There was a sepulchral silence that hung in the room as I sat and watched Nahalanee slowly braid her hair. It was a gesture I had seen her perform a hundred times before leaving camp in the morning, yet today it seemed...different. Today she had chosen to stand against House Aeducan and champion House Harrowmont in a proving dedicated to the late Endrin Aeducan.
IHe is not my father anymore, I have no house or family in Orzammar, /IShe had told me. Though her words were absolute, her eyes bared the pain of loss. Loss for her house? Perhaps, loss for a father she could no longer claim as her own, without a doubt.
IYou worry too much, there are laws governing the proving that have been set in stone for a thousand years, and wardens are greatly respected by my people. The worse I face is a few scratches, maybe a bruise or two./I She was fooling no one with her words, least of all me. Even if her eyes had not betrayed her, I knew the rules would not apply, not today, not to her.
I stared into the polished sheet of platinum that doubled as a mirror and watched as she tied off the end of her braid. Her glowing golden eyes flicked to the side catching and holding my gaze for several long silent moments. I always found it both beautiful and unnerving, the golden glow of her eyes, the warden glow she called it. Eventually our gaze was broken by the sudden thundering sound of cheers and stomps.
"You better get to your spot in the balcony if you are going to watch the champion of the proving once again show her worth." She grinned as she stood to re-adjust the empty sheaths on the back of her hips. I stood and pulled my own daggers from their sheaths and carefully slid them into hers. They didn't really fit but it wouldn't matter, they would not be there for long.
"What are you doing?" She asked as she watched me in the reflective metal.
"My blades are sharper, stronger, and lighter than yours, Warden. I think you should use them for this proving of yours." I said in a neutral tone, though neutral was far from how I felt at that moment. I helped her adjust the leather straps around her waist once more to compensate for the difference in weight. "Just remember, they are lighter." I repeated as I ran my palm over the top of her head and down her braid, our gaze locking once more in the platinum mirror.
"Lady Warden, it's time for your first bout." A voice said from the door, I could swear a smirk in those words.
"I'm coming, get to your seat Zevran, I am going to show you something spectacular." She grinned as she turned and left the readying room. I sighed and made my way to the balcony where Alistair had already been seated. Maker help us.
…
In the doubles match she had called upon a cousin of Harrowmont to fight as her second, though I could understand her reasoning, I cursed her for not choosing one of us. The warrior was slower then Alistair, and it was obvious he knew nothing of fighting beside a rogue.
"How stupid can she be, fighting with an untrained sword at her side!" I growled as I watched the fight below.
"Dwarves are far from untrained Zevran, from what I gather the warrior caste has the best of what Orzammar has to offer."
"But he does not know her as we do, and look how slow he is. She should have called upon … one of us to fight with her."
"Come now Zevran, it is not like you to get worked up like this." Leliana said, and I am pretty sure I heard a little smirk behind her words.
I saw the crimson stream fly from her face as a blade sliced the air in front of her. "Braska! I need to find Morrigan." I felt a hand grip my arm as I stood. I looked over to see Leliana smiling and raising from her own seat.
"I will go get her, you stay here." she was gone before I could argue, I sat back down and watched in silence as the warden won her bout, though she was now bleeding from several shallow cuts on her arms and a rather nasty looking one on her face. "Braska." I said again for no apparent reason.
…
"This is a Glory Proving, fought under the eyes of the Paragons of Orzammar to honor the memory Of King Endrin. Only two warriors remain. Fighting for his royal cousin Bhelen, Piotin Aeducan has led his team to triumph over every unit so far! Challenging him on behalf of Lord Harrowmont, Nahalanee of the Grey Wardens, who has risen from nothing to stand at the competition's summit!"
"I thought she had been champion of the proving before?" Alistair asked me as the announcer went on.
"She was until she was stripped of her family from what I have gathered. Once she was exiled she became nothing in the eyes of her Ancestors, and her people merely forgot her."
"I wonder if she is ok, she is about to fight her own cousin."
"She killed her own brother my dear Alistair, I doubt a cousin will present much of a moral challenge." I smirked, but in truth I had thought the same thing.
"Each will lead a full unit of Four Soldiers, to see once and for all whom the ancestors favor! Warden call your unit!"
I was relieved to know we could fight by her side, as Alistair and I began to stand up her voice rang loud over the sounds of the crowd.
"In call forth Gwiddon and Baizyl to fight at my side, may the Ancestors prove today the glory and honor of House Harrowmont!"
I couldn't believe it, and from the look on Alistair's face neither could he. One of these warriors had already proven to be to slow, and the other one was an untried hand, what could she be thinking!
"don't worry, she fights darkspawn for a living I doubt a few dwarves will give her much trouble." I could hear the worry in his voice despite his attempts at sounding cheerful.
"Darkspawn don't fight this dirty and have not had the same training as she." I said as I stood, my hands wrapped around the stone banister as I held my breath.
She pushed her hair back behind her shoulders as she listened to the announcer behind her, it had come loose in the last bout, and it seemed her luck was not improving.
IPiotin, great just what I needed./I She thought to herself as she stared into her cousin's eyes. IBad enough I have to fight the warriors of the Aeducan's but now I have to fight Piotin. /I
"I call forth Gwiddon and Baizyl to fight at my side, may the Ancestors prove today the glory and honor of House Harrowmont!" She yelled out as she reached back and pulled both daggers from her hips.
She had spared with her cousin on many occasions in the past, she could only hope her knowledge of him, and the few new tricks she had learned from Zevran would be enough to defeat the warrior. Ancestors knew, she could never beat him before.
Her hands gripped the daggers hilts tightly as she stared into the cold hard eyes of her cousin, death was the only way out of this fight those eyes told her, one way or another.
Piotin's right hand as come for her, simple enough she thought as she twisted around the man and sunk her right dagger into the mans arm, taking him and his shield out of the fight in one swift movement. His left hand took a little more time to take out of the fight, he had already taken down Baizyl, curse that slow dimwitted warrior.
She spun on her heels toward her cousin just in time to see the Aeducan brand of his shield before it slammed into her chest and sent her stumbling backwards. Before she could recover she felt a sudden sharp pain in her left shoulder which sent her into a violent spin, throwing her to the ground. As she struggled to her feet Piotin came in for a final attack, luckily Gwiddon stepped in front of her blocking what would have been a fatal blow. She regained her feet and in a sudden puff of smoke her form disappeared only to re-materialize a few seconds later behind the man with the crossbow. Her right dagger sank deep into the man's neck. It was one of Zevran's favorite killing blows, not one she would normally use in a proving, but the rules had changed and she had no intention of dieing today.
She watched Gwiddon drop to the ground wounded, as she readied herself for the fight with Piotin. She turned her body so that her useless leg arm was partially blocked and spun the dagger in her right hand so the blade faced backwards. IAncestors forgive me as I shed the blood of yet another of my kin./I she thought as she charged.
… ~~~ ***
Her hair had come loose and cascaded down her back and around her shoulders in waves, once white as fresh fallen snow now stained red with blood making her already pale complexion deathly white. The proving had rules, laws that had been in place for a thousand years, but apparently those rules did not apply to the Exiled Princess. Warden or not, nothing short of the kin-slayer's death would sate the blood lust of the noble houses.
I turned my gaze away just in time to miss the warrior's shield connect with the wardens face a second time.
"Let's go, we should be ready when she is finished." I said as I turned and walked toward the doors. I told myself repeatedly we had to get down to the ready room before the fight was over, for her sake. It was not because I couldn't bear to watch the rest of the fight, not because I couldn't bear to watch the warden get thrown around and beat near to death.
By the time Morrigan and I made it to the warden's ready room, Nahalanee was already there laid out on the bench. Her eyes were glassy and distant and her breathing was shallow.
"Warden really. If it is a death wish you have, I would rather you fulfill it sooner rather then later." Morrigan's hands began to glow a dim blue as she touched the warden's shoulder.
"You know me Morrigan, anything to keep you on your...toes." she turned her head toward me and smiled before her eyes slipped closed.
A slew of curses slipped from the witches mouth as her hands flared a bright blue. I turned and left the witch to her duties, I suddenly needed the sky above me and the cold mountain air in my lungs. I raced to the surface telling myself the whole way I was only worried for the warden because she was my shield, the one thing standing between me and the crows, nothing more, nothing less.
Why then was my stomach in so many knots, what was this feeling pulling at my heart, why the fear of loss? Maker, I need air!
…