So, I've decided two new things about this story. The first is that Carver is a Grey Warden, as is shown in this latest chapter, and the second is that for every fifth chapter (Chapter 5, 10, 15, etc.) that those chapters are the ones that are going to be told from someone else's point of view instead of Merrill's, since so far we've been seeing things from mostly just her eyes. It gives me variety for what to do since I do like the fact that I've been giving this story more attention. Like always, I appreciate any and all feedback.

Quote of the day:

"The one you love and the one who loves you are never, ever the same person."

- Chuck Palahniuk, Invisible Monsters

As Carver entered the throne room of Vigil's Keep, eyes of both veterans and new recruits of the Grey Wardens alike watching him, the man kept his demeanor stoic as he made his way towards the Warden-Commander that remained stern and professional as he stayed seated on his throne as the rightful Arl of Amaranthine. It had been a long time since he had last returned to Vigil's Keep, and his steps were slow as he carefully and respectfully walked towards the seated Commander. Carver bowed his head in honor of the Hero of Ferelden, veterans of the order like Oghren and Nathaniel nodding in approval, and recruits like the young adventurer Bevin staring on at him with eyes that shined in awe. Carver quickly glanced all around him at the many Wardens who were present on the request of the Commander, and it was something that was honestly much too grand a welcome home for his taste. He inwardly laughed to himself though, considering that the welcome home wasn't in fact for him. The younger of the Hawke brothers met eyes with the Commander for a moment who watched him with an expectant look, before Carver bent down on one knee, and raised the clothed object above his head that had been his mission for three years to find and return back to the Keep.

For the first time since he had entered the Keep, the Commander stood up, and carefully reached over to remove the cloth off the object that Carver had dedicated the previous phase of his life to retrieving. The Commander's eyes glistened as his hand gripped around the hilt of the sword named Vigilance, and the mage raised it in the air as he admired the blade that he had not seen in so long.

"Truly, this is the work of a master," Warden-Commander Daylen Amell couldn't help but be in awe of the sword that had been crafted from the bones of an ancient dragon, "Wade will go down in legends for this."

Carver didn't stand back up until the Commander sat down again, and he stood at attention, ready to give his report of a successful mission. "Through our contacts I was able to track the sword down to Antiva where the Crows had taken it after it was first stolen, but according to information that I found out and first hand experience, Vigilance has changed hands many times. I had to travel to Orlais and Tevinter in search of the blade, and it wasn't until I found myself in Seheron that I was finally able to claim the sword for the Wardens."

"Seheron?" Daylen asked almost absentmindedly, eyes still drawn to the ancient aura that emanated from the gleam of his blade.

"Yes." Carver confirmed. "I dueled and killed a Qunari Sten in order to claim the sword as my own."

Daylen nodded, almost feeling like a dragon himself by the mere fact that he was holding onto his legendary sword once more. For just a moment, he shifted his gaze from Vigilance and over to the Warden that had completed this mission for him. "Very impressive. You've done well, Carver."

The Commander continued admiring Vigilance, the blade being something that enraptured the hearts of all whose sight fell upon it, and the Wardens that he had summoned to witness the homecoming of the sword remained quiet as his hands slowly caressed all the different intricacies of his dark weapon, before Nathaniel coughed rather pointedly and took the Commander out of his wonderment. "Ah, yes," Daylen suddenly remembered as he turned his head to Nathaniel Howe that was standing directly to the left of his throne, "that reminds me, Nathaniel. Have you prepared a good spot on the wall in my office to hang this?"

"Of course, Commander." The ever dedicated Nathaniel swiftly replied with a curt nod of his head.

"Wait," Carver spoke out of turn before remembering where he was. It was too late though, and the eyes of all the Wardens present once again fell on him, this time the Commander also quirking his brow in curiosity. Sighing, he figured it was best to just continue with what he was originally going to say since he already had everyone's attention. "You're just going to hang the sword up on your wall, Commander?" Carver added his cousin's title almost as an afterthought.

In response, Daylen just shrugged. "That was the plan, yeah."

"I spent three years of my life searching for that sword," Carver began to argue, "and you're just going to use it as a decoration? I've had to kill Chevaliers and Magisters to find that blade. I've had to duel Qunari soldiers and Chasind warlords. I've spent the last three years surviving assassination attempts from the Antivan Crows after I was forced to murder one of their guild masters! All those people died just so you could have a trophy to hang up on your wall?"

The Commander's face hardened as he stood up again, and handed Vigilance over to Nathaniel for the former nobleman to do with as had already been planned. "Vigilance is a Warden blade and a Warden artifact, and for it to be in the possession of anyone else, of anyone who doesn't bear our Taint, is an insult to us all. You had to murder people to get this sword? Good."

Carver bit his tongue and said nothing else as the mage Commander then gave a dismissive wave of his hand and gave all the Wardens present their leave. The man just sighed as he then turned around and began to make his way outside for some fresh air, wanting to get his mind off of the three years of his life spent hunting for a weapon that he was never going to use. It wasn't until another senior Warden walked into step with him that he finally felt any kind of relief, and he couldn't help but appreciate Sigrun as the perky little Dwarf gave him a nudge at his side as they stepped out into the Amaranthine sunlight.

"Chin up, Carvy," Sigrun chirped up as she then patted Carver on the back, "now you're feared as a master swordsman all around the world!"

"Lovely." Carver deadpanned, shaking his head. "Exactly what Mother always dreamt of for her little boy."

Sigrun laughed in the same manner that she usually did whenever she joked about her near and upcoming death. The diminutive woman continued to walk while squinting her eyes under the hot Ferelden sun, all the while humming the cheerful tune of a rather lyrically violent Orlesian nursery rhyme. "You want to go out into the city?" she called out to Carver as she looked over her shoulder back at him. "I was supposed to go with Oghren today, but Felsi and Daylen Jr. showed up out of the blue."

Carver chuckled to himself for a moment, wondering what on Thedas could have been going on in Oghren's mind when the drunken lout had decided to name his one and only son after a Human mage of all people. He didn't mention it though, instead just waving at his old friend. "Can't today. I'm supposed to be meeting someone."

Sigrun stopped walking, and then paused for a moment, before turning back around to face Carver. There were a lot of people up and about the Keep that day, many of whom weren't Wardens and who were there to visit family or trade with the merchants that made their livelihoods setting up shop in the Warden fortress, and as she began to look around at the non-Wardens who were going about their day, Sigrun figured that she didn't have to think long and hard to come up with just who exactly Carver was going to be waiting around for, even if that meant pacing around outside until nightfall. "The Elf, eh?"

Carver frowned, not liking how transparent he was just being, before he sighed and nodded his head in confirmation. "Yes, the Elf."

Sigrun only shook her head sympathetically. "You poor bastard."

It was something that Carver only scoffed at as he crossed his arms, never once having taken it as a kindness whenever someone showed pity on him. His eyes darkened just a bit at a memory he had of the very first day that he was truly cognitive after his Joining. Stroud had saved his life at the behest of his brother James, and though he had been grateful for it, grateful towards even the now late Anders, it had always been a shadow that Carver could never escape from that he had been made a Warden not because of his skill or that they wanted him to fight at their side, but because it was the only way to save his life.

He had heard the stories of how the other Grey Wardens joined the order, Daylen being conscripted by a former Warden-Commander who didn't want to see Daylen's mystical powers be wasted after the mage had been sentenced to life imprisonment for helping his blood mage best friend escape the Circle, or even the famous Tale of Oghren that tended to be told on less sober nights around Vigil's Keep about how the Commander's right-hand joined the Wardens out a genuine lack of having anything else better to do. The late Anders and Daylen's left-hand Nathaniel were each conscripted by the Commander just as the Commander was once conscripted himself, Anders being a recruit that Daylen had more than once said he regretted saving from the Templars, and Nathaniel being made a Warden out of an odd desire in the Commander to both punish the man who had tried to assassinate him and also give said man a chance to redeem his name. They weren't all glorious stories or stories memorable or exciting enough to one day be sung by the bards of Orlais, but they were stories that to Carver seemed less pathetic than having their big brother threaten a Grey Warden into putting him through the Joining.

He shook away his thoughts though when he realized that Sigrun was still standing in front of him, and he sighed and relaxed himself, all the while hoping that only Sigrun had ever seen how desperate he was. "I always very much look forward to seeing her."

Pouting, Sigrun stomped her way back over to her Warden brother and began jabbing him with her armored finger into his chest, which was somewhere that she could only just barely reach. "I know you do, but you know what I personally don't look forward to? You always going to the Commander after a few months, asking for some difficult and faraway assignment just because you start to remember that she's married."

The two Wardens' gazes remained fixed on one another, for a moment Carver thinking that perhaps he saw something more than just frustration in her eyes, before he closed his own and sighed, knowing that there was truth in her words. He had a duty to the Wardens that was supposed to come first before anything else in the world, and it was hard to remember sometimes for anyone who bore the Taint, even the Warden-Commander Daylen once upon a time abandoning his post to chase after the apostate he had fallen in love with during the Blight, before the man had eventually returned. It was their burden as guardians against the darkness, and as he stared back at the usually perky eyes that burned in his direction with a fire that wasn't hatred, but something else entirely that he refused to admit, there was a nudge in Carver's soul that wanted to promise to Sigrun that he wouldn't let his emotions affect his job as Warden again.

It was a promise he never made though, because it was then that he heard the familiar voice of a woman named Merrill call out to him. "Carver!" she waved and yelled, while the younger of the Hawke brothers couldn't hold back the grin that immediately came across his face as he quickly bid Sigrun farewell and jogged over towards the Elven woman who had just only now arrived at the Keep, armed with a basket of snacks to eat on the way back to the farm and a miasma of stories about their shared family that she was no doubt dying to regale to him.

Sigrun only shook her head as she watched Carver walk away with the woman that he was in love with, and she made a mental note to remind herself to pick up a bottle of Antivan brandy in the city for Carver and herself to drink together the following night. According to a once drunken Commander Daylen that Sigrun had found one night in his study years ago, all the while staring at a ring he clutched onto more dearly than even Vigilance, it was a drink that was supposed to ease a broken heart.

The small woman frowned as she watched Merrill rest a hand on Carver's arm, the man's back straightening up almost immediately with his heart no doubt skipping more than just a beat. Hopefully, she wondered, perhaps the brandy could help to even mend her own.

In Dragon Age 2 I don't think that Carver ever thought of Merrill as his true love or anything like that, but I do think that there was romantic affection he held towards her, however slight that it was. I always was curious about what does Carver think about the fact that his brother perhaps ends up with the woman he had spent Act 1 crushing on?

Also, yeah Sigrun/Carver is pretty out there, eh? I don't know, but now that I think about it I actually rather like it.