It's Not A Morality Contest
Disclaimer: I do not own Dragon Age.
Note: This story is based off a prompt given to me by Okiness about her Warden.
Odelia Cousland was halfway to the Proving ground before she stopped and asked herself what she was doing. She had barely taken two steps into the city of Orzammar before coming across the King candidates themselves facing off against each other. The strength that Bhelen's side had shown impressed her although hacking a man to death in the street wasn't the course of action she would have taken. To each their own, however, and the dwarves hadn't seemed to object much to this although Harrowmont had fallen over and all of his allies had fled which was a rather unimpressive showing on his part. If she was forced to pick a ruler based on nothing more than that two-minute interaction, it was clear that Bhelen was the far stronger ruler. While she couldn't claim to be personally invested in the fate of the dwarves, it would be foolish to try and sabotage them given their position as vanguard against the darkspawn.
So once again…why was she here about to throw her lot in with the weaker candidate? It would take more effort to put him on the throne (if she even could and if she couldn't then her making it more difficult for Bhelen to take the throne would make this succession crisis drag on even longer and make the new King not especially inclined to help her) and he'd be less effective against the darkspawn in the long run thus causing more problems for Ferelden. As Zevran had pointed out, it was a sad day indeed when someone trying to become the most powerful person in a kingdom couldn't even manage to get his own supporters to show up and fight for him.
She had almost automatically decided to go with Harrowmont at first because, by all accounts, he was a nobler and more honorable man than this kinslaying Prince Bhelen. She had long been in the habit of doing things that, while she wouldn't consider them particularly practical, would please others and make her life easier. If this Harrowmont was really as honorable as he had been depicted then dealing with him would probably be more straightforward and her companions would grumble less. Morrigan and Sten, in particular, would complain when she forwent the pragmatic choice in order to go the so-called 'good' one, granted, but it was nothing like the moral outrage Wynne, Leliana, and Alistair could summon up when she did act based on logic and not pathos.
Why, though? Yes, her life was easier when the people in it weren't accusing her of being a horrible person but did that really make doing something that could have such disastrous consequences worth it? Was pleasing Leliana and Wynne worth the risk of weakening Orzammar and causing more darkspawn-related incidents in the future that Ferelden would have to deal with? Odelia had heard something about Bhelen being in support of expanded trade with the surface (and the way everyone down here referred to the surface it was almost like they were capitalizing it in their head) which was always a plus and not a position that Orzammar had ever had to her knowledge. No, Leliana and Wynne's approval was not worth picking Harrowmont.
Was Alistair's? He had been the first person – the only person, really – that she had been able to connect with since her family had died and the intensity of her feelings for him…disquieted her at times. She had always said and done what it took to get what she wanted and to make other more agreeable but with Alistair she'd been honest, even about her manipulative nature. She didn't want to lose that. She glanced over at him and found him staring back at her, looking puzzled.
"Why are we stopping?" Alistair asked her once he saw that he had her attention.
Odelia was quite for a moment, running her fingers through her long red hair as she considered. "New plan," she decided, turning back the way she had come. "Where was Tapster's again?"
No, it wasn't worth it. She wasn't afraid to admit that she loved Alistair but she couldn't let worry over his reaction dictate her actions either. The decisions she faced were too important for that and if he couldn't accept her for who she was then it wasn't worth pretending for.
One ill-suited deshyr, a haughty but incompetent noble, and a trek through the Deep Roads later, Vartag personally escorted Odelia and her companions to the Orzammar Royal Palace. Since there were so many of them, most of them decided to wait outside while only Alistair accompanied her in to meet the future dwarven King.
"I am impressed, Warden," Prince Bhelen said, turning around to greet them. Unlike Harrowmont in his noble finery, Bhelen was wearing a well-crafted red armor set which was likely designed to give the impression that, unlike his opponent, Bhelen was a warrior and would be strong against the darkspawn and, in particular, the Blight. It worked. He had actually been wearing armor when she had seen him for but a moment before a small riot broke out upon first arriving in the city but it wasn't the set he currently had on. Well, warrior or not he was still a noble, she supposed. Her brother used to do the same thing.
"At my incredible message-delivering abilities or at the fact that I was willing to knowingly deliver fraudulent information that might irrevocably hurt Harrowmont?" Odelia asked pleasantly. She didn't know much about dwarven politics and so she wanted to see how he'd react to having the forged promissory notes brought up. Vartag, slimy and obsequious though he was, didn't really seem like the type to pull something like that without at least implied consent but she didn't know enough to be positive.
"I was actually referring to the fact that not many outsiders so quickly grasp Orzammar's rather... convoluted politics," Bhelen replied, quickly covering his surprise at her words. Whether his surprise was at her having realized they were fake or at her having brought it up at all was up for debate but one thing was for certain: it wasn't surprise that they were fake. "And speaking of, let me assure you that I have absolutely no idea what you're talking about and if you have proof that one of my subordinates is doing something dishonorable I would be most eager to hear about it. But allow me to introduce myself. I am Prince Bhelen of House Aeducan. Vartag told me of your – from what I understood, completely good faith – efforts against the usurper who tried to claim my father's throne."
"Is it really fair to call him a usurper if he was the candidate endorsed by your late father?" Odelia asked curiously. Someone was generally accused of being a usurper when they were trying to steal the throne and not, as Orzammar seemed to be in agreement about, if they were the previous King's choice for successor.
"That's hardly a proven claim," Bhelen sniffed. "The usurper was alone with my father when he claims he was asked to succeed him but as there are no less-biased witnesses or, really, any proof at all then I remain skeptical."
"Everyone else seems to believe this, even your own supporters," Odelia pointed out.
Bhelen looked annoyed at this. "That would be because the usurper had been poisoning my father's mind for weeks before his death if not months. Nearly a year ago, my father lost two sons when one turned against the other. He was mad with grief and Harrowmont did all he could to drive him over the edge. I was his only living child and Harrowmont barred me from him!" Bhelen cried out, his calm front giving way to show just how upset he was at this. "I had to tell him goodbye by common messenger!"
Odelia wasn't sure if what seemed to be cracks in his composure were legitimate, a way to try and garner sympathy for him, or a mix of both but her mind idly went back to her own goodbye to her father. He had been bleeding on the floor of the larder while her mother crouched down beside him as she, uninjured and perfectly capable of escaping though she may have been, chose to wait for her death to come find her. Her father had ordered her to go with Duncan and to stay alive and she had. She had loved him and did not appreciate his loss – and made yet another mental note to make Howe suffer when she killed him – but any vague sympathy she felt were nothing compared to what Alistair was clearly feeling as he remembered the unsatisfactory goodbye he'd given Duncan. It was really a good thing she was handling this instead of Alistair although if her fellow Warden were choosing their actions then they'd be at the Harrowmont estate now instead.
"With Harrowmont keeping me from my father, there were those that assumed that he would never do this without my father's consent even as he lay dying," Bhelen continued, calm once more. "And thus the usurper was able to push his claims this far. He can't possibly hope to take the throne, of course, but he's spent his life in the Assembly and is a master at delaying tactics. You have two choices: you can help me or you can wait three more weeks until Harrowmont runs out of ways to stall."
"If I were willing to wait until Orzammar's succession crisis settled itself then I would have left already," Odelia responded. "I am here to help but forgive me if I'd rather not play games."
"Oh no?" Bhelen asked, intrigued. "Are you talking about having to prove that you weren't working for Harrowmont by damaging his cause before you could meet with me?"
Odelia shook her head. "No, I do understand the point of such a precaution and Dulin would have had me do the same thing – well, prove my loyalties, that is – had I decided to work with Harrowmont. What I'm saying is that we can just cut to the chase here and not pretend that you're the noble choice. I refuse to believe that you didn't know about those fraudulent promissory notes and I've also heard that all of this chaos started when you killed one brother and blamed it on the other who you had sent off to die in the Deep Roads."
Bhelen didn't reply for a moment as he took stock of his options. "If you believe that then why are you here?" he finally asked slyly.
"Because this isn't a morality contest," Odelia said flatly. "You say you'll be a stronger King than Harrowmont and, frankly, I believe you. You say you have a vested interest in stopping the Blight? So do I. I've never met your brothers and they may have deserved it and they may not have. I loved my brother and would never have dreamed of killing him no matter how much power it would have brought me but I'm not here to judge you. I just want to know what I need to do in order to get the stronger candidate on the throne and we could save a lot of time and effort if we cut out the parts where you try to convince me that I'm 'doing the right thing.' I know that I'm doing the smart thing and that's really all I'm looking for."
A slow smile spread across Bhelen's face. "Very well, if that's how you would prefer it then let's get down to business…"
Beside her, Alistair fumed silently but said nothing. Yet.
After they left Bhelen – which took quite awhile longer than Odelia had expected – they returned to the Grey Warden quarters in the Diamond Quarter. They really were nice and spacious, far better than any room at an inn they could find. She was grateful that Alistair had vaguely remembered Duncan mentioning something about Orzammar's sometimes over-the-top hospitality or they never would have found out about this place.
Alistair had asked everyone else to leave practically the moment they had stepped inside the Grey Warden quarters. Most were willing to oblige him when it had become clear that he wanted to speak to Odelia about Grey Warden matters but Morrigan had hung back until Odelia had assured her that it was okay. Alistair had been growing more and more upset with her decisions to ally with Bhelen the more he heard about the dwarven prince and he wanted to confront her about it. As the others didn't know about Odelia's tendency to not concern herself with questions of morality, Alistair wanted to make sure they were alone. Not to mention, of course, that he'd rather not fight in front of the others.
"Well?" Alistair asked quietly once the pair were alone.
"Well what?" Odelia asked innocently. As far as she was concerned she had nothing to apologize for and any acknowledgement of what Alistair was upset about before he outright said it would be a tacit admission to the contrary.
"How could you do that?" Alistair demanded. "How could you stand there and accuse him of all of these horrible things and watch him not deny any of them and then just turn around agree to make him King?"
"Simple, Alistair," Odelia replied. "It's like I told him: it's not a morality contest."
"I think this goes rather beyond just not being the nicest person around," Alistair said stubbornly. "It's not even about all the underhanded tactics he uses although you know I don't approve of those. This is about him killing his own brothers. How would you feel if it were your family?"
"Bhelen didn't kill my family, he killed his," Odelia countered. "Alistair, I know what you're trying to say. You want me to picture Bhelen in Howe's place and realize that my hatred for Howe should mean that I judge Bhelen the same way but that's simply not going to work. My family was killed by Howe and Bhelen's probably never even heard of them, much less met them."
Alistair sighed. "Okay, forget that then. You have to see that the fact he'd be willing to have his own brothers killed doesn't bode well for the prospect of him being any less ruthless to those he doesn't share such close blood ties to."
"That seems like a reasonable assumption," Odelia agreed. "Why does that concern you so much?"
Alistair drew back. "You really can't see it? Why wouldn't I be concerned? He's going to be a tyrant!"
"Say you're right, Alistair," Odelia told him, not really disagreeing with him. "Why should we let that stop us from siding with him?"
"Because he's going to be horrible for Orzammar!" Alistair insisted.
"I'm afraid I rather disagree with that," Odelia replied.
"You think a tyrant is a good thing for his people?" Alistair couldn't believe it. "Odelia, a tyrant is probably the antithesis of what's good for his people. That's why he's called a tyrant!"
"As far as individual freedoms and the power the non-monarch nobility goes, yes," Odelia allowed. "But it's not like we get to search through the entire noble caste for our ideal King here; we've kind of got to work with what we've got."
"Too bad," Alistair said, getting momentarily sidetracked. "I think Lord Helmi would have made an excellent ruler."
Odelia blinked. "Seriously?"
"Yeah, why not?" Alistair asked rhetorically. "He had all sorts of sensible ideas about focusing less on the caste system and more on individual merit and…why are you laughing?"
Odelia, who had been trying in vain to keep a straight face, shook her head. "I'm not!" she claimed passionately, albeit falsely. "I just think you're missing the part where he said that all the other nobles hate him for his anti-traditional ideas and the feeling's clearly mutual. He could never get elected by the Assembly and he's far too much of a defeatist to be a reformer even if his coming from such a powerful house meant he could manage to take the throne."
"Okay, so maybe he wouldn't be a very practical monarch even though I think Orzammar could benefit from implementing some of his ideas," Alistair conceded. "What about Lord Harrowmont? You were going to side with him earlier, remember? According to that one dwarven woman we met earlier today he has exactly half of the deshyrs on his side and the steward at the Assembly confirmed it!"
"He's weak, Alistair," Odelia told him.
"…Did you not just hear the part about him having the same support that Bhelen does?" Alistair asked, wondering if she hadn't been listening or if she were just ignoring him. "Well, except for Houses Helmi and Dace but that was our fault."
"His support may be great but that seems to be more about putting another family in power and keeping Bhelen off the throne than because Harrowmont himself is such a strong candidate," she explained.
"Call me crazy but if half off the Assembly is willing to side with Harrowmont just so Bhelen doesn't get the throne then that seems like a pretty good indication that Bhelen getting the throne would be a bad thing," Alistair replied.
"For the more traditional of the nobles and those that secretly want the throne to pass into their own families, yes, Bhelen is not the King they want," Odelia agreed. "But for Orzammar as a whole and, more to the point, our purposes he's just what we need."
"Perhaps you could…elaborate?" Alistair suggested. "Because I'm trying to follow your train of thought here but I honestly don't understand. You're doing something horrible and I don't even get why."
Odelia sighed. "You said you liked Lord Helmi's ideas? Well you know whose ideas his align themselves more with? Bhelen. If you think Orzammar is perfect just the way it is with its caste system that just throws away a good chunk of their population that they can't afford to overlook then I can see why you'd think Harrowmont's the way to go. If, however, you're like me and want to see Orzammar strengthened so that they can mount a strong offensive against the darkspawn instead of just continuously losing ground then, nice or not, Harrowmont's just not good enough."
"You can't claim that Bhelen is the only one who can save Orzammar," Alistair argued.
"I'm not," Odelia said flatly. "Because honestly I don't know. What I do know is that we're not going to be called upon to decide Orzammar's future after this. It's now or never. Harrowmont's old, he'll likely die soon no matter what happens. Maybe his successor will be ten times the reformer Bhelen could ever be and push the darkspawn back for miles. More likely, Harrowmont will be succeeded by the same kind of traditionalist he is and Orzammar will continue to stagnate and the darkspawn will continue to advance!"
"So that's it then?" Alistair asked bitterly. "You'd put a kinslaying tyrant on the throne instead of a good and honorable man because it's 'for the best'?"
"We've been over this, Alistair," Odelia said tiredly. "Whatever it takes."
Alistair rubbed his eyes and sighed. "I suppose I should just be grateful that 'whatever it takes' hasn't caused us to side with any other morally bankrupt would-be tyrants."
"You're talking about Loghain." It wasn't a question.
Alistair looked sheepish. "Maybe. A little. Look, I still don't like this but I guess that I do understand. If you really do think that this is for the best then I'm going to trust you."
"Thank you," Odelia told him sincerely. "I like not having to hide around you."
"And I love that you trust me enough to know that you don't have to," Alistair replied. He moved to stand closer to her and cupped her face, his expression suddenly mischievous. "You know, the others should still be gone for quite awhile…"
Odelia's face lit up. "We should have done this while we were still fighting. Angry sex is the best, you know."
"I don't even want to know how you know that," Alistair murmured before pulling her down for a kiss.
That was something to take comfort in, at least. No matter how their ideals might clash and how much they may argue, as long as they were willing to try and work things out they'd be okay.
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