Standard Disclaimer: Bioware owns all Dragon Age characters and in game content. I own the bits that are left.

Author's Note: This is one of those chapters that earn this story its M rating. Contains male/male interactions. Consider yourself warned.

Chapter 14 – By Fair Means or Foul

9:17 Dragon Age, Circle Tower, Lake Calenhad, Ferelden – 7 years after Neria (now 7) was found

Ines was ready to leave three days after the morning she informed Neria of her impending departure. Despite Neria deliberately getting in trouble throughout their last three days together, Ines neither reprimanded nor punished her. She knew the little girl was just seeking her attention and, frankly, she was grateful for the distraction she provided. She could not get Greagoir's last kiss out of her mind when she was alone and unfocused on any other matter. Perhaps, she could work on discovering a cure for lyrium addiction once she got to Antiva. Even if it would no longer benefit her, there may be future ill-fated couples who would be similarly affected by that stupid decree and could be aided from such a cure.

Kester was helping her load the small row boat with her luggage. She had accumulated quite a number of personal belongings and mementos throughout her years at the Circle Tower. In the end, she had to give most of them away as she could not possibly take them all. Not unless she wanted to travel in a wagon, which she did not. She wanted to leave Ferelden and the temptation to stay far behind. She assumed that she would be able to purchase whatever necessities she needed in Antiva. Surprisingly to her, almost everyone had come to see her off though Wynne was very noticeably absent. Neria stood beside her still holding onto her hand, tears freely falling. Dark clouds had formed over Lake Calenhad. Lightning flashed across the sky ominously.

Ines picked Neria up and enveloped her in her arms. Looking over her shoulder, her eyes met Greagoir's bleak ones as she gently said. "I love you and I will always love you. Always. Never doubt it. Write me if you wish to. I will always reply when I can. I hope you will remember me with the fondness that I will remember you. Who knows? Perhaps you may get a chance to visit me. I will welcome you with open arms." She broke off when Greagoir's gaze grew too hopeful. She had intended to offer comfort not false hope.

Neria sniffed and placed her dainty hands on each of Ines' cheeks. "You promise to reply all my letters?"

Looking back into Greagoir's warm grey eyes, Ines declared tenderly. "I do so solemnly swear this, my love."

Neria petulantly pressed her forehead against Ines' own, breaking the gaze held by the two adults, and whispered. "What about me? Or were you just using me to disguise your words to him?" Torrents of rain suddenly fell and everyone yelped in surprise at its cold. It was summer and rain should not have been so chilling. Everyone started to move in except Greagoir, Irving and the templar who was accompanying Ines to Antiva. Thunder crashed as if the heavens were split into two.

"Neria, calm down or it will begin to snow and they will start to suspect." Ines whispered urgently. "I love you both. You know that. If you write me, I will always reply." She kissed Neria's cheeks tenderly. "Will you look after him for me?" Neria solemnly nodded even though she was not sure how she should be looking at Greagoir. "Make sure he doesn't lose his sense of humour." Ines' eyes twinkled with mischief. "I will send new recipes for you to experiment on." Ines nuzzled the little girl in her arms. "You be good and don't cause too much trouble while I'm gone. If you urgently need to send me a message, you may use the Sending Stone." The last was very softly whispered into Neria's ears. Nevertheless, given her keen elven hearing, she heard it loud and clear. Her eyes widened in shock. Ines winked at her. The Sending Stone was supposed to be only used by Senior Enchanters to send urgent messages across Thedas or between Circles. "The spell to activate it is written on the back of the sun motif cover."

The sky cleared abruptly. The sun shone with a golden warm glow on the lake and Ines knew that meant Neria was as serene as she could possibly be given that she was leaving her. "It will probably take me a month to reach there so you will have to wait at least two for any reply, okay? Don't think it's because I don't wish to reply. That will never be true." Kester signalled to her that he had finished loading their luggage. Ines gave Neria one last hug, inclined a smile at both Irving and Greagoir and left behind her heart in the place where she had spent the last twenty nine years of her life.

That night, a small figure crept silently upstairs to Ines' old room. Neria had awakened from a nightmare and she instinctively sought out Ines like she always did. Still more than half asleep, she had forgotten that Ines was no longer there to hold her. Fresh sheets had already been laid on the bed. The servants were very efficient at the Circle Tower. The room was just like any other empty room in the Senior Enchanter's quarters now. Neria curled into a small ball on the depersonalized bed and wept bitterly for the loss of her mentor, her comfort, her surrogate mother.

That first night away from the Circle Tower was the hardest for Ines. In the seven years since she had found Neria, she had never left her side. The young girl, being an Extreme, was prone to nightmares where demons made her numerous offers hoping to get her agreement to merge. Neria had been taught by Ines to always ignore them like the nuisances they are, never agree to anything and run from them if the temptation proved too much.

At first, when Neria had climbed up three levels from the apprentices' dormitory to curl up against her, Ines had debated whether she should reprimand her and send her back. However, as Neria had fearfully whispered all the horrible offers those demons proposed, Ines could not find it in herself to leave the three year old alone.

The frequency of the offers increased after Neria passed her Expert level classes. Every night, she would curl up beside Ines, trembling from her nightmares. Ines wanted to tell her that she should be able to fight off the demons. However, Ines feared that Neria's control was not honed enough for this. Casting spells in the Fade could result in the same spell being cast in reality if the caster was not in total control of his, or in this case her, faculties. Ines hoped that Neria would grow to learn this soon so that she would be able to fight those pesky demons and finally rest well in her sleep.

When her traitorous mind started to think about Greagoir, Ines quaffed the sleeping potion she had ready for just this purpose and slept a peaceful, albeit chemically induced, sleep.

They were here again. The tall, proud looking man and the petite, wildly attractive woman were smiling widely at her. Neria knew very well that they were not humans. They were demons. Ever since she was three years old, they had visited her. At first, it had been only every season. When she turned four, they came every month. At five, they came every fortnight. After she started her Expert level lessons at six, they came every week. Completing her lessons at the age of barely seven, they started coming every night.

Sleep was something she could not live without. Her control on her emotions weakened when she was sick, tired or both. When she lost control of her emotions, her magic would get out of control. She had learned it did not matter if the leaked emotion was a positive emotion. It was only when she gave in to anger, fear, hurt or sadness that her magic was terrifying, even to herself, and it often hurt her or others in proximity of her.

Ines had been her sole comfort from the taunts of the demons. Curling up against her mentor every night after being startled awake by some of the more horrible proposals, she found peace and rest. However, there was no one here now Neria could turn to. No one who would wrap her in their arms and soothe with a lullaby that gave her rest. She was plagued by demons who offered her the power to leave and follow Ines without permission or fear of templar pursuit. She stood smiling defiantly at the demon that towered over her. "You know, if I accepted your proposal, Ines would be one of the first to strike me down."

The lady demon stooped to gather her into her arms and Neria flinched, stiffening in alarm. Her eyes narrowed when the features of the demon rearranged itself to look like Ines.

"Don't you want to be with me?" The demon crooned in Ines' voice.

Neria felt a huge surge of anger rise in her and pushed the demon away with her hands. "Don't you dare take her form!" Ice blue fire erupted from her hands and engulfed the demon. It screamed a single note of agony before the illusion of Ines' form fell away and it rapidly disintegrated into nothingness.

The other demon turned to the little girl in alarm. Neria's eyes glinted with unholy satisfaction. "Anything else to add?" It vanished without a word.

Mages and servants were gathered in front of the door of Ines' old room. The acrid smell of burnt wood and something else was in the air. Greagoir and Irving pushed through the crowd to find Neria sleeping curled up on what was left of Ines' old bed. They could see trails of dried tears on her smudged face as she laid, still asleep, blissfully unaware of the devastation around her. Greagoir slammed the door in the faces of the curious bystanders.

Irving raised a brow and Greagoir muttered brusquely. "We need to find out what is going on before they spread half-truths all around based on what they believe they saw. I swear the people here do nothing but gossip."

Irving humphed noncommittally and turned to survey the room. It, what was left of it, was as black as the Void from soot. All the furniture had been burnt into charcoal. Irving absently and lightly touched one of the blackened chairs and hissed in alarm when the chair collapsed into ashes.

Greagoir's eyebrows rose. This was the first time he had seen this level of destruction from a mage. What made matters worse was no one had felt any pull on the Fade that was surely necessary to fuel this act. Even if it had happened in the middle of the night, everyone in the Circle Tower, barring the servants, should have felt something. The fact that no one did would raise questions on how it had been done and who Neria really was.

"They are going to talk about this." Irving closed his eyes in a grimace. "We were too complacent just because she was such a sweet child. We should have taken more care in her education. Now everyone will wonder if she is demonic and fear her." Heaving a heavy, sad sigh, he bent down to stroke Neria's beribboned head. "Ines urged me to look after her while she was gone. Fine job I am doing. Just one night and she may be labelled a demon."

"You believe that she has not succumbed?" Greagoir enquired anxiously. He did not relish the thought of striking down a demon possessed Neria. That would be the nearest thing to being in the Void for him.

Shaking his head evenly, Irving glanced up at Greagoir. "If she did not surrender at three, do you think she would do so now at seven?" Lightly stroking Neria's cheeks, he murmured. "We should get her out of here before she wakes and becomes frightened over this."

"She has been visited since she was three?" That was the only sentence Greagoir noticed out of Irving's reply, anything after it was obscured in a daze of horror. Most mages never met a demon until they were Harrowed. Talented mages may interest demons at puberty. The earliest age he had heard of any demon approaching very talented mages were six. Three was surely too young for a mage to resist the temptations offered by demons.

"Ines gave me weekly reports on Neria's progress ever since she was brought here. She is now visited by demons nightly. Ines told me to ensure that she got her rest or her control may slip. I should have guarded her last night." Irving blamed himself for this.

"She will have to be made Tranquil." Greagoir declared firmly.

"What?" Irving gaped up at Greagoir, disbelieving his ears. "She is just a child!"

"Irving, look at this room! If she is visited nightly by demons and this is the destruction she can cause without them, could you imagine the devastation she would cause when she succumbs and possesses demonic powers?" Greagoir's voice rose. "It is the only way to keep her and others around her safe."

"Will you keep it down?" Irving muttered harshly. "And it is not when she succumbs but if. That is a very big if. Ines raised her to have a spine of dragonbone. She would not succumb any more than Ines would."

Greagoir huffed in exasperation, looked down and met a pair of bright hazel eyes with specks of chocolate in it. Drawing his longsword, he motioned for Irving to step away from the little girl lying calmly on the remains of the bed. Irving looked at him in dismay and moved to step between Neria and him. Roughly pushing Irving behind him, he angrily shouted "To the Void with you, demon!" and swung his sword to decapitate the little girl.

Immediately, he felt himself paralysed. Irving looked at him helplessly while Neria coolly sat up and faced him. When he saw her eyes, his eyes widened and he instinctively started to draw the Fade to him to fight the child in front of him.

"Not you too, Irving." Neria whined then gasped when she heard her voice. "What happened to my voice?"

Irving stopped his casting immediately. "Neria?" he hesitantly asked. "Is that really you?"

"Who else could it be? The Divine?" Neria drily commented in her new voice. It was sultry to say the least, melodious, cloying sweet but very adult. It made her sound years beyond her age which made the disparity between her voice and her body even more startling. "Seriously, why do I sound like this?"

"Are you feeling alright?" Irving continued to enquire, approaching her tentatively. He did not feel any demonic presence in her and relaxed.

"Yes, never better." Neria excitedly bounced on the bed which was unfortunately too wrecked to handle the abuse. It crumpled under her and elicited a shout of surprise from the little girl. Immediately, what remained of the bed was enveloped in ice blue flames and reduced to ash. Surprisingly, Irving was not even singed by the flames even though his hand had been on what remained of the bed frame.

Neria sprang back up from the floor, attempted to brush off the black soot covering her robes but only succeeded in staining them further. She frowned, looked at her hands in surprise and mumbled "I'm sure I had washed up before bed." She raised puzzled eyes at Irving. "What are you and Greagoir doing here?"

"Your eyes… Maker… Neria… What happened to… your eyes?" Irving stammered uneasily, wondering if he should be revising his initial assessment that Neria was not possessed.

"My eyes? What's wrong with them?" Neria looked around for the small wall mirror in Ines' room, finally noticing its condition, and her jaw dropped. "Maker's smelly knickers! What happened to the room?"

Irving winced, pained at her choice of words. The only thing that he ever had an issue with Ines teaching Neria was how the little girl picked up on the senior enchanter's colourful way of swearing. Now Neria, with that sultry adult voice, sounded so much like a brothel worker, Irving had a very hard time reconciling her little girl's body with that voice.

"Their colour, it's changed." Irving murmured tentatively.

"Oh?" Neria strode up impetuously to the paralysed Greagoir and squinted at the reflection of her eyes through the polished metal of his sword. "Oh!" She blurted backing away from the templar. "What happened to my eyes?"

Greagoir found himself released from paralysis. "Am I an abomination?" Neria's eyes brimmed with unshed tears. She looked up at him with her new bright hazel eyes that had specks in them the colour of her previously chocolate ones.

"We have to test you with the Litany of Adralla." Greagoir said firmly then sheathed his sword. "I sincerely hope for your sake that you do not respond to it."

Irving went to get the Litany of Adralla from Owain while Greagoir stood barring anyone else from entering the room. Neria poked at the various pieces of blackened furniture in the room with curious fingers. All fell into ashes with a light touch. "Wow! Whatever did this was really powerful!" She exclaimed with awe.

Irving rushed in with the Litany in his hands. Greagoir groaned. "Did anyone see you with the Litany?"

Irving blinked. "Err… Does it matter?"

"Of course it matters!" Greagoir rolled his eyes. "Don't you think the others outside of this room already have enough to talk about?"

"No one would be able to tell it's the Litany." Irving replied uncertainly. "I think…"

"Never mind that now. Just read it." Greagoir muttered brusquely.

Irving started to chant while Neria continued to skip around the room. By the time he ended, Irving was raising a brow at Greagoir. Neria had been totally unaffected.

Greagoir released a breath he did not even realise he had held. Neria turned to regard the both of them curiously. "Am I supposed to be feeling something?"

"If you were possessed, you would have felt agonised." Irving replied, rolling up the Litany and stowing it into his robes. "So what do we do now?" He asked gazing dubiously at Greagoir. Turning to Neria, Irving finally asked what he felt was the most pertinent question. "What happened to you, child?"

They had to understand what actually happened in the room then determine the best way forward. Even if they could cover up the destruction of the room, people would definitely notice and question Neria's new eyes and voice.

"I woke from a nightmare where I ran from the demons again. I was too sleepy to remember that Ines was gone and climbed up here to sleep with her again." Neria's lips trembled. "When I saw the empty room, I remembered then I…" Her lips firmed, she was not going to tell anyone that she cried but the two men understood despite her reticence due to her smudged face. "I fell asleep on the bed and they came again. One of them changed into Ines and I got so mad…" Her eyes danced as she squealed with delight. "I incinerated her. The other one fled after that. Isn't that great? I don't have to be scared to sleep anymore."

"You incinerated a demon?" Irving began, shocked beyond comprehension. He found himself thinking that it was a feeling he often got around Neria.

"You were approached by two demons?" Greagoir enquired at the same time with narrowed eyes. When Neria nodded, he mussed up his hair in frustration and met Irving's eyes. They both had the same thought. It was practically a Harrowing.

"Perhaps an accident due to Poison Making?" Greagoir turned to Neria. "Would you like to play a long silence game?" He asked with a playful twinkle in his eyes.

Neria caught on immediately. She grinned and nodded without speaking.

Greagoir patted her on the head. "You know this game well, child. However, the consequence of losing this game, Neria could be death." The little girl paled and gulped. "Winning means that you have fooled everyone in the whole Circle Tower." Neria grinned as if already relishing the victory. "We know that you are not possessed now. However, other people would not be so ready to accept two 'accidents' in such short order. Any templar who sees your new eyes and hears your new voice may react as I initially did. So you will have to bear it for a while and not speak to anyone. Is that clear?"

Irving silently applauded Greagoir for making it a game for Neria. She was highly competitive and did not enjoy losing. Neria nodded with a huge grin. She started counting out her fingers and gazed questioningly at Greagoir.

"If your voice doesn't change back, we'll find you a "miraculous cure" in a year or two." Greagoir grinned conspiratorially.

Neria pouted, shrugged then beamed trustingly up at them. Her stomach chose that moment to growl. "Unfortunately, you will need to be carried into the infirmary." Irving explained in a tone louder than normal. "You should know better than to experiment with such dangerous materials, Neria." Continuing in a whisper, Irving urged. "Keep your eyes closed and pretend to be unconscious." Before motioning to Greagoir to pick her up.

Neria nodded her understanding and closed her eyes, going into Greagoir's arms willingly. Irving opened the door and continued to mock reprimand Neria. "Really! Playing with Fire Bombs! What would Ines think?" Neria nearly laughed but stopped short, not wishing to lose the game so soon after it started. "I guess you have been punished enough given that you have hurt your eyes and lost your voice."

-0-

9:17 Dragon Age, Antiva City – 7 years after Zevran (now 14) was bought by the Crows

Master Frediano had been astounded when Zevran had calmly returned from Marta's assassination with no tears. The truth was that Zevran could not weep. The part of him that could cry had died with Marta. With her demise, he grew up. His only thought now was to survive and be the most brilliant Crow there ever was, whatever it took and regardless of what it took from him.

Evidently, Marta's assassination was part of Zevran's test for the Obedience stage of the Crow's training and he had, with direct participation of the kill, passed with flying colours. Thus, he was pushed up to the next stage: Wiliness.

Zevran was, as usual, the youngest in his class and the older boys resented his easy ways with words. Persuasion and coercion were second nature to the young elf. He easily balanced the two and understood instinctively when it would be more effective to use which and even when to use a combination of both. His good looks also stood him in good stead in persuasion as people tended to listen better to a handsome face and Zevran was growing up to be a really handsome young man, turning heads wherever he went.

He had taken to braiding the hair at both sides of his forehead before tying them back to keep his shoulder length hair from getting into his face while he was awake. The style, he found, emphasised his cheekbones and the long tips of his ears. His amber eyes made a person imagine that one was looking into the warm Antivan sun, never noticing its soullessness. The perky nose was a perfect complement to his pouty, kissable lips and many often watched his mouth as he spoke. Some courtesans in the district had actually offered to teach him their trade before he coolly declared that he was a Crow recruit.

He learned to weave tales with multiple elements of truth in them to make them sound more possible. Soon, Zevran's own trainers found it difficult to tell when he was speaking the truth or telling a lie. Eventually, even Zevran himself found that he could not separate the truth from the lie, especially when it came to speaking about how he felt.

It was barely a year since Marta was murdered. No, the more accurate term was assassinated. After all, the Crows did everything for profit. During this past year, Zevran had learned to school his features into an inscrutable mask. It was a happy mask. Even though he felt dead inside, he still joked and boasted of his first kill with his roommates. It was a great wall that he built up to keep others from seeing the scared little boy part that lay barely breathing inside him.

His roommates took great exception to his boasting about how he was also the only recruit who had an assassination kill to his name before becoming an official Crow. They ganged up to teach him a lesson but were easily defeated after consuming the wine left within their room laced with a poison Zevran had added. He had eaten the antidote before sitting down to drink the wine. His roommates were quite hasty in snatching the wine from him and consuming it all so that he could not have any before they attacked him that night. Taliesen was the only one spared as he had remained in bed not wanting to be involved. They were moved to another room where its occupants kept their distance from him.

After that fiasco, Taliesen developed a bad case of hero worship for Zevran. He was two years older than Zevran and one of Master Frediano's first few recruits. However, he was still very much stuck in the Wiliness stage of training. He was a quick and hot tempered human teenager who could not lie to save his life. He could only tell a lie if he was reporting something he believed to be the truth. It was because of this that Zevran kept him by his side. That and Taliesen's talents for lockpicking, trap making and disarming traps which Zevran felt would be very useful to him in the future.

In addition, Zevran found the way that he hang on his every word, whether it was the truth or a lie, comical and, somewhat, sweet. When Master Frediano assigned Zevran with the herculean task of making sure that Taliesen moved to the Seduction stage of their Crow training at the same time as Zevran, he simply weaved a tale to Taliesen which he repeated verbatim to the trainer. Thus it was that when Zevran moved up to the next stage of training, Taliesen was with him.

-0-

9:18 Dragon Age, Circle Tower, Lake Calenhad, Ferelden – 8 years after Neria (now 8) was found

Neria had not spoken a word for the past year. After she woke from her "unfortunate accident" with Fire Bombs, Neria's eyes were bounded with bandages and she was kept in the infirmary for more than a month. When they finally came off, she had been disoriented and everyone had been shocked over the change in the colour of her eyes. Her voice was unfortunately still damaged and she was pronounced to be mute until a miraculous cure could be found. It was such a pity that Senior Enchanter Ines was not around to assist in this.

The only ones who knew the truth of the matter had been Irving, Greagoir and Wynne. They could not keep the truth from her as she had been in the infirmary when Greagoir had carried her in. When she had examined Neria, she knew there had been nothing wrong with her. Turning narrowed eyes at Irving and Greagoir, she had latched the infirmary door and quietly asked for an explanation.

Even then, Neria did not speak up. She was not going to lose this game. She wanted to surprise everyone with her voice once they found that "miracle cure" as she was quite sure that it would remain this adult one.

Wynne had been appeased when she realised it was all a ruse to keep Neria safe and further added the suggestion for the bandaged eyes to add credulity to the lie. Irving slept on a separate cot within the infirmary each night and coached Neria on the necessary control for fighting demons in the Fade. Greagoir was also around to smite her when things got out of hand. It took Neria nearly a month to learn this, the longest time she had struggled to achieve anything. Once she was able to fight demons without burning the place down around her consistently for a week, they declared her well enough to leave the infirmary.

Everyone was fooled, even Jowan. Her new friends, Veness, Aneirin and, especially, Anders, comforted her so much for her loss that she was tempted to share the secret with them but refrained, Greagoir's warning pealing in her mind each time. Eventually Neria got used to not speaking, carrying a little notebook and pencil around to write down what she needed to tell others or using the secret magic pulse code she learned from Ines.

The hardest thing for her to curb was her laughter. Her new friends were a jolly group and even Jowan started to lose his nervousness in the group. The five of them were constantly in trouble as Neria had too much time on her hands and frequently got bored reading the books assigned to her by Irving. Whenever the others were in class and she was left alone studying ancient tomes that no one likely even knew existed any more, Neria would plan hair raising escapades, detailing them in her little notebook and showing them to her friends during meal times.

Anders was the one who really get into the spirit of things, even the most impossible ones. "How did you find out where they stored wine?"

Neria mimed walking with her fingers then pointed to the back of a servant. Veness gawked. "You followed one of the servants? Didn't anyone see you?"

Neria shook her head. Smiling brilliantly, she wrote in her notebook. I tied my waist to the back of her belt with a sash and cast a Force Field then a Misdirection Hex on the Force Field. She couldn't see me at all but dragged me all the way there. Although she must have felt something cause she turned back to stare and shake her head puzzled quite a few times. By the time the spell failed, we were already in the cellar and I cut myself lose. I left before she could see me in the dark.

Jowan rolled his eyes. "Senior Enchanter Uldred will be thrilled that you are so enterprising about using Entropy spells. He was in despair with me today cause I was still struggling with my Weakness spell." Neria patted him on the shoulder to comfort him. Poor Jowan could not seem to find an affinity to any school of magic. Even though he had been in the Circle Tower for four years, he was still stuck in the Intermediate level of Fire spells and could barely cast sparks.

Aneirin snorted. "His classes always start with a recruitment campaign for the Libertarian fraternity. Half the time, I don't understand what he is explaining. At the end of a class, instead of going over what we learned, he launches into recruitment speeches again. I seriously believe that he places a Sleep spell on the templar on duty in his class. There is no way that every templar who is assigned to an Entropy class that he teaches would fall asleep."

Neria grinned. She wrote. Maybe he is just really that boring?

Anders wrapped his arm around her shoulder. "So when are we doing this?"

Tonight? Neria looked up hopefully. Anders nodded and grinned. "Who's in?"

"No way you are doing this without me." Veness smirked.

"I'm in." Aneirin said simply.

"We could get into a lot of trouble you know…" Jowan started. Neria rolled her eyes, pouted and put on her best puppy dog eyes blinking up at him. "Damn it Neria. Don't look at me like. Okay, fine. I'll go. If we get in trouble and they ask me whose idea it was, I'm definitely ratting you out, you wicked minx."

Late that night, Irving was roused by an amused templar and brought to greet an irate Greagoir with five very drunk apprentices.

"Oh look! Hic! It's the First Enchanted! Hic! He'll save us from the big, angry templar." Anders fell backwards, cracking his head on the wall. "Woah… The ground is moving. Did someone cast an Earthquake?"

"Hic! It's First Enchant! Hic! Ter, you idiot!" Veness giggled. "Everyone's got… Hic! Twins!"

"Maybe we should… Hic!" Jowan had fallen asleep in the middle of his sentence.

Aneirin was too busy admiring a Spell Wisp he had cast to notice any of them.

Neria was all curled up around an empty bottle of red wine. She was smiling radiantly in her sleep.

Irving pinched the bridge of his nose and intoned as seriously and firmly as he could even though what he wanted to do was laugh raucously. "Take them to the infirmary. I don't think they will feel as good about this in the morning."

"You are letting them get away with this?" Greagoir roared at Irving like this was somehow his fault. "They should be given kitchen duties for a month, at least! They finished twelve bottles of red wine between the five of them. They are not even adults! This is highly unacceptable!"

Irving bit back a smile. "As long as they don't know how to heal a hangover, that should be punishment enough if they really consumed that much wine." Motioning for the startled templars to carry the five miscreants, he escorted them to the infirmary.

In the morning, the five troublemakers were not feeling so jolly. However, Neria was soon able to heal them all once she remembered a spell she learned from Wynne when she was six.

-0-

9:18 Dragon Age, Antiva City – 8 years after Zevran (now 15) was bought by the Crows

The Seduction stage of the Crow training was like a recap of all he had witnessed in Zevran's childhood. He had hidden in the secret rooms at Moaning Marta which Marta had setup for customers who liked to watch and observed the antics of the courtesans and their customers. He realised very quickly that it was one thing to watch and another thing to actually execute the actions on another person or have it done to him.

Yves, their trainer, was by no means an ugly woman but her sapphire eyes were as hard and cold as the jewels they resembled. It did not matter that the subject she was expounding had the roomful of Crow recruits shifting to adjust their tight breeches, she was totally unaffected. She could have been talking about the weather with the manner that she describing of the techniques to kiss, please, seduce and, even, torture victims.

That was what Seduction was for Crows. Never only pleasure, just a means to information or a kill. Teodoro, another trainer, would demonstrate the various techniques on Yves while she was laid out on high daybed placed in the middle of the classroom just for that purpose. Even while Teodoro was plunging wildly into her, she was clinically making suggestions how Teodoro could adjust his posture, stance and hold to provide greater pleasure to her. It was highly disconcerting to Zevran as the whores in Moaning Marta had enjoyed their trade even though it was a service they offered. This was totally impersonal and unemotional. I understand the lack of intimacy but should there not be at least pleasure while accomplishing this act?

When Yves proceeded to challenge each recruit to bring her pleasure, Zevran finally understood. Each recruit would falter, nervous about doing something like this in front of such a large audience. None of his older classmates had taken the lessons she provided to heart. By their turn, they were so aroused, each of them would just shove into her with minimal stimulation, coming almost seconds later.

When it was Zevran's turn, he was ready with a cloth and a basin of water. Placing the basin on the side table, he wrung the cloth of excess water and proceeded to gently clean Yves' body, lingering on all the sensitive parts that Yves had highlighted in her lessons. Her eyes slowly thawed and by the time Zevran finally cleaned her at the apex of her thighs, stroking boldly to remove the residue of seed from the other recruits, she was noticeably flushed and there was much shifting within the members of the class.

Zevran was still dressed. He remedied the situation by slowly stripping off his leather gloves, lingeringly tagging on each finger, shrugging off his boots and finally uncinching his belt and the various buckles holding up his leather armour. Shimmying out of his breeches still holding Yves' gaze as he had throughout the striptease, a gasp was heard from their audience.

Zevran noticeably straightened his stance. He was magnificently endowed and he knew this. His aroused member was long, thick for an elf and curved with a slight angle. He was hairless like all elves and smooth of skin all over. Yves smiled at him bemused and cackled. "This is how seduction is done, boys. Zevran has just shown all you louts how to start one. Get dressed, Zevran. It's time for your weapons training."

Even though Zevran was hurt by the evident rejection, he smiled and bantered. "What? The Great Yves would not allow me to complete the act? I am sure that I will be all that the others could not be."

Yves sneered. "I may be a whore but I do not allow elves to touch me. My standards are not that low."

"Ah… My lovely Yves… Your harsh words, they cut me to pieces. I am so torn up." Zevran theatrically placed his hand over his heart, even as he stooped to pick up the various sections of his armour. No one saw the cold hardness in his eyes.

"Zevran!" Taliesen reached Zevran just before he turned into the area where the training rings were. Tugging on Zevran's hands, he pulled the reluctant elf into an empty weapons shed and closed the door.

"What is it Taliesen? If we are late for weapons training, Leandro would tear a strip off us. Literally." Zevran leaned against the grimy wall and waited for the human to get whatever it was off his chest. He was startled when Taliesen crowded into him and started to pull down his breeches. "Brasca! What do you think you are doing, you crazy human?"

"Yves is a stupid bitch." Taking Zevran's still half aroused member in his hands almost reverently, Taliesen squatted to place a full mouthed kiss on it. He twirled his tongue around the tip and proceeded to suck hungrily. Zevran could not have been more surprised if the Chantry had announced that the Maker was a lie they concocted to control the masses. Well, maybe I would be more surprised if they announced that... Brasca! Where did Taliesen learn to do this?

Taliesen hummed in appreciation when Zevran grew under his ministrations. His hands were within his own breeches, pleasuring himself even as he took Zevran fully in his mouth. The sucking, stroking and licking combined with Zevran's previous frustration with Yves soon had the young elf releasing in his mouth. Taliesen drank every bit of it.

Turning from Zevran, Taliesen stroked himself quickly to completion before Zevran could recover and his seed spurted on the wall in front of him and down the front of his breeches. He looked up at Zevran with a content smile on his face, for all the world looking like an eager puppy. "Did you like that?"

Zevran nodded without speaking, rearranging himself, he shoved off the wall and exited the shed. He needed to get to the training rings to work off the need to lash out at someone.

Yves was noticeably absent from future Seduction lessons. Instead, Teodoro began teaching them the finer points of seducing a man. In essence, it was similar to the seduction of a woman. However, the preparation of a man was more involved and required oils since a man did not have the natural juices of a woman's lust.

Selecting a recruit from the class, "Come here, Beltrán", Teodoro proceeded to demonstrate as they watched, fascinated despite themselves. He begun by gently simulating Beltrán perineum with the pad of his index finger. Once the young man had relaxed, Teodoro lubricated his fingers with oil and started brushing it across his anus.

"Each time you brush across, increase the pressure steadily." Teodoro stated while show it with his fingers. "Slowly and gently ease a finger in." Proceeding to do just that, Teodoro continued "Men also had a spot which gives them intense pleasure, it is usually located about five centimetres inside. You'll recognise it as a chestnut sized bump." Apparently, he had found it as Beltrán moaned in pleasure and his previously half rigid appendage, stiffened.

Teodoro started to thrust his fingers in and out. The recruit squirmed, panting heavily. "Each or every other thrust should stimulate the spot to guarantee intensity of pleasure." With his other hand, he slathered his own shaft while thrusting a second finger in. The young human was writhing, wheezing with need when Teodoro eased into him. Holding onto the base of Beltrán's rod, Teodoro slowly and gently pushed into him. "Keeping a hold on the victim's penis will deny him of his release. This can sometimes be a good way to force out secrets from them." Increasing his momentum, Teodoro plunged in and out of the recruit causing the young man to plead. "Please, let me come. Please, I feel like I'm going to explode!" Teodoro raised a brow cynically. "This is just the first lesson. Now is not the time for your pleasure." He eventually ejaculated into the recruit, barely making a grimace or sound. Withdrawing immediately, he clapped his hands together. "Partner up and practise."

Zevran found Taliesen watching him with hopeful eyes, smirked and sauntered over. "You want to be my partner?"

"Yes!" The excitement in Taliesen's voice caused everyone to look at them. Zevran merely shrugged and proceeded to pass the class with flying colours.

A month passed after that first lesson in seduction with males when Zevran was summoned into Master Frediano's presence. The Master was not dressed in armour for the second time that Zevran had ever seen him. The first being the time when he had shown up to purchase Zevran at Moaning Marta.

Zevran bowed eyeing his Master warily. His eyes were practically devouring Zevran in his black tunic and tight breeches. "You had need of me, Master?"

Frediano leered at Zevran's choice of words. "Do you know? I have been a very patient man. Very patient indeed if I do say so myself." His eyes twinkled with malicious glee as he saw Zevran's obvious but quickly disguised confusion. "Lock the door then undress yourself."

Zevran turned to do as bidden even as he felt his blood turn to ice. In all the Seduction lessons, he had been the aggressor, he had a distinct feeling that, in this case, he would be very much the attacked.

Author's Notes

I have no experience with male/male interactions so bear with me if I got anything wrong.

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