Shadow and Rose
by Lady Norbert
A/N: Hello, my dears, I'm back! I'm sorry it took so long - as you may have seen from the note on my FFN profile, I moved recently. Between that, my job, my non-fanfic writing, the death of a dear friend, my husband falling ill, and how long it took me to get internet in the new place... well, suffice it to say it's been a crazy couple of months. But I'm back and I've brought our favorite king-to-be with me. Updates will be a little on the sporadic side, but rest assured they're coming! If things go well, I hope to have this finished by the end of the year so we can start 2014 fresh with the sequel.
Chapter Twenty-Four: Cute Nug
The nug's nose twitches as it stares at the world with clear inquisitive eyes. It seems to enjoy being stroked.
Elissa wants to be back to her usual self, and I'm not sure I would classify it as a good thing. I mean, on the one hand, certainly it's better than us delaying our work here; we don't have that much time to spare. Arl Eamon gave us only six weeks to deliver the treaty and return to Redcliffe, and one of those weeks is already gone. But on the other... I think she's still faking it. She's going to push herself and push herself until she goes mad or becomes ill, and I don't know how to stop her.
She was up before me, getting ready for the day. I pleaded with her to come back to bed, to rest more, but she was having none of it.
"We've too much to do, Alistair," she replied in this brisk sort of voice I've heard her use too many times. "I can rest when the Archdemon is dead and Loghain is out of power. There's no time to spare before that."
"Love, you're working yourself to death."
Her hands stilled. "What would you have me do, then?"
"Take a day. Please. One day won't hurt, surely. You need this."
"I can't."
"Elissa, please." I went over and put my hands on her shoulders. "For my sake, if not your own. I need you. I am begging you to take this one day to rest and let yourself feel whatever you need to feel in order to get better. Please?"
I think she wanted to argue with me, but she just couldn't. She sighed, and tilted her head forward so it rested against my chest. "One day," she conceded. "Just one. For you."
Something interesting just happened. I'm not sure how much actual stock I put into it, but Elissa seems pleased and all things considered, I guess that's enough for me right now.
I had breakfast with the others, but I insisted Elissa stay in bed and get a little more rest. While the rest of us ate, I told them she was going to take a little break from her tasks just for the day, and they seemed to understand that. At least, I think they did. Sometimes it's hard to tell. Wynne took some food up to Elissa's room, and I made myself useful by going back to the market, where Leliana showed me the merchant from whom Elissa had bought the toy sword. He wasn't very happy about my returning it, even when I gave him a truncated explanation of the events.
"I don't even want the money back," I said finally. "I just want you to take this thing. Sell it to someone else. Twice the profit. I really don't care."
With this accomplished, we returned to Tapster's, and I headed upstairs to see how Elissa was faring. I nudged the door open and saw her speaking to Morrigan, who looked... strange. I don't know how to describe her face. Like she was happy and sad at the same time. She had a mirror in her hands, a small mirror in a decorative gold frame. I didn't want to interrupt whatever they were doing, so I went to my own room for a few minutes until I heard Morrigan's footsteps come out into the hall and head down the stairs.
I made my way back to Elissa, and this time I knocked before opening the door properly. "And how is the most beautiful woman in the world feeling, now that she's eaten?" I was trying to be playful.
She did smile, anyway. "I'll be fine, Alistair. Really, don't worry. I have you; I have the others; I'll get through this." She was lacing her boots. "Morrigan just told me something that honestly makes me feel better, somehow."
"I find that hard to believe, but do go on."
"I - well, never mind most of the details. She mentioned to me, some time ago, that she'd had a mirror as a child and wasn't able to keep it. I found one yesterday that reminded me of her description of it, so I gave it to her. She told me... she said I'm not just the first real friend she's ever had, but that she thinks of me almost as her sister."
I wasn't sure what to say to that. It obviously means a great deal to Elissa that Morrigan would think such a thing, but how much did Morrigan actually mean it? I still don't trust her, and it still worries me that Elissa does.
We've just returned from a wander through Dust Town, where Elissa managed to endear herself to some of the casteless dwarves by doling out silver pieces. As one of them put it, "When I go to bed tonight with a full stomach, I'll think of you." Anyway, she happened to talk to one casteless about the nugs, which are these... you know, I'm not sure how to describe them. Leliana calls them "subterranean bunny-pigs," which is probably the best any of us could do. The dwarves use them as a food source, but according to Elissa, Leliana was eyeing some in the streets and saying how cute they were and how she'd love to have one.
So she got to talking with this casteless fellow. I don't know how the subject came up, but she offered to pay him to catch one. "How does forty silver sound?"
His eyes about fell out of his head. "With that... I could buy a real blanket... some food... oh, I'll get you a real fat one! One of those healthy ones from the upper district, with a shiny coat!" I guess he thought she wanted to eat it. Anyway, he scurried off, and Elissa continued handing out coins. There was one woman there that I won't forget easily... the haunted look in her eyes. She didn't have the same sort of facial tattoo as the rest, because as she explained, she was actually born to one of the middle castes - merchant or smith, I forget which. But she'd gotten involved with a Dust Town drifter, and he'd fathered a child on her. A dwarf child takes the caste of its parent of the same gender, so if she'd had a daughter, all would have been well; but she had a son, meaning that the baby was casteless like his father. The father abandoned them, and the woman - Zerlinda - had been thrown out by her family. "They said they would only let me come home if I left my son in the Deep Roads."
Elissa looked queasy, and I couldn't blame her. "Wait here," she told me, "in case the other one comes back with the nug." She gathered some more information from Zerlinda, then headed back to Tapster's. Less than a quarter of an hour later, she was back - and smiling. "Your father says to get your son and come home," she told the woman.
"I don't know how you did it." Zerlinda looked ready to cry. "When my son is old enough, I will send him to you... to become a Grey Warden. I can think of no finer future to give him."
So we've got a potential recruit in fifteen years or so, that's encouraging. By the time this was all said and done, the other fellow came back with a big pink nug. Elissa paid him even a little more than she had promised, and I actually thought he might cry too. I can't imagine what it must be like to live in Dust Town and know that the circumstances of your birth mean that you're not allowed to do any better for yourself. It kind of puts the circumstances of my birth in a new perspective.
Anyway, Leliana was thrilled with the gift. But she's named the thing Schmooples - Schmooples. Ugh. It makes my teeth hurt.
Elissa's feeling better, or at least she's putting on her brave face again, so we've gotten back to work.
We separated today and approached the two candidates for the throne. She, Leliana, Morrigan and Wynne headed off to speak with Prince Bhelen, while Sten, Zevran, Shale and I sought an audience with Lord Harrowmont. (Toby and Schmooples stayed in our rooms.) Of course, it couldn't be that easy. First we had to prove that we could be trusted, so I was entered in the Provings on Harrowmont's behalf. The Provings are this sort of tournament they have where people fight until someone gets knocked out. The dwarves don't worship the Maker, or any other gods; they worship their own ancestors, and the logic behind the Provings is that the ancestors give their favor to whoever is left standing at the end of the fight. If there's any truth to this, then the ancestors were willing to let their descendants crash and burn, because I won. Apparently, Bhelen's people had been intimidating Harrowmont's other fighters, so I got them to fight at my side to bolster their confidence.
What Elissa had to do to prove her worth to Bhelen, I don't know. After the Provings were done, we got to talk to Harrowmont, and by all appearances he's a decent and honorable sort. He was old King Endrin's best friend, and according to him, Endrin was really torn up about Duran's exile and presumed death. He basically died of a broken heart. Because Bhelen was behind the whole thing (or at least Endrin seemed to believe he was), Endrin didn't want him to become king. So now the deshyrs - the dwarven equivalent of our Landsmeet - are deadlocked in an argument over whether it should be Bhelen or Harrowmont.
Harrowmont then went on to explain that there's an individual in Dust Town who is a threat to any king's power. Jarvia is her name, and she's the head of the crime circuit. He wants us to eliminate her, to end her reign of terror, as the next step in proving ourselves to him. Now we've come back to Tapster's in order to compare notes with the ladies and see what's next.
One thing that I thought was curious, though, happened as we were leaving Harrowmont's estate. There was a redheaded dwarf with a long braided beard, arguing with some official. He was ranting about how it's coming up on the anniversary of Branka's disappearance and how nobody is willing to do anything about it. The official told him to go get drunk. I asked about it after the redhead wandered off, and apparently his name is Oghren; he's a disgraced former warrior. Branka is, or was, his wife - the most recently declared Paragon (a dwarf who has contributed in some especially meaningful way to their society). A couple years ago, she disappeared into the Deep Roads with her entire household except her husband, in search of some ancient artifact, and Oghren keeps trying to rustle up support to go in search of her. Poor bastard.