"Well?"

He had thought about it nearly the whole carriage ride, and Alistair still wasn't sure how much he should say to her. Could he reveal the truth of Cailan's betrayal? Could he explain the uncertainty of Celene's interest in Ferelden?

"Empress Celene is sending aid as soon as she is able," he said.

Anora nodded. "And the rest?"

"She . . ." There was no use lying to her, was there? "Did offer a proposal of marriage."

Anora turned her face from him, perhaps to hide any emotion. "I see . . . I . . ." It took her a moment, but she turned her face back to him. "And your response?"

He supposed he shouldn't be surprised that she would ask such a question. What reason did she have to trust him? "I told her that was not an option."

Her whole body seemed to relax. She turned away from him to gaze out the window of the study. "I misjudged you, Alistair. I . . . thank you for your loyalty to Ferelden. It's good to know you won't ruin her on account of hating me."

"I don't . . ." Alistair paused, the words having came out before he even knew he had intended to say them. "Hate you."

She turned to him, surprise evident on her face. "You don't?"

"No, I . . ." He paused again, trying to find the right words. "Anora, when I agreed to be king, I knew it meant agreeing to a new life. I knew there was much I'd have to give up and much I'd have to learn, but I had never thought it would mean . . . marriage . . . to a woman whom, at the time, I cared very little for."

Had his feelings changed so much? No, not drastically, but they had shifted. He still found Anora to be overbearing, annoying, and too tolerant of political expectations, and yet . . . though Loghain may have passed his temperament on to his daughter, Anora was not him. She had been a victim just as much as everyone else. He understood that now when he hadn't before.

"Anora, if you'd let me, I'd . . . I'd like to have lunch with you, alone, tomorrow. No servants fussing about, no watchful guards, just . . . two people trying to decide if they can coexist with one another." When she didn't speak, he added, "Will you allow me that?"

She jumped, as though he had shaken her from some deep thought. "I . . . yes. Yes, I will accompany you."

And then came the awkward moment where now that the matter was settled Alistair didn't know what to do next. "I . . . good. I . . . well, I will see you tomorrow, then."

He left the room as quickly as his feet would carry him.


Anora didn't know what to expect. Still, she had agreed to meet him in one of the palace courtyards that contained a small garden. He was sitting on the grass when she arrived, a large blanket spread beneath him and a picnic basket at his side. A bottle of wine leaned against the basket, two glasses standing beside it.

He motioned for her to sit as she drew near. It had been a long time since she'd been on a picnic, several years, in fact. She was reminded of her courtship with Cailan. He and Alistair remained so very much alike that it startled her sometimes, now being one of them. Nevertheless, she sat.

"Wine?" he asked, holding up a glass.

She nodded, and he moved to open the bottle.

"Alistair?" she asked, "Not that I'm not ungrateful, but . . . what brought this on? You seemed so upset with being here . . . with me, I . . . why the change?"

He handed her the glass and began to fill his own. "Empress Celene, I guess," he said. "Talking with her, I . . . well, I've spent so much time being angry with everyone, feeling like they'd turned against me. And then, realizing Cailan . . ." He paused, perhaps uncertain it would be wise to approach the subject. "Well, I just saw that I wasn't being fair. I'm sure you'd felt like everyone had turned against you as well, and I figured . . . if we were fighting the same battle, we might as well be on the same side instead of fighting each other."

She sipped the wine so she didn't have to answer right away. She was amazed at his wisdom, even more so at his compassion for her. It was not long ago when she would not have expected either from him.

"Thank you," was all she could think to say.

He sipped his wine, perhaps also in the awkwardness of not knowing what to say. Finally, he half choked, "You're welcome."

She turned away from him, continuing to sip from her glass. There were birds chirping in the tree a few feet in front of them. Next to the tree stood a flowing fountain, casting peaceful sounds of running water through the immediate area. There were flowing bushes on either side of where they sat. It was a very peaceful scene, if not romantic . . . if she could allow herself to think romantic thoughts about the man sitting next to her.

"Forgive me if I'm prying," he said. "How are you with . . . with Cailan?"

She sighed and found that she didn't mind answering. No one had ever really bothered to ask her how she felt on the subject. "I had always felt that the rumors were true," she admitted. "They had just been hard to believe. I think I can make peace with it now that I know the truth."

"Wow."

"What?" she turned to him.

"It's just . . . if it were me, I don't know if I would feel the same."

No, she imagined he wouldn't. She could see him angry, throwing things about and disturbing the servants. The image actually brought a smile to her lips, and she raised her glass to hide it.

"More wine?" he asked, now that her glass was nearly empty.

"Please." She felt very relaxed, an unheard of luxury for royalty. She didn't know if it was an effect of the wine or the courtyard or . . . something else. But if Alistair noticed a more lighthearted change in her behavior, she would rather have the wine to blame.

He filled her glass and his own.

"Did you love him?" he asked.

She looked at him this time and saw everything that reminded her of her previous husband. "Yes, I did," she said softly. Then, afraid her emotions might betray her, she turned away. "It can be hard when you're betrothed as a child. You start to wonder if maybe you've missed something. Cailan, for his faults, was lovable."

"Yet his betrayal with Celene didn't surprise you?" he asked slowly.

"Oh, it surprised me," she said. "But I've had time to think about it. And . . . well, during our betrothal . . . Cailan wasn't exactly faithful."

Alistair looked surprised.

"As I said, you start to wonder if you missed something. I don't fault Cailan for that. I had no doubts as to his faithfulness after our marriage, but . . ."

"Now with Celene . . ." Alistair supplied.

Anora took a large sip of wine. "I try not to think about it," she told him. "I'd rather have good memories of my time with him, not resentful ones."

She had expected him to look surprised again, but this time she found him in thought. At last he nodded and said, "I understand."

He tilted back his half-full glass and finished it. "Lunch?" He started digging into the basket before she nodded her agreement.

Anora reached for the bottle and started filling their glasses again while he pulled out two carefully wrapped sandwiches. As soon as she unfolded the parchment, she recognized the meal immediately. It was one of her favorites: chicken with lettuce, tomato, a tart fruit, and some kind of spicy sauce the cooks refused to tell her the name or make of.

She looked at Alistair, "How did you-?"

He held up his hands. "All I did was inform the cooks I was taking you on a picnic. If they packed your favorite meal, I'm afraid I can't take credit for it."

Anora looked down at the sandwich, beautiful in all its color. It would seem that the cooks had wanted Alistair to make a good impression.

She took a bite, and watched as Alistair did the same. Eventually, he nodded his approval.

"What about you?" she asked him. "Have you ever been in love?"

He chewed slowly and swallowed. "Y-yes."

She stared at him while she waited for an answer.

"Liara," he said.

"Oh." The news both surprised her and didn't. She supposed she should have realized it sooner. "What happened?"

"I agreed to be a candidate for the throne," he said. "And that brought up questions as to whether there could be a future for us." He chewed his sandwich. "Liara wanted to end things. She didn't think there was a point to dragging something out that couldn't be, but I wasn't ready to let go." He sighed, sipped the wine. "We tried for a while, but . . . she was a little more in touch with reality than I."

"I'm sorry," she said.

"It turned out for the best," he said. "She's engaged and happy. And I'm king, like I wanted, so . . . if I could go back and do it over, I'd make the same decision. I don't think she and I were meant to stay together."

"No?"

"They say the Maker puts some people in your life so you can learn from them, but they are only meant to stay with you a little while. And then they have to move on so you can learn something new from someone else. "

"You believe that?"

He shrugged. "Sometimes it's easier to believe in such things."

"And what did she teach you?"

Alistair looked at her, thoughtfully, and after finishing another bite of his sandwich said, "Compassion." Then he turned away from her.

They ate the rest of their meal in silence and finished off the bottle of wine. There were apples in the basket, and they munched on those as well.

Anora found herself just as unsure of what to think of the situation as she had been when she walked in. It seemed that Alistair wanted a kind of truce between them, more than that even. He had said they were on the same team, and isn't that what she had wanted? Still, the idea that he was so willing to be agreeable caught her off guard. Perhaps it was as he had said; she felt like everyone was against her. It seemed hard to trust him, even though she wanted to.

Perhaps she just needed to get everything out in the air. "I can't have children."

He looked at her. "What?"

"At least it seems very unlikely. Cailan and I tried, but . . . after five years . . ."

"Anora," he said softly. "I'm not looking for an heir."

"But, it's expected-"

"I can't have children."

"I - what?"

"At least it seems very unlikely," he said, repeating her. "You see, being a Grey Warden . . . the taint kind of . . . messes with all of that."

"Oh." She hadn't known. And now that she did . . .

A large part of her was tremendously relieved, knowing that he couldn't turn against her for the same reason everyone else had.

And with that relief, came the realization that she no longer had a reason not to trust him.

And that scared her.