The air was heavy with sweat and echoed the crowd's shouting. Durga did not know whether it was cries of joy for her victory or curses for her defeat. She only listened to them as background noise concentrated on her opponent. His skin was bloody and scaly from her inflicted bruises or perhaps it was a natural part of him. He was, however, extremely fast dodging her attacks like they were a mere annoying flies. She hit him with a jib but he would easily duck or turn her kicks back against her. Even worse was that all her training was falling apart from this fight, which determined her victory and possible freedom in less than a season.
Durga couldn't risk losing, not when she needed to prove herself. Not when she could pay back Aveline for all those times during breakfast. She ran through so many 'what if's' in her mind that she almost forgot that a fight was waiting for her.
A giant fist was aimed at her face in slow motion, leaving her with all the cruel time in the world before she was ready. The first bare inches of knuckle connected with her face, letting loose a flash of sensual imagery that featured her enjoying the act of carnage, but feeling dead on the inside.
A loud gasp, along with the fresh familiar scent of fur, both exited and entered her mouth. Durga felt the instinct of panic set in, trying to fight off this monster who was only going to gnaw her face off. A sudden rub of something wet across her cheek caused great alarm and her hands reached out to grip and snap a quick death. Instead, they met empty air as warm fur invaded the space. A wet snout along with lupine eyes took up her field of vision. Another lick came across her cheek as a second greeting from slumber.
Durga slowly turned her head to check her surroundings, noticing the startling difference from her usual quarters. The walls were made of leather, bounded by rope and set up with poles. The ground was fairly covered with the smell of grass wafting into her nose to indicate that she was outside. This put her ill at ease, not knowing how she got here and who these people were that brought her here.
She pushed the blankets off in a rush to get her bearings. Just as she stood up, the rush of vertigo filled her head and she buckled to her knees from the pain. That's when Durga finally noticed that she was covered in bandages and a threadbare tunic that came past her thighs. Luckily Lady was not that far from her, trotting over to bear some of her companions weight by scooping under Durga.
"Looks like Sleeping Beauty finally awoke from slumber. Granted, I didn't think you would try to walk so soon." A voice from ahead of her spoke with light, warmhearted humor.
The soft padding of footsteps brought the voice over to Durga, feeling the soft presence of a man emit from him, which made her feel uneasy. Lady wasn't growling out of protection, but she was still protective as usual.
"Magebane can be a bit of a pain to get used to when it's ingested around first timers or idiots. Thankfully you were only tricked into drinking it so you aren't an idiot." Warm hands gently hooked under her shoulders and lifted her up with strain. "Boy, you feel heavier than you look. Must be packing it away somewhere on ya."
Durga ignored the easy bait question and instead responded to an obvious question. "I was drugged with Magebane?"
"Yes, I'm afraid it was a wonderful raise from your ever-so-lovely employer." The man managed to get her back onto the cot as Lady sat between them. "It's something I don't think Athenril does often when she puts a girl out to work. Normally, they just lie on their backs without the stuff, yet I get the feeling she wasn't going to get much agreement from an apostate."
Durga felt herself feeling slightly ashamed and worried that he had figured out what caused her blackout, as well as her reason for being here. Looking at her with obvious concern, he patted her hands before letting a soft glow of healing magic erupt.
"Don't worry your secret is safe with me. Well, more like the Red Iron in general. Hence the reason why we interrupted last night and rescued you." Durga lifted her head to get a good look at the man noticing his pale blue eyes and ruddy brown hair. "No need to worry. One of our many employers actually hired us to save you because they thought you had more to offer with your potential. I just think we'll leave out the apostate bit since the job is done. How are you feeling now?"
His eyes seem to fill with genuine concern, making his face seem cleaner than it actually was. Durga took particular notice of this since it was odd to find someone out in a mercenary group to be cleaner than an Orlesian.
"I feel sick, but not in my muscles. It's like," She lied down taking in the frown forming on his freckled skin. "My head is swimming in a sea of glass every time I try to heal myself. It never felt this bad when a Templar used their spells on me."
The man chuckled, wringing his pasty hands together over her forehead. "Well, Templars don't use spells, much to the various arguments I hold with Douglas about how they ingest lyrium to bring about those skills. It is a skill one can learn or be born with like a latent mage." Durga pinched her face in confusion during the rant. "Sorry, I tend to ramble on interesting subjects. So I'll summarize that you were given a pure concoction of Magebane mixed with a sleeping agent to ensure you were unconscious for more than three days. That would surely means a good long line of clients who could get their jollies doing whatever they wanted without waiting for you. wouldn't worry about you choking since your gag reflex is still working fine."
Durga let all this information process in her brain from what has happened in the last twenty four hours. She tried to not let her mind wander at the worst implications of what Athenril had planned for her. The mere idea was enough to leave her sick at what could of happened to her and how lucky she is to have been saved.
This made Durga feel sour in her stomach at such a notion. She let her mother die only to be saved by her sister to exact revenge far too late. She saved her sister and cousin, only to be almost get herself killed on a trap. She let her sister go on her journey in exchange for a death sentence only to be saved by a passerby. And now she was given job that made her feel part of a group only to be used like a port side whore.
Durga didn't know whether to laugh or cry. Every decisive moment in her life was followed by a heavy price.
"Life is a catch! I suppose you should catch it while you can."
Flemeth's words never felt more accurate than it did now as Durga sat up, ignoring the pain in her head. Lady rubbed her nose into her hip, trying to ease the burden to remind she was not alone. The gesture was greatly needed, but Durga knew she had to make a decision in order to gain an edge on these moments.
"You knew I was an apostate and you rambled on about Templar abilities. Assuming you have more time to escape them, I was wondering, if it wasn't any trouble..."
The freckled man pulled up his hand in polite silence as a lumbering man entered the tent. "Owen, is she awake?"
"Yes, Douglas. However, she was going to ask something very crucial in the matter of tutoring." Owen took a seat on her cot looking her over with an intense gaze. "Which I was going to answer, before you rudely interrupted. To answer your question Durga - yes, we can both train you." Durga felt her eyebrows narrow at the implications of both of them. "Well, I can teach you what I know about advanced healing from my time in Neverra since you take to it like a duck to water. My associate here is named Douglas, former Templar, and will help you get used to the feeling of your mana ripped from you while working on your combat skills. Those hands of yours are rather callous from untrained staff casting."
Durga caught on the implications of what Owen was hinting at yet went with the more obvious questions of their titles. "If you both used to belong to the Neverran Circle, then why are you in the Free Marches?"
Douglas relaxed his features as he went over his head what was the best and shortest answer to tell the woman. Taking a seat on the chair he let his sword and shield down by his feet. "To tell you the truth without going over a long winded discussion about how the order has changed into something more questioning and how Mages should be better cared for...I simply faked both our deaths when Owen escaped."
Durga looked at them both with a cautious gaze as Lady sat alert. "That's leaving a lot more questions than what was answered."
"Don't worry yourself over it. It was years ago when you were still in pinafores." Douglas' remark caused Durga to look over at both men, noticing a startling difference in their age. "I see you finally caught on to Owen's looks. He is possibly the vainest old Mage I ever did meet, but I would lie if I said I wasn't thankful for his healing and blood magic."
Owen, at this point, slapped both hands to his face as if his partner was embarrassing him like a toddler. The act only made Durga feel more uneasy at the two, thinking more unpleasant thoughts.
"Look, we aren't going to kill you for that major slip." Owen lifted his head, letting the annoyance show in his features. Douglas only shrugged his shoulders. "But we were going to tell you if you would cater to a deal of sorts for us."
"What would that be? Bleed children to feed your masters, partake in magical orgies draining the life of others? Because if you haven't noticed I'm more a heal-gashes-and-break-faces kind of woman."
"Well, the orgy part was more of my line of thinking." Owen muttered as Durga shot him a look. "Look - it isn't anything remotely bad, but we would like a little compensation from you for our gratuitous nature to help train you."
"Owen, cut the bullshit." Douglas gruff voice cut off his partner's sentence as he looked Durga directly in the eye. "Our business agreement can go like this: We train you and in exchange you can sleep with either of us to keep the other men off you. Or you can receive training from us and try to fight off the other men, who spend too many nights away from a brothel, and won't sell you out to any roaming Templars."
Durga felt her voice go quiet at how blunt the former Templar was at saying their true intentions. It wasn't any better she dodged being a sex toy for Athenril's gold, but to be coerced into this. She felt Lady bristle and growl, bearing her teeth at the men. She clung to Lady who was near Owen, who was at the moment freaking out.
"Look, it seems like an awful deal no matter how you look at it; however, we won't force you to do anything unless the others catch on about you since they already are keeping me and Douglas as secret. We're giving you the option to how you can go about this." Owen was seriously debating how fast he could cast a spell without getting his face ripped off. "It's just two Apostates are harder to hide than one."
"Bullshit. You two clearly lived this long without getting caught and so have I. It's just another trial and error for me to hide it better." Durga slowly got out of the cot behind lady for a better defense. She noticed Douglas stand up with a grim look on his face.
"Tell me then, how long can you go into hiding without practicing your talent? How long before you get into a situation where you need the learning or experience of another Mage to help you live another day? The fact that I could find you in your sleep meant Athenril was doing all the heavy work for you and tried to pull what she did last night. We are offering a realistic option to help train you until your year is done. It's not the best, but you are in a camp filled with men, and some of them don't touch things that belongs to another with the risk of a broken arm."
Durga looked at him with cold fury as she tried to weigh in her options. It was true the latter seemed better as she had Lady protecting her, but the situation wasn't helpful as she was to part of a company of men away on missions. Mercenary men that were paid to kill or protect away from their loved ones or favorite brothels, for weeks at a time. This proposition was seedy enough with the unanswered question concerning her rescue. Yet, knowing how Athenril will react was more alarming since the woman would get revenge following the law to a T.
She leaned back on her left leg to visibly show how she was weighing her options. "These 'Red Irons' do business outside the city?"
Douglas looked at her with calm face understanding she was willing to negotiate. "This troupe deals with traveling and we are mostly gone for no shorter than two weeks on excursions and no later than a month on escort missions with the local caravans. The other troupe usually involves the 'go kill that bastard somewhere in Kirkwall' mentality most mercenary bands are known for ."
"So, my choices are rather limited on where I am to stay and earn my keep." Durga leaned back on the cot. "I can either stay in a city where I have to hide from Templars and an angry Elven gang leader who both want me dead, or I can take the other lovely option of being the personal whore to two men instead of being passed around camp earning my keep."
"At least you have a choice in the matter of how your path goes. Not many mages are this lucky to make it this far, especially if you lived in a Circle." Owen was smiling at her to ease the tension. "I can assure you Douglas will be patient to wait until you're fully healed to share his bed."
"Which I'm sure you'll be ready to take a piece as well?" She snapped in annoyance at the man.
"Well, unless you're up for some spooning through the night." Durga looked with a perplexed look toward Owen. "I never paid any attention to women since Templars, like Douglas, always looked better in skirts. However, I am willing to share our bed for his weird tastes. Also should the others catch on, let's just say a mouth is just a mouth to me."
Durga didn't know whether she should slap the man or shake his hand on the deal, even if he was the lesser of two evils. Of course, it was better to be a little cynical on this opportunity than to bet on nothing.
"Either way I look at it, it seems this seems a somewhat pleasant pact." Durga felt nausea as her hand moved into the air, walking over to the shaggy mage. "I guess we have a deal then?"
Owen grabbed her hand shaking, rather weak in the grip, before walking over to his desk. "Well, since it's concluded and I'll be telling Douglas later, you are immediately under our tutelage." He pulled out a rather large tome, carrying it to Durga's lap. "You have an hour of rest so I expect the first ten chapters to be finished and verbally summarized back to me."
Durga blanched at the man leaving, before looking down at the giant tome. "Seriously! What if I can't read it. Did you even think that?"
Without missing a beat Owen went over to his small table going over some potions. "Well then, in that case, only read five chapters and we will do some hands on experience for the other five."
Durga looked at Owen's back, contemplating if all mages were this uppity or just him in particular. The tome was rather nice bound in leather and gilded gold that glided on her fingers. Yet, as she opened the book she was presented with looping curves and intricate designs at the start of each page. This only confirmed one of her questions when she used to work in the Emporium: being a Circle Mage was filled with that wonderful opportunity to be educated. Thankfully, there was no demand to follow the chantry so her studies might do well over the following year.
Douglas coughed, looking at Durga with a sly smile. On anybody else it would of made her feel the urge to run, but she did make a rather unsavory deal that benefited both parties.
"I'll talk with Meeran and see if we can get you a proper staff. As much as you were good with your knuckles, you need a proper weapon to channel your magic."
"If it were possible, do you think you can get me a pole-arm instead? I like to train with that in case my lessons with Owen sour."
Douglas said no more on the subject but nodded as he exited the tent. Durga felt a little relieved after he left as Lady laid down beside her. 'I guess I have a year to prove myself.'
A/N: And this the time skip happens. Sorry, but it's been over a year since I finally gotten past this chapter...so lot planned for the future chapters that reflect the game. Review, with no restraints people. I like to thank ,my lovely beta Arista for putting up with me and my crazy crazy grammar.