Doom Upon All The World

Chapter 6: Anthony

     It was like having gone to sleep for several years and then waking up. Everyone else went on while you stayed the same. That is how Anthony feels as he looks upon his little sister. Could he even rightfully call her that anymore?

She has grown into more of a woman that he could have ever predicted. There is only one way to describe how she looks to him now.

She looks like their mother.

With sharp, pointed features, a stony, neutral facade, and those wickedly arked eyebrows, that is the only way he can think to describe her. She has Pentaghast written across her face. The only evidence she is even of her father's blood being those lovely curls of blonde hair. Even her eyes are their mother's, that dark hazelnut color.

If someone were to guess whether or not they were sibling they would guess wrong. Adelaide looks only slightly like Anthony and only in the stare typical of Pentaghasts. He can't help but marvel at how grown she is. Dinner progresses and he finds he can't tear his eyes from her.

He is seated between Nicolynn and Claude. Adelaide sits across from him, between Julien and Pierre. He watches her interact with the older mage. Anthony remembers when he got word that she was coming into her powers. It had been only weeks after he'd left. He knew that it had been what triggered them, his leaving. It had caused her to unlock that vault of ability that had been lurking beneath a steady barrier her entire life.

He shoves that thought from his mind though as he leans toward Nicolynn. "So spill. Everything that I've missed, tell me about it." He requests, eagerly looking from one of the others to the next. She gazes at him as if the idea would be impossible but the elf gives a breath and comes up with the answers he requires.

Nicolynn starts at their side of the table and goes down the line. "Well, Claude has been training a fair amount recently with the other girls. She's become very skilled with a bow. Bellamy is quiet, as he's always been. He and Torrance keep to themselves when they aren't studying with Olive and Keiran. Olive mostly reads. We barely see her really. She and Adelaide had a falling out a few years back. Something about Adelaide's abilities set Olive off and they just don't speak anymore."

She sighs moving to the next seat.

"Camille is as... forward as ever. She and Olive could really not be anymore different. She is her mother's child. Only she's taken to enjoying the company of... dwarves in her bed." She hesitates. Anthony turns to her, stunned. "You don't mean Octavia!?" He whisper shouts to her, making Nicolynn chuckle. She nods as he clasps a hand over his mouth.

"Tavvy, sometimes I swear she was raised by Varric and born to some underling dwarf. She's very much like Bull though. She does don Dorian's flare though." There are few of them that remember the Inquisition Remnants well. Anthony and Nicolynn are among those that recall the most.

"Her humor, her spirit, it is just like they were." Nicolynn's voice is sad.

Anthony tries to resist the urge to grip her hand beneath the table. She moves to the other side of the table then. "Phillipe has improved a great deal since last you say him. He no longer lurks in the crown's nest. I believe we have your cousin to thank for that." He turns to her again. "Chandler? Chandler and Phillipe are... together?" She nods, raising an eyebrow. She leans in closer and whispers to him. "Let's just say, you ought not go by his chambers on the battlements late at night. Lest you want your ears violated." She tells him. Anthony's cheeks heat up as he whirls to glare at her.

Nicolynn shrugs and gives him an apologetic smile. "I thought you were supposed to watch them while I was gone? Not let them all sleep together!" He demands with a loose grip on his anger. She'd feared he might react like this. "I cannot control how they feel, Anthony. Besides, I am not done."

He turns away from the elf, looking down the line.

"Julien has taken kindly to certain blonde. That I fear you will not be too pleased about. But I truly do not know what is between them. I've been observing closely but I've seen nothing more than fond glances and careful touches of the hand. You ought to talk to Adelaide about that one." He is teeming then and she can feel the rage coming off of him.

"You let my sister," She cuts him off. "I did not let her do anything, Anthony. I gave her the same space and attention you would have. She is not such a child anymore, and we are not her parents." He seethes further at this, whirling around to snarl.

"You're right, we're not. But we're all she has because our parents are dead and that is why you should have kept a closer eye on her." Nicolynn hangs her head. This is not how she hoped this reunion would go.

"And what of Pierre? I suppose he too has some great mischief about the stronghold?" Anthony eyes her, arms crossed against his chest. Nicolynn does not meet his eyes though. He reads the tension in her before he comes to understand it. He pushed her, triggering that tiny spark. It can so scarcely be quelled and he knows he shouldn't have lashed out at her so recklessly.

He takes her hand beneath the table, as he'd done hundreds of times when they were children, thousands of times after their parents perished. "What is it, Lynn?" He watches that gold flame in her bright blue eyes go out, sundering the flame of magic roiling in her gut, smothering it with his touch. "Pierre, he is... so like his mother. Yet so different from what I expected. I fear for him." Anthony swallows the lump in his throat as she speaks.

"Why?" He forces himself to ask the question.

She meets his eyes then, blue waters clashing with bright yellow honey. "He and Mythalus are... lovers." She mutters quietly, hoping the Antivan won't hear. "Is that such a bad thing?" He questions with confusion in his brow.

"Mythalus is not the little boy he once was, Anthony." Se looks quite frightened herself as she speaks.

"He is powerful, very powerful. And he is using Pierre, as he uses and manipulates everyone. He sees us all as distractions to toy with when he needs a break from hearing himself think, from listening to the voices of the Gods in his head." She whispers to him, afraid the others might hear.

"The Gods in his head?" He asks, still misunderstanding.

Nicolynn nods, noting Mythalus' absence. "He hears them. The Old Gods, the Forgotten Ones, they speak to him. And he listens." There is desperation in her eyes at this and Anthony just knows Mythalus has yet to grow into his problematic potential.