Author's note: I meant to post this before What I've Done, but apparently I didn't. Sorry for any confusion.

Waking before dawn as was customary for her, Marlana lay in the darkness with a feeling of confusion. She wasn't in her bed (and it wasn't her bed anymore anyway, just as home isn't home anymore), nor was it the bed of her room at the inn. She felt rested, truly rested, with no memory of nightmares haunting her restless sleep. She's also somewhat sore in places that normally had no business being sore. And why was there something, someone, at her back? She realized (with more than just a hint of fear) that she hasn't moved because of a well muscled arm holding her close. The someone is not familiar, yet is.

Alistair.

She flushes as she remembers the night before, feeling embarrassed even though she shouldn't be. He shifts again and she realizes he's awake as well, she hears a faint relieved murmur of real. Then his lips are just below her left ear, she can feel his smile as he softly says, "Good morning."

Her own lips curl up in response, all fear and embarrassment gone in a rush of happiness, "It is, isn't it?"

Without really thinking about it, she turns over in his arms to be able to see him in the slowly growing grey light of pre-dawn. He's more shadow than anything else, but she could see enough of that warm smile and the light in his eyes that was only for her. It's the light in his eyes that prompts her to kiss him, an action he returns eagerly, then sighs in frustration as first his stomach gurgles in hunger, then hers responds in turn, which only causes her to laugh, ruefully, "I don't think I'll ever get used to being hungry all the time. And I mean for food, Alistair", she added as he started to smirk at her.

He gently ran his hand down her leg and chuckled quietly, causing her to raise her eyebrows. He grins at her, "Well, if the sisters in the Chantry were right, I should've been struck by lightning sometime last night."

"That so?"

"Mm hmm. Lightning first, then the end of civilization as we know it. I'm a bad, bad man."

She laughed and lightly kissed him, "Good, that's the way I like you."

He grinned back, "And you are aware our little party is going to talk, right? They do that."

Her grin faded and she got a fierce look in her eyes, "One comment and someone is getting fed to the Darkspawn."

Alistair grinned even more, "And this is why I love you." Then he sobered, "So…where do we go from here?"

Marlana studied him for a long moment, heart in her mouth, "I…I hope we can stay together. No matter what may come." Please Maker, let this not be a curse.

He was quiet for a moment, watching her, considering her words and said slowly, "I think I can handle that."

They could hear in the distance the sound of the kitchen help starting to prepare for the day, even though their party had been the only ones staying at the inn, between the two Wardens and Sten, they ate enough to keep the kitchen busy. "Before we have to face the evils of the day, I wanted to make sure I told you that I love you. I have, haven't I? Well, I'm going to say it again. I love you."

Her heart shattered as she softly said, "I love you, too."

They hugged one last time before getting out of bed, cleaning up before donning their arms and armor for the day. She'd been surprised at his foresight to have her gear stowed in his room and he laughed a little nervously, "It was presumptuous of me, but I'd made arrangements to have them brought down here. I'm not sure what I would've done if you had turned me down."

"I'm sure you would've thought of something", she grinned as she settled her swords at her back.

She was still getting used to her newest blade, named Starfang by its maker; it was forged from legendary star metal that they'd found in their travels. When they had helped the Drydens reclaim an old Warden base, she finally met a blacksmith that had the skills to forge the kind of blade she could use. It hadn't been forged to her specifically, but those who favored swords amongst her companions had taken one look at the weapon and flat out refused to touch it. But when she had picked it up with a huff at their nerves, something in the back of her mind said mine at her touch.

Marlana still bore her family sword opposite Starfang.

Finally geared, the two Wardens strolled out of his room, each bearing their packs, casting surreptitious looks for their companions and laughed together when they sighed with relief at being the first ones out in the common room. They were making short work of hot tea, fresh bread with cheese for him, butter and honey for her, while waiting for the rest of their breakfast when Wynne was the first one down. She cast a thoughtful look at the two of them and smiled warmly, "Good morning, you two. I trust you had a pleasant evening."

She smiled benignly as the two of them both blushed, then poured herself some tea and managed to snag some bread before one or both of them devoured it. But she didn't need to fear, by that point two large bowls of porridge swimming in cream and honey, accompanied by eggs and bacon were deposited before the other two. Platters of food to be shared amongst the others were delivered in the center of the table, with how long they'd been there the help had a good idea on how much to serve them, even if the cook was slightly appalled how much food just two people could go through. The rest of the group trickled to the table, Marlana waited patiently for them to get their respective meals before going over the final details for the coming journey.

Breakfast done, they gathered their things, went to the stables to ready the horses while Bodhan and his son arrived in the inn's courtyard with their wagon loaded with new wares. Marlana was pleased that the dwarven merchant still intended to travel with them, he'd been useful in not just the wares he'd provided at a reasonable cost, but in the contacts he'd been able to put her in touch with to get the supplies they needed. Not to mention that sometimes it was easier for a merchant to go into a place for information than someone else.

Barney, the innkeep, seemed sad to see them leave as she settled their final charges, "I just hope we didn't scare off too much of your custom, ser."

"Nah, you and yours were a right pleasure to have. Yours left m'girls alone, didn't cause any drunken ruckus, and m'wife had a challenge keeping you lot fed. You'll always be welcome at the Golden Sheaf, Warden."

Bemused, she mounted up on her horse, while Alistair tried to wait patiently for her, before riding off to meet up with the others just outside of the city gates. Not wanting to draw more attention to her odd band, she had the others leave either singly or in pairs through the different gates out of the city. Marlana knew better than to try to get him to go on ahead of her, that was one argument she didn't care to repeat. Or to see the fear that was in his eyes when she had left him behind that day.

For once the weather proved cooperative for most of the trip. Shortly after everyone had gotten back into the rhythm of being on the road again, Wynne edged her horse in by Marlana's. Hoping that this wasn't going to be another lecture on her relationship with Alistair, the Warden strived to be pleasant, "What can I do for your, Wynne?"

The mage simply smiled, "Nothing. But I wanted to make sure you were all right."

"Er, why wouldn't I be all right?"

"Well, one couldn't help but notice there were some… interesting sounds coming out of Alistair's room last night."

Oh Maker, this is like talking about sex with my grandmother of all people, Marlana thought as she tried not to flush with embarrassment, and why aren't there any Darkspawn around when you need them?

"That so", she tried and barely achieved a bland tone.

Wynne continued on, "I know that you and Alistair aren't exactly the most experi-"

Somewhat desperately, "We are not having this conversation, at all. I've already had 'helpful' advice from pretty much everyone except Sten and Shale. Sten because he actually knows better than to try and Shale because she isn't a flesh creature so doesn't care about such things."

The younger woman turned in her saddle feeling eyes staring through her back and saw Alistair giving her a silent plea for help where he was trapped by Leliana and Zevran on either side. "Shit. If you want to be helpful Wynne, you can go rescue Alistair. If I go over there, they're going to try and trap me also and I don't feel like fighting with anyone today."

Wynne laughed softly and obliged.

The journey was remarkably uneventful until they reached Bann Loren's lands. Lana for obvious reasons had wanted to avoid taking the main road through Highever lands and knew of a way through the less traveled woodlands of the unpredictable lord's lands. It was there they saw a man being harried by the Lord's soldiers. At first they were going to leave them be, until it was Zevran who made a comment about how unusually dressed the man was. Marlana recognized the man with a shock. Elric Maraigne had been one of the king's bodyguard, she had spoken with him a few times in Ostagar while she'd been wandering the camp before she'd been ready to take up her duties as a recruit. She could see the jolt of recognition in Alistair and the grimness in his expression told her that he too recognized the man.

The two lead the charge as they usually did and with the rest of the group made short work of the soldiers. But it was too late for Elric. With his dying breath he told them of the key to the chest that contained not just Maric's sword and shield, but important correspondence. They paid what honor they could for the fallen man before returning to their original path. The three human survivors of Ostagar rode somberly for the rest of the day, wrapped up in dark memories.

When Alistair and Marlana went to sleep that night, they made love with a quiet desperation to drive away their sorrows and memories.

Haven is less than a day's journey away when they settle in camp for the night. Marlana wants her group to be rested for when they arrive, not sure how their arrival will be received by the locals. That there'd been no sign of Genetivi and the way that Weylon had acted made her suspicious. But she fully acknowledged she had been rather paranoid since she'd been forced to become a Warden. Since that paranoia had kept her alive thus far, she intended to continue listening to it.

Sten had apparently decided he didn't like how she was doing things. Why he waited until they were almost at their destination to challenge her, she didn't understand. As he confronted her again about her fool quest, she calmly explained her rationale again. Very, very calmly, her eyes like ice. As the others began to slowly gather to see what they could do to stop the impending violence, she waved them off. Since the stubborn Qunari wouldn't listen to reason, she would just have to beat it into his thick skull.

Marlana simply waited, hands down at her sides as the man became increasingly angry. Then he drew his blade and ran towards her. Calmly she sidestepped him with her almost unnatural speed before lashing out with a booted foot in a sidekick to the knee. He staggered, but didn't fall, she flowed out of his way again, using that movement as a pivot to snap out another vicious kick to the groin, which didn't have the impact it normally would have due to his armor, but it did stun him for a brief moment. Only then did she draw her blades.

She didn't use any of the fancy moves that were her usual style; instead she just used fast, hard, hammer blows to keep him off balance. The blades blurred and Starfang seemed to hum in her hand as she continually kept him on the defensive. Finally tired of the lesson, she swatted away his blade and drove both of hers into him in a precisely calculated move to do the most pain without hitting anything vital. He fell to his knees before her gasping, "I yield. I will follow your orders; you are clearly strong enough to lead."

Those cold blue eyes stared down at him as his blood flowed down her swords into little puddles and considered him. Finally she jerked her head, "Do as you will then. Wynne, go ahead and patch him up."

She resisted the urge to vanish into the shadows; instead she remained in camp calmly cleaning her weapons giving no sign of her thoughts. The vicious anger that had risen up in her soul at Sten's prodding frightened her. Marlana didn't like how she had reacted and mulled over her actions. Reluctantly she came to the conclusion that was the only way she could get Sten to respect her authority was to beat him the way she did and she did that instinctively. Amazingly Alistair and Morrigan were in total agreement about just killing the Qunari for his actions, while the others wanted him sent away.

"He can stay if he wishes, I still need his blade against the Darkspawn in the days to come. Besides, having his challenges makes me think everything through."

She tried to ignore the hurt look in Alistair's eyes and understood why he slept in his bedroll away from her tent that night. At least, until she got up in the middle of the night to check on the camp to find him asleep outside of her tent with his sword beside him. After making her nightly rounds, and her nightly annoyance of Shale, Marlana prodded Alistair awake enough to spend the rest of the night in the tent with her.

The morning came cold and clear with a hint of an early snow in the air. She pulled on her heavy cloak over her armor, making sure that she could draw her swords easily just in case. For once her constant hunger wasn't gnawing at her, so she simply had hot tea while waiting for the others to get prepared. After considering the situation, she decided to take a small group so to as to hopefully not get the locals riled up. Since Zevran and Morrigan seemed disinclined to move away from the warm campfires and Sten was still sulking, she took her usual troublemakers with her since she wasn't sure how the locals would react to Shale. Or Shale to the locals, there'd been a couple of tense moments with Shale and villagers.

Marlana decided if they didn't actually find the Urn, they were going to return to Redcliffe where she was going to shake some sense into Teagan to get the man to do what he should have done in the first place. Truly lead Redcliffe during the time of his brother's illness, rather than waste time with nursery tales.