A/N: This is the beginning of something that I'm working on. I'm not quite sure yet where it will go, but please read and review! Suggestions are welcome.
Much thanks to AdelaeAmell for being my beta. Also, BioWare owns pretty much everything (obvi).
There she was, standing before Anora. Alistair's lips curled almost instinctively into a half-snarl. The crowd was bowing down at Elissa's blessed presence, but all he wanted to do was tear her to pieces.
He had given her everything- his sword, his shield, his allegiance, even his heart; and she betrayed him. She had gone against everything he stood for and believed in.
For him, the wound was just as sore as it was then. She let that regicidal maniac into their ranks and accepted him as a brother. How could she accept the man who betrayed their king and let the Grey Wardens die? The man who robbed Alistair of both a brother and a father on the field that day? Loghain was a hero once again, and Alistair was set to marry his daughter. She was the one who let it come to this, the one who stabbed him in the back.
She was favoring her right leg, and a huge scar ran up her left forearm – wounds from the battle that he watched from the sidelines. It's too bad, he thought, that they weren't any worse. She deserved the pain.
"How could you do this to me, Elissa? I loved you! I trusted you! And you let a snake into our ranks! We needed him like we needed to be stabbed in the back! Or did you forget that he's already done that?"
She was silent. She hadn't spoken a word since he'd confronted her; she simply stood before him and let him punish her.
Alistair snarled and ran his hand through his cropped hair. "After all this time that we've been together, after everything we worked for, this is what I get? I deserved better from you! Duncan and Cailan deserved to see that traitor brought to justice, not to see him become a Warden!"
"Alistair… I…" She tried to hold his gaze, but the usually warm amber eyes of his had darkened with anger.
"Are you insane? Loghain betrayed us all! If it wasn't for him, none of this would even be happening!"
Elissa held up her hands in conciliation. "Alistair, please stay rational. You're letting your emotions get in the way of the big picture."
"My emotions," Alistair snorted, "well that's just rich, isn't it? Where were your emotions when you killed Howe?"
She grimaced at the name, and he almost regretted bringing it up. But some part of him, deep inside, reveled in the pain that he was now causing her.
"He didn't give me a choice," she whispered after a few seconds, clenching and unclenching her fists in an effort to keep her emotions in check.
"Your family," Alistair seethed, voice practically dripping with venom, "must be proud of your forgiving nature."
She moved so quickly that Alistair only saw a flash of danger in her stormy blue eyes before her palm connected with his cheek. The blow resonated in the empty hallway, and he stared at her in shock.
"Don't… you dare… bring my family into this," her voice quivered.
Heat slowly encompassed his cheek, and the prickling pain soon followed. Alistair had no idea why he spoke such poisonous words, but they had their intended effect. Elissa's body was shaking in anger. Her eyes betrayed both her heartbreak at the loss of her family and her guilt at striking the man she loved. She sighed after a brief silence and blinked away the tears that threatened to fall.
"I did this to protect you," she finally spoke, refusing to meet his eyes, "I didn't want to see you hurt…"
He let out a short, frustrated laugh. "See me hurt, yes, because now you care about my feelings. I hope you defeat the Blight, Elissa, for the good of this kingdom, but I hope you get what's coming. This debt will be paid in full. The Maker will see to it; this I promise."
Anora began to sing praises of Elissa, the noble turned Warden turned Hero of Ferelden. Elissa tried to meet Alistair's gaze, but he shot back a look of disgust. She shifted uncomfortably during the speech, casting glances around the chamber.
Alistair scoffed at her nervousness. She deserved much worse than what she got. It's too bad she didn't die at the hands of the Archdemon the way Loghain did. It would have made everything so convenient…
"ALISTAIR!"
"What in the Maker's name?" The King of Ferelden snapped to attention to see Elissa sprint full speed directly at him. She crashed into the man with a loud thud, knocking him to the ground.
Her body was pressed against his, her face only a few inches away, as she looked at him with those sad eyes of hers, filled to the brim with emotion. For a second he almost fell for it, almost forgave her sins, almost buried his fingers into her dark, wavy hair, and almost kissed those soft, rosy lips. Instead, he pushed those feelings to the back of his mind and scowled.
"What do you think you're doing?"
She looked startled, disoriented, and blinked at him. He could hear her sharp intakes of breath; feel her body shudder slightly as she held herself above him. Where before he might have felt love, it was now replaced with frustration. In one smooth move, he shoved her off.
That was when she cried out in pain.
When Leliana noticed Elissa's unease at the ceremony, she immediately sensed it too – a certain je ne sais quois that didn't quite feel right, like the oppressive feeling in the air before an unexpected thunderstorm. She nudged Zevran's arm, and the frown on his face meant that he felt it as well. Something was definitely awry, but it wasn't until Elissa cried out in the middle of the Queen's speech that Leliana saw the threat: a man in the rafters, the flash of a dagger. She responded in turn with a well-aimed arrow through the man's shoulder, and he went down with a thud to the floor. Guards surrounded the man almost immediately, swords drawn and bows taut.
"Wynne!" Alistair's voice rose above the fearful and distressed murmurs that spread through the hall.
Zevran felt little sympathy for Alistair after what he did to Elissa, but when he turned to the front of the hall and saw her in a pool of blood, his heart sank into the pit of his stomach.
The first thing she felt was not pain. Only shock. Only a firm pressure on her chest, as if someone had punched her there. She'd been injured plenty of times before, but never like this.
She knew something was wrong as soon as she walked into the palace. At first, she thought it was nerves, or maybe even guilt. Guilt at the way Alistair hated her, guilt at the way Loghain surprised her, guilt at the way she had survived.
"I hope you defeat the Blight," Alistair had said to her, "but you will get what you deserve for this betrayal." But she didn't die. She fought the Archdemon and survived, the only Grey Warden who made it out alive from the whole ordeal. Maybe things would have been easier if she had made the final blow instead.
Part of her mind screamed at her for trying to protect Alistair after everything he'd done and said. But she was still a Cousland, and Couslands always did their duty. Her father would be proud; she knew that much to be true.
Elissa was painfully aware of how close they were, of the increasingly difficult act of breathing, of the way his caramel eyes looked at hers with pained affection before the look dissolved to one of disgust. Seething, he pressed a powerful arm to her shoulder and flipped her onto her back.
Elissa could hear the tear of leather as the dagger tore deeper into her, and let out a cry. The pain of the wound became distinct and sharp, no longer just a dull pressure in her chest. She could see the pool of blood already forming by her side and taste the iron of blood in her mouth.
She would have laughed if she could. The whole thing was filled with a sort of bitter irony. The daughter of a murdered Teyrn who reluctantly became a Grey Warden, who, against all odds, united the Dalish elves, the dwarves of Orzammar, the mages of the Circle, and Ferelden's armies to defeat the Archdemon. And here she was, about to die from an assassin's throwing dagger.
Oh how the mighty have fallen.
She could hear people yelling now, and felt that warm blue light of a spirit healer's magic. Through hazy eyes, she saw Zevran plant a firm punch on Alistair's jaw. She heard Leliana's voice and felt the bard hold her bloodied hand. She even thought she saw her own brother before all went black and the voices faded to soft droning waves.