Disclaimer: I don't own Dragon Age or any of its related characters. This is just for my own enjoyment and the potential enjoyment of other fans like me, and no monetary gain was expected or received.
Rating: T
Spoilers: May contain spoilers for Origins, Awakening, and Dragon Age II as well as the novels The Stolen Throne and The Calling.
Chapter Forty-Eight: Wasted Opportunity; An Unfortunate Interlude
Arl Vaughan Kendalls had a narrow escape that day. Elilia had not been in position to see, but it was his horse that was injured by the enormous boar, and if Loghain had not swooped in at just the right moment, riding hard with his spear in position for a strong jab straight to the creature's heart using his horse's momentum against the tough-hided boar, he would have been gored and trampled by the beast and most likely would have perished. Vaughan did not at all like having been saved by the "jumped-up peasant," and he didn't like losing the honor of taking the largest boar on the field just because his fool horse stumbled. Useless beast should have been put down immediately.
If Vaughan knew just how close he'd truly come to death that day, perhaps he would have counted his blessings.
Loghain didn't like him, and Vaughan knew it. But it went deeper than that. Loghain considered him politically dangerous as well as a vile excuse for a man. Even as he rode in he couldn't decide whether to hold his horse back just enough to let the boar finish the job it had started, or even to "accidentally" miss the boar and strike the man instead. Accidents like that happened in the boar hunt quite often, and he was certain that quite a few such accidents had been equally engineered. Loghain didn't know that he wasn't going to do it until it was done. In the end he simply couldn't - he'd had his fill of cold-blooded murder.
Even as he rode back for a fresh spear and a round of congratulations on his fine kill, Loghain considered it a wasted opportunity.
But Vaughan didn't know that, or he might not have tempted fate that night. Too drunk and frustrated to feel the caution of latter days, he took to his old habit of prowling the alienage. He wasn't so bombed off his gourd that he was foolish enough to allow himself to be seen, or to take his prey back to the estate with him. Like the beast he was, he stalked the dark places, unafraid of the other predators that lurked there, and soon enough he found what he was looking for.
Nesiara didn't ordinarily walk the alienage alone at night, but it was not far from her house to the Hahren's, and Adaia had a troublesome cough and complained of a sore throat; in the wake of the bloody lung, every sniffle was cause for extraordinary alarm. Valendrian gave her a packet of herbs for a soothing tea and, concern wrinkling his serried brow into still more deep furrowed lines, offered to walk back with her.
"Oh no, Hahren, there's no need. It's not far, and it's cold out. Stay inside where it's warm," she said.
Though he expressed his misgivings, Valendrian eventually allowed himself to be persuaded and Nesiara headed back out into the night alone.
This was not ordinarily as dangerous as it seemed. Though there were many predators in the alienage at night, few of them were actually there to prey upon elves. Unwary humans who were foolish enough to wander in where they didn't belong, looking for trouble, almost invariably found it. But there was little profit in a lone lady elf for the thieves and muggers, and the other sort of predator was rare. Humans who came to the alienage to stalk females were more apt to be beaten and robbed, and while there were undoubtedly elves who were quite happy to commit the crime of rape, only very rarely was one so sick-minded or arrogant as to think they could operate within their own neighborhood and not suffer the consequences. The alienage was prone to seek its own justice, since official channels were often closed to them.
But on an average night, the Arl of Denerim wasn't lurking in the darkness, out of sight.
She was much older than he liked, but pretty enough regardless, and best of all, alone. She attained her home and a quick peek through the loose-hanging shutters showed there was no one else there to cause trouble for him. The latch was rudimentary, weak. A swift kick was all that was required.
Nesiara barely had time to react before he was upon her and had wrestled her to the floor. She screamed and started to beg, but a plaintive call from the sleeping area of the little house - "Mama?" - turned her focus in another direction entirely. "Stay in bed!" she shouted, and in her heart she prayed that the angry Arl would be satisfied with her and not turn his attention to the little girl huddled under the quilt behind the partial wall.
Even as she was brutalized, Nesiara expected Loghain to save her. He'd done it before; he'd cut his way through an entire estate full of armed guards to reach her. But he would not come this time. He was in the army, and that was a great and noble thing, but he would not even hear of this until it was long over. Perhaps he would take revenge once he learned what had happened, but that was cold comfort.
Vaughan used her to restore his sense of power and dominion. She could not fight back; the man he was angry at could fight back only too effectively despite the fact that he was far past his time. The rape was satisfying but the beating he gave her was better. When he put his hands around her slender throat and throttled her he imagined he was strangling Loghain Mac Tir, or maybe that Cousland bitch he was apparently fucking these days. That was a woman who needed to be put in her place.
His rage spent itself with the same kind of abrupt release as his orgasm and left him vaguely disoriented and rather sleepy. He got up, put his clothes in order, and simply left. He did not give his victim another thought whatsoever.
Nesiara was not dead, but she was not far from it. Her consciousness was fading quickly but as she fell into the darkness she was comforted with the knowledge that Valendrian promised to look in on Adaia first thing in the morning, and he would see to it that she was taken care of. Adaia would be safe, and that was all that mattered. That was all that mattered.