Author's note: Well, this chapter took a very, very long time to write. Then I had to revise it six or seven times. Then it was sent off to my wonderful beta, and then revised again. On the plus side, at least I can say this is the best possible version of this chapter you will get (although if you can think of any improvement don't hesitate to tell me). One of the reasons this took so long to write is that I loathe Lothering, it's my least favorite part of the game. I hope it doesn't show too much in the writing. Sorry in advance for all the dialogue too. As always reviews are loved, cherished and rewarded with faster updates! Enjoy!
Part 2: Fear and Lothering
Chapter 3: Prisoner Exchange
Ishafel tried her best not to at the packed in refugees. She did not understand humans.
Why would anyone trying to survive huddle inside a dank stone building until darkspawn came?
Even the flat ears she had spoken to on the way into town had more sense than that. It must be a human thing. Alistair, Dylan and Leilana seemed to think it perfectly reasonable.
Ishafel tended to agree with Morrigan's exasperated sighs whenever one of the three made a pitying remark.
"Ishafel, don't get distracted." Dylan muttered at her as she fell behind, "This was your idea in the first place..."
His mumbles fell beyond the range of human hearing, although Sirius whined after a moment.
"A man's life is at stake, this is not the time to play the part of a da'len," she told him loftily. "a child."
She strode ahead of him with newfound purpose.
The reverend mother sat apart from the initiates and priests working to calm the populace. Unlike every other room this one, though fairly large, was empty of the clawing refugees. Typical human behavior. Help, but only so much that you are not inconveniencing yourself.
The woman resembled a statue, sitting alone in a high-backed wooden chair while the rest of the chantry was in a constant flurry of motion. Her eyes fixed on Leliana after a minute. Her face lit with surprise and a flash of hope that flitted away so fast Dylan did not have time to wonder what it was there for.
"Hello, Sister Leliana. I did not expect to see you so soon. I thought you would be far from Lothering by now."
Leliana smiled, "As did I, but the Maker had other plans. It is good to see you as well, your reverence."
"I do not recognize your companions. Greetings." the warmth in her voice bled away, turning it businesslike. "Will you be making a donation to our Chantry? Our need has never been greater."
"A tithe? To a human Chantry?" Ishafel snorted in disbelief. "Surely you must be joking!"
"A great number of people could be fed and clothed for a faction of your finery!" the mother snapped, raining in what could have been a shout.
"Ishafel!" Dylan admonished. "What are you saying?"
"You cannot possibly expect me to support the religion that waged war on my people and drove us from our homeland?" She turned to look up at him, chin slightly tilted.
"Any money to the chantry goes to the people suffering here! You can't possibly expect to apply old grudges to the needs of those suffering now!"
"Do not speak to me about suffering..." she snapped, "You know little of it."
Dylan's face reddened, "You know little of ME, Ishafel Mahariel! Do not tell me of my own past!"
Ishafel looked away, at the stained glass lighting the room, the flagstones on the floor, anywhere but Dylan.
"Do as you will."
"What would be acceptable, your reverence?"
"30 silvers would be the normal sum."
Dylan highly doubted it. That sum could feed half the town for months. She was trying to milk them, he was sure. He wondered how much of that money would get to the people of Lothering before the Darkspawn came. He was careful not to let his annoyance show on his face. He had a funny feeling Ishafel would never let him live it down.
"My apologies, we can only spare 10 silvers."
Her angry, wrinkled face relaxed into a smile, "One out of one, is far better than one from one thousand. Is there something else I can do for you?"
"We've come to speak to you about Sten, the Qunari you have caged." Ishafel said icily.
The Reverend Mother rose from her seat at the word 'Qunari' but upon standing, she found she had no place to go was reduced to pacing restlessly. "It might have been kinder to execute him, but I leave his fate to the Maker." Her eyes slid away from Dylan and Ishafel to rest on Leliana. "Why does he interest you?
"Is there any way we can convince you to release him?" Ishafel asked. She looked back at her in distain.
"Then his next victims might count you and me as their murderers!"
"You misunderstand us, your reverence." Dylan replied in a soft, even tone. "We would like you to release him into out custody. We are Grey Wardens and believe that he might be of use in stopping the Blight. Our travels will take him far from here, and his only victims will be darkspawn."
"Ah yes, the knight commander told me there were Wardens in Lothering." She paused in thought. "And what do you say on this, Leliana? You know your friends better than I."
"These are... unusual times. With us, the Qunari might do some good. I am sure of it, in fact."
"Were things not so desperate..." She stopped her pacing and gave Dylan a curious sidelong glance,
"Perhaps we can make a trade..."
He sighed inwardly, why couldn't things ever be easy? You know people saying I trust you? Just handing you the key?
"The town has been beset by groups of bandits these last few days. They are terrorizing the townsfolk and refugees alike. If you were to drive them off, I would consider releasing him to you."
"Done." Ishafel stated, turning on her heel to walk out of the place.
"You need to learn some manners," Dylan remarked, finally catching up to her as she crossed the threshold of the chantry and headed towards the courtyard gate.
"Excuse me?" she barked in surprise
"What good does it do to insult the person you're trying to get to help you? We were lucky we had Leliana with us, or I doubt she would have even considered it."
"She needed us, she would have come around eventually."
"How were you to know that?" He scoffed "Didn't your mother ever tell you, if you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all."
"My mother would wholeheartedly disagree with that statement." Morrigan butted in, earning her a scowl.
"And look what a beloved individual you are." Alistair quipped sarcastically.
"My mother would hardly care what I did, she certainly didn't care enough to raise me." the beads around her neck hung a little heavier. "Those who did taught me never to trust the human Chantry. Ever." her eye narrowed to slits. "After what they were willing to do to you, I would think you would share that opinion."
"Maybe I do, but it's not helpful to go waving them about at the moment."
She continued walking, "We have a job to do. We do not have time to squabble all day."
Dylan had to concede that point. Grumbling, he made to follow her, only to almost slam smack into her when she stopped at the bridge.
She was looking down bemusedly at a small red headed child who was standing rather uncertainly in the middle of the road.
"Have you seen my mother?" the boy questioned. He didn't seem the least bit afraid to see a heavily armed elf in front of him.
Ishafel had seen a great many humans today, more than she'd ever cared to see.
"That depends, who is your mother?"
The desperate tone of the youngling's voice did not escape her as he answered.
"She's really tall and has red hair" he told her eagerly, "We live on a big farmhold, all of us. Some mean men with swords came; mother told me to run to the village as fast as I could. So I did! She said she'd be right behind me, but I've been waiting and waiting and I can't see her!"
A coldness uncoiled in Ishafel's gut.
"Do you know where your father is?" she asked him, quietly hoping that she would not have to be the one to explain the reason his mother was not coming over the rise.
"He went with William to the neighbor's yesterday but he didn't come back."
The boy turned to look into the distance, as if his mother were just about to come over the hill, as if it was all just some awful nightmare.
Dylan felt sorry for the poor boy. It didn't take a genius to figure out what had happened.
"I don't think she's coming..." He said somberly.
The boy looked at him with such unabashed hatred that startled him. Ishafel gave him a look.
"NO! My mother would never leave me!"
He put a hand on the boy's shoulder. "I don't think she meant to..."
He looked up at Dylan, uncertain. He was going to continue looking, Ishafel could tell. Creators forbid whatever got his mother came after him too.
"Come with me. I'll help you look for your mother." Ishafel offered.
They boy shook his head resolutely. "Mother said I wasn't supposed to go with anyone. I'm supposed to wait for her here in the village."
"Go to the chantry, child. Someone will look after you there." Dylan told him, the boy looked at Ishafel, and she nodded in agreement.
"I will. But only if I don't find mother first." the boy turned big doe eyes up at Ishafel. "So, um...are you really an elf?"
She frowned, "Yes, da'len. Why do you ask?"
"Father says elves aren't very nice. But you're nicer than everybody here. Thank you for helping me."
He started purposely towards the chantry. Dylan looked at the little boy with exasperation. Oh sure, he'd offered no comfort at all. Ishafel started forward and Dylan looked up at her with the same feeling.
"I don't understand you."
"That's obvious."
"I'm sure even Alistair knew that much." Morrigan purred smarmily. Alistair nodded in agreement, only a second later realizing the veiled insult.
"Hey!"
Dylan just ignored them.
"How can you spit on a whole institution, a whole belief system, a whole race of people and then be kind and forthcoming when it comes to select individuals?"
Ishafel crossed her arms and raised an impatient eyebrow.
"He was a da'len, a child who had lost his mother. What kind of monster do you take me for?"
Dylan quieted as she started forward again.
He had known templars that were absolutely abysmal to the small children who came to the tower, in tears from being ripped from home and kin. Sometimes, they did even worse. Sometimes they made it so you could never go home again.
After all, it was a templar that had killed Surana.
It was a templar that killed his mother.
But Cullen was a templar. Cullen, who didn't have a malicious bone in his body and Jowan, fellow mage, the man who he thought was his best friend, had left him to be slaughtered.
He pondered over that piece of information while they walked into the fields, and was still pondering when an arrow whizzed past his ear.
"Remind me how sulking whilst bandits fire arrows at you prevents harm?" Morrigan snapped, slamming her stave into the earth. The bandits were knocked of their feet by the resulting quake. Sirius took advantage. His lithe form disappeared into the high stalks of wheat. A horrible snapping sound followed. A few minutes later, following a terrific battle cry by Alistair; really where did that man get the energy to scream in battle? It was over. Ishafel inspected the bodies clinically, stripping the fallen of all useful trappings.
"Scouts," she noted, crouchingto better see the path they had come from.
"The tracks lead down to the river."
The rest the afternoon consisted of a hack and slash free-for-all, in which the bandits, a local family of giant spiders, and a pack of wolves went to meet the Maker. Just as Ishafel slit the throat of the last man in the latest group, they heard screaming in the distance.
"Help! Somebody help! Darkspawn!"
"That came from the highway!" Alistair shouted, motioning to the forms of two figures on the bridge. Alistair and Ishafel slammed themselves into the darkspawn, using the momentum from sprinting toward the bridge, beating them back. Leliana pinned down a group of reinforcements, arrows creating a heavy black rain. Morrigan and Dylan froze and shattered in tandem, until at last there was nothing left to fight.
"Well, thank goodness, you came along when you did." The speaker was a stocky blonde dwarf.
"We would have been dead for sure, we would have. Thank the kind folk, m'boy.
A younger, blonder version of the man looked up at Dylan and Ishafel with too bright eyes.
"Thank you, kind ladies."
Dylan and the older dwarf balked simultaneously.
Leliana laughed from behind her hand, even Morrigan smiled.
Ishafel let out a low chuckle that caught Dylan off guard. He had never heard her laugh before.
"Well, I suppose I'm getting a little shaggy" he mused, fingers pulling absently on a long lock of hair that curved gracefully by his collarbone under his chin.
"Oh, he don't mean anything by it," the dwarf said hastily, "He's a bit soft in the head you see."
"It's quite alright," Leliana spoke for him, "I'm sure Dylan has a sense of humor just like the rest of us."
'She wouldn't be smiling half as wide if he had mistook her for a man' he brooded inwardly. Still, one had to put the best face forward...
And he supposed in the grand scheme of things it really was funny.
"Bodan Feddic's the name," the older dwarf introduced himself, "And this is my son, Sandal. We were on our way to Denreim when those creatures overtook us."
"So you are the dwarven merchant who they spoke of at the inn!" Leliana exclaimed, "See, Dylan, we managed to catch him! You worry too much!"
The woman obviously had issues, he thought glowering at her. It turned out that the darkspawn had spoiled most of Bodan's goods.
Ishafel shook her head. "We'll have to forage then, it may make the going slower but we don't have much of a choice."
Dylan had foraged with Duncan just once on the trip to Ostagar and almost poisoned himself twice.
Well, there was no time like the present to learn what those plants in his books looked like.
Bodan kindly rejected his offer of safe passage to the next town, Dylan rather suspected it was more due to having to share his rations than the dwarf's assertions that they were too dangerous to travel with.
Ishafel gracefully descended the stone stairs of the main highway. Daylight was threatening twinkle out and the Qunari was no closer to being freed.
Perhaps Dylan was right, this was a waste of time, but they had come so far already, it seemed a pity to stop now. The last of the bandits had been boxed in at the edge of the river.
Sirius whined at her, the whine morphing into a growl as a small, ragged looking group of Mabari descended on them. She nocked an arrow only to have the dog explode into flames in front of her.
Dylan strode out to greet his attackers and it struck Ishafel that he was really quite irritated.
She made a promise to herself never to get him that annoyed with her ever. Two of their arrow firing opponents exploded in a mixture of fire and lightning. A third tried to sneak up behind behind him, there was a hmpf from Morrigan as a stonefist exploded into his back, sending him flying. Yipping like a puppy, Sirius dashed forward to yank out the man's throat.
Dylan stood in the middle of the bloody mess and absently stretched the muscles in his neck.
"What a splendid way to work off frustration."
Ishafel smiled in spite of herself.
"You can't cook or forage and like to give away our coin, thank the creators you enjoy carnage or you wouldn't be useful at all."
It should have been a barb, but it didn't sound like one and Dylan couldn't help but return her grin.
"Well, I hope I'm tactful enough for the two of us..."
"Don't forget Alistair," Morrigan added in a syrupy voice that put the former templar on the defensive.
"I am plenty tactful!"
"Well now," Leliana exclaimed, heaving the lid off of some crates the bandits had been protecting, "What do we have here?"
The crates were filled to the brim with small, tightly packed ration kits.
"They must have raided an army supply train." She commented as they stuffed as much as they could into their packs. "We should tell the templars at the Chantry, they could use this to help the townsfolk."
"Why not tell Mother Miriam?" Ishafel asked in accusing tone.
Dylan sighed.
Leliana simply looked startled, as though the idea had never occurred to her.
"I suppose we could," She said after a moment, "But the townsfolk can't necessarily defend themselves from the hordes of the hungry, hmm... the chantry might be better this time.
"Defend themselves? They are giving out food! What would they have to defend themselves from?"
"Half the refugees looked starved, some probably haven't eaten for days, the mere mention of food might cause them to swarm." Alistair pointed out. "People are always greedy when it comes to survival, not that you could blame them."
"That's ridiculous; a Dalish would never behave that way."
"Well these people aren't exactly Dalish." He shrugged
Ishafel let out a "ha" under her breath, but in the end it was decided that Chantry should be alerted to the crates. Hiding them under brush and loam, they headed back over the fields to Lothering.
Sirius suddenly let out a sharp snarl and fell back on his haunches.
"Sirius?"
There was a guff followed by a short roar and a bear, at least it looked like a bear, tumbled out from the grass, snapping the tall stalks.
Ishafel shifted uneasily, pulling her bow from her back as the bear bayed and bounded towards them.
Something was wrong, bears didn't attack like this.
Her skin began to burn, a steady acerbic itch that seemed to get stronger as the bear approached.
"Maker! It's tainted!" Alistair drew his sword.
Sirius darted in front of Ishafel, avoiding a swipe from a paw, clamping his teeth down hard upon it.
Alistair's sword penetrated through the shoulder and the bear gnashed its teeth, trying to swing around towards him.
Dylan gave the bear a nasty shock that didn't seem to register and he had to scramble out of the way to avoid a hole where is belly used to be. Ishafel used the distraction to draw two arrows from her quiver. As the creature desperately tried to fend off Sirius and Alistair, she swung up her bow and pulled them back toward her ear.
"Forgive me, brother. It is for the good of us all." she loosed the string
The arrows punched through poor creature's skull. Simultaneously, he fell over dead.
They were about to go when a flash of red caught Ishafel's eye.
"What is that?"
Climbing through the tall grass, she let out a strangled cry that sent the others running.
"Ishafel?" Leliana asked concerned. Ishafel's hand was clamped over her mouth in horror and she merely pointed.
A horribly mauled woman lay on the grass in front of them. She had been badly savaged by the bear, and probably wolves before that; but it was clear that in life she had been very tall, and had red hair.
"The boy's mother." Dylan sighed wearily, all the weight of the last few weeks showing on his face at once.
"Oh, no!" Leliana cried in distres, "The poor thing..."
Ishafel knelt over the body, softly singing prayers in elvish. She stopped after a moment, and lifted a medallion from the woman's neck.
"For her son." her eyes lingered over the woman's corpse, "He should not see her like this."
The morose mood lingered as they headed back into the village. Ishafel was deep in thought and did not notice the small grouping of people until Dylan spoke.
"What's this?" he whispered under his breath, "A welcome party?"
The air hummed with tension as they drew closer.
The seven men spread out to block the way. Ishafel recognized the man in front. He had been in the chantry when they had spoken to Ser Bryant.
"Death to the wardens, killers of King Cailan!"
Dylan frowned, "That charge is false. The wardens were betrayed, not the other way around."
"You misunderstand," The man said, giving a smile that could have doubled for a grimace. "The bounty on your head could feed a lot of empty stomachs."
"Don't" Dylan said to the men, as everybody's hands reach for their weapons, "Please don't."
His plea fell on deaf ears.
He found a moment later, when they were all dead, that the good feeling that had crept up on him when his was killing the bandits to protect the village had gone, leaving him with nothing but bitterness.
Ishafel glared and the dead men. "Dalish wouldn't behave this way." She informed the corpses.
"Let's get the Qunari and get out of here." he snapped. He was sick of hearing Ishafel compare humans to Dalish. He was sick of the whole Maker damned place.
The Revered Mother was overjoyed that the bandits were taken care of. She handed over the key, showering them with praise and proclaiming how much she trusted them. Ishafel had a massive headache by the end of it. Both she and Dylan let Leliana handle the thank yous. By equal measure Ser Bryant was overjoyed to hear about the hidden rations, and dispatched two groups of Templars to retrieve them almost immediately.
"The Qunari. I understand you're taking him with you. I can't say I agree with that choice but.." Ser Bryant strode to a cupboard and pulled out a older looking set of chainmail and a greatsword. "This may make him more useful."
Dylan thanked the Templar. It was odd to find a practical one among that bunch, might as well be thankful when you did.
A shock of red hair alerted Ishafel to the boy's presence. He approached her shyly.
"I still can't find her. The Templars have gone looking".
Ishafel took a deep breath, and held out the heirloom to the boy. Dylan half watched from the other side of the room while speaking with Leliana and Alistair. The boys knuckles were white at he practically crushed the charm. He lunged at Ishafel, beating his fist against her legs.
"You killed her! You killed her!" He shouted, "She wouldn't! She wouldn't just leave me like this! You killed her!"
She tried to draw away, but the boy had caught hold of her armor. After a few moments, he collapsed against her, sobbing.
His outburst caused the Templars to come running hands on hilts. Ishafel eyed the suspicious templars warily, and calmly explained to Ser Bryant what happened. Sirius trotted up to the boy and licked his face. The unexpected canine affection caused the boy to lose his grip on Ishafel. Sirius pushed the boy back, guffing gently. The boy threw his arms around the dog and began to cry all over again. Ishafel ran a small hand over his head telling him something that Dylan couldn't quite catch.
A wardog and a babysitter, how utterly remarkable."
The acidic remark from Morrigan finally got them moving again.
The sun was setting as they approached the Qunari's cage. He heard them coming, Dylan was sure. The chanting had stop well before they reached the front of the cage.
"And so you come again," he said not bothering to open his eyes, "What is it you want?"
"We got the Revered Mother to give us the key."
His eyes opened at the jingle of the key in the lock.
Ishafel swung the heavy metal door open with a huff, and he stepped down onto the soil. He gave the group a long measuring look, his eyes lingering on Ishafel.
"Very well, I will follow you, and in doing so, find my redemption."
She looked up at him, chin tilted to the side. Dylan recognized the gesture, she was taking his measure.
"What if we don't lead you to redemption?"
The look he gave her makes one of Morrigan's glowers look sunny.
"Then I will find it myself." His eyes moved to the highway in the distance.
"Shall we go? I'm keen to be far from here."
He wasn't the only one.