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Iron Chains	By : miladygrimm Category: +A through F > Dragon Age (all) > Dragon Age (all) Views: 13616 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own BioWare, Dragon Age, or EA; nor do I own any of its characters. I do not make any money from the writing of this fanfiction.

Chapter List
- 6
- 7
(( Dear StarvingMe, thank you for the review and I promise that there will be multiple chapters of Bull Love here soon! Look for them in the next week or so. Here's hoping the following Fluff will tide you over till then. ))
The road from Halamshiral to Skyhold was a long one, made longer by the extensive gifts that Empress Selene had bestowed upon the group. Most nights Lexara and her companions stayed at one of the many roadside taverns. The past three days their trip had taken them away from the main road and towards the mountains where no such taverns were and Cassandra Pentaghast was beginning to feel the harshness of the road.
How long since she had spent the better part of her life on top of the horse? The former right hand of the Divine wondered if she had grown soft as the be-freckled Scout Harding came back from her trek and said she'd found a place to set up camp. With a whisper of thanks to The Maker Cassandra shifted in her seat to guide her horse into line with the others. To her right was Josephine and to her left was Blackwall. The two of them were carefully not looking at one another choosing instead to talk to Cassandra.
“You were raised by your Uncle, is that correct?” Josephine had asked earlier that day.
“Yes,” Cass had answered with a raising of her brow. She was sure that she had already expressed that to the lady diplomat. “My Uncle Vestalus, he was a stark traditionalist.”
“How did he handle you deciding to give up the velvet and lace for a sword?”
“About as well as I had expected.”
Blackwall had offered his two coppers “I like a woman who can make herself.”
“Do you?” Jo had called out. “Was your own mother a warrior?”
“Not exactly...” what followed was a long back and forth about families and backgrounds, a conversation driven predominately from Josephine.
It hadn't taken too long for Cassandra to figure out that the two were trying to talk to one another and using Cassandra as a makeshift interim for their awkward distant flirting. It had made the past two days very discomfited.
The scout, however, had outdone herself. The dwarven scout had marked out a large flat area just out of site of the road and close enough to a stream that they would have good water for the evening. Cassandra waved off help from one of the young Chevalier's who had joined up with the Inquisition and pitched her own tent. It gave her a few quiet moments to take in her surroundings. Blackwall and Josephine had set up near one another. Cassandra was not particularly surprised by that.
“They'll make a handsome couple when they get past it.”
“Oh yes,” Cassandra agreed. “And stop using me as their volunteered chaperone.”
The Left Hand of the Divine glanced at the Right and they shared a smile. The two had been friends for some time, though they had not always gotten along nor agreed, they had worked towards a common purpose, then and now. Leiliana was an asset that Cassandra knew the Inquisition could not have done without.
“If you'd like I will ride the next part of the journey with them.” Leliana offered as the pair of them watched the diplomat and the girzzled warden walk around the outskirts of the campsite enamored in whatever discussion they had managed to patch together. It was perhaps the most awkward and elegant thing that Cass had ever seen. From a distance it was even sweet.
Cass smirked, “What will you do? Tie them to the same horse?”
“If I must.” the redhead chuckled, “I'm sure they'll thank me by the time its over.”
“Another day of this and I'll help you,” Cassandra laughed and glanced over at her, “What can I help you with?”
Leliana opened the pack at her side and handed over a slim novel. The cover was worn but well cared for, the title along the edge read 'The Shield Maiden'. Cassandra took the book from her friend. “I finished part one, I was hoping you might have part two?”
“I do,” Cassandra turned towards her horse and began opening the saddlebags. “I didn't expect you to finish it so quickly.”
“I couldn't help myself. It's been a long time since I had a good romance in my life.” the tone was whistful even the the lady-knights ears.
Cass shook her head, “You've had more than me. Wasn't there an Antivan Crow you mingled with for a time? Back when you were with the Warden?”
A misty smile carved its way across the redheads lips. “Zevran.” somehow the bard turned the single name into a note of music. “Last I heard he was Free Marches dealing with a few personal things...The Inquisitor is hoping he might join us at Skyhold.”
“That would be nice for you,” Cass supplied.
Leliana shrugged and tapped her finger to her cheek, “Perhaps, I have changed a good deal since then and I am sure he has as well.”
Cass shrugged, “Then there was the pirate queen, what was her name again? Varic's friend.”
Leliana ran her tongue across her teeth and blushed furiously, though the smile was quite charming “Isabela. And that was...uhmm..different.” the former left hand of the Divine glanced from Cassandra to the horse and back, in a very uncharacteristic state of shyness. “Zevran and I were still together then and...it was..”
“It was what?” Cassandra asked.
“We dated.”
Cassandra knitted her brows, “Who? You and her? You and Zevran?”
“All of us. The three of us dated. It was...it was a happy time.” Leliana answered. “Often times we would go out together and make a night of this or that, taverns or playhouses or shopping, then we would retire together and...”
“I...I do not need the details, Leliana.”
“And I was not planning to give them,” Leliana teased. “What I was going to say is that we would fall asleep together, holding one another. I miss them.”
“What happened?”
“We all had things to do elsewhere. I went back to Justinnia with you and Varric, he went to the Free Marches, and she had to elude the Qunari. It was...it was very hard to loose them.”
“I could not do that,” Cassandra reflected after a moment. “I can't even make time for one partner much less two. And if I lost something like that...”
Leliana shrugged her shoulder, “You have a romantic heart, Cassandra. It is not for everyone, but it worked for us...at least for the time we had it.”
“You could have it again,” The Nevarran offered kindly, patting a well-meaning hand against the other womans shoulder, “They are alive and well and there could be a place for either of them here if they wanted it. The Inquisitor is clearly taking any all types.”
The women shared another look.
“Perhaps I could, until then I will settle for watching love blossom between others, the campsite is nearly alive with it tonight.”
“I hardly think that Blackwall and Jospehine make up the entire camp.”
Leliana raised a brow at her friend, “It is not just them of whom I speak. Look about. The time spent in Halamshiral woke up passion in the hearts of many of our companions. You have not noticed?”
“Apparently not.”
“Look,” Leliana tucked her arm through Cassandra's and took her on a little journey around the still settling camp. “Our writing friend is quick at work trying to capture the beauty of a certain Scout in his notebook. I have seen him try several times to make her laugh this past week, his timing, however, has been horrible and she hasn't even noticed it as flirting.”
Cassandra made a disgusted noise, “It's good to know that he isn't arrogant about everything.”
“Hardly, it seems that our scribe has a very difficult time in the department of romance, it makes me curious about his past and who might be in it.”
Varric sat just inside the tent he shared with Dorian and now that Leliana pointed it out it was obvious that his gaze was lingering on the other dwarf in their party. Cassandra wondered if the interest was legitimate or based on racial similarity. She frowned wondering what had made her so pessimistic.
“We shouldn't gossip about our companions. There are better ways to spend our time.”
“Is there?” Leliana asked, “I suppose we could go and wrangle everyone together to talk tactics and strategy.”
They both went quiet. Cassandra imagined exactly how that would be received. At Skyhold the meetings were daily and punctuated only with exercises and more talks of tactics. It was nothing but work.
“This is more fun, no?” Leliana whispered conspiratorially.
“Who else?” Cassandra felt herself becoming more intrigued than she ought to be.
“Well,” Leliana answered with a victorious smirk, “our Inquisitor has been making little sighs in the direction of the Bull.”
“I had gathered that much, but he doesn't seem particularly receptive of those sighs.”
“On the contrary. Our Bull watched her very very carefully, though he keeps a good mask in place. I think that he is quite receptive but his focus is on his other duties.” The two women cleared one circuit of the camp and made their way towards the upper area where the mouth of the stream opened in a large pool.
“Maybe.” Cassandra said after a moment.
“Besides, he has brought the handsome Krem with him and those eyes have been watching yours truly quite openly.” Leliana lifted her nose with pride. “Though I've done nothing about it.”
Cassandra felt her brows knit, “Why not?”
“Because my heart is already elsewhere, and he deserves someone willing to love him and only him. Besides, I hear it on good faith that out artificer would love to work her magic on Krem.”
“Dagna?!” Cassandra gasped out.
“Oh yes, very much so. And why not? Both have spent years being exactly what their people said they couldn't be. I've seen them drinking and talking at the tavern from time to time.”
“This is pure gossip.”
“And here I was just about to get to you.”
“Me?”
“Oh yes, have you not noticed the eyes that follow you whenever you go? The face that lights up when you enter a room?”
“You're having me on.”
“Am I?”
Leliana stopped and glanced pointedly across the way. A young man, very nude, was stepping into the water. His body was lean and muscular, scared with combat. His blond hair curled closely to his head and brought out the angles of his face. Water crept up the thickness of his thighs and for just a moment Cassandra could see the naked bulge of his masculinity before he stepped deeper into the water. It was clear he had no idea the women where there.
“Cullen?” Cassandra whispered turning to face her long time friend. “Your having a go at me.”
“I am not. He is utterly besotted.”
“He's said absolutely nothing.”
“I have known you for a long time. I know beneath your armor and your aloofness there lives a warm heart...Cullen has not known you as long and probably fears approaching you, what with him being a mere village boy turned Templar and you of the Pentaghasts of Nevarra.”
“It's a distant relation,” Cassandra snorted, though her eyes glanced towards the bathing male who was dipping his head into the water.
“He's common, Cassandra, and younger than you and not a hero who rescued the would be Divine. If I were him I'd be intimidated and in awe too.”
“What would you have me do?”
“You could always join him.”
With that Leiliana wandered off leaving Cassandra to her decision.
- 6
- 7
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Iron Chains