Dragon Age: King in Exile

Part Seven

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King Cailan has written Alistair into the succession and is ready to recognize him publicly. Loghain will do almost anything to keep that from happening. The darkspawn give him the perfect opportunity. Alistair/Cousland, featuring F!Tabris.

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Disclaimer: Nothing you recognize from Dragon Age belongs to me.

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"For Redcliffe!" cried the knights, as the undead rushed towards them, meeting the army head on.

The knights' leader, Ser Perth, nodded at Leliana, who shot a flaming arrow to ignite some strategically placed lamp oil. The shrieks of the burning skeletons rang in everyone's ears.

Alistair's eyes were wide in fear as he fought, crushing bones with his shield and severing them with his sword. Burning skeletons began to emerge from the inferno of flaming oil on the path. Kallian, fighting next to him, was enraged.

"Whose idea was it to turn skeletons into skeletons on fire?"

"That was Leliana," Morrigan called to her, seeming pleased to give the redhead the blame.

"I like it," rumbled Sten, who spoke rarely. "This is… fun." He swung his sword in an arc, slicing half a dozen blazing skeletons in half.

They whittled down the first wave until fewer and fewer were coming through. Then they heard screams from below. A knight ran to look down upon the village. "They're coming up from the lake!" he yelled.

Ser Perth looked at Kallian. "Go, protect the chantry! My men will hold the line here."

"To the village!" Kallian cried, and ran down the hill, leaving the rest to follow.

They defended the chantry doors until near daybreak. By the time the sky began to lighten, the skeletons were destroyed, bones smashed and broken. Strangest of all, their remains disappeared at the sun's first light.

"Magic," Sten scoffed. "It should be controlled." He shot a look of mistrust towards Morrigan, who steadfastly ignored him.

When the wounded had been tended to and the immediate needs dealt with, Teagan led them to the windmill, explaining the secret passage that lay within. As he did so, they saw someone approaching on the road from the castle—Arlessa Isolde and two guards. "Teagan!" the woman cried, throwing herself on him in an embrace. Leliana giggled.

Stepping back, the Arlessa began to speak. "There is something wrong with Connor!"

She wove a tale of a rogue mage, her fearful son, and a demon in control of the castle. "It isn't his fault," she said of Connor, nearly begging. "He didn't know."

Morrigan looked upon her sharply. "With decent instruction he would have," she said, while Sten glared at them both in disapproval.

"Look, can we get a move on?" Kallian cut in, bored.

"Kallian is right," Leliana added quickly, before the elf could say more. "There's not point in laying blame now. We need to act, to assess the situation."

"You must come back with me," Isolde pleaded with Teagan. "Only you. Who knows what he will do if you do not!"

Bann Teagan patted her arm comfortingly. "Peace, Isolde. I will return with you. Give me a moment to speak with my companions first."

He pulled the warden and her party away to speak outside of Isolde's hearing. "I will go with Isolde alone," he began, holding up a hand to forestall any complaints. Alistair opened his mouth and closed it, waiting for Teagan to continue. "Once we're inside the gates, use this," he said, presenting his ring. "Use it to enter a secret passage below the windmill. We will meet up inside and figure out our next step once we have seen the state of things."

Kallian took the ring and nodded.

"We won't fail you, Teagan," Alistair insisted.

Teagan smiled and put a hand on the younger man's shoulder. "I know you won't. You've grown into a finer man than I could have imagined that day we first met, with you covered in mud." His eyes sparkled with laughter for a moment before he became serious once again. "I will see all of you inside. Maker preserve us."

The group watched as he walked with Isolde up to the gates of the castle which closed behind him.

"Alright," Kallian said. "Let's go."

They entered the windmill and dropped down into the dank passage that Teagan's ring had unlocked. As Alistair pulled out a torch to light, Morrigan lit her staff with a snap of her fingers, rolling her eyes at the surprised man next to her.

They moved quickly and quietly, but for a long way it seemed that nothing was ahead, until they reached a dead end with a ladder and trap door above them. "That must go up into the dungeons," Kallian stated. "Move quietly. We don't know what might be up there."

They couldn't have imagined the things they ended up finding as they continued. Spirits, wraiths, and odd constructs faced them as they traversed through the dungeons. "The veil has been pulled very thin here," Morrigan said in her superior way. "Someone has been exceptionally foolish."

It wasn't long before they found that someone. Connor's magical tutor, the apostate Jowan, was locked up in the dungeons. He freely confessed to poisoning Eamon at Loghain's behest. "What was I to do?" he said. "I would have been sent back to the circle to be killed or made tranquil!" But he denied being the reason behind Connor's possession. "I had nothing to do with that! I've spent all this time regretting what I've done to the arl. I wouldn't want to make things worse!"

Morrigan was scathing in her response. "If you were any kind of tutor, you would have taught him not to deal with a demon unprepared! This is your fault, whether or not you believe it to be so." She stormed off while the others continued to question him. After some discussion, they left Jowan in his cell. He was complicit, after all, and if they could use this as evidence against Loghain, all the better.

Eventually they were able to make their way up into the kitchens and out into the courtyard, where more spirits awaited them. In the courtyard they faced down a revenant, drawing them towards him with his arcane power. When they finished the battle, they were exhausted, but knew there was further still to go.

They entered the great hall, not knowing what to expect. To their horror, Teagan seemed to now have become a puppet of the spirit that Connor had called to him. Connor, eyes blazing with fury, called the castle guards to attack, and Teagan along with them.

"Don't kill them!" Leliana cried out, concerned as always about preserving life where they could. With difficulty, they were able to knock out or bind all of the guards with only minor wounds. By then, Connor was gone, upstairs and out of sight.

When Teagan woke, he thanked them. "My mind is my own again," he said. "But something must be done."

"We must kill it," Sten rumbled.

"No!" cried Isolde.

"Please tell me we are not considering killing an innocent child!" Leliana pleaded.

"What else are we going to do?" Kallian replied. "Everyone knows there's only one solution for possession." She fingered her dagger.

Teagan held up his hands. "Please be calm. Perhaps the apostate will have some idea? He brought this upon us after all."

Morrigan snorted and Kallian rolled her eyes, but Jowan was brought up from the dungeons nonetheless.

"There is one thing," he said hesitantly. He could hardly meet anyone's eyes. "I know a ritual that can free Connor from the demon's hold, but it requires blood magic."

"I have never heard of this ritual," Morrigan snapped at him. "Such a thing must require a great deal of blood."

"It does," Jowan said slowly. "It requires all of it."

Isolde broke their shocked silence. "Then let it be my blood," she said. "He is my son. I would gladly die in his place."

"We aren't really considering blood magic, surely," Alistair protested, his templar training coming through.

Kallian shrugged. "If she's willing, then why not?"

"But there must be some other way!" he argued.

Elissa turned to Jowan. "Is there any other source the power can be drawn from for this ritual? Is it possible to complete it without blood?"

He scratched his head. "Well… you'd need a lot of lyrium. And at least seven mages."

Alistair looked up, his eyes lit with relief. "We're less than a full day's travel from the circle tower. Surely we could convince them to help! We could be back the day after tomorrow."

"You want to waste two days?" Kallian exclaimed. "We can be done with this now!"

"But you need to go to the tower anyway, don't you, Kallian?" Leliana said in her musical voice. "We could get the army promised in your treaty. And think how grateful Eamon would be if we saved both his wife and his son. He would have to advocate for the grey wardens after that."

Kallian growled in irritation. "Be ready to leave in half an hour."

"Warden," Teagan called as she was walking away. "Would you consider leaving some of your companions here? The town will be left vulnerable in the time that you're gone."

"I wish to stay," Sten said immediately. He scowled. "Too many mages."

"I, too, would stay," said Morrigan, ignoring the look of mistrust that Sten sent her way. "I have spent my life outside a tower. I have no intention of entering one now."

"Alright," Kallian agreed, nodding at each of them. "You two do your best to protect the town. We should be back before dark the day after tomorrow. Don't get yourselves killed in the meantime."

After a short rest and gathering needed supplies, Kallian was back out on the road with Alistair, Leliana, and Elissa, her least favorite companions. The only one she didn't mind was Elissa's dog. Kitty never chattered at her or judged her decisions. Not like the others.

They were a couple hours walk from the docks to cross the lake when they were forced to stop to sleep. Leliana grinned as she watched Alistair and Elissa erect their one tent, the dog settling in front of it as if he was on guard.

Inside the tent, Elissa had a faraway look in her eye as they lay down together. "Sometimes," she said, "none of this feels real. Like a strange dream I'm going to wake from back in Highever."

"I wish you could, Liss," Alistair said feelingly.

She covered his hand with hers and gave him a sad smile. "None of us can go backward. We can only try to move ahead." She paused, meeting his eyes with her serious ones. "When this is over, our future together… it's worth fighting for, isn't it?"

"It will be," Alistair said firmly. "I promise it will."

They lay together, taking comfort from one another, until they fell into a restless sleep.

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