High Plains Templar

They had to ask directions, but eventually they found Alistair. Unfortunately, he was already occupied. Shai held up a hand, content to wait and see if they could take a measure of this Gray Warden.

"What is it now? Haven't the Grey Wardens asked more than enough of the Circle?" The dark-haired man asked. He was in a robe, which seemed to indicate mage.

"I simply came to deliver a message from the revered mother, ser mage. She desires your presence." He held his hands up, as if trying to offer peace.

"What her Reverence 'desires' is of no concern to me! I am busy helping the Grey Wardens-by the king's orders, I might add!" The man's tone was sharp, angry.

Alistair sighed, but still smiled. "Should I have asked her to write a note?"

"Tell her I will not be harassed in this manner!"

"Yes, I was harassing you by delivering a message." Shai choked on a snort of laughter at that.

"Your glibness does you no credit."

"Here I thought we were getting along so well." The blond Warden just kept going in the face of an increasingly angry mage. "I was even going to name one of my children after you...the grumpy one."

"Enough! I will speak to the woman if I must. Get out of my way, fool." The mage stormed off, somehow stomping in cloth shoes.

Alistair stared after him, face unreadable. "You know one good thing about the Blight is how it brings people together."

Shai smiled at him. "You're a very strange man."

"That," Edana said quietly to Shai, rubbing her nose with the back of her hand to try to hide her smile, "was masterfully annoying. I wonder if he gives lessons?"

"You're not the first woman to tell me that!" Alistair said to Shai, apparently not having heard Edana's comment. His smile faded. "Wait, we haven't met, have we?" He started to look sheepish, and slightly hunted. "I don't suppose you two happen to be mages."

"Why? Would that make your day worse?" Shai asked, folding her arms and raising her eyebrows.

"Hardly. I just like to know my chances of being turned into a toad at any given moment." The smile he flashed was nearly blinding in its good-humor. He seemed to feel that if they hadn't already started berating him that they were almost certainly friends. "Wait, I do know who you are! You're Duncan's new recruits, right? Shai and Edana? I didn't recognize you from his description, you look much better- uh, I mean, you're all cleaned up- I mean..."

"We were looking pretty rough when we got here," Edana cut in, trying to be kind. "We did a little bit of shopping. We were going to ask you for help with the currency, but a very nice Mage lady helped us out when she heard that's what we were planning."

"Oh thank goodness!" Alistair said. "Er, not that I wouldn't have been more than willing to help, but shopping's not really what I do and I'm rather bad at it unless weapons are involved."

"So Wynne said," Shai agreed. "That's why she was willing to help."

"Wynne... oh, Wynne," Alistair said, looking simultaneously enlightened and slightly shifty. "Well, yes. She's... I..." He sighed. "Look, I clearly just shouldn't be allowed to speak, all right? Why don't we start over?" He took a deep breath, huffed it out, and smiled brightly. "Hello, I'm Alistair. You must be Duncan's new recruits. It's nice to meet you."

"Duncan said we should seek you out about this Joining," Shai said quietly. "Is there anything you can tell us about it?" she asked.

Alistair looked distinctly uncomfortable. "Honestly, nothing. Try not to worry about it. It will…just distract you."

Shai's lips twitched. "I see," she said dryly.

He was nothing if quick to change the subject. "You know…it just occurred to me that there have never been many women in the Grey Wardens. I wonder why that is?"

Shai couldn't help her small laugh. "You want more women in the Wardens, do you?"

"Would that be so terrible?" His cheeks flushed as he looked at the two women. "Not that I'm some drooling lecher or anything. Please stop looking at me like that."

Shai put her hand in front of her mouth to hide her laugh.

"That's okay," Edana said comfortingly, the corner of her mouth twitching. "I'm really used to drooling lechers." This guy really did make it too easy.

Shai nodded. "She's dealt with drooling lechers for a living."

As Alistair's flush deepened to an actual blush amidst his spluttering, Shai chose mercy. "So, that argument? What was that all about?" she asked.

He recovered quickly with familiar territory. "With the mage? The Circle is here at the king's request, and the Chantry doesn't like that one bit. They just love letting mages know how unwelcome they are." His expression turned distinctly uncomfortable. "Which puts me in a bit of an awkward position. I was...once a templar."

Both women just tilted their heads in puzzlement. "What's a templar?" Edana took the question.

Alistair blinked. "You... don't know what a Templar is?"

Edana shrugged, sharing another glance with Shai. At this rate, she acknowledged mentally, people were going to start thinking they shared a brain, and that it didn't start working until they made eye contact.

"Well, from a historical standpoint..." Seeing that she had only confused him more, she elaborated. "There were a group of knights called Templars some centuries back, who mostly made failed attempts at conquest over a bit of land that's held sacred to about four different religions. Or sub-variants of the same religion, depending on your perspective. They were supposed to be 'holy', but probably spent more time pillaging than praying."

"Here Templars are the soldiers of the Chantry, they keep mages from getting out of hand and where did you say you were from again?" Alistair managed to shift from babble to questioning with what sounded like the ease of long practice.

Shai shrugged. "We didn't. It's definitely no place you'd know. I doubt anybody here would know it," she tried to explain. But her brain caught on what he'd said. "Just how do mages get 'out of hand?'"

"Well... theeeey..." Alistair winced and shuffled his feet, then shrugged. "Some of them dabble in blood magic," he admitted. "Or make a deal with the wrong Fade demon and end up possessed and turning into abominations. Most of them are perfectly good people," he rushed to say. "If sometimes kind of grumpy. But it's also that, well, so much power can be frightening if they turn maleficar."

"Maleficar would be... these blood mages, then?" Edana asked.

Shai's face shuttered. "And you don't think that giant blade on your back isn't equally terrifying to someone who can't defend against it? Or that people with power can't use it to lord over those without. It doesn't take a demon to make someone evil."

Edana put a hand on Shai's shoulder. "Hey, we've been here all of two days. We should maybe get a little more cultural grounding before we get all judgey." She winced a little when Shai turned to look at her. "Look, I'm not saying you're wrong. I'm not saying you're right. I'm saying we don't have enough information yet. I mean yeah Wynne was awesome, but we don't know what magic does to people's heads."

Her stiff posture didn't relax. "Power is power, only so good or bad as the person weilding it."

Alistair stood with his eyes slightly lowered, looking the very picture of discomfort. "Right, if you have any questions, let me know. Otherwise, lead on! Let's find Duncan." Again with the smooth change of subject to less comfortable topics.

Shai found herself relaxing despite the anger that still simmered in her belly.

Edana draped an arm over Shai's shoulders companionably, guiding her back the way they came. "Come on," she whispered quietly. "It might be better not to rock the boat too hard, at least until we're done with this Joining thing. Just in case. We can start a 'free the mages' campaign when things are a little less Sword-of-Damocles-y for us."

Shai sighed heavily, but nodded slightly and started paying attention to their tour guide.

"As junior member of the order, I'll be accompanying you and the other recruits when you prepare for the Joining." He explained.

Shai just tried to follow along to his babble as they walked, but something distracted her. Namely, a pen with a very sick looking dog being treated by a very worried looking man.

"Hmmm. This isn't good. I'd hate to waste such a promising memeber of the breed," he seemed to muse to himself, right before he caught sight of the approaching party. "Are you the new Warden? I could use some help."

Shai stepped forward, almost eager. "What can I do?"

"This is a mabari. Smart breed, and strong. His owner died in the last battle, and the poor hound swallowed darkspawn blood. I have medicine that might help, but I need him muzzled first," he explained.

He couldn't possibly know about her animal-specific restraint training, so it had to be something else... "Why do you think I could muzzle him?"

"You're a Grey Warden, or soon will be. All Wardens are immune tot the darkspawn taint," he said. "The most you have to worry about is some tooth marks."

Shai snorted. "Just how smart is this dog?"

"Centuries ago, a mage bred them to be smart and understand what they're told. They can remember and carry out complex orders. Most valuable dogs in the world. Trouble is they generally imprint to one master; re-imprinting them is very difficult." He suddenly looked sad. "But without the medicine re-imprinting won't be and issue. Will you help?"

Shai was very intrigued, already handing her blades and bow off to Edana. "Could he be imprinted on me?" she asked.

The kennel master shrugged. "We can try. But first we need to muzzle and medicate him."

"Of course."

"Go into the pen and let him smell you. We'll know right away if he'll respond." His worried expression didn't alter. "Let's hope this works. I would really hate to have to put him down."

"That... is a really big dog," Edana commented, sounding equal parts fascinated, impressed, and slightly repulsed. "I hope you know what you're doing."

The enormous muscular hound made a half-hearted growl as Shai approached it, then cowered down and let her put the muzzle on.

"You don't like dogs?" Alistair asked idly as they watched.

"They're okay, I guess," she shrugged, watching Shai and the kennel-master's interactions with the beast warily. "My parents have had a lot of them over the years, but they don't really know how to train them properly, so they end up kind of... difficult." She relaxed a little when Shai stepped away from the dog. "Plus, they're generally pretty smelly, always dropping disgusting things to step on, and drool. Not my favorite things in the world."

"Oooh, you're not going to like me much then," Alistair laughed. "Well, except for the drool. Well, sometimes."

Shai bounced up to the pair, looking brighter than she had since arriving in this freaky place. "He says the dog looks all right, but he'd do better with some sort of plant from the Korcari Wilds. That's right outside the camp, right?"

Alistair eyed the woman warily. "Yeees," he said carefully. "Actually, we'll be heading there shortly."

Shai just beamed as Alistair led them to Duncan's fire.