A/N: so my last chapter wasn't going to work and i was informed this one was being wonky too. lets see if i finally was able to fix it!
Ch.1
Cephera panted as she ran as fast as she could threw the brush while also being quiet and keeping track of Duncan and Sir Rory's tracks. She paused to take a few breaths and make sure she was on the still following the others when she heard a very quiet rustle. She was just barely able to draw her dual swords when a heavy blow from a sword came down on her head. She managed to block it and side step the other sword that came at her from behind.
"Ack! Its only Cephera!" she squeaked out as she rolled out of the way of more hits. The blows stopped and she looked up from her spot crouched on the ground to see that Duncan and Rory had paused in their assault to stare at her in disbelief.
"Lady Cephera!" Rory exclaimed "What are you doing out here? Are you following us? You need to go back to the castle!" Cephera shifted uneasily. Duncan seemed to catch that something was wrong, looking her up and down, seeing that she was only in a bloody under tunic and breaches, she didn't even have shoes on and her Raven hair was thrown up into a sloppy pony tail, a huge change from the simple but intricate braid he saw it in earlier. He frowned
"What has happened my lady?" He asked. Cephera looked back uneasily before reluctantly saying
"The castle has been taken," she continued on as though she didn't hear Rory gasp, "Howe's men weren't delayed but had stayed behind on purpose. As soon as our men left they attacked, I…" She gulped and tried to push back the tears that were threatening to fall, "I managed to escape through the servants exit, I need to get to Ostagar to tell my brother what has happened so I thought I would track you two down and maybe travel with you." Duncan sighed, a troubled look on his face.
"And what of the Tyrn and Tyrna?" He asked. Cephera sucked in a breath and shook her head, almost flinching when Sir Rory cursed violently.
"Father suffered a fatal wound and was only able to make it to the larder to wait for us, but he couldn't move, he was loosing blood to fast, Mother wanted to stay with him and I didn't have the heart to tear her away from him." She finally lost the battle against her tears and let out a soft sob. "Orana, Oren, everyone at the castle, their all gone." She said softly as she rubbed her eyes. Rory came over and gave her a hug.
"Shhh, it'll be alright, at least you made it out my lady. This way someone will be able to tell your brother and the king what happened." She wiped her tears away and looked back up at Duncan.
"Can I follow you to Ostegar? My father said that I was to do anything you wanted in exchange, even if it meant becoming a warden. I'm young, but I'm strong and I fight well." Duncan looked at her thoughtfully.
"How old are you My Lady?" He finally asked. Cephera blushed and looked down at her toes before muttering just loud enough for him to hear,
"Sixteen. Seventeen in three months." Duncan hesitated then shook his head.
"You're still a touch too young to be a warden, we are not quite so desperate enough to bolster our ranks as to recruit people as young as you just yet, but we would be glad to escort you to Ostegar." He said. He looked her over critically, "However, first we need to buy you supplies," he then eyed her feet, "Shoes especially. Do you have anything on you we could trade?" Cephera blinked before pulling a bag of money out of her tunic, she had hidden in her breast band and looked through it quickly.
"I have 37 gold, 10 silver, a ruby necklace and two garnet rings." She said. The two men were looking at her incredulously, causing her to blush heavily. "What? I figured I would need stuff so I took it off the bodies of the men I had to kill as I fought through the castle." She said. Sir Rory laughed and shook his head and Duncan nodded, looking at her with surprised respect.
"Good for you. That was good thinking on your part. I'll take that into the next town we pass tomorrow to buy you supplies. It would probably be best if you're not seen." Cephera nodded in understanding.
"Very well. Uhh, I do not know if you were completely settled down for the night, but I would suggest moving a bit farther tonight, I'm not sure if they'll go looking for me once they find that I am not amongst those…. Dead." She said reluctantly, trying not to think of the gruesome sights of her sister in law and nephew laying on the floor dead. Duncan nodded and sent a look to Sir Rory who nodded back in understanding. Silently the three of them moved over to where the men had set up camp and tore it down before briskly moving on their way.
Cephera stayed silent for almost the rest of the way to Ostegar, only speaking to tell Duncan what her size was and thank you for getting her supplies, she now had a set of leather armor and socks and boots that she was able to comfortably wear. After that she was lost in her own thoughts, not quite listening to the men as they talked about Grey Warden business. At night, when she tried to sleep it was restless and riddled with nightmares of people being brutally murdered, or of a sick darkness swallowing everything up. Despite the lack of rest and the harsh pace Duncan put them through, Cephera was more than capable of keeping up, doing so almost easier than Sir Rory, who was in heavy armor and was a good ten years older than her.
On the third and last night of their travels, when it was her turn to relieve Duncan of his watch, Cephera sat down next to Duncan and turned to thank him.
"Do not worry about it my Lady. It was an honor to travel with you." Cephera smiled thankfully.
"Considering I've only been wallowing in my own self-pity the whole way, that's an awful nice thing to say." She paused and looked him over before smiling, "You know Duncan, I would be honored if you would call me by name. I'm called My Lady so often that sometimes I fear I will forget my real name." Duncan smiled at her and nodded.
"Thank you for that honor Cephera." They stayed silent for a few moments before Cephera spoke again,
"Growing up, I always wanted to be a warden. I would research everything I could just so I would be prepared. Even when I discovered the high chance of death I wasn't deterred from my path," She paused and looked over at Duncan who was looking at her curiously. "If I am able to find my brother, perhaps when I turn eighteen, I can join the Wardens.?" She said it as a question but it was obviously more of a challenging statement, as though daring Duncan to tell her no. he just smiled
"We would be honored to have someone with your considerable talent join us." Cephera smiled and nodded, pleased by this answer.
"Sleep Duncan, I'll wake you all at sun rise." Duncan nodded his consent and moved over to his sleeping roll and fell asleep quickly. Cephera watched him for a moment before looking over to Sir Rory. Cephera had always liked Sir Rory. He was always willing to go along with any of her random ideas that she would get. He was also the one that had started to teach her sword play after her parents finally gave into the fact that she simply was not satisfied with just sitting around doing womanly things all day. She hopped that he would survive the joining. She had come across the ritual by accident while snooping around in Denerim when she was fourteen. While she was disgusted by the thought, she had still understood that sometimes the need outweighs the risk. She had never told anyone, and wasn't planning on it, about what she had discovered, she was too frightened of what the repercussions would be. But still, she wanted to be out their helping push those nasty creatures back to wherever they came from and she admired anyone who helped.
At the pace that Duncan pushed them, it only a few hours to reach the kings camp at Ostagar. Sir Rory and Cephera stared up at the ruins in aww, neither one of them having seen anything quite like it before. As they approached the camp, Cephera was surprised to spot King Cailen, not that he was hard to miss in that gold armor, walking towards them. He smiled and opened his arms in greeting's when he spotted Duncan.
"Ho there, Duncan." Duncan was obviously surprised to see him
"King Cailen! I didn't expect a -." Cailen interrupted with a huge smile
"A royal welcome? I was beginning to worry you'd miss all the fun!" he said. Cephera had to smother a smile, she had forgotten how naive and boyish Cailen could be. Duncan however kept a serious face and said.
"Not if I could help it your majesty." Cailen turned so they were standing next to each other in what almost looked like a story book pose to Cephera as he said.
"Then I'll have the mighty Duncan at my side in battle after all. Glorious!" he then turned to look at him again, "The other wardens told me you had found another promising recruit!" He turned his head to look at Sir Rory and smiled, "I take it this is he?" Duncan nodded
"Allow me to introduce you, your majesty." But Cailen waved him off as he moved to stand in front of the other man.
"No need to be so formal Duncan, we'll be sheading blood together in battle after all." He looked Rory over "Ho there friend! Might I know your name?" Sir Rory gave a polite bow and said
"I am Sir Rory Gilmore, your majesty." Cailen smiled, obviously pleased
"Pleased to meet you, the Grey Wardens are desperate to bolster their numbers and I, for one, am glad to help them. I understand you Hail from Highever, how is it fairing?" at this Cephera stepped forward and cleared her throat, bringing everyone's attention to her. Cailen's eyes widened as he smiled in a giddy delight and came forward to hug her.
"Lady Cephera! How wonderful it is to see you! Are you also joining the wardens?" he asked. Cephera smiled softly at his obvious joy at seeing her again, before it fell and she looked at him seriously again.
"No, King Cailen. I'm here to talk to Fergus. Arl Howe has become traitor and has over thrown Highever castle." Cailen looked at her in shock.
"Over thrown the-" he cut himself off before beginning, "Lady Cephera, I swear to you , once the battle with these darkspawn is over we will turn the troops towards Highever. Arl Howe will not get away with this treachery." Cephera smiled weakly at him, he was being slightly naive to think that this battle would be done any time soon, but she appreciated the sentiments.
"Thank you My Lord. However, I really need to see Fergus." Cailin shot her a sad look causing her heart rate to shoot up again.
"I'm sorry my Lady, but your brother and a small group of men have left to go scouting in the wilds and are not due back until after the battle. You are more than welcome to stay in the camp until he returns however." Cephera sighed and nodded, giving him another weak smile. Cailen turned back to include everyone,
"I'm sorry to cut this short, but I should return to my tent. Logain waits eagerly to bore me with his strategy's." This time Duncan chimed in again.
"Your Uncle sends his greetings and reminds you that Redcliffs forces can be here in under a week." Cailen laughed and moved a way a bit.
"Ha! Eamon just wants in on the glory. We've already won three battles against the darkspawn, and tomorrow will be no different." Sir Rory spoke up in surprise.
"You sound pretty confident about that." Cailen gave a half laugh.
"Overconfident some would say, right Duncan." Duncan sighed and looked down as he said
"Your majesty, I'm not certain the blight can be ended as… quickly as you might wish." Cephera could tell this was something that Duncan probably had repeated numerous times, and it seemed it fell on deaf ears, even now as Cailen said
"I'm not even sure this is a true blight. True the horde is bigger than ever, but we've yet to see an arch demon anywhere." Cephera shot a sharp glance at him, 'does he seriously WANT there to be an arch demon?' she wondered.
"Disappointed? Your majesty?" Duncan asked with a curious edge to his voice, voicing Cephera's thoughts for her. Cailen just said
"I'd hoped for a battle like in the tales, where the king rides with the fabled Grey Wardens to defend against a tainted God." He sighed in childish disappointment, "Ah, but this will have to do." He turned back to face them.
"Well, I must go before Logain sends out a search party." The three of them crossed their arms over their chests and bowed to him as he turned and walked away. Duncan gestured for them to follow as he started to talk to Sir Rory. Cephera however was lost in thought.
'I must find Fergus.' Was all she could think about. She needed to find a way to get into the wilds so that she could track him down. She didn't care about the danger. Her eyes wandered over to Duncan and Sir Rory who were just a few steps ahead of her and she smiled lightly. 'Perhaps the Grey Wardens will head into the wilds soon so I could accompany them.' She thought. She decided to ask.
"Duncan?" She called. Duncan and Sir Rory turned to look at her questionly. "I was wondering if a group of Wardens would be heading into the wilds anytime soon." Duncan hesitated, obviously already knowing where she was headed with this before nodding.
"They will be tonight. I am assuming you would like to accompany them my Lady?" Cephera decided to ignore the lady bit and nodded.
"Yes, I would like to look for traces of my brothers scouting party." Duncan studied her for a moment before noding.
"Very well. In the meantime, why don't you go with Sir Rory to find Alistair." Cephera nodded and smiled at Sir Rory who smiled warmly back.
"After you My Lady." He said, gesturing her to lead the way. She smiled and started to walk
"Why thank you my good sir." The two of them laughed lightly, both clearly hiding the pain from the castle being attacked. When the two made it across the bridge they looked around curiously. Cephera could see some mages doing some sort of ritual with Templars guarding them to her right. To her left was a raised platform were a reverend mother was giving a type of sermon to the gathered solders, and in front of her was what looked like the kennals and kennel master.
As she gazed at the Mabari's she felt a pang for her own Mabari Dante, who had been separated from her sometime during their escape from the castle. She shook her head and looked over to Rory curiously.
"Did Duncan tell you where this Alistair fellow should be?" she asked. He nodded and pointed to their right.
"A bit past the mages is what I was told. Come on, lets hurry. The faster I get this joining done the sooner I can start to relax about it." Cephera nodded, giving him a sympathetic look.
"I would be rather nervous too. Don't worry though Sir Gilmore, I'm sure you'll do fine." He smiled gratefully at her before saying,
"You know, my lady, you may just call me Rory. As a Grey warden I wont have the title anymore, and I would like to think of you as a friend." Cephera gave him a bright smile,
"Really?! Thank you! I consider you a friend as well. And since I consider you a friend, you should drop this lady nonsense and call me Cephera." Rory nodded with a smile back to her. By then they had come up the ramp to see two men, a mage and a blonde haired solder talking rather loudly as they came up to them.
"What is it now? Haven't the Grey Wardens asked enough from the circle?" Cephera heard the mage ask irritably. 'at least we're in the right spot.' She thought to herself as she and Rory pulled up just a little away from the men.
"I just brought a message from the Reveared Mother, sir mage, she desires your presence." The blonde man said. He had a serious look on his face but Cephera could see the mischief in his eyes. The mage scoffed,
"What her reverence desires is of no concern to me! I am busy helping the Grey Wardens, by the Kings command I might add!"
"Should I have asked her to write a note?" he asked cheerfully. Cephera was slightly concerned to see that the mages face was starting to turn red in anger and frustration and wondered if he would set the solder on fire.
"Tell her I will not be harassed in this manner!" he said loudly. The Blonde responded sarcastically with
"Yes, I was harassing you by delivering a message."
"Your glibness does you no credit." The mage said dryly. The Blonde put on an obviously fake look of hurt on,
"And here I thought we were getting on so well! I was even going to name one of my children after you… the grumpy one!" he said. This caused Rory to chuckle softly so as not to interrupt, but Cephera couldn't stop the giggles from erupting. The mage glared fiercely at them all before yelling,
"Enough! I will speak to the woman if I must, get out of my way fool." He said before storming off. The Blonde turned to the two of them with a cheerful face and sighed,
"You know, one good thing about blights is how it brings people together." Cephera nodded with a small smile
"I know what you mean." The man smiled back, obviously encouraged by the positive response.
"Its like a party! We could all stand in a circle and hold hands, THAT would give the darkspawn something to talk about." Rory snorted as Cephera giggled again. The man looked at them curiously "Wait, we haven't met have we? Your not mages are you?" he asked them. Cephera and Rory both shook their heads, giving each other a raised eyebrow as if to say 'do we look like mages.' An enlightened look suddenly overcame the man.
"Wait, I do know who you are!" he said looking Rory over, "You're the new recruit from Highever Duncan was talking about. Allow me to introduce myself! I'm Alistair, the new gray warden. As the Junior member of the order I'll be accompanying you for your joining." Rory smiled.
"great, I look forward to getting to know you." Alistair looked at him in slight shock.
"Oh, well, that's new." He looked over curiously to Cephera. "And I'm sorry to say I'm not sure who you are My Lady." Cephera smiled and gave an elegant curtsy, which impressed the boys considering she was in armor and said. "Cephera Cousland, at your service." Alistair's eyes went wide as he suddenly gave a bow back.
"Oh! Pleasure to meet you my Lady." Cephera laughed.
"No need for that. I'm just Cephera for the moment. I'll be traveling with you all for a little tonight." Alistair blinked in surprise.
"Oh. Are you becoming a warden as well?" He asked curiously as he subtly started to lead them back to the Warden's fire. Cephera shook her head.
"No. I need to look for my brother. Since Duncan said that the recruits would be heading into the wild tonight and that's where my brother is, I asked if it would be alright to accompany your party." Alistair shook his head not sure if he should be pleased or not. He was obviously unsure if she should know any warden stuff. She seemed to know where his thoughts were headed because she smiled and said.
"I won't be participating in anything. And anything that is said while in the wilds should be safe for me to hear anyways." Alistair glanced over to Rory who was just looking amused.
"Oh. Well, in that case, it'll be a pleasure to travel with you." Cephera grinned and moved away from the fire.
"I agree. However, I believe I shall wait for you all at the gates to the wild." She nodded her goodbyes to Duncan who smiled fondly at her before she turned and walked away to wait at the gate to the wilds.