BioWare owns all but what I made up. : )
So Kai has a cunning plan. She sends out her Scaths and the lovely, straight forward witch. And I left her with the prospect that she may still have to make good on her losing the bet and telling Oghren he is a daddy. Yeah, I know, I am so mean to her sometimes. : ) So I hope you will stick with me and continue to enjoy the journey.
A shout out to Monty Python and Ladyamesindy for suggesting it. : )
Shout outs to the lovely people who put "Soulmates" on favorite story and me on author alerts. I am so humbled. So , Jeanne Calcrie, Fionn Rose, kiwibliss thank you all so much!
Thanks as always go to my friend and beta, my knight in shining armor, Night Hunter MGS. He is the Great and Powerful Oz and helps me keep this story on track. And Ladyamesindy my hero, who lets me bother her all the time for advice and betas for me too. My grammar beta Janni, who has been slaving away reworking the early chapters of this epic and fixing my commas and punctuation. I love you all. : )
And to you my lurkers, readers, reviewers, my adoration. You just keep this little happy epic afloat and chugging along. I love that I started to write for myself (and still do) but that you all thought it was worth it to join me in my own little world. THANK YOU! : ) I consider my signature in every chapter, my review for you all, you fantastic people. : )
Blessings!
Kai was surprised by the discovery of having something she didn't usually have – more leisure time. She did of course have paperwork, reports to read, the intel on Anora's abuses, monies to be distributed, instructions for her Scaths (not to mention training with the Scaths), and pleas for assistance to The Silver Griffon.
And Kai found herself running the country more and more even if she was doing so "behind the curtain" so to speak. The management of trade, crop storage, and the distribution of goods were all things Anora was supposed to be doing and wasn't. Anora's inattention forced Kai, Eamon, Teagan, and the other nobles who were actually still working for Ferelden to struggle with these things. Having to work on them covertly made the job even more monumental. Kai blessed Andraste's holy knickers that she had such competent and loyal men and women to work with, as there was no way she could have done it without their help.
Thinking of the nobles led Kai's musings to Keiron. He had been upset, but had managed to put it behind a mask of fake jocularity and devil-may-care flamboyance. He had gone back to his father, claiming he had been away due to a wench and now it was over. He was acting the noble fop who had no cares other than what he drank or what soft, curved, and perfumed company he kept, while spying for her. Kai only hoped he wouldn't let his father's treachery eat at him. It was hard enough playing a false role, well mostly false. Keiron did have some of those traits, he was just playing them to the hilt.
Kai spent her mornings and part of the afternoons dealing with the day to days. But evenings were for her, the twins, and anyone else who might like to tag along with two growing infants. Kai figured she was going to be away from them once Morrigan and the few remaining Scaths returned. Time with them was precious and not to be wasted. She and Zev took them for their first swim. She spent the warm Ferelden evenings in the garden with the bees, lying on a blanket reading by lantern light when the sky had turned dark, and the twins lay sleeping between her and Zev.
It was when she had begun to count too many of those wonderful blissful evenings on the Chantry calendar Olwyna hung in the kitchen, that she started to worry. All of her Scaths had reported in, until only Morrigan's presence and report were the remaining absence. Fergus was beside himself. Kai only admitted to Zev and Naseel that she too was becoming anxious, not wanting to add to Fergus's already agitated demeanor.
She did have a distraction though. Oghren hadn't needed to be retold the news that he was going to be a daddy. In fact, any congratulations or comments of any sort, or even no comment at all, were enough to send Oghren for the nearest alcoholic beverage in whatever form he could find it.
Olwyna had shot to the moon when she had found her cooking wine missing. When she had found the culprit passed out cold, she had taken lather and a razor and shaved his facial hair completely off. And she was good. Oghren's chin was as smooth as a baby's bottom.
She then took poor Oghren, carrying him like a large sack of potatoes (as if he weighed no more than one of the twins), and marched him out to Lake Highever. She had dumped the dwarf unceremoniously in the lake and proceeded to lather him up with soap, clothes and all. Kai was convinced her gentle ministrations were going to drown Oghren if she wasn't careful.
It seemed that as soon the cold water and Oghren met, he came back to life. But Olwyna was sober and strong. Oghren's struggles and yelling, which got less creative as the dance went on, did not faze Olwyna one bit. When his mouth got too vulgar for her taste, she dunked him, holding him there until he bubbled, and then she drug him up gasping for air.
"Now see that you don't drink my cooking wine ever again! And by Andraste's ass, get your sodding carcass to Lake Calenhad and see the mother of your child. Let that smooth face of yours remind you while the beard is itching as it's growing back, that you are the man and not the baby, you sorry sack of Ceffyl dung!" And with that Olwyna plucked Oghren up, dumped him on the bank and waded calmly out of the lake and walked her way back to the castle.
Kai caught Zev's chuckle, "That woman never ceases to entertain. What a truly delightful creature." Kai grinned at him before kissing him lightly on the lips and going to look after Oghren.
"Blasted woman! She is worse than the Archdemon and the whole darkspawn army put together! She shaved me!" Kai had to press her lips together to keep from laughing. Oghren was a sight without the facial hair. He actually looked younger, and well...Kai shook her head and clapped him on the shoulder. "SHE SODDING SHAVED ME, Warden!"
"Perhaps, my dwarven friend, you should not steal from her kitchen? I am an ex-Crow, and I would not dare to take from her domain. Especially if my skills were as bad as yours." Zev had come around to Oghren's other side and nodded to Kai and then at the dwarf, grabbing him under the arms to lift him. "Let this be a lesson to you. Embrace it as an experience from which to gain wisdom, no?"
"Huh, I suppose yer right. I will take this moment to say I need to go see Felsi, elf, if only to keep Fergus from having to find another cook." Oghren grunted and rubbed his now nude face. "Lucky for me it ain't Winter. A man could catch cold and die being naked like this!"
Kai motioned to Jarren who, along with a good number of Highever castle's inhabitants, had been watching the show. "Jarren, will you take Oghren and get him packed, and will you take a couple of Ceffyls and ride with him to Lake Calenhad when you go to see Timothy, please?"
Jarren smiled, nodded and gave Kai a cross armed salute, "My pleasure, Scathach, especially now that our drunken friend has had an impromptu bath." Jarren grinned at her before putting a friendly hand on Oghren's shoulder and walking with him back to the castle.
The crowd began to disperse since the show had ended. A dark haired serving girl wearing her locks in a style similar to Morrigan's reminded Kai of her sister. "Zev, it has been too long. We need to ride to the forest, start seeking the elves. Hopefully we can find Morrigan while we're there."
Zev nodded, "I hope our deliciously dangerous friend is merely delayed. I must confess, I too am uneasy. The only thing that gives me hope that our friend is still well is that Alistair has not said anything is amiss from his side of things, or you would have said." Zev shrugged at her.
"Tell our slick Antivan friend that I still have heard not a peep from witchy-poo. And she certainly hasn't shown up here in dreams or...well or otherwise." Kai could feel Alistair shrug, "But you know she and I are not that close. If I bug her to help you, that's one thing. But I honestly don't know if she would come to me for help. You know she thinks the dog is smarter than I am. She might take her chances elsewhere."
Kai gave him a mental grimace. "Alistair says she still hasn't show up to him, in the dream Fade or otherwise."
"I think it best we take our leave and go to the forest and look for our Dalish friends and ask them if they have seen her. Provided, of course, that they have met with her already." Zev nodded at her and started towards the castle to get packed and ready to ride.
And ride they did, a hard two-day journey across the Bannorn to get from Highever to the Brecilian Forest. Kai and her group found themselves wandering once again amongst the tall trees, leafy ferns, and dappled sunlight. Traveling in the forest with Ceffyls was certainly a different experience. Tree branches they had not had to worry about when walking through the forest had a tendency to appear suddenly at neck height for the rider. It paid to be diligent, or one could find the fast way off of a Ceffyl.
That part of her group included her brother Fergus was of concern to Kai. When she had tried to dissuade him, he pointed out that he had a very good reason for going on the trip with his sister. His explanation was rather on the practical side. As it turned out, Morrigan magicked a set of rings that linked both she and Fergus together so that if one needed to find the other, it would be possible. But the link only existed between the two of them. Fergus explained, as far as he was able since he did not completely understand the exact nature of the rings, that if he were to give the ring to Kai, for example, to take with her, Kai would get absolutely no reading from it as to Morrigan's location, and it would, therefore, be useless.
Kai had watched Fergus closely as she evaluated everything he just told her. Kai could see him bunching his shoulders and knew he was, as a very last resort, willing to throw a tantrum, something which he had not done since he was about seven years old. But she also knew that would be only as a very last resort! Instead, he stood watching her. Fergus finally told her, "Look, sister, I argue rings around you...logically." She could see him as he tried desperately to keep the smirk from his face, wondering if she would remember. Kai raised her eyebrow so that he would know she did indeed remember their old tutor's, Aldous', favorite argument whenever he felt as if he were losing a debate against one of his charges.
"Kai, I am going to search for her. End of story. I can go with you, in which case we can pool our resources, or I can go without you, in which case you can worry the entire time..."
Kai finally sighed, knowing it was inevitable. "Fine."
And while she worried for his safety, she could not argue. She had seen that look on his face for only one other woman, and that woman was dead, thanks to Howe.
So it was that Fergus was reluctantly helping to set up tents for their camp. He had wanted to press on, the ring had been "telling" him that he was closer now, but Kai had been in the forest before. While the sun might not go down for hours yet, the shadows beneath the trees would lengthen and a false night would fall earlier than the sun set, making it all but impossible to see one's hand in front of one's face.
Tensions were high around camp; there wasn't much talking except for the barest communication required. It reminded Kai of camp during the Blight, right before they marched on Denerim to face the Archdemon. Of course Kai had had Leli along then, and it had turned into an impromptu "wake" for Kai. Or she had thought of it as such, as she had been planning on taking the final blow if Riordan fell.
Kai wished for Leli and her lute, even if it meant Kai would have to hear songs and tales about herself. The pretty bard always lifted the spirits of her companions. The weight of worry on the camp was enough to drive them to kip in their tents earlier than they would have otherwise. Kai fell into a dreamless slumber almost before her eyelids finished closing.
Kai woke with a start, wrapped in Zevran's arms, as the sunlight dappled the tent. She had a moment of panic that this was their camp during the Blight and that she had cheated on Alistair. Maker, she hated when her past emotions, namely her love for Alistair, collided with the reality of the present (his being dead). Camping in the forest again had brought back all sorts of memories last night. Memories of camping here in the forest looking for the Dalish, only to find them and a pack of werewolves spreading lycanthropy amongst the elves.
"Kai, I don't want to panic you, she is okay..." and the rest of what Alistair was going to say was lost as a raised voice drifted into their tent.
"What do you mean she is hurt!'' came Fergus' distressed cry. Kai scrambled to put on her leather armor. She was still trying to buckle some of it as she exited her tent to see Fergus with a young elven hunter pinned against a tree. Oh Maker was Kai's only thought.