"No fair, picking on me because of my height!"

Ilska smirks and pats Cia's head fondly.

"I've been picked on for my height all my life, little one, welcome to what it's like to be Anders."

Anders grabs a few twigs and other flammables, and gathers them together in a haphazard pile, and then sets them aflame.

Cia sticks eir tongue out at him as ey sets the bed roll out. Ey tugs Ilska until she settles down with em, although she stays sat, propped against the tree behind her.

"Have you thought much more about coming with me?"

Cia bites at eir lip. "It's...a better option than staying here."

"I can't promise it'll be safe. Or easy. I can't even say my motives are to go to the safest place."

"Probably still safer than being two teenage runaways living in a wood..."

Anders nods. "Most likely, yes. I can't imagine nugs make good bed partners."

He stretches one hand over the fire. With his wrist exposed, the girls can see the multitude of scars going further up. "I just want to make sure that you know that it will be dangerous. I don't want you agreeing to something just because some magical man came by and promised things he couldn't keep."

Ilska stares at Anders wrist, one of her hands twitching slightly.

"We're not doing this because you're promising things. We're doing this because we know what the bad option looks like, and you're not it."

"Well. Thank you very much," Anders says with a little bow. Saying that after they met Justice? They were in a truly bad situation before, then. 

"All right. I'll keep set some wards so we've got some warning if people decide we look like easy targets. Which, they will be truly wrong." Anders walks around the camp, casting. He feels amazingly free doing it, like he did with the Wardens. Casting in plain view, that's the future he wanted for all mages. Mages like Cia.

Cia pays close attention to what Anders is doing, clearly looking to learn.

"Did you wanna come help, Cia?"

"-C-can I? Please?" Ey bounds back to eir feet.

Anders laughs. "Yes, of course, come here, I'll show you what to do."

That eagerness, Maker, it reminds him of a younger man, desperate to learn from Wynne everything he could. That boy couldn't feel the chains about his neck yet, or had forgotten how they felt.

Ey actually comes properly within arm's reach of him now, which he might realise ey's been avoiding before. Quiet and eager.

"So, there are a few different kinds of wards. The ones I'm using here are spirit energy, so they're the least visible..." Anders keeps explaining how to go through the casting, different wards for different purposes. 

Cia's a sharp, attentive student, eager to learn.

Ilska watches them, but mostly Cia.

Anders surprises himself by being a patient, even eager, teacher. He never had an apprentice of his own (who'd give the constant runaway another mind to poison?) but here, free in the world it was...almost easy. Or maybe that was just Cia.

Maker, Anders, don't get fond now, there'll be no living with you.

Cia bounces happily when ey gets things right.

Anders is quick to praise to her when she does, because he's just as excited as she is.

"Okay, last one here. Focus."

Ey breathes in and does exactly that.

"And...perfect. Look at that. No one's waking us up without you knowing," Anders says, very approvingly.