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, Origins DL content, and Dragon Age II as well as the novels The Stolen Throne and The Calling.

Chapter Eighty-Five: No One Expects the Antivan Inquisition

After years of living in filth, even a cold salt water bath came as a tremendous relief. After Maric had scrubbed as many layers of dirt off his body as would wash off in a single sitting Loghain took Alistair's razor in hand and sheared off the long, matted beard and hair and shaved him bald. Maric's naked head looked strange perched on his long, slender neck.

"Oh Maker, that is such a relief," he said.

Seanna gave him a complete examination. "You've got a respiratory infection, but I can do something for that. Mostly what I'm seeing is the results of long-term poor nutrition. You might never recover fully but we can get you strong again. We need to get some decent food in you: fruits and vegetables. There isn't much like that on the ship, but at least there are limes. I recommend you start eating them immediately."

Maric smiled at her. "Clean air, sunshine, and the smile of a pretty young woman like you are all I really need."

"Maric," Loghain said.

"Let me enjoy my freedom, Loghain."

"Seanna's not your type, by which I mean she has too much self-respect for you."

"I can still appreciate the scenery, can I not? After all, the only other beautiful woman on this ship is your wife."

"Not true: you can hit on the Captain all you like."

"She's busy."

Uncomfortable, Seanna moved off. "See what you've done? You scared her away," Maric said.

"Seanna has shown no impulse to fear of me through all the time I've known her. You are the one who scared her off. Behave yourself. Seanna's had it rough in her life: she doesn't need you putting the moves on her."

"Ship ahoy!" a seaman shouted, and suddenly everyone on deck grew tense.

"Expecting company?" Maric asked, a hint of nervousness in his voice.

"They've discovered you're missing by this time. Hard to say how long exactly it'll take 'em to connect your disappearance with the sudden unexpected departure of this ship from the port, and how long it'll take 'em to mount a pursuit. It's probably just a merchant vessel, but until we're home safe on Ferelden soil we're going to be very cautious about other vessels."

"What are the chances it's a Raider?" Maric asked.

"Entirely too good for my tastes, but why be a pessimist?"

The ship hove into sight, and the flag signals from the deck identified the vessel as a trade ship. It continued on its way and was soon lost to sight. Everyone relaxed.

"Keep sharp," Isabela shouted. "The next one's likely to be on our tail."

Seanna came back then, with a plate. On it were lime slices, bread, and cheese. She carried also a mug of rum. "You need to eat, and get back some of your strength, Your Majesty."

"Thank you, my dear. My; real cheese, and bread without maggots. A finer feast I've never laid eyes on. Tell me truthfully, dear - I don't frighten you, do I?"

"No, Your Majesty," Seanna said. She might have meant it, but she moved away with a certain air of haste.

Maric sighed philosophically and began to eat, betraying his hunger with his eager stuffing.

"Go easy. We've got plenty more where that came from," Loghain said. "There's a decent cook on this ship; you'll have a proper cooked meal soon."

"I can't wait. Just this much tastes so good it's like manna from heaven."

"I imagine so. Just go easy, or you'll get sick."

Just then Loghain caught sight of Alistair sidling up from below. He nodded to the man and clapped Maric on the shoulder. "Talk to him," he reiterated sternly, and left the deck as Alistair came up onto it.

Maric looked at his illegitimate son with more nervousness than he'd betrayed at the prospect of a hostile ship. "Hello, my boy. Loghain tells me I have you to thank for my rescue. Thank you. It could not have been an easy thing for you to do."

"It was something I had to do," Alistair said. His voice was tight and restrained. He did not look directly at Maric.

"Perhaps. But I know I did nothing to deserve it."

"You're my father. That means something," Alistair said, and by his tone it was clear he wasn't entirely sure what.

"So, you're…married to Anora now," Maric said, struggling against the lack of conversational flow.

"An arranged marriage. Elilia proposed it as the solution to the problem of traditionalist opposition to Anora's rule. I provided the Theirin blood, Anora provided the ability to rule."

"You do not…love her?"

"I didn't say that. It took me some time, but I learned to. What difference does it make to politics whether I do or do not?"

"In politics, none whatsoever. In life, quite a difference. You are happy?"

"I have a beautiful wife and two perfect children."

"But are you happy?"

Alistair sighed. "Most of the time. It isn't easy to be happy when you're the King of a nation everyone wants to exploit."

"Ha. You're telling me," Maric said, with a sigh of his own.

They were both silent for a time, and then Maric said, "I don't expect you can ever forgive me for abandoning you, but I am glad I have the chance now to say that I am sorry."

Alistair made an harrumphing sound in his throat. "Well, I somehow managed to forgive Loghain for leaving my friends and my brother to die; I expect eventually I will manage to forgive you for throwing me out with the daily refuse."

Maric winced. "I should have handled the matter differently. I thought Eamon would give you a good home."

"Oh he did. In the kennels. With the dogs. I believe I was considerably less valued a member of the household than the dogs, or perhaps even the fleas. Then when I became too inconvenient, he packed me off to the Chantry. It was a wonderful home. The worst of it is that I actually believed it was."

"I should have taken responsibility for you. All I could see when your mother brought you to me was that Loghain would be angry."

"When my mother brought me to you?" Alistair asked. "So Loghain was right. She wasn't a serving girl. She was an elf. A mage. Wasn't she?"

"…Yes."

"And she didn't want me, either. Marvelous."

"It wasn't like that. She couldn't give you a life, safety. And I thought…if Loghain found out about your mother…then I couldn't, either."

"Well, you might have saved yourself and me the trouble. It seems he'd pretty well figured out who my mother was. Strangely enough, I don't think he holds it against me. Why don't you admit it? The fact that Loghain would have been angry you'd fucked an Orlesian woman was just an excuse. You didn't want to take responsibility for me. You didn't want to raise a child."

"I…can't deny it. It was wrong of me."

"I will endeavor not to hold it against you. I have come to learn that I have a vindictive streak that has threatened to get the better of me."

"I deserve your animosity. But I hope you will let me enjoy having a family now. I have long looked forward to having grandchildren."

"It was for their sake, and Anora's, that I forgave Loghain," Alistair said. "It is for their sake more than anything else that I came for you. They deserve a chance to know their grandfathers. They deserve family."

"Thank you," Maric said. "I can guarantee you I'll be a much better grandfather than I ever was a father."

"You're not setting a high bar, are you?"

Maric sighed. "I guess not."

"You owe me a new razor, by the way."

"Right. Sorry about that. Why did Loghain use yours instead of his?"

Alistair gave him an incredulous look. "As far as I can tell, the man doesn't shave. You spent how many years living rough with him and you never noticed that?"

"He has to shave: the man's as hairy as a great bear."

"Not on the face, he's not. I've never seen so much as a hint of stubble, and the last weeks have put us in close quarters. The man doesn't shave."

Maric laughed. "Now that you mention it, I've never seen him shave, either, and he never has a shadow on his face. Must be his elven blood."

"That isn't funny," Alistair said.

"Wasn't meant to be. His mother was a Dalish. I…probably shouldn't have told you that. He only ever told me in strictest confidence."

"Loghain Mac Tir is half-blood? Like me?"

"Yes."

"Does Anora know that?" Alistair asked.

"She didn't, at the time he told me. Hard to say now. That's been a lot of years."

Alistair was silent for a long moment, and then, "Loghain Mac Tir is half-elven, and still he sold the elves of Denerim's alienage into slavery?"

"What?" Maric exclaimed. "No. No, no, no. I don't believe that. Not in a million years. Loghain values freedom above any other ideal, and the only prejudice he has is against the Orlesians and I can't blame him for that. Everyone else he hates equally."

"It's true: he sold Ferelden elves into slavery. But…he may have been under the influence of blood mages at the time. I think I believe that now more than I did before."

"I missed out on some very dark days, I see."

"It's a wonder that any of us survived it."

"Loghain tells me that Elilia is the reason things came through in the end. Is that true, or just the words of a doting husband?"

"It's true. I don't know what we would have done without her. Without her, we'd never have gathered the support our army needed to defeat the Blight, the nation would either have torn itself to pieces in civil war or Loghain would have slaughtered even more of the Landsmeet in bringing the nobility back into line, and I…I would have slain a foe who yielded in a duel of honor. I certainly wouldn't have a wife and children. I owe Elilia everything I have. Ferelden owes her everything. It's a debt we have not forgotten."

"I knew she was something special. When she was no more than a girl I knew. That's why I said I'd help when Bryce came to me asking to arrange a marriage between her and Loghain. I'm glad that they got together eventually, but I'm left to wonder why it took so long."

"Well, if Teyrn Bryce wanted a marriage between them he never came forward himself, perhaps because, as I understand it, Loghain threatened to thrash him when he stood against Cailan's succession when you first went missing. And then the Couslands were murdered by Arl Howe; only Elilia and Teyrn Fergus escaped alive. Loghain stood with Arl Howe in the aftermath, so Elilia probably wasn't thinking romantically about him in those days, either. Why she decided to fall in love with him now I've no idea."

Maric smiled slightly. "Love isn't something that responds to reason, in most cases."

"I expect that's true."

"Loghain said you were both Wardens."

"Yes. We traveled around together for more than a year, gathering support against the Blight. Before I turned against her."

"Turned against her?"

"She let Loghain live. I couldn't accept that, so I abandoned my duty. She saw things more clearly than I did. As always."

"So for a year at least you were companions? And you didn't fall in love with her?"

"I did," Alistair said, with a blush. "I gave her a rose, trying to say what I felt…she didn't return the feeling. Frankly, I think she was at least a little annoyed with me for my constant whining, and the way I wouldn't take the initiative though I was her senior in the Wardens. She was always very nice to me, at least until the moment I turned on her. Then she let me have it. She has a way with invective."

"What did she say to you?"

"That I had forgotten my honor, that the law of chivalry has strict codes against slaying a foe who has yielded to you in a duel of honor, that we needed all the help we could get, that Loghain's experience and skill would be of great benefit, that joining the Wardens was not the great thing I thought it was, that if I really wanted to leave I should not let the door hit me on the ass on the way out. All quite eloquent and all laced with the foulest language I have ever heard emanating from a lady's mouth. She was angry. Murderously angry."

"What did you say?"

Alistair sighed heavily. "Something unbelievably self-righteous. I couldn't see past my own anger. I lost sight of honor. And I abandoned not only my duty, which was bad, but my friends, which is infinitely worse. Fortunately they still had Elilia, and Loghain to pick up the slack. Not that my absence was probably much felt. So you see, much as I might rail at you, I'm no better. I have no room to talk."

"I turned my back on my children. You're a good deal better than I."

"You didn't turn your back on Cailan," Alistair said.

"Yes, I did. I didn't take a hand in raising him. I left it all to the servants, just as I left the real running of the kingdom to Loghain. Hell, Loghain took a bigger hand in raising Cailan than I did, except Cailan never felt he had to listen to Loghain - a willfulness I rather encouraged, because it amused me. In the final analysis, I think you'd find that I'm the reason Cailan is dead. I didn't teach him anything. I let him grow up thinking he knew best of anyone."

"Maybe this doesn't help anything, but Loghain did try to warn him of the dangers of standing with the vanguard against the darkspawn. I don't think now that his decision to withdraw his troops was anything but a last resort."

"I know. I told Loghain once never to put a King before his Kingdom; I don't blame him for Cailan's death. Whether he was right or whether he was wrong, he acted according to the trust I placed in him long ago. He may have made a mistake: he's human."

"I had to learn to see that," Alistair said.

"He's a hard man; he's led a hard life. The things he's experienced, they left their scars on his heart and soul," Maric said.

"Ship ahoy!"

Loghain burst through the hatch onto the deck like a cork from a champagne bottle, and Elilia poked her head out soon afterward. He stood nervously twirling his sword until the deckhands were able to identify the vessel.

"It's the Inquisition! An Antivan mercenary ship!" the lookout shouted. Isabela came down from the aftcastle and shouted orders to her crew.

"Full canvas! Man the ballistae. Mages, prepare for battle."

"Maric. Get below," Loghain said. "You too, Alistair. This is no place for a King."

"Come on, you," Elilia said, and gestured to the Theirins. "A naval battle is not our purview. We'll just be in the way."

Obediently, they trooped down the wooden ladder into the hold, and Loghain followed. He positioned himself with sword and shield drawn in front of the door to the cabin in which the two Kings ensconced themselves.

On the deck, furious preparations were underway. Isabela and her crew, apostates and all, were well-practiced by now and long before the pursuit ship hove into clear sight they were ready for it. Isabela checked it out through her spyglass.

"That's a much bigger ship than I thought they'd put after us," she said to herself.

It wasn't just big, it was fast. The Siren's Call II was swift as an eagle, but the winds were not in her favor. With clever tacking, the Inquisition was gaining, little by little.

"Let them come; we'll have a surprise or two waiting for them," Isabela shouted to her crew.

The whole crew seemed to be holding their breath. The Inquisition drew steadily closer, until at last it was within firing distance from the ballistae. A hail went up from the deck.

"Ahoy! Prepare to be boarded, in the name of the Queen of Antiva!"

"Let's give them our response, boys," Isabella said, and gave the signal for the bolters to loose. Heavy harpoon spears flew toward the big warship, and many struck home. They could see frantic activity on the deck of the Inquisition, and the ship came around to give a broadsides with deck-board catapults. "Don't give them the breath, boys," Isabela commanded, and her own catapults gave a broadsides of their own, with tar bombs ignited midair by the apostates that King Alistair had assigned to her ship.

The Inquisition blazed up like a campfire, and the frenetic activity of her decks increased. Some of the ship's catapults weren't destroyed, and the Siren's Call II took a few minor hits, but she gave better than she got, for the ship was now close enough for the apostates to cast fireballs directly at it. With no mages of their own, the Inquisition and its crew were foredoomed. The fires could not be extinguished in time to save her, and the Inquisition went down with all hands.

A mighty cheer went up from the deck of the Siren's Call II, and Loghain climbed up to check on the battle outside to find it over and done. Crews went to work immediately to repair what damage could be repaired, and Isabela returned to the helm to tack into the winds and put open water between her ship and the site of the wreck.

"What do you think are the odds they put more than one ship out after us?" she called down to him.

"Slim," he said. "I doubt they'd think it was necessary, and while Antiva is a great merchant marine power, she has little in the way of a navy. Still, it'd be best to make as much speed as you can, Captain."

"Aye Aye, Your Lordship," she said.

Loghain went back down. "They've taken care of the Inquisition, and I expect, less the chance of Raiders, we're home free," he said to Maric and Alistair. "There is something I think we need to speak of and resolve before we make Ferelden. Alistair, with Maric alive, your reign is in question. There could be tremendous fallout from this."

"It's easily settled," Maric said. "I have no desire to reign again, and after so long away from the kingdom and its concerns, I am unfit to do so. Call a Landsmeet, and I will address the nobility. I will speak of my gratitude for my rescue, and how much I owe King Alistair, and wish him a long and healthy reign."

"There will still be a tremendous uproar," Alistair said. "You will have ardent supporters who would give anything to see you back on the throne. The mere fact that you are alive will throw the nation into an extended state of happy chaos. I'm actually looking forward to that part. Ferelden needs all the reasons to celebrate she can get."

"Oh, Maker's ass," Loghain said.

"What?" Alistair said.

"Celebrations. Anora won't let up on them for months."