Selene is actually inspired by Theresa from the Fable games, who is directly related to the main protagonist in the first game, and is assumed to be related to the protagonist in the second. She is also blind, a Seeress, and assumed to be immortal.
Tybalt gets his name from a character by the same name from Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. He is, however, nothing like him. Tybalt was an asshole in the play.
Hannah, Selene's daughter, is also inspired by a Fable character. You'll find that all of my original Grey Wardens take after the Three Heroes from Fable 2. Hannah is much like Hannah, or Hammer as they call her. Tamyria is much like Garth, and Felrin is like Reaver in a sense that he is arrogant and not well suited to heavy responsibility.
Enough about the characters that you've met or will meet in this chapter. Lets get on with it.
"I want to come with you, father."
When everyone had readied to leave the castle, they found Cailan at the gates. He was already atop his horse, prepared to leave with the Grey Wardens and all the others going with. It seemed that he would probably fight Maric on the issue for eternity, and it felt like eternity as they began arguing. It took them so long to reach an arrangement that everyone had saddled their horses, and Loghain had even managed to ready Maric's own horse.
"Fine! But you aren't going into the Deep Roads with us. You'll stay with those that are going to remain at camp, just in case."
Even this answer was satisfactory to Cailan, and he lead his horse in a circle in something like a victory prance. As he did this, Loghain led Maric's horse to him.
"Try not to fall this time," Loghain said, and to Maric, it almost sounded like a joke.
"What's this, the great Loghain Mac Tir making a joke? Mark it in the history books, Cailan. The day has finally arrived," Maric gave him a toothy grin as he hoisted himself up and onto the back of his horse.
"Be quiet, Maric. I was simply asking you not to repeat a past mistake."
"Suuuurrrrreeeeee…" The King chuckled as he rode ahead to join Duncan.
Even as the group left the castle, they formed something of a riding line. They moved in pairs, Duncan and Maric at the lead, Loghain and Malkyn just behind them, followed by a cart which was being driven by one of the palace guards. Behind the cart were Cailan and Selene, who would probably not utter a single word to each other the entire trip. Just behind them were the two Knights of the group, Ser Cauthrien and Ser Tybalt.
"Does the King make it a habit to fall off his horse?" Malkyn looked ahead of herself at Maric, who was deep in conversation with Duncan.
"You would be surprised how often it happens."
"I take it he is a terrible rider."
"To put it bluntly, he has a habit of falling off when it serves him well. During the rebellion, he fell off of his horse and into a great snow drift. He was there the whole battle, and no one ever knew until Rowan and I found him."
Loghain blinked as he told this story to her, finding it strange that he could not only make conversation with her, but speak so lightly of Rowan. She seemed to have a way of lightening the air quite like Anora managed to do for him. Maybe the girls had more in common than they thought.
"Had to have been awfully cold."
"I can imagine it was, but that doesn't make him any less lucky. It was a tough battle."
"Were you always better suited to close combat?" Malkyn tried to keep conversation going. She did not want to fall into silence.
"Meaning that I always wore such heavy armor, or that I was better with a sword than anything else? In either case, no. When I was young, I preferred leather armor and I was better with a bow than could be said for my skills with a sword. I think I have fallen out of practice…."
And most of the ride that day continued in just such a way. Malkyn never seemed to tire of Loghain, and he never seemed to tire of her. They took turns asking each other questions, as was the way when you had a long time to travel and nothing else to do.
Malkyn told him stories about Oghren and Branka in exchange for any memories of the days when he, Maric, and Rowan were inseparable. Every story she told made her face light up in smiles and laughter, like the memories were some of the best she had. Loghain could barely comprehend how dancing on a table with two drunken dwarves qualified as one's finest memories, but he didn't question it. He simply watched her and listened.
"So there we were, okay? Two dwarves, both of which are so drunk that they're falling over in giggles, and then there's me, the dainty little human that can't hold her liquor, vomiting into Oghren's pint. He got mad at me for that one in the morning, but I think we were all equally hung over, so it didn't really make a difference.."
If Loghain had ever been that drunk, he didn't remember it.
"Did you make it a habit to go drinking with them all the time?"
"No, not all the time. Whenever I was in Orzammar, they were my go to people. I was pretty surprised when Branka became a Paragon, and so was she. To tell you the truth, she didn't like it a bit… She doesn't like the attention it brings her."
"And what about you? Do you like being a Bann?" Loghain turned his head to look at her.
She seemed fairly deep in thought when she finally did answer him," I don't know if I'd say I like the actual being a Bann part.. But taking my father's place has gotten me things that I've always liked having."
"Like?"
"Friends. Anora, Tybalt.. Even you, I guess. And, and my sister. I haven't seen her since she brought Juliana to me."
When they finally made camp, Maric watched his old friend like a hawk. He noted how Loghain spent most of his time with Malkyn, even while they were off the road. They seemed to be like a pair of magnets, one never able to leave the other alone. It was Maric's turn to feel a sense of déjà vu. It was his turn to see Rowan in Malkyn every time she spoke a word to Loghain, and every time he saw he friend look on her with something bordering longing and remembrance, Maric said a silent prayer to the Maker.
Tybalt watched them too, and he saw Malkyn give a good natured smile here and there. He had once thought that she would need closure to ever smile like that again, and he wondered what closure that Loghain Mac Tir could ever offer her. To him, it seemed to be nothing but a fleeting moment of comfort to his Lady. He was not in the least concerned about how the situation effected the Teyrn. The Lady's Knight saw Loghain as nothing more than an older gentleman chasing after a younger lady whose biological clock was ticking faster than she could run.
When Ser Cauthrien looked upon them, she knew not what to think when Malkyn offered Loghain a drink of something she had brought with her. She knew not what to think when she heard her Teyrn laughing, Maker's breath.. Laughing! She chose to blame it on the alcohol, and by no means did the Lady have anything to do with.
Malkyn made it her duty to sing every night as everyone laid themselves down to sleep, like she was the mother of them all, singing her children down with a lullaby. Selene sat up with her no matter whose turn it was to keep watch, and she smiled to her sister every time.
"You will be a good mother, Mally."
"If I ever find a man I feel that comfortable with," Malkyn whispered to her.
"You don't understand. When I say you will I mean it. You will be a good mother someday," Selene patted her sister's shoulder and sat next to the fire, watching all the others drift off to sleep.
Even Loghain in his tent met rest and good-natured sleep during their travels. He did not once dream of Rowan, and not once did he spend his moments of drifting away to think about her. He was tired physically, but no longer was he so worn down that even sleep would not take him. Four days travel and talk with Malkyn has surely lifted a lot of weight from his shoulders.
They talked about a lot of things that he wouldn't talk to anyone else about normally, and this was always when they were not riding. Whenever she would ask about Rowan, he would tell her to wait until they made camp, and he would tell her what he could manage in hushed words over a campfire and cooking meat. She listened so intently that he hardly felt like he was talking at all, and simply thinking of it all like he used to. Talking to her was as natural to him as thinking had ever been, and sometimes, thinking was all he ever did.
It was one of these times that she decided to tell him a small snippet of her own past, more specifically, about someone she had loved once.
"When I was in Orlais, I met this elf named Felrin. He had long blond hair, and green eyes like emeralds. First time I saw him, I knew that I would love him. He took me in and taught me a lot of the fighting that I know now, told me all about Val Royeaux, and helped me survive there too."
"But, after about a year, he told me that there were better things out there for me than him, and he just disappeared. I never went back to Orlais, I just packed up my things and started roaming Ferelden and the Free Marshes instead. I even went to Antiva once… but I kept going back to Orzammar for my friends."
"Do you miss him?" Loghain said.
"Him? No. He was arrogant and prettier than any man should really ever be, but he knew how to make a woman feel wanted. I liked that most, being held and told that I could never do wrong…Its been… years since I've ever let anyone hold me like that. I miss the intimacy, not the physical part about it, but how it makes me feel on the inside- Wow.. This is kind of weird to be talking about."
Loghain nodded firmly in response. He wasn't sure if he wanted to know what she thought of such things, at least not yet.
"Does it bother you, when I ramble on?" Malkyn asked.
"No. Talk all you like."
And she did.
The next day they arrived at the campsite that had been set by the other Grey Wardens. Only two were there at the moment, a young Human girl built with more strength in her bones than any other Loghain had ever seen, and a small, petite elven mage. They looked at them all, and the human smiled and stood.
"Glad you finally got here, mother…and.. Err.. Everyone else!"
He assumed this strong looking woman was Hannah, and judging by the weapon that she left behind, he assumed people called her Hammer. She had long red hair, curly too, and she seemed to be the more friendly of the two that remained at camp.
"Hello, Hannah. Where are Felrin and Fiona?"
"…..Felrin?" Malkyn murmured. No one else seemed to hear her but Loghain, and Loghain was probably the only one that understood.
Hearing that name put something like a dagger into her chest. She put her hand on Loghain's arm once she dismounted, probably for stability. He didn't protest, but he looked right at her. The look in her eyes was something like dismay and anger.
"They went hunting. No one else would go with the damned prick."
"Watch your language, Hannah. Our guests are-"
"Its alright, Selene. We'll be shedding blood together after all." Maric stopped the Seeress from correcting her daughter further.
"How long have they been gone?" Loghain asked, more out of sympathy for Malkyn than real concern.
"An hour maybe." The small elven woman spoke.
She had went back to reading as soon as she realized who had been walking up to them, and gave them little more notice after that. She too had red hair, but it was not nearly so curly as Hannah's. It waved just enough to cover her eyes from the view of those that had arrived.
"That is Tamyria. She doesn't talk much, but she a damned brilliant mage."
Malkyn seemed to move without thought to take a seat next to a fire that had probably been going for a long time. She didn't expect Loghain to come and sit with her, but he had done so every other time they stopped… Why not now? Perhaps because she didn't know how to feel, or how to think of anything considering that Felrin was rearing his pretty head where it didn't belong.
I'm not going to hold you down, Mally. There are better things out there for you.
More like better things for him. He left her behind to become a Grey Warden. He left her behind for a death sentence. She could probably feel no more senseless than she did in that moment. She wanted to cry, because deep down, she had really cared about that no-good, useless, lying elf. There she was at a fire he had sat at for who knows how long, sitting next to an older man that he didn't know and-
And then the appropriate plan of action hit her. Make. Him. Jealous. What other conclusion would an angry woman come to?
"Loghain, I need you to do me a favor."
"What is it, Malkyn?"
"When Felrin comes back.. Well, I'm going to kiss you. And don't you stop kissing me until I stop kissing you."
Loghain blinked at her. He was surprised at her suggestion," Don't you think that's a little extreme.. Maybe it isn't even the same Felrin from Orlais."
"If it isn't, I owe you twenty Sovereign. If it is, I'm going to kiss you like my life depended on it."
She seemed pretty set on that, and no matter how Loghain's sensible side protested, he couldn't sway her from it. To face it, the Teyrn didn't know how this was going to blow over, or really, how he was going to feel about it. Knowing that she meant only to do this because of an elf left him against the whole idea. If he was going to kiss her, Loghain Mac Tir would rather it be for their own reasons, not for making some elf from however many years ago jealous of him.
It felt like forever before movement came up in the brush not far from the campsite, and with determination, Malkyn fixed her gaze on just that spot. She wanted to see Felrin there, if only because part of her wanted an excuse to kiss the man sitting next to her.
When she had been younger, the very first day that Maric had held court in Denerim, her father had brought her. She was young then, but even as a young girl she fantasized about the Great Hero of the River Dane. She had seem him once or twice, and thought him to be the most handsome man she had ever seen. Against all hope, she prayed that her father might marry her to him. Of course, he didn't and Loghain wound up marrying a woman whose name she can't remember. An angry child she had been when that day came to pass. She was just too young.
Maybe it was the one time she had ever talked to him as a child. She had skinned her knee running about outside the palace while her father was inside taking care of some business. Loghain was the only one there, other than the guards, and somewhere he had found it in himself to calm her down.. Even give her a candy. He told her that she would be strong, she remembered that as much as the taste of the candy- strawberry.
Perhaps it was a subconscious thought of the words he told her that moved her to run away from home and become what she was now. She didn't run away from Bann Ian because she hated him. She ran away from him because he wasn't in the slightest bit like Loghain. Part of her had made up her mind as a child that she would never marry a man that could not stand up to the standards set by a hero, her hero.
But now, she wasn't thinking about her childhood fascinations with the hero. She was thinking about the man sitting next to her, waiting just as she was to see something come through the trees. When two elves finally did emerge, Loghain didn't get a chance to look at them. Malkyn had seen them first, and within a breath, her lips had found his.
The feeling was enough to make him forget about what was coming. It had been several years since his wife had passed on, and probably more years than that since he had kissed her with any real desire. Malkyn's lips were not soft as flower petals, there was not some kind of otherworldly taste as he kissed her. She was a real woman, and all he tasted when he kissed her was the sweat of their travels together, and all he felt on his own lips were those of a strong, capable woman. He would never second guess her again.
She drew herself up to him, and his arms found their way around her regardless of the situation. Something in the back of his head was buzzing like an alarm, like it was all wrong and he shouldn't be kissing her and she was just using him. Maker help him, but in that moment, Loghain wanted to be used. He held her face in both hands, and prayed that the moment was never going to end, no matter who was watching.
"Andraste's Sacred Girdle, woman! When I left you I thought you were going to go out on big adventures, not wind up bedding Fereldan nobility. Shame that, it really is!"
Malkyn parted her lips from his reluctantly. He looked at her, their faces only inches apart, and with some kind of light in her eyes, she told him without speaking that they would need to talk. He knew it without question, and his hand slipped away from her cheeks to let her talk to the elf that had started it all.
"Its none of your business, Felrin."
"Well then maybe it is our business, Bann Malkyn. Have we all missed something since we started traveling to this location in the first place? Have you two known each other longer than we've been lead to believe?" Ser Tybalt didn't seem very happy when he spoke up.
"….No. None of you missed anything. Just-"
"Leave her alone about it. I understand that you are upset about her decision to bring you with her, Ser Tybalt, but that is no reason to scapegoat her for your frustrations. Save it for the darkspawn." Loghain came to her defense quickly, but not before he stood and began moving to the cart.
Maric was right there when Loghain reached his things, and he put his hand on his friend's shoulder.
"Let me help you. We need to talk about what just happened, I think."
"Maric, no we don't-"
"Yes we do. There's something you're both not saying, and I think you can at least trust me with that," Maric's voice carried over the chatter in the rest of the camp easily.
"What about Fiona?"
"Fiona?.. Well… I think she'll understand.."
The truth was that Maric was halfway looking for a reason not to talk to her yet. He was frightened of the issue, and he knew what Selene's words to him all those days before hand meant. Fiona's Calling was probably knocking on the door step, and he did not want to believe it. He wanted to look at her now, and just see an older version of the woman he had loved since the last time he went into the Deep Roads.
And besides, when was the last time he had really been a good friend to Loghain, anyway?
While Maric helped Loghain with his tent in silence, Selene came to Malkyn's defense when Felrin, Ser Tybalt, and even Ser Cauthrien attempted to fish for information. Selene rationalized it by telling them that it was a very long story, one that neither Malkyn nor Loghain would be willing to explain while they were so worn out. She suggested that they hold their questions till after they had dealt with the darkspawn, and that only seemed to suffice when Hannah screamed for them to 'shut their Maker damned traps' or she would punch them all straight to the Black City. She had a temper on her, especially when it came to her family.
Her decision probably hadn't been the wisest, but that didn't mean that she regretted it in the slightest. The little girl in her squealed with some happiness, remembering all to well how she used to think about him now that she had finally done what she had always wanted.
