"No”, The word came out like a whisper from Zenia’s mouth. “How could anyone get this close… There aren’t any guards!” She yelped suddenly. 

I came to the realization at the same time as she had, and already started to shout for the guards. Zenia grabbed my arm, pulling me toward the wall, which was some distance away from us. 

“There isn’t time for that! They won’t hear you!” She yelled, almost hysterically

“What do we do, then?” I asked, bewildered. The Zenia that I knew seemed to rise from the scared one that was with me only moments ago.

“What else can we do? We defend the city!”

“WHAT! How? We aren’t even fully finished with training!” There couldn’t even be thought of a possibility of winning this fight, but before I could supply any more arguments, we had reached the wall. Zenia decidedly jumped onto it and started climbing. When I didn’t follow, her emotions grew sour and Why did I even pull him along? He’ll just slow me down echoed through her thoughts. Jumping up the wall, I landed next to her. 

“I’ll make sure I don’t.”

“Wha- DON’T DO THAT AGAIN!” The indignant shout echoed through the night. 

“Ouch. Would it kill you not to yell into my ear once in a while?”

“The intruder is escaping. He’s heard the ruckus you two created.” The Solas Sword warned, seeming to be annoyed with us. 

“Great! Couldn’t you have warned us earlier?” Zenia yelled at it, sounding annoyed with him herself. She started climbing faster, as if hoping to find the enemy still on the other side. I, on the other hand, had a more pressing question to ask the sword. 

“How are you doing this?”

“Doing what?” The sword’s voice sounded confused, but I couldn’t be sure, since I couldn’t judge his face. Then as if reading my mind, replied, “Oh! How I communicate and sense presences? Also, yes I am reading your mind.” I suddenly felt the need to throw the sword down to the ground twenty feet below us. No wonder Zenia had yelled at me. 

“To answer the next set of questions that are bobbing in there, I do have a name. Obviously. Who’s ever heard of a nameless sword? Anyways,-”

“You’ve got to stop that! Ugh! Now I know how Zenia feels.” I shuddered. The thought that I was becoming like her was not a good one. I got rid of it as soon as it came.

“As I was saying-” The sword started to continue. At this point, I was too annoyed to let him finish his sentence, so I cut him off again.

“Let me climb in peace, then talk once we’re on the top of the wall!” Annoyance resonates within my voice. Why was it all of the sudden so hard to keep my emotions under check? Hearing something that sounded like muttering, I sighed and glared at the sword. 

“Repeat that. Now.” I demand, trying to get some of Master’s intimidating voice into the words. 

“Not quite there, Osgood. I doubt that angry bunny was what you were going for, but it was a convincing impression. As for what I said, I’ll keep that to myself, if you don’t mind.” Growling with annoyance, I continued climbing. The sword seemed to grow heavier with each handhold I climbed, pulling at my waist and slowing me even more. Groaning with effort, I continued climbing, hoping that I would reach the top before I reached the limit in strength that I had. 

“Could you stop?” I asked the sword, the strain shaking my voice. Zenia had already made it to the top and looked down at me with contempt both in her eyes and emotions. Any excuse that I would have otherwise used was swallowed by the exhaustion that tugged at my very life. The sword weighed more than all of the weights in the Upper Center combined and was continuing to increase its weight. 

“Fine. Rob me of fun, why don’t you.” The sword grumbled, suddenly releasing the weight. Before I could relax my grip, I flew to the top of the building, nearly clipping Zenia’s head as I passed where she had leaned out to yell at me. Lucky for both of us, she had withdrawn, landing on her back from her surprise. Landing awkwardly, I pitched over and landed over Zenia. I stopped my head barely a centimeter from her’s, something she did not look happy about. 

“Oooo! Now we’re getting somewhere!” The sword exclaimed. Shoving her knees into my torso, Zenia flipped me over her head and onto a painfully sharp rock. Hoping to preserve what little dignity that I still had left, I tried to suffer the pain in silence, but failed. A quiet whimper escaped my lips, and I arched my back. Zenia was already on her feet and something passed over her face, too quickly for me to interpret it. Was it apology or contempt? Knowing Zenia, it was probably the latter of the two.

“Ow” I grunted for the second time. “What did you do that for? You could have just asked me nicely instead of dropping me onto a rock.”

“Quit whining. We have an intruder to catch if you haven’t forgotten.” Zenia was back to her commanding self, showing no pity. Jumping over the outer edge of the wall Zenia started climbing down. 

“Should we follow?” I asked the sword, hoping he would say no.

“Let a lady go on her own into the face of an unknown danger that can and probably will destroy her? You’re right, let's stay here and let her face it off on her own. I’m sure she’ll be fine.” The sword replied, with obvious sarcasm.

“Do I even have to tell you have to tell you how much I don’t like you right now?” I asked, looking down at the sword. 

“I am synced with your emotions, so I guess not.”

“Rhetorical question. Now, please stop. So, what was your name?”

“Seriously? Now?” An incredulous tone crept into the sword’s voice.

“I did say that we would talk when we reached the top. Now, are you finished complaining?” The sword remained silent. “Fine. I guess I’ll have to keep calling you ‘sword’. What difference does it make?” Shrugging, I jumped over the edge and started to follow Zenia. 

“You realize that you’re going down into almost certain death? In 60 percent of the futures that I can see, you die.” Missing the handhold I was reaching for from surprise, I almost fell. The sword’s words had hit me harder than I expected. 

“Really?” Disbelief resonated within me. Although the Solas Sword was described as powerful, I had no idea of its full scope of powers. It was within the realm of possibility that Morrowsight was one of them, though it was one of the rarest of abilities. 

“No… but your reaction was priceless!” Something like laughter filled my mind as the sword at my side bounced against my thigh. Growling in frustration, I continued down the wall, at times letting go of my handholds to drop a few feet at a time. 

“At times I wonder how one such as you could be the son of someone such as Farad. He had a greater tolerance for the fun we had.” The sword’s tone sounded a bit dreamy, as if it were looking back into the time that he had spent with my father. Snapping back to the present, his voice seemed to grow mournful. “It is sad that I will not be able to speak with him.”

By the time the sword had returned to his relaxed state, I had reached the ground. Zenia was already studying the ground for any prints that could have been left by a running figure. I could already tell that we were not going to find any. As I kneeled down to at least look like I was helping, a distant thundering of armored feet on the top of the wall disturbed the silence of night. 

“We should get back inside before those guards get here and-” I stopped talking. I could see a figure on the moonlit side of the mountain, running at impossible speeds. “Who is that?” The whisper was echoed by Zenia as she noticed the figure. 

“Now you’re repeating each other. What comes next? Finishing each other’s sentences?” Though I could tell that the sword was trying to annoy me, I didn’t have time to yell at it. An arrow flew mere millimeters from my face, landing in the earth at my feet. Before I could wonder what was happening, what looked like hundreds of lights flew into the sky from the wall, illuminating the warriors on the wall. 

“Better run.”

“Finally, a good idea comes from you, sword. Though, it’s kinda late. ZENIA, RUN!”

The flaming arrows started descending, striking the ground still alight and burning any plants among the rocks they hit. Zenia had not moved from where she had been standing, gaping at the arrows, but thankfully they were only warning shots. If these soldiers were here, they were the best of the best, meaning the next volley of arrows would be shot to pierce our hearts and heads. 

“WHAT IN SOLAS' NAME ARE YOU DOING!” Zenia’s voice echoes in the darkness. The men aimed their bows at us, ready to take our lives. The arrows were launched and everything seemed to slow. Despite knowing that I couldn’t do anything to stop them, I ran towards Zenia, hoping to at least move her out of their path.