The Road to Orzammar
Lawrien felt a stir, the fear growing and aching and it made her drift awake. Ciara was still asleep, curled beneath her blankets. It wasn't coming from her. She felt peaceful. Lawrien climbed out her blankets and out into the open, shivering when the night time cold brushed her skin. She dragged her blanket out from the tent, wrapping it round herself before searching.
Alistair felt fine. He was still on watch. Sten was calm, he was on watch too, even though he was throwing her a surprised look.
"You're awake?"
"Someone's upset," Lawrien said, glancing around.
Zevran was curled up tight in his bed roll, trying to fight off the cold in his tent. Faren was mournfully counting his coins- he had lost quite a few rounds in that card game- but the others were almost all asleep.
"You should go back to sleep, Commander." Sten frowned.
"I can't. Someone's scared." Lawrien began to walk away.
Epona was peaceful in her tree, Leliana was excited, dreaming of something wild and daring. Shale never slept, she only felt bored.
Her steps lead her to Bodahn and Sandal's tent. They had reunited on the road out of Denerim, and had happily joined them again on the road. She opened up the flap a bit, seeing Sandal tossing and turning, whimpering.
"Sandal," she called out softly.
Sandal startled awake and immediately whimpered.
"Hey, what happened?" Lawrien asked, kneeling down.
"The old lady is scary."
"There are a lot of old, scary ladies," Lawrien agreed, holding out her arms. "Do you want a hug?"
Sandal crawled out the bundle of blankets, fear turning into relief as he clung to her tightly. Lawrien wrapped her arms around him in return.
"I don't like her..." Sandal whimpered.
"The scary old lady?"
"Yeah..."
Lawrien grimaced. "If you ever see her, point her out to me, and I'll beat her up."
Sandal nodded. "Okay, but what about the others...?"
Lawrien tilted her head. "The others?"
"She made the Blights... he broke everyone... they were really cruel..."
A deep sadness hit Lawrien, and she startled when Epona's journal appeared on her lap, flapping open close to the end of the journal.
'Ghilan'nain is being reckless and horrific. I hope she stops experimenting with creatures so much, but she is determined to become as powerful as the others. Does she not remember that once they weren't our Gods and Goddesses? Does she not remember when we all fought together? I feel like only the Wolf does, but he's also becoming reckless too. I'm worried that I might have to disobey Mythal and act soon. My people helped them save the world. I won't let them destroy it. Surana, please, be safe, because you're right in the middle of her experiments.'
Lawrien frowned. "Epona...?"
Sandal looked at the journal too. "It's old. Epona sounds very sad and angry."
Lawrien sighed. "Yeah, and we still don't know a lot about the Ranger Commander which sucks, and we don't have a lot of time to look into it either, otherwise I'd go to Flemeth and demand some answers."
Sandal's face fell. "The scary lady..."
"Yeah." Lawrien scowled. "But if she's endangering my friends I'll burn her ass." Lawrien shook her head. "Sadly not the time though. We've got to get to Orzammar."
"Will Narascha sing? Her song has been sad."
"Maybe she'll be happier soon," Lawrien said softly.
But she doubted it. They were going back to Orzammar.
Orzammar had really hurt Narascha.
.:.
"I have an academic question you can't answer." Alistair smirked.
Ciara raised a brow. They had started the trek to Orzammar early in the morning, and the roads were mostly quiet thankfully. They weren't gaining much attention. To be fair, most were probably still fleeing South towards Denerim, not Orzammar, but there were cities like Highever on this road.
It made her concerned for Cobian. If they passed Highever... It would be at a distance, sure, but if they could see it from the main road, Cobian would be crushed. It had to be agony knowing it was under Howe's control.
"Oh, I doubt it!" Morrigan laughed.
Alistair's smirk widened. "What was the name of Andraste's husband?"
Morrigan tensed, a minute thing, but Alistair must have caught it because that smirk was awfully smug. Morrigan huffed, crossing her arms.
"That question is a religious one, not an academic one," she protested.
"You can't answer a question even a five year old would know!" Alistair crowed.
"Admittedly us dwarves don't know that either," Torph said, eyeing Narascha. "Well, unless you do?"
"Not at all."
Morrigan smirked.
"Ah." Alistair paused. "Well you don't count. You're dwarves."
Torph gasped. "You hear this, Nara? We don't count!"
"Terrible. I'm disappointed in you, Alistair." Narascha shook her head.
"Urgh," Alistair groaned. "Just let me have this!"
"That would be too easy," Torph teased.
Ciara smiled fondly at that, but paused when she saw Epona frown. She had her nose buried in the journal of the Ranger Commander's, Lawrien walking alongside her. Cobian and Leliana with them.
"I wonder why it doesn't show us the entire book at once," Cobian mused. "It doesn't make sense, going to the end so many times, only showing us brief glimpses of her life."
"Unless the beginning wasn't as important as what waited for them at the end?" Leliana suggested.
"The beginning gives us context," Cobian insisted. "You know that."
"Sure, but the ending is usually more exciting," Leliana giggled.
"It hasn't shown us too much yet, but so far I believe you've been around for most of the times it has shown us something, Lawrien," Epona said.
"Maybe it's to do with the old bloodline?" Leliana asked.
"Those old bloodlines are supposed to come together to defeat a great threat to the world, or at least that's what you told me Zathrian said," Ciara mused. "So far we know you and Epona are apart of this old bloodline, only the Amell family has had human blood mixed in over time. But I wonder who the others are?"
"It's hard to say, but there was an old bloodline for each of the elven gods if I remember correctly," Epona said. "There was one, a Treveylan, was what Ranger Commander said."
"Trevelyan?" Ciara stopped in her walk, as Lawrien's jaw dropped.
"Yes, but I do not recognise the name-" Epona admitted.
Alistair pointed at Ciara, his eyes wide. "Ciara Trevelyan," he said.
"So my house used to be elven too?" Ciara raised a brow. "Interesting..."
"We also have a dwarven champion and two human champions?" Epona said, her brow furrowing.
"So either Torph or Narascha, but the humans are a little more vague," Ciara said, eyeing Cobian, Morrigan, Wynne then Alistair.
"But Ciara doesn't have any weird abilities," Lawrien said.
"I don't either-" Epona began.
"You can understand the Archdemon, and apparently a wolf spirit used to follow you," Ciara reminded her.
"So perhaps some kind of speaking to animals ability?" Cobian offered.
Epona scowled. "I can't understand Calenhad."
Calenhad barked happily.
"Maybe it only works every so often?" Cobian mused. "The bloodlines could perhaps be getting weaker, or the traits skipping. The same happens with hair and eye colour, so it would make sense for abilities to skip a generation or two as well."
"I suppose..." Epona grimaced.
"We'll do our best to figure things out," Leliana said. "Perhaps we'll even learn more as time goes on."
"I suppose all we can do for now is focus on ending the Blight," Epona sighed.
"Then we'll beat up Flemeth for answers!" Lawrien grinned sharply.
Morrigan snorted. "That would be a sight I would pay to see."
"It would certainly be interesting to see if Flemeth can be killed," Cobian mused. "Her legends go back hundreds of years, before even the Couslands became the Teyrns of Highever. In fact, if I recall rightly, she was the reason we were given the title."
"Mother has mentioned that story before, yes," Morrigan admitted.
"Do you believe her?"
"I'm not sure, she is old, yes, and powerful, but she can't be that powerful surely. She is not immortal. A blade to the heart can kill her as any other."
Lawrien frowned. "I believe her."
Morrigan scowled. "Really? Why?"
"I can't explain it, but I can feel it. I can feel all the suffering and turmoil, all the joy and love, all the pain in each breath," Lawrien murmured. "It's so much, and she remained awake during all of it when she could have tried to sleep."
"Sleep?" Epona tilted her head.
Lawrien nodded. "Yeah."
"Dare I ask of your own mothers?" Morrigan eyed Cobian mainly. "I doubt any of yours would be abominations like mine, but I am curious nonetheless. I know Faren's was a great thief."
"My mother was a raider," Cobian said.
"I thought she was a noble woman?" Epona startled.
"Yes, but before that she was Eleanor Mac Eanraig of the Storm Coast. Her father was known as the Storm Giant, so my mother was pretty much raised on the deck of a warship. When she was fifteen she took down an Orlesian warship," Cobian explained.
"That is amazing!" Leliana gasped. "I have heard tales of the Storm Giant, but I had no idea he was a relative of yours, Cobian."
"My mother was known as the Seawolf-"
Leliana beamed. "The Seawolf? Her ship was the Mistral!"
Cobian grinned. "Yes it was. Did you ever hear 'The Soldier and the Seawolf'? It's a sea shanty."
"I'm not as familiar with sea shanties sadly," Leliana sighed mournfully. "I'll need to hear it though."
"I can't quite remember how it goes myself, but perhaps if we ever end up at the docks with some raiders we'll hear of it," Cobian said. "But it is about how my parents first met. It went horribly wrong actually." Cobian laughed. "He actually proposed using that song. He only got to the third verse before my mother accepted it."
Cobian's smile grew sad, but full of fondness, and Lawrien immediately went over and hugged him tight.
"It's okay to miss them," Lawrien said softly.
"I do, but I do have my fondest memories of them too," Cobian said. "I remember mother telling that story to Fergus and I. I remember a lot of things she and father did for us."
Cobian held the pommel of the Cousland sword tight.
"Howe will pay," Lawrien said firmly, as she pulled back.
"He will," Cobian declared. "I will have his head."
Morrigan's eyes widened, then, much to Ciara's surprise, she looked almost sad, a little envious even. Lawrien brushed their arms together when she walked past, and the sadness disappeared from Morrigan's eyes, but she nodded at Lawrien.
Ciara supposed she could understand the longing, neither she nor Morrigan would have had kind, caring mothers who loved them with all their heart.
She wished they had, although in that case, Ciara might never have met Lawrien or Myra.
So in a way, it was good things turned out the way they did. Ciara couldn't stand the thought of not having her sisters or Anders (even Jowan she supposed after everything) in her life.
That was never a trade she would make.