~~~V~V~V~~~
"What do you think I should do, Edana?" The yearning in his voice for advice was clear and it tugged on her heartstrings.
Edana sighed as she paced from one side of the room to the next, a hand absently twirling a single ebony lock of hair, and didn't answer her love as her mind was too swept up in a cyclone of thoughts.
Alistair watched from his bed for a few moments, and when she didn't stop he got up and walked over to her, gently grabbing her curvaceous form and pulling her back towards him and wrapping his bare arms around her. Her body was tense when it first touched his, but she soon relaxed, and her breathing deepened as she rested her head against his chest, filling his senses with the sweet scent of her hair.
"We…we have done so much for her already – Flemeth is, at the very least, weaker than what she was. I have never heard of this magic that Morrigan referred to – and the fact that it was Flemeth's idea worries me." She practically whispered. "But if what Riordan said is true…."
His hold on her tightened a little bit, "He has already stated that he would…be the one to slay the Archdemon, love"
She bit her lip and shook her head slightly, "Morrigan knows something…" she twirled around in his arms, facing him now, "It will not be Riordan who slays the Beast. Morrigan knows this- this is why she came to me."
There was nothing but silence between the two, each staring deeply into each other eyes, realizing what must be done, only too weak to say it aloud; to make it reality. Edana suddenly pushed herself away and walked towards the door,
"I will tell her of your decision." She whispered as she quickly stepped out and down to the room where Morrigan, her heart-sister waited.
~~~V~V~V~~~
"But I offer you a chance to live with the one you love?"
"At what cost, Morrigan?"
"It will not have an effect on you – on him, this I swear!"
"Do not call the child an it."
"Seeing it doesn't even exist, 'twould seem it does not matter what I shall call it."
"…The decision is made Morrigan."
Silence.
"I have kept your secret safe – do you think he will accept you once he knows?"
"He….he loves me. And I love him."
"But once he knows…."
"Are you threatening me, sister-of-my-heart?"
Silence.
"Edana, please…I-I do not want think of losing you…."
"You do not do this for me."
"I do!"
"No – you said so before. You do this for your mother"
"Flemeth is the one who told me about this….'tis true. But I do this for me now – I need this protection from her! Would you see me destroyed and my body possessed?"
"She is weakened now, Morrigan. Should you fear her still?"
Silence.
"Your decision still stands?"
"It does, Morrigan."
Silence. And a tear.
"I…you shall not see me again. I-I cannot-not bear-"
"Must you leave now, my sister?"
An ebony hand on a feathered shoulder. More tears.
"I…you have surpassed my own power. You have no need of me."
"...I shall miss casting spells by your side."
A sad smile.
"We were a fearsome duo, were we not, Edana?"
"We were. And are. And will be."
"Your last statement. You know that is not so."
"Would the Archdemon not fall beneath our spells?"
"And after he falls?"
Silence.
An embrace. Awkward, yet sincere.
"I have my duty."
"Your duty brings death."
"My duty brings sacrifice."
Silence. Understanding.
"I shall not forget you."
"Nor I you."
More tears as Flemeth's daughter watches the only sister she has ever known to walk out of the door, and out of her life forever.
~~~V~V~V~~~
Alistair started to get off the bed where he had been laying, dropping his worry-rune on the elaborate cover, when he saw her motion for him to stay where she was. He started to speak, but she motioned his silence. So, he watched silently as her robes were pulled off, and the sole candle in the room extinguished with a wave of her hand.
In the dark he felt the mattress shift slightly as she got onto the bed, and soon felt her eager lips on his.
He reciprocated.
~~~V~V~V~~~
"I will…be the one to do…it."
"To do what, my brie?" she asked, clearly knowing the answer, but shielding it instead with a smile on her lips and a laugh in her voice, "Has it not already been done? And quite vigorously too, might I add."
Any other time he would have merely rolled his eyes and tried to come up with an retort that would undoubtedly fail miserably and make him feel a fool while she laughed, but not tonight. Not with things of such import looming on the horizon.
"I will be the one to strike the final blow….should Riordan fall."
His love sighed beside him, "And what sort of citizen of Ferelden would I be to let my King die before he's even got his crown fitted?"
"Benefit of being half-brother to the previous King – the crown already fits!" He smiled in her direction before wiping his face of all emotion, "No, but seriously. I will be the one to do it."
"But you've already done it." She tried again.
"Edana."
"Alistair."
He sighed, "Anora was more than eager to be the sole ruler. She'll be delighted to have me out of the picture."
She shifted her weight beside him uneasily, "I chose you to be King."
"And I will be – up until I-"
"Anora's an utter bitch," she stated, her voice full of venom. The woman's betrayal at Arl Howe's estate had turned Edana against her. However, the mage had known also that the Queen's support was needed against Loghain...
Alistair arched an eyebrow and chuckled, "And you've condemned me to marry her. Need you wonder why I want to kill the Archdemon myself? Having my soul destroyed is better than a day married to that witch of a woman!"
His turn to humor apparently caught Edana completely off guard because she suddenly squealed in laughter before collapsing into a fit of giggles. Sadness can take on so many different forms.
She finally calmed down, wiping the tears – of laughter or mourning? - away, "It made sense at the time."
"At least I know Ferelden will have a leader once…"
He stopped when she felt her weight shift drastically as she raised herself up on an elbow and peered intently at him, "You are serious, aren't you?"
"I am."
"And there is nothing I can do to convince you otherwise?"
"No."
Suddenly he felt the pressure of her hands on either side of him as she threw herself over him, her face inches from his own.
"I will accept this…if you will do something for me."
He nodded his head, "Of course."
She quickly rolled off the side of the bed and he heard her rummaging around throughout the room. It took only a few moments before he heard her approach the bed again, and felt her sit down on the edge of the mattress.
"Do you trust me, my love?"
His brows furrowed in confusion, "Of course I trust you – why would – HEY!"
She slapped his hand away as it flew to cover the shallow gash in his cheek. He felt the coolness of a small vial being pressed to his cheek. His hand moved to grasp hers that held the glass.
"…Edana?"
"You said you trust me." She stated firmly as she withdrew the vial and capped it, before pressing her hand to his cheek and he felt the warm sensation emanating from her fingers, his pain receding away.
"I do…but…" He grasped at words trying to figure out how to phrase what he wanted to ask.
"I wanted something to remember you by."
"Wouldn't some hair have sufficed? Or a fingernail clipping? The whole blood thing is a little…"
"Creepy?" She finished for him with a smile.
"Yes. That."
"You've had your blood on more enemies than I can count. Is it so wrong that I would want some of my own?"
"Have I already used the word creepy?"
"Perhaps," she stated, before bringing her face close his, a hand running down his bare chest.
"You are trying to distract me, you saucy lil' minx."
Her hand went lower, with her lips soon following. He gasped with pleasure.
"and…its…working…!"
~~~V~V~V~~~
They stood before the thick tall doors leading to Fort Drakon; mage, elf, dwarf, King, and bard, and their armies of mages, elves, dwarves, and men slaughtering the darkspawn that lay behind them. But what lay before them?
He stood beside his love, both of them splattered with blood and the black ichor that had spewed forth from the untold numbers of darkspawn they had already faced.
"Are you ready?" He asked of her, his fellow Grey Warden. His friend. His love.
She smiled as she looked up at him, yet he thought he saw within her eyes an expression he thought that he wouldn't see – regret.
"May I take your hand, my brie?" she asked, her smile growing wider…yet her eyes seemed to grow more sad. Was there a tear?
He brushed it aside- she knew what lay before them. It must be the emotion from that knowledge. Surely.
He smiled back and held out his hand to her.
She took it gently in her hands, running a delicate dark hand across his ichor-smeared metal when suddenly everything changed.
With a quickness that could have only been taught by Zevran, she pulled out a dagger she had hidden within her sleeve, and with a slight murmur it erupted into flames. His eyes widened in shock, first looking at the knife, and then at her, slowly shaking his head in disbelief. Before he could pull his hand away, however, he saw the hand that clasped the dagger rise up and a breath later he yelled out in pain as the now enchanted blade sliced through his gauntlets and through the palm of his hand. Instinctively he reverted back to his Templar training and sought to disable the one whom he now fought against- Edana.
But nothing happened. In fact, he couldn't move.
"This is the way it had to be, Alistair." She whispered to him as Oghren took out a horn and blew into it, soon bringing several scores of dwarven soldiers to their side. Zevran and Leliana exchanged an uneasy glance as they looked from Alistair to Edana. And suddenly he knew. It was planned. They all had known about this. Except him, "I'm so sorry..."
Edana had tears streaming down her eyes as Leliana pulled her away from the paralyzed Alistair, and she gently guided her through the opened doors; towards the sounds of battle.
And then the doors were shut. And then she was gone.
And he still couldn't move.
~~~V~V~V~~~
The beast lay dying before her. The one that had brought so much death, so much sorrow to Ferelden- now lay ready to die.
And she was ready to kill it.
She looked not at Zevran, the man who had nearly driven Alistair insane with jealousy with his constant flirtations with her. She looked not at Leliana, who had become a dear friend and confidant. She thought not of Alistair, of the man who she had loved. And betrayed.
Now. It must be now.
Concentrating fiercely she performed the spell to drain the corrupted beast of the last of its life. As she felt its lifeforce fill her, in her hand she crushed a vial, the sharps shard of glass cutting her hand, intermixing her blood with the blood once held within the vial. Her body glowed with the effort of her magic. The Archdemon's life flowed into her until she thought she could handle no more….she gasped as her back arched in blissful agony as her mind readied one final spell.
Then she was gone.
~~~V~V~V~~~
It had been weeks since…she had left his side. Since she had stabbed him in the back, figuratively and in the palm of his hand literally. It had taken days for him to fully reenter the present, to actually hear when he was spoken to.
Her funeral had been held several days after….the event. He had barely said a word - unfitting for the Grey Warden who had saved Ferelden, saved her King – but poignant for a man who had lost his first love. And he had hoped only.
So far, that had remained the case. He had postponed the wedding as far as possible under the auspices of restoring what the darkspawn had destroyed. With any luck he could hold her off for a year. He prayed he was that lucky.
Alistair….
Her damned voice had been haunting him ever since…it was even worse during the few hours of sleep he got each night. Usually he just spent his nights staring at the ceiling, or blankly down at a book, trying to avoid falling asleep, because he dreaded what awaited him there.
At first he had merely relived moments he had had with her…usually with turns that could only occur in the Fade. But as time went on and his responsibilities grew, his dreams started to take on different forms – some good, some bad. But regardless what type of dream it was, eventually she would show up. At first her form would beprostated on the ground, and then hunched over. Recently she had even been standing and looking at him. Not saying a thing. Just looking at him. Only for a few seconds though – and then she would be gone. He only heard her voice when he wasn't in the Fade.
Tonight hopefully that would stay the same…or better yet she just wouldn't show up at all.
~~~V~V~V~~~
No. Such. Luck.
Truthfully, he was actually sort of relieved when she showed up. He was actually in the midst of a sweat-inducing nightmare – he was in the Chantry in Denerim, the Revered Mother in front of him and his bitch-to-be by his side. He was about to say his vows when suddenly it all disappeared and he was standing in the middle of some ruins. It took a moment for him to place it – Ostagar. Where he had come across that grumpy mage he had been sent after by the Reverend Mother. Where he had first met her.
He stood there, looking around for a moment, she a movement out of the corner of his eye caught his attention. Spinning around to face it, his nostrils flared and his eyes grew wide.
It was her. And she hadn't disappeared yet.
... All swept through him, and yet still she stood there, her ebony face drawn with weariness. But there was ever so faint a smile on her lips.
"E-Edana?"
She nodded weakly and said something, but he was unable to hear her. Her delicate hand fluttered ever so slightly, indicating to him that he should move forward. And he did so.
"Greetings, my love." She stated, her voice cracking seemingly under the strain of talking.
Oh, all the dummies that had met their messy demise due to his furious slashing as he had tried to work out his anger at her. As he had tried to understand what she had done. He hadn't reached an understanding, but he had at least worked out his anger at her. Unfortunately there had been nothing he could do to aid his grief.
"Wha-who? Are you a Spirit?" he asked tentatively, suddenly remembering all his Chantry lessons about the residents of the Fade.
She coughed weakly as she shook her head.
"Then what are you?"
"What you are."
His brows furrowed in confusion. "I-I don't understand."
She seemed to gird herself up for the explanation, "This is where…I now belong…I am only here for a time…."
Suddenly he paled. Had he been too hasty in readying her body for cremation? All the mages had said she had passed on…
"They were right….my connection….to my body….has been severed."
Wait. She could read his mind?
"Y-yes…."
Suddenly she collapsed to the ground. He rushed to her side, but when he went to grab her gaunt body, it disappeared.
~~~V~V~V~~~
The next night he actually took to his bed earlier than he had in a long time – surprising, and delighting, Arl Eamon, who had started to worry about the health of the new King. What the Fade conjured up for him, he barely paid attention to. He was just hoping that she would show up.
And she did. Curiously, the Fade morphed into the same background it had had before. This time she stood by one of the pillars, merely resting a hand on the ancient stone to help her balance. She was wearing the robes she had died in – the robes she had been buried in. Her face was still tired, but she had a strong smile on her face.
"Hello again, my brie."
This time he didn't speak – he immediately ran over to her and grasping a hold of her arms pulled her to her, locking her in an embrace. It felt so real.
They said nothing for a few minutes. Slowly he felt her weight sink into his arms even more, like she couldn't hold herself up anymore. He brought his head back, and still holding her tight with one arm place his other hand under her chin in order to look into the oblivion that was her eyes.
"What…what is going on, Edana?" he asked pleadingly.
Slowly a smiled form on her face, "Come…let us sit." She requested, her arm moving in the direction of a bench that he had never noticed before. He gently guided her over to where the bench was, and after she was settled in, took his place beside her.
"The explanation is long."
"Do you….have the strength to tell it."
She laughed to herself and nodded, "But do you have the strength to hear it, my love?" she asked while glancing sideways at him, an eyebrow arched.
"O-of course."
She coughed weakly and took in a deep breath, as if she was preparing herself for what she was about to say.
"I…I am a blood mage. A…maleficar if you would."
She grimaced as she felt his hand drop back down to his side, and his whole body tense up. But he did not yell. He did not scream. He did not seem to hate her.
"How did…did you become one?" he asked hesitantly.
"Some from Morrigan…some from elsewhere. Where I learned matters not, I think." She paused a moment before adding earnestly, "…I asked Duncan…once….about blood magic and the Grey Wardens. He…stated that the Grey Wardens do what they must to end the blight. I did what- what I had to do."
Alistair didn't say anything for a few moments, but she felt his body slowly relax, "When did you learn this…skill?"
"Many many months ago."
"And you did not tell me?"
She chortled, "Tell a man, templar-trained, that I had dabbled in the forbidden arts? I hadn't a death wish. At least…not at that particular time." She added slyly.
Suddenly her eyes turned vacant for a moment, and she turned to look at him sadly.
"I must go."
And then she was gone.
~~~V~V~V~~~
And so it proceeded for the next few nights – each time they met it was longer than they had been together the night before. Each night he was able to piece together more of the puzzle.
At the gates of Fort Drakon, she had used the power from his own blood to paralyze him and his retinue of bodyguards as she had known that that would render his templar abilities useless. He had actually remained paralyzed for several long minutes, and when he regained control of his body again, it had then taken nearly an hour for his men to break through the door. He didn't even see the destruction of both the Archdemon and her – but he had felt the shockwave echo throughout the stone walls of Fort Drakon. He had reached the roof soon after….had held her soon after…had felt his heart break a thousand times soon after…
Her answer to why she was here, in the Fade, had made him shudder at the connotation it held for the absolute power of blood magic. She had used the vial of his blood to bind herself to him; to make them as one and had used the power of the dying archdemon itself to perform the spell. And then , mere moments before her soul had been destroyed by the searching spirit of the Archdemon, she had used the rest of her power and the rest of the lifeforce from the dragon to propel the smallest fraction of her soul into the Fade. And so she had remained in the Fade for weeks, regaining her strength. She thought it would be a month more before she was at her full power.
All that had been shocking, yes, and he had often spent his waking hours thinking it over, and when anger filled him he took part in furious training sessions, tiring himself out so the next time he saw her, he would have no loathing left in his body. She knew however, though she said nothing.
However, all that was not quite as shocking as something she stated after several more nights.
"You never asked how I regained my power." She commented as she rested her head against his stomach, her ebony curls spilling over his side like an obsidian waterfall. His hand absently brushed over his hair, every once in a while pulling a curl straight only to watch it curl back on itself bemusedly. They lay in a small meadow, the scent of wildflowers tingling his nostrils, himself on his back and resting his head on an arm as she laid her head on his abdomen. However, the sky of the Fade was as it ever was.
"I suppose that means you don't eat or sleep…."
"Correct." She stated as her eyes searched the cloudy nothingness of the Fade, "I…I get it from you."
He blinked a couple of times, "MmHmm….I hope you plan on saying more because that just sounds creepy."
She smiled slightly in response, "When…I bound myself to you – when I threw a portion of my soul into the Fade, it…created a connection between us. I shall remain bound to you; bound to your portion of the Fade…until you finish your Calling."
"This doesn't…make me an ab-" he asked weakly, praying he got the answer he wanted.
"No." she stated firmly, "You are not possessed. Nor will you ever…." She paused as if she was contemplating continuing, but unsure if she really wanted to.
"What else is there, Edana? I know there is something else you wish to say."
She raised herself up on an arm to face him directly, her other hand searching for his and grasping it tightly, her eyes looking into his earnestly.
"Alistair…we are bound together. Always. Thus, you have a connection to the Fade, even when you awake." She said, her eyes looking to see if he understood what she was saying to him. She grinned lopsidedly when she realized he hadn't. Sometimes his daftness could be so endearing. She soon wiped the smile from her face though as her grip on his hand tightened even more.
"As I can draw power from you…so you can draw power from me. You are...a mage, Alistair."
Silence met her for a few moments, before he also raised himself up to look at her straight in her eyes, his eyes wide in disbelief.
"What?"
~~~V~V~V~~~
Now for the more extensive author notes!
A.N. - Yes, Alistair is now a mage. An almost Templar-mage. I thought that was an interesting combination myself...
A.N. - In case you aren't aware, brie is a type of cheese. Its Edana's pet name for Alistair. It is not a mistype of "bride". :)
A.N. This is actually the ending I had originally thought of for my story ACTD...but I have since thought of an even more epic ending (at least *I* think so). But, I really liked the idea of it, and it wouldn't leave me alone, so I finally gave into my muse and wrote this ending. To make it stand on its own more, I created Edana Amell instead of using my beloved Artalise.
A.N. Reviews and criticisms are much appreciated! Anon reviews are on, so feel free to flame me. :)