The beginning of it all

The room Marlon would find himself in were small. Old and run down, smelling of dust and sweat and rotten wood under the fresh scent of flowers that came from outside. It was a single room. The front door firmly bolted, and all that furniture that were was the bed, a broken night table, two chairs and a round table, and the small so called kitchen.

It was an Antivan evening – dark but mildly tempered, mosquitos that found their way inside through the open windows buzzing around your ears. Noises of emotions played as background music from the streets; shouts of anger, giggles, warm greetings, the Antivan population waking again from the siesta the hot day causes.

Aicannassë looked like he too just had awakened. Blond hair tussled, decorative braids who’s grips of the strands had softened, the somewhat to big clean-cut tunic of light green cotton and the brown knee-long trousers wrinkled, feet had just gotten protected by some cheap wear down sandals. The clothing, together with the general appearance of youthfulness of elves, made him look like a kid. He wasn’t tall to begin with, and the elf looked even smaller where he sat hunched on the chair, feet hooked around the chair’s front legs, and hands pressed against the chair’s seat that was available between parted thighs, so he could lean nearer. Sandals kicked off in front of him. Head somewhat tilted, lips parted in curiosity, but the brown eyes held all the attentive sharpness his appearance lacked.

“Sooo…” Aicannassë breathed with a heavy lisp around the s-sound. “Not look at all as I thinked”, he shared with the man he was beholding, the elf’s unused of pronouncing and grammatically structure the Ferelden language obvious. “Thinked you be more… big and dark and scary. You look normal”, the elf concluded with a shrug and a face that looked slightly disappointed. The elf had even huffed, as a spoiled child that had gotten the wrong toy on his birthday.

“Vaya, vaya, you stay here the night. Then… I don’t know. Now, maybe something for drink or eat?” The offer voiced in a kind spirit, as if the elf was a generous host to a most beloved guest. A smile spreading over his lips, and blond eyebrows rising in expectation. Aicannassë stood, and backed his way towards the small kitchen area, if it could be called that. It was just a couple of kitchen worktops and a larder.

“I wish to have much to offer, but afraid I have just some bread and cheese and… uh, dry fishes? Though, the wine is tasty.” He shrugged his shoulders in apology, pressed a hand against a flat, groaning stomach. “Ah, I’m starving, by Andaste.” The elf laughed and was forced to turn his back against the mage. He hadn’t really waited for an answer if the other man wanted something. A loaf of bread, a sorrow looking thing really, and some cheese soon stood on the small round table. A bowl of the dried fishes and two mugs for the wine he popped. Turning the chair he had sat on properly against the table, he once again sat down. Feet twisted around the front legs again.

“Come and take if you want”, he beckoned the mage to join him at the table, waving his arm lazy manner to add to his words. And then, as only the really hungry could, he stuffed a big piece of that sorrowful bread in his eagerly mouth.

Roughly the two crow brutes had herded me inside the worn down building. Turbo followed us quietly, hanging with his head. He knew I wasn't going through this in my own free will, but thankfully he came with us anyways. The single room in front of me smelled of old wood and dirt. I struggled meekly, mostly just for show, when they forced me up to the only table in the room. There was already a person sitting there. A blond elf hunched in one of the chairs and I frowned at him. Was he a capture like me? I inspected him. Hair well-kept, braided. His skin was clean and the clothes whole and finely cut. Handsome features. No. He had to be one of them.

The crow members sat me down in a chair in front of the elf. To my surprise, one of them cut my arms free with a flashing blade. Turbo laid down by my feet under the table. I moved my hands warily to my lap and rubbed the sore skin around my wrists, where the ropes had chafed it.

Then the brutes left, slamming the door behind them and bolting it secure.

I glared at the blond elf. He seemed to be inspecting me curiously in return.

After a long couple of minutes in silence, the other man finally opened his mouth.

Not what he was expecting? It was no doubt he had been told about me, and who and what I was, so of course he would have imagined something else. Apostates were all dangerous and brooding! How could I forget that?

I rolled my eyes.

"Apostates happen to be normal people, you know."

When he offered me food I gave him a suspicious look. I wasn't going to accept anything from these people until I knew it was safe, even though I highly doubted they would try to poison me after going through the trouble of capturing me.

"I'm fine," I assured him while I crossed my, thankfully, free arms in front of my chest and leaned back in the chair.

I watched him get the food out and promply ignored the fact that he placed it right in front of me on the table. Turbo whined when he sensed the smell of food, but I tried to ignore him too. I wasn't going to risk him eating anything dangerous either.

"I'm fine," I repeated and watched the elf as he was eating. Then I sighed and gave him a hard look.

"So, who are you supposed to be then?" I said dismissively. "The master assassin who's supposed to keep me in check? Do you really expect one man to make me stay here?"

"If were normal, wouldn't be an apostate, no?" The elf responded with a click of a tongue against a rooftop. A sigh escaped through smiling lips; as if comically saddened by the very thought that a mage on the run even had the faith to consider himself normal.

"Abh-nomations" - a word that rolled of the tongue in a slur that revealed too much the difficulties of speaking the Ferelden tongue, brows that had been drawn together by the clumsy way of moving lips and muscle-"makes good coin. Should be thankful we are greedy", the elf laughed. Greedy was probably an understatement. Not only would the coins earned from having a mage be a good income, but it was both a good move over the gaming board of politics. The Crows believed themselves to be skilled enough to spin an even larger net over Antiva. They were already, after all, one of the ruling companies of the country. With a mage, they could advance one step, which would eventually lead to another step... and the crown could be theirs.

The blond looked at the captured man as if he believed the advancement would gain him; the grin as wide as if he had got a good pay. Not as if he, even though his clothing now matched his surrounding, had been pushed down the ladder of success. A smile as ever inviting and pleasing as it could, the shine reaching brown eyes.

An amused sigh followed, a head shaking softly, disturbing soft strands of blond, causing locks to fall to frame a youthful face. "Men is stubborn. Is not shameful to succumb to bodily needs", the elf answered softly once he had seated himself at the table again. "Then, I cannot blame you, I apologize in shame that I had not better food to serve." The elf's head bowed slightly as if truly saddened by the pitiful display of a meal. Quick fingers had rolled a piece of bread into a ball, placed it slowly on his waiting tongue. Head that had been angled to give the man the opportunity to see that the piece of food really was placed over a tongue, that jaws closed around it and teeth moved to kill it slowly - no poison.

"Dog is not as good as his lord to control the needs", the elf pointed out. Brown eyes turned to face the hound, a stare of blankness as if he couldn't figure out why the animal had been brought here as well when it had only been the man they wanted. Fingers reached for the bowl of dried fish, gaze still pinned to the dog. When the elf bent forward on his seat, one elbow burrowed into a thigh while the other hand reached forward the hastiest of a smile that softened his whole aura could been seen before the grin chased it away; "Though believe dog to be smarter than master."

The tongue clicked to try to coax the dog to accept the offer of questionable friendship. An amused chuckle gently shook shoulders, the hand that still held out the fish in hope of befriending the dog. "Yes", was the causal answers to the stranger's questions. It was of no use to hide which profession he held; it was obvious enough, him sitting here together with the captive taken by the Crows. "But we aren't alone, you sure know" the elf continued, a conspirational glance over where walls turned to roof. "But I am Aicanassë, if it pleases. May have heard of the name, surely", the elf laughed in friendliness, eyebrows raised slightly in mirth.

A soft glance at the human, but no questions rolled of a tongue yet.

Silence.