"This is an outrage!"
"I demand an explanation!"
Nathaniel ignored the blustering of the crowd of nobles, his face a mask of an icy glare as he, with an internal nod of satisfaction watched the last of them being roughly shoved into the throne room by two impassive guards. Good, they're doing their job.
With the door closing behind the guards there were only two set of people in the room, the gathered nobles, a full three dozen in number, and the warden's, sans their commander.
The nobles were, despite the speed with which they had been summoned, dressed in fine clothing and decently clean, not as much as one usually was when summoned before one's liege, but as they were when working at their estate. Three dozen in number the head of the noble households were a great mix of men and women, young and old, some as dark as Rivanni, some as pale as an Orlesian...a sign of the recent war as well as of Amaranthine's position as a trading hub.
They all wore the faces of one who had suffered an insult though, and with good cause, it was not the Ferelden way to summon the nobles so quickly, nor with any explanation as to why they had been summoned.
With their nice clothing slightly ruffled and their heads turning left and right as they tried to either glare at their guards or ask each other questions none had an answer to they looked like a gaggle of headless geese.
The wardens were in stark contrast to the nobles silent and still, they might as well have been statues for all they moved.
Whatever grief Mhairi might still feel about Anders nothing showed, the woman's eyes narrowed under her open-faced helmet of polished red steel as she regarded the nobles. Standing by the door leading out from the keep Mhairi kept her hand resting on the pommel of her sheathed sword, the fingers drumming against the hilt, as if she considered drawing it at that instance. For all Nathaniel knew she just might, for all that the woman might think of the Commander...Nathaniel had noticed her anger at the idea of assassins coming to kill her. Mhairi was a woman of principles, and no Commander of hers would be killed by crude murderers, especially not in Mhairi's keep!
I suppose it makes her convincing. Nathaniel could only hope the woman didn't do anything rash as he could do nothing about it from his position on the right side of the throne.
Flanking the door from the other side Sigrun stood, she too in full armour. Her hands idly resting on her sheathed axes the dwarf observed the crowd of nobles with an odd expression on her face, a mix of hostility, both feigned and real, as well as curiosity and...greed? I suppose a woman from Dust Town would find nobles interesting and disgusting in many ways...
On the other side of the throne, eight feet away, that felt like miles, Velanna stood. In stark contrast to Nathaniel's tousled and scruffy looks the woman was clean and pristine, her robe smelling faintly of lavender, or perhaps she was...Nathaniel wasn't sure, nor if she had always smelled of that or if he had just now noticed it.
Either way it was awfully difficult to ignore.
She was the only of the four that had her weapon out, the butt of her staff resting against the floor as she held it before her with both hands, her eyes narrowed in a characteristic glare at the nobles...and at times looking troubled as they shot him the odd look he couldn't quite read. Confusion? Worry? He couldn't tell.
To be fair he couldn't give her too much attention, his gaze fixed on the nobles, trying to gauge their resolve. With him only having had a bucket of far too cold water emptied over his head and still haven't had a time to shave he had begun to look like some barbarian from the Anderfels...and it seemed a few of the nobles gathered actually didn't recognise him. The others though had raised quizzing eyebrows...but Nathaniel's glare combined with the atmosphere of the room had stopped any questions or the like coming his way.
Despite the throne room easily being able to contain twice the number of people it felt cramped, as if there wasn't enough air to go around.
Hostility.
Danger.
Fear.
It was all palpable in the room and the nobles could sense it, many nervously shifting their feet even as they asked the same questions over and over again, as if to ward away a silence they knew they should fear.
But there were no answers, no one to tell them what was going on, no one with information, only four wardens glaring at them. The only four in the room with weapons, which some of the more skittish nobles noticed with pale faces.
Silence.
A pressing, tense silence. The tension of the bow just before release, the deep breath before the plunge.
But nothing happened.
A cough.
A scrapping of feet against floor.
A nervous giggle.
Yet there was nothing.
Finally a man stepped forth, a large man in his sixties he had a dark grey moustache and looked every bit of a noble warrior in his stance as he stepped towards Nathaniel and pointed a finger at him. "Warden, if this is-"
The butt of Velanna's staff slammed the floor, hard, making the sound echo throughout the room and forcing the noble a step back as he dropped his hand and stared at the insolent elf.
Velanna looked back evenly, a shadow of hostility in otherwise neutral eyes, making the man visibly shudder as he looked away and merged back into the crowd.
Huh, subtle for Velanna... Nathaniel felt a bit...impressed...he hadn't expected Velanna to be so clever as to not force a direct confrontation, for all her intelligence she was a forthright woman after all. She didn't turn to look at him and his questioning look, there was only slight blink of her right eye. Wait...did she just wink at me?
Nathaniel had no time to think about it though as the doors slammed open, making even him jump.
The doors slammed shut as soon as they'd opened and Nathaniel knew all too well who had entered as the crowd of nobles turned deadly silent and begun to part to give way for a solitary figure slowly making its way towards the throne.
Lynn did not look good.
While the heavy armour she wore did much to hide the way the poison had eaten away at her body there was no hiding her face. Nathaniel had thought her gaunt before...but now her head was practically a skull with paper thing skin of white pulled taut over it, her black hair had streaks of grey in it along the temples and was thinner then before...and her amber eyes were glowing with rage within its sockets, like that of some malevolent creature of evil.
Despite her weakness there was no hesitation or wavering in Lynn's steps, as if her anger was enough to power her, despite the potent poison still lingering within her.
She exuded rage.
And all in the room trembled.
But only when Nathaniel spotted what she held in her hands did he truly know fear, a cold trickle of sweat running down his spine as he watched the elf step up next to him. Facing the throne she, with the slowness of one holding a great rage back, placed her burden onto the seat of the throne with a metallic click before turning to the crowd.
The nobles, having filled the hole made by the elf, stared back, one or two swallowing at the sight of the creature of hatred before them.
Silence.
More nobles swallowing, half of them turning ghostly pale, the other looking ready to throw up.
Silence.
Then Lynn spoke, her voice raspy and shaking, shaking, Nathaniel realised, with anger: "Six days ago there was an attempt on my life..."
Someone moved to speak, then though better of it.
Now all nobles had turned ghostly pale.
"Three crow assassins, well trained, entered this keep, slew many of my soldiers and nearly killed myself..."
Silence.
Lynn cocked her head to the side, a nearly animalistic snarl escaping her. "None could afford them but one or several of those standing before me."
Someone moved to speak.
"I want names!" Lynn's voice nearly turned into a shriek at the end, making even the warden's that had been prepared for some sort of angry speech flinch.
Silence, the nobles exchanging frightened glances of silent communication.
Lynn's voice turned into a low hiss: "Now..."
From the crowd a small protest from some woman came: "Surely my liege does not suspect any of us for-"
"NOW!"
The entire crowd of nobles jumped back in fright, as did the other wardens as Nathaniel felt himself shudder. She's out of control...
Yet Lynn seemed perfectly in control of herself as she with deathly silence moved closer to the nobles, a lion sneaking closer to the herd of antelopes. Her voice was once again low, almost calm, which was more frightening than her shrieks of rage: "I want those responsible for this, and I want them now...those giving themselves up will not have their families slaughtered like pigs. The others...will not be so fortunate."
"You can't-!"
"And those with knowledge of those responsible should speak up too!" Lynn snapped even as Nathaniel paled. You can't...these are nobles, without them the whole country will fall into chaos! I understand the need to set an example but...Maker... "Or they too will suffer the same fate as those they protect...now..." She exuded hatred, making everyone inch back. "...names..."
Silence.
A woman weeping in fright.
A man whimpering.
No answer.
"I see..." Lynn didn't sound surprised, in fact she almost sounded...amused...a dark...vicious sort of amusement. "...then...if the nobles feel that their loyalty is to that of their order...and not to the order they swore their oath of vassalage to...I will have to change their order."
She turned back to the throne.
And picked up the chalice.
Nathaniel felt as if his heart was trying to hammer its way out of his chest. She can't! It's just not...she can't!
Turning to the assembled nobles Lynn held up the blood-filled chalice, a her voice frosty with hatred: "Welcome to your joining."
There was chaos.
"You can't!"
"This isn't proper!"
"We are not to be treated this way!"
"This is ridiculous!"
"The crown will hear of this!"
Nobles protesting as some backed away in fear, others advancing with indignant glares on their faces.
"I can!" Lynn's voice was like a knife, silencing all protests and freezing the nobles still. "And I will! A Grey Warden may conscript anyone, from servant to king! You are not exceptions!"
"The joining is supposed to be dangerous!" A woman exclaimed, her features pale, to the point that Nathaniel wondered if she wouldn't faint. "If...the family of the fallen will rise up! There'll be civil war!"
"Then they will rise up!" Lynn retorted, snarling like a wolf. "And I will burn them to nothing and grind their households into the dust until nothing remains of them!"
"This is ridiculous!" A man exclaimed, waving his arms out as he half-turned towards the other nobles while speaking to Lynn. "You will not bully us like this! I understand you wishes those hiring the murderers found but you cannot risk the entire land just be-"
"Do not preach to me of what can and cannot be done!" Lynn growled, advancing and making the man falter as his stare darted from the lethal elf and the dark liquid being brought closer to him. "Not even the archdemon could tell me what I could and couldn't do! I will not be lectured by some snivelling wretch of a noble who has never felt the icy fingers of death around his heart on what's proper!"
A few of the nobles made signs of protection at the mention of the demon, but most remained still, rooted to the spot with terror.
The man said nothing, his lips trembling as he watched the elf and the chalice of darkspawn blood with the terror of a man about to flee, yet having nowhere to go.
"Unless..." A nearly mad chuckle escaped Lynn as she regarded the crowd. "...I get my names..."
A few nobles exchanged glances, others lips were moving without them speaking, as if trying to confess something yet unable to find their voice.
But there was only silence.
"Join us brothers and sisters..." Lynn's voice was suddenly soft, calm, a dreadful poison of words trickling into the ears of those in the room. "Join us in the shadows where we stand vigilant..." The men and women of the nobles looked ready to bolt, many eyes wide open in shock, unable to believe what they were hearing.
Neither could Nathaniel, the man too stunned to act, even if he had dared. Madness...this is madness...
"Join us as we carry the duty that can not be forsworn..." A wolfish grin. "And should you perish, know that your sacrifice will not be forgotten...And that one day we shall join you"
She pushed the chalice towards the noble that had tried to protest, who shook his head furiously, eyes darting to the others, trying to find some support and finding none as the others looked away in mute horror.
"Drink." Lynn's hiss was barely audible, but the slight sound of her dagger being drawn was...and the man somehow managed to go even paler.
The man hesitated.
And fell.
There were gasps, shrieks, curses.
But Nathaniel could do nothing but stare as the man dropped onto his knees, clutching his stomach where intestines were pouring out, his eyes screwed shut in agony as his mouth opened in a soundless scream.
Then he keeled over, crashing to the floor with a crack of a skull breaking and the fleshy sound of intestines being squashed against the floor.
Someone threw up.
Lynn remained impassive though, holding her gore-covered dagger in her left hand she advanced upon the next noble, her right holding up the chalice to the woman that was as pale as a ghost, shaking uncontrollable. "Drink sister..."
The woman only glanced at the dagger, then hurriedly held out trembling hands to hold the chalice.
Some of the blood spilled, the chalice held in the shaking hands it was, some of it ending on the woman's hands and making her whimper in fright.
She didn't drop it though, Lynn's steady gaze forcing her not to, forcing her to pull it up towards her lips, forcing her to drink...
Lynn snatched the chalice away from the woman even as she took a step back, a strangled cough escaping her.
Maker...it's not darkspawn blood...it's not a true joining...p-poison? The realisation filled Nathaniel with disgust as he watched the woman flail her arms around and stumble further back, making screaming nobles step away even as the woman's face turned a sick shade of blue.
"Agh...I...glah..." The woman's mouth worked to form the word, only for a black tongue, swollen and bleeding, to slip out of her mouth..then fall off, making black blood well from the wound as she spun around, reaching for whoever was closest.
Screaming nobles jumped away, only to watch as the woman with large eyes, pleading at them even as they began to bleed, scrapped at the floor after them as she collapsed...then went still.
Silence.
Then Lynn's voice, raspy and hateful, cold and final, spoke out: "The joining is not yet complete..."
A horrified silence.
Then a cry: "No!" A man fell to his knees, hands covering his face as he shook his head furiously. "It wasn't me! It was lord Mortine and Lady Landra!"
A man and a woman stepped forth, shaky glares fixed on the kneeling man as they with pale faces shook their heads, the woman speaking up: "That is a lie! I demand a trial of our peers!"
The man too was pale, but looked equally angry: "This is no evidence! He would have named anyone to save his own rotten skin! Or cover his own tracks!"
"True..." Lynn replied, looking thoughtful for but a moment...then looking to the doors. "Guards!"
The door slammed open, letting in a full dozen grim looking but pale guards with drawn weapons.
Lynn pointed at the two nobles, then the kneeling one, in turn. "Take these three out and execute them."
"WHAT!"
Nathaniel wasn't sure who shouted the question, perhaps all of them, but Lynn didn't seem to hear: "I want troops sent to their estates, their families and servants executed, their men are now our men, is that understood?"
A shaking soldier managed a salute even as the others moved to grab the chosen nobles, all three of them staring out into the distance, stunned into silence by what had happened.
"As for you loyal nobles..." Lynn snorted. "Your lands will expand to cover those of the now to be destroyed families." She paused there, perhaps to look for any smugness among the nobles at the thought of more land. There was none though, all of them too stunned to think. "Enjoy the land...but remember how you got it...remember who holds your lives...remember not to cross me."
I doubt they'll forget...
8
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8
Thanks to Abydos Jackson for her patience with me.
