Title: Ignobility
Summary: There are reasons why future Queen of Ferelden Danica Amell is more popular with the common folk than the nobility. This is one of them.
Author's Notes: This one-shot is a companion piece to Through the Blackest Nights, set somewhere between the final chapter and the epilogue. Does well enough standing on its own, although full context and background can be found in the larger story.
Energized after an unexpected pre-dawn sparring session with a member of the King's Guard, Danica stepped into her chambers and propped her staff in a corner. After she congratulated herself over the progress she'd made with up-close combat, the calendar caught up with her and she realized it was an off-day for the court, so she could have slept a bit longer. Balls. At least the lady's maid they saddled me with is still on holiday. Although how she plans to have any fun with her Lady's Noble Companion reference shoved so far up her arse I'll never know…
Hilda managed to embody every one of the mage's worst nightmares about nobility. Prim, proper, and always looking down her nose at whatever inappropriate behavior Danica seemed to be forever displaying. She much preferred Lynia, the woman who came in each day from the alienage to attend to her actual needs, even if she was scandalized from time to time after her experience serving other ladies at court. It had taken some time, but Danica had finally gotten the elf using her name and skipping over the formalities whenever they weren't in the public eye. And if her friendly relationship with Lynia caused Hilda's jaw to clench, well… All that meant was that the lady's maid wasn't actually talking.
Stopping on her way to the wardrobe for a knock on the door, Danica considered that Lynia had been absent the day before, though no word had reached her as to why. Adding the question to her mental to-do list for the day, the mage opened the door to be greeted by a nervously curtsying elven woman – or rather, girl, for as young as she looked.
"G-Greetings, My Lady! I am Gera. I-I-I was sent to be your maid, today, once the mistress heard Lynia isn't to come again today. I-I've helped with serving many fine ladies, but never one of your stature, My Lady. Ask and it will be done, My Lady." Not once during this recitation did the elf stop bobbing up and down.
"Right. Come in, then, and the first thing you can do is stop with the curtsies. Aren't you even the least bit seasick?" Danica could have sworn she heard a snicker from the guard posted across the hall.
"My… My Lady?"
"Also, stop calling me your lady. Did the mistress say where Lynia is?"
"She did, My L- My- Your…" At a complete loss for how to address the future Queen of Ferelden, Gera finally stopped bobbing and simply looked distressed.
"Danica," the mage prompted helpfully, hoping to restart the elf's train of thought.
"Oh, but-but-but I couldn't!"
Danica heaved a sigh, resigned to starting over. My life would be so much easier if I didn't kick up such a fuss over the whole nobility thing. "That's what Lynia said for the longest time as well. All right, back to the top. What did the mistress have to say about Lynia?"
"Only that her daughter is ill and needs care, My La- My- M-" The elf ended this time on a stressed sort of squeak.
"Tessi? She's ill? Got my plans for the day, then."
"You know your servant's daughter's name?" Gera clapped a hand to her mouth as soon as it came to her that this startled realization had found its way past her teeth.
"And her age, and her favorite hobbies. Lynia's terribly proud of her. She must be beside herself, if the girl's sick enough to need constant care. I'm for the alienage, then. You don't have to come if it doesn't suit you," she added, seeing more worry on the poor servant's face.
"But a fine lady such as yourself… And the mistress will be most displeased if you send me away, and…"
"Then come along with me, and if it helps your nerves, you can keep up with the My Lady. If you must." Danica snatched her staff back up and headed back out into the hallway.
As they reached the gates leading out into the city at large, Gera was overcome again. "But My Lady! You're to wed the King! Shouldn't there be a guard, and a carriage, and a procession?"
"Not if the powers that be want to see another day, my dear."
The sun was making a heroic effort at pushing its way over the horizon and between the crowded buildings by the time they approached the alienage, but the streets were still mostly bathed in darkness, lit primarily by the occasional uncovered window. Though the section of the city was unfamiliar, Danica hadn't traveled the world without picking up a few things. She was thus unsurprised when one of the lingering shadows detached itself, two men – humans, from their height and build – sauntering out into the lane.
"Look at you, in your leathers. Playing dress-up to visit the knife-ears?" The man speaking had the larger build and the larger blade. The one beside him gave a distinctly wiry impression, daggers plain in his hands. And his mouth, as he hadn't quite finished picking his teeth with the point of one of them when his companion started to speak.
"The elves, I'm sure you meant to say," Danica corrected, shrugging her staff out of its catch and bringing it around. Perhaps it was a bit ill-advised to wander about on my own before full light. One day, I might just learn to think things through. If I live that long.
"Right, the elves," the thug drawled, unsheathing his sword and resting its point on the ground. "Don't you worry, we'll let you get right on with your games, soon as we get what we want off of you."
Danica felt a feral grin spread across her face, realizing how much she'd missed this sort of thing from her travels. This would be fun, if she didn't die a humiliatingly ignoble death. Sparing a quick glance over her shoulder to confirm they hadn't been boxed in, she cautioned Gera to stand well back.
"But My Lady, they mean to…"
"I know, dear." The mage gestured the elf backward and began tracing a pattern in the air with a finger on her free hand. When she snapped her hand open, the sword rested so casually fell to the ground as the larger thug became paralyzed, waves of pain radiating through his body as he was held captive by her spell. Reversing her grip on her staff and planting its tip in the cobbles, Danica fed it a bit of her will to spark a trail of ice that advanced along the lane to collide with his unmoving form, building as it went.
Distracted as she was, the other assailant had been able to close the distance to her more quickly than she'd thought possible. Andraste's ass. On the theory that a good offense would be better than bleeding out in the streets, she lifted her staff and struck from overhead, feeling the impact of her staff against the man's forehead just before he came close enough to reach her. Giving him no time to recover, she sidestepped, bringing her weapon in a wide arc around her back to strike at his knee from the side. Using that contact to reverse her momentum as he stumbled, she again raised her staff overhead and spun it down forcefully against his neck.
At the edges of her vision, Danica saw the painful prison she'd unleashed on the other thug was losing its power. Her frost hadn't been strong enough for the cage to finish him, and it seemed he was just strong enough yet – or furious enough – to take up his blade and begin a charge. Shifting her staff to her off hand, she reached for her familiar spirit energy, reveling in the power that built within her palm before flinging a bolt that connected with the man's chest hard enough to send him off his feet, his blade clattering again across the cobbles as he lost his grip.
When he made no move to rise, she stalked over to confirm his end with a finger at his neck. Though she'd thought she'd felt the other one's neck break under that final strike, she repeated the action with him. As she stood, Gera rushed closer.
"My Lady! That was… I mean… Everyone knows the King's betrothed is a mage, My Lady, but to see it…" The elf sighed, looking on the mage with a kind of reverential wonder.
Maker. Any number of ways you could have bought it just now, Danica, you daft, incredibly lucky fool. "It did end up a bit grisly, though, Gera, so I'm sorry you had to see it. Does that sort of thing happen often round here?"
"Oh, I wouldn't wish to trouble Your Ladyship with-"
Danica held up a hand to stop the protest. "I wouldn't have asked if I didn't want to know. Tell me, Gera, please."
"It's… really not so bad anymore, not in the years since the King sentenced Lord Vaughan. But it is dangerous before the sun rises for the day. My Lady."
Progress. Only got My Lady'ed once that time. "All right, then. Keep your eyes open and sing out if you spot a guard, would you?"
As they passed through the gates to the alienage, several of the workers left their tasks to question Gera, alarmed to see her back so early in the day when there were already too many without work. Danica was content to rest a moment, worrying at an errant fingernail with her teeth while Gera regaled those who'd gathered with the tale of the morning's adventure, focusing back in on the telling when the elf came to the fun part.
"…and then the man just froze, and there was ice, but the other one had started running toward her, and it was amazing the way My Lady hit him on the head with her stick-"
"Staff," the mage corrected around her finger.
"Her stick-staff, and she hit him again, and again," Gera went on, amusing the mage with her imitation of the tactics. "And then the frozen one wasn't frozen anymore and she just hit him with her magic and I've never seen anything like it in all my life!"
The workers, who had been looking back and forth between the two women halted their demanding questions when a rich voice, thick with amusement, floated over the chatter and they realized just who My Lady actually was.
"Lady Danica!" Valendrian approached, his mirth apparent on his face. "I wondered when I might tempt you to visit us and scandalize the masses with tales of your exploits."
Grinning, Danica accepted the elder's outstretched hand. "Bann Valendrian. I had always thought I'd convince Lynia to bring Tessi to the castle to meet me first, but… Can you tell me anything? I've heard the girl was taken poorly. Has she been to the clinic?"
Valendrian frowned now, though not at the concern he heard in the mage's voice. "No, she hasn't. Lynia – and most of the other elves here, for that matter – are concerned that because the clinic is situated so close to the wealthier districts it's not meant for those of us here. In any event, poor Tessi is weak with her fever and can't be moved without becoming violently ill. I had planned to visit the healers today and see what might be done."
"Leave that bit to me, would you? The healers are in the way of being my cousins, so I can shout louder." Danica winked. "Please also put the word out that the clinic is there for everyone, and the tax is levied only on those who can afford it. I won't like to hear again that someone who needed treatment went without."
"Gladly, and I'll take your offer as well. Shall I tell Lynia you've gone to fetch help?"
The mage nodded her agreement. "Also, send a runner to fetch up a guard, will you? Not half a mile straight out the gate they'll find some thugs that need cleaning up. We'll be back as fast as we can."
Gera kept up well, matching the urgency in Danica's pace as they left the alienage and marched for the Market District. The mage had offered to let Gera stay behind, but the elf wouldn't hear of it, claiming it was her duty to stay at Danica's side. Secretly, she was hoping for an excuse to see Her Ladyship use a bit more magic.
Danica shoved the clinic door open without breaking her stride, finding Anders and one of the volunteer nurses tending to the patients who had stayed overnight. "Kindly grab your kit or your man, Cousin. Need one of you with me. There's a girl down the alienage, fevered and vomiting, has been like that for a couple of days now, I hear. They can't bring her here, so I need one of you there."
Anders considered for a moment before asking the nurse to fetch Davin to see to the clinic. If the illness had held consistently, they may just need the more powerful healer. After loading what came to mind as possible remedies into a pack, Anders reached around a corner to grab his staff and followed Danica out the door.
"Pardon me for asking, Ser Healer." Gera somehow managed to dip a reasonable imitation of a curtsy, even at the pace they kept back toward the alienage. "But I-I-I see you have a stick-staff like My Lady's. Does that mean you're a mage also?"
Anders smiled to himself, both at the pure curiosity on the elf's face and at his cousin being Her Lady. Danica might just have managed to find the one person in the world more charmingly neurotic than Merrill. "I am, but I stick to the healing. If you're looking for the sparkly stuff, she's much better at it."
This prompted Gera to launch into another retelling of the morning's events, replete with demonstrations of the staff work, that lasted them well into the alienage.
It was only after their arrival that Danica realized she hadn't thought to ask for directions to actually reach the ailing girl. "Maker's balls. I shouldn't have to think before midday, the number of things that haven't occurred to me this morning." At Gera's gasped My Lady!, Danica slanted a look at the elf. "Don't you start. I hear enough about my tongue from that horrid Hilda. Oi!"
Flagging down a child of indeterminate age, the mage managed to get somewhat decent directions to Lynia's home. On stepping inside, they found a cramped, one-room dwelling, Lynia running a rag over the face of a bedridden, barely lucid girl, Valendrian seated at a small table. Anders pushed ahead and knelt by the bed, asking the woman about symptoms and possible causes.
"And that's where we have it," the healer stopped Lynia's recounting of the girl's activities at hearing where she'd been swimming and confirming his suspicions with a quick pass of his hand over her abdomen. "That pond, if you can even call it that, has been the cause of more sicking up than I care to think about. Turn her head to the side, please – I can prompt her to purge a good bit of it, and I'll leave you with a few things for aftercare."
Danica searched around for something to use as a basin, seizing on a pot that rested by the small fireplace and reaching awkwardly around Lynia to get it positioned. Then she looked away, worried she might be prompted toward illness herself if she saw what she thought might be coming.
Anders reached now for his magic, his hands alight with the soft colors of healing, as he located the nasty bits from the pond and willed them up and out, the sounds of the girl's retching making the magical display wholly unspectacular. Once done, he set out several packets of herbs and explained dosage to Lynia, prompting a wave of gratitude and relief with his declaration that she should be fully well by the end of the following day.
Danica scolded the woman, in the way of the concerned, for not sending word directly to her when she found herself in need, admonishing her not to return to the castle until she was sure Tessi was ready for her absence. And then she turned her eyes toward Gera. "You know… Lynia does have her hands full with everything I get up to, and we had been talking of bringing someone else in on the madness. What would you think if I spoke to the mistress and asked for your regular aid?"
As Gera stumbled her way through My Ladies and graciouses and flatterings, Lynia began laughing uproariously.
"Hush, you," Danica smiled and pointed as she spoke. "We did talk of an extra pair of hands. Putting the wind up Hilda is just added entertainment."