"Elissa!" Fergus cried out happily as he jumped off his horse, and immediately ran to his beloved sister.
Brother and sister wrapped their arms around each other and held on for dear life. It had been so long since they had seen each other, and they missed each other dearly.
"I'm so glad you're here." Elissa sobbed into his chest.
"I'm glad to be here, sis."
Elissa wrapped her arm around his and led him inside. "Come on. Dinner is about to start and you looking ready to eat a scabby horse."
It felt like a dream to have her beloved brother finally with her again. It had been months since they last saw each other, and considering recent events, it felt like a lifetime. They had to make do in that time with letters back and forth, but it wasn't enough for siblings as close as Elissa and Fergus were. She also needed him there to break the news of her pregnancy and she had refused to do it in a letter.
After dinner, they retreated to Elissa's room to play chess as had done many times over the years. Neither played to win, it was normally just an excuse to gossip and trade stories as they sipped mugs of mead. Fergus had noticed that Elissa hadn't touched any mead, opting for a sweet-smelling tea that Anders had brewed her. He knew something was bothering her. For both of them, they had to grieve their family and he could see the sadness in her that he felt, but there was something else. Something that haunted her.
"Lissy, is something wrong?" He asked, carefully watching any response to his question.
The gravity of the situation hit her head on, and heartbreaking sobs escaped her. "Everything is a mess, Gus."
Fergus quickly stood up quickly, moving to crouch down beside her chair. "What is it?"
"I'm pregnant." Elissa cried, burying her head into her hands.
"Come on." Fergus stood up and pulled her to her feet. He always hated seeing his baby sister cry, and he was the only one who could ever calm her down. He always felt a protective need to hug her when she cried, and this time was no different. He wrapped his arms around her and let her cry. "It'll be ok, Lissy."
"How Fergus? I cant raise the baby." She cried as she held her brother tight. "I want you to raise it."
Fergus gently pushed her shoulders back so he could look at her. "Liss, this baby is a blessing, and after everything we've been through, we deserve this. Look at me and tell me you could face being parted from him or her."
Elissa wiped away her tears, ready to concede his point. She could never part with her baby, it would be more pain than she could bear. "I'm scared, Fergus. This baby will be nothing but a political tool, and I don't want that for him or her."
"Who's the father?" He knew just from the look on her face the answer to that question. "A Prince or Princess?" He said with a sigh.
"In two months, I'll give birth to a child that will have the stigma of being a bastard, and a royal bastard at that. I want my baby to live without having that weighing them down." Elissa smiled when she felt a strong kick from her baby. She took Fergus's hand and pressed it to her belly. "Baby does that a lot."
"Just like when mother was carrying you." He laughed as he marveled in his niece or nephew's fervent movements. "I was only little but she always used to laugh, and say my voice just made you more excited."
"Will I be a good mother, Fergus?"
Fergus chuckled. "You will be an incredible mother. Just as mother was."
Elissa paced around Avernus' lab, trying to process the news he had given her.
It had been just days after Fergus arrived when Avernus and Anders called Elissa to the lab to break the news regarding her taint. Avernus had been testing any affects that the taint could have had on Elissa's unborn child, hoping to gain better insight into the taint and maybe some nullifying solutions to it. Only during the course of his experiments, he noticed that the taint was weakening in Elissa's system, to the point Anders felt any connection to her had dulled.
As her pregnancy progressed, it appeared that she would eventually lose the taint completely, although Avernus had no idea why, but he had suspected that it was the blood of the baby that caused it.
"Has this ever happened before?" Elissa asked both Anders and Avernus, while shrugging off Fergus' attempts to get her to sit down. "I cant be the first pregnant Warden."
"I believe it happened once before that I know." Avernus replied. "Like you, she completely lost her taint after pregnancy. If I recall correctly, she went through the joining again but it didn't work."
"So, how long do I have before it goes completely."
"I predict that the taint will have faded in its entirety around the time the child is born."
Fergus successfully managed to get Elissa to sit down, before she paced a hole in the wooden floor. "Has the baby absorbed the taint?"
"I don't believe so." Avernus reassured the worried Fergus. "Anders has monitored the pregnancy and hasn't as yet found anything untoward."
"The baby is by all accounts, a very healthy child." Anders added, before turning his attentions to Elissa. "Elissa, we will have to write to Weisshaupt to inform them of this. They may have more information."
Elissa somehow managed to get to her feet quickly, crossing the lab to Anders, but almost instantly regretting her decision. "Weisshaupt don't need to know anything, Anders."
"You've been a Warden longer than me, Elissa. You know there are rules that need to be followed." Anders understood her reluctance. In his short time as a Warden, he knew well enough that Weisshaupt would only give her two options; partake in the joining again or leave. "Maybe it would be best if you returned home with your brother."
"What?" She barked quickly.
"He's right, Lissy." Fergus said from across the room. "You need to come home before the baby arrives."
Elissa's shoulders fell as she lumbered towards the window, glaring out the rain covered glass. Tears fell from her eyes as she struggled with the idea of losing yet another part of life. After Highever, she felt she had a purpose with the Wardens, and now she wouldn't have that. "So, you have it decided for me?"
"Fergus, I think maybe we should wait until we have word from Weisshaupt?" Anders suggested for fear he would upset Elissa more.
Fergus nodded. "We wait 1 month and no longer."
"I think the girl needs rest." Said Avernus, displaying a rare interest in a patient, Warden or otherwise.
Anders nodded in agreement. "He's right. Thoughts for the future can wait until tomorrow. Fergus, if you don't mind escorting your sister to her room?"
"Come on, Lissy." Fergus wrapped an arm her shoulder and let her cry on him as they made the walk back to her room.
Once back in her room, Fergus had left to bring her tea as she changed into her nightclothes. It gave her time to mull over her options. She thought maybe it would be better if she returned to Highever with Fergus so she could settle before the baby arrived. She thought about having to undergo the joining again, and she considered that maybe she shouldn't do it. After all, there was a very real risk that she could die, and that would leave her baby without a mother. She wasn't sure that was a risk she was willing to take.
Her thoughts turned to Alistair. She felt the love for him like a pain in her chest, ever present and never ceasing. She wanted never more than he arms around her, telling her that everything would be ok. She had already accepted that would never happen and her love for him would burn mournfully until the day she died. Even if she accepted Nathaniel's marriage proposal, she knew that she would never love him in the way he deserved, but he seemed more than willing to accept only half her heart.
Elissa turned towards the rose that Alistair gave her, noticing how it had lost two more petals despite the magic that Wynne. She desperately wanted to throw the rose away, but something about it stopped her.
It was the only thing that reminded her that she had loved, and been loved once.