Chapter Text
“Tasnim.”
Tasnim blinked out of her daze, looking across the fire.
“Come here.” Vat-Asaara's voice was gentler than usual - everything about her mentor seemed softer. In the low light of their campfire her face seemed less severe, the scars on her mouth almost melting away. Even her eyes were less piercing, but for all her apparent ease Tasnim knew disobedience wouldn’t be tolerated. She pushed herself to her feet, rubbing one eye with the back of her hand, and trudged around the fire to settle at Vat-Asaara's side.
As Tasnim sat, drawing her knees to her chest, Vat-Asaara lowered her head. As Tasnim watched, she combed her fingers through her hair, drawing it away from the base of her horn and over one shoulder. Uncertain, Tasnim sat still and quiet until Vat-Asaara's gleaming eyes caught hers.
“Look.” Vat-Asaara said, tapping one of her horns where its gold cover ended.
Tasnim leaned in to peer at the stripe of dark horn visible between silvery skin and beaten gold, and quickly realized why Vat-Asaara had called her in so close. From any other distance, it wouldn't have been possible to tell Vat-Asaara's horns weren't intact. The base of her horn had been filed to a fine, flat edge, the pieces so well-fit that were it not for the tiny steel nails that held the pieces together Tasnim might not have noticed at all.
“Do you see?” Vat-Asaara spoke again in a low voice after giving Tasnim time to look.
“Yes.” Tasnim murmured, unsure of what to say.
Vat-Asaara lifted her head and Tasnim settled back, hugging her knees.
“I know it’s difficult, what I’m teaching you. I know you’re tired.”
“I’m not - ” Tasnim blurted, but fell silent as Vat-Asaara gave her a sharp look.
“I know you are. I want you to understand why it must be this way.” Vat-Asaara kept her eyes forward, jaw knotting with a weary, old anger.
Tasnim closed her mouth, heart pounding against her ribs. When she didn't interject again, Vat-Asaara continued, voice hardening as she spoke.
“I came from the Qun, like Kost and Saam. I was good. I studied the teachings. I worked hard, and I had potential. I was meant to be part of the Antaam.” Vat-Asaara’s eyes hardened, her fist tightening against the ground. “In the end it didn’t matter how I could fight, or how many verses I could recite, or what I promised I would do. They took everything from me.”
“Why?” Tasnim said, quietly, and a knot grew in Vat-Asaara’s jaw.
“When I was no older than you, the powers touched me.” Vat-Asaara’s voice was hard as she set her elbow on a raised knee. “Because of that, all that I could have been was lost to them. They saw only their fear. They took my horns, they took my pride - bound me and leashed me and expected me to break.”
“How did you get your horns back?” Tasnim blurted. Of all the thoughts swirling in her mind, this was the only one that could find purchase in words.
Vat-Asaara kept her eyes forward, her response as cold as her face had become. “I didn’t. I cut these from the man who thought himself fit to hold my leash.”
Tasnim turned her head back towards the fire, shaken. She knew that if she looked at Vat-Asaara, all she’d be able to see was that little crack where her mentor’s body met a stranger’s.
“I’m telling you this because you need to know that the world will not hesitate to take everything from you. I paid for my freedom in blood, and I still fight for it, every day that I breathe.” Vat-Asaara lowered her voice. “No one holds your leash, Tasnim. but they will take it if you let them. You must be ready to stop them.”
“I don’t want to hurt anyone.”
“Don’t be foolish.” Vat-Asaara snapped. Tasnim shrank back, tears welling in her eyes.
After a moment Vat-Asaara reached out to set a hand on Tasnim’s shoulder. Tasnim stared into the fire, unable to make herself turn and look at what she assumed would be disappointment in Vat-Asaara’s face.
"The world will not be kind to you,” Vat-Asaara murmured, and Tasnim glanced at her from the corner of her eye. “Kost and Saam like to pretend it will be, but they know nothing of our power. They are weak. You deserve more than they would let you have.”
The thought of her parents made the tears finally roll down Tasnim’s cheeks as she still fought to keep her breathing even. Vat-Asaara wrapped an arm around her shoulders, drawing her close, and she allowed herself a quiet sob.
“I heard once that a long time ago, the Qunari mixed dragon blood into theirs.” Vat-Asaar's voice was uncertain and almost gentle, in the way that a voice unaccustomed to softness sounds. Tasnim swallowed back a rough breath to listen. “The Qunari believe Dragons are too wild, too powerful to be left alive. Like us.”
Tasnim turned her face upward hiccoughing as Vat-Asaara met Tasnim’s eyes with an odd warmth in her own.
“To the Qunari, we’re dangerous, just power to be leashed. The rest of the world has names for us, too, but we aren’t the same as their apostates and mages. We are better. Stronger.” Vat-Asaara turned her head upwards again. “We’re of the dragons. We are Ataashari.”
“Ataashari.” Pride swelled in Tasnim’s chest - the word felt good and she wanted to say it again, feel the sounds rolling around in her mouth.
“Glorious people.” Vat-Asaara tightened her arm around Tasnim’s shoulder, looking out into the night. “The world will try to take everything from you, your pride, your freedom. They want to make you less than you are for their own benefit, but you have glory inside you, Tasnim. You must never forget that.”