We reached Denerim well into the late afternoon on a day when the the weather had been unforgiving. We were battered by wind and rain for most of the day, but almost as soon as the city came into view, the rain stopped and the sun broke weakly through the clouds. After weeks of being on the road, sunlight coupled with the sight of civilisation heightened all of our spirits. By the time we reached the walls of the city, I was practically dancing in my saddle.
Outside of the city gates, there were a few merchants flogging their wares, an armourer, an alchemist, and a large, well-manned stable. We dismounted and left the horses with Leliana and Zevran, who immediately started to negotiate prices with the horsemaster there. Grayson double-checked that everyone knew what they were supposed to be doing, and our group of eight broke off into three separate groups, arranging to meet in the Gnawed Noble tavern when we were done.
I followed Grayson, Alistair and Sten, taking in my surroundings. The main square was vaguely familiar: there was the Chantry, the tavern, some residential buildings, some shops, the armourer. I spied what I assumed to be the closed-off entrance to the Alienage, with several city guards posted outside, and felt a surge of rage. I knew the elves would have to wait, for now, but that didn't mean I had to like it.
As we passed the Chantry, Grayson slowed down, squinting at the Chanter's board. There were requests posted there, as I knew there would be, but that wasn't what had grabbed his attention. He cursed, marching up to the board, and tore down three of the notices pinned there. Alistair and I exchanged a curious look, but we didn't have to wonder for long, as he thrust a sheet of parchment into each of our hands. It looked like a wanted poster of some sort, complete with a sketch of a girl's face that I didn't recognise. She was pretty, with large, dark eyes, dark hair and full lips, but the expression on her face looked rather menacing.
"Who is she?" I asked, confused. Grayson and Alistair both gawked at me and I wondered if I was forgetting something.
"That's you!" Grayson replied, exasperated. I snorted, looking back down at the face.
"That's not me." I said, holding the parchment up so that they could see us side-by-side. "It looks nothing like me."
"It looks exactly like you." Grayson hissed as he snatched it out of my hands and handed it to Alistair, looking around shiftily to make sure nobody had seen. I rolled my eyes at him.
"Come on, let's have a look." I said, holding my hands out for his and Alistair's posters. They handed them both over and I nodded, impressed by how close the sketch artist had got them. They were so uncanny that I wondered if magic had been involved. "See, yours both look like you." I handed Grayson's back to him but folded Alistair's up, tucking it into my breastplate. "I'm going to keep a hold of this. Maybe get it framed one day." I told him, with a playful grin.
"Well then, I'm going to hang onto this." He replied, rolling mine into a tight scroll and inserting it into his own breastplate.
"You should. It might be worth some money one day, when we're all heroes who have saved Ferelden. You could sell it off as a rare memento of the Mighty Lauren Duval, fabled beauty and legendary warrior." I said, striking my best Wonder Woman pose, hands on my hips, looking off into the distance. He chuckled, shaking his head at me.
Grayson had started to wander towards the square and he turned back to us with a grim expression on his face.
"I don't think it will be as rare a memento as you might hope." He said, and we looked to where he was pointing. The same three posters were plastered on almost every wall in the square. "And Zevran thought that Sten was going to bring unwanted attention."
The three of us exchanged meaningful looks, and I turned to see two Chantry sisters watching us, whispering to each other.
"We should split up." I said, reluctantly. "Individually, we might go unrecognised, but together…"
"I agree." Grayson replied, shaking his head. "I'm surprised we've made it this far without being arrested. Okay, keep your heads down and your wits about you. Sten, you're with me. We'll meet back at the tavern before nightfall. If you run into any trouble…" He hesitated, thinking. "Don't run into trouble."
He gave us each a parting nod and left, with Sten lumbering after him and Khan trotting along at his heels. Larry whined as Khan disappeared from view around a corner, and I scratched his ear, absently. I turned to Alistair.
"Great advice from our fearless leader." I muttered, throwing another look at the whispering Chantry sisters and taking him by the elbow, leading him out of sight behind a nearby house.
"I'm not going to leave you on your own." He said, insistently. "If Loghain's men found you and I wasn't there to protect you, I would-"
"Protect me?" I raised a disapproving eyebrow at him, and he averted his eyes.
"You know what I mean." He said, sheepishly.
"I do. But you know I can take care of myself." I replied. He didn't answer and I frowned. "You do know that, right?"
"Of course I do, it's just...it's different now, isn't it?" He said, deliberately avoiding my gaze.
"Oh no, don't do that." I said, gently. "Don't go soft on me now, Warden."
He met my eyes, reluctantly.
"Come with me to Goldanna's." He said, softly, and I stiffened. I knew we should separate, and I knew that putting ourselves at risk by staying together, even for a second, would give merit to Wynne's concerns, but I couldn't leave him to go to that woman's house alone. I wished I could stop him from going altogether, but there was no good reason I could think of that would change his mind other than the truth, and there was no way to tell him the truth without getting into deeper things that I just couldn't say. I hesitated, before sighing.
"Okay, fine. I'll come with you to Goldanna's house. But after that, we part ways, and we meet back at the Gnawed Noble as planned. Deal?" I held out my hand for him to shake, and he grasped my forearm, nodding reluctantly. "Alright. Do you know where we're going?"
"I think so." He said, nervously. "I'm not sure if I'm ready to meet her."
"Then you don't have to." I said, a little too quickly. He frowned at me and I smiled. "Kidding." I said, lamely. "Shall we?"
We didn't have to go far. Although Goldanna's house wasn't exactly where it was in the game, it was still closeby, near the Alienage. Alistair rambled as we walked, wondering aloud if this was a good idea, if she knew about him, how she would react. We stopped outside of a run-down, white-brick house with a thatched roof and several clothes lines out front. I pushed aside a grey-white bed sheet that was flapping in the wind and stepped towards the door, looking to Alistair for confirmation.
"This is the right address. I'm sure it is." He said, anxiously. "Do you think she's inside? Right now? Am I about to meet my sister? That sounds strange, doesn't it? Sister. Sister. Siiisss-"
"Alistair." I said, gently, placing a hand on his arm. "Before we go in, just remember...no matter what happens, you have a family. If Goldanna turns out to be everything you hoped for, then that's great. And if she doesn't, it's her loss. You are the best man I've ever met, and you don't have to prove anything to anybody."
"Thank you, Lauren. I mean it. Do I seem nervous? I am a bit." He chewed his bottom lip, taking my hand. "I'm glad you're here."
"Of course. Where else could I be?" I said, softly. "Ready?"
He looked a bit sick, but nodded. I stepped forward and knocked on the door, before falling back to stand by his side. The door opened and a red-faced, harassed-looking Goldanna stood there, looking at us impatiently. She held a basket of dirty clothes on one hip and a baby on the other.
"Eh? You have linens to wash?" She asked, bouncing the baby on her hip.
"Oh! No...we...don't have anything to wash. My name's Alistair. I'm...well, this is going to sound sort of strange but...are you Goldanna?" He asked, flustered, his face growing redder with every word.
"I am." She said, her eyes narrowing suspiciously.
"You are?" He asked, his eyebrows shooting up his forehead. "Great! Great. Then, I suppose, I'm your brother. That is to say, you're my sister. Half-sister, at any rate."
I winced, knowing what was coming. She studied him intently, before standing back and opening the door wider, motioning for us to enter. He looked down at me, uncertainly, and I shrugged, following her into the small house. There were mountains of clean clothes piled on most of the surfaces, and she walked to the back of the house, which was really just a single room, sliding the basket in her arms onto a table and turning back to us.
"They told me you were dead." She said, her expression unreadable. "I never believed them."
"They told you I was dead?" He asked, outraged. "Who told you that?"
"The Arl's men. I was only a lass, but I knew." She said, closing the distance between us. "Take him, will you?" She stunned me by handing the baby to me. I had never held a baby before. I had no idea what to do. I held him at arm's length, staring at him like he was an unexploded bomb.
What is happening? She's supposed to be yelling by now.
Larry sniffed at the infant, licking his bare feet, and the baby laughed, wriggling dangerously in my hands. I exchanged a look of alarm with my mabari, and he stopped licking, but lay down on his back underneath the dangling tot, as if preparing to catch him if i dropped him.
"Let's have a look at you, then." She addressed Alistair, and he blushed. I watched their exchange out of the corner of my eye, keeping most of my attention on the gurgling toddler in my outstretched arms. "Aye, you have the look of that king about you, sure enough. Why did you come here?"
Okay, here we go, she's about to go full shrew.
"Well, I...I wanted to meet you. You're really the only family I have left, and I only found out about you a few months ago." He stammered. "I know this is strange."
"That it is. Well, we never expected this when we woke up this morning, did we, baba?" She crooned in the direction of the baby, and he giggled and drooled all over his chin. She turned back to Alistair. "Come and have a seat. I'll make us some tea."
"What?" I asked, aloud, so confused by this turn of events that I forgot myself for a moment. "Sorry. Yes. That would be...nice." I said, incredulously. "What do I do with…?"
She tutted, taking the baby from me, and shook her head.
"Haven't you ever held a babe before?" She asked, disapprovingly. "I suppose you have nursemaids and the like at the castle who do all of your mothering for you?"
"What? No, I...don't have children...or a castle." I said, feeling more out-of-step now than I had at any time since arriving in Ferelden. Of everything that had happened so far, nothing had shocked me more than this encounter. She cleared some piles of clothes off of a couple of chairs and gestured for us to sit, laying the baby down on a blanket in the corner of the room.
She moved to the stove, busying herself with boiling a pot of water. The silence was loud and awkward, and I fidgeted with my hands as I tried to adjust to this unexpected turn of events.
"You'll have to learn fast, then." She said, and I looked up at her, unsure if she was talking to me or Alistair. She half-turned to look at me. "When you have babes of your own."
"Oh." I said, shifting uncomfortably in my seat when I realised what she was talking about. "No, that's...not really in the cards for me."
"Well, that's surprising. Most women would give their right arm to have a royal babe in their belly." She said, matter-of-factly, and I winced.
"Oh, I'm not royal. Not really." Alistair interjected, saving me from having to respond. "I'm just Alistair. We're Grey Wardens, you see."
"A prince and a Grey Warden?" She asked, coming over to sit with us and handing us each a mug of sweet-smelling tea. It wasn't anything I recognised, but it was warm, and I had been cold and damp all day, so I accepted it gratefully. "That is fancy."
It was strange. Some of the things she was saying I definitely recognised. But her tone was light - a little blunt, maybe, but not unkind. She really wasn't anything like the Goldanna I had been prepared for, and I had no idea what to expect next.
"And what about you? What's your name?" She asked me, running her eyes over me appraisingly.
"Lauren." I said, with a brief smile.
"You're his wife?" I almost choked on my tea.
"Wife?" I squeaked. "No, no, I'm his...well, we're...not married." I said, unsure how to phrase it. I didn't think they did "girlfriends" in Ferelden.
"Well, you're young." She said, dismissively, turning back to Alistair. "I'm not sure what you was expecting when you came here. I've not much to offer someone who was raised up in a castle. I don't suppose my little home really measures up to what you're used to."
"No, it's wonderful!" He assured her. "It's a real family home. I never really had that, growing up. I was sent off to the Chantry when I was ten, and I was training to become a templar when I was recruited into the Grey Wardens, so I wasn't really raised in a castle. For a time, I suppose, but I don't really remember much of it."
I hesitated, placing my cup down, waiting for her to chastise him, to tell him he should be grateful for what he had because she had nothing, but she only nodded in understanding.
"Aye, we don't have much, but my little ones have a roof over their head and food in their bellies. I know if mother had lived, she'd have done the same for us. Shame things don't always work out like that. A Chantry is no place for a little lad."
I sat back, finally relaxing, but still confused, and let them speak. They chatted for a while about their respective childhoods, Goldanna told him a little about his "mother", and he listened to her with rapt attention, clinging onto every word, mentally filing away every detail. When the baby in the corner started to fuss and she got up from the table to soothe him, I tapped his arm.
"Do you want me to give you some time alone with her? I should probably get out there and start looking for Genitivi." I said, quietly. He looked concerned, and started to protest, but I held up a hand. "You shook on it, Alistair. We were going to go our separate ways when we left. But this is going well! She really seems to like you, and I'm sure you've got some more questions for each other."
"Well...yes, I would like to stay a little longer, but-"
"Do you need me to be here?" I asked, raising an eyebrow. "Because if you need me here with you for support, I'll stay. But if you want to keep me here so I'm not out there, that's not a good enough reason for two of the three Grey Wardens in Denerim to be sitting here drinking tea."
He sighed in defeat, looking around to see Goldanna with her back to us and taking the opportunity to give me a swift kiss.
"Just...stay safe. Be okay. I need you to be okay." He said, seriously. I flashed him a half-smile, kissing his cheek.
"I'm always okay. I'll see you soon." I said, confidently. "Goldanna, thank you so much for your hospitality." I called to her, rising from my seat. "I have to get going, but I'll leave you two to catch up. I'm sure I'll see you again soon."
"Alright. You take care of him when you're out there Grey Wardening and whatnot, won't you?"
"We take care of each other." I replied, honestly. I gave her a nod, and left without another word. I had a feeling if I hung around any longer, I was going to get caught in another conversation about marriage or babies, and I would rather fight an ogre.
I stepped out into the cool evening, looking around to get my bearings as I walked. I knew that in the game, Genitivi's home had been close to the Gnawed Noble, and though the city's layout wasn't exactly the same, I decided to scout out the area near the tavern before risking drawing attention to myself by asking around. A few times I passed patrols of guards, and I ducked behind buildings or disappeared into passing crowds of people. The more wanted posters I saw, the more I had to admit that there was a slight resemblance there, and the more paranoid I started to feel that everyone was watching me.
We had been in Goldanna's for longer than I had anticipated, and the sky had grown dark. Most of the market stalls were packed up for the day, but there were a couple that were still open for business. I heard Bodahn before I saw him and grinned, unsurprised to find that he had somehow followed us here, and I waved in greeting. He ducked down when he saw me, looking around and gesturing for me to come closer. I approached him, puzzled by his odd behaviour, and he led me around to the back of his cart.
"You shouldn't be walking around here, messere. They've got posters all over the city offering a bounty for your capture!" He whispered, as if I hadn't just walked past twenty of said posters to reach him.
"I know, Bodahn. I'm keeping my head down." I assured him. He ignored me and reached into the back of his cart, pulling out a dark-green cloak and handing it to me.
"Here, put this on." He insisted. "Free of charge."
I thanked him and wrapped the cloak around my shoulders, tying the drawstring around my neck and pulling the hood up to shadow my face. He looked at me, apparently unsatisfied, and dived back into his cart, emerging again with a black scarf in his hands. He gestured for me to kneel and I did so, and he pushed my hood back, tied the scarf around my nose and mouth, and pulled the hood back into place.
"There! Now nobody will recognise you." He said, happily.
"But doesn't this look even more suspicious." I asked, rising to my feet, my voice muffled by the scarf.
"It's the fashion!" He insisted. "Isn't that right, my boy?"
Sandal appeared around the side of the cart.
"Enchantment!" He agreed, before realising it was me, and his eyes became round like they always did whenever he saw me. "Enchantment." He repeated, nervously.
"Is it though?" I asked, raising a skeptical eyebrow. "Anyway. Thank you, Bodahn. I really appreciate it."
"Oh, you're more than welcome, messere." He smiled, rocking back and forward on his heels. "You be careful, now."
"Take it easy, Bodahn."
"Enchantment!" Sandal stumbled towards me, holding out a rune for me to take. This had been a fairly regular occurence. I had about seven or eight of them in my pack already, and I accepted it with a smile and ruffled his hair.
"Enchantment." I replied, with a smile, and he beamed at me, watching as I made my way across the square. I passed the tavern until I came to a row of houses that were slightly larger and better kept than the others I had seen so far in the Market District. I noticed, gratefully, that most of these homes had plaques on the doors bearing family names and sigils. I skimmed the names as I passed, having to pause and squint at a few that were worn and almost illegible, until I came to the one I was looking for. I looked down at Larry, who was watching me expectantly.
"There's a bad man in here. I don't want to kill him if I can help it, so I'll need your help to subdue him." I said, and he wagged his tail, happily. "Okay, good boy."
I thought about knocking, but decided against it, testing the door to see if it was unlocked and finding no resistance. I placed a hand to my lips, indicating for Larry to keep quiet, and he dropped to his belly, crawling behind me stealthily as I entered. The house was much larger than it had been in the game, and I found myself in an empty foyer which opened up to a mercifully empty entrance hall. There were several doors on either side of the hall, and I slid a single dagger from my holster and held it at my hip as I crept along, checking each room as I went. There was no sign of the fake Weylon so far but I found a desk and some papers in one of the rooms, and I rifled through them, finding a leather-bound diary. I flipped through it, skimming over the pages and realising with a triumphant smile that it was exactly what I was looking for, complete with an insert of a heavily annotated map to Haven.
"Jackpot." I waved it at Larry, grinning down at him. A crashing noise from behind us made us both jump, and I spun around to see a hooded figure standing in the open doorway. He wasn't what I had been expecting. Fake Weylon in the games had been dressed in plain clothes and looked fairly unassuming. This man was armoured and cloaked, his face hidden, armed with a sword and shield. When he saw me, he seemed to visibly relax - probably because I'm little he thinks I'm not a threat, I thought - and I took the opportunity to incapacitate him, hurling my dagger through the air. He blocked it with his shield, as I had expected him to, and I threw myself to the ground, swiping his legs from underneath him with a swift kick while he was distracted. He landed hard on his back and his hood fell, revealing his face.
"Grayson! I'm sorry, I thought you were-"
"Ow." He winced, sitting upright, and I helped him to his feet. I took a closer look at him and smiled, apologetically.
"Bodhan got you too, huh?" I said, embarrassed, gesturing to the cloak. "Sorry about that, I didn't recognise you. Which I suppose is the point. You knew it was me though? How?" I asked, pointing to the scarf and hood which still obscured most of my face.
He gestured at Larry.
"Not many people running around the city with a mabari, looking for Brother Genitivi. Only two of us, I'd be willing to bet. I made a deduction." He muttered. "It's a good thing you don't like killing people, or that could have ended a lot more permanently. Here." He handed my dagger back to me and I sheathed it, with a sheepish grin.
"Sorry. Did I say sorry? Sorry."
"I'd have done the same thing." He assured me, patting Larry on the head. "I should have announced myself once I realised it was you, but you moved faster than I could speak. Sten and Khan are in the other room. Brother Genitivi isn't here, but we did find someone. A man pretending to be his assistant. He attacked us when we started asking questions. Apparently the Qunari wasn't enough of a deterrent. We found the real assistant. He looks to have been dead for a few weeks now. So I guess we came all this way for nothing."
"Not for nothing." I handed him the diary. "This has everything we need. Maps, information...it's all in here."
He looked through it, a slow smile spreading across his face.
"You." He pulled me in and planted a kiss on my forehead. "Are forgiven, Duval. This is great. This was...surprisingly easy. I didn't imagine we'd even find the Brother's house on the first day."
I started to agree before remembering that we still had to get to Haven, fight a village full of crazy cultists and a fucking High Dragon before we even reached the Temple of Sacred Ashes, and fell silent.
"Look at this." Grayson said, frowning down at the diary. "The village of Haven in the Frostbacks seems a good place to start. Pity it's not on any maps. Great. That's very helpful."
I reached out and pulled the hand-drawn map from the pages, unfolding it for him to see.
"Looks like the Brother had his own ideas as to where Haven is. There's no telling how accurate it is, but I'd say this is good enough to be getting on with for the moment. It's farther than any of the Arl's men got, at least."
"In the Frostback Mountains." He repeated, with a wry smile. "Oh, the others are going to just love this."
"Because everything else that we do is such jolly good fun. I'm pretty sure they all knew what they were signing on for when they agreed to join us." I said, dismissively.
"I'm sure we'll find out." He muttered, motioning that it was time to leave.
We rejoined the rest of our party in the Gnawed Noble. We removed our cloaks, deciding that they would only draw more attention to us if we kept them on now that we were indoors, though I couldn't help feeling hideously exposed. I was relieved to see that Alistair was already there, sitting with his back to us and talking animatedly to Leliana and Wynne. Zevran sat in the corner, reclining with his feet propped up on the table and he gave me a casual wave when we approached. Morrigan was nowhere to be seen, but that was nothing unexpected.
"...and I have five nieces and nephews! Not five of each, obviously. Two nieces and three nephews. Can you imagine? Me? An uncle?" Alistair was gushing about his time with Goldanna and I caught Leliana's eye and we shared a small smile of affection for him before he realised Grayson and I were behind him. "Lauren! Goldanna said you've to come back to visit any time. She really liked you. She did say something about teaching you how to sew...I told her you weren't much the sewing type." He grinned, his obvious joy at having found the family he'd been searching for plain to see. I felt my heart tug, lovingly, and I placed a hand on his shoulder, acknowledging him wordlessly.
"Grayson! Did you hear? We met my sister, and-"
"Congratulations, Alistair." Grayson cut him off, clapping him on the back. I had already filled him in on the details on the way over. "I'm happy for you." He looked to Leliana and Zevran. "Did you find somewhere that would take all of us?"
The two exchanged a look before Leliana turned back to Grayson with a careful smile on her face.
"Uh oh." I said, watching this silent interaction. "What is it?"
"Nothing! It's fine." Leliana insisted, sweetly. "It's just...well most of the places we checked only had one or two rooms to spare. The only establishment we could find that would accommodate all of us is...a little bit of a walk from here, but not too far."
"Establishment?" I repeated, narrowing my eyes at her choice of words. I thought I knew exactly which establishment she was referring to. "And what, may I ask, is the name of this place?"
Her fake smile faltered, and morphed into one of amusement and back again so suddenly that it might have been a trick of the light, but I knew better.
"It's called The Pearl. It is a place of...business, yes, but they do offer rooms. And we got them for a reasonable price, seeing as we didn't request any additional...services."
An amused grin cracked through the frown on my face and I couldn't help but laugh at her conversational acrobatics. She really was quite talented.
"Fair enough." Grayson said, his lips twitching as he tried to keep from grinning.
"We're going to stay in a brothel?" Alistair asked, skeptically, as though waiting for someone to tell him they were joking. "Is that really the only place you could find in the whole of Denerim?"
"Come now, Alistair. Are you implying that we chose to stay at The Pearl for some other, salacious reason?" Zevran asked, innocently. Alistair reddened, predictably, his stuttered response lost in the noise of the tavern. I remembered how his ears had blushed at the sight of the stick figures Grayson and I had drawn the night before.
This was going to be interesting.
AN: Thank you to Kira Tamarion, as always, for your invaluable help as a beta-reader.
Please review :)
Chimera Spyke: I actually like spiders! I think they're kind of beautiful, and so interesting. But yeah, giant spiders? All of my nope.
LeliMor29: Yeah, the blending of Morrigan and Wynne's romance concerns was mostly born of laziness, but I felt like it actually turned out okay. I love playing around with the characters interactions with each other...so many possibilities that couldn't be explored in-game!
Thank you to everyone who has reviewed and PM'd me with your thoughts on the story so far, it really is the best motivation to keep writing!