#fiberpunk027

Fandom: Dragon Age Awakening Pairing: Female Tabris/Nathaniel Howe Characters: Female Tabris, Nathaniel Howe, Sigrun, Velanna, Oghren, Seneschal Varel Rating: Teen Summary: Sometimes, the best moments at Vigil’s Keep are the ones where you laugh with people you trust. Words: 4663 Additional Tags: Gift Fic, Fluff, Post-Sparring, Humor, Teasing, Bathing, Cuddling, Intimacy, Love/Friendship, DAO- Awakening

This fic is a gift for @fiberpunk027 for the @aromanceforthedragonages gift exchange! I saw the Tabris/Nathaniel pairing and couldn't help myself. I hope you enjoy it!

The tea in her cup had gone cold long ago, the leaves bitter on her tongue, the sweetness from the sugar she’d plopped in doing little for the overall taste. Snow still fell steadily outside of the large stained glass windows of her office, Vigil’s Keep covered in a light dusting of white flakes. Tapping the quill against the desk, Zukal Tabris placed her chin in her free hand, eyes focused on how the flames in the hearth flickered and danced, embers smoldering bright against the encroaching darkness.

Sigrun sat on the settee, purposely angled towards the fire, her bare feet propped up where they’d get warm and toasty. A book was open in her lap, a smut novel most likely, her hair pulled from her usual pigtails, the wet strands brushing against her shoulders whenever she shifted her head. She’d been quiet for the last hour, intent on whatever she was reading, the sound of the fire crackling the only noise besides the scratch of Zukal’s quill against vellum.

The evening had passed uneventfully, the quiet grounds around them a calm the wardens had needed after years of fighting darkspawn. Zukal wasn’t given many opportunities for peace, not with how her life often consisted of violence and death. But she’d take what she could get, the time she spent with her friends more valuable to her now than it’d ever been before.

Prepared to turn in for the night, Zukal Tabris tucked the letters into the drawer of her desk, pushing it shut with a subdued click. After the last few weeks of tracking down stray darkspawn in Ferelden, while also sending some of her senior wardens to Kirkwall and other places where rumors of darkspawn and blight came from, she craved a warm bath, maybe a book. It’d been too long since she read solely for the pleasure of reading.

Sigrun glanced over her shoulder at the sound, her dark hair drying in waves, water staining the fabric of her shirt. Blue eyes gazed out of a face covered in tattoos, a woman whose grim life was so at odds with her cheery demeanor that there were times that Zukal forgot Sigrun was a Legionnaire of the Dead. “That time already?”

“For me it is.” Stretching her arms over her head, she felt the muscles in her back stretch pleasantly, much needed from sitting in one place for so long. With a sigh, Zukal stood at her full height, eyes on her dwarven friend, wishing they got more opportunities to sit in quiet like this. “Feel free to stay as long as you’d like. Just don’t forget to lock the door behind you when you leave.”

Sigrun smirked at her, a knowing look in her eyes that Zukal Tabris did not like. While her and Nathaniel Howe’s romantic relationship wasn’t a secret, she didn’t flaunt it in front of the new recruits. It’d do little for her and Nathaniel’s ability to control the wardens if they let a romance get in the way. It wasn’t even supposed to have happened, but when you work close with someone for so long, sometimes these things happened.

“Don’t look at me like that.”

Tagged by @fiberpunk027 ! Thank you :D

I’m deep in @black-emporium-exchange work right now, so here is an on-hold WIP I will be picking up again at some point. This did finally get me to open up my tablet, so I’ll be working on something or other after this.

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It was late afternoon when they came upon the group of Venatori fiddling with the power crystal that warded the [pergola]. Bellara heard them before she saw them, familiar with the crackle and sputter of a misaligned crystal. Were it anyone besides the Venatori, she would have sympathy for them. She’d singed her hands and sleeves enough times before she worked out the technique to untangle the old magic. Now, though, she was glad the Venatori hadn’t had that same chance to experiment, and she wouldn’t give them a moment more. She looked over her shoulder, nodding to Imekas, Neve, and Harding, who readied their weapons. She crouched down, pulling at the ancient magic steeped throughout Arlathan. A shimmering barrier manifested in front of the group. It wouldn’t be enough to hide them from direct view, but they’d become just another blind spot in the Venatori’s peripherals.

It was quick work to dispatch the disorganised and flighty group of blood mages and their grunts. For a long time, Bellara had wondered how their numbers swelled so fast, even with the freedom mages had in Tevinter, but it turned out that a lot of non-mages craved the same chance at power, or to even be around the people who did have it.

The cave, once Bellara had realigned and deactivated the crystal, held some minor trinkets and a staff that Imekas picked up with interest. It was too rigid for Bellara, and too long for Neve, but Bellara hoped she could get some use out of it. The part of her that had lived so many years with her clan raged at giving an outsider, even an allied mage, one of their few artefacts, but with the emergence of Arlathan City, those relics were becoming more and more common. More than the relics, Bellara wished there were still any ancient elves or spirits hanging around to provide information.

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Tagged by @fiberpunk027 tyty! Couple sentences from my big bang entry, subject to change.

‘I heal you, your blight?’ The scientist asked, haltingly. Bellara averted her eyes and shook her head. It was tempting, so tempting, but she had a purpose here, and it wasn't to serve her own ends. ‘I’m not here for myself.’

The scientist’s eyes lit up, and their next words were in fluent Elvhen. ‘Your Evanuris, Andruil, was once tainted deeply, and yet recovered to live on. If there is a path to this knowledge, we will find it.’