A Candle in the Darkness (A Dragon Age: Inquisition fanfiction)

Long Overdue Idea

13 Drakonis, 9:42

The barrel of Chasind sack mead the Iron Bull had brought was half-empty already, the Chargers sitting around it and singing a mournful song Antonia had never heard before.

"Did you save me any?" she asked them, although she wasn't sure she wanted some if this was going to be the result of drinking it.

Krem looked up at her, shaking his head sorrowfully. "You can dive for some, if you can get your head in the barrel. Harding went in there an hour ago, and she hasn't come out yet."

Startled, Antonia looked in the barrel, but there was no red-headed dwarf in it.

"Maybe she came out the other end. What if there's a hidden doorway to another world at the bottom of the barrel?" Krem dove in and came back out with a full mug. "What do you know, someone filled my cup!"

Sera popped up at Antonia's shoulder. "I like a good party as much as the next girl, but this one's a double done downer. I think I'd rather go to bed, even if it has to be solo."

Antonia looked around. Meryden, the bard who was Sera's occasional lover, was nowhere to be seen—which was good, because Sera was right, the party was a downer, and no doubt Meryden would be singing the Chargers' sad song along with them.

In the corner, by himself, with his legs stretched out in front of him, Antonia found the Iron Bull, looking as though he'd lost his best friend. Which in a way, he most certainly had. "Bull?" she asked, sitting down next to him, but he shook his head.

"This one's on me, boss. I shouldn't have asked you to make the decision, but—no, I really shouldn't've."

"I only said it, Bull. You were thinking it."

"Nice of you to say, boss." It was a dismissal, and she got up, finding her way to the bar where Cullen stood next to Dorian, both of them staring at untouched beverages.

"You two are no cheerier than they are."

They both looked at her and shrugged. It was contagious, apparently. Not that Antonia worried about the Chargers—they'd bounce back. And she knew how to handle Cullen's attack of melancholy. But the Iron Bull ... she'd never seen him lose his zest quite the way he had tonight.

"Cullen, would you mind giving me a minute with Dorian, please?"

He turned to look at her, then at the mage, then over his shoulder in the direction of the Iron Bull. "Right. I think I'll go to bed, anyway. See you later?"

She thought rapidly, but couldn't remember for the life of her what night it was. "Your place or mine?"

"Yours." He gave her a half-smile. "It's supposed to rain."

"Next Satinalia, I'm fixing your roof!" she called after him.

"Next Satinalia, you'd better have something better to give me than that."

Great, she thought, turning to the bar and looking down into his left-behind tankard. Now she was depressed, too. She'd like to think they could defeat Corypheus by Satinalia, but at the rate they were going she wasn't prepared to bet on it.

"Dorian, what in the Void are you doing?" she said abruptly.

"What am I doing? I should think that would be obvious, dear girl. I am standing here looking at a very substandard glass of wine and wondering why I ordered it in the first place."

"That's not what I meant, and you know it perfectly well."

"Antonia."

"Dorian."