Note: Changed the name to "The Blood Puppet". I just thought it was cooler. :)
...
Blood mages rarely travel through Orlais in the style and comfort provided Lucius. Generally they were dragged around, beaten and left barely alive. But Lucius knew he was closely guarded by the Empresses spy mistress. When they arrived at the palace Lucius was housed in comfort and given an opportunity to rest and refresh himself. Later that evening he was brought before the Empress, only the spy mistress was allowed to stay. Lucius judged that he could have them both under control before the spy mistress could harm him. But what need? This would most likely be a very profitable meeting.
"Lucius Iunius," Celene said, looking the man over carefully. "I have gone to great expense to find you. I trust you are comfortable?" He was older now, of course, in his mid-forties, but a handsome man. His hair was shoulder length, curly and black, streaked with some gray. He had a neatly trimmed beard and mustache. Her uncle and Lucius had schemed some thirteen years ago. Since then Celene had replaced her Uncle, about eight years ago. Elissa would have been fifteen when Celene came into power.
"Indeed, your Imperial Highness, the journey was exceptionally comfortable," he bowed respectfully.
"Do you have any idea why I summoned you, Lucius?" she asked.
"I suspect you might be interested in a project your Uncle and I undertook many years ago."
Celene smiled. Good. No useless, time-wasting denials. "Yes, Lucius. Your journal was discovered and translated and I find myself rather intrigued by the opportunities your experiments created. Would your research and endeavors still be useful now, thirteen years later?"
Lucius smiled. "Indeed, Majesty. I took precautions that the passage of time would not diminish the effectiveness of my efforts."
Celene smiled. "Good! Would you like to resume working on this project for me? You will be rewarded handsomely, of course." Presenting it as a choice was always preferable. Even if he knew it wasn't really a choice, he could choose to delude himself that it was.
Lucius bowed. "I'd be honored, of course. It will be nice to reestablish my acquaintance with the young lady in question as well."
"She's not so young any longer, Lucius. She must be twenty three now, and a great hero as well."
Lucius chuckled. "Oh yes, I've been following the career of my protégé. She certainly has led an exciting life and she must have easy contact with everyone of importance in Ferelden. I dare say, she's a deadly arrow just begging to be aimed."
Celene laughed. "No Lucius, not an arrow to be wasted. She could deliver Ferelden to us like an eager bride on her wedding night. We just need to make her Queen-Consort or perhaps Queen on her own if the King proves intractable."
Lucius smiled and nodded. "That can certainly be arranged, providing the King is willing."
"From all reports, he is the willing one, but she is not."
"Then it will be a small matter to get her compliance," he said. "I will need to actually have access to her."
"Of course. I have purchased an estate in Amaranthine for you to use and it is already staffed and waiting for you. You must go immediately. The King is under pressure to take a wife and it will complicate matters if he takes the wrong one."
Lucius nodded. "Of course, Highness. How do you suggest that we communicate over the long distances?"
"I have a system of carrier pigeons already set up to fly to a location not far away from your estate and some riders ready to go at a moment's notice."
"That will work, I'm sure."
Celene smiled. "Very well, I look forward to working with you, Lucius." She offered her hand and he brushed her knuckles with his lips.
"As do I, Majesty."
...
"Commander, an outrider brings news. The King will be arriving at the Keep this afternoon with a small company of guards," Varel told Elissa.
"Maker's..." she sighed, wanting to swear but she had made a bet with Oghren that she could go a whole day without swearing. "Grrrr! Without any warning either. The man is a menance."
"The outrider says that they do not wish any special accommodations made. The King insists he is to be treated like any other Warden."
Elissa barked a short laugh. "Well then, give him that nasty little room next to Nathaniel's old room."
Varel shook his head. "Commander... why don't you just let me handle it?"
Elissa sighed. "Fine. Just make sure he isn't too comfortable. I don't want him to stay."
Nathaniel walked in in time to hear her last sentence. "Who do we not want to be comfortable?"
"The King," Elissa frowned.
"Oh, I'm sure you'll make him very uncomfortable," Nathaniel said with a smirk.
Elissa smiled. "I know just how too," she grinned. "Make sure you stay close while he's here, Nate." She gave him a kiss in front of Varel. She never showed much affection to him in front of anyone else. That would change, briefly anyway.
Nathaniel looked surprised and then caught onto Elissa's intention. "Ah. Yes, that will probably work. I just hope it doesn't get me thrown into Fort Drakkon."
...
There was always a ghost of a hope lingering in Alistair that Elissa would forgive him and take him back. A lot of time had gone by, a little more than a year now. She hadn't answered even one of his letters. She'd been nothing but formal and distant when he visited after she first took command of the keep. And now a vicious rumor had been circulating that she was with Nathaniel Howe, son of the man who killed her family. That would be... impossible, of course. How could you forget something like that?
Alistair dismounted his horse and passed it off to a servant. He had a few guards with him, nothing like the escort Eamon had insisted he take. He strode into the keep, his golden armor jangling with authority.
Varel, the seneschal, was waiting to greet him. Oghren was there too. He was introduced to Anders and Sigrun. Alistair insisted the Wardens call him Alistair.
"Please sit, Alistair," Varel told him, "the Commander will be down soon."
Alistair knew it was a slight, he would have been surprised if she hadn't done it. He knew his chances with her were slim, but if he didn't try he would never know. He was being pressured to marry but before he would consider anyone else, he had to try to make things work with Elissa.
His breath caught in his chest when she came down the stairs. Maker's breath, she is lovely, he thought. She wore a dark red gown that contrasted with the paleness of her skin and the redness of her full lips. It was cut low and the corset she wore over it pushed her breasts up into perfectly formed hillocks. Right behind her was someone whose face resembled the old Arl Howe's face closely enough, he guessed it was the son, Nathaniel.
Elissa curtsied deeply, and his eyes followed her breasts as she dipped down. He was going to insist that she not make the obeisance except he could see much more of her breasts this way. To think, those breasts were his to touch once. I'm such an ass, he thought.
"Please, don't Elissa. While I'm here, I'm a Grey Warden like the rest of you," he took her hand and helped her rise and kissed her knuckles.
"Then I suppose that makes me your commander, Your Majesty," Elissa laughed. Alistair had nearly forgotten her breathy contralto laugh.
"Indeed," he gave her a sharp salute. "Grey Warden Alistair, reporting for duty, Commander," he said sharply.
She shook her head. "We're not that formal around here, Your Majesty."
"Enough with the formalities, I get too much of that in Denerim as it is."
"I'm sure after your journey you must be tired and hungry. Would you like to eat, wash-up, rest?" Elissa asked.
"Actually, I'd like to change out of the armor and then see the keep and hear how things are going with recruitment and what you're working on and how the rebuilding is coming." He thought an oblique approach would work best. It was perhaps a transparent ruse, especially given his last letter to her.
"I can show you to your room," Varel volunteered. "We'll get your guard quartered as well." Varel assigned the task of housing the guard to his assistant.
...
The dinner was friendly and chaotic. The Grey Wardens sat together at one table with the Captain, seneschal and treasurer and the recruits were at another table. The atmosphere was informal and it was obvious the Wardens were all fond of one another. It reminded Alistair of his early days with the Wardens. He had always hoped he would be able to be a part of that again, not as a guest, but as a Warden. It stung a little to feel like an outsider from something he missed so much.
"Elissa," he leaned over and spoke to her quietly, "can we talk somewhere privately after dinner?"
She nodded. "Of course."
After they finished dinner she walked him up to her study, leaving Nathaniel behind for the first time since he had arrived.
She gestured to a big overstuffed chair for him to sit in and she poured them both a snifter of brandy. She said nothing, just handed it to him and perched on the edge of the sofa facing him.
He drank down the brandy in a few gulps, hoping it would bolster his courage.
"More?" Elissa asked, finally breaking the silence.
He nodded and held out his glass.
"I don't remember you being much of a drinker, Al," she said.
"It's an escape," he said. "Hard to escape when you're in a palace surrounded by people that want something from you."
"Surely it isn't all bad?" she said.
"Oh no. It has its moments, but I miss being able to be just myself, without having to please anyone but those I care about."
Something sad passed over Elissa's face. "I think I can understand that." She got up and walked to the fireplace, holding her brandy snifter. "I suppose I did this to you, didn't I?"
"I could have said 'no'", he replied. He could have, but the options they had were terribly grim. He certainly didn't want Anora to rule, or Loghain. The other option was to let the Landsmeet figure it out but with the Blight pressing in on them, it wasn't likely to happen quickly enough.
"No, we both know you couldn't have. The country needed someone to take charge and deal with the Blight. You were the only option we could trust to do the right thing."
"True, that." He sighed and got up and stood by her at the fire. "I'm sorry I was such an ass about it. I've been trying to apologize for the better part of a year."
"I didn't read your letters," she said.
He drank more. "Why not?"
"At first, I was just too angry."
"And then?" he asked.
Elissa was silent for awhile. "I moved on. I didn't want to reopen an old wound."
Alistair's jaw clenched. "Is Nathaniel what you moved on to?"
She didn't answer at first. "Yes, we're together."
"After what his father did to your family? You could just put all that aside?"
"It was his father, not him. He wasn't even in Ferelden and he certainly didn't know what was going on. Nathaniel is a good man, Al. He had a hard time coming to terms with it but eventually he did."
"Elissa, you're a Cousland. There's no need to settle for someone without lands or title."
"Didn't you point it out to me, in front of everyone we know, that I'm an unsuitable mate now? Of course, you are too, but I guess that didn't cross your mind did it? I'm out of the marriage market for nobility, Alistair. If someone marries me it'll be because they want me, not because I have wide hips, suitable for bearing children and eggs springing out of my loins, begging to be fertilized." Her eyes flashed angrily.
He sighed and bumped his forehead against the wall with frustration. "I've regretted what I said for a long time now. I realize now we had other options. That's what I was trying to tell you in those letters." He sighed again. "I should have come sooner, to make you listen to me."
She stared at him. "So why did you come?"
He frowned. "So I could say all the things I've been saying in my letters for the last nine months and try to repair things between us."
She smiled sadly. "There's no going back to what we were before... all that."
He stepped closer to her and took her upper arms in his hands. "Liss, we could try. Nothing has changed for me. I love you as much as I ever did." He pulled her to him and tried to kiss her, but she pulled away.
"No," she said firmly. "I'm sorry, Al. I meant it when I said I had moved on. I am willing to be friends, but anything else is just not possible."
"You won't ever forgive me for that one comment?" his forehead furrowed.
"I do forgive you, but I don't feel the same way about you." She sighed, wrapping her arms around herself. "I'm sorry if that is brutal, but it is true."
Alistair felt defeated. "I'm getting pressured to marry. I wanted it to be you, Liss."
Elissa reached out and rubbed his arm in a gesture meant to comfort him. "Find someone you can love, Al. Do this for yourself, don't cave into political pressures."
"I did find someone I love," he looked at her sadly, "I don't think this happens twice in a lifetime."
She smiled wistfully. "Oh, I don't know about that, Alistair."
He closed his eyes, the meaning sinking in. "So you love him?"
She hummed, a small smile nudging the corners of her mouth. "Perhaps. I don't wear my heart on my sleeve any more."
Alistair looked away from her. "We'll be leaving tomorrow morning. I got the answer I came to get, even if it wasn't the one I wanted."
She sighed heavily, her face looked guilty and conflicted. "I'm sorry," she apologized again.
"No, it's not your fault, Liss. I was an ass and I ruined the best thing I had going. The one thing that could have made this all so much more bearable and enjoyable."
"There's someone out there for you, Al. I know you don't believe that now, but I know it's true," she squeezed his arm.
"Good night, Liss." He leaned over to kiss her cheek and he went to his room.
He had to finally give up his last dream. It kept him awake most of the night. He departed from the keep before sunrise, before Elissa even awoke.
...
Poor Alistair never gets the girl in my stories - so far. The one he does, he dies. Someday I will have to make it up to the poor guy. Hmmm... maybe it'll be this one!