The years must've made Yonca a skilled actress, as Desi found himself regretting he'd commented on her hair to begin with--though it was brownish enough in his estimation. The part of him that couldn't stand giving up the last word in an argument wanted to push the point, but he'd never live it down if the templar startled awake while they debated varying hues of hair colors and complexions. Not wanting to test Yonca's temper (that he'd only just discovered--some discoveries were less wondrous than others), Desi headed up the hill, letting the road fall out of his sight as the foliage thickened into a ring around the grove where their supplies waited.
He was neatly digging through their packs when he heard the unmistakable scream of armor churning against armor. Cursing, Desi reached through an endless stack of books--sweet Andraste, why did they keep so many bloody books--and dashed away back to the road with a hempen rope in hand. The sound of a struggle stopped nearly as soon as it started, and Desi found himself facing Yonca with the frozen templar between them.
Desi remained a generous distance away and behind the templar's back--as much as he'd written off the threat of the templar knowing his assailants, Desi wasn't too keen on making his face known so soon. It probably wouldn't matter. Yonca's knife could've slashed through the templar's throat already, and he'd be hard-pressed to fault her for it. Nevertheless, he appreciated the distinct lack of blood and corpses on the road thus far.
As she spoke, Desi took the chance to cast a death hex. It wouldn't come into play unless the templar chose to fight. That's what Desi expected though--for some reason, pacifism just wasn't a very popular trait amongst the templars. Desi glanced back to the grove up the hill where he'd thoughtlessly left his staff. It would've been a choice weapon right now, another good smack over the head would've done the trick. He'd turn back for it, but with the templar paralyzed and already quite aware of the presence of at least one apostate, there wasn't any reason to avoid using spells.
"If you have paralysis spells, what did we need the rope for again?" he asked as he stepped forward to remove the mace from the templar's reach. The harmless rhetoricism belied his wariness, and while he would've liked to trust Yonca's skill, it didn't look like magic could hold down the templar for long.