Continued from Templar and Mage.
Square One
Morgana
Something cool being pushed against her lips. The warmth of all the mana coming back, the comfort of magic.
Alistair crouching above her, holding the vial and making "shhh"ing noises; it's comforting, until she remembers why he's crouching over her, and then she wants to hurt him all over again.
She does all she can do, kicking out at him and screaming at him to get away from her as she tries to get up off the ground, pick up her sword. It's for his sake as well as her own (though she'd never admit it) - she feels the telltale hum of magic buildup with her fright. He looks up; she knows he feels it too, and somehow that hammers the hideousness of what he's done home. There is a moment of silence, tension drawn like a bowstring, until she settles her breathing, feels the horrible, delicious anticipation seep out of her bones. She looks into his eyes, sees the friend who admired the stars with her, and doesn't have the heart to hold a blade to his throat. He could easily beat her in a straight fight, anyway. She hates both facts, but it's the former that makes her feel so weak, foolish.
He holds his hands up. "There was a reason... we had no chance against magic - "
"I should never have trusted a templar." She sees Leliana approach him, stops her with a look.
"I'm not - "
"I don't bloody care what you think you are!" She steadies her breathing again, shuts down her eyes, lowers the volume of her voice. That's when she sees him swallow. "Lyrium doesn't make you a templar, but what you just did does. I am a mage, and you are a templar, and no matter how much you say we are Grey Wardens, that is all we are."
"But I thought - "
She shakes her head, refusing to let him finish the sentence, let him try and appeal to the part of her that was stupid enough to think the Chantry didn't matter. "I am a mage. What you did breached all trust."
He looks at her one last time - a long look - before he picks up his sword and sheathes it, ignoring Leliana's lightning fast move at the motion and muttering something that sounds distinctly like, "Back to square one." When he meets her eye next, he has set his face as best he can, but she knows him too well - the cracks are showing. "So... what now?"
She ignores what he actually means. "We find the Ashes, and we try and cure your uncle."
He tries to speak again, but is silenced by a look from Morrigan.
She steps forward, starts to walk past him, and the last words she says before they reach the Ashes are quiet and brittle. "Keep an eye on him."
Well, that's today's update. Done!