I wrote this up for the Leliana prompt over at Bioware Social. The theme was years after the blight. It was originally titled The Dark Secret.
Autumn is my female mage that from the get go romanced Leliana and only Leliana. I like to think of her as a book worm with a large libido and clever tongue.
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Leliana groaned and reached across the bed for her Grey Warden. When met with nothing the bard sat up in the bed and stared across the room at the dirty blonde Elven Mage who was perched against a candle lit desk with her nose in a book.
"Oh you're up already; it's still dark? What are you reading?" she asked playfully.
The elf glanced and at her and duly noted, "It's Beyond the Veil: Spirits and Demons, by Enchanter Mirdromel. I had a dream and I had to check something…."
"Did something happen while you were in the fade?" the bard fearfully questioned.
"No… I was just… strangely close to the black city." The elf did not look back at her. Leliana could sense that Autumn was not telling her everything. She stared at the elf for a while, watching her place her hair behind a sharp ear, and lick her soft plush lips. Feeling a chill the bard huddled back under the bronze covers.
"Why don't you look it up in the morning and come back to bed with me?" she cooed. The elf smiled and gave her a saucy, "No."
"But I'm cold…."
The elf sighed, blew out the candle at her desk, and closed the book. Leliana smiled with a joyful glee and pulled the elf under the sheets. "Mmph I want you," Leliana giggled into the elf's nape.
"I don't appreciate it when you lie Leliana." The elf mocked with roaming hands.
"Whatever do you mean?"
"How can you possibly be cold when you're so hot and bothered?" The elf whispered in her flushed ear, nipping at it gently, "I think I need to cool you off." Leliana felt an ice cold finger at her navel travel downward while the mage tried not to break into a fit of laughter.
"Oooooh no! Stooooop it Autumn that's cold!"
Much to Leliana's disappointment, she woke up to an empty bed. Autumn left a note saying she was making a quick trip to the bookstore, and would be back shortly, to bestow her "with kisses and mouthfuls of caramel pudding."
Leliana got out of bed, looked down at her thighs and told herself she should pass on the caramel pudding. While adorning a periwinkle robe and slippers, she yawned, and glanced over at Autumn's desk. This was her chance, and normally she would not invade the Warden's personal space, but she could tell that the elf was hiding something, and her natural bard instincts were telling her to find out what it was.
With a guilty pleasure Leliana opened Beyond the Fade. The section on the black city was covered in the chicken scratch Autumn called handwriting. Leliana groaned with frustration, "I swear she writes this way so I can't read her things!" Giving up she threw the book back on the desk, to see an envelope slip out of it.
"Oh hello…" Leliana picked up the letter indulged in curiosity, but quickly frowned at its contents.
"To the Hero of Ferelden- Autumn Neria,
As you know Weisshaupt commends you on being the leading cause against the blight. Truly you are an inspiration to all of us Grey Warden's in the Anderfels. The fact that only 2 Grey Wardens defeated an Archdemon and lived… is not only legendary but also impossible…
To put it frankly we now know that you dealt the killing blow and lived. We believe you might have dabbled in some dark magic and we wish to invite you to the fortress to discuss these… matters.
I suggest you do not make us wait long.
-The First Warden"
Leliana sank into the desk chair and stared blankly into the letter. None of it made sense to her. It was impossible for them to live? Autumn engaged in Dark magic? The first warden was giving them indirect threats to visit the fortress? Leliana ran her fingers though her hair and sighed feeling the blood rush to above her brow, "The blight has been over for 5 years. This has to be lies, how can Autumn have kept something like this from me for 5 years?"
The bedroom door creaked open and the mage came in with a smile in her face and stack of books in her arms. Leliana however was not as ecstatic. "What is this?" the red head grimly asked while holding up the letter. Autumn frowned.
"It does not matter what it is, my place is no longer with the Wardens; it is with you," The elf said placing her new books on her desk. Leliana gave a scowl at the elf's politician answer; her persuasion was not going to get through to her this time.
"What do you mean, if you do not go… they threaten?"
"Its empty threats," the elf barked.
"Then what they say is true! If you had nothing to fear you would just go!" Leliana held back tears, while her chest heaved as if it was going to collapse. Autumn said nothing and only frowned and looked away from Leliana, her 3 pigtails slightly swished.
"What and why have you kept secret for so long!" Leliana grabbed the mage's hand, and interlocked her finger's with the Warden's . She got no response, other than a distant stare at the wall. They both were still, and the room would be completely silent if it were not for the bard's soft babble. Leliana felt the elf hand tense and grasp harder on her own's.
"You… wouldn't even believe me if I told you…"
On the verge of tears Leliana sobbed out, "Try me."
The warden let out a deep breath, "On the night before we fought the Archdemon Morrigan and I convinced Alistair to have sex with Morrigan to conceive a child that would contain the soul of the Archdemon so both Alistair and I could live."
Leliana blinked and let out a giggle, "That's funny love, but please do not joke with me."
"I am not jesting! There's a reason only Grey Wardens can kill the Archdemon, It's the taint within us. When the Archdemon is slain its soul leaves its body and looks for the closest tainted host. The taint within our blood tricks the Archdemon, and since we are only mortal when the soul enters our body… we die. Riordan told us this that night, although he was the one who was going to try to kill the Archdemon, we knew, that there would be that chance." The elf hung her head.
Leliana eyes widened, "What Morrigan did with Alistair… can't be true."
"Morrigan gave us that opportunity to live, if Riordan had failed I would have to have taken the killing blow, Alistair could not, he had to be king. I refused to die that night. Leliana it's the past, I did it so I could be with you, but all I did was convince Alistair. I do not know what kind of magic Morrigan used in her ritual."
"Morrigan has the child of Alistair with the soul of the Archdemon?" Leliana was still in disbelief.
"Morrigan is gone; she put the child away… hidden. I know nothing… I'm sorry, I didn't see a point in telling you, in making you worry, Leliana, but I might have made a mistake, something is going to happen in Thedas I can feel it…" the elf bit her bottom lip.
Leliana stared at the elf… and saw a face she knew too well; a face that was hiding fear, the face she saw the night before they faced the Archdemon. She could not prod her with more questions, neither of them had the energy for the answer. The elf looked back at Leliana, now holding back tears, "I'm sorry Leliana, and I'm not going to Weisshaupt. My time is to be spent with you, not the Wardens. If they come after me, then so be it, I'll run to the ends of the world if it's the only way I can be alone with you."
Leliana smiled, "And I will run with you, to whatever end."
"You are not mad at me? I'm a coward…" The elf looked down at the floor and then at Leliana's smile.
"You, my love, lit my path through darkness and I must help you now with yours." Leliana hugged the elf, confused but overjoyed that all she wanted was her, then with a light force cupped the Warden's face in her hands. "Don't ever keep secrets from me again!" she said, "Especially one as scandalous as Alistair and Morrigan sharing a bed! I still can't believe it."
"Well I'm living proof it happened," the blonde joked.