Disclaimer: I do NOT own Dragon Age or anything related to it.

"Do we have a plan?"
"We fight like hell."
"Good plan."
— Alyxandra Harvey (My Love Lies Bleeding (Drake Chronicles, #1))

Chapter 17:Planning

Magic exists to serve man and never to rule over him.

A sigh escaped Cullen's lips as he remembered hearing those exact words during every single harrowing he'd been present at back when he was still a Templar. While he was a very much loyal and excellent knight, Cullen never enjoyed the duty he had been forced to carry out for his entire life. Honestly, he hated being a Templar, hated having to watch all those mages either lose their lives during their harrowing or succeed only to realize that their lives as prisoners in the Circle Tower would continue unchanged and sometimes even worse than before.

The only reason Cullen had even joined the mage-hunting order in the first place was to please his Templar father, who never once bothered to ask his son what he wanted in life instead of forcing him into a life he did not enjoy nor care for. As a boy, he used to look up to the Templars, but that was before he became one himself and was instantly aghast upon seeing how terrible the mages were treated by most of their Templar jailers.

But then again, he had once been genuinely interested in becoming a Templar. It was not until his parents had given him their blessing and he was informed of the true duty of the Templars, however, that he realized his mistake and never ceased to regret it. He remembered the coin his brother had given him, and how he made sure that no one found out about it lest he end losing his last connection to his family.

When he first met Natasha, the fiery, chestnut-haired fourteen-year-old girl just two summers younger than him along with her little sister Rosie, whose eyes were bloodshot as she clung to the older girl for protection, he'd almost instantly felt a strange sort of attraction to her that he simply could not explain in words. Natasha had been cold to him for at least a month, but eventually she softened up a bit on him after seeing that he was visibly different from the other Templars; Cullen actually cared about her people and did not agree with how harshly they were treated by the Chantry. As loyal as Cullen was to the Maker, he was not some kind of crazy zealot like Greagior or Leliana.

He recalled being so relieved when she passed her harrowing quicker than even First Enchanter Irving could have anticipated. The same went for Regina, who he felt more of a sibling-like attraction to unlike the strange infatuation he'd developed for Natasha over the last few years since her sister's death and her becoming one of Irving's star pupils. It was strange, having all of these feelings for her, for she was a mage and he was a Templar. They were both Grey Wardens now, that was true, but still, it made him feel frightened to think about such things when they had a blight to deal with at the moment, so he tried to put them aside for now, yet these thoughts always came flooding straight back to him and it vexed him more and more each time.

Cullen groaned softly to himself. Maker curse his ill-advised infatuation with her! A mage, of all things! But she was still a very beautiful mage at that, not to mention strong, passionate, fiery, and did he already mention beautiful? Yes, he had, but was there really any harm in saying it again, seeing as it was obviously true to everyone else already, especially to him.

Stifling another sigh, Cullen looked up into the flames of the campfire and his eyes flickered above the flames and across from him to where Natasha was seated with her eyes glued to an open book in her lap while her cheek rested comfortably on her palm. Next to her was Regina trying to ignore Zevran while he brazenly flirted with the elven mage, whose green eyes glinted with exasperation and Cullen could have sworn he saw a small flame beginning to form in her palm. Given the fact that Simone was laughing her head off from where she sat right next to a mostly silent Alistair, Cullen figured the white-haired human woman had also seen the flame Regina was contemplating to throw at Zevran.

"Ah, it seems one of our former Templars cannot keeper his eyes off of our fiery, chesnut-haired heroine." Zevran's sly voice was filled with amusement as he and Simone had suddenly turned their attention away from the two females mages and Alistair in favor of making Cullen a target of their constant teasing instead. It was already obvious to everyone that both Simone and Zevran, but mostly Zevran, received plenty of amusement from embarrassing or teasing other people.

Cullen frowned at them both, looking away so they wouldn't see the blush threatening to cover his cheeks."I-I don't know what you're talking about." Maker's breath, he was terrible at lying, probably why he made such an excellent Templar in the very stern and extremely pious eyes of Greagior.

Clearly not convinced, Zevran chuckled lightly."There is no need to lie, my friend. She is quite a marvel indeed. In fact, I may attempt to turn my charms on her in the near future if her elven friend still refuses my advances-"

Reaching out, Simone smacked Zevran upside the head."Are you trying to get us killed, Zev?!" She blurted out, casting a discrete glance over to Natasha was now chatting quietly with Regina about something then turning to roll her eyes at the playful pout Zevran gave her as he rubbed the back of his now slightly aching head."As much as I love watching you get turned down by the elven mage, I do not fancy the idea of actually getting barbecued alive by Natasha like one of our mage companions who led them into the ambush was earlier today! So please, just try not to flirt with someone who would much likely burn you to ashes rather than show any interest in your advances."

Cullen couldn't help but feel a little intrigued by the way Simone spoke to Zevran, her sapphire eyes glinting with something akin to annoyance and perhaps worry both rolled into one. These two seemed to have known each other for a long time and while Simone was just as playful as well as flirtatious as Zevran most of the time, she showed herself as being slightly more serious than the elven man sometimes. It was strange to Cullen and based on the frown that Alistair's face wore, he figured the other former Templar felt the same way about their two new wild yet interesting members of the party.

Rolling her eyes again, Simone ignored Zevran's playful whimpering and turned with a grin to Alistair, who seemed to shudder beneath her gaze as she scooted closer to him and began speaking flirtatiously to in a similar way that Zevran had done with Regina earlier. Cullen could only watch as Zevran laughed while Alistair blushed heavily after Simone whispered something very inappropriate into his ear. She threw him another grin before slowly standing up and sauntering away from the campfire and into her tent, closing the flaps behind her.

"What did she tell you?" Cullen asked once Zevran had eventually left as well.

Still blushing, Alistair shook his head."Trust me, you don't want to know."

Cullen raised an eyebrow in confusion at first, but then nodded slowly in shocked realization with wide eyes and swallowed thickly. He should not have asked.

For as long as he could remember, Ser Gilmore had always nothing short of a loyal, faithful, strong, and courageous knight in service to Castle Cousland.

That was what all of his former comrades and loved ones used to call him when they were all still alive, that is. One could not even so much as imagine what kind of torture Howe must have put whatever few surviving soldiers and people, including the Teryn and Teryne, through that fateful day. It had been just a day or two more than a week, but to Ser Gilmore, it felt like an enternity had gone by with Howe still free and rewarded for his despicable actions whilst Valerie and Ser Gilmore and their fellow wardens were all wrongfully branded as traitors and struggling to stay alive everyday while also beginning the most likely very difficult process of gathering allies in order to protect Ferelden and all of it's idiotic citizens from the dangers of this new blight.

'And to think I used to dream about becoming a Grey Warden.' The knight thought to himself with a harsh scoff of self-mockery and scorn. There was nothing good about becoming a Grey Warden, with him and Valerie both having lost everyone important to them in just one day thanks to Howe, then watched two men die during their joining, and then barely escaped the gruesome fate that Loghain's betrayal had nearly brought them while still costing the lives of an entire army.

He was such a naive fool to have so easily fallen into the tempting trap of childhood fantasies. Reality was always cruel as soon as it sunk in and once it did, things simply got worse and worse as time went on. Things were even worse for Valerie; the blonde hardly spoke, having nightmares of either her dead family and friends, her missing older brother, darkspawn, or all three in a row every night. Guilt plagued him constantly and prevented him from sleeping peacefully as well, but it was clearly affecting her far more terribly than it was him.

Even Leonard was worried about his mistress, often looking at Ser Gilmore with a whimper escaping him as he had to usually either nudge Valerie or bark loudly a few times to make her wake up and come back to the pitiful land of the living, which actually made her miss those horrid nightmares a little bit. Life was anything but good to them right now, and fear of things actually worsening in even the slightest bit was literally the only thing keeping Ser Gilmore from asking either himself or anyone else, in his head or out loud, if things could really get any worse than they were now.

Sighing, he shook his head and shut his eyes as he lay in bedrooll inside of his tent, trying to get what little amount of sleep the taint in his blood would allow in this moment.

'Perhaps what Ser Jory said was true, after all.' He thought sadly.'There really was no honor in becoming a Grey Warden, was there?'

He did even want to know the answer to that dreadful question, and so it was with another weary sigh that the former knight finally fell into a restless sleep plagued by more dreams of darkspawn and the archdemon singing it's strange, frightening song, to the horde.

"So, we have three different groups: The Circle Tower, The Elvhenan, and the Durgen'len." Jade sighed as she spoke with all three of their Grey Warden treaties laid out on the her bedroll while she and Valerie discussed what their next planned move would be to start recruiting allies to fight against the blight.

"As well as Redcliffe." With a frown, she turned to human woman."What do you think we should do first, Val?"

"Don't you and Tamlem want to look for your people first?" Valerie queried softly.

Jade hesitated briefly before shaking her head ever so slowly with a sigh."I would like to do so, yes, but I have no leads on any clans that might be camped around out this area. Since all keepers can sense the dangers of the Banalhan, most clans, including my own, have most likely already fled this area by now. Finding any clan of my people at all would take weeks to say the least, so we are better off securing what groups are within our reach at the moment."

"Well, the last thing we should do is go to Redcliffe then." Valerie stated somewhat bitterly."We are better off trusting those who have signed the treaties then we are wasting our time with Arl Eamon." Leonard barked and growled softly as if in agreement with his mistress.

Jade raised an eyebrow."I sense a history of bad blood between you and the shemlen arl of Redcliffe, lethallan." She stated calmly, evoking a contemptuous snort from the blonde.

"Then I'd say you have excellent senses." Valerie replied, narrowing her eyes as she spoke."Alistair may claim that Arl Eamon is a good man, but in my opinion, he's the exact opposite." She sighed."You already know that King Cailan was a good friend of mine, and so is his widow, Queen Anora. I met them at one of the royal balls they threw at their castle and kept in touch with them both afterwards. Anora and I sent each other letters whenever we could, and even though I had as little trust in her father Loghain as I did Arl Howe, you can imagine I never expected either of them to...do what they did."

"What does this have to do with your relationship with Arl Eamon?"

Valerie hesitated."You remember when Alistair said that Cailan was Eamon's nephew? And how Cailan joked about why he didn't want Eamon at Ostagar?" Jade nodded curtly, eyebrow still raised, and Valerie let out another sigh."The real reason why Cailan didn't want his uncle there was because, well, they haven't exactly been on good terms lately."

"How so?"

"Cailan and Anora were married for five years, but Anora was never able to give him an heir during that time, so there were some rumors going on that the queen was..." She sighed once more."...that the queen was most likely barren."

"And so Eamon was among those who believed these rumors?" Jade asked with a frown."I fail to see how a mere five years can mark someone as being barren. He could have just been a little patient, being the fact that we are in the middle of a Banalhan right now. Such a time is hardly good for talk of heirs and royalty when what we need to do is focus on staying alive to live to have any len."

Valerie snorted."Try telling that to Eamon. I remember when my father had me and Fergus accompany him to a landsmeet almost a year ago in Denerim. We ended up walking in on an altercation between Eamon and Cailan about Anora's rumored infertility. Eamon was trying to persuade Cailan to...to leave Anora and find a new wife who could grant him an heir. You see, Anora and Loghain don't have any royal blood. Loghain was born a commoner before he became the Hero of River Dane, so..yeah...a lot of people though that the Maker was punishing them for putting a commoner on the throne by Anora's apparent inability to have children."

"Did Eamon believe this as well?" Jade asked, scowling in disgust.

Valerie shrugged."His wife, Isolde did, that's for sure. She's a very pious woman, and an Orlesian too. She's also much younger than Eamon and for awhile a lot of people thought the same thing about her that they did about Anora."

"The Arlessa of Redcliffe is infertile?"

Sighing, Valerie shook her head."No, but it took her more than a decade to have Cailan's cousin, Connor, who is actually just about the same age as Oren was." She smiled sadly and shut her eyes."The last time Cailan and I spoke was right before the battle at Ostagar began. H-He told me the real reason why he didn't want Eamon there and confessed to me that while he really did love Anora deeply, he was starting to suspect that maybe his uncle was right. I tried to convince him otherwise, but he cut the conversation short and thanks to Loghain, I had to watch both him and Duncan die that night."

"Emma ir abelas, ma falon." Jade said, placing a hand on Valerie's shoulder."You have my word that we will avenge your family, King Cailan, Duncan, and everyone else who died at Ostagar because of what Loghain did." Leonard barked again, and rubbed his head against his mistress's side, making her chortle and scratch his ears in response.

"I appreciate that, Jade." She said with a genuine smile then went straight back to their previous task."So, what will our first move be?"

Jade looked back down at the treaties."The Circle of Magi seems to be our closest option at the moment. We can start heading there in the morning, then Tamlen and I are going to see if we can find any leads on the Elvhenan, then we go to the Durgen'len for their help, and then we go to this Arl Eamon of Redcliffe. Creators know this will be a very long journey for all of us." She shook her head and sighed at the thought of it.

Valerie moaned."Tell me about it. It's going to take us months if not more than a full year to gather the allies we need to stop this blight before we can so much as even hope to finally bring Loghain and Howe to justice for their crimes."

Jade shut her eyes, but said nothing in response.

Finally back from hiatus and happily updating once again. Next update can be expected sometime during the weekend or maybe a little bit later than that. In the meantime, please remember to review, leave constructive criticism, but no flames!

Elven Translations:

Elvhenan (Literally: Place of our people/Our hearts) Original name for the elven civilization.

Durgen'len - (Literally: Children of the stone) Dwarves

Banalhan - Blight

Shemlen/Shems - Humans

Lethallan - Friend/Kinswoman (Female)

Emma ir abelas, ma falon - I'm very sorry, my friend

Len - Child/Children

Next up: Chapter 18:Reflections