Bethany had not lied to Marian when she said she tried to forget about home. That it was easier to not think about her family when she was so far away, not knowing if she'd ever see them again.

Marian had looked so different when she had come to their rescue. Even under the splattering of gore, she looked healthier than she had once been. Their family never starved, or was never close to starving, but so many nights at Gamlen's house was spent not eating all they would have liked to. Her sister, no, the Champion of Kirkwall, was now living a life of privilege. It was evident in her armor too - finely crafted like it was made for her and nothing like the well-worn and plain things she had in Lowtown.

But their encounter lingered in her thoughts, even now as she and Nathaniel searched the bodies of the darkspawn for anything of use. This was something that Marian always did, looting the bodies, and Bethany would always leave her to it.

"Why is it that some are overcome with the blight when they encounter darkspawn blood and others are not affected at all?"

This was not the first time she had asked this question of the Senior Warden. His memory was sharp, but he humored her, quiet for a moment while thinking.

"I'm not sure," he said. "There is so much we do not know about the darkspawn and how they work. And Chantry allegory is not so helpful on the battlefield."

Even after six years - Maker, had it really been that long? - the thought that she was part of an Order older than Andraste herself was strange. The Order which made their rules before mages were actively reviled and sent to Circles or had to run for their lives.

Bethany was safe from both fates in the Wardens. The nightmares would not let her forget that.

"And that is why they send us on these missions, yes?" she said, finding a bit of coin near a hurlock's crumpled form. The fletchling of the arrow in its eye was not Nathaniel's - it had to be her sister's. At least those were still red, like the warpaint she brushed across her nose even now.

"A Warden's work is never finished," Nathaniel said. "I learned that shortly after meeting the Hero of Ferelden."

Bethany's cousin, but Nathaniel didn't say that out loud. "Do you ever get mad at her," she asked instead, "for conscripting you?"

"It was either that or the hangman's noose," he said. "I dared her to kill me, but she would not. In the beginning, I wondered if killing me would have been a mercy."

"And now?"

"Had I not joined the Wardens, I would not have discovered that Delilah had lived. That alone is enough to be grateful for my life." There was a small smile on his face now, and he looked at her. "Perhaps if I'm lucky, there will be time to visit her when we return to Kirkwall."

Bethany couldn't help but notice how he made no mention of her visiting Marian. But of course. Nathaniel heard much more than he let on. He would not push. This was not a topic that many Wardens liked to talk about, she had discovered.

"Sometimes I wondered what would have happened if Marian had left me at home," Bethany found herself saying. "How my life would have been different."

He nodded. "You said that more than once your companions relied on your healing skills on that trip, though" Nathaniel said.

"Perhaps," she said, "though Anders is a much better healer than I am."

"Anders is the best healer I ever met," Nathaniel said. "Saying that your healing skills are not as good as his does not diminish yours. And besides," he waited until her eyes met his, "your fireballs are bigger than his are."

That made her smile, and she could tell there was more to what he said than he was letting on. A private joke, maybe. "I didn't think that was something you'd notice," she said.

"It's good to see you smile," he said.

Bethany found herself blushing, and hoped that the dim light of the Deep Roads hid it from the Senior Warden's eyes. "Are you trained to notice that too?"

"The morale of soldiers, of course," Nathaniel said.

The blush on her cheeks reddened, but for an entirely different reason, and Bethany looked away. "I see."

"Though this, I intended as a compliment."

"...oh."

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