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In good times and in bad	By : kruemel Category: +A through F > Dragon Age (all) > Dragon Age (all) Views: 14749 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 1
Disclaimer: Dragon Age and the characters of the game do not belong to me. This is a no profit fanfiction

Chapter List
- 13
- 14
- 15
Notes:

In DAO Alistair claims he never took lyrium. It was said later by the developers of the game that he did take it as a recruit but stopped. He still could use his templar skills for a long time afterwards (Dragon Age Wiki).

Chapter 14
The next day our first stop is the village. We need some supplies, more tents now our party has become larger. With the undead gone, Redcliffe has returned to almost normal. Stores are open, merchants don't just pass by but actually stop to sell their goods.
We stroll through the aisle between the market stalls in front of the Chantry. Sten we have left to look after Barkley, the horse and the luggage. He feels more comfortable with that task anyway. Shopping in his opinion is a waste of time. Wynne is the best bargainer I've ever seen. With her we probably spend only half of the money for all the things the girls think are useful. She has this special way to approach the merchants. First she lures them into safety - how much harm can a granny do? And then - bang! - she lashes out, not ever once raising her voice.
While Wynne stomps one of the merchants into the ground, I take a look around. There's a toy stall with all kinds of toys. But what really catches my eye are the Grey Warden dolls. I pick one up. It looks a lot like Duncan - kinda - and put it to ride on a little wooden horse, clicking my tongue to imitate the noise of the hooves.
"Buy one and you get the horse for free, buy two and you'll get a third one and the horse." the merchant says when he sees me with the doll. "They are on sale."
"Why so?"
"Ah, you know, with the Blight and all the darkspawn I thought Grey Warden dolls would sell well. But then it turns out the Wardens are traitors and killed King Cailan. Now I have several hundred dolls and nobody wants them." He shrugs and throws the doll he has picked up back onto the table carelessly. "I can always burn them if nobody is interested. What a waste!"
The thought of all the little dolls burnt makes me so sad that I wish I could buy them all to save them.
"Awww, is the little boy playing with his dolls," Morrigan sneers behind me while I still wonder how to persuade Rori to purchase an army of dolls. "I always suspected you to be infantile." Reluctnatly I put the doll back down. I wouldn't care if it was only Morrigan but Rori is with her and last thing I want is her getting the wrong impression.
Fooling yoursefl, aren't you, Alistair? Rori knows you're just a big boy.
In the end I don't buy the doll. Wynne herds us all out of the market before I can make up my mind and too soon we're on the road again, heading for Denerim to find Brother Genitivi. The only thing that cheers me up now is that I might get to visit my sister once we're in the city. At the same time I'm so scared that I wish Rori would find excuses for why we don't have time to see Goldanna.
On top of the hill next to the mill, Rori turns back for a last view of Redcliffe. "It looks so peaceful now. As if nothing ever happened. I wonder..." Her voice fades as she presses her lips together. She sniffs and blinks furiously when tears begin to well in her eyes.
"Rori? Hey, what's wrong?" I can think of a thousand things that are wrong. A thousand things to make her cry.
"Ah, don't worry. Just been thinking about Highever. It's nothing, really. Let's go. The show must go on." She straightens her narrow shoulders and shakes her head as if that way she could get rid of the memories that haunt her.
I remember she said she'd come with me to Highever after all this is over and help me put up some memorial for Duncan. I have not thought about her family and what she has lost back there as I was wading in selfpity, complaining about my own loss. Rori doesn't even know what happened to her family, what they did with the dead. She didn't get the chance to bury them, doesn't have a place to return to, nothing.
I take her hand in mine, that's all the comfort I am able to offer. She doesn't pull away but her fingers intertwine with mine.
We're only a short walk away from Redcliffe when an elven woman comes running towards us. She looks frantic, crying for help. "Oh please, please help us! We got ambushed! This way, please, hurry!"
I jog right after her when Rori stops me. "There's something odd about this," she murmurs.
"Indeed," Leliana agrees.
"So we don't help her?" i am puzzled. What's odd about this? I can't see anything odd. There's a woman who needs help, that's all that counts for me.
"We do help her but we are watchful," Rori decides. Slowly she follows the waiting woman that frantically waves at us.
"Hurry, oh, please, hurry!"
"No blood." Rori mumbles.
"Not even got her dress smudged or crinkled," Leliana adds. "And don't you think she's exaggerating it?"
"Maybe. I'm not sure," Rori answers.
I have no clue what the two of them are talking about. Rori is as tense as a strung bow. Her eyes dart to either side of the road. Leliana next to her has pulled an arrow from her quiver. The woman shows us the way, running down the path until the wagons come into sight. Her jogging slows down to swaggering. And now even I notice that there's no injured or dead, no sign of a fight anywhere close by.
From behind the wagon a blonde elf emerges. His sneer is enough for me to greatly dislike him. Rori reaches for her swords the moment the elf raises his hand to alert the archers on both sides of the path.
"What...?" I begin when Rori cries: "TREE!" I throw myself forward, pulling Wynne with me. Rori does a sumersault that brings her back to her feet in one fluent movement. While Wynne and I still try to scramble out of the dirt, Rori charges the blonde elf in the ridiculous golden leather armour. She dodges past the assassins that try to block her path, tripping one of them up so that he tumbles straight into my sword.
"She's mine!" the elf cries, obviously the leader of the group. "Dance with me, beautiful!" He draws his swords, swinging them towards Rori.
"Be careful, I might step on your toes," Rori retorts. Being a smartass even when some freaking assassin is aiming for her throat.
"My toes should be the last thing you should worry abou.... OWW!"
Ha! Rori dives out of the way of his soaring blades, pirouettes and stomps onto his foot with her heel. It makes him lose footing and she rams her elbow right into his solar plexus to send him down. The elf gasps, holding his side, but Rori isn't wasting any time with him. She crashes the hilt of her dagger against his temple and Ser Loudmouth collapses to the ground.
Leliana, Wynne and Morrigan have sought cover close to the fallen tree that almost smashed us and has seperated us from Sten and Barkley. However, a fallen tree is much of a hindrance for a Mabari. With a loud howl Barkley soars over the tree, jumping for the throat of the first attacker stupid enough to cross his path. A curtain fire of arrows from Leliana and magic missiles from Morrigan and Wynne save Rori and me from being turned into a pair of porcupines. One arrow hits my thigh but doesn't pierce my armour.
Before Sten has managed to overcome the tree, Rori and I have made short work with the sword fighters and hurry towards the archers.
"Traps!" Rori cries, darting forward to reach the slope that will lead her towards the archers. She points the traps out for me, then she takes the right and I take the left side. Barkley follows her, Sten is at my heels.
It's over quickly. Whatever the assassins have planned, this for sure wasn't part of it.
Rori wipes the blood off her face with the back of her hand. There's a cut in her armour right above her wrists. It's not deep, nothing to get too worried about but still I do.
"You're hurt! Wynne! Wynne! Rori is hurt!"
"It's only a cut, Alistair, relax." She puts her hands on my arm soothingly.
As if I could relax at the sight of her blood. It's been a tough thing for me from the beginning but ever since I started to... care... I just don't take it easily when anybody hurts her.
"Better let Wynne have a look at it," Leliana advices. "Scum like them often uses poison."
While Wynne tends Rori's cut, I tie the wrists and ankles of the unconscious elven assassin. Barkley keeps watch over him in case he should wake and make a wrong move.
"What do you want to do with him?" I inquire when Rori joins me.
"Ask him some questions." She pets the dog. "Barkley, wake him." The Mabari woofs, then licks the face of the unfortunate elf, drool dripping out of his mouth - Barkley's of course, not the elf's.
"Uh, oh? EWWWW!" The elf comes back to life. "Take that beast away from me!"
Rori calls her dog and the Mabari immediately obeys, sitting next to her feet. He is watchful, though, and so am I. Rori crosses her arms in front of her chest. "I have some questions and you will answer them."
The only answer I am looking for is why he wanted to kill us and who sent him after us. Then I'm ready to send him back to the Maker. Why Rori listens to his probably made up story about him having been sold to the Antivian Crows as a child is beyond me. It's not that I don't feel sorry for those who are less fortunate than I am - considering I am a bastard I was indeed lucky someone cared for me. Still, when someone tries to murder me - and Rori! - then it's something personal.
So when Rori invites him to join us I can't keep my mouth shut. "Excuse us, please." I take her by the arm and drag her away from the rest of the group.
"You have to be kidding!" I snap once we are out of earshot.
"No, I'm not. I told you he could be useful. Trust me, Alistair, please."
"How useful can he probably be? He'll cut our throats while we sleep. You're being useful for him."
"I don't think he'll try again." That's not really an argument. She could point out we already have an apostate, a murderer, a crazy bard with divine visions and a magical grandma following us around. But none of them tried to kill us!
"And what makes you think so? His oh-so-sad-childhood stories?"
"No, I can't name it. It's just a feeling he's being honest. I feel I can trust him for now."
"Did you have that same feeling with Arl Howe?" The moment these words leave my mouth I regret it. Even more when I see the look on her face. My blow hit the mark and the injury I cause is far worse from what I intended. All I want is to protect her. I don't trust the elf and I do not understand why she does. Now she is hurt, deeply hurt. Tears well up in her eyes and it's my fault she's crying. She doesn't even argue about it. She just turns her back at me to leave. I try to stop her. "Rori!"
"Leave me alone, Alistair!"
Ouch! Oh, this is painful. My heart aches - literally. I didn't know that's how it really feels but it does. Up to now I always thought the word heartache to be a metaphor. But the pain in my chest is really there. Three little words stabbing me right in the heart. It's worse than when I didn't tell her about my father being King Maric for such a long time. She told me she was hurt then by my lack of trust. I could explain this to her but this time... I groan. This time I really fucked up.
And there Leliana asked me if I was worried that things wouldn't proceed naturally.
Damn, yes, I am worried.
Asking women if they are female is not my biggest problem.
For the rest of the day Rori avoids me. I see her chatting with Zevran, the murderous elf, and I can't help wondering if she does this on purpose to pay me back. Isn't that paranoid? And how stuck up with myself must I be when I think everything she does is about me? As far as I know she now could give a damn about me.
"Has Rori finally found out what a complete failure you are?" Morrigan remarks when she approaches me. She actually walked faster to catch up with me only to rub this in.
"I wouldn't be too happy about that if I was you. If she figured that out she will also see what a mean beast you are," I growl. Morrigan gives me a whole lot fantasies about violence and death. Her death.
Just beacuse Rori is mad at me that doesn't change anything about me wanting to protect her. And if that means I have to talk to Zevran to find out more about him - either to prove me wrong or find a reason to get rid of him - then I'll do it.
"So why would the Crows send you, Zevran?" No hello, no how are you, no let's just chat for a while. I'm not here for making friends.
"Is there some reason why they should not?" The elf arches an eyebrow. His accent is ridiculous. I have no idea why Leliana thinks it's sexy.
"Plenty of reasons. Starting with the fact that you weren't exactly the best they had, were you?" Honestly, I am glad they didn't send the best. And if they did then I can sleep much better at night because Zevran is not the epitome of skilled fighting. Alright, Rori was lucky that he went down so fast. He clearly underestimated her. People do that a lot. They see a little girl and when she draws her swords, they go: Didn't your mama tell you not to play with knives?
"Slander and lies. For shame, Alistair."
"I'm not an idiot." Pause. Considering I just seriously messed up with Rori this might not be altogether true. "Well, not most of the time. You're no raw recruit, but I've seen you fight. You're no master of combat, by any means."
"Assuming that I intended a fair fight, that would indeed be a problem."
Now, that's going to make me feel much better! I can already feel the paranoia rising. And that's something I totally can't stand. It reminds me of the effect lyrium had on me. I hate that stuff. And I am so glad I don't have to take it any longer. "But the Crows must have master assassins, the way you describe them. Men with years and years of experience. Why not send them?" Or will they still be sent now Zevran has failed? If he has. He could always try again.
"Why not, indeed? It is a mystery for the ages."
I frown. Is he avoiding an answer? He hasn't really given me anything at all. Blast it, he won't, will he? "Oh, I get it. You're not going to tell me."
"Morrigan said you were sharp. No liar, she."
I so can't stand the two of them. "I will find out. Sooner or later." Hopefully not too late. I sigh and turn to look at Rori. She is talking to Sten. That's probably as much fun as talking to Zevran. He's still questioning her female-ness. He'd only have to have asked Leliana to receive an advice that this is never a wise thing to do.
This turns out to be the longest day I ever had to endure. Now that Rori deliberatedly avoids me I realize how much time I spend with her when on the road, how much we actually talk and jest, how much fun we have together. Oh blast it!
I'm so bored and frustrated, I keep glowering at Zevran just because I need someone to blame. Without him I'd be now walking beside Rori and she'd tell me about how she and Fergus drove Nan crazy when she was a kid.
"Still with the stern glances, Alistair?"
I almost have a heartattack when Zevran sneaks upon me. Whoa! He for sure can move silently. "You didn't answer my question. About why the Crows wouldn't send their best man," I complain sullenly.
"So for that I must suffer all these fearsome glares? You are cruel to subject me to such torture," Zevran purrs. He puts his hands over his heart and looks up at me with wide eyes and an innocent, pained smile. Then he casts his eyes down and when he looks up at me again, he licks his lips slowly.
Err...? Huh? Somehow I'm getting the impression I'm missing something. "If you aren't telling me, there must be a reason."
Zevran sighs, obviously exasperated. He casts a look at Rori walking behind us. Whatever he sees in her, he makes up his mind about telling me what I want to know. "If you must know, the masters do not often take contracts outside Antiva. And I made the best bid." At least he talks normal again. Without that strange purr, I mean. The accent won't vanish. And he has stopped smiling at me as if I was... prey? Better not think about it.
"Best bid?"
"We agree to pay the guild a portion of whatever the contract offers," Zevran explains. "The one who agrees to pay the most gets the contract, so long as the guild deems them worthy."
"And they thought you were worthy?"
"Against a pair of Grey Warden recruits?" he chuckles. "Apparently so."
"Were there many who wanted the contract?"
"None," he admits. "You are still Grey Wardens, after all, and even in Antiva, killing members of your order is considered... impolitic. It made the guild's decision considerably easier, I imagine."
"Well, that's comforting, somehow." At least there won't be any more then, will there? What makes me worry is that Zevran would volunteer nonetheless. He didn't care at all that we are Grey Wardens.
"So you will stop glaring daggers at me now?"
"For now, yes. But I still don't trust you."
"You are indeed smarter than you look," Zevran laughs. He glances at Rori again. "You two argued about me, didn't you?"
Oh, he doesn't have to sound so proud of it, does he? "It's really none of your business." I snap and cause Zevran to laugh out loud. Ojh, that two-faced bastard!
I know I have to apologize to Rori but I'd rather do it in private. Rori doesn't give me a chance, though. She really doesn't want to be with me and when we finally set up camp, I am so devastated I even consider to offer her to leave for good. I put up my tent then volunteer to fetch water. When I return the others have gathered around the camp fire but I seek solitude. I think I might be going to bed early.
I open my backpack and there right on top sits the Grey Warden doll I've been playing with at the market. Next to it there's the wooden horse. I stare at it for what seems an eternity, trying to figure how it got there. The only explanation I can find is that Rori put it there. She must have bought it for me as a surprise. Now I feel even more like a complete jerk.
I sit down with the doll in my hand, wondering what I could probably do to make things right again. "What would you do?" I ask the doll.
"Pull yourself together and ask for forgiveness," I have the doll tell me. "Then end the Blight and save the world. Can't be that big of a problem."
Then, as nobody is watching, I play with my doll, having it ride on its faithful horse... until a shadow is cast over me. I look up to see Rori but before I can say anything to her, she turns her back on me and rummages in her backpack.
I sigh heavily. This is going to be a tough thing. Far worse than I thought. I clear my throat and try to put some sentences together in my mind that maybe don't sound completely idiotic when Rori turns back to me.
She has pulled her rainbow coloured striped sock over her hand like a glove puppet.
"Mwahaha! Grey Warden, have you come to try and slay me?" Rori intones in her version of a deep, evil voice.
Oh boy! Does that mean she's not mad at me anymore?
I can't help grinning when I pick up my Grey Warden doll and its horse. "Archdemon! Your time has come! Prepare to die!"
The sock demon snorts. "Being a quite cocksure, are we? I didn't have any breakfast yet, you come in the nick of time!" The sock demon darts forward, its brightly coloured mouth wide open. The Grey Warden lunges sideways but faithful horse is too slow and ends as an appetizer.
"Faithful horse!" The Grey Warden doll cries out and charges with its wooden sword, bringing it down on the archdemon's head. The evil creature wails in pain and, hissing like a snake, tries to bite the doll's head off.
This is when out of the corner of my eye I catch sight of the rest of our party assembled. They stand and stare in companionable shocked silence.
"Uhm..."
What an awkwardly embarrassing moment! They all look at Rori and me as if we have lost our marbles. Which we probably have.
While I still search for something witty to say, the archdemon attacks - "Mwahahaha!" - and the Grey Warden doll is snatched from my hand, clutched between the jaws of the sock demon. "Nom, nom, nom." The archdemon gnaws on the poor Grey Warden, gulps and... burps.
I stare at Rori. Rori stares back at me. And then we both laugh ourselves to tears.
I can hardly hear Morrigan say: "These two are the last Grey Wardens in Ferelden, our only hope to stop the Blight and slay the archdemon. We're all doomed."
- 13
- 14
- 15
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In good times and in bad

Notes:

Chapter 14