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Somewhere at the base of the tower, there is a commotion. Yelling, the sounds of chains scraping, the heavy thump of a door being closed. Yuuri groans and rolls over in his bunk, flinging one arm over his ear.
"Ah," Phichit says. He conjures a tiny flame in his hand, the light of it casting the shapes of his face into silhouettes. "Victor escaped again."
--
When Yuuri saw Victor on his first day in the Ostwick Circle, he was certain that Victor was the First Enchanter.
It had been a long ride on horseback from his village, and Yuuri had spent much of it feeling miserable. The incident which had revealed him to be an apostate was embarrassing: a mistimed sneeze at the harvest festival had led to Yuuri icing over a whole crop of corn right in front of a templar. He kept trying to tell himself that he was lucky the templar didn't make him Tranquil right on the spot, despite Yuuko repeatedly telling him that it doesn't work like that. Yuuko was much better at being an apostate than Yuuri.
So, after hours of self-deprecation with only a horse for immediate company, Yuuri had been almost glad to see the Circle tower rising out of the mists. He entered the tower with the village templar at his side, and was no more than three steps through the door when another person ran headlong into him.
"Well, that was terrible timing on my part."
Yuuri, dazed, looked up into the most beautiful blue eyes he'd ever seen. The man appeared to be only a few years older than Yuuri himself, but he looked positively regal, polished in all the ways that Yuuri, a simple farm boy, had never been. Could never hope to be.
The man extended a hand to Yuuri, and Yuuri flinched away.
"Maker, I'd forgotten how shy apostates are," the man said. He leaned forward and put a hand under each of Yuuri's arms, pulling him to his feet with little fanfare. Then, as if it was nothing, the man -- the mage, Yuuri realized -- conjured a faint green light in his hand and pressed it to the center of Yuuri's forehead. Yuuri felt the magic seep into his skin, spreading through his body and healing the soreness from his fall, and from the journey besides. "Welcome to the Ostwick Circle! I am--"
"Victor!!" came a voice from across the room. It belonged to a small person in a templar uniform who looked very, very grouchy.
"Yes, that's me," Victor said, looking very put out about his introduction being interrupted. He turned to look at the small templar. "May I help you, kitten?"
The small templar's whole face puffed up. "Don't think that I wasn't on to you," he said, accusatory.
"Yes, yes." Victor waved his hand dismissively, which only made the small templar angrier. Yuuri wasn't sure that he'd ever seen a person so angry in his life. "Believe what you like. I'm here to meet our newest resident."
"You didn't even know he was coming," the small templar sniffed.
"Welcome!" Victor said, turning back to Yuuri. "A pleasure to make your acquaintance. What's your name, little nuglet?"
Yuuri, who had been watching this exchange with a mixture of amusement and horror, jumped at being addressed. "Um, my name's Yuuri."
"Same as my name," the small templar grumbled.
"What a coincidence!" Victor exclaimed, clapping his hands in delight. He twirled one finger in the air and conjured a wisp, which floated to hover in front of Yuuri. "I've decided! You can be Yuuri." Another twirl of his finger, and the wisp dashed across the room to float in front of the small templar. "And you can be Yurio."
The small templar -- Yurio -- reached out with one hand and snuffed out the wisp. Victor pouted. "Why does he get to keep his name?!"
"Because," Victor said, throwing his arm around Yuuri's shoulder companionably, "Yuuri is going to be my student."
--
"They really are going to make you Tranquil one day," Yuuri says, leaning back against Victor's chest.
"Then the world would lose the greatest mage of the age," Victor replies without a hint of irony. He places a kiss on the top of Yuuri's head, his breath rustling through Yuuri's untidy mop of hair.
Yuuri frowns, then turns around in Victor's lap so that Victor can see it. "I'm serious," he says, voice pitched low. They're in Victor's room, which Yuuri is certain the templars are monitoring somehow. "Maker's breath, Victor, if I lost you..."
Victor swallows Yuuri's anxieties with a kiss, reeling Yuuri in until their bodies are pressed tightly together. Victor's mouth is always so warm, as though the fire and lightning he so effortlessly commands is burning him up from the inside. Or maybe it's Yuuri, with his affinity for ice magic, who is too cold.
"I'm not lost yet," Victor says. When he touches Yuuri, there's lightning in his fingertips.
--
Their first night in their shared bedroom, Yuuri had told Phichit that he thought he'd met the First Enchanter.
Phichit grinned conspiratorially. "Not what you expected, right? She's from the Free Marches but she's studied in Val Royeaux and Minrathous. Can you imagine? Studying in Minrathous! I wish I could sit her down and talk to her about it for an hour, I bet she has the most amazing--"
"I'm sorry," Yuuri said, finally working up the nerve to interrupt, "I think we're talking about different people."
"There's only one First Enchanter in Ostwick," Phichit said, though thankfully not in a tone that made Yuuri feel stupid for being wrong. "First Enchanter Minako. Is that not who you meant?"
"Oh." Yuuri stared into his trunk, wondering if Phichit would agree to lock him inside forever. "I guess not then. The person I met was Victor."
Phichit laughed for a full minute.
"Andraste's tits, you thought Victor was the First Enchanter?" Phichit finally managed to choke out, wiping the tears from his eyes.
"He looked very..." Yuuri trailed off, digging for a word that wouldn't show too much of his hand. He finally settled on: "Official."
This caused another wave of giggles in Phichit. "Oh, Maker, that's hilarious. Sorry, Yuuri, I'm not laughing at you. It's a very Victor-like misunderstanding."
Yuuri's curiosity got the better of him. "What do you mean by that?"
The force of Phichit's grin could knock back a whole group of darkspawn. "Victor is by far the most talented mage in the whole Circle. He could be a Senior Enchanter at least, if he wanted to be. But he's too busy being a pain in the templars' asses."
The only thing Yuuri had ever done in defiance of authority was sneeze. And exist, he supposed. "Why would he do that?"
"Because," Phichit said, "all Victor wants to do is escape."
--
The midday sun is bright, but the air is cool beneath the large tree in the courtyard just outside the Circle tower. Victor has his head in Yuuri's lap, and Yuuri traces soft fingers down Victor's face and back into his hair. Yuuri has fought tooth and nail for this; due to his repeated offenses, Victor is not normally allowed out of the tower proper. As a concession, Yurio is standing at the edge of the courtyard, watching them with narrowed eyes.
Yuuri doesn't think that Victor is desperate enough to attempt an escape while a templar is watching, but Victor is always full of surprises.
"In Tevinter," Victor says, his tone wistful, "it's a privilege to be a mage."
They've had this conversation before, obliquely. Back when Victor was still actually training Yuuri -- before 'training' had become a euphemism for 'sex' -- Victor would mutter about how magic education was much better handled in Tevinter, or how Tevene mages were much more worldly and dignified. But this is the first time he's said it like this, straight out, with no prompting.
Yuuri doesn't know what to say, so he doesn't say anything.
"I can't help but think about it," Victor continues. "If I'd been born there... if we'd been born there. We wouldn't be kept prisoner. We'd be valued, respected." He turns his head towards Yuuri's stomach and presses a kiss there, over the fabric of Yuuri's robe, close-mouthed. Even that, somehow, makes Yuuri shiver. "We wouldn't have to be a secret."
Yuuri glances at Yurio, who hasn't moved at all. Relationships between mages aren't technically allowed in the Circles, and there's no way that Yurio hasn't figured it out by now. But, for whatever reason, it doesn't seem like Yurio has told anyone. Yuuri thinks about how Victor had called Yurio 'kitten' on Yuuri's first night in the tower.
"What's your history with Yurio?" Yuuri whispers.
It's a non-sequitur, but Victor doesn't treat it like one. He just laughs and says, "He's my cousin. Didn't you know? I come from a templar family."
--
True to his word, Victor knocked on Yuuri and Phichit's door bright and early the next morning and whisked Yuuri away to the library for a magic lesson.
"Tell me, Yuuri," Victor said, drawing out the syllables in a way that made Yuuri think, for the first time in his life, that his name was something worth hearing, "what sort of magic can you do?"
Yuuri trained his eyes on the floor, which was far less intimidating than looking at Victor's beautiful face. "Um, nothing much really. Most of the time I just freeze things."
"Wow!" Victor said, making Yuuri jump with the vehemence of it. "Yuuri, that's wonderful! We're opposites!" As to prove it, Victor conjured an alarmingly large ball of fire in his hand. "Can you put out a fireball?" He raised his hand as though he meant to throw the fire right at Yuuri.
"No, stop!" Yuuri exclaimed. He closed his eyes and pulled at his magic without thinking, the air in front of him cooling and condensing as he backed away, palms up as though that would save him from the giant fireball that Victor was absolutely going to throw at him, incinerating him instantly.
He waited for death to come, and it did not.
When he opened his eyes, he saw that he'd somehow created an ice wall, taller than Victor and spanning the entire width of the library. Before this, the most ice Yuuri had ever conjured was a cube for his sister's tea.
A perfect oval melted in the center of the wall, then Victor's face slotted into it. "Amazing!"
--
"You have to be quiet," Victor breathes into Yuuri's skin, and his breath is so hot that Yuuri knows there'd be a burn mark there if Victor weren't also a healer. Victor's fingers dance down Yuuri's stomach, the lightning flickering and sparking, and Yuuri is strung up so tightly that he thinks he's going to snap. "Maker, I've barely touched you."
"Using magic is cheating," Yuuri manages through gritted teeth. It feels like Victor's been teasing him for an entire age, bringing him to the precipice and then backing off, letting him drift back down. Only just now did Victor bring his magic into it.
"Cheating?" Victor says with a pout. "I'm only using all the tools I have at my disposal." To prove the point, he sends a scatter of sparks dancing across Yuuri's chest. "You could do it to me, if you wanted."
Yuuri gasps, which is a poor substitute for what he wants to do, which is cry Victor's name until he's hoarse. "Would you want me to?" he says.
"Of course I do," Victor says without hesitation.
There's very little Yuuri can do in his current state, but now that he's been goaded, he doesn't want to back down. He reaches for his magic and somehow, miraculously, finds it. He's not as multifaceted as Victor, but he does have one thing he can do.
He touches the ice shard he conjured to Victor's earlobe, and Victor loudly moans.
"You have to be quiet," Yuuri teases.
Victor responds by taking Yuuri's whole cock in his mouth, and Yuuri finally, finally unravels.
--
Three weeks of lessons later, Yuuri felt slightly better about his control over his magic. Victor was far from the best teacher; as far as Yuuri could tell, magic came as naturally to Victor as breathing. Unlike Yuuri, who'd discovered his magic at sixteen and hidden it from the world for seven years, Victor had come into his magic as a child and volunteered to be taken to the Circle. It was almost impossible for Yuuri to reconcile this knowledge of Victor with the rumors of his many escape attempts but, Yuuri supposed, twenty years could do a lot to change a person.
Most of the time, Yuuri left his lessons with Victor feeling defeated. No matter how much he practiced, he could never measure up to Victor, who could effortlessly produce a lightning storm in the blink of an eye. Frustrated, Yuuri would lay awake at night and conjure icicles in the space beneath his covers, wishing he had an affinity with a school of magic that didn't leave him wet and shivering.
Then, in the fourth week of Yuuri's life at Ostwick Circle, Victor met Yuuri at his bedroom and began walking in the opposite direction from the library.
Yuuri stopped dead in his tracks outside the door to his room. "Where are we going?"
Victor glanced over his shoulder and smiled serenely. "You'll see!"
The path took them up the tower, winding staircase after winding staircase, until they finally reached a door at the top. Victor knocked out a complicated pattern, then said, "Yes, hello? Minako?"
Yuuri threw his arms around Victor from behind and yanked him back from the door. "What are you doing?!" he hissed in Victor's ear.
Victor didn't get a chance to respond before the door opened. In his month of residence, this was the first time Yuuri had seen First Enchanter Minako, a tall woman with her hair pulled up into a bun. She had a beautifully carved staff on her back, and Yuuri could feel the tendrils of magic woven into the crafting of it. He tried to imagine one day having a staff like that for himself, and failed.
Minako, upon seeing Victor, frowned. Most people in places of authority, Yuuri was coming to learn, frowned when they saw Victor. "May I help you, Victor?"
"Not at all!" Victor replied. "But you can help my dear friend. He's here to undergo his Harrowing."
If it weren't for weeks of practice honing Yuuri's control, he might've frozen the whole hallway. "What?!"
Victor tilted his head to whisper in Yuuri's ear. "You can do it. You're ready. I know you are."
Yuuri had never felt less ready for anything in his life. He looked at First Enchanter Minako, who mostly just seemed bemused by the whole affair. "I'm not ready! I don't know what he's talking about!"
"Can you excuse us for a moment?" Victor asked Minako, all smiles. He didn't wait for a response before detaching Yuuri's arms from around his middle and turning around. He kneeled, just a little, so they were eye level with each other.
"I'm not ready," Yuuri repeated, before Victor could say anything.
"Do you know how the Harrowing is done?" Victor asked. Yuuri only knew the basics of it, that it was some kind of test that apprentices had to take to become full-fledged Circle mages, but it didn't seem like that was what Victor meant, so he shook his head. "They just take you one day, without warning. It's much like being brought to the Circle in the first place, in a way. There's no time to prepare. After a mage has been at the Circle long enough, they live every day in fear that this will be the day of their Harrowing. Would you really rather live like that?"
"I'm not--" Yuuri began again, feebly.
"You won't ever be," Victor snapped, and Yuuri felt his whole body tense up. Victor must have noticed, because his next words were softer. "I wouldn't have brought you here if I didn't think you could do it. I just want you to be as free as you can be."
Free. Yuuri heard the way Victor said that word, like it was the most valuable thing in all the world. He heard, too, how much Victor hated that it needed to be modified.
Yuuri brushed past Victor to stand in front of First Enchanter Minako. "I'm here for my Harrowing."
--
The pleasure has receded enough from Yuuri's body that his mind has started working again. Victor, on the other hand, is still blissed out, which Yuuri knows is the best time to get an honest answer out of him. He traces a circle on Victor's bare chest and tries to sound casual as he asks, "What demon did you fight for your Harrowing?"
Victor laughs with barely any sound, just a puff of air. When he speaks, his voice is still wrecked, which sends a triumphant thrill through Yuuri. "Pride, of course. Would you expect anything less?"
Yuuri laughs too, because he hadn't. He lets the magic flow to the tips of his fingers and feels Victor shiver with the sudden cold. "Mine was Desire," he confesses, moving his head just enough so he can suck one of Victor's nipples into his mouth. Victor jolts, because Yuuri's made his mouth cold, too. "It looked just like you."
--
The day after Yuuri completed his Harrowing, Victor escaped the tower.
Phichit broke the news to Yuuri after breakfast. Yuuri felt as though his heart had been ripped out of his chest. He went back to his room and buried himself under the covers, trying desperately not to cry and eventually giving in.
By now, Yuuri thought he knew a lot of things about Victor. He knew that Victor craved freedom more than anything else, so he shouldn't have been surprised that one day he might wake up and Victor wouldn't be there anymore. He'd just hoped that it wouldn't be so soon.
He'd just hoped that, maybe, he'd given Victor a reason to stay.
Victor was only gone for two days, but once he was captured and brought back to the tower, the templars kept him locked in the dungeon for a week. The week was somehow worse for Yuuri than the two days had been, having Victor near but out of reach. He tried not to think about how miserable Victor must be, caught and caged.
When Yuuri saw Victor for the first time after his release from the dungeons, Victor acted like nothing had happened. "Yuuri!" he said, standing at the door to Yuuri's room, just like he had every other morning since Yuuri had first arrived at the tower. "Ready for some post-Harrowing lessons? Mage to ma--"
Yuuri didn't let him finish his ridiculous sentence. He grabbed hold of Victor by the collar of his robes, pulled him bodily into the room, slammed the door shut, pushed Victor up against it, and kissed him.
--
"You're crazy," Yuuri says, not even bothering to hold back his tears. "You can't do it."
Victor in the dungeon looks much as Yuuri has always imagined Victor would look in the dungeon, like a butterfly with its wings pinned. "My Yuuri," Victor says, his face the most expressionless Yuuri has ever seen it. "I've been here twenty years. I've tried everything to get away. This Blight, the Right of Conscription... it's the best chance I'll ever have."
Stories about Grey Wardens are popular in Yuuri's village. He's heard all the songs a hundred times or more. Every one is about dying gloriously, or dying alone.
Yuuri reaches through the bars to try and hold Victor's hand, but comes up short. Victor can't move much with the shackles on. Yuuri bites his lip and forces the magic out through his fingertips, growing icicles on the ends of his hands so he can, if not feel, at least touch.
The icicles melt as soon as they touch Victor's skin. The fire of his magic, burning him up inside.
Everyone in the Circle tower attends the Joining, because the Wardens are trying to recruit as many people as they can. Victor is the only one stupid enough to volunteer. He drinks from the chalice and immediately begins to choke on it; Yuuri thinks he can see the black tendrils tracing their way around Victor's elegant throat. Victor bring his hands to his neck, glowing with the green light of his healing magic, and eventually the coughing subsides.
"From this moment forward," Warden Otabek says, "you are a Grey Warden," and Victor, Yuuri knows, hears 'you are free.'
I just want you to be as free as you can be.
"Wait!" Yuuri yells, getting to his feet and dashing forward. He means to stop in front of Otabek, but he keeps running without thinking, throwing his arms around Victor's waist. Victor feels so light in Yuuri's arms, the fatigue of the Joining already setting in.
Yuuri turns his head to look at Otabek, with all the coldness of an icicle in his stare. "Let me do it too," Yuuri says. "Let me take the Joining."