Prologue: Betrayal

Chapter 6 : Enjoy it while it lasts

Shadow sat in the room he and Lyna shared, sighing loudly as she continued to blabber nonsense into his ears. All he wanted to do was remove his armor and rest, but unfortunately, the Dalish girl seemed to refuse him that luxury. Then, she said something that caught his interest.

"-heal you. You surely have a few wounds." She finished with a beaming smile.

He chuckled, "I have metal burned to my clothing and by the feeling of it, my flesh. I'm fine, just another day on the farm."

The young elf tilted her head, wondering what he meant by that. Seeing this caused Shadow to roll his head around, the sound of plate moving against plate was heard as he did so.

"It's a saying. Go, get a drink. Some food. Talk with the others. I'll tend to myself." He ordered, only to get a rather ugly look directed at him.

"I'm not leaving you. Seeing your behavior has led me to believe you'll just make your wounds worse. I can't let you do that." She hummed defiantly.

This annoyed the man, "Girl, I've been in this business far longer than you have. I've been impaled on a Darkspawn's spear before. I know how to heal myself. Now. Go!" He snarled.

She did not budge.

"Lyna, you're a pain in the ass." He commented with a growl as he slammed his back against the bedroom wall and began to remove his gauntlets and armor.

She giggled at that, watching the man as he slowly undid his armor. How he could bear the pain of moving his arms, she had no idea. They seemed to be the area that was hit the most. Their form melted like they were. It couldn't have helped that at the current time they had cooled and were now set in place. Deformed. Surely this man knew that his armor was useless at this point? Come to think of it. Had he ever shown her his face behind that menacing helmet? She did not believe so.

"How am I, a pretty little innocent elf girl like me, a pain in anyone's posterior?" Lyna asked with wide, innocent and by all definitions, the dreaded 'puppy' eyes.

He didn't respond, but merely let out a loud hiss as he forced the melted plate arm harness from his right arm. Shortly after he did the same for the other. Doing this revealed the smoked, torn, and lightly torched black cloth he wore. Where the tears were, pieces of metal could be seen formed onto his flesh. A painful looking sight. He didn't begin to remove any more armor, however, and unsheathed one of the daggers that he had cleaned previously.

"If you don't like the sight of blood or blades cutting into things, I suggest you turn away now." He warned the girl, not even giving her a second to react before he took his dagger and began cutting each piece of melted metal out piece by piece.

She quickly moved her head away so she didn't have to see that sight. "Thank you! Jerk! Give me a little more time to react next time, why don't you?!" Lyna huffed rather angrily, loudly.

She didn't like the sight of the man hurting himself. In fact, she thought it seemed very queer how he was making a wound worse to heal it. Surely cutting patches of skin off with the metal was not a wise idea.

"Tel'abelas." He chuckled, removing the last piece of metal, which of course had to be the largest. What he had said also seemed to have made Lyna's face go red.

Now with warm and fresh blood pouring from the wounds he had just created, he began to channel healing magics to heal them. Thankfully, due to them being fresh, he had faith he could make a full recovery. Also known as a scarless recovery, which he didn't need more of those marks of experience on his arms, or body as a whole. The man had seen countless battles, and was not always allowed to use magic to cure his wounds. This meant he had scars everywhere, but due to using his arms as mobile shields quite often, they were the most scarred parts of his body.

Once he was fully healed, he slumped back against the wall breathing heavily. It was of no surprise that he was exhausted, he never truly trained in the art of healing magics. Thus, when he began to use novice spells, let alone advanced ones, he spent a lot of his energy and concentration. Often when forced to use such spells in battle, he could rely on adrenaline and the magic abilities he is trained in as well as his physical training to keep him going until the end. Much like a berserker, who will keep on going despite their body experiencing major wear-and-tear.

"Why don't you remove the rest of your armor and rest?" Lyna asked him as she got up off of her bed and walked over to his, sitting beside him.

He huffed, too tired to bother fighting her. "For reasons. If you really deem it necessary, remove my armor for me. Otherwise? I'm resting and you can deal with it."

The elf took him up on his offer and sat up, going directly for his helmet. So he was going to let her see what he looked like beneath that black suit. She would be lying if she said didn't feel excited about that. From what she could tell by his arms, he was muscular underneath the armor, perhaps to the point the armor was just protecting his flesh from wounds he couldn't always block. A wise and pretty basic use for armor. If not the use for such things.

She slowly grasped onto his helmet and pulled it upwards off of his head. This revealed his medium-length ashen hair which was rather messy at the moment due to him sweating inside the helmet. He had a rough beard, which she could tell was groomed before being neglected for some time. The woman also noted a faded, barely noticeable rune-like scar carved into his middle forehead. On top of all his features was his blood red eyes, which were actually quite beautiful despite him being tired at that moment. A general description of his face would be tired, strong, and disciplined. It was like he refused to let his emotions show. Not to mention, he seemed young. Like he was barely in his twenties.

"Happy?" He asked slowly, his speech somewhat of a growling whisper.

She shook her head, forcing him to sit up. The Dalish girl spent a few more minutes removing his armor until all that remained was his black shirt which was tattered around the arms and his black cloth pants and boots. He really seemed to want to be a shadow, constantly wearing things that blended into the darkness.

He actually laid down on the bed this time, still looking up at her. Whilst her gaze explored his own, she couldn't help but think his eyes were glowing. Part of her wanted to extinguish the candle lights so she could test that theory.

He huffed, closing his eyes which were otherwise normal save for their color. "Like I said, get food, get drink, then get sleep. The others are going to want to meet you, and I have armor I need to repair."

"But, what about the others?" She asked, getting her companion to shake his head.

"Hear that?" He asked, shutting up so she could hear nothing but relative silence. "They went to bed. As is evident by the lack of merrimaking." He informed her with a small smirk.

With a huff she got off of his bed and exited the room. That man. He was curious for a human, and his appearance did nothing to help her curiosity. He just had a strange aura surrounding him, and she was determined to find out the cause of it. Something she couldn't say about other humans. Besides, this one believed in her gods? The Creators? She had a hard time believing it, or understanding it.

She made her way downstairs and to the innkeeper, ordering nothing but bread and water. When the man had asked for one silver, which was overpriced for such a 'meal,' she tilted her head. She didn't have need for such currencies before with the clan. She looked up at the man with sad eyes, she was hungry, she was thirsty, but she was also poor in the eyes of the human culture. Poorer than poor.

A man walked up to her side and slammed down two silvers with a smirk upon his rather sick looking face. He didn't look sick in the traditional sense of having an illness, no, it was the type of sick that is commonly associated with those who force themselves upon others. In fact, Lyna had a twisting sensation in her stomach which only intensified as the innkeep grabbed the money and disappeared into the kitchen.

Shadow sat there in the quiet darkness of the room. His eyes closed. He heard ghostly whispers speak to him in their haunting tone, feeding him information, threatening to kill him, attempting to seduce him and oh so much more. He had his hands linked together by his fingers with his head resting in his palms. It was then he heard something most suspicious. Followed by a brief silence, there were the sounds of a struggle coming from the lower level of the inn.

Damned girl… He thought quietly to himself. We've only been here for a few hours and you've already picked a fight with someone. Why does this not surprise me?

Regretfully, he got up onto his feet and off of the comforting bed. Whether he liked it or not, Lyna was his recruit. Everyone here save for the mages were, but, he had a feeling Duncan had planned to sweet talk them into joining. Shadow moved to the door, his footsteps not emitting a single sound. It was as if he were weightless. He slowly opened the wooden door and made his way over to the railing which allowed him to overlook the scene happening below. His glowing red eyes widened.

Lyna was currently subdued, her arms bent behind her back and held in place by the wrists from a man's large and powerful hand. She was placed so she was bent over a table, her entire back side completely vulnerable to the filth's advances, which he did make. A somewhat muffled but still audible smack was heard as he slapped her posterior. Shadow had enough, he had all he needed to act accordingly. With a soft whisper, he jumped over the wooden railing and all lights in the inn seemed to get snuffed out. Even the one the roaring fireplace gave.

"Let me go!" Lyna hissed.

The man shook his head, pushing and grinding his groin up against her rear. "Shut up, knife-ear. Also… there was no wind… where'd the lights go?" He snarled in response. "No matter…" He concluded as his free hand squeezed her rear, causing the young elf to let out a disgusted groan.

"Hehe, I like that sound…"

A guttural voice came from behind him, speaking in a language the man had no knowledge of. He slowly turned around, but due to the dark inn he only saw blood red eyes staring back at him.

What happened next was a blur in the shadows, save for a momentary flash. All Lyna knew was that the man was removed from her, and with a few snaps and cracks, a thud was heard. The flames that provided light all burst back into life and she turned around, revealing the rather bloody sight of the mangled corpse of the man. Mangled meant his face was hardly noticeable due to being caved in and bloodied severely. His neck had scorch marks in the shape of a hand on it, and his hands were literally mangled. Their bones broken in so many ways they lost their form. Above the corpse? Shadow.

The Warden's arms were crossed, and he did not seem amused. "It would appear that I need to follow you everywhere, girl." He sighed.

"It wasn't like I had a choice! I was left here by the innkeeper! I couldn't... I'm sorry, Shadow." She huffed, her face going bright red as a result of a mixture of emotions.

"It's alright, Lyna. I understand. Come… let's get food and drink and head upstairs." He said softly with a small grin. It sure was easy to get under that elf's skin and bug her.

And so they did, after Shadow kicked open the kitchen door and forced the innkeeper to give them what they deserved, and for free. After that, they made their way upstairs where they sat on Shadow's bed to eat their meal and talk in peace. Well, Shadow would have preferred silence, but Lyna was the one who always had to have conversation. At least with him, as she didn't seem to be too talkative to others. She seemed to have avoided the other recruits when they first arrived in Lothering.

"Enjoy it while it lasts." Shadow spoke before taking a drink of his milk.

Lyna looked up at him and tilted her head, "Pardon?"

"The relatively good food, the comfortable bed, the pleasant company and conversations, everything. As soon as we hit Ostagar, it all will change. I've a feeling things will not be concluded in those ruins as many think." He replied, taking a bite of his mutton.

"Why not?" She asked, nibbling on her own food.

"Something just… feels very wrong. But, don't worry about it. It's nothing for you to worry about." The Warden concluded.

They ate in silence for a few minutes, eventually finishing and setting their empty plates down together on an end table. "Idiot." Lyna huffed before moving to her bed and laying down, covering herself up in the furs.

"What?" Shadow growled.

"You're an idiot."

"Oh hoh, do enlighten me how I am anything of the sort."

"You say something like 'something feels wrong' and then expect me not to be curious and slightly worried." She mumbled, clearly unhappy.

He shook his head, rolling his eyes before laying down again and closing them. "Sorry, your royal highness, but even if I told you what is going on, you wouldn't understand. You'd think I'm crazy. But, maybe after your Joining I will tell you my thoughts. Until then? You've some friends to make tomorrow. So get some sleep."

"Whatever…" She dismissed him in a rather soft voice. "It's not like-"

"Sleep. Now."

"Shadow!"

"No. Go. To. Sleep."

"Fine!"

The Warden huffed, "I swear, it's like dealing with a young child." He spoke under his breath.

It was not long before both had fallen asleep. One more heavily than the other. Shadow hadn't the time to speak to the innkeeper properly about Lyna's attacker. The weasel of an old man better have some answers. Otherwise? Darkspawn will look like beautiful creations compared to the Shadow.

I lied. It was actually only like, a few days. Hope you like it. I liked making it. I felt fluffy. Just don't go telling anyone that I was being fluffy for once. 'Kay? 'Kay.