Ashya watched as Quintus breathed life into the flames, feeling somewhat better. The flames gave out stronger light by which to spot any unwanted intruders, not to mention the man’s presence himself. He might be old, but his hand hadn’t wavered at the appearance of darkspawn.
“Chasing darkspawn?” Ashya contemplated Quintus’ words almost speechlessly.
There wasn’t much more for me to do.
“What do you mean, there wasn’t anything else?” she burst out feelingly after a moment. “You’re free to go anywhere, do anything…you can’t have done everything there is to do yet!” Life, it suddenly occurred to her forcefully, was simply unfair. If the only alternative wasn’t being locked up in a tower, she certainly wouldn’t be off gallivanting after monsters.
She scowled at the fire for a moment, before looking down, her finger starting to draw lines on the ground. “Well…we got them, right? So…it’s going great,” she said, somewhat hesitantly. “I didn’t…” she sighed, as if confessing a great secret. “I didn’t…expect darkspawn to be quite like this.” She’d been told they were horrible so many times, but it hadn’t prepared her for the truth. Better than the Tower? That remained to be seen.