I own nothing of the Dragon Age universe, except Verthandi and Alisa (a.k.a. Ziffaniel).
PS - I ACTUALLY UPDATED. The world as we know it is about to implode. Enjoy guys, I know its been long overdue. Last thing, Alisa is classed as a warrior (instead of her mother's rogue). Its not too significant but yeah. You'll see~
The night was far calmer than Alisa felt as she lied in her room. Her father was human; she'd known that much long ago. But, she'd never known he was a king. King! Ashel would never call her a dirty shemlen again!
But... why had mother kept that from her? Why didn't father know her at all? Why did mother lie?
She decided then that she was going to go to the capital and see him, and demand to know what happened before she was born.
After all, what could possibly go wrong?
Alisa sat up and watched the light under the door as it dimmed. Whenever mother got like this, she almost never fell asleep. All she could do was hope Verthandi was just too exhausted to stay awake, and begin preparing for her journey to Denerim.
It seemed like days before the light grew dark before being entirely snuffed out, the thrill of her advancing plans chasing any thoughts of sleep out of Alisa's body. She had only a few precious hours before dawn to prepare as silently as she could, or else she risked mother waking up to find her with far more supplies than she needed for a simple day-long trip through the woods.
Alisa waited a few minutes before slipping out of bed, tip toeing to the chest at the foot of the bed. She emptied the pack she kept for training in the forest, and packed two sets of leather clothing. It didn't give the same protection as armor, but it made her less noticeable in a crowd. She found the spare daggers in the bottom of the chest and hid one between the clothes in the pack and wore the other on her left hip.
The elf-girl knelt near the door and strained her ears to be sure the kitchen was empty. With a slow push, her door opened and she crept into the moonlit kitchen. There was no light under Verthandi's door, so Alisa felt more confident sneaking around the cupboards slipping poultices and bandages in her pack. She gathered up a smaller pack and wrapped some dried fruit in some cloth before packing it in. She threw in jerky and the extra water skin before heading back to her room.
By chance, she paused at her door and glanced back at the table. The preserved rose was still there, untouched. She hesitated before picking it up and taking it with her. She'd need proof she was Verthandi's daughter incase he didn't recognize her, and what better proof than a magically preserved relic of love? She stashed the rose in a box and tucked it into a pocket for safe keeping.
Alisa closed her door and began dropping the bags outside her window, grabbing the carved halla-horn whistle before dropping down herself. When the window slid shut, there was no turning back but the odds of getting caught were severely diminished. She ran to the pasture, bags and bow in hand, and climbed up the rails of the pasture. The horses had long since gone to the barn but their only halla, a stag named Sovelo, was still grazing under the moonlight.
The stag didn't seem to see her, so Alisa straddled the fence and blew a low, long note from the whistle. Sovelo looked up, taking his time as he picked his way across the field. He stopped a few feet from her, watching her with wary eyes.
"I know its late, Sovelo, but I need your help." Alisa began, digging around in the food pouch. The stag snorted, shaking his head so his carved horns rattled strangely. "Before you say no, I brought you some of your favorite-" She held up two halves of a dried plumb. Sovelo watched the plumbs as if he were entranced and took the last few steps forward to reach eagerly for the fruit.
"Ah ah, gotta help me first. Do you know how to get to Denerim? Could you take me there?"
The stag huffed at her, catching her sleeve and pulling her hand down within range, his way of agreeing to the terms. Alisa smiled and climbed down, tying the packs together and lashing them to Sovelo's back. She knew her mother would know what happened when she saw Sovelo was gone, but she had no choice. Sovelo could understand human speech, and he knew how to get to most places. He was stronger and faster than any horse, and better yet he liked Alisa. The horses didn't.
Alisa opened the pasture gate so Sovelo could walk out, closing it behind him and hopping up so she was astride his back. She looked back at the cottage, Sovelo waiting patiently for her to be ready before trotting down the road towards the forest. When he hit the tree line, he broke into a gallop, forcing Alisa to stop thinking about Alistair and what-ifs and just focus on holding on.
-v^v^v-
Verthandi wished she hadn't told her daughter the truth, atleast not until she was a few years older and could understand why they couldn't be with Alistair. The girl still had fairy tale ideas about how love conquered all.
Well, love didn't conquer all. It certainly didn't conquer politics.
The elf sighed. What had been done was done. She would simply have to wait until the girl returned home in the evening to talk to her about everything. In a few months, maybe she'd take her to Denerim to see Alistair, if she could trust the girl to hold her tongue. But... that seemed too cruel to both her and the King. No, they simply could not have a relationship.
She tried to ignore the conflicting thoughts while she went through her morning routine. So strange, Sovelo was usually the first to the gate for the morning feeding. Only the stallion and his mare trotted eagerly out of their stable to greet her. Maybe the old halla had wandered to visit the Dalish herd, or a wild group had traveled close by. Regardless, she pushed the thought out of her mind. She had other things to worry about.
As the sun began to set, Verthandi started worrying. Ilen didn't like keeping the initiates in the forest after dark. The more dangerous predators hunted at night, and there were still werewolves in the forest that were not involved with Varathorn's curse. Maybe something had happened? But certainly Ilen or another scout would let her know if something had happened.
Verthandi froze for a moment, realization dawning on her. She threw open the cupboards and took a quick inventory of the supplies that remained. Nearly a third of the poultices were gone, and a few bottles of salve too. She stumbled into Alisa's room, searching her chest and dresser. Two sets of clothing gone, and the daggers she's gifted her for Feastday.
Daggers Alistair had given to Verthandi after they'd helped the dwarves.
It all made sense now! The girl being up before her, before even dawn, the missing halla in the pasture. She meant to run to Denerim!
Gods be damned, she had a halla's day start! The Warden quickly changed into her old drakeskin armor and snatched up her bow. She could only pray that Sovelo had the sense to drag out the journey until Verthandi could catch up to them. She snorted at that, knowing the halla had far too much pride to be caught by a horse.
All she could do was hope that Alistair didn't pay attention to a silly elf child without the wit to know when to remain invisible!
-v¶¶-
The journey to Denerim took much less time than Alisa expected. She knew hallas were unrivaled when it came to forest travel, but she only thought that was in terms of their ability to navigate through a sea of dense, every changing forest terrain.
Sovelo had rarely stopped during the two and a half day long trip. Even while she slept, he walked steadily through the brush (any faster and he would have dropped her to the ground). He stopped next to a creek a few times, never more than a two or three hours, to rest but aside from that it had been one wretchedly-long, bumpy halla ride.
The city itself looked strange to her. It was gray and stoney, not like the tiny cheerful villages she and her mother visited around their cottage. And not a speck of green to speak of! It was all just lifeless gray stone and sad little thatch cottages clustered together along dirt roads. There was a tower in the distance, and a larger building beyond that.
"You should stay here, Sovy." She scratched the base of his horns the way she knew he loved. He snorted, pawing at the ground. She knew he didn't want her to leave. He was nervous about some invisible fear civilization invoked in hallas. "I'll be back before you know it. I promise."
The white stag snorted again, nudging her shoulder before he turned for the forest. Well... it was now or never. Alisa began the slow walk down the road to Denerim's front gates.
-v¶¶-
It was just as sad-looking inside the city as it had been from the hillside. It was also far more confusing, the roads twisting and turning until they led to nowhere. She'd wandered into the slums at one point, full to the brim with nothing but elves panhandling or begging for work in the mud from the humans that wandered in. A man had even approached her while she tried to find her way, and asked her what her price was.
She couldn't leave fast enough.
It was when she'd finally found a guardsman on a corner in the market place that she finally got proper directions. With a few pieces of silver and much larger lies about being a Warden's messenger from Antiva, he told her the fastest way to get to the palace.
"But... you look quite familiar. Are you sure we haven't met before?" His brows were knit together in concentration as he tried to place her face. "The color of your hair is unusually familiar."
"I'm quite sure, ser. This is my first journey outside of Antivan borders." Before he could delay her further, Alisa bowed low and high-tailed it into the crowd and out of the suspicious guard's view.
Even with the directions, however, Alisa still had difficulty finding the palace. But she finally located it, near the dreaded prison Fort Drakkon. So strange, she thought, keeping a prison so near the Royal Line.
The fences and walls surrounding the grounds were tall, but not unscaleable... but she saw several units patrolling the walkways. She couldn't approach the guards at the door, not looking the way she did at the moment and still smelling of the slums. Maybe a smoking dung bomb distraction?
A group of elves and some of the poorer humans were gathering at the gate, more than half of which were carrying large white bundles or pulling handcarts along behind them. The leader of the group, a stout, grizzled human, spoke to the guard at the gate who nodded and pounded on the door. It opened up and the group began to lurch through the opening.
Now or never!
"Lemme get that for you, ser." Alisa bent down and picked up a rather large and lumpy (and good gods heavy!) parcel for the elderly elven man who dropped it. "Let's get going or we'll get locked out." She smiled at him to complete the illusion that she had every right to enter the castlegrounds as the rest of the servants.
"Thank you girl... Eh, what was your name?" The man leaned onto her for support as she carried the bag past the distracted guardsmen.
"Just helping a person in need. Why're you stuck carrying this bag anyway? Who're all these people coming into the castle?"
The man chuckled. "I see! Its alright girl, everyone wants to see the king the night of his return. As for the people, we're humble servants for hire going where the money is. Lady Anora is having a welcome home banquent prepared for the king's return later this evening."
"Heh, everyone knows its just so she can sneak off with her personal guard. If there's a party he's forced to attend while she disappears to do Maker knows what in her darkened chambers." One of the servants mumbled as he shifted his own baggage to the other shoulder.
"And if she or the guards loyal to her hear you spreading that vile rumor you'll be given your own royal welcome in 'ol Drakkon herself."
-v¶¶-
Alisa helped the servants settle in with the rest of the cooking staff, if only to prove to the old man she wasn't trying to sneak into the castle for her own reasons (Well... She was, but that was besides the point.). Once they had finished setting up, she crept away.
She had thought the king would be here by now. After all, he'd had a full day start ahead of her, as well as the final day of traveling she had had to do on foot to the gates of Denerim. She sighed, sneaking into a corridor. She'd just have to find some place to settle into and hide until Alistair finally did arrive.
But holy Haler'ahn, guide of the lost, this was a large estate. Alisa would turn a corner and there would seemingly be a dozen more rooms to check for viable hiding places. So far all she had found was storage space for weapons on unused furniture with the occasional guest room. She'd stumbled into a barrack near the beginning of her castle-crawling adventure, but it had been thankfully empty.
The last room, however, hadn't been empty.
As she opened the door, she heard two or three people wandering towards her location as she checked each room one by one. In a panic, she darted into the next room and closed the door alittle too loudly. Even if the entourage in the hall hadn't heard her, the pair in the room with her knew very well that they were no longer sharing a private moment.
... Well now, this was a bit of a bother.
-v¶¶-
Anora was throwing another flaming party, and she had invited all of the nobles in the region as well as a fair number of her high-standing commoner supporters. Alistair wouldn't get to bed before dawn, all of the people using the opportunity to take their grievances to him and expecting instant results as if he could wave a hand and all would be settled.
No, that was more along the lines of Andi's talents.
The king shook his head, trying to clear the woman from his mind. Maybe he should have stayed with her... an extra day or two from the castle wouldn't have harmed the kingdom. Anora was better at politics anyway.
"My lord, I'm sorry to disturb you so soon after your return-"
Alistair looked up at the guard that had called him out of his reverie. He sighed, flicking an invisible speck of dust from the desk of his study. "Disturb me, Randall. Anything to put off this wretched party Anora has arranged."
"Some of the guards in the basement barracks discovered an Antivan assassin... she demands an audience with you."
"If she is an assassin, send her to Drakkon. You don't need my permission." The king groaned, preparing to stand. Maker's breath, he'd have to put on all that useless, decorative armor.
"Yes ser, but she asked for you by name. She names Verthandi Mahariel as her client and claims to bear a message."
Alistair froze, midstretch. "Did she state outright that she was an assassin? That seems abit foolish don't you think?
Randall shifted uncomfortably from foot to foot. "Lady Anora claims she was dragged down from her chambers into the basement barracks by the woman... she begged the guard not to mention it for fear you would cancel the party."
Alistair sighed. "Of course. A cancelled party is equal to a blight in terms of crisis for Anora. Well, we should attend to the second part of the lady assassin's task shouldn't we?"
"As you wish, my lord."
-v¶¶-
So with Randall and one other guard at his back, Alistair made the suprisingly short trip to the dungeons. The trip itself was uneventful aside from a small ruckus he heard in the kitchens. One of the servants had gone missing and the cooks were sure they were raiding the supplies instead of working for honestly earned scraps.
"She hasn't spoken since demanding the audience. In fact, she's been suspiciously quiet." The additional guard said as they climbed down the stonework steps.
As the trio rounded the corner, as if to undermine the guard's statement, they heard loud clangs, crashes, and the scream of metal as it started to give way.
"Let me out letmeout LETMEOUT!"
The door to the cell farther down the dark dungeon corridor suddenly swung open, the lock distorted and smashed to bits. As the group stood dumbfounded, Alisa stepped out with a sizable brick in her hands. "And mother said I had to learn lockpicking! HA! There is no such thing as locks, only rocks big enough to unstick them!"
She was still marveling at her own cleverness when she realized that Alistair and more guards were watching her with almost stupid fascination.
The girl froze, the stone brick still in her hands, as she stared right back at them.
"Um. The brick... it um, it fell out of the wall. And it landed on the lock." The door creaked, one of the hinges giving out and almost dropping the door to the ground if the other hadn't held. "And the hinges too. It's a bouncing rock, common in some parts of Thedas, you know."
It took everything Alistair had to not burst out laughing right there.
"So um. I'll just leave this here. And get back inside. It would be foolish to break out of the royal dungeon." She bent down to put the brick down, before suddenly throwing it as hard as she could manage at Randall. "Then again I've never been one to play it smart~!"
The brick hit the guard squarely in the gut with amazing force, doubling the man over before it fell to the floor and landed heavily on his foot. As Randall flailed his arms around both in pain and looking for support, he singlehandedly managed to knock both Alistair and his companion to the ground before falling himself.
As they tried to recover from the surprise attack, Alisa made to dash past them in the confusion. What she hadn't taken into consideration, however, was Alistair's reflexes at grabbing the raving bunny of a girl as she tried to hop over his writhing friend with a new bruised stomach and slightly crushed foot.
He managed to grab her ankle as she cleared the guard, tripping her up and forcing her to faceplant into the hard, mildewy floor of the dungeon.
Ha... just like old times.
Thinking of old times, he was finally close enough to recognize the girl in the poor light of the dungeon corridor.
"You! What are you doing here! Does your mother know where you are?"
"Its none of your business, you shemlen ankle-grabber!" The girl replied, rubbing her smarting nose and forehead. "And I'll only speak with the king!"
"I am the king you twit. Open your eyes and look at me!"
"I would if my eyes weren't tearing up. How can you even see anything in this darkness!"
"Well maybe you shouldn't have tried to run away then!" He grumbled, jerking her up by the arm. "She's no assassin, just a fool child away from home. Take Randall to the infirmary. I'll take care of her."
"Are you sure, my lord? Maybe you should have her escorted-"
"I'll be fine. Just get Randall taken care of."
The guard nodded and lifted the limping Randall to his feet. Alistair let them past first before he began dragging the girl up to one of the empty rooms upstairs.
"Your mother is going to bury you in the woods for this, you know that right?" Alistair said after a moment, unable to contain the small smile as he thought of the girl's antics.
"Ha. Not for the reasons you think." She rubbed her nose again. "I was looking for you but the servants said you wouldn't be here for a while."
"I arrived earlier than anticipated. I assume you snuck in with the kitchen servants? The head cook is quite cross with you."
"Is he? I suppose he'll just have to find another little girl to go play fetch for him. I had more important things to do than bring him bucket after bucket of water or gods know what else."
The king chuckled slightly, pushing the girl into the servants' quarters. "Sit down. I'll call a healer to check your face, just as soon as you tell me what your message is." The girl became far more serious, freezing up under his gaze. "What's the matter? Is your mother alright?"
"Mother's fine. But... I came to show you this." She dug into her pocket, pulling out the box she had managed to stash away before the guards could take it. As she handed the box to him, Alistair let the rose fall into his hands. "When you left, she told me... she told me..."
Alisa gulped, her throat suddenly dry and the words sticking. "She told me that you are my father."
=+=+=5 Days Later=+=+=
Oh, when she got her hands on that evil demonspawn of a daughter!
In her panic to find her daughter, Verthandi had taken risky forest trails to bypass the imperial highway. Early seasonal rains had washed out the trail and destroyed the bridge she needed to cross about midway into the trip. A day and a half was spent backtracking for the highway, and another was lost to allow the horse to rest.
It would have just been faster to take the highway the whole way.
She prayed that Alisa somehow hadn't managed to get into the castle. Maybe Shianni would recognize the girl as her and keep her safe and out of trouble.
HA. She had a better chance of resurrecting Andraste. It had been 15 years after all, and how was Shianni supposed to recognize a child she'd never seen before.
Andi walked the horse to the gate. She would start with the Alienage and work her way outward...
"Hold." She glanced down at the guard standing between her and her daughter.
"Be quick. I'm on Warden business." A little white lie couldn't hurt, not when it came to saving her daughter from the biggest mistake of their lives.
"So you are the Lady Warden Verthandi Mahariel? The king was expecting you days ago."
"The King is expecting me?" She cocked her head at the guard. "Strange, as I have yet to deliver this message bound for him. Why is he expecting me?"
"He will discuss that with you when you see him."
-v¶¶-
Verthandi was led first to the castle, then the castle training yard. It seemed that Alistair was sparring with the warden's messenger as they waited for the retired warden-commander to arrive. Strange, as Andi couldn't remember sending a messenger with Warden news.
Which meant that blasted child was behind it.
Sure enough, she was sitting at a bench along the wall next to Alistair as he showed her how to spot weaknesses and imperfections in the training blades.
Alistair looked up as they approached, and the look in his eyes was not kind.
"Leave us." The guard nodded and left Andi standing alone on the far side of the courtyard. She almost wanted to grab him and beg him to stay. "Alisa, would you mind going to my study? Your mother and I have somethings to discuss."
Maker's mercy and Mythal's shield, the girl had told him.
Told him everything.