Terrible Two

Hikaru wandered around the Palace, going through the halls. She opened a door, it must have been the armoury because there were weapons, shields, helms and many other things set up neatly in racks. The little mage entered the room quietly, it came as a surprise to her that the door hadn't been locked. As she glanced at all of the things in the room she caught herself humming a song, she decided to do so quietly, lest she get in trouble for being there.

Everything was well polished and all the metal was gleaming, she could se a reflection of herself in some of it. Being a mage however, meant she had never actually used any of the equipment here. She wondered to herself how heavy it was.

The small elf walked over and tried to lift a longsword, it clattered to the floor and made her jump. Okay, so metal weaponry is not easy to use at all.... Perhaps this was why most robes were cloth and most staffs were wooden?

Wakey wakey ... stupid sunshine makes wakey. Wait. Oh no gotta pee!

Maghai pounced off the bed, tripped over a rug then rushed about looking for where he could go. Finally he opened the window and peed out it, sighing with contentment as he did so. Until he heard the scream. Oh well he was done now anyway! He ran into his room which was connected to Jezarine's and changed from jammies to regular clothing, grabbed a couple knives and zoomed out the door.

Once out of the room he whistled and walked along as cool as could be. Cool as a cucumber. Oooooh cucumber. That would go good with that weed he got when he was stoned. Wait. There was nothing for him to get into and he didn't want to go back to the rooms in case whoever screamed had brought anyone there to catch the bad man who showed his items off.

Then what was one to do?

Wait ... humming? He heard humming so followed the sound which came out of a room across from him. He peeked in the door then snuck in looking about in amazement. He was too busy looking about to notice Hikaru at first but when the sword clattered to the ground he screamed like a little girl, pressed himself against the wall with his arms out and looked towards the sound with his big blue eyes open in fright.

Hikaru jumped a second time, this one was caused by a shrill scream that the mage was fairly sure didn't belong to her. In her fear she slid behind a suit of armor. After a few moments passed the small woman glanced out from her hiding space at a man. She was sure she'd never seen him and that thought startled her.

Was he someone improtant? Come to yell at her for being in places she should not? No as she looked him over he did not seem to be a gaurd or other figure. So who was he? Only one way to find out.... "Er...um....who are you?" Her voice was timid

Who was this? What was this? Holy shoot were they going to run him through for walking into the wrong room? This was the palace for goodness sakes and he just tra la la'd into one of their weapons' rooms. This was not a healthy thing to do at all. Oh no it was not!

Wait. Small female? He tilted his head. Dalish? She wasn't dressed badly. In fact her clothes were rather new which made him sure he was seeing things. Most of their kind in cities wore ragged clothes, things which were not this nice at least. So what kind of person was this? She was a pretty girl and had a sweet face which made him think a bit of his sister. Well, just a bit. This girl didn't have huge eyes like himself and Jez and her face was a bit thinner.

Then she spoke and he became startled as he stood there, "I ... I'm .... I'm Maghai. I'm Maghai Nyala. My sister brought me here I swear! She travels with the Grey Wardens," He suddenly stood up tall, or as tall as he went, and grinned widely and with pride that his sister did this, almost as if it were himself, "And ... and well I ... I was walking down the hall and heard you hum so I stopped in. Hey is this real scale?"

Suddenly he turned to feel the armor just ahead of himself.

Hikaru nodded quietly "So...so your sister travels with the wardens?" She smiled a bit "I know a warden too" she looked carefully at this man and suddenly realized "Oh um....I'm sorry...My name's Hikaru." She smiled again before making a pathetic attempt at Putting away the swotd she had dropped

"Yeh! But she's not a warden. She's a healer. She said that some assassin rode with her to find the hero and now they are back and the hero is gonna let the king have it because the king did something that upset her." He blathered to this girl then nodded his head insistently, "Yeh oh my name is Maghai! Maghai the magpie Jez used to call me. That's me. Like a magpie I really like shiny things."

Maghai realized that she wasn't going to be able to move the sword by herself so he went to help her, accidentally bumping his head into hers, "Owwie!"

"The hero and the king? What's going on with them, do you know?" The little mage thought of the two and started to say something bit was interrupted by pain. With a hand on her head Hikaru looked at Maghai "O-ow...um are you okay?"

Maghai rubbed his head and whimpered like a puppy, "Yeh I'm ok. You ok? And oh ... yeh some soldiers had come to take our horses away by order of the king but Jezzie didn't think they really were from the king. Word is that he probably just wanted them to come back and those were not real soldiers but were impostors trying to cause trouble."

Hikaru nodded slowly "Yes...I'm fine..." The mage was at a loss for words at the rest of the news. Imposters? What could that mean? Who would send them? Was everyone okay? She stared wide eyed at this man.

"Whaa...aat?" Maghai's eyes became misty as she stared at him. Why was she doing that? She looked shocked and he could not figure out why. It was only some gossip about people they didn't really know so it didn't mean anything. Or ... a flash of insight hit him, "Hikaru? Did I say something wrong? Do you know them?"

"I....Well the hero saved me....and Alistair, the king....he's been really kind to me so....I hope they're all right..." Hikaru looked down and suddenly had a thought "There was...an assassin too" a little color flushed her cheeks "He's done a lot for me, protected me and helped me with a personal hardship...I hope he's okay too"

"You ... you KNOW the king?" His mouth dropped and he started slipping knives and other small weapons back where he'd acquired them from, grinning from ear to ear to hopefully distract her from the fact that he had removed anything from the area. He was nowhere as indiscreet as he thought he was being, "Ah ... well ... was this assassin ... ah one eyed? Jez said he has one eye and can be rather scary looking through you with the one eye he has left."

"The king has treated me with kindness and allowed me to stay here, we've talked a bit but....I can't say I truly know him like a best friend or anything" The little mage laughed a quiet little laugh. "Though I am glad you put those back."

The smile remained after her laugh. "I have briefly met that one-eyed assassin. But I hardly know him" Again she blushed "No this assassin is called Zevran. He is Antivan, with a tattoo on his cheek, he also has long blonde hair and-" She realized she was going on and on, she blushed again.

Maghai ducked his head and looked like a dog caught in knocking over a candle. He didn't even hear what she said about the assassins as he was just worried about what to do now as he had been caught, "I ... I'm not really bad y'know. It's a compulsion ... I mean they were so pretty and would have fetched a good price but you know the king and you're so nice so I don't want to upset you or make the king upset at me because I'm sure he could do nasty nasty very nasty things if he put his mind to it and that's really not what I want oh please please please don't tell the king that I did that it wouldn't be good for my complexion if he put me in a dungeon and I really can't handle torture oh no that would just be so bad torture really isn't good and if that happened I would tell him all about anything they wanted to know, even where I have my stashes but the only thing I wouldn't tell is about my sister oh no not that never that because it took me years to find her and that's so hard y'know because searching is like scratching off sunburn flecks they take a long long time and you never think you will be over doing that and it will keep on going but geez I did find her yesterday isn't that amazing I found my sister and she's alright just like the oracle said she would be but we have to be careful because you never know what dangers lurk in the heart of men and women I suppose to but ... what ... you're giving me a look aren't you? What's that look for?"

This guy was talking a lot. way too much for the mage, so she tuned most of it out by humming a melody in her head. Finally he seemed to be stopping and she listened again. " ... what ... you're giving me a look aren't you? What's that look for?"

The mage blinked, confused "What look?"

"Oh I was rambling wasn't I?" He scuffed his foot on the floor while looking down then lifted his big eyes with embarrassment, "The tuned out because you're a blithering idiot look."

Seeing his reaction Hikaru felt bad "Oh um...n-no not at all" she said quietly "That was just.. a lot of information at once, I think you're rather smart" The mage blushed and looked up at him with a small smile

"You think so? You really think I'm smart?" He gasped and took her hand to kiss it, "You are the most fabulous woman I've ever met. Well besides my mother but she's dead so it's no comparison at the moment. And my sister but she's my sister so I always thing she's fabulous even when she's being grumpy when I stole her herbs and lyrium potions. Hey ... can I meet the king? I promise not to steal anything from him. Really I do. Cross my heart!" He crossed his heart and waited for her answer.

Hikaru blushed immensely when he kissed her hand "The king? W-Well I don't know...he might be busy"

The king might be busy ... oh. Oh! "Well of course!" He slapped his forehead, "He's THE KING for goodness sake. I should know better than asking such foolhardy things! As if the king would have an open schedule. Not at all. So ..." Maghai let go of her hand and then pushed the sword back into place for her, "What did you want to do?"

"Uh...well I don't know" The mage looked down a little "I was actually just trying to find something to do myself, when I came in here." She smiled shyly.

"Let's go find something fun to do then! With both of our brains working things out I'm sure we can find something!" He was completely giddy about looking for fun things so he grabbed her hand and walked out of the room, "What about a library? Do they have a library? They must have one. I mean, it IS the royal palace"

Hikaru laughed "Yes they have a library, I spend a lot of time there, I love all the books. There are so many of them that it's hard choosing one"

"Oh!" He bounced up and down and laughed, "Do they have books on butterflies? I like butterflies. They are so pretty and fluttery. It is hard to imagine that they are really bugs when you see them flying but when you have them close you see. It's kind of like people. You don't know which ones are good and which are bad until you see the center of them."

"They might, I never looked." Hikaru smiled, with as bouncy as this Maghai was it reminded her of a child. "Lets go find out." She lead him down into the library