Promises of the Grey

Celestia193's Author's Note: Alright, so in this chapter, we're going to start seeing tensions and politics come into play. Not everyone is going to get along perfectly, after all.

Chapter 5

Sasuke stops and strokes along the neck of one of the horses stabled at the base of the tower. They were beautiful creatures, and he rather missed the horses that were allowed to roam freely about Dragon's Peak. Loyal creatures, every one of them, and Sasuke had appreciated their tough, hardy, but affectionate nature. The horsemaster here kept good charges.

But the moment of indulgence passes, and Sasuke begins making the climb up the stone steps to the tower holding the quarters for the Wardens. He was under no illusions that when he returned, he was in for an interrogation. And as he pushes open the door on the top floor, he silently curses, knowing that the interrogation would be coming sooner, rather than later.

Because in those shining eyes of jet was the unholy amusement that his brother always displayed whenever Sasuke returned late after a night out. And Sasuke knew that there would be no avodiing it, as usual. "Itachi."

"What was that about her not being your mage?" Itachi chuckles at Sasuke's ruffled, but satisfied looking state. Though he could tell his brother was likely braced for some inevitable teasing, otherwise he seemed quite pleased with himself. "I will give you this much, you do have exceptional taste. She's a pretty one."

Sasuke shoots a scathing glare at his brother. Of course his taste was exceptional. But that didn't mean that whatever they had would…go anywhere. "Then should I take it that you're moving on from unattainable Antivan nobility to chantry sisters?"

"The chantry sister was just a pleasant diversion. I didn't bed her." He rolls his eyes at Sasuke. "I'm still not certain why you have this fixation on the Antivan and I, but nothing happened."

Oh, now that was downright precious. Sasuke's glare transforms into a smug smirk, more than pleased with the dirt his brother had unwittingly handed him. "That's too bad, that sister last night seemed as though she was more than willing to warm your bed. But I suppose it's only right that you protect your virtue for your Antivan lady. I do hope that the sister wasn't disappointed in your…poor performance."

"I didn't 'perform' with her in any respect and really, Sasuke...I'm beginning to grow rather concerned for you." Itachi pokes his forehead, hoping that would be the end of the conversation. "You're imagining things that aren't there and that can't be a good sign for a Grey Warden. Perhaps you ought to be examined."

"If it isn't darkspawn, I'm not worried." Sasuke rubs his forehead, as though the motion could will away the nightmares. "But if you failed to perform for her, then I do hope that Shisui or Kaito stepped in to reassure her, maybe Amara, seeing as Kaito was likely busy with the mage I sent him."

"For someone who is trying so desperately to pretend that he isn't smitten, you're obsessively focused on my love life. I know what you're trying to do, Sasuke. It won't work." Itachi smirks at his foolish little brother. "I was not born yesterday. You're not going to change the subject."

"More like I'm interested in your lack of one, and your new vow to remain chaste." It was so different to the Itachi that Sasuke remembered. Because Sasuke doubted that it had anything to do with her being a chantry sister.

"Sasuke, I hardly believe turning down one offer constitutes a vow of chastity." Itachi rolls his eyes.

"Right, of course not." But at least Sasuke had successfully diverted his brother. "Have the others returned?"

"Not as of yet, but I imagine they will be soon." He shakes his head. "The fact you're so determined to change the subject means you liked that one."

Sasuke couldn't lie and said that he'd felt nothing for the beautiful enchantress, Itachi would just see through him. So it was best to just get it over with. "And? What's your point, Itachi?"

"It is just something that comes with being a warden. It would be a lot to ask of her, but given her rank...I'd imagine she understands duty." Itachi sighs as he watches his brother. "I wish for you to be happy and while I understand the million concerns that you've likely thought of...I'd rather not see you deny yourself or her happiness. If it was merely a case of physical attraction that is easy enough to overlook." He didn't believe that was all there was to it though.

Maybe he could be happy. But Sasuke wouldn't put Hinata through it right now, not until he'd had time to…properly assess things. "We should focus on coming back alive first. Romance can wait until after our first mission is dealt with." And he knew that the mission was coming, soon. "I had another dream last night.

Sasuke often had dreams of the darkspawn. After the end of the blight, they lessened, but recently, they'd been growing longer, more intense, and more frequent. "I can hear them. They're growing more active." They would be needed, and soon.

Itachi sighs as he rests a hand on Sasuke's shoulder. "Then we shall deal with them as we always have in the past and when all is well, then I shall tease you more about your pretty little Mage as is the natural order of things."

A groan escapes Sasuke's lips. "I tell you that I have a dream about darkspawn, and you still insist on teasing me?"

"Yes, it serves as a wonderful distraction from your awful dream. Does it not?" He smiles at Sasuke.

"For you." But all it foretold for Sasuke was embarrassment and humiliation. "Just get ready to leave. I only came back for my staff, anyway." He pushes past his brother and towards the weapons rack on the other side of the room. He would much rather have stayed with Hinata until it was time to leave, but he knew it would be best to wait for their orders in the courtyard.

He nods at Sasuke, sensing he may have gone too far. "Yes, that would be wise. Let us go." Even playful teasing did have its limits.

Sasuke takes up his staff and checks the grips before sliding it into the leather straps laying across his back. "Do you think it will just be darkspawn this time?" With demons, dragons, giants, and other terrors out there, even Sasuke wasn't entirely certain what they would find.

"I doubt we'll be so fortunate." Itachi shakes his head. Not with Sasuke having those kinds of dreams. Instincts were there for a reason, even if they were buried in your subconscious.

"Right…" Just for good measure, Sasuke straps on an extra belt with pouches filled with potions and herbs, just in case. He was no healer, but he could tend his own injuries well enough to not need one.

The door opens a second time, pulling Sasuke out of his thoughts as their cousin walks inside. While Shisui definitely still carried a hint of afterglow, it was marred by the serious expression on his face. "We've been called. We're heading out within the hour."

"That didn't take long." Itachi somehow manages to bite back a sigh. "Let's go. It must be urgent." It was far from the first time he questioned his decision to allow Sasuke to join the Grey Wardens and he knew it wouldn't be the last. Sasuke was a proud Warden, but the freedom the organization offered came with many prices. Other than the nightmares though, Itachi had never witnessed Sasuke suffer from his choice in any major fashion. Today was a turning point in that, and he couldn't help but feel guilty.

Sasuke nods and straps on the last of his supplies. They could be gone for days or weeks, even months if the location was far and the threat sufficient. He had promised Hinata that he would return alive. All he had to do was keep that promise and try not to take too long. After all, it's not as though darkspawn would finish him. Not now. And not for a long time.

The courtyard fills with a swell of soldiers, a mix of Inquisition forces, and half of the Grey Wardens recruited after the siege at Adamant. And into this slight disorder walk the Ferelden Wardens.

Sasuke's eyes work on counting the troops. Over a hundred were assembled here. Not an expeditionary force, but a battle regiment. Which meant that they were walking into a huge, steaming pile of Mabari shit. He glances at his Warden-Constable cousin wryly. "You think that you can handle this many Wardens?" The Orlesian Warden-Commander had died at Adamant, and there was no telling how confused the Warden ranks might be without a proper commander to direct them. It was why Sasuke preferred to be Ferelden. He doubted that the Wardens of Orlais were nearly as independent as their own.

"Sasuke, we've handled worse in the past." Shisui watches the semi-controlled chaos with experienced eyes. "We'll manage this. We don't really have a choice. The darkspawn aren't going to wait for us to get better organized."

"True." Sasuke steps forward, noting the distinctly low numbers of mages among the Orlesian Wardens. He tried not to think about just why that was the case. Because he would rather believe that he wouldn't have resorted to rampant blood magic like they had.

On the steps of the citadel, Cullen stands alone, looking out over the assembled warriors, all of them carefully picked for the mission ahead. He ignored the curious onlookers, come to watch the troops heading out, for there was no time to lose, and the entire assembled force was present. "Forces of the Inquisition, Grey Wardens! A Red Templar incursion south of the Exalted Plains has revealed entrances to the Deep Roads that threaten to turn loose a horde of darkspawn on the villages spanning the southern border . Your mission is to find these tunnels, seal them, and deal with the presence of Corypheus' forces. Grey Wardens, it is up to you to find and eliminate the darkspawn before they overrun the villages! Hold the line and keep them from turning north."

Itachi frowns as he hears Cullen's instructions. They were reasonable, but easier said than done. He was under no illusions. They were going to lose some Wardens today, but he would do all he could to protect his brothers and sisters of the Grey and his actual brother. Sasuke. "It looks as though we're going to be sealing some tunnels." He glances at his kin. "I think we can manage that."

"And in the meantime, we try not to fall into the Deep Roads while we're sealing those tunnels." Sasuke knew what happened during the Calling, but he wasn't intending on going on his prematurely. "No one's paying a visit to the dwarves just yet."

"Yes, best to avoid those." Itachi nods, but he says nothing further as he notices his brother's attention had drifted to someone else. It was the pretty mage again.

The troops begin turning towards the gates and mount up to head out through one of the mountain passes. Sasuke's eyes look up to the middle courtyard to see a very familiar pair of pale eyes. He hadn't asked, but he wasn't surprised to see her here to see off the troops. Everyone in the castle would know by now that some of them wouldn't be coming back.

Hinata wasn't entirely sure how, but she manages to spot Sasuke in the sea of Wardens and offers him a small smile. A small smile and a nod of her head were all she could offer him now, but she could only hope it was enough. She was there and still remembered his promise. She still wanted to keep him. Their eyes locked and all those unspoken words were somehow conveyed or at least she prayed they were.

Sasuke returns the smile, his eyes flashing with fiery determination. He'd promised he would be back, and had claimed that the darkspawn wouldn't get him so easily. It would look terrible if he reneged on that promise by dying in this battle.

Her smile grows at seeing his, but she gives him another nod before disappearing into the crowd. She had 'said' what she wanted to say. It wouldn't do to distract him now when they were about to march.

The smile on Sasuke's face fades, his expression mirroring the determination in his eyes. Then he spots the look on his brother's face and rolls his eyes. "Not a word, Itachi."

"I didn't say anything." He shrugs innocently.

"You want to." And that was basically the same thing. Sasuke couldn't stop his brother from thinking the words, but he could at least try to stop him from saying them.

"Well, I won't deny that, but I bit my tongue." He smiles and pokes Sasuke's forehead. "What more could you ask of me?"

Sasuke scowls. "For you to stop poking me?" Though he silently scoffs at the thought as he finds the nearest free horse and rolls his eyes at the sight of the Orlesian Wardens mounting so…gracefully. He cared nothing for grace and simply pulled himself comfortably onto the horse.

"If I did that, you'd start to worry." Itachi smiles as everyone prepares for battle. Sasuke would always be Sasuke. "And you know it."

"Maybe." Sasuke groans softly. "Clearly, it's not going to be the darkspawn that kill me." It was his brother's damn forehead pokes!

Barren trees stand around the forward camp as the Inquisition's forces mill about, breaking up into manageable squads for advancing over the rough terrain. After three hard days of riding through mountain passes and grassy plains, tensions were riding high, and thus far, all had been quiet. That peace was soon to come to an end.

One of the Orlesian Wardens points irritably towards a map laid out on a large table with his dagger. "We must meet z'em on ze field here, where we will not risk surrounding ourselves with z'em. Ze passes there are too narrow for maneuvering."

A female Warden crosses her arms and shakes her head. "I disagree. If we are to control the tide of the battle, we must take the high ground and force the darkspawn to close ranks and stagger their movement."

"You forget the threat of the Red Templars. If the darkspawn pass through this field, they'll cut off our access to the Red Templars and allow them to open up more passes to the Deep Roads, if they exist." An Inquisition scout points to several markers on the map. "If we let them flee, we'll have more than the current horde on our hands."

Sasuke glances over at where the very loud arguing has already erupted. "Looks like they're still at it." Orlesians did love to argue, or so it seemed. He was used to seeing loud, heated arguments that lasted perhaps a couple of minutes, with everyone shouting until someone took charge and laid out all of the bare facts, and how to act on them. Otherwise, everyone was left to their own devices, and things simply seemed to work out as long as you kept your allies in mind. This had to have been going on for almost an hour already. "Do they really think that the darkspawn are just going to sit around and wait for them to finish arguing, and then go along with whatever their plan is?"

"Sasuke, they're all just trying their best to minimize casualties." Shisui shakes his head his cousin's impatience. "It is best to sort these sorts of things out before we charge off if possible."

"Yeah, it's best to sort them out so that we minimize ALL casualties." Sasuke had gotten a look at that map, and there was no way he was going to go off what they were planning. "There's a village between us and the darkspawn. Between that battlefield and the darkspawn." If they went with that plan, they might minimize Warden casualties, but there would still be lives lost. The passes were a better bet. But Sasuke would prefer to fight well before the village, with the passes at his back as a potential fall-back position before the darkspawn could get to them.

Shisui nods at him. "That is my assessment as well, but it's best to let them air out some of the tension with bickering than to turn on each other during a battle."

As the arguing grows more incensed, Sasuke's fingers twitch towards his staff. If a fireball lobbed at their heads would set their brains functioning again, he would be more than happy to supply that fireball. "Tense or not, if they turn on each other during a battle, then they're not Wardens." Sasuke clenches his fists and leaves his cousin behind, storming over to the table holding the map, and the fools gathered around it. He takes a dagger from his belt and drives it into the map right in the middle of the valley past the passes. "That's where the fighting is going to be. Now stop arguing."

Shisui just shakes his head and tries his best not to groan. "Sometimes I wonder how he hasn't gotten himself killed with that temper." It was the right choice, but Sasuke had a lot to learn about diplomacy.

One of the Orlesian Wardens wrinkles his nose in distaste at the appearance of the interruption. "Zis does not concern you, Dog-Lord. Ze Grey Wardens of Orlais have long worked without lectures from rural Ferelden guardsmen."

Sasuke growls at the derogatory nickname and the blatant insinuation that he was in any way inferior to them. "But clearly you need it. You are NOT sacrificing the village in order to draw the darkspawn out into an open field." This one must have been a chevalier at some point. Sasuke had met a couple of them once when they came to the garrison at Amaranthine and tried to throw their weight around. They were definitely more likely to be elitist arses than warriors from common origins. "If your commander were still alive, I'm betting they would have had more brains in their head than you. This argument is pointless, because we're not leaving the village to be overrun."

"And who are you to think that you command me, whelp?" The Warden bristles, disdain clear in dull grey eyes. "I am a Senior Warden from the esteemed garrison at Jader. You WILL show the proper respect."

"I'll show you respect if you earn it." And Sasuke knew that wouldn't be happening any time soon. "You have no authority to make this call. Your commander is dead, and so are your constables." And nothing was going to bring them back now.

Itachi frowns as he heads over with Shisui to stop the bloodshed. "If you continue to disgrace our brothers and sisters with your contemptible behavior a moment longer, I will challenge you for your rank." He whips out his staff and summons a blaze. "You will apologize at once or I shall force you to."

The Warden glares at yet more interruptions, clearly insulted by the use of magic in an attempt to intimidate. "Hmph, I am merely telling zis child zat his fancies are not required here. We plan for war with ze darkspawn, not some child's game. Sacrifices are necessary."

"It's easy to tell other people to make sacrifices when you're not the one that is planning on giving up their life or their family today." Itachi glances at Sasuke. "Would you prefer to teach this insect his place or for me to do so? His buzzing is growing most irritating."

It was tempting, truly, and everything inside Sasuke burned to put the arse in his place. But instead, his gaze drops to the knife he'd embedded in the table, and he sneers, turning his back on the former chevalier. "Don't bother wasting your magic on him. The battle ahead is more important than this fool's 'fancies'."

Sasuke had other things to do, and he knew one way to humiliate the man, while establishing a new chain of command as their argument drew the attention of the rest of the wardens in the camp. "Warden-Constable Uchiha, I'm heading to the passes to cut off the darkspawn and establish a foothold." Sasuke glances at his cousin, his fingers clasped firmly around his staff. "Look out for falling rocks when you bring the rest of the Wardens to the battle."

Shisui nods at Sasuke. Well at least it was over. Though it was a pity the arrogant Orlesian was still standing. "Understood. Well that is enough staff measuring contests for the day. Our duty is to fight darkspawn. Not each other."

Successfully chided, the Warden backs down in a small show of respect for the Constable. And despite the initial argument, there are no more protests from within the order's ranks, only a milling about as all of the warriors buckle down to prepare for battle.

"Hn." Sasuke rolls his eyes at the sight. Clearly, Orlesian Wardens only knew how to follow orders when a superior told them what to do. How sad. He shakes his head and strides away from the camp, knowing precisely in which direction he needed to go to get to the passes. Shisui and Itachi could get the Wardens to follow them, Sasuke had no interest in trying to wrestle with a bunch of overly cautious Orlesians.

"He acted disgracefully, but you need to work on your temper." Shisui eyes Sasuke. "Promise me that you will try. One of these days, it may not end in your favor."

Sasuke glances back over his shoulder, knowing the futility of his cousin's request. "I could try. But I think I would rather take it out on the darkspawn instead." Then he glances at his brother. "Don't take too long, or I might get bored enough to kill them all before you show up."

"Sasuke, what are we to do with you? Truly." Itachi sighs and shakes his head. "But very well, let's get going. The darkspawn wait for no one."

He had intended on going alone, but Sasuke knew better than to really expect that Itachi would let him traipse off across the Dales in search of darkspawn all on his own. Itachi never allowed him to do anything on his own, nothing dangerous, in any case. So, Sasuke smirks at his elder brother. "Just don't slow me down, Itachi."

"Considering how easily distracted you are, I should say that I have more cause for concern than you in that area." Itachi snorts. He'd be gray by thirty if Sasuke kept this up.

"I shift focus easily." Sasuke shrugs, seeing nothing wrong with his tactics. When one was facing a horde, focusing too hard was even more likely to get you killed than not focusing enough. There was no point in blinding yourself to attacks from the sides or rear to focus on the enemy in front of you.

And maybe, just maybe…he might not finish off all of the darkspawn before his cousin showed up.