See chapter 1. Cheers!

Fishing

A knife would break, trying to cut the tension in the room. For once, even Sera was silent and steady as she scowled at the items in her hand.

"Do you have any," Sera looked from the cards in her hand to Thom sitting opposite her, "knaves?"

Thom didn't even look. Instead, he maintained a self-satisfied smirk and shook his head, "Go fish."

Growling out several curses, Sera slammed her palm onto the deck and retrieved a card. She let out a howl of frustration before settling into her seat and waiting for her next attack. They'd been at it for nearly two hours, and in Melusine's memory, that was the longest she'd ever been in this "battle." Playing this game with these people was not for the faint of heart. Josephine had been unavailable to play this round, but she'd already demanded they play again on another day. Cullen and Leliana were also unavailable, but the rest of Melusine's companions were currently playing, observing from the sidelines, or were tolerating their existence from across the room.

"So," Cassandra looked across the table to Melusine, confused concern on her face now that it was her turn again, "if I ask Varric for his knights he has to hand them over to me? All of them?"

Melusine shrugged, "That's the idea. I mean, the game requires an honor system among the players. Because, in all honesty, it is damnably easy to cheat in it. So you have to have a level of trust among players unless you assume everyone will cheat, then it's open season."

"Poor Cassandra," Varric chuckled, his smile warm as his eyes rested on Cassandra's worrying face, "what's to be done when you're forced to play such a game with notorious liars and cheats?"

"Just because you cheat doesn't mean I have to." Cassandra narrowed her eyes as she stared at the dwarf. "Do you have any mages?"

Varric fiddled with the edges of his cards. He looked across the table, and after a moment of observing Cassandra's growing scowl, he sighed and handed two cards across. Cassandra's grin lit up the room and, though he tried to hide it, Varric's response was equally warm and tender. Melusine was happy to see that the two of them had finally acknowledged the relationship and were just shy of following through with physical connection—if her observations were correct.

"Why do we play the game? We know that Bull has the other two mages."

Melusine laughed as Bull growled at the youth. He refrained from hitting him and instead spoke to Melusine in a strained voice, "I thought you said we weren't supposed to count cards?"

"Cole," Solas patted his shoulder, "same as with any other card game, do not comment on other people's hands. Just focus on your own."

Cole nodded. Melusine gave Bull a sympathetic smile as Cassandra turned her predatory gaze on him. She won the mages without a fight.