed her. It was driving him crazy.
"Merde!" The curse was out before he could stop it when his thoughts of Miri kept him from noticing the tree root curling lazily across his path. He hit the ground hard, feeling it most in his wrist.
"You alright, my friend?" Aimon asked. "Perhaps you should be paying more attention to your feet, no?"
Kiv laughed. "I know where his mind is, and trust me, Aimon, you wouldn't blame him if you knew her."
Gabriel shot his friend a dirty look as he pushed off the dusty ground, flexing his wrist in hopes it would stop hurting. "Kiv. Shut it."
"Ah, une fille." Aimon grinned. "Even without knowing her, I don't blame him. Women can be very distracting, no?"
"You can say that again," Gabriel muttered wryly, brushing dirt off his clothes. "And the sooner I'm back with mine, the better."
oOo
Jowan didn't know what he would have done if they'd had to share a cabin. Probably slept on the deck of the ship, cold be damned. Fortunately, they were given separate cabins-at opposite ends of the ship.
And thank the Maker for that, Jowan thought fervently as he deposited his backpack on the floor under the narrow bunk. He had to chuckle as he surveyed the small cabin. Rahna would go crazy... It seemed almost to have been crammed in as an afterthought, squished in the last bit of available free space toward the bow. With her claustrophobia, the elf would have been insane in about five seconds, he was pretty sure. Insane or out on the main deck. The thought of her reminded him of something, and Jowan sat on the edge of the bunk to dig through his pack until he found the new, now-crumpled, letter that had been waiting for him after his last meeting with Commander Marius before leaving for Amaranthine. The sprawling, familiar handwriting left little room for doubt concerning who it was from, but he hadn't had time to read it until now.
"Now all I have to decide is whether privacy or better light is more important..." the mage muttered. Given the dismal state of the lighting in the cabin, he opted to go somewhere with better light. After all, Miri's the only one who would give me a hard time about this and she's not here. I doubt Zimri will care.
All the same, he couldn't help but look for a more secluded area of the deck before he broke open the letter's seal and started reading.
oOo
Dear Jowan,
Duly noted. So, remember, if the first thing I do next time I see you is hit you, it's your own fault. I'm sure you know some sort of healing spell just in case I really let you have it, right?
Would you stop rubbing that in? It's not like I asked to be made Commander and arlessa and all this bloody lovely political nonsense. And I was sodding proud of myself about holding it together. I had to do it again, too; there was some sort of legal ceremony and I had to pass judgment on some people. The nobles didn't seem too happy with having to abide by the word of an elf, but nothing bad's come of it so far.
Good thing you don't share my claustrophobia then, huh? If I had to spend a couple weeks in the Deep Roads again, I'd probably scream. I still shudder just thinking about the time I spent down there looking for Branka during the Blight.
My darkspawn problems are turning out to be more sodding complicated than I would wish on my worst enemy. For one thing, it seems there's two... factions of darkspawn, for lack of a better term. And if that weren't weird enough, some of them talk. And the one-its followers call it the Architect-took us prisoner when we were investigating a mine. Before you start to panic or anything, I'm fine. We're all fine. It didn't really do anything to us, besides take all our gear and lock us up in a cell. Which proves that, while it may be more intelligent than your average darkspawn, it's no genius. Anything with half a brain would have made sure to not put me and Nathaniel in the same cell.
Unless it wanted us to escape. But now I'm rambling and probably confusing you(sorry about that), and should probably just throw this out and start over, but I'm low on ink and don't feel like finding more right now. So I'll just trust that you know me well enough by now to take a little rambling in stride.
Stay safe in the Deep Roads. I've lost enough to the darkspawn without adding to the list.
Your friend,
Rahna
oOo
Jowan leaned his head against the barrels surrounding him and bit back a laugh. Everything about the letter, from the sprawling handwriting to tone in which she'd written it was so genuinely Rahna it made him smile-and miss her more. Just be patient, he reminded himself, it's only a couple more days.
Funny how that thought made the prospect of enduring Zimri that long a whole lot more bearable.
oOo
"So, tell me something, boss," Syn began after they'd finished eating, pausing to lick the last of the grease off her fingers, "How'd you get to be friends with Rahna? I haven't been topside very long, and all you hear about is how she saved Ferelden from the Blight. Did you know her before all that?"
Gabriel shook his head. "I don't think there's a Warden alive who knew her before she was recruited, or even before she became famous." He chuckled. "She doesn't particularly care for the spotlight, either. But to answer your question, I met her in Weisshaupt. You remember I told you why Miri was going to be executed before I recruited her, no?"
"She was helpin' her best friend escape or somethin' and it came out he was a blood mage, right?" the dwarf cocked an eyebrow.
"Right." Gabriel nodded. "Well, through circumstances that are twisted enough I still don't entirely understand, Rahna not only ended up traveling with him, she recruited him. So when she came to Weisshaupt to inform the First Warden that the darkspawn were still a problem in Ferelden, she brought Jowan-Miri's friend-along so he could go through the Joining. They ran into Miri while exploring and spent the entire day catching up with her. They were still talking when I went looking for Mir that evening, so that's how we met."
"Ah. And what, you just hit it off?" This came from Aimon as the warrior leaned back against the tree behind him.
Gabriel had to laugh at that, running his hand through his hair and trying to ignore the way the movement made his wrist twinge. "I... wouldn't say that, no." He cleared his throat. "When I asked for introductions, Miri of course had to explain how she knew Jowan. Considering he almost got her killed, I was... less than thrilled to see him there. Miri wouldn't let me do anything to him, though." He chuckled sheepishly. "I don't think I've ever gotten a tongue lashing in my life to compare with that one. And apparently, Rahna had come to consider Jowan a friend as well, so she was less than thrilled with, well, me."
"So... what happened?"
"Miri made me promise not to do anything to Jowan, Rahna apologized for her attitude the next day, and when Jowan and Miri were sent to the Free Marches, she and I took out our mutual frustration about that on each other in the dueling ring."
"You've dueled her?" Syn grinned. "How'd that go?"
Gabriel shrugged. "How d'you think? She's a bloody hero, no? She won. Did say I almost had her at a couple points, but she still won. When she was assigned command of Amaranthine and I was sent back to Jader, we traveled together as far as we could. We talked a lot that trip. Traded stories of how we joined the Wardens, things like that."
"Ah. So you forge all your friendships through getting your arse kicked?" Kiv teased.
Gabriel rolled his eyes. "Not all of them. Just the important ones. And I will beat you one day."
"Sure you will. When Andraste returns and the Maker returns His favor to us pitiful mortals," the other elf retorted with a cheeky grin. Syn smacked the back of his head. "Ow! What's that for?"
"Be nice to the boss, dear heart," she smirked. "He is the one who'll have the most pull in deciding where we end up, and you want us to be together, don't you?"
"Yes, but Gabriel's tough, he can take a little ribbing," Kiv muttered, rubbing the back of his head.
"That's true, Syn. And I've been friends with this ruffian long enough I know when he's just teasing," Gabriel pointed out.
Kiv offered the best mock bow he could, still seated with one hand rubbing his head. "Thank you, ser."
Gabriel smirked as he glanced up at the sky. "Alright, who's first watch tonight?"
"That would be me," Aimon volunteered.
"Then the rest of us get to clean up." Gabriel's smirk only grew at the groans he received for that pronouncement. "Come on, we'll want to finish before dark, no?"
A/N: So, yes... moving everyone closer to Amaranthine. And having way too much fun in the process. I'm so proud of how much Jowan's grown it's almost ridiculous. I'm serious. When Rahna first ran into him, I don't think he would have had the guts to take Zimri to task like that. Speaking of Zimri... Maker, do I ever hate him. I loathe him, abhor him, can hardly stand writing him(yes, that's why he hardly talks). Unfortunately, he is 100% necessary to some plotiness I have planned for down the road, so he must stay. *sulk* Oh, well. I got to write Gabriel and Kiv and Syn(who I'm starting to adore as well). And I could say the reason I didn't mention Rahna writing back to Jowan's last letter is 'cause I don't record everything she does, but the truth is I plain forgot and am too lazy to go back and find somewhere to mention it. Ooh, before I forget: Translations! These are courtesy of Google, as my french is rusty beyond belief:
Merde= (*clears throat*) Crap
une fille= a girl
