Nearly Home (Noah)

She had some good grub and met some people. The last remaining dregs of the night was not bad, it was enjoyable. Yet, tiring. She was just walking through the streets with coffin in tow as usual.

Maria was pretty listless, likely a result of how tired she was. Each step was made without much thought, except that they were made to get closer as she could to the Church. She yawned tiredly. It had been a rather long day. A short sparring session, a meeting with the Princess, gaining Andraste, and many other events have totally drained her. Yet, this day offered her a familiar encounter. It was strange, meeting so soon after their previous battle together.

But since business was over, Maria was back to her normal state. Something which might take the Shadow by surprise.

So he was doing what she was doing just a while ago, enjoying what time they had left before their work as Cadets began. Fair enough, it was normal to do so before the obligations began to pile up. Maria nodded at his statements, noting that Suzie Q was a bit ways away from here. The girl imagined that place to be pretty busy these days, given what kind of establishments they primarily focus on.


"I see. Enjoying the quiet here?" she asked curiously while starting to make movements to walk. Maria should be slow enough for Noah to catch up as they were to continue their conversation while walking. "You know, I saw her stab through you in your head... are you alright? You sure you should be walking around? We did just survive by the skin of our teeth a while ago."

There was a look of concern on her face. After all, it is no laughing matter if someone literally got stabbed through their skull. But he seemed awfully healthy despite that ordeal.

There was something about Noah that reminded Maria about those robot she met earlier in the day. He seemed rather relaxed like they were, taking many things in stride. It was something she did envy to some degree. Were the people in Suzie Q that relaxed as he was? She wasn't quite sure, outside of training in the Church and the Camping Grounds and doing errands for the Church, Maria never did much to go around the city and enjoy what it had. Whatever the case, she nodded as the man outlined his life in that district.

"It's probably best to get some rest and maybe see a doctor when you can," she advised him, "We do have a meeting in the morning after all..."

She wondered what the next day had in store for her. Perhaps a lesson in protocol or whatever the Cadets had to follow. It goes without saying that they owed their loyalties to the Queen, but for Maria, that actually goes double.

As expected, he was rather calm about this whole thing. But if he was alright and didn't care too much about it, then there was nothing what she could do. Maria smiled darkly and replied with a sigh, "After taking on a demon like that and calling it 'satisfactory'? I think we got the general idea there's a lot expected of us."

She nodded at his first question, verifying that it was her. But what he had said seemed to be in line with what she thought about her. It made Maria wonder how she would work together with her and train with her. It may complicate things, but at the same time she hoped it wouldn't affect their work.  


Maria remembered how she used that band to punish herself at times. It seemed kind of sad and was something she would have to keep in mind. She honestly wondered how she could help her on that.  

"That's what I'm worried about," she admitted, "But I believe that would just have to be something we'll need to keep an eye out for. But you're right. No pain, no gain. Nothing can be received without moving forward."

It was a saying that she found herself listening to when Sister Louise enforced her harsh training in these previous five years. A part of herself was sick of it, but then again, it has been quite a while since she took part of the former Cadet's tutelage. Now she was here, inducted as a Cadet. Were those five years worth it? Maria would say it was, but this was the first step.


She grinned at the male while making innocent imaginations in her mind, of cute children enjoying the night sky while riding a cute dragon. Man, that is adorable. She would have sworn this might be material for some cartoon kid movie somewhere down the road.

Maria replied with a shrug, "Maybe? I don't think at this point we know enough, we just joined. But I'm sure we'll find out in the morning. We'll see."

After such a reply, eventually they reached Maria's destination.

Maria sighed and nodded in agreement, "We'll just have to see how it all goes and hope we only make small inconsequential mistakes only. So that we won't have to make big ones."

This was going to be a troublesome job. But they had an idea what they were signing up for now. It was going to be dangerous, that was a no-brainer. It looked like everyone in Maria's small party were going to stick to it. All everyone could hope is that nothing out of their hands would ever happen.

"Sure. Maybe next time though. We should be resting. I'll remind you," she giggled with the same tone. This Noah seemed to be a pretty swell person. While calm, he was certainly an asset that he could likely trust as evidenced in the battle in this night.  "I thought the same. But I guess some people value their lives. I can't blame them. I can't see this being glamorous work at all."

Odd that it was only the three of them back then. Maybe there was another batch at some point. Who knows? While her colleague had been a great person to talk to, Maria unfortunately had something that warranted her attention.


The wails were familiar to her. Maria slowly palmed her face for a moment, wishing that she wasn't here. Couldn't there be a single day when that nun would stop screwing up on basic chores? Not all of the religions in this world could ever enlighten her. The Cadet knew this, Sister Louise was irredeemable in that regard.


She finally left, but with each footstep, Maria braced herself for the situation she had to face head on. This was going to be a long night.

[Exit]