Shadow and Rose
by Lady Norbert
A/N: It always annoyed me that my Wardens couldn't take Starfang with them when they were imported into Awakening. So I came up with an explanation for why. I also have a similar explanation, which will come later, for why Elissa doesn't have the Warden-Commander Armor she 'inherited' from Sophia Dryden. And damn it, she and Fergus deserved a better reunion scene than they got in the game, so...
Chapter Thirty-Seven: Starfang
The stoic blacksmith, Mikhael Dryden, crafted this peerless weapon out of a metal that fell from the heavens. The world has possibly never seen its like, or ever will again.
I suppose I should be grateful I was left alone for as long as I was, really. And this time I didn't mind the interruption - it was Wynne, wanting to see how I was feeling. I will never be too busy for Wynne, king or no king. She's the only mother I've ever had.
Right, so, the Archdemon. We had been firing on it, with the ballistae, and the dwarves were pelting it with axes and hammers and whatever else they were carrying, and Eamon's men were doing the same. One or two mages managed to get up to join us and were lobbing spells at the thing. Basically we were just wearing it down; all the noise was ringing in my ears, nothing felt entirely real. Suddenly it uttered a particularly horrendous shriek and sort of collapsed. I could see the sides of its body heaving as it tried to breathe. "Stay here," I told Wynne, "and protect Elissa."
But she was too quick for me.
Almost before I had finished speaking to Wynne, Elissa was tearing toward the downed body of the Archdemon, Starfang gleaming in her hand. She leapt onto the creature's neck and slammed the blade downward into its skull. It screeched in pain and terror as she twisted the sword in her hands, and I heard her crying out likewise. I tried to run to her, to help, but there was a blinding light pouring off of the pair of them and I couldn't get near.
A rush of energy exploded across the entire fortress then, arcing out over the city in a white halo of power, and I knew that the Archdemon had breathed its last. Elissa wrenched the sword from the monster's head, but it shook in her hands and clattered to the rooftop as she stumbled away from the massive corpse. The blade actually shattered, apparently destroyed by the sheer amount of corruption it had encountered. After only a few steps, she collapsed.
The light had died, and below us I could hear the cheering of the fighters. It just barely registered with me why they were so ecstatic - that the Blight was well and truly halted. I was a little distracted, racing to Elissa's side. I pulled off her helmet and gathered her in my arms, bringing her lips to my ear. If Morrigan was wrong... I don't know how I could have borne it. But after a few seconds, I realized that she was breathing. The ritual had worked; she was alive. I crushed her to my chest, kissing her face in relief.
Alive she was, but bleeding and unconscious. "Wynne! Help me!"
"She survived?" Wynne hurried over and dropped to her knees beside me, looking incredulous. "Maker be praised. Here, hold her steady." Her staff glowed as she bathed Elissa in healing light. My lady gave the smallest groan, and slowly, those beautiful blue eyes opened and gazed up at me.
"Alistair... we did it."
"You did it," I told her, smiling. "You're the hero of Ferelden, love."
Shale lumbered over to us. "Is it all right?"
"Yes, Shale. How are you?" Elissa turned her head carefully to smile at both Shale and Wynne.
"I am well. It seems to have achieved victory, despite my initial belief that the odds were firmly stacked against it. Shall we vacate these premises?"
"I'm not sure I can walk just yet," Elissa admitted with a laugh. "Would you mind terribly, my dear king?"
Shale very cooperatively took Elissa's helmet and shield, and Wynne removed her gauntlets so she could put her arms more comfortably around my neck. With our friends preceding us, I carried her downstairs, stopping long enough to coax Sandal to follow us, and then through Fort Drakon and out of the main entrance. The crowd of fighters had apparently run toward the fort when they realized that victory was ours, and their shouts of triumph abruptly died when we emerged. They just stared at me, faces smudged and filled with a new fear, and I realized what was wrong.
"Love, you'd better lift up your head," I murmured. She was resting it against my neck. "I think they think you're... you know."
"Oh. Right." Slowly, she turned her head to look at the assembled, and lifted her hand in a small wave. The response was instantaneous - cheering and applauding and I even suspect some were sobbing.
"Three cheers for the Grey Warden!" someone yelled. "Maker bless you, Warden!"
And then someone else took up another cry, and it was repeated, again and again as more people lent their voices to it. "Long live the king and queen! Long live the king and queen!"
"Well, you're in trouble," she murmured, for my ears only. "I think now you're going to have to marry me."
"That fits in very nicely with my plans."
Wow, this is really taking forever. And I'm looking back at what I wrote, and it almost doesn't sound like me, does it? I mean, I'm not usually eloquent, in any sense of the word. But I actually really like how I described all this stuff.
The crowd parted as we moved forward, with the cheering fighters bowing as we passed them, and at the far end of the mass of people I could see our companions. They were okay, thank the Maker. Toby didn't wait for us to join them - he came bolting forward, and I carefully lowered Elissa to the ground so she could kneel and put her arms around him.
"Told you I'd be back, boy, didn't I? Oh, I'm so glad you're all right."
Not one of our companions was able to remain entirely stoic under the circumstances. Leliana was openly weeping; Zevran wasn't much better. Even Sten's expression softened into something gentler than usual. Elissa embraced anyone who was willing, and even bent at the waist to kiss Oghren's forehead, which made him laugh. I noticed, however, that Morrigan was absent - and that Elissa didn't seem surprised by it. I'll have to ask her about that.
Then again, maybe not. She did tell me we wouldn't meet again. She probably told Elissa something similar. I don't know where she's gone, and I don't especially care too much, but I think Elissa will miss her. I guess I will too, in a way... no, on second thought, I really won't.
Anyway, after everyone had greeted everyone and talked about how happy they were that we all survived, a parade of sorts was formed to march back through the city of Denerim to the palace, which somehow came through the carnage relatively unscathed. I say 'relatively unscathed' meaning as compared to, say, the market district, which I think might actually still be on fire. Probably not, by now. One of the defensive towers has completely crumbled to dust, and some of the curtain walls will need repairing. On the whole, though, the castle's still in decent shape.
A whole lot of people followed us into the great hall, where barely two weeks ago the Landsmeet declared me king. I realized that many of these people were probably going to need to sleep there, because their homes were destroyed by darkspawn. Bann Teagan joined us there, having sneaked along to help with the fight against his brother's orders, so I asked him to have some servants round up blankets and drinking water and things like that. "Eamon's not going to be happy with you, you know," I added.
"I know. It won't be the first time." He shrugged. "It probably won't be the last time either. What matters, Your Majesty, is that we won." And he smiled and went off to collect what I requested.
While that was going on, something rather unexpected happened - but I'm so glad it did. From the back of the hall, a warrior pushed his way up to where my friends and I were clustered near the dais. "Elissa! Elissa!"
She turned, looking quite honestly puzzled, and I couldn't blame her. I can't recall the last time anyone outside of our little group called her anything except "Warden" or "Lady Cousland." And then the man pulled off his helmet as he approached, and the most beautiful expression of pure joy came over her face. I've only seen her look that way a few times, and it always stops my heart.
"Fergus?"
Without another word she launched herself at the stranger, flinging her arms around his neck while he embraced her and swung her around a bit. The name registered in my mind and I had to smile. Fergus Cousland survived Ostagar, and Elissa finally has her brother back.
Our companions, however, were not quite sure what to make of the situation, which made me want to laugh. I'm guessing that none of them knew Elissa's brother's name, except maybe Wynne or Leliana, and they were probably too startled to think about it much. After a few emotional moments in which the brother and sister spoke rapidly and excitedly only to each other, Elissa drew back.
"I want you to meet my friends," she told him. "The ones who have accompanied me since Ostagar - I wouldn't have made it this far without them. This is Wynne, senior enchanter of the Circle of Magi; Leliana, formerly a sister of the Chantry in Lothering; Oghren, formerly of House Kondrat; Zevran Aranai of Antiva City; Sten of the Beresaad; and Shale of House Cadash. Everyone," she added, smiling at their puzzled frowns, "I don't have words for how happy I am to introduce you to Fergus... my brother."
Confusion rapidly changed to understanding, and he was greeted warmly. "Elissa has spoken of you often," Wynne told him. "It's wonderful to see that you have found her at last."
"When I heard of what happened in Highever, I hardly dared to hope that any of my family had survived," he said gravely. "Imagine my surprise when I learned that my little sister was not only alive and well, but she was the fabled Grey Warden leading the fight against the Archdemon! Our parents would be so proud of you, pup... I know I am."
She beamed up at him, then tugged on his arm. "There's someone else you need to meet," she said, pulling him over to me. "Your Majesty, allow me to present one of the throne's most ardent supporters, the rightful Teyrn of Highever. Fergus, this is Alistair Theirin, our new king... and my betrothed."
Fergus bowed deeply to me, although he looked up in surprise at that last bit. "I suppose I should formally ask for your blessing, my lord," I said. "Will you consent to your sister becoming my queen?"
"I - of course - really?" He straightened, and blinked. "You have been busy, little sister."
She just laughed. "You have no idea. I'll tell you everything, I promise."
Well, that more or less brings us up to now, in terms of the most important things. It's been about ten days since the Battle of Denerim, as it's apparently going to be remembered in the history books. Most of that time has been spent assessing damage - who died, who didn't, which buildings can be fixed, which are beyond repair, that sort of thing. The casualty numbers are pretty high, but not as high as they might have been, so we'll take what we can get.
Since the mess at the Circle of Magi has been sorted out, Knight-Commander Greagoir sent a contingent of his Templars to Denerim to help with stuff. Notably absent is that young man we found - what was his name? Cullen? - who had been tortured by the demons. Apparently his peace of mind's been so broken by his experience that he requested a transfer away from Ferelden. I guess I don't blame him.
Having so many Templars here helped me with something that I wasn't really keen on doing, but Elissa talked me into it. (I think we all know already who's really going to be running the country.) One loose end which really needed to be tied up was Anora. Her tower came through the battle in decent shape, so as soon as we had a spare minute to think about it, we had her brought down.
"I feel like she's been through enough," said Elissa while we waited.
"She's a threat to my reign," I admitted. "I have a feeling the recommended course of action will be to have her beheaded. I know that if you'd put her on the throne, that's what she would have probably done to me."
"You wouldn't."
"Well, I don't like the idea. Technically, she's my sister-in-law."
"And she endured several years of childless marriage to your brother, who cheated on her and almost left her for the Empress of Orlais," Elissa said. Her voice was harsher than usual. "And then her father had him killed, and then he more or less lost his mind and almost ran her country into the ground before being killed in combat right before her eyes. Not that I'm faulting you," she added quickly. "But in her own way, Alistair, Anora's been through as much pain in the last year as I have."
"I see your point. What do you suggest?"
"I think the kindest thing to do would be to send her home."
"Home?"
"Gwaren," she clarified. "Loghain was the Teyrn of Gwaren, and Anora is his only child. Let her inherit his land and titles, and go home. Maybe she'll remarry, in time. Maybe she won't. But hopefully she can be happy. Just make her first sign a document waiving any and all rights to the throne. I'm sure Teagan can draw up something that will serve the purpose."
Off I went to track him down, and he was pretty surprised, but he did it. Anora was surprised, too, and kind of suspicious. I guess I would be too. "So this is your idea of a compromise, I take it. I swear fealty to the new king, and I get to keep my head?"
"That's about the size of it," I told her. "We don't know each other well enough to like one another, Anora. But you were my brother's wife, and that makes you part of my family. And I don't agree with everything you've done, but you've always had Ferelden's best interests at heart. I don't want to have you killed."
"You're charitable. A fool, perhaps, but a charitable one."
"I've been called worse things. Will you agree to it?"
"To give you the throne, which the Landsmeet already gave you anyway, and go back to Gwaren?"
"As Teyrna," Elissa pointed out. "With you in Gwaren and my brother restored to Highever, we'll be well on our way to putting the country back to rights."
They just sort of looked at each other for a long moment. "Give me the document," Anora said finally. "How soon can I leave?"
"As soon as the Templars are ready. We can't send you home without an escort party, of course," I said. "They'll see you safely to Gwaren, and remain there with you to help you keep order, at least for a while."
"Ah, an honor guard." She signed her name with a flourish. "Are they protecting me from whatever lingering dangers Ferelden might offer? Or are they protecting Ferelden from whatever lingering danger I might be?"
"Let's just say I'm not willing to take chances in either direction."
She snorted, and glanced at Elissa. "You'll have your hands full, I suspect. I wish you luck."
"Thank you, Your Grace. I hope that you'll be settled in time that you can return to Denerim for the wedding; we'd be pleased to have you join us."
Anora actually almost smiled.