Shadow and Rose
by Lady Norbert
A/N: Andraste's flaming sword, this is going to be a long story...
Chapter Three: Family Sword
This lightly enchanted blade is as sharp as the day it was first wielded in the service of King Calenhad, the Silver Knight, who united all of Ferelden almost four centuries ago.
Duncan returned to camp today. He looked exhausted, and strangely... I almost want to say heartsick. Also, he had a mabari with him. I watched him approach his fire, and the dog lay down and made himself at home.
When he told me what happened in Highever, I could understand why he looked so worn down. The very night that Fergus Cousland left with the family's forces to join us here at Ostagar, Castle Cousland was invaded! Arl Howe, who for years was Teyrn Cousland's closest friend, sent his men into the castle to slaughter every last inhabitant, and has apparently declared himself lord over the Cousland lands. He murdered his best friend. What kind of man can do something like that?!
The Teyrn and Teyrna both fought bravely, he said, but it was the daughter - Lady Elissa, the one he mentioned - who fought hardest. She protected her mother and probably would have died defending both of her parents. Instead, they sent her off with Duncan and their blessing to become a Grey Warden. So she's here in the camp, exploring he said; the dog, Toby, belongs to her. Duncan said he's the only thing, besides the armor on her back and an ancestral sword and shield, that she was able to bring away from the castle. I-
Oh, spare me. What does the Revered Mother want now?
I only have a short time to write this, so I'll try to be brief. Revered Mother wanted me to take a message to one of the mages - I'm not sure why being an ex-Templar requires me to be her personal errand boy, but so be it. The mage gave me a hard time, and I admit to giving him a hard time right back.
And then she showed up.
Just as the mage was agreeing to go see what the Revered Mother wanted, a woman walked up to where we were standing. She looked completely confused when he told her to get out of his way, and I couldn't really blame her. I made a crack about how the Blight really brings people together, which made her smile the littlest bit. "You are a strange man."
"You're not the first woman to tell me that!"
After a few minutes of banter, I worked out that my memory wasn't faulty; she really was a stranger to my eyes, and was in fact the Lady Elissa Cousland. I know I shouldn't have been wondering about it, much less observing it, but she is pretty. She has a lean, elegant figure, even in armor, with a queenly sort of walk. Her hair is a rich brown, and she wears it in two braids coiled at the nape of her neck; it's a very popular style among the higher-ranking ladies in the kingdom. She strikes me as intelligent, and alert.
She's also kind-hearted. We were making our way back to Duncan's campsite when her attention was caught by the sight of a man in a cage. I did remember hearing that someone was arrested for trying to desert, but I hadn't gotten any details on the matter. The man in the cage protested his innocence, and maybe he really is innocent and maybe he isn't, but one thing he definitely was? Hungry. He told Elissa that he hadn't had any food or water since he was locked up, and begged her to do something about it. Well, she marched right over to the guard and turned on the charm; when that didn't quite work, she sweetened the bargain with ten silvers. For that, he surrendered what was left of his own dinner, and she went straight back to the prisoner and gave it to him.
I like her.
After that we reported to Duncan, who was waiting with Daveth and Ser Jory. It's time for them to go into the Wilds, to collect the darkspawn blood for their Joining, and I'm to accompany them. But Duncan gave us a second task too. It seems that out in the Wilds somewhere, there had been a Grey Warden outpost where some important documents were accidentally abandoned, and we're to retrieve them. They're treaties signed by the leaders of certain factions throughout Ferelden, pledging their support of the Wardens in the event of another Blight, and he thinks it might be time to call in those favors.
Ah, Duncan says they're ready. More this evening.
That was... I'm not sure I have a word for what that was.
We had barely gotten into the Wilds when we found the lone survivor of one of our scouting parties. They'd been attacked by darkspawn, he said, and he was the only one who hadn't died. Maker's breath, why are they sending out these scouting parties without a Grey Warden to guide them and warn them of the darkspawn's approach? It's not fair that these people are dying because they can't sense the enemy. We bandaged him up and sent him back to camp.
After that it was, for a while, a lot like my own first time in the Wilds. All three of the recruits were more than a match for any darkspawn we encountered; I was pleased and I knew Duncan would be too. We collected the phials of blood without much difficulty. But then we got to the ruins of the old Warden outpost, and the chest that had held the treaties was broken. Duncan had said there were magical wards protecting the documents, but they were gone.
And then this woman showed up.
She had very black hair, but shiny golden eyes that made me uneasy. Daveth and Ser Jory didn't like her any better than I did. She seemed to be mocking us, asking whether we were scavengers or merely intruders. She referred to the Wilds as being her own, so I guessed that she was Chasind, and I cautioned the recruits not to answer her questions. She laughed at me.
"So, you fear barbarians will come swooping down?"
"Yes. Swooping is bad."
It was Daveth, however, who put forth the idea that she was a Witch of the Wilds, and likely to turn us all into toads. The woman didn't even laugh at that one, just dismissed it as an idle fancy and asked if we had no minds of our own. Then she turned on Elissa, wanting to speak as one woman to another. "Give me your name and I will give you mine."
I had the strangest urge to push Elissa behind me, to protect her if I could. Don't know where that came from. She seemed entirely unafraid, however. "I am Elissa. Pleased to meet you."
"Now that is a proper civil greeting, even here in the Wilds! You may call me Morrigan." She went on to say that she knew what we were looking for, and that we wouldn't find them because they were long gone. I called her a sneaky witch thief - well, I never claimed to be a great orator, and words eluded me a bit. She asked me how one steals from dead men. I didn't know how to answer that, so I ignored the question and demanded the return of the documents, but she said she wasn't the one who took them. Elissa asked who did.
"T'was my mother, in fact." This Morrigan had an odd way of speaking, like she was born a hundred years ago or so. Then again, if she really is a Witch of the Wilds, maybe she was.
"Can you take us to her?" Elissa inquired, and I can't help wondering if maybe I shouldn't just have Elissa do most of the talking in situations like this; her noble upbringing seems to have prepared her for more than I would have expected. Morrigan looked pleased.
"There is a sensible request," she said, and chuckled. "I like you." I'm not sure that's necessarily a good thing. Neither of the other men seemed happy about following Morrigan, and frankly I wasn't either, but Elissa went after her without hesitation and we didn't really have much choice but to stay with her. Daveth certainly seems to like walking behind Elissa, come to think of it.
No, on second thought, I don't want to think of it.
In any case, Morrigan was as good as her word, to my surprise. She took us farther into the Wilds and introduced us to her mother. When Morrigan tried to tell her who we were and what we wanted, the crone cut her off, saying we were just as she expected. I found it hard to believe she was expecting us, to which she replied that "you are required to do nothing, least of all believe." Daveth and Jory started bickering a little over whether she really was a witch (and if she was, if it was wise to make her angry), and I saw Elissa shaking her head. This drew the older woman's attention.
"And what of you?" she asked. "Does your woman's mind have a different view than these men?"
"I'm not sure what I believe."
Like Morrigan, the mother seemed pleased by Elissa's sense. "A statement that possesses more wisdom than it implies," she said. "So much about you is uncertain. And yet I believe...do I? Why, it seems I do."
She then talked of Morrigan, of her enjoyment of idle fancies such as being called a Witch of the Wilds and dancing under the moon, and Morrigan looked embarrassed. "They did not come to listen to your wild tales, Mother."
"True. They came for their treaties." The mother retrieved them, adding as she did that the magic seal wore off a long time ago and that she had protected the treaties since that time. I felt a little stupid for thinking they stole the documents, but really, it seemed like a logical suspicion. "Take them to your Grey Wardens," she said, handing them to me, "and tell them that this Blight's threat is greater than they realize."
I didn't know quite what to say to that, but Elissa did. "Thank you for returning them."
"Such manners." The mother looked amused. "And always in the last place you look. Like stockings." Even Elissa looked confused by that comment, but we took our leave, with Morrigan escorting us back to the entrance of the camp.
Duncan was very pleased with our success. He told me to conceal the treaties among my gear for safekeeping, and to carry them with me at all times. With the darkspawn blood acquired, he saw no reason not to prepare for the Joining at once, so I've got to go and join him and the recruits in the old chapel. With any luck, we'll now have three more Grey Wardens to bolster our strength.
I'm eating some dinner by Duncan's fire, now, and waiting for his return from a meeting with Cailan. The Joining is over, but it didn't go as well as I'd hoped.
At first all seemed well. Duncan explained that the ceremony is dangerous, that they had to drink the darkspawn blood and that there was a chance they might not survive it. Jory looked appalled, so I tried to put him at ease by explaining the importance of the blood. I don't think it helped much. I spoke the traditional litany, and Daveth went first. He... well, it was like Ser William. His eyes clouded, and he clutched his head and cried out in pain, and collapsed to the ground. Jory and Elissa looked fairly horrified, and I could understand that.
What I didn't expect was what happened next. Duncan tried to give the chalice to Jory, and Jory responded by pulling his sword. He seemed half-mad with terror, shouting that there was no glory to be had in such a ceremony, that he didn't know, that he had a family and needed to go home. And then he tried to attack Duncan - who set down the chalice, drew his dagger, and killed Jory.
I know it was self-defense, I know he would never have done it if Jory hadn't attacked. But it was still awful to watch. Elissa was shaking.
She didn't shy away when Duncan gave her the chalice, but her hands trembled as she accepted it. I couldn't really blame her. Her face contorted in pain, and she stumbled backwards. There was a broken column lying behind her and I was afraid she'd hurt herself on it, so I grabbed her as she started to fall and lowered her to the ground.
"She will live," said Duncan after a moment. Her face was still twitching a bit, but she was breathing. "I knew she would do well."
"I'm not surprised either," I admitted. While she remained unconscious, I told him about our time in the Wilds - our surprise encounter with the two women who returned the treaties, and Elissa's diplomacy. "She seems like she was born to lead."
"Very possibly. But she is very much alone right now, Alistair. The loss of her family weighs heavily on her mind, and now the loss of her brother recruits will likely add to that," he noted. "I will be counting on you to help her adjust to the life of a Grey Warden."
"I'll do my best."
Elissa started to wake, then, blinking at Duncan. "It is finished," he said. "Welcome."
We helped her to stand; she still seemed a little unsteady on her feet. I admitted that her Joining took me somewhat by surprise, since only one had died during mine. "But it was horrible," I told her. "I'm glad at least one of you survived."
"How do you feel?" Duncan asked.
"Nothing you said prepared me for that," she mumbled. We spoke of the nightmares, and I presented her with the Warden's Oath - the special pendant containing darkspawn blood that all new initiates receive as a token of their Joining. Duncan promised that in the months to come, he'll explain the dreams and answer all of her questions as they arise. For the moment, though, he had to go meet with Cailan - and for some reason, which even Duncan didn't understand, Cailan wanted Elissa to attend the meeting as well. Not me, just her.
So I'm at the fire, waiting for them to come back. Ah - here they come now. She looks tired, I don't want to pester her. Oh, that's kind of sweet; she dropped to her knees and held out her arms, and her mabari went straight into them. She's had a rough time of it so far, and now we're on the eve of battle. It's not going to get any easier for her just yet.
It's not going to get any easier for any of us.