Vardall was totally open with his friends, not hiding any detail. He started talking about Thedas itself, it's geography, governments, places, similarities and differences from Tamriel. He told them about the Veil, the Fade, the connection you need to have with it to manipulate magic, the demons and what happens if a mage is processed. He also made a description about all the races from the continent, how humans weren't separated and treated almost like they're another different race. About how the elven people were treated in and outside the human cities. The Dwarves and their underground cities. And the Qunari and their life and religious customs, besides their unique appearance.
Next it was about the history of Thedas: The elfs and their ancient empire, giving focus on the Eluvians. The ascension of Tevinter and the human and mage dominance. Andraste, her Exalted March against Tevinter and her death. The foundation of the Chantry, the Maker worship, the Circles of Magi, the Templar order and the repression and persecution mages began to suffer for centuries. They all could notice the rage upon Vardall's words when he was talking about the Chantry and the Templars, noticing how much he doesn't like the Chantry and HATES the Templars.
The Darkspawn and the Grey Wardens was a separate topic. Vardall told them about how, according to the Chantry, some Magisters from Tevinter entered the Golden City, corrupted it and turned into the Black City, and were turned into the first Darkspawn. Of course, Vardall thinks that is all just a bunch of lies created by the Chantry, so the origin from the Darkspawn remains a mystery to him. Whatever it was the true, he also told them about the Archdemons, the Blights, and how Thedas almost was destroyed by the First Blight, but the Grey Wardens were created and saved Thedas by killing Dumat, the first Archdemon and ending the First Blight.
Vardall's own life was the next he told them. His birth, the development of his magical skills and his life inside the Ferelden Circle, also about how he met Duncan and joined the Grey Wardens, his tainted blood, Loghain's betrayal and the great failure that was the Battle of Ostagar. The topic it had more details was about his journey to end the Fifth Blight and all the friends he met during it, which Vardall gave more prominence to Leliana, smiling when he told his new friends about how he met her and the development of their relationship. He also talked about killing Loghain, accepting Morrigan's Dark Ritual, slaying the Archdemon without dying and becoming the Hero of Ferelden. The events involving him as Warden-Commander in Amaranthine were the next.
Vardall remains silent and dodges his gaze from upon his friends. "What happened after the Battle of Amaranthine..." He sighs. "Is something I was wishing to take to the grave with me." He looks back to them. "But... I said I would tell everything about myself. If any or all of you start hating me after hearing this... I will totally understand."
Vardall makes a dry laugh. "Even I hate myself because of that." They all can notice Vardall holding back some tears. "It all started sometime after I killed the Mother."
# # # # # # # #
THEDAS/TWO WEEKS AFTER THE MOTHER'S DEATH
"Guys, I still don't think this is a good idea." The Templar Andrew looks to his friends, William, Graham, Edric, Lindley and Kaelyn. They're waiting near a hill, without their templar equipment to not be recognised. "We should give up this idea and go away."
Kaelyn, who was the leader of the group, looks to him with a countenance of anger. "We already talked about this, Andrew. There's no return, that damn mage dies, here and now."
"But he has a point, Kaelyn." William, who was at Andrew's side, talks. "We're taking a big risk here, and we're messing with the Grey Wardens. If someone finds out..."
"No one will find out!" Lindley, Kaelyn's best friend, quickly yells to William. "As long we do this right, we're fine." Kaetlyn nods with the words from her friend.
"I don't mind if anyone finds out." Graham tells his friends while looking at his daggers. "As long as we avenge our friends, I don't care what happens next."
"I guess we'll find out soon enough..." William murmurs as Edric, another templar, arrives there after being sent to watch the road. "He's arriving, and it's together with a Dwarf, a man and a Mabari hound." Edric says to his friends.
Kaelyn looks at all her friends. "Helmets, quickly!" She whispers while also putting on her helmet, which covers her whole face. Her friends also had equal helmets.
They all put on their helmets. Andrew still was a little afraid, but now it has no return, he puts on his helmet and takes his bow and arrows. William and Edric both take their swords and shields, Graham takes his daggers while Lindley also takes her bow and Kaelyn takes her greatsword.
"Andrew and Lindley, you both go up the hill, wait for them to pass and attack him from behind." Kaelyn orders her friends. "Remember, he's the blonde one. The rest of us will remain ready."
Andrew and Lindley obey and go up the hill. Kaelyn then looks to her other friends. "Remember, no one can survive this."
# # # # # # # #
VIGIL'S KEEP/A FEW HOURS BEFORE
This place was almost a complete nightmare two weeks ago. Vardall had chosen to save the City of Amaranthine, believing the fortress he had built and upgraded would resist the Darkspawn siege, and truly had resisted well. Vigil's Keep was able to resist a three week long siege, but it fell in the end. After killing the Mother and being an Arl that concerns about his people, Vardall has ordered the reconstruction efforts to be focused on the city, but that doesn't mean Vigil's Keep was forgotten.
While indeed the main focus of the reconstruction was Amaranthine, some other workers, mainly Dwarven ones had offered to help rebuild the fortress and, together from the great donations the Grey Wardens have received, was making the reconstruction of Virgil's Keep proceed, slowly but constantly.
Vardall was inside his throne room, talking with some workers, when he heard another person approaching him.
"My Arl.." Seneschal Varel respectfully says as he approaches Vardall.
Vardall finds that strange as he looks to his second in command. Varel almost never called him Arl, only Commander most of the time. "What is it, Varel?" Vardall truly respected this man, as he always was loyal to him, the Wardens, and how he protected the people the best he could during Rendon Howe's Arling. Truly a man you can trust your life.
Varel was now with a little smile on his face. "I think you would like to know, my Arl, that we have some visitors."
"Who?" Before Vardall can ask Varel anything else, loud barks can be heard approaching them. Looking to his side, Vardall spots Sif, his Mabari hound, running until him.
"Sif?" Vardall's confusion is immediately replaced with joy, as he smiles after seeing his best friend. Sif keeps barking happily as he stops in front of Vardall, shaking his little tail. He promptly kneels down and starts pet Sif, the Mabari rolls on the ground with joy as Vardall keeps caressing him.
"What are you doing here, boy? I thought you were..." Looking back to the throne room's door, Vardall wide his eyes and immediately stands up after seeing who was there.
"Songbird?" No one other than Leliana was standing there, smiling to Vardall. His smile grows even bigger as he quickly walks until his wife and kisses her, which Leliana happily returns, after months without seeing each other. They only separated their lips because they still needed to breathe.
"I... When did you arrive?" Vardall still had a big, silly smile on his face, something Leliana loves about him, besides other things.
She puts her hand on the side of his face. "As soon as I finished my audience with the Great Cleric, I heard about the attack on Amaranthine. I came here as fast as I could."
"I'm truly glad you weren't here during the attack." Vardall says. "Things... weren't the best ones. It was too dangerous to you. Besides, it was a disaster! The Darkspawn destroyed the roses I put in the garden after you suggested in your letter."
Leliana laughs, what was music to Vardall's ears. "Those Darkspawn... Don't worry, I'll help you plant new ones later. And... I went together with you to face the Archdemon, I think I could handle some hordes of Darkspawn."
"Talking Darkspawn." Vardall says. "But anyway, I want to present you some people. I'll presume you already know Seneschal Varel, right?" He makes a signal to Varel to approach them, which he does.
Leliana nods. "Yes, I talked with him outside."
Varel down his head respectfully. "It was an honor, Arlessa."
"You know, I still have to get used to people calling me Arlessa." Leliana says, while Vardall only shrugs and smiles. "Just another wonderful reward you earn it for marrying me, Songbird."
At that moment, the door of the throne room opens. "Well, if it isn't my favorite bard!" They all look back and see Oghren, together with Anders, Justice, Nathaniel, Velanna and Sigrun entering the place.
Leliana lifts one of her eyebrows. "Oghren?"
Oghren stops next to them. "Surprised to see me again? That's fine, Vardall here had the same reaction."
"My biggest surprise truly was that you wanted to join the Grey Wardens." Vardall says. Leliana looks back at him. "Oghren joined the Grey Wardens?"
"Yes, I did." Oghren himself says. "I was getting tired of all that family life with Felsi, so I decided to return to action."
Vardall rolls his eyes and smiles at the same time. "Let me introduce you the others, Songbird."
Vardall then presented Leliana his new friends and the new Grey Wardens from Ferelden. She immediately gets along with Anders, Sigrun and, surprisingly, Velanna. But she was a little surprised when Justice and Nathaniel were presented to her, but after some quick talk with Vardall and both of them, she was more relaxed.
"We're getting out to our patrols, Commander." Nathaniel says. "We just went here to inform you."
Vardall nods. "Good, Nathaniel." He then sees Sif laying on the ground next to him. Suddenly having an idea, the Warden-Commander looks to Oghren. "Hey, Oghren, do you think you could take Sif on a patrol with you, Anders and Justice? I think it would be nice for him to walk now."
Sif quickly lifts his head and barks with joy after hearing that. Oghren laughs. "But of course! What do you say, doggo?"
"Just be careful around my dog, okay?" Vardall warns him. "I don't even want to imagine what problems a drunk Mabari would make."
Oghren laughed more, and this was time for Anders to talk. "Don't worry, Vardall. We'll take care of him."
The Commander's expression changed from a smile to a more serious one. "I trust you, Anders. But even so, take good care of him. If he's hurt..."
Anders raises his hand. "I know, I know... Like I said, don't worry."
"Okay." Vardall kneels down and pets Sif a little more. "Be careful, boy." Sif happily barks and licks Vardall's face. He giggles as he sees his dog going with Oghren.
"Good luck in your patrols, all of you." The Commander tells his Wardens. It always was splited this way: Nathaniel, Velanna and Sigrun would patrol north, while Oghren, Anders and Justice would patrol south. Both groups would meet up on a certain point and return to Vigil's Keep at the end of it. Today, however, Oghren's group would count with Sif with them.
Vardall then says goodbye to all of them and they exit Vigil's Keep.
Once they're alone, Vardall suddenly grabs Leliana's hand and guides her around the keep. She was curious about this, but was not complaining. After a walk, they both enter a door, which Vardall locks. "There. Now no-one will interrupt us."
Leliana looks around the room, seeing only a few bookshelves, a table with two chairs and a big bed.
"This is your room?" She asks, truly curious.
He nods. "Yes. This part of the fortress wasn't too much destroyed compared to the rest. I've been using this room as my personal quarters for the last few weeks."
With that information, Leliana let's grow a naughty smile. "Do you have something planned?" She asks with a seductive voice. Damn, Vardall loves it when she does that.
He giggles. "Calm down, Songbird. I'm not talking about 'that'. At least not now... I just think we should have some time to talk alone, after all these months." He also gives her a naughty smile. Vardall then walks to his table and takes two bottles.
"So I have a bottle of wine here and..." Before Vardall could finish, Leliana lifts one hand and interrupts him. "Wait, wine? I thought you don't drink."
"And I don't." He quickly says. "But if you had let me finish talking, you would understand that I have here a bottle of wine for you and another bottle full of milk for me." Vardall also takes two glasses and serves each liquid inside one.
Leliana giggles as Vardall passes to her a glass full of wine, while he is holding the other one full of milk.
"Cheers!" Vardall makes a move and proposes to Leliana a toast, which she Immediately accepts and they both lightly tap their glasses on each other and drink a little.
They both spent some good quality time together, talking about these last months. Leliana told him all about her meeting with the Great Cleric and how Sif made an excellent company with her during that time. Vardall then tells Leliana about all what happened in Amaranthine, including his deal with the Architect.
"From what is good, I think you made the right decision." Leliana then drinks a little more from her wine.
Vardall dodges his gaze. "I don't know... It felt right at the moment, the promise to end all the Blights and the Darkspawn treat... But now I can't stop thinking this decision may return to haunt me in the future."
She grabs his hand and smiles "Whatever happens, I'll be with you, always.
He smiles back. "Thanks, Songbird."
They both just stand there, looking deeply into each other's eyes. For many people, each one of them could be seen as an enigma, but not to them. They're totally open to each other, without secrets. They had their problems, just like any other couple, but that wasn't anything close to the love they share.
They both started to get close to each other, until the moment their lips collided. Vardall could feel the taste of the wine on Leliana's lips, sweet, just like her. They're away from each other for a long time, and they would make up for the lost time.
The drinks were quickly forgotten as the couple quickly went up from the chairs, still focused on their desperate kisses, like any of them would disappear at any moment. They walk to the bed, without parting their lips away, their clothes becoming something very annoying to both of them. Vardall helps Leliana to get out of her dress and she helps him with his clothes. They fall upon the bed, wanting to feel nothing but each other's touch for the next hours.
# # # # # # # #
Patrolling was a boring thing to do, but necessary. The Grey Wardens needed to assure the remains of the Mother's forces were not planning any surprise attack, at the same time, to ensure the Architect kept his promise. Oghren, Anders and Justice, having with them Vardall's Mabari, Sif, have now finished their patrol and were walking until the place they would meet Nathaniel, Velanna and Sigrun to return Vigil's Keep.
At this moment, Anders was having a discussion with... well, Sif.
"Did you need to do that every new place we go?" Anders asks. Sif only barks, as a signal of confirmation.
Anders sighs. "That's why I prefer cats..."
Oghren was laughing a lot with all this situation, making Justice the only one still focused on their surroundings. His focus paid off when, after passing next to a hill, he heard some strange noises. Looking back, Justice spotted two archers aiming their arrows to Anders.
"Lookout!" On a quick move, Justice pushes Anders to avoid him being hit by them. After that, Oghren tools his greatsword from his back, alerted and prepared for a fight. Sif also was alert now.
"Now!" With that shout, more four people exit their hideouts and immediately proceed to attack the group, the Grey Wardens see themselves surrounded. Two of the mysterious attackers were fighting against Oghren and Sif, while the other two proceeded to fight Anders and Justice.
One of the mysterious attackers, who had a sword and a shield, tried to strike Justice, but the attack was blocked by Justice's shield. The other one made her way to attack Anders, but the mage dodged the attack and quickly took his staff and prepared to defend himself with his spells, but before Anders could do anything, his attacker used some type of skill which prevented Anders from using any spell.
"What?!" Anders opens his eyes wide now. He knew very well the only group who could use those sorts of abilities. Taking that he was distracted, the attacker strikes Anders again with her greatsword, piercing his belly.
"This is for our friends, you bastast!" She then removes her sword, making Anders fall on the ground.
"Anders!" Justice pushes his attacker, making him fall on the ground, and quickly proceeds to protect his friend.
Meanwhile, Oghren and Sif were fighting other two enemies. Oghren was using his Berserk abilities and attacking without mercy, making his opponent stay in a defensive posture with his shield. Meanwhile the other attacker, having only two daggers, was doing his best to avoid Sif's attacks, which was proving to be difficult. He was fighting no regular dog, but a Mabari.
Sif finally manages to take his opponent down, dominating him while trying to slash his face with his sharp teeth. The disguised templar was doing his best to block the Mabari's attack, putting his hand in front of it. The problem was he was growing tired, so he needed to act now if he wanted to survive.
Seeing that their friend was in trouble, the two archers quickly prepared their bows and shot two arrows in the Mabari's direction, which both hit their target. Sif stops attacking and roars in pain, so taking this chance, the man quickly catches one of his daggers that was on his side and stabs Sif repeatedly. The Mabari whines in more pain before falling to the side, not moving anymore.
Oghren sees all that with his eyes open wide. "No!"
Using the Dwarf distraction to his advantage, the enemy strongly hits Oghren with his shield, making him fall on the ground, and before he can recover his senses, Oghren is stabbed on his belly by a sword. He felt pain all around his body and was holding his greatsword's grip the strongest he could, looking in like it was gonna to break. After a few seconds, the Dwarf's body was totally limp and lifeless.
The only remain now was Justice. He was with his shield lifted and sword ready, surrounded by six opponents. He was not afraid of this, having already faced worse things during his life and as a spirit inside the Fade, but he was truly concerned about Anders, who was still alive, but agonizing behind him. If he fails here, Anders dies.
Luckily for him, one of his foes is hit by an arrow on its shoulder. Everyone looks to the direction the arrow came and sees Nathaniel with his bow, ready to shoot another arrow.
"Now!" Nathaniel shouts and at the same time, Velanna surprises everyone and casts a spell to disorient their foes, as she could not use her offensive spells to not hit Justice and Anders.
Justice takes this opportunity and stabs one of his foes, cutting out his head right after with a certain strike. At this moment, Sigrun shows up and runs towards them, her daggers on her hands, ready to strike.
Now the papers were inverted and they were surrounded now.
"Fall back!" The woman who was their leader shouts to the group. They had one member wounded and another one dead, they needed to retreat now to avoid their deaths.
Not seeing other choices, they all start to run, leaving their friends' body behind. Nathaniel tries to hit another arrow in one of them, but misses. The Grey Wardens can only watch as the other group runs away. Velanna tries to cast a spell upon them, but is stopped by Nathaniel. "Leave then. We need to help the others." She didn't like this, but accepted.
Nathaniel, Velanna and Sigrun run to help the others. Sigrun checks Sif and Oghren while Nathaniel and Velanna check Justice and Anders.
Not in combat anymore, Justice drops his sword and shield and focuses his total attention on Anders., who had lost too much blood and was almost dead by now.
"Is there anything you can do to help?!" Nathaniel desperately asks Velanna.
The elf sighs. "I know some healing spells, but healing Anders is beyond my capability."
Hearing that, Justice has an idea. "I could transfer myself to Anders' body." The spirit says. "That way I can heal him."
Nathaniel is strongly opposed to that idea. "He will not be turned into an Abomination?"
"No." Velanna quickly tells him. "Justice is not a demon, he's a spirit. They're two different things." She then turns her head to Justice. "But are you sure you want this?"
He nods. "Yes. This body has already begun to rot, but even if it was not, Anders is my friend."
At this time, Sigrun comes closer to them.
"What about Oghren and Vardall's Mabari?" Nathaniel asks.
Sigrun sighs. "They're both dead."
"Dammit!" He looks to Justice again. "If you're gonna to do this, do it fast."
Justice nods once more and looks back to his friend. "Anders... do you accept this?"
Anders was almost dead by now, his last strength being used only to whisper: "Yes..."
Not wasting anymore time, Justice stands up and focuses. Moments after that, they gaze at some strange blue energy leaving Kristoff's body and enter Anders.
Velanna goes to Kristoff's body, now lifeless on the ground, while Nathaniel goes to Anders. The blonde mage was with his eyes closed and mouth opened, and was not breathing anymore. Nathaniel sighs, thinking it has not worked and he has lost yet another friend. But suddenly Anders opens his eyes and they are now taken by a strange blue energy who also was all around his body. Anders yelled when his wounds began to be healed, so it worked. Once the blue energy was gone, Anders starts to grunt and to move.
"Hey, go easy now." Nathaniel helps his friend to sit.
He looks to Velanna and Sigrun. "You both return to Vigil's Keep and request help. I'll wait here with Anders. I don't think he's strong enough to walk yet."
"Are you sure of this?" Sigrun asks, while Nathaniel nods. "I am. Go, now."
Velanna and Sigrun didn't like this, but obeyed anyway. The two women then walk back to Vigil's Keep. Everyone there could tell Vardall was going to be extremely angry once he found out about this.
Already told this in another chapter, but I always name my Mabari as Sif because of Dark Souls.
I know that Seneschal Varel is replaced by Captain Garevel, no matter if you chose to save Vigil's Keep or Amaranthine. But here, I'm keeping him alive, cause he's a great character and I prefer him over Garevel.