Disclaimer: I don't own Marvel Comics, Dragon Age, Stephen King's Doctor Sleep, Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, or any of their related characters. Character Warjen Zevonishki or "Zevon" is an homage to my favorite musician, long deceased, no disrespect intended, I included him because King dedicated the novel Doctor Sleep to his memory. This is just for my own enjoyment and the potential enjoyment of other fans like me, and no monetary gain was expected or received.

Rating: T

Spoilers: May contain spoilers for Doctor Sleep, Dragon Age Origins, Origins DLC, Awakening, and Dragon Age II, Dragon Age II DLC, Dragon Age Inquisition as well as the novels The Stolen Throne and The Calling. May also contain spoilers for Marvelmovies, series, and/or comics, Harry Potter books, and WB Games' Hogwarts Legacy. Song lyrics included herein were used without permission.

Chapter Nine: Distant War Drums

Time passes very slowly in Asgard. Incomprehensibly slowly, for anyone not accustomed to its aching crawl. For all who are, however, the next few years passed in a fair flurry. Loghain and all, including his newly discovered son and the two young Elves, made their way to Gwaren after all the social niceties were observed, and Loki finally got a chance to get to know his new Highborn friends Ignis and Gladiolus. The boys got on well enough, it seemed. Ignis in particular was quite eager to make up for having gotten Loki hurt at the Feast Day festival, for the boy was quite guilt-ridden about that, and became slightly annoying in his attempts to make up for it by being extremely considerate of all Loki's wants and needs from then on. A little too considerate. Loki found him slightly smothering, but at least he knew he meant well.

Zevon made good on his offer to teach Loki music, and Loki proved an apt pupil. While he was a bit too small, for the time being, to properly play the Antivan guitar, he could learn on a small lute, and of course Zevon himself had learned how to play the piano when he was hardly any bigger. Provided he didn't choke on it, nothing was stopping him from learning to play the mouth harp, and Loki was intelligent enough not to actually try and eat the damned thing. When he wasn't teaching, Zevon often set up at the local inn and played in the public room. He was surprised and pleased to find that his music had a far more appreciative audience in Gwaren, small as it was, than anywhere else he had found before. Maybe it was the fact that he was slowly becoming known as "the Teyrn's son," but he didn't think that was all of it. These people appreciated the cheerfully macabre misanthropy that was the basic theme of most of his original work. They themselves, he was coming to believe, were cheerfully macabre misanthropists. It made a certain amount of sense, given the dangers and toils of life in the region, plus the isolation. He was a little surprised they spoke Nordic Standard and not some strange foreign language, but then, their accents were so strong it was almost as if they did.

Shianni and Tabris were turned out with proper weapons and armor, and set to live and train in the compound with the Gwaren Regulars, the small battalion of men and women who served Gwaren directly. Teyrn Loghain had two battalions of soldiers, unlike other Lords, the other being Maric's Shield, stationed and trained at Fort Drakon in Denerim, but you had to be a veteran soldier before you could even be considered for those ranks. They were the elite of the entire army. The young Elves were pleased to discover that they weren't the only Elves in the Gwaren Regulars. There were actually quite a few, and even some of the officers were Elves. It made them very cheerful and happy. Their new lives, they felt, were full of great hope and promise, and they set to training with a will.

Loki's new Mabari companions stayed at his side, and did indeed imprint to him. Having two Mabari imprint to one person, at the same time, was a very unusual thing. Habren had doubtless wanted the attention and status it would bring to her to have two fine Mabari companions, but Loki was more pleased at their companionship. He named the white one Haakon, after the old god Haakon Wintersbreath, but puzzled for quite some time over what to name the black one with the white-tipped ears and the white blaze on its nose.

"Well, if you like to honor the old gods of Ferelden, why not name him Kiveal, after old Kiveal the Trickster?" Loghain said, watching the pup gambol about with its sibling and his son. "It's certainly one for mischief, rather like its master."

"I can't. That name is taken," Loki said, and Loghain wondered mightily what exactly he meant, but did not choose to ask. "Naming him after a trickster is a good idea, though. Maybe I could name him… Fen'Harel. Do you think that would offend the Bosmer?"

"Most Bosmer you'd encounter probably don't know who Fen'Harel is," Loghain said, smiling a little. He probably shouldn't be wondering how Loki knew who Fen'Harel was. "As for the Dalish, well, they might be offended, or they might take it as a gesture of respect. Most of the ones around here know how much stock we Fereldans put in our Mabaris, even if they don't really understand it."

"Hmm… well, maybe I'll name him Fen'Harel, but just call him Fen. Does that sound good to you, boy?" Loki said, and the puppy yipped an affirmative.

The messenger was adamant, High King Cailan said the matter was of urgent importance. His presence was requested in Denerim immediately. Not at his earliest convenience, but immediately.

"Am I at least allowed to ask why?" Loghain said.

"His Majesty did not tell me, my Lord," the messenger said. "Only that it was a matter of utmost urgency and Asgardian security."

Loghain rolled his eyes. "I'm sure it is. Well, go you and tell dear King Cailan that I'll be along directly."

The messenger looked at him nervously. "If it please, my Lord, King Cailan demanded that your Lordship come at once."

"I'll be along, don't worry."

The man stood wringing his hands for a moment, then climbed back into his velocycle and zoomed away, back up the Brecilian Passage no doubt. Loghain turned back into the Keep and headed for his study. He wondered idly what earth-shattering news Cailan had for him, but in truth, he wasn't that interested. Cailan was a bit… overly dramatic, and this would likely turn out to be nothing at all.

"It's the Darkspawn, Papa."

Loghain spun to face the study door. Loki was standing in it. Roughly six years old now, he wasn't a great deal bigger than he had been, but time had certainly made its mark on his Mabari, for they towered over him. They were no more than half-grown, but they were big and healthy and growing well. Little Nord boys didn't grow as quickly as Mabari pups.

"Maker's ass, Pup, I didn't know you were there. What's that about the Darkspawn now?"

"That's what King Cailan wants to tell you. The Darkspawn are in the south, near the old fortress of Ostagar. It's the start of a Blight."

"Pup, there hasn't been a Blight in four hundred thousand years."

"Well, there's going to be one now. The Archdemon Urthemiel has wakened, and is massing its troops."

Loghain frowned. "You know this? It's not just something you plucked from Cailan's imagination?"

Loki nodded, youthful face inordinately serious. "The Archdemon speaks to me, only I don't think it knows it."

Loghain was horrified… and, all against his will, intrigued. "You're… in contact with the Archdemon?"

"In a sense. When it speaks to the horde I can hear it. Understand it, to some degree. I have been careful not to let it catch wind of me, for I believe it could easily become aware of me as it is obvious that it does much, if not all, of its communication mind-to-mind."

"Zevon has been teaching you, hasn't he? How to guard yourself against that kind of thing?"

"To the best of his ability, yes," Loki said. "But as my own ability to easily reach out to his mind shows, he is not all that skilled at it himself. However, his instruction should still be useful, as the techniques he suggests require only greater power to be more effective."

"Well, you've definitely got greater power," Loghain said, but what he thought was, Greater than an Archdemon?

"I know you will not wish to, Papa, but I insist you take me with you to Denerim," Loki said. "The information I can provide could well prove of inestimable value to you and the army against these creatures."

"You're speaking so stiffly, Pup. Take a breath. Calm down." Loghain's own head was spinning. Take Loki, an infant, a bloody brilliant one, granted, to a war council? Ludicrous! But… the boy had a point, damn it. If he was really able to spy on the enemy General like he said, it would be foolish not to keep him at his right hand, at the war council and… and beyond. He had begun to teach the boy to hunt, just a bit, here and there – his own parents had started teaching him to hunt quite early, and he wasn't anywhere nearly as precocious as Loki – and the boy was quite handy with a bow when it came to shooting rabbits and such, but the very idea of putting him within a thousand yards of a Darkspawn was bone-chilling.

But then again, Ostagar was a lot closer to Gwaren than Denerim, and there was that Deep Roads entrance he had always worried about… perhaps the boy would be safer close at hand.

"All right, Pup. I'll keep you close. But understand me, you do absolutely everything I tell you to do, the very moment I tell you to do it, got it?"

Loki let out a noisy breath, and a lot of the stiffness went out of his posture. The two Mabari barked happily and panted. "Yes, Papa. I got it."

"You better. Maker help me."

When Loghain burst into the King's War Chambers, he was in no mood to bandy words. According to Loki, time was of the essence, and Loghain was inclined to believe the boy. Had anyone else brought to him a story of Darkspawn massing at Ostagar, he would have laughed outright and called them mad. But he knew full well that Loki had ways of knowing what others did not. The boy was not afflicted with a too fanciful imagination, and he would not lie about such a thing. There really was a gods-honest Blight, and it was bearing down on Ferelden.

Loki, and his two fine Mabari, entered a bit more sedately behind him. King Cailan and Warden-Commander Duncan, both bent over a large-scale map of Ferelden, looked at them with some surprise.

"Teyrn Loghain," Cailan said, smiling. "You brought your little son? To a War Council?"

"The boy has important information. We need to get everybody on their feet and moving to Ostagar immediately. We can make a fortified position there and stand the Darkspawn off. Duncan, how are you stood for Wardens? Have you been recruiting?"

Duncan's jaw dropped. Cailan did not look much less surprised. The two men looked at each other, and then Duncan spoke. "My Lord Teyrn, how did you know about the Darkspawn? His Majesty told me he was not going to inform the messenger of the circumstances regarding your summons, for fears that people would start to panic."

Loghain waved a hand at Loki. "That's just some of the important information the boy possesses. Don't worry, we came straight here, and didn't speak to anyone on the way. In any event, you're going to have to tell people about the Blight sooner rather than later, because when we call up the army they're going to want to know why."

"You already know it's a Blight?" Cailan said, surprise giving way to disappointment. It was obvious that he had wanted to be the one to break the "big news."

"Led by the Archdemon Urthemiel, according to Loki," Loghain said. "The boy can listen in on it, while it gives commands to the horde. I don't particularly care to have him along in an army camp, but with intel like that, I can't really afford not to."

Duncan cleared his throat pointedly. "Actually, my Lord Teyrn, longtime Grey Wardens like myself can also listen in on the Archdemon, in dreams while we sleep."

"Can you understand it?" Loghain asked, eyebrow raised.

"Not… particularly well."

"Loki can. Better still, for the time being at least, the Archdemon doesn't know he's listening."

"How, exactly, does the boy perform this amazing feat, if I might ask?" Duncan said, dark eyes glittering.

"Loki can do lots of amazing feats. He's a talented lad."

"Well, this is wonderful!" Cailan said, standing and smiling. "Not only will we have the Grey Wardens in battle beside us against the Blight, but the skills of a marvelous young Seer. It's just like in the tales of Eld!"

"Yes, Cailan," Loghain said, eyes rolling heavenward. "Just like in the tales."