By the time they reached somewhere to stay the night Nero was leaning on the elf, the pain in his side suddenly very overwhelming. He just wanted to eat and sleep, and then leave the bloody town. Maybe he would ask Aveline if they could stay in the barracks for a while, he didn't think Denarius would follow them there.
When they opened the door to the tavern Nero's stomach grumbled painfully, which caused him to gasp, which in turn caused his ribs to hurt. After the pain subsided a little bit he realized that it was a testament to his hunger that he could smell the food at all, the place didn't seem much better than the Hanged Man. In fact it almost seemed like the same place, except that the building was all different and the smell of vomit and piss was stronger.
"You do have money on you, right?" Fenris suddenly asked. He was terribly tense and nervous, he wanted to leave the damned town and get as far away from Denarius as he could...but in the condition Nero was in...that wasn't an option.
Nero left Fenris at a table not far from the bar before he asked the bartender for two bowls of whatever it was he was cooking and a room, he ended up having to get one with one bed as all the other rooms were taken, but at that moment he couldn't care less. He was pulling the coin purse from his belt when a thought struck him.
"What are the chances you have a health poultice I could buy?"
The bartender laughed, "This is a bar, not a hospice."
He frowned but nodded his thanks anyway and paid the man, returning to the table to find Fenris already digging into a bowl of stew that was placed there. He still hadn't looked at the elf yet, only caught glimpses of his blurry form out of the corner of his eye, he sat down beside him, as opposed to across from him, and dug into his own supper, ignoring the fact that the 'meat' didn't remind him of any meat he had ever eaten. He ordered seconds despite the exhaustion slamming into him, but he only got two spoonfuls down before he felt a terrible twist in his stomach and almost threw it all up.
Taking that as a sign that he was done eating he offered the bowl to Fenris, who was only sipping at his own. With a mental shrug he carefully got out of the chair and limped over to the stairs, looking at the room key on the way to see which one it belonged to. He tried not to move too much of his body at one time as the pain was so potent that he could hear a ringing in his ears.
When they reached the room he stood gingerly in the middle of it, staring longingly at the bed. Fenris removed the cloak and set it by the already lit fireplace to dry before he realized that Nero was holding his side, but not moving.
He raised an eyebrow, "whats wrong?"
Nero jumped at the sound, then made a choking sound and tried desperately not to move, or even breath till the excruciating pain died down a little. Then he said, "I want to sleep, I need to sleep. But I think I broke some ribs, and I don't know if I can lay down." he said quietly.
Fenris frowned, unsure what to do. His own exhaustion was making it very difficult to think clearly, and that was aside from the shock that still hadn't left him. Then Nero steeled himself and took a step towards the bed, he carefully lowered himself onto it, determined to get through he pain till he was laying down. He got himself into a sitting position and took a few small breaths before he turned to lower himself. He was almost completely flat when he felt something move where he was still clutching his ribs and his vision turned stark white and he fell to the bed with a half grunt/half scream of pain.
Fenris watched the man's agony, feeling useless and idiotic all the while. Perhaps he should have killed Denarius and then searched for Nero to help him fight whoever the magister had sent after him. But what if I couldn't stand against Denarius? If I had failed surely he would have taken both me and Nero. That wasn't an option, he told himself.
He paced in the small room angrily as Nero waited for the pain to subside enough that he could handle breathing again. Fenris was angry at himself for, once again, managing to fuck things up, and putting Nero at risk in the process. He knew they were dangerous to each other, and now look what had happened. And he was angry with Denarius for not leaving him be, it had been almost a decade, why couldn't the man just give up? And he was angry at Nero, for coming after him even though he had made the decision to go with Denarius to spare him. What would he have done if Denarius was on the ship? The apprentice managed to injure Nero so badly that he couldn't breath deeply without it hurting, what did he think Denarius would have done with him?
If Nero was so determined to rescue him why didn't he get some backup before he came? It was reckless and stupid to give chase when he didn't even really know what he was dealing with. What if Denarius had brought friends along, what if the crew left on the ship wasn't a bunch of half-drunk sailors but well trained mercenaries or soldiers?
He glanced at Nero, half-forgetting that he was suffering and intending to demand answers to his questions when he realized that the man wasn't so tense anymore and his head was hanging limply to the side. It was a testament to Nero's exhaustion that he could fall asleep so easily in such a state.
Fenris sighed and sat on the floor, leaning his back against the bed, wishing that there were chairs in the room that he could sleep in. Luckily he ended up falling asleep in that position quite easily.
...
"Would you damned people take this outside?" the bartender yelled from downstairs.
Fenris startled awake in his chair and instantly wished he had at least laid down on the floor before he fell sleep. It was their third night in the inn, and Nero said the pain was getting better, but Fenris didn't believe him. At least they were able to switch to a different room though, this one still only had one bed, one that would surely fit the both of them, but Fenris slept on the chair anyway.
He snapped his neck painfully and glanced at Nero, who was surprisingly awake, though obviously in pain. Nero still lay on his back with his hands at his sides, clenched so tightly that his knuckles were white and his face was contorted into an expression of agony. He was breathing slowly, trying not to take shallow breaths Fenris assumed.
"I need to get you a doctor." He said.
Nero snapped his eyes open and said quietly, though forcefully, "no, you can't go out there alone. We don't know where Denarius is. He'll be looking for you."
Fenris sighed and looked away "you shouldn't have come alone."
"But I did. There was no time to get the others."
"You shouldn't have come at all." Fenris insisted.
He heard a quiet chuckle and then a hiss of pain from behind him and turned around to face the other man. Nero needed to see a doctor and they couldn't stay in this room forever, Fenris knew. But Nero was right, Denarius would still be out there, it was amazing in an of itself that the magister hadn't found them already, maybe he didn't know that Fenris was gone yet.
After several minutes of silence Nero continued their conversation, "if I didn't feel like I was dieing I would yell at you, maybe slap you a few times. How can you tell me I shouldn't have come, would you have not done the same? You came after me when that nobleman took me."
Fenris scowled, "but I didn't go alone, and this is different. I left with Denarius of my own will, you had no right-"
Nero turned his head so that he could look angrily into Fenris' eyes while he said, "do not tell me what I had the right to do. You did not make any move to stay in the hold of that ship when I unlocked your cage. I don't know what Denarius said to you to make you think you had to go with him but nothing is worth losing your freedom for, not when you've fought so hard for it all this time."
Fenris turned away with a sigh, refusing to respond. He only noticed that there was a ruckus taking place downstairs while they spoke when it stopped, he tilted his head to listen and was surprised by what he heard.
"Why do you always fight in here, Isabela?" the bartender asked.
There was a familiar laugh then, "because its muddy outside, and I'm already in here."
"Is that Isabela I hear?" Nero asked, obviously having listened as well.
Fenris stood and grabbed his cloak, it was still damp, "I'm going to see."
Nero began to protest but before he got the words out Fenris was closing the door behind him. Although if the clarity of the conversation he had just heard from downstairs was anything to go by then he could have just muttered it and the elf would have heard him. What were the walls made of, paper?
When Fenris descended the stairs he found Isabela at the bar, in the same position as she usually was in the Hanged Man; nursing a drink and leaning against the counter seductively. She hadn't changed at all in three years, and why is she so close to Kirkwall? he wondered.
She didn't notice him until he stood beside her and said her name by way of a greeting.
She jumped when he spoke and turned to face him, a hand on her chest "Maker's breath, Fenris. You almost gave me a heart attack!"
He smirked, "I have that effect on people, sometimes."
She rolled her eyes, "what are you doing here? What's with the cloak?"
"I could ask you the same question."
She leaned back against the bar, "I just stayed here for the night to ride out the end of the storm, I'm going to Kirkwall."
He raised an eyebrow in question, he didn't imagine it was to see all her old friends again.
She sighed at his expression, "Castillon is there, looking for me. I need to deal with him...and Hawke promised me he would help me with Castillion, so..."
Fenris barked out a humorless laugh, "and you think he's going to agree to do so, after everything that's happened with the Qunari?"
She looked away, trying to hide her shame, after several minutes she said, "he's a man that sticks to his word. It can't hurt to ask."
"Unless he strangles you the moment he sees you."
"He wouldn't do that...would he?" She questioned.
Fenris shrugged, "maybe, he was very angry after you left the second time, but he hasn't mentioned you in years."
"I'm almost insulted by that."
Fenris chuckled.
"So did you ever work things out with Nero?" She asked, a mischievous grin on her face.
He scowled at her, "it's...complicated."
She smiled, "relationships usually are... You never told me what you were doing here."
"That is also complicated."
She rolled her eyes, "are you going to tell me or not?"
He sighed and looked up the stairs to the door of his room, "come with me, and we'll tell you."
She frowned but pushed herself away from the bar to follow him, "we?"
...
"Okay, and you think staying in the town that his ship is docked at is a good idea?" Isabela asked with a roll of her eyes.
"No, but we don't have much option-" Fenris began.
"It hurts to fucking breathe, I don't think leaving this building and risking running into Denarius is such a great idea." Nero interrupted.
"Well shit, don't you have any health potions or poultices on you?" she asked.
Nero rolled his eyes while Fenris said, "if we did, don't you think we would have used them?"
She tapped her chin with a finger and thought, "do you have any money? I could go buy you some."
"How unexpected, your offering to help!" Nero muttered.
"Ignore him, he's in a bad mood." Fenris said, he reached into one of Nero's pockets and handed the bag of coins to Isabela, "thanks for the help."
She smiled and nodded then turned and left the room. Fenris sighed heavily, this is a fucking mess.
"You do realize we possibly just gave all of our money away without any chance of having it returned, right?" Nero asked.
"I will find and crush her, if that happens." Fenris told him.
...
As Isabela searched Ostwick for a healer or alchemist she watched silently as a man surrounded by six guards strode down the street towards the docks with purpose. She wondered momentarily if that was the Denarius that she had heard so much about, he certainly didn't look like much. She snorted, most mages don't..except Anders, he used to be rather...large, she thought with a smirk, remembering thier encounter at The Pearl in Ferelden.
She forgot about the old man rather quickly when she found a potions stall. She was looking for something that might help Nero, and was about to ask the woman who ran the stall for help when she heard another familiar voice that she hadn't heard in years.
"Rivaini!"
Really? Is everyone in Ostwick today? Despite her thoughts she turned to the dwarf with a genuine smile on her face, she had missed the little man.
"Varric, what are you doing here?" She asked, after bending down to give him a brief hug.
"Searching for Nero, apparently he ran off to find the elf, the trail leads here. I'm not completely sure where to look for him at, I'm not familiar with Ostwick, neither are the others."
"Everyone else is here too?" She asked, suddenly nervous, unsure how they would great her. "Where are they at?"
"We stopped in a breakfast house when we got to town, I'm too antsy to eat however. I decided I would see if there is still a Tevinter boat in port, or if we're too late."
Isabela smirked, "well...there is, but Fenris isn't on it, neither is Nero."
...
Denarius looked at the mess that was his Apprentice angrily. He didn't need to look through the broken doorway to know that Fenris wasn't there anymore, somebody had obviously come to fetch him. I should have kept him with me...if only I wasn't filled with such a murderous rage when I looked at him. This is rediculous. he thought angrily.
He took a step around the man on the floor, a pathetic excuse for a man, but an excellent mage. He looked in the room to the left, to see two more dead sailors before trying to pull the blade form the door frame. What a peculiar place to leave a dagger.
When it didn't budge he sighed tiredly and built a small shield around himself and sent a pulse of energy at the door frame, effectively breaking the dagger free in a shower of splinters. He looked at it closely, nearly dropping it when he saw the Archon's crest on it.
I should have known, he thought with a snarl. I cannot take on both of them at once, not with this pathetic group of men. I remember when they would pin him against opponents that should have been able to kill him easily, the slave's a monster.
"Abandon the ship, all of the sailors are dead. Procure a carriage and horses, we're going back to the Imperium." He hollered to his guards.
A/N: When Nero was being trained they would pit him against other people, to fight to the death as part of his training. This stopped for the most part when he became a whore, but the Archon would occasionally send a prisoner over that was meant for execution or whatnot. I mentioned this at some point, but I dont know if everyone would remember.