A/N - my nice little one-shot began bugging me with the idea for another chapter, and Morrigan's perspective on things, so here it is. (Possible light spoilers for Asunder?)
Val Royeaux, 9:40
Darting down an alley-way, the man caught his breath while glancing back and forward. Leaning back against the wall, he groaned. 'Blasted traitors…' About to put away his dagger, he heard a faint tap as someone shifted their weight on the rooftop behind him. Knocked on the ground by the pursuer, the dazed man struggled to reach his blade while wrapping his other hand around his assailant's throat. "Ah yes, you're that little bitch they call the Nightingale… bonne nuit" he taunted as he lifted the weapon.
Slamming a knee into the man's ribs, Leliana pulled back and drove a knife into his throat. Panting, she slowly crawled over to search her victim's pockets. Distracted with the task, she failed to notice the presence of a new arrival.
"Well, well… what have we here?"
'Damn it!' "He… he tried to – to force himself…" she stammered, choking out a broken sob.
"Indeed? That would have been quite impressive, then, seeing as how you were on top the entire time. Perhaps that is just one of your foul little habits?"
"… I-" 'Impossible…' Glancing at the shadowed figure, she frowned. "Morrigan?"
"Just finish whatever you were doing with his pants, and hurry up – I daresay his friends will soon realise he's overdue."
Tipping the body into a sewer opening, she slowly stood. "Au revoir, Ser Renard."
"Are you quite done, defiling renegade Templars? 'Tis beastly cold tonight and I've little patience for such games."
"Pleased to see you too, chipie" Leliana spat.
"I see your sloppiness has put you in quite a mood" Morrigan replied dismissively. "My estate is much closer than the Cathedral, are you coming or not?"
"Fine… lead on."
As they passed through a side-entrance, Morrigan noticed her servant looking up and down at Leliana's tattered attire in horror while bolting the door behind them, which caused her to smirk. "I did not realise the peasant look was coming into fashion…"
Glaring at the Witch's violet gown in proper light, she replied "And you've abandoned your claim to practicality… or have we swapped tastes?"
"Hmm… true, I suppose your little potato sack would curtail the creaks from belts and buttons."
"It hides certain equipment, as well" the Bard pointed out.
"Indeed… no doubt you have something fancier for social assignments" Morrigan mused, waving away the curious servant.
"No doubt" she agreed. "So – let's get to the point, yes? I assume you sought me out for a favour."
Morrigan simply laughed in response. "I would hardly seek your help, if I was in trouble. I was enjoying a quiet flight above the city, when I caught sight of you and your quarry. Since circumstance permitted it, I decided we should catch up on old times… and things yet to pass."
"Such good times we shared, after all" Leliana voiced mockingly. "Like when you abandoned us all, right before the final battle. I have no idea what you said, before you left, but would you care if I said Darrian was distraught over your departure?"
"He knew my reasons… and we made our peace, when we next met. I imagine your abandonment was much crueller, after all your professions of love."
"I meant to return! He… he understood our duties couldn't always align."
"Perhaps when you were helping the restoration of Lothering, or the studies of the mountain mausoleum… but staying by her side, even after making sure she took most of the credit for the expedition? Credit she bartered to become the Divine, with some extra needle-work by you? What more could you possibly have owed the woman? If it truly mattered, you could have given up the thrills and returned to his side whenever you pleased."
"Times are not so simple… I'm needed here!"
"What of the years between then and now? It seems to me that you prefer being needed to being wanted… but I suppose our friend eventually became used to it. I had to leave, Sten returned home… and so on, until his hound died and only the drunk remained. I give him credit for lasting as long as he did, before vanishing."
"You know about that already?" Leliana asked, following her host into a sitting room.
"When you ride on the winds, one tends to hear things much sooner… and I have the jabbering Crow keep me informed, if need be. 'Twas my idea he should let Darrian know your superiors wished to drag him into more problems that didn't concern him." Pouring two goblets of wine, she took a sip. "He had so much trouble saying 'no' during the Blight… and honestly, what's to come is beyond him."
"You sound quite sure" Leliana muttered, sniffing the offered drink.
"8:79 Val Chevin, if you're curious… and I'm indeed sure. What sway do you imagine he could hold over the Circle? Or are you expecting whichever puffed-up fool took up Lambert's sword will deign to listen to a Fereldan Elf? I assume you were really told to seek him out, in a feeble hope he might somehow discourage the fury stirring in the Alienages… this Hawke people speak of, being a Human, was most likely whom your Divine truly wished to use as a tool against the Chantry schism. Provided she were fool enough to get involved, after dealing with the matter for so long in Kirkwall." Sighing, Morrigan sat down and motioned Leliana towards a nearby chair. "Sadly, our Warden friend might actually have made a difference… very early on. Until that… imbecile meddled with his authority, out of spite!"
"I assume you mean Alistair… what's he got to do with anything?"
"Everything, believe it or not – him and that hypocritical old hag!" Morrigan snarled, draining her goblet. "Because she never had an opinion she didn't voice, she firstly hung about the nearby city… preaching to the Warden Spirit, and the one called Anders. If only she had told the wayward creature to accept that it shouldn't be in our world… but she had to spout endless garbage about how it 'must be here for a noble purpose', while berating the Mage for not doing more with his freedom. Then the Templars and the moron forced Darrian to admit a 'former' Templar into his ranks… who tried killing them, the second he had a chance, and forced them to run away to Kirkwall. BOOM!" she shouted, waving her hands in an outward pattern. "All because of the nuisance and the idiot!"
"That's… drawing a lengthy connection of events" Leliana frowned.
"Oh, there's more" Morrigan replied. "The woman you helped to power, meanwhile, had Wynne meddling into matters far beyond human understanding. For all her lectures about responsibility, it turns out she had no problem trying to split the Veil and bring monsters into our world. 'Hmm… I wonder what'll happen if I shove a Pride Demon into a Tranquil's head?!' Lunacy!"
Emptying her own drink, Leliana stared at Morrigan in shock. "That's not…"
"Oh, it is! All three of you… and to think, Darrian was more worried about my plans. He was probably right, when we met in the Wastes – it would have been a massive beacon to Flemeth. Along with the Darkspawn, and perhaps the Imperium too. 'Tis a peculiar way fate twisted, but the only people who didn't abandon him or create massive problems they expect him to solve were the ones he failed."
"What are you talking about? The Imperium?"
"Just thinking… he couldn't help the drunk with his insane wife, but had his loyalty regardless. Also the loyalty of Howe's last son, believe it or not. Zevran keeps watch, between running from his own pursuers… and the poor Queen made sure her 'husband' couldn't find him."
"Anora knows where he is? Why didn't-"
"Because she knows he doesn't want to be found, twit! He's earned a few years of peace before the Calling takes him! How do you not understand this?! If things go bad in Ferelden, he'll come running if he has to, but I hope it doesn't… luckily, Anora has time to bolster her country without Alistair in her way – since the ingrate couldn't get Darrian to fix everything for him yet again, he's gone off on some idiotic search for his dead father instead! Because he'll never grow up and handle his own problems, it would seem."
"He should have told me his worries…" Leliana said quietly.
"All of those times you weren't visiting? It's too late to act like you care now… his poor eyes just flickered with pain, at your name, when I saw him last – seven years ago!" Smirking, Morrigan refilled both goblets. "If that excitable Dwarf who went with him has her way, he'll soon get over whatever hold you had… I bet he didn't even realise why she insisted on following him, where duty wouldn't forbid them from-"
"Shut up!"
"Temper, temper… like everything else, it's your own doing. I imagine he still left a message for you, when he left."
Rubbing her head, Leliana thought back. "A rather cold goodbye and some odd attempt at poetry."
"Poetry?"
"Weary of supposed friends so craven, I go beyond reach of Crows or Songbirds, I shall make myself a Raven, as I now fly away backwards… I thought that meant he went home, or disappeared into some other Alienage-"
"Perhaps he did have some faint wish to see you again, with a hint like that…"
"What hint?"
"A Raven flying backwards… 'tis obvious." Getting no reaction, she sighed and walked over to a writing desk. Quickly scratching down one word, she handed it to the confused Seeker. "A Raven, backwards… you understand it now, I hope?"
"Nevarra…"
Glaring deep into her eyes, Morrigan leant forward. "… Debating what to do with the knowledge? I admit I have no idea if your sudden appearance, out of guilt, would please or pester him."
"Why do you even care? Doing all of this now, what do you hope to gain?"
"Nothing at all" she shrugged. "As I once told him, however… even if I wasn't worthy of his friendship, I have always valued it. He was… curiously simple, and oftentimes infuriating, but he somehow made that admirable. I… for some reason, you made him happier than I could have…" Wiping her eyes, she sat back down. "But I don't know if that would still be the case, after what you've done. That's even assuming you would walk away from here… love or the mission, weakness or strength; I do not know which of those words to associate with another." Rising again, she scrawled something on another parchment. "So, a test – you can either risk everything, and find a ship heading north, or you take this list to your master and continue being her simple watchdog." Handing it over, her face grew hard. "Be sure of whatever choice you make, there will be no turning back… and should I find you again, if you break him; I shan't even bother finding a drain-hole for your corpse. Dawn is almost here – time for you to be going."
Showing Leliana to the front door, Morrigan gave one last look of scrutiny. "This may be obvious, and mutual… but I hope to never see you again" she croaked, before slamming it shut.
"You intercepted their runner, then?"
"Yes, Your Holiness" Leliana replied, passing a small collection of papers to Justinia. "That was everything he had in his possession. Camp positions, mostly."
"You seem troubled, my dear?" the older woman ventured, watching carefully.
"It… it's nothing. Just thinking about people I once knew."
"The Warden, again? It's a shame we couldn't find him… he might have been a useful weapon indeed."
Swallowing her reaction, Leliana nodded. "Another old… friend, perhaps, provided me with this."
Unfurling the scroll, Justinia read it twice in confusion. "'The Warden is lost to your cause, hopefully he stays that way, and I expect Hawke is not far behind. However… other 'children of destiny' are already active. Adaar, Cadash, Lavellan, Trevelyan. Focus your attentions upon them, instead.' Two of these names at the end are familiar… who did you say gave you this note?"
"… Nobody important."
"Hrmm… very well. Have Cassandra look into this Adaar… woman, and see what she is currently planning."
There we go... considering a Hawke or Alistair chapter, but it probably won't be soon.
