Moved some exposition up from THE LAST CHAPTER to this chapter. I was really certain that there was more talking with the Architect in this part of the game? Oh well.
Lizrage! Once again you can thank Attack on Titan from the SnK OST (the same one that I used for the Rendon Howe fight). Yes, I’m reusing it for inspiration. I can’t help it; I associate it almost entirely with Liz these days. I would wish to have the Aldnoah OST as well so I don’t get tired of the SnK OST, but I don’t, so I’m trying to use it sparingly…
With the letters at the end, I wanted to make it clear that they’d been sending more than a few letters back and forth through the summer, but it doesn’t really sound clear to me. Any advice?
Clocked in NaNo at just under 75,000 words; not too shabby for a month when I was so tired and distracted by other things that I almost thought I wouldn’t finish at all. And thank goodness for Liz, eh? I would love to finish this story while my inspiration is fresh and my momentum is good, but maybe I’ll work on other things when it’s not Monday, Tuesday, or Wednesday evening. 😛
Chapter 5
A day later, Elizabeth had finally managed things such that she could leave affairs to Varel and Garevel for several days. She found Velanna, sent for the rest of the Wardens, and departed again for the forest.
“Finally!” was Velanna’s only comment. “I thought I was going to go crazy waiting for you slow humans.” After that, she stubbornly said nothing, even when Anders attempted to flirt with her.
At the edge of the forest, Elizabeth turned to Velanna. “Are there any places in the Wending Wood which you know to be used by darkspawn?”
“It varies,” Velanna said. “Or else don’t you think the Dalish would have dealt with them ourselves? We hate the darkspawn as much as anyone else.”
Elizabeth ignored the sharp tone. “How does one find out?”
“I will ask the forest,” Velanna said. “I was Ilshae’s First, and I have a great deal of power.”
She closed her eyes, stretching out her hands, and began to glow gently with a green-gold aura. I seemed to sense rather than feel or see a power radiate out from her like a wave.
After a moment she lowered her arms, the glow faded and she turned to Elizabeth. “There is a corruption in the north-east corner and the south end. Of the two, the north-east feels old. I suspect the south location.”
“Then that is where we will go,” Elizabeth said. “Do you mind leading us?”
Velanna frowned, but took the lead, walking surprisingly swiftly into the woods. Anders, Oghren, and Justice had to jog to keep up with the tiny elf woman. Elizabeth didn’t seem to have any trouble, on the other hand, and I… I didn’t find it as easy as Elizabeth, but I was more used to the outdoors than the other three, it seemed.
We stopped for lunch at about midday, not even half-way there yet. I had been talking with Justice about something inconsequential but I noticed Velanna shooting deadly looks specifically at me rather frequently. “Your glares suggest that you do not care for my presence more than the others.”
“I’m simply wondering how your kind can call yourselves ‘nobles’. It seems ironic.”
I couldn’t help a bit of a smirk. “We like irony. And it rolls off the tongue better than ‘oppressors’.”
Her gaze became more pinched. “Ah, so you’re a funny human.”
“Not I,” I protested, pretending to be very serious. “I wouldn’t dare lighten your mood, my lady.”
Her lip curled and she turned away from me.
We had to camp partway there – if we had been on the road, we might have been in Denerim by now, or if we had all been elves, we would have reached our destination, but traveling through the depths of the forest was not so easy for some of us and Velanna had to slow for us several times. But we reached the place she said was corrupted in the morning of the next day.
“Huh,” Oghren said. “It’s an old silverite mine. I wonder why I’m not surprised?”
“I didn’t think the darkspawn cared for shiny things,” Anders said.
“Shut up, all of you,” Velanna said, her mood more sour than ever after having to wake up with these particular humans, I think. “Elizabeth – are we just charging straight in?”
Elizabeth looked at it. “I can’t think of any other way to go in. There are certainly darkspawn down there, and many of them, but unless there is another entrance to this place, there is nothing clever about attacking them.”
“Unless Velanna can scout ahead with her roots and vines,” Anders said, popping dried fruit in his mouth. His cat was on the ground, investigating some twigs, pouncing on insects.
“They are for attack. They can’t see things,” Velanna said shortly.
“Then in we go,” Elizabeth said, a little shortly herself.
“I’ll go first,” I volunteered. “I’m a reasonably good scout.”
“Good on you, Howe,” Oghren grunted. “Makin’ yourself useful.”
I rolled my eyes.
“I’m right behind you,” Elizabeth said. “And Velanna will be with me, in case we find any trace of Seranni.”
I dropped into a crouch as I entered the low opening in the hillside. The less of a silhouette the darkspawn inside saw, the better. Elizabeth followed my lead, which pleased me to see. The first part of the mine was simply a shaft, descending through the earth and stone with a rather rickety wooden set of stairs. In the centre of the shaft was a sturdier pulley system, I guessed for hauling up the ore that had been mined.
I stopped to listen, but I heard nothing, sensed nothing. I could smell something odd, but perhaps it was just musty mine air. Or perhaps it was darkspawn and I just couldn’t tell.
I waved the others forward and began to creep down the stairs, still alert for ambushes. It couldn’t be helped that Oghren and Justice were a little more clumsy than the rest of us – even Anders was more stealthy than they were. Actually, Anders was quite stealthy. The product of running away from the Circle Tower seven times? His cat cheerfully pranced past me towards the bottom of the stairs, and I took that as a good sign.
We reached the bottom of the stairs and stood on solid rock, which was a bit of a relief – it was far less likely to give way beneath us, and it didn’t creak dreadfully under our feet. I looked to Elizabeth and after looking around, gestured in a direction.
We were all grouped together, which was our downfall. We had made it half-way across the chamber when something flared under my foot – some sort of glyph or sigil. Elizabeth went down immediately, followed shortly by Justice and Velanna. I felt my eyes drooping against my will, and I fought to keep them open, to move back off the glyph, but it was futile. Anders was trying to cast something but he hadn’t finished his spell before he fell over face-first onto the hard stone floor.
As Oghren and I finally succumbed to the spell, I saw a figure in robes appear in the doorway ahead of us, surrounded by armoured figures, some of whom moved like darkspawn, and some of them… didn’t…
When I came to, I was in a large cell with most of the others. My armour and all my gear had been removed and I was wearing raggedy, patched-together old clothes that were much too small for me. I sat up with a low groan, still feeling groggy, and counted the other people in the cell, who were also wearing rags. Justice was sitting in a corner, looking confused… Oghren was still out of it, and I thanked the Maker that at least our captors had found pants for him. Velanna was practically clawing at the bars, and Anders was sitting in another corner with his hands behind his head, staring at the ceiling…
Where was Elizabeth?
I said it out loud, and then more strongly when no one responded to me.
“No idea,” Anders said. “There’s no way out of this cell, though. Trust me, I know incarceration systems.”
“Ridiculous,” I said. “There must be a way out. We have to rescue her.” She was the one who bound us together; without her, we weren’t a team, or even companions. We were just people who followed her.
Oghren stirred, then clambered to his feet hurriedly. “Where’s Eliza? What have those scum done with her?”
“We don’t know,” I said. “Help us find a way out of this cell.”
At that moment, a door opened in the chamber outside of our cell, and – two hurlocks entered, dragging Elizabeth’s limp body between them! We all cried out and hurried forward, to take her from them or to rush them, I wasn’t sure which, but I was game for either. But the hurlocks were clever, and managed to open the door and force Elizabeth’s body in without any of us getting out, despite Oghren’s best efforts.
The dwarf growled fiercely at the darkspawn, who shrugged and left the room again, and then he turned back to Elizabeth.
She was alive, that much we could tell right off. Oghren straightened out her body carefully and leaned over her, waiting for her to wake up.
“I think she might recover faster without you hovering, actually,” Anders commented.
“Shut up, mage,” Oghren said. He truly was worried about her, then.
I returned to inspecting the cell, but it seemed as Anders had said – there was no easy way out.
I heard Oghren’s breathing change and turned to see that Elizabeth had opened her eyes – and they were wide and full of fear. She carefully sat up and scooted backwards into a corner, huddling up a little, shaking. I had never seen her so frightened. I hadn’t thought it was possible.
“Eliza! Eliza!” Oghren said, keeping pace with her. “What did those bastards do to you? Tell me!”
“I don’t know,” she whispered, hugging her knees and not making eye contact with anyone. “I was unconscious for most of it. I… did wake… once… I was… I was… I was tied to some kind of table, and… someone… was apologizing to me…” She bowed her head, her face crumpling. She was truly afraid of something.
“You don’t think you’re going to end up like Hespith, are you?” Oghren asked, for once sounding serious. “Or… or Laryn…?”
She raised her head with stricken eyes, but before anyone could ask who Hespith or Laryn were, the door to the chamber outside our cell opened again, and Velanna screamed.
“Seranni!!”
“Velanna,” said the other elf, but even I could tell she was sick. “You must leave here before you get hurt. The Architect is not evil, but I do not trust some of his underlings.” Behind us, I could hear Anders giving Elizabeth breathing instructions to calm her down. Good man.
“Seranni, are you all right? You look… unwell.”
“I am fine,” Seranni said. “Truly. But you must take this key and escape before anything else happens to you.”
“You’re coming with us, right?”
“No, I must remain here. There is good work to be done here. I will be fine, Velanna. You have made some new friends? I am glad. Take them and leave. The darkspawn have your things. You can get them back if you’re careful and clever.”
“Seranni-”
“I must go!” Seranni said, and fled the room.
Velanna unlocked the door frantically. “Seranni!”
“We need weapons,” Elizabeth said from behind me, still quiet, but more calm now than before. That was the Commander I knew. “We need to know more. Who is this Architect? Why does Seranni trust him? We can take the underlings. Let’s go.”
We moved quickly out of the cell, and I opened the door cautiously – we didn’t have weapons yet – and peeked into the next room. It was empty for the moment, but even as I glanced in, several darkspawn entered, clearly heading in to check on us. “Three hurlocks and five genlocks, headed this way.”
“We’ll ambush them,” Elizabeth said. “Oghren?”
Oghren giggled in anticipation. “Right you are, Eliza.”
The darkspawn pushed open the door and Oghren pounced on them with a roar. We only had our fists and feet, but as soon as Oghren had wrested a weapon away from the first darkspawn, suddenly things became easier. We grabbed the weapons of the fallen and slew the rest. Only Anders was unable to take part, saying afterwards that he had no training with blades and would be more likely to cut off his own limbs than help us.
We had no idea where we were, except that we were deep underground. Elizabeth said she felt many darkspawn in this place, and it was incredibly maze-like, with chambers that looked carved with straight edges as if for residence, and tunnels that looked as if they had been nibbled out of the stone. We did manage to find some crude armour, which made me feel a bit better. We’d at least have a better chance of survival. If only we could find our own things.
Somehow, we made it to a completely different prison area, fighting through several groups of darkspawn on our way. At least, Oghren said it was different. At first I thought there wasn’t anything there, but then-
A weak, wet cough from one of the cells. Elizabeth tried the key from our own cell and it fitted.
A man lay there, in the same rags we had been wearing. He was very pale and his breathing was shallow. His eyes were closed, but they opened when we opened the cell. A faint hope came into his face. “You… are…”
“I am Warden-Commander Elizabeth of… Amaranthine,” said she. “Who are you?” She knelt beside the man.
“I am Grey Warden Keenan of Orlais,” breathed the man. “You came, Commander…”
“Where are the others?” Elizabeth asked urgently. “I have been looking for you. I did not expect to find you here.”
The man shook his head weakly. “You’re too late… they’re all gone. I’m the last one left.”
Elizabeth’s face hardened. “What did they do to you?”
“Took our blood, mostly… he rambled about giving the darkspawn an Awakening… We weren’t tortured, Commander, but… we were used until we died. And now I am dying…”
“You’re coming with us if I have to carry you to the surface myself,” Elizabeth cried.
The man managed to smile. “A darkspawn crushed my legs; I haven’t been able to walk for days. And I only have minutes left, Commander. I can feel it. But I am glad that such a one as you is leading the Grey Wardens in Ferelden. I… have a request…”
“What is it?” she asked, clasping his hand.
“If you find… my wedding ring… give it to my wife, Nida. A darkspawn with… a huge maul… stole it from me. Tell her… I died… trying to make this world… a better place.”
“It will be done,” she said. “Rest easy, Ser Keenan. Your wife will know what became of you, and I will drive the darkspawn from Amaranthine.”
The man smiled and closed his eyes again, too weak to speak.
We left that place and continued on, still lost. There was no sign of Seranni, no sign of the mine that we were supposed to be in, only tunnels and tunnels and tunnels. At length we came to a larger chamber, and were met by seven individuals – six of them wearing our gear, and the seventh carrying a large maul.
“Yuck!” Oghren yelled, and charged. “Get out of my clothes! Those are my disgusting clothes, not yours!”
I shook my head, dodged a spell from one of the diseased-looking people, and shot an arrow towards another one.
After a fierce scuffle, we retrieved our own items. Oghren immediately began to strip and change, despite the loud protests of the rest of us; the rest of us found private corners in which to dress in our own clothes again.
I felt better in my own armour. For one thing, it fit me. Even the fact that a diseased stranger had been wearing it minutes ago until I put an arrow in his eye didn’t bother me too much. Perhaps it would bother me once I reached civilization again, but for now, beggars couldn’t be choosers.
Not long afterwards, we came to a great door, and through it, into a large hall lined with pillars. On one side was a balcony, with no way up that we could see, and on it there were two women, an elf and a dwarf, and a strange, tall, human-looking creature with grey, partly-melted skin and strange armour. I could not see his eyes through the gilded mask he wore.
The elf woman was Seranni, and Velanna shouted her name.
The grey-skinned being turned sharply to us. “Ah, Commander of the Grey… you are leaving already?” His voice was strangely smooth and rough, both pleasant and chilling.
“Who are you?” Elizabeth demanded. “I am here, I may as well have answers.”
“I am… the Architect, you might call me. I had hoped you would remain my guest until things could be explained to you.”
“So explain now,” Elizabeth snarled.
“Very well.” The Architect steepled his incredibly long, clawed fingers. “As you probably know, the darkspawn are driven to seek out the Old Gods. When we find one, we attack your surface lands and you fight back until we are defeated. In order to break the cycle, I needed Grey Warden blood.” He shook his head, seemingly regretful. “I did not expect that my emissary to you would be seen as an attack. I should have. But it is so hard to guess how your kind will react.”
“You killed those men,” Elizabeth said. “Did you gain their blood by slitting their throats?”
“No! I did not realize how fragile you were. It is difficult to gauge how much of a creature’s blood it needs to live… But I digress. When you become what you are, you drink of the blood of my kind, and undergo… a transformation. Similarly, we must transform. I have created a version of your Joining that uses Grey Warden blood. You take our taint into you, and then we take your resistance. I sought out Urthemiel to try it on him, and I failed… but it succeeds in all my other experiments.”
“You caused the last Blight?” Elizabeth cried.
“I… did. I am sorry. It was not my intent. And even now, some of my… children have turned against me. They could not take their Awakening, and went mad. The Mother is one of them, and she gathers the discontented to her, seeking to destroy me and then you. But it is possible for my kind and your kind to live together. See, Seranni and Utha carry the taint, and yet do not die, and my hurlocks carry your resistance and speak as intelligent beings. That is how my brethren are freed from the call of the Old Gods. That is how we shall someday have peace between my kind and your kind.”
Silence fell in the hall.
“Peace?” Elizabeth asked, her voice low and terrible. “After all you have done, after all you are, you think you can have peace with the rest of Thedas so easily? Five Blights, countless deaths and untold pain and suffering, the fall of kingdoms, and you think you can have peace because you taught your pets to speak?” She bared her teeth. “After you yourself admitted it is your fault that Urthemiel awoke as an Archdemon, and the only reason the entire world had not been devoured by corruption is because we are Fereldan and Ferelden will. Not. Die!?”
“I did not say it would be easy,” began the Architect, and Elizabeth cut him off with a sharp gesture of her arm.
“Everything I lost, I lost because of you! And I am only one person – a whole nation is still weeping for her dead children! Do you know of the destruction across the Bannorn? Have you seen the vast plains of burned, barren ground? Amaranthine was spared, but other places – it will be years before anything grows there again! The bones of innocents still lie unburied under the sky, because of the darkspawn! They are worse than wild beasts, destructive, treacherous, cunning, bloodthirsty monsters! And if they speak – now they will only be more deceitful and treacherous! You think you are doing good in this world!?”
“I wish to stop the Blights, not destroy the surface lands-”
“There’s more,” she said heatedly, and I expected her to go on with her rant, but instead, she turned to us. “Do you know how baby darkspawn are made?” she asked bitingly.
“Well, when a mommy darkspawn and a daddy darkspawn love each other very much,” Anders muttered.
She growled at him. “There’s nothing of love in it. It starts with a woman. A normal woman, human, elf, dwarf, qunari – it doesn’t matter. They drag this woman down to their deepest caves, to the very heart of their reeking, putrid strongholds, and there, they rape her. They feed her on darkspawn flesh and the flesh of her own people. And then she swells into a bloated mountain of festering flesh whose only purpose is to vomit forth armies of their kind.”
The entire chamber was dead silent. Oghren was nodding mutely. I looked down at her hands and saw she had clenched them so hard that drops of blood had fallen to the floor.
“And that is why I hate you!!” she screamed at the Architect, whirling towards him, a terrible look of rage and pain on her face, leaning forwards like a mabari that smelled blood. “I will always hate you and all your kind, and nothing you can do will ever change that!”
“I did not do such things to you,” said the Architect softly.
“I don’t care! You’re still one of them! Unless you have a plan to end this unspeakable- unspeakable horror, all your lofty goals are smoke in the wind! And no matter where you darkspawn run to, no matter what you do, I will find you and I will destroy you all!”
The Architect sighed. “I suppose it will take time to make you see reason. Very well. You may leave to think it over.”
“Shut up, shut up, shut up!” Elizabeth screamed hoarsely. “I’ll kill you, and free your prisoners!”
“I’m not a prisoner,” Seranni said softly, upset.
“Come, Seranni, Utha. We must leave them,” the Architect said, and with a long look back, Seranni and the dwarf woman followed the darkspawn out of the chamber. Elizabeth started forward, although how she intended to get up to them I wasn’t sure, but the Architect turned and with a glowing orb of power, brought down stones to block up the entrance to the balcony.
Velanna looked heartbroken, the most vulnerable expression I’d seen on her face since she’d joined us. “Seranni!” She turned to Elizabeth. “I have to find her!”
“I would like nothing more,” Elizabeth said, still breathing hard from her rant, “but I don’t know how to find her from here.”
“Make me a Grey Warden, then.”
Elizabeth looked at her with tired eyes. “Why?”
“Because then I will meet Seranni again,” Velanna said. “You Grey Wardens can sense darkspawn, can’t you? If she is infected with the taint, I’ll be able to find her eventually. I need to be a Warden, Elizabeth Cousland. Make me a Warden.”
“Very well,” Elizabeth said, and we marched home without Seranni, half-defeated and more confused than ever.
I was not present for Velanna’s Joining, but it seemed that she had survived, because she actually came and joined us in the dining hall for breakfast, much to my surprise. She seemed defensive, almost defiant about it, but only Oghren attempted to tease her about ‘dining with us lowly non-elves’. Elizabeth joined us briefly, still not looking entirely rested, and I noticed she had a new shield.
I asked her about it. “New shield?”
She glanced at me in surprise. “Yes. Master Wade made it for me. Now I can send my grandfather’s shield back to my brother, where it belongs.”
“And have a shield with Grey Warden heraldry instead of Cousland heraldry.”
She hesitated. “I suppose.” She was still torn between her two families, I could see. She left shortly after, saying something about catching up with Varel.
I caught Velanna glaring at me again, the elven tattoos on her forehead creasing in displeasure. “Still with the deadly looks, my lady?”
She snorted. “’My lady’ is such a human thing to call someone.”
“It is a term of respect,” I said, pretending to be grave. “You think it is human to be respectful?”
She glared at me again. “Now you’re mocking me.”
“I think you’re a lovely woman, and due some respect,” I said, not entirely serious but not entirely joking, either. “So I call you a lady.”
She sputtered. “Well, stop it!”
Oghren guffawed. “You got shut down, Howe!” Even Anders chuckled.
I almost made a snarky retort, but restrained. Telling them that they only got shut down harder in the days previous would not endear Velanna to me, I was certain.
Several months passed. Summer had come and gone and it was harvest time. Rebuilding of the walls was going well, from what I could tell, and construction had reached the main gate. The projected gatehouse was going to be about three times as grand as it had been previously.
Elizabeth had taken the Wardens to Amaranthine to attend a sporting event and we were coming home slowly the morning after, still wearing our blue and white uniforms. I had placed first in the archery competition and Oghren had placed first in a drinking competition; no surprise on either of those things.
Velanna and Justice had been pretty bemused by the whole thing. Justice’s body was holding up surprisingly well for a dead man’s, but he was now wearing a full-face helmet, on Elizabeth’s recommendation. There had been some drama when Kristoff’s fiancée found out that he was dead and his body being used by a spirit, so she couldn’t even bury him, but somehow or other, that had been smoothed over, at least on the surface.
We were talking about elves, always a dangerous topic with Velanna around, but we were doing it anyway. Since it was just us Wardens, we were talking fairly freely about Elizabeth’s lover being an elf. “He’s my equal,” she said. “I’ve never seen him as less.”
“You weren’t living as a noblewoman when you met him, though, surely,” Velanna said. “That must have affected your relationship.”
“I’m sure it did. But I wish to see Elra and Gemmet as equals as well, and there is a barrier there… They will not let me be familiar with them the way Zevran did; they place me above them, and I can’t make them stop.”
“That’s the problem with city elves,” Velanna said with some disdain, although I was fairly certain Elizabeth’s lover was also from the city, being a Crow as he was. “They make themselves subservient; they’ve lost all their pride. And then there are the humans like you, who think you can just fix things. It’s arrogant of you. And all people with power never fail to abuse it sooner or later. You’re idealistic now, but how long is that going to last?”
“But I shouldn’t do nothing, should I?” Elizabeth frowned in puzzlement. “It’s a tricky problem, certainly. I’m trying to be humble in approaching it, but it’s a big problem and even just eliminating racism in Vigil’s Keep looks to be a bigger task than I imagined, let alone the rest of Amaranthine. I would welcome your input.”
“Oh, don’t say that,” Anders said. “Next thing you know, we’ll have an elf on the throne in Denerim!”
“That’s another thing,” Elizabeth said. “The Denerim alienage is not a good place to be, and Loghain let it languish in misery, but I doubt Anora is taking my advice on the place. I had hoped she would be a good ruler in all things, but it seems she is a good ruler in things except for this.”
“Sounds like Orzammar,” Oghren muttered.
Elizabeth blushed. “I apologize. I should not be criticizing the Queen.”
“Did you hear something?” Anders asked his cat. “I heard nothing about Queen Anora. Did you?”
She smiled. “Thank you, Anders.”
“My pleasure, Commander.”
As we drew near the castle, Velanna frowned. “Do you hear shouting?”
We paused and listened. “I do,” Elizabeth said. “I wonder what is wrong?”
We hastened on our way to the castle, and a few minutes later walked through the gates to see a large crowd of peasants gathered in the courtyard, under the wary eye of Captain Garevel and his soldiers.
“There she is!” cried a man on the edge of the crowd, and for a minute, I thought they were going to try and rush her.
But she raised her hand for silence and they grew quiet as she crossed over to stand on the front steps of the castle with Garevel and Varel. “What do you want with me? Why have you gathered here?”
Instantly, the shouting broke out again, but the gist of it was that the people were hungry, and blamed it on her for hoarding grain. She frowned, and I frowned. From what I could tell of catching snippets of her discussions with Varel, she had gone to great lengths to balance what tithes of grain she took from whom and where.
And now there was a mindless mob intent on taking it from her again, regardless of what she had done for them. Varel said quietly to her: “I fear this must be work of the conspiracy against you and the Grey Wardens. If the common folk just rose up on their own, I’ll eat my boot.”
“That is reassuring. I am worried about the implications of my people being hungry at harvest time,” Elizabeth said, and raised her hand to speak again. “I always need more soldiers to defend the land. Join my army, and you will be fed.”
“It’s true,” cried Alec from among the guard. “She did it for my family.”
The angry grumblings from the mob did not abate. “You just want to get us all killed by monsters so we won’t complain to you anymore!”
“Varel, you don’t coddle a revolt, you put it down,” Garevel said. “Just give me the order, ser.”
“Firm but fair,” Elizabeth murmured to herself. “If I give in to their demands, they will only riot more. I do not wish it, but…” She stepped forward. “If you will not work for me, I can do nothing for you. Go home or my soldiers will see you out.”
“Tyrant!” yelled one hysterical woman, followed by a rock that struck Elizabeth in the shoulder, and her expression sharpened.
“Garevel, give me a shield wall and drive them out of the castle.”
“Aye, ser. This could get ugly, though. Stay back.”
And she did, and so did the rest of us Wardens, watching in dismay as the unhappy peasants attempted to fight the soldiers, or broke and ran out of the keep. If we had been in the forest, Velanna would have been able to call up tree roots to terrify them as she did to us when we met her, but Elizabeth had forbade her to do such magic within the Keep, for fear of causing more damage to the structures.
Two or three people lay dead when finally all the peasants had fled. Garevel shook his head as he returned to Elizabeth. “Uprisings never end well.”
“I wish… I didn’t say the right thing, did I?” Elizabeth said. “There had to have been some way…”
“Not always,” Varel said.
“If you give in to the mob, you’ll always be ruled by the mob,” Garevel said.
Varel sighed. “You’re right, Garevel. Lady Elizabeth, before this mess began, Bann Esmerelle and some other nobles were awaiting an audience with you in the Great Hall. I was about to send out a runner to look for you. Would you accompany me inside?”
“Yes, I will,” Elizabeth said. “Wardens, you are dismissed.”
“I’ll come,” I said mildly. “I may as well.”
She gave me a grateful look. “Thank you, Nathaniel.” She didn’t like meeting with Esmerelle on her own; the two of them had butted heads more than once over the last few months. But Esmerelle seemed… less aggressive when I was present, even if I didn’t say anything. I wondered if she still saw me as my father’s son, maybe the ‘true’ heir of Amaranthine, even though my new loyalty to Elizabeth was pretty clear. I’d never wanted to rule, anyway.
With Varel, we headed inside and for the Great Hall. Esmerelle and three other nobles were there – Lady Liza, if I remembered correctly, and a Ser Timothy and a Lady Morag. They were all in armour, which I found unusual – they had traveled to Vigil’s Keep before without armour. Had they come with fewer guards this time? Or what?
“Lady Esmerelle, I apologize for the wait,” Elizabeth said. “Had I known, I would have returned to Vigil’s Keep more quickly. What is it you would like to see me about?”
“The good arl,” Esmerelle said icily. “The good arl you killed.”
“You’re still loyal to Arl Rendon?” Varel asked, his hand on his sword.
“Rendon was good to us. Good to me,” Esmerelle said. “And I intend to avenge his death!”
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw movement, and Varel sprang forward, his arm upraised – and was struck by a crossbow bolt that had been squarely aimed at Elizabeth’s chest.
Elizabeth’s eyes widened but she recovered and reacted quickly. The man who had shot the crossbow was lurking behind one of the pillars in the hall, and she brushed past Varel, drawing her sword and shield in a smooth motion as she did so. I dropped to one knee, an arrow on the string, looking for other threats. There were other men hiding behind pillars, and I dropped one before he could raise his own weapon. There was a clatter and Elizabeth tripped over Esmerelle’s foot, rolling swiftly and blocking the sweep of Esmerelle’s two-hander with both her shield and her blazing sword.
Varel had started forward, although the arrow was in his sword arm, but after only a minute he had swooned to the ground, clutching his arm. Was the bolt poisoned? I yelled for guards, although the two that had been in the hallway outside the Great Hall were already tangling with the men on the right side of the room. It might be a few moments before more could get here.
A few moments might be all it took to murder Elizabeth… Esmerelle’s allies were closing in on her, and she still hadn’t gotten up yet. I shot Lady Morag in the back of the head and dropped my bow, running forward, drawing my swords. Ser Timothy got in my way and I had to stop and face him.
Somehow, Elizabeth was back on her feet, keeping both the crossbowman and Esmerelle and Liza in her field of vision. “This won’t work, Esmerelle. You should not have done this.” Indeed, all the nobles were wearing mostly ceremonial armour, and I’d be damned if Esmerelle had ever done her own fighting before. What did she expect this to accomplish?
Esmerelle gestured to the crossbowman, who grinned and said: “The Antivan Crows send their regards.”
Elizabeth had stiffened for the briefest of moments, but it was not enough for Esmerelle to capitalize on. And now the Warden-Commander was angry. Well, angrier. “You think a pretty voice is going to distract me from fighting? I’m not afraid of Crows.” And the man was clearly not her lover.
I stabbed Ser Timothy in the throat and sprang to Elizabeth’s side. “I’ll deal with these two. You go get that assassin.”
“Thank you, Nathaniel.” She was off.
“You would defend her with your life!?” Esmerelle cried. “She slaughtered your father in his own castle!”
“She avenged her father!” I retorted. “My father was a monster who tortured innocents for fun! She truly wants what’s best for Amaranthine… but I don’t suppose you’ll ever see that. You certainly won’t,” I said, and stabbed Lady Liza in the gut while blocking Esmerelle with my off-hand.
Guards rushed in and seized Esmerelle as Elizabeth returned from the corner of the room, her sword bloody. She stopped them before they could drag Esmerelle away. “Let’s not drag this out. Esmerelle, you stand guilty of breaking your oath of fealty and commiting treason against your sworn lord. I cannot have traitorous banns, Esmerelle. Your sentence is death.”
“You’re not half the Arl that Rendon was,” Esmerelle spat at her. “You- you infant!”
“When I said that I wished we could work together, I meant it,” Elizabeth said softly. “I wish you could have seen that.” She shrugged and raised her sword. “Perhaps your successor will be more idealistic.”
Esmerelle shrieked and struggled until Elizabeth’s sword clove her head from her shoulders.
Captain Garevel had arrived with the rest of the soldiers. “What a mess. I apologize deeply, Commander. She told me they wore armour for fear of darkspawn and I believed her. It won’t happen again.”
“Never mind that,” Elizabeth said, rushing to Varel’s side. “Va- Gideon! Talk to me!”
Varel’s eyes fluttered open. “Lady Elizabeth…”
Elizabeth was inspecting the bolt that was still stuck in his arm. “I can’t be certain, but from the way he’s reacting… he’s been poisoned with Crow poison.” She swallowed, her eyes wide and on the verge of panic, then turned and barked out a list of things to bring to her. When they hesitated, she put on her commander voice, regaining control of herself. “Quickly! Every moment is precious!”
The soldiers rushed off. Elizabeth was trying to lift Varel herself. I got on the other side of him and took him from her, although he was too heavy for me alone either – we’d both have to carry him. “Where do you want him?”
“His room. Quick, quick.”
Varel was unconscious for most of the day, and Elizabeth hardly left his side. I was there when he did wake, and she cradled his head against her shoulder like a child and gave him water. “M-my lady…”
“Shh,” she shushed him. “Everything’s fine. I survived, Nathaniel survived, you survived, and all the assassins are dead.”
He smiled weakly. “I’m glad of that, Elizabeth.”
“Garevel wants to hide it as long as we can,” she said. “Is that wise? Bann Esmerelle’s disappearance will be discovered quickly.”
“You’ll have to make some sort of public statement, certainly, before it becomes awkward.” Varel closed his eyes wearily. “You’ll figure it out. You’re a smart girl.”
“You saved my life,” she said quietly. “That bolt was aimed right at my heart. I don’t know how well ironbark stands up to crossbow bolts, and I’m not interested in finding out…” A shiver ran down my spine at her words. She had been so close to death. She faced death on a fairly regular basis, but not… like this.
“It was my honour,” Varel said, as she let his head rest on his pillow again. “Must have been some nasty stuff in that poison, hmm?”
“Yes, indeed,” she said. “I’m eternally grateful that I’ve seen it before, so I knew how to deal with it.”
I snorted. “And by that, you mean: ‘it was used on me and my lover told me how to fix it if he wasn’t around’, am I right?”
She looked at me, startled, and Varel chuckled. “I’m still not sure what to think of this lover of yours, Commander, but I think I’ll be rather in favour of him if he ever comes to visit.”
She smiled. “I’m glad. I hope he comes to visit soon. Now, you must rest for the next day. I’m told that straining your heart soon after could be dangerous to you. Stay put, I’ll do my paperwork in here to keep you company.”
Sweetest of sweets,
Darling, I don’t have a lot of advice for you when you won’t do the one and you won’t do the other. While we write and bicker, they are laying plans and I don’t wish to come back to a dead Liz, please! The best I can suggest, then, is to sleep in your armour with one of your companions in front of your door, since your loyal mabari (almost as loyal as me) is in Denerim. Won’t Anora let you have him back if you ask nicely? He must have sired many puppies by this time, enough to provide half the Bannorn with new dogs.
I’m still safe, my dear, at least of this writing. I took out a very difficult opponent the other day! It was shockingly easy, since I didn’t have to actually fight him. By the way, do you have a food and drink taster? You may wish to get one. I’m told I’m getting a bit of a nickname around these parts! The Black Shadow – it has a nice ring to it, no? I’ve started wearing black leather, rather than green, or else I might be the Green Shadow, which does not have such a ring to it. Anyway, one down, fourteen more to go – in this cell. And then on to the next one!
I cover your face (and then the rest of you) in kisses,
Z.
Dearest Zevran,
Despite all our arguments over the matter, it seems the conspiracy has been resolved reasonably well. Bann Esmerelle and a number of her cronies hired some Crows and came to kill me, throwing a small uprising of villagers at me first to distract me. It failed completely, I’m happy to say, and Gideon is very grateful that you taught me the antidote to Crow poison – he took an arrow for me, brave man. Esmerelle wanted revenge for Arl Howe’s death, and still seemed confused that Nathaniel had no intention of supporting her. For my part, I’m glad that he was at my side. Any last doubts I might have had about his character are gone.
I did have to execute Esmerelle, and you know how I hate to execute people. I can’t tell anyone here that, either; Garevel has been very impressed with my stoic facade and I don’t want to disillusion him now. I did not hesitate when I did it, showed no weakness. I just wonder what would happen if I let her live. Probably she would try to kill me again. She’s no Loghain, that’s for sure. But I feel like a bully, killing someone who’s already been defeated… Forgive me, I know you see things differently. If only you were here to take care of such things for me. People would make impertinant insinuations, but I don’t care.
Forgive me, I’m feeling a little low today in general. I am very glad to receive your letters and know that you are safe. The Black Shadow, hmm? I suppose I can get used to it. Especially if you were to say it to me with your beautiful voice. Should I be starting a countdown to the final elimination of the last Crow?
I return all your kisses with interest,
Elizabeth