Anders felt Selise grab his hand and lean her chest into his back.
"I don't have a good feeling about these people," Selise whispered, causing the hairs to stand up on the back of his neck.
The man leading the pack certainly didn't look threatening. He walked slightly hunched over, chin down, shoulders low, and he gave a friendly nod once he got close. He wore a heavy velvet blue robe and had the dark skin of a far northerner, but flashed an easy smile that lit up his striking hazel eyes, making his face look boyish. Behind him were four others, including an elf with silver hair and black eyes, two blond women who looked strikingly similar and a thick, compact man who stood several heads shorter than the others.
"Are you with the Inquisition?" the dark man called in a pleasant tone.
Selise and Anders looked at each other, neither knowing which answer to that question was better. Finally, Selise gave a slight nod.
"We are," Anders called back
The man laughed, looking at them out the side of his eye as they continued their slow approach. "Well good, maybe you can help us get to Skyhold then? We've been out here for weeks and keep running into those damn rifts," he said.
Anders felt Selise's grip tighten.
"We aren't going to Skyhold," Anders said.
The man held out his hand as he made his final steps into their camp, while the other three hung back.
"Julian," the man said simply.
Anders paused a moment as he searched his mind for a fake name, swallowing heavily when nothing easily.
"Luther…" he said finally as he took the man's hand, feeling a tremendous well of magical power within his grip. His skin prickled slightly with the aura of energy they brought with them.
"It's a pleasure," Julian said with a warm smile. His eyes flicked over to Selise and he cocked his head, "my lady, there's no need to hide behind your man here. We mean you no harm."
Julian turned swiftly and swung his arm toward his companions. "This bunch of riff raff are just friends of mine. The elf is named Qaris, he's not as grumpy as he looks. At least not all the time. The twins are Etienne and Millie and be grateful for any moment of quiet you get out of the two. Such as now, which is only because they're too busy giving each other the silent treatment. And the brick house in the back is Kinley. No he's not a dwarf, even though he looks and smells like one. He's just short. And usually drunk."
Anders took a deep breath and felt himself relax. At the very least these people didn't seem interested in fighting. At least not yet.
Selise stepped out from behind Anders and held her hand out to Julian.
"Anna," Selise said warily. Anders watched her quietly appraise them, keeping her expression placid and unreadable. But the vise-like grip she maintained on his hand betrayed her anxiety.
"So you're… not going to Skyhold then?" Julian asked.
"Not at present," Anders asked. "We're…"
"On a sensitive diplomatic errand. You'll understand if we don't share the details," Selise cut in.
"I see. Of course," he said, and he laughed again, turning up his boyish smile, "You'd think you would be on the road, in a wagon or on horseback, instead of out here trudging through the snow and the rifts," he paused, "Especially if it's just the two of you."
"It's sensitive, as I said," Selise said politely. "Why are you not on the roads yourself? Mages have been streaming into Skyhold ever since the Inquisitor offered alliance and safe harbor. The soldiers patrolling the routes are accustomed to providing assistance to the incoming groups. Most circles have been informed of this…"
Julian's smile widened further, displaying a perfect row of pearly white teeth.
"Is that right?" he laughed. "I was not aware."
"I assume you're coming from Redcliffe, yes?" Selise asked.
"Redcliffe… no, in fact we're in from Val Royeaux," he said.
"You're… kind of on the wrong side of the mountains for that, aren't you?" Anders asked.
"Well we were on our way to Redcliffe… and then we heard about the alliance and we changed course," Julian explained. "We might have gotten a little lost in the process. It certainly feels like we've been out here forever. We sure would appreciate any help you can provide. We'd be happy to pay you of course, or share our supplies. At least until we're on the right track."
"You heard about the alliance while trekking through the middle of the Frostbacks?" Selise asked warily.
"My, you really are some kind of Inquisition aren't you? " Julian laughed again as he glanced back to the other three. "Qaris back there told us. We met up with him on a road coming from the Dales and he's been traveling with us since. He had a group of his own companions, but sadly lost them to a nasty old bear."
"I'm sorry to hear that," Anders said as he studied the uncharacteristically bulky elf. Like an old ghost from his past, this elf had silver hair hanging down over an ageless face. But he was no Fenris. This one stood tall and loose, his eyes smoldering black coals within a web of grey vallaslin that stretched over his brows. His nose was long and crooked from a recent break.
"Look, we really don't mean to trouble you," said Julian.
"The best we can do is point you in the right direction," Selise informed him.
Julian looked quietly between the two of them, his smile frozen perfectly in place.
"Very well. May I at least invite you to our camp for a hot meal? We're set up in a cave not far down the hill and Kinley recently caught us a nice big ram."
"Uh… perhaps… let me consult with my… wife," Anders said as he clutched Selise's arm and pulled her away.
"He's lying," Selise whispered the moment they were at a good distance and she had her back to them.
"That much is clear. Can you see anything useful about them?" he asked.
"Nothing other than that we should be very careful. I did have a vision of sorts several days ago… about a cave. A cave we definitely do not want to enter. I am not sure that is related to these people though I can't tell for sure. I think we should just tell them no thanks and be on our way."
"Could you just… do your thing? Put them to sleep?" Anders asked.
"I could try, but I'd rather not. Mages have so much more resistance to these spells, you know that. I'd have to drain myself just to be sure, and even then who knows. I think they have some kind of a ward on them, a few of them even…. Don't you feel it?"
"Yes, now that you mention it," he said. That would explain some of the energy he felt hovering around the small group, he realized.
"What if they actually do have ram meat, though. I would kill for a steak," he said, his mouth filling with saliva at the thought.
"Have you seen any rams out here?" Selise asked pointedly.
"No, but we should be close to the foothills now. That's the direction they came from, and that's where the rams are."
"If they got as far as the foothills, yet learned about the alliance from a man coming from the Dales… that is a whole lot of criss crossing the mountains for no good reason. It just obviously doesn't add up. Either they're assuming we're stupid, or they're not feeling the need to try very hard to come up with something believable."
"Or they're just trying to think on their feet, like we are. We're not exactly telling the truth yet we have no nefarious purpose, at least not toward fellow mages. Besides, what could possibly be the point?" he asked.
"I have no idea. That's what is making me so nervous."
"I think maybe we just pack up and go along… just see their camp, see if their story holds up? If not, then…
"I don't know Anders," she sighed.
"Aren't you curious?"
"Yes, but I don't want to prove their assumption that we're stupid correct," she said. "You're seriously not going to trust the psychic when she tells you she has a bad feeling?"
"If things feel fishy then we just say we don't think we have the time after all and we keep walking. What are they going to do?"
"You think it will be that easy?"
"Well it might not be, but I think we can handle it. And what if we're completely wrong about them?"
"We're not. They're lying to us."
"Yes, but we're also lying to them. And we're going to be doing more lying."
"What if they recognize you?" she scowled.
"Then…. We deny. I have had to do it before… just a whole 'oh haha, I get that all the time, I must look a lot like him' bit," he said, his stomach growling as his mind dwelled upon the possibility of a steak, "And then we hope to Andraste that they leave it at that. And if they don't…"
"Our only option with them is to talk our way out of it," she said, her face reflecting her disapproval, "If my spells don't work, or they come up against a ward and then we will have been the ones to attack first, which is not going to make them happy. And we're way outnumbered."
"Selise, my love, we just have to trust each other. We've gotten out of tight spots before, and there is every possibility that things will be fine. Maybe we'll really even get a hot meal out of it. Or maybe we just pack up, walk with them back to their camp and then keep going. We'd be leaving now anyway."
"Anders…. We just need to be very careful."
"Agreed," he said sweetly. Her eyes were still slightly puffy from their short night's sleep, and lined with the same rosy pink that was beginning to tint her cheeks and nose from the cold air. He picked up a rope of her hair and fingered it, feeling his heart warm as he admired her clear grey eyes.
"We still have our own discussion to finish, you know," he said.
"Not now!" she said as her silver gaze locked onto him.
"Of course not now, silly," he said. He hoped that he could get her to open up more, to mend whatever disconnection had developed between them. He was struck with the urge to gather her up in his arms and carry her back to the tent. A day would come, eventually, when they would be able to lay in bed together for hours the way they had at Skyhold. He hoped that day was soon. "But… don't forget, okay?"
"Okay," she answered as she raised a chilled hand to his cheek and gave a light caress. He turned to walk back to Julian, but felt a pull on his sleeve and he turned back to her.
"Wife?" she asked with a sheepish grin.
"That's right," he said, slinging an arm around her shoulders and guiding her back toward the camp, "hopefully for real someday."
Selise walked numbly toward Julian's camp, keeping toward the rear of the group. The two blond women whispered sharply under their breath to each other while Anders engaged Julian in conversation through most of the walk. Anders was good at turning on the charm and she knew he could gain Julian's confidence, if that was even a possibility, so she left him to it. She had no desire to entertain anyone herself, or to come up with dishonest answers that she would have to sync up with Anders later, so she put on an air of irritability, twisting her face into a gruff scowl to discourage conversation. It wasn't far from her true feelings either, which she realized with increasing claity as they made their way through the snowy forest. The longer she spent among them, the more she felt that it was just entirely strange even to encounter them out here. And coming straight for their camp, deliberately. Had she and Anders been followed somehow? How had they been spotted and located?
Despite her scowl, the short one and the elf continued to cast her curious glances, a few times looking as though they wanted to speak. The elf especially seemed interested in her, watching her out the corner of his eye, and keeping himself far out to the side, which she noted was the perfect position to come around and flank her if needed. Either he was expecting a fight or he was just being naturally cautious. She didn't know which, but she didn't sense any overt hostility. And with Julian occasionally flashing glances to him, she began to feel as though he was going through the motions, like it was simply his job. A hired hand?
The short man lumbered along, taking twice as many steps as everyone else in order to maintain the same pace, yet he did so without any indication that it tired him. He had a thick, short beard which extended his jutting chin forward to a sharp point, and a hairy neck that disappeared into a thick leather coat. He carried no staff, and exuded no energy resembling magic. She realized slowly that unlike the rest of the group, he was not a mage at all.
The two girls stayed close to Anders and Julian, their pale blond hair falling stick straight, ending in a sharp horizontal line across the center of their backs. One wore a red robe, while the other wore a set of thick leather adventurer armor. On both their backs sat black, twisted staffs capped with a jawless skull. The one in the robe swayed her hips more dramatically as she walked, and seemed to be the instigator of whatever disagreement she and the other were having.
They made their way slowly through the trees, with only Julian and Anders' musical voices cutting through the quiet of the early morning day, though Selise continued to detect plenty of unspoken communication between everyone else. None of it raised any particular red flags, but something continued to nag at the back of her mind, sending uncomfortable shivers down her skin.
As they approached the cave she made note of an abundance of tracks cutting a muddy trail into and around the campsite. Anders' pace slowed until Selise found him at her side, and he was swinging his arms as he walked, seemingly at ease after his conversation with Julian. The group dispersed, the girls disappearing into the cave while the others spread out. Selise seated herself on a nearby boulder and appraised the camp. Even without approaching the cave she could see the furthest wall within. It was small, very small, and definitely was not the cave from her vision. But still the area looked exceedingly lived in.
"Here we are, home sweet home!" Julian announced, "for now anyway."
"How long have you been camped here?" Selise asked.
"Three days," he said brightly.
"So, not in a rush to get to Skyhold then," she observed.
"Oh we'll get there, but we wanted to finish off the ram first, scout out the area. Build up our strength and have less to carry, especially for some of the rockier climbs that are ahead. How long have you lot been traveling?"
Selise hesitated, feeling anxious about sharing details with him that he didn't need.
"What, is that sensitive information, too?" he teased, looking around for someone to laugh with him.
"About two weeks," she answered flatly.
"Maker, is it really that long of a climb? No wonder the two of you are so skinny!"
Selise felt her scowl deepen. The more he spoke, the more certain she was that almost every word she heard was a lie.
"How long have you been out here in the mountains? Must be quite a while, considering you came from Val Royeaux and then backtracked to the northwest. And yet you look pretty well fed," she asked.
"Yes, I know it seems foolish, but we're just a band of wayward mages, ejected from the circle and trying to find a home. It's a sad story," he crooned wistfully, "But to answer your question, also about two weeks. And we have quite a good hunter in our party."
His hazel eyes landed on Selise's and he beamed a gentle smile at her. She wanted to mention the complete lack of game in the mountains, but said nothing.
"Or perhaps we just got lucky," he added knowingly.
"He's the hunter then?" she said looking toward Kinley, "because he's not a mage."
"That's right," he answered, tilting his head. "You are a suspicious one, aren't you?"
"Because you're lying," she said sharply. At the back of the group she saw Anders step forward and try to catch her eye. She ignored him, but felt her heart begin to race. She knew she should tread carefully, but the accusatory words just came and she'd felt no compelling need to stop them.
"So are you two. Does it matter? We all have our secrets, don't we? It doesn't mean we can't be friends."
Anders walked through the group toward her, and she finally turned to face him. His lips were pursed into a straight line, his eyebrow crooked in disapproval.
"It's okay," Julian waved at Anders. "How about we all just agree not ask each other any more intrusive questions. We'll share a meal, chat a bit, you can point us toward Skyhold and then we can all go our separate ways, yes?"
Anders looked at her expectantly, clearly biting his tongue.
"Fine," she said, and clamped her mouth shut.
Julian nodded and retreated back to the cave, while Anders came around to join her on the boulder. He wrapped his arm around her shoulders and pulled her into him. The rest of the group went about their business, seeming overly deliberate in pointing their attention away from her and Anders.
"Selise…"
"I know," she cut him off, and sighed heavily. "I know. This is pointless. I don't know why he is getting to me. If he'd just stop smiling…"
Anders let out a soft laugh. She snaked her arms around him and burrowed into his chest.
"Just give it an hour, wife," he cooed into her ear. "And then it'll just be me and you again."
Selise took a deep breath. She realized that this was one of the only times he had seen her interact with other people in a capacity that didn't include putting them to sleep, and here she was being completely unpleasant.
"Yes, I will. He's right, too. I just can't… I just can't seem to ignore this feeling though Anders. I don't think I should ignore it," she sighed again, wishing she could put her finger on what was bothering her so intensely, "But I will give it an hour."
"He will tell them about us when he gets to Skyhold," Anders opined.
"Yes, he will. Hopefully by then we'll be long clear of the mountains and on our way to Denerim."
Anders cleared a strand of hair away from her face.
Selise's eye was caught by one of the blond girls, the one in the red robe, watching them intently from the mouth of the cave. Selise openly stared back until the girl finally turned and slinked away.
"Maker… I've never seen you like this," Anders remarked softly into her ear, his warm lips brushing her earlobe. "It's a little scary… but I kind of like it."
A small laugh escaped from Selise's throat before she could stop it. She gave Anders a playful swat as she tried to pull the smile off her lips and reassert her scowl.
"Can we just get out of here?" she asked seriously.
"You really don't like them? They seem… interesting. And so far they seem to have no idea who I am, which is a plus."
She took a deep breath, and almost heaved. Her stomach was roiling and skin crawling. She just felt wrong, somehow. Everything felt wrong.
"Don't you trust me?" she asked him.
"I do," he said, and swallowed hard. "I do. We will get out of here soon, love, I promise."
She nodded, and closed her eyes against his shoulder. She tried to clear her mind, to purge her body of all the inexplicable anxiety. With each breath she pushed the thoughts out of her mind. An hour. One hour, some food perhaps, and they would be on their way.
She felt a small ripple of magic reverberate through the air, and opened her eyes to see Qaris blasting their firepit with flames, igniting some fresh wood, while Kinley fitted hunks of frozen meat onto a few metal hooks, preparing to hang them over the fire.
She perked up briefly at the sight, and saw out the corner of her eye that Anders was staring longingly at the meat, his eyes appearing just as ravished as he felt.
He nudged her as if to say, "see?" and she nodded again.
An hour. An and a hot meal. She could certainly manage that.
Finally they were alone, but they had only been able to hike about two hours out before a cloud of fog rolled in, followed by fluffy clumps of snow that fell lazily from the sky. They had full bellies, finally, and for a very short time Selise felt almost giddy to be free of their strangely affecting hosts. They had thanked them graciously and went on their way, feeling that they were just as glad to be rid of her and Anders as she was them. No doubt due to her atrocious behavior, she realized. The further they got away the camp, the more Selise winced at the memory of her tone, her accusations.
"I'm not usually like that with people," she informed Anders out of the blue.
"Like what, a feisty little tigress?" he joked.
"Rude. I'm not usually so rude. Especially when people are being hospitable."
He was quiet for a moment. The forest had been transformed into an eerily beautiful wonderland, with only the closest trees visible and everything feeling completely silent and still. They crunched through the stillness, feeling the calm of the atmosphere sink into their bones.
"Don't worry about it love," Anders said, flashing her a kind smile.
"I feel like a jerk now," she said.
"You were really feeling all that stuff though.. I could see that. Who knows what could have happened if we stayed longer. You might have been onto something," he picked up her hand and squeezed it, "but now we won't have to find out."
Selise nodded. It was true. She had felt almost overwhelmed with agitation, and it only grew each time Julian spoke. It didn't make her feel better about her rudeness, but she was only being true to her feelings. She tried to shake the memory off. It didn't matter now. They were moving again, just the two of them.
Eventually Anders came to a stop.
"I have no idea if we're going the right direction," he said as he peered into the wall of fog that surrounded them. They could see maybe ten paces out, but nothing at all beyond that.
"We can't keep going in this," he said.
Selise looked behind them, following their footsteps with her eyes until they disappeared completely out of sight. She counted 18 steps.
They split up, hoping to find another rocky outcropping close, something that they could build a fire on, but when four separate attempts yielded nothing, Anders gave in and began setting up the tent in the snow while Selise dug down, trying to reach the ground.
When the tent was fully erected and their packs slung within, she felt Anders hand on her arm.
"We've eaten already. I think we can go without a fire tonight," he said, and then his lips curled into an enticing smirk. "Besides, I'll keep you warm."
She dove into the tent and situated all the blankets, before sliding underneath and removing as much of her clothing as she could manage without leaving the warm nest. Anders joined her and she pawed at his coat and robe, groaning when the warmth of his bare belly slid against hers at last. She kissed him deeply, remembering those languorous kisses from back before their world was filled with cold, exhaustion and stress. His lips were less chapped now that they were no longer spending hours riding into the wind, and she sucked at the warm pillowy flesh, exploring his mouth with as much fervor as she ever had. She pulled him into her and wrapped herself around him, obeying the need in her belly to get him as close to her as possible. It wasn't until they were deep in the middle of making love that Selise felt with a powerful surge what Anders had mentioned earlier that morning. They had been disconnected. She had been split between obeying Solas' urging to search her past for clues, and simply trying to make it through the day. Anders was there, always right there, always ready to take her hand if she reached for him, or to stop for a momentary embrace, but she had stopped reaching for him. She'd been absorbed elsewhere.
She rolled Anders over and perched herself over him, moving her hips up and down that firm length that was filling her up so exquisitely. She kept the same pace he had set, but experimented with the capabilities of her body, letting it move against him with complete, abject abandon. She gyrated her hips and grinded down until he began to groan, and gripped the roots of his hair as she pressed her mouth hard into his. She felt an intense need to rejoin with him in every way, as urgently and completely as possible. He responded, clawing at her back and bucking up until the cold air stung the parts of her bare body where the covers had fallen away. When she sat upright above him, the cold caused her nipples to contract in to hard little points, and Anders rose to meet her body with his, sitting up and clamping his arms around her back, warming her neck with open kisses on her breasts, shoulders and neck. She held him hard, scraping her skin against his with each movement, biting at his lips and writhing down into him, urging more moans from his throat with each thrust.
When their climax finally came, surging through her with an almost unbearable sweetness, she was looking deeply into his reddish brown eyes and holding his face in her hands.
"I love you," she whispered before they fell back to the ground, pulling the blankets over them. She nuzzled down into his arms but kept his eyes locked into hers, holding onto that distinctive spark that she saw there.
There was still light in the sky and they talked until it was gone. She told him everything she could think of, about Solas, about her ability to feel his emotions, about the night her father and brother died. She answered every question he had in detail, drawing him into her life and her mind, until their words fell to whispers and sleep took them.
When she first pulled herself out of the blankets in the middle of the night, she thought maybe Solas was taking her into a dream. Maybe he was finally returning. She initially felt excited; she had so many questions. So many things she was ready to discuss. But when Anders rose alongside her and moved with a strangely slow deliberation, putting on only some pieces of his clothing while ignoring others, she knew it was not a dream. She looked down and with a confusing horror realized her hands had already been moving on their own, clumsily pulling on her boots and coat, leaving behind her chestbelt and leggings.
She tried to speak to Anders, desperate to know what was happening, but no words emerged. Her hands pressed into the ground, pushing her to a stand, and then her legs carried her outside of the tent, Anders following silently behind her. The only thing she could seem to control were her eyes, and she looked around wildly, seeing only a dim misty forest.
Her chest filled with panic that tried to bubble up into a scream, but all she heard was a small croak.
The sky was beginning to lighten, the very first kiss of the sun upon the heavens, but her feet carried her forward, through the dark of the forest, between the bare tree trunks and toward the distant shadows of five figures.
Eventually she and Anders were passed by Kinley and Qaris, who were headed beyond her and Anders toward their tent and their camp. Toward their packs, toward the book.
As Julian's face became visible in the dim light of morning, she saw his lips curled in his ever present smile. She studied his face and his body and a muted shudder traveled up her spine, another urge to scream drowning within her as it dawned on her how she was being controlled. His hands were raised, emitting the low, slow frequencies of a dark, nauseating power. And they were blackened, stained with something shiny and tangy scented.
Into her mind jumped the vision of the cave, filled with strange ancient cages and the scent of old, putrid blood.