Tendrils of shimmering black sliced across my vision in frustrating waves, which I tucked behind my ears as I hovered over a patch of dark grass. My fingers touched it lightly, my eyes searching for any spot of blood or crushed leaf. Finding nothing, I leaned back on my heels and rubbed my face with the palm of my hand.

Where was he? And more importantly, why had he left? I rose to my feet and braced my lean, black leather-clad body against the gusts of the oncoming storm as I scanned the dark forest with my eyes. He was wounded, his lower leg torn open during a vain attempt at freeing the Tevinter slaves. Even a healer as powerful as he cannot mend such a wound so quickly! Then how was he able to-?

Before the thought was completed, I felt a presence behind me. I whirled about, both my deadly, curved daggers in hand and pointed to the elf's throat and abdomen before I'd finished taking a breath. The man gasped, his back stiffened and for a moment, the markings on his face flared defensively. Though he could have killed me with a touch, he held back, moss-green eyes locked on my golden gaze.

"F-Fenris?" I gasped as I pulled my weapons back. He hunched his shoulders slightly and relaxed as he nodded. "What are you doing out here?" The coincidence was great as we'd parted ways several months earlier. I tucked my daggers into their sheaths and hugged him tight, the firm pressure of his strong arms a circle of warmth around my body.

Softly, he murmured into my hair, "I am seeking slavers... Sebastian asked me to pursue them on his people's behalf. It's, ah, a personal favor. He is paying me well." Slavers! The same slavers Anders and I were chasing? I wondered if this fortuitous coincidence was far more than it seemed.

I held tightly to Fenris as we walked back to my camp, which was missing things like my pack and Anders' bedroll. He had taken what he felt was needed, leaving me with the barest minimum for survival. I wanted very much to kick him in this moment but instead of cursing, I sat down on a log while Fenris assembled my remaining belongings. I watched him while he calmly worked to remove my presence from the land.

"How have you been?" I asked him softly.

He looked up wearing the half-grin that had always endeared him to me. "I am... Fine. In the months since we parted ways, I have kept busy as a sell-sword, supplying my skill in exchange for coin. I find it remarkable how many humans are willing to pay for an armed escort."

I nodded sagely as I rose from the log and pulled my bedroll atop my leather-clad shoulders. "Darkspawn still roam the lands near Starkhaven while bandits, thugs and highwaymen round out the dangers. I do not blame them."

"Hmm. Yes. But I do not appreciate their cowardice. And they look down on me as they would a servant. I am no longer a slave yet I feel no more free than before. It... Angers me. Some do not wish to pay me at times, especially when I don't have to fight. Or they offer coin for sexual favors instead..." He sighed as he kicked a rock across the path we walked.

I bumped his his lean hip with mine playfully as I quipped, "At least one of your swords is getting some use, then."

His cheeks flushed while a shy smile kissed his full, sensitive lips. Though he said nothing at first, his arm tightened around my shoulders. He seemed lost in thought as we walked side-by-side, our bodies matched a smooth, easy gait. We were walking to Prushing, a small town north of Starkhaven that was the only place with a decent inn within a two-day walk of where we were. Not having a horse was a serious disadvantage but horses were expensive, noisy and required care that neither Anders nor I were prepared for.

After a while, my companion broke the silence with an unexpected question. "Ell, are you and Anders, ah... Still...?"

It took me a moment to piece together the unspoken links of his query with the spoken bits. I shook my head. "We haven't been together since leaving Kirkwall. He betrayed my trust, Fenris. He started a war. I believed he was right to try to save the lives of so many horrifically oppressed mages but his actions disturbed me. I don't think I can trust him again. Why? You looking to fill the vacancy?"

I started to regret the question as soon as I blurted it out though I knew I should not have. Fenris was flushed, his gaze pointed straight ahead and his lips pursed. "I might. I've always desired you but that damned mage... If you ever find yourself wanting, I'm here for you."

It was my turn to blush as his admission sank in. Had I truly wanted the elf for so long and never realized it? I brushed his cheeks with my lips and hugged him. "I will let you know f I find myself... Wanting."

We arrived in Prushing without incident though we were hungry and sore from the walk, which took us the better part of the day. It was dusk, the sun shrouded by a dense layer of heavy clouds that whispered of bad weather to come. We didn't have to wait long.

The rain began just as we walked into the first inn, "The Captured Demon." Fenris stood proud against the disapproving glares of the patrons seated upon benches at the heavy, square wooden tables in the common room. I took his hand in mine as we pushed through several folks escaping the liquid onslaught outside to the innkeeper, whose eyes raked Fenris from silver-locked head to black-booted foot.

"Don't much like his type here..." The fat man muttered as he washed a mug. I smiled and flashed him two pieces of silver, which he noted with narrow eyes. Then I flashed another piece of metal, my dagger, which he also noted but with a twinge of fear in those greedy orbs. "Ye'll never…"

"Try us, fat man…" growled the elf behind me. I didn't have to see his face to know the expression Fenris wore; I'd seen it many, many times before.

I stepped forward and lowered my voice as I said, "I need information. There is a man, tall for a human, lanky, he's got a staff with a dragon head, maw open, atop it. I need to know if you've seen him. He would be limping most like."

The innkeeper filled the mug and handed it to a serving wench who then bounced her way to the patron who'd ordered it. He thought for a moment then grunted. "Ain't no mages come 'round here. We don't see 'em." I nodded and started to turn around, my fingers slipping the coins back into my pocket. A meaty hand shot forth and grabbed my sleeve, where it was plucked away by Fenris, his face still a mask of implied danger. "If ye're seeking him, he could be at Varenne's, the Plucky Porker. She'll take in any ol' stray cat that comes to 'er door, beggin'." Varenne's was a bit further into the town, the way a mess of mud and cobble in the driving rain. Little more than a village, Purshing was a mess when it got wet. I wasn't looking forward to the walk.

Still, the man had given us a bit of help so I rewarded him with the coins I'd offered. "Thank you. Fenris? Come along…" We pushed our way back through the throng and just as we reached the door, a woman barred our path. I looked up at her and sighed. "Yeah, we get it," I said carefully. "Elves not welcome. We're trying to leave, if you couldn't tell…"

She shoved me back into my companion, who reached for his sword. His hand lingered there at the hilt, fingers extended, eager for a chance to curl around the long, leather-wrapped piece. His other hand gripped me around my waist, holding me tight against him. It might have been interpreted as an attempt to protect me but we had done this dance many times before. If it was needed, our embrace would be far more useful than it seemed. "Maker's breath, what's your problem?" I said loudly. The talking in the common room quieted as all eyes shifted to the woman, myself and Fenris.

The woman, a human of mixed parentage judging from her features, which were sharp, elegant but bearing the marks of hard living. She spoke in a thick, guttural accent that I couldn't place and her breath reeked of cheap rotgut, "Ye're throwin' coin aroun' like ye're worth sometin'. Ye gots coin for me? Wot I gotta do fer a bit o' coin, eh? Ye wont me to fuck the elf f'r ye?"

The woman held up her weapon, a rusted dagger that had lost more battles than won. I wasn't concerned about the blade of the dagger but more about the rust, which could cause disease in an open wound. I didn't give her a chance to use it. With a hard upward lunge, I kicked up off the ground, my back braced against Fenris as I thrust my legs out and into the drunk thief. The startled woman slammed back against the door, dislodging it and the wind ripped it open wide. Our assailant rolled out of the inn and down the stone steps to fall face-first into the muck along the street with a loud grunt. I disengaged myself from Fenris' arms and stepped back out into the driving rain, a smile on my face as I stood over her.

"Try again when you're sober; you might not end up face-first in the mud." I dropped a silver coin by her hand, which reached out instinctively and concealed it inside her palm. She said nothing as she scrambled back into the crowded inn and away from the rain.

By now, it was dark and the few torches still alight flickered and danced helplessly in the torrential rain. Before I could complain, Fenris removed his spiked gauntlet , exposing his glowing hand. I looked up at him in surprise. "You're learning how to control it?"

He nodded and flashed his teeth at me. "Not well but at least we won't be blind."

Varenne's, according to the few people we asked directions from, was as nice as you could get as inns in this town went but it was backed up against the tiny "lake" on the other side of town. I pulled my cloak around me and, Fenris in the lead, we walked through the muck and mud that was Purshing in the rain. Lightning lanced across the sky in brilliant streaks followed by pounding rumbles of thunder, adding a dangerous accompaniment to the music of my heart. I was not fond of being out in storms though I found they gave me a sexual thrill indoors.

"I should have asked him about the slavers…" I said as we picked our way through the storm. By now my coak was useless, my clothing soaked to the skin and difficult to move in.

Fenris shrugged and we turned a corner, heading down another street. "There would have been no point. They don't stay in towns outside of Tevinter. Instead, they will set up a camp and send someone into town to buy supplies, then move on. Doubtless they are doing just that tonight."

"Even in this weather?" I asked, surprised.

"Aye, even in this weather. The slaves will be miserable but Tevinter slavers have tents. Theywill not suffer. Ell… I-I want them dead, you know…" Fenris muttered.

"I know. But… We may have a problem."

He stopped and snapped his head around to look at me with narrowed, green eyes. "'Problem?' Where is the problem in killing slavers?"

I didn't want to tell him but the way he was glaring down at me gave me no choice. "It's, uh, it's Anders. One of the slavers could be his doppelganger. Or his twin. That is the man who sliced open Ander's leg during our confrontation with them. Anders had a chance to kill him but… He couldn't. Now he wants to talk to the man, reason with him."

A low growl escaped Fenris' throat as he whirled and shoved his gauntleted fist into a nearby wall. "Damn him! He let the slavers escape? For what- his pride? Curiosity? I swear, I will kill himinstead…"

I reached out and pulled Fenris against me, his body quivering with rage, lyrium tattoos blazing with brilliant, blue-white light. Town-folk were staring at us from their homes, curiosity in their wide-eyed faces as they watched the human and her enraged, glowing companion talk in the rain-saturated street. "Come, Fenris, we are drawing a crowd," I murmured softly. "The inn is over there, I think." There was a group of tidy row-houses and tiny gardens in front of each one save a red-roofed building that was larger and taller than the others. Music and laughter could be heard from within while a thick smoke billowed from out of the chimney. "Fenris?"

He pulled away from me and we walked together with his mind in a fog and a scowl of on his sullen face.