In Denerim, late at night in the Palace...
Loghain is staring into the fire with a drink in his hand, behind him he hears Arl Howe enter the room. He continues to stare into the fire as he speaks.
"I bring word, sire. There are demands from the Bannorn that you step down from the regency." Loghain turns his head slight at this. "They are said to be gathering their forces. As are your allies. It appears it will be civil war after all, despite the darkspawn. Pity." Loghain just nods at this bit of information, the Arl continues. "I also have an interesting report. There seems to be Grey Wardens who survived Ostagar. How I don't know, but they defeated the men you left in Lothering and sent them back with a message saying they know the truth about Ostagar. I have arranged for a...solution, with your leave."
An elven man enters the room bowing as he speaks. "The Antivan Crows send their regards." Loghain shakes his head and turn his attention back to the fire as he speaks.
"An assassin?"
"Against Grey Wardens we will need the very best, sire." The elf begins to chuckle as he speaks, while Loghain takes a sip from his goblet.
"And the most expensive." to this Loghain turns his head again and responds.
"Just get it done." with that Arl Howe bows to leave and the elf backs out of the room. The elf turns to the Arl.
"Is there anything else I should know about these two Grey Wardens?" the Arl regards the elf for a few moments.
"Kill the male Warden and bring the woman directly to me. I have important plans for that one." responds the Arl.
"As you wish. Do you know which road they can be found on?" asks the elf
"More than likely they are headed to Redcliffe." to this elf nods and turns to take his leave. He had already hired some people to assist him so he planned on heading out that night.
In the Fade..
As her eyes opened and surveyed the room around her, she knew where she was and it only be a few seconds until she would hear his voice yelling at her. He surprised her by not yelling though she could hear the emotion in his voice.
"I am glad you are awake, I was worried."
"I am sorry I scared you." he gave her look of disbelief.
"Really, because that is the third time you've taken control after promising you would not do that anymore." now she clearly could tell he was angry.
"Would you prefer we both died?"
"You know damn well, I don't." his anger didn't subside.
"That was the other option. She was going to lose that battle."
"I have heard that argument before, I think you just miss it and use that as an excuse to take control." he said with voice rising a little. At this point she shot out of their bed, swaying a little, he reached out to her but she swatted his hands away.
"Don't!"
"Don't what? Give a shit when you risk your life? I love you too much!"
"And that's why we are in the mess we are in now, isn't it." she said accusingly, as she looked into his eyes she saw the pain she caused him with her words.
"So that's what this all about? Getting back at me for being weak?" his voice now full of pain and anguish.
"Partly.
"So because I am not as strong as you, you're now trying to get yourself killed and hurt me in the process?"
"No, that's not it."
"Then what damn it! I was trying to save you, if I had known what my choice was really going to do I.." his voice just trails out.
"You what? Would have still done it? Have you learned nothing?"
"I don't know. All I know is that what I wanted was to do save you." his eyes were filling with unshod tears and his shoulders slumped from holding his burden for so long. "What would you have done?"
"Honestly, if I was presented with the choice you had I am not sure I could have walked away."
"Yes, you would have."
"Gee, make me feel a like a heartless bitch." he sighed
"That is not what I meant. You are much stronger than me, you would not have done what I did. You would have made the hard choice and sacrificed yourself later to join me."
"But that's just it, we now know that nothing of the Warden that kills the Archdemon survives their soul is destroyed. There is no beyond. I am not as strong as you think I am." she now sighs. He walks over to her and reaches out to touch her face, lifting her chin and forcing her to look at him.
"Yes you are, which was I followed you and believed we could defeat the Archdemon and the horde. I should have trusted in your judgment and I didn't. You saw what I refused to see about being a Warden and I let my emotions get the better of me costing us both a life filled with happiness and joy. I can't tell you how sorry I truly am for doing this to us and everyone else here." now she reached out and touch his cheek
"I know you are sorry about how things turned out and have worked hard to right your mistake. I am sorry for hurting you further, I know you beat yourself up about it every moment since you realized what was going on." she kissed him, hoping to ease the pain she just caused. He smiled down at her, his heart feeling a little lighter and asked.
"Now tell me what else is bothering you."
"I'm just tired, we have been joined since her birth, so it is like I am reliving all of it again first hand just through her eyes and even though everything is not the same I feel what felt back then in addition to her emotions. It can be overwhelming at times."
"I think I understand, this time with him so many things are different yet the same too." she just nodded in agreement with him.
"We aren't going to get another chance again to make things right. This time if she dies so do I and he is trying to kill her, now more than ever." he had wrapped his arms around her now and was holding her close.
"He knows just like I do, you are the stronger one. You will do what you must, you always have. I do not have your strength."
"Yes you do, you were never given the chance to see it in yourself."
"I hope you are right. I love you Elissa."
"I love you too, Alistair."
Just outside of Lothering...
Belyssa slowly sat up, she felt like she had been hit by a Bronto, her muscles were extremely sore. As she tried to stand up from her bedroll she let out a soft groan and then a gasp in pain. When her hands touched her side she felt bandages wrapped around her, she then remembered the fight with the townsfolk, they wanted to turn her in and collect the reward money. She continued to rise when she took in her surroundings, noticing she was still in her armour. She managed to stand-up on her own, she heard shouting and decides to head in that direction. As she neared she recognized Alistair's voice, he was shouting at someone.
"Those people tried to kill her and the Mabari that was with her!"
"The townsfolk are saying that she instigated the attack, by demanding that they give her all their food." said the other voice.
"Bullocks! We fight the darkspawn not rob people." shouts Alistair
"Well that woman did!" said another voice belonging to a female.
"That woman is my sister and her name is Belyssa Jae!" Belyssa gasps he only see's me as a little sister.
"Sister?" asks man
"She is a Grey Warden like me. (Alistair gave Ser Bryant a rueful smile) I can't very well call her a "Brother-in-Arms"; besides, I know her and she would never attack someone demanding their food."
"Alison said you were close but never explained how close." says the woman.
"What does Alison have do with this." interjects Belyssa as she neared the group of people gathered in the camp. Alistair rushed to her side, whispering
"Bel, you should be resting. I can handle this." Belyssa smiled at him and hoped her voice didn't sound sad to his ears.
"It is a little hard to rest with people shouting." she then turns to Ser Bryant, "Why are you here?" Before he can answer Alistair tells her what is going on.
"He is here because the survivors are saying that you attacked them demanding they give you their food."
"Please tell me you are joking?" says Belyssa incredulously looking at Ser Bryant.
"Afraid not, Milady."
"I have no interest in robbing these townsfolk; in fact, I have spent the past two days helping them out. If you look around our camp we are have a sufficient amount of food. Today we killed some Bere's so we have plenty of meat. Besides, those townsfolk wanted take me in to collect the reward set by Loghain."
"How dare you tell lies about us, you whore." says the women.
"Lucinda, there is no reason to call Bel names." says Alistair, Belyssa looks at Alistair.
"One of your adoring fans, I see."
"Not now, Bel. This is serious, Ser Bryant wants to take you into custody."
"Not bloody likely."
"Is that so, Milady? I have been polite so far but even my patients wears thin." says Ser Bryant.
"The same can be said for me, Ser Bryant. When the hounds and I were leaving the main part of town, there was a group of men waiting for us. How they knew where I would be, I could not tell you. One of the men spoke, stating that he didn't care if what Loghain said was true or not all the mattered was the price on my head could feed a lot of hungry people. I offered them food, but they did not want it instead they attacked me and the hounds so I fought back at first only with my hands but one of them pulled at a knife so I had to unsheathe my sword and I was taught swords are not playing things if you pull it out in a fight you had better mean to you used it and I did. I had hoped that if I hurt one of them the badly enough the rest would run away but they did not. Since, I was vastly out numbered I fought to injure them and retreat back to camp but they had more men waiting to ambush me from behind. Thankfully the hounds called out to Alistair and he and the rest of the group came to our rescue."
"To your rescue one of the members of your party is a murderer. That Qunari who killed the Bandor family is here." sneered Lucinda.
"Yes, the Revered Mother released him to my custody and another member of the party is Lay Sister Leliana."
"You have no proof of this." says Lucinda scathingly.
"Really? I am sure you missed that bandage wrapped around Bel's lovely waist?" says Alistair angrily.
"My what?" says Belyssa
"Your...your waist...the bandage." sputters Alistair, Leliana had walked over with a torch so Ser Bryant could take at look, as he bent down to look Morrigan also walked over with someone else following her.
"You see Alistair, I told you she would not sleep for long." says Morrigan a little smugly, Alistair just grunts in response. "This woman has some information you may find useful."
"Elder Miriam, why are you here." asks Ser Bryant
"To right a crave injustice. This Warden is telling the truth (pointing at Belyssa), there was plan to capture her and then sell her to Loghain's men and then they planned on giving that information to the men of someone called Howe." Belyssa gasped at the last revelation, she then asked.
"Arl Howe is in Lothering, where?" everyone but Alistair was surprised at how vehemently she spoke.
"I don't know who that is, I only know of the offer."
"Elder Miriam, you need to explain everything." says Ser Bryant.
"It is basically as I said. We all heard the price Loghain set if someone turned in the Wardens it wasn't long after that a small group of men came into the inn one night making another offer but his this time they were only interested in the a female Warden that matched the Lady's description (again she pointed at Belyssa). So when the Wardens showed up in Lothering there was much discussion about handing them over to Loghain's men; however, when the Wardens beat-up the men Loghain left behind that didn't seem very promising so another was hatched to separate them in the hopes of capturing the Lady when she was alone. They were going to hand her over to another small group of Loghain's men that planned on following them when they left Lothering."
"Let me guess then they planned on selling the information to Howe's men telling them where to find Bel." interjects Alistair sarcastically
"Correct." answers Elder Miriam.
"It seems I owe you an apology, Wardens" says Ser Bryant. Alistair just scoffs while Belyssa bends her head to acknowledge him.
"I have the gold they collected from Howe's men. I wanted to give to and say I am so sorry about this." continues Elder Miriam.
"If you tell me where I can find Howe's men keep it as payment." counters Belyssa.
"Please tell me you jest." exclaims Morrigan.
"I will not take gold that belonged to Howe, let his foul money be of better use to the people of this village."
"These are the same people that tried to capture you, you know." says Alistair still sounding sarcastic.
"Then it is a perfect fit. (she now turned her attention to Elder Miriam) Please wise elder tell me where I can find these men!" says Belyssa.
"When you leave town take the first road on your left as if you are headed to the Hawke Farmhold, they are about a quarter of mile down."
"Thank you Elder. Pack up camp we leave within the hour." shouts Belyssa as she storms off, leaving an exasperated Morrigan and bewildered Ser Bryant.
"I am guessing she has a history with the Arl?" Ser Bryant asks.
"You have no idea." responds Alistair
"Well thank you and I will leave you to it." with that Ser Bryant takes his leave. Leaving behind an outraged Lucinda standing there alone with Alistair, Morrigan had walked off muttering to herself.
"So let me guess Alison was supposed to distract me so this plan could work?" asks Alistair
"Actually the men didn't care which of us distracted you. You seemed partial to Alison so she was the one chosen."
"She did know of the plan?"
"Yes."
"I see."
"Do you? You stand there judging our actions, we just wanted some for food and supplies so we could escape the oncoming horde." says Lucinda accusingly
"So better to eliminate a person sworn to fight the darkspawn, right. That makes more sense, how far do you think you could get. There are only two Wardens in all of Ferelden right now, we are good but even we can only kill so many darkspawn."
Lucinda scoffs "More Wardens will come." Alistair shows is irritation with her and raises an eyebrow.
"Oh really?" How will they know to come?"
"You will tell them, it only takes one of you to deliver a message." Alistair lost his temper and began shouting at her.
"I will, really? Do you where to send the letter? Perhaps you have a secret form of communication you wish to share." Lucinda looked at him as if he just lost his mind.
"You don't know how to contact them?" she asks
"Short of leaving Ferelden altogether and heading to straight to Weisshaupt Fortress in the Anderfels, no I don't. I have only been a Warden for about six months. What Loghain did, killed any Warden that knew how to reach the rest of us."
"Maker help us!" exclaims Lucinda
"That is what I've been saying. The thing is that Bel will do everything within her power to stop the darkspawn, despite what you tried to do and why do you wonder, it is because she is a good person and believes in helping people even when they are just as vile and evil inside as the darkspawn are on the outside." with last snipe Alistair just leaves her standing there as he goes in search of Belyssa. He found her over by the area he had set up before the attack on her.
"Bel you should be resting."
"Why?" looking at him with a confused look on her face.
"Why? You were wounded so badly you passed out!" says Alistair while he tries to resist a sudden urge to shake some sense into her. Before Belyssa could answer, Morrigan responds to his statement.
"Idiot, she was not. Her wound was not deep just messy. The Red-headed wench thought it would be better for the Templar's to believe she was badly wounded by the townsfolk in an effort to gain their sympathy. So we didn't apply any salve until a few moments ago." To prove she was fine Belyssa did an undulating move with waist. Alistair got lost for a few moments watching her move that he didn't hear Leilana approach, as she walked passed him she whispered. "You're were right." Alistair was so startled he shouted his response.
"What?" This caused Belyssa to stop her movements as she looked over to them both, she could not see the sly smile Leilana had given Alistair before she spoke.
"You have a lovely waist and a nice flat belly, Warden." To this Belyssa frowned.
"How can you know what Alistair's waist and belly look like, Leilana?" The image of Alistair chopping wood shirtless formed in Belyssa's mind.
Leilana let out a soft chuckle. "I was talking about you not Alistair, Warden." Belyssa's frown went to a look of confusion and then finally embrassament as she mumbled a polite thank you to Leilana. Before Alistair could say anything else Sten had walked over.
"Everything is ready for us to depart."
"Thank you Sten." Belyssa turned to Alistair. "Are you ready?" He just nodded, he was still trying to figure out what Leilana was up to. Belyssa just shrugged as she gathered the rest of her things she headed over to Trouble and gave him a few Mabari treats as the headed to the ramp that lead out of Lothering. They had just reached the top of the ramp when Belyssa noticed Alison was standing there, Alison walked over to Alistair.
"Alistair we will wait for you at the bend Elder Miriam talked about." says Belyssa coolly. She did instruct Trouble to say with him as well and the rest of the group headed out of town. Alistair nods at Belyssa, before she turns to head out on the Imperial Highway he then turns his attention to Alison.
"I see that she does not trust me." Alison gestured towards to Trouble
"What do you want?" he says angrily at her. Alison flinches at the tone he is used.
"I..I came to apologize."
"I am not the one your friends tried to kidnap and then sell." continued Alistair in that same tone.
"True, but you are the one that I hurt." she made an attempt to touch his hand but Duble stepped closer in between them and started growling at her. Alison's words soften him up a bit, Alistair lightly touched Duble's head to stop her growling.
"While I appreciate your words, it does not change that you used me." said Alistair, this time he sounded less angry.
"I tried to seduce you, Alistair. You were just blind to it." this revelation caused Alistair to blink with surprise, he then sighed.
"Alison, while I can get past what you did to me. I can't get past the reason you tried to seduce me was part of the plan of hurting Bel."
"No."
"No, what?" asked Alistair
"I tried to seduce you because I want you Alistair. The plan was to distract you by doing work on my house while they captured your friend, when we realized that was not going to work we had some men spy you so we would know when she was alone." Alistair winced at the coldness of Alison's words.
"It doesn't matter how you planned it, I can't forgive that. Goodbye Alison." Alistair turned away from her and went to join Belyssa and rest of the group. By the time Alistair reached the road Elder Miriam mentioned he found Belyssa in an argument with Sten.
"Are you not sworn to fight the darkspawn?" says Sten
"I don't like the feeling I am getting, we wait for Alistair so he can confirm my findings." responds Belyssa
"What's going on?" asks Alistair as he starts talking his eyes begin to turn blue, it did not have the same intensity they did in the Tower however everyone could tell the color was different.
"Alright that confirms it, we head straight on to Redcliffe. Lets move on." says Belyssa as she starts to walk away from the road. Leilana is shocked and begin asking questions.
"What about those men of that Howe man. Should we not save them?" Alistair thought he was going to have to hold her back when she spun around so quickly to confront Leilana.
"No!"
"No?" ask Leilana again.
"No!" this time Alistair also answered. Belyssa just look at him for a moment and said nothing. But neither Leilana nor Sten was letting this go.
"There is a family that lives down that road. The Hawke's are a nice family, we should at least try to save them." says Leilana and then Sten adds
"What kind of Warden's are you to ignore your duty." this made Belyssa lose her temper completely and she charged at Sten.
"How dare you! You know nothing about me or what it is to be Grey Warden. Our duty is to stop the blight, not kill as many darkspawn as I can. To stop the entire Blight means we need an army. Your people may be content at throwing water into the wind but not us and if you do not like it then go be a coward and run to your death." Alistair thought Bel went to far just then and from Sten's reaction so did he.
"I am a Sten of the Berasade, and we are not cowards." his voice went low as he towered over Belyssa
"Then prove it, and fight to stay alive instead of wanting to die quickly." says Belyssa she then turned to Leilana. "I am sorry but if the Hawke's didn't get out then they are already dead." She then turned to continue on the Imperial Highway. Leilana took one more look down the road and said a silent prayer then ran to catch up to the group.
