oOo

Lothering was exactly what I had been expecting: packed, picturesque and depressing. But their lay sisters were quite unusual, if the one from the tavern was anything to go by.

She called herself Leliana, and to be frank, anyone who claimed to have visions from the Maker was branded as "loony" in my book. Though she seemed to be a lot about "ooh pretty colours!" inoffensive loopy instead of psychotic and "muahaha, I am Princess Stabitty! Stab, kill, kill!" dangerous loopy. Though either way, decidedly abnormal.

Elissa, in the true tactical form I'd witnessed when we first met Morrigan, managed to accept the bard into our little group and avoid an argument. I hadn't even needed to give my vote; it seemed that we were alike in thinking that we needed all the help we could get. So we set off with Leliana in tow, meeting Sten. I had been surprised at the qunari's easy admission of murder, but shocked when Elissa actually went to the trouble of convincing the Revered Mother in Lothering to release him. As we waited in a little side room in the Chantry, I decided it couldn't hurt to ask.

"So, what do you actually think of Morrigan?"

Elissa raised her eyebrows and opened her mouth in an expression of feigned innocence that really did not suit her. "What do you mean?"

I didn't even bother with sending her a look. "You know, you act like you get along swell and all, but I bet you hate her really."

Elissa had shrugged. "Morrigan has had a hard life. I am not going to blame her for being..." Elissa rubbed her chin for a good half minute while she came up with the word. "Prickly. I've met people like her before and you become accustomed to it. Do not take it personally."

I wondered how I was supposed to do that, when Morrigan certainly always tried to make her derisive comments personal.

"It doesn't get on your nerves?"

She looked away and shrugged nonchalantly. "Perhaps, but I have to be ready to mediate between you two," she said drolly without a hint of sarcasm - and I did provoke Morrigan in all fairness.

I was taken completely by surprise as Elissa reached over and poked me in the ribs, hard enough for me to feel it through my chainmail and cringe away. Something almost a smile spread across her face. Something much more dangerous. "You are… ticklish," she said slowly, and I felt seriously afraid as she bore down upon me, a strange light in her eyes as she tried to reach my sides.

"Stop!" She didn't. "Please! Don't hurt me!"

She chuckled slightly, a strange look on her face as she backed away, hands help up in a gesture of peace. "I will leave you alone. But no more questions, and do not say a thing to Morrigan." She pointed her finger at me, raising an eyebrow to warn me that she was serious. Then someone came to tell us the Revered Mother was available and she turned her attention away from me as we were led away.

There was a Templar in the room. Two, in fact.

I began to feel ill at ease, as I always did when faced with the uncomfortable plate and stoic expressions that I should have been wearing myself. Few people liked those who had abandoned Templar training. I was a failure to other Templars, who still managed to make me feel like a naughty child caught sneaking mud into boots again.

I decided to catch a breather and left the room quietly as Elissa began to work her magic. That woman could turn diplomacy on and off like a switch.

As I slipped into the private back gardens, I spotted it.

The rose seemed so distinctly out of place, a real splash of vivid colour amongst the greys and blacks. The rest of the bush was so gnarled and brittle; if not for the one surviving blossom I would have labelled it dead. I snuck a look around over the hedges to make sure I was alone, and I heard nothing, so I followed the impulse and quickly plucked the flower and hid it in my pack, wrapping it carefully in some clean rags I had yet to use for cleaning my armour. I stayed out there a minute before returning to the library and pretending I had been reading some book or another.

A few minutes later, Elissa tapped me on the shoulder, dangled a key and gestured for me to follow as we left.

I wanted to ask how she managed to do it, but I settled for silence. As we left and met up with a scowling Morrigan, I found my eyes drawn to Elissa. While it was comforting to now know that she wasn't as fond of the witch as she might make it seem, I still decided to have serious words with our leader because the newest tag-along seemed seriously dangerous, not to mention seriously creepy.

I ignored the fact that I hadn't objected to recruiting Leliana nearly as much.

As we were leaving Lothering, we ended up actually running into a group of darkspawn attacking two dwarves. It was a bad sign for the town; that had probably been a scouting party sent ahead of a main horde not far behind.

That night, after a harrowing day of finding dead ladies and giant spiders, I asked Elissa why we happened to have a qunari in our camp.

"Why did we recruit Sten?"

I asked, trying to gauge a reaction to my inquiry, wondering if I was questioning her decision-making abilities. Elissa shrugged slightly as she cleaned her boots.

"I was not there. I cannot know what pushed him to do what he did, or even what truly happened. In any case, redemption seems to be what he wants now and if I can offer that, and gain help against the Blight, then I shall hold out on my judgments for now."

I sidled a little closer.

"But if we realise that he is in the habit of eating children and he does go all 'qunari honour demands that I chop off your head right now' for trying to boot him out, you will dump him into the nearest lake, right?"

"I shall keep that option in mind." Elissa replied dryly, though her eyes sparkled with amusement. Though maybe that was just the light.

"Ah, good to know." I said appreciatively.

My thoughts drifted as we settled into companionable silence. It was often like that; usually I found silence stifling, or awkward, or boring… but now, I was almost glad.

Morrigan had even taken to preparing her own fire, and I suspected that the only other woman in the camp besides Elissa and the shrew herself had taken to provoking the apostate by deliberately sitting next to it, with a very convincing innocent air. Sten seemed to be keeping to himself, sitting alone on a really uncomfortable-looking rock, so it was still just me and Elissa around the main fire.

I noticed Elissa finish her task and neatly set her boots together in front of her tent. She sat down again, looking as she often did when she didn't have a task to occupy her… lost.

"Duncan was the one who recruited me, you know. He rescued me from a life of interminable boredom."

Her eyes focused on the present again and flicked towards me.

"And what life was that, pray tell?"

"The Chantry. I was being raised as a Templar when Duncan decided that I would be better off serving the Wardens. He had to invoke the Right of Conscription, though."

Elissa smirked a little, and I just knew that she was thinking 'this explains a lot'. I wondered what she would think if I told her I'd slept in stables the first decade of my life. Probably the same thing.

"Why would they want to keep someone so unwilling to stay? Or was that gained later?"

"Oh no," I laughed. "I hated every moment there. And I truly have no idea why the grand cleric wanted to keep me. Perhaps she just despised the thought of handing anything over to the Wardens."

"And how was it, the change to being a Warden?"

It was funny, how life chewing you up and spitting you out together changed things. Before, I might have shrugged and said, "oh, you know, the ale and dancing ladies really warmed me up to the Order. Made me quite fond of it, really, even with all the beheadings and death." Instead, I found myself actually trying to find the words without referring to my bastard status. I'd felt a bond with my Warden brothers and sisters since my Joining, but… that was changed now. Elissa was the only Warden left that I knew. I supposed it made some sense, the stronger connection I felt to her. Not that she could ever be a replacement, but…

I told myself to focus and answer her question.

"It was… refreshing. It was a relief, and suddenly my life had a meaning, even if it was a pretty simple one like kill all the cursed darkspawn."

I had revealed quite a bit more than I wanted to and felt exposed, waiting for a jibe, but Elissa remained quiet.

Alright, this time I did need to fill the silence.

"And how about you? What has being a Warden been like, for you? Pretty terrible, I'd wager."

She hummed in agreement, her hands absently tugging at each other as she stared over the fire into the forest we'd camped on the edge of. "Being a Grey Warden is my duty," she said eventually.

Duty, I mused.

I watched as Dal bounded over and tried to knock Elissa onto her back. She was smiling as she buried her face in his fur, arms slipping around his body which was shaking from side to side, his stumpy little tail was wagging so hard. Dal was the only thing that could make Elissa smile, really.

Then she noticed that he was covered in mud.

I tried not to laugh at the look on her face, but she heard me anyway and—was Elissa Cousland sticking her tongue out at me? I laughed harder as Dal leaped upwards and Elissa spluttered as she got a literal mouthful of muddy fur.

"Ardal!" She chastised him as she stood and looked down at herself in disgust. Dal continued looking quite cheerful as he sat at her feet, grinning at her as his tail wagged a little dip in the ground. "You did that on purpose!" She wagged her finger at him, and he barked as he jumped around. He seemed to be agreeing with her.

"And you!" She pointed at me, one hand on her hip and her eyes looking stormy, even as her lips twitched. "Stop guffawing. You can go and give Dal a bath before does any more damage."

"Wait, what?!" I asked, but she was already ducking into her tent.

I looked at Dal. He looked back at me for a second, tail and body totally still, before he started racing off towards Morrigan and Leliana, barking happily.

"Maker's breath!" I cursed as I jumped up and started after him.

Mabari were definitely too smart for their own good.

oOo