Anders had been asleep, still laying on his side, but when Leliana had moved, he mumbled some in his sleep and started to roll more on to his stomach. The blanket rested low around his hips, revealing the large scabbed over wound from where Naomi Hawke had stabbed him. It was the only blemish he seemed to keep on his body; though it was uncertain of whether that was because he couldn't reach it from where it was—in order to have it healed—or for some emotional attachment. In either case, it was in plain view over his light peach skin.
He was having the nightmares thick in his sleep, but seemed peaceful at the moment. It was the darkspawn calling to him, and it was something Anders anticipated. He could only hope that Justice would be sensible and protect himself in order to reach the required destination. Because he knew where he needed to be, and so did Justice, if the spirit wished to continue his work.
There was a loud commotion in the hallway; a few footsteps marching and some bickering. From the sound of it, the owner of the tavern was complaining to the Grey Wardens for the commotion of last night, and insisted that the room should be checked on. Upon when the door to the room opened, it's wooden frame nearly was thrown backwards. On the other side, stood a blonde dailish elf with aquamarine eyes. She wore the same Grey Warden armor as the rest of them.
"I don't care if they're—" She started to shout at the dwarf from behind her—who seemed equally displeased at the broken bed. She looked towards Leliana and then to the man laying down in bed. She opened her mouth briefly and then started to close it when glancing back towards the dwarf. "These are not our people-"
"Velanna?" Anders yawned and started to rub his eyes. He looked up towards the direction of the voices, and sure enough, was the elven woman staring back at him like she had seen a ghost.
"Anders…?" She started to question and fisted her hands.
The mage in bed stretched a bit, trying to regain his barrings of all that happened last night, but wasn't given much time with certain company to address. He rubbed his eyes and started to sit up; hardly aware of his current non-attire.
"Long time, no see." He said and started to smile wirily. "How've you been?"
"'How've you been?' That's what I get?" She started to growl and unleashed a wave of ice near the foot of the bed.
Anders quickly tucked his legs away to avoid frostbite. It only took him a few seconds later to clutched the pillow to protect his unmentionables from being seen by strangers. His eyes widened in surprise and his smile was replaced back with worry.
"…Not well, I take it…" He started to say, but another wave of ice aimed for his head, causing Anders to duck. He had to dodge to the left side of the room just to keep Leliana out of the range of iceburgs, while Velanna started to chase after him.
"Get up, you good-for-nothing-sorry-excuse-of-a-shemlen!" She scowled with her arms stretched out to either freeze him or strangle him; Anders wasn't sure which. "What were you thinking? Is Justice in there too? Isn't he suppose to be the responsible one?"
"Not sure what you mean…" Anders laughed nervously and dodged a few more spells and ran out the door.
"Don't you lie to me! Get back here!" She scowled and started to chase him towards the tavern.
As Anders had shifted to his stomach Leliana began to reach out in a curious manner. Seeing the scar which laid there upon his back. Her fingertips outlined it if for a second, well that was until she heard the yelling of someone coming to their room. Then she slowly collected herself, bringing her hands to herself acting innocent as she could, as if she had been doing nothing.
When the door swung open, Leliana turned herself towards the way of the door. Looking to see who this intruder actually was. Her brows were brought together in a slight confusion as she over looked the elf that had walked in. Parting her lips she began to speak. "Can I-" But quickly she was cut off by the elf and Anders speaking to one another, then shifting to a slight argument. It seemed. "Looks like you pissed her off Anders... What did you do to her?" She asked curiously finding out her curiosity wouldn't be answered.
The sudden changes of elements in the room made Leliana duck for cover at first. Watching as Anders ran about the room completely in the nude with just a pillow hiding such things. Leliana slowly began sneaking off the broken bed and into a part of the room where she knew Anders would dart by, and where the elf would cast any spells her way.
Looking about the room she saw its emptiness. Immediately she looked around for Anders garments and she found them where she had neatly put them not even minutes ago. She ran to them, picking them up in her arms as she darted out the door and towards the direction of the tavern.
As she entered the tavern she began looking for Anders and the elf. Surprisingly enough it wasn't hard to spot the two. Stepping forward as she did, she took a bold move and when the elf was in cool down moment of not being able to cast a spell, at least for a second she stepped in between the two. "Can someone tell me whats going on?" She asked curiously looking back and fourth between the two, her arms had then extended out. Pushing Anders clothes to his chest. She overlooked his nakedness and shook her head in disbelief. "Go get dressed Anders."
"Oh, no he does not! He's staying right here and he's going to start answering me." Velanna argued and pointed at him from behind Leliana. "Move one inch and I'll freeze off your nose! You got that?"
"Really, Velanna? Think of the rest of us!" Oghren called from his bar stool downstairs. He was laughing, and just about fallen out of his chair in the moment. There were just too many choices the ale-swilling dwarf could have said, but his laughter was soon drowning him out.
Anders was already starting to blush some and turned towards the hallway, pressing his backside to it and carefully trying to put on his bottom undergarments. He didn't care about exposing that much, just so long as the rest of himself below the belt was covered.
"You knew he was here?" Velanna asked, glancing over the railing quickly; but she didn't really expect much of an answer from the dwarf. So, her attention then turned back towards Leliana questionably. "And you. Who are you? Clearly another shemlen; that's true."
Anders turned his attention back towards getting dressed once he had at least the main important parts covered. "This is Leliana-"
"Ah, I see. You partner-in-crime. Is that it?" Velanna asked and started to fold her arms.
Of course Anders started to panic from this and dropped the pillow upon buckling his pants. "N-No! It's not like that! Look, she's just... It's different. That's all I can say."
"No! I want an explanation!" The elven woman snapped back quickly. "I think after what all of us have been through, we deserve that much!"
Leliana began to look over the railing, meeting her emerald hues with the dwarf. Immediately she felt a blush take over her features. She began remembering what Oghren said that night before along with what her and Anders all did to one another. She broke her eye contact with the dwarf, as his laughter filled the room, as she began fidgeting upon her fingertips.
Raising her hands in defense to the elf's words she began swaying them side to side. "I'm nothing but a traveler. Accompanying Anders here." But as soon as she was explaining herself to this elf she began to see Anders walk up. She shifted her head to the side listening to his words. Right off her arms began folding over her chest as she arched a curious brow to him. "Its different?" She questioned in a soft tone of voice which could really only be heard if one was close enough to her. Letting out a sigh she wasn't going to let his words go too deep, after all it was just one night... Right? She wasn't and shouldn't of gotten her hopes up.
As the elf started up again, Leliana began waving a hand in front of the elf as to break them up... Again. Or her shouting fest towards him. "How about we be civil about this?" She asked curiously, her arms dropping to her sides as she used a hand to point to a free table. "We can sit down, or actually you guys can sit down. Act like adults and talk this out."
"Do you really expect him to be civil in anything?" She asked nearly flabbergasted at Leliana's suggestion.
Anders glanced to Leliana and then back to Velanna. "Hey, I'm here, aren't I?"
"And that's what I don't understand." She snapped back quickly. "Aren't you supposed to be dead? An arrow in the neck and burnt asunder?"
Anders shrugged some after a while, once he was dressed. "I'm alive—"
"Clearly." Velanna tilted her chin up high; her pointed and narrow features casted a shadow over the tattoos on her face.
"… But if that's the rumor going around, I'd prefer to keep it." Anders finished, but he seemed to keep himself planted behind Leliana, and for what believed to have been a rather good reason.
She sighed some and turned around to head down the stairs. Anders watched over Leliana's shoulder as if to make certain that she was walking away. Though the petite elf paused some from the bottom of the stairs and looked back up towards them. She raised her hands towards the identified table and chairs briefly to show where she was going.
"Well? Are you coming?" She asked sharply and then continued to walk.
Anders paused a moment, taking in a deep breath. He started to mumble low to himself; uncertain if he was going to be heard or not. "This… is not going to be pretty…."
Oghren saw that they were starting to gather at the assigned table and chairs, and he didn't want to feel left out by any means. So, he hopped from the barstool and rushed to his delight. He was use to "Twitchy-Velanna" by now, unlike Anders who had seemed to forget her high-strung nature. When they each got to the table; though, the elven woman kept her seemingly high position and glared up at the other fellow mage.
"Sit." She commanded; and rather quickly Anders complied, pulling out his chair and resting his arms on the table.
"Looks like someone got up in the wrong room." Oghren started to tease rather blatantly towards Velanna.
The elf quickly turned towards the dwarf and show that she was not amused. The very minute she opened her mouth, the heart of the issues were quickly addressed. "Are you aware that Anders is the man who blew the Chantry?"
"And so it begins…!" The blonde male piped to himself but remained staring at the table.
"Our Anders?" Oghren asked rather in disbelief while the mage seemed to have remained stiff at the time being.
"Starkhaven is hunting for Anders of the Anderfels. What other Anders is there?" Velanna asked as she pulled out her chair and started to sit down.
Oghren leaned back in his chair and shrugged. "Hey, you don't have to go there, alright? Do you realize how man 'Tuck's' and 'Grunt's' us dwarven people have in Orzamar? You'd think we'd run out of names or something."
A smirk began to make its appearance on her lips as she had let out a chuckle. "Well he was pretty civil last night." She replied chirpily to the elf when asked if she expected Anders to ever be civil.
Leliana began to shift her posture back when the elf had demanded the two to follow her. Causing Leliana to look back to Anders shrugging her shoulders in a defeated sense. Until she began walking fourth down the stairs and to the table the woman had chosen.
Upon sitting Leliana began fidgeting with her fingertips on the outlining of the wood of the table. She was glad Oghren had been teasing the elf instead of throwing nasty little joke comments her way instead. This brought a sigh of relief to her. The least she wanted was explaining herself to him of what happened the other night. After all it wasn't his business. She just hoped it stayed that way.
Reaching out Leliana grasped onto a glass of water that had been set their for them. Bringing it to her lips she began letting the cool fluids slide down her throat. Which hadn't lasted long, when she heard Anders had blown up the Chantry. A sputtering cough had forced its way out of her lips, in which had almost made her spit the fluids which were trapped in her mouth out and onto who ever sat in front of her. But thankfully she didn't do so, and with winching her eyes she forced a gulp. Clearly Leliana knew Anders had blown up the Chantry but she wasn't expecting someone to come out and say it as she did.
"Soo what do you suggest we do?" She finally spoke breaking her own silence. Her emerald hues had shifted downwards away from the group not wanting to make any kind of contact, thinking if she did they could read she was hiding something, that something being Anders was once captive and she was brave enough to free him. It was one thing she didn't need to or want to encounter with this woman.
Velanna looked towards Leliana and frowned some at the question. "It's complicated—"
"No, it's not." Anders quickly responded, staring down at the table. "And anyway, it's the past. What's done is done."
"H-How can you just sit there and act like your behavior has no consequences to the rest of us?" Velanna scowled and fisted her hands on the table. "It was one thing to flee Amaranthine and to fake your own death, but this …issue with the Chantry, it cannot remain overlooked."
"For the record, Justice and I returned to the village to heal what wounded we could before we left." Anders lifted his head and then looked slightly towards Oghren, who had seemed to remain quiet for the moment. "And we fled Amaranthine because we weren't given a better option. Alright? It was either, join the Wardens or rot. Not like the rest of you—"
"I was exiled from my clan!" Velanna cut him off quickly and pointed to the redheaded dwarf. "Oghren was shunned from his! You're far from the sole martyr you're claiming to be in any of this…. and last time I checked, Ferelden lands were never kind to desertions."
Anders folded his arms and looked away from her in that moment. The silence started to settle in once more until the sound of Oghren beginning to reach for his mug of ale.
"I don't see what the big deal is. So, he ran from the Wardens and blew up a building." The dwarf shrugged between gulps.
Velanna closed her eyes and tried to explain quietly. "Oghren, that building was filled with dozens of innocent men and women in service to who they believed was a holy entity."
"Oh…" He mumbled in return.
"Or something similar to that nature… But the fact remains, whether you wished it or not, you're a Grey Warden." The elven woman sighed and then looked back to Anders once more. "Grey Wardens were not supposed to get involved in political issues like those."
"So, your only problem to my actions was that it was a political issue? It doesn't seem to bother Oghren or Sigrun." Anders started to suggest but Oghren raised his hand momentarily.
"That's because I'm drunk three fourths of the time…?" Oghren excused himself briefly.
"Not only that," Velanna started to say, glancing from the dwarf and soon redirecting her discussion once more., "but because I'm a mage too, Anders… Or have you forgotten already?"
"Oh, believe me, I remember. My bum is still a bit frozen." Anders winced some and wiggled a little in his chair.
Velanna shook her head, still carrying her frown. "…I'm taking you in under custody."
"No!" Anders whining quickly had ceased, turning more to a look of shock that she'd even try to attempt it.
Oghren looked from them and then towards the elf. "Can we do that?"
"We have no choice. If it were up to Nathaniel or Stroud, he'd be dead already." Velanna answered, but hadn't seemed to have made any movements towards standing up yet.