Chapter 3 everyone. Little summary for this chapter: Duncan gets some answers about Night and they finally get to Ostagar and a fight scene. And to all who have favorited thank you. R and R and enjoy. Also there will be a dream sequence marked in Italics. Sorry for the late update. Be warned fairly Dark ahead.

Update: I HAVE NOT forgotten about this story I plan on continuing it. I haven't been having a good life so im going to probally do it on the plane on the 8 hour layover.

2nd update: I rewote the dream sequence to fit Nights history and what makes her tick. Also there wasn't a lot of great reviews for only the dream sequence. See I haven't forgot about this story. Also I really don't want to write Ostagar but dint you worry im going to finish it.

REWORKED

Chapter 3: Answers

Duncan and Night had made their way out of the Alienage and into the hustle and bustle of Denerim's lower market. Even though the sun had just risen a few hours ago the market was all a bustle. People were crowding around merchants stalls, talking with each over. What Night found strangest were the servants of some of the nobles. Bosmer, or Wood Elves, followed their masters around like a good dogs. She didn't know what they did in this land to deserve this fate but whatever it was; she hoped that one day it would happen to the elves of the Altmeri Dominion.

They had made their way out of the city, collected the rest of Night's gear from a man named Slim Couldry. It was strange seeing Night interact with this man. When they had approached Slim he had readily handed her, her pack and said it was a great honor to see her-the Listener. Apparently Listener was a title that deserved great honor amongst the Dark Brotherhood.

Duncan set a punishing pace in order to measure Night's stamina. He expected her to slow down once they had left Denerim considering her injuries and exhaustion. He expected her to slow down before they even left the city, even though she was now carrying the rest of her gear. But she hadn't even slowed down; actually she probably would out pace him if he wasn't leading.

"We will make camp there for the night," he said pointing to clearing to the left of the road. Wordlessly Night walked towards the clearing. She threw her pack onto the ground and sat down beside it.

She began to rummage through her pack, pulling out a strange vial filled with a red liquid. The vial itself was like any you could buy at any apothecary besides the white line swirling from the lip to the base. She uncorked the vial and a thick iron smell wafted through the air. Night lifted it to her mouth and gulped it down.

"May I ask you a question?"

"Just one?" she quipped, but wore no smile.

"No, but one to start with, if it is fine with you."

"Okay. What's the question?"

"What is a Listener?"

"Ah, yes that would be a good question to start with," she said clearing her throat before continuing," Well were to start. The Listener is the leader of Black Hand which is the ruling body of the Dark Brotherhood." she said lifting her hand with the palm facing him, revealing her-ironically armored- black glove, "The Listener is the thumb, the most important of the fingers. The Night mother speaks to them… well not speak because her lips are rotten because she is a corpse, but that's not the point. Basically the Listener is the leader of the Dark Brotherhood, not counting the Night mother,"

That name again, Night mother. One of his questions was answered, but a few more were brought up.

"I would like to get some rest before sunset," she said, standing up, picking up her bedroll.

"You're going to sleep? The sun isn't going to set for a few hours."

"Yeah I know it's a habit I haven't been able to break," she said, setting the bed roll down by a small fire that Duncan started while she had been talking. "Don't worry I will be awake when the sun has set don't worry." she said lying down, falling asleep in the fetal position a few minutes later. Duncan was left to his thought. This woman was strange indeed.

Wind and snow blew against her body, stinging her uncovered arm. Her body shock violently, as it tried to warm itself up to no avail. Winter had come to Windhelm. The only way you could possibly stay warm was to huddle by a roaring fire with a blanket wrapped firmly around your body.

But that's not what She wanted to do now. As she sat on the cold stone step that led to her skeever infested wooden shack, she tried to feel something other than the horrid feeling that had settled in her gut.

That was why she was sitting on stone steps, during the dead of winter. To feel something, anything, didn't matter what as long as it wasn't that horrid feeling. It wasn't working though; even the stinging wind of a Skyrim winter didn't dull it.

A hand grabbed her hair and yanked her back up to her feet, causing her to yelp out in pain. "Girl get back in da house. You'ze aint done yet."

Night looked up at the taller Dunmer man, his grizzly face sneering down at her. He smelt strongly of alcohol. Her tiny hand shot up and started to scratch his violently. It caused him to release her hair, but only to bring a boney fist to her cheek. It caused her to fall to the ground and hit her head hard against the snow covered cobblestone.

Before she had a chance to get her bearings back his hand grabbed her hair again and started to drag her back to the shack. He approached the door and yanked it impatiently open…

Night shot up from her bedroll startling Duncan, who had been writing in his codex. Her eyes were ablaze with anger and pain. It was strange looking at her in such a state, her long white hair slightly ruffled from sleep, the darker grey bags from under her eyes had disappeared, and the remaining cuts had healed un-naturally fast leaving only the faintest sign of scars. It always unsettled him that look in her eyes when she was in pain.

"Nightmare?" Duncan asked. She walked towards a small fire that Duncan had started after darkness had fallen over Ferelden. She sat down on the other side of the fire and stared thoughtfully into the dancing flames. "Yep," she stated simply in a whisper. There was awkward silence for a few moments before Night spoke up, "So where are we going anyways."

"We will be traveling south through the hinterlands to the ruin of Ostagar, on the edges of the Korcari Wilds. The Tevinter Imperium built Ostagar long ago to prevent the Wilders from invading the northern lowlands. It is fitting if we make our stand there, even if we are facing a very different foe within that forest."

She just stared at him blankly for a few moments before shaking and mumbling sarcastically, "That sure answers my question. So what are these Darkspawn anyways?"

"The Chantry teaches us that it was the hubris of man that brought the Darkspawn into our world. They teach that when the magisters of the old Tevinter Imperium entered the Golden City, their sin brought corruption to it. They were cast out, transformed into the hideous monsters known as darkspawn, and forced to flee the light of the sun, retreating into the Deep Roads." He said. She scoffed; it sounded more like religious lecture than an actual answer, "Truthfully no one knows how the darkspawn came to be," he finished.

"Yet you fight them. Why don't you try to talk to their leader? Or at least figure out some middle ground?"

"The darkspawn are monstrous, tainted creatures that kill or taint everything they come in contact with."

"They taint everything they touch…?" she said, leaving Duncan to explain.

"Yes. The taint is a disease that corrupts anything it comes in contact with. That's the reason the darkspawn are so dangerous, even more so during a Blight."

She just shook her head a bit before going back to stare at the fire. It had been an answer to her question, but it only led to more question. Night heard a yawn come from Duncan which surprised her. He did seem the man to outwardly show how he was feeling. Well he is only human, she thought to herself. "You should get some sleep. I will take watch and I'll wake you once the sun has returned to the sky."

"Thank you, I will," he said moving towards his bedroll.

Once he had got settled Night had finally had time to herself and her thoughts. She looked down at the man who thought he saved her life. Something about him was off. She couldn't quite put her finger on it, but it was undoubtedly concerning something in his blood. She finally gave up with sigh. She pulled her pack towards her and started to root around in it. Night pulled out, triumphantly, what she was looking for out; a red, leather bound journal, an inkwell, and quill. She quickly flipped through the pages, stopping at an empty page.

The mid afternoon sun shimmered down through the thick canopy of leaves. Night and Duncan had pulled up camp at the crack of dawn and started back on their way to the Ostagar. The journey so far had been uneventful so far. Night spent most of the time hammering him with question on the darkspawn, the Grey Wardens, Ostagar, and just general question about Ferelden, but more often or not the time passed by in silence.

Night was thinking on some of what Duncan had told her about this strange land as she sauntered down a dirt path. They had to leave the main road-or the Imperial Highway as Duncan had told her-because of a collapsed stone supports on the highway. She couldn't help but scoff at who ever had designed the main road throughout a kingdom of stone that rose off the grounds up to eleven feet at some places.

Night heard a slight ruffle coming from the trees on a raised on a nearby hill followed by a whisper. She let out a small laugh before saying and pointed towards the hill "You know there are bandits on the hill over there,"

Duncan spun around, drawing his sword and dagger from their scabbard. He dropped down into a defensive preparing for the bandits.

Three rushed men through the bushes and down the hill. These were no soldiers or any sort of trained men-of-war; their armor was a hodgepodge mixture of rough leather that showed of horrible maintenance. She looked over their weapons. Two of them brandished rusted daggers that looked like they could barely cut fabric, let alone armor. The last man was wielding a great sword that was fairly well taken care of, but not like one should treat their weapons. One look at the men before her was all she needed to read them. They were cowards and as such they would die as cowards.

The men had advanced from down the hill and were charging the pair. The great sword wielding bandit was the first to arrive within range for what Night had planned for them.

Duncan tightened his grip on his weapon and got ready to dodge the wild arc the bandit was winding up for. Before Duncan could dodge he was forced to drop his weapon to cover his ears.

"YOL…TOOR…SHUL!" Night Shouted.

Duncan watched in shock as a torrent of flame erupted from Night's throat. The flames engulfed the great sword wielding bandit, sending him flying through the air screaming in agony.

Night charged the remaining two dazed bandits. She had approached the first of the dagger wielding bandits and swung her dagger. The bandit had broken out of his daze and just had enough time to block the blow. She blow staggered him causing him to take a few steps back.

Night took the opening to slip effortlessly behind him. She grabbed his mouth firmly and placed her dagger against his throat and jerked it sideways. It opened his throat with blood gushing out from the massive gash that now decorated his throat. Night spun on her heels, causing the bandit to spin as well. He lost his footing and fell to the ground, clutching his throat in a vain attempt to stop the bleeding.

The last bandit was now facing the woman who had just killed two of his comrade's. Every fiber of his beings told him to run, so that's what he did.

The bandit had made it back to the hill. He was fast; mind you most people are fast when they are running for the life. She had also seen faster. He barely made any distance before Night started to channel her magicka to form an icy spear.

She drew her hand back, balled it into a fist before she flung it forward, opening her hand and released the powerful spell. The spear flew through the air with tremendous speed at the bandit. It finally found purchase in the bandit's heart and continued through. It finally stopped by shattering against the tree. He crumpled to the ground with a hole in his chest.

Duncan ears were still ringing from the ear shattering noise that had left Night's throat. By the time the fight had been over, in the few moments it had lasted, Duncan had not retrieved his weapons he had been forced to drop. He had been to mesmerize with Night to even think of his weapons.

He decided it was a good time to pick up his sword and dagger. He leaned down and picked them up. He felt a tap on his shoulder that caused him jump a little. He got back up placing his blades back into their respective scabbards. Even though his ears were no longer ringing he could tell he couldn't hear because he could tell that Night's mask was moving, yet he could hear out nothing.

Night could tell he couldn't hear her and anticipated it. She placed her hands on either side of his head, causing him to flinch slightly. She concentrated her magicka to her hands to his ears. A yellow churning light appeared in her hands that quickly jumped to his ears causing a light tingle in his ears. The tingle quickly changed into an uncomfortable burning sensation.

"Sorry, I should of warned you first, but he got a bit close so I just acted," she said with no real remorse, removing her hands from the sides of his hands and took a few steps back.

"It's fine," he said. He was still in a bit of a shock from what he had witnessed; also the smell of burning flesh that wafted through the air didn't help. "I'm fine, but I was not aware that you had that you were gifted with magic."

Night shrugged her shoulder. "Yes. Is this a problem?" she said, her voice dripping with venom.

"Not at all!" he answered quickly. Had he done something to offend her?

"Okay. We should keep moving then."

It had been roughly a week before Night and Duncan and even left the main road to spend another four days following another highway towards Ostagar. In those days the nightmare's had returned with a vengeance, causing memories, long buried, to resurface and more than a few questions from Duncan. She was slowly feeling like the little control she had over her emotions to quickly deteriorate, which was bringing forward many other emotions. The nightmare's never haunted her when she was in a sanctuary, in Sithis' embrace.

These emotions had quite an effect on her physically and mentally. Her muscles were constantly tense and she was having a very hard time keeping her temper under check and not striking out against the nearest thing, and not having that option was only making it worse. Normally she would simply go out and find someone to kill. They would die when she wanted them, how she wanted them to. It didn't matter if it was a contract or not, as long it brought Night some semblance of control.

But now she was traveling through forest, with some man that she did not know, towards an ancient ruin with the army of an entire country camped at it and she had nothing but her thoughts, memories, and emotions as a true companion. It was horrible.

Ostagar was like no ruin Night had ever seen. Ruined walls went high into the sky blocking out the sun, casting shadows over much of the land, Statues of people long dead, stood proudly, and in the centre of the entire ruin was a massive tower that shot up into the heavens.

Duncan and Night had moved through the gates that lead to the king's camp. As they walked towards a massive bridge, Night earning quite a few questioning stares by many of the soldiers they had encountered. A fairly tall blonde man in golden armor approached the duo, reared by two guards. Night looked at the man he had long blonde hair that had been pulled behind his ears. He was a handsome, but more of a boyish charm. She had no doubt this man had Nordic blood even if he didn't know it.

"Ho there, Duncan!" the man said, wearing a cocky smile. His voice was light and charming

"King Calian? I didn't expect…"

THIS was the king of this land. Duncan had told her a little about him but nothing that would hint what he was actually like. He is a just boy in a man's body! Night was not impressed at all with this man. She could tell from this man's eyes he was extremely arrogant. He clearly thought he was invincible. That was no surprise, considering he was a bloody noble, Night thought bitterly to herself.

"A royal welcome?" the king said; still wear that cocky smile that made Night want rip his lips off. JUST to wipe that smile on his face. "I was beginning to worry that you'd miss all the fun!" he said, placing a hand on Duncan's shoulder; a friendly gesture.

"Not if I could help it, your Majesty," Duncan said in an amused tone that made Night blink a few times.

"Then I'll have the might Duncan at my side! Glorious!" the King said and turned his head to Night.

The woman that had followed Duncan now stood beside him. Calian looked over her. She was strange, very strange. She was from some far off land that was no doubt. She was short; undoubtedly shorter than quite a few of the elven servants running around the camp, she was taller than any and all dwarves that he had seen before. He couldn't make out any other details of the woman in front of him curtosy of her git-up. She had the body of an elf, but no elf from his lands. Orange-red eyes glared at him through the small the small area that was not covered. Defiantly foreigner

"The other Wardens told me you had found a promising recruit. I take it this is she?" he said, gesturing a hand at Night.

Duncan turned to look at Night. She wore a scowl that could clearly be seen with the little amount of skin that her hood showed. Her body was tenser than it had been when they had been traveling, and the look in her eyes spoke volumes. It was clear that she didn't like Calian, but the reason escaped Duncan, perhaps because he was a Noble? But this could cause problems, whatever reason from her past could not affect her as a Grey Warden. Grey Wardens have no past. Wardens couldn't allow personal feeling's to get in the way of their duty, he thought to himself grimly.

"Allow me to introduce you, your Majesty," Duncan said.

"There's no need to be so formal Duncan. We will be spilling blood together after!" Calian said before turning towards Night.

"Ho there friend! What is your name and from where do hail friend," Calian said, with his smile growing larger.

"I am Night your Majesty and I hail from Skyrim, on the continent of Tamriel, your Majesty," Night said with a slight bow. Her tone was cold and business like.

"Really!" Calian's eyes lit up like a child finding out that dragons exist, "I… umm…. What brought you here?"

Night had to think on how to word it because saying she was an assassin sent here to kill a list of people for the Dark Brotherhood. That might have some repercussions, she thought to herself.

"I came here for business venture for my Family," she said, causing Duncan to release a breath he didn't know he had been holding.

"Really? I must ask you some questions after the battle, if that is all right with you? Perhaps I can provide aid once all this darkspawn nonsense is over?" Calian said enthusiastically.

Night wanted to tell the man to sod off. She did not want to answer to a noble and a king at that, but her training won out. Always respect the Family in everything you do, Night's mentors voice rang through her head, causing her no small amount of pain.

"Of course, your Majesty," Night said in the same business like tone she had used before.

"Magnificent!" Calian exclaimed. He was clearly exited to learn about a land that few people knew of. He turned to Duncan and said, "I'm sorry, but I must cut this meeting short. Loghain awaits eagerly to bore me with his strategy!"

With that sentence, Night had lost any respect she had for this man. Any king so willing to throw away strategy deserved no respect from her or his men; no matter how charismatic he was.

At this point in the in conversation Night had stopped listening. Too busy conjuring elaborate and painful ways for this man to die. Not like she would actually follow through them through…yet

"I'd hoped for a war like in the tales! A king riding with the fabled Grey Wardens against a tainted god – but I suppose this will have to do." He exclaimed, causing Night to forget about her musings. That sentence made her hate this man even more. From what Duncan had told her about the darkspawn, and most things that were associated with them caused great death and corruption followed them were ever they go. And this boy wanted a war with them. It caused her to scoff quietly. Never underestimate your enemy, Night's mentors words rang through her again, it's better to overestimate your enemy than underestimate them.

"I must take my leave know," Calian said still wearing that smile and took his leave.

Night making sure that the boy king was out of ear shot she said frustrated "BY SITHIS! Were doomed,"

Well there's chapter 3 sorry again for the late update. Also in the future the fight scenes will be better don't worry. Stay tuned for chapter 4.