Story Note: Information is going to be dropped in bits and pieces I've decided especially between Alistair and his love, which I still have yet to reveal her name or her real appearance, both for a reason. There is a larger plot twist regarding that unfolding which I won't say anything further...Anyway, you'll begin to learn more about Vena in this chapter as Alistair noted, there is lot of pain in that one's past to make her act the way she does.
Kocari Wilds was where it started, ten years and two months ago. The new recruits were sent into the Wilds to collect three vials of blood and the old Grey Wardens' treaties in preparation for the Joining Ritual that would eventually take two of their lives. Alistair was in that four person party, but as a junior member of the Grey Wardens sent along to make sure the recruits did as they were told and keep them from stumbling onto a horde of twisted creatures that emerge from undergrounds during the Blight known only as the darkspawn. Back then, he wasn't leading the party, even though he had the most experience in battle with the darkspawn. He was too fearful of failing to even step into the role of leader. His love led them, although she was not his love yet or the only lucky recruit to become a Grey Warden. None of that would be known until much later.
As Senior Grey Warden, Alistair was now back in the Wilds helping two new recruits to get the same vials of blood, although be it, one vial less. This time, he was leading them and time had changed nothing because he could feel the very familiar feeling of being afraid of failing seize at his heart. He knew Vena and Ayndr could take down a few darkspawn. That wasn't the issue. It was after that, which worried him. What if one or both of them died during the Joining Ritual? What was he going to do then, more losses, no recruits, and even more guilty conscience on continuing with this crazy attempt at stopping the Archdemon again without his love?
Why was the same Archdemon alive anyway? Riordan had said whatever Grey Warden made the final strike would absorb the Archdemon's soul and the process would kill them. The Archdemon would die as well, thus freeing Thedas from the Blight at least until another Archdemon resurfaced or all of the Old Gods remained slain. Nevertheless, this Archdemon did not seem to get that information as he came back to life. He should have been dead along with Alistair as Alistair was the one who made the final blow. His memory was still a bit hazy of the moments after stabbing the Archdemon except being engulfed in a white light that threaten to throw him off the dying dragon. The next thing he had known was that he had woke up a few feet from his love, with no clue how long he had been out or what happened for him to get there. He had extensive injuries but he managed to drag himself to his love's side where they said their final good-byes before she died. He held on to her until he eventually blacked out again.
He thought when he did that he would never wake up again alive either, but he did and he recovered to full heath, much to his dismay. Now, he was trekking through the Kocari Wilds with two elves following right behind him, doing something that should only have been once. Vena and Ayndr had no idea what was going through Alistair's mind as they trailed behind him on high alert for any movement. Alistair said he could sense the darkspawn, but Vena and Ayndr could not. They were warned about the scary tales of darkspawn coming out of the darkness, attacking, before they dragged their victims back towards their 'homes.' They had never seen a darkspawn in person and they didn't know what to expect, except that they were going to ugly and real fast.
"Guys, wait, I can feel them. There is a small group a few feet to the right, but be careful they seem stronger then what you normally see here." Alistair said as he stuck his arm out to stop them. Vena and Ayndr halted mid-step as Eirdre skidded to stop next to them. Alistair drew his sword and shield while Vena drew her swords. Ayndr hung behind them, drawing his bow. No sooner did they do that, when a group of darkspawn emerged from the bush and charged them. Six Hurlocks grunted as they chose their targets. Two went directly for Alistair, three went for both Vena and Eirdre who were closest together, while the last one broke through the lines and went after Ayndr who stood behind everyone. Swords and maces were being slung around, arrows flying through air as blood was drawn from both parties.
They were all busy fighting to notice that a Hurlock emissary emerged later from the same group and hung back, sling spells at the Warden and his recruits, making the whole process that much more difficult. Alistair knew that someone had to get him before he did some serious damage to them, but he was unable to get away from the enemies he was engaged in. He looked back over his shoulder and he saw Vena make the final blow to one of the Hurlocks. "Vena, get the mage!" He yelled slamming his shield into one the Hurlocks in front of him, knocking him flat. She nodded before dashing forward towards the Emissary. Unfortunately, the order didn't seem to escape the notice of even the other Hurlocks who turned their attention on stopping her now. Alistair knew that was something odd because usually Hurlocks would not be smart enough to understand human commands and change tactics to counter them, but there was no time to think as his party tried to keep them away from Vena.
Eirdre jumped on the one near him, overwhelming him. Alistair caught one near him trying to flee with shield pummel. The one that try to give chase after turning away from Ayndr found himself too cripple to move, riddled with arrows. Vena was grateful for their help as she had her own things to worry about trying to go after the Emissary who as soon as he saw her approach him, started sling any spell he had at her. The swarm spell was the worse as she could felt each sting try to drain her of her life force. If he thought a few bug bites were going to stop her from reaching him, he was sadly mistaken. He even tried to setup a paralyze trap for her, but she jumped, flipping in midair, and came down on him with the full force of her momentum and her blade. That interrupted his spell-casting and a few more hits later, he lay slain with all the other Hurlocks.
"Good job, guys." Alistair said as they gather together again. He was glad to see that they could indeed work as a group and team even without knowing each other very long. "Guys? Why am I grouped together with all of you? Did you not see what I did? I'm way stronger then you guys, well except Eirdre." Vena said bending down to pet the mabari. "Why is he excluded?" Alistair asked with a chuckle. "Because he is and plus he just too cute to be mean to, aren't you boy?" She asked the mabari who barked in agreement happily before rolling on his back. It was unlike him to become so friendly with someone he barely knew. He wouldn't even do that for Alistair, just his former mistress. Eirdre was beginning to realize that there were a lot more similarities then he thought between his former mistress and Vena from the first time he had met her. The fact that they even smelled similarly was probably only the tip of the iceberg.
Ayndr had stayed silent through the whole exchange and not due to his usual quietness. He had seen something through the battle that surprised him. It wasn't the darkspawn or even the attacks that they had did. It was Vena. When she flipped in the air, her hair moved away from head and for a brief second he could have swore he saw her ears were pointed, very much like his. It happened so fast he thought he imagined it but he trusted his instincts and eyesight. The woman in front of him was an elf. Why was she hiding it and did Alistair even know? He was going to find out, but only later since they were ready to move on it seemed.
"I got all we need for the Joining Ritual now." Alistair said as he stood up from gathering the two vials of darkspawn blood. The inky blackness of blood in vials felt cold to his touch as he closed his hands around them. He looked at the two recruits that had no idea what they were about to do. He couldn't believe he was about to be a witness to a third Joining in his lifetime. "My love, give me your strength. I'm going to need it to do this." He thought closing his eyes briefly. 'You don't need it, love. Your heart was always so much stronger then mine. I believe in you.' She responded in her familiar way and her words soothed his fears. He reopened his eyes to find Vena and Ayndr staring at him with concerned.
This wasn't the first time they had noticed Alistair to stare off blankly or close his eyes, seeing or hearing something that didn't appear to exist. They thought that maybe something had snapped in his mind in the battle with the Archdemon. Most do not come out an epic battle like that unscathed, physically or mentally. It was probably the only thing that the two polar-opposite elves agreed on. They would continue follow him because any other time, he was as sane as a person could get, wanting to fight an Archdemon with only a handful of Grey Wardens. As long as he needed them to accomplished his goal, they would follow him willingly as one almost criminal and one almost murder could.
"So, I know you said you can't tell us anything about the ritual for some nonsense reason or another that I wasn't paying attention to anyway. Can I at least ask where this ritual is going to be held?" Vena said breaking the silence. Alistair looked back at Eirdre, who looked away sadly, before Alistair responded, "At Ostagar." Now it was Vena's and Ayndr's turn to exchanged a look, although be it ones of shock and surprise. "The site where the old battle massacre happened that left King Cailin dead along with most of the men and women station there excluding all but two Grey Wardens and handful of others?" Vena stated knowing a surprising amount more of history then any of the males with her thought. It wasn't that they necessarily thought her head was filled with nothing but fighting or training to fight, or at least they wouldn't admit they thought that out loud to her. They did like their heads after all. They did think that there was very little other information in her head, especially about Ferelden history.
Vena would have surprised them with how much knowledge she actually knew especially regarding her favorite topic, the Grey Wardens. The only thing was if she ever felt inclined to reveal that knowledge. When she was little, she would drive her father crazy with having him tell the tale of the legendary Grey Warden who had sacrificed everything to stop the last Blight, over and over again, before she would agree to go to sleep. Her father, just thinking about him made Vena sad. She shook it off remembering her father final words to her, "Never look back, Da'len, never look back." It gave her the drive to keep going strong everyday and today was no different.
"--Alright, Vena?" She heard someone say and she realized that she had missed something important, but then again she really didn't care. "Yeah, yeah, whatever." She agreed in her usually charming way causing Alistair to sigh, shaking his head. "You weren't even listening to me, were you?" He asked to which Vena just pushed him aside and marched on ahead. "Who cares? What are we standing around here babbling for? Let us just go already." She said not even waiting for them before she disappeared into the brush. Ayndr looked at the path she left and then back at Alistair before he said two words that seem to say it all, "She's crazy." Nevertheless, the two began to catch up to Vena with Eirdre right on their heels.
As they arrived in Ostagar, Alistair realized it was in worse condition then even he remembered when he returned with his love and had a funeral for the Good King Cailin, who was also his half brother. The snow was up to their knees covering most of the old debris that littered the battle and only half covered the new debris that had settled on top of it. A light mist covered the sky and the ground which strangely stopped as it reached the borderline between Ostagar and the rest of Ferelden. Alistair and the others were not alone either as shimmering human shapes ran back and forth across the field appearing as though they were carrying weapons and getting ready for war.
"Setheneran." Ayndr stated in awe and was slightly fearful as he saw the spirits. Vena looked him confused, knowing he said something Elvish, but had no idea what he meant. He caught her puzzled look out the corner of his eye and was about to respond when Alistair explained for him. "It means a land of waking dream, Vena. In other words, it is a place where the veil that separates the Fade from Ferelden is thin, which allows spirits to come through. It only happens in places such as this where a lot of deaths have occurred." He answered which caused both of them to turn to the Senior Warden surprised. "What? I do know a few Dalish words." He added throwing them a lopsided grin. "Elvish." Ayndr corrected. "That's right. I mean a few Elvish words, happy, Ayndr?" He replied with a sigh.
"Guys, can we just get on with this?" Vena interjected rolling her eyes. Elvish, Dalish, it didn't matter about the elf stuff. They needed to do the Joining so she could be the very thing she ever dreamed of being, a Grey Warden. She hoped if her father was still alive he would have approved of her decision. He had always wanted her to get out of the Denerim Alienage and stay out at any cost but even he would probably have drawn the line at joining the Grey Wardens. Her father always reminded Vena that her thirst of knowledge and skill at fighting came from her mother, which she hardly remembered anything about. The only thing she remembered clearly was the night her mother was killed was last time Vena cried and she vowed never to show that kind of weakness to anyone or for anyone, ever again. It had been fifteen years since then and she had never broken that promise to herself.
She shook herself free of those sad thoughts. Only she found she had been lost in thought for too long as she looked around to find Alistair and Eirdre gone. In the distance, she could see make out their outlines moving to where the Joining Ritual was being held. It appeared to be some old temple that was still somewhat standing among the ruins of Ostagar. She was about to follow them when Ayndr caught her arm. "He said not to follow." He warned. "I have two things to say to you, elf, one, stop touching me and two, why can't we follow him?" Vena responded ripping her arm free from his hold, annoyed. His silent act was really getting on her nerves.
"The shemlin explained why in the Wilds." He responded, more intent on watching the spirits then speaking to someone who was not good at listening. He had very little patience as well for her and her over talkative ways. "You're really a big help, elf. I don't even know why I bother talking to you. I think talking to a wall would give me more information." She said turning away from him. "Good...And stop calling me, elf. I have a name, use it." He responded turning away from her as well. Vena shrugged before answering, "Why does it matter if I call you, elf? That is what you are." "So are you, elf." He stated stressing the last word; just to see her reaction and letting it out he knew her secret.
Vena froze hearing him use the word towards her. No one outside the Alienage had ever called her that. To all of Ferelden, she was just a slightly shorter then average human woman and not at all an above average elven woman. It was image she liked to keep in intact. It was just something she was taught, if anyone asked she would deny she was an elf. "I am not an elf, boy. So stop calling me that. I am a shem--I mean a shemlin. You are obviously mistaken, if you're calling me an elf, boy." Vena replied hoping to bait him in arguing about anything but her race. Ayndr was not so easily fooled by her words. He had picked up on the fact that she used the word 'Shem,' like the flat-eared elves do, rather the full word like the Dalish.
He was about to respond when a barking interrupted him as Eirdre came walking towards them. He stopped as he reached them before looking back to where he came and bark again. Vena and Ayndr knew what that meant he wanted them to follow him as the time of the Joining was upon them. Their argument would have to be put on hold to another time. It was a time that Vena hoped would be a while for now as the two elves followed the mabari to old temple. Although Vena was still excited to be soon counted among the Grey Wardens with the like of Garahel, she would be lying if she didn't admit, to herself at least, that she was nervous about completing the Joining. In all the stories she ever heard about the Wardens the part that was kept the most secret. She knew a lot about keeping secrets, especially from a very young age...
"Revered Mother, I found her hiding in Chantry's library. What are we going to do with her?" A heavily armored templar said struggling to keep a hold of a nine year-old Vena as they stood in the center of the circular room, just off the main chapel in Lothering. "I already told you I wasn't hiding, Ser Shiny Man. I stumbled across the library and thought while I was there I could read a few books which no one would mind. If people minded they wouldn't have been all dusty like they were, anyway." Vena answered looking from the templar to the revered mother of this chantry. "Where are you from, child? Your clothes are full of holes and blood." The revered mother asked, noticing that Vena's peasant outfit had seen better days. "I fought my way here from Denerim by myself." Vena answered proudly and saw a shocked look cross the elder woman's face.
"From Denerim? That's a long way away for such a young child. Where are your parents?" The revered mother asked and Vena picked up her concern, knowing she didn't even realize that she was taking to an elf. Vena was be able used that to her advantage. "They're dead, ma'am. I don't have any relatives that I know of either." Vena answered looking down, sadly. "You poor child, Ser Bryant find somewhere for her to sleep and a new change of clothes. She will stay here tonight." The revered mother commanded, much to the templar's disapproval. "But, Revered Mother, do you think that's wise? We only pushed the darkspawn out of the village a few days ago. It's still not very safe for us which is why I didn't want you to come back yet in the first place." Ser Bryant suggested as forcefully and nicely as possible. "I came back to help this chantry to be a refuge for those who are running from the still remaining darkspawn bands such as this child. I will hear nothing more of it." She responded, determinedly.
"Yes Revered Mother, come this way, child." The templar answered through gritted teeth. "It's Vena, Ser Templar." She corrected automatically and regretted it the moment her name slipped out. The revered mother and the templar turned to her noticing her name was a bit strange for a human to have. Vena thought quickly and found a way to fix her mistake. "My mother had an odd fascination with Dalish things and when I was born, she decided to give me a Dalish sounding name. It was just silly thing for her to do, but how I do miss her silly ways." She said pretending to look on the verge of tears. Either her explanation satisfied them or because they were not about to question a mourning child about her dead mother, they let it go and soon Vena was being lead out of the room, starting her first official day as a human child.
Her race had always demanded that Vena keep a veil of secrecy around it. She had pinned her hair to cover her ears since the day she left the Alienage. Her ears were covered in the scars to prove it. The pain was all worth it, especially since so few had ever discovered her secret. Vena knew that if she became a Grey Warden that it would no longer matter if she had pointed ear or short round ears as the Wardens were only valued because of their bravery at facing down the seemly impossible without fear and were not limited by their race or birth at all. Then and only then would she even consider revealing her identity to Ayndr or even Alistair, but that was only if she actual became a Grey Warden during the Joining. As Alistair's image became clearer in the mist ahead of her, she couldn't help but wonder if all this secrecy, even from the tales of the Grey Wardens, was because something happened at the Joining Ritual that would never allow her to go back to living a normal life, or any life maybe for that matter...