AUTHOR'S NOTE: As always, I want to thank everyone for the kind reviews. I love receiving them, and they keep me motivated to write. In this chapter, we have a pretty big leap forward in the timeline. I've been hesitating over whether to do it this way or not, but I think it's necessary to keep the story from getting bogged down. Hopefully this chapter will adequately explain everything, but let me know if it's lacking. Thanks for reading!
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The loud clacks of the practice swords rang throughout the yard. Jessimyn leaned back against the railing that surrounded the area, watching the two men spar. She kept her eyes on the fighters as she turned her head towards the man standing next to her. "Will keeps dropping his right shoulder. I thought you were going to work with him on that."
Jakob shrugged. "I can't teach someone who doesn't want to learn."
"Or he can't learn from someone who doesn't want to teach. Jakob, I know you have a high standard for these men, but they can learn, if you give them a chance. Maker knows you've shown improvement over the years."
He grinned at her. "Nah, I was this perfect when you met me. That's why you fought so hard for me."
Jessimyn gave him a look. "If you're not willing to teach, I can still send you to Amaranthine, you know."
He grunted at her before turning and walking into the center of the yard. "Will! Stop dropping your damned shoulder!"
Jessimyn just sighed. It was probably all for naught, anyway. She didn't think Will really had what it took. Still, sometimes it was worth keeping some of the possibles around, just so that Jakob could improve his teaching skills. That's what Jakob had started calling them, "the possibles", and the name stuck. Every few weeks, there were more and more of them.
When Jessimyn got back into Denerim, all of the Grey Wardens were still there, at the compound. As word of their arrival had spread, men had started trickling in, men who wanted to join the illustrious Grey Wardens. The men who had come back with Jakob and Kyran were disgusted by this, turning everyone away. But once Jessimyn found out about it, she'd argued with them, telling them that they should at least give them a chance.
"That's not how it is done!" A Grey Warden named Eddron, from the Free Marches, had said. "We find our own recruits."
They'd argued back and forth for months. Then the Orlesian Wardens had shown up. The Denerim compound had suddenly become very crowded, and Jessimyn had finally convinced the bulk of them to move to Amaranthine. Jakob and Kyran had stayed in Denerim with her, along with Delmon and Vaylis, two of the Wardens from Orlais. Once the others had gone, Jessimyn began meeting with the possibles who showed up. Most of them were completely worthless, and she sent them home to their families. Some, though, had promise, and Jessimyn and the others would run them through a number of tests. Those found worthy were then sent on to Amaranthine, where they would go through the Joining. In the year and a half since she'd been back in Denerim, they'd only sent five people on, and of those, three had survived the Joining.
"I thought I might find you here."
Jessimyn turned to see Leliana walking up to her and smiled. "Well, it's usually here or in my office."
"Yes, you never come to the palace anymore," Leliana pouted.
Jessimyn hopped over the railing, and the two women walked towards the barracks. "Why would I need to visit the palace?" She grinned. "I get enough visitors here, and I don't have to get all dressed up."
The barracks consisted of three buildings, two large and one small. The kitchens and mess hall took up one of the larger buildings, while the men stayed in the other. Jessimyn had the smaller to herself. The small building had three rooms. Two she used for a bedchamber and sitting room, but she'd turned the third into an office, where she met with possibles and anyone else who came to visit.
Jessimyn and Leliana went to her sitting room. It was nowhere near as nice as what she had in Highever, or what she could have had if she stayed in the palace, but it suited her needs. "So, is this just a friendly visit, or..."
Leliana laughed. "You think I have another purpose for being here? That may be, but I do also just wish to talk."
"Well," said Jessimyn. "Let's get the business out of the way first, then."
"So serious you are. Very well. I have been given the strict task of making sure you will be at the summer festival next month. I've heard that you've previously refused to go, and that is just not acceptable."
Jessimyn shook her head. "Maker, not this again. I've already told Alistair I don't want to go. Now he sends you to pester me? Why does he want me to be there so badly?"
Leliana raised her eyebrows. "You ask this of me? Surely you would know better than I."
"You see him more often than I do," said Jessimyn.
With a grin, Leliana replied. "Ah, but you see more of him than I do."
Since her return to Denerim, Jessimyn had stayed pretty strictly to the Grey Warden compound. She almost never went to the palace, and certainly not for any formal occasions. Not only did it seem that everyone wanted to stare at her, but she'd had too many nobles trying to seek her favor. They apparently thought she held some sort of sway, being the sister of a teyrn and a friend of the king, besides being the Hero of Ferelden. She hated it. At least on the compound, if someone was trying to impress her, it was for a better reason. No, better to avoid such festivities all together.
Alistair, though, seemed to find many reasons to visit the compound. He liked to check out the new possibles, whenever someone showed up that wasn't immediately turned away. He seemed to be trying to make sure everyone remembered that he was still a Grey Warden. He also asked her to send word whenever she heard any news from Amaranthine. Jessimyn quickly discovered that the added benefit of having the small building all to herself was that no one could see if sometimes they moved from her office to her bedroom. Alistair's visits were sporadic, though. Sometimes he'd be by two or three times in a week, and then it might be a month before she saw him again.
Things between the two of them had not gotten any easier since their return. They seemed to argue as often as they made love, and while there was no denying the passion that was there between them, Jessimyn often found herself wondering if they weren't doing more harm than good. It was a battle she seemed to be fighting constantly, with Alistair as much as with herself, between what she wanted and what she felt was right. But both concepts were fluid, always changing.
"Is it because of the queen?" Leliana asked. "You don't like seeing them together?"
"Don't be ridiculous," Jessimyn protested, though she couldn't deny there wasn't something to that.
As hard as she had tried not to have an opinion of the woman at all, Jessimyn had found she actually liked Lyrina. True, the queen was not a terribly exciting person, but she was very kind, and it seemed everyone liked her. She could also tell, whenever she saw them together, that Alistair was growing to care about her. So Jessimyn stayed away from the palace, as she considered that to be their world, a place in which she was a visitor at best, an intruder at worst. He seemed to understand this, which is why he always went to visit her at the compound.
"Oh, I don't think I'm being ridiculous at all. But this is to be a very important event. Since the Landsmeet is scheduled for a week after, all the nobles from all over Ferelden will be here. Your brother will be here..."
"I am aware of all of this," said Jessimyn. "It doesn't mean I want to be there, though. I don't want to spend hours having people fuss over me until my hair and clothing are just right. I don't want to stand all night in a crowded room, having to listen to some noble first tell me how brave he thinks I am, then how they were wronged by some other noble, and if I could just mention it to the king..." She sighed. "And no, I don't want to see them together. I feel like an intruder in their life."
Leliana continued to pout. "But what if I asked you to go for my sake? I could help you get ready? It wouldn't take... well, yes, it would probably take hours, but you don't seem to mind it when I'm the one fussing over you. And when was the last time you heard me perform? Let yourself have fun for one night. Flirt with all the gorgeous noblemen and make the king jealous. Drink a little too much so that someone has to help you back to your bed." She laughed merrily. "Oh, say you will. If you want, I can let you flirt with me all night, and together we can make everyone jealous."
Jessimyn laughed, shaking her head. "When you say it like that, it almost sounds like fun."
"Oh," said Leliana, a twinkle in her eyes. "We could have lots of fun, you and I. So I can tell the king you'll be there?"
"No, you may not," said Jessimyn, giving the bard a playful shove. "I'm not so easily tricked as that."
Leliana stuck out her bottom lip at Jessimyn, but she let it go. Instead, she began telling Jessimyn all of the latest gossip from the palace, which the Warden enjoyed hearing not because she cared about any of the nobles, but because Leliana was such a good storyteller. When it was time for her to go, the two women embraced, then Leliana went back to the palace as Jessimyn moved into her office.
She sat down and picked up one of the invoices sitting atop her desk. Alistair insisted she be the one in control over the compound's finances. Jessimyn hated it, and she was sure the king made her do it just because he knew she hated it. Well, that and the fact that whenever he came by for a visit, they inevitably ended up arguing about the price of something, and then he wanted to go back to her office to look at the figures.
A sigh escaped Jessimyn's lips as she shuffled between the various pieces of paper. They needed their own armorer, but they couldn't justify the cost. There were only the five of them there permanently, but the problems came with the possibles who would show up. Most of them didn't have decent armor of their own, and they had to make do with the mismatched sets they kept around. They'd had some injuries from ill-fitting armor that didn't quite protect what it was supposed to protect. And then there was the food. What they spent a month could feed a group three times their size, maybe more. But Grey Wardens cost more to feed than other soldiers.
There was a knock at the door.
"Enter," Jessimyn called, all too happy to push the papers aside for a moment.
Vaylis poked his head inside her office. "There's someone out here who would like to see you, Jessimyn."
"Who is it? Another possible? It's late. Just find him a bed in the barracks, and we can run him through some training in the morning."
"He asked for you by name. Said he wanted to speak with you as soon as possible."
She sighed. "I don't have time for this right now, Vaylis."
Vaylis smiled at her. "He said it was important. Said you'd want to see him right away."
Jessimyn frowned. "I doubt that," she mumbled under her breath. "Fine. Send him in."
Vaylis nodded and went outside. This was the part she hated. At least once a month, someone came to the barracks to meet with her personally. Usually it was someone who had fought in the battle when the Archdemon was killed, someone who wanted to tell her that he had been there. They always made it seem like their visit was ever so important, and then they just gushed over her. It made her feel very uncomfortable, but she'd found early on that denying them a meeting didn't ever seem to dissuade anyone. They would just wait outside her barracks until she appeared, and then they pounced. At least in her office she had a little control over the situation.
There was another knock on the door, and Jessimyn stood up. She moved towards the door and opened it. "What can I do..." She began, but the the words fell from her mouth, only to be replaced by an enormous smile.
"Zevran!" She gasped, and threw her arms around him.