Ch. 14: In Which The Party Arrives in Denerim

Olivia and the others headed back to Redcliffe, stopping off at the Circle on the way there to run a couple errands, something which led Oghren to running into his ex-girlfriend and getting back together with her while everyone was taking advantage of the fact that there was an actual inn with bedrooms and baths and everything to spend the night in.

When they got to Redcliffe, they met up with Arl Eamon and headed to Denerim. The moment they arrived at Arl Eamon's estate, they were met by a very angry looking Loghain, flanked by his lieutenant and a gray-haired man.

"Logahin," said Eamon, voice strained. "It's an honor for the regent to come meet me."

Loghain glared, which, admittedly, seemed to be his only expression. "How could I not come meet someone so important he called everyone in Ferelden to Denerim in the middle of a Blight?"

"That's why I'm here. Ferelden needs a king to lead it against the darkspawn."

"Ferelden has a perfectly fine, strong leader already, the Queen!" Olivia desperately wanted to point out that Anora couldn't be that strong a leader if she let her father take over and do everything for her. "And I lead her armies!"

Okay, that was going a bit too far. "And a bang-up job you've done of that so far," snarked Olivia.

"Who's this?" Loghain sounded disdainful. "A new stray you picked up along the road, Eamon?"

"I'm kind of offended you don't even remember me, considering that you sent an assassin to kill me," grumbled Olivia.

"Shut up!" snarled Loghain. "This is my city and you can't talk treason here!"

"Oh, let's not even go into treason."

"Anyway, Eamon, I heard that your illness had you laid up."

Eamon looked angry. "Illness? You had me poisoned! Not everyone is going go along with your schemes like your sycophants do."

"You have been away for a long time." Loghain gestured to the man. "Don't you recognize Arl Howe of Amaranthine, Teryn of Highever?"

"And current Arl of Denerim, after Arl Urien died at Ostegar," added Howe. "Don't forget that."

"Nice array of titles. Who did you have to kill for Loghain to get them?" asked Olivia. "Probably the Couslands- last I heard they were in charge of Highever and there's no way they all died at Ostegar, considering that one of them was a seven-year-old."

Ser Cauthrien glared at Olivia. "Don't interrupt, churl. Your betters are talking!" Churl? Who calls people that?

"Not now Cauthrien," said Loghain.

"Ooh, that was a stab in the dark but I bet he did kill the Couslands," said Olivia. "Is that why you don't want to talk about this?"

Loghain ignored her. "I had hoped I could talk you out of this, Eamon. You're weakening the country your own sister worked tirelessly for because of your selfish ambitions to the throne!" Eamon glared at him, arms crossed.

"Wow," said Olivia. "It's kind of a totally jerkish move to bring Queen Rowan into this, considering how you purposely got her son killed."

"I wasn't talking to you!" snapped Loghain.

Eamon continued to glare. "I can't forgive you for what you've done, Loghain. Ferelden deserves a Theirin king. Alistair will lead us against the darkspawn, not me."

"No pressure," muttered Alistair.

"The emperor of Orlais thought I couldn't beat him," Loghain told Eamon. "Don't expect to succeed where he failed. There is nothing I won't do for Ferelden." He turned and stormed out, followed by his two shadows.

"Well, I didn't expect him to show up so soon," said Eamon. "I think he's insane. Seriously, I would never have thought that he would turn against the king."

"I did," commented Morrigan. "Mother predicted that ages ago. I'm pretty sure she warned King Maric that Loghain would double-cross him."

Everyone stared at her. "How about we chalk that up to 'Flemeth knows everything' and forget we ever heard it?" said Olivia. They all nodded.

"Anyway," said Eamon. "We still need to gather more support if we're going to win the vote at the Landsmeet. There's some suspicious things going on that will probably be good to look into."

"Like what?" asked Olivia.

"There's some kind of mysterious plague in the elven alienage, for one thing. It could be an actual plague but, then again, my sickness wasn't, so…"

"Suspicious. Got it. We'll take a look."

They went to the alienage the next day. Despite the fact that there was supposedly a plague, there didn't seem to be too many sick people around. Of course, they could all be indoors, but…

In the center of the alienage, a large crowd of elves led by a young redheaded elven woman stood in front of a building, facing off with a man in Tevinter-style mage robes.

"Let us in there!" shouted the redhead.

The mage looked at her. "No. It's a quarantine. That means that people aren't supposed to go in."

The woman glared. "See, you say that it's a quarantine and you're healing the sick people in there, but if you're healing them, then why is it that no one's come out?"

"Quarantine also means that no one leaves."

"If they were healed, they wouldn't be contagious anymore and it would be perfectly safe for them to leave! Where is everyone? Where's my Uncle Cyrion, huh?"

"Now, madam…" The redhead clenched her fists. "Oh, look at the time," said the mage. "I really must be going!" He ducked into the building.

The redhead growled. "What's going on?" asked Olivia, walking up to her.

The redhead sighed. "There's a plague. Those Tevinter mages supposedly came here to help, set up a quarantine in that building, and everything, but everyone who goes to them for healing doesn't come back. We've already lost our leader- my uncle Cyrion, and a lot of other people. There's something shifty going on, but I don't know what and everyone's too afraid of the plague to actually help me find out."

"I could tell that something was wrong," said Olivia. "I'm actually here to investigate it. Olivia Amell," she added, holding out her hand.

"Shianni," said the redhead. "The best bet is to go check out the quarantine building. I haven't been able to get in. Tried to sneak in through the back, but there's a guard. Which is only more suspicious."

"I suppose that's our first move, then," said Olivia, beginning to head around the back of the quarantine building with the others. Shianni followed. "Um, why are you following us?"

"Seriously? You have to ask? I've finally found someone who'll help me find out what's going on here, I'm not going to sit back and let you do everything. I'm coming too."

"It's just that normally when people ask us for help they wander off and make us do everything."

"They sound kind of irresponsible, then," said Shianni. "And also lazy."

When they got around the back of the building, the guard at the door groaned, looking at Shianni. "Not you again! I've told you before, I'm being paid to not let anyone through this door, and that's what I'm going to do."

"How much?" The guard looked at Olivia. "How much are you being paid?"

"Five silvers an hour," he said proudly.

Olivia pulled out her purse. "I'll give you double that to take a short break."

"Okay!" he said happily. Olivia handed over the money and the guard wandered off, cheerfully counting out his shiny new ten silvers.

"Wish I'd had the money to bribe him," muttered Shianni. "Of course it's easy for you."

"Hey!" said Olivia. "I got that money by fencing stuff I found in the Deep Roads. It was incredibly difficult and took a lot of effort."

Shianni winced. "Ouch. Sorry."

The supposed quarantine building was empty. "This can't be good," muttered Olivia.

"Found something!" called Bethany. Everyone crowded around her. "It's an incredibly suspicious-sounding receipt with an address down the road written on it. And by incredibly suspicious, I really mean incredibly suspicious. Either these Tevinters are running some sort of live animal trade out of her or, well… it's a live people trade."

Everyone looked suitably horrified. Olivia took the paper from Bethany. "We should keep this as evidence. Let's go. If we're lucky the missing people will still be at this address."

They hurried out of the building and down the road. The building that the paper mentioned had a pair of guards standing outside it. Olivia cast an arcane warrior strengthening spell on herself as she strode up to them, drawing her sword and stabbing one while freezing the other with an ice spell before stabbing him as well. "Damn slavers," she muttered.

Shianni stared at the frozen guard. "She's a mage? I thought she was a warrior. What with, you know, the sword and armor and all…"

"An arcane warrior," said Leliana. "She found this gem in some ruins that had the spirit of someone who had been part of an ancient order of elven mages slash warriors trapped in it and the spirit made her its heir or something in return for freeing it and laying it to rest."

"Your lives are weird," said Shianni.

All told, they did manage to rescue the kidnapped elves and, as a bonus, found documentation proving that Loghain had allowed the slavers to come in return for a cut of their profits. Cyrion Tabris, the leader of the alienage and Shianni's uncle, thanked them and Shianni said goodbye at the gates of the alienage. They began to make their way back to Arl Eamon's estate in good spirits.

However, as they were walking through a back alley, they were suddenly surrounded by a large group of armed men.

"This can't be good," muttered Alistair.

A smirking dark-haired man appeared at the top of the steps they had been about to climb. Zevran swore.

"Ah, the mighty Grey Warden," said the stranger. "The Crows send their greetings once again."

Zevran glared at him. "So, Taliesan. Did they pick you for this job, or did you volunteer?"

"The latter of course. The great, wonderful Zevran gone rogue? I just had to see it in person."

"Well now you have, then."

"You can come back with me, Zevran," said the Crow, Taliesan. "It's not too late for us to come up with some kind of story to explain your behavior."

"See, I don't like that plan," commented Olivia. "For one thing, I'd have to be dead for it to work."

"Which isn't going to happen while I'm around," said Zevran.

"What?" Taliesan seemed honestly shocked.

Zevran turned to look at him. "Sorry, friend," he said sadly. "I'm going to have to refuse. I'm got coming back. And you should have stayed in Antiva. He drew his daggers and stabbed the nearest one of Taliesan's thugs in the throat.

Taliesan still seemed surprised when they killed him. Zevran looked conflicted. "And there it is. Taliesan is dead, and I am free of the Crows. They'll assume I died with him and as long as I don't do anything to get their attention they won't have any reason to think differently. They won't be looking for me anymore."

"Well, that's good, at least," said Olivia.

"Very good," agreed Zevran. "It's the exact sort of outcome I had hoped for. I suppose I could leave now, go somewhere so far away the Crows would never find out that I had even survived. I could also, however, stay here- after all, I did swear to help you. Also saving the world seems like a worthy task to see through to the end, yes?"

"So which will it be then?" asked Olivia.

"That's what I'm asking you- do you want me to stay or go?"

"Zevran," said Olivia, "I want you to do what you want to do. I can't make your choices for you."

He looked confused. "I don't know how to respond to that. Nobody's ever asked… I mean, normally it's other people who make these decisions… I guess I'll… stay? Is that good?"

"If that's what you want, then yes, it is good." Zevran smiled slightly. "I'm pretty happy with it too," Olivia added. "I mean, it would be kind of hard to kiss you if you were off somewhere far away hiding from the Crows."

Zevran laughed. "This is also true." He moved forward and kissed her.

"Oh, I am totally composing a ballad about this," muttered Leliana off to the side.