Pretty much picks up right where the last left off..
.
.
Nahalanee closed her eyes and pinched the bridge of her nose. She could feel a headache creeping up
as the idiot babbled on.
"For the love... SHUT UP!" She finally yelled and Weylon's mouth closed with an audible click of
the teeth.
"I smell death." Sten suddenly said in a low voice behind her.
"Is that what the stench is, and here I thought they had gotten hold of Alistair's recipe for stew.." She
smiled as she saw the look on Alistair's face.
"Last time, give me Genitivi's research." she growled at the man.
"I can't do that, he would be furious with me."
"Fine, I will get it myself." She walked past the man and toward the door at the back of the house.
"H, hey you can't go back there! Stop!" He squeaked.
"Oh, why not? I just want to look." She said not bothering to turn around.
As the door swung open she heard the familiar crackle of magic. She turned just in time to see small
sparks of light die out on the mans finger tips as his headless body thudded to the ground. Apparently
he had already forgotten about the giant Qunari standing behind him with an equally giant sword.
"Thanks Sten." she said and walked into the back room. A moment later she yelled "You were right, I
think I found the real err, Weylon guy!" She frowned and wrinkled her nose.
They took their time going through the house and collecting books, journals and maps. I'm always
the one stuck looking over this crap, she sighed as they shoved it all into her pack and headed back
to the Gnawed noble.
"So we will finish outfitting and restocking today, and spend one more night here. I will go through
these things later and see where our next stop is. " She was explaining to Leliana and Alistair
as she dumped her bag into her room. "If you would help me Alistair, that would be great. Many words
in the trade tongue I still can't read." She was of course talking about human language.
"Alistair, remember Gorim, that dwarf in the market? If his father is as good as he says, his armor
should be much nicer then splint mail."
She tossed a coin purse at Alistair. "Tell him I sent you over, he should give you a discount,
get whatever you need."
"Wouldn't it be better if you came with me?" He asked weighing the gold coins in his hand.
"I promised Leliana shoe shopping." She smiled as she saw Leliana's face light up at the mention
of shoes. That and she couldn't face Gorim again, at least not today.
"All right, all right." He turned to leave and stopped when Nahalanee called his name.
"Tomorrow morning, I make good on that promise, yeah?"
He grinned "Thanks Nahalanee, I will hold you to that!"
"What promise is that?" Leliana inquired as they walked out of the inn and toward the market.
"It's a secret. Come show me these shoes you keep going on about, and pick out new armor for you and
Morrigan, maybe Zev." She grinned at the last.
"You and Zevran, who would have thought, dwarf and elf! Scandalous!"
"It's not like that!" She all but yelled at the bard, then under her breath added, "Not yet."
Leliana squealed in delight at the dwarf's admission. Nahalanee thought she sounded like a nug with
it's tail caught in a trap.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
"Say anything to anyone, and I will knock you over the head with your own lute!" Nahalanee threatened,
but she was smiling. "Come on, your shoes won't wait, race ya!" She took off running, Leliana
stared, laughed, then followed.
It would be a long time before anyone else in Denerim could say they saw a human and dwarf racing
through the streets laughing like lunatics.
It had been a long day of shopping, she let Leliana give out the new armor and weapons. Nothing
too fancy, robes for Morrigan, daggers for her and Zev, a bow for Leliana. She was glad to see
Alistair had been successful. He had returned with a full suit of veridium, and had even commissioned
a full set of armor for Sten to be ready the next time they were in Denerim. She hadn't thought
of that and was a little surprised Alistair had.
Alistair came to her room later that evening, and together they poured over the journals and maps,
trying to find something they could go on. Alistair told her about living with the Arl, about his mothers
necklace, lady Isolde.
She mumbled something under her breath that sounded like it could be dwarven curses. Alistair
raised an eyebrow."Oh nothing, I just really did not like her. She is so annoying, the only thing I
could think of was how much I wanted to slap her. And..." Nahalanee put down the book she
was studying and looked at Alistair.
She had nearly admitted how she wanted to let Jowan do the blood ritual just so they could get rid
of Isolde, but luckily managed to bite it back.
"I understand it was her son, but letting Connor kill everyone in the castle and the village, and then
to come after Teagan like that? Are all humans so..." She searched for a word and couldn't find one
to fully express her disgust.
Alistair caught the gist of what she was saying and smiled. "You wouldn't let a village fall for your
child?" She snorted despite herself.
"We dwarves are few enough as it is, wiping out Orzammar for a single child? Not likely. Besides
if you hadn't noticed, family means far less to dwarves then power." She said bitterly, there was a
time when she would have argued against that, but not anymore.
Alistair opened his mouth to say something, then closed it, then opened it again. "What happened?"
"I killed my elder brother." She said so bluntly that Alistair gasped.
"Oh don't get me wrong, I am sorry it came to that. I tried to avoid it, but he refused to back down.
Unfortunately our younger brother managed to turn us against each other. Have to admit, his plan was
rather clever."
She folded her arms over her chest and sighed leaning back in her chair. "You know sometimes I wonder
if it could have been avoided. I didn't see it until it was to late, not until I was looking
my brother in the eyes. If I had seen it earlier, I might have been able to stop it. Or ..."
"The people love you, I will never be as loved as you, I can overlook this. You won glory as champion
of a proving in your honor, this I can forgive. But I am heir, this is MY birthright, I WILL RULE!"
Trian yelled mere inches from her blood splattered face.
"Damn it Trian! Can't you see what is happening, Behlen is playing you false. Playing us both false!" She
yelled back. They were standing at the crossroads where the last rendezvous was to be, and where they
both expected an ambush.
"Don't try to throw your guilt on my brother, he has always been loyal to me! Unlike you, who defies me
at every turn! Now you and your men WILL throw down your weapons and you will be tried for treason by
the assembly." He barked at her in that same smug tone.
She sighed and backed away pulling her sword and dagger slowly from their scabbards and held them
loosely in her hands. Everyone could see her struggling with the decision and for a brief moment
they all thought she would surrender.
She flipped her dagger in her left hand so the hilt faced thumb side, behind her she heard Gorim's
boots scrape against the stone. The one thing she could count on from Gorim was his ability to read
her in the field.
"I can't do that Trian, you know I can't. We don't need to do this, just back away." Her voice
was flat and toneless, it was the sound of a last warning, but she knew, he could no more lay down
his maul as she could her blades.
"Then you die here, may the stone reject your unworthy corpse."
"Ancestors forgive me." she whispered.
Moments later she pulled her sword from her brothers body and sank to the ground beside him. Despite
a quick end to the battle, she had taken an arrow in the leg. It was nothing that would kill her but
it did hurt. Gorim and the scout saw to her leg, removing the arrow and bandaging it while Gorim
gave her the 'this is why you wear real armor' speech. In truth she was glad she decided on leather,
had she worn her grandmothers battle armor, she may not have been able to dodge Trian's maul. It may
have been a big weapon, but Trian was strong and could swing it hard and fast.
They finished bandaging her just in time for her father to walk up and find her kneeling beside
her dead brother, Behlen's plan had worked out perfectly. The look they shot each other could have
melted the very stone around them, but they both knew how the game would end.
Nahalanee had lost.
"Why didn't you surrender?" It was a good question, she had asked herself this many times over the
last months.
"Dwarven pride." A simple answer. Alistair frowned.
"I had just retrieved the shield, "She pointed at the shield leaning against the wall. "Glory
and honor was mine, I couldn't let him have it, no matter what. And thinking of it now, the scout
and Frandlin." She frowned as she realizing she had never known the scouts name. "They probably
would have attacked anyway. From what I gathered, only one of us was going to leave that place alive.
Or maybe he was hoping we would both fall."
"Is glory and honor so important you would kill your own brother for it?" He looked at her, a mixture of
shock and disgust on his face.
She stared at him silently for several minutes. Just when he thought she wasn't going to answer
she did. "I don't know."
"I thought it was, especially since he changed. We weren't always rivals, I remember when I was just
a girl he would sit me on his lap tell me stories of paragons. Caradin's story was one of my favorites,
we both used to dream of a day we would have our own army of golems. Even gave me a golem doll,
never did learn where he got it. It was made of surface materials." She laughed. "He gave me my first
sword." She smiled. "But when I got older he changed, I guess he saw me as a threat to his rule,
distanced himself." She went back to her books.
"You dwarves are an interesting race." He said returning to his own book.
She laughed again."Indeed, though I dare say humans are far from normal... Haven."
"Huh?"
Nahalanee stood and climbed onto the table, using the chair as a stepstool. She bent over the map, her
nose only a few inches away. Alistair did all he could to keep from laughing as Nahalanee compared
a page of the journal to the map they had laid across the table.
For another few moments Alistair just watched as Nahalanee marked the map with a piece of coal
then she grinned sitting up "Haven." She said again and pointed at one of the circles she had just
placed.
"That's our next stop, I'm not the best with maps of the surface, but I think its in that area."
she pushed the journal toward Alistair and sat cross legged on the table letting him read in silence
and do his own comparisons, then he nodded. "Indeed, great!" He slammed the book shut. "Then I am
going to bed. We should set out tomorrow." She agreed as she climbed off the table as he stood
and began to leave.
"Alistair, tomorrow yes?" He nodded, smiled and left. She had promised to go with him to find his
long lost sister who lived in Denerim.
She changed into her oversized tunic, put away the journals and scrolls, folded the map and counted
the money with a sigh. They had spent to much today, but at least everyone seemed happy with their
new toys, even if they were only arms and armor.
She crawled into the bed and buried herself under what seemed like far to many blankets. one thing she
hated about the surface, it was always so cold. Several times her companions teased her in camp, she
was the only one who used 3 bedrolls and still complained about the cold.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
"Lets go lets go, times a wasting" she chirped as she threw the last sack on Bodan's wagon. "Everyone
ready?" Grunts, grumbles and sighs all around. Only Alistair stayed quiet.
They headed toward their next destination, Leliana and Zevran chatting with each other about their
old lives, comparing contracts and techniques, Morrigan berating Alistair about mopping, Alistair's
witty tongue flapping insults back. his family reunion hadn't gone as planned and had left him in
a rather foul mood.
Sten was grumbling and complaining about all the pointless noise and chatter. Bodan was telling
Sandal about all his new purchases and their next trade stop, though Sandal wasn't listening as he
was too busy playing with enchant runes.
And Nahalanee taking up the rear watching it all with a big grin. What a group we make, one huge
dysfunctional family that would rival any noble house in Orzammar. She had glanced back once to
see a man with an oxen pulled cart following them at a distance. She shook her head and sighed.
((( If you noticed I never mentioned Wynn despite the fact I did say earlier I rescued the mages, its
because shes dead. She attacked at the top of the tower LOL! Oops oh well..long as I got the mages))