Dragon Age: Semper ad Meliora

One More Day

We sing, rejoice
We tell the tales
We laugh and cry
We love one more day
- from "In Uthenera", a traditional Elvhen song

Free Marches, 9:39 Dragon

Idhren and Tainan had been living together for only a few weeks and were still working out the finer details of the situation. The aravel was a mess. Neither of them had very many possessions, but it was still proving a struggle to get them all sorted in a way both of them could agree on. Everywhere that Idhren looked there were arrowheads and bits of fletching, bundles of sticks and lengths of bowstring. His attempts at compiling it all into a single location were met with confused stares, as though Tainan didn't understand why it was necessary. One of the herbs that Idhren needed for his potions made Tainan sneeze when they were around it too frequently and they were still trying to figure out which one. Their clothes kept getting mixed up, which Idhren could not figure out for the life of him considering they were so different in size and style.

It was while hunting through all the mess that Tainan stumbled upon the very few remnants of Tevinter that Idhren still clung to.

"Hello, what's this?" they asked, plucking a thin leather bound book from one of the small cabinets that lined the aravel's wall. Before Idhren could even look to see what they were talking about Tainan flipped the book open and began leafing through the pages.

"Be careful with that!" Idhren snapped, lunging forward to snatch the book out of his lover's hands.

Tainan was so startled for a moment that they didn't know what to say. "I'm sorry," they murmured eventually.

Idhren looked down at the book, smoothed his hands over the cover. How stupid that he was still so attached to this thing. "No, I'm sorry," he mumbled. "I shouldn't have snapped at you."

"That book must be pretty important," Tainan observed, and didn't seem at all offended by Idhren's outburst.

Not really. Not in the grand scheme of things. By now Idhren should have just thrown it away and gotten on with his life, instead of continuing to let the wound fester. "It's stupid," he said. Tainan didn't reply, but flopped backward onto the pile of furs and blankets that constituted their bed, expression unreadable. Idhren was never able to tell what went on in Tainan's head (neither, apparently, could anyone else) and wondered if he ever would. The hunter always acted so different from what Idhren expected, so different from what he was used to. The silence stretched between them, not awkward or uncomfortable, but weighted with expectation. When Idhren finally couldn't stand it anymore he spoke. "I wrote it."

Tainan's head shot up, eyes wide and bright. "You wrote it?" They scrambled upright into a sitting position again, "You wrote a book?"

Idhren felt even more embarrassed in the face of Tainan's boundless enthusiasm. How did he explain what the book meant to him, though? How it was both his greatest pride and his greatest shame. A picture of the naïve idiot he had been back them. "I wrote it," he confirmed quietly. "But he... the magister I worked for stole it."

"Stole it?" Tainan asked in confusion. "But it's right there. You stole it back?"

Of course Tainan didn't understand, couldn't understand. Intellectual property was not a concept that existed in their world. Frustrated with himself and filled with the renewed bitterness of old wounds, Idhren held the book out to Tainan delicately, torn, as always, between destroying the thing and keeping it safe. "Look at the name on the cover."

Tainan took the book with great care, holding it almost reverently, and stared down at the cover, face twisted in concentration. It was a cruel thing to ask. Tainan could barely write their own name, but Idhren couldn't bear to look at that cover. "L—Lih... Lin-us," the hunter sounded out slowly, working over each letter. "Sa—Ka! Kan-id-... Canid-ee... Canidius! Linus Canidius!" they finished triumphantly, momentarily proud before remembering what this was about and sobering again. "That's the magister, isn't it?"