Nero poured himself a glass of wine and took a sip as he paced the room slowly, giving himself a moment to absorb what he had read so far. With a sigh he finished off the glass and sat back down, noticed the top paper was just another list of purchases and balled it in his fist and tossed it into the fire.

He started as he looked back down at the papers and found himself looking at a poor rendering of Fenris, blinking slowly he turned the page to find a letter asking to keep an eye out for him. It said that he was a very important investment and, unfortunately, there had never been a phylactery made. 'The slave is asked to be returned as soon as possible, due to the danger the slave poses and it's value. A large sum will be given to any captors upon its return.' Then Nero froze as he deciphered the signature.

"Denarius?" he muttered, surprised at the finding.

He read the letter once more before turning it over to find a sheet filled with statistics, similar to the one he had found about himself. Before reading it he looked at the papers under it, hoping to find an outline of the procedure to put the lyrium in the elf. He was slightly disappointed only to find a rendering of another elf, and after that another statistic sheet. Quickly flipping through the remaining stack of papers he found several more renderings and stats of escaped slaves that the hunters were asked to keep an eye out for.

Returning to the stats sheet he glanced through it to find that Fenris was only two years younger than he, a mere 26, that he had been 'missing' for three years, he had a sister and a mother, although their names were not listed and that his given name had been Leto.

"Maker's breath" Nero whispered, sitting back and looking up from the paper. He had a vague memory of meeting a Leto once, during that horrifying week he spent in Denarius' estate. Couldn't be the same one, could it? he frowned. Now that he thought about it, the two did look very similar, if one looked past the extreme difference in hair color. That could be easily explained by the lyrium, he thought grimly.

Grabbing the three papers he tossed the rest on the table and left his room, taking the stairs two at a time, and found Fenris' door slightly ajar. He knocked on it before pushing it the rest of the way open.

Fenris hair was still damp from his bath and he was sitting alone at the end of the table cleaning a gauntlet with an open bottle of wine beside him. He glanced up as Nero entered and frowned. Nero stepped forward and tossed the papers on the table near him as he sat in a nearby chair.

Setting down the gauntlet Fenris reached forward and uncurled the papers, quietly he glanced at the man seated beside him, "are you an artist now?" he asked, taking a swig from the bottle.

"No," Nero replied, "I found those in the pile of papers the hunters had. I thought you might be interested in them, considering they are about you."

Fenris took the rendering and dropped it on the table, staring blankly at the next paper. He frowned and dropped them as well, pushing them away and taking another long drink.

Nero frowned too, in confusion, "what's wrong?"

Scowling Fenris refused to meet his eyes, instead growling out "I cannot read."

"I'm sorry, I didn't realize." Nero apologized.

Fenris sighed, "No one ever does."

"No, I'm a jackass. Did you...did you ever want to learn?" Nero asked carefully, hoping not to offend the elf.

Instead of anger, however, Fenris was startled and his head whipped up to look at the other man, "what?"

"I still remember the lessons from when I was taught is all. I could try to teach you."

"Oh...I...suppose. It could come in handy, I'm sure."

Nero smiled, "well maybe after the expedition is done then, since it seems that we'll be starting that soon." He reached to take the papers that Fenris had pushed away, "would you like me to read you these?"

Fenris took another drink, "sure."

And so Nero somberly read out loud the letter than Denarius had written, with Fenris scowling the entire time, but not voicing his thoughts. Pushing that aside Nero flattened out the last paper, "this one was interesting to me, it reminded me that we met before, only briefly."

Fenris' eyebrows raised in shock, "really? Where?"

"Minrathous, the only time I had been there. My...makers ran into Denarius on the ferry ride over and he was ever so kind," he rolled his eyes, "and offered his estate for us to stay in while we were in the city."

"What did he want in return?" Fenris scowled.

Nero shrugged, "I'm not sure, he made it seem like he didn't expect anything from my masters." Nero's face darkened and he looked down at his hands in his lap, his dark hair covering his eyes, "he took plenty of payment from me while I was kept locked in a room in the basement."

Fenris frowned and turned his attention to the fire, anger and sorrow waring in his mind, he was more than sure he knew what the other man meant. "I'm sorry, I'm sure he was less than pleasant."

"It was almost ten years ago, I've dealt with worse since then, but that was the first...never mind." Nero shook his head slowly but looked up when Fenris offered him the wine bottle, a blank expression on his face. Nero nodded and took a long drink.

"Wait a second, ten years ago," Fenris frowned, "that means you met me before I was branded with these?"

Nero nodded and handed the bottle back, "on the ride to the city he had mentioned that he had a slave that I reminded him of. While we were there he brought you up and they compared us. You were a lot paler then but maybe the black hair just makes it seem that way. You weren't...branded, as you say, but you were nervous and quiet and confused. We didn't speak to each other, we weren't permitted to." Nero gave a small smile, "even if we were I don't think you would have, I remember you kept giving me looks, like you were frightened of me." Fenris snorted "well I was taller than you and had blades at my sides. I barely noticed though, the slaves where I lived were scared of me too." Nero's frown returned and he sighed. "we were only in the same room for about an hour, but Denarius did mention that you were great with a sword, that your name was Leto and you were hired with your family...but they weren't quite as useful as you apparently."

Fenris didn't speak, instead he stared blankly at the table, his brows knit as he tried desperately to remember. He wanted to remember, Nero's words had a ring of truth to them, he knew this, but yet he could not place why he felt so. The name was unfamiliar, he could not remember family, he couldn't even remember seeing the man who sat before him ten years before. He wanted to know, he wanted all the things back that Denarius had taken from him. He wanted to force down this wall that stopped him from knowing who he had been. He sighed regretfully and looked at the bottle in his hand. He realized the irony that he would often drink to forget while wishing fervently that he remembered.

"Thank you," Fenris nearly whispered, "for telling me, I mean."

"I'm sorry I couldn't tell you more." Nero fought the urge to place a comforting hand on the elf's shoulder.

"It's okay, it's not you who took the memories from me."

"I like to think if I had known what he was going to do, that I would have done something...but..."

Fenris gave a wry grin, "you were a slave then too, I wouldn't have held it against you if you did know and did nothing."

Nero didn't reply and the two sat in silence, each with their thoughts in dark places. Nero was trying, and failing, not to think about how the lyrium would have been put into flesh. Fenris was contemplating what he had learned and trying to piece it together with what he already knew. He had already been aware that he had been trained in combat under Denarius before the lyrium was imbibed into his skin. But he had not known his name nor that his family had lived under the man as well. He found himself wondering what happened to them, he was sure that he would have recognized them if they had still been slaves for Denarius after his ...operation.

Nero shook his head to clear his thoughts, "well, at least those files are out of slaver hands at least. I'm going to pretend that not every group of slavers has something similar, so I can sleep easier at night." he frowned, "I know that this was the center of the slave trade 900 years ago but there still seems to be a ridiculous amount of slavers around this cursed city."

Fenris chuckled, "I've come to conclude that there is an abundance of everything unpleasant in Kirkwall."

Nero nodded, "not in this mansion though, maker's breath there is a lot of good wine down there."

"Denarius did like his wine, but I get the impression that he never actually stayed here, I think maybe the merchant who previously owned it before him was a wine merchant."

Nero raised an eyebrow, "excuse me?"

"what?"

"This is...Denarius' estate?"

"Of course, I have been here waiting for him to come to it. But then, like I said, I don't think he's ever even been here, I'm starting to wonder if he even remembers it exists. Does this bother you?"

"what?" Nero asked, confused, "no no, just surprised me is all...it has a nice irony to it at least. That two highly valued slaves are living in a magister's mansion, I mean."

Fenris laughed quietly, "I've never thought of it that way before. Hmmm, I've been wondering..."Fenris sat up straighter, letting his question trail off.

Nero took the bait, "yes?"

"Your...powers, they are what make your eyes purple right?" he received a nod, "do your eyes always change color when you use them? I didn't notice the first time I saw you use them, I was distracted. But on Sundermount the other day..."

His question was met with a look of confusion. "My eyes, change color?"

Now Fenris was confused as well, "yes, after you assisted me with the corpses they were a very deep blue color."

"Oh,' Nero frowned, working out a possible explanation in his head. "Well, I don't generally expel that much essence at once...maybe my eyes go back to their normal color when I'm ...empty, as it were."

Fenris nodded but otherwise didn't respond and an awkward silence fell again. Nero was beginning to notice that it seemed that neither of them really knew how to act around each other anymore. Between Fenris letting Nero sleep in his bed and their fight the day before Nero didn't quite know where he stood in Fenris' eyes. Most of the time the elf was civil, but he seemed to have distanced himself a bit since the argument.

Nero was equally perturbed that he was so troubled about what Fenris thought of him. For the most part he did not generally care much for other peoples opinions or feelings towards him. It bothered him if people knew he was not human, nor elf, in the traditional sense, but other than that...he frowned. He was finding more and more that he tried not to give the elf a reason to think less of him or to hate him.

He was dragged back from his silent musings by Fenris' voice, "oh, I was supposed to let you know. Hawke asked us to come along with him and Bethany as they broke into their family's old estate and found the will their grandparents had left. Apparently their uncle lost it to a bunch of slavers." He smirked at the last part.

Nero nodded, "sure, when?"

"Tomorrow evening."