Sebastian slowly drew back on the bow, inhaling as he did, stopped the motion, aimed with his breath held, and released. He grinned as the arrow sunk dead centre into the bull's-eye of the target. He shot twice more, making a good tight cluster of arrows in the middle of the target, then glanced to the other side of the practise yard, where Fenris was going through a series of exercises, his oversized sword biting again and again into a straw-padded practise dummy. Judging by its tattered state, had the dummy been a real opponent it would have been dead several times over already. Even as he watched, a particularly vicious move sheered the head off of the dummy entirely, loose straw fountaining over the ground around it.
"I think it's safely dead now," Sebastian called out as he strolled over to retrieve his arrows from the target.
"As is yours, I see," Fenris responded, checking his blade for damage before deftly re-sheathing it, handling the monstrous sword with deceptive ease.
"Aye, we're a lethal pair, we are," Sebastian said, dropping his arrows carefully into his quiver and then unstrung his bow. "Well, that was enjoyable. As many meetings as I've been stuck in lately, I've been missing my regular practise."
Fenris nodded. "I've neglected my own practise a little of late as well, what with everything else I'm currently busy with."
"How are your lessons with Anders going?" Sebastian asked curiously as the two of them walked out of the practise yard and started back toward the main keep.
"Surprisingly well. The mage is a much more patient teacher than Hawke was, and he has a knack for explaining things so that they make sense. Such as the sounds associated with each letter. We have recently moved on from my learning the alphabet to simple reading and writing."
"Cat, bat, rat and so forth?" Sebastian asked, just the faintest hint of an amused smile on his face.
"Yes. I was... surprised, at how simple the task is, once the basic letters are understood. Anders tells me that the more I read and write, the easier it will become to sort out the sounds of the words, until I can glance at a word and know what the entire sound of it is without having to puzzle out the sounds of each individual letter first."
Sebastian nodded. "He is right about that. It is easiest with the shortest words, of course, which is why books for chi... for beginners typically contain simple sentences made out of short words."
"Yes, and illustrations too, especially when they're meant for children," Fenris said, sounding faintly amused. A slight smile crossed his face. "Anders was rather worried at first that I'd be... upset, about being given children's books to work from. But in this skill I am at the level of a child. It does not offend me."
"That's good," Sebastian said approvingly. "Some men are not so logical about the idea."
"I gathered that impression," Fenris said, one corner of his lips lifting in a crooked smile. "I believe Anders was worried that I'd be incensed enough to do what he currently persists in calling the 'glowy fist of doom thing' if he annoyed me."
Sebastian snorted. "The mage has an odd sense of humour at times," he observed.
"Yes, he does. Speaking of the mage, have you and he argued recently or something? You both seem... uneasy in each other's presence of late."
Sebastian frowned slightly, feeling a slight flush set in that he hoped Fenris would attribute to the cold if he noticed. He'd long since abandoned the idea that the mage and the elf might be involved, but was still uncomfortable that he'd even entertained the idea at all. "No, we haven't argued," he said. "Though I too have noticed that he seems unsettled of late. I'm not sure why, but he seems... nervous, at least around me. Unable to meet my eyes. It worries me; could he perhaps be doing something he knows I would disapprove of? And if so, what... have you noticed any unusual behaviour when you are with him?"
Fenris frowned and shook his head. "No. He seems fine most of the time. You're right that it's mainly around you that he seems nervous," he added, and frowned in thought for a while. "Come to my lesson with me," he suddenly suggested. "Unless you're busy?"
Sebastian gave him a mildly surprised look. "No, I actually have the rest of today free," he said. "Are you sure you want me to come along...?"
"Yes. Of late I only see the two of you together at lunch, which takes place in your rooms. Perhaps if I see the two of you together where he feels most comfortable, in his own place..."
"Ahh. You think it might give you some clue?"
Fenris shrugged. "Perhaps. It is worth trying, anyway."
Sebastian nodded, and the pair of them continued on around the side of the keep to the garden entrance. The men in the guardhouse were clearly used to seeing Fenris pass through, and nodded amiably to him before catching sight of their prince entering behind him and scrambling to their feet. Sebastian smiled and nodded to them, as he followed the elf through into Anders' garden.
The mage looked up from his table as Fenris entered the room, a welcoming smile crossing his face. Fenris saw his expression change the moment Sebastian stepped in behind him – startled for a moment, then wary, before it smoothed out to a faint, neutral smile.
Anders rose to his feet. "Fenris, Sebastian – is something wrong?"
"No, nothing is wrong," Sebastian said with an easy smile, then bent down to pet Ganwyn, who was bouncing around his feet in excited welcome. "I just happened to have the afternoon free, so I thought I'd accompany Fenris here for his lesson, and spend a little time with both of you, if that's all right?"
Anders nodded. "Of course. Let's go on upstairs," he said, gesturing toward the nearby stairs.
It was a word the two dogs knew well – Haelioni was surging to her feet and both dogs moving towards the stairs before any of the men moved. Ashes, who'd been curled up in the middle of the table, seemingly asleep, lifted his head and looked around, then jumped down and hurried after them, passing the dogs on the stairs.
Sebastian laughed, looking amused. "They're well-trained."
Anders snorted, a crooked smiled momentarily lifting his lips. "Not really. They just want to snag their favourite spots," he said, before turning away and leading the way up the stairs.
Haelioni was stretched out on her side in her current favourite place on the floor by the small fireplace, Ganwyn sitting up on one end of the couch he and Fenris usually shared, looking attentively toward the top of the stairs, and Ashes was sitting in the middle of the carpet, licking one paw.
Anders hurried over to sit down behind his desk, while Fenris headed over to the couch, reaching out to caress Ganwyn's head in passing before seating himself and pulling a small side-table over in front of him. Ganwyn immediately flopped down, resting his chin on the elf's thigh and looking soulfully up at him while Fenris reorganized the materials on top of the table he used as desk to his liking. Sebastian looked around and then walked over to sit down in a chair where he could see both men equally well.
"Would you prefer to start today with reading, or writing?" Anders asked.
"Writing, I think," Fenris said. Anders nodded, and picked up his own pen, quickly printing something on a sheet of parchment, then carried it over and set it down before Fenris before returning to his desk. Fenris uncapped his own bottle of ink, dipped his pen in it, and bent down over the sheet, laboriously copying the sentence Anders had written into one of the spaces presented by a series of ruled lines down the sheet, biting on his lower lip in concentration.
"So how are your talks about mages and freedom progressing?" Sebastian asked.
"Well enough," Anders said. "We've been making lists of things mages might be able to do to help others – not just big one-off things like helping with major construction projects, but little day-to-day things as well."
"Such as?" Sebastian asked interestedly.
Fenris glanced up, noting that Anders was avoiding looking at Sebastian, instead fiddling around with a pen and watching his own hands. He frowned slightly, then turned back to his writing, glancing frequently up at the other two.
"Well, one example... right now, if there are things you want to keep cold in warm weather, you have to rely on ice stored since the winter in ice-houses, right?"
"Aye, we do."
"Do they always hold enough ice to get you through until the next cold season?"
"Not always. It depends on how much ice is used, and how hot the weather gets," Sebastian said, leaning down to hold his hand out toward Ashes, palm down and fingers curled under. The cat paused in its washing, tongue still stuck out, and looked curiously at his hand before rising to its feet and walking over to sniff curiously at his fingers.
"Well, elemental mages can make new blocks of ice any time, with the right spells. So with the help of the right mages, you'd be able to have ice-houses that never ran out of ice, no matter how much ice you used up. And water is easier to move than solid blocks of ice are, so anywhere you needed a particularly large amount of ice, you could pipe water to the place and make the ice right there."
"That... might be useful, yes," Sebastian agreed, mulling over the idea as he dug his fingers into the long fur behind Ashes' ears, the cat purring loudly in appreciation at the attention.
Fenris concealed a smile, then glanced at Anders. Anders was watching Sebastian, he noticed, and was smiling as well. Until Sebastian sat back again, looking over toward Anders, and then the mage's attention was promptly turned elsewhere.
"Finished that page, Fenris?"
"Almost. Two more lines," Fenris said, and went back to work on it.
Ashes, abandoned by the prince, looked around for a moment, then suddenly leapt into the air, twisting so he came down facing the other direction and chased off at top speed to the far end of the room, coming to an abrupt stop near the top of the stairs, crouched down with legs outspread, ears back and eyes wide. Ganwyn and Haelioni raised their heads and looked at him curiously. His head twisted from side to side, then he charged back, sliding to a stop under a nearby chair, just his twitching tail still sticking out. All three men laughed, and the tail abruptly whisked out of sight as well.
"Does he often do that?" Sebastian asked, amused.
"When he's in the mood. He'll be back out chasing after something any moment now, just watch," Anders said, grinning widely. "He likes to keep all his toys hidden under there."
A moment later Ashes came charging out again, a bedraggled feather in his mouth. He abruptly stopped, dropping the feather, then pounced on it. Not a feather, Fenris realized, noticing the dark stain at the quill end – a pen. Anders and Sebastian fell silent, watching the cat playing with the quill pen, rolling around on his back, forepaws clasping it to his chest while he bit at the shaft and kicked it with his hind feet, little wisps floating free as his claws tore into the barbed vanes.
Anders snorted, then rose to his feet. "I'll be right back, I'm going to go make tea. Would either of you like some?"
"Please," Fenris said.
"Yes, please," Sebastian agreed.
As Anders walked by him Ashes leapt away from his feather, then made a studied show of cleaning his front until the mage was out of sight down the staircase. He looked around, ignoring the feather, then trotted over and disappeared back under the chair.
Fenris finished copying the sentence one last time, and pushed the sheet away, putting down his pen and flexing his hand. "It is hard to believe that some people write all day – it makes my hand ache after a while," he observed.
Sebastian shrugged, and stretched out his legs. "It is like any other exercise, do it for long enough and your muscles become used to it. Like how riding made your legs sore at first."
Fenris nodded slowly. Both men looked down as a crumpled ball of parchment came shooting out from under the chair, followed a moment later by the cat. It pounced, batting the ball further away, and streaked off after it, cat and prey disappearing out of sight behind the desk.
Sebastian smiled. "I hadn't realized cats could be such amusing companions," he observed. "I've never spent much time around them before."
Fenris nodded. "Nor I. They are rather charming little beasts, aren't they?"
"When they aren't being vicious little monsters," Sebastian agreed. "Most of the stable cats would sooner spit at you than allow you to pet them. Or claw you, if they took particular offence to the attempt."
Ashes came back into view around the desk, the crumpled ball being carried in its mouth. It stopped by Sebastian, and looked up at him, dropping the ball to the floor. Sebastian looked at Ashes in surprise, one eyebrow raising. "I think he wants to play fetch," he observed, then slid forward in his seat and bent down to pick up the ball. He flicked it away across the room, and Ashes turned end-over-end and streaked off after it. Ganwyn sat up, moving to perch on the edge edge of the seat and watching with ears lifted, whining softly.
"You want to play too, don't you boy?" Sebastian said, sounding amused, as Ashes trotted back over to him with the ball of parchment in his mouth, making excited little mewing sounds around it.
Ganwyn jerked and almost gave chase as well the second time Sebastian threw it for Ashes. The third time, the dog's control frayed entirely and he lunged off the couch, chasing after the parchment too. His entry to the game startled Ashes, who dodged aside, ears going flat, as the hound ran by him. Ganwyn snapped up the ball of paper, before turning back, head and ears raised, tail wagging vigorously and looking proud of himself. Sebastian laughed out loud, looking from the pleased dog to the cat, who had turned his back and was sitting rigidly upright, acting as if he's never been chasing the ball at all.
Anders came up the stairs, carrying a tray. "Whatever are you two doing up here," he asked. "Exercising a team of draft horses?"
Sebastian grinned at him. "Just playing with your pets," he said.
Anders snorted, taking in the tableau, then stepped around Ganwyn and walked over to the desk to set down his tray. Ganwyn promptly dropped the ball and followed after him, all but underfoot and looking excitedly up at the tray. Haelioni lifted her head again, then rose and also walked over to the desk, looking expectantly at the tray. Anders gave each dog a sizable strip of dried meat, which they carried off to separate corners of the room to settle down and gnaw on, then handed out mugs of tea to Sebastian and Fenris. He looked over Fenris' written page, nodding in approval. "Your printing is getting fairly good, as long as you have the line before you to copy. We'll be starting on spelling pretty soon at this rate."
"Spelling?" Fenris asked dubiously, before sipping at his tea.
"That's where instead of you having the words before you to copy, I tell you some words and you write down how you think they're spelled."
Fenris nodded in comprehension.
"Ready to do some reading?" Anders asked.
"Certainly," Fenris said.
Anders picked up a book from his desk and carried it over. "Here, try reading this," he said, opening it and putting it down on the table before Fenris, pointing at one page, then returned to take a seat at his desk again and pick up his own mug of tea.
Fenris frowned down at the printed words before him, working out the sounds. "Do you luh... like fuh... fruh... fried mmm-mush and nug? I do not like tuh... them..." he paused, frowning over the next word. "Murr?"
"Sorry, that's a short way of writing out a longer word," Anders said. "It's spelled M-R but stands for the word 'mister'."
Fenris nodded. "Mister Kuh... Klug. I do not like fried mush and nug..." He paused, and looked up to frown at Anders. "Is this meant to be some kind of poem, mage?"
Anders nodded smiling slightly. "Yes. A dwarven poem for young dwarves. It has a lot if repetition in it, which makes it easier to read, and the presentation of the subject is considered humorous, so that it's more interesting to read."
"Other than sharing in a disinterest in eating either fried mush or any form of nug, I fail to find it interesting so far," Fenris said dryly.
Sebastian laughed, rising to his feet and walking over to retrieve the abandoned ball of paper. "I remember that poem. One of my nurses used to recite it to me when I was being picky about eating my food," he said, and walked back over to resume his seat. He smiled, turning the ball of paper around in his fingers, grimacing when he noticed part of it was damp with drool from being in Ganwyn's mouth, and dropped it back to the floor by his feet, then wiped his fingers dry on his leggings. "There was a song about nugs she used to sing sometimes, too. Something about sitting in the mud... she had a rather eclectic knowledge of children's rhymes and poetry. She knew all sorts of Dalish children's stories as well, or at least the common tongue translations of them. "
Anders snorted, and leaned back in his chair. "Having eaten both fried mush and nug, I'll agree that they don't rank particularly high on my list of personal favourite foods. But that aside, please continue with the reading, Fenris."
Fenris nodded and continued, working his way slowly through the remainder of the poem, until Mr Klug was down a hole with the despised food, a thug, a slug, and a bug.
"I would hope whatever you have me read next has greater literary merit," he said, closing the book and pushing it aside. Sebastian and Anders both laughed.
"Well, that should be enough writing and reading for today," Anders said.
Fenris nodded, and rose to his feet. "Thank you, Anders," he said, and looked at Sebastian. "Ready to go, or do you have more to discuss with Anders?"
"No, nothing at the moment," Sebastian said, rising to his own feet. Anders rose as well, and bid them farewell, then once they'd left began gathering up empty mugs, returning them to his tray. He stooped down and picked up the crumpled ball of parchment, made a face as he too noticed its drool-dampened condition, and tossed it at the fireplace, nodding in satisfaction when it landed squarely along the coals. He picked up the tray and headed back downstairs, dogs and cat following along behind.
