Lothering
They all stared blankly at the cowering leader of the 'toll men' that had halted their progress. Ciara ignored Lawrien as her sister dug through the bandits' pockets, Faren going through the crates, and Torph examining everything they pulled out carefully.
"There's a bounty on us then?" Ciara asked.
"Yeah! Pictures and everything. Drawn well with descriptions for those who can read," Mr. Bandit whimpered.
Epona's arrow was trained on his forehead, and his men were all lying dead around him, so Ciara could see why he was nervous. They had been attacked by the group when they had refused to pay the toll to get into Lothering. Lawrien had gotten offended, then angry because the men were either robbing others, or turning them back towards the darkspawn horde.
So she had punched the leader in the face, and all hell had broken loose afterwards.
"Do you have them on you?" she asked.
"This guy does." Faren was holding up weather damaged scrolls, tossing them over one by one to her.
Ciara opened the first one. Alistair's face stared back at her, and she eyed him. He was trying to stop Lawrien from stealing, as unsuccessfully as ever. "Alistair," she called.
He blinked. "Yeah?"
"You have quite the bounty on you," Ciara said, showing him the scroll.
Alistair choked, but after he got over his brief moment of panic- not that Ciara had any idea why he was panicking- he straightened up. "Well, yeah, that's just because how amazing I am." Alistair normally would have sounded more smug about it, but his tone was much more duller than his usual cheeky self. That was fair, he wasn't used to all this death and destruction. He hadn't been a Grey Warden for very long.
"Sure, Alistair," Ciara said, earning a protest as she opened up the next one. "Faren, your nose is huge."
"Eh?" Faren blinked, and let out a strangled yelp when she turned the scroll around. "What the hell? Why! Why did they do that to me?"
Lawrien cackled gleefully.
"Some don't even have names," Narascha pointed out, reading over another. "And most aren't drawn all too well."
"Well it was probably Loghain who described us and maybe a few of his soldiers," Ciara sighed. "He hardly saw most of you."
"Why does he think I have a big nose?" Faren protested.
"Except Cobian and I. He saw us at the counsel," Narascha said.
"Speaking of Cobian, his is 'Alive Only'," Ciara chuckled. "Favouritism at its best. Oh, and that is quite the likeness."
Cobian shrugged.
"My nose," Faren whined. "It looks like a balloon. And stop laughing, Lawrien!"
Lawrien wiped a tear from her eye, much to Ciara's amusement. She made sure to examine each one carefully. Torph's looked vague. He actually had hair for one thing, and his beard had braids in it. Torph actually looked amused by that. Epona's was surprisingly detailed, but then again, how many Dalish elves had been running around camp again? The only thing off was her markings.
Lawrien's was rather well done, as was Ciara's and Alistair's, but they had already been Grey Wardens, so it made sense. What didn't make sense was why Alistair's bounty was so high. Higher than all of them in fact. And how they knew all of them were alive? Maybe Loghain had sent some scouts back to see and none of them saw their bodies? It was the only logical explanation Ciara could think of.
Ciara frowned. "So Alistair has the highest bounty at forty souvergns, strangely enough Narascha, Cobian, myself and Lawrien are at thirty and the rest of you are at twenty. I am surprised the crown has enough money to pay for this sort of bounty in a time of war."
"Why are you higher than me?" Lawrien glared daggers at Alistair.
Alistair raised his hands defensively. "I didn't realise it was a contest!"
"I've been a Grey Warden longer!"
"Like six months!"
"And I'm a mage. You're just a warrior."
"I'm a fantastic warrior, thank you very much."
Lawrien scoffed.
"Did you just scoff at me?" Alistair gasped. "Seriously? I bet you can't even pick up a sword!"
"I could use magic to pick it up for me."
Alistair blinked. "Wait, can you?"
Lawrien grinned. "You'll never know until the day I wish to show you. Which might never come, and then you'll be left wondering. Forever. It will be my final evil deed upon this world."
Torph snorted.
Alistair groaned. "Mages aren't crazy, Ciara said. No, they can be really reasonable, she said-"
"I said most aren't," Ciara corrected. "Lawrien, is in fact, insane."
"Being locked in a dark, gloomy tower will do that to you." Lawrien grinned.
"So, not to interrupt this side tracked conversation," Narascha began. "But why do we have bounties on us?"
Ciara blinked. That was a good question.
"They say the Grey Wardens abandoned the king?" Mr. Bandit offered hesitantly. "Lured everyone into a trap?"
There was a stunned silence. Alistair choked on his outrage, but the rest of them remained quiet, too stunned, right up until Cobian sighed.
"Uncle Loghain still paranoid about Grey Wardens and Orlais. Thinks this is a plot. Doesn't believe that the Blight is truly happening, and is something he can outmanoeuvre. That is the only possibility that I can think of." Cobian frowned. "Or that he's finally went insane."
"I'm leaning towards crazy," Torph said.
"Stress can do a lot to a person?" Faren offered.
Cobian sighed. "It had to be at the worst time possible..."
"C-Can I please go?" Mr. Bandit leader whined.
"He's just going to attack more people on the road," Narascha tsked.
"Nope. Ciara sic him," Lawrien ordered, much to her bemusement.
"I don't remember being a dog." Ciara stabbed Mr. Bandit anyway, quick and clean in his heart.
"What the hell is this fluffy thing?" Torph cursed, trying to yank his beard away from a lamb trying to grab it with its teeth.
"Lamb!" Lawrien cooed, instantly scooping it up. "Aw, you're so cute!"
"Oh look." Ciara smirked. "Dinner."
Lawrien threw her a horrified look. "No! I'm keeping it."
"Can this lamb fight darkspawn?" Narascha raised a brow. "It looks rather delicate."
"I will name him Muffins and we'll rule the world together one day," Lawrien said, petting the lamb, even as it chewed her hair.
"Ah Lothering, pretty as a painting."
That was an odd remark from Alistair, but he seemed to be blissfully ignoring Lawrien. That was probably one of his more sensible ideas in fact. Ciara was pleasantly surprised he got over his outrage so fast, but Cobian was still muttering away next to him, so maybe that made Alistair blank out?
Morrigan huffed. "Falling on your blade in grief seemed like too much trouble I take it?"
"Is my being upset so hard to understand?" Alistair snapped, glowering. "Just what would you do if your mother died?"
Epona snorted. "As if that would happen."
"Yes, if legends are true that would be difficult," Cobian said.
Alistair groaned. "Just... Just roll with me here..."
"Before or after I stop laughing?" Morrigan crossed her arms, smirking.
"Right... Very creepy, forget I asked..."
Faren hesitated. "...You have been rather quiet, Alistair."
"Perhaps he should continue with it." Morrigan scowled.
"Oh I get it, this is the part were we are shocked to find out that you've never had a friend in you're entire life."
"I can be friendly when I desire to. Alas, desiring to be more intelligent does not make it so."
"Unless you study. Intelligence can be sought by studying topics, though it depends on the topic according to the individual if the idea is intelligent or not," Cobian said happily.
Epona growled. "Shemlens."
"Have an idea, Epona?" Ciara asked, trying to get the conversation changed before anyone else joined in on the snark fest the pair seemed involved in.
"Perhaps where we are going? We have all the treaties but what do we plan to do?"
"Well I think Arl Eamon is our best place to go." Alistair offered, seemingly shying away when the other's stared at him. "What?"
"Why isn't he leading us? Isn't he one of the older Wardens here?" Torph asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Oh no, no, no. No leadership here. Definitely not." Alistair seemed to full on panic at that idea much to her amusement. "How about our senior Grey Wardens? Ciara and Lawrien?"
"We're senior Wardens now?" Ciara blinked.
"Cool!" Lawrien chirped.
"The youngest of us is a senior Warden. How lovely." Morrigan scowled.
"Ciara?" Narascha asked.
"There's no point. I tend to defer to whatever Lawrien wants," Ciara admitted. "It makes things much easier."
"On you, yeah, you're not the one she tortures with her antics," Alistair said dryly.
Ciara smirked. "Exactly."
"That means I'm the Commander now!" Lawrien said gleefully. "And you're all my subjects."
"Great, power has already gone to her head," Narascha groaned.
"And I shall have Muffins as my second in command-"
"No!" Narascha snapped.
.::.
"Narascha? You were a Commander once," Torph begged.
Please. Anyone but the kid. Anyone but the crazy, magical kid.
Narascha snorted. "For a day, and looked what happened."
Torph paused. That was a fair point.
"Okay," Torph agreed. "But Cobian's a noble guy!"
"I'm possibly going through several traumatic experiences all at once." Cobian actually had his notebook out, and was scribbling furiously away in it. "And since I'm working on soldiers' moral, I must write down my own responses. I've never thought to have an experiment based on myself before. I didn't think it would be a natural study, but perhaps this would be the perfect time to study myself and test such a theory-"
"Okay, yeah, nope." Torph shook his head. "Faren?"
"I'm more than likely to rob you all blind without realising it," Faren pointed out.
Everyone's hands went to their pockets, all but Cobian, whose focus remained locked on his notebook.
Torph threw his head back. "We're fucked!"
"We have several routes of opportunity to explore." Cobian smiled. "The treaties and Arl Eamon. Arl Eamon would be of a high political advantage to speak on our behalf. There is also the fact that I am close to Anora and Uncle Loghain, I may be able to convince them if I had a good argument in the Grey Warden's defence-"
"What is that supposed to mean?" Alistair scowled.
"I'm glad you asked! I should have explained it back with Flemeth but we were all still recovering." Cobian beamed. "So, long ago Uncle Maric assisted the Grey Wardens-"
Torph blanked. He turned back to the major issue at hand while Cobian talked Alistair's ears off. Alistair whose face quickly grew blank. Ciara looked as if she was the only one comprehending half the stuff Cobian said. Lawrien just grinned.
They walked off, Alistair politely trying to listen to Cobian, with Ciara looking very curious.
"Okay," Lawrien began. "We need a plan."
Huh, that was a good start.
"The plan is to find the Archdemon and kick its giant ass back to where it came from!" Lawrien grinned, the lamb bleating.
"That's not a plan," Narascha said, sighing heavily. "Okay, we need information. Lawrien, can you take Cobian, once he's finished speaking, Faren and Calenhad to the tavern? You might be able to listen out for information there."
"Okay? Does the tavern have food?"
"Probably."
"Nice."
"Torph, you, Epona and I are possibly the most noticeable people here, and considering we have bounties on our heads I suggest we pass through town quickly and let the others catch up to us."
"Makes sense." Torph nodded. She was right, two armoured dwarves and an angry looking Dalish elf were probably recognisable.
"Ciara, if you and Alistair could go gather supplies after you're finished your chat with Cobian, I would appreciate it," Narascha said.
"Sounds good. I don't know how much we shall find, but we'll try."
"Morrigan, you can probably go with whoever you like," Narascha admitted.
"I'll probably head straight out of town then. These cowering fools are getting on my nerves."
"I'll see if we can find somewhere safer for the lamb to go," Faren whispered to her.
"Thank you." Narascha patted his arm, then raised her voice. "Okay, let's go!"
.::.
"I didn't really understand a word Cobian said just then..." Alistair admitted. "He talks too fast."
Ciara smiled sheepishly. "He does, doesn't he?"
"What did you pick up?"
"Well apparently King Maric was led into a trap by the Grey Wardens for an Orlesian plot, or so Loghain believes, but without hearing both sides of the story it is hard to tell what exactly happened."
"He's still a traitor," Alistair grumbled.
Ciara softened. "The battlefield was bad, Alistair."
Alistair's frown deepened. "It looked bad from the bridge, but I couldn't see much in the tower."
"People were dying in waves of darkspawn. There was so much screaming," Ciara said weakly. "And... And when the retreat sounded, all the other Grey Wardens stayed behind. They held back the darkspawn for as long as they could to let everyone else get away."
Alistair breathed in sharply.
"And the darkspawn knew who the targets were. If Duncan hadn't stayed by Cailan's side, he might have survived, but those darkspawn wanted to kill Cailan badly to get rid of our King." Ciara crossed her arms. "They were ready, far more prepared than we were, even with all those traps Torph laid down and the retreat plans Narascha argued for we weren't ready." Ciara stopped their stroll through town, and squeezed his shoulder. "I'm sorry Duncan died, Alistair."
"Maybe if I had been there..."
"You could have shielded him from the killing blow?" Ciara asked, and closed her eyes. Fields and fields of relentless darkspawn. "There was no way Duncan could have gotten out. The only reason Lawrien, Cobian and I did was because of Yegrettie. We were surrounded, Alistair. The moment that Vanguard mage caught Duncan and Cailan? It was over and we knew that."
Alistair froze. "But you and Lawrien ran back in when Cobian tried to protect them."
Ciara nodded. "We're Grey Wardens, Alistair. You haven't been one for that long, neither have Lawrien and I, but we've seen things you haven't yet. If our sacrifice had taken out that Vanguard? That would have helped Ferelden."
"Narascha was telling all the soldiers she sparred with to aim for the Vanguards if they could..." Alistair murmured.
"Yeah, and she's right. The Vanguards rule the battlefield."
"The legions of evil are upon our doorstep! They will feast upon our hearts! There is nowhere to run!"
Ciara frowned as they followed the yelling. A chasind this panicked was something she never thought she'd ever see, but he looked absolutely terrified. And his terror was making the growing crowd around him anxious.
"Please! You're scaring the children!" A father cried, clutching his daughter tight to his chest.
"Better to cut their throats now than let them suffer in the darkspawn's hands!"
"Shouldn't we stop that?" Alistair asked, grimacing at the screaming man.
Ciara raised a brow. "I don't see the point. Honestly, these people shouldn't even still be lingering here, but if you wish to go ahead."
"You're going to do nothing?" Alistair frowned.
"Alistair, when have I been known to willingly deal with lunatics that I'm not friends with?" Ciara asked dryly.
Alistair paused. "True. I'll go try sort this out then."
"I'll watch and try not to laugh."
"Rude."
But much to Ciara's delight Alistair did manage to sort out the traumatised man himself. He coaxed him out of his hysteria and even convinced him to help the people of Lothering. It might not do much, but Alistair was actually braving the problem instead of shying away from it.
The confidence was nice to see.
Alistair came back to her with a big grin. "See? Not too shabby."
"Not shabby at all," Ciara agreed. "Nice job. I didn't even have to break a nail to help you."
Alistair laughed. "I can't make the beautiful lady do all the hard work now, can I?"
"Of course not." Ciara smiled. "Let's go see if we can haggle for some supplies. I doubt we'll find much, but Flemeth's won't last forever."
"Sounds like a plan."
"Yeah, it was Narascha's."
