Eriana shot Anders one final look before heading out the door. The poor man had his eyes closed, his head resting against the wall as he tried to slow his breath. "Once you feel like you've gotten yourself under control, come find me." Anders glanced over at her, the look on his face a mixture of pure desire and absolute frustration, so tortured that Eriana couldn't help but laugh. "If you need a while, though, I perfectly understand; you know, take care of yourself."

Anders pushed off the wall with a growl and grabbed her, pulling her back against him; she grinned, feeling the long, strong lines of his body against hers, he need still obvious against her hip. "We'll finish this later," he said, staring intently into her eyes for a moment before planting a kiss the sensitive skin of her neck.

"I look forward to it," she said with a grin before deftly slipping out of his arms and dashing out of the door, looking for whomever had been calling her. There she found Garevel and Nathaniel, standing just down the hall at the door of her quarters. Nathaniel glanced up the moment she stepped in the hall and when Anders followed behind, still obviously flustered, a knowing smile crossed the rogue's face. Eriana rolled her eyes and strolled up to the pair. "So what's the problem, Garevel? You sounded serious."

The guard turned and looked down at her, his eyes flicking briefly toward Anders who was brooding behind her. "Commander, I hate to bother you; I mean, it's obvious you were busy. Um…I know you've only been back for a day and you need time to…um… recuperate, but…"

"Garevel, you're rambling; just get to the point, please."

"Right," the guard said, shaking his head. "Commander, you need to come out to the courtyard. There's…well, there's kind of a riot of sorts going on out there, and I'm afraid that they're about to get out of hand."

"They?" Eriana asked, looking up. "What are you talking about; who's rioting?"

"There is a rather large group of peasants who are gathered out there Eriana," Nathaniel said, stepping up. "They're demanding an audience with you, and they're armed."

Eriana raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean armed; did they bring soldiers with them or something?"

"No, it's mostly pitchforks and a few swords," Garevel said, clearing his throat, "but there are a lot of them out there. My men are starting to get a bit jumpy."

Eriana rolled her eyes, "Maker's Breath, like I don't have enough to deal with. Now, not only do I have to try to keep nobles and darkspawn from killing me, keep money flowing into this arling, distribute our limited guard force to try to protect as many people as possible, but now I have to deal with a peasant rebellion, too!"

Garevel's face grew very serious, "We can take care of them, Commander, if that's what you want. It wouldn't be difficult."

Eriana's eyes grew wide, "No, no, don't mind me. I'm just frustrated, that's all. We don't want to do anything hasty. Let's go and see what they want." They turned and started to make their way down to the courtyard when Eriana's stomach gave a sudden lurch, crippling nausea washed over her, so much so that she had to stop for a moment to steady herself, a hand on her abdomen.

Nathaniel was at her side instantly, "Ana, are you alright? What's wrong?"

The elf shook her head, "I'm not sure; I just got this weird feeling all of a sudden, like something bad is about to happen." Nathaniel and Anders exchanged a worried glance, and the mage's hands flared blue with healing magic. "No, Anders, don't," she said, placing a hand on his arm and pulling it down. "I'm fine. I'm sure it's nothing."

"Why don't you let me check, just to be on the safe side?" Anders said, glancing down at her with a careful look on his face. Eriana shook her head and turned to walk away, but Anders caught her before she had taken more than a few steps. "Eriana, why do you always do this?" he hissed quietly down at her. "Every time I try to do anything more than routine healing on you, you shy away, you refuse. Why? Are you afraid of my magic or something? I thought you just said…"

"Anders," she said, smiling sweetly up at him, "this has nothing to do with your magic, okay. I just don't want you to trouble yourself with me, that's all." Anders crossed his arms and glared down at her.

"I'm your healer, Eriana; it's my job to trouble myself with you. So what's the problem?"

Eriana sighed. "There's no problem, Anders. I'm a big girl; I can take care of myself. There's really no need for you to come running, hands glowing every time I have a little tummy ache. I just had a strange feeling, that's it. This whole thing is making me uneasy for some reason." She smiled and patted his still crossed arms. "Now, let's go see what these peasants want."

Eriana shouldn't have been surprised by what she found in the courtyard, a huge group of farmers and landowners bearing pitchforks and butcher knives, all screaming for her head. No matter what she tried to do, she couldn't get word in; it seemed they weren't interested in talking, all they wanted to do was shout at her. After several minutes of slowly escalating screaming from the increasingly angry crowd, Garevel stepped up to Eriana's shoulder. "Commander, things are about to get out of hand, and fast. Are you sure you don't want me to have the guards take care of this?"

"No," she said, glancing at the screaming crowd. "Not yet, anyway; just let me try one more thing. Anders," she said, turning to the mage, "can you do something to quiet them down; don't hurt them or anything, just shut them up for a while."

Anders nodded; muttering quietly to himself, the mage summoned a massive paralysis spell, suddenly silencing the entire group. He glanced down at Eriana and grinned.

"Perfect, thanks," she whispered up to him before stepping forward to address the group. "Okay, I know you can hear me, and don't worry, that spell is harmless and will wear off in about a minute. Once that happens, I do hope you will all have taken this time to calm yourselves down so that we can have a civilized conversation here, and if you don't, well, that spell is an easy one for him to cast again" Eriana said, crossing her arms and cocking her hip, glaring at the entire group intently for the duration of the spell. Once the spell broke, all the peasants shifted uneasily but were relatively quiet.

"Very good, now would someone please explain to me why you all chose to invade my keep today." There was a sudden explosion of angry shouting from the group until Eriana raised a hand, silencing them instantly. "I said some…one."

A lone man bravely stepped forward and looked up the stairs where the elf stood, surrounded by the Wardens and guards who were slowly making their way out into the courtyard. "We want to know when you plan on doing something about this darkspawn problem." There was a murmur of approval from the crowd behind him. "You've been here for nearly three months now, and the darkspawn problem has only gotten worse. All you've managed to do is build stronger walls for you to hide behind."

Eriana heard Nathaniel hiss angrily behind her, "I can take him out right now, Ana; just say the word."

Eriana crossed her arms and glanced down at the man, "And your solution to this problem was to attack us; well, that is beyond brilliant. So tell me, sir, should you succeed today in this ill advised attempt to overthrow us here, what would you do then, after you've killed the only people in the arling who are able to kill darkspawn without risk of succumbing to the taint?" The peasants glanced uneasily at each other, muttering softly.

"Let me assure you, sir," Eriana said, her voice strong but calm, "we are doing what we can to deal with this situation. But please remember, we are dealing with the remnants of the blight, a blight, you would be wise to remember that I was able to put an end to in less than a year rather than the decades that every other blight in the past has taken. A blight cannot be cleaned up in a day, a month, or even a year; in fact, there are places in Antiva that still bear the stain of the last blight. And though I understand your frustration and concern, this little uprising will do nothing but complicate an already difficult problem. So I'm left to wonder who exactly put you up to this and what their real goal was because whoever did it is not a true friend of yours."

The members of the mob looked at each other, talking quietly among themselves, a sense of shame passing over them. Behind her, Nathaniel, it seemed, had finally had enough. "Are you all a bunch of fools?" he shouted, stepping up beside the elf. "Why in Thedas are you still standing here? She just gave you the option of leaving with your lives. Don't you realize she could kill you all where you stand before you even realized she had moved?"

"Nathaniel, please," Eriana whispered, but he was too angry to be silenced.

"This woman put an end to the blight; she saved all your worthless lives and this is how you thank her. Maker's Breath, she is well within her rights to cut you all down as you stand for your treacherous actions here, but what does she do? She begs you to see logic and asks you to leave peacefully, and yet you still linger? Go, leave while you still have your pathetic lives before her patience finally wears thin."

The crowd looked from Nathaniel to Eriana to the group of Wardens and guards that had amassed behind them. A sudden realization seemed to click and slowly the courtyard emptied as the crowd dispersed. Eriana turned to look at Sigrun and Keenan, "Take a few of the guards and do a quick sweep of the land around the keep; these people didn't come here on their own. Someone may have used this to divert our attention while they snuck into the keep, so I need you all to check the yards and the walls as quickly as possible. Garevel, you and the rest of your men check the grounds within the keep after you've made sure everyone has left the keep; everyone report back to me in an hour."

Everyone nodded and moved to their separate tasks. "Do you have any idea as to who you might think is behind this?" Nathaniel asked moving up beside Eriana as they moved into the great hall, followed closely by Varel, Anders, and Oghren.

"I'm not sure if there's anything to this; it could just me being paranoid. Or maybe it was just someone trying to sow dissention within the arling." She sighed, "It could have just been genuine anger at the situation, too. This whole mess has to be frustrating to them; I know it has been for me." She ran a hand through her hair, settling on her neck in a gesture she had often seen Alistair make. "I am so not cut out for this."

"I echo that sentiment," a voice said from deep within the grand hall. Eriana's head shot up, and from the shadows stepped a familiar figure she didn't expect to see again for some time.

"Esmerelle," Eriana said, resting her hand lightly on the dagger at her hip. "I have to say, I'm surprised you had the nerve to show your face here; I thought you would have disappeared from Amaranthine the moment your little attack on me failed. It seems I underestimated how desperately you wanted me dead. This little rouse in the court yard was your doing, wasn't it?"

Esmerelle nodded, "So how many of those innocents did you kill this time, Warden?"

"Well, I'm sure you'll be upset to hear this, but none. Thankfully, they all came to their senses and left without things dissolving into violence. I'm sure that put a little kink into your plan, the blood of innocents would have painted me in such a tyrannical light, wouldn't it?"

Esmerelle smiled, "It would have made for a fitting epitaph, that's for sure, but no matter, they were merely a rouse, a way for me to slip in while all eyes were fixed on that mob of idiots."

"From innocents to idiots so quickly; it's good to see how much you value those you would see yourself ruling over," Eriana said with a smirk. Behind her, she heard Nathaniel draw his bow, and knew full well, the arrow was aimed for Esmerelle. She could also feel Anders' magic pulsating behind her, just waiting for a word from her before he hurled some spell at the ruined bann. "It's your move, Esmerelle; I imagine that you came here with some plan in mind, yes? So, what's your plan?"

"My plan is you pay for what you did," she snarled at the elf. "You murdered a good man in his home in cold blood, and everyone just looks the other way because you're some big hero. Well, I won't let you get away with it. Today you pay!"

"You've lost, Esmerelle," Eriana shouted, stepping toward the armored woman, ignoring the hissed protests from behind her. "You tried to conspire against me in secret and were discovered. Are you so proud that you can't admit defeat, or are you just so daft that you can't see when you've lost? You are alone, your cohorts either dead or fleeing; why don't you simply turn yourself in and accept your fate with dignity."

"I will never surrender to you, knife-ear. You die today."

Around Esmerelle, from the shadows, a group of armed guards emerged, weapons unsheathed, all staring at the elf. Eriana's weapons were out in a heartbeat, but she was so focused on the soldiers that she didn't hear the twang of the crossbow or Nathaniel's warning cry until it was too late, a bolt was already flying across the room, headed straight for her. Before she could react, Eriana found herself sprawled out on the floor, Varel laying on top of her, a crossbow bolt imbedded deep in the man's back, his blood pouring over her. "Anders," she cried out, but the mage was already there, his hands glowing with healing magic as Oghren and Justice charged toward Emerelle and the soldiers. Eriana scrambled quickly to her feet, grabbing the throwing knives that were strapped to her chest. Scanning the shadows, she saw second archer readying his weapon. Before he was able to even take aim, Eriana launched one of her knives across the room, getting a grim sense of satisfaction watching the man sink to the ground as her knife sunk into the man's skull.

Grabbing her daggers, she took up a defensive stance in front of where Anders was working desperately to save the seneschal as arrows and bolts flew across the room from every direction. Nathaniel shouted at her across the room, calling for her to take cover, but she wasn't leaving them unprotected, not after what Varel had just done for her. It didn't matter that every man there was out to kill her; she refused to run and hide and leave Varel and Anders vulnerable.

Just as Nathaniel's arrows took out the last archer, out of the shadows, a cloaked elven man wielding twin daggers appeared, moving directly toward her, an intense, focused look on his face. "Warden," he growled with a thick Antivan accent that made Eriana falter for a moment. It had been months since she had heard anyone speak with that accent, and even though it was coming from a man who was clearly about to kill her, it washed over her like the warming waters of the ocean. She was still thrown by the accent when the flash of his twin daggers drew her suddenly back into reality. Diving out of the way at the last second, Eriana was just able to barely dodge the attack; this wasn't Zevran, this wasn't training; this was a fight, a fight to the death. She had to keep that fact in mind as she and the assassin circled each other. But there was such familiarity in her movements that it was hard for her not to drop her guard. He lunged again, forcing her to the ground once again, rolling away from the attack. This time, though, he rounded on her before she had a chance to scramble back to her feet, pinning her to the ground, her arms trapped beneath her.

The assassin looked down at her and smiled beneath his cloak. "And here I thought that killing you would actually be a challenge. I suppose rumors of your prowess have been exaggerated," he said, looking down at her. Eriana struggled against his hold, but she was helpless. "Ah, kitten," he purred, "don't fight it; it hurts so much more when you fight it." He pulled a small dagger out of his cloak, and Eriana took a deep breath, her mind racing. This was it; there was nothing more she could do. She couldn't move; she couldn't fight back; she was going to die here. Her companions were all busy, fighting the soldiers; there was no one there to save her. She closed her eyes and tensed up, waiting for the inevitable end.

But it never came. Instead, she heard a dull thud and a low grunt. Opening one eye cautiously, she saw a knife lodged in the eye of the assassin. He swayed for a moment the toppled to the side off her. Looking up over her soldier, she saw Sigrun standing there, daggers in hand, a smug smile on her face as Keenan and a handful of keep guards ran past them to join the melee. "Tight spot Commander?" she asked, reaching down to pull Eriana to her feet.

"You could say that, thanks. How'd you know to come find me?"

"We found the entrance where they broke in and figured you could you use a hand." The dwarf smiled again. "I guess I was right; though you're the only one who seems to be having a problem."

Eriana glanced around the room and saw the last of the enemy soldiers go down. Nathaniel was running across the room, his eyes wide with fear. "Ana, are you okay; I saw him on you, and couldn't get a clean shot."

"I'm fine, thanks to Sigrun," she said, glancing around the room. "Esmerelle?"

"Dead, Oghren got her in a single blow. Swish and there went her head. You know, he gets really scary when people start threatening you." She smiled slightly, but that smile fell the moment her eyes fell on Anders and Varel. The mage was sitting back, wiping the sweat off his forehead while Varel's unmoving form lay on the ground in front of him. Eriana was at his side in a second, kneeling beside them to inspect her seneschal.

"Anders," she whispered, taking one of Varel's hands, "is he…"

"He'll make it. The bolt punctured a lung, but with a little rest, he'll be just fine."

Eriana released a breath that she didn't realize she had been holding as she lightly stroked his hand. "Thank the Maker." Suddenly, the reality of what just happened hit her, and she was unable to hold back the wave of emotion that crashed into her. "Why did he do this, throw himself between me and the assassin?"

"Eriana," Nathaniel said, putting a gentle hand on her shoulder, "if he hadn't stepped in front of that bolt, it would have it you in the head. You would have died instantly; he saved your life by throwing himself in front of you."

A sob racked through her. A human man, a man she had known mere months was willing die for her, willing to sacrifice his life to save hers. It was too much for her. "Anders…could you…would you stay with him, just to make sure? If something went wrong or something happened…"

"Ana, I'll take good care of him," the mage said with a reassuring smile.

"Thank you," she whispered. She wanted to get up, to follow the men with the liter carrying Varel, to make sure he was well cared for, but she found it quite impossible to move. She just sat there, staring blankly ahead, as everyone began to move around her, cleaning up the mess that the assassination attempt had left behind, inspecting the bodies for any important information. About ten minutes after the attack, Garevel came running into the keep, apologizing profusely for failing in his duty, vowing to protect her better in the future, offering to place a guard with her full-time, and pleading for her to forgive until Nathaniel finally pulled him away.

"Garevel, not now," he hissed before moving to the stunned elf's side. "Ana, honey," Nathaniel said, kneeling beside her, "do you need me to take you back to your room; do I need to get Soris for you?"

Eriana shook her head and took a deep breath, "No, not Soris…I haven't…we haven't…I just needed a minute. I mean, what would have happened if I had died and we hadn't…if the last thing we said to each other…" Her body shook as she rested her head on her knees. "I mean, I was so sure I was going to die, and I just…I just needed a minute to process it."

"Are you going to be okay? Is there anything you need?"

Sighing, she shook her head; getting to her feet, she began looking around. "No, I'll be fine, it was just a little too much to take. I'm mean, I was lying there, looking up at that man, and all I could think was, 'This is it; I'm going to die and there's nothing I can do about it.' I just felt so…helpless." She wiped the sweat off her forehead. "Did you happen to find Temmerly among the dead bodies?" She asked, trying to change the subject.

Nathaniel wasn't fooled, but thankfully, he went along with it. "No, there's no sign of him anywhere. It looks like he wasn't even here."

"When is this going to end?" she whispered to herself. Shaking her head, the elf knelt over to the body of the man who almost killed her. Pulling the hood off, she looked into his face for a moment before checking his arms for those all too familiar tattoos. An Antivan Crow, of course he was a Crow. "Don't these nobles know of any other assassin guilds," she muttered angrily to herself as she began searching the man. To her surprise, she found a signed copy of the contract with her name on it. She was so floored by it, she nearly dropped the piece of paper. In her time with Zevran, she had seen her fair share of Crow contracts, including the one he had accepted on her. She felt Nathaniel step up behind her, and she handed him the piece of paper.

"I thought you said the Crows wouldn't accept contracts on you."

"Yeah, well, that's what I thought."

"But this is a Crow…"

"I know what it is, Nathaniel," she shouted standing up, "and I know what it means, okay." Nathaniel started, taking a step away from her. "I'm sorry, Nate, I didn't mean to snap at you. I just…this could be bad. If the Crows are accepting new contracts on me…" She groaned, rubbing the back of her neck again. "Maybe I should take Garevel up on that offer of round the clock guard."

"Come on," he said, putting an arm around her, "it's been a hard day. I'll take care of this; why don't you go lie down?"

"No, I need to go check on Varel…"

"Anders has him well cared for. Now, I'm going to find Sigrun and send her up to make sure you're getting some rest, ok." She opened her mouth to protest. "No, you look like you're about to have a major break down. I'll take care of everything. Now go."

"Okay, dad, just make sure…"

"No, don't worry about anything, I've got everything covered. Now, I'm going to put some guards outside your door tonight, just in case there was something else we missed. I'll see you at breakfast in the morning, got it?"

Eriana smiled, gratefully. "Thank you, Nathaniel," she said turning to head up to her quarters. Stripping off her armor and leaving it for her chambermaid to clean, she quickly washed off and crawled into bed. If Sigrun ever came in to check on her, Eriana didn't know; the moment her head hit her pillow, she fell headlong into a deep and blissfully dreamless sleep.

-0-

"Eriana, can I talk to you for a minute," Soris timidly asked, walking up to his cousin the next morning. Eriana sighed and turned toward her cousin; she had been avoiding him since she got back from the Black Marshes two days ago. Nathaniel glanced up from his archery practice, an eyebrow raised in Eriana's direction. Making a face, Eriana hopped off the fence and moved to follow her cousin back into the keep.

"You wanted to talk," she said, crossing her arms under her chest, "so talk."

Soris faltered for a moment under her stern glare. "Ana, listen, I had no right to say what I did to you. It was thoughtless and harmful and down-right cruel."

"Agreed."

"And you have every right to ship me back to Denerim, but before you do just listen. When I found out who Nathaniel really was, well, it shook me to the core. I mean, I could tell how close you two had become, and I just couldn't believe that you trusted him as much as you did. I mean, after what his brother did to you…to see you sleeping with your head on his shoulder, Ana it was too much. It was like you had forgotten everything his kind put us through, everything his family put us through."

Eriana's jaw tightened. "And how the hell am I supposed to forget that? Maker's Balls, Soris, you weren't the one who was abused over and over by those people. You have no clue just how hard it was for me when Duncan first took me from the alienage. All of a sudden, I was surrounded by nothing but humans; you have no idea how terrifying that was for me or how long it took for me to even feel comfortable around them." Eriana shook her head. "But even after everything I've been through, I learned that not humans are bad; it's okay to trust some of them."

"I know, I know," Soris interrupted, "and I'm not blaming you for that. It's just going to take me some time, that's all. I've spent my entire life surrounded by nothing but elves, and the humans I did see, well, you know the humans I saw." Soris took her hands and looked down at her. "Look, Ana, I'm not defending my actions, not by a long shot; I was an ass, and I know it. I just hoped you'd be able to listen to me long enough to forgive me."

Eriana wrapped her arms around her cousin, "Soris, you were already forgiven. I totally understand why you reacted the way you did; it just hurt, you know, those things you said."

"I know," he said, kissing the top of her head. "I really screwed up there." He sighed and looked down at her, "So, are we good?"

Eriana nodded, "We're good. You can go back to force feeding me any time now."

"By the looks of things, I don't have to," Soris said, poking her lightly in the stomach, "I don't have to. I think your eating habits have started to return."

"Hey," she wined, aghast, "you are not calling me fat right after you apologized for being an insensitive jerk."

"Not at all," Soris said with a laugh. "I talked to Keenan when you all got back, and he said you had been eating just fine."

Eriana raised an eyebrow. "You talked to Keenan?"

"Yeah, well Sigrun and Anders were avoiding me as much as you were, so he was the only option left. You must have talked more to them about me than you did with Keenan."

Eriana laughed as the two of them walked back out to the practice area. "I hear you also cornered Nathaniel while I was gone. I have to say, that wasn't one of your smartest moves. He's a good man, but he was really put off with you when I left so pushing him to talk probably wasn't one of your smartest moves."

"Well, what can I say, I still thought he was sleeping with you, so I suppose I pushed a bit hard. Don't worry, it won't happen again," Soris said, glancing over at the archer who was eyeing them with a curious look. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I think I'll head inside and make sure Oghren isn't still angry with me too."

Eriana waved at him as he disappeared back inside; then hopped up on the fence to watch as Nathaniel continues his archery exercises. She had always been confident in her skills as an archer before, but next to Nathaniel, she felt as clumsy and heavy-handed as Alistair. He moved with a grace and speed she had never seen before, and she always enjoyed it when she had an opportunity to watch him with his bow.

"See something you like," Anders said as he walked up beside her, leaning back against the fence so he could look up at her.

"Now I do," Eriana said as she grinned down at him. From the archery range, Nathaniel let out a bark of laughter but wisely chose to remain otherwise silent. "How is Varel doing today?"

"He's fine, still not awake though. He probably won't wake up until later today."

"So if he's still unconscious," she said, turning to face him, a slight grin on her face, "then what are you doing out here? Aren't you supposed to be doing your healing thing."

"Well, there's only so much these hands can do. Besides, I wanted some fresh air, a little sunlight…a little you," he said, running a hand lightly up her back.

"Oh, brother," Nathaniel muttered, as he walked over from the archery range, leaning on the other side of the fence.

Eriana made a face at the rogue. "Not a word, Nathaniel. Not a word," she said, turning and slipping off the fence into Anders' arms. Resting a hand lightly on the mage's chest, "I'm sorry you've been cooped up all day; I know how anxious that makes you. I just feel so much better knowing you're watching over him, and after everything he did for me, I owe him that at least. And I want you to find me as soon as…" Eriana paused, stiffening slightly as a familiar feeling began surging through her blood; she closed her eyes, reaching out with the taint. "Do you feel that?"

Nathaniel noticed the change immediately and moved quickly to their side. "Darkspawn?"

Eriana opened her eyes and dashed out of the courtyard, running for the gates. The two men exchanged worried looks before grabbing his weapons and running after her.

-0-

Hey everyone. I hope you all enjoyed this latest update. I hope to have time to update several times this week. Let me give a special thanks to those of you who have been reading and reviewing. Your reviews mean so much to me. Eva Glana, Danyal, Judy, Kainen, and Jen, thank you all for your feedback. I know some of the relationship things might be a bit confusing, but it has a point, I swear. Just hang with me and it will make sense. Happy reading!