Elissa woke early, despite her exhaustion; she had not slept well, the event of the last few days weighed heavily on her mind. She lay for a few minutes, relishing the quiet as time seemed to stand still; she let her mind stay blank as she looked at the bare stone ceiling. Drake took her out of her daze as she climbed up on to the bed, whining as she buried her head under hand.
Elissa groaned as she sat up in the bed, she could feel her hair sticking up at odd angles at the cold air bit at her bare arms. She patted Drake lightly on the head as she swung her legs out, the cold stone floor sending a shock through her nerves making her feel more alert.
She quickly stood and moved on to the soft carpet, scrunching her toes in to the fabric, as she made her way towards the wardrobe; Isolde had had some clothes sent up for her the night before. She found a clean pair of soft and warm linen britches and a thick woollen tunic with cuffed sleeves.
When she stepped out in to the hallway she looked up to see Alistair sitting with his head resting on his knees, his hand resting loosely on top of his head. He looked up when he heard the sound of the latch of the door catching as it closed.
His skin was pale and his lips had a slight blue tint to them from the cold. His eye's where sullen with circles so dark underneath they could have been mistaken for bruises. "Alistair, are you alright?" she asked as she knelt down next to him.
"Well I've been worse." He said with a small smile as he dragged his hand threw his hair, making it stand up from his head. "What times is it?" he asked his eye brown creasing as he squeezed his eye shut.
"The bells run prime not long ago." She said placing her hand on top of his. "Your freezing." She stood quickly and went back to her room, pulling the blanket off of the bed; bring it out in to the hall before draping it over the warden. He started to shiver as the heat began to return to his body.
"M-much bet-ter." He said hugging the blanket to himself.
Elissa sighed as she rubbed his covered arms in an attempt to warm him up. "I'm going to get you something to warm you up," she looked at her Mabari who had sat watching the scene quietly, "Drake, come here and warm him up." Drake chuffed before walking over and climbing in to the warden's lap.
Elissa quickly made her way down to the kitchen, all of the main rooms had been cleared he night before, and a handful of villagers had been hired to help staff the castle, which was now full of Knights that had been recalled back to Redcliffe.
The bottom floors of the castle where fully awake as the small staff in the kitchen where preparing breakfast. Grabbing a bowl of porridge and some honey she quickly ran back up stairs where Alistair sat with Drake still in his lap.
"Here this should help." She sat with him as he slowly began to eat. "Feeling better?" she asked when he had finished eating; he hummed and nodded in lieu of speaking.
"Do you know how Connor is doing?" Elissa asked.
"The Arlessa went in to check on him a few minutes ago, she seems to help keep him grounded." Alistair explained as he tried to scrub the weariness from his face.
"Is it easier to…do whatever templar thing you are doing while she is there?"
"Yes, but it's getting harder to stay as focused on it. The food has helped though, thank you."
"I am happy to help."
They sat together as the rest of the castle slowly woke up and began to go about their chores; they watched the servants as they busied themselves with cleaning, laughing and commenting on the various conversations that they could over hear. The sun rose higher into the sky, until the Chantry bell ring for noon. They both sat expectantly, waiting for the others return with the mage's from the tower.
Elissa cast a worried look to Alistair; beads of sweat had begun to appear on his brow, as his face became paler and his hands took on a slight tremor.
"Alistair?" she called softly, nudging him slightly when she did not get a response. "Are you alright?"
"Yes," he said as he clenched his hands to stop the tremor. "It's just… taking a lot of effort at the moment. But don't worry the other will be here soon." he gave her a small smile as he tried to relax his body.
"I'm going to find out if there has been any sign on the others returning, I won't be long." She stood up carefully allowing her legs to get used to walking again.
She searched through the castle trying to find Ser Perth and Morrigan. She found Ser Perth first standing in the main hall as he updated the returning Knights and appointed them tasks and patrol roots.
"Ser Perth? Has there been any sign of the others returning?" she asked.
"I'm afraid not, my Lady, so far we have received no word on any returning boats."
"Teagan said that they would have returned by now…" Elissa sighed out as she worried her lip.
"Sadly there is little we can do for now, we must simply wait until they return."
"Thank you, Ser Perth." She said before she left to find Morrigan. She found her and the other mage, Jowan, sitting in the Arl's study.
"Morrigan?" she question as she stepped inside.
"Yes." The woman, Morrigan, drawled out as she looked up from the book she had been studying.
"I wish to speak with you and Jowan." She stated glancing over to the other mage who was sitting quietly in the corner.
"And what, pray tell, would a noble wish to speak to an apostate and a blood mage about?" Morrigan asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Alistair, there had to be a way to help him, he looks ill, I do not think he'll be able to keep this up much longer."
"Well that 'tis why we are still here, should he fail, we will have to perform the blood ritual. That or kill the boy." Morrigan stated plainly. "And if what you say is true it seems we may have to start preparing." Morrigan stood and looked over towards the other mage, Jowan, "Well come on fool mage, it would seem we have a ritual to prepare."
Elissa watched them go, biting her lip, before she return to the second floor, sitting down next to Alistair and Drake. "Morrigan and Jowan are getting ready to perform the blood ritual."
"What?!" Alistair shouted as his back shoot up straight.
"The other should have returned by now, and I don't know how long you are going to be able to keep this up. There is still time but, it might be the only option."
"I'm not let Isolde do that, Eamon's done too much for me to let his wife become an ingredient in a blood magic ritual."
"You know the Arl?" she question with a raised eyebrow.
"Yes, he knew my mother," he said, "Not in the way you might think!" he hastily added catching the surprised twitch on her face. "My mother worked here, and the Arl took me in when she died." He explained.
"I thought you lived in the monastery?"
"O, I did, but I lived here until I was ten."
Elissa looked carefully at Alistair, taking in the lack of lines on his face, his hair sticking out at odd angles and dark circles under his eyes. She guessed he couldn't have been much older than Aeden, twenty or twenty one, which meant that the Arl and his wife sent him away when the Arlessa became pregnant with Connor. A twinge of hurt shot through her at the thought of a younger Alistair being sent away; followed by the memory of her brother, she swallowed thickly as she tried to push back the swell of emotion that was building in her throat. She had avoiding thinking of the family that she had left behind; the chaos of the few days had allowed her a rest bite from the grief.
Alistair notice change in the Nobel's stance and how she seemed to shrink in on herself. Alistair felt a rush of adrenalin as he built up the nerve to speak, "Please don't say anything stupid…" he thought as he spoke. "Lyna told me about what happened in Highever; if there's anything we can do to help, we will."
Elissa rubbed as her damping eyes before she looked back up to the warden "Thank you," she whispered, "Once Eamon is well I'm going to head back up to Highever; I need to see for myself what has being of the castle, and my family. There's a chance that everything I have heard has been wrong, and they'll still alive." She took a deep breath, she hadn't voice her doubt about the events at Highever, nor had she informed the others of her plan to return to her home. "I cannot go without the support of Arl Eamon and a few of his men."
"I hope you are right." Alistair replied, knowing that the chances of the news being wrong were slim, but he didn't want to be the one to crush the small hope Elissa held.
"Is this the first time you've been back to Redcliffe?" she ask after a brief silence.
"Ah- yes, didn't really have much of an occasion to return." Alistair stammered out nervously ruffling his hair. "Too busy scoring the pots." He joked.
"What this? Brave warden and almost noble templar getting sent to the kitchens?" Elissa bantered back.
"Ha- yes, well boys will be boys…"
"I'm quite familiar with that sentiment." Elissa said with a fond smile.
"Well the monastery wasn't too bad; I actually enjoyed all the training and the schooling. It took a while though, I was determined to be angry when I got there," Elissa watched as he drew his eyebrows down together, creasing his forehead. "Stupidly, I broke this necklace of my mothers with Andraste's symbol on it."
They sat and continued to speak of memories of their childhood as the sun got lower in the sky. As the Chantry bells rang vespers and Elissa began to bite her lip nervously as the time passed, anxiously waiting for the others to return, she could see the strain of concentration on Alistair's face as forced himself to keep up the vigil, beads of sweat slowly made their way down his brow.
"My legs are asleep." He complained after a while, he grimaced as he stumbled up onto his feet, hissing slightly as pain shot through his leg due to lack of use.
"Mine too," Elissa sympathised as stood and stretched her legs.
They both turned, looking down the empty corridor, when they heard the quickened steps on the stairs. Morrigan appeared at the top and continued to move quickly towards them. "They're back, we must bring the boy."
Alistair felt a wash of relief run over him like cool water, his muscles all relaxed at once as he allowed the humming of the lyrium quite in his body. He was vaguely aware of falling; of feeling himself hit the ground, of worried voices, but it didn't matter… he could rest.
Kinda meant to put this up last week but got caught up in writing and thing, I've gotten a good bit written, you'll be happy to kno. So, do we think our friends have returned with the mages? or did they have to kill them all?