Sorry! I got wrapped up in real life and couldn't escape. Plus a bad case of writer's block. Ugh. And we're going to be doing some bouncing for a bit. Between the fade and the world.
Kasha looked around what appeared to be the landsmeet chamber. Only it wasn't, not really. It was the fade. Twice she'd been in this twisting puzzle, both times the unwilling victim of demons. Oh how she hated the fade. Wynne may have felt at home here but not her. She remembered having to save her companions from dreams they didn't wish to leave. Alistair had been the worst. So desperate was he for a real family, the vision of his sister and her children providing him a home, and comfort engulfed him completely. She'd thought she'd lose him then. A voice, coarse as gravel interrupted her mental meandering.
"And here I thought you were a worthy opponent. " He sneered. "You defeated me, deposed my daughter, slaughtered an army of darkspawn, and an archdemon, made a king out of a boy, yet here you stand. Helpless, cowardly, running away from your duty, as you accused me of doing."
Loghain. Even in death the bastard haunts her. Kasha turned and fired back.
"Duty. What do you know of duty. I have done more in the last year to protect Ferelden than you ever could have had you been allowed to live. I hunted down and defeated an enemy you never could. Maybe you remember The Architect? He escaped you did he not? He did not escape me. My enemies don't live to come back and hurt others" She spat at the man.
"How True" rang another voice. "She even manages to turn their surviving children against their poor, deceased father's memory"
Howe. Could she never have a good experience in the fade?
"Oh yes, Howe, how easy it is to blame me isn't it? And to forget how cruel you were, even to your own children. They remember, I didn't need to do anything to make them see what a traitorous bastard you were. It was Nathaniel, after all that found the letters in the estate basement. If one wants to keep their facade of innocence in tact, one shouldn't leave correspondence lying around should he? I bear no guilt for your death Howe, nor for your family seeing what you truly were. Be gone!" She commanded, as his spirit faded from sight. Loghain remained however.
"So you feel guilt for executing me then? How odd." He murmured.
Kasha was silent. Her emotions, once again, as they had a year prior at war with each other. If she'd spared him, Alistair would have hated her, he'd have left. It was written on his face when Riordan had suggested it. Loghain had deserved execution. She knew that with her heart, and her mind. But Anora was standing right there. His daughter. She couldn't stop seeing her own father bleeding at her feet in the larder. Anora became her own face, pleading to not see her father die. On the other hand there was Alistair, staring at the man who had killed his brother, and the man he'd seen as a father, deserving to have the same justice she'd handed out to Howe earlier. Her father's voice had rang in her head telling her duty first, but never had duty been so unclear. Duty to Ferelden demanded he pay for his treasonous crimes. Duty to the Wardens asked for more in their ranks to face the battle to come. Duty to Alistair, her friend, her first love demanded he get satisfaction. The sight of Anora, covered in her father's blood, kneeling beside his body ever left her mind.
"Yes, not for the act itself, you deserved what you got. And you know that. But for your daughter having witnessed it." She finally admitted.
"Let it go Warden. Anora knew it would happen, if you won the landsmeet. She knew this when she gave her support. As much as I love the girl, our only relationship was blood. I was absent most of her life. She would have done it herself if the roles were reversed and felt no guilt for it." He said plainly "Move on Warden" and vanished from her sight.
"She is breathing" Said Sten, to the very anxious Mabari. "But we need help. You know what you must do. Go."
Lethallin took off at full speed. Following the road they'd taken to get this far. He must find her mate.
Sten and Shale gathered Kasha gently, and walked toward what was left of the Tavern in Lothering. After deciding the structure was sound enough, they went inside and found an upturned bed. They placed her on it gently, on her side. The wounds on her back were atrocious. Sten applied what poultices he had while Shale scrounged for more. Sten whispered a prayer that the hound would find Alistair.
"It will live?" Asked Shale
"She is strong of body. It is her mind that must decide" Answered Sten.