"You know, I never thought we'd actually make it." Alistair laughed and looked over the battle field in something close to amazement. The field was strewn with bodies, darkspawn, human, dalish, dwarf, and mage alike. Our victory had been great, the darkspawn had been defeated and the archdemon slain. Though all of my squad had lived, I still mourned for those that perished. I pulled an arrow out of one of the nearby dalish bodies.
"Sleep in peace, my friend. May the Beyond be more peaceful than the world you left here." I pressed his eye lids shut and turned away from the body. "I wasn't sure of the outcome at all. If we died, we died and the Blight went on until everyone was dead or it was finally stopped." I shrugged. The darkspawn taint was still strong and still a threat. Everyone who had been infected wouldn't be able to become a Grey Warden. Their deaths would be harsh and painful unless someone took pity on them.
"Please…help-" The humans sentence was cut short by a bloody bout of coughing. I winced and shoved a spear through his skull to stop his suffering. Nothing could heal the taint and his wounds, not even Wynne.
"Lyna, are you alright?" Alistair gently grabbed my left bicep to halt my movements. I scanned the windless battlefield. In some places bodies shifted and moved. I had to see if they were survivors, or darkspawn, or tainted people that needed a hand of mercy upon them to end their suffering.
"We need to help if we can." I shrugged Alistair's hand off.
"Lyna, please answer me. Are you alright?" He didn't touch me. He knew better. This battle would haunt me for the rest of my life. Whatever thirty years was left of it anyway.
"I'm fine Alistair." I lied heading towards to nearest shifting body. The gloved hand of a dwarf was desperately trying to grab hold of something in the dirt to pull himself out from beneath a Hurlock. Alistair helped me push the heavy darkspawn off the dwarf and we helped him up. "Are you alright?" I asked. The dwarf nodded, his white beard shaking.
"Just a bit out of breath. I'll be fit as a fiddle with some food and rest." I nodded and sent him off towards the medical tents. He shuffled away, dragging his axe behind him, leaving a bloody trail in its wake.
"Lyna, I can sense that something is bothering you. Please tell me. You know you can trust me." Alistair halted his search through the carnage as I spun around to face him.
"How can you be fine with this, Alistair? I will not rest and I will not celebrate until I have found every last body that was lost today. I don't know how you humans take care of your dead after a battle, but we dales are not satisfied until every one of us is found and given a proper burial." I turned back and resumed my searching. I picked up the body of a small mage. Blood marred her long blonde mane. The crimson liquid soaked my arm as it drained out of her scalp, surely the killing blow. I set her gently on the ground next to the funeral pyre.
"We have lost many young mages today." Wynne said solemnly as I knelt to retrieve her personal possessions. I handed them to my right hand mage, she wrote the girls name down and two Templars took her up the top of the funeral pyre to be burned along with the rest of the bodies. It seemed unfitting to me that one single funeral must be held for all. One that their friends and family could not attend.
I began to sing a dalish funeral song, hoping it would help their souls find the Beyond. The other dales joined me. Alistair attempted to hum along with us as he pulled one of Arl Eamon's soldiers out from a pile of darkspawn. Sten shoved an Ogre off a group of men and picked two of the dead soldiers up, heading off towards the funeral pyre. Shale stood off far from the battle field near some of the camps tents watching us as we toiled endlessly. A few dwarves stood near her. Leliana was helping take supplies to the medical tents and looking for useful items on any nearby bodies. Thor lay beneath a tree, his ears pressed against his skull, warily watching us.
It seemed as if days had passed since we began, but the grisly task was finally complete. I knew that some of the dead could not be found. Some had been consumed or burned or lost in places that we didn't even know the existence of. My heart ached for their families as I watched soldiers of all races burning the darkspawn bodies.
"Are you ready to talk now?" Alistair approached me slowly from behind, his arms crossed over his chest in, what I assumed, was him trying to keep himself from touching me.
"Yes, love, I am sorry. I do not handle death very well. Yet I am surrounded by it." I hugged myself and turned away from the burnings.
"Would you join me in the tent then?" Alistair waved his hand towards our shared tent. I smiled and nodded after a short deliberation. Alistair took my hand in his and entwined our fingers. He lifted the tent flap and pressed me inside. I gasped at the hot bath waiting for us. I turned to my love and smiled. Even amidst all this death and fear Alistair could still make me smile.