BioWare owns all but what I made up. : )

I am glad I made you all laugh. Though I did it with a lot of help. And the "girl talk" with our swamp witch about her first time will be coming up. Thanks to Night Hunter MGS, my dear beta reader, the chainsaw of writing that lives up to his nickname Chainsaw. *hugs to you my friend* If it weren't Night Hunter's help on the girl talk dialogue, we wouldn't have had it at all. E was an abject failure at real girl talk. YAY for beta readers! The moment on Oghren and Leli funny will come back I promise. I think we are going to need it later. Trust me, we will. And Rajed is going to show off his fighting style with the new weapon against his fellow Scath. But I think one little surprise awaits him in the form of our littlest OC. : ) Zev gets his vallaslin, no naked lady for him, poor Zev. More bronto poo doo hits the proverbial multi-bladed spinning thingy. It is going to get ugly again folks.

Author shout outs go to Rancho Relaxo here on FF and Stuffy38 on the forum. Rancho has several stories, but I chose "Uncommon Soldier." It mixes the noble origin line with the Dalish one. The most unique take on DA:O stories that I have seen. Please read it! : D to Tarante11a for her story "Rogue On the Rocks." It is both on FF and the forum, author's name is the same both places. Zevran lovers, rejoice! It is a fantastic story. I have a rec by our own Misame but I haven't had a chance to read it yet. I am so sorry, sweetie. I haven't forgotten your recommendation, I promise. Her rec is for Freckles04's story "Repercussions." And to soignee on the forum and Sianie on FF, her story is "Dead Duster Walking."

And of course my thanks to you all. My reviewers and lurkers. And special thanks goes out to ProsePrincess, Devanelle, nillan88, and PhoenixDownAt20 for adding "Soulmates" to favorite story! I am humbled and can't thank you all enough. And to my reviewers, reviews really keep me going, so much love. And my lurkers, the bar graphs on the stats is like crack, so thank you too! : )

Oh, I keep wavering and I put it back on T. I really hate that people have to change the status to see it if it is M (which makes me think members only, UGH). I think I manage to keep it T. I may waver again. Silly I know. You may all have to send me a PM and tell me what you think the rating should be. I am usually not indecisive, but on this I am.

First, an apology to all of you! I lost my way for moment. I stumbled. I didn't give you all the quality of writing that you all deserve and should expect from me. For that I am terribly sorry. Oh, I know we all tend to be our own worst critics, but the chapter needed...more. And please, please, please tell me, when you think it isn't quite the E golden standard. Really, I felt it wasn't, but it really helps to hear it. And that leads me to my thank you to those of you who thought it was good, and funny, despite what I thought. Bless you all. And a really big THANK YOU, goes out to Night Hunter MGS my beta reader and friend. Thank you, my friend, for being the "bad guy" (which you weren't, you were honest as my beta reader). And making me get back on track, for cracking the whip, for giving me the slap in the back of the head, the WTF?. You are a fan, a friend, and a great sounding board. As much as we all, as writers, hate to read anything less than kudos, it really does help sometimes. I appreciate you all so much! So very, very much. I am truly blessed. And I am so lucky. : )

Blessings!

Kai sat at the table in the now mostly empty dining hall reading her Scath reports while nibbling some bacon left over from the morning meal. She was busy with quill and parchment compiling notes and making plans and writing instructions which she would report via the procul globe to her Scath across Ferelden. The reports from her Scath in the palace said they were having a harder time gathering intel. Anora was becoming increasingly paranoid, and Kai had to admit it had to do with their work as "The Silver Griffon." It was a double edged sword. They could continue to thwart Anora and her group of sycophantic nobles and their stealing from the people or let the petty bitch make the Fereldans as destitute as Meghren had done when he occupied the country under Orlais. To Kai the choice was easy, even if it made what she was doing in other areas more difficult.

Kai felt it in her bones; Anora was planning something or was already working on something. It was just a matter of scratching out what. She marked down instructions for her Scath to stay cautious, but look for different pathways of information from those who continued to surround Anora and her newest group of toadies. Kai wrote down instructions for them to dig more into Anora's new group of enforcers, her own twisted version of Templars.

Kai was also waiting to hear back from Talan the blacksmith about his son Georig who had been traveling as a merchant and spy for the "Griffon." Georig had been on his way to Orzammar to sell wares and gather intel. Kai wanted to make her offer to Georig on becoming a Scath and getting a vallaslin. If his answer was yes, then she would also give him a procul globe and teach him how to use it.

After putting Bhelen on the throne, reluctantly, Kai had gotten the dwarven army as per the treaty to the Grey. Beside the Deep Roads themselves, dealing with dwarven politics had almost been worse than the Archdemon itself. She had despised every minute and every decision, which seemed to consist of only bad choices or worse choices. In the end she had been obliged to destroy a good, albeit weak, man named Harrowmont to put Bhelen on the throne. Bhelen, a man who had probably committed fratricide though Kai could never prove conclusively that he was guilty, revolted her. It disgusted her that she and her group had essentially become the man's errand boys and girls. But, it had to be done to help end the Blight. Not even running errands for the Crows had made her feel as dirty.

When her party had asked her why she had chosen to help Bhelen against his opponent, who was a deeply honest and admirable man, she had answered "strength and the status quo." It had all come down to strength and status quo. After speaking with various nobles, after visiting Dust Town, after visiting the Shaperate, after learning of dwarven culture, Kai had seen that the dwarves were dying under an avalanche of their own making. A mountain bigger and heavier than the Frostbacks themselves was slowly killing them all. It wasn't just the constant fighting of darkspawn in the Deep Roads. It was their inability to change. Their numbers had dwindled, yet they continued as if their empire was still at its height. They labeled and banished any who dared leave to go to the surface. "Surfacers" were never allowed to return to the Stone if they wished. They treated the so-called "casteless" in a horrific manner. Then, if they weren't losing a good part of their population to their caste system and the darkspawn, they were losing it to fighting in the arena for sport and entertainment. All of these things just made their numbers dwindle more.

Casteless were the lowest of the low. The children of casteless would be labeled as such too, with no chance of ever getting out from under a life of squalor, starvation and desperation. But not all casteless were born such; some were dwarves stripped of their caste for reasons which could vary wildly, depending on the case. The women in Dust Town could only get out from under its grinding poverty if they produced a male child with his father's caste and married out of it, leading to "noble hunting." Or casteless could join The Legion of the Dead fighting the darkspawn until a death in the Deep Roads. Their council had been filled to the brim with the same rich, spoiled elite who made decisions the rest had to live by, yet never had to mix with the unwashed masses in the lower levels of Orzammar if they didn't wish to.

Some might argue that human nobles also made decisions others had to live by, and they would be right to a point. If a petty spoiled tyrant weren't on the throne, the people could rise up and take down the offending bann or arl and replace them. And no matter how much some might wish it otherwise, human nobles had to come into contact with the so-called lower classes. If the people found they could not rise up and be rid of their offending noble on their own, they could seek justice from the crown. Usually.

Much as Kai loathed Bhelen, as slimy as she felt the man was, he was willing to change dwarven culture, to make it grow as it would not do it on its own. Maybe he was doing it only because he wanted to marry a casteless woman. Kai didn't care if that was his only motivation. Her instincts told her that Bhelen had the stones to drag the dwarves, kicking and screaming if needs be, out from under certain extinction as a culture. She didn't know if he felt it too, but Kai had felt the dwarves rotting like cloth left out in the sun too long.

While Kai had admired Harrowmont and even respected him, she knew with those same instincts born of being a noble and raised on politics that Harrowmont was a weak man. She was certain the dwarves would have been torn asunder fighting each other as Harrowmont wouldn't have been able to control the infighting. She had seen it when they had first walked into Orzammar and had witnessed Harrowmont's and Bhelen's groups in a battle. She had seen the hesitation in Harrowmont's eyes, in his posture. That hesitation would have called to the other nobles like blood to sharks or the weakest deer in the herd to wolves. There were dwarven, human and elven wolves and sharks in the world who would always look for weakness, the soft spot, the exposed underbelly.

So when the time had come, she had chosen Bhelen, even if she felt like scrubbing with lye soap afterwards. One of her regrets was that she was unable to save Harrowmont. He may have made a horrible king for the dwarves, but he was a good man. Bhelen had had him executed. Kai could understand it, even if she hated it. If Alistair hadn't sacrificed himself, if she had taken Morrigan up on her offer, Anora would have had to have been summarily dispatched. The games of politics were dirty, nasty and definitely not for the faint of heart. Those games weren't for men like Harrowmont.

Kai snorted to herself. It struck her, the reason she didn't like Bhelen. He was the very personification of herself and every noble in the human government. It was just that Bhelen didn't try and hide behind a mask of false civility or false humility. Kai was once again reminded of that childhood book of the Animals of Thedas. Bhelen reminded her of the Antivan cobra. This snake did not hide and strike as others did. It raised up and flared a hood of brightly colored skin, announcing its presence before it spit poison to blind and sank in fangs to kill. Blunt and to the point, just like Bhelen. It made Kai wonder what kind of animal she was then. She shied away from such uncomfortable musings to get back to the problems at hand.

Kai wasn't sure what kind of welcome she might have from the new dwarven king or if she would be welcome at all. And truth be told, she had no idea what was going on there since she had put him on the throne. She and Bhelen had not parted friends, more like reluctant partners in a political game of "you scratch my back, I'll scratch yours." With the final battle, Alistair's death and Anora's assassination attempt, she hadn't really been keeping up with the dwarves. The way things were going, that was going to have to change. Ah, let's add yet another shelled boiled egg to the ones she was already juggling. Maybe it was more akin to juggling an axe, a dagger, a baby and a crystal vase. One misstep and it wouldn't be pretty.

These thoughts had her pinching the bridge of her nose as she felt a slight headache coming on. Argus, who had been sleeping at her feet, started and gave a soft "woof." Kai turned to see Wynne, Fiona, Morrigan and Leliana come in through the doorway making their way to the buffet to put some food on plates and grab the new drink Olwyna had introduced from Antiva called "cafè" made from roasted beans. It was a black and bitter drink that had quite a kick. Some like Jarren and Wynne drank it black. Kai found it needed a lot of milk and honey. Olwyna had caught Kai doctoring hers, slapped her on the back and called her a lightweight. She smiled to herself as the group of chattering females, well more like Leliana was chattering, seated themselves around her.

She was just turning her attention back to the reports to give them a final run through to make sure she hadn't missed anything, when Wynne set a mug of cafè down in front of her complete with milk and she guessed honey. "You looked like you could use it dear." The mage winked at her. Kai smiled back and then caught Morrigan's eye.

"What, do I have a smudge on my nose? Have I a wart? 'Tis not like you to stare sister. Nor is it overly wise to do so, as others have found out." Morrigan raised an eyebrow as she looked back at Kai with her intense golden eyes. Argus gave a woof of agreement.

Kai felt her face flush, and she was about to let it go, but she heard Zev's voice in her head, So it would be hard to know when, or if, she has had the pleasure of someone's company. Certainly not during the Blight, so at least a year. Or even at all. Kai cleared her throat. "Well...um...see...I wanted to ask...and you certainly don't have to answer if you don't want to. It's just that something Zev said got me to thinking, and um..." Kai faltered. "I...well...I mean to say that...I wanted to ask, rather, well..."

"Where last you left your brains? Perhaps the dwarf drank them. 'Twould seem as good an answer as any as to why you are stuttering like a simpleton." Morrigan finished Kai's sentence for her in that mocking sweet voice she liked to use. Kai flushed and would have let it drop then, but the pretty bard piped up.

"Oh for Andraste's sake, Morri! Were you a virgin before you slept with Fergus?" Leliana tilted her head and smiled at the witch. Kai could only gape at the redhead. Wynne and Fiona did simultaneous movements of hands to foreheads. Kai swore she heard one of them mutter something about "beware of redheaded Orlesians bearing lutes." Kai watched as a brilliant pink flush crept up Morrigan's pale and lovely neck and continued until even her scalp seemed to be on fire. Kai's old Nan had used the phrase "hear a pin drop," but she had never experienced such a silence as she did right now.

Wynne seemed to be watching Morrigan's reaction very closely and the flushing which Morrigan had never done before. "Well, I guess that answers that."

Fiona glanced at Wynn before turning a sympathetic gaze on the witch. "I think she might actually be speechless."

"I think all of us are speechless, save Leliana, of course." Kai grimaced at the bard, who only smiled and shrugged. Kai noticed that not only was Morrigan speechless she looked, what? Mortified? Oh my. Kai scooted over on the bench closer to her sister and put her arms around her shoulders. Kai was now the more experienced older sister in this case. "Morrigan, that is nothing to be ashamed of."

Morrigan blushed harder if anything and looked down at her hands. "It was just a bit...I simply..." Morrigan looked up her eyes bright, before she threw her hands up in frustration and huffed out. "'Tis not what I expected!"

Lelianna leaned forward excitedly her eyes wide, looking like nothing more than a child at Winter Solstice about to open a present. "Ooh? How so? Tell all, Morri! Tell all!"

Kai broke in. "No, NOT telling all, still my brother we're talking about here! As little information about this as possible if you please! By Andraste's holy knickers, I thought we covered this already!" Argus gave a woof which sounded suspiciously like a laugh. Kai turned back to her sister, giving Argus a shove with her toe. "Morrigan, sister, I just want to make sure you're handling this well. The first time can be..." Kai felt herself blushing like the witch. "Well, it's something. So tell me, how wasn't it what you expected?"

Morrigan's blush had subsided to two pink spots high on her exquisite cheekbones. "When I went in animal form to the town to watch the people there, I saw how they would fumble and grope around with each other when they thought no one watched them. And with Flemeth, well I...I saw more than I ever wanted of how she would rut with the fools she enchanted. It was either watch or go outside, the hut was small."

Morrigan shifted on her seat, uncomfortable with the memories of Flemeth's sexual conquests. "I expected much the same once I finally let a man use this body. But your fool brother...oh, 'tis such stupid emotional twaddle!" The witch slapped her hands down on the wooden table. "When I am with him, I matter." Morrigan looked astounded at the confession which had just issued forth from her own mouth. "Only with you have I felt such a connection, sister. But this...this was different, somehow. More, well, more of everything. Deeper and more basic and...and primal. Yet so far above mere mating like animals or the enthralled rutting that Flemeth did. And now, because it is more, 'tis filled with foolish emotion that has left me as scatterbrained as the redheaded Orlesian dimwit!" It was that statement which had Leli giggling.

Wynne walked around from the other side of the table and leaned in to hug the witch, resting her gray head on top of Morrigan's dark one. "Oh child, it's all part of being a woman and being with a man, especially that first time." The mage's face took on a wistful look. "Why after my first, I felt as if I'd never have a clear thought again. And I didn't for a solid week." She grinned at Kai over Morrigan's head. "It's what our men do to us, child, they twist us 'round and leave us dizzy and confused. But you know what you can always take satisfaction in?"

Kai raised an eyebrow. She even had Morrigan and Lelianna's rapt attention now. They all burst out into a simultaneous, "No, what?" causing Leliana, Kai and Fiona to laugh, and Morrigan to give a derisive snort.

Wynne gave them all a sly and impish smile worthy of Zevran. "No matter how much they twist us up, we'll always cause them to writhe around and be twice as befuddled as they leave us."