Just when Sten thinks that there could be some sense, some logic, in the elf warden's mind, he proves himself wrong again.
She is leading their party in the middle of the mountains of nowhere. The blight is rampaging, and she is leading an expedition to find some dead woman's ashes.
There is only one thing to do. He hears in his heart a demand of the Qun: he must take charge and lead this country of pathetic bas to victory, before the Blight reaches Qunari lands.
He tells her, but she deflects his threats with humor.
What choice does he have? He readies his blade: a fine silverite thing, she said when she gave it to him, but it is not his sword. He would never find his sword again.
But that does not matter. What matters are the Blight, and the lack of focus of their leader.
She looks at him, cold fury in her eyes. She commands her other companions to stay silent, and they obey her. Defiance is in their eyes, but not in their acts; yet she does not heed them.
She is agile. She is strong. And she defeats him, because before he even has a chance to swing his silverite sword, her own dragonbone daggers are crossed at his throat.
"Get back in line, Sten," she says, as if challenging him to defy her. Her voice was shrill, but it was no less authoritative than any of the Tamassran. "If I say that we're going to make Arl Eamon well again by getting the Ashes, we're going to make Arl Eamon well again by getting the Maker-damned Ashes! Unless you, or any other of you, have a better idea. Now's the fucking time to say it!"
The red-haired priestess spoke. "You've led us this far, and never one astray, Kallian. I would support you in this one."
The human warden, the elf assassin, the old bas saarebas, the dwarf, and even the ill-mannered bas saarebas give their Warden leader their own oaths of support.
Sten understands that the look of the others in their eyes was not defiance. It was respect. It is why they, though fearing for her, did not draw their blades as she commanded.
At that moment, he knew he was wrong to have ever flipflopped about doubting her. He decides never to break her orders again, so long as the Blight remains.
She has a certain… certainty about her. She will finish this job, even if that meant that she has to see the ashes of a dead woman first and get some nobleman bas a strange magic potion second.
Even if it meant his defiance.