There was still some light left to the day when they made camp at the base of the ruins atop the mountain. Loghain built a fire, and Maric served up the cold cut sandwiches that the Duenna had packed for them; thick slabs of beef, pork, and turkey layered with fresh sliced garden vegetables and a spicy sauce.
"You know," Loghain said, between mouthfuls, "either I'm getting used to this Antivan food or my taste buds are being smothered by the heat."
"The Duenna hasn't been giving us the really hot stuff," Maric said. "You should try eating at an Antivan pub sometime."
"I'll pass, if it's all the same."
Supper finished, the men and the mage poked around the surface ruins a bit, a trifle aimlessly. "If your mirror is here, it must be deeper in," Githa said, after the few spells she tried turned up nothing. "Still, this is fun, isn't it? I feel like I'm on a real adventure. Do the two of you do this kind of thing often?"
"No," Maric said, with an air of perfect innocence, while, "Yes," Loghain said at exactly the same time, with a grimace. "It's all in your perspective," Maric said, with a shrug.
Githa tittered. "You two are too much. Have you always been this way with each other, or did it develop over time?"
Maric laughed. "When we first met, Loghain couldn't stand me," he said, joyously.
"So you see very little has changed," Loghain said.
"Well, you certainly make an unlikely pair of friends," Githa said. "I guess opposites really do attract, don't they?"
Maric elbowed Loghain in the side. "You hear that? You know what that means, right? It means I've got brains, beauty, and charm and you've got…opposite."
"That's fairly close to accurate," Loghain said, "except you don't have brains."
"Oo, ouch! Now, who is the one who risked life and limb to rescue a little boy's puppy?"
"I rest my case. And mark my words, Maric - the next time you jump off a bloody mountain see if I don't drop the damned rope."
"So how long have you two been married?" Githa asked, with a grin.
"Ha ha. Actually, Githa, the both of us are poor, lonely widowers," Maric said. "One of us lonelier than the other."
"You're both widowers?" Githa said, and she seemed struck by it.
"Yes. Does that seem odd?"
"Not exactly. But statistically women tend to live a little bit longer than men. I think because if you can survive childbirth and your husband you can survive anything."
"Well, my wife got sick, and Loghain's didn't survive childbirth," Maric said, in a gentle tone. "It happens. It's sad, but there's nothing that can be done about it. I learned to be cheerful again, eventually, but that's a trait Loghain never had in the first place. Bereavement is harder on someone like him. There are too few people he loves."
"Will you shut up about me and look for your Maker-damned mirror?" Loghain said.
"Hey, I found something!" Githa said. Both men looked across to where she knelt. In her fingers she held a piece of broken ceramic. "A potsherd. It has a bit of a picture on it, I think it's a bull. I bet if I cleaned it up it would show nicely."
"We're not looking for broken pottery," Loghain said, with a roll of the eyes.
"I want to see," Maric said. He climbed over a tumbled column and knelt by Githa's side. He took a handkerchief from his sleeve and carefully cleaned the dirt off the bit of ceramic. "It is a bull. Looks a bit like Loghain, don't it?"
She giggled. "Particularly in the way it seems arrested mid-charge."
"He's been arrested mid-charge," Maric said. "Takes a lot of guards to do it, and 'tis a brave man who'd dare to try."
"If you two are going to play in the dirt I could just as soon go home," Loghain said.
"Relax, my friend. We'll not find anything of note tonight. We'll knuckle down and search in earnest tomorrow morning," Maric said. "For now the light is fading, so just let's enjoy the scenery until twilight sets in."
In answer, Loghain crossed his arms over his chest and leaned indolently against a column that leaned brokenly against a ruined wall. The King returned to looking for potsherds with Githa.
"Oo, here's another bit," he said. "Let's see; yes, it's a match. What's the picture? Looks like a man."
He cleaned the shard with his handkerchief and fitted it against the piece with the bull. The small, incomplete figure of the man seemed to rise over top of the charging animal, and the man's hands terminated in the break between the shards. It looked as though he were reaching for the horns of the beast.
"Oh, I've read about this!" Githa said, excitedly. "He's jumping over the bull! The ancient Tevinters used to do that for sport, sort of like Antivan bullfighting today only no swords. Can you imagine standing in front of a charging bull? You'd have to be mad."
"The matadors do it, don't they?" Maric asked.
"Have you ever seen a bullfight?" Githa asked. "You can see into the stadium from the upper-story windows of the tower. Not a great view, but sufficient. A matador faces down the bull but he's smart enough to step out of the way when it charges. These men, the Tevinters…they'd wait until the beast was right on them and then vault straight over. I wonder if the bulls back then were as big as the ones we have now. Some Antivan bulls weigh close on to a ton and stand as tall as a man."
"I wonder if I could jump a charging bull," Maric pondered.
"Try it and you'll have bigger things to worry about than an angry bull," Loghain said.
"Well, just think about it. I mean, what is the point?"
"Ancient humans didn't live very long. When you're old and used up by thirty and dead by forty, you develop a devil-may-care attitude about life," Loghain said.
"I think it was meant to show faith in the gods, or something," Githa said, as if she hadn't heard him. "Faith in the strength of your legs and the stoutness of your heart, seems like to me. I couldn't be that brave, or crazy."
They poked around in the ruins some more. Githa pocketed her two potsherds, found a few more undecorated pieces she let lie, and a number of small animal bones which, for some reason, she put in her pouch along with the potsherds.
"You have an interest in dead rodents?" Maric asked, incredulously.
"I've never seen bones before, outside of plates in an anatomy book. I find them fascinating."
"You've really never been outside before, have you?" Maric asked. "I keep forgetting you've spent your life locked away indoors."
"They used to let us outside for exercise back in Ferelden, but that stopped when a fool named Anders jumped into the lake and swam away."
"Standing on a small prominence of rock in the middle of a lake isn't quite the same as being out of doors for real, dear heart," he said. "Have you ever touched a blade of grass?"
"I have now. And I'll thank you not to remind me of what I must return to. I intend to enjoy every moment of my freedom while it lasts."
The sun sank down below the western horizon, and the party returned to the campfire. Loghain added wood to the blaze, and disdaining assistance Githa erected the small tent they'd brought along for her use. It was not properly pitched by any means when she was done, but she seemed quite satisfied with the sagging structure and herself. She looked over at Loghain and gave him a saucy wink.
"If you get lonely tonight, you could join me in here," she said, and laughed as she disappeared inside. She lay there in the gathering darkness and listened to the men argue outside.
"Take her up on it," Maric insisted. "How often in life do you get an offer like that?"
"She's just teasing me," Loghain said, irritably. "Shut up and go to sleep."