CH 1: NOBILITY & BETRAYAL

-Gareth Cousland-

The flames flickered and danced before me

"What's the matter Pup, you seem troubled?"

The sound of father's voice shocked me out of my reverie. Looking up I suddenly found myself standing in the main hall, staring into the roaring fireplace that dominated the western expanse of the room. I shook my head roughly and turned around to be greeted with Bryce Cousland, Teyrn of Highever's stern face staring back at me.

"Pup, are you ok?" father asked again, his frown deepening.

For some reason I had trouble forming the words I wanted, but managed to get out a response "Yes father, I just lost myself for a minute thinking about…" I paused because I found I was unsure of what exactly I had been doing in the hall in the first place or how I'd even gotten there.

"Come my boy your hardly a child ant longer, but a man your age shouldn't be drifting off staring into a fire." His expression slowly lightened as he put his hand to my shoulder, "Leave such things to old men like me and continue on with the life the Maker gave you and don't let what happened consume the man you are"

"Father what are you talking…" my neck suddenly seethed with pain, reaching up to feel where the pain was strongest I felt a wet sort of warmth, I put my hand up to my face to see that it was coated with blood. "What" grabbing my neck to stem the flow "What is this!"

I looked at my father and saw that his smile had vanished and was replaced with a grimace of pain, looking down; I saw that his fine clothes were in tatters and his torso covered in red, searching for the source, I discovered he was sporting a horrendous sword wound to his side. The wound ran straight through his body and was, even a child could tell, fatal. Suddenly he coughed expelling yet more blood. I lurched away, staggering back until I was against the wall and suddenly noticed for the first time that I held a bared sword coated in blood and viscera in a gauntleted hand. On closer look I found that the rest of my body was similarly armored in an assortment of scaled armor.

"Pup, Gareth you mustn't let this take you" Bryce said staggering forward into my arms, and suddenly the events of that night played out in my head all at once.

I remembered waking up in the darkness of my room to find my mabari hound Drey's barking at my door. I was about to go quiet him so he wouldn't end up waking the entire castle when suddenly light poured into the room as a guard burst in shouting that the castle was under attack before an arrow pierced his throat spattering me in his lifeblood. Before his body had even hit the floor two men had entered the room just as I cleared my bed, one skinny with a thin face, sporting two curved daggers after throwing down his bow and wearing bloody leather armor while the other much shorter man wielded a nasty looking mace and buckler who was wearing a cowl hiding his face. I had barely enough time to register the family crest of Arl Rendon Howe adorning the shield when the mace wielding soldier in the cowl charged me weapon raised.

While I was still in shock from seeing the guard, who I recognized as a man who had served my family since I had been a child brutally murdered by men bearing the crest of one of my families most long standing allies, years of harsh instruction by Castle Cousland's master-at-arms had conditioned me to move on reflex and I just barely managed duck past the first soldiers' attempt to cave in my skull and lurched directly into the path of the second man who stood blocking the door with knives readied and a sick smile on his face. Before he could move to attack or say a word however, a sudden terrifying howl pierced the room as Drey lunged past me straight at the man, bringing him down screaming and knocking his blades loose from his grasp.

I had thought about commanding Drey to stop, to show mercy, but then looked at the stunned face of the dead guard thought better of it.

"Drey, KILL!" I remembered shouting as I saw the dog I had cared for as a puppy and who had been dismissed by my older brother Fergus as a softie rip out the screaming man's throat, I suppose father was right for telling me he was a War dog not just a house pet. The second soldier had already turned around but had more focus on the dog then me; I scooped up one of the fallen man's daggers and neatly spun around to face him bringing the dead man's blade up before he charged forward screaming, brandishing his weapon.

Despite being armed with an unfamiliar weapon and having no armor beyond cloth leggings, training and superior size and reach won out over the soldiers wild, undisciplined swings and the borrowed dagger soon buried itself in the man's heart killing him almost instantly. I stood back to view my handiwork, and shuddered. I'd trained for years as a warrior by some of the best teachers and prided myself on my skills with a sword, the only thing I'd ever beaten Fergus consistently growing up, and had even won a few tournament melee's as a mystery knight facing men considerable more experienced warriors and bested them all. Despite having encountered bandits and highwayman over the years patrolling our families' lands as head of the militia, I had never taken pleasure in killing or the raw brutality of the fight, curious, I moved to remove the man's cowl and recoiled at the sight of the man, no the boy's face staring back at me eye blank and sightless. He couldn't have been more than seventeen summers old.

That would explain the wild untrained style of his attacks and his small size. Standing and shaking my head at the sheer waste I almost jumped when I suddenly felt a soft warm pressure against my leg. Looking down I saw Drey sitting at my feet staring up at me blood dripping from his maw. I had almost forgotten the man he had savaged in order to protect me, the body was lying spread-eagled in the door frame unrecognizable from the neck up. When Drey began to whimper, I knelt down to scratch his head behind the ears in his favorite spot.

"Sorry boy I'd forgotten this was a first for you"

I couldn't deny the pain I felt for the dead boy, but as I turned my head back to the bodies, I realized that these men had just tried to kill me; and boy or not, he was an enemy and I had acted accordingly.

I could hear my trainer's voice in the back of my mind as I got to my feet, "When you bare a weapon with the intention to harm, be prepared to invite the same upon yourself in kind" the grizzled veteran had been a taskmaster at times, but the man made sure each of his students knew the responsibility that came with using a sword, and the boy had made his choice when he attacked me.

I made towards the large chest I kept to the left of door; I opened it to pull out a vest of studded leather along with a matching set of gloves and boots, practice armor, simple but effective. I might have an uncommon level of skill with a sword but I wasn't stupid enough to think I could make a difference in nothing but a pair of bloody trousers. Underneath the armor lay a large wooden kite shield as well as a simple broadsword, donning my make do armor, I also picked up a small silver necklace in the shape of a leaf, it had been gift that was very precious to me and I just didn't feel right not taking it along, I walked out into the hall with Drey by my side.

I was greeted by the sight of another pair of laughing soldiers carrying swords walking into the room from the direction of the castle proper, likely to check on the status of the two poor sods in my room.

"I know, but I still think they could have held off killing that elven bitch at least until we'd gotten to have some fun too, Micah, Derek have you kill that noble shit yet …huh?" the men finally noticed they were sharing the room with a growling dog and a large, well-armed and very pissed off looking noble.

"Sorry, but your friends are unavailable at the moment, however I would be glad to entertain you" I taunted raising my sword and shield in a ready stance, "Well, COME ON THEN!"

The two men lunged forward swords raised, as I blocked the first man's blow with my shield and shifted to parry the others blow off my sword I grimaced, these men were barely any more skilled then the boy and his iron club but unlike him they worked as a pair, as the fight wore on they continued to shift their directions of attack attempting to draw me into extending myself more than I could handle while also working to keep Drey at a distance.

However soon enough one of the men, the one who called me a noble shit, lunged forward after a particularly vicious attack from his comrade broke off a piece of my shield forcing me back, as he moved to bring down his blade down on my head I swiftly caught the blade and tore it from his grasp.

He looked up at my face and I could see the fear in his eyes up until my sword ran its course across his chest. Turning on his friend, I sprinted forward sword raised, the man attempted to leap backwards to avoid the blade, unfortunately for him, standing at over six feet affords a man a good amount of reach and my sword broke through his unsteady block and straight through his armor, biting deep his collarbone. I then pushed off the corpse with my foot, tearing my sword out of the dead man's chest, I bent down to wipe the blade clean on the fallen man's armor before sheathing the sword at my side.

"Darling!" a shrill shout suddenly permeated the room.

Turning around, I saw my mother Teyrna Eleanor Cousland sprint into the now bloodied body strewn hall. Grabbing me in a tight embrace she suddenly pulled back to look me over, I then noticed with some surprise that she was wearing a set of worn looking leather armor with a longbow and a quiver strung over her back.

"A yell woke me up, I heard men shouting and barred the door, are you injured?"

"I'm fine mother" I was covered in blood but it wasn't my own, the worst I'd come off with was a few nicks in my armor that hadn't reach flesh, "These bastards got worst of it, but there's a dead guardsman, Giles I think."

"Poor man" She looked down at the men with a look of anger and noticed who they were, "Wait that's Howe's crest on the armor, these are Howe's men! Why would they be attacking you?"

"I don't know, but these are probably his men who were running behind getting here, I heard Howe discussing it with father when I saw them together earlier today in the Main hall, when he told me I would be taking over care of the castle, before I went to collect Drey in the kitchens, remember?" Examining the dead men I realized I recognized one of them, he had been with Howe in the main hall as well. He had seemed very interested in I identifying who I was, I had been going to see Fergus and hadn't thought anything of it.

Mother grabbed my arm with a look of dawning horror on her face, "If these men were delayed on purpose…that lying bastard I'll cut his throat myself, have you seen your father, he never came to bed?!"

"No I stayed up reading a book then went to bed, could he have stayed up with Howe?"

"Maybe, we have to rally what's left of the guard and find him!"

"Alright, we should also check on Oren and Oriana" I turned my head to look at their door right across the hall from mine.

"By the maker, those men, what if they entered your Brother's room first before they went to yours?"

My blood ran cold at the thought as I rushed across the towards the door and threw it open already dreading the fact that it was unlocked,

"No, No, Maker, No"

It was all I could think of as I saw the bodies of both my eight year old cousin Oren and his mother Oriana, the love of my brother's life and my sister in law, lying on the cold ground. Oriana's throat had been opened ear to ear, thankfully it looked quick with no signs of rape, a small mercy. She and I had always gotten on well from the moment Fergus had met her at one of mothers spring salons, I had even lost a match to Fergus during a tourney so he could impress her father and bring back an old Fereldan custom of presenting a wreath of flowers to the fair maiden along with a proposal. Oren however, had been stabbed through the chest and left for dead, it looked as if he had tried to crawl to his mother before he succumbed.

Before I could stop her, Mother ran into the room and fell to her knees cradling the boy in her arms tears running down her face. "NO, my poor Oren" she cried hugging his body closer as she sobbed. "What manner of fiend slaughters innocents!?" Drey just sat their whimpering trying to nudge the boy awake. "Howe's not even taking hostages; he means to kill all of us, oh Fergus, I'm so sorry"

I should have comforted her, done something other than just stand there, but all I could think of was how just hours ago the boy had been alive and happy, seeing his father off to battle. I'd even planned out how I was going to convince his mother to let me teach him a little sword play like the boy had wanted me too and had been trying to convince me for weeks. The boy was so young and to see him like this, cold, and lifeless, taken in such a cruel and painful way, I felt something begin bend inside me.

"I'll make them pay, all of them, every last one." I slowly walked out of the room with Drey on my heels and through the doors to the apartments standing around outside of Lady Landra's quarters, four men sat garbed in armor similar to the men I'd left dead already standing around laughing and passing a wineskin around. In the span of two minutes 3 were dead and the last was crawling away from me with two hamstrung legs and a stab wound in his stomach.

I slowly walked over, kicked him onto his back and stood on his throat until he died pleading for his life grabbing at my leg as I slowly built pressure, any thoughts of mercy had died along with the small boy and his mother. I looked inside to find the bodies of Dairen, Landra, and Iona. Dairen looked as if he had died trying to protect his mother, Iona though hadn't been so lucky. I remembered talking to the elven women in my Grandfather's library. It had been an interesting conversation over how she had come into Lady Landra's service, she'd even told me a little about her daughter, Amethyne, who lived back in the Denerim Alienage. I'd gotten the impression she had something of a crush on me but would have felt guilty exploiting that, looking at her now however I wished I had given her a chance, she might still be alive if I had.

After giving my mother time to mourn the loss of her close friend, we continued out into the atrium proper. The smell of smoke was everywhere along with the sound of screams and shouts.

"Gareth can you hear the fighting, Howe's men must be everywhere"

Looking back at her I could see she was still shaky from Oren's death and her eyes were still red and puffy, she was in no condition to be fighting.

"Mother stay behind me and Drey I don't want you in any more danger than can be helped." I stated pleadingly placing my hand on her shoulder.

"I am no Orleasian wallflower, I was a battle-maiden before meeting your father, I can handle myself" she suddenly knocked my hand away and smiled weakly "I've already lost a grandson, your dead wrong if you think I'm going to sit back and watch my youngest son place himself in danger while I do nothing."

Seeing that this was not a battle I could win I could only sigh, "Well what will we do now?"

"The front gates that's where your father would be, if Howe's men have already penetrated this far we should focus on finding him and then reaching the servants entrance in the kitchen's larder to escape."

"No!" I shouted, rounding on her, "I will not run and hide while that shit pile of a traitor destroys my home and everyone in it. Find father and get out but don't ask me to leave while everyone else suffers"

That's when my mother slapped me hard across the face, stunning me. I was by no means a model child like Fergus and had raised my own fair share of hell in my time for my Nan who had scolded me harshly, but this was the first time my mother had ever struck me and it was a shock.

"Don't be foolish, going after Howe now will only get you killed and will accomplish nothing, even if we can't find your father, you must live"

I heard the sense in her words but my anger would not cease, "I WANT HOWE DEAD!" I all but shouted at her.

My mother looked at me with the same face I had always seen her use on father, and it made me wilt, she then moved closer and put her hand on my cheek, "Then survive and visit vengeance upon him but at the right moment, for now you must focus on living." All in all I had little choice but to accept her plan and carry on.

As we made our way through the castle we quickly found the way to the kitchens blocked by debris and were forced to take the long way through the castle, along the way we came across holdouts of guards facing off against Howe's soldiers, after assisting them, our numbers slowly swelled to include a group of ten armed guards as well as a handful of servants.

As we continued towards the main hall my mother suddenly called for the group to stop, motioning me over quickly, she pulled a brass key from a pocket in her belt and pressed it into my hand.

"We're getting close to the family treasury, the Cousland family blade lies inside, here darling take my key, Howe must not get his hands on that sword that sword."

Using the key I managed to open the heavy lock and enter our families vault. Despite having lived in the castle my whole life I had only ever been in the room twice before, once with my father who was showing me some artifacts of our families history, and again with a friend and his sister to get a more up close inspection of some of the more interesting pieces, basic translation, putting on an old helmet and playing tag between stacks of items.

Once inside I was surprised to find it bare except for an armor stand bearing a set of full scale armor belonging to my father, a shield mount, and a long, thin chest, reaching inside I pulled out a work of art made weapon, created from a unique mix of steel and grey iron the blade was a longer and heavier than the sword I had now, the broadsword had a worked cross guard and an enlarged pommel displaying the crossed laurels of House Cousland was also lightly enchanted to ward off impurities such as rust and blood and would always keep its edge. The last time I had seen it was during my friend Ser Gilmores knighting ceremony. Along with the sword I also donned my father's armor and kite shield, a heavy slab of metal which apparently had a storied history as well in our family and still bore scars of blades upon its face. It would serve me much better than the wood wreck I had been carrying.

Exiting the treasury our group continued into the main hall where we encountered Ser Gilmore with a contingent of men facing off against a large group of attackers including a mage who was throwing fire in our direction killing the servants as well as two guardsmen who weren't fast enough to jump out of the way, my mother ended her threat with a well-placed arrow to the eye socket while the rest of us moved to support the knights.

After speaking to Ser Gilmore, we discovered that my father had been injured severely and Duncan, a Grey Warden recruiter had taken him to the kitchens, the man then declared he would hold the gates and told my mother and me to flee. As we turned down the alley to the kitchen we were met with the sight of two well-armed soldiers as well as a fully armored knight wielding a great sword as my mother and Drey engaged the soldiers I ran for the knight.

In a few short blows I could tell I was in trouble, we were of a similar height and I had the advantage of a shield however I had also been fighting for most of the last hour and had sustained quite a few injuries, none serious but enough to hamper my fighting ability. A sudden screaming pain in my leg where an arrow had pierced my armor earlier caused me to stumble, taking his chance the knight rushed forward stabbing at me with the large sword. From my poor position I couldn't effectively parry the blade and the force knocked my sword from my grip, I managed to avoid death but the sword cut deeply into the right side of my neck as it passed, the knights momentum continued on as he then lashed out with his knee delivering a heavy hit to my chest. I felt ribs break with the force of the blow despite my armor and fell on my hands and knees, the knight suddenly grabbed my shoulder length hair and hoisted me up. Through the haze of pain as I held a hand up to stave of the blood pouring down my neck and saw my mother, her assailant dead, nursing a wound to leg.

"Time to die you noble shitheel" the knight said, his voice muffled by the great helm he wore raising the sword to my throat.

Suddenly the pressure on my head vanished as Drey leapt onto the man and pushed him away from me. Looking behind me from my position on the ground I saw Drey bite and snarl at the man when the man's blade suddenly found flesh opening a terrible wound on the dog's side. When I saw Drey go down whimpering and crying, I felt the dam that had been bending ever since finding Oren's body break.

Suddenly the world was in a vivid shade of red as anger, no pure rage permeated my mind and body at the thought of all I had lost this night, a terrible war cry suddenly split the night as I charged at the lone knight with nothing but a shield. Taken aback by my sudden charge, he vainly tried to raise his blade in time but it was knocked aside as I tackled him full force onto the ground, straddling his chest with my legs pinning his arms he could only give a short cry as I brought the pointed bottom of the shield onto his helmeted face again and again screaming the entire time, I don't know how long it took until I calmed down but at the end I came to my senses with Drey hobbling towards me and my mother staring down at me, her face pale. The knight was most certainly dead, his helmet bent flattened with the force of my blows with bits of blood and grey matter leaking through cracks.

The memories flooded back as I stared in horror at my father who had now fallen to his knees. We had found him badly wounded from his encounter with Howe, and had only survived thanks to Duncan. I was still in a kind of daze for most of the conversation after my experience with the knight but at the end, Duncan made his offer, he would assist in our escape as long as I would join him as a recruit in his order, the subject had been broached before earlier that day in the main hall but I had adamantly refused.

I was about to refuse again when my Father explained that I had a duty to the people of this land, and that every warden was needed to face the darkspawn horde rising to the south, our family always does its duty first. I accepted the warden's offer for my father's sake, but only on the condition that Howe would receive justice.

As we heard the gates fall, my mother told me that she would be staying with father to buy us time, I was forced to abandon both my father and mother after only a few short words, it wasn't enough.

"I'm sorry" I said to my father's shade, looking around I saw now that we were not alone in the hall, the shades of my mother, Oren, Oriana, Aldous the sage, my Nan, Ser Gilmore, everyone in the castle I had seen die and more surrounded me.

"Pup, you have nothing to be sorry for, Howe did this, do your duty to the blight and neglect this course" suddenly the room was filled with fire and rats poured into the room bringing down the shades one by one laughing with Howe's sneering voice.

I jolted awake suddenly in a cold sweat, the cool night air lightly buffeting my chest and rattling the necklace I wore and Drey lying next to me. We were camped in a forest a short ways from Lake Calenhad, the Circle of Magi standing in sharp relief to the moonlight, snores came from the other end of the camp and I looked to find Duncan and the mage we had just picked up as a recruit. I picked up the sheathed sword lying next to me and walked to the lakes edge, looking down I saw my reflection clearly for the first time in the week since the my life had changed forever. A hard face with sunken eyes stared back at me, I had had Duncan give me a sharp razor and scissors the day after the attack and I had shorn off most of my hair leaving it short and cropped, better to put under a helmet and impossible to gain purchase with a hand, the same attention had not been given to my face, now covered in dark stubble.

I raised my hand to my most vivid difference since that night, a long scar now ran along the right side of my neck just under my jaw line. It had continued bleeding for days until the mage, William Amell, had tried healing, the magic worked and the wound closed, however the scar remained. Drawing my sword I stood staring at the blade,

"I will remember my duty father, I will do all in my power to end this blight, however, I would not rest until Howe's blood coated my blade, I am Gareth Cousland and I will have justice for my family, I will have vengeance."

-END

A/N: Thanks for reading everyone, this is my first attempt at writing a fiction. Please leave comments and reviews negative or positive, every bit of advice helps.