Two warriors, two rogues, and a jittery handmaiden certainly made for an odd line-up to storm Arl Howe's estate. Handmaiden aside, Kalya assumed the other party members were Eamon's preference, but she couldn't calculate the angle.
Elissa was clearly there to sow the seeds of diplomacy with the queen - former queen? Future queen? Leliana for the lockpicking and mid-range attacks, and because the dark circles under Zevran's eyes hinted at a poor night's sleep. Alistair for the Landsmeet points. What Kalya couldn't figure out was why the Arl had chosen her. Was this a test of loyalty, making her work alongside Elissa? Morrigan was the much more pragmatic option. Judging from the curl of Alistair's lip whenever Elissa recommended strategy, even he'd have preferred the witch's company over Elissa's, which certainly said something.
Kalya took a deep breath, stretching her lungs wide in the crisp air. If what Leliana had whispered was true, Anora was the one person who could grant Alistair's wish of avoiding the throne. She wanted the job? She could have the job.
"Regardless, she's the rightful successor, whether the Arl likes it or not," Leliana whispered, nodding towards Alistair a few paces out of earshot. "Seems that's what Alistair wants too, no? Eamon will just have to get over it."
Right. Eamon definitely seemed the type to simply "get over" losing the throne. But Kalya would do whatever it took to support Alistair's wishes.
On the trip there, decked in itchy solder's uniforms, Elissa stormed a few paces in front of the others, a berth Kalya was all too willing to give. It was clear from her haste that she hadn't expected the detour of this mission. But there was no doubt killing Howe would be a welcome side-effect.
Gaining entrance to the estate had been easy enough. The crowd at the front gates proved a timely distraction for the queen's handmaiden to sneak them around back. The four made quick work of the guards surrounding the rear entrance, and Kalya was relieved to discover the rest of the house staff seemed not to pay them much mind.
Erlina led them on a serpentine path to the room where Anora was being held, inaccessible behind a magical barrier. Kalya kept to herself just which mage might have been helpful in this instance.
"We should split up," Alistair said, clearing his throat.
Elissa made something between a scoff and a gurgle.
"We'll need a mage," he continued. "The more of us traveling together through this huge estate, the more suspicious we'll look to the servants."
"Servants don't care." All heads snapped to Kalya.
The words escaped her lips before she realized how it must have looked, flippantly disagreeing with the new Commander of the Grey.
"I just mean… we can split up, sure, but servants aren't going to question who we are. We should be more worried about stumbling on the off-duty guard room. They'll know we don't belong."
"You're like to find the mage who did this wherever Howe is." The queen's muffled voice permeated from behind the magical barrier. "Nothing you lot can't handle, I'm sure. All the same, I request that Erlina stay with me."
Leliana and Kalya split from the warriors at the first set of hallways branching off in several directions. It was unlikely that an armory would be positioned so close to a holding cell, but with so many rooms, there had to be a chest of some sort. These flimsy uniforms provided little protection, and from what Leliana said, Howe only plundered the best.
The occasional muffled shouts elsewhere in the estate suggested Alistair and Elissa were making quick work of some guards, but the noises bottomed out a pit in Kalya's stomach. If they could hear a scuffle, so could anyone else.
Starting at a dead end, the two rogues systematically peered in keyholes on opposite sides of the hallway before moving to the next set of wooden doors. Kalya found empty guest quarters - not worth raiding. A storage closet with nothing but cleaning supplies.
On a wild notion, Kalya stretched out her Warden senses to see if she could somehow feel the existence of occupants in the rooms around her. Threads unrolled from within her in all directions and pinged back to her. Her head quirked. That… couldn't be right.
Unfortunately, she couldn't sense specific numbers, but... it actually felt like there was a third intertwining thread that stretched off past the hallway Elissa and Alistair were searching. Odd. Were there darkspawn in Arl Howe's estate? What kind of sick shit was he hiding?
Hesitantly, Kalya peered into the keyhole of the next door. This one contained a long row of tables, with at least three occupants visible from the peephole's vantage. Not darkspawn; serving elves, around Kalya's age. Though she didn't recognize them from the Alienage, Kalya had worked in manors just like this. These elves were her, several lifetimes ago.
From across the hall, Leliana mimed stirring a pot, nodding towards her door. So that was the kitchen, and this was, what, a break room? Dining area? She leaned to the keyhole again, pressing against it.
Their voices were muffled but audible. An elf with jet-black hair pulled into a tight bun was the farthest away, gossiping with the elf to her left.
"Wait, you both went back at once?"
An orange-haired plucky elf on the opposite side of the table shrugged with a coy grin. "He paid us more than double what we usually make at the Pearl."
The tired third elf closest to the door didn't even look up from her bowl. "Great, Jana can use the extra coin on make-up for her eye."
Footsteps behind Kalya alerted her to Leliana's searching the surrounding doors.
Plucky nudged the tired elf with the back of her hand. "Jana will be okay." She steadied herself with a breath. "Even signed up again tonight. 'Rare' only. Don't worry."
"Huh?" Jet-black leaned in.
"Maker, at first, I had no idea what they were saying." Plucky stirred a spoon in the bowl before her. "So Marcus says we can make more coin if we let them get a little rough, right? You know Jana - up for anything - so she opted for 'Medium.' But I'm a wuss. I stuck with 'Rare.'"
Jet-black shook her head. "What is that? Some sort of code?"
Plucky shrugged. "I guess, so the off-duty guards drinking nearby don't catch on if they overhear? No idea. So when the client walked in, Marcus points at us and goes, 'One, two. Medium and rare.' But, yeah, I think Jana had a different definition of 'rough' than whatever 'Medium' is."
"Yeah, sounds like he went Well-done." The tired elf pushed her plate away with a scowl.
"It's okay! I swear." Plucky blew out a breath. "A few more nights of this, and I won't have to work here anymore. Isn't that what we're always saying? Whatever it takes?"
The tired elf leveled a glare at her.
"We have a safe word!" Plucky was pleading for her friend's eased mind. "You're supposed to say 'fennec' if it gets too much. Like the animal? Jana's gonna use it tonight if it… gets to be like last night."
That was it for the tired elf. She snatched her plate angrily and made her way to the door. Kalya stumbled back and turned down the hall, grabbing Leliana's arm as she passed. The two of them raced to an alcove near the end of the hall, flattening themselves into it.
By the luck of everything holy, the serving elf had just crossed the hall and into the kitchen right as Alistair and Elissa appeared at the junction of the two hallways. The two rogues fell out of the alcove, exhaling their held breaths.
"Find anything?" Elissa whispered.
Leliana nodded towards her side of the hall. "Guest room. Kitchen. Larder."
Kalya thumbed at hers. "Guest room. Storage. Break room with two elves inside. Maybe more?"
Elissa took out her sword and stalked towards the door the elf had just emerged from.
"Wait," Kalya whispered harshly. "What are you doing?"
She blinked, incredulous. "Break rooms have storage trunks."
Kalya's daggers were in her hands in an instant as heat rose on her neck.
"Elissa, just... No." Alistair sounded tired. "Maker's sake, we'll find what we need in an actual armory."
Elissa snapped her broadsword onto her back with a roll of her eyes, but she didn't speak up her dissent. Point to Alistair for talking her out of casual civilian manslaughter.
With most other pathways searched, they had to be closing in on Howe. They discovered an armory at the next junction of doors. Its inhabitants were soldiers in various levels of undress, which allowed the party to make quick work of them.
When the room was cleared, the four began scouring trunks and lifting armor off racks as if they were stalls in a town square.
Kalya dared tug at her Warden senses again. Sure enough, Alistair and Elissa pinged back to her taut and close, but another wisp lingered, serpentine and angled downward.
"Alistair," Kalya said, trying to sound conversational.
"Yeeees?" He looked up from an entirely-too-small cuirass in his hands, shook his head, and handed it to Elissa.
"Do you guys… feel anything weird? Like your Warden senses?"
Elissa and Alistair stared ahead in concentration for a moment, then jerked their heads toward Kalya in unison.
"The basement," Elissa hissed. She slipped into the shiny cuirass and began buckling it frantically.
Leliana shucked off her pauldrons quickly and replaced them with fine black leather ones. "What is it?"
"Darkspawn?" Alistair shrugged. "What, locked up?"
"Howe is a sick fuck." Elissa gritted her teeth. "We have to be ready for anything."
When they were sufficiently suited up, they rushed down the twisting hallway and found a staircase leading down. The pull on their senses was stronger with every step. A heady thrill of anticipation rippled through Kalya as she descended into the cold. She was ready for a fight.
Elissa burst through the door at the bottom of the stairway, then stuttered to a stop, holding up a hand to the others.
An unseen guard sputtered. "What? Who goes there?"
Elissa began to draw her sword, then paused and cocked her head, squinting at something the others couldn't see. The guard screamed and the distinct sound of a neck snapping sent Kalya running down the last few steps. Alistair caught her in his arms, then, with a slight blush, held up one finger. Kalya listened.
"I thank you for creating such distraction, stranger. I have been waiting days for the opportunity."
Kalya's hand leapt to her mouth. That voice. Tears welled up in her eyes as she broke from Alistair's arms and snaked past Elissa. She had to see him with her own eyes.
Rounding the corner, her heart burst into a hundred pieces when she saw him. Riordan. It was really him. He was alive! Her breath caught, and a sob escaped her throat.
It was just a moment before his eyes landed on her.
"Do you think you could? Maker…"
Riordan dropped to his knees. Kalya ran to him and knelt, collapsing into his arms on the cold ground. He was here. He was real. She could hug him once again.
After a moment, Riordan held her before him, arms outstreched, tears rolling down his cheeks. "Kalya, it's really you. I thought I'd never see you again."
"Riordan?" Alistair advanced, carding his hand through his hair. "Maker, we'd thought…"
"Riordan, you're alive." Kalya hiccuped through her sniffles. "I... waited for you. I went to our booth every night. I fucking knew Loghain was behind this, but I never thought..."
"Child, there's time now. Once we leave this place, I'll tell you -" Riordan squinted at her for a moment, a curious look in his eye. He wiped his tears with the back of his hand and suddenly, Kalya felt a ginger tug on her Warden sense, like the pluck of a harp string.
"Kalya, you're… you're a Warden." The pride on his face could have lifted Kalya off the ground. Tears began to flow freely down his face in rivulets again. Kalya stuttered a laugh through her tears. Riordan clasped her in a great bear hug, as if she'd slip through his grasp if he didn't hold on tight enough. "Kalya, I'm so proud and so... heartbroken and…"
In a rare moment of compassion, Elissa cleared her throat, instead of saying something rude. "Ser, I don't mean to… cut this reunion short, but it would do neither of us good to be at the site of a future massacre. I intend to make Arl Howe pay for the many things he's done."
Kalya caught her breath slowly, sniffling like a child, but she didn't care. Riordan was alive. He squeezed her hands to let her know he was still there.
"We've been staying with Arl Eamon at his estate," Alistair said. "I'm sure he'll make you welcome. There's a back exit you can take, up these stairs the way we came, while we search for Howe."
Riordan nodded his head towards the warrior. "We'll speak at Arl Eamon's then." He turned to Kalya, his blue-grey eyes still glistening. "And good luck… Sister."
All Kalya could manage was a nod. She felt strong enough to take on anything as she watched him walk away.
Art by Olivegbg
Dozens of men lay bleeding at Elissa's feet. Her three companions kept their distance, with none of the almost preternatural rage she had seething within. Anticipation burned within her, as if her whole life were leading up to this and not her noble rule, not her slaying of the archdemon. Killing the man who stole her home, her family, her childhood.
Alistair had spoken up just once - a barked warning when she'd taken a reckless swing, slicing too wide to properly maim the guards. In truth, she was simply being pulled towards where she knew Rendon to be hiding, the fucking coward, and damn any of the soldiers who stood in her way.
Leliana had touched his arm, shaking her head slightly. Good. At least one of them understood what was at stake.
As she approached the final metal door, her muscles felt positively electrified. She bashed it in with her forearm, while the others took position behind her.
And there he was. She hadn't seen him clearly enough at Eamon's estate, but she saw him now. His sick, sallow face had aged decades in the last year. With her legs spread wide, planted firmly in the ground, she clutched her broadsword in both arms. She wanted him to beg.
"Well, look here," Howe drawled lazily. "Bryce Cousland's little spitfire and her pet cronies. You always did gravitate towards whatever you could order around, didn't you?"
"Keep talking." Elissa's lips curled into an angry smile. "When I hunt down your wife and Nate, I want to tell them what your last words were."
"How very eye-for-an-eye," he sneered. "Did you know your parents died on their knees? Your brother's corpse rots in Ostagar and his brat was burned on a scrap heap along with his Antivan whore of a wife. And what's left? A fool husk of a daughter likely to end her days under a rock in the Deep Roads. Even the Wardens are gone. You're the last of nothing. This is pointless. You've lost."
"You think your words daunt me?" Elissa spat. "I see them now for what they are - a coward's attempt at poisoning power you can't hope to match. Every night for a year, those horrors burned in my mind, gilding my thirst for vengeance. This ends now. Just you and me."
Out of the corner of her eye, Elissa saw Kalya look to the others, clutching her knives. Elissa shook her head slowly. No one would take this from her.
Howe stretched a hooked finger at her. She noticed a tremble in his stance.
"There it is, right there, the damn look in the eye that marked every Cousland's success that held me back. Your father might have been proud. Too bad his dying thought was that his little pup was too selfish to save him while she escaped."
Elissa roared. With blinding swiftness, she hefted her sword over her head and lunged at him. Howe leapt out of the way deftly, and she used the momentum to spin and sweep towards him again. That stumbled him off-balance, and he crumpled ungracefully into a giant decorative urn for just a moment before he righted himself, lowering his center of gravity into a crouch. His rogue fighting style reminded her of Kalya's. And like Kalya, it was predictable where he would juke next.
His knives were out faster than she saw him unsheath them, but Elissa was ready. She parried every swipe as if her broadsword were as light as a feather. With a wild fury, she advanced, catching his knives and circling his hands above his head.
The old man didn't last for long. When they stood gut-to-gut, arms above their heads, he retracted suddenly, ready to slash at her in close quarters, but Elissa twisted, glancing the blow off her shiny new cuirass. Howe leaned down, staggered off-balance again. Elissa threaded her fingers through his grey hair and jerked his head farther down before slamming the butt of her sword as hard as she could into his vertebrae. Howe dropped to the ground like a stone.
"I've found my spine, Uncle. How's yours?"
When the man didn't move from his stomach, she knew she'd paralyzed him. She curled a foot under his gut and flipped him onto his fluid-leaking back.
"Maker spit on you," Howe hissed. "I deserved more."
"You're right," Elissa said thoughtfully. "That was for making me kill Seawolf. This is for my family."
Elissa hefted up her sword and plunged it brutally through Howe's stomach. He gurgled like a weak animal, limbs spasming despite his spinal injury.
Chest heaving, Elissa felt the room narrow around her. This was the moment she'd waited for long before her family's death, long before his murder of Highever's constituents. Elissa had been so young, too young, when she first realized this man was slowly poisoning her father with his hate. Father's kind heart had defended him for so long, until Howe's treachery finally broke through.
Though he never landed a blow, Elissa tasted blood as she watched the life slowly drain out of Rendon Howe's eyes. She couldn't save her family. But justice was served.