Liao adjusted the buckle clasps of her gauntlets and sighed softly to herself. She glanced back at her reflection in the looking glass. The young woman staring back at her had small, dark emeralds for eyes. Her hair was bound in several small braids and looked as neat as it was likely to ever get. Though her pointed ears were concealed by a layer of light brown hair, her facial features (particularly the clan tattoos) gave her away as a Dalish elf.
Normally Liao took pride in her heritage but recently had come to feel rather awkward about it. The human palace at Denerim kept her isolated from the city elves of the local Alienage. However, the large stone fortress was brimming with servants, most of whom were fortunate, but more or less captive, elves. They were nearly as foreign to her as the humans, dwarves, and Qunari she had encountered in the last few months.
The strangest bit about the elven servants, was that they didn't seem to mind their enslavement and in fact didn't believe they were slaves at claimed that their human overlords kept them fed and safe from harm and generally looked out for their welfare. But the fact that they remained dependant on the humans for so much showed them as captives in Liao's eyes. Liao knew that independence and self-reliance were the first steps towards freedom.
It bothered the Dalish elf a great deal to see others of her race so complacent with their position in the Fereldan social ladder. It made her uneasy to feel the eyes of the captive slaves staring at her as she freely moved about the palace and engaged in casual conversations with human nobles and even the queen herself. At first, she felt guilty for having a higher status than the other elves. Once she realised that they were quite happy with their servant roles, she began to ignore their presence just like all the nobles did.
That is, she had ignored them until one particular morning. The entire palace had come alive with so much activity and apprehension that day. The occasion for all the noise and chaos was the queen's coronation ceremony which would officially make her the undisputed ruler of Ferelden.
Liao and her companions had all been harassed and urged on by the servants to prepare themselves properly for the coronation event. They were all offered an infinite supply of advice on how they should appear in their garments or armour, how to wear their hair, how to stand up straight, when they were allowed to speak and all manners of bureaucratic protocol one must use when one wishes simply to say hello. It was all a bit confusing and Liao had resigned herself to only engaging in conversations with people she actually knew so that she may avoid any diplomatic mishaps.
One particularly old maid servant had crossed a line when trying to convey some of this advice to Liao earlier that morning.
"I have planned out a garment set that will compliment your eye colour, hair colour, and skin tone in a marvellous fashion and have prepared some matching powders for your face," the servant had droned on in a raspy voice.
"That won't be necessary," Liao assured her but then half realised she may have offended the older elf and quickly added, "but thank you for your efforts all the same."
"Do you intend to wear only our under garments to the ceremony then?"
Liao stopped suddenly in the small, dimly lit corridor, evidently caught off guard by the snarky attitude of the other woman. She turned to look at the woman's overly passive expression on her slightly wrinkled and angular face.
"Excuse me?"
"Well, you have to wear something appropriate. It's not every day that Ferelden honours a new ruler. Don't you have any respect for the queen and what this day means to her people?"
"Of course I understand the importance of this day! If it hadn't been for me, she may not be alive today. And neither would you," Liao could feel herself becoming louder as she talked and tried to suppress the annoyance out of her voice. "As for what I will wear today, I will be wearing my finest suit of leather amour." The servant looked as if she were about to protest but Liao's tone didn't indicate the matter was up for debate. "I stayed up particularly late last night just to clean off the dirt, grime and darkspawn blood off this very armour and I will not have that effort wasted." The other woman made a disgusted noise but shrugged her shoulders in surrender.
The pair continued their walk down the corridor in silence. It wasn't a particularly well travelled route within the stone building so it wasn't dressed up as lavishly as the more important sections of the castle. After a few more minutes of walking, the older elf cleared her throat.
"Yes?" Liao inquired, mentally sighing to herself.
"Have you thought about how you will wear your hair yet?"
"What's wrong with how I am wearing it now, is it too messy and likely to offend someone important?"
"No, no not too messy, though the braids aren't in fashion at this time of year. Perhaps you would allow me to help you shape it in such a manner that it will frame your face better. You know, may be so that it will cov.. I mean, compliment your,er, facial features."
Liao caught the woman quickly diverting her glance away from the younger elf's face. She suddenly stopped walking again and it took a moment for the other elf to realise that Liao was no longer keeping pace with her.
"What you mean to say is that you wish to hide anything my appearance that indicates that I am Dalish," the younger elf said in a cool and matter-of-fact tone.
The servant opened her mouth as if to argue but quickly shut if as she hadn't known how to respond to the sudden accusation.
"I would almost expect such a racist attitude from a human," Liao persisted in an icy tone that complimented her glacial glare at the other elf, "But I certainly don't expect such treatment from my own kind. Your queen and your nation owe me a lot more respect than that after what I have done for you in the past few months. I want all of Ferelden to know that their saviour is of Dalish origins. Just try and stop me," Liao's voice was nearly a whisper and her right hand hovered instinctively over one of her sheathed daggers on her belt for emphasis.
The servant took the hint, bowed her head, and suddenly found something down an adjoining hallway that greatly needed her attention. Liao scowled as the woman fled the confrontation like the enslaved coward that she was.
Perhaps she was merely tired from not getting enough proper rest. Or maybe she had finally grown tired of all the elven servants talking secretly behind her back for the last few weeks. Whichever the reason, Liao found herself seething with an anger she hadn't felt since being forced to leave her clan behind all those months ago to pursue the duty of a Grey Warden.
Of all the time she had spent fighting off the fearsome darkspawn and playing diplomat to every cultural group in Ferelden that was obligated to assist her army against the Blight, she had had little time to feel emotional about anything. She had not spent enough time in any one human or dwarven location to experience the daily social pressures that the untainted faced. Sitting still in Denerim after the slaying of the Archdemon had rectified that.
Liao was still looking at her own reflection when a new face with blue eyes and neatly combed red hair joined the reflected elf in the frame. It took Liao a second to realise that Leliana was standing next to her in the real, non-looking-glass world. She hadn't heard the human's approach but she hadn't been startled by her presence either.
"Don't you look lovely today, my dear," Leliana said with a tone of sincerity.
Liao gave a half-smile to Leliana's reflection before turning to look at her properly, "I'm glad someone around here thinks so. And thanks, I can always rely on your honesty, unlike so many around this place."
"Ah, of course you can. We are the closest of friends aren't we?"
"Of course. Do you need any help getting ready?" Liao asked politely, though she wasn't sure if she possessed any useful skills for impressing nobles.
"That is kind of you to offer but I am almost done. Wynne is washing up now and has asked that I help do her hair and make sure she looks as youthful as possible," Leliana giggled with delight, pleased that someone would actually allow her to doll them up.
"She actually requested that?" Liao asked incredously. It was hard to imagine the old mage was not being entirely humble about her age.
"Ah, well, she may have been joking when she suggested it," Leliana said slyly, "But I'm not giving her a choice. She will thank me later."
"Don't speak of me as if I am not here, child," Wynne spoke up. She wore an overly ornate bath robe as she dug through a pile of clothes on the bed, most of which belonged to Leliana judging by the the large number of Orlesian fashions.
"Oh, Wynne, are you going to wear one of my dresses? You are more than welcome to!" Leliana said hopefully.
"Ah, no, just going to wear one of my ceremonial Circle robes if you don't mind. You're still more than welcome to play with my hair if you are still interested," she responded.
Leliana clapped her hands together with excitement and began searching for a hair brush in ernest. Liao used the opportunity to edge closer to the door and make her exit. Playing dress-up and generally engaging in girly behaviour just wasn't her idea of a good time.
"Well, guess I will go wait in the corridor while you two finish up," Liao said as she closed the door behind her to cut-off any of Leliana's protests.
The hallway was brightly lit and devoid of any pesky servants. Liao found a small lounge nestled between two wooden beams decorated with carvings. Like most of Ferelden art, the carvings depicted images of various dog breeds. It was little wonder that foreigners often accused the young nation of smelling like wet dogs.
Liao slouched against the purple velvet lounge and waited patiently. She was reluctant to unequip her longbow and quiver but it was too cumbersome to sit with them strapped to her back so she placed them on the empty cushion beside her. It wasn't long before she heard a familiar set of footsteps that sounded like stone smashing against stone approaching.
The golem came into view from the dimly lit section of the corridor and sighed heavily. The crystals imbedded in its armour seemed to glow more brightly than usual. If it could have sat down beside Liao, it probably would have done so.
"What's all this fuss about again? Why does everyone insist on polishing my crystals today?" Shale complained.
Liao shrugged her shoulders helplessly, "It's probably how humans deal with stress. Suddenly there is so much dust and grime every where when one is supposed to be busy with lots of other, unrelated tasks."
"Dust and grime, ha! Their fleshy heads might explode if they ever ventured into the Deep Roads," mused the golem.
"Indeed," Liao agreed. "I can't wait for all this ceremonial stuff to be over and done with. The sooner we can move on from Denerim, the better."
"I agree with it in this matter but have to ask, what does it intend to do after today's festivities? Will it continue to rebuild the Grey Wardens and slay the remaining darkspawn or will it retire to a quiet island further to the north? Personally, I'd rather do the latter, though I probably could not feel the warmth of the sun on my stony skin. And there would undoubtably be nasty sea birds to contend with, no, I change my mind. I'd much rather just slay darkspawn for the rest of my days than go on a vacation."
"Sadly, I don't think those are my options at this point," Liao sighed. "Haven't given it much thought, honestly, it really depends what Anora plans to do with us today, we are her guests after all."
"Maybe it considers itself to be a guest but I am sure the queen only thinks of me as a decorative novelty to impress her guests with. I'm not sure which is worse, being gawked at by hundreds of ugly fleshy creatures or playing statue for the birds outside," Shale groaned.
A creaky door could be heard opening further down the corridor, in the opposite direction from where Shale had arrived from. A quiet click was audible as it was closed again and the sound of armoured boots could be heard approaching the pair. A short, stocky figure came into view and grunted.
"What are you ladies doing here? Hey, that's my spot! I was going to sit there and have a drink before all the fancy stuff happens," the overly sober dwarf said.
"Don't see your name on it," Shale responded.
"You do know there will be plenty of drinking after the ceremony right? You don't have to get drunk before it starts," Liao pointed out.
"Yeah, sure, I know that. Lots of piss weak human ale. I've got something better in this hip flask here, have a sniff of this beauty!" Oghren thrust the flask in Liao's direction and she recoiled instinctively, having learned many times not to smell anything belonging to the dwarf.
"Ew, no thanks," Liao winced.
"Glad I can't smell anything," Shale added.
"Don't know what you lasses are missing," Oghren shrugged and drank the entire flask in a single gulp.
"Shouldn't you be getting ready with the boys?" Liao asked.
"I am ready, ain't a prettier dwarf in all of Ferelden than me," laughed the red-haired dwarf.
Liao gave a sceptical look to Shale who just stared blankly back with her expressionless golem eyes.
"So what are you two doing here? Don't ya have to get ready, polish your nails and put on your special knickers or something to impress the queen?"
"I don't wear knickers," Shale pointed out.
"That's kind of hot," Oghren chuckled to himself. Shale only groaned in response.
"I suddenly have the urge to check up on the other girls, excuse me for a moment," Liao got up from the lounge.
The door from which Oghren had came opened again and slammed shut as another figure emerged.
"It's perfectly natural for two men to get naked in front of one another without it being sexual," Zevran could be heard shouting at the door.
The three gathered around the little velvet lounge turned to look at the exasperated male elf.
"What, don't look at me, I didn't do anything wrong," Zevran said defensively. "Ok, maybe I had a quick look, just a quick one though! How was I supposed to know he'd get self-conscious about it?"
"So how big was it?" Oghren inquired.
"Well, that's the thing, my stubby friend, I couldn't really tell," Zevran responded casually.
Liao cleared her throat.
"Liao would know, wouldn't she?" Oghren persisted.
"Does it occur to you that this isn't a polite conversation to have in front of women?" Shale chimed in.
"Ruin our fun will ya," the dwarf shot back.
"Now how am I supposed to finish brushing my hair, he's locked me out!" Zevran complained as he attempted to open the door again.
"You're hair is fine, Zev. Give him some space. If you had grown up in the Chantry you might be a bit weird about changing around other guys too," Liao tried to calm the other elf down.
Zevran sighed and walked over and sat on the lounge. Oghren joined him and procured another hip flask to tempt his friend. Zevran pretended to take a sip to appease the dwarf's curiosity.
After a few more moments, the girls emerged from the bedroom where they had been getting dressed. Leliana was beaming with excitement over Wynne's new hairstyle but Liao couldn't really tell the difference. The boys weren't overly impressed either but Leliana didn't seem to notice.
"So where's Sten and Alistair?" the human girl asked.
Liao shrugged, "Not sure about Sten, haven't seen him all day. Alistair is probably still putting his armour on. Actually, I'll go check in on him, usually takes more than one person to put on that ceremonial platemail."
"Tell him to give me back my hair brush," Zevran demanded.
"Here, just use mine," Leliana offered.
"No offense but yours has red hairs in it while my hair is quite light and fair, it wouldn't be the same," Zevran sighed.
Liao tuned the conversations of the others out as she approached the bedroom further down the hallway. She knocked on it and waited.
"Go away, Zevran," came the muffled response.
"It's me," Liao said.
"Oh, right. Hang on a moment. Right, there we go," the door's locked unclicked and a blond head poked out to make sure it was indeed Liao at the door and not someone pretending to be her.
"Need any help?" Liao asked.
"Could use lots of help, actually, these buckles are a pain," he motioned her inside the messy guest room and closed the door behind her. Liao was minorly impressed with the amount of junk scattered around the room. There were bits of clothing, probably Zevran's, thrown every which way and various armour suits piled up in one of the corners.
"Feel sorry for whoever has to clean this room later," Liao commented as she stepped over some random under armour garments that littered the floor.
"Uh, yeah, you try staying in the same room with Oghren and Zevran and see what happens," Alistair responded as he searched for the other half of his breastplate among a pile of overly polished ceremonial armour on one of the beds.
"I'd rather not sleep any where near those two," she responded. "So, they got you the really fancy armour, huh?"
"Yeah, best there is in Ferelden. Anora requested that I wear one of Cailan's sets, though I don't know why. Surely she is still grieving over his death?"
"Probably, but you can't really say no to the queen regardless."
"Yeah, I'm not keen to put Anora in a bad mood. So fancy armour it is. You can tell it was made for a king though, it clearly requires about 4 people to put it on properly."
"You've managed to do alright," Liao noticed he had was only really missing the upper armour sections. He handed the back half of the breastplate to her and indicated the leather straps.
"Who designed this thing anyway? Look how many straps there are to fasten!"
"We don't have much more time before the ceremony begins so let's get to it," she said.
It took a bit of struggling but eventually the straps were done up properly. The extravagant gold plates sat against a chainmail hauberk, which was quite unusual with most Fereldan armour. Chainmail took more time to construct and required too much finesse in its creation whereas most Fereldan soldiers found the less mobile platemail to be sufficient enough for most battles. Apparently this preference didn't apply to ceremonial, just-for-show armour that was only meant to be worn for short periods of time.
"Does it look ok? Should I wear the helmet too? It's so heavy," complained Alistair.
"You look fine, don't worry about the helmet then. Good thing you don't have to wear that suit all day, it's still quite warm for autumn," was Liao's response.
"Yeah, tell me about it. Hey, do you think we have to give any speeches or anything? Anora wasn't very specific in what she wanted us to do today," he asked, looking a bit worried. He had made it quite clear that speech making was one of the many reasons he was a poor candidate for the crown of Ferelden.
Liao shrugged, "She didn't say anything to me but if it comes up, I was planning on just winging it. Never been to one of these ceremonies before and I don't suspect the human nobles will be too interested in what I have to say anyway."
"That's there loss then. I'm always interested in what you have to say," he gave her one of his famous half-smiles. "Any who, should we be off then?"
Liao picked her way back towards the door through all the junk on the floor and cleared any larger items out of the way as she went. She unlocked the door and walked back towards the velvety lounge in the hallway, hoping to have a brief moment of quiet before all the cheering and yelling started in the throne room.
"You're late," was the response that met her as she reached the rest of her companions. She looked up to see the tallest figure in the group. Sten had finally shown up and had brought the Mabari war hound with him. Not too long ago Liao had given the hound as a gift to Sten since the two had bonded so well over the past campaign to save Ferelden. The two had been even more inseparable ever since.
"We're not late. Yet," she replied. "Where have you been all morning?"
"That's not important. You're late," he repeated in his dry, monotone voice and gave a stern look with his unusually coloured eyes.
"Right then, shouldn't keep the queen waiting. Let's get this over with," Liao knew better than trying to argue with the Qunari and could hear the sound of trumpets blaring somewhere in the building. The last thing she needed to worry about after putting her life on the line for the past year was making a bad impression at the combined coronation and victory ceremony. Creators forbid she ever make a mistake in the social affairs of humans.
The coronation part of the ceremony was actually quite brief. It involved a bunch of blessings from the Reverend Mother of the Denerim Chantry and lots of boring talk about how the Maker was responsible for Anora's rise to power. Liao had begun to tune out most of the religious nonsense but was just as impressed as the rest of the chamber when the big shiny crown was brought out. It was a very elaborate item and showed its age, surely it wasn't the crown that Anora was supposed to wear on a day-to-day basis? Once the crown was placed atop the wavy blond hair of the new ruler, the room exploded with emotion and cheers. Throughout the whole affair, Anora remained calm and collected, she had been prepared her entire life for this moment and though she had ruled as queen alongside her husband King Cailan for five years, now it had finally become official that she was the sole ruler of Ferelden. Liao couldn't begin to imagine what it must have felt like to hold so much power and responsibility yet Anora seemed absolutely comfortable with it all.
Or at least, she hadn't yet had to worry about holding such power. It wasn't long after the crowning and a moment of silence for the fallen soldiers that it had become Liao's turn to stand in the spotlight. All Liao had wanted to do with her life was to grow old in the Brecilian Forest and to hunt for her clan and maybe to have a small family some day. She had never asked to be a Grey Warden and she certainly hadn't asked to save an entire nation from absolute ruin. She certainly didn't ask to become Ferelden's new Grey Warden-Commander but that was suddenly thrust upon her shoulders as well.
Anora gave a small speech about the sacrifices of the Ferelden soldiers and civilians that had died during the Blight followed by her gratitude for the help given by the Grey Wardens. She didn't mention that only two of those Wardens were responsible and that the rest had been left to die at Ostagar by her father. Of course she wouldn't have brought that up, Liao thought. She only mentioned Liao by name when granting her the rank of Warden-Commander and didn't thank Alistair at all. She was probably still rather upset over the whole Landsmeet ordeal that had resulted in the execution of her traitorous father, Loghain Mac Thir.
But of course she wasn't going to acknowledge that either, not on the first day of the rest of her reign. In fact, she ended her speech by thanking her father and his supporters for putting Ferelden's interests first. Nevermind that that very attitude had sent the nation on the course of civil war and had greatly jeopardised Liao's mission to unite the races against the Blight that threatened them all. At last she gave Liao an opportunity to say a few words and the Dalish jumped on the opportunity.
"I just want to take a moment to thank some people who haven't been mentioned yet, no offense to your Highness, of course. Many were involved in this struggle and I will not have them forgotten. In no particular order, please remember individuals that belonged to these groups: the Circle of Magi, who lended their mages to the final assault, the dwarves of Orzammar and the golems they brought with them to our defence, the valiant soldiers of Redcliffe who had already lost many before the push on the darkspawn horde, and the Dalish elves who humbly aided humans when they had nothing to gain by it.
I am one of those Dalish elves, I was Dalish before I became a Grey Warden and I will always remain Dalish. I don't ask you to understand us or our customs but know that we were there in your time of need. As were the mages and the dwarves. Every one of them deserves your respect for what they have accomplished together.
In terms of the Grey Wardens, I am honoured to serve as the new Warden-Commander and will be making recruitment a massive priority. Many of our number were lost early on in the struggle, including the former Warden-Commander Duncan. He was a good man and his Wardens were the best anyone could ask for. These are big boots for me to fill but I will aspire to keep the same standard of quality in the Ferelden Grey Warden recruits.
Thank you, your Highness, for allowing me to say these things to your subjects," Liao sure hoped she had used enough discretion and politeness. Anora's impassive expression didn't imply that the elf had screwed up too badly at any rate.
The queen was about to wrap up the first half of the ceremony and asked for any contributions from the other nobles. A few of the banns and arls gave short speeches of thanks to the Fereldan army and the Grey Wardens. Fergus Cousland, who had been away with injury during much of the past few months, was particularly overjoyed with the Wardens' success.
"I would like to not only thank the Wardens but also to reward them," he had said. "With the betrayal of the Howes and their rights to their lands revoked, it is only fitting that the Bannorn will have to decide on a new ruler for the Arling of Amaranthine, of which I own by default at the moment. I think the most suitable solution to this minor problem would be to grant the land to the Warden-Commander and allow the Wardens to have a base of operations to recover their numbers. In fact, since the Bannorn has not yet met to decide this, then I am making it official now."
There was a murmur of excitement throughout the chamber. It was unusual for so much land to be given away so freely and especially to be given to a neutral group such as the Grey Wardens. It was even more unusual that the Teyrn of Highever was willing to give such land to a commoner who had not worked her way through the Ferelden social ladder. The matter was not up for debate though and Queen Anora approved of it without any hesitation, probably thankful that she would not have to endure a lengthy deliberation with the Bannorn over who should rule Amaranthine. In addition to the gift from Teyrn Cousland, Anora had allowed Liao the opportunity to ask for a boon of her choosing.
Liao had had plenty of time to think about that in the past few weeks. She certainly didn't want to rock the political boat but she did want to see better treatment for her people. After several lists of pros and cons, she had decided that asking for permanent land to be owned by the Dalish would be the best step forward in terms of equality between the elves and humans. She couldn't ask that they become Fereldans and live amongst the humans in the human cities over night as it would just bring more problems than resolution. But land ownership, that seemed to be the key to respect and power in the human land and she had realised this early in her adventures.
Queen Anora accepted her request and declared the lands just north of the Korcari Wilds as belonging to the Dalish. Many Dalish already lived in the woods near that area already and while the land wasn't great for farming, it was a good first step that wouldn't infringe on many human settlements. It at least meant that the Dalish could have more stationary homes and added more predictability to their movements which would encourage clans to work together in more centralised locations. Liao hoped dearly that this would be to her peoples' satisfaction but she knew she would not be able to do much more for them as her new titles would prevent her from establishing a home of her own in the new Dalish land.
As an afterthought almost, the queen finished the ceremony in the throne room by asserting her claim to the throne, just in case it was still unclear after the Landsmeet ordeal a few months prior. She acknowledged that she was the first ruler to not be of the Theirin bloodline and said it was a time of new beginnings. The ceremony was finished with an announcement about a monument being constructed to honour the unification of Ferelden and victory against the Blight. In addition to this news, Anora also expressed her wish to see a monument made to her father, to remember him by, despite his questionable actions at Ostagar. The Wardens weren't thrilled with this news but there was little room for protest.
The queen ended the gathering of nobles at last and dismissed them so that they may watch the victory parade and begin to partake in the day's other victory celebrations. Many of them seem relieved to be done with the formal portion of ceremony and were eager to revel in the Warden's success. The Wardens and their companions were to lead the procession so they were the first faces that the crowd saw. The rest of the Fereldan army followed behind them. There was no evidence of any Orzammar dwarves, Circle mages, Dalish elves, or golems represented in the display.
The young heroine found it difficult to meet the eyes of all the humans, the occasional surface dwarves, and the even rarer city elves that watched her pass by them with awe-stricken expressions on their faces. Liao felt mostly embarrassed to have so many strangers cheering and toasting to her name. The hero treatment made her feel awkward and out of place. Her only comfort during the march to the fort where the Archdemon had been slain was that Alistair walked close beside her.
Once they reached the fort, the crowds began to disperse, presumably to various pubs and other drinking establishments within the recently rebuilt city. Nonetheless, the streets were still crowded with eager beings hoping to catch a glimpse of the Wardens who had saved them all. Eventually Liao and her companions found themselves going back to Denerim Palace to attend Queen Anora's formal banquet. The banquet was a smaller, personal affair for which Liao was thankful, she didn't want to waste the entire afternoon just learning peoples' names.