We decided to head to Redcliffe after Ostagar, which thankfully was on the way to Orzammar, where I recommended we go after we went to Redcliffe. We set our camp outside the dangers of Ostagar. I set up my tent between Ashley and Leliana's tents.

All right, I had to be honest, I thought Leliana was really, really cute. She was fascinating to talk to and she told really, really good stories. She seemed to like my stories too, real or not. I liked sitting next to her by the fire when we ate dinner and just listening to her talk.

She sat next to me by the fire this time and struck up the conversation.

"How are you feeling?" She asked me genuinely concerned. "You seemed really upset when you came back from Ostagar." I nodded.

"I feel better now," I said, "I was just pretty shaken."

"I can't imagine what you must've gone through during that battle," she said.

"I wish I were in the actual battle," I muttered.

"But if you were," she said, "you wouldn't be here with us. I think that would be the greater loss." I looked at her almost incredulously. Was she trying to flirt with me? I just shrugged.

"I like to pretend to think I could've made a difference. Even though I know I couldn't have. Not the way the battle turned out." I looked over at her, meeting her eyes like in some stupid romantic comedy movie. Her eyes alone were gorgeous. Soft blue like waves on the shores of Cali-. Cut it out, C.J.

"I'm glad you are here with us," she said, "I think that we'll need all the Grey Wardens we can get in the coming months."

"You sure it's not because of my wonderful company?" I asked jokingly. She laughed.

"That too," she admitted. I laughed as I stared back into the fire. "C.J.," she said reclaiming my attention that never really left her in the first place, "will you tell me more stories about your world?"

"You are just fascinated by where I come from," I ran a hand through my hair, tousling it a little.

"Of course," she said, "at least you get to see this world. I don't even know what yours looks like." I shrugged.

"Fair enough." I said. "What do you want to hear about?"

"I want to hear about you," she said. Goddamn. "I heard a lot of stories of stuff that you know about in the past, but not a lot about you."

"I dunno," I said shrugging, "I kinda had a shitty family save for Danny, but we know how that turned out."

"Where did you live?" I realized that she was not going to give up so I just conceded.

"I was born in a city called Denver, Colorado and shortly after I was born we moved to another city called Seattle, Washington and I lived there all my life. My dad was a professor at a college in the city and my mom was a doctor so when I told them I wanted to be an artist they got pretty angry. I met Ashley my freshman year of high school and we started dating in the middle of our junior year and then we broke up after I left to go to college in California and I was actually visiting home when we ended up here." I looked at her and realized that she was closer to me than before. Even that bare minimum synopsis of my life enthralled her and I legitimately had no idea if I should go into more detail or not.

"What was your childhood like?" She asked.

"Why the sudden interest?" I asked.

"I find you interesting." Flirting, definitely flirting. I bit my lip in thought.

"It wasn't a bad childhood," I said, "we lived by a lake and Danny and I would go there and skip rocks and swim and talk about stupid stuff. That's where I told him that I like women. And I had a lot of friends in school and in college." I looked up. "Sometimes I wonder what they're doing right now. Break is over by now and more than likely, they're wondering if I'm still alive. My parents probably are wondering but they won't do anything about it."

"I'm sure that they care enough to at least look for you," she said. I laughed.

"They would just say "She's an adult now, she has to be on her own," hell, I was paying for my own college because I wasn't going to the college my dad worked at." I sighed. "I mean they could still care about me, but it's not like I'm going to be seeing them any time soon. It doesn't matter." Shabon came up to me at that moment and licked my face.

I leaned away from him, making me lean closer to Leliana. Smart dog. When I looked up at her, he stopped. I felt heat rise in my cheeks as soon as I saw it in hers. We looked away from each other. I sighed and shot a dirty look at my dog. I pet his head and kept staring at the fire.

"What about you?" I asked.

"I was born in Orlais to my mother who was Fereldan. She was a servant to an Orlesian noble, Lady Cecilie before the rebellion. Afterward, we fled back to Orlais. Lady Cecilie raised me after my mother died."

"What's Orlais like?" I crossed my arms and looked over at her and I let her go on and on about how beautiful it was how flamboyant the culture was and she must've talked for about twenty minutes and I listened to every word. We were interrupted by Alistair asking who wanted the first watch. "I'll take it," I volunteered.

"I will as well," Leliana said right after. I just looked at her and smiled. At least it would be enjoyable.

We continued on our way to Redcliffe. Cayne guessed that we would get there within the next couple of days.

I walked next to Leliana and she was happy to walk beside me. I knew it drew a very disapproving gaze from Ashley but I really didn't care that much. Leliana really made me happy. Like a diamond in the rough.

I knew Ashley didn't like it because that morning when we were packing up camp she came up to me to talk.

"You and Leliana seem to be getting really close," she said. I had smirked at that.

"Yeah, we are," I said, "she's a nice girl."

"I don't know if we should trust everyone we just meet in bars, C.J." She said.

"She's proven herself a good friend, Ash," she said. "She stayed beside me while I was knocked out in the Circle. So did you. Why are you doubting her?" She bit her lip.

"I just think that you need to be more cautious." That's when it dawned on me.

"Are you jealous?" I asked. She didn't answer, her face told me everything. "You are!"

"I'm trying to-," she stammered.

"Bullshit, Ash," I said, "you're so jealous and it's obvious. Ash, we broke up for a reason."

"Because you were moving away!"

"Because you couldn't handle it," I shook my head. "I cannot believe you. The world is ending and you're concerned about who I might like? That's so typical of you."

I shrugged it off after that, now I just wanted to move forward from it. We hadn't dated for a year and maybe that was better. I had moved on and it was time for her to do the same.

"Is Ashley going to be all right?" Leliana asked me.

"She'll be fine," I said, "she just needs some time." I sighed. "I-." I was interrupted by someone running at us, seemingly exasperated. It was a woman running up to Cayne. I brushed past our companions and stood beside him.

"Help!" She cried. "Our wagon was attacked! Please help us!" Before either Cayne or I could even respond, she ran off. I looked at Cayne, question all over my face.

"Could be a trap," he said, "You, Alistair, Morrigan, and Leliana should come with me, the rest should stay here." I turned to my dog who had the impression that he was going as well.

"Stay, boy," I said, "look after Ashley." He whined and sat down. I turned back to Cayne and put a hand on one of my daggers.

Cayne led us forward to where the woman led us. It was a cart that was turned over and the ox that had been pulling it was slaughtered. I looked past the woman to see a small band of men, all of which were armed. I put a hand on my dagger and looked up at the hill to our left. One of the men stepped forward. An elf with blond hair and a tattoo on the side of his face. He drew his daggers.

"The Grey Warden dies here!" He shouted. I looked over to see those on the hill knock back arrows. One released an arrow straight at me and I moved out of the way as it embedded itself in the ground. Alistair rushed the men on the ground and I tailed him until I could break away from the fighting and I ran up the hill to sneak up on the archers. I grabbed one from behind and stabbed him in the back. I let him go and his corpse rolled down the hill. The furthest archer noticed me and quickly drew an arrow back. I grabbed the next archer and used him as a human shield to take the arrow. Right after he released it, an arrow embedded itself in his head. I smiled and threw my human shield down as another arrow struck the last archer in the chest.

"Everyone all right?" I heard Cayne ask at the bottom of the hill. I looked down to see that all the other men that attacked us were. They were all dead with multiple stab wounds in each. All except for the leader. The elf. I held up my thumb to signal that I was all right. I made my way down the hill to meet Cayne who was standing over the elf in question.

"What should we do with him?" I asked.

"I figured we should interrogate him." He said. I nodded. Cayne flipped him over so that he was on his stomach and slapped him a couple times. I raised my eyebrow at that. He was surprisingly rough with him.

"Mmm," the elf groaned, "ow. Well, I see you haven't killed me yet." His accent was foreign, sounding a lot like Italian.

"That can change pretty quickly, buddy," I said holding my dagger out threateningly. He didn't seem to be phased by it. Alistair, Leliana, and Morrigan walked over to us and gathered around the elf.

"Well, then I assume you wish to interrogate me. Let me get this out of the way," he cleared his throat, "my name is Zevran; Zev to my friends. I am an assassin with the Antivan Crows sent here to kill any remaining Grey Wardens." Well, he was certainly willing to give up some important stuff without much fight.

"Who hired you?" I asked keeping my dagger close to his face.

"A very important looking man hired me." He said. "Loghain I think his name was." Go figure.

"What do you think?" I asked Cayne. "Should we kill him or let him go?" Before Cayne could answer, Zevran spoke again.

"If you are done interrogating me, allow me to make you a deal." I put my weapon down to let him speak. "Since I failed to kill you, you have every right to kill me, however, if you let me go, my life is forfeit. Thing is, I like living, and I have no desire to go back to the Crows after failing to kill you. Let me join you, and you may use me however you wish. I will pledge my fealty to you." I looked at Cayne who was considering the proposition.

"Why should I just trust you?" He asked. "You just tried to kill me."

"It's not like he really has much of a choice, Cayne," I said.

"I think it's a great idea," Leliana said.

"You did know that he just tried to murder us right? By order of Loghain," Alistair said.

"To be fair," Zevran said, "I was paid to do it. I hold no loyalty to this Loghain character."

"C.J.'s right," Cayne said, "he doesn't really have a choice." He hesitated and held out his hand for him to take it. Zevran grasped it and was hoisted up.

"Let me pledge my loyalty to you. My sword is yours to command, I am you man without hesitation, this I swear." I smiled. An assassin. This was getting more and more interesting by the day.

I looked around to make sure there weren't anymore men lurking in the bushes but there were none. I kept an eye on Zevran as we made our way back to the others. Leliana walked with me.

"Do you think we can trust him?" I asked her.

"I think we can take him at his word," she said. "Don't you?"

"You might be a little too trusting on this one."

"You both would do well to inspect your food a bit more closely," I heard Morrigan pipe up from behind us. I had my doubts to be quite honest, but I also had some hopes that this Zevran would prove himself to us.

Ashley still refused to speak to me after our spat that morning. In turn, I found a bit of company in our new member. Zevran quickly became one of my favorite people. The elf talked extensively about Antiva, his home country. The differences between Antiva and Ferelden, according to Zevran, were like night and day. I listened very intently, captivated and fascinated by his homeland. His accent coated his words to the point where I thought he was about to speak full-blown Italian. He reminded me of the people in Italy. I had visited family there and every time I go, the people spoke with a certain flourish that was unlike any other place I had been.

"So," he said to me, "our leader tells me that you and your friend are not of this world."

"That would be correct," I looked at him as he laughed.

"That is impossible," he said, "you could not be from another world."

"And why not?" I challenged, curious to see his reasoning.

"There is only this world," he laughed like I told a good joke. I looked at him incredulously before I realized that science had not advanced to the point of discovering their solar system, assuming this world even had one. I laughed as well.

"How do you know?" I asked. His face turned from a smile to one of question. "Have you proven that this world is the only one that exists?" I noticed that I had garnered the attention of Leliana and Morrigan who were listening intently to my answer. "I'm assuming that you've never been past the clouds in the sky, right?" He shook his head. "Back home, my countrymen have been on the moon. We have sent out these things called probes to go out even past the moon and bring back information about the other planets and even beyond that. There are these things called nebulae where there are solar systems in which there are planets that house who even knows what."

"Sounds like bullshit," he snarked. I thought about what could possibly prove my case to him when I remembered my phone in my bag. I unshouldered it and began to dig around in the bag until I found the little black device that would forever just be a little momento of home. A black iPhone 5 that I'd had since high school. I held it up to the assassin. He looked at it curiously.

"You know what this is?" I asked. He shook his head. "We call it a cellphone. You use it to talk to people far away in an instant."

"You still have yours?" Ashley asked me finally speaking to me after this morning.

"You don't?" I asked her attempting to turn it on.

"I do," she said, "I'm just surprised you still have yours." The Apple icon lit up on the screen.

"Holy shit!" I exclaimed. "It still works!"

"No way!" I looked over at Ashley digging into her pack to find hers. Needless to say, I was amazed that the thing even was still functioning. When it turned on, my cover screen of the park on campus became visible. I looked at the battery. 67%, exactly what it was when I got here. I looked over at Ashley who was turning hers on. "Mine works too!"

"That's insane," I muttered.

"Are you sure that isn't witchcraft?" Zevran asked.

"If it is, how can we both use them when I'm not a mage?" I watched him nod, convinced. I smiled triumphantly.

"58%," Ashley said as she powered hers off.

"67%," I replied, "no service though."

"Same," she put her yellow iPhone 5C back in her pack. I slipped mine in my own pack. I found it strange that both of our phones still worked and I wracked my brain to find a solution to that fact and the only explanations that I could've come up with was that either we both happened to turn them off before we came through into Ferelden (unlikely) or that something happened when we did go through to make our phones turn off.

"So," Zevran said, "it is true then." I nodded. He laughed again. "You both are quite the pair." Though I knew he was talking only to me, I knew Ashley could hear him.

"We are," I said. At least we used to be. "Ash is my best friend. We're nearly inseparable."

"Forgive me for prying, Grey Warden-."

"Call me C.J."

"C.J.," he corrected, "but I sense that there is something more between the two of you." I looked at him incredulously.

"You're mistaken," I said seriously.

"Touchy subject?" He asked. "I'll leave it be, then."

"We can speak about it later if you want," I dropped my voice in volume so that Ashley wouldn't hear. "I just don't like talking about it with everyone here to listen."

"I quite understand," he said. I liked Zevran, at least had respect for him. Whatever doubt I had in Cayne recruiting him was completely gone.

"C.J.," Leliana called when camp was set, "may I speak to you for a moment? Alone?"

"Of course," I stood up and followed her to the edge of camp, near Morrigan's own little camp but far enough that she was out of earshot. "What do you want to talk about?"

"The flirting," she said, "I notice it and I have responded to it. However, hearing you speak to Zevran earlier…" She trailed off for a moment. I waited for her to come up with the right words. "I just wanted to ask about how Ashley would react."

"It doesn't matter," I said simply. "We're not together, we just used to be. I have no intention of getting back together with her and she knows that."

"I just don't want there to be tension if we…" She trailed off again, blushing madly. I laughed.

"If you're asking if she'll get jealous, the answer is yes," I stepped a little closer just to see her blush more. "If you're asking if she'll dislike you as a person, I'd say that it would be unlikely. She's more mature than that and she knows what our relationship is. It's platonic. Don't expect an ice bolt in the back or your tent set aflame. She knows that I can do what I want and so can she. She may not like it but that's not our business."

"Our?" Now I was the one blushing. I cleared my throat nervously.

"Well, I just figured that since you implied that maybe we would," damn it now I was the one lost for words. As I blundered about the thing I was trying to say she giggled.

"It's cute when you're nearly speechless." I gave up on trying to speak. My face was burning and I knew that she could see that. Knowing that, it made me blush more. I looked up at the night sky.

"The stars look beautiful tonight," I said finding nothing else to say.

"They do," I knew she wasn't looking up. I cleared my throat.

"We should really get back to camp," I said, "the others would be wondering where we went off to." We walked back to camp together. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Cayne chatting up Morrigan. I smiled when I saw her grin at him, like he said something extremely flattering. They were pretty cute. I looked over at Leliana and smiled again. She was pretty cute too. And for just a moment, I forgot the perils we faced.

I wanted to give you guys a fun chapter after hitting you hard with the heavier stuff, though the feeling of impending doom will inevitably return. If you're enjoying what you're reading please favorite and follow and leave a review for me.