My Warden (COMPLETED)

Acceptable

9:41 Skyhold

"All right, try it again and maybe get it right for once," Cullen grumbled, pacing back and forth across the grounds. It felt as if half of Skyhold paused in their duties to come watch; cooks, stable hands, even the horses themselves seemed curious to see his soldiers square off against the Hero of Ferelden. It was not going well.

Lana raised her hands for a moment, prepared to begin any of a dozen magical assaults they'd discussed earlier, when she turned to the man orchestrating all of this. "A moment, please." Unknotting the belt knotted around her waist, she slithered out of her sapphire robes revealing only a white corset and shortened pair of breeches beneath. Smiling sweetly, she passed the robe to Cullen. "It's growing rather warm out here."

"Uh huh," he nodded dumbly, watching her saunter back to her position as if unaware how her exposed skin glistened in the sunlight, the swoop of her shoulders cried out for his fingers to caress across them, or the unfathomable canyon dipping below that sweetheart corset instantly captured his gaze. Snapping his head like a bee flew into his ear, Cullen willed back every dirty thought crossing his mind. A few choking noises broke through his ranks, and he turned to find blushes rising upon various green soldier's cheeks. He didn't appear to be the only one struggling. What does one do when the greatest known hero in your lifetime gave you an erection? He had no answer as he was yet coming to terms with that fact.

"Okay," Lana nodded her head and the easy smile vanished, her luscious lips puckering in concentration. Before the soldiers had a chance to recover from their flush of infatuation, a blast of ice burst across their drooping shields. Thankfully, a few bore enough sense to scurry behind their only means of defense when Lana unleashed her second spell. Cullen had no way to know what it was beyond suggesting she avoid the entropy spells until the newest recruits managed primal. If he was back in the circle, every last soldier here would have been chucked back to the chantry with a suggestion they take up the cloth instead of the shield. He was shrugging off both primal and entropic spells before he needed to shave.

Expecting another obvious attack in the form of fire or ice, the recruits huddled together forming an almost decent shield wall - with gaps that'd let a chevalier through, but at least it wasn't pointed at the ground. Mana crackled in the air with enough fade energy to light the entire barn on fire, but Lana stood perfectly still. Nothing born of nature blasted off her fingers. Her radiant eyes were lightly closed while her thick eyelashes fluttered hinting at something working beneath. As both of her hands turned upside down, her eyes snapped open and a wave of magic washed over the recruits.

One by one, their shields drooped to slip from limp fingers; metal smacking into itself echoed through the Skyhold courtyard as ten soldiers fell dead asleep on their feet. If it weren't for their tight huddle, they'd all have hit the ground themselves. Instead, heads landed upon each other's shoulders forming an upright pile of armor and people. Snoring was the only sound breaking above the sudden quiet.

"You have to be kidding me," Cullen sighed, he reached up to massage his forehead and the growing headache, which caused Lana's robe to smack him in the face. He forgot it was dangling off his arm.

The mage tilted her head watching her subjects dream when they should have been fighting, "I did not expect it to affect all of them."

"It shouldn't have worked on anyone. A sleep spell?!" Cullen paced towards her, his boots kicking apart the few clumps of sod left in the area. "Any first year templar can shrug that off, an initiate with the ability to pinch himself can shake it free. This is embarrassing!"

"They're not templars," she said, a surprising gentleness in her voice. He expected her to show the same anger, perhaps even greater. They were preparing to siege Adamant by using the downtime to train everyone who'd never faced magic before and arming them with every skill possible. But instead of shouting with her own commander voice he knew lurked deep inside, she smiled and her eyes softened, "They look so sweet sleeping, like a pile of puppies."