Mornings in Haven were ass-numbingly cold.
As it happened, this fact had both advantages and disadvantages. One of the advantages was that not too many people were up at the crack of dawn, which made it an ideal time for training, if she happened to want to use any of the equipment usually taken up by people running drills or whatever. The cold was also something Khari considered to be a training obstacle all its ownâif she could get used to moving around and really working herself out in this, sheâd probably be able to withstand just about anything, and that thought appealed to her a great deal.
Khari, like most of the members of the Inquisition that werenât holed up in the Chantry or one of the sparse available houses, slept in a tent, and so when she stepped out of it, still pulling on her boots, dawn hit her full in the face, temporarily blinding her and almost making her stagger back a step. She might believe in the efficacy of morning training, but that didnât mean she was at her best first thing. Grumbling under her breath, she finally got the damn boot on and stepped down into it, working her foot from side to side to settle it. She figured itâd be good to run first, for a warmup, before she got into anything too strenuous. There were some good hills here that would make for tough intervals, too, and she was pretty sure she had seen some trees that would work well for pull-upsâŠ
It was at that point that she spotted someone else jogging by her tent, though jogging was perhaps too mild a word. It was definitely a run, and the runner was definitely quick. The swish of a very dark ponytail, as well as the personâs general height and build, tipped her off to the fact that it was actually Estella, the second Herald, or whatever they were called. âHey Stel!â She loped up to the other woman, flagging her down with a hand. âWarmup run? I was just about to take one myself.â Training with someone else had always been a far better motivator to Khari than training alone, even when it was something as simple as running in the morning, and she wondered if the other woman would mind.
Estella paused to let Khari catch up, half-smiling a bit, but then shook her head. âCooldown, actually. But youâre welcome to run with me anyway, if youâd like.â From their closer proximity, it was easy to see that it was, in fact, a cooldown run; Estellaâs brow was beaded with sweat, and several pieces of her hair were loose, indicating that whatever training sheâd been doing before was quite vigorous. She was outfitted for it, in full gear except armor, which really just meant one of the maroon-and-silver tunics all the Lions wore, and dark grey breeches tucked into her boots.
That⊠was pretty impressive, Khari had to admit. Sheâd already been up long enough for an entire training set, and the sun was only just rising. Did she train in the dark or something? Khari contemplated that. Maybe she should start training in the dark, too. Might make her eyes better for it if she had to venture into a cave or somethingâŠ
Shaking her head, she grinned the couple inches up at Estella. Fortunately, the other woman was built even more slender than Khari herself, so there was no twinge of discomfort in the difference. âYou read my mind; letâs go.â The two of them started back down Estellaâs initial path, and it didnât take them too long to find a pace that was comfortable for both of them. Stel ran like a halla, Khari thoughtâwith one of those graceful, long strides that made her feel a bit like a nug in comparison. But there wasnât anything wrong with that; she was more than capable of keeping up, and found herself settling into the pleasing feeling of having her muscles warm up, chasing the cold away.
Their breath puffed out into the air in front of them as they rounded a corner, Khari taking the outside, and she used the opportunity to strike up a conversation. âDo you do intervals, or not on cooldown?â Not everyone was fond of pushing themselves up really tall hills at maximum speed, strangely enough. It was great for lung capacity though, Khari firmly believed.
Estellaâs lips pursed. âSort of, but itâs less intervals than obstacles. Iâve set some up on my usual route; Iâll point them out as we get to them.â There was a pause that lasted a couple more strides, and then: âBut, uh⊠theyâre nothing too fancy or challenging, probably, so please donât laugh.â
Khari shrugged, keeping her stride steady. âThatâs no problemâanything can be made into more of a challenge if you think about it the right way.â Sheâd used to do something similar, once, with logs and stones and the like, back before sheâd left the clan. She actually had a makeshift training ring, far away from the summer encampment, where sheâd set up a lot of that stuff, but alone and young, she hadnât been able to do much, nothing that could even approximate what the Inquisition had now. Her training dummy was a dead trunk on one of the sides of the clearing.
âIâm used to simple setups.â
Estella nodded, seeming somewhat reassured by this, and as they rounded the next curve, they came upon what had to be the first obstacle: it was a log, set long ways along the side of the path. The thing was fairly thin, and had twiggy branches sticking out at the occasional odd angle, meaning that it was by no means a smooth journey across. Estella hopped up onto it first, clearly making effort to break her stride as little as possible, and ran her way over it, occasionally swaying to the left or right as she was forced to account for one of the protrusions in the log. She jumped off the other end and turned around to jog backwards for a while, likely mostly to observe Khariâs own progress across the obstacle.
It was trickier than it looked, but then, Khari had spent the first part of her life in a very dense forest, so she didnât have much trouble navigating it, and the two picked up speed by unspoken decision as they approached the next setup, which consisted of a few old boards arranged as hurdles, again set off the main road. Here was a place where Khariâs lack of height didnât serve her too well, but her momentum more than made up for it, and the two crossed in rough synchronicity, before their path took them up a hill.
âSo youâre a Lion, huh?â Khari had attempted not to launch into this line of questioning immediately after meeting Estella, but there was only so long she could contain her curiosity, and this honestly seemed like an excellent time to ask. âThey made me fight Cor, when I signed up. Heâs a tough bastard. I wanted to try my luck with Hissrad, but apparently one fight was enough, or something.â She pulled a face that matched her incredulous tone, though it shouldnât have been too hard for Estella to tell that she was joking. Mostly.
Estella laughed, slightly breathlessly due to the pace at which they were running. âYeah, they told me about that. Cor was very impressed, actually. I think Hissrad wants to fight you, too, but theyâre all pretty busy training the troops at the moment.â She frowned a moment, then seemed to shake it off and smiled instead. âHe said you hit like a warhorse at full gallop, which Iâm guessing youâd realize is a compliment.â There was a glint of humor in her indigo-colored eyes, one that suited her face quite well.
She did, indeed, take it to be a compliment, and her answering grin was ragged and a touch wild. âTheyâre good people.â There was a pause, and then she decided to go ahead and ask. âWhatâs the commander like? Everyoneâs heard of him, of course, but I canât even imagine what people that⊠important are like on a daily basis, you know?â It wasnât like she regularly met nobles or anything, and even the few she did know certainly werenât princes of whole countries, and chevaliers to boot. Khari might be willing to admit that Lucien Drakon had attained near-mythical status in her mind, and here was someone who actually knew him well.
Estellaâs smile softened. It was a while before she answered, though, as if she were trying to figure out exactly what she wanted to say. âI donât know him quite as well as some of the others do, butâŠâ she paused again as they crossed a frozen stream, careful of their footing on the ice, then resumed when they were back to crunching over the snow with their boots. âHe actually⊠I forget, sometimes, who he really is. He has a way of doing that, of making you forget that youâre supposed to be formal around him, probably because heâs so casual with all of us, you know? He prefers his name to the title commander, even, and he doesnât let any of us call him milord.â
It didnât seem to be all she could say on the subject, but she lapsed into silence after that, as though it were nevertheless enough.
Khari absorbed the tidbit carefully. All of her contact with Orlesian social structure had been through the bottom, trying to burst up through the floor, so to speak, down in the dirt where she was with every other elf, though she rarely enjoyed thinking about herself as such. It was surprising, actually, when sheâd first even heard of the company. After all, while some mercenary groups employed elves on occasion, those groups werenât usually the really prestigious ones, certainly not the ones that occasionally rubbed elbows with courtiers and the like.
Not that Khari wanted to spend a lot of time with politicians, exactly, but the point was that it was possible for the Lions, something that no one with ears like hers would ever have been able to consider before. It made her feel like other things were possible, and that, more than anything else, was why she admired them so damn much. She didnât want to be a Lionâshe had her own ambitions. But she was damn grateful they existed.
âThatâs good. Thatâs really good, actually.â It was hardly a scintillating judgement of the situation, nor was it a novel one, even, but she felt compelled to say it anyway, and she didnât often bother to censor her thoughts. That did no one any good, and it only tended to piss her off if she felt like she had to.
âMy mentor was kind of like that, too. Well, I did call him âmilordâ sometimes, but part of learning to be a chevalier was learning the social norms of stuff like that, so I kind of had to, you know?â
âYouâre learning to be a chevalier?â Estella sounded surprised, which was perhaps understandable, considering that the only two people who knew or might have inferred that thus far werenât exactly the gossiping type. âThatâsâŠâ Her tone indicated that she wasnât precisely certain what to say about that. There was a little bit of hesitance in her voice, but in the end she shook her head. âThat will be quite a challenge, I expect.â
Khari laughed, unreservedly so. âYou can say it, you know. I wonât be offended. Itâs a ridiculous thing for someone like me to try and do.â It seemed to her like Stel was trying to be polite about it, which was kind, but Khariâd been subjected to far worse ridicule for it in the past than anything she thought this woman would ever throw at her. After all, Estella was at her core a good person, she figured.
Stel shook her head again, more emphatically this time. âItâs not ridiculous,â she countered. âI donât doubt for a second that it will be extremely difficult, and honestly Iâm not sure itâs possible, but then⊠people said the same thing about women, once, and in the end, all it took was one woman trying hard enough and being good enough to make them change their minds, eventually. Whoâs to say one elf canât do it, too? And whoâs to say it couldnât be you? Stranger things have happened.â
Oddly enough, sheâd never thought to compare herself to Ser Aveline before, which was kind of funny in a way because the stories said that Ser Aveline had been trained by the Dalish, of all people. Khari was inclined to call bullshit on that part of the story, because the Dalish didnât train people in anything that would do much good towards winning a tourney, especially not a melee, and she would know. Then again⊠living in a forest for sixteen years had taught her a thing or two about keeping her feet, which never seemed to stop being useful. Until she was face-down in a mud pit wrestling with a dog, anyhow.
âHuh. You know, I guess thatâs one way to think about it. Another way would be like this: with all this insanity going on and demons falling from the sky, elf chevaliers donât really seem like such a big deal, do they? I mean, Iâm running next to a girl who can seal up a hole in the world with her hand, so Iâm pretty normal by comparison.â She moved slightly sideways to knock Estella lightly with an elbow, an indication that she was only kidding, at least on some level.
Not that part where everything was crazy, though. That was completely true.
âStranger things,â Estella repeated, knocking back. They finished the rest of the run in relative quiet, but as they rounded the bend back into Haven, she spoke up again. âUh⊠no pressure or anything, but⊠I usually train starting a couple hours before sunup. I could come get you, if you wanted to do that with me?â She sounded unsure, perhaps more because at that hour, she was almost certainly one of those people who trained in complete solitude than because of the fact that making the offer itself was uncomfortable.
Khari contemplated that for all of about half a second. âDeal.â
As it happened, this fact had both advantages and disadvantages. One of the advantages was that not too many people were up at the crack of dawn, which made it an ideal time for training, if she happened to want to use any of the equipment usually taken up by people running drills or whatever. The cold was also something Khari considered to be a training obstacle all its ownâif she could get used to moving around and really working herself out in this, sheâd probably be able to withstand just about anything, and that thought appealed to her a great deal.
Khari, like most of the members of the Inquisition that werenât holed up in the Chantry or one of the sparse available houses, slept in a tent, and so when she stepped out of it, still pulling on her boots, dawn hit her full in the face, temporarily blinding her and almost making her stagger back a step. She might believe in the efficacy of morning training, but that didnât mean she was at her best first thing. Grumbling under her breath, she finally got the damn boot on and stepped down into it, working her foot from side to side to settle it. She figured itâd be good to run first, for a warmup, before she got into anything too strenuous. There were some good hills here that would make for tough intervals, too, and she was pretty sure she had seen some trees that would work well for pull-upsâŠ
It was at that point that she spotted someone else jogging by her tent, though jogging was perhaps too mild a word. It was definitely a run, and the runner was definitely quick. The swish of a very dark ponytail, as well as the personâs general height and build, tipped her off to the fact that it was actually Estella, the second Herald, or whatever they were called. âHey Stel!â She loped up to the other woman, flagging her down with a hand. âWarmup run? I was just about to take one myself.â Training with someone else had always been a far better motivator to Khari than training alone, even when it was something as simple as running in the morning, and she wondered if the other woman would mind.
Estella paused to let Khari catch up, half-smiling a bit, but then shook her head. âCooldown, actually. But youâre welcome to run with me anyway, if youâd like.â From their closer proximity, it was easy to see that it was, in fact, a cooldown run; Estellaâs brow was beaded with sweat, and several pieces of her hair were loose, indicating that whatever training sheâd been doing before was quite vigorous. She was outfitted for it, in full gear except armor, which really just meant one of the maroon-and-silver tunics all the Lions wore, and dark grey breeches tucked into her boots.
That⊠was pretty impressive, Khari had to admit. Sheâd already been up long enough for an entire training set, and the sun was only just rising. Did she train in the dark or something? Khari contemplated that. Maybe she should start training in the dark, too. Might make her eyes better for it if she had to venture into a cave or somethingâŠ
Shaking her head, she grinned the couple inches up at Estella. Fortunately, the other woman was built even more slender than Khari herself, so there was no twinge of discomfort in the difference. âYou read my mind; letâs go.â The two of them started back down Estellaâs initial path, and it didnât take them too long to find a pace that was comfortable for both of them. Stel ran like a halla, Khari thoughtâwith one of those graceful, long strides that made her feel a bit like a nug in comparison. But there wasnât anything wrong with that; she was more than capable of keeping up, and found herself settling into the pleasing feeling of having her muscles warm up, chasing the cold away.
Their breath puffed out into the air in front of them as they rounded a corner, Khari taking the outside, and she used the opportunity to strike up a conversation. âDo you do intervals, or not on cooldown?â Not everyone was fond of pushing themselves up really tall hills at maximum speed, strangely enough. It was great for lung capacity though, Khari firmly believed.
Estellaâs lips pursed. âSort of, but itâs less intervals than obstacles. Iâve set some up on my usual route; Iâll point them out as we get to them.â There was a pause that lasted a couple more strides, and then: âBut, uh⊠theyâre nothing too fancy or challenging, probably, so please donât laugh.â
Khari shrugged, keeping her stride steady. âThatâs no problemâanything can be made into more of a challenge if you think about it the right way.â Sheâd used to do something similar, once, with logs and stones and the like, back before sheâd left the clan. She actually had a makeshift training ring, far away from the summer encampment, where sheâd set up a lot of that stuff, but alone and young, she hadnât been able to do much, nothing that could even approximate what the Inquisition had now. Her training dummy was a dead trunk on one of the sides of the clearing.
âIâm used to simple setups.â
Estella nodded, seeming somewhat reassured by this, and as they rounded the next curve, they came upon what had to be the first obstacle: it was a log, set long ways along the side of the path. The thing was fairly thin, and had twiggy branches sticking out at the occasional odd angle, meaning that it was by no means a smooth journey across. Estella hopped up onto it first, clearly making effort to break her stride as little as possible, and ran her way over it, occasionally swaying to the left or right as she was forced to account for one of the protrusions in the log. She jumped off the other end and turned around to jog backwards for a while, likely mostly to observe Khariâs own progress across the obstacle.
It was trickier than it looked, but then, Khari had spent the first part of her life in a very dense forest, so she didnât have much trouble navigating it, and the two picked up speed by unspoken decision as they approached the next setup, which consisted of a few old boards arranged as hurdles, again set off the main road. Here was a place where Khariâs lack of height didnât serve her too well, but her momentum more than made up for it, and the two crossed in rough synchronicity, before their path took them up a hill.
âSo youâre a Lion, huh?â Khari had attempted not to launch into this line of questioning immediately after meeting Estella, but there was only so long she could contain her curiosity, and this honestly seemed like an excellent time to ask. âThey made me fight Cor, when I signed up. Heâs a tough bastard. I wanted to try my luck with Hissrad, but apparently one fight was enough, or something.â She pulled a face that matched her incredulous tone, though it shouldnât have been too hard for Estella to tell that she was joking. Mostly.
Estella laughed, slightly breathlessly due to the pace at which they were running. âYeah, they told me about that. Cor was very impressed, actually. I think Hissrad wants to fight you, too, but theyâre all pretty busy training the troops at the moment.â She frowned a moment, then seemed to shake it off and smiled instead. âHe said you hit like a warhorse at full gallop, which Iâm guessing youâd realize is a compliment.â There was a glint of humor in her indigo-colored eyes, one that suited her face quite well.
She did, indeed, take it to be a compliment, and her answering grin was ragged and a touch wild. âTheyâre good people.â There was a pause, and then she decided to go ahead and ask. âWhatâs the commander like? Everyoneâs heard of him, of course, but I canât even imagine what people that⊠important are like on a daily basis, you know?â It wasnât like she regularly met nobles or anything, and even the few she did know certainly werenât princes of whole countries, and chevaliers to boot. Khari might be willing to admit that Lucien Drakon had attained near-mythical status in her mind, and here was someone who actually knew him well.
Estellaâs smile softened. It was a while before she answered, though, as if she were trying to figure out exactly what she wanted to say. âI donât know him quite as well as some of the others do, butâŠâ she paused again as they crossed a frozen stream, careful of their footing on the ice, then resumed when they were back to crunching over the snow with their boots. âHe actually⊠I forget, sometimes, who he really is. He has a way of doing that, of making you forget that youâre supposed to be formal around him, probably because heâs so casual with all of us, you know? He prefers his name to the title commander, even, and he doesnât let any of us call him milord.â
It didnât seem to be all she could say on the subject, but she lapsed into silence after that, as though it were nevertheless enough.
Khari absorbed the tidbit carefully. All of her contact with Orlesian social structure had been through the bottom, trying to burst up through the floor, so to speak, down in the dirt where she was with every other elf, though she rarely enjoyed thinking about herself as such. It was surprising, actually, when sheâd first even heard of the company. After all, while some mercenary groups employed elves on occasion, those groups werenât usually the really prestigious ones, certainly not the ones that occasionally rubbed elbows with courtiers and the like.
Not that Khari wanted to spend a lot of time with politicians, exactly, but the point was that it was possible for the Lions, something that no one with ears like hers would ever have been able to consider before. It made her feel like other things were possible, and that, more than anything else, was why she admired them so damn much. She didnât want to be a Lionâshe had her own ambitions. But she was damn grateful they existed.
âThatâs good. Thatâs really good, actually.â It was hardly a scintillating judgement of the situation, nor was it a novel one, even, but she felt compelled to say it anyway, and she didnât often bother to censor her thoughts. That did no one any good, and it only tended to piss her off if she felt like she had to.
âMy mentor was kind of like that, too. Well, I did call him âmilordâ sometimes, but part of learning to be a chevalier was learning the social norms of stuff like that, so I kind of had to, you know?â
âYouâre learning to be a chevalier?â Estella sounded surprised, which was perhaps understandable, considering that the only two people who knew or might have inferred that thus far werenât exactly the gossiping type. âThatâsâŠâ Her tone indicated that she wasnât precisely certain what to say about that. There was a little bit of hesitance in her voice, but in the end she shook her head. âThat will be quite a challenge, I expect.â
Khari laughed, unreservedly so. âYou can say it, you know. I wonât be offended. Itâs a ridiculous thing for someone like me to try and do.â It seemed to her like Stel was trying to be polite about it, which was kind, but Khariâd been subjected to far worse ridicule for it in the past than anything she thought this woman would ever throw at her. After all, Estella was at her core a good person, she figured.
Stel shook her head again, more emphatically this time. âItâs not ridiculous,â she countered. âI donât doubt for a second that it will be extremely difficult, and honestly Iâm not sure itâs possible, but then⊠people said the same thing about women, once, and in the end, all it took was one woman trying hard enough and being good enough to make them change their minds, eventually. Whoâs to say one elf canât do it, too? And whoâs to say it couldnât be you? Stranger things have happened.â
Oddly enough, sheâd never thought to compare herself to Ser Aveline before, which was kind of funny in a way because the stories said that Ser Aveline had been trained by the Dalish, of all people. Khari was inclined to call bullshit on that part of the story, because the Dalish didnât train people in anything that would do much good towards winning a tourney, especially not a melee, and she would know. Then again⊠living in a forest for sixteen years had taught her a thing or two about keeping her feet, which never seemed to stop being useful. Until she was face-down in a mud pit wrestling with a dog, anyhow.
âHuh. You know, I guess thatâs one way to think about it. Another way would be like this: with all this insanity going on and demons falling from the sky, elf chevaliers donât really seem like such a big deal, do they? I mean, Iâm running next to a girl who can seal up a hole in the world with her hand, so Iâm pretty normal by comparison.â She moved slightly sideways to knock Estella lightly with an elbow, an indication that she was only kidding, at least on some level.
Not that part where everything was crazy, though. That was completely true.
âStranger things,â Estella repeated, knocking back. They finished the rest of the run in relative quiet, but as they rounded the bend back into Haven, she spoke up again. âUh⊠no pressure or anything, but⊠I usually train starting a couple hours before sunup. I could come get you, if you wanted to do that with me?â She sounded unsure, perhaps more because at that hour, she was almost certainly one of those people who trained in complete solitude than because of the fact that making the offer itself was uncomfortable.
Khari contemplated that for all of about half a second. âDeal.â