First of all, thanks to my readers for your patience! This chapter has taken me so incredibly long to complete! Somehow I didn't have the motivation to continue. Also thank you to Erynnar for always giving your reviews! They keep me from stopping the story! *hugs* for you sweetie! Anyway, now I have found my motivation again and the chapter is finally up! I hope you like it and I'm sure other chapters will follow accordingly ;-)
- Aveline POV -
I woke up early by some noises in my room. The room was still dark by the curtains, but I could see the sun shining through little bits the curtain did not cover. I noticed the whole bed was different, they must have cleaned it while I was asleep which must have been very deeply. Servants were working in the room quietly and Wynne and Leliana were whispering them what to do. I slowly sat up in bed and Wynne walked towards me as soon as she noticed what I was trying to do.
"Carefull, dear." she said. She opened up the curtains and the room was filled with sunlight. It felt very nice and wrong at the same time. I looked around more and wondered where Alistair was. Before I could ask Wynne was sitting next to me.
"Do you think you can get up? We've got a nice bath set up for you." I nodded and moved my legs out of the bed. My feet touched the cold stone floor and I could still see dried up blood attached to them. Wynne caught my look and quickly took my hand so I would stand up. She guided me to the bath and looked at me.
"Do you want me to stay?" she asked. I shook my head. I did not feel like talking to anyone right now and I thought it would be best if I was alone. When she closed the door behind her, and everybody was out of the room, I undressed myself. I mindlessly tossed the clothes away and let myself slowly slide into the hot water of the bath. The warmth was nice. The blood had attached itself to my skin good, as it didn't fully remove from the water alone. I wanted to have it off so I rubbed my skin as hard as I could, as if my blood as to blame. In a way it was. My blood was tainted and the taint aborted everything.
No, I don't want to think about it. I washed myself and decided not to linger in the bath. I got dressed in some simple clothes I noticed earlier and walked out of my room. Wynne was standing right outside the door and looked at me when the door opened.
"Come, you need to eat." It annoyed me that she was acting so motherly. I walked with her and Wynne stayed close to me until we arrived in the kitchen. There a small breakfast had been set up already. I sat down behind it and started to peel on the bread. Wynne sat down next to me and looked at me. I put away the bread again and looked back.
"Where is Alistair?" I said.
"He's... in his room. Arl Eamon knows what happened. We can't risk yet that he knows you two are involved instead of you and Bann Teagan." I nodded and took the bread again. This time I started to eat from it.
"Aveline. I'd hate to say this, but Queen Anora has pointed us towards the Alienage to gather proof against Teyrn Loghain. She... also wants to talk to you." I closed my eyes and squeezed the bread I was still holding. I had just lost... and now she wants...and to go to... When I opened my eyes again I threw the bread against the wall in anger and walked out of the kitchen. Anora had a room in the estate not far away from my own. When I arrived I threw open the door. Anora turned around to face me and put on one of her fake smiles.
"Warden. It's good to see you." I simply frowned. I had no intention of making this conversation more pleasant than needed. She quickly noticed this and continued.
"First of all, let me tell you that I'm sorry what happened to your parents. Eleanor in particular was very dear to me. It's appropriate Howe died at your hands." I crossed my arms.
"Also you have my sympathy of what happened to you and your child."
"What did you want to talk about, Anora." I stated.
"At the Landsmeet you will need my support to convince everyone my father has been wrong and I might need your influence as well."
"So you're suggesting I should vote for you instead of Alistair?"
"I am indeed. You will win your Landsmeet and I shall remain on the throne. We will both have what we want." I turned around and faced the door. We did need her help, but I wasn't too fond of her remaining on the throne. I sighed and knew what to do. I slightly looked back to Anora.
"All right. You have your deal."
"Thank you, Warden." she said as I walked out the room. I went to Alistair's room and when I stood in front of it, I checked if nobody saw me. Eamon didn't seem to be around and the other companions weren't here either. Without knocking I walked in his room and found Alistair sitting on his bed. He looked up when he heard the door open. I quickly closed it, but stood against the door, unsure if he wanted me here or not. Alistair stood up and walked towards me. He pushed me closer against the door while he started to kiss me.
"I have missed you last night." he said when he broke off the kiss. His hands traced my face and I got goosebumps from what he did. I looked down and slightly smiled.
"I have missed you too, my love." he lifted my head so I'd face him and he hugged me.
"How are you feeling?" he asked. I lifted my shoulders for a second, and it told him enough.
"And you?"
"Same I suppose." I walked away from Alistair and sat down on the bed. I took out the ring Alistair gave me and started playing with it. His eyes traced my fingers on the ring.
"Do you still... you know... I mean after what happened..." I whispered. This shocked Alistair as he came towards me straight away.
"Of course I do! I love you with all my heart. What happened doesn't mean we can't try again! We will ask mages to help us so this won't happen anymore." I smiled. Even though he had a hard time dealing with it as well, he was always trying to be so positive! I put the ring away again and stood up.
"We ehm... have to investigate the Alienage to gather proof against Teyrn Loghain." I saw the look on Alistair's face. "I don't want to either, especially not now, but the Landsmeet is coming up soon and we need the evidence." Alistair nodded. He knew I wanted him with me. I moved out of the room with Alistair and searched for Wynne. When we found her she was talking to Leliana and Zevran. Leliana immediately ran over to hug me and Zevran expressed his sympathy as well. Stop it already. Wynne and Zevran agreed to join us to the Alienage and after I changed into something more protective we decided to leave straight away.
The alienage looked so sad to me. The houses looked old and there seemed to be some sort of a riot on the square as well. A red headed young lady was standing near the group and went against them. Mages blocked the entrance of a building. I walked to the young woman and she looked at me as if I resembled something incredibly horrible she ate.
"What do you want, Shem! We have our own trouble to take care off."
"I came to help. What's happening?" I asked. The young woman relaxed a bit and worry crossed her face. She explained how sick people were taken into the building and never came out. She was afraid something was wrong and tried to explain that to the crowd outside. They weren't allowed in to see their relatives. Saying I would find out what was wrong, I left to the backside of the building. The young woman ran after me and grabbed my wrist. I turned around to look at her.
"They aren't just going to let you in!" she said.
"I wasn't going to ask." I said before moving on. There was just one single man guarding the backdoor and I walked to him.
"Hold there. You're not allowed in." Anger flared up inside me and I roughly pushed the man against the wall.
"Don't toy with me and hand over your key." I whispered as I was no more than an inch away from his face. He searched his pockets and I heard he found the keys. I quickly grabbed them and pushed the man out of my way. I didn't care what he was about to do, me and my companions were inside the building now. The second we walked in the guards attacked us. They dismissed the idea to warn us first. I took out my daggers and was eager to show them what I could do. Leaving the last few guards for the others I walked over to the desk. It contained nothing of value besides a small sack of coin which I took and a note. My head shot up when I heard noises coming from the other room. I slowly opened it, still holding on to my daggers, and quickly noticed that the noises were coming from a few elves who were captured and standing in their cage. I opened it and after thanking us they ran away.
Something fishy was going on and I didn't like the smell of it at all. I moved outside through the back door again and noticed the young woman named Shianni was already standing there, waiting for us. I gave her the note and told her a key was attached to it. She guided us to the apartments and we continued our search. It turned out that everything was a set up and the elves were shipped as slaves. This would be valuable proof against Loghain. The Landsmeet wouldn't accept him shipping elves from the alienage and selling them as slaves. In the last room we found Valendrian. We had killed the man who was behind all of this despite his efforts to stay alive and offer us help in the form of bloody blood magic. The freed elves quickly moved out of the building and I gathered the last evidence we needed for the landsmeet.
When we arrived back at the estate Arl Eamon notified us that we should get ready. We were already running late and he would leave immediately to the Landsmeet. The second we opened the doors of the building Cauthrien looked back and immediately walked towards us while taking our her sword. I stood in front of the group which consisted of Alistair, Wynne and Leliana. We persuaded her to stand down and let us go through the Landsmeet doors. Everything else was a blur for me. When we walked in the room they had already started. Loghain was talking and I could see Arl Eamon standing on the balcony at the side of the room. It was filled with nobles and their attention was at Loghain. When he spotted us however he pointed at me and began rambling to me. Questioning where his daughter was after I threw in my evidence about the alienage. I could see the surprise on his face when Anora walked in the room, unharmed of course.
When the nobles were asked to vote I barely took in our victory. Loghain looked at me and I knew I had to best him in order to finalize the outcome. I would do this fight alone, even though I knew it could be my death. The others backed up and we were given room for the fight. Loghain stared down and me and I saw a grin spreading on his face. When the fight begun I charged at him, avoiding his form at the last moment we would bash against each other, and cut his right arm. This caused him little harm as he grabbed my wrist and pushed me against him. Victory was already showing in his eyes as he looked down at me.
"Couldn't even manage to keep your child, I see?" he whispered. He pushed me off him and I had to do my best not to fall over. Tears welled up in my eyes and I tried as much as I could to keep them back. I looked back at him. Fucking asshole. He charged at me and I blocked his sword with my two daggers. I threw away his sword and punched him in his face. I circled around him and stealthed behind him. After a long fight, full with hating comments to each other, he was finally down at his knees. I stood in front of him and looked down. The second I wanted to take his own sword to kill him, Riordan came walking in the room.
"Wait! You do not have to kill him. Make him a Grey Warden. They are needed and no matter what he has done, he's still a great general." Alistair was in shock when he stated Riordan crazy. I couldn't believe him either and bluntly refused to make him a Grey Warden. That was a position that was to be earned and all that Loghain earned was his head being seperated from his body. I turned around to face Alistair and he nodded. I took the two handed sword and raised it. Anora tried to keep me from swinging the sword at her father, but it was no good. With all the strength I had left I removed Loghain his head from his shoulders. Anora was defeated and fell near her fathers corpse in grief. I felt nothing for her. He deserved this. As the guards removed the body, Arl Eamon held his speech that Alistair should be King. When Alistair reacted in surprise Anora took it as a hint he did not want to be King at all.
Finally he asked me for advice and I started pacing. I looked at Alistair and he smiled and nodded to me. He was prepared for this job. Then I looked at Anora. I remembered her promise and she also nodded to me. I looked at Arl Eamon, ready to make my decision.
"Alistair should be King!" I said. Arl Eamon smiled and he declared to all present in the Landsmeet that it was decided. Alistair moved forward and took my hand. I saw Arl Eamon's response. He was confused. Alistair made me face him and talked so everyone could hear it.
"Aveline! Do you accept to be my Queen?" I accepted and saw the shock at Arl Eamon was now complete. After he held his speech that we would face the battle together he turned to face Arl Eamon.
"Eamon. What you have done to Aveline is unacceptable. You will surely be punished for this. I will send out guards with you to stay at your castle in Redcliffe and you're to stay there until I've decided what to do with you. Bann Teagan will run the castle on your behalf for this period." When he wanted to protest against it Alistair held up his hand. "Also Isolde is not free of blame either. After your child is born she also will face her punishment. She is to stay at the castle just like you... guarded." With this we walked out of the Landsmeet chamber. After collecting our things at the estate in Denerim, we all would move to Redcliffe to decide our battleplan there.
