It wasn't through tracking that he found their quarry, not really.

It was logic.

Nathaniel had spotted the hill rising far above the rest, boulders of grey rock surrounding its top...and ignored Mhairi's and Anders' questions as he made his way up the steep slope. It was the perfect place to make camp for a people that quite rightly assumed the surroundings to be hostile, it was the spot Nathaniel would have picked.

What else could he do? There were no tracks, the woman having been swallowed by the ground itself, and if she did have any tracks anywhere Nathaniel didn't trust himself to find a light Dalish's tracks among thousands of others...not by simple chance.

Yet he had been unwilling to admit defeat just yet, knowing the value of perseverance. Besides, what other option did they have? The woman was obviously one of the main causes of all the problems, what factor the darkspawn played Nathaniel wasn't sure, and as such they just had to find her. So he had continued his search...and calmly ignored Anders continued quips about asking the trees...and gone on, grateful for the silence when Lynn had finally told Anders to be silent.

And, as so many times before, his perseverance had paid off. Climbing the final stretch of the steep slope, ignoring Anders struggled breathing, Nathaniel felt a twinge of satisfaction at the sight of the tops of a pair of tents sticking up above the grey boulders blocking most of his view.

Patience always leads to victory. Nathaniel of course didn't show his satisfaction as he unslung his bow from his back and gestured for the others to stop, his voice low: "Camp ahead, I..." Then slammed his jaw shut as Lynn's eyes focused on him. Oh...right. "I..." He forced himself to ignore Mhairi's grin as he straightened. "...orders, Commander."

The woman paused, her eyes fixed on him, making him look away. "Follow my lead."

Eh? Nathaniel blinked and looked back after his Commander, only to find her brushing past him, weapons still sheathed, not the least bothered by the impending battle. The elf can summon trees and use magic...shouldn't we... Sighing he moved to follow Anders and Mhairi, the knight still grinning at him despite her drawn weapons, the mage having drawn his staff...and looking deceptively casual about it. At least they seem ready... He pulled out an arrow and notched it as he followed.

Then he heard it, what Lynn must have heard; The soft, nearly whispering, sound of sobbing.

Dammit. Nathaniel grimaced even as they pushed past the cover of the boulders. Anything but crying...

The camp was small, a mere two large tents standing opposite one another...and both visibly listing from the lack of attention paid to them. No Aravels, no burning camp-fires, a couple of broken crates...and dozens of weapons strewn across the ground, as if tossed across the camp by some uncaring giant. A ghost camp.

The elf wasn't hard to miss, she was at the far end of the camp, back turned to them, her head bowed. Before her four mounds of recently shifted earth lay in a row, thin saplings rising from each of them...

Graves.

Lynn's advance was slow and unhurried, leisured. The others followed, Nathaniel's arrow notched and ready. It would be so easy, the robe the Dalish wore would be no protection against the arrow, and at the shrinking distance he could virtually shoot right through her... She deserves it too. Nathaniel felt the twinge of his recently healed ribs.

Yet he held...Lynn hadn't given any command...and it felt wrong...the soft crying and sudden...frail look of the woman stopping him. All logic said she was dangerous, unpredictable, her magic able to call upon monsters and who knew what...and the dead bandits showing she was all too willing to do just that.

Yet...she wouldn't. He saw her shaking shoulders, her slouching stand...and knew the fight had gone out of her.

Despite that he winced in irritation as one of the swords strewn across the ground loudly scrapped against another, making both him and Mhairi shoot an apologetic looking Anders glares.

The elf didn't turn though, a snort escaping her as the crying stopped. "Survived did you?" The voice was now bereft of the anger, revealing the softness Nathaniel had detected in it before, the voice of someone not needing to raise her voice that often. She slowly shook her head: "Doesn't matter..."

Lynn cocked her head to the side and advanced, the others slowly following. Anders and Mhairi still had their weapons raised, but Nathaniel found himself lowering his bow. She reminded him of those prisoners they had taken in the Free Marches, while weapons were always used as a precaution they were often not needed...most prisoners just became meek children when the realisation of their status struck them.

Yet...he kept the arrow resting on the bow. Just in case...

"Come to finish the job have you?" The elf snorted. "You think I'll allow that?" Uh oh... "You think I'll allow that!" The woman whirled about, spindly hands clenching into fists as she glared at the group with sudden heat. Anders and Mhairi recoiled, ready to fight, but Nathaniel saw the wetness around the burning eyes, burning eyes bruised with a lack of sleep...and knew Lynn saw it too. "You might have killed the others and taken my sister! But not me!"

"Your sister?" Lynn repeated, head still cocked to the side. "Others?"

The woman's face twisted into a grimace torn between anger and derision. "Don't play coy with me! And don't think sending some flat eared servant garbed in armour will trick me either!" The last was shot at Anders, the elf apparently thinking the robes meant the mage was in charge. Anders visibly shirked away from the glare, making Nathaniel smirk. What? No 'funny' joke?

"I am Lynn Tabris, the Warden."

There was a visible twitch in the elf's eyes, her head turning to look down at Lynn, as if finally seeing her, the woman's face softening. "The clans speak of you with respect..." The softness was then visibly shaken off as she glared at the humans behind the Commander. "What do you do with these shems?" Then the glare was turned back to the other elf. "Or is this another ploy of the humans?"

Lynn took a heavy step forward. "I am the Commander of the grey." Nathaniel watched as the other elf shuddered, frowning in surprise as she found herself forced to looked away from the Commander's dead eyes. That's familiar. "What ploy?"

"Don't try that." The elf snorted, yet refused to meet Lynn's eyes as she grit her teeth. "The men constantly travelling through the forest, pleading innocence even as they kick around their flat eared slaves, who claim not to know anything of my sister...filth." She shot a glare over at the humans at Lynn's back. "All of them."

Feisty... Nathaniel kept his face neutral as he found himself commenting: "Those were merchants, of course they didn't know anything, they wouldn't know anything even if some other humans had kidnapped your sister."

The elf snorted and rolled her eyes at him, yet didn't meet his gaze. She doesn't know the human world...she can't argue because she doesn't know...she killed men on such loose grounds? Thinking with her emotions no doubt, foolish. Nathaniel grimaced in disgust, then for some reason found himself shooting Lynn a glance. Foolish Dalish... "Of course a shem would say that...leave me be...or suffer the consequences."

Despite her earlier display of power Nathaniel heard Mhairi chuckle at the threat, by now they all saw that the elf was exhausted with grief and a lack of sleep, worn down to nothing by an all too familiar feeling of being powerless... Nathaniel found himself shooting the unknowing knight a glare. There is nothing amusing here, only a tragedy for all involved.

"I am the lord of these lands." Lynn spoke, her voice cold, uncaring of the small snort of the other elf glancing at the forest, showing just what the Dalish thought of such claims upon these particular lands. "And I'm telling you none in my land has taken your sister, none knew of you even being here."

"Lie all you want." The woman scoffed and turned away from them, her hands coming up to hug her shoulders tightly as she bowed her head to look back down on the graves she on her own must have dug. "The facts are plain as day." To demonstrate she shot one of the closest swords on the ground a small kick, sending it skittering away.

Taking a silent step forward Nathaniel bowed his head to whisper to Lynn. "These might be the dead militiamen's weapons... I'm not sure what you plan, but fighting seems...it would only add to the tragedy." And I was the one getting hurt...Nathaniel grimaced, realising all desire for vengeance had gone out of him at the understanding of the facts, as it always did. Despite the logic of it he couldn't help but feel that he was somehow cheating himself out of his own justice though...though he shrugged such foolish thoughts aside.

The Commander shrugged, no doubt not the least bothered by the idea of adding to the already high death-toll. Still, Nathaniel had to grudgingly admit that she didn't strike him as one who killed needlessly.

Her next words confirmed it. "The humans killed your friends?" The Commander made a small gesture for the graves.

"Yes." A miniscule nod of the Dalish, her voice small as she glanced back at them.

"Kidnapped your sister?"

"I already told you..." The voice was still small, but now tinged with irritation as the elf half-turned to look at the Commander...who calmly met the tearful gaze.

"And left their weapons here?"

There it was, a flash of confusion in the eyes of the Dalish, her forehead creasing. "I...well...humans are so..."

"Swords? Axes, maces?" Lynn pushed the issue, arms crossed in front of her. "Whole? Usable? Theirs?"

"I..." The woman frowned, looked away, eyes darting left and right, taking in the many still whole weapons littering the ground, her mind obviously full of confused thoughts. "...it...I..." She swallowed, a shudder running through her. "...it doesn't...I can't..."

Lynn seemed content to wait, forcing Nathaniel to take a step forth and offer: "We found dead militiamen in a ditch some distance away, unarmed and killed by darkspawn." He glanced at the weapons strewn over ground, standard gear...it was painfully obvious to see. "These are probably their weapons."

"D-darkspawn?" At first he thought it was fear that made the woman stutter, but when he looked up he found a darkness in the eyes narrowed at him...yet not at him. "Darkspawn!" Gone was the sadness, the exhaustion, the weariness. The woman was once more afire with the rage he had seen at their first encounter, but now directed elsewhere. "Darkspawn took my sister!" She bared her teeth in a feral growl, her head snapping around to glare down at the weapons strewn across the ground. "And they have made me waste my time with..." Killing innocent? "...unimportant fools!" Fair enough... "I'll rip their flesh from their bones for this!"

Anders chuckled at that, staff still held at the ready. "Nice crazy elf..."

"You!" The woman's head snapped round to glare at Lynn, a spindly finger reaching out to point at the Commander, her voice demanding. "Why would they do that! Where would they take her!" Nathaniel nearly chuckled at the sight, diplomatic... "Tell me now or I-"

"Or you what?" Lynn snapped, voice cold and harsh.

Silence.

The Dalish looked away, her fists clenched to her sides, her simmering rage seemingly ready to burst through at any moment, despite the cold shower of the recent revelations and Lynn's stoicism.

Then the Commander, still with her head cocked, spoke: "Their motives are alien, they have changed, but they will doubtlessly take her underground." The Dalish's head snapped round at that, a fire of knowledge and purpose in her eyes. "To become a broodmother."

Broodmother...Nathaniel shuddered at the name, despite not really knowing what it was. Didn't sound pleasant...

"I know of a mine..." The woman spoke, her voice soft as she thought back...then growled as she glanced back at the graves of her friends. "The darkspawn will pay for this." A short nod, if even that, aimed at Lynn's direction. "I'll go now."

"No you won't!" Mhairi suddenly snapped, weapon still drawn and at the ready as she risked a glance at Lynn before returning to glaring at the elf coldly regarding her. "Commander! This woman has killed dozens of merchants and their guards! Citizens of Ferelden! She must be punished! Clapped in irons!"

The elf scoffed at that, arms crossed in front of her chest as she regarded the human woman. "And you are going to do that?" The elf arched an eyebrow, as if the four against one odds weren't even an issue. Feisty indeed...Nathaniel held his bow lowered though, sure things would not come to blows any longer. "I'd like to see you try."

"We will not fight." Lynn growled, her word law, making Mhairi lower her weapons and the other elf to drop her arms to the side, the fire dying out of her as she found herself transfixed by Lynn's gaze. "But you will come with us, if there's darkspawn to fight we will fight them."

The Dalish visibly shivered as she looked away, her voice slightly shaky as she tried to sound confident. "I care not for offers of aid from outsiders, those are always laced with-"

Her words turned into a strangle gasp as Lynn suddenly stood inches from her, golden gauntlet closed around the Dalish throat, pulling the taller elf's face level with her own. "That was not an offer, it was a demand."

The Dalish's eyes visibly bulged at that, the fire in them dying out. "O-okay..."

"And when this is done you will answer to me for those you killed." Lynn's voice was cold, uncaring...and unrelenting, her fingers visibly digging into the tanned flesh of the Dalish's neck.

There was a flash of anger in the Dalish eyes, despite Lynn's eyes meeting hers, making Nathaniel do a double take. Impressive... "If my sister is found I don't care, I'll be satisfied."Huh...Nathaniel wasn't sure if he was supposed to be impressed or derisive of such a stance.

"Good." Lynn released the other elf, drawing a small gasp from the woman as she reached for the imprints in her throat.

"So what do we call you?" Anders suddenly chimed in, sounding amused for some reason. "Reject number three, prisoner or 'you elf'?" Diplomatic as always...

The Dalish, still rubbing her throat, shot Anders a glare. "Call me elf again and I'll incinerate you." The mage took a step back, still smirking, but holding his hands up in placation, making Nathaniel smirk. Ah, so that's how you shut him up... "And I am Velanna, from the clan of..." She glanced back at the graves at her back, the fire in her eyes fading a little. "...of the Dalish." Hmmm...

"Still say we should put her in chains..." Mhairi growled, looking away with a frown on her face.

Anders just smirked. "Ah yes, another hottie to the gang, can't co-ough!" He grunted as Mhairi shoved an elbow into his ribs even as the elf named Velanna glared at him with her arms crossed in front of her chest, only helping in amplifying his point, or so his leering smirk said.

Am I happy with this? Nathaniel still felt the aching of his ribs, but then again he had made allies out of enemies before, and this wasn't really an alliance, it was just using a prisoner as extra reinforcement. The Commander seems to have a knack for that...He nearly smirked at the thought, but settled for a neutral face as he offered the Dalish a curt nod. "Fair enough."

Lynn shrugged and gestured for the Dalish to proceed. "Take us to this mine you mentioned..."

888

Thanks to Abydos Jackson for her vigilance.