Prompt: Grey Warden

Disclaimer: I do not Dragon Age.

The king looked over at Anders with an overly-eager expression. "So, what can you tell me about being a Grey Warden? You must have some great stories and invaluable insight into the nature of the darkspawn."

Anders fought the urge to roll his eyes. He wasn't quite sure about the details but after he'd been dragged back to the Circle Tower after his sixth escape attempt, he had found Duncan, Irving, and Greagoir waiting for him. Duncan had introduced himself and Irving had practically thrown Anders at the Grey Warden. Greagoir hadn't looked pleased at what was happening but Irving said something about how he would be somebody else's problem now and Greagoir seemed to accept that. So within twenty minutes of stepping off the boat, Anders was back on it and heading for Ostagar to become a Grey Warden and fight darkspawn.

It wasn't what he had expected, but at least he hadn't had to go back to the Tower and now never would have to again. Unfortunately, shortly after his Joining he and Alistair had walked by Cailan and Teyrn Loghain's strategy session. Cailan had immediately lost interest in the planning – not that he appeared to have had much to begin with – and started pestering the pair with all sorts of questions. Loghain had frowned at Alistair and quickly dragged him away, leaving Anders to deal with Cailan's bizarre fascination with the Grey Wardens.

"You realize that I've been a Warden for about three hours now, right?" Anders asked him.

Cailan nodded. "I had heard something like that from Duncan when I walked by him setting up a funeral pyre for the bodies of those other two recruits."

That gave Anders pause. He had been under the impression that the Joining was a secret. That had been part of Duncan's justification for killing what's-his-name, after all. "Wait…you know that the other two died?"

Cailan looked mildly affronted. "Of course I do! Even if I hadn't seen Duncan getting rid of them, I surely would have noticed when one the three Warden recruits became just one Warden."

"And you don't think that that is at all unusual?" Anders pressed.

Cailan shook his head. "Not particularly. I know that the Joining has a high mortality rate."

Anders choked. "You…You know about that as well?"

Cailan laughed. "Oh, who doesn't? My father – King Maric the savior, you know – once went on a glorious adventure with the Grey Wardens back when he first allowed them back into the country twenty years ago and it's always been a very popular tale."

"So…your father learned all sorts of Grey Warden secrets when he went on some mysterious adventure with them and now he goes around telling everyone?" Anders couldn't believe it. What's-his-name had died to protect a secret that had already been told? It was a good thing that Anders had never liked what's-his-name and his typical fear of mages or else he might actually be upset by this turn of events.

"Well, he did," Cailan corrected, looking sad for a moment. "He's dead now, of course."

"But…why?" Anders asked, dumbfounded.

Cailan shrugged. "Why not? It's a very thrilling story, you know, and Loghain likes it because it reminds everybody of how evil the Orlesians can be and also how badass he is – though he won't admit to that last part. I like it because of that hot elven mage in it. Other people like it because the talking darkspawn was really interesting or because it showed just how far my father would go to protect his people."

Anders still couldn't quite wrap his mind around this. "And the Grey Wardens don't care that your father tells everyone their most deeply-held secrets to amuse them?"

"Well, if they do care then it's not like they ever did anything to try and deter him from doing so so I'm sure they don't mind that much," Cailan reasoned. "But enough about that. Tell me about your thrilling adventures! I heard you went into the Korcari Wilds earlier."

"That was before I became a Warden, though," Anders pointed out.

"Close enough," Cailan said dismissively. "You were a Warden recruit, after all."

"Well…we went into the Wilds," Anders began. "We killed a bunch of darkspawn and some wolves. We looked for some ancient treaties but they were gone. This really hot mage told us that her distinctly less hot mage mother had them and they gave it back to us and then the hot mage accompanied us out of the Wilds."

"Treaties?" Cailan perked up. "Oh, this sounds good. What kind of treaties?"

Anders shrugged. "I wasn't really listening. Something about how after the last Blight the mages, Dalish, and dwarves agreed to help out in case a new Blight came and so they signed treaties to that effect. Duncan thinks that over the past four centuries, their goodwill may have died down just a little and so we may need to actually use the treaties should the need for non-Ferelden allies arise. Of course, I'm not sure that the Chantry would even allow the mages to help with the treaty, let alone without it…"

Cailan's eyes were shining. "Oh, you just leave the Chantry to me. The Grey Wardens will get their mage allies, I promise you that! Just think…I'll get to go into battle with not only the Grey Wardens and have an epic war like in the tales but I'll get to have the dwarves, Dalish, and mages by my side as well! Maker, it will be like the fourth Blight all over again!"

"And…that's a good thing?" Anders asked uncertainly. From what he had remembered from the history lessons he never paid attention to, the fourth Blight was kind of awful and nobody should want to go through something like that.

Cailan wasn't listening, though. "Oh, I've got to find Loghain and tell him all about these treaties! He should be as glad to hear of it as I am since it would mean we wouldn't need to rely so much on the Orlesians…"

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