BioWare owns all but what I made up. : )
I wanted the last chapter to be partly Kai and Zev talking and the part, fun. It can't all be serious all the time. And I love writing Fergus and Kai together, so I just had to have a little more of their relationship in the last chapter. And I am so glad you all liked the food fight. I just couldn't resist, and it was so damn fun to write. : )
Chapter 55, really, wow, I am so glad you all feel it is a worthwhile journey. I have enjoyed creating it for you all and giving the characters life and depth, and the same with my own additions and creations too. Speaking of new additions, here you are going to be introduced to a new character. No I won't spoil it for you. I only hope you enjoy, it was inspired in part by one of my favorite Sci-Fi Fantasy authors Robert Asprin's Phule's Company, and other Phule's books, so a shout out to him. And a shout out to Lisette57 and mnomaha, their postulations helped me write part of this chapter. A shout out to Night Hunter MGS, for the inspiration on the Oghren awesome moment, and for being in sync with my mind, and Night Hunter MGS, and thus myself, were inspired for Oghren's dialogue from the movie "The Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day". Even though the fight in here was thought of by both of us separately, I have to give NH MGS the kudos. I apologize, my friend that I didn't get to use it for Leliana as you suggested, but I hope you will like who I did use it for. : )
Oh and a small shout out to the Three Musketeer's movie with Tim Curry and Rebecca De Mornay's scene in it. Think Rebecca De Mornay when you meet our new player, as I was inspired by her for a scene for this chapter. : )
Thank you, your reviews are so inspiring and wonderful, I just can't thank you all enough for the support. I could write a whole fanfic based on the gratitude I feel towards you all, but it wouldn't be enough. I am Still just humbled by it all, for taking time out of your busy lives to review, that is something I promise I don't take for granted over my own ego gratification, I promise! You all just make my writing vibrant. : )
Blessings!
Kai managed to get the oatmeal out of her hair mostly, she dunked herself in the cold clear water of the lake and gotten the major clumps off, the fish in the lake helped by nibbling the porridge, eggs, bacon, and other food bits off of her. She had dripped her way, shaking with cold, back to the castle and into her room leaving a trail of wet footprints, but at least it wasn't a trail of food, which would have been even more work for the servants to clean up. She had a moment to wonder what the others were going to do, it caused her to grin and chuckle to herself.
In the room she ran the tap for hot water into the stone tub in the room, again she was in awe of the dwarven engineering that her grandfather had the foresight to commission. According to her father, it had been quite an undertaking. On this day in particular she was especially grateful. Other nobles scoffed, her father had said, at hiring casteless dwarves. But they didn't scoff when they came to visit and had hot and cold running water without waiting for servants to heat and pour water into the tubs. She let the hot water fill the tub part way and then ran the cold. She dipped her hand in and swirled the water around until it was the right temperature. She added the bath salts Leliana was fond of making, the lovely scents of lavender, rose, and cloves rose up to meet her on the steam. She got undressed and lay her clothes over the edge of the tub so they wouldn't mildew before stepping into the warm water. The shock to her cold skin made her gasp before she quickly became used to it. She rested against the edge of the tub and found her eyelids drooping, and she slipped into the Fade.
And there he was, naked and in the bath with her, smiling, Kai leaned forward and planted her lips on his. He was the candle, and she was the moth. As always his big hands and strong arms encircled her, and she wrapped her arms around his neck so she could run her hands through his hair, she loved his hair. She loved everything about him. She sighed contentedly against his lips. He was nibbling down her neck, and she felt herself beginning to blush, "Um, Ali, I hate to belabor a point but..."
"You had sex with Zevran. Yeah, got it when the lamppost appeared in my head, no, I didn't peek. Your father and I played chess," He kept nibbling on her throat and his hands were roaming along her front.
"But..." Kai started again.
He smiled his lopsided smile at her, "Mi' gra, I am trying to concentrate. I have the most beautiful woman in all of Thedas, who also loves me, here in the dream Fade, and I want to play. If you are going to ask if I am jealous, yes, but not of Zevran himself, I am jealous of a situation. He gets to be there with you, and I don't, not only to share a physical life, but to protect you, that was always my job. But you're going to come to me in the Fade beyond the Black City again. You are my heart and soul, my gradhag, my beloved. So, I just have to be patient, as do you. Now will you please stop worrying, I like Zev. Truth be told, I liked him a lot at the end, the rascal. I admit it, I was totally wrong about him, and you were right."
"Oh, I should have you tell Andraste to mark it down, I was right!" Kai grinned at him, teasing him with his own words.
He laughed, "Ha, very ha! And I like him even more as time goes by, I see what you see, remember? I have seen his concern for you, his concern for and protection of our children, how he is thoughtful and treats you the way you deserve to be treated. He even keeps you from persecuting yourself too much, for which you have a knack. Really, if I could have handpicked someone who was good for you and them, and who is able to protect you all, then it would be him. Even if he doesn't use a shield to do it, you were right, Teagan was not the man for you, and your father agrees, by the way." With that statement he went back to nibbling on her neck.
Kai was stroking his shoulders and arching once again under his hands when her eyes flew open, "My father agrees, you told my father I'm sleeping with Zev?" Kai thought she might stop breathing, except this was a dream. If you stopped breathing in a dream, would it make you stop in the physical plane she wondered wildly?
Alistair blushed when he looked at her, "Not in so many words, I told him about Zevran protecting you all and being your best friend, how he takes care of you. I think he just inferred the other part."
Kai blushed harder, "My mother doesn't know does she," Kai felt her eyes getting as big as saucers.
"No, mi' gra, definitely not, luckily I have learned a trick or two from your father about deflecting your mother's questions. I'm becoming quite good at it, you would be so proud." He grinned at her, then his smile left, "Uh oh, time for you to go." And before she had a chance to ask him what he meant, she felt a hand on her shoulder, and she was pulled out of the Fade once again.
Sod it, Kai woke with a start as it was Zevran's hand grasped her shoulder, "My dear Kai, you were saying Alistair's name as you slipped under the water. I don't think he meant for you to drown yourself." Zev grinned at her, "Though after that food fight you started, the servants may want to drown you."
Kai burst out of the water, "Maker, the servants!" She grabbed a towel and began to dry off as quickly as she could, "I intended to give them bonuses for cleaning all that mess, Andraste's knickers, they probably hate me." Kai scrambled to search through one of the armoires for clothes. She was hurriedly dressing when she noticed that Zevran's hair was wet, but he was clean and dry as were his clothes, "Hey, how did you get cleaned up?"
He gave her a catlike smirk, "First of all, my dear friend, I did not allow myself to get hit as much, nor captured by an oatmeal covered Qunari" He chuckled low in his throat, "As to how I got clean, I snuck into the laundry and found some of my clothes, then, I made my way to the barracks near the armory. I have been exploring your home, my dear. Highever is amazing, like you, in so many ways."
Kai grinned at him, "Charmer."
He laughed, "Si, but your grandfather who had the indoor plumbing installed was a man ahead of his time, no? His invention of putting enamel coated metal drums in the barracks bathhouse with holes punched in them that fill from the pipes and then drip water down like rain was ingenious. I dare say I was cleaner faster than you. As to the servants, I already slipped them a little gold for cleaning up our mess."
Kai just looked at him, "How did you know I was thinking of doing that and what did you pay them with?"
"My beautiful Kaidana, I know you, you have never treated anyone as other than an equal or with anything but fairness. You would have felt guilty for all their hard work with no reward. I simply made sure they got what you would have given them. I paid them with some of the money I won on the fight between you and Zaeed" He grinned at her.
"Oh Zev, I'll pay you back, just tell me how much you gave them."
He walked over to her and stroked her cheek, "There is no need, how many times, my dear friend, have you spent your money on the rest of us, paintings for Sten, and strange and exotic alcohols for Oghren, pretty baubles for Morrigan, and shoes and that ugly nug for Leliana. Even for me, gifts of gloves and boots and simple bars of precious metals."
"But Zev, some of those things were spoils of battles fought. I didn't buy all of it. If I had, we never would have eaten during the Blight." She smiled at him, taking his hand and kissing it. He put a finger on her lips, "Be that as it may, you spent plenty on everyone else, including me, but never yourself, unless it was equipment. It is my turn, and the least I can do." He leaned over and kissed her lips before continuing, "Now, I had a thought, my dear Kaidana. We really need to get Rajed's weapon made. Wynne says he is healing fast and should be able to start moving about. I suggest we have his brother and Naseel help him with balancing exercises, he is going to be a little off his center with the loss of his arm. I thought it might help him mentally and emotionally if he has their support while he figures it out again. In the meantime, we can ride to Lake Calenhad and speak to our friend the dwarven smith about the new weapon. We should also take any that might need repairs, no?"
She grinned at him, "Well, then let me get some parchment and some charcoal, and I will draw out what I had in mind for the weapon, that way we have something to show our smith friend. I figure if we ride Rhia and Luna Negra, we could be there in a day. I better get a wet nurse, oh, and I figure Oghren might like to visit with Felsi. I know he can't ride on his own, but he does alright as long as he rides in front of one of us."
"Hm, yes, as long as you can stand the smell and the grumbling." Zevran laughed, "But, I have dealt with worse. Why not, I would not deny our dwarven friend a chance to get lucky."
Kai laughed and went to the desk to grab a piece of parchment and a stick of charcoal coated in thin layer of wax, the wax kept the charcoal from getting on the fingers of those using it. She took them over to the table and began to draw several pictures from different angles so that the smith could get a good idea of what she wanted.
"That is very good, I had no idea you could do that," Zev looked over her shoulder at her sketches.
"Hm, oh, well I was always good at drawing and painting, absolutely, horrible at embroidery or sewing or weaving. This and cooking were really the only things I ever took to which came close to being noble and 'ladylike'. And I kept this and the cooking a secret from the nobles and their sweaty handed, panting sons. Since I wasn't trying to land one of them, the less ladylike and noble I was, the better," Kai grinned at him.
Zev only laughed a rich, full throated laugh, "Well, I for one am glad you are not like a typical noble lady of Ferelden, and especially not like those in Antiva."
"I am afraid my parents ruined me, my father in particular. Mother wanted me to be happy, but she also wanted more grandchildren, and she was in despair of ever finding me a husband before she...well, before Howe." Kai still found it hard to talk about that night. Zev just grasped her hand, giving it a squeeze. She gave him a small smile and shrugged, "My father always called me his 'fierce girl' and told me I had the right to choose whom I wanted to be with. He just wanted me to be happy. He still calls me that, in the Fade. Anyways, I learned all the courtly things and the non-courtly ones as well, some took, some didn't. Guess which ones didn't?" She laughed.
"Hm, the ones you found boring and useless?" Zev chuckled at her as he started to pull out bags and clothing, "Well then, my dear Kai, let us be on our way to get a special weapon made."
And so it was that Kai found herself sitting in The Spoiled Princess tavern's common room nursing a mug of mead two days later with her light cloak's hood pulled up, while Zev sat next to her drinking a local wine. Argus lay on her feet under the table snoring in doggy dreams, while Jarren was drinking something which was supposed to be whiskey, but had the dubious distinction of smelling like paint thinner, and if his grimaces were anything to go by, tasting the same way too. Oghren and Felsi were in a dark corner snogging like a couple of teenagers, punctuated by occasional insults to each other about surly brontos and nug droppings. Felsi was supposedly on duty, but as there were only four people in the inn besides her, Zev, Jarren and Oghren and since Kai paid the innkeeper a handsome sum for his finest rooms and his blindness about who they were plus a stipend while they were away, he didn't snap at Felsi as was his usual wont.
Kai, and she had no doubt Zev and Jarren were too, was observing their fellow guests. Three were locals, wearing the simple clothing of the fisherman here on Lake Calenhad, probably here after a hard day working on their boats or the docks. They were a bit drunk, but not rowdy, at least not yet, though if the empty mugs in front of them were any indication, they were headed there fast. The fourth person was an elven woman who sat in a dimly lit corner watching the room with dark eyes her hair was a white blonde that cascaded over her shoulders and shone brightly in the scant light of her chosen seat. She was so small that Kai had taken her for a child at first. However, when she walked up to the bar from her corner, Kai had seen that she was indeed full grown, if the curves in the leathers she wore were an indication, it was then that Kai had seen the gently tapered ears as well. She was so petite that her eyes could barely look over the bar, and she had to climb the bar stool to see the owner and get another mug. She was exquisitely beautiful, even by her race's exotic standards, elves all tended to be beautiful, but this girl was beyond even that. She was also cautious, suspicious and wary, she had taken her mug back to her table and sat watching the room, much the way Kai herself was doing.
It was some time later when much drunken slurring, joking and back slapping commenced, much of it was done while looking at the elf in the corner. It became apparent that one of the fishermen had drunk enough courage to stagger to the girl's table, Kai watched as the girl kept her face impassive. The man slurred something loudly that Kai couldn't really hear, but she could interpret well enough from his gestures to the doorway leading to the rooms. The girl simply raised an eyebrow and said something Kai couldn't hear while shaking her head she then gestured to one of the man's fellows and allowed a small smile to play on her lovely lips before leaving her seat with her mug, headed to the bar again. Whatever she said, it made the man angry and his already loud drunken voice rose to a yell, "You elven slattern, how dare you!" As the girl walked past him, he made to grab her, both Zev and Jarren, even Argus, were about to rise and get involved.
Kai put a hand on their arms and stayed them, almost too quick for the eye to see, the girl had a small, sharp little dagger out and poking between the man's legs, her face cold, "Elven slattern, am I, Niquer te m'ere. Any closer, round ear, and I will change your religion." She cocked an eyebrow and gave the man a small, nasty smile. Kai heard her accent. It was very familiar, and Kai also recognized the Orlesian expletive, as she and Fergus had both learned all the profane words of the other languages they studied before they learned anything useful to say. It was something along the lines of buggering one's mother, Kai wanted to laugh. She looked at Zev out of the corner of her eye to see him smirking he clearly knew that expression as well.
The girl tapped the dagger on the inside of the man's leg, "Now, be a good boy and run along and sleep it off." And she continued to the bar. By now his friends had started to rise. They apparently sensed the lay of the land and were too drunk to care. All they cared about was the blow to their friend's ego. They started advancing on the girl who reached over and grabbed a bottle by the neck, breaking it on the end of the bar and holding it like a sword in one hand with the little dagger still in the other. She crouched slightly and shifted her weight to the balls of her feet. Her eyes watched the men, observing calmly without letting the adrenaline take over. Kai was impressed, and she motioned for her friends to get involved. Argus knocked one man down and stood over him growling. Zev and Jarren drew daggers on the others.
"Gentlemen, the lady doesn't want your company. Go home to your wives and your children before she cuts you up into chum to feed the fish in the lake," Kai smiled at them, "Because if I tell my friends to back off, she is going to cut off everything that sticks out from your bodies, walk away." Kai made a gesture, and Argus released the man under him.
The men nodded their eyes wide, as they backed away to the entrance, filed out, and the door closed behind them. Kai turned towards the girl who still held the bottle and her knife, "I did not need your help, round ear, and they would have learned their lesson. It is as you say I would have cut off all that stuck out from their bodies, no?" Now that she was close enough, Kai could see the girl's eyes were the dark blue-purple of the gem iolite, her lips and her cheeks were the color of the centers of apple blossoms, her skin smooth and creamy up close her beauty was even more stunning, Kai had never seen anyone so lovely. But for the crude speech and the attitude, she was exquisite, like living doll, which was no doubt why the diminutive girl held the mien she had. She was undoubtedly treated like an object for her looks and her race, iIt made Kai like her more. She was spunky.
"May I buy you a drink by way of apology then? My name is Kai." And she stuck out her hand to the young woman.
The girl looked at Kai's hand and down at the broken bottle. She grinned at Kai, shrugged and threw the broken bottle over her shoulder so that it hit the wall behind her, shattering. Before the innkeeper could protest, Kai slapped a sovereign on the bar while grinning without taking her eyes off the lass. The elf took Kai's hand and shook it, "Gnat."
Kai thought she had heard her wrong, "I am sorry, but did you say 'Gnat,' as in a small biting insect?"
She smiled at Kai's confused expression and nodded her head, "Gnat, that is not my, how do you say, proper name? But it is the name I go by, the name I like to use. I grew up on the streets of Val Royeaux. I was an orphan, and I refused to live in the alienage with a bunch of chatte whipped elves or to be a whore for some nobleman's pleasure. I am a thief and a cutpurse, and sometimes, I am a killer." She grinned even more widely at Kai, "I suspect you and I are similar, are we not?"
Kai was about to answer when they heard high-pitched, terrified screams outside the inn. She drew her daggers and called to Argus. Oghren, who missed all the fuss with the fishermen, now grabbed his axe from the corner behind Felsi. Zev and Jarren already had their blades out as well, Kai and her crew went running out the door.
She smelled them before she saw them, the smell was a peculiar stench of rot coupled with dust and mildew, sod it, darkspawn! And she had not been able to sense them, she'd forgotten that part. She'd been so happy to have that blackness crawling just under the surface of her skin and the constant hum in the back of her head gone, she hadn't given them much thought. Just like most Fereldans, she'd forgotten, and gladly, their nightmare.
She counted four genlocks on the rise of the hill leading out from the lake, and what looked like three hurlocks attacking the men who'd just left. One of the hurlocks was just finishing sticking its warped, spiked sword through one of the fishermen the other two fishermen were lying in pools of blood which looked black in the moonlight. The hurlocks' bald emaciated heads with their patchy, leathery, mummified skin turned towards Kai and her group. Lipless faces with black, pointed fangs grimaced at them with hissing noises, Kai felt her blood run cold, "Argus, Zev, Oghren, take out genlock archers. Jarren, you're with me, don't be intimidated, they're tough, but they do die, they just take more hits than a normal target. Your best bet is to cut off their heads, they don't survive that. And whatever you do, don't get the blood in your mouth." Kai saw Jarren gulp and nod out of the corner of her eye.
Before she could move forward, she glimpsed a blur of movement, and Gnat was on one of the hurlocks with a screaming war cry, she ran up the hurlock and sliced it across the throat, doing a backwards somersault off its chest before it even knew what had happened. She then hamstrung it and stuck her dagger through its mouth into its brain while it screeched in pain. .
After that, things went in slow motion, the fighting was familiar and so was the fear. If anything they smelled worse on the inside, their blood reeking of carrion and bile, like vomit and excrement and dark spite. If she listened closely enough, Kai could almost hear their blood humming just like hers used to. A part of her mind wanted nothing more than to run into the lake and wash all the blood off of herself RIGHT NOW! But she ignored the feeling and kept slashing and cutting.
Finally, there was only one left, and Kai was just beginning to feel relieved when the overwhelming stench of a hundred privies in the hottest days of summer sun hit her. She smelled it before she even felt the vibrations in the ground under her boots. Maker, Kai turned around and felt her heart drop into her stomach. There it was, as tall as the inn, hugely muscled with dark blue skin, a mouth full of fangs, and a head adorned with enormous horns which could knock down a building, "OGRE" Kai yelled.
Oghren stepped into the fray with Argus biting at the ogre's heels. Kai, Zev and Jarren circled around its flanks, Gnat was following her lead. Quite frankly, Kai was impressed that Gnat was still alive. The girl had talent, even if it was the rough fighting skill of a barroom brawl. Kai and her compatriots kept working on cutting the ogre from behind their slices were a way to weaken it so Oghren could get in a killing blow. Let it bleed from a thousand cuts until it became sluggish.
They kept circling, dodging when it got angry, like a bear swiping at the bees. Kai watched Oghren as he dodged his giant foe, swinging his axe and slicing more chunks of ogre flesh off the creature, blood shining black in the moonlight, splattering outwards. She heard the dwarf growling at the ogre, "Never pick a fight with a dwarf, nug humper, pound for pound, toughest fuckers on Thedas. Know why, 'cause we like PAIN, nug humper! Think about it, lichen ale? We make it from crap found in sulphuric pools, what sort of sodded up people even invent that shite?"
The detached part of her mind wanted to laugh at Oghren. Kai was stabbing the creature's thigh, Gnat was next to her and under the ogre's tree-trunk sized legs, and Kai watched her aim a dagger for the ogre's scrotum before Kai could stop her. The slash only enraged it, Kai watched as the monster turned around, aiming to crush Gnat with meaty fists twice the size of the girl herself.
Kai pushed the diminutive elf out of the way while giving a cry to get its attention. The ogre stopped, screamed and head butted her, she saw rather than felt the impact of those massive horns, hurtling her backwards. Well, that might have been a very bad idea she found herself thinking as she was airborne. Kai thought she might be okay, if she just used her rogue acrobatics and rolled with the fall. Unfortunately for her, a tree put the kibosh on that little plan, Kai hit it high enough that she saw the fir needles and smelled the sap before she found the ground rushing up to meet her at an alarming speed. She tucked in her shoulder, which she hoped would help relax her into the fall, but the sudden stop knocked the breath out of her. She felt her shoulder give with excruciating pain, making her world go white, ribs snapped like twigs. Sod it, not again, she would have cried out in pain, but breathing was very difficult. She knew the fall had knocked the breath out of her, but it didn't seem to be getting better with time, if anything, it was getting worse.
"Mi' gra, hold on, love, just hold on!" Alistair's voice sounded in her head from far away. Other than Alistair, she couldn't really hear anything much, it was as if she were watching a play with no sound. She could, however, see everything in exquisite detail, the ogre's mouth opened wide, huge fangs dripping with strings of slobber. She watched as the petite girl stuck her daggers into the ogre's back, using them like claws to climb. The ogre stopped attacking Oghren and started trying to claw whatever was hurting it from behind, but the girl was so tiny it couldn't reach her. Anytime it got close, she stabbed its hand with her free dagger before plunging the blade into its back again. The ogre was so focused on getting the little clawing thing off its back that it was walking around in circles.
Gnat, that was her name, right, Kai was having a hard time focusing, she watched as Gnat reached the ogre's neck and stretched around to plant both daggers into the beast's eyes just as its big clawed hands reached up to pluck the object of its ire off its neck. Kai assumed it screamed in pain, she really couldn't say. Once it was blinded, it didn't take long for them to bring it down and kill it. Maker, finally that was over, how she hated those things! She saw Zev running over towards her, he was saying something, but she couldn't hear him. She tried to speak to tell him to talk louder, but she felt warm liquid leaking from her lips. Breathing was all she could really manage at the moment. She tried smiling at him, to reassure him, but he just looked more frightened. She thought he might be shouting her name, she really couldn't tell, she was so tired. She wanted to close her eyes and go to sleep, but Zev kept slapping her cheeks. She was about to simply ignore him when she felt her head lifted and a bottle held to her lips. Kai tasted a health potion and felt the strangely cooling sensation that they always caused right before the uncomfortable warmth of bones knitting and organs healing. She was tired of swallowing, but Zevran wouldn't let her take a break, damn him. Finally, when the last of it was gone, her eyelids felt heavy, and the blackness of nothing engulfed her.