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The terrain for the rest of the day was a little rough. What paths they found seemed to be made by wild goats or deer, rather than people.
“So, according to the map,” Everet said, dropping down the other side of the boulder he’d stepped up onto, “This streambed should lead us into some farmland, and eventually a settlement of some kind. Village, hamlet, something like that.”
“Yeah?” Galen said absently, looking down at him from the small slope. He slid down with a scrabble of small pebbles and dirt, catching himself with one hand on the stone.
“We can get supplies there – at the village, if we don’t find a farmhouse on the way,” Everet said, turning to keep going. “It looked like half a day’s travel.” He stopped, and forced himself to revise his estimate. “Well. A day, maybe two days at most.”
Just because Galen didn’t complain, didn’t mean Everet could keep on setting a pace for templar stamina. This last stretch was kind of rough going. He’d have tried to find higher ground and an easier path if he hadn’t been worried about losing the stream, which was the only landmark he felt certain of anymore.
“I know you said you didn’t need a healer, but if they have one it might be worth it,” Everet said. “Definitely we can get some food, some better clothing for you. I don’t have much coin but I think I can cover that.”
“I don’t – have anything,” Galen said, almost apologetic, as if Everet had been expecting him to have a purse stashed on him somewhere after the events of the last weeks.
“I can cover it,” Everet repeated. “After that, I suppose we can… regroup. Decide what to do next.” Everet ducked under a low-hanging tree branch, easing it back down carefully so it didn’t spring back and catch Galen when he let it go. He paused and waited for the mage to get under the branch and catch up. “We shouldn’t stay long in the village, though. It’s probably not safe to stay anywhere. At least until… well, until a week is up, I guess. Let’s pause here for a minute.”
Galen nodded, pushing a sweaty strand of hair out of his eyes. He gratefully sank down onto a flat-topped stone.
They sat in companionable silence for a few moments. The birdsong crept back in around them; or maybe that was just Everet hearing the lyrium again. Being this close to the stuff was… unnerving. Even stuffed in the bottom of Everet’s pack, he could hear it. It made the inside of his head itch.
He ignored it in favour of getting out the water canteen, taking a measured drink, and passing it to Galen.
“And after the village?” Galen asked Everet, as he capped the canteen again. “Where do you think you’ll go?”
Everet stared down at the stones and grass between his booted feet.
“I don’t know,” he said. “I thought I’d seek out a Chantry. Find somebody in charge who’s still sane and throw myself on their mercy. But…”
Up until they’d opened the chest, it had all been ‘if’. If he could survive long enough, what would he do, where would he go? The templars or the Chantry were the only real option he’d had if he wanted to survive, but that might mean another band just like the last.
But now… Everet was carrying a fortune in lyrium. He had more choices.
Everet ran his fingers through the hair over his temples, shaking his head. I don’t know. Galen watched him, silently, thoughtfully. He didn’t speak to try and fill the gap.
“One thing I do know - I want out of the Hinterlands,” Everet said, sudden conviction welling up. “This place is… I mean, I’m sure it was nice enough before the whole templar army chased the mages here, but now… fuck, I want out and I never want to see it again.”
There was too much death here. Too much violence, and Everet had been the perpetrator of enough of that violence that maybe it was grossly unjust of him to feel this way. But Redcliffe was full of mages, and the hills were full of templars, and as long as that was the case the Hinterlands would never, ever be safe or peaceful.
Galen gave him a quick glance that seemed to understand more than Everet was capable of saying. “Me too,” he said quietly.
“Well,” Everet said, getting to his feet. He smacked dust from his hands and thighs cheerfully, feeling his spirits rising. “In that case, it looks like we’re going the same way. If we’re both in agreement, our plan is to resupply at the next village, get our bearings, and chart ourselves a path out of the Hinterlands. We can figure the rest out as we go. Sound good?”
Everet returned to clearing them a way through the undergrowth, feeling heartened. Straightforward, achievable goals. Get to the village, resupply, find a way out of the Hinterlands and into the South Dales. Everet could do those things.
He’d figure out what he’d do next once he’d achieved those.
It might be safer, he thought, tearing aside a sheet of vines that obscured the footing ahead of him, if Everet went into the village alone. At least until he got Galen some less suspicious clothes.
Then again, the common folk also had reasons to distrust templars. Perhaps Everet should leave his more obviously templar gear stashed somewhere? He didn’t want to sell it, unless he had to, but it was probably unwise to go around wearing it…
“Hey – um – ”
Everet paused. “Sorry. Need a break?” he called over his shoulder.
“No. I was just thinking…” There was an odd, diffident tone to the mage’s voice. “We don’t… have to travel together. Just because we’re going in roughly the same direction.” When Everet turned to look at him, he was staring down at the ground, his face set. “We could part ways after resupplying at the village, if you’d prefer.”
“I – oh,” Everet said, surprised. He rearranged his thoughts, hastily.
Everet should have asked instead of assuming.
After… everything, Everet thought, with a queasy, guilty flip of his stomach. Galen might feel safer travelling alone than travelling with a templar. Can you blame him?
Galen was quiet, closed-in, standing with arms folded and eyes down submissively. Did he expect Everet to object? In the old days Everet would have needed to take Galen back to whatever Circle he’d come from, whether he went quietly or not. There was no point even pretending to entertain that possibility now, but…
Everet rocked back on his heels, scrubbed a hand through his hair. He chose his words carefully. “If that’s what you’d prefer. It was just a suggestion. It’s just, even besides the fact we might be being followed, people here aren’t all that friendly to mages or templars anymore. So I thought it’d be safer. That’s all. I thought you might like – ” He coughed, looked away. Might like what? More reminders of what happened? Somebody to tell you what to do? “Look, I’m not your keeper or anything, you can leave whenever you want. I won’t try and stop you.”
“It’s not that I want – ” Galen shook his head, fiercely. “Fff. Damn it.”
“What?”
Galen shrugged, his arms still miserably crossed. “I don’t want to part ways yet – you’re right, it’s safer – but –”
Everet frowned. “But…”
“I don’t want you to feel obligated,” Galen burst out. “You’ve been… amazing. Like I said. But you don’t have to feel like you’re lumbered with me forever now, just because you rescued me once.”
“Who’s being lumbered with you?” Everet said, confused. “I never said – ”
“No, you didn’t, you don’t have to!” Galen uncrossed his arms enough to make a frustrated gesture. “I can’t – you obviously feel it’s your responsibility to get me to civilisation, and find me clothes and food, and all that, and I’m grateful because Maker knows I’d struggle on my own. But you don’t have to keep on doing that. You don’t have to slow yourself down to escort me out of the Hinterlands. If you want to go to a Chantry you should, and not have to worry about me.”
“Oh,” Everet said, lamely. “You – you aren’t afraid of me, then?”
Galen looked up, seeming startled, blinking at Everet from under his hair. “Afraid of you? No. You saved me.”
The two of them stared at each other, awkwardly.
Everet found an embarrassed half-smile. He started to turn back towards the path. “Look, you can leave if you want, but I think it makes the most sense to travel together. For both of our sakes. Let’s just… get ourselves to civilisation. All right?”
When Galen followed, Everet deliberately slowed his steps so they could walk abreast. Or what passed for abreast, on this goat-track – Everet a half-step ahead and turning back occasionally. It didn’t make for easy conversation.
“Look, you don’t have to pretend I won’t be a burden,” Galen said after a few moments. “I’m not an idiot. You’ll do a hell of a lot better out here on your own than I will, it’s obvious you don’t need me.”
Everet tried to keep his eyebrows from climbing. “Oh, will I?” he managed to ask. “Galen… I don’t know who or what you think I am, but maybe I better come clean. I don’t have the foggiest idea what I’m doing.” He kicked at a clump of leaves on their path. “I don’t have a plan. I don’t know where I’m going to go.”
“Yeah, but you can live out here,” Galen said. “I’m… helpless. You’re not.”
Everet frowned. “Can I? Sure, I can defend myself, but I don’t know how we’re going to eat once the next week is up.”
“At least you have skills!” Galen said, heatedly. “You can – hire yourself out as a soldier, or you’re strong enough to do some other sort of work. I have nothing.” He gestured angrily with one scabbed-up arm, his voice rising. “Before the Circles fell, Everet, I had never left their walls for most of my life. I can’t do anything!”
“You can do magic,” Everet pointed out.
Galen gave him a furious, bitter look. “Oh yes, wonderful. I can definitely use that to make a living. Sounds nice and safe!”
Everet winced. That had been kind of insensitive.
He let the silence simmer awkwardly for a minute, tramping heavily though the undergrowth, while he tried to put together the right words. The Maker had not called Everet for his eloquence.
“Listen. I know it’s dangerous out here for you,” he said hesitantly. “And I hear what you’re saying, about… about not having skills.” He pointed with one thumb back upstream. “But the truth is, I’d have been toast back there without you. That’s not nothing.”
Galen sighed. His thin shoulders were still tense, hunched. “Mm. We won’t be fighting templars all the time, though. I’m... I’m sorry I snapped at you.”
“I sure hope we won’t,” Everet said. He sighed. “But… Look, Galen, I know you feel like you’re going to slow me down, but travelling with me isn’t going to be a picnic either.” The lyrium hummed and weighed heavily in his pack. “We’re both going to be burdens in our own ways. And I don’t care. Forget obligations, have you considered that I might actually want to travel with you?”
Galen was silent.
“I mean, I’m not exactly used to being on my own, so company would be welcome. Particularly company like you. We get along all right, so far, and you’re – you’re resourceful and clever, and damn tough, and maybe it’d be nice for us to have each other’s backs! You know?”
“Oh,” was all Galen said.
Everet looked over at him. The mage was staring straight ahead, not meeting Everet’s eyes. But slowly, as Everet watched, his shoulders dropped and his head came up. There was a flush of colour over his cheeks, bright pink underneath a crusted-over cut.
Everet must be walking too fast for him again; he’d never say anything. Everet slowed his stride, trying to do it subtly enough that the mage wouldn’t notice.
Their feet crunched leaves, not quite in step with each other.
“So what do you say?” Everet asked. “I’d like us to stick together for a little longer, if you’re not bothered by me. At least until we get out of the Hinterlands?”
Galen glanced at him, and away, and back – and smiled.
