"How come you get to get Harrowed when you're a baby and shit?" snaps Zann, jumping down onto the floor. (She's actually quite a bit shorter than Metella. Malnourished elves tend to be even smaller than the regular type, who would have known. But she looks like she would willingly punch an Old God in the balls, shortness aside.)

"I'm not a baby. I just turned eleven," she says. "And I think they probably gave me my Harrowing because I've already passed all the earlier tests and waiting another year would be pointless."

"Oh, come on, eleven's babies. And I passed all their tests too, the tests that weren't about boring shit like magic serving man and all that. But everybody knows I can do fire for days and hex someone until his bones are rubber. So why're you special? How come you're the one who gets to rocket past everybody when I'm stuck kissing up to the fucking sisters? 'Cause you're human?"

"Lots of students here are human and they don't get Harrowed when they're eleven," she points out reasonably. "Maybe they want you to learn the boring things too."

"Yeah, but they're morons," explains Zann. "I'm not a moron and you're not a moron but only one of us is getting Harrowed early. And I know they want me to learn the boring shit, but it's awful and I hate them. I mean, all this Chantry shit about magic serving man, they just use that as an excuse to cull us every time some jackasshole steps out of line, you know? And Irving's too busy kissing Templar ass to even pretend there's anything wrong with it. It makes me sick."

"If you talk like this to adults I think I can guess why you haven't been Harrowed yet," Metella remarks.

"They annoy me too, but I have a lot of practice not letting things get to me. If I lost my temper as easily as you do, this tower might not still be standing."

Zann snorts. "You don't want to get in this pissing contest with me, kid. You weren't here the one time I actually lost my temper, but if you've ever been around the north wing, you might notice that a few of the walls look newer than the rest. That'd be me melting them into glass and blowing it halfway to the Pretty Princess across the lake. A shard actually made it all the way over. It was very impressive."

"I'm not proud that I can bring down the tower, I'm proud that I haven't done it," she says. "Learning how not to get angry when it isn't time to get angry is important."

"I tremble before your ability to not do shit, I'm sure."

"Did you want something or did you just come here to be rude to me?"

"Mostly the latter. You're not that bad, though. Which is terrible."

"Does that mean you'll stop being rude to me?"

"It wasn't very obvious."

"Huh. It was obvious to me. Anyway, wanna be friends?"

"Okay."

Zann hops back up to perch on the foot of the bed. "You mentioned you're not fond of the Chantry's brainwashing shit, right?"

"Yes. Mages are people. It is not a good idea to forget that."

This gets a sharp grin from Zann. "Yeah! That's what I'm talking about. You have your head on right, kid. You got a name?"

"Metella."

"I'm Sazann. I like Zann, though. Nice to meet you," she says, standing up from her crouch into a bow. (She then re-perches.)

"Nice to meet you too."

"So, uh." She looks mildly confused. "What do friends do? I don't think I've had those. Less you count the assholes back at the alienage, but they were assholes."

"I don't have very many friends either. But you can borrow my books if you want." There is a shelf of them above her bed.

"Ooh. Magic books? Ancient forbidden magic maybe?"

"No. They're things I brought with me when I came here, not magic at all. Stories and stuff. I like them. The ancient forbidden magic is in the libraries, and if I try to sneak you those then neither of us will be allowed anywhere near them."

"Stories. Huh. Might like those too, I guess. The way you said that about the ancient forbidden magic makes me think there's some other option there that doesn't involve us being forbidden."

"They don't let me read about the really forbidden magic, but they let me read some things most people aren't supposed to," she says. "Because I'm running out of things people are supposed to and I'm a good student and I don't scare anybody."

"...I scare a lot of people. It's kind of a thing. Could you tell me about some of the slightly forbidden magic?"

"I might. Most of it isn't that interesting. But it might get interesting later."

"Ech. Should've guessed anything interesting would be properly forbidden. It's just, I'm already the best fire mage in the damn circle, and I've got entropy magic and the rest of primal pretty well locked down, and I'm even working on the other practical magic because at least it isn't boring and I can learn to make locusts eat my enemies' flesh, but all they want to teach me is how to be a terrified little bunny. And if it was just passing their stupid fucking tests I could lie well enough to do that, but- I can't turn myself into that all the time, or even just enough of the time that they can't tell I'm faking it. And- ugh." She flumphs backwards onto Metella's bed in a huff.

"I probably can't teach you how to pretend not to be angry," says Metella. "I might not even be able to teach you how not to get angry. I think it's just how I am. But if you can learn it, it's really good to know."

Zann sighs. "If you can help at all, it'd be better than nothing. Which is what the Chantry fucks have to offer." She adopts a pious voice. "Oh, Sazann, just remember that the Maker would be terribly disappointed in you for feeling emotions! Andraste wants you to shove your anger up your ass and never have any fun ever! You don't want to disappoint our precious fucking Maker, do you?"

Metella giggles.

Zann raises her eyebrows. "Can it be? Someone who doesn't have her head shoved up Andraste's righteous skirts? Pinch me, I'm dreaming."

"I like a lot of the stories about Andraste, but I think some of the things the Chantry teaches are silly."

"Amazing. You are a much more worthwhile kid than I would have dared to dream of. How d'you feel about the Templars?"

"The Templars are useful for stopping blood mages and abominations, but if they didn't go around treating almost everybody like we might be about to start messing with blood magic any minute, there might be fewer blood mages and abominations to deal with."

Zann cackles. "Exactly! Kid, you get to rule by my side when I take over Ferelden. This is a promise."

"Can I be First Enchanter of a much better-run version of the Circle? I'd like that."

"Hell yes. I'll be the warrior-mage-queen who crushes our enemies, you'll be the learned archmage of the Circle. Hell, you can turn it into a different shape if you want. We're the dream team."

"Okay."