The Wedding

The day of the wedding finally arrived and Wisteria spent some time with her brother, helping him prepare. He looked nervous, of course, he was about to become King Fergus, even if he was King-Consort, his children would be the heirs to the throne.

"So, is everything okay between you and Anora now?" Wisteria asked. "Is this going to work?"

Fergus pursed his lips. "Yes, I think it will work. She changed dramatically after Dulan was exposed. It was an unusual transformation. She had been so cold and arrogant before then suddenly she seemed almost desperate to have me like her." He mused over that first night. It had gone well, not perfectly, but well. Since then things had progressed nicely. His sister's advice to get her out of her corset had been sound.

"Ferggy, does the offer still stand for me to run Highever?" She asked him.

"Of course, sis!" He squeezed her happily. "So you'll stay in Ferelden?"

"Most of the year. I've promised Zevran we'll go somewhere warmer for the winters." She laughed. "Oh, speaking of Zevran he wanted me to give you this." She presented him with a nice wooden box.

Fergus opened the box and saw a bunch of candles. "Candles?" He asked. It was an odd gift for one man to give another.

Wisteria smiled. "Not just candles, dear brother." She lifted one out and held it under Fergus's nose. "This is a Candela di Amore."

He looked at her blankly.

"Love candle. Remember that balm I gave you? It's like that only better. Easier to use, doesn't last quite so long and the effects are subtle but effective." Okay, maybe not all that subtle. "Light one tonight, Ferg. Put it near the bed. Trust me. It will make a nice foundation for your marriage."

"Are you sure it's safe?" Fergus asked.

Wisteria nodded. "Tested it myself." She waggled her eyebrows at him.

Fergus shook his head at her. "I thought I told Zevran you weren't ever to have access to this stuff again. Your behavior is scandalous enough."

She smiled broadly, thinking what her brother didn't know wouldn't hurt him. "Next time I see you, you'll be King of Ferelden." She hugged him tightly and kissed him on the cheek.

She went back to her room to change.

She had a dark red, velvet gown. It had white fur trimming the plunging neckline and wrists. A woman was putting her hair up into curls again. Some of them hung down in back and trailed down her neck. A silver belt at her waist hung loosely, accentuating her slim form, almost like a necklace. They put a stain on her lips to make them redder. They wanted to pluck her eyebrows to make them thin like all the other women's but she refused.

When Zevran came into the room he paused to drink in the sight of her. "Mi amore," he whispered. "You look like a magnificent present. One begging to be unwrapped."

She smiled at him and shook her head regretfully. "Unfortunately you can't unwrap your present just yet. It took too long to wrap it." She looked at him. He was dressed up himself, wearing the tight breeches favored by the men in court. She had a powerful urge to make them even tighter. She coughed, "Speaking of finely wrapped packages..." He caught her gazing at his manly parts and a sharp pang of desire went through him. She laughed silently, seeing that his breeches did indeed get a little tighter.

He growled at her, "Stop that or we're just going to end up mussing one another up." He turned away from her and thought about rats... no that was no good. Horses. Another bad mental association. Then he remembered something. "I have something for you, my heart." He produced something from a pocket. A small velvet bag.

She opened it. A beautiful silver necklace studded with red stones that matched her dress spilled into her hand. "Zevran, this is stunning." She hugged him carefully, trying to not muss either of them too much. "I'll thank you properly, later," she promised. She wanted to do it now. He was dressed in black which he always looked so wonderful in with his fair hair. It was such a contrast too to the gaudy colors worn by the courtiers. He just had a deep, red leather belt. His shirt was well fitted to his muscular chest and she knew too well what lay underneath. She shifted in her chair, squirmed even, her chest was blushing that shade of pink.

"Would you put this on me, Zev?" She held out the necklace. He slowly draped it around her, taking much longer than needed. He lifted a curl out of the way and his lips brushed her neck. He fastened it and his fingers rested lightly on her neck. She shivered, not sure she could take much more of this. Fortunately someone knocked at the door.

Anders let himself in. He saw Wisteria's blushing chest and guessed he might have interrupted an intimate moment. "I should go..." he turned to leave.

"No!" They both said together. Anders stared at them and they started to laugh.

"We should go down to the wedding. Now." Wisteria said. She thought having Anders step in just then was a bit like throwing a dry log on a fire.


The ceremony was beautiful but dull. The highlight was the Grand Cleric of Denerim whose speech impediment made "r" sound like "w". So Fugus and Anowa were mah-weed and Anders, Zevran and Wisteria almost couldn't contain their laughter. Wisteria thought she could almost tolerate sitting through a Chantry service if this woman was to give the delivery and if she had a bottle of wine and no one minded her fits of giggling.

After the wedding there was a reception dinner and party. Lots of wine and dancing. She discovered that Zevran was actually a good dancer, although he wasn't familiar with the dances of Ferelden, the more universal dances like waltzes, he did very well. His hands, while properly placed, always seemed to suggest something more than dancing and his mouth did too whenever it was near her ear. She suggested that he should ask a few of the more prim court ladies to dance. They actually agreed, seeing as how highly placed he seemed to be, the King's sister's...friend. He always looked absolutely proper when he danced, but each of those ladies looked flushed more than just a dance would justify, when he bowed to them and left.

"I think Zevran has made a few conquests tonight," Anders whispered to her.

"It would seem that way." She sighed. "Such a shame you don't dance, Anders." She thought for a moment. "I could teach you."

"When?" he asked, "You're leaving for Highever soon aren't you?"

She nodded. "You could come with us. We could use a mage there and Zevran wants your knowledge of herbalism for his work. I could put you officially on the staff as our physician."

"Um, we should talk more later..." he looked up and saw Teagan approaching, "Commander."

Wisteria turned a smiled at Teagan. "Teagan. It is good to see you."

"My lady, would you like to dance?" He bowed to her.

She nodded and they danced a waltz. Zevran was dancing with another court lady. He sent her steamy glances as he passed by, she smiled at him. She didn't see him looking at Teagan with murder in his eyes this time, she hoped he had put his jealousy aside.

Anders got drunk watching his two best friends dancing. He was seriously confused. Eventually he stumbled upstairs back to his room.


The next day the palace stirred to life much later than normal. Wisteria awoke next to Zevran, naked but for the necklace he had given her. She smiled remembering how they had "unwrapped their presents" the prior night. It was almost enough to make her want to dress up more often. She stretched and that woke up Zevran. He looked at her and groaned, remembering the previous night, seeing the necklace on her was a reminder.

"We need to talk, Zev." She poked him in the ribs as he started to fondle her breast.

"Ow, what?"

"About Anders." It had been a topic neither one had broached since the lab.

"Okay," he sighed, "what is it?"

"I think he's going to turn down our offer to come to Highever." She told him. "He looks very confused."

"Of course he is. He wants you and the other day reminded him of that."

She sighed. "I wish the lab accident didn't happen. Couldn't we pretend it was all out of our control?"

"I think we all know that isn't true." He mused. "Let me ask you something, how do you feel about him?"

She thought for a moment. "I'd be lying if I said I didn't find him attractive, there are some strong memories there. But it is more important to me that he's a friend and even more importantly, I love you."

He smiled at her. "Go talk to him. Maybe you can convince him."

She got dressed quickly and went to his room and knocked. She was ready to leave when he opened the door, looking bleary-eyed. "Wist, come in." He was in his dressing gown.

"I'm sorry, I woke you up." She said.

"No, it's okay, just a little hung over." He quickly cast a healing spell on himself. "Much better." He cast one on her too. She didn't really have much of a hangover, still it did feel good.

"Thanks. Are you sure you can talk now? I can come back later."

He nodded. "Have a seat."

She looked around for a place to sit. Every surface was cluttered. "Oh!" He got busy clearing off two chairs, shuffling their contents to another surface. They sat.

"Remember my offer about coming to Highever last night?" she asked.

He nodded.

"You said you wanted to talk about it." She reminded him. "But before we do, maybe we should talk about what happened at the lab first?"

"That was clumsy of me, breaking the window. I feel responsible for what happened." He said.

"We could have left," she said.

Anders put his finger across his lips to silence her. "No, it was too strong. I had gotten a strong dose being right there when the window broke. I suddenly knew how the rats felt."

Wisteria caught on. Anders didn't want to admit to whatever culpability he had about his decision in the events, she wasn't going to make that more difficult for him. "That stuff is wickedly powerful," she said, "maybe you guys should tone it down a little."

Anders smiled at her. "So about your offer to come to Highever, I think I'd like that. Do you think the Grey Wardens will mind?"

Wisteria shook her head. "I don't think so, the darkspawn are likely to be quiet for a long time to come. And you won't be far away if they should need you. Or me either." She thought a moment. "Do you like horses, Anders?"

"Those big drooling things we ride on?"

She laughed.

"They're okay. Why?"

"Well, I think I'm going to breed some and I thought perhaps your skills with healing and such might work on them. Could come in useful during foaling season. Think you could turn a breached foal? You just reach in and grab a hoof in the front and one in the back and turn."

Anders shuddered.

She laughed. "Okay, perhaps I'll turn them and you cast heals." She beamed at Anders. "I'm so glad you're coming with us." She got up and hugged him hard. "I'm telling, Zev. He's going to be happy too. Start packing, we leave tomorrow."

She fairly skipped back to her room. "He's coming with us, Zev." Zevran smiled broadly. "But I had to agree that he sleeps with us from now on." Zevran looked at her with big eyes, she wasn't sure exactly how to read his expression. "I'm kidding." She cuffed him upside the head. "In fact, he's quite convinced everything that happened in the lab was just an unfortunate accident and I think that's the only way he can reconcile that in his mind, so we need to let him have that little delusion."

"I can live with that," Zevran agreed.

"Can you get everything packed up today? I can pack our stuff here, you can do what you need in the lab?"

He nodded. "A day is plenty of time. I'll buy a wagon for the lab stuff."

She got her purse out. He refused her gold. "I have plenty of money, Wist." He produced an enormous bulging purse. Her eyes grew big. "Candles. Cesar bought a lot of them from me. Sanga did too, although I gave her quite a few for free. I don't think money is ever going to be a problem for us or Anders." He chuckled. "Remember during the blight? We scraped by selling everything we could find for health potions and lyrium for the mages."

"Yes, the good, old days." She snorted.

She found a few servants to pack up their room and went to see that their military escort was ready to move out the next day. The captain got busy making sure it would happen.

Next she looked for and found Fergus. He looked rather happy, contented even. She beamed at him. "I refuse to call you, your majesty, Fergus. Just so you know." She laughed and punched him in the arm.

"You disrespectful, pup!" He grabbed her ribs and tickled her. The nickname brought tears to her eyes suddenly. "I miss them." He nodded, "I do too." "Can we go talk for a couple minutes?" She asked. He walked her out to the garden.

"We're leaving tomorrow." Wisteria said, her eyes looking sad. "I'm going to miss you." She hugged him hard and he squeezed her back just as hard.

"We will be visiting soon. Probably in a month or two. We have to tour the country."

She smiled, "Good!" She hesitated. "Everything seem to be going okay with your bride, Ferg?"

His smile broadened. "Oh yes. Tell Zevran thank you for me. That was quite a magical night. I think I might have sired a whole litter of heirs. I'm thinking Anora would thank him too, if she knew."

Wisteria giggled. "Well, if you need more candles, just let us know. But I suspect you won't need them long."

Then the Queen walked out of the palace and joined them in the garden. She looked happy. She put her arm around Fergus's waist and kissed him on the cheek. Wisteria thought she had never seen such a display of affection from her ever. Then she hugged Wisteria, before she could bow or say anything. "Wisteria, I'm glad I caught you. I just wanted to apologize again for everything. I hope we can put everything behind us and be friends."

Wisteria smiled and hugged her back. "Of course, your majesty."

"Anora," she told her.

Fergus grinned wryly. "She already informed me should would never call me that."

"There is something I should tell you two that I didn't get a chance to earlier. Dulan is dead." The memory of that night still made her cringe. "We had him cornered in a tower and he chose to jump instead of coming with us."

Fergus saw her go pale as she said this. "What happened, Wy?"

"He pulled me over the edge of the tower with him. I fell too. If Anders hadn't happened to have arrived a few minutes before, I would have been dead." She forced a smile. "But it all worked out."

Fergus hugged her again. "Damn it, stop doing that. I can't lose you, Wy."

She nodded. "I know, I got an earful from Anders and Zevran. I promise to be more careful. I'll try to make sure when I die it's a conventional death." She laughed. "Well, you two make a very handsome couple, I must say." She beamed at them. They chatted a bit more about inconsequential things and Wisteria went back to her preparations.


The next day they set out early. Teagan, Eamon, Isolde, Anora and Fergus were all there to see her off. This time they would only stay at the Keep for two nights instead of a week. She waved sadly to Fergus, missing him already, as she rode off with their military escort, servants and friends.

Her mood lightened as they left Denerim.

"Zev, do you remember how depressing and nerve-wracking the trip here was?" She asked him. Anders listened in, interested.

He nodded. "I think, all things considered, it worked out rather well, don't you?"

She nodded. "Better than the slow death by poisoning I thought I'd have suffered by now." Suddenly she went pale. She got off her horse and went off aways and threw up. She felt instantly better, except for the horrible taste in her mouth. Zevran had followed her, he handed her a skin of water. "That was sheer coincidence wasn't it? Speaking of poison and you're throwing up?" She nodded. "I feel fine, maybe too much wine. I don't know."

It took them three days to get to Amaranthine. They got there before noon and got the military escort settled in and she went in to see her old friends and colleagues. Everyone seemed happy and healthy. Anders got permission from the new Commander to take a long leave of absence to go to Highever, promising to return if he was needed. Velanna studied Wisteria closely that first day. Wisteria was starting to feel uneasy with the scrutiny so she pulled the Dalish mage aside. "Why are you looking at me like that?" Velanna looked at her, "Do you feel all right?" Wisteria shrugged, "Yes, I guess so. Aside from a little nausea that comes and goes. Why do you ask?"

Velanna looked at her, "Maybe I should examine you. Just to make sure everything is okay. It's a Dalish thing." She wouldn't say anything more and Wisteria was feeling alarmed. She followed Velanna up to her room and she told her to take off her clothes and lay on her bed. Wisteria was starting to get suspicious. She had always suspected perhaps Velanna preferred women to men, maybe this was some sort of weird seduction.

"Now, Commander." She barked at Wisteria when she hesitated. "I have better things to do than wait for you to figure out how to undress yourself."

Wisteria decided if this was a seduction it was unlikely to work. She shrugged and undressed and laid down on her bed. Velanna looked at her body closely. She put her hand on her belly and her hands glowed for a moment.

"Congratulations, Commander." Velanna said.

Wisteria looked at her oddly. "What?"

"You didn't know?" Velanna asked.

"Know what?" Wisteria was

"You're pregnant." She said. "It is very recent, so I'm not surprised you didn't know. Maybe two weeks, perhaps not even that long."

Wisteria felt her belly, it seemed as flat as ever. Her breasts were feeling a little tender though. "Maker! Are you sure, a baby? I never even thought it was possible."

"I could tell you the gender and even if the father was a shem or elven but a lot of pregnancies are lost this early. It's probably best not to know so you aren't too attached too early, just in case." Velanna smiled at her. "It seems healthy so far."

Wisteria was stunned. "A baby?" She shook her head. "How can that be? I'm a Grey Warden."

Velanna shrugged, "It isn't impossible, just difficult."

Wisteria sat up slowly. She dressed, in a state of shock. "I have absolutely no idea what to do, how to take care of myself and the..." she pointed at her belly, unable to say the word.

"Baby." Velanna laughed. "They're called babies."

"Don't drink. It's all right to go about life normally, just try not to get injured or sick. Your body will tell you when it's time to slow down. Eat healthy food. Just be sensible and little more cautious than you usually are."

She nodded, still stunned.

"I can come by and check on you every so often if you want." Velanna offered.

"Please, if you would, I would appreciate it."

Velanna looked at Wisteria with concern. "You just look so stunned, are you going to be okay?"

Wisteria nodded, "Yes. I just never thought I'd be pregnant. It never occurred to me."

"Just remember, there's a pretty high chance that it might end suddenly. So don't even think about it now. Perhaps I shouldn't even have said anything."

Wisteria took a deep breath, feeling like she was finally remembering to breath. "Thanks, Velanna." She left Velanna's room and went back to the others.

She tried hard to look normal but Zevran picked up on her mood immediately. He took her for a walk around the Keep. "What is it, Wist? You looked worried." She didn't want to say anything, remembering Velanna's warning but she didn't think she could keep it to herself. "I'm pregnant." She blinked slowly, still disbelieving. "Well, that's what Velanna told me anyway. She could be wrong. But she did some kind of Dalish magic on me and could tell. Or so she said."

Zevran looked stunned too. "I thought... you're a Grey Warden and all... that you weren't likely to ever conceive."

"I guess the operative word is likely. I'm as surprised as you are. I never thought of myself having children. Well at least we know it is possible... or think so. Velanna did warn me it is very early and a lot of babies fail to make it past the first few weeks. So it is best to not get too attached to the idea for awhile."

Zevran got a funny look on his face. "How old is the...", he couldn't say the word either. "Velanna said between 1-2 weeks. Very early."

"Is it possible that it was conceived in the lab?" He asked.

"If you're asking if it could be Anders's then let me assure you it is about impossible. I've been told it's impossible for two Grey Wardens to have a child, or nearly impossible. And it was only that one time. That would be extremely unlikely."

He tugged on her arm. "Let's go back in." He lead her back to the Keep and up to their room. He undressed her and laid her on the bed and looked at her body carefully. It was touching how he was inspecting her for differences. He ran his hand over her belly. "Still flat." He put his hand on her breast as if measuring. "Your breasts are bigger." He finally said. He put his mouth on one and sucked gently. "More sensitive too," she told him.

"Can we still...?" he asked.

"Velanna says I don't have to change much of anything, so I think we can still fall off the horse for as long as we're able to." She smiled at him. He undressed himself and they made love very tenderly.