For a baffling moment, he isn't entirely sure where he is or in what state he arrived there. A catalogue of facts is made: his shoulder hurts; his hip will be bruised; his head seems intact by some grace of Andraste; his sword his sprung halfway from its sheath and low lays at some hilarious angle across his lap, and one of his feet is in the ferry's bilge. Someone is speaking to him, and then the lantern is summoned back from its stern hook.

"It's nothing," he says instantly, removing his boot from the bilgewater and sitting up very suddenly out from under examination. And then he actually does pause to take account of himself, patting all his pockets and checking his swordbelt and--

Then he tastes the blood. He presses the back of his hand to his nose and it comes away all red. "Ah."

Head fine; face less so. A subtle but important distinction.