Why was there always something more that must be done before their treaties would be honored?

With the elves, it was the werewolf problem. With the mages, it was...the mages. And with the dwarves, it was shaping up to be their own politics preventing them from promising their aid.

From the way things were shaping up, it was looking like they would have to help either Prince Bhelen or Lord Harrowmont ascend to the throne before anything could be done. Elissa wasn't thrilled with the idea of political shit, so she was perfectly happy to sit on the sidelines and allow Aedan to, again, take the lead. He had much more experience with such matters anyway.

It was probably a good thing Aedan was making the decisions—from what she'd heard, Bhelen had betrayed his older brothers and gotten them both killed, and poisoned his father, just so he could be crowned king. Harrowmont was only following through with a promise he made to King Endrin on his deathbed, to not allow Bhelen what he wanted. For Elissa, siding with the nobleman would've been an easy solution, but Aedan did his homework, and where Bhelen wanted to lead the dwarves would end up far better than Harrowmont's direction.

So they were going to back a backstabber. How ironic.

Most of the party was either out with Aedan, or out stocking up on supplies before they would inevitably have to head into the Deep Roads. Aedan was finishing up one last job before they would head after some dwarf named Branka and something called the Anvil of the Void. It was the device the dwarves used to create golems, though now it was gone, lost to the darkspawn and winding maze of the Deep Roads.

Elissa, though, was content with sitting outside the bar and watching the goings-on. It felt too cramped inside despite having vaulted ceilings to allow humans and elves to maneuver.

Sam was sitting at her feet, napping, while they waited for everyone to return.

Out of the corner of her eye, Elissa was vaguely aware of a dwarf watching her. She had braided red hair, and looked nervous. She had been packaging something earlier, but now she was just shuffling her feet, as if she couldn't make her mind up.

Elissa highly doubted anything sinister behind her actions. If anything, she looked like she wanted to talk, but Elissa was stubborn, and refused to be the one to make the first move. She glanced at the dwarf again. Still there, still clearly debating on her options.

Several more minutes passed of this, until the dwarf cautiously came up beside her.

"Y-you're not from around here, right?"

Elissa made a face. "What gave it away, the fact that I'm taller than everyone else, or the dog?"

She chuckled, but it was strained. "I've been trying forever to find someone who really knows the surface world. I-I don't suppose you've heard of something called 'the Circle'?"

"Unfortunately, yes," Elissa said, sitting up straighter. "Why?"

The dwarf's face fell at the "unfortunately" part, but perked right back up when Elissa questioned her. "I've been trying to reach someone there for years! I've sent missives with every caravan, but I never get a reply." Elissa frowned, but decided against interrupting. This was an interesting conversation, if not a bit odd. "I want to know if they would accept me for study."

"You want to leave Orzammar?" No dwarf in their right mind wanted to become a surfacer. They lost everything if they did, and this girl seemed even younger than Elissa. Did she really want to throw her entire life away for this?

"I want to go to the Circle to study," she continued. "I don't want to do magic. No dwarf can cast spells, but I don't see why I shouldn't study it. It would be a valuable exchange. Orzammar would learn of one of the greatest natural forces of the surface. And the Circle gains direct access to our knowledge of lyrium smithing."

Elissa just looked at her for several seconds. "But you know what the Circle is, right? With the...templars and everything?" The dwarf didn't say a word, expecting Elissa to elaborate, but she didn't. "What's your name?"

"Dagna, daughter of Janar of the Smith Caste."

Elissa sighed. She had no desire to dash this dwarf's hopes. "Do you want me to take them your request?"

"That would be wonderful."

Over the girl's shoulder, Elissa could see Aedan returning from the lower levels of the city, with Alistair, Morrigan, and Sten hot on his heels. He looked less than pleased.

She reverted her gaze to Dagna's, smiling and nodding out of politeness. "I'll do that, but I don't know if I'll be able to return. You might be waiting for word from them for a while."

She grinned. "I'll be happy to wait! Thank you so much!"

Aedan and the others joined her where she sat, and Dagna looked up at them, just as fascinated as before. She said a quick greeting, but left just after, running off with a far more excited gait than she'd possessed on her way over.

"Who was that?" Aedan asked.

Elissa made a face. "I'm going to be perfectly honest and say I have no idea." He laughed once, shaking his head as she stood. "How'd it go?"

"Terrible," Alistair deadpanned.

"Do you know how annoying it is to constantly be fighting at a disadvantage?" Aedan added. "I know what it's like to fight genlocks, but fuck, dwarves are so much smarter."

"You'll be fine," Elissa said. "Don't be such a baby."

"You try fighting someone half your height when they're standing less than an inch away," Alistair said. "Not fun."

"It wasn't difficult," Sten said.

It was one of the few times Elissa ever heard the qunari talk. She had heard one remark about how women weren't fighters and elected to steer clear of that minefield, but that joke, that was a good one.

"It's funny because he's taller than you," Aedan explained.

Alistair huffed as Elissa laughed. "Oh sure, everyone pick on poor Alistair."

Sam's ears perked up at the sound of Aedan's voice, the latter of which stooped over to give him a pat on the head. His tongue flopped out lazily as his tiny tail wagged. "Anyone else back yet?"

Elissa shook her head. "No, just us."

He nodded. "Go get yourselves cleaned up. We'll head out in a few hours."

Morrigan and Sten were gone within seconds, but Alistair lingered, sitting on Aedan's opposite side. He'd sat as they'd gone inside, and so had Elissa, leaving the mabari lying comfortably at his master's feet.

"Who's excited for darkspawn?" Alistair joked.

Elissa snorted, head shaking, and Aedan said, "Not me." She muttered her agreement as she sat back, leaning against the cleanly carved wall. If the stone was cold, Elissa couldn't tell. She was so warm everywhere in this city it almost drove her nuts.

She prayed it wasn't so bad in the Deep Roads. Between the darkspawn and whatever else they might find down there, she didn't want to worry about sweating her ass off on top of it.

"Who's coming with us?" she asked.

"Everyone," Aedan said immediately. "There's thousands of darkspawn out there and the three of us will draw them in like...like maggots to corpses. We're not walking in there with such a blatant disadvantage."

"Thank the Maker."

That news was welcome relief. Elissa hadn't been allowing herself to worry about such things, but it was relieving regardless. She didn't know what to expect. None of them did, not even Morrigan, in what seemed to be her endless knowledge of everything. There were very few things the witch didn't have an answer for, and how to handle the Deep Roads was one of them.

The only advice the dwarves gave was carrying only essentials, and as many of them as possible. Elissa had spent her free time buying as much jerky as she could. She even purchased two spare canteens and filled them with water from the various fountains. Everything else in her pack had been thrown into a pile on her bed, save a few rolls of linen and a container of a healing salve.

And her shield? She decided against bringing it. Perhaps it was a mistake, but it would allow her to carry more supplies, and leave people like Aedan or Alistair or Sten with less weight.

Little had been done to make Elissa trust herself or that spirit more, but if it came down to it, she knew she could count on it to save her ass. It hadn't failed her yet.

"—hasn't said anything about it yet?"

Alistair chuckled nervously, that same little laugh Elissa heard often enough, but never knew the cause of. "I've been avoiding him and that topic."

"What topic?" Elissa asked.

"On becoming king," Alistair said.

Aedan took a deep breath. "Before we left, Eamon and I spoke about our plans for the Landsmeet, and he said we should put Alistair forward as our option for a ruler. And I...might have suggested Alistair's idea."

"And?"

"He was not, uh, thrilled with the plan," Aedan said. He put his face in his hands. "I've never felt like such an idiot. It sounded like I wanted this. I barely felt qualified to run a teyrnir when Father and Fergus were leaving. How the hell am I supposed to run a country?"

Elissa shrugged. "Marry Anora and then everyone will shut up."

"What?"

"You heard me."

Aedan and Alistair both laughed in disbelief. "I heard you, yeah, but why would you suggest it?"

"Think about it," Elissa started.

Aedan interrupted with, "All I've been thinking about is this."

She waved a hand at him, saying, "No, really think about it. Loghain obviously has supporters. Many people will want to see Anora remain queen. I'm sure if you suggested Alistair marrying her, Eamon would be perfectly fine with it. It's a logical decision—Cailan was a bit of an idiot, and no one really thinks he was ruling Ferelden. It's been Anora since they got married." She inhaled deeply, closing her eyes. Elissa never liked the idea of political marriages, but that was precisely what she was suggesting Aedan do. "You marry her, and you have instant access to someone with experience leading a country. You're nowhere near as stupid as her last husband, so I'm sure she'll be grateful for that. Plus—"

"Don't you dare bring that up."

Elissa stared him down, expression just as serious as his, and said, "You—"

"It was one time!"

"What are you talking about?" Alistair asked.

She leaned forward to see him past Aedan. "When we were kids, our father spent a lot of time in Denerim, and Aedan had a bit of a crush on Cailan's bride-to-be."

Alistair frowned, looked to Aedan, back to Elissa, and burst out laughing. Neither Elissa or Aedan joined in, the latter of whom looked deeply embarrassed. Alistair noticed in the span of a few seconds, and between laughs, said, "Wait, you're serious?"

"Anora's not ugly, Alistair," Elissa said, snorting a laugh. "She's very pretty."

"And you—" Alistair pointed at Aedan, who was staring at his feet. "This is Leliana-level gossip, Elissa."

She smirked faintly at the bard's name. "It gets juicier."

"You can stop talking now," Aedan said.

"No, continue," Alistair said, still laughing.

"I used to joke with Fergus that if Anora wasn't stuck with Cailan, her and Aedan would've been wed the moment they came of age."

He whistled. "That's..." Alistair shook his head. "That's a scandal right there, Aedan."

Elissa had been trying, hard, to embarrass him, and it seemed to have succeeded. It wasn't something they often talked about, let alone thought about—for Elissa, anyway. The few times she'd brought it up, Aedan had changed the subject almost immediately, like he was saddened by it.

Elissa had only met Anora once, and Cailan twice, so neither of them had ever made an impression on her, much like she was sure she didn't make one on them. Aedan, however, had. He'd grown up with them; at one point, the three of them were Ferelden's future. Ferelden's future king, queen, and the favorite child of the Couslands. Aedan had been set to inherit Highever instead of Fergus. He was set to be their most powerful ally. It had almost been a point to raise the three of them as close together as possible.

Unfortunately, Elissa was a mage, and as soon as that was apparent, their father retreated from court, and took Aedan with him out of fear he too would be a mage. Whatever Aedan had with Anora all those years ago was effectively nothing now, but it just might be enough that if they did marry, it wouldn't cause a constant power struggle.

"It doesn't matter," Aedan said as he got to his feet. "It's likely Anora would rather keep the throne for herself than share it, and if that's what it comes to, then so be it."