My deepest thanks to all those of you who constantly review and give your feedback at the end of the chapter. Megglesnake, Jinx1983, LadyCallia, Warrose, PheonRen and Liso66. You are really wonderful. :)

This chapter has one or two revealing bits, lol

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Chapter 37 - Recruiting

Fiona looked again at her notes, not daring herself to become excited at the results she was seeing before her very eyes. She had the potion before her, and it was bubbling. Her eyes narrowed. She knew exactly what she needed to see if the potion worked, but she didn't have any of it available right now. She frowned.

The only way she could get what she wanted was if she could get some from the vault at the keep and that meant sneaking around. She could probably go to Alistair and ask him straight out, but in the past four months he had been so busy with the new recruits and training Nathaniel that she couldn't take him away from that. Not just yet. She had to be absolutely sure first.

She took a deep breath and left everything on her working desk and set off towards the direction of the vault.

She heard some wardens sparring in one of the courtyards below. She did not stop to see who they were, preferring to make short time of getting to the place she was heading for.

Their stay at the Keep had fallen into a pattern of days full of chores and tasks, which included training and sparring at regular intervals. The times she saw Alistair, he was usually very tired and had dark circles under his eyes which told her exactly how much sleep he was getting as he was also overseeing reconstruction of the alienage in the city and dealing with the problems of the banns in Amaranthine as well.

She vowed to speak to Chantalle soon. She had become a shadow of his, keeping very near to him and sometimes even talking in the throne room of the Keep to some of the nobles, replacing him in this while he found himself busy with something else. She smiled when she thought of what a good wife she was to him and realized that she had been looking pale and wan lately herself.

Reaching the vault at last, she stopped in front of it, searching in her memory for the combination that would open the lock. A voice behind her made her jump and gasp as she turned to face the person that was intruding her privacy.

"You scared me, Anders!" She nearly growled, then relaxed when he flashed a brilliant smile at her.

"What are you doing here in front of the vault, Fiona? Need any help?" Anders grinned down at her.

"No...yes, actually!" She said, changing her mind quickly.

Anders chuckled. He had gotten very close to Fiona and regarded her as a somewhat motherly figure, even though Fiona was less than motherly to anyone. She was a rather tough woman. But underneath all that brusque personality she had a heart of gold.

"Well now. Is that a 'no' or a 'yes'?" Anders teased his smile turning into a grin.

Fiona chuckled, which in itself was rare, but it was something she could not stop herself from doing. Especially in front of Anders or Alistair.

"Well, I need something from the vault. And I really don't want to bother Alistair with it. He has been so busy lately, and is working too hard. I don't want to add to the list of things he has to do by dragging him away from whatever he is doing just to open the vault door for me," she explained, her lips curling up into a genuine smile as she gazed up at the mage.

"Say no more, my Lady," Anders replied taking a bow. "The only ones who know the combination are Nathaniel, Chantalle, Alistair of course, and myself." He wiggled his eyebrows at her suggestively.

Her smile turned into a grin as he stepped in front of the vault beside her and deftly turned the knobs right and left, counting the turns as he did so. They both heard an audible click and he grasped the lever and pulled it towards him.

The heavy metal door creaked open. Inside were several shelves full of papers and a few bags of coins, but the object she was seeking lay on the bottom shelf. She took a vial of darkspawn blood. There were three more vials of it there, but she only needed one.

"Darkspawn blood, huh? Planning to carry out a Joining yourself?" Anders asked curiously.

"No, of course not," Fiona sniffed as she put the vial in one of her pockets. "It's for something I'm working on," she added carefully. She did not want Anders to know exactly what she was up to. In fact the only persons who knew a little bit of what she was doing were Alistair and Chantalle, of course.

"Ah! Keeping secrets, are we?" He said, his brow furrowing briefly.

"I'm sorry Anders, but I can only relay my information to the Commander. It's a project of sorts that I'm working on."

"Yes, I understand," he smiled at her.

They headed out towards the main corridors of the upper floors again and paused for a bit on the landing. From here, a huge staircase swept down towards the lower floors straight ahead. Fiona was not looking to go downstairs however, and turned her gaze to the branching corridors on her right which would eventually lead her back to her rooms. She was anxious to return to her work.

Anders sensed this immediately.

"I'd better go. I heard that Leliana had been looking for me earlier. You know what will happen if she doesn't find me!" His eyes twinkled at her and she smiled again, though more out of relief than anything else.

"Thank you Anders. I don't think I would have done this without your help. You will know all in good time what I needed the blood for," she smiled graciously up to him.

"No worries, my dear lady. If I know you, it will be for a good cause," he replied and started down the staircase, running down the steps with ease.

She smiled fondly after him then turned to the right, walking towards her rooms firmly as his last words echoed through her mind.

A good cause.

...

Alistair gazed at his wife who was training a new elven recruit on the proper use of twin blades, a smile forming on his lips as he watched her go through the movements step by step and the eager look on the recruit's face as she watched her intently.

His thoughts scurried around like ants at a convention and he lowered his head a bit, a hand going automatically to his forehead as he rubbed it several times, deep in thought.

They had been in the keep for four months now, and Alistair had flung himself wholeheartedly into training Nathaniel as his replacement, which in itself wasn't a hard task at all. Nathaniel had been a noble before being a warden, and to his credit did a far better job than he as Arl of Amaranthine. Besides, the Keep rightfully belonged to him in Alistair's opinion.

A smile crossed his face when he remembered the surprise on Nathaniel's face when he had told him that he would be Warden Commander and the next Arl of Amaranthine. Alistair's smile turned to a grin when the memory of Nathaniel embracing him tightly flooded his mind immediately afterwards. Nathaniel had wept on Alistair's shoulder that day, but Alistair didn't need an explanation for this. He knew that what he wanted the most was to clear the dishonor on his family name that his father had brought upon him and his sister.

His thoughts turned to the rest of his friends. Anders would be coming back with him to the palace. He hadn't told the mage this, but he knew that he would not refuse, as he had already asked Leliana to come back to him to the palace once he returned as he had a position there for her and she had accepted.

As for Zevran, he had returned to Orlais with Leonie. That thought alone made him keep the grin on his face and shake his head lightly.

Who would have thought? Zevran and Leonie. A soft chuckle escaped his lips as he realized that they had both met their match in each other.

Chantalle ran up to him, slightly flushed and out of breath. His whole face lit up as he looked at her tenderly, pleased to see some color on her cheeks at last. She had been looking rather pale and wan lately and he had to bite back a request for her to go to Anders to check on her health. He knew she would refuse anyway.

Stubborn woman.

"Are you ready for dinner, my dear?" He asked fondly, handing her a towel so she could wipe the sweat off her face.

Before she could reply, Duran appeared in the sparring room, and called out to Chantalle.

"Hey there, future queen!" He yelled cheerfully. "You promised to spar with me today, remember? Try to teach all these recruits here a thing or two about defense tactics?"

"By the gods!" Chantalle muttered under her breath, but Alistair had caught her curse, and grinned at her. She smiled at him and whispered, "I'd completely forgotten about that, love. Sorry. Could you go on ahead without me? I still have to go take a bath before dinner anyway. Besides, it isn't time for dinner yet, are you so hungry?" She saw the look on his face and giggled. "Do not say a word. I take back my question, my love."

"Well, are we going to do this or not?" Duran called out again, and she sighed.

"I'm coming Duran!" She glanced up at him and he bent his head down and caught her enticing lips in a kiss.

Maker, she tasted so sweet!

"I'll go grab a snack and head off to my study, then," Alistair said, breaking away from the kiss as he gazed for a few moments into her sapphire eyes. "I still have to sign some paperwork for the repairs at the alienage. I'll meet you in the mess hall later."

She nodded and then turned to run back to Duran and he watched her go, taking in her full figure. In spite of them being married for a little over five months now, his love for her grew every day as his desire for her.

Sighing deeply, he turned and made his way back to his study, which was a few doors down from the door that led into the throne room, meeting Nathaniel on his way.

"Ah, good that you are here, Nathaniel," he said. "I'd like your opinion on a few things. Also, I have some paperwork to sign and needed your opinion on how to handle a couple of issues.

"Certainly," he said, falling into step with Alistair who was walking briskly.

The two men disappeared into the depths of the Keep and the only sounds heard for a long time were the sounds of Chantalle and Duran sparring and her voice as she taught the younger recruits some moves.

Quite suddenly, Duran's voice cried out.

"By the ancestors!"

Then all was quiet.

...

Fiona looked up from her table, her breath coming in short gasps. She wasn't going through a bad moment, nor was she ill. No. She was breathing in and out in excitement.

Her eyes lit up as she saw the results before her; the darkspawn blood she had taken from the vial moments before and put onto a stone before her that was on the table, had recoiled when she added a few drops of the potion suddenly as if alive, then had blackened and stopped advancing on the stone. It was now dull and dried up.

She hurriedly jotted down some notes in her journal and put a stopper on the vial that contained the potion as well as one on the vial that contained the darkspawn blood.

After all these years, she had finally made her breakthrough. She could not believe it!

She turned around and headed towards Alistair's study, hoping to find him there, a grin plastered all over her face.

...

"No," Alistair was telling Nathaniel. "We'll be travelling to the circle tower next. We want to see if we can find a couple of more recruits there. We only have two mages out of the sixty wardens that are here with us. And that's excluding Anders and Fiona because they won't be around when I leave. We need a few more. I just hope they survive the Joining," he added wistfully.

The door was flung open and Senaya, the youngest Elven recruit in the Keep, stood there trying to catch her breath as she stared at the two men before her, fixing her gaze on Alistair.

Alistair and Nathaniel stared back at her, unable to speak at first. Someone barging in like that was very uncommon and surprising to say the least.

"What is it, um...ah...Senaya, is it?" Alistair said, stumbling through his memory for her name first.

"Yes, Warden Commander," she answered in between gasps.

"Well, what is it?" Alistair stood up, fear briefly touching his heart as he stared at her.

"It's your wife, Ser. I came as quickly as I could, she-"

But Alistair heard no more as he dashed wildly out of the room, Nathaniel and Senaya running after him.

...