Arn padded silently through the halls of Arl Eamon's estate in Denerim. The bell had tolled the midnight hour long since, but he could not sleep.
He caressed the ring on his finger for the hundredth time that day, and felt her presence seeping from it, merging into his own consciousness. Sometimes he could feel what she was feeling.
It had been difficult initially to understand and separate what the ring told him from his own feelings, but in time he could recognize her. A burst of anger here, a scornful annoyance there, when she let her passion flow through the ring as they made love it had been indescribable. And then one day he felt love, it was the same day the ring became silent more often as not. She shielded herself he decided. Was she so afraid of this?
But this night it told him he was not the only one wakeful.
Arn was an Elf, born to a life of poverty and servitude, trapped in the Alienage in Denerim. From as far back as he could remember his heart has called to the wild, to the free places of the world.
"Just like your mother", he had been told many a time but when his father spoke those words they dripped with sorrow and mourning. Arn had never known his mother but somehow her influence on him was seared in his soul.
His features were fine and delicate, his green eyes tilting. His long hair a deep and lustrous brown, held back from his face with a braid. His skin had darkened in the sun until he resembled more and more the wandering Dalish people.
Soon he began carrying a knife and bow. His father begged him to stop, that only trouble would come of his weapons. He had not listened.
On days where his chores were few he would sneak out of Denerim into the wilds, to hunt for meat, to be alone in the world. It taught him to walk the path of the woodsman, the ranger. He could track a mouse through a thicket he once told Shiani as they shared a bottle of stolen wine, hidden in one of the buildings in the back allies. His drunken bravado proved false, but it did give him a new name. She called him Mouse.
He missed her.
In time he grew to a man. His father had arranged his marriage to a "rare beauty" he had been told. And so it was true. But that chance of hope turned to disaster. She had been kidnapped on the day of their wedding, along with other Elven women by the son of a Lord. A drunken and spiteful fool that wanted nothing more that to let himself and his men take their pleasure of the women and then discard them when they had been sated.
Arn could not standby and accept. His people had accepted for too long. He entered the manor with his cousin Soris and killed them all. But even then he was too late. It had been Shiani they violated.
Arn had been too late to save her. He would never forget the sight of her bleeding and bruised and weeping, clutching herself in a fetal position. He would never forgive himself.
Soldiers came for him the next day, he took responsibility alone, at least he could save Soris even if he could not save Shiani.
His fate would be the gallows but chance had different plans. Duncan, leader of the Grey Wardens exercised his right and conscripted the Elf. Saved, yet banished, his failure a mantle to carry with him.
"Forgive me Shiani", he whispered to himself.
He shook himself from this thinking of the past. It was the present that concerned him now.
He moved like a shadow through the hallways until he stood at her door. There his bravery and will betrayed him. It had been a long time since she had rejected his advances towards the bed, and here he was now on the threshold of her bed chamber, he wished to speak to her, yet he worried she would assume he was searching for something else. With a small sigh he opened the door silently.
A shaft of moonlight lit the room; it was cold and white and illuminated everything in an eerie glow. The light caressed the skin of her back, making her pale skin glow as if it burned with witch-fire. The cascade of her dark hair was disheveled as she tossed and turned on her pillow.
She stiffened as she sensed the presence in her room.
"Why are you here?"
Arn smiled at the sound of her voice, strong and confident, and always straight to the point.
"I came to speak to you, there is something I have wanted to say for a time, and I just want you to listen and think on it. Will you do that for me?"
He felt a pang of her fear through the ring, and then she hurriedly crushed it to become a wall protecting her. It seemed she had the talent to hide her emotions. Maybe it was a mage's skill or a trick of great will, and even though he was strong willed he could never bring himself to try and hide himself from the ring.
"Very well, speak"
She rolled onto her back and looked at him; the yellow of her eyes reminded him of a wolf. Not for the first time he wondered if that was her natural colour or the side effect of the shape-changing.
Feral she was, wild and cruel, uncompromising, fearless yet fragile. He knew what love was when he gazed upon her, and could not believe that if not for a twist of fate they would never have met and he would now be married to an Elven woman. He realized with surprise that he had forgotten her name, his betrothed, and her face was slipping from his mind. Everything replaced by the wolf eyed woman in front of him.
"Love, is not a weakness Morrigan. And I want to explain to you why, and also I want to point out why it may have been denied from you by Flemeth"
She stared at him, while he waited to see if there would be a response. When none was forthcoming he assumed she had agreed to listen.
"Flemeth taught you to be strong, to survive alone, and to rely on no one. She indeed made you strong, but in her wisdom she made you to be powerful enough to be a host for her, but not powerful enough to resist her when the time came for her to claim you"
Morrigan fidgeted in the bed, uncomfortable with what she was hearing. She gritted her teeth hard to hold back the retort that screamed on her tongue.
"Flemeth lies dead, yet I live. She bore her full fury down on me, as a High Dragon and yet it is still her blood that stains the earth and I sit here by your side. Do you know why?"
Silence was his reply, but her fixed stare told him that she awaited what he had to say.
"I'll tell you," he said.
"It was love, and friendship, and camaraderie. My friends, whose love for me is so strong that they were willing to stand next to me, shoulder to shoulder and confront a dragon to save you. To save the woman I love."
Green eyes met yellow in a stare, and for the first time he could remember it was the yellow that looked away first.
A brief instant of joy and worry passed through the ring before again Morrigan held her emotions back from him. What had that meant he thought to himself?
"They understood the dangers they faced to come to your aid, and yet they did it. They knew the only gain was a stronger bond of friendship, to be happy in the joy of another. And they did face her and overcame."
"The whole is greater than the sum of our parts. This is how we have worked to face things that couldn't be done alone."
"You don't have to be alone Morrigan. You are free to choose," he continued.
"Imagine what you could achieve with those that love you and trust you by your side. Flemeth couldn't have that; you would have been far too strong for her. So she pruned the rose before it could blossom so to speak. "
"You give me something to truly fight for, you make me stronger, " he said in such loving way that she couldn't help but feel the un-shed tears welling in her eyes. She blinked them away, even now unwilling to let him see her weakness.
"Don't be afraid to love me Morrigan. I'll always be here for you."
"I believe in you, trust you and love you."
"To the bitter end."
He rose from the bed, bent down and brushed a tender kiss across her lips before he turned towards the door.
"Sleep well my love"
Morrigan spoke; her voice was choked with emotion.
"Stay with me"
The first light of pre dawn came before their passion was spent, but in time their needs gave way to the joy of a heart at peace, that moment in the afterglow where time stands still and the universe can be found in each other.
Arn cradled her in his arms. She laid her head upon his chest and the slow beating of his heart soothed her.
The warm wave of sleep rose up to pull her to her dreams and she let them take her willingly. She felt safe again.
And in her heart that feeling disturbed her more than she would admit.