Disclaimer: I don't own Dragon Age, or any of their related characters. 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 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. Song lyrics included herein were used without permission.

Chapter Four: Tentacles

Loghain tried his best to calm down and roll with the punches, but he was hard-pressed in the days to come. The first big hurdle was teaching this precocious eleven-month old to read. Difficult, considering Loghain was in his late twenties when he himself achieved some real degree of literacy. Celia had taught Anora letters and reading, and Loghain as well, and in fact, by the time he began to become truly proficient at the fine art of reading, Anora had started taking a hand at teaching him, and if anything made a man feel stupid it was when his own child started teaching him something that children were supposed to learn. Of course, few Fereldan peasants were literate, but that simple fact never really occurred to him somehow.

He first pulled out the old standby, the ubiquitous "Dick and Jane" books, tattered and moldy from long interment in the damp storerooms. These were not thrilling adventure stories. They truly did not even qualify as children's books. They were just words on paper, loosely forming simple sentences that were easy for small children (and illiterate adults) to read. It felt wrong, even as he brought them out, to subject a boy like Loki to such tedious, meaningless non-literature. But he had to start somewhere. Of course, the proper place to start was not with books but with the alphabet.

So he sat Loki down on the top of his desk, next to the blotter, and sat down behind it, and drew out some parchment and a quill, and wrote out the entire alphabet from a to zed. Loki watched as the letters marched across the page in his father's steady, upright handwriting, and listened carefully as his father explained each letter. Then, Loghain wrote four letters together at the bottom of the page, below the alphabet. LOKI. He spelled it out loud, then said it.

"Loki. That's your name."

Loki reached out and traced the letters with his tiny finger. Loghain had a somewhat chilling premonition that from this one simple action the boy would forever after be able to write his name in exactly the way he had, a perfect forgery. With some trepidation he handed the boy the freshly inked quill.

"Care to try it?" he said, though his tongue felt rather dry.

Writing a mirror-image because he sat facing the opposite way from his father, Loki signed his name to the parchment. It was steady and upright, but Loghain was relieved to see that it was not exactly the same. There was a certain flourish to the handwriting that his own lacked. Loghain believed that sign of essential individuality would increase over time as the boy became more proficient and comfortable in his penmanship.

Feeling that the boy was secure in his knowledge of letters, he brought out the books. He took Loki on to his knee and opened up the first one he pulled off the pile. There really was no essential difference between them so there was no particular order in which they needed to be read.

"All right. You know your letters now, see if you can put what you know to use and read this book," Loghain said. "Start here, and read left to right, page by page."

"See Jane run," Loki read. "Dick runs after Jane. Run Jane, Run." He turned to look at his father. "What's happening here? Why are they running?"

"Because they're children," Loghain said. "Children like to run."

"Is that all? They're running because they like it? There's no… no point to it? Where's the story in that?"

Loghain shrugged. "These books aren't really stories, they're just… teaching aides."

"Do teachers think children are brainless morons?"

Loghain hesitated before replying. "In all fairness, Loki, most children who are young enough to be learning off these books – quite a bit older than you, I might add – find them perfectly sufficient in the entertainment department."

"Are children brainless morons?"

"Of course not! But the fact is that they are a bit… unformed, at these early stages. You're a bit of a radical outlier, Pup. Most small children aren't as aware of themselves and their surroundings as you are. Children are in development, it takes awhile for the brain to go from goo goo ga ga to something properly useful. How you ended up the way you are is incomprehensible."

"So you're saying I'm… unnatural?"

"No, Pup. I'm saying you're unique. There's nothing whatsoever wrong with being unique. It's a good thing, really, though it can be hard at times."

Loki looked down at his hands, then up at the pages of the book, with its rough woodcuts of children chasing each other. "Well, if I am unique, I think perhaps I'm a bit too unique to deal with this form of teaching. I should greatly prefer learning to read from a proper book with a proper story, if possible."

Loghain kissed the top of his dark curly head. "It's very possible. Hop down, I'll go find you something."

The boy slid down from his lap and Loghain stood up and went to a nearby bookshelf. He selected a book and came back. He picked the boy up and sat down.

"I think you'll enjoy this," he said. "It was a favorite of your mother. She even convinced me to read it once."

"Is it good?" Loki asked.

"It's pretty good," Loghain said. "It's called 'The Princess Bride.'"

"Is it romantic?" Loki asked, with a look of skepticism.

"A little, but mostly it's a grand adventure."

Loki's expression cleared. "That sounds better. I'll try it."

Loghain opened the book to the first page. "As you wish," he said.


Loki learned rapidly. Or perhaps a better term would be rabidly. He wanted to know everything, and he wanted to know it now. While Loghain gave him a bath the next night Loki commented that he found the tub of water quite congenial. "Are there creatures who live in water?"

"Yes. Fish, and things like that."

"I should like to be a fish. Something clever and good at hiding."

"You mean like an octopus."

"What's an octopus?" Loki asked.

"Basically a brain with legs. Lots of legs. It can squish itself into improbably tiny spaces and it can change its color to match its surroundings."

"Incredible! Is there any way I could see an octopus?"

"A live one? I doubt it. But the market in the village often has dead ones for sale. Folks 'round here consider it a delicacy."

"They eat them?"

"Yes."

"Well, when I am an octopus, they will not eat me!"

"Of course not, Pup," Loghain said, smiling. "I won't let them."

"Can we go see one?"

"Sure. Let's finish up here and get you dressed, and I'll take you into town."

He finished bathing the child, dried him off well, and bundled him up warm. It was Kingsway, so autumn was only just beginning, but it was Gwaren, which meant it could be quite chilly even so. The wind off the Frozen Sea could be cold and bitter even in the midst of summer, and the village sat right off the rocky shoreline. Loki was inordinately well-developed for his age but he was still no more than a tiny baby. He needed to be protected.

Loghain carried the boy out of the Keep, through the gardens, and into the village. There wasn't much of Gwaren village, especially considering it was one of the most important ports in Ferelden, but then, Ferelden wasn't really a seaport nation in the first place. There was a long-standing joke in Thedas that if you wanted to incapacitate the Fereldan army, just put them on a boat in the middle of the ocean. It was more true than Loghain cared to admit. They had no real navy. Just a crew of untrustworthy privateers who could easily be bought for the right price. Most of them weren't even properly Fereldan.

The market was mostly open-air, and most of it was dedicated to the fisherman's trade. There was very little farming in Gwaren, though everyone had a small patch of land for gardening. Fish was the main staple of the local diet, and the occasional fowl. And other things, less savory to more particular palettes. Gwareners were not picky eaters. It didn't pay to be picky when you were buried in twenty feet of snow and ice a full season, and at random times the rest of the year. There was a stall selling fresh octopus not too far from the wharf.

"This is an octopus?" Loki said, looking at the masses of tentacles.

Loghain purchased one and picked it up. "Yup. This is an octopus, Pup. Or at least, it was."

Loki inspected the dead creature carefully. Very carefully. Minutely, one might say. And then, with a swirl of emerald green, he became… an octopus. The woman tending the stall saw and screamed.

Loghain clasped the creature to his chest and walked swiftly back to the Keep, his thoughts in a whirl. What he had witnessed, what he was experiencing, was impossible by all he knew. The only thing that could possibly account for it was magic, but no magic he of which he was aware. The idea that his son was a mage was, honestly, less alarming to him than the idea that his son was capable of some new, unknown form of magic he'd never before witnessed or heard tell of.

Inside the Keep he hurried to a private chamber. "Loki? Loki, can you hear me?"

"Yes, of course."

He blinked. How an octopus could speak was a question for the ages, but one he wasn't altogether certain he wanted an answer for. He swallowed his surprise and endeavored to remain calm.

"Loki, I want you to promise me you'll never do something like that again, do you understand? Not in public. People don't like things like that. It scares them."

"Can you put me in water, please? I'm finding it hard to breathe and my body feels like it's drying out."

Loghain thanked the Maker that he had left the tub of bath water unemptied. He dropped the boy into it. The dead octopus fell in as well, a rather grisly counterpart.

"Loki, can you still hear me?"

The octopus that had replaced his son crawled halfway out of the water. "I can hear you."

"Did you understand what I told you? About not doing this again in public?"

"Yes, I understand."

"Can you… turn back?"

"I don't want to. Not yet, at any rate. Being an octopus is fun!"

"But you can turn back?"

"I think so."

"I certainly hope so."

He allowed the boy to play in the water as he wished. Eventually the boy crawled half out of the water again and said, "I wish there were some hiding spaces in this tub, and some rocks or something of different colors so I could try hiding!"

"If you'll show me that you can turn back into a little boy properly, I'll have a tank made for you with hidey holes and all kinds of rocks and shells to match your colors against. You can play octopus whenever you want, so long as you don't do it in front of anyone."

An emerald swirl of magic, and a sloppy wet bundle of heavy clothes and boy hopped out of the tub. "Really? That would be awesome!"

"It may take me some time, you understand," Loghain said. "It would have to be special-made, probably Dwarven-made, and I don't think there's anyone in the village who could do it."

"I don't mind, I'll wait."

"Good. Let's get you into some dry clothes, Pup. You'll catch your death in these wet togs."

"I'm not sure if I should spend a lot of time in octopus form, though," Loki said, as Loghain bore him away to his own room. "As I played in the water, I started feeling a bit ill."

"I think I know why," Loghain said. "Octopus is a saltwater creature. The tub was filled with fresh water, Pup. I don't know how long an ordinary octopus would be able to tolerate such things, but if you were enough like a real octopus it probably made you feel at least a bit ill. I should have put you into ocean water. Fresh water would kill a proper marine octopus."

"As there are likely creatures that prey on octopus in the Frozen Sea, not to mention the threat the fishermen pose themselves, I can understand why you would not do that."

"That, and I rather hoped everyone would assume I was still holding my infant son. I wouldn't want them to wonder why I suddenly tossed you in the ocean."

"Yes, that would be hard to explain, I imagine."

"Pup, do you… know who I am?" Loghain asked.

"You're my father," Loki said, without hesitation.

"Yes, I am. And do you know what that means?"

Significant hesitation now. "I am not sure."

"Well, it means that part of me is part of you. Your mother and I made you."

"My mother? Who is that?"

"The woman who… who carried you inside her before you were born." Even as he said it he wondered exactly how he could explain "gestation" to an eleven month old so that they could understand it and not be completely freaked out by it.

"You mean the warm, dark, wet place? That was my mother?" Loki said.

Loghain was boggled to think that the boy remembered being in the womb, but he said, "Yes, yes it was."

"Where is my mother now?"

"She… she passed away."

"You mean she died."

"Yes, Pup."

"Would my chances of survival be increased if I had both a living mother and a father?"

"What do you mean, Pup?"

"Is a mother necessary to my survival?"

"You could have learned a great deal from her, Pup, but I won't let anything bad happen to you."

"Well, it is unfortunate that I have lost a potential source of knowledge, but at least she was not intrinsic to my survival."

"That's… a rather cold way to look at it, Pup. She was your mother."

"I still don't really understand what those words, 'father,' 'mother,' are meant to mean to me."

"We're the people who made you who you are, Pup. Since your mother is gone, it's my sole duty to take care of you, and teach you what you need to know to grow strong and healthy and wise."

"All very good. But why do you do that? What's in it for you?"

"What do you mean, 'What's in it for me?'"

"Exactly what I said. Why should you care about my survival and growth? What does it gain you?"

"You're my son."

"That's not an answer."

"Of course it's an answer. You're a part of me. If I lost you it would be worse than losing a limb."

"Why?"

"Because I love you, you little fool. That's why."

"Love? Love is a falsehood useful for making others amenable for mating."

"Is that what you think? You're not as smart as you seem."

"I am sure there is yet much I have to learn. But the concept of love is inherently flawed. It works against natural survival instincts. Certainly, at first, it gets you to goal – procreation – but after, brainwashing yourself into believing this 'love' malarkey works against all common sense."

"Where do you get these ideas?"

"I don't know, it just makes sense."

These are the wages of your sins, Loghain thought. Out loud he said, "Well, you've got plenty of time to revise your opinion, which is good, for your sake."

"You will still get me a tank to play in, despite having views you deem controversial?" Loki said.

"I said I would, and I shall."

"Thank you. It is good to know I am working with a man of integrity."

"Yeah, Pup. I expect our 'working relationship' will be just fine."


A/N: Special thanks to those who have taken the time to review, Melysande and Elenorhenry!