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Blessings!
Kai forgot the damnable ties and spun around to find her brother Fergus alive and placing a tray on the table. It was a good thing he had managed to set it down completely before Kai launched herself at him, saying his name over and over again. She buried her face in his neck as hot tears wet his collar. She couldn't believe it, she had searched for any sign of him before the Joining while in the Kocari Wilds. She had forced herself to look at the faces of every bloated corpse they had come upon. Thinking one of them was going to be him.
When none had been, she'd hoped to search again but had been dissuaded in Lothering. Morrigan pointed out he was either dead, would show with stragglers in the North, or would soon be dead due to the horde of darkspawn in the Wilds. Since she did not have the luxury of time to look for him, she'd been forced to give up. She put aside any hope and left her brother for dead. Soon, tears of joy turned to tears of shame and guilt, she had abandoned him just as she had Mother and Father.
Fergus just held her and stroked her hair the way Sten had, he told her it wasn't her fault, but she knew better. Fergus didn't know what else to do, as she wasn't a person who gave way to tears easily, but she seemed unable to help herself, lately. She hadn't even cried when she broke her arm in her first battle training trying to use a shield. In fact, the only time Fergus had ever seen her cry like this was when an elven playmate had been ruthlessly run over by a visiting noble's carriage, and at King Maric's funeral.
Kai knew he must be wondering what to with her now, just as he wondered back then, but she couldn't hold back. Something had to give or she would break. Finally, the grief seemed to abate some, like steam escaping from a dwarven made water pipe. Fergus gently pulled her up from the floor and sat her down at the table in front of the tray. He handed her a napkin which she used to wipe her face and her running nose. Great, her eyes felt like sand and acid had been rubbed into them.
"Eat or that stone friend of yours will break me in two, and I am not so sure about that giant fellow, Sten?" Kai nodded, "I am not sure he won't rip my arms off if I don't feed you. I like your friends, little sister. They are very protective of you." Fergus poured her another glass of water, having brought a second pitcher in case she had emptied the first. "Though I have to admit, the Antivan elf seemed to be flirting with me." Kai knew he was trying to lighten her mood, so she obliged him with a laugh.
"Don't be too flattered, brother dear, Zev flirts with everyone." Kai picked up the horn spoon next to the bowl of steaming broth. She carefully spooned some up and took a tentative sip. It was spiced with herbs. She suspected some for healing as well as those for flavor. "What happened to you Fergus?" Kai asked as she broke off a small piece of bread to soak in the broth.
"I was out on patrol as you know. I never made it back to Ostagar. We were set upon by a band of darkspawn, and I woke up in a Chasind's hut, wounded and feverish. By the time I had healed enough to leave. You had already begun to stop the Blight. So I did a little adventuring of my own while hoping to run into you, little sister. But that's a story for another day."
Kai looked down at her bowl, "I am so sorry about Oriana and Oren. Oh Fergus, I should have looked harder for you!" Kai balled her hands up next to the tray.
"I know you are sorry for them, and I try not to think of them too much. But, you did the right thing, little sister." Fergus grabbed her chin and forced her to look at him, "You did your duty, and we Couslands always..."
"Always do our duty first. Those were some of the last words Father said to me." Kai's eyes swam with tears, but she genuinely laughed. "You are turning into Father in your old age, brother!"
Fergus laughed, and you are turning into Mother. But you won't see me grow older if you don't eat, remember your rather large and insistent friends?" Fergus nudged her bowl closer.
"Hah, you are turning into Mother more than I am, brother dear, you nag just like her!" It felt good to have the old familiar banter with someone who knew her so well, but her smile quickly turned pensive again as she remembered the last time they were all together before Fergus left. She wondered how long it would be before such memories were welcome rather than sad. Kai continued to eat; after all, she liked her brother in one piece. She was sure that Sten and Shale were just joking, or at least mostly joking. So they sat in companionable silence.
"Oh, I like your brother. I just wish we had met in person." Alistair's voice came again in her ear, and she joggled the spoon, spilling some broth. Luckily, Fergus paid no notice, and she continued to soak pieces of bread and spoon up broth. She soon found herself full, though, her stomach was not used to holding much.
She set the spoon aside and looked at her brother's handsome face, so like their father's. "Fergus, when is the funeral? I know they held it off, I figure it must have taken, if the roads were clear, about four days from Denerim to get here? Then another two days, while everyone waited for me to wake up." Kai found herself nibbling more bread though her stomach turned queasy. "I would guess we need to get it done, and I would like to get it over with." Especially, Kai thought, just to get past the false praise Anora no doubt meant to lavish on Alistair now that he was out of the way of her crown and throne.
"What, you don't enjoy simpering political claptrap, my love?" Again that beloved voiced sounded as if he sat right beside her. It was squeezing her heart to a pulsing bruise; she didn't know if she was just tormenting herself as some form of punishment for letting him sacrifice himself.
Then Kai had another thought, Anora would indeed shower Alistair's memory with an eloquent speech worthy of any gardener needing composting material. But it wouldn't cover up her hatred of him, not from anyone who remembered her being put in the tower when she refused to swear allegiance to Alistair. She had been released to be queen because he ordered it be so if he fell, but she would not forget. Nor was she likely to forget who had made Alistair king at the Landsmeet. Kai might need to hire a food taster, or since that could cause someone to die, ask Zev about antidotes. "What is on your mind, little sister? You seem lost in troubling thoughts." Fergus eyed her across the table.
"Fergus, Anora is only queen because Alistair fell. I promised Anora I would support her in the Landsmeet, and then I made Alistair king. I don't think she is going to harbor much love for me, and her anger may fall on you too."
"You have never been one to go back on your word, sister. I know there is more to this story." Fergus lifted an eyebrow.
So much like Father, she thought. Kai figured she should start with the confrontation with Loghain after they got to Denerim. Unlike Anora, Kai and Fergus had been raised in the nobility with all of its political maneuvering. Anora had been raised to it later in childhood. Kai told Fergus of Anora's elven handmaiden showing up at Eamon's estate with a tale of woe and kidnapping, of a daughter in danger from her father, her very life supposedly threatened.
"Hmm, I find that hard to believe." Fergus scratched his chin, his thoughts echoing her own at the time. "Loghain may have been a regicide and a deserter, but he would never have killed his only child or allowed someone else to do so."
Kai told Fergus of using her secret weapon, the Antivan elf Zeveran, assassin and heart breaker of men and women everywhere. Zev agreed that it was suspicious and that he would do what he could. So Kai stalled Erlina the handmaiden, saying they needed several days to prepare in case the disguises didn't work. When Erlina agreed without much protest, Kai's suspicions had been given a little boost. She knew that Anora was in no real danger from Howe. "So I take it your friend found out something that made you play Anora along?"
"What Zev discovered was fascinating to say the least, brother." Kai leaned forward. "He found out that Anora had staged the whole thing, including paying a mage to 'magic' the door. All of it designed to convince Eamon and myself of Anora's loyalty in spite of her father." Kai found herself playing with the horn spoon, an occupational hazard for a rogue used to playing with daggers and always keeping her hands busy.
"This is getting more intriguing by the minute.", Fergus grinned at her.
"Oh to be sure, that wasn't the half of it. Anora set her little co-conspirator to leak that there was a kidnapping taking place to Loghain's second, Ser Cauthrien. If I had asked Anora to confirm that we were rescuing her, she would have lied and told her father's soldiers that we were abducting her."
"She was playing both sides against the middle, it seems," Fergus grunted.
"I suspect that she was just using us to hold the crown. When she realized that the winds were now blowing against her father and Howe, she needed to switch tactics and sides. When it all started to unravel, Anora was looking out for Anora."
"Well, she is her father's daughter." Alistair's voice again whispered in her ear.
Kai went on, "Since I knew to expect Ser Cauthrien and a few dozen of Loghain's guards, I hid a few lock picks in the braids of my hair and simply surrendered peacefully when we were confronted."
"Ah! That is my resourceful little sister. I think Anora met her match in you."
Kai smiled. "Well, you can see why I was not about to really support her as queen."
"Indeed, she reminds me of something. Do you remember that zoological book we used to look at as children, the one with all the colored pictures of the animals of Thedas?" Kai nodded and Fergus continued, "Anora reminds me of the Orlesian viper called Fleur de Lis Le Mort, very pretty, very delicate, and very..."
"Very nasty, yes, me too, and it fits Anora to a T. Which means you need to watch your back as well, Fergus, I will not, I cannot, lose you too." Kai looked at her brother, love and fear warring in her heart.
"Well then, maybe I should let your Antivan assassin land one, little sister. An assassin could provide great protection, no?" Fergus laughed at the look on her face.
"I wouldn't let that sodding elf touch me, if I were you. You don't know where he's been or what species he's been with," Oghren's gruff and raspy voice proceeded him as her friends came trooping in.
"My dwarven friend, I am wounded! I only sleep with things that walk on two legs I assure you!" Zev's voice came through the doorway as he followed Oghren into the room.
Kai smiled and turned to address the gathering of her extended family.