Re-Awakenings
We awoke together, Anders and I, and blinked at one another in the mid-morning light. What a strange journey this had been. I felt as if I'd shared every possible intimacy with Anders that one could with another human being. Hell! We'd shared more than anyone ever had, as far as I knew, yet we'd never been actually intimate. Clearly, the word didn't mean what I thought it meant.
That morning I couldn't reconcile everything I was feeling: gratitude for surviving, for knowing my son survived, that Anders lived, that this long-standing problem with talking darkspawn was over, it all overwhelmed me with joy. But I couldn't escape that Zevran was dead. He was lost to me forever and would never know the child he considered his own, no matter who the father was.
When Anders and I stared at each other that morning, I smiled and he returned it. Then I dissolved into tears and all the grief over Zevran's death overwhelmed me. I found myself clutched tightly to his chest. His hands stroked my hair and down my back.
"It's all right, Lucy. Everything will be okay," he murmured. "I'm here. I'll always be here."
I didn't really hear the words, but they sunk in at some level. I clutched him close and cried on him until I couldn't cry any longer. When I finally looked up at him his eyes were red too.
Not even the soul wrenching grief I felt could derail biology. I had to pee and I had to eat. "I'm going to need some time, Anders."
"No." His refusal was unexpected. "Bad things happen when we aren't together. I will wait for your pain to end, but I'll be here, right next to you."
We looked at each other. His eyes echoed what I felt: sorrow, relief, and yes, love. "Well, at least let me go to the toilet alone." I cracked a crooked smile at him.
He nodded and I went to finally empty my bladder.
Anders
Absolutely nothing was going to separate him from her. He loved her, and he knew she loved him. You learn these things when you share a body. From the first moment he'd laid eyes on her, bedraggled, weary, nearly bursting with a child in her belly, while fighting darkspawn, he'd begun falling in love. The nights he'd haunted her dreams, the times they'd nearly come together… nothing would stop this now. He would give her time to heal, but he would be next to her every night, holding her. One day her sorrow for her lost lover would finally fade enough and they could consummate what they'd already consummated in the Fade a dozen times.
He had his own guilt to deal with. His gain of this remarkable woman was because someone else had died. Whenever his thoughts strayed to the news of Zevran's death, he felt a moment of relief followed by sharp pangs of guilt when he saw Lucy's grief.
Each day he stayed near her. He wouldn't even leave when Loghain had insisted on talking to her alone. The general had been giving him murderous looks ever since they returned to the Vigil. It was fairly obvious that he didn't approve of Anders, and, he wasn't sure, but the man seemed quite angry with Lucy over it as well. Lucy led him out of her room and kissed him softly on his cheek.
"Give us some privacy, Anders. I promise nothing bad will happen. Loghain is a friend. We just need to have a little… chat."
He didn't want to let her face him alone. She trusted the wrong people sometimes. There was, he knew, some history between them, but he didn't know what it was precisely. "I'm waiting right here, Lucy. If anything happens…."
"There might be some shouting. Don't do anything rash." She squeezed his hands with her own.
He folded his arms and refused to reply.
"Please, Anders. We need to have this out." She gently rubbed her hand across his scruffy cheek.
He pursed his lips and shook his head. "I can't promise that."
She smiled gently at him and sighed. "I love you, darling, but that's an order."
The emphasis on the word "order" left him with no doubt that it was. "Fine, but there's a limit. If I hear anything… anything out of order, I'm fireballing that door."
She cocked an eyebrow at him as a warning and returned to her office, locking the door behind her.
He paced outside the door and it wasn't long before he heard the general's voice growing louder, his tone beginning to sound caustic. "…with that mage?" No surprise, of course. The general had made it abundantly clear that he didn't approve, but what Anders couldn't figure out was what business it was of Loghain's.
"What about Danny? What about my son?"
His son? Riordan was the father, wasn't he? That was what Lucy had told everyone. Yes, the general was going to make Daniel his heir but… was there something else? Suddenly he began to understand why the general seemed to particularly dislike him. He began to pace outside the door. Does he love her?
Lucy's calm voice answered him, but he couldn't hear her words.
"Did it never once cross your mind...," the words came slowly, but were icily clear to Anders from the other side of the door, "… that you could have married me? It would have solved a number of your problems."
Marriage? Anders' hand moved by reflex to the door and he tried to open it, forgetting it was locked. Lucy's voice was getting louder.
"…solves nothing! You think this would wrap up everything and put a nice happily ever after on it? I call bullshit!"
That pronouncement made Anders relax. That's my girl!
Lucy's voice dropped into lower, placating tones and he couldn't make anything else out. The general's voice dropped too. Suddenly the voices stopped completely and that worried him even more, but then the door unlocked and swung open and he practically had his ear at the door.
"Uh…," he offered by way of explanation.
"Anders!" Lucy said, her hands on her hips.
"I'm watching you, boy. You fuck this up and I'm going to wear those damn feathers on my epaulets. Clear?" Loghain growled and jabbed a finger into his chest.
"Yes, sir. I understand." He stepped back and let Loghain past. He stood with Lucy and they watched him stride down the hall and down the stairs. "We need to talk."
"Oh Maker, not you too." She sighed heavily and gestured for him to precede her into her room. She sank heavily into the sofa. "What did you hear?"
"He wants you to marry him." Anders strode back and forth in front of the fire. "Would you just tell me exactly what there is between you two. And don't say nothing. I know there was something."
"There was something, once." She stood up and put her hands on Anders's shoulders to stop his pacing. "It ended just before the end of the Blight. Does it matter?"
"Oh." He wrapped his arms loosely around her waist and stared into her dark eyes. "He wanted to marry you though? Why did you turn him down?"
"Well… lots of reasons. We fight a lot. I find him rather oppressive at times. I don't think he really trusts me, and probably with good reason. The way we met was… novel. And the biggest reason of all, Anders…" She stepped close to him and placed both hands against his cheeks and kissed him thoroughly, "…is you. I love you."
Desire swept through him. Surer than a jumbo-sized bottle of lyrium, those words lit him afire. Maker, he wanted to just… Argh! His hand stopped inches from grasping her ass and pressing her into him. Down boy! She needed time; time to get over the loss of Zevran. He recalled his hands and placed them on her shoulders. Then another question popped into his head. He pulled away from her just enough to free his mouth and it started to operate before his brain had a chance to think. "Wait… I'm confused. I thought you married Riordan during the Blight. Does that mean that Loghain might be Danny's father?"
Lucy sighed heavily and pulled away. "I confess there was a genetic roulette wheel spinning in my womb. Danny's paternity is unknown. However, I'm personally convinced Riordan was the father."
A smile dawned on Anders' face. "Were you a naughty girl during the Blight?"
Her hands flew up over her face and she peeked out over her fingertips. "Oh boy was I ever. We'd better sit down. This tale takes some telling."
Anders and Lucy sat on the sofa and the tale of Danny's three potential fathers spilled out in lurid Technicolor detail. They ended up reclining on the sofa, her back against his chest. Again, his hand began to roam of its own accord. It slid down from her waist to her hip before he caught himself. Time! She needs time. The problem was, having shared her mind he knew how she liked to be touched. She was a little ticklish over the hip bones, but he could remember her memories of hands tracing patterns down her thighs and then…
Not helpful, Anders!
There was a knock on the door and Iveta entered with the baby. Lucy got up and took the baby from her. She settled back down on the sofa and the three of them snuggled together. Anders shot sparkling fireworks from his fingers and Danny laughed and tried to grab them, but they burst like soap bubbles.
How would you like a fourth daddy, Danny? he thought. The kid was pretty adorable, he had to admit. Maybe someday… he'd have a blond haired little brother or sister. The thought made Anders grin stupidly.
"What's so funny?" Lucy asked.
Too early, far too early to mention such a stray thought, he filtered it before it came out of his mouth. "Oh, nothing. Just thinking what a handsome lad you created here with… someone."
Lucy searched his face. "Does my past bother you? You're not going to throw this up in my face sometime are you?"
"Me?" He laughed. "I guess you didn't know me in the tower and, well, when I was out of the tower too. You already caught me slipping out of someone's room in her robe, so I don't think this is going to be an issue." He leaned in over Danny and kissed her softly. "We're both…," he pecked her again on the lips and continued, "…very sexual creatures, I think. Probably very well suited for one another in that regard." He kissed her again, lingering a little longer. Damn, this isn't easy. "Don't you agree?"
Lucy's eyes had half-closed and when she opened them her pupils seemed dilated. The moment faded quickly though and that look of sadness returned. "I can't argue with your logic."
There it was again. Every time she seemed about to lose herself in a moment with him, she withdrew, pulling back into that sadness that had been haunting her since she learned of Zevran's death. She hadn't spoken of it, since that first day when she asked for time to heal. "What are you thinking?" he asked, hoping to get her to talk about it.
She looked up, looking almost caught in a guilty thought. She rubbed her hand across her forehead and toyed with Danny's hair a moment. "Oh, you know. Things…." She trailed off.
"Let's say, for the sake of argument, I don't know," he said. Danny began clutching at his fingers and babbling. Anders knew immediately the baby wanted more fireworks. The ends of his fingers lit up in red, green, and gold sparkles. That set the baby to laughing and Lucy smiled, looking fondly at her son.
"Well, for one, I'm thinking about how much there is to do. Amaranthine is a mess and it's my responsibility to rebuild it because I'm in charge and I really don't want to be."
Catching her eyes with his own, he shook his head. "Tell me the hard thing. The thought that flickers through your head when we kiss. The one that makes you unhappy." There was a little clenching in his chest. This might be something he shouldn't pry into, but he needed to know and she needed to talk about it.
"Who else will I lose?" She squeezed her eyes shut. "How can I be so foolish as to love someone when every time I do they're taken from me? I find myself wondering if I'll be mourning you someday far sooner than I should be. I can't do it again." Her eyes filled with tears and they spilled quietly down her cheeks.
"Don't you think bringing me back from certain death is a message from the Maker that this time it'll be different?" He stopped the fireworks display and wiped away Lucy's tears.
She shook her head. "I wish I could believe that, Anders. I wish I could."
He sighed and pushed a strand of hair behind her ear. "Let's leave. Hand it all over to Nathaniel. Tell the Wardens, if they ask, that you're recruiting. We will go to Denerim and you can get back to work on your toilets. From time to time you can send some recruits to Nate."
"Can I?" she mused. The tears stopped rolling down her face. "The Warden compound is nice. You'd like it. We could make one of the rooms into a nursery for Danny. The yard is really nice too. Lots of room for him to play when he's older." Her face lit up. "He and Calenhad can have play dates!" She laughed. "Maker, what a name that poor boy is saddled with."
Anders was happy to see her bouncing into a better mood. "I don't see why you can't leave. Don't arls do that sort of thing? Run off somewhere and have fun and let everyone else do the work? They leave competent people behind, ones that don't rob them blind. Just ask Loghain how he does it."
Squeezing Danny hard enough to make him squeak, she kissed his cheeks. "Danny, would you like to go to Denerim and meet your… hmmm… are you related to Calenhad? Maybe he's a third cousin twice removed or something." She smiled brightly at Anders.
He pulled Lucy back onto his chest and the three of them reclined on the sofa. All he had to do was keep her focused on a brighter future, on doing something she enjoyed, not the job she'd been forced into against her will. Maybe soon… a romantic dinner, flowers, chocolate, lots of wine... then she might stop looking sad when he kissed her.
~o~o~o~
Nathaniel
The towels at Vigil's Keep were of a quality and nature that, Nathaniel had to confess, were superior to anything he'd ever encountered before. Lucy had commissioned a certain sort of cloth to be created that was nubby and absorbent. The clever person who finally figured out how to weave the material was rewarded, by Lucy herself, with a surprisingly large cash prize and a lifetime's worth of work. If there was one thing good about the Warden-Commander, it was that she had certain ideas of the way things should be that, when they panned out, were really very good.
He stood before the half-length mirror, still only partly dressed, and whisked away the last bit of shaving soap. Splashing water on his face, he used one of the vastly improved towels to dry himself. The little loops of thread on the towels were quite absorbent and delightfully soft. It was much better than linen.
There was a soft scuffling sound outside his door followed by silence. He stopped his morning ablutions to listen more closely and heard a small, feminine sigh. Creeping quietly to the door, he flung it open catching the interloper just as she was about to knock.
"Ahh!" Mary Ann jumped backwards and began to windmill her arms, having snagged her heel in her long dress.
Ready to scowl and berate her, he instead grabbed her shoulders and steadied her. "Why are you spying on me?" he asked, as she regained her feet.
"Spying?" She yanked herself away from his grasp, her cheeks flushing with anger. "I wasn't spying! I was just about to knock and inquire if there was anything you needed when you… you… sprang out at me, half-naked, and grabbed me." She sniffed disdainfully and tugged her sleeves with her fingers. "You're a cad."
"That may be true," he admitted, "but I can be a polite cad. Please, come in, Mary Ann." He stood back from the door and gestured her into his room. Remembering how they were interrupted last time, he shut his door.
She visibly jumped as she heard the door close and turned to look at him.
"Do I make you nervous, Miss Mary Ann?" He walked closer to her and watched her gulp. Her pretty blue eyes met his and then slowly dropped down to his neck, collarbones, and finally his bare chest, then they fled guiltily back to his eyes.
"No!" she said. Her jaw was set stubbornly, as if she were gritting her teeth.
"Did you come here to sharpen my sword again? I seem to recall you were going to stick it somewhere unpleasant."
"I came to see if you needed anything. I'm a servant, after all. It's my job to make certain that the high and mighty Grey Wardens are properly attended to!" She lost her fearful look and began to look angry instead. She pushed at his chest with her hands, pushing him back a step or two. "So, Ser Warden… Hero of Amaranthine now, I hear. Do you want anything? Or is it enough to just bully and intimidate the help?" She pushed him again and he backed up another step.
"Intimidate you?" he asked, raising an eyebrow in surprise. The girl's mood changes were giving him whiplash. Shy one minute, flirtatious, and then angry by turns, it was most amusing. "You're the one always threatening violence, my dear."
She made to thrust at him again with her hands but he caught them with his own. "Ooooh!" she fumed. "Let go of me." She struggled, but not convincingly.
"Will you stop pushing me?" he asked her, trying to suppress an amused smile.
"No, I will not! Not while you look so smug and self-important." She set her jaw stubbornly and scowled at him.
"Well, then, we are at an impasse." He couldn't hold back the amusement and chuckled.
For a moment they stood toe-to-toe, one glaring, the other amused. Nathaniel slowly leaned in, bringing his face closer to hers, giving her time to pull away if she wanted. He noted the distinct lack of retreat and kissed her, gently.
"I should scream," Mary Ann hissed, but her lips were back on his and, when he dropped her hands, she twined them around his neck.
"Would you like it if I made you scream?" Nathaniel spoke the words right into her ear, with a hot puff of air. The little cry that came from Mary Ann was nothing remotely scream-like. "That was more like a whimper, my dear. We'll have to work on that." His fingers fumbled with the laces on her corset until she pushed them away and removed it herself. Her clothes fluttered to the ground, followed by his trousers. He scooped her up into his arms and deposited her onto his bed.
Her hair fell out of her normally tidy ponytail and her cheeks were flushed a delightful shade of rose. Scanning his body boldly, she sought out his eyes. "Are the tales true, Warden Nathaniel?"
Smiling, Nathaniel leaned over her. "I guess you're about to find out."
One more scorching hot kiss and Mary Ann found out.
~o~o~o~
The scream shattered the peace, or what there was of it in a busy keep. Sigrun leapt up from her seat at the game table. "Darkspawn?" she asked, drawing her sword.
"Nope." Oghren stared up at the ceiling a moment. The scream had come from upstairs: Warden Quarters. He whisked a card into his sleeve while Sigrun was distracted.
Turning to her unmoving Warden brother, Sigrun looked puzzled. "Don't you think we should investigate? It sounded like someone was being murdered up there!"
"Absolutely not." He examined the bit of debris floating on top of his ale, decided to ignore it, and swallowed it with the next quaff. "Not unless you want to piss off another Warden."
Standing, hands on hips, Sigrun looked questioningly at her fellow dwarf. "All right, at the risk of sounding stupid. Why?"
Another large quaff and Oghren's mustache sported a mustache of foam. "You get used to the screaming after a while. Pretty soon you can start to tell them apart. There's the 'Oh Maker, a darkspawn is eating my face off' sort of scream and then there's the 'Oh Maker, a Grey Warden is eating my….'"
"Okay!" Sigrun interrupted him. "I get it!" She flushed a little and laughed. "I guess I have a few things to learn." She sat back down at the game table and picked up her hand. There were a few more screams, these more muffled than the first, but she ignored them and won the round handily.
Oghren scratched his beard thoughtfully. "I don't get it. I can't even win when I cheat. How do you do it?"
Pointing to her heavily tattooed face, Sigrun laughed merrily. "You can't out-cheat a duster, Warrior. My mom hid cards in my nappy."
He watched her far more closely after that and never did see how she did it.
Loghain
The Banns and freeholders of Amaranthine gathered in the great hall. Lucy, looking lovely in a green dress that complemented her red hair, walked from one conversation circle to another, listening to their tales of the darkspawn invasion. Most of them had suffered relatively light losses but there were exceptions.
There was another purpose of this gathering, beyond tallying up the damages caused by the darkspawn. This was the day Lucy would change her arling's allegiance. Fergus Cousland's useless response during the invasion, witnessed by Teyrn Loghain himself, was proof he was a negligent liege lord. Such a political realignment was likely to cause turmoil, but the situation had become intolerable for Lucy and the arling.
Loghain watched from the second floor. There was a conveniently located viewing area, all but impossible to see through from the great hall, but it afforded him an excellent view. She could do this. She was even good at this, even if she hated it. People liked her because she listened and asked intelligent questions. Their travails were important to her and her banns knew that. Pity she hated being an arlessa, because she was so damn good at it.
That's why he'd tried to talk her out of it when she said she was leaving Amaranthine and returning to Denerim. Well… truthfully, he didn't try that hard. She would be closer to him in Denerim, he could visit Danny more often.
She was right. Despite the sometimes heady passion they'd once shared, they were like oil and water. She'd be miserable and that would make him miserable. Even if it were a marriage of convenience… no, it'd never work for her. She wouldn't give up the mage and he wasn't going to wear horns, not even for her.
The damn mage was going to complicate her life. Unless she flouted convention, she couldn't marry him. Even if she tried, there wasn't anyone in the Chantry that would perform it, unless they found a rogue Sister. Ah well, her status as a hero of two darkspawn invasions might protect her, at least for a while. Hero status could forgive someone a lot of idiosyncrasies. He hoped that would be true in her case.
Lucy turned toward the hidden viewing area and gestured with a toss of her head. It was the signal to begin the announcement that would send shockwaves through the country.
He walked down the stairs and was greeted by a resounding cheer and applause. It would seem he was a hero again, just as Lucy was. Ignoring the accolades, as normal, he stood stiffly next to Lucy on the dais.
"Go ahead," he told her.
The cheers and applause just increased as they stood together. Lucy smiled warmly at the assembled nobility and worthies. Finally she held up a hand and they quieted.
"My friends," she began.
Loghain hid a smirk. There were probably some in this crowd who had been plotting against her only a few months ago.
"We've survived another attack of darkspawn and this one, I believe, is the last," she continued.
There was a light smatter of applause.
"Teyrn Loghain is, in large part, responsible for how well we survived the assault. He sent us troops that were desperately needed. Our Warden force, while growing, is still small. The force in Amaranthine was spread very thinly, as you all know. We did our best, protecting the trade route, the farms, and the city. But we could have employed twice as many troops, if we but had them. Fortunately, Teyrn Loghain augmented our sorely strained forces with additional forces."
Another wave of applause filled the hall. "What about Teyrn Cousland?" Lord Eddelbrek shouted out. The applause died away and there was a murmuring amongst the audience.
"My brother, Teyrn Cousland, sent troops as well. I'll let Teyrn Loghain describe… that." Lucy gestured to Loghain and he stepped forward.
"The Commander's brother sent two dozen men. An inadequate number and they were all men I wouldn't trust to dig a latrine, much less trust with sharpened weapons. Upon questioning, we found they were pulled from prison, or were completely untrained." He stopped and smirked at Lucy momentarily. "Unfortunately, the causalities amongst this green batch of soldiers were high. There were only a half-dozen to send back."
"Arrow fodder!" One of the banns sang out.
"Indeed," Loghain agreed.
A murmuring went through those assembled.
Lucy stepped forward again after smiling at Loghain. "As you can see, one of the two teyrns in Ferelden clearly is looking out for the interests of Amaranthine. The other one… not so much. I realize this is my brother, but I can't let my familial ties interfere with the interests of my people."
Once again the crowd muttered.
"My brother, the teyrn, has also raised taxes twice on this arling. Thus far I have not passed along these additional costs, but I cannot continue to pay them out of my own funds. Sooner or later I will have to come to you to ask for more money." Lucy's brow furrowed and she looked angry. "And for what?" She paced a few steps and turned back to the audience. "We have sworn our allegiance to Teyrn Cousland so that he will protect us." She stopped and looked out over the assemblage. "He failed us. If it weren't for Teyrn Loghain, I'm not sure any of us would be here today."
The muttering grew louder and there were angry shouts. Loghain looked at Lucy, admiring her performance.
Lucy raised her hand and quieted the assembly again. "That is why today I am disavowing my oath of fealty to Teyrn Cousland and swearing it to Teyrn Loghain. He has proven that he has the capability and desire to protect the people of Amaranthine, a task at which my brother sadly failed."
This time the audience became tumultuous. There were protests, cheers, and questions shouted. Loghain heard more than one person say, "Can she do that?" He held up his hand and addressed the audience. "I know this seems like a rash decision, the Cousland teynir has been a good friend to the North for a long time. But clearly this has changed. It isn't common for a bann or arl to change their alliances, but it does happen from time to time. The Warden-Commander and I have discussed this at great length and I am willing to take her oath of fealty.
"Additionally, we've worked out a very advantageous trade agreement and tax status, which, correctly me if I'm wrong, Commander, she will pass along to you."
Lucy smiled and nodded. "As we discussed, any of my banns who stay with Amaranthine will get this preferential tax agreement. And the deeply discounted price on Gwaren lumber we agreed upon. That will be handy when it comes to rebuilding."
Loghain nodded deeply. "Indeed." He noted the generally positive comments from the assemblage. "If you're ready, Warden-Commander?"
Lucy nodded and knelt before Loghain. "I promise that I, Elissa Cousland, Arlessa of Amaranthine and Warden-Commander of Ferelden, will be faithful to Teyrn Loghain in matters of life, limb and earthly honor. Never will I bear arms against him or his heirs. So I say in the sight of the Maker."
Loghain, unlike her brother, didn't insist she kiss his sword. "Rise, Warden-Commander."
She rose and kissed him on the cheek. "Thank you," she whispered.
The assemblage broke into applause and cheers once again. There were still a number that looked stunned, even confused, by this unexpected turn of events.
"My friends… please." Lucy tried to make herself heard over the noise. "If you will…." She turned to Loghain and shrugged.
"Settle down now," Loghain said, his voice a loud growl heard even to the far parts of the hall. "Listen up."
"My friends. I hope you will stay with me, Amaranthine, and with the Wardens. But I will understand if you wish to remain faithful to my brother, the Teyrn of Highever. If you wish to remain with me, I will take your oath of allegiance again. If not, I understand and bear you no ill-will."
Loghain watched closely and noted which banns immediately pushed forward to swear their allegiance and which took longer to make the decision. In the end, not one of them could resist the siren song of lower taxes, favorable trade status with Gwaren, and protection by two of the finest fighting forces of Ferelden. Every single bann reaffirmed their fealty to the Warden-Commander.
~o~o~o~
"That went well," she said after the last bann had left. She walked over to a decanter and poured four glasses of expensive brandy, handing them out to Loghain, Varel and Anders. The last one she lifted herself and smiled at it just before tossing it down her throat. She was seized by an intense coughing fit. Someday he'd have to teach her to drink properly, Loghain thought.
The mage wrapped an arm around her waist and kissed her temple. "You were brilliant."
Loghain rolled his eyes. Smarmy bastard. "This should be interesting. The next Landsmeet might be even more exciting than the last one you attended."
Placing a large sack of gold on the table, Varel looked pleased with himself.
"What's this, Varel?" Lucy asked.
"Gold. Yours. We never did get around to sending to your brother, what with the darkspawn invasion and all. Seems like now we won't need to."
"Toilet money?" Lucy asked. She lifted the sack and smiled at its heft.
"Yes. This isn't Amaranthine's coin, Commander," Varel replied.
"This might all go to shit, Loghain, but it feels damn good," Lucy filled her glass again and toasted him.
"It probably will." Loghain clinked his glass against hers.
As they drank and toasted, Loghain realized he had a very good friend in Lucy, someone who knew him well, knew how to stand up to him, and question him. She wasn't blinded by his status as a hero or a general. This might not have been his preferred outcome, but he couldn't complain about having a friend of her caliber. Perhaps the drink was making him maudlin, but he was okay with how things had worked out.
~o~o~o~
Notes: Anyone still following this? Hope so! Would love to hear from you if you are.
I'm intending to alternate updates between this and my Skyrim story, "We Know". We are pretty close to the end of this though.
A shout out to my great friends: Biff McLaughlin and Zevgirl. I adore teasing them with snippets of chapters on Google+ and all the great people on Cheeky Monkeys of Dragon Age.