A/N: This is sequel to my other fic called "Noblesse Oblige", this time for the Awakening. Our two noble Wardens, Elissa Cousland and Sereda Aeducan, must once again join forces to fight darkness. But this time, there seems to be even more enemies than used to be during the Blight. Will they be able to sort their differences one more time, and save Ferelden?
Disclaimer: I own nothing, just this fanfiction is all my fault.
Higher Goals
Sereda felt the weird tingling as soon as the Vigil's Keep came into sight. Just her luck - she only needed to come close for a place to get invaded by Darkspawn. None of the Orlesian Wardens seemed to remain in the keep after the assault, all of them either dead or reported missing.
At least she had bunch of recruits, as well as several 'old' Wardens coming to the arling as well.
Right now, she had a Joining to do, and she wasn't looking forward to it.
-o.O.o-
When Elissa and Jowan finally arrived to the Keep, the were immediately swooped into the repairs, helping the servants to clean the dead Darkspawn, and bury the dead servants, soldiers and Wardens.
The marriage, as well as her job of being a Chancellor, had been kind to Elissa, helping her to find peace with what had happened at her family castle. Yet, going to Amaranthine arling, to Vigil's Keep more precisely, brought back memories, memories of the visits her family paid to the would-be traitor, and it once again set her on edge.
It will be difficult to stay in the home of murderer of her family, but her father pledged her into service of Grey Wardens, and she would fulfil her duty.
It just would be nice to know that one of your newest comrades will actually be a son of the said murderer before you run into him in the corridor.
-o.O.o-
Sereda and Elissa didn't argue. Much. Most of the time. But this time, Elissa was livid.
"Damn it, Sereda, what the hell were you thinking? Conscripting a Howe of all people?!"
"You bet I did conscript him, Elissa - have you actually heard what Varel said about him? It took four Wardens to get him into that prison!"
Elissa scowled. "That may just mean that the Orlesian Wardens are not as tough as we here in Ferelden," she mumbled, her lower lip stuck out.
Sereda sighed. She knew that the Howe guy was trouble, the first moment she laid her eyes on him. But she desperately needed another rogue; Elissa may have been great, but it never hurt to have some extra, no matter how insensitive that sounded. Even Jowan, who undertook his Joining shortly after the Battle of Denerim, was re-trained as a healer, with Anders being the extra now.
"Look, Elissa," she said in her Commander voice, "while I understand your complaint, will you be able to work with the man, or do I have to send you elsewhere and get myself another second?"
Elissa puffed her chest proudly. "I will do my duty, Commander," she declared. "But I will also guard my back," she added quietly, taking her leave afterwards.
Sereda just dropped to her place behind the desk. And here she was, thinking that being a Paragon in Orzammar was a damn bad job. Consider her educated on that front.
-o.O.o-
"Wade, I believe you remember it was me who brought you the delightful drake scales?"
"Oh yes, the drake scales - all the things I learnt when I was making that armour! It was terrible, of course, but the learning I did!"
"And you do remember it was me who commissioned the high dragon scales armour?"
"Yes, yes, yes! That was moment of perfection, when I held those in my hands!" The smith was positively glowing just thinking about the armours he made in the past, his complaining about working on equipment with less noble materials forgotten for the time being. Herren, who had been standing to the side and talked to Varel looked at Elissa suspiciously. Giving him a mischievous wink, she leaned closer to Wade and said icily: "Then you better start treating Ruck with respect, Wade, otherwise I'll make sure you'll never touch any rare material ever again."
It was priceless to see the smith being head over heels to show how friendly he can be towards the dwarf afterwards, even if it made poor Ruck confused to no end.
-o.O.o-
Before they made their way to Amaranthine for the very first time since coming to the arling, Elissa wouldn't speak to Nathaniel unless absolutely necessary. Sereda winced as she thought about the first time they were sort of forced to speak to each other, and how well that ended. Obviously, when one is sure that the only crime of their monster of a father is to be on the wrong side of the war, while the other knows it was much more than that... well, it certainly doesn't add to peaceful talks.
Although, Sereda thought that Elissa still haven't acted as explosively as she thought she would, when Nathaniel said something along the lines that while he heard it was bad at Castle Cousland, it still shouldn't be the cause of absolute downfall of his family. Elissa's reaction had been limited to slamming her mug on the table, rising to her feet abruptly, hissing that she always knew the only honourable and sensible man in the whole Howe family had been Thomas, and then slamming the door behind her so hard in her exit that they all jumped at the bang it did.
Surprisingly, the door didn't fell from its hinges, even if everyone expected it to do so.
For all his awkwardness at speaking with people, Jowan jumped to his feet and pointed his finger at Nathaniel. "Stubbing your toe is bad. What happened at Castle Cousland was... was terrifying!" Fuming, he run after Elissa, sparing none of them a further glance.
"You sure have a way with the ladies, huh," grumbled Oghren towards Nathaniel and drank deeply from his mug, before he also rose from his place and went after the mage.
They left for Amaranthine the few days later, when they managed to stabilize the Keep - to find out more about the region, and also about Nathaniel's family. According to one of the old servants of Howes, his sister was still alive and lived there.
-o.O.o-
Part of Jowan had been rather curious about the things Elissa seemed to know. Like - Nathaniel's sister being alive. It actually looked as if Delilah - Nathaniel's sister - had been expecting them, and Jowan would swear he saw Delilah and Elissa nod to each other and exchange small smiles, before the Warden said with excited clapping of her hands: "Oh yes, family reunions. Warden, once you are finished," all of them noticed she referred to Nathaniel as 'Warden', "meet the rest of us in the tavern. Now, Jowan, Anders - I believe we have some shopping planned for today, don't we?"
And with that, she dragged them away. Jowan just looked back over his shoulder to see the Howes, the woman wearing an amused smile, Nathaniel looking fairly dumbfounded.
-o.O.o-
"Hey, Elissa, do you think there is an apothecary around here?"
"I'd hope so, we are short on burns salves," responded the young noble absent-mindedly. "Did you need anything specific?"
It probably wasn't the most polite thing to do, Elissa thought, but when Oghren told her about that rash he got after the Joining, she started laughing like crazy. Only him. Only her dwarven friend would survive Joining without blacking out and breaking out rash instead of it.
-o.O.o-
Sereda was pissed off. It seemed that one blasted templar decided to hold a grudge (not that she was all that surprised - having Anders mocking her every time they crossed paths would made even Andraste hold grudge), and in the process of re-capturing the blasted mage decided to kill everyone with him.
Now that would make her hold one hell of a grudge. By the Ancestors, are all the surfacers always acting as if they were lyrium addled?!
-o.O.o-
While Nathaniel didn't think much about the Cousland girl, who spent most of her time by acting like the most idiotic archer under the sun, Delilah seemed to have completely different opinion of the young noble.
"She certainly is a sly one," she told him, her lips forming a mischievous smile. "She lures people into believing her a dunce, only to surprise them with her sharp intellect. After the civil war, there had been number of those who wanted me and Thomas executed for what father did, even if before that they wouldn't move a finger to stop him - but she wouldn't allow it, arguing for us long enough that those suddenly very active nobles just slinked away like dogs." Her face saddened. "Thomas died during the Battle of Denerim - but at least he died without a stain on his name; stain he did not cause."
Delilah told him of the time before the Blight; the despair at watching their father sink lower and lower, unable to stop the fall, until the night when he attacked their friends, the Couslands. Thomas spent half the Blight fighting against his father, joining the opposition, only to be nearly killed when his identity came clear - only the timely intervention of Elissa's now-husband, Bann Teagan Guerrin, stopped it from happening for the first time, and second time, after their father's death, it was Elissa, who stepped in to stop any attempts at their lives.
She, Delilah, had been relatively safe, escaping from their father as soon as she could, marrying Albert - someone so bellow Arl's notice that it was better than any suit of armour.
Nathaniel nodded to her words, asking about her life now, about her husband and about the family she and Albert are obviously on good way to start. And Delilah smiled, seeing his attempts at changing the subject, and following his lead.
Her brother wasn't stupid, and once it sinks into his thick head, he would see the reason.
-o.O.o-
They spent the next few days by running various errands – Sereda saving young noblewoman from clutches of obviously idiotic bandits, who thought kidnapping the best way to easy money, and Elissa by sweet-talking the merchants into trading with the Keep again, offering them better deals, promising to clear the way through the Wending Woods on one side, running some smaller things for the local guilds on the other.
Anders didn't look like he enjoyed hunting down mages, blood mages they were, but even he could see that those mages were dangerous to everyone who had the bad luck of being close when they finally lost it.
One of the saddest things they went through during their stay in Amaranthine had been the search for one man, whose wife had been praying for his safe return since he disappeared without a warning. The search led them to a short chase, before the man was discovered in an abandoned house on the outskirts of Amaranthine.
He hung himself, feeling he disappointed his wife by never being able to purchase the house she always wished.
Seeing someone's hopes destroyed never had been something Elissa wished to see.
-o.O.o-
Their journey to Wending Wood has been… weird.
There were burning caravans basically everywhere, and even if they managed to secure everything the Merchant's Guild asked them to, the search for actual reason for something so dark proved to be rather tricky.
Only after they found a mass grave and a blighted survivor nearby they learnt who caused most of the damage.
A dalish elf, who claimed to be avenging her clan, whom did the villagers murder, and had the gall to actually leave their weapons at the crime scene.
Soon enough they met the elf in question as well, and things certainly could go better than Sereda bluntly asking her directly whether she was born so soft in the head or if it's a condition that developed in her gradually. There may have been some shouting and insults but in the end, the elf saw reason and accompanied them for an excursion to the mines to see the truth for herself.
Falling victims to sleep gas certainly hadn't been part of the plan, but, there they went, Anders thought right before he hit the ground.
-o.O.o-
When Nathaniel woke up in a cell, dressed only in the clothes he wore under his armour, the first thing he saw was Jowan, leaning over still unconscious Elissa. Both of them had been stripped of everything but the bare essentials, like him.
Before Jowan finally woke Elissa up, the woman weakened and disoriented, he took a look around. The cell they were in was without solid walls, just solid rock and iron bars. Somewhere behind the corner he could hear echo of voices, probably the others he thought, as they were due to wake up just like they did.
But while he felt as if someone stuffed his head full of cotton, it was nowhere close to how Elissa and Jowan looked, not to mention felt. Both of them had been pale, paler than their usual healthy colour, and sported bandages around their wrists and elbows. At his questioning, Elissa shook in an unpleasant memory.
"He was taking my blood," she said, looking to Jowan for confirmation of the same happening to him, "and he was telling me to forgive him for he is doing what he must."
"That is strange."
He didn't get to say anything more, since that was when their fellow Grey Wardens appeared in front of their cell, and their search for an escape route started, made much more difficult by the blood loss the senior members of the order obviously suffered through their captivity.
When Oghren noticed one of the ghoulish people carrying around his equipment, all hell broke through, with blows, arrows and spells flying all around, right until they finally got out of the mines and Elissa collapsed, scaring all of them right out of their minds.
At least until they managed to get her to Vigil's Keep and Jowan and Anders finally found out what was the real reason for her collapse.
"Good news, Elissa – there's going to be little Guerrin running around like crazy in a shorter time than you probably expected. Congratulations!"
-o.O.o-
Since their rather disastrous mission to the Wending Woods Elissa had been prohibited by Sereda from taking part in any field mission, instead she was forced to deal with the 'court matters' in the Arling, most of the time bored out of her mind from the sheer amount of nothing to do.
Jowan or Anders often kept her company, in order to make sure she won't do anything what would possibly further endanger the child she was carrying (both of them agreed that the blood loss she suffered in the Wending Woods was just about enough), but time to time, they needed to do other things but to play baby-sitter, and that was when Elissa would quietly sit in their laboratory and watch them mix poultices and potions, sometimes helping them to cut the elfroot or something.
Of course, they never wanted to let her make some poisons, which left them all in quite a pickle, since she was the best poison maker among them all, so in the end they had to allow her to work in such very tightly controlled conditions that she had to throw a very unlady-like temper tantrum in order to get them stop breathing down her neck all the time and let her work or there would be a whole hell to pay.
And of course, both mages were nothing if not smart enough to know when to run to save their lives.
Only Ruck continued to treat her the same way as before – as the pretty lady he met in the Deep Roads, who made him a promise and then kept him, protected him against everyone and by letting him go through the Joining as well have given him a part of the clarity he had been missing in the corruption he fell into. When she told him why she won't be helping him in the forge anymore, he just nodded thoughtfully, carefully approaching her and then laying his ear to her stomach, telling her he was listening to the new life that was growing inside of her – no doubt as pretty as she herself, making her blush in the face of that devotion.
Discreetly, Elissa confessed to Sereda how scared she was about her pregnancy. "The other Wardens always told us how difficult it is supposed to be for a Grey Warden to conceive, and here I am, being pregnant so soon, and add to that, with such a terrible timing!"
"If you'd prefer to be sent to Denerim…" Sereda started, but Elissa didn't let her finish. "Absolutely not!" she exclaimed, laying a hand on her still flat stomach. "I may not be in condition to fight and travel all around the land, but Maker help me, Sereda, I won't abandon you here! I'd much rather be here and bored out of my mind over the court matters here, than tearing my hair out in Denerim."
Sereda raised her hands in mock surrender. "Alright, alright!" she laughed. "Just making sure. But really, Elissa," she lowered her voice. "Don't unnecessarily stress yourself. This child is a small miracle – do not waste it on playing hero once again."
"No need to worry about that," replied Elissa, her eyes deadly serious. "This child will be born healthy and hale – no matter what."
The promise sounded dark – but to Sereda, it only meant that her friend, who seemed so unanchored during the Blight itself, was finally getting better.
"Anyway," Elissa continued, the spark of the old mischief bright in her eyes, "how do you think I should start my newest letter to Teagan? 'Daddy dearest'?"
-o.O.o-
Things were getting slightly better – the trade finally flowing enough to support the whole arling again, and coffers in the Keep's treasury were finally filling up again, after all those expenses about rebuilding the keep to the dwarven standard, and hiring brand new servants for the Keep and soldiers to guard the land.
Elissa contacted Taran, the leader of Blackstone Irregulars, about that, asking for his assistance in this matter, not masking how risky it would be to serve in this part of Ferelden, judging by the current state of affairs – but in the end, Taran sent her some men, and Elissa was ready to make a small victory dance, when she received his reply.
Still, a deadly conspiracy had been looming above them, and Elissa had been dreading the moment the conspirators would strike.
-o.O.o-
Of course, the conspiracy they knew about thanks to Ser Tamra, came when Elissa had been returning to Vigil's Keep from a short inspection to the quarry in Wending Woods, and together with it came a peasants riot.
This Maker the surfacers were so eager to name whenever something went belly-up really had to have some very twisted sense of humour, thought Oghren, for the timing was exactly the one that collided with Sereda and her part of the Wardens departing to investigate the Knotwood Hills.
Elissa's pregnancy finally started to show, and that made even the rest of her comrades fiercely protective of her, so it was no wonder that usually almost half of their ranks stayed at the Keep to keep her company (and an eye on her), working around the Keep and helping to train the newly recruited guards.
Imagine Elissa's surprise when she and her small Grey Warden entourage (Oghren, Nathaniel and Jowan) guided their horses (and a pony) to the courtyard, only to be met by outraged shouting.
The outraged shouting and pointing fingers, demands and threats took only so long until the aggressive leader of the whole riot thought about pulling her down from her horse to make his point. She hadn't even had the time to scream, and her attacker had already been surrounded by bunch of very angry men with drawn weapons, screaming bloody murder that he will unhand her or else…!
Needless to say, the riot that took place in the Vigil's Keep that day was the only one that happened – and was also the shortest one in the whole history of the arling.
The noblemen's rebellion, however, was a bit trickier matter. Once again, the leader of the opposition, Bann Esmerelle, thought about attacking her. It only took one arrow from the crossbow of one of the paid thugs, aimed at Elissa (and intercepted by Varel, their faithful senechal), and the rebels didn't know what hit them, when suddenly their Crow assassins started to take them down, instead of attacking the Wardens.
One of them made to move towards her, his way immediately blocked by Nathaniel, when he raised his mask; a familiar tattooed face smirking at them from under the piece of cloth.
"My Grey Warden," Zevran said with a small smile. "The world is truly small, no?"
-o.O.o-
The presence of their former comrade at the Keep certainly did wonders to Elissa's and Sereda's spirits – Oghren and Jowan were relieved to see him again, since they knew him from before, but the rest of their companions were very wary of him.
Velanna despised him for his flirting with her – and everything else that moved. Sigrun was wary of all the ways he knew how to kill people. Justice viewed him as something what stood against everything he himself went for. Anders probably wouldn't trust anyone who flirted as much as he did.
And Nathaniel found him a painful reminder of how low his father had fallen.
Still, he was a very useful fellow, and Elissa especially had been overjoyed to have him around again, if only because he could tell her what exactly was happening outside Ferelden, teasing her as he did so.
The time for any preparations was getting shorter by each day, the Mother preparing all of her forces for her final assault.
-o.O.o-
Sereda knew something foul was afoot, when she neared the city of Amaranthine with majority of the forces the Grey Wardens gathered, and the smoke and destruction were nowhere as bad as she expected it.
And then they found out why.
What they were facing here was only about half of Mother's forces. The other half had been marching to the Vigil, as they successfully lured the bulk of their forces away.
A cold shiver ran down her back when they learnt it from Messenger, one of the talking Darkspawn, sent to them by the Architect himself, who only confirmed the bad feeling even Elissa had back when they were preparing at the Vigil.
"I have a bad feeling about this," the human noble told her. "But Sereda, no matter what happens, you must protect Amaranthine, for without the city, this arling will be lost."
"No," she responded to Garevel's question whether they should prepare for march back to the Keep. "We stay here and save the city. The Keep has strong walls, and determined defenders. It will endure." Staring hard at the others, she said: "Come on. Denerim had been ransacked by the darkspawn for longer, and most of its inhabitants survived. We can't abandon those in Amaranthine."
She just sent a quick prayer to the Stone that all the upgrades at Keep's defences will hold long enough for them to find and kill this Mother.
-o.O.o-
Meanwhile, the Keep had been frantically preparing for siege; the scouts reporting the nearing darkspawn army sending everyone into frenzy
Jowan thought Elissa seemed strangely calm, as she stood on the battlements, organizing troops with experienced hand, while discussing their options with the others.
With most of their forces with Sereda, their situation wasn't looking very optimistic, but as Zevran pointed out, since there would be no surprise attack from the tunnels bellow the Keep, all that remained were the forces around it, and with the walls strengthened to the dwarven standard, their chances had actually been pretty good.
Archers, fighters, some surprise by that crazy dwarf in the courtyard. Sergeant Maverlies had some suggestions, just as Varel could point some.
"And your soldiers have the best armour possible," proclaimed Wade, earning himself a smirk from Elissa and eye roll from Herren.
"That they have," agreed Elissa, looking over at Zevran. "Ready to punch some Darkspawn right in the face?"
"As long as you are out of the bulk of fighting, my dear Warden, yes."
She just rolled her eyes. "Of course, father," she said with feigned mockery, the small fond smile on her face betraying the true sentiment behind her words. She pointed to one of the higher level battlements. "I will be there, shouting commands at everyone, together with half of our archers, shooting at everything that will look at me funny, and if it keeps on doing that, throw some grenades on it as well. See?" she wiggled her fingers, "I'll be as far from the brunt of fighting as possible."
Her eyes fell to her right. "And Ruck here will be there with me, standing guard, too."
"Ruck will protect the pretty lady," the dwarf said seriously, weighting a warhammer in one hand, carrying a shield in the other and neither Zevran, nor the remaining Wardens, doubted him for a second.
'No one will take this keep from me,' Elissa though from her place, inspecting her bow. 'No one and nothing.'
-o.O.o-
Sereda felt as if she hasn't slept for days as they marched from Amaranthine after the fleeing army of the Mother.
Well, not that it wasn't entirely true – but during the Blight, they would sometimes go without sleep as well, and it never sapped all energy from her as it did now, when the exhaustion seemed to burrow itself into the very marrow of her bones.
She hoped Vigil's Keep was holding up, and will continue to do so until they were finished with this bloody Mother.
-o.O.o-
Contrary to what Elissa said and was intent on following, she saw more melee combat than she wanted to. Sure, she was shooting arrow after arrow, throwing her newly made grenades and yelling commands to her soldiers, but it still was just a matter of time until the darkspawn would either get through the gates or over the walls.
The gates gave up sooner, being the focus of darkspawn magic and strength of the ogres who tirelessly pounded at them.
Finally, the onslaught seemed to be weakening, and Elissa felt her spirit lighten, before she saw an ogre, armoured and the biggest she has ever seen, storming up into the courtyard – right at the seneschal who had been there, giving orders to several soldiers.
-o.O.o-
There was a speaking darkspawn; the Architect, the one who stole their blood for some purpose (and only now they learnt it was because of his own version of Joining) who was promising her to keep his brethren away from the other races, giving them the clarity he himself had, a purpose that was free of call of the Old Gods, offering his help in defeating the Mother.
The very thought of the darkspawn pressure being at least partially lifted from Orzammar was what made her mind. With a small nod to Oghren, who voiced the same sentiment (she didn't look at Sigrun, who probably wasn't very happy about it), she spoke to the Architect.
Gripping her battle-axe, she motioned for her companions to get ready.
The Mother was waiting.
-o.O.o-
The Keep was still standing, much to Sereda's relief, and there had been people, not darkspawn, moving around it.
It would need number of repairs, but it had endured the onslaught, and for a moment, all she could do was to laugh at the sight of it, her comrades joining her before they started to make their way in.
They had lots of work to do, and there was no time like present to start on it.
-o.O.o-
Elissa slept for three days, after the battle of Vigil's Keep had been finished, Jowan promptly putting her to magic sleep to let her body rest properly (for as they all knew her, nothing and no one would be able to stop her from exhausting herself even further).
Both she and Sereda had number of letters to write; reports to Weisshaupt, to Orzammar and to Denerim, since there had been so many things they had to explain to various people that couldn't wait for their presence.
Sereda wanted to suggest Nathaniel Howe for taking over her place as Fereldan Warden Commander – the young noble proving himself to be capable leader, fighter and diplomat many times over, and as neither she, nor Elissa, had seen any problem with him taking over, so they could return to their respective lives in Orzammar and Rainesfere, she wrote her report mostly in the spirit of "you may disagree with it, but that's your problem".
Still, they couldn't just leave the arling, as it was still under repairs, and both of them missed their husbands terribly.
Imagine their surprise when there appeared a caravan one day on the horizon, and together with all the craftsmen, soldiers and healers came Teagan and Dwyn.
Sereda didn't waste any time, running to her husband and nearly knocking him down, as she flew to his arms, kissing him so passionately they earned themselves a storm of whistles and cat-calls.
Elissa just rose from her sitting place, and it was Teagan who ran to his wife, embracing her carefully before kissing her just as passionately. "Sorry for not running to meeting you," Elissa whispered to him, leaning on him, "but my friendly healers would have kittens, if I made any quicker movement these days."
She grimaced. "And really, it's not as if you can run while waddling around like a duck, right?"
Her only answer had been heartfelt laughter of her husband, before he kissed her again.
They were reunited at last. New era of their lives could finally start.