Months ago, he had decreed that leaving the royal palace was forbidden, both for his daughter and his mistress. For their own safety, he had responded every time until he, himself started to believe it. Kallian had accepted this, not without some objections and sulking, but Anora, she had said nothing, her stare full of unvoiced accusations was eloquent enough…better for him to take the blame than to sit and explain to his daughter how her beloved husband was planning to repudiate the daughter of a peasant and put an Orlesian Empress on the throne, next to him.

Yet, like it always happened lately, nothing went according to his plan. A few days after Anora went missing, Kallian also disappeared. His personal guards failed to get Anora back to the royal palace, and nobody knew where she had been taken… But time was precious, the landsmeet was in three days, all the displeased nobles were gathering in Denerim and he had to deal with the bastard before the meeting or he would lose.

"Your Grace," a young guard entered his study unannounced.

"If you fail to give me a valid reason for your intrusion, you will be dining in a cell in Fort Drakon tonight," Loghain saw the panicked expression on the boy's face.

"My lord, lady Kallian came back and she asks to meet you," the guard stuttered.

Loghain's surprised expression reassured the trembling boy, this news seemed to be worth the reckless disturbance.

"Bring her here, now," Loghain ordered.

Kallian came back to him after more than two weeks spent Maker knew where…and the only one question came to mind, was she now a friend or a foe?

Kallian entered the room under the heavy gaze of Loghain, she closed the door behind her and casually took a seat and stared back at the man who was staring at her.

Loghain's eyes narrowed, as he scrutinized the young woman. She was wearing a blood stained armor and she had cut her long hair. But her eyes were inscrutable.

"Not the warm welcome I was expecting," The woman grinned at him breaking the silence.

"This is a bold expectation from a woman who left willingly and without an explanation," Loghain chuckled…she was fated to lose at this little game of sarcastic taunts.

"Would you believe me if I told you that I had left for a walk?" Kallian shrugged and received for a response the crash of Loghain's fist banged on the desk.

"My patience is wearing thin, elf," he warned her, his voice a low growl, but she didn't flinch and kept staring at him in defiance… and it hurt.

"I had indeed left for a walk but I had been contacted again by the gray warden and his two women, this time they were telling an interesting story, and wanted me to join them,"

"and you did?" Loghain didn't even ask about the interesting story that had convinced her to follow them. Kallian smiled.

"They had some overwhelming proof against you, and it also seemed that unlike what you told me, Ferelden is enduring a blight,"

"is that so?" Loghain stare went colder than eyes and so did the tone of his voice…

"I accepted to join them, not driven by vengeance as they believed, but rather by curiosity and a sense of duty," Kallian affirmed.

"A sense of duty? To whom?" Loghain asked

"to this country and to the man who had been always kind to me," her voice was almost emotional even if her eyes were dry. "I needed to know more before condemning and taking a side, so I accepted to join them,"

"why are you here then?" his voice betrayed a bitterness and maybe a little fragility.

"Because I made my choice," Kallian stood up and reached into her purse, Loghain held his breath expecting her to take out a dagger but instead, Kallian reached for a document and put it on his desk.

He stared at the paper that was carrying his seal, it was the written permission he had given to the Tevinter slavers to take whoever they wanted from Denerim's Alienage.

"Anora told them about a strange thing happening in the Alienage seeking to forge an alliance with the warden and they put their hands on this document," Kallian almost whispered near Loghain's ear as she stood near him. "Your daughter chose her side,"

Loghain kept silent, but every fiber of his body felt the tension and he was ready, ready for her to go for his throat at any moment…she couldn't have…

"I chose your side,"

"Do you expect me to believe this?" He glared at her.

"You are the better placed to understand this, though!" Kallian's eyebrows lifted, "do you think that I had ever considered the old wrecked man as my father? Don't you remember how I used to cry every time you forced me to go visit him when I was a child?" Kallian shook her head, "I used to throw in the garbage any cheap gifts he would give me," Kallian reminded him. "I grew up to give him the respect and the courtesy I owed him as my genitor, but Loghain… I have no father but you," Kallian's words seemed to please the self-proclaimed Regent. It was true that the girl had always felt ashamed by the filth and the begging in the Alienage, but she had been even more ashamed by her passive and servile father…hope started to blossom in the Regent's heart, maybe his girl was back.

"I only hope that the Tevinter will give him a quick death," Kallian sighed.

"I find it hard to believe, especially after what you have done to the Arl's son, a year ago," He pointed.

"well, the insane man had offended me personally and I confess that I had wanted to help them back then, but they cheered when Duncan took me away and said 'good riddance, she is a troublemaker like her mother'…they already have the mindset of slaves, and you, my lord, gave them what they yearned for," Kallian coldly stated. Loghain could easily believe her at this point, but he was a distrustful man, even toward a girl he had raised.

"So, you had been driven by some kind of emotional tie that made you chose me? Is that what you are aiming to say?" skeptical again.

"Not at all, In fact, the bastard who was claiming that you were an evil man who deserved death, had massacred a dalish clan and more dwarves to gather an army of werewolves and golems, he seemed to share your point of view which is the end justifies the means but he was a weaker version, Eamon's puppet and would have done more harm than good, you are the only one who can unite the lords under your banner and end the civil war, and the blight," Kallian explained calmly

"…was?" Loghain frowned.

Kallian smirked and reached again inside her purse, this time, she took out a bloodied knife and put it on Loghain's desk.

"The best for last, I dealt with the bastard who had been giving you a hard time for an entire year," she bragged.

Loghain's eyes widened in disbelief as he flickered his gaze between the knife on the desk and the smirking woman…She had managed to kill the bastard warden.

"How?" he frowned, more choked than doubting.

"Nobody would have suspected a little elven woman betrayed by her lover and mourning for her father," Kallian shrugged.

"This is impossible," Loghain almost expected himself to wake up from this dream.

"Yeah, I and the entire country count on you to win the landsmeet and unify the lords," Kallian seemed bored with Loghain's disbelief.

If what she claimed was true, without a proof and without his protégé, Eamon was going to get crushed, Loghain thought.

"Now, if you allow me, I am going to rest in my room," Kallian said "and it goes without saying that you are not welcome in my chamber anymore," she added.

"So, that's it?" Loghain for the first time in his life couldn't find the words.

"Oh, there is something else, a warden named Riordan, he is too shrewd and cautious, I couldn't reach him…when you win the landsmeet make sure to execute this Orlesian bastard," she added before taking her leave.