I don't know if I have to put this message up every time,but I don't want to anger BioWare. All but the names of my character and her dog belong to them. : )
Well, the last chapter was shorter, and didn't have the funeral yet. I promise I am getting to it. But I just had to leave it as a sort of cliffhanger. I mean what do you do when you obviously have been slapping around someone's sister-in-law and they have obviously been eavesdropping? And I admit it was cathartic to give Isolde the bitch slap she so rightly deserves. As you can tell, I really did get tempted to let Jowan bleed her to save Connor in the game, but I didn't. So, it just seemed appropriate to stop there and start a new chapter. Let me know what you think.
Again, thanks to all of you who read, and put it on favorites, and especially those who review. Your encouragement is a real blessing.
Blessings!
Kai felt all of her rage at Isolde drain out of her like water in a broken pot the minute she ran into Teagan, literally. She was snapped back into her body instead of being a casual observer, and the adrenaline stopped, causing her legs to go shaky. Teagan had to catch her as she stumbled.
Kai realized that he had one hand on her neck and one on her waist almost as if he was going to kiss her, which was ridiculous as the man was more likely to slap her for her ill treatment of his sister-in-law than to put his lips on hers. Kai felt a her face turning scarlet, and she felt feverish and light headed and dreadfully embarrassed. The nausea seemed to be coming back as well. "I don't know how much you heard," she began lamely, and it only caused her to flush more.
Teagan merely changed the position of his hands switching them to her shoulders, making sure she could stand on her own before removing them. His face was impassive, Kai felt horrible. She had great respect for Teagan and no wish for him to think ill of her, but she was not sorry. Isolde deserved every smack and every harsh word. Teagan took a look around as if to check for any others who might be lurking then grabbed her hand, tugging her to follow him. Kai was too light-headed to put up much protest, and she and Argus found themselves being taken along to the very garden where Kai had intended to read.
Teagan sat her on a stone bench there. He made sure she wouldn't fall over, and then seated himself next to her. Kai could feel the cool stone of the bench through the leggings she wore and the cool stone of the garden wall where she rested her twirling head. She closed her eyes and listened to the drone of the bees, they had always soothed her as a child when she was upset, and they did so now. When she dared look at Teagan, who had remained silent thus far, she found him grinning at her...with admiration? By Andraste's knickers, the man was grinning as if he were proud! "You have no idea, how many times I have wanted to slap that woman silly myself."
Kai found she couldn't help herself and burst out laughing hysterically until tears poured out of her eyes. Teagan laughed with her until they were both snuffling and twittering. They had a tendency to cause each other to start again if they caught each other's' expression. Finally, it seemed to wind down. Kai hadn't realized how much she needed that release. Teagan pulled out a pouch from his belt and opened it up. He took out what looked like a napkin from the dining hall and opened it, revealing sticky buns.
"Your brother said these are your favorites. You looked so pale and you ate so little, I thought you might need more. You have been asleep for six days. We spoon fed you broth and water, but you haven't eaten much." Teagan held out the napkin towards her, she looked into his kind face and felt herself flushing more. She took a bun and broke off a piece to pop in her mouth. It was then she realized he had said we tried to spoon broth into you.
"Teagan, I didn't realize you had taken care of me while I was unconscious. I...ah...thank you," she finished lamely.
"It was nothing, your mage friend, Wynne, had to practically be dragged away from your side and forced to rest, heal, and eat herself." This statement caused no small amount of guilt to come surging past the anger and indifference she felt towards Wynne so far. "And when your brother Fergus was found alive, he became part of our 'Kai rotation,' as we called it. We bathed you, put poultices on some of the wounds, Wynne healed the broken bones and your cracked skull."
Teagan popped a sticky bun into his mouth, "Oh these are good!" he said once he swallowed.
"Bathed me? You didn't..." Kai felt her face turning bright scarlet again,to which Teagan merely laughed.
"No dear lady, not I, your virtue is safe from me." Kai felt herself giving a great sigh of relief. Teagan smiled and put another sticky bun in her hand. "So, did the honey on these delightful confections come from these hives?" Teagan made a sweeping gesture toward the skeps placed in various locations in the garden.
"I doubt you wanted to talk about beekeeping or sticky buns, my lord," she teased him with his title a smile curving her lips. Teagan didn't smile back, instead he looked sad.
"What you said to Isolde." Kai groaned inwardly and waited for a mild scolding. Surely she deserved it a little, even if she wasn't penitent. "It was all true, she treated Alistair shamefully, and Eamon allowed it to keep the peace in his house and because he was infatuated with his new young bride, while keeping the peace with other nobles for choosing an Orlesian." Teagan looked away. "But I did nothing to help him either, I could have taken him in, given him a home, I didn't, I was a coward." Teagan looked at her then down at his hands.
Kai grasped one of Teagan's hands, "You weren't a coward Teagan, you were a very young man, with no wife and a bannorn to learn how to manage." She gave his hand a squeeze and felt reassured when the pressure was returned. "Besides, it was not yours to do. King Maric put your brother in charge of his son, not you. And while I respect your brother in so many ways, it was his responsibility, this was a major failing on his part, but, so too have I failed of't'ner myself, as my old nanny used to say." Kai bit her lip, thinking on how to continue, to explain. "It is not so much the failure of your brother, Teagan. It was Isolde's cruelty that made me so angry. I have seen enough of deliberate cruelty, and I am sick and full to bursting with it."
Teagan looked at her with a grateful smile, though she had no idea why he should feel any gratitude, it wasn't Teagan's fault to her mind. Kai allowed herself to look around the garden. It was refreshingly the same as it had been when she last saw it. Here, she could pretend that the woman sitting on the bench with Teagan was the same as the one who had last been in it. Not this woman who had slapped another. Not this woman whose hands could, and had, slit people's throats and driven arrows into eye sockets. A woman who had become a sword, all the slag melted off and pounded into a blade so sharp she'd even cut herself.
Kai was jarred from her thoughts by Argus placing his head on her lap and whining and looking at her and Teagan. He barked, which startled both of them, and ran to the sundial. "Ah, so your friend is right. By the sundial my lady, it is time we went to the funeral. I don't think Anora will forgive any tardiness." Teagan offered her his arm, and they both took their leave of the garden. Kai gave it one last longing look over her shoulder before they turned the corner and it passed from view.
Anora, either anticipating or wanting a big crowd, had planned for the funeral to be held in one of the bigger harvested fields outside of Highever. There would be room for everyone, and since there was moist soil, they were not likely to set anything afire as they cremated the body. The body, oh Maker! Kai forced herself to swallow continually and not vomit. If she kept throwing up she would be defeating the purpose of everyone's forcing food on her.
Kai, Teagan, and everyone who had visited her last night, except for Zev, were in front of the large crowd gathered in the field. Zev's absence caused a momentary panic which abated when the Antivan simply materialized as if from thin air at her side. Anora, of course, stood near the bier. Her golden hair swept back into her usual pretty braided buns. She was dressed immaculately and looked beautiful.
Yes, pretty little viper indeed, mused Kai. Anora kept shooting her looks, which Kai expected. Her brother Fergus leaned to whisper in her ear, "Ah, Anora does not look happy to see you awake and standing, little sister." She could hear the smile in his voice as he stood behind her and put his hands on her shoulders.
"No doubt she hoped I might just pass into the Fade in my sleep. I would say I am sorry, but I am not in a penitent mood, dear brother," Kai jested back. In truth her hands were clammy, her stomach had butterflies, and she just wished it was all over. Anora concerned her not a jot, but she was very afraid she was going to collapse the minute she saw Alistair's body, thus letting Anora know just how weak she really was.
"Or maybe run screaming into the crowd in your small clothes?" The voice, his voice that had for some reason been missing all day, returned. She didn't know whether to laugh or cry, and right now she didn't care if it was a desire demon or her own deranged head. Kai put a hand to her mouth to stifle a laugh.
She took a look around her, besides Fergus, Eamon and Isolde were there. Isolde refused to look her in the eye, and she noticed the woman wore that Orlesian face powder she favored so much caked on thicker than usual. Still, pink showed through on each cheek. As Eamon looked at Kai with nothing but kindness and a sad smile, she figured that Isolde kept their little "chat" a secret. Shale, Sten, Leli, Oghren, Argus and of course dear Zev were all fanned out in a semi-circle around her. Zev just squeezed her hand and held it. The rest of the huge crowd seemed to consist of mostly the same nobles who had been at the Landsmeet and the locals of Highever and the nearby Bannorn.
It was at the edge of the crowd some distance away that she caught sight of Wynne. Wynne looked so old and frail, not at all like the formidable mage she had fought the darkspawn with. Kai suddenly felt all the anger melt away and guilt replace it, along with more sorrow. She started to step out of the crowd to go to her, but Anora signaled for the bearers to bring the body to the bier.
Kai watched as solemn knights, assigned as an honor guard, walked slowly to a dirge played by a nearby orchestra. Ah, Anora was pulling out all the stops, she wouldn't want anything to blow her sweet little persona. Kai watched until they got close enough that she could start to see Alistair's armored feet, and then she had to look away. She found herself with a gross interest in the soil beneath her feet and the way the sun was shining on the pebbles there. Zev squeezed her hand, and she heard him whisper so only she could hear, "You need to look, Kai."
She took a deep breath and schooled her face, she was expecting that Anora had put Alistair in the same rather ostentatious golden armor that his brother Cailan wore. She couldn't look at that, her heart was pounding painfully in her chest. He should be in his Dead Legion armor, not looking like some pompous noble! He should be alive, I should be dead, her mind was screaming at her. The sun was shining and the birds were singing and he was dead! She should be dead! The world shouldn't be going on as if he were still here. Should be, should be, should be kept echoing over and over again like a hammer in her skull. Her breath was coming in great rasps like the last gasps of the dying. Her heart continued to gallop madly in her chest and seemed to be getting louder with each beat. A band had tightened over her skull, and all the crowd noises and the dirge seemed to go into a tunnel. She thought surely she was just going to collapse right here, never to rise again, and that was just fine. Let Anora take what she wanted from that.
"KAI," Alistair's voice shouted in her ear, snapping her head back and bringing her back to herself. She felt Fergus's hands tighten on her shoulders, and Zev's hand was squeezing her right hand. Someone was holding her left, it was Teagan, when did that happen? What transpired felt like an eternity, but from the position of the servants no more than a few seconds had passed.
And then they placed him on the wood set there. Kai could have wept with relief just to see that he was indeed in his Dead Legion Armor and not some golden shell he would never have worn. His body wasn't a substitute for Cailan, whom the people of Ferelden had not been able to send off, just like their father Maric. Kai realized that was exactly what Anora had planned, she would give them Alistair as Cailan, and they would forget the royal bastard as if he had never existed.
A look passed across Anora's face so quickly it would be missed by those not watching her closely, but Kai caught it. Anora was furious. Her plans had once again been thwarted. Kai was shaking with relief, but she locked her knees down, and when Anora's gaze passed over her, she allowed her lips the barest of smiles.