Author`s Note: This took way longer than I intended, but school like to interrupt my writing time. So two things. One, I'm considering re-writing 'A Dangerous Thing'. It would be a slow process, but that way I can go through and fix some of the continuity errors and lore errors. So please let me know what you think, I've already started the first chapter just incase and will probably post that on my tumblr first. So check there if you're interested. Second, I'm still deciding who my Inquisitor should be for when I start writing that part of Cullen/Amell's story. At the moment, I'm leaning towards a male Inquisitor, not sure which class yet, but has a crush/relationship with Amell at the beginning but eventually falls for Cassandra/Dorian. Or a female Inquisitor that has just started the beginnings of a romance with Cullen and has a rivalry with Amell, but whenever I think of that route I repeatedly make her the bad guy and alone, so I don't know yet. Let me know if you have an opinion on the matter, otherwise enjoy.
WOUNDS
"How long has it been..."
Astrid was in the Fade and she wasn't alone.
She was sprawled across a bed flooded with lavish pillows and silk sheets that slipped at her touch, just like the room she had back in Antiva. Undressed, her ivory skin with smooth and without a scar. Bottles of her favorite wine were scattered in the sheets, rolling silently away as she squirmed under Envy's touch. His icy fingers ran through her long hair, stroking strays from her brow, until finally tipping her chin to face him. She flashed him a glare then swatted his hand away, rolling onto her side to ignore the throaty chuckle that followed behind her. "I'm sorry, should I take another form?" Envy's voice changed as he whispered into her ear, becoming familiar as his hand continued to touch her naked body.
"Is this better?" Envy forced her to look at him and she grimaced. He was the splitting image of Cullen. A knowing, dark smirk stretched across his mouth and he leaned down to lick her lips. "You still have poison in your body..." he continued to speak in a teasing manner, not matching the person he was pretending to be. Envy caressed her body, moving down the length of her body with a single stroke of his tongue. "Should I see if I can taste it...here..." he pressed a finger between her thighs, but Astrid refused to give him the satisfaction of a moan.
Envy quickly retaliated. He hovered over her suddenly, pining both of her hands down as his yellow eyes bore into her. "Why do you persist in fighting me, hmm?" the demon inquired. "I've offered to please you as him, yet you continue to refuse...and I can't help but be curious." He laid himself against her, resting his head against her bare breasts, familiar warmth radiating from his body. Astrid remained still, but the demon could feel his persuasion beginning to break her down. Envy continued to kiss at her skin, leaving red marks as he tried to coax any vocals from her.
"Try as much as you please," Astrid finally spat, "but you'll never be him."
The demon laughed, throat vibrating against her skin. "No, I'm not," he growled and squeezed her thigh. "But you can never have him again...so I'm providing you with a rare kindness...Astrid..." he dug his nails into her hip, teasing himself against her and finally eliciting a response from the mage. It wasn't Cullen and it never would be, but Astrid knew Envy was carving away her resolve. She bit her lip as he moved and he smirked, "We made a deal after all—"
He abruptly clicked his tongue as Astrid found herself growing dizzy, sinking into the bed. Envy forced his mouth against hers, nipping at the mage's lip and drawing a stream of blood that dribbled down her chin. "Times up..." the demon lapped at her mouth, satisfied with her metallic taste. "Someone knows your secret..."
Astrid was awake the next second, and gasping in pain the next.
She hissed and collapsed back into the bed, now dull and noisy as the door flung open. The mage was surprised to see Fenris, who stared at her in surprise and then left the room. Astrid didn't have the patience to wonder what that was about and instead noticed the sling her right arm was in. She wiggled her fingers and moved her leg, relieved to know the poison hadn't paralyzed her limbs. Astrid looked down to see the layers of dressings wrapped around her waist, red standing bold against the white bandages. She realized someone had redressed her in an oversized tunic at some point, where the collar was wide enough to notice she wasn't wearing a breast-band if she leaned forward enough.
"Balls..." Astrid groaned as she tried to sit-up, careful not to open the wounds.
A moment after Fenris had left, the door opened and someone she only faintly remembered seeing before passing out was standing at the doorway. "You're finally awake," came his familiar voice, one she did not greet pleasantly. "You can scowl all you want, but I'm the healer in Hawke's ragtag group..." Anders brought a stool up to the side of the bed and sat down, "so you'll just have to deal with it."
Astrid frowned, "Did I at least break something?"
"No, nothing was broken—" Anders started, but she poked him between the eyes.
"I meant when I hit you," she said as a smirk crept on her face.
The mage returned a frown of his own, "You broke my nose." She wanted to laugh, but was immediately met with a stinging pain in her side and resolved to a dull chuckle as she sunk back into the full pillows. Anders was not as amused. "We should redress the bandages...please sit up some more," he was different from the mage she knew back at Kinloch Hold. He was gentle as he rolled her shirt up and began to peel back the dressing he made earlier, incinerating them with a flick of his wrist. Astrid couldn't help but be impressed at the improvement to his character, almost feeling guilty for greeting him with her fist.
"You aren't going to ask?" she finally piped up as he turned his attention to her arm.
Ander's gaze met hers and hardened, "About what? Why you left the circle...or—" He paused suddenly. "Or why you allowed yourself to be possessed by a demon?" The healer spoke just loud enough for her to hear incase of any ears pressed at the door. Astrid was immediately reminded of what Envy had said before she woke-up and shut up.
The mages remained quiet through the rest of the check-up. Anders was careful as he continued to gently tend to her wounds, carefully reapplying a poultice across her skin and maneuvering her arm back into the makeshift sling. He gave her a last once over and then stood up, but not before Astrid stopped him. "Anders..." she called as he reached the door, but she couldn't form any words and her eyes were growing heavy. "That was a sleep potion..." she groaned. He paused to give her a curt nod and opened the door, leaving her to stare through the sliver of night sky peeking through the curtains, just until she slipped into a peaceful slumber again.
She fell back asleep shortly after Ander's visit and was spared having to encounter Envy again in the Fade.
While she slept, Hawke finally returned after disappearing a few nights ago. No one was quite sure where he had gone off to, including Varric, who had tabs on everyone. But he wasn't alone. Hawke quietly stumbled into Fenris's mansion, covered in sand and scratches, but otherwise unbothered and walking tall. Fenris sat by the fire, flipping through a tattered book left behind in his former master's escape, and only looked up when he heard Hawke's heavy footfalls come into the room. The mansion's squatter rose to his feet quickly and fixated on the templar in toe, sending a careful look in his companion's direction. "Hawke..." he stood between them and doorway into the next room, "I don't think she—this is not a good idea."
"It's okay Fenris," Hawke boomed. He turned to his templar companion and gestured to the door, "Ser Cullen."
Hesitantly the elf moved aside and Cullen opened the door, the hinges creaking from dust and age as it swung wide enough for him to step through. This would be the second time the templar snuck up on the mage while she slept, head tilted just slightly as she laid on her back, lips parted as a soft breath passed through. He noticed the sling on her arm, the peek of bandages through the gap in the tunic's low collar, and the assortment of scrapes across her skin. Hawke refused to speak a word of what had happened to Astrid, but had said enough to have him follow the vigilante into Hightown. Cullen approached cautiously, worried that the slightest noise would wake her. He reached for her hand, feeling her skin for the first time in years as he stroked the star-shaped scar on her palm. His fingers fell back to his side tingling, nostalgia rushing through the templar.
"What happened—" Cullen started once he left the room, closing the door silently behind him.
Hawke, however, was going to be asking the questions. "Ser Royce," he growled, blue eyes boring into the templar, matching the same frown the elf was giving him. "Do you know who he is?"
An evocative chill ran through the templar. Ser Royce... He recalled the letter he received from Kinloch Hold, the Knight-Commander's remorse over the circumstances of Astrid's escape. Cullen couldn't hide the realization cross his face and Hawke gave him a questioning look. "Ser Royce is—was—a templar at the circle in Ferelden," he answered after the silence lingered for a while. "I've been told he was a very ruthless templar that took advantage of the young women there..." he paused, "What does he have to do—"
"He's hunting my cousin," Hawke replied firmly, the crease in his brow growing deeper. "And I want to know why..."
Cullen was shocked. "I-I'm not sure why. I was already relocated by the time he got there,but—"
"But?" Fenris finally piped in, arms crossed tightly against his lean chest.
"Astrid...before she escaped the circle, he attacker her and she retaliated," the templar's eyes fell to his feet, "if she hadn't escaped, they would have performed the Rite of Tranquility on her."
Hawke continued to stare at Cullen, unsatisfied by his explanation. "What reason then would he have to hire mercenaries to hunt her down? It appears to be far more personal than simply standing up to him..."
He agreed, but couldn't provide the answer Hawke sought. Cullen was not there. The templar thought back on the letter again and sighed, "Mathias..." The other men raised a brow at him. Cullen ran a nervous hand back through his hair and gave them a sad look. "Mathias was there, he was a templar. However, he left the Order and I couldn't even begin to suggest where he might be now. Find him...and you might have your answers."
"Very well," Hawke sighed, defeated by the lack of resolve to the problem. "I will go see Varric now, he might be able to use his connections to find this Mathias. Fenris stay here with Astrid and Ser Cullen—" the templar looked up ready to aid in anyway, but Astrid's cousin shook his head. "Do not come back here." The templar opened his mouth to protest, but Hawke remained stead fast in his decision. "It will become suspicious if Kirkwall's Knight-Captain is sneaking away to Hightown every now and then," he answered, "I will not endanger her anymore than she already is, or have her hurt anymore either..." The former refugee headed for the door, but stopped to say one last thing. "I don't care what happened between you and her, but for her sake, it ends here."
The templar stood for a minute longer in Fenris's mansion, looking back one last time at the door separating him from Astrid. He then left as Hawke instructed, never to return again.