Taleisin

CONTENT:
Rating: Mature
Flavor: Adventure/Drama
Language: yes
Violence: yes
Nudity: no
Sex: no
Other: none

Author's Notes:

not making obvious comment... not making obvious comment... not making obvious cliche comment... This is serious drama, here!

this is how i'm spelling Taleisin's name, and i'm sticking to it. (and now i can't remember what my obvious cliche comment was. whew!)

Taliesin

==#==

"How long is this going to take?" Bannon railed. "The horde could be at our gates before we get this stupid Landsmeet done." The Wardens had nothing else planned for today, just a dinner later on tonight.

Alistair said, "I was kinda relieved to have extra time to prepare. For Riordan to gain his strength." He shrugged.

"Relaxing is all well and good," Zevran said, "but enough is enough."

Leliana, dressed impeccably in her fancy Chantry robes, glided into the room. She had really transformed to a gruff field fighter to a refined lady. The boys automatically straightened up when she entered their presence. She smiled at them, because they probably didn't realize what they did. "I have good news. The Chanter's Board has yielded a job suitable for-"

"Argh!" Bannon interrupted.

"Charity?" the assassin complained.

"Didn't we just avoid having to do a good deed?" the elven Warden said to the other. "Er, I mean... work!" Alistair nodded.

Leliana waved off all their protests. "This particular job is right up your alley. It appears that an Ash Wraith has been reported within the city walls, terrorizing citizens. Bannon, I do believe that is your specialty."

Bannon looked at Alistair. Alistair quirked his brow back.

"Aha, si! I remember this story well!" Zevran bounced to his feet. "We must go! I must see this secret Templar technique for dealing with Ash Wraiths!"

"Uh, yeah, um..." the Wardens hemmed and hawed. Bannon untangled his tongue and said, "Well, no, we're not whipping them out in front of you. No." Alistair heartily agreed.

"Gentlemen," Leliana said, in that gruff fighter voice, "it is your duty to help your future constituents and allies." She handed them the parchment from the board. "Go do your duty."

"Yes, ma'am."

==#==

They weren't able to escape the estate without Morrigan insisting on tagging along. It was either that, or she was going to inform Eamon and have him send the Redcliffe guard with them. That just wouldn't do well for the Warden's reputation, if they needed an army just to defeat one wraith.

Bannon led the way to the alley, it was quite deserted this afternoon. Probably from fear of the wraith's attacks. Zevran was keeping up the rear, pestering Alistair with questions about whizzing on Ash Wraiths. The poor Templar scooted up to keep abreast of Morrigan. As for Bannon, he tried to ignore the witch's stare on him.

"I have two wineskins," Zevran was saying. "Should we not have imbibed them before leaving? Are you sure we will have enough volume on hand? Perhaps Morr-"

Suddenly, Bannon froze. Alistair almost stumbled into him, and Morrigan almost collided with them both. The elf slipped between them like an eel and pushed Zevran back. "Hide!" The Antivan looked at him, momentarily puzzled, but then saw where Bannon was pointing. Two crows were hopping along the gutter.

"Wh-?" was all Alistair had time to say.

"Stay here," Bannon hissed, and he faded into the shadows as the assassin disappeared.

Morrigan huffed. Alistair looked around at the empty street.

==#==

A few moments later, the two elves reappeared. Zevran said, "It is the Taleisin, one of the best of the Antivan Crows. We cannot avoid him."

"Follow me," Bannon said. "Don't stray far, there are traps everywhere."

"He is not alone," Zevran warned. "Be prepared for an ambush."

==#==

His time was up at last. Zevran knew a pang of fear at the sight of the crows, pecking idly at something in the street. Damn you, Taleisin! He shook it off. Stupid to warn your prey before attacking. "Come out, Taleisin! I have seen your pretentious omen," he called.

"Hola, Zev! You have no idea how glad I was to hear you were still alive." Taleisin appeared at the end of the alley, on a rise of several steps to another street level. His skin was sun-bronzed, his hair very dark. His beard he kept neatly trimmed, but his hair he let have a little wildness to it.

Behind Zevran, Alistair muttered, "They know each other?"

"Apparently," Bannon muttered back.

To Taleisin, Zevran said, "So worried, that you came to kill me?"

"I came to kill the bastards who'd killed you, amico." Taleisin spread his hands. "Then they told me you joined up with your targets?" He chuckled, showing a flash of white teeth. Then he grew serious. His voice lowered as he looked directly at Zevran. "I know why you did it. I understand. It doesn't have to end in bloodshed. Come back with me," he pleaded. "We'll make up a story. Farkus will just be glad the job got done."

"All it requires," Morrigan said coldly, "is for you to betray your current allies, and leave none alive." She, of course, did not sound surprised.

Zevran sighed in resignation. "In a way, I was hoping it would be you they sent for me, Taleisin. After our last mission together... You are right, my friend. We need to talk."

He turned and took a few steps towards Bannon. "It has been fun, but alas these things must pass. You know how it is," he shrugged flippantly. "Just business." He turned his body further away from Taleisin.

Bannon scowled. "So this guy is a friend of yours? Nice they sent him to kill you."

"Just so! I told you I am very lucky."

"So he's a Crow type of friend?"

"Si." Zevran grasped his hands. "I know you understand."

"I do."

"Then this is good-bye. Die well!"

Bannon pulled his hands back and folded his arms. "Yeah, good luck, pal." He turned and went back to Alistair and Morrigan, while Zevran straightened his spine with effort. He walked towards Taleisin, hands well away from his weapons.

==#==

"I told you," Morrigan growled, "to slit his throat while you had the chance!"

Alistair gaped at Bannon. "Aren't you going to... say something?" He gripped his shield handle tighter.

"There's nothing more to say."

"You're going to let him just go back to being a slave? Not to mention, oh, the whole betraying and killing us all?"

"He knows what he's doing. Besides, he did leave me with these." He showed the Templar and the witch what he had cupped in his hands.

Alistair frowned. "Zevran gave you... his balls?"

That's when the crossbowmen popped up out of cover. "Get down!" Bannon yelled, and Alistair ducked. Bannon threw the grenade in his right hand at the stack of crates, and they exploded into a satisfying barrage of fiery splinters.

"Morrigan - rear!"

The witch turned as she cast her ice wall, cutting off the attackers from that quarter. Bannon lobbed the other grenade in the opposite direction, but not towards where Zevran had gone. A few Crows went down; the rest scattered. Smoke began to fill the alley.

==#==

Zevran was only halfway to Taleisin when the Crow gave the signal to attack. Zevran pulled a shiv from his bracer and flung it at the human's face. Taleisin dodged and it only clipped his ear. "Brasca!"

Taleisin threw a smoke bomb down at the center of the stairs. "Kill the Wardens!" he shouted. "Leave the traitor!"

Zevran darted forward, bending low as his blades cleared their sheaths. He cut left, trying to second guess his friend's dodge. He found nothing but smoke.

Brasca! he thought, but kept silent. His mind raced through a mental game of Crow versus Crow. He knew all of Taleisin's moves, and Taleisin knew his. They both knew the other was familiar with their strategies. It would all come down to who could be more unpredictable.

==#==

"Traps!" Bannon reminded his companions. "Let them come to you." He drew his swords and ducked into the smoke, under the guard of a burly shadow groping its way through the haze. Two simple stabs, armpit and groin, just like Isabella and Zevran had taught him, and with this economy of motion and energy, his enemy fell.

Another one, he simply shoved over into one of the Crows' traps. The jaws snapped with a juicy crunch on his neck, leaving him kicking and bleeding out like a dying rat.

It may well be that these weren't Crows at all, but simply hired mercenaries. This Taleisin had said they would lie to Farkus, their Crow master. But that wouldn't work if those were other Crows who might return with them, with different stories they might trade for favors.

If Taleisin hadn't been outright lying - and that was a big if - then he'd either come alone, or only with some apprentice Crows, who would die killing the Wardens. Bannon could hope.

==#==

Zevran kept moving, kept to the thickest smoke where he could. At least Taleisin had told the others not to attack him. Did he think that if the Wardens were dead, Zevran would have no choice but to return to the Crows?

Would he?

No. Better to die a free elf than live as a slave.

He turned and followed the steps down, dodging traps. His strategy was clear now. Kill the mercenaries and save the Wardens. He swept his swords in a scissor cut on the back of a crossbow man's neck. He shoved the body down the last few steps to clear traps ahead. Then he moved towards the thick of the fighting.

All he had to do was backstab everyone attacking the Wardens from this side. And not get blasted by Morrigan, clobbered with Alistair's shield again, or backstabbed by Bannon.

All that reminded him of their first fight. He'd been so eager to lose, so sure he'd win. Not like this fight, where he was desperate to survive, and evenly matched with Taleisin. In a toe-to-toe fight, the human had the advantage of size and reach, Zevran had to admit. He thought about his vicious fight with Bannon, making his heart race, his sword strokes harder.

Then he knew what he had to do.

With a roaring battle cry, he threw himself into the thick of the fray without bothering about his own safety.

==#==

Taleisin dodged right, then switched back, double-guessing himself as he tried to predict what Zevran would do.

That damned elf. Taleisin shrugged one shoulder, trying to staunch the flow of blood from his stinging ear. He couldn't blame Zevran, though. Who wouldn't want a chance at freedom? If the Crows wouldn't hunt them to the ends of the earth, he'd run away with Zevran in a heartbeat.

There was still a slim chance Zevran would see reason, once these Grey Wardens were dead. The chances were also slim that the Crow Masters wouldn't give Zevran a traitor's death - a long, slow lesson on why one must never try to escape. But Taleisin meant to try.

There was no use letting Zevran hunt him through the smoke. Taleisin didn't care to be taken like prey - he went on the hunt himself.

If he couldn't find Zevran, then where was that other elf? The one with the damned grenades. Taleisin growled silently as he descended the stairway. He came across a few mercenary bodies. He ignored them.

The elf Warden must be with his companions. Taleisin maneuvered towards the sounds of fighting. Then, he heard Zevran's voice! The mad elf was in the thick of it, trying to get himself killed, it seemed. Taleisin gritted his teeth.

He had half a mind to help Zevran against the mercs. But he'd been trained better. Business was business.

He angled away, so he could come up on the Wardens and their damned mage from the other direction. She should be his main priority. Wardens were just fighters. They bled and died like any other.

The battle shifted as Taleisin moved around it. He followed a billow of smoke as one area cleared. He saw the mage across the way, and the human Warden. He started forward, but an elf stepped out in front of him. Zevran's face was a mask of blood, he limped from a gash in his shapely thigh. He'd lost one sword, and clutched his free arm across his ribs.

"You look like hell, amico," Taleisin told him. "Do you really want to do this?"

Zevran's teeth showed white. "Oh indeed I do!" His free arm whipped out, sending another dagger at Taleisin's chest.

The human slapped it out of the way, halting himself barely in time to avoid stepping in one of his traps. Zevran slammed into his side, shoving him over. Taleisin made an awkward jump, narrowly missing the trap. He landed on one knee and jarred his sword arm. He half rolled and sprang back up while Zevran stabbed his sword into the trigger and yanked the blade out before the jaws snapped.

"Dirty fighting, is it?" Taleisin growled.

"Just like the Crows taught us!

Taleisin lunged and Zeveran blocked instead of dodging. The human felt the jab of pain in his wrist, but knew the elf was hurting worse. Zevran's lips were parted as he panted for breath. Even as the elf attacked with a vicious flurry of blows, driving Taleisin back, he could feel Zevran weakening. He was going to lose.

Taleisin changed direction, avoiding another trap. He lashed out with his sword. It was a sloppy blow, not even at his fastest and strongest, but it still cut Zevran deep on the bicep, through leather armor and flesh. "Last chance!" Taleisin snapped. "Surrender!"

"Never!"

Zevran lunged, ineffectually. Taleisin closed his mind to the possibility of saving him, walled off the memories of time spent with him. Now he was nothing more than a mark. A heifer before the butcher.

The heat of battle left Taleisin and he became a cold killing machine. He attacked, efficiently, ruthlessly, this death a foregone conclusion.

Zevran tried to parry. Taleisin's blow knocked the elf's sword spinning into the smoke. Taleisin cut at his neck, but the elf dropped, stabbed a dagger into the human's thigh.

Then Zevran spun away, turning his back to the assassin. Taleisin saw the easy target and lunged. He was overextended and slightly off balance for a moment, and in the next, pain exploded in his chest as a blade sank into his heart under his arm. The elf Warden slammed into him, pitching them both to the ground.

==#==

Taleisin was dead.

Zevran caught his breath, walled off old memories, old feelings, from his mind. Somehow this death was less painful than... well. It was all over now.

"Zevran? Zevran!" Bannon came over to him. "Are you all right?"

"Eh? Oh, si, I am fine." He stopped the other elf from frantically trying to bandage him up. "Really! Is nothing. I cut myself to look more wounded and hurt than I am."

Bannon gaped. "You cut -? In the middle of a- Are you nuts!?"

Zevran laughed. "I learned from the best liar and conman in Ferelden, did I not? Besides, you can bandage me up all you want, later." He waggled his brows.

Bannon rolled his eyes.

The elves surveyed the alley battlefield as the smoke cleared. There were a great number of frozen and shattered bodies.

"Ow!" yelled Alistair. He had chased a pair of assassins into a corner. And now he was stuck there, foot caught in a trap. "A little help here? Someone?" He yanked ineffectually at his leg.

"Go help him," said Bannon. "I'll find the rest of the traps."

"As you wish, amore." Zevran set off. He felt strangely elated. Yes, Taleisin was gone, but it had been in a fight, a real battle.

And now, the Crows had been defeated. They would send others after him, no doubt, but that would take some time. For now, he could breathe. He was free.

==#==

Bannon knelt and began working on a trap.

Morrigan came up behind him. "You've been avoiding me," she told him sternly.

"I have?" The trap he was working on suddenly snapped closed, raking his arm with its teeth before he could pull away. Bannon swore.

"Don't play coy with me. Just say what you're going to say, and get it over with."

The elf stood. "What is it you expect me to say?"

She folded her arms. "That you have passed me over so that you could be with some man." Bannon flushed and looked down. "Well that is a new one on me," Morrigan said bitterly.

"I thought we went over this," he said to her.

"You told me you cared for me. That under the right circumstances, we could be more than just close friends."

Helplessly, he shrugged, hands held out. "But-"

"No, don't try to explain," Morrigan snapped; "I see what's going on, here. You actually prefer a tawdry, cheap fling with that promiscuous whore rather than a serious relationship with me! You're a shallow, conniving bastard, and I don't know why I even thought you might care one whit about me!"

"I do care about you," he said placatingly. "Try to understand-"

"Oh, I understand perfectly! Don't bother with any more of your lies!"

==#==

"Hurry up," Alistair said. "My foot is falling asleep!"

"I am working as fast as I can," Zevran told him, knelt down and working his long blade between the trap's jaws. "Honestly, how you can step into one of these after we are done fighting is beyond me."

"Well, it's better than stepping in one during a fight."

The sound of Morrigan's raised voice echoed down the street. The two men froze and looked in that direction. They couldn't make out the exact words, but the tone was quite clear. The two looked at each other.

"On second thought," said Alistair, "take your time, there."

Zevran paled. "Do you think she will kill him?"

"Well, she actually likes him. Or, eh, 'liked' I suppose might be more appropriate." Alistair winced as another volley of angry words started up. "On the other hand, she definitely hates you, so I would say that your life is actually in more danger. Slightly."

"Have you never heard the warning about 'a woman scorned'?"

"Okay. You're both doomed."

==#==

"You're a sneaky, underhanded, manipulating, liar! I should have known better than to trust a city elf! You're nothing but a street rat, looking out for your own mangy, flea-bitten hide!" Her eyes flashed with something feral. Her lips twisted into a snarl.

"I understand why you're angry..."

"Angry? Oh, you have not seen me angry," she threatened.

Bannon firmed up his voice. "We can discuss this when you've calmed down. Now if you are finished yelling, we have work to do." He brushed past her to rejoin their companions.

"Oh yes, quite finished." Morrigan stalked after him.

==#==

They walked back to where Alistair and Zevran were standing, apparently studying the architecture of one of the building walls. Neither said anything. The elf dared to look around; he got skewered by Morrigan's glare.

"I'm sure you both got exactly what you deserve," she said icily.

==X==

End Notes:

Two crows were hopping along the gutter.
-ever have this happen to you? i was walking through the grocery store back parking lot, when i suddenly saw a few crows just... hopping about, exactly like in the game!

They walked back to where Alistair and Zevran were standing, apparently studying the architecture of one of the building walls.
-i remember this happening in the game, too! we stop, and some of the party are looking at the walls. or... well. small elven bladders and all. :X