#i suspect

Helena finds the Warden couple crouched in the atrium of a large stone building. Judging by the griffon statue out front, it's a Warden outpost, although like most of the Warden structures Helena has seen, it seems like it's seen better days.

"Rook!" Evka is leaning on the hilt of her greathammer, watching as Antoine fiddles with repairing some sort of metal contraption; she straightens up at the sound of Helena's footsteps entering the atrium. "Welcome to the Hossberg Wetlands. I'd say make yourself comfortable..."

She gestures around wryly, and Helena laughs. Comfort isn't really in the equation; the air is incredibly damp and cold, and rain patters on the mud outside.

"This place is..."

"Foreboding?" Evka finishes dryly.

"Yes. Well, foreboding is normal here," Antoine puts in with a low chuckle. "But it's worse than usual."

Evka nods. "The blight's always a problem in the Anderfels. It's not strange to find a corrupted patch of forest or swamp."

"What is strange," Antoine says, picking up the thread from his wife, "is the sudden surge of blight through the Hossberg Wetlands." He frowns, looking up to meet Helena's eyes. "Much like the village you found, the blight here struck too quickly, and in strange forms.

"It's choked the whole area," says Evka grimly. "And the local village, Lavendel, was caught in it." Her jaw works, but then she brightens a little as she adds, "But there's survivors. We can be grateful for that."

Helena's neck prickles at the thought of another place like D'Meta's Crossing, overrun by blight and dying inch by inch in that strange miasma. That was just her and Neve and Bellara and Harding, though; now, at least, they have experts on their side. "If there was a place that needed Wardens..." she says wryly.

"Then here we are," Evka says, calm, firm, straightening up and steadying her hands on the hammer hilt.

Antoine turns his attention back to the mechanism he's fiddling with - a metal globe wrapped in other metallic strips, a device Helena doesn't immediately recognize. "As far as we can tell," he goes on as he works, "the gods you're chasing weren't here directly."

Evka nods. "If the blight's really changed, then the changes are widespread. As for how much..."

Antoine frowns. His head lifts, cocking to the side slightly. "I... I can almost sense something in there. Another sound, under the blight's usual song."

(A/N: Uh oh.)

Helena blinks curiously. "Stories say Wardens sense blight. I never thought it was literal."

Wardens are one of those things talked about in the abstract in Minrathous, more myth than fact. Sure, they existed, and saved the world occasionally when the South got into another mess, but no one had ever met one or really expected to. So talking with Davrin, with Antoine and Evka, is little surreal.

Antoine pauses for a moment, looks sideways at Evka, and then shakes his head. "It happens when you join the order," he says quietly. "But that's more than I should say."

A troubled look flashes across Evka's eyes. "When we met, you tried to block the sound out," she says. "Now you hear too much."

(A/N: UH OH.)

Antoine is only a half-second late in plastering the casual smile back onto his face, but Helena can see the hesitation. "If it helps, that's what we're here for," he says firmly.

Some of the nuance of this conversation is lost on Helena; she's too busy thinking about the idea of facing yet another D'Meta's, with all that that implies. "Okay," she says wryly. "This all sounds awful. And we're standing in the middle of it. Which is normal for me."

Antoine laughs. "For us too."

"So what's the plan?" Helena asks.

"We heard rumors of the surge here and volunteered to investigate," Evka explains. "The First Warden expects a report."

"If we want proof the blight's changed," says Antoine, "then this place is where to find it."

Evka frowns. "But the way the blight left the village - we've had our hands full just keeping it back and helping the sick."

Helena nods slowly. "You need more to study."

"Yes!" Antoine smiles brightly. "The odd growths the blight has formed - like boils. They surround Lavendel. I need more samples."

"So you two study the blight?" Helena asks slowly.

Antoine shrugs. "Formally? No. Well, maybe. It depends on your definition."

"We travel a lot," says Evka. "And tend to get sidetracked by weird problems."

"Who knew I'd roam so far from Orlais?" Antoine says with a soft laugh, before looking back at Helena. "if we want to help, we need to learn what we're dealing with."

Helena thinks about the blight pustules she's encountered previously, and how much she has deeply NOT desired getting any closer to them. Another in the long string of things she is in no way qualified for that keep landing on her to-do list. "Samples. That's going to be... gross," she says sardonically. "That's probably the best word for it."

"I'll give you something to contain the blight," Antoine says, chuckling. "And watch for darkspawn out there."

Helena gives a dramatic wave of one arm, turning away and trotting towards the exit and the steady drizzle outside. "Right. Darkspawn! Can't forget them!"

"Good luck!" Evka calls after her.