Dragon Age: Destinies Told
A/N: So, let me get this out of the way first. I don't own DA:Origins. BioWare does. Now, onto the short little tirade I go on for how angry I am at the ending of the game. I played an Elf Mage and went for the Alistair romance story line with Zevran's likeness for me full. And yes, it is hard to keep BOTH of them liking you so much. ANYWAY! I got angry because Alistair decided to kill himself for my character…which got me even angrier cause why couldn't I just be his Elf concubine damnit!? ….. Anyway again…here's her story AFTER the end of the game.
CHAPTER ONE
My name is Senura Surana, an Elfish Mage and a Grey Warden. I was raised for the first few years of my life in the Alienage in Denerim. That is until the Circle came and took me away from my family. I spent many years under the harsh training of the Circle, getting pushed further and further against my limits that I set up. The arcane was child's play for I to master. Fire and ice perhaps even easier. What interested me even more was the hidden gem in the desert called Spirit Healing. It awed me to see magic used in a way not to inflict damage on someo…I mean, something. Yet, that is a story for a different tale. This story is about the one who managed to break the walls around me with his stupid boyish charms and handsome chiseled looks. This is ab…
"Senura!"
The parchment of paper was covered in black splotches as Senura held in her delicate fingers a large quill pen. She silently shook in rage as she stared down the paper until turning, her large, dark eyes narrowed into slits of anger. "Zevran, if you interrupt my writings one more time, I will cover you in ice."
The tanned rogue with blonde hair named Zevran looked at her from the doorway, a smile creeping on his face as he inched into the inn room. "Ah! But perhaps that is what I want all along, yes?" he said in his outlandish accent that only added to his charm and cunning. Senura rolled her eyes and placed the feathered pen on the desk, absently tucking her brown hair behind her long ears.
Her finger rested on the tip of her ear, remembering how he used to play with them and tease her about their length. "I'm assuming you've been to the bar?" she whispered sadly out.
As if on cue, Zevran stumbled a few more paces closer to her, smirking the entire way. "You could join me, if you like. Drinking is good for the soul! Especially the celebrating soul!"
His dark eyes stared intently at her, quirking his brows up in a seductive, 'you-know-you-want-me' way. "It's been a month, Zev. I think the celebrating should end."
He laughed his boyish laugh and veered to the bed, flopping unceremoniously face down into the blankets. A whole month without him touching her elbow softly to pull her into the woods behind the group, to embrace and feel his hard body pressed against her.
Senura frowned and lifted her feet off the ground, curling her legs against her body. She rested her face on her knees, her blank stare clear to anyone who knew of the incident that she was grieving.
Zevran turned over in the bed and looked at her, half pouting at her not wanting to have some fun with him, and not in that sense despite how badly he craved her, and half frowning at her incessant grieving of the other Grey Warden. "Yes, it has been a month and we have yet to leave Denerim! I thought you wanted to travel, my dear."
"I do, it's just that I…"
"It's just that you don't want to, no?" He sat up now, his nimble fingers drumming dully against the blankets. "There is nothing wrong with running away from the past." She sighed and rolled her eyes, snapping them shut as he continued his rant of advice. "Staying here is only making it worse! You wrote that same page every night for the past three weeks. A memoir for Alistair!"
Senura cringed now. "Don't say his name, please, Zevran!" she begged out, her elfish body curled into an even smaller form. Tears tickled against her long eyelashes but she refused to let them fall.
"Alistair." Zevran said again, bitterness and venom dripping out of every syllable. "Al. Is. Tar!" Senura's toenails curled as Zevran mocked her grievance. "Knock knock?" Zevran asked as he stood up on the bed, leaning forward towards where she was sitting. "Who's there!" he cried out in a high pitched tone. "Alistair!"
"STOP IT!" Senura finally shouted, a blaze of fire dancing on her fingers as she controlled the rage that snuck into her body. "Don't mock my pain!"
The bed creaked as Zevran balanced himself on one foot, rolling his eyes pathetically. "I'm trying to get you past your pain," he mumbled out.
Senura finally stood up, grasping the parchment she was writing on and crumpling it into a ball, wildly tossing it at Zevran. "Tell me! Have you ever lost someone you loved so much that you would do anything for them INCLUDING dying a thousand deaths?" she shouted, storming out of the room and slamming the door shut.
Zevran sighed and rubbed his forehead idly as he stood on the bed. At least she was past the crying uncontrollably at the mere mention of Alistair's name. He sat cross legged on the bed and rested his head in his hands that were propped on his knees. "Oh, you have no idea," he mumbled silently to himself, watching the door.
He told only Wynne of how much he desired the mage. Her fiery attitude and genuine concern made her even more enchanting with every day that past. He put his entire best out on the line, all his cunning and suave moves he would use on women he was sent to kill and then some! Yet, he was a small flame in comparison to the blaze that was Alistair. Despite the fact that he was ashamed and embarrassed to kiss her in front of any of them, despite the fact that he flat out told her he could not be with her since he was king, and despite the fact that for the entire final siege against the Darkspawn, he was perfectly fine with her sacrificing herself for him, she still only saw Alistair.
Zevran flopped back against the pillows, his brooding eyes never leaving the door. She would stumble in, either still angry or sobbing like a lost child. He would comfort her, hug her, very nearly kissing her, until she fell asleep in his arms. Zevran honestly tried to show her he truly and honestly cared for, proving to her that he could be a gentleman and not take advantage of her. Yet still, it was Alistair's name she would moan out as he rubbed her shoulders. It was Alistair's name she sighed in her now dreamless nights. Alistair, Alistair, Alistair. It never ended.
And still, he could only love her more and more each day for how devoted she stayed to the dead Grey Warden. Zevran was not this type of person. He was not the type to sit there swoon over a single person. He jumped from female to female to male to female to whoever came across his way. Whores, kings, ladies and lords…none of them ever captured his heart so wondrously. His fingers mindlessly twisted the strands of blonde hair that shaped his face, working their way to the single braid he wore. He smirked, remembering when she had first asked him about it…
"Zevran, could I ask you some questions?" Senura had asked, the sunlight pouring down on the foursome as they walked briskly towards some town or another. Zevran had quirked a brow, stunned that she was even acknowledging him.
He put on his most charming smile as Alistair and the mabari war hound walked in front of them, scouting ahead. "Oh? I guess that would be alright…"
"Why not cut your hair instead of wearing that silly braid?" He let out a small gasp and turned towards her, her coy and flirty smile teasing him intently.
"Saucy minx…"
Downstairs, Senura stormed out of the side entrance of the inn, the cool night air refreshing to her tear stained face. She pressed her back against the wall, slipping down to the ground. She curled up into a tight ball, hugging her knees close to her body, burying her head into the crevice that formed. 'Damn you, Zevran…why can't you just support me in this!?' she thought bitterly. 'Alistair would have supported me.'
She took a few deep, calming breaths and closed her eyes.
"You know, I never took you to be a crier."
That voice! She snapped her head up and blinked her eyes rapidly, wiping them feverishly, as if to wake up from a dream. She looked around, not a single person even close to her vicinity. Even if there was a person around her, it was not Alistair.
Then, why did she hear his voice?
She rested her head back against the side of the building, her eyes falling shut once more.
"And crazy, too? I sure can pick them, can't I?"
She jolted up, the palm of her hand sparking with lightning, ready to blast the person who teases her misery in such a cruel manner. Still, not a single person was there. Senura's practical mind was deteriorating second by long, stretched second. Easing her hand down, she quirked a brow slowly. She had heard rumors about the Fade, never sitting herself down and pouring into the studies of the Fade like her teachers, or even peers. Closing her eyes, slowly, she mentally prepared herself. She remembered what her teachers, what Wynne in particular, had said. 'Open your mind, Senura! You have to be willing to enter the Fade.'
Once her eyes were finally shut, she mentally opened her mind's sight. In the mortal realm, her body still slumped on the wall, it looked as if she had fallen asleep in an awkward and uncomfortable position.
Her eyes adjusted to the Fade surrounding her. Despite the death of the archdemon, the Fade's surroundings had not changed. The Black City still loomed in the ever gloomy, gray cloud clustered, sky. She tilted her head down and stared face to face with the bright golden eyes and shaggy chestnut red hair.
"Right so, this time, are you going stay and actually talk to me or are you going to disappear again?"
"Alistair!?" she sobbed out, her entire mental state shaking from its foundation. "No, no no no no no no…"
He frowned, a truly hurt look crossing his face. "Oh? I thought…you'd be…happy to see me."
"You're nothing more than a desire demon!" Her hands struck out, the same lightning that rippled in her palms now surrounding both hands. Alistair just stood there, holding out his arms in a half hug, half here I am gesture.
The frown was still there on his face, his eyes still twinkled that same mischievous glow whenever they were alone. Her hands shook as she tried to control and contain her over enthusiastic pleasure in seeing him. "If you truly believe that's what I am, go ahead. Shock me."
Senura could no longer keep herself from standing. Her knees buckled and she fell to the ground, crying harder and sobbing louder than the day of Alistair's funeral. "But…" she sobbed out, mumbling the rest of her question into the ground.
Alistair's boyish smirk had crossed his lips and he knelt down in front of her, his hands touching her shoulder's gently, as if to lift her up. "I think you've cried enough, no need to keep on crying, come on now, look at me."
"I…can't!" she sobbed again.
"Why not? Did my death horribly disfigure me in the Fade?" His right hand left her body and he touched his face. "No, mouth isn't hanging open." She laughed bitterly as she sobbed. "Senura, you can't keep crying."
Senura sat up now, wiping her eyes with both hands, his thumbs wiping at her under eyes and his hands keeping her face from falling back to the ground. "It is you, isn't it?" she muttered out as he smiled at her.
"Well, you didn't think slaying some silly little archdemon was going to keep me from being with you?" He laughed and leaned his face closer to her own. "See? I'm right here."
Yet, something tugged at the back of her mind. Something that Wynne had told her in confidence. "Are you…my…but I didn't perform any ritual…I didn't prepare for passing of the Veil…I…"
His laughter interrupted her tirade on herself. "No, I'm not your benevolent spirit to help you use your healing spells. Although, I guess I could be. I'm not sure I'd like that very much though, being at your beck and whim." Her laughter echoed out in the emptiness of the Fade. "Then again, I technically was at your beck and whim before…'Oh Alistair! I need you to help me kill this big old dragon so that we can get to Andraste's Ashes!' 'Alistair, I need you to carry my load of dirty laundry!' On and on, woman."
Her tears had finally stopped and she curled comfortably into his arms as he teased her relentlessly. "Alistair, stop! I'll pee myself!" she laughed out. Never had she imagined that she would be lying in the middle of the Fade, cuddling up next to Alistair.
"I don't think you -can- urinate in here. Would make for an awfully smelly Fade."
More laughter. Oh how Senura had missed his sense of bizarre humor and charming giggles they shared. "Honestly, Alistair…why are you in the Fade?" she managed to ask out, a small frown crossing her dark pink lips. "The only explainable way is that you turned from the Maker, and I highly doubt that you did that." Alistair's face was dark, brooding, and almost answered Senura's own question. "You didn't…"
"No, I didn't. I'm not sure exactly, to be perfectly honest. I've been wandering around for such a long, long time, trying to figure out an answer. Not finding one, I spent…goodness I don't even know how long I've been here anymore." Senura grimaced, not wanting to hear that part. "It doesn't matter though! Not anymore!" His smile was breathtaking and contagious. She couldn't help but smile herself. "No, it doesn't matter because…you're here."
"Alistair, I can't stay…I shouldn't even be here…I could become possessed, a demon could pass through the Veil, I…" Alistair's eyes shimmered with what little hope was left. "Alistair…"
He sighed and kissed her forehead, holding his lips there, his fingers lightly tugging at the tip of her ear. "I…know, but I can hope, can't I? Listen, I know for a fact that, as a mage, you can remember what goes on in the Fade! Whether you dream, or go through the Veil. And being a mage, you can access entering that much easer! Senura…I…"
"Oh Maker, please no! Wake up, Senura!" Her brown eyes opened slowly, wearily. The sun shined bright in her face and she held up her hand to block the glaring light from her eyes.
"I'm…awake?" she questioned to her rude alarm. Her eyes readjusted and stared into the face of the most worrisome elf. Her body slumped further, her shoulders sagging down as if she was hit with a terrible, deathly blow. "I'm…awake."
Zevran pulled her limp body into a tight hug. "I looked all over this damn city, for you Senura! After you didn't return from last night, I was worried you might have done something beyond stupid!"
She let her body be picked up and cradled by the rogue. She heard his promises and swearing to never let her out of his site and apologies for making her angry enough to sleep outside. 'It was nothing but a dream then?' she mentally asked herself. Her hand felt her forehead; the kiss felt so warm, so real. Senura didn't remember when they reached their room, or Zevran placing her in the bed, or him rushing to get her some hot tea.
Wynne would know more about this then she ever could. At least she knew where she and Zevran were going to travel to next.