Alistair walked out to the terrace, and spotted Loghain right away; he was sitting with one hip perched on the balustrade, twisted sideways to look out over the gardens. They were beautiful, Alistair thought, even as he cleared his throat to attract the commander's attention.
"Yes?" Loghain said, without turning to look and see who it was.
"The Seneschal sent word that he assumed you would want to dine with your wardens, and has arranged a dinner in the small dining room accordingly. Or if you would rather dine alone, he can change arrangements."
"No, that's fine. I suppose I should bathe and change."
"I've put out clothes for you, and started the bath filling."
That made Loghain turn and look at him, one eyebrow raising slightly, then he gave a small nod of his head. "You're thinking ahead. Good," he said approvingly, then rose and walked indoors.
Alistair flushed slightly, but once again found himself feeling pleased about having won the man's approval. It was not an easy thing to earn, he'd noticed. He walked over to the balustrade and stood looking out over the gardens for a while, admiring how lovely they were, before returning back indoors himself, and busying himself putting away his own belongings in the small clothes-press that had appeared in the foyer along with the delivery of a bed and bedding.
He had just finished and was laying out clothing of his own to change into when Loghain appeared in the door to the sitting room, hair still damp and loose, but changed into his own clothing, a simple tunic of dark blue cloth over black leggings, the griffon of the wardens picked out in silver thread on the breast, and soft indoor shoes of black suede. "Make use of the bathing chamber yourself, if you'd like, there should be enough time," he said.
"Thank you, I will," Alistair agreed, and quickly gathered up clothing and toiletries to go do just that.
The small dining room proved to be large enough to hold at least a dozen people. The other four wardens were already there and seated when the two of them arrived, and rose to their feet as they entered. Loghain smiled. "Lem, Wilf, Gabe, Bekka..." And paused, staring for a moment at the young boy between the pair of them; about eleven or twelve years of age, with his mother's dark hair and his father's freckles. "Ah. And this is your younger son, isn't it? The one who went for help?"
"Yes, ser," the boy himself answered, and flushed red. "And got lost."
Loghain's brows rose slightly. "And got yourself unlost, all on your own, from what I heard."
"Yeah, but maybe if I hadn't gotten lost..." He stopped, trailing off, his flush darkening. Clearly he blamed himself for his older brother's death.
Loghain glanced at the boy's parents, then turned his attention back to him. "I'm going to tell you something that's hard to hear, but it's the truth. Even if you hadn't gotten lost, your brother would most likely already have been dead before any help could reach him. Darkspawn don't keep people as prisoners; or at least, not for long. Also, you know that your parents and the others all became very sick from having been around darkspawn? The same would have happened to him, so even if by some miracle we'd found him still alive and unharmed, he still might not have lived. You did your best, and sometimes that's all we can do."
The boy's chin set stubbornly, as if he didn't want to believe what Loghain had said, but he also looked at least a little thoughtful; he was at least considering what Loghain had told him.
"Now... what's your name?" Loghain asked him.
"Sean... ser."
"Well, Sean. Why don't we all sit down, so the servants can bring out our dinner. And then we're going to have to figure out what to do with you. Being a warden is not like being a hunter; you won't be able to stay with your parents when they're out on patrol," he said, as he moved to take his own seat, everyone else following suit.
"Maybe we should ship him off back to Vigil's Keep with the rest of our extra belongings," Lem said as he took his own seat, grinning, and earning a dirty look from the boy, an amused look from his father, and a pained one from his mother.
Loghain's lips twitched. "That's actually not all that far off of what I'm thinking might be the most suitable solution," he said to Alistair's surprise, then looked at the boy's parent's. "Bekka, with that broken arm you're best off not adventuring for a while; our healers tend to prefer to allow bone to heal naturally, whenever there's the time for it; they tell me it makes for a sounder limb than if it's healed magically. I need to send messages north anyway, to both Denerim and Vigil's Keep, along with all the belongings of you four. I think it makes sense to send you two and Sean north as messengers. You'll have time to heal, and to get settled in to your choice of an indoor suite or a separate cottage in the bailey, whichever you think would suit you better. By the time you're needed out on patrol, we'll have been able to work out who can keep an eye on Sean while you're away. Or do you have family somewhere you'd rather send him to?"
Bekka and Gabe exchanged a look. It was Bekka that answered for the pair of them. "We'd prefer to keep him with us. Thank you."
Loghain nodded. "You didn't have much choice about becoming wardens, I know, but we try to give you as much choice as we can in other matters. I'll see that arrangements are made for your trip north then; likely you'll go by ship from here to Denerim, and then you and all our assorted goods by waggon from there. When you leave will depend on when there's next a ship departing northwards from here; there's usually at least one a week, during prime shipping weather, so it's unlikely that you'll have too long a wait. You'll stay here until it's time for you to depart."
The pair nodded. "I've never been to sea before," Gabe said, sounding a little dubious at the prospect.
"I have," Bekka said, and made a face. "It's not too bad, at least once you get past the first day or two of it."
"What about Wilf and me? What'll we be doing?" Lem asked.
"I think I'll be keeping the pair of you with Alistair and I for now; Nathaniel and Oghren's groups will be staying here, to oversee sealing off that cave again, and then searching up north to be sure that our blasting didn't leave any new openings. The army will be staying here as well, to help with both. Alistair and I have an additional trip to make while we're here in the south, heading west into the wilds; I was thinking it would be best if there was more than just the two of us, so since Gabe and Bekka are heading north, that makes you two the obvious choice to accompany us."
"The Wilds, eh? I've been there before," Lem said. "Though mostly I did my hunting and trapping more to the northwest; the Chasind don't much care for non-Chasind wandering around in what they consider their lands."
"Neither would I, if I was Chasind," Loghain observed, then cut into the herb-crusted squab on his plate. "But we're unlikely to encounter many on this trip; they avoid the blighted lands."
"The blighted..." Lem broke off, looking disconcerted, then smiled crookedly. "I would too, if I was them."
Loghain smiled, looking amused at Lem's paraphrase. "At least as wardens we have little to fear there. The blight cannot harm us."
"So what are we going there about?" Lem asked, leaning his forearms on the table as he looked questioningly at Loghain.
"Ostagar. We need to establish a warden outpost in the south, and it's been suggested by several people that the Tower of Ishal at Ostagar would be a suitable location. It's fairly central to the southlands, a good defensible location, and is still in reparable condition as far as we know. It's also well situated for keeping an eye on the blighted lands, and hopefully doing something to seal off any openings to the Deep Roads that remain from when the darkspawn emerged. But before I come to any decision, I want to go and take a look at the tower for myself."
"That sounds sensible," Lem agreed, and turned his attention back to his meal, stabbing a forkful of green beans.
"I'm glad you approve," Loghain said dryly. "It will be at least a few days until we leave, most likely. I'll need to sort out things here before I can go elsewhere. Unless something else comes up at the cave or up north that needs my attention we'll be staying here at the manor until it's time to depart."
Lem nodded. Wilf looked up, frowning and chewing on his lip. "Can I visit Reet more while we're here?"
"Yes, you'll have free time every day to do things you want to. Which leads me to the subject of training; as wardens, you're all expected to keep yourself well-trained in your preferred weapon, and hopefully learn additional skills, as time permits. Alistair and I will be practising every morning before breakfast; I'd like to see all of you doing the same, though Bekka is currently excused from practise while her arm heals. Though if you would like to practise one-handed fighting, I certainly would encourage it; knowing how to fight well with a secondary weapon when you're injured and unable to use your primary one could save your life some day."
Bekka nodded. "I'm handy with a knife; mostly with this hand though," she said, tapping one finger to the splinted arm. "You're right though, learning how to fight with offhand as well wouldn't hurt any. I'll do it," she said stoutly, earning a slight smile and approving nod from Loghain.
"Good," he said, then looked at the others. "Do any of the rest of you have a second weapon you're also good with?"
Gabe shook his head. "Only knife work I ever do is skinning animals. Bow is all I know."
"I tried a sword for a bit when I was younger; thought of being a mercenary, you know what young boys are like," Lem said, then grinned.. "Wasn't any good at it. Told to stick to a bow, less chance of slicing my own fingers off."
"Don't know anything but my hammer," Wilf said.
Loghain nodded. "Well, we'll see if there's something else you can pick up later, perhaps," he said. "For now just staying in practise with your current weapon is enough. I'll expect to see all of you practising tomorrow morning, for at least an hour; beyond that the day is yours to do with as you wish, though I'd ask that if you leave the manor grounds, you leave word as to where you've gone. If something comes up and I need you quickly, I want to be able to find you."
They all murmured assent. Loghain nodded. "Good. I'd prefer we eat a meal as a group at least once a day; I'm going to say breakfasts since we should all be on hand at that time of day. You may chose whether or not to eat here or elsewhere for other meals, and whether to eat in your own rooms or here. Wilf, Lem, I'll want you to accompany Alistair and I into the city tomorrow after breakfast, so we can look into getting armour of some kind for you two. Gabe and Bekka, you should have no need for any until after you're up north anyway, and our armourer there can kit you out with our official armour."
Everyone nodded again.
"Good," he said, and then smiled. "And now I suppose we should see what they're giving us for dessert."