Twelve

Asariel 9:32 Dragon

The wind rustling through the branches, leaves and flowers of the pear tree was like music.

They had returned to Asariel on the water earlier this year, as the magisters completed their short session in near record time. It had been a hard winter, much colder than usual and many of the magisters had more pressing concerns back home with slaves, serfs and peasants who had weathered the bitter cold. It had snowed in the south this year, a rarity in all but the coldest years, and the frost and freezing weather had created no shortage of messes.

Combined with that, the Qunari had been more aggressive and had won back territory over the past year, so there was an urgency to dispense with words in favor of speeding along swords and staves in hopes of reclaiming losses and pushing back the oxmen further.

Business was completed by the first week of Nubulis and Magister Arrentius had returned home for the beginning of spring.

That meant that Cassius had made it back to the manor in time for the blooming of the pear trees, white blossoms opened to the sun and wind, spreading fragrance all across the garden.

And, they had made it back in time for Valerie's birthday, an event that Magister Arrentius otherwise missed every year while away at Minrathous and always celebrated two months late under the early summer sun of Molioris.

"I got something for you," Cassius said as he reached into the inner pocket of his mage's robe, pulling out the small package wrapped in brown paper and tied with a bit of white string. For the daughter of a magister, it was a paltry offering.

Cassius handed it across to Valerie, sitting cross legged on the other side of the blanket, the small white and pink teapot between them, with saucers and cups resting in front of them. The teapot had been a gift from her parents, and instead of inviting any of her four sisters, she had found Cassius and dragged him by the hand outside to the garden, where she had set out a blanket on the lawn underneath the pear trees and asked him to sit.

She only realized after pulling him out to the garden that she didn't know how to make tea and only too late realized that she would need hot water. Cassius had been able to solve that problem for her, however, as he held his hand out flat and summoned a bit of fire into his palm until the water inside began to boil and whistle softly from the spout.

She had steeped the tea and poured each a cup. She sipped it gingerly and Cassius sipped his. She had made a sour face, then put her cup back down and ignored it since, instead chatting with him about various happenings he had missed around the house. He had been gone since last summer. In the fall he had returned to the Circle in Carastes for his freshman term on the mid floors of the tower. Then he had returned to the Magisterium at the turning of the year for his third session with Magister Arrentius.

While apprentices in the page program were not excused from their studies while serving in Minrathous during the second semester each year, they were not required to return to their Circles of origin even should the legislative term finish early as it had this year. Instead, he would merely need to continue his book work and training and submit a final term paper back to the enchanters by mid-year in order to earn a passing mark.

Next year would be his final year of service in the page program, after which he would return full time to the Circle to finish his last two years of study and face his Harrowing before commencement and assignment.

He had panicked when they had returned in time for Valerie's birthday. Although he was not obligated, he had felt compelled to get her some sort of gift. He hadn't in the past at her mid-summer fete, but now that he was here for her actual birthday, he couldn't bring himself to face her empty-handed.

"I'm sorry I couldn't get you anything better," he apologized before she had even opened it.

"Caz," she said as she took it and began to untangle the string and stuck her tongue out of the corner of her mouth. "You didn't have to do that. I know you don't have any money."

Cassius smiled at the jab. It was true. While most might browse the local market for something to get her, all he had was what the Circle gave him and what Magister Arrentius provided for him. She removed the string and pulled away the brown paper, pulling out the gift inside.

The small frame was made of wood that he had salvaged from discarded crates in the kitchen, that he had cut, sanded and smoothed, then painted with some of the oil pants Junia had been kind enough to allow him to use. Inside of it, he had set a card that was mostly blank, except for a small note in the bottom right hand corner.

"Happy fourteenth birthday," she read. "Your friend, Cassius Terro."

Valerie looked puzzled as she looked at the small frame. She flipped it over and looked at the back, maybe wondering if she was looking at the wrong side. There was nothing there. She flipped it back to the side with the text.

"Thank you?" she said in the form of a question as she looked up at him. "It's… I don't get it."

Cassius chuckled. "I may not have any money but even I'm not so poor as to get you an empty card. You see where I signed my name in the corner?"

She nodded. Cassius lifted his index finger. "Take your finger and touch that spot. Hold your finger there for a moment."

Valerie followed his instructions, taking the index finger of her right hand and pressing it against the card. Cassius watched as she held it there, still looking puzzled, until he saw her expression completely change, her mouth opening and her eyes going wide.

He watched as the small rune he had placed activated and light started to spread across the card, lines drawing themselves as they spread out within the frame in bluish-white light. After a moment, the gift revealed itself as Valerie looked down at the hand-drawn picture of a pear tree, just like the one they were sitting under, in full bloom under a dark sky filled with stars.

"It's beautiful," she said in quiet awe.

"It's lyrium-infused ink. Invisible ink," Cassius explained. "Normally a mage pushes a bit of mana into the page to reveal the text, but since you're not a mage, I placed a small rune that activates from the heat of touch and then lights the ink. It stays lit for about ten minutes at a time before vanishing again."

Valerie was tracing over the paper, feeling nothing but the flatness of the card as her fingers passed over the lines of the sketch he had made out.

"It will stop working at some point, unfortunately," Cassius said. He had been impressed with himself when he had thought up the idea for the rune, but then had become frustrated when he couldn't figure out how to infuse a more permanent charge into it. If he had more lyrium and if it were something more durable than paper, he might have been able to do it, but he did the best he could within the limitations. "But if it ever runs out, I can recharge it for you."

Cassius smiled as he watched as she continued to stare at the frame, until he noticed that her expression had changed from one of wonder to something more dour. Valerie sniffled and reached out to wipe a tear that was forming in the corner of her eye.

"Valerie?" he asked. "What's wrong? You don't like it?"

"It's not that," she said, shaking her head as she wiped her eyes with the heel of her palm. "It's wonderful. It's just…"

As she touched the picture again lightly with her fingertips, Cassius traced her eyes down and suddenly realized his error.

It was magic.

Valerie squeezed her eyes and put the frame down on the ground as she pushed her hands to her face and rubbed and then wiped.

"It's so stupid," she said sniffling. "It's my birthday and you gave me this sweet gift and here I am crying like some stupid girl about it."

"No, I apologize, I shouldn't have–"

Valerie cut him off. "No, it's not you. It's me. I thought I was over this kind of thing but, it's just…"

"I can take it back," he offered.

Her hands shot down and covered the frame. "No!" she snapped.

Cassius lowered his head and dropped his eyes, feeling ashamed. How thoughtless could he be? Magic was the entire world in Tevinter, surrounding everyone and woven into everything.

But it wasn't her world, and never would be.

"It's not fair," Cassius said. "You come from a family that has had magic for hundreds and hundreds of years. Meanwhile, I was born in a peasant house on a farm and I somehow get the gift? There's no sense in that. I would be mad, too."

"I'm not mad," Valerie said, shaking her head. "Not at you. Not at the world. Not even at magic. I just think about my father and it makes me sad."

"Your father?" Cassius said, confused. "He loves you, just as you are. Anyone could see that."

"I know he does," Valerie said as she wiped her eyes one more time, regaining her composure. She picked up her present again and her frown turned to a small smile as she looked at the glowing lines on the card. "But I'm not a mage. I'm just a girl. A girl without any magic.

"I'll never be able to be what my father needs me to be."


Minrathous 9:42 Dragon

"It's been years since I've been here," Valerie said as they strolled through the halls of the Magisterium.

She glanced around, looking left and right at the heavy, dark-painted doors along the hallways of the magister's residences. Cassius walked at her right side, his hands folded behind his back. He had been watching her as she glanced around the city upon their arrival, her eyes craning up to look at the tall, black spires towering above the streets. They had come to the Magisterium and she had stopped on the street out front, taking in the enormity of the building.

"We'd come to visit my father sometimes. My mother, Andria and I, before Kordelia was born. I was maybe seven, eight years old," she reminisced. "Andria and I would run up and down the hallways, running up and down the stairs. I used to always stop whenever we saw a tray outside a door and I'd pick at the food the people didn't eat. My mother used to get so mad when she'd finally catch us."

She pointed down the long hallway. "That staircase down there, at the end. The second step, that was my 'naughty stair' where I'd have to sit when I got in trouble. I hated that. And if I ever got up or moved to another stair, my mother would make me sit for twice as long, which only made me more mad."

"That's a good idea," Cassius said, chuckling. "Maybe they should send naughty magisters to sit on the stairs when they act up."

"It wouldn't be safe," Valerie said, bouncing off Cassius' joke. "The stairs would be so jam-packed with people that no one would be able to get up or down. It'd be a fire hazard."

They came to Magister Arrentius' room and stopped in front of the door where Valerie glanced at the handle and the small, squarish panel below it. In a normal door, there would be a keyhole there. But in the Magisterium, nothing was so primitive and analog. She sighed as she looked at the door, unable to open it.

Cassius stepped forward and placed his fingertip to the top center of the panel. As he pushed a little mana into his finger and the lock lit at the connection with magic, he slowly traced the pattern as she watched until the lock clicked and he pressed down on the handle to pop the door open.

"Your page will know the pattern," Cassius said. "Or any page who you show will be able to open it. But, unless you have them busy, your page should always be waiting inside so a simple knock will do, too."

As if on cue, the door swung open from the other side to reveal the page inside, who had come in response to hearing the lock. On the other side was the young Laetan boy, the sandy-haired page, Alex.

"Lady Arrentius!" he greeted as he opened the door wide and gestured. "Please, come in, come in. A pleasure to meet you."

Valerie looked at Cassius, who bowed his head, took a step back out of the way and also motioned deferentially for her to enter with a smile on his face. She wrinkled her mouth, not terribly amused by him, and stepped in.

"I've been waiting for your arrival, Lady Arrentius," Alex said, guiding her into the room. "I've been making preparations to–"

"What did she pack in these?" Fiora complained as she arrived at the door, dropping the trunks to the ground with a huff as she shook out her arms. They had left her behind, juggling the bags up the stairs.

"She packs lighter than Magister Arrentius, if you can believe that," Cassius said as he reached over and pulled his backpack off of her shoulder and swung it over his own. "Thanks for getting that for me."

Fiora stuck her tongue out at him. A normal slave might lose their tongue for such a reaction, but Fiora was no normal slave. "So it's the cot again for me?" she said, glancing into the room.

"Oh no," Cassius said, putting his arm across the doorway as she tried to step inside, blocking her. "We're not staying here."

"What?" she said as she bumped into his arm, then stepped back and bumped into it again harder.

"Valerie is staying here. There's no place for us," he said.

"Oh, Terro, no, not the flea motel again," she said with horror in her eyes.

"I'm afraid so," he said. Lodging options in Minrathous ranged from the princely for the most wealthy and prestigious guests to nearly uninhabitable for the filthy sailors docking at port. Cassius had enough coin to afford a room with a roof without holes that let the rain in, but not much more beyond that.

"No, Terro, no. I literally got fleas that last time," Fiora complained.

"We could always shave you," he said as he reached up and tussled Fiora's mane of black hair atop her head. She bent back and slapped at his hands with a sour look before fixing her plume of hair.

"Don't the Venatori have a barracks or something? Filled with strapping men? We could bunk there," she offered.

"No, and even if they did, I would keep you far away from it," he said, reminding her, "I hear stories about you."

Alex appeared back in the doorway, glancing at the two of them. "Master Terro," he said with a nod, "Good to see you again. And…" Alex squinted as he looked at Fiora, trying to recall her name and obviously coming up short.

"Slave," Fiora said, helping him out, making him half blanche at her forwardness.

"Fiora," Cassius corrected, as he snapped her a look. "Play nice."

"Yes, well," Alex said as he straightened and snapped back to his duty, still uncomfortable with the unusual laxity Cassius allowed in his slave. "Fiora. I can take those bags from here."

The page went to scooping up the luggage and bringing it inside. Cassius glanced past him to Valerie, who was floating around the chamber, looking at the furniture and decor, one hand running flat across the puffy quilted comforter on the bed and the other clenched tensely at her opposite hip. He watched as her shoulders and chest slowly rose and fell, breathing slowly, deliberately as she took in her new home for the next four months.

To Flavius, this place was as familiar to him as his own manor back at Asariel on the water, a second home away from home. In some ways, Flavius became more alive when he was here, in his element in the trenches of the Magisterium judging, debating, haggling. Home was comparatively boring sometimes, with little to do but linger and laze. Here, though, Magister Arrentius was at his finest.

For Valerie, however, what might she be feeling in this moment, a stranger in a strange, hostile world that would never truly be hers? She could never be magister. She came as her father's proxy, a substitute temporarily empowered with his consent to serve as his voice, a babe thrown to the den of wolves that was this legislature.

For as empowering and invigorating as the Magisterium could be, it could also be vile and cruel. For every victory Flavius claimed during his time here, he suffered defeats and indignities, slights and outright betrayals. A colleague who might be a friend one year could become a bitter rival the next. Trust was fleeting, allies made and discarded with the blowing of the political wind, and true friendships hard to forge and often tested in the crucible of the chamber.

Cassius had entered this place his first year as a page wide-eyed and naive. It hadn't taken long observing the making of the sausage to realize the amount of blood, grease and gristle ground in back rooms in order to hang pretty, perfect links in the window of the butcher shop. There were good men and women who walked these halls. And there were also deceitful tigers, sitting quietly and still in the underbrush waiting for the one moment their prey turned their back before they pounced and shredded them to bits.

Did Valerie realize any of that, he wondered? Flavius had done his thoroughest and damnedest to prepare her, but could really ever truly prepare her for what lay before her?

And yet, Cassius had his own concerns to attend to.

While Valerie was needed in the legislative pits, Magister Arrentius required him as their voice with the Venatori's inner circle, to plan their next moves. Flavius placed an enormous amount of trust in him and he would have to deliver.

"We must succeed."

Alex was buzzing around the room, putting things away and talking to Valerie, although Cassius couldn't be sure she even heard him as she stood at the foot of the bed in a daze.

She would find her way, quickly, as he had the first time he opened the door as a young man to greet Magister Arrentius, the man he was assigned to serve and the man who, little did he know it then, would change his life forever.

"Valerie," Cassius said from the door, snapping her from her fog as she turned around at the sound of his voice. "I'll be going now."

"Yes," she said with a deep breath and a tremble in her voice. "We have work to do."

"I'll return tomorrow and I will show you around, so that you know where to go," he said. "If you need anything, he's your man."

Alex snapped to attention at the reference. "Yes, Lady Arrentius! I'm at your service."

"I'll remember that," Valerie said.

She glanced over as Alex continued to unpack her bags and reached her hand out to stop him.

"Wait," she said, gesturing to what he was holding as she extended her hand. "I'll take that."

Cassius looked as the page passed her a small, painted wooden frame holding a white card inside of it. She ran her fingers around the frame as she held it at her waist, a little piece of home brought to make Minrathous a little more hospitable.

Valerie smiled sadly. "You should get going, Caz."

Cassius nodded. "I'll see you tomorrow," he said as he pushed his hands against the doorway, forcing himself back and away from the door, lest he stand in the entry all night.

He gave a small wave. Valerie waved back. He grabbed the door handle and pulled it shut, the wall separating her from him, magister from servant, Altus from Praeteri. He let go of the handle, the metal springing back to its resting position.

"Come on Fiora," he said, "Let's see if we can find a decent bite."

"I'd prefer a decent nip," she said, her thumb and pinky fingers out as she placed it to her pursed lips and tipped it back.

Cassius snickered. "That doesn't sound half bad, either."

They headed back down the hall toward the exit, Fiora falling in a step behind him as was required of slaves. He glanced back over his shoulder at the closed door of Magister Arrentius' quarters just once, then turned back on his way, paying no mind to the doors of the other magisters in the dormitory on this floor.

As they reached the far staircase, there was a young man standing there, his arms crossed behind his back, waiting, alone. He was nearly white-blonde and green-eyed, tall and thin, pale-skinned with soft and feminine features to his face. He wore a page's badge, but looked older, maybe in his fifteenth or sixteenth year of life. His eyes locked onto Cassius and Fiora as they approached.

"Cassius Terro?" he asked as they approached the stair.

"Yes?" he questioned. There were few secrets in the Magisterium, he reminded himself.

"I have accommodations ready for you," the young man said, as he gestured toward the staircase upward. "If you would follow me, I can show you the way."

Cassius glanced at the marbled steps heading up. The higher one climbed in the dormitories of the Magisterium, the higher the level of prestige. Only the most influential magisters kept quarters on the upper floors. There was no lodging there for servants, much less visitors to the capital.

"There must be some mistake," Cassius said, holding up a hand.

"No mistake, sir," the young man said. "My mistress has made all the proper arrangements. There should be no issue."

"And who exactly is your mistress?" Cassius asked, having a feeling he already knew the answer to that question before he asked it.

"Magister Tilani, of course, sir," the young man said, confirming Cassius' suspicion.

How did she even know he had arrived in the capital and what exactly was she plotting now? Gifts came with strings attached. In his initial meeting with Mae, he had found her to be as devious as rumor suggested. In their brief sit down in her quarters, she had not been particularly tolerant of his proper acknowledgement of the gap in influence between them, nor did she brook any patience for his humility, trained and impressed upon him by his low birth and training in the Circle.

She wasn't a woman willing to be refused. Then again, what had she actually forced him to do? Nothing, as he thought about it. She had not demanded, required or compelled him do anything. Even her parcel of documents she had only casually left lying out by the door, for him to take or not. He had taken them and, in time, had read through them, but she had not held a blade to his throat and held him hostage to it. Ever since their first meeting, she had had no other contact with him, no requests, no demands, no threats to act in any way.

That concerned him more than if she had sent a threatening missive to him with instructions to be fulfilled or to pay for his insubordination in blood. No, Maevaris Tilani did little to nothing in an effort to bend or control him, although Cassius could not shake the interminable feeling that he was being manipulated.

"I'm sorry, but we'll be on our way," Cassius said, declining the offer.

"Are you crazy, Terro?" Fiora said, glancing up the staircase. "If you're not going to go, I will."

"Fiora, quiet," Cassius tried to hush her.

"My mistress expected you might say such," he said as he pulled a card out. "She instructed me to give this to you if you declined."

Cassius took the card and flipped it over. In sloppy script in blue ink it read:

Cassius,

I wanted to congratulate you on the recent birth of your first daughter. May she be healthy and blessed with a strong connection to magic. I have been told new children can be exhausting, so take this opportunity to relax in luxury.

Besides, it will keep you closer to Flavius Five-Daughters' first.

I insist.

Mae

P.S. STOP apologizing.

Cassius lowered the card and crumpled it in his hand. Damn her.

The young page smiled. "It's unnerving, is it not?"

"Quite," Cassius said and gestured to the staircase up, resigned to defeat. "Lead on."

A short walk later and they stopped at the door to one of the upper-level rooms. The name plate at the door read "Magister Gnaeus Danarius."

"They'll need to change that," the page said with a snort. "House Danarius won't be needing this room this session. The family has been in disarray ever since that unfortunate murder in '37 in Kirkwall. And Magister Gnaeus met with an unfortunate accident just last week. It will be half a year at least before the tangled web of claimants sort themselves out. Magister Tilani ensures you won't be disturbed borrowing the space in the meantime."

The penthouse was maybe four or five times larger than Flavius' room, with large panes of windows looking out over Minrathous and the sea beyond it. The clouds were low and the sky was gray and the city looked dark and foreboding. It was significantly more well-appointed than his quarters, too, with a large sitting area, a separate bedroom, a large conference table, a dining room, an office space, a page's quarters and a separate, although considerably less grand, slave's quarters.

They were a floor up and another level of ostentation even compared to Magister Tilani's quarters.

He had passed three other doors before arriving at this one. The families on their name plates — Titan, Ammosine and Pavus — made him fully aware that this was the pinnacle of Tevinter itself, the apex of the Imperium where only the most powerful families could tread. House Danarius, even despite more than four years of internal turmoil, still wielded immense power through its near monopolistic stranglehold on the Tevinter slave trade.

"We can't stay here," Cassius said as he surveyed the room, filled with a sudden sense of dread. Were he to cross paths with the wrong person on this floor, he could find himself in the dungeons by the end of the day.

There were templars standing sentry at the top of the staircase and pacing the halls, to ensure that no one without express purpose to be on the floor arrived and to see that any trespassers would find their visit incredibly short and ending with a tumble back down to earth.

And yet, the templars paid them no mind as they passed, not even Fiora.

"Nonsense," the page said. "As I said, Magister Tilani has taken care of all of the necessary arrangements, proper, legal and otherwise.

"Besides, I have informed the guard that you are my family's guest for as long as you are here, and shall have full rights and access to this space as you see fit."

Cassius froze in place. The page was just a teen, but Cassius suddenly realized his oversight. As he blanched, the young man caught sight of it and smiled kindly.

"Albus Danarius, at your service," he said with a bow.

"My lord," Cassius said, dropping his head deeply. He wasn't familiar with the entire family tree of the Danarius family, but it didn't matter. Any Danarius, even one of the farthest branches of the lineage, was capable of crushing a Praeteri at the snap of his fingers. "I apologize for my ignorance."

"Mae asked me to remind you to stop apologizing, sir," Albus said, continuing to show Cassius formalities despite the fact that it should be operating in reverse. "She was quite insistent on that."

"My lord, I–"

"You will stay," Albus interrupted, "and make yourself at home. I won't hear otherwise."

Cassius felt as if he was being clenched in the jaws of a great beast, utterly powerless and ready to be snapped in two. Defying Maevaris Tilani would be untoward and dangerous enough, but to rebuff a Danarius, even a minor still in his service in the Circle, would be unthinkable.

He was caught, as surely as if he had stepped his foot unwittingly into a rope trap lying across the forest floor, sprung and hung from the tree to await the return of the hunter to be broken in two, skinned and devoured.

"I appreciate your hospitality, my lord," Cassius said with another bow of his head, accepting that he was bound and required to.

That was enough for Fiora, who gave an audible cheer and bounded off to the slave quarters with her meager pack, bursting in the door and jumping into the air landing on the bed within, rolling in the sheets and pillows. A slave, receiving an actual bed! She kicked the door closed with giddy excitement, separating herself from the two men.

"Albi," the young Danarius corrected, providing his nickname. "I am your page, at your disposal. Certainly I do not need to remind you of the status and required duties of a page in the Magisterium."

"Albi," Cassius agreed, albeit with great hesitation, as he de-shouldered his pack onto one of the white leather couches in the sitting area. It was in pristine condition. "Tell me about yourself. No offense meant, but it's unusual for a student of your familial station to serve as a page. I also wonder about your apparent allegiance to Magister Tilani. I was not aware your families were so closely aligned."

"We're not, although let me preface this by saying House Danarius and House Tilani are not adversaries either," Albi said, maintaining good posture with his hands clasped behind his back as pages were taught to do. "Magister Tilani and I have common ground on, let's say, other political matters. We share a personal friendship that has bled over into the professional sphere."

As Cassius looked at the young man again, he suspected those 'other' matters regarded lifestyle choices out of the mainstream in the Imperium. Albi was clearly well-raised and proper, well-spoken and sharp, but his appearance and the general air around him suggested that he might not be the type to further the Danarius line. Maevaris was well-known for cultivating talent among those Tevinter might otherwise reject for what society might label as personality defects.

"As for myself, I have also brooked an interest in government, even though I am well out of any line of succession that one day might lead to my house's seat in the Magisterium," Albi said. "I would very much prefer to be observing and learning and serving here than whatever future House Danarius might have planned for me. I find my family's business… distasteful, to put it kindly."

"And are you aligned with the Venatori?" Cassius asked, a key question. Maevaris was very clearly not, so it would seem to follow that her close allies, colleagues and friends would more likely not be either.

"I think the Venatori doctrine taps into a root anxiety that many in the Imperium feel and have felt for generations now," Albi said in an astute evaluation that belied his age, "But ultimately, no, I personally believe that the Venatori methods are misguided, tainted too much by demagoguery and misplaced faith in this so-called 'Elder One' as a way to turn back the clock to an earlier time."

Albi smiled smally to himself as he ducked his head and shook it. "I apologize, sir. Sometimes I speak too much and too candidly for my age and station."

"I appreciate it," Cassius said. Honest speech was often lost within the walls of the Magisterium in favor of platitudes and flattery.

"Simply to say, sir, I believe that the Venatori are looking in the wrong direction. Tevinter's best days are ahead of us, not behind us, if only we would choose a wise course of action to find them," Albi said.

Although he said he was no close political ally of Magister Tilani, he certainly reminded Cassius of her when he spoke in such a way. He recalled that, in their brief dinner meeting months back, Maevaris had claimed she saw Tevinter's strength in its masses of non-mages, as opposed to the ruling houses of families blessed with magic. That kind of thought was well out of mainstream, but as the Venatori had grown and gathered support, perhaps an equal and opposite force was accreting to challenge it. In such a world, would the middle eventually be torn asunder by two wings, diametrically opposed and willing to rip each other apart to see their vision made whole?

Such philosophical debates were above him, he decided. Those were arguments left to those who wielded power and influence, not to servants like him who played their role in the day-to-day.

"Then, I suppose you are appointed to serve as a spy, to report to Magister Tilani my business here in Minrathous?" Cassius said, cutting through the pleasantries to the heart of the matter.

Magister Arrentius had not sent him to the capital to sightsee. He had sent him here to conduct business, important business impacting the very future of the Venatori war efforts in the south. He could not afford for their work to be compromised.

"I suspected you might ask that," Albi said with a slight chuckle and a wide smile. "I will respond by first reminding you that I am to serve as your page, and as you know we are sworn to confidentiality of our magister's business."

"I am no magister," Cassius countered. "And while we all pledge secrecy, some are better than others at keeping it."

"True," Albi agreed, surrendering the point and moving on. "Second, I have express instruction from Magister Tilani not to conduct espionage on you and your cohort. Her exact choice of words was that she was 'disinterested' in whatever may transpire in the Venatori circles this spring."

"I find that hard to believe," Cassius said to that.

Why would Maevaris take an interest in him only to not take an interest in him? Was she so arrogant to think that she already had the Venatori figured out? Or did she have another, better source of information that he was irrelevant to her? But if that was the case, why go through any of the trouble to intercept him and relocate him here to the Danarius estate at all?

Cassius scowled. Flavius would have a much better and clearer understanding of these kinds of shadowy tactics, having been a product of operating within the Magisterium for years.

"That is prudent. Trust must be earned," Albi agreed again. "Third, and lastly, I am content to segregate myself from any and all of your business. We have adequate rooms and safes and I will be happy to allow you to reset the lock patterns to your own liking unknown to me. Whatever security you might like to set up, I am agreeable to."

The young man seemed sincere, Cassius had to admit. He was no expert at detecting deceit — Kordelia had proven that in Asariel time and time again — but the young Danarius felt genuine.

That still didn't answer any questions about exactly why Maevaris Tilani had chosen to insert herself into this visit to Minrathous and he couldn't perceive what she might gain or by what means. That bothered him, but he could enact countermeasures to attempt to defuse any attempts at surveillance, he suspected.

When he was alone, he could sweep the room magically to attempt to detect any discrete glyphs or runes or other weaknesses that might be used for subterfuge. With Magister Arrentius' help over the years, he had been trained in such techniques, as good measure for their own safety and security.

Then again, what other choice did he have? If he refused all of this, it would slight not just one but two great Tevinter houses, and that was a much more dangerous path outside of his control.

"Very well," Cassius finally agreed. "I will, until such a time I am given reason not to, accept your hospitality, Albi."

"Excellent, sir," Albi said with a smile. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I will call upon the kitchen and have some food brought up."

The page bowed and strode to the door, opening it and letting himself into the hall, leaving Cassius alone.

Well, not totally alone, as the door to the slave's quarters slid open and Fiora poked her head out.

"You done out here, Terro?"

"Yes," he said with a sigh as he glanced around the room, still feeling uneasy.

"We're staying?" she asked as she stepped back out into the main room, a blanket draped around her shoulders and pulled tightly as she nuzzled her cheek against the soft fabric.

Flavius had bound him to protect his daughter during her time in Minrathous.

As Cassius lowered himself onto the couch next to his pack, looking out the windows at the wind shoving black and gray across the sky in haste, low-hanging rain clouds cut by the massive spires that jutted into the sky like swords impaling the heavens, his thoughts drifted.

Who was here to protect him?