This is becoming a bit more multi-chapter than intended - it's running away with me a little.
Anyone wondering about the timescale: DA:O takes place over a year, and days of that must be spent hiking from one location to the other; this is on the way to Redcliffe from Lothering, pretty much as it was in my playthrough.
Fade Striders are battlemage boots.
Another Arcane Warrior segment, and, I think, where our two Wardens start to build their particular bridge - enjoy.
Armour
Morgana
They are on the road when she sees it. Motioning to the others to carry on, she picks the silver plates up from the dirt. She smiles as she finds it is a full set of splintmail - a lucky find. Who knows where it has come from? Certainly not her, but they all take what they can find on this mission.
It is old, has obviously been worn before, but it also has the look of being well cared-for - it has been very dulled, and there is a mark where the sword has gone through the leather, but it is perfectly usable. Tucking it under her arm (inhaling slightly at the weight of the metal), she runs to catch up with the others - not easy in a mage's skirt, and she thinks she really needs to get some breeches, she's always hated dresses - clanking as she goes and feeling ever so slightly ridiculous. Catching sight of the armour - and her struggles - Alistair (no, the nearly-templar, the oppressed-mage part of her head corrects her. No, Alistair, she re-corrects it, putting it to the back of her mind) offers to help her with it. Her pride won't allow it, but after an hour the journey seems impossible and the armour is steadily slipping from her arms. Just as it is about to fall from them completely, strong hands catch it, and before she knows what in the Void is going on, she has had half the armour relieved from her and he is walking in step beside her, smiling at her. Smiling? She wonders if it's because of the soup.
She can't help thinking that he has been rather decent, some might even say kind, to her, even for an almost-templar. She reminds herself that mages and templars can't be friends, but the argument sounds more hollow every time she uses it. There is also the fact that Alistair isn't actually a templar...
She mumbles a "thank you" and it seems to be enough for him. He nods, returning his eyes to the road ahead of them with the words, "Well, veridium can be rather..."
"Heavy," she finishes for him simply, and he looks at her in surprise.
When they arrive at camp, she uses a few bushes to change behind, slipping into a wool tunic they found in Lothering, then the splintmail, and dumping the tattered blue apprentice's robes - she never wore the mage's robes when she received them: it felt too much like... acceptance, she supposes, like she was condemning herself to a life inside stone walls. Besides, mustard yellow isn't exactly her colour - on the ground.
Even Morrigan looks slightly taken aback when she re-appears. "'Tis not the clothing of a mage..."
Alistair looks her over, flushing at the unpleasant connotations of that action his mind has undoubtedly managed to conjure up, then nods approvingly, before stopping. "Oh, wait. You might want to buckle that..." When she can't find it, not being able to help himself, he buckles it for her after watching her struggle and taking pity, seemingly surprised at being allowed in her personal space; a plate at the back of her shoulder is finally secured into place. Bright red, he can barely look her in the eye when he steps away, and she suppresses a laugh. She understands his awkwardness, though, and says - properly, this time - "Thank you, Alistair." The corner of her mouth twitches.
If a man could jump at a smile... He recovers and returns it quickly. "Any time. Well, not any time, you'll need to learn to buckle up your own armour..." Something occurs to him. "If you were serious about starting your training, it would be good to start once you've broken it in."
Even with the weight of the plates, it is fairly comfortable, and it fits her surprisingly closely - as she walks to her tent to find her old Fade Striders, she smiles.
She has found her armour.