Rif Cousland closed the door to his bedroom with a heavy sigh. Riordan's grim revelation that a Grey Warden has to die to kill an archdemon was a tempestuous storm in his mind as he dropped his daggers on his bedside table. Rif, so caught up in his inner turmoil, almost didn't catch the movement in the dim lighting of the fireplace.
Maker's breath, Rif cursed at his carelessness as he grabbed one of the daggers and pointed it at the intruder.
"Do not be alarmed, it is only I." A familiar voice set the warden at ease and he dropped his dagger back onto the table. Morrigan watched Rif, her captivating golden eyes followed his every movement.
"To what do I owe the pleasure Morrigan?" He asked with a sad smile, remembering how distant she had become after admitting her feelings of love for him just after they rescued him from prison in Denerim. He started to approach her, regardless of how much distance she was putting between them; He needed to hold her for what could possibly be the last time.
"I have not come to speak of sentimental things Warden" the witch held up her hand to stop Rif from advancing. "I came to speak with you. I have a plan you see. A way out...the loop in your hole."
Rif's eyebrows knit together in a frown, surely Morrigan couldn't be talking about the fate of a warden during a blight, the very thing Riordan had only just told Alistair and himself about a few moments ago. Almost as if reading his mind the raven haired witch continued talking.
"I know what happens when the archdemon dies; I know a Grey Warden must be sacrificed, and that sacrifice could be you." Morrigan's disgust at that thought was written on the scowl she wore as she spoke the words. A slight pause in her speech gave her to moment to collect herself, to relax her expression and hide away any weakness she was foolishly showing at the moment. She continued on, "I have come to tell you that it need not be."
"And how do you know this?" Rif crossed his arms, and furrowed his eyebrows. He, an actual Grey Warden, albeit a relatively new one, had only just learned about this ultimate sacrifice that a warden must face during the blight; Morrigan, someone who wasn't a Grey Warden was now telling him she not only knew about it, but how to avoid it altogether- to say his curiosity was peaked would be an understatement.
"I know a great many things." Morrigan reminded him. "How I know is not quite as important as what I am offering you, however. I offer a way out, a way out for all the Grey Wardens, that there need be no sacrifice. A ritual...performed on the eve of battle, in the dark of night." Morrigan was fiddling with her hands, a slight nervousness to her demeanor, something Rif was not used to seeing after a year of traveling with the witch.
"Just what sort of ritual is this?" Rif stroked his long beard in deep thought, was she telling him the truth, was there a way out?
"It is old magic from a time before the Circle of Magi was created."
"Where did you get this ritual from?"
"I got it from Flemeth, of course." Morrigan spoke as if that fact should be obvious. "I have known about it for some time."
"So you knew about the sacrifice before Riordan told me?" Rif was in shock, if Morrigan had known about this why hadn't she told him. Why wait until they were about to march into battle against the archdemon? Morrigan spoke once more, answering his unasked question.
"I did; Would you have believed me if I had been the one to tell you? I have my doubts." Her golden eyes stared into his emerald colored ones, challenging him to disagree, and a quick search of his feelings told him that she was right. Morrigan leaned against his bedpost as Rif sat down in a chair to think about what was being said.
Riordan had said that it was the duty of a Grey Warden to sacrifice themselves to end the blight and kill the archdemon, so would using this loophole mean that even if Rif killed the archdemon, he wouldn't complete his duty? Rif didn't want to die, he wanted to see Ferelden restored. He wanted to return to Highever and give his family a proper burial, and most importantly he still wanted to travel with Morrigan and continue their relationship.
"Tell me more" he finally said, deciding that he was allowed to be selfish. He was eager to hear what this way out was.
Until now Rif had been willing to follow in the footsteps of Duncan, to die in order to help put an end to this blight. Riordan had shattered that willingness by revealing that it was a requirement that a Grey Warden has to die killing the archdemon, not a possibility that it could happen.
"What I propose is this-" Morrigan pushed off from the bedpost and approached the troubled warden. Her smooth slender hands slid around his wrists, gently pulling him up from the chair and towards the bed. Lay with me. Here, tonight. And from our joining a child will be conceived." Morrigan sat down on the edge of the bed, her fingers still wrapped around Rif's wrists. "This child will bear the taint, and when the Archdemon is slain, its essence will seek the child like a beacon. At this early stage the child can absorb that essence and not perish. The Archdemon is still destroyed, with no Grey Warden dying in the process." Rif removed Morrigan's hands from his wrists, clasping her soft hands in his rough ones.
"So the child becomes a darkspawn?" Before he could begin to imagine the terrible fate that child would have to live Morrigan cut him off.
"No not all. It would become something different: a child born with the soul of an old god."
Morrigan hesitated slightly before speaking again "After this is done, you allow me to walk away…" Rif could see the pain in Morrigan's eyes, those beautiful golden eyes now looked almost dull yellow and for the briefest moment they wouldn't meet his own. "..and you do not follow. Ever. The child will be mine to raise as I wish" Her eyes flared with determination as Morrigan met his gaze once more and stared Rif down, daring him to challenge her.
Rif let go of Morrigan's hands, pulling away from her and taking a step back. He ran a hand through his jet black hair, pushing the long, but once short and spiky hairs, out of his eyes- a tell that he was stressed or in thought. He shook his head in disbelief as an accusation rose up in his mind; He knew he would be offending Morrigan by asking, and deep down knew it wasn't true, but he had to ask anyways, if he didn't it would gnaw at him for the rest of his life.
"Is this why you've been so...friendly to me?" His accusation had hurt Morrigan, he could see it in the way her eyebrows knit together, and the corners of her mouth sagged as she spoke again.
"It's ...why I was sent with you by my mother. It's why she saved your life to begin with." Morrigan stood and stepped forward towards Rif, putting her hands into his again. "Caring for you...was not part of the plan." Morrigan murmured just loud enough for Rif to hear her. Just admitting her love was making her ashamed of her weakness, she couldn't have said it any louder than that murmur even if she wanted to. She turned away before speaking once more. "But I cannot let what I feel interfere with what I must do."
She turned back towards Rif, her golden eyes almost shining with pure determination; She would make him see the importance of why he should perform the ritual with her.
"The fact that it may save your life makes me all the more determined to see it done." Morrigan caressed the cheek of her significant other, her words were gentle.
Rif was comforted to know that their relationship wasn't the direct result of her own personal goals, but her actual feelings. He opened his mouth to speak but she cut him off before anything could come out.
"Please do not cloud the issue. If you feel anything for me, then accept that that it will make what we must do that much easier." She was playing on his feelings. She knew he loved her and that would be the key that would get him to agree to perform the ritual.
"But will I ever see you again?" Rif knew she said she would walk away forever but he hoped that she was just exaggerating. Perhaps she would leave so that Flemeth wouldn't come after him when she returned, and once Morrigan had discovered a way to get rid of Flemeth for good she would return to him.
"After the Archdemon has been slain?" she clarified, a simple nod from Rif confirming that she was right. "No. No, you will never see me again. Refuse my offer, however, and I leave now." Morrigan was the one to pull away from Rif this time as she turned towards the bed, tightly gripping the post in her left hand. She wouldn't give the damn, foolish, weak-to-love warden the satisfaction of seeing that she was also weak to love and how badly it was getting to her. Her right hand clutched at her breast as her lips twitched, fighting to remain straight-faced. "This is…" her voice faltered for a split second, "simply how it must be."
"How do you know this will work?"
"I do not 'know' it will work. I do, however, have every confidence in my mother's magic." Morrigan turned back around to face Rif, having composed herself. "And so should you." Morrigan was speaking with confidence again. She cupped Rif's hairy face with both hands. Her eyes stared into his, pleading with him to accept. "What is important is that I am offering this to you now. It will work and it will save your life."
Rif sighed and let his arms drop. His eyes closed as he took a moment to think over his two options.
"All right. I agree. I'll do it" Rif quickly made his decision, not that there was much of a decision to make here. Morrigan made a sigh of her own, although a relieved sigh.
"A wise decision." Morrigan slid her hand from Rif's cheeks down his chest and arms to grab his wrists once more, pulling him to the bed again. "Come my love, let us make this last night together one to remember." She whispered into his ear as she pulled him down onto the bed over her.
Morrigan instantly began to claw at the buckles of the warden's drakeskin armor, a light but sad smile broke out on her face as she remembered the battle against the drakes.
Morrigan sent out a cone of cold, freezing around the drake's neck as it snaked out to bite her. This gave her a moment to assess the situation. The group had been ambushed by a small brood of drakes but they seemed to be fairing alright so far.
To her right Morrigan saw Alistair and Buster (Dog) double teaming a drake; Buster bit at the drake's legs, distracting it as Alistair brought drove his longsword deep into the beast, dealing the drake a fatal blow. Morrigan was surprised at Alistair's competence, but she was glad to see that he wasn't a total loss should the worst happen to her warden; It was a cold pragmatic thought in terms of Flemeth's plans, but she didn't like the thought of it at all.
Directly in front of Morrigan, about ten feet away was Rif. His two blades dancing as he deflected tooth and nail of the drake he was currently fighting. He used the young dragon's own strength and weight against it as he battled, directing the attacks where he wanted them to go. Using the speed that had made him so famous in his many battles, he slid in on the drakes next claw attack and sunk his blade into a weak spot- right where the leg met the torso- where the scales weren't quite so hard yet. His blade punctured the beast's lung and it collapsed as soon as he removed the blade.
Satisfied that everything was going okay so far Morrigan returned her attention to the drake that she was battling. Her neglect to finish it off before assessing the situation had become disastrous. Her mouth formed a small 'o' as she noticed that the drake was taking a deep breath to release a stream of fire. The fire was buidling in the throat of the drake, but before the fire could escape its mouth, Morrigan found herself losing balance and falling to the side; A rough hand shoved her out of the way just as the fire jetted out of the mouth of the beast.
She looked up to see the Warden looking at her in concern, a small smile dancing on his lips teasing her that he just saved her life. A mere second later the fire engulfed Rif. The heat of the fire spewing over her prone form was singing Morrigan's skin. As quickly as it started, the breath attack stopped short, the tip of a dagger poking out the drake's eye socket, the handle stuck in the roof of its mouth. Rif stood in front of the drake, his right arm, the one that was no longer holding a dagger was covered in severe burns, but the rest of him looked unscathed. His face, however, was covered in so much soot that he almost looked like he was from the far north, like a rivaini.
"You foolish man!" she hissed at him, ripping out every medical herb she could from her bag to apply to the burnt arm. "Your rash actions could have gotten you killed. Need I remind you that you are not expendable?" she reprimanded him harshly. It took Morrigan's entire stash of herbs, and several weeks of magical healing, from both Wynne and Morrigan, for that damn, foolish, show-boating, lovable duelist's arm to be restored to former health, with a couple burn scars as the only evidence that he had been injured in the first place.
Morrigan would never admit it to Rif, (and he already knew) but she was grateful to him for saving her life, it made her all the more eager to save his life when it came time to kill the archdemon.
Morrigan brought herself back to the present just as she finished unbuckling the armor. She lowered it to the floor slowly. Throwing it aside in the passion of the moment sounded more enticing, but she respected that that it needed to be treated as the masterwork of armor that it was.
Next came his wool shirt he wore under the armor, her nails scratching up his back as she pulled off the shirt. Rif tightened the muscles in his back and his neck and tensed his jaw in response, it was a very pleasant pain. Morrigan tossed the shirt off to the side and smiled playfully at the warden, whose arms were on either side of her head, holding himself above her.
She turned her head and tenderly kissed the burn scars on his right arm, the everlasting reminder of her own folly and his willingness to sacrifice himself for her sake.
"You know, 'tis rather warm in these clothes. I believe I need assistance in removing them." Rif was eager to give Morrigan the assistance she asked for, all but ripping off her sheer clothing and throwing them to where his wool shirt had landed. He admired her form under him as he pulled off the little remaining clothes Morrigan had not removed from him already.
"Before we begin, my love, I told you this was ancient blood magic, so there something to prepare." Morrigan reminded him, grabbing one of Rif's daggers off the table and cut into the palm of her hand. "You do the same, 'tis a very important part of the ritual" she instructed handing the blade to her lover. Once the cut was made her fingers intertwined with his; His blood seeped into her cut and hers into his. She nodded to him indicating that he could begin and she began to speak ancient words in between deep moans, He truly will make this a night to remember, she thought as her moaned incantation echoed through the otherwise quiet halls.