Magister Denailah was not usually the type of person to get her own hands dirty if it could be absolutely avoided. She was the type of woman that kept her nails perfectly even and manicured without a spec of dirt to be found. Furthermore, the tending of her nails was not usually a task she did herself, having plenty of servants and apprentices hanging about more than willing to attend the task for her. On this occasion however, she was willing to risk damaging those perfect nails in a last ditch effort to keep from having her entire life ruined. Stooping to the level of thug work that she was about to participate in was fully justified if success meant that she wouldn't be subjected to the loss of public station back in the Imperium, which was a startling realistic problem at this moment in time.
Her little business had been doing quite well. The money that she had borrowed to start off the whole thing had already paid itself back with the blood money of slaves from Ferelden. The elves that were coming in on a regular basis were so much healthier than the ones bred at home, and each new shipment had sold out at an astonishing rate. She could charge ridiculous sums for the elves since they were such good condition, and life had been easy and plenty full of money. If the operation could have just continued that way for a while longer...
But the shipments started coming back half full and her men were dwindling rapidly in numbers. Even sending Lloyd, one of her rising pupils, hadn't been enough to stop the downward slide of her profit margin and he had died in the attempt to fix whatever problem was gumming up the operation. She was literally scraping the bottom of the barrel now and paying out the nose for it with no noticeable improvement to her bottom line. She'd even had to take out a loan to try and hire a better task force, but whoever was stealing her slaves and killing her men, her expensive men, weren't giving up without a battle. She didn't so much care for their lives as she did for the wasted money that had been flying out of her starving coin purse. Now the person she'd gotten the loan from was asking for repayment and she didn't have anything left to give. To make matters worse, he had been very clear that if she couldn't pay her dues then there was no guarantee that she wouldn't end up in chains herself for a start in paying off the debt. If appearing in Ferelden herself didn't get the job done, then there was simply no going home.
It was an all-or-nothing gamble, and she had no choice but to roll the dice.
•º•.•º•
It was a breezy evening, the wind off the ocean blowing away the smell of city stench that usually followed after a heavy downpour in Denerim. Kallian was taking advantage of the rarity, lounging on the roof of the Cousland manor house, a heel of bread in hand and just looked out over the city. Up here behind the thick walls surrounding the manor, it was quiet. Removed from the hustle and bustle of the city below, it was peaceful, almost serene in its quietness.
She had been sitting there perhaps an hour or more when her keen eye for detail finally broke through the lull and she was alerted to something moving on the edge of the perimeter. Kallian stiffened and got down low against the roof to keep hidden, looking sharply for whatever had alerted her. Painfully long moments passed and nothing happened until she began to question whether she'd even seen anything at all. Then a shadow within a shadow shifted, and she tracked the movement. Whoever it was knew what they were doing, sticking to the wall near the small entrance and keeping to the shadows, unseen by a less perceptive eye. The garden maze gave a perfect place to take cover from unwanted eyes and the shadow slipped away from the protection of the wall, into the maze.
Her curiosity piqued, Kallian made a silent rush to the edge of the manor, quickly scaling the wall and was down to the bottom in no time. She crouched low and kept to the wall of the manor as she made her way to the entrance of the maze, keeping her back to the light and stopped to listen. There was silence for a long time, then the rustle of leaves and the snap of a branch. Knowing which way to go, Kallian navigated the maze with practiced ease, her feet carrying her lightly over the fine gravel that would otherwise betray her by making noise that would give away her position. Something told her to stop and she quickly came to a halt, not even daring to breathe with her hands within twitching distance of her sword hilts.
In the next row over she heard an exhale and a boot stepping forward toward the end of the row. Whoever it was would round the corner, and Kallian would be there to surprise them. The sound of another step came from the bushes, another, they were about to round the corner…
Kallian struck, unsheathing her blades and sprung toward the intruder with a flurry of motion. She met resistance, the screech of metal on metal sounding as her swords met with her opponent's and they were suddenly engaged in battle, the intruder obviously having heard her come from around the corner and had prepared for it. She only knocked off another hit against his blades before quickly shuffling back in a defensive stance, staring wide-eyed at the blonde Dalish elf staring right back at her.
"Theron you bloody rat scab, I almost gutted you." She bit out, sheathing her blades a little harder than was necessary and Theron did the same, putting his weapons away. "What in the name of Holy Andraste's hairy teats are you doin' sneakin' around in the dark like this?"
The Dalish leveled an unimpressed look at her choice of words. "I saw somebody on the roof. I didn't realize it was you."
Kallian heaved a sigh, puffing her bangs out of her eyes. "Sure, sure. But the better question is, what're you doin' back in Denerim? I thought you'd be minin' fer darkspawn still."
Theron's face clearly depicted just how disgusted he was at the thought of staying in the Deep Roads any longer than he had to. "We finished what we set out to do at Orzammar, and now we're here to finish what we started and get all of Ferelden to rally against the Blight. Arl Eamon is only a day or two behind."
"An' Basher an' Ammy? They okay?" Her tone betrayed some of her eagerness to hear news, having not heard a peep since they'd left. She hadn't expected letters of course. It would have been too dangerous to be communicating with the elves in the estate while they were trying to covertly get across Ferelden without attracting undue attention.
"They seemed fine." Theron replied shortly, not one to keep others in suspense for very long. "They appear to have picked up a lost relative. Aedan's elder brother, if I'm not mistaken."
Kallian whistled, surprised. "Really? They found him? Well I'll be… Good for Basher. But you said that Eamon was a day behind. Why didn't he just come with?"
"Took too long." He replied with little emotion, not particularly wanting to go through the details with the inquisitive elf. "The others are outside the city waiting for me. I came ahead to announce ourselves and make sure that the manor was still safe."
"Eh, what's a few more bodies?" Kallian noticed the abrupt change in subject, but was content to let it drop for now. If the Wardens didn't have any business for a couple of days, then she figured that there would be plenty of time for her to whittle away at Theron until she got all she wanted to know out of him.
For the first time in months, Kallian left Denerim, walking through the front gates with Theron leading the way. They found the Warden's camp just outside the walls in the forest a small distance from the main road and were greeted by Alistair and Falonfen, the mabari hound giving Kallian a thorough sniffing over before allowing her to enter camp. The first thing she noticed was that they all looked like they'd seen better days, obviously worn out from traveling and their gear was in a state of disrepair that bordered on inexcusable. Even the peppy Alistair seemed beaten down by the gloomy atmosphere.
Two new people looked back at her with the same curiosity that Kallian showed, not remembering the redheaded dwarf from last time. Lurking on the outskirts of the circle of companions was a giant humanoid stone statue with glowing crystals. At first she thought that the thing was inanimate, then it suddenly shifted, looking into the woods like it had heard something before resuming its former pose. "Maker's breath, what is that?" She hissed quietly to Theron, staring openly at the moving rock.
"That," He replied with a small grin "is Shale. A golem, one of the dwarven constructs that helped them to push back the darkspawn in the Deep Roads. Just careful mentioning anything about birds around her."
"Her?" Kallian seemed bewildered that a hunk of moving rock could have a gender at all, let alone female.
"Sure. Shale doesn't particularly care if we call her a her, or a he, or an it. She doesn't remember what she was before she was a golem." Theron supplied, walking to what was apparently his spot in the camp and picked up a heavy looking pack full of supplies. "Everyone pack up, we're headed into the city." The order was met with activity, the others in the group gathering what supplies they had and getting things in order to be ready to move out.
"Not to burst your bubble here…" Kallian moved to Theron's side, speaking quietly and still shooting looks at Shale, bewildered by the stone behemoth. "But you guys aren't exactly an inconspicuous group."
Theron looked over his rag-tag team and shrugged as if it didn't matter. "There's not much we can do about it. We've gotten through Denerim's gate's before, we'll do it again."
In the end Kallian convinced them that it would be dangerous to try and walk through the front gates with a golem, and a merchant dwarf that had apparently been traveling with the Wardens on and off through the past year offered his cart space. Shale reluctantly agreed after Theron spent nearly half an hour convincing her that it wasn't that he feared for the golem's safety, but that of the rest of the town. The cart protested Shale's weight but they got the golem in and concealed and managed to get through the front gates and avoid being harassed by the guards.
Once back inside the Highever compound Shale was released and the others went ahead to claim sleeping spaces inside the manor. Theron stayed behind to talk to the merchant that had accompanied him and after their conversation joined Kallian by the front gate, checking to see if anyone had taken peculiar interest in the event that had just unfolded.
"So." Kallian began, swinging the huge gates shut and locking them tight once the dwarf merchant was on his way, back to join the fuss in the market square. "What was it like? Orzammar, I mean. I heard that they've a whole city bigger than Denerim under a mountain."
Theron's response was a blustery sigh and a disgusted look. "The reality is worse than the rumors." The statement only served to make Kallian more curious, and sensing that avoiding the subject would be futile, he turned to head for the backyard, Kallian following easily. "The city is indeed under a mountain. Their lives revolve completely around the stone. Their houses are carved into the sides of the mountain… even their beds are made of stone. How any dwarf gets a decent night's sleep is utterly beyond me." They were well away from the front gate now, and Theron wandered into the maze behind the manor, glad to be among living green things even if they were just decorative bushes. "To make matters worse, the whole city is hot as a smithy. The dwarves have solved their problem of needing light by allowing lava to flow down their walls and form in great lakes at the bottom of the city. It's a miracle that the whole of Orzammar doesn't slide into the lava and perish."
"Wow… Seems like you really didn't like the place, huh?" Kallian quipped, silently wondering if an extended stay in a city that he obviously hated so much had put him and his whole group in such down spirits. Honestly, she doubted it to be the true reason.
"Elves weren't meant to live underground." Was the short terse reply that Theron gave. He stopped when they came to a T-intersection with only the choice to go left or right. "It's been a long week." He finally admitted in a quiet voice, threading his fingers through his short hair and turned to face Kallian. "Thank you for your hospitality. I think I'll go sleep off the past few days now." With a nod Theron left, going back the way that they'd come and leaving Kallian to her own thoughts, wondering what exactly had transpired since the last time that they'd seen the Wardens.
•º•.•º•
After having no success in subtly or otherwise not-so-subtly extracting information from the Warden's group, Kallain had taken to the city and done some scouting, planning on keeping herself busy while she came up with new strategies for figuring out how to find what she wanted. Her first attempts at finding out from Bodahn were less than successful. He was more prone to talking than anyone else, but he was skimpy on the details that she really wanted to know. Sure, he was great for telling all about where they'd been and the end result of things, but apparently the dwarf trader didn't actually go on any adventures himself, preferring to stay safely away from the best of the action.
Zevran had been a hopeful target of her inquiry, but in the end he declined to reveal any more than she already knew, turning the subject to massage techniques whenever she started asking questions that would lead to anything useful. When she blatantly asked why he was avoiding the subject, she got a rather disheartening reply.
"I owe our dear Warden a great debt. If he doesn't want you to know, then I am not the one to tell you." Then promptly launched into a tale about the time that he had given false information to an inquisitor who had used some rather unconventional techniques to try and convince him to give up his real objective. Kallian left it at that and tried stirring up conversation with the other members of the party, but got more or less the same response. Whatever had happened in Orzammar was apparently staying in Orzammar. Typical.
Afterwards, she took some of her frustration out on a couple of human urchins that had been creeping in on Knifer territory around the marketplace and sent them scampering away with their tails between their legs. Otherwise her day was uneventful and she only came back to the manor because she was tired of pointlessly running around roofs all day.
The moon was high in the sky by the time that she made it through the side gate and back into the Highever compound and was dead-set on a path to lead her back into her room. She consoled herself by optimistically hoping that a good night's sleep would put all of their guests in a better mood to open up and talk about their journey. If not, then she was not above boozing the lot of them as a last resort. She had just entered the hallway to her own room and was in the process of removing her sword belts when one of the doors suddenly banged open and a shirtless Theron stomped into the hallway, not evening noticing Kallian and headed to the back of the manor, straight on a path that would lead him outside.
Startled and curious, Kallian peeked inside Theron's room to make sure that there were no strangled assassins in there that he had possibly just killed before slinging her swords over her shoulder and followed along quietly after the Dalish, keeping far behind. Her stealth wasn't really needed, for Theron didn't even so much as glance over his shoulder the whole way, walking straight outside and made a b-line for the garden. She lost him briefly after the entrance to the maze, but only had to follow the sound of his bare feet on the fine gravel to find where he'd gone again.
When she found him, he was sitting on one of the stone benches that marked a dead end, bowed over with his head in his hands over his eyes and what appeared to be a locket clutched tightly in his right hand. In the pale moonlight he almost looked like a specter with his nearly white hair and pale skin, the scars of many battles standing as reminders of past hardships. One in particular caught her eye, a large scar that wrapped around his upper forearm that marred what had once been a scrawling tattoo in the same style as the one on his face. It looked like a bite, but was much larger than the one that belonged to any animal Kallian knew of. Before she could ask about it, she would have to see what all the stomping and door slamming was about.
After standing just around the corner for a few silent moments and Theron not moving an inch, Kallian decided to make herself known, purposely scuffing her boot in the gravel. Theron's reaction was instantaneous, on his feet in the blink of an eye and ready for battle, his hands going for weapons that weren't there.
When he saw that it was only Kallian he relaxed a fraction, sitting back down on the bench. "What do you want?" His rolling Dalish accent was back in full, a change from the neutral accent he had sported earlier in the day when his concentration had been better.
Kallian stepped into the light of the moon, her back to the nearest bush. "I saw you leave the manor." She replied unhelpfully, nodding her head toward the general direction from which he'd come. "I was concerned. I don't usually see ya get up an' run like that."
Theron stared at her like he didn't believe her, then heaved a heavy sigh and dropped his head back into his hands. "It's fine. Just leave me be."
She frowned at that, coming closer and inviting herself to sit down next to him, which earned her a poisonous glare. "So, you get up in the middle 'o the night an' run around half-clothed all the time, eh? That don't sound fine to me."
"Look, I appreciate your concern, but it's not something you can help with." He replied and stood, tense from head to toe and looking like he wanted nothing but the flee the scene. In a quieter tone that he probably thought she couldn't hear, he said: "It's not something anyone can help me with."
Kallian stood slowly, her hands open like she was trying to calm a scared animal. "Whatever it is, it's eatin' you." She said in a soft tone, trying to meet Theron's eyes and only being partially successful at the attempt. "I'm pretty good with handlin' tragedy. Why don't you try me?"
Theron met her stare with one of his own, his eyes pitch black in the darkness of the night and was silent for so long that Kallian was sure that he was going to retreat again, perhaps this time for good. She thought she'd lost him when he turned as if to leave, but he didn't retreat any futher, just stood there and looked up at the sky.
"Ever since I became a Warden, I've done nothing but fight." He began in a quiet voice, barely audible even in the silence of the maze garden. "Becoming a Warden saved my life. I gave up everything to become what I am now… my family, friends, history, everything. But I lived on when others died. It is a great honor to be a Warden. Seldom are we picked for greatness instead of clawing our way to the top, but here was this opportunity given to me by a stroke of bad luck." A bitter chuckle escaped him, and he touched the scar on his arm that looked like a bite, looking at Kallian over his shoulder, the tattoo across his shoulder blades shifting as he did so. "It's not just darkspawn that I've slew on this journey. Men, elves, dwarves, and even myths like dragons and werewolves have fallen to these bloodied hands. I was bitten by one, a werewolf, and surely would have turned into one of those creatures if the Taint that flows in my veins would allow me to be two monsters at once. I had to choose revenge for my people, or saving myself so that the mission could continue. But that was not the hardest choice that I've had to make.
"Seeing humans die is no horrible tragedy, and the elves that ally themselves are little better. Dwarves hold no place in my heart for pity, and it is a joy to slay the darkspawn. Except for one." Here he paused, clenching his fists and turned fully to face Kallian. "When Duncan found me, the Grey Warden that led the Ferelden branch, I had suffered a grievous affliction of the Taint. I would have died within a fortnight if he hadn't taken me as part of the order. But that day there was another whom I called brother. I thought he had died that day, but fate was not so kind." His tone became bitter, his words bitten off as if it were hard to get them out. "He lived, and we were reunited, but it wasn't a heartfelt meeting. Do you know what happens to people who survive the Taint once afflicted?"
Kallian was silent for a moment. "I hadn't heard of any survivors." She responded quietly, hoping he wouldn't begrudge her lack of knowledge and decide that explaining was a lost cause.
"They normally don't." He supplied, the bitter tone of his voice tempered somewhat. "But when they do, they become something not quite living. They are transformed by the darkspawn blood, changed into a thoughtless creature that performs as the archdemon instructs, killing and pillaging like any other darkspawn. I knew this, and yet when I saw Tamlen I… hesitated. He was a ghoul and wanted nothing more than to rip out my heart, but still I couldn't put the sword to him. Couldn't put him out of his misery, misery that I had caused!" Theron visibly trembled, and seeing that Kallian didn't even need him to explain just who Tamlen was. Whoever it had been to the Dalish, obviously it was somebody he had cared about greatly to produce such a strong reaction. "There was just enough left of him that he knew what he was… Leliana had to do it for me." He finally admitted, shame in his voice. "An arrow in his chest put him down when he attacked me and still I could not bear arms against him. He died, and thanked me for an end to his suffering…"
Theron abruptly turned and started walking away, angrily pushing back his hair, leaving a startled Kallian to catch up with him. "I wouldn't have been able to do it." She said quietly, walking just a step behind him. "If it were one of my cousins, or Ammy."
"I was weak." He bit back bitterly, continuing his path. "A Grey Warden is many things, but not weak. You asked once why we aren't called the Red Wardens, but now I know why. We walk the razor's edge between light and darkness. We are monsters of a different kind. There is no right or wrong, there is only the Blight, the darkspawn, and what we must do to stop it, whatever the cost. There is no room for weakness. Duncan knew that when he pulled me away from my clan. I hated him for that coldness, but now I see why it was necessary."
They walked in silence for a while, taking what seemed like a random path through the maze with no particular direction or goal in mind when Kallian finally filled the silence. "When my ma was still alive, she told me somethin' once. 'Don't mistake compassion for weakness, Kallian', she said. She'd nearly bungled a job because she went back for her runnin' mate, who'd gotten caught in a trap and was hurt somethin' fierce. He died of his injuries later, but she didn't beat herself up about it, just sad that she couldn't save 'im sooner." She waited a moment to let the message sink in, then reached out and lightly touched Theron on the arm, making him look at her. "This life ain't all roses, but if you get mean an stop carin' 'bout others, that's when you cross that line. It sounds t'me that if you gotta be in the middle, then ya can't just be heartless like yer sayin'."
He didn't respond to that for a long and moment there was silence again until they came to the center of the maze where the hedges cleared and made room for the gazebo. Theron walked up into the construct, touching the handrails as he went. "That may be true." He conceded in a low voice. "But my primary duty is to stop the Blight in all of its forms, and staying my hand for a childhood friend is not an acceptable lapse in judgment."
She stilled at hearing that, wondering how much he believed his own words. "If that ain't a good a time as any to hesitate, then I don't know a better one." Kallian finally replied quietly after a stretch in silence.
Theron glanced at her over his shoulder, sizing her up briefly and turned his attention back skyward. "I'm heading back inside. Sleeping in safety is a luxury that we seldom get these days."
"Hey." Kallian interrupted Theron before he could walk off, and he hesitated just long enough for her to speak again. "Well, it's not like I've got the whole world on my shoulders, but I know a thing or two 'bout takin' care of people. If you gotta talk, or just wanna fight, you come see me, alright?"
He seemed to silently debate over the offer before nodding. "Thank you. Good night."
"'Night." Theron left for the manor, leaving Kallian behind to wonder at the shape of the elf's character and consider what to do if it turned out that stopping the Blight would come at the price of putting her people to the sword.
Theron… he is such a sad little Warden. The poor bugger has been putting on a front the whole Blight. I've thought about making excerpts of his journey as a companion piece to this story. Not the whole kit-and-kaboodle sequence, just reactions to important emotional points that may or may not be scripted in the Dragon Age game. It would be more like a collection of short one-shots than anything, really, but I think it might be worth it. Stories about male Mahariels are quite rare from what I've seen.
So anyway, the Wardens are in Denerim and Arl Eamon is headed that way soon, and we all know what happens when Arl Eamon gets to Denerim! That's right! Queen rescuing time! The next few chapters are going to be pretty hectic, so I hope ya'll are ready for everything that I can throw at you! I think I'll get back to updating once a week regularly. Mondays seem to be a popular day, so next week at the same time check your inboxes for the next fun installment.