Ahh the beauty of having a boyfriend to be a spellchecker! Makes releasing these chapters so much easier since I'm usually terrified of mistakes so I take twice as long releasing new chapters. D:

Anyway! Enjoy! :D

They never made it to Weisshaupt.

What Warden Commander Katherine forgot to tell Carver and Merrill was that the three of them were being dropped off at Amaranthine along the way to Weisshaupt. Carver was furious that Katherine and the rest of the Grey Wardens forgot to mention this to them, but he was a soldier after all, and he had to obey orders.

Then there was the whole Merrill-is-Carver's-wife-so-should-not-join-the-Wardens argument with Nathaniel Howe, the second-in-command to the Wardens of Vigil's Keep. Howe thought it was a terrible idea having a husband and wife being Grey Wardens because of the whole 'emotional attachment' thing. Katherine soon put Howe in his place.

Now they were all eating dinner together in the mess hall with the other wardens that were still stationed at Vigil's Keep.

Carver was sat beside Merrill, who was scoffing down her meal like it was her last. The other wardens around them were all joking around about the increased appetite that they all felt when they first went through the Joining.

Despite having been at Vigil's Keep for an entire year, Merrill had only taken the Joining a couple of weeks ago and was in a deep sleep for the majority of those two weeks. Darkspawn had been decreasing in numbers since The Mother was defeated, so it was extremely hard to gather the darkspawn blood that was needed for the Joining ritual.

Carver was terrified the moment the cup reached Merrill's lips. She took the cup with shaking hands before shining her best smile at her husband, reassuring him that she was going to be alright. But when her eyes turned white and her veins blackened through her skin, Carver thought this was she wasn't strong enough after all. He leapt to her side as Howe and Katherine watched as Merrill collapsed to the ground, gasping for air as the darkspawn blood burned her throat.

He felt tears rolling down his cheeks as he blamed himself for making her go through with this, wishing that he had let Isabella taken Merrill with her on the ship, but when Katherine placed a gentle hand on his shoulder, telling him that she was going to pull through, Carver could only smile.

He still continued to smile as Merrill shovelled food into her mouth like there was no tomorrow.

"Where's the Warden Commander?" Merrill asked Nathaniel who was sitting opposite her, his usual frown fixed on his brow as he pushed the food around on his plate with his fork.

"She's in the library."

"Is she eating? I haven't seen her for days," another Warden asked, all of them seemed pretty concerned for their Commander.

"She's fine. Just leave her be," Nathaniel snapped, picking up his plate and taking it elsewhere to eat.

"Who shoved a rod up his ass?" Feynrith asked, making adjustments to the string on his bow.

"Who knows, who cares," Agna replied with a grunt as she chewed on a mouthful of bread.

Both Agna and Feynrith were the only two Wardens who survived the Joining alongside Carver, and the warrior was relieved for them to still be alive when he arrived at Vigil's Keep. Merrill soon became friends with Feynrith, since they both came from dalish clans who had been affected by the Blight.

Agna was a casteless dwarf born and raised in Orzammar who had had enough of being treated like scum by the rest of the dwarfs. After she watched a casteless child being beaten to a pulp by some warriors from the warrior caste, Agna killed them. Luckily for her, a dwarf Warden recruiter named Oghren saved her from being executed. She resented the Wardens at first, but since she was getting paid to kill, she soon accepted them.

"Do you not like Nathaniel?" Merrill asked Agna, on her third plate full of food.

"Here we go…" Feynrith rolled his eyes, sighing as Agna glared at Merrill, causing the elf to jump.

"Howe's family used to own this damned castle, and he still continues to moan about it. Katherine saved his sorry ass from being hung and he continues to brood and moan about his life. Sure his dad may have become a traitor when he killed Katherine's family and joined forces with Teyrn Loghain," Agna paused her rant by taking a huge gulp of ale, her nose scrunching up in annoyance, "but he still continues to be an ungrateful bastard. The man should just get laid and stop being such a prick to everyone."

"Oh…" Was all Merrill could say, feeling terrible for even asking and making everything awkward between the four of them.

"Don't worry about it, love," Carver kissed the side of Merrill's head, causing the elf to blush and giggle.

"Ugh, get a room you two!" Feynrith teased.

"But we don't always have the privacy in our room! Sharing with you and Agna doesn't really allow us to do anything; especially since Carver-"

"Merrill!" Carver quickly covered his wife's mouth with his hand, blushing deeply as Agna and Feynrith laughed at the couple.

"I must admit Merrill; Carver has been far less broody since you arrived. Probably finally glad that you're here physically instead of just thinking about you with his hand as he polished his sword."

"What do you mean, Agna?"

Before Agna could respond, Carver just grabbed his wife by the hand and lead her away to prevent her from embarrassing them both any further, leaving their friends in a fit of laughter. But Carver couldn't help but smile too; he was finally with the woman he loved, with the friends he had made by himself and still being part of something he strongly believed in.

In the Grey Wardens, Carver felt the freedom of being in his sister's shadow. In the Wardens, he was something and meant something.

A part of him still worried about Trinity, and he hoped that she was still safe in Denerim castle.