Adult-FanFiction.org : Games

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
- 25
- 26
- 27
Denerim. I've been looking forward to this - and I am scared out of my mind. Not because of all the guards looking for us or the wanted posters with Rori and my image. She has a higher price on her head than I have. I don't know if I should feel insulted.
"I'd charge more for her, too," Zevran comments.
"She beat you up," I point out. "I wouldn't give it another try if I were you."
"No worries, I won't."
We go in disguised, splitting up. Rori, Zevran, Leliana and Morrigan have no problems sneaking past any guards or making themselves invisible. With me this is different. Wherever Rori and Leliana got that templar uniform from that I wear for disguise, I feel rather uncomfortable. And that's not alone about the armour. At the moment I'd rather be elsewhere. Even Ostagar sounds like a cozy place now that I stand in front of my sister's house. I could just walk by and forget about it. Goldanna was in my Fade dream. Ever since I've been secretly hoping that I could finally find a family. My family. That I'd not be some homeless unwanted bastard anymore. At the same time I'm terribly afraid of this moment. I sweat and my heart beats as fast as when I charge darkspawn. All I have to do now is walk by and forget about this...
Rori notices I have fallen back. "Alistair? Are you alright?"
"Uhm.. that's my sister's house." I point at the small building squeezed in between more narrow buildings close to the market square. It's neither the best quarters nor the worst. "I'm almost sure of it." I fumble around in my backpack until I find a crinkled piece of paper. Rori looks over my shoulder as I frown, trying to decipher my own handwriting. What can I say? I don't have no tidy handwriting and I've been quite in a hurry when I took that note. "Yes, this is the right address." I inhale deeply, staring at the door of the small house. "She could be inside. Could we... go and see?" I look hopefully at Rori. I have no idea if I rather want her to say yes or no.
"Wouldn't you rather meet her on your own? This is a private moment, isn't it?"
Morrigan snorts from behind. "He needs you to hold his hand."
I ignore her best I can and fight down the urge to use my templar skills on her. "Do I seem a little nervous?"
"Only a tiny little bit."
"I am. I really don't know what to expect. I'd like you to be there with me, if you're willing." How can something so simple be so hard? I want to go back to a battlefield and kill darkspawn. At least there I am never lost in confusion. Before Rori can answer, I hurry on. "Or we could... leave. I suppose, we really don't have time tó pay a visit, do we? Maybe we should go..." I turn to leave but Rori grabs my hand and pulls me along.
"Fine, let's see if she's home," she says firmly, knocking at the door before I can stop her.
"Will she even know who I am? Does she even know I exist? My sister. That sounds very strange. Sister. Siiiissster. Hmmm, now I'm babbling. We should go. Let's go. Let's just...go."
We stand in front of the door and wait. Rori knocks again. Nobody answers. A wave of relief washes over me - until Rori discovers the door is open and just marches in with me in tow.
Inside the house it's dim. It smells of soap and freshly washed clothes, the clean scent mixing with the smell of cabbage and potatoes. Through a door I can see a fire crackling in a fireplace with a pot dangling on a chain. Somewhere a baby cries.
"Er... hello?" I call, glad that Rori indeed holds my hand.
A blonde woman in her early thirties appears from the kitchen, wiping her hands at her apron. "Eh? You have linens to wash?" she asks.
"I'm... not here to have any washing done," I mutter. I don't know what to do with my hands. I shift my weight uncomfortably and wish to be somewhere else. This woman, is she Goldanna?
"Although we really should consider this," Rori mumbles next to me. "Someone really washing our stuff instead of us freezing off our fingers when scrubbing dried blood and darkspawn ichor out of our shirts in icy rivers."
I shoot her a glare and she shrugs with an apologetical grin. Always the practical type. Still, we're not going to make my sister wash our stuff! Especially not Sten's underwear. Or my socks. We'd have to pay a danger bonus to anybody who does that washing.
As the woman's waiting and growing impatient, I hurry to answer her. "My name's Alistair. I'm... well, this may sound sort of strange, but are you Goldanna? If so, I suppose, I'm your brother."
The woman couldn't have looked more surprised if we had asked her to wash the underwear of the Maker himself. "My what? I am Goldanna, yes, how do you know my name? What kind of tomfoolery are you folk up to?"
"He's telling the truth, listen to him," Rori says while I still try to find the right words to explain what seems so unbelievable. I still can't believe I am here and that this woman is my sister. If not for that maid from Redcliffe that had come to Ostargar to serve her new mistress I'd never have gotten to know of Goldanna at all. But this maid recalled me and my mother. And she recalled Goldanna.
I explain to Goldanna best I can and in her eyes I can see it dawns on her. But there is no warmth there. Recognition, yes, and anger.
"You! I knew it! They told me you was dead! They told me the babe was dead and died along with mother, but I knew they was lying!"
Hope flares inside of me. She is only confused. The harsh sound of her voice, the way she glares at me. That all is only due to her shock. Who wouldn't be shocked and confused under such circumstances?
"I'm sorry, I didn't know that. The babe didn't die. I'm him. I'm... your brother." I am trying to find some emotion inside myself, something that connects me with that woman that is my sister. I should love her simply because of that fact. It should mean something. But all I can find is confusion - and sadness. This doesn't feel right, not like the dream I had in the Fade.
Goldanna scoffs. "For all the good it does me! You killed Mother, you did, and I've had to sracpe by all this time! The coin didn't last long and when I went back they ran me off."
I wince. She couldn't have hurt me more if she slapped me. I stand there dumbfounde. I lost my mother, too. I never knew her. I... somehow I hoped Goldanna could share her memories with me. Eamon never told me much.
"Whoa!" Rori exclaims. "That's hardly Alistair's fault!" she snaps. I want her to calm down. Getting angry won't get us anywhere.
Goldanna, arms akimbo, snarls back at her. "And who in the Maker's name are you? Some tart following after his riches, I expect."
"You shouldn't assume what you want is what anybody else wants," Rori hisses, her fists clenched. I really can't blame her.
"Hey, don't speak to her that way!" I snap at Goldanna. I don't want to argue with my sister but I can't let her call Rori a tart. She didn't do anything at all to Goldanna. She has no right to judge her. "She's my friend." More than that but I think it's unwise to call her... what? My girlfriend? My lover? Someone I really care about? Friend seems best when anything else is complicated. A friend with certain benefits. "And a Grey Warden. Just like me."
"Ohhhh, I see! A prince and a Grey Warden, too! Well, who am I to think poorly of someone so high and mighty compared to me?"
My hand comes to a rest on Rori's shoulder when I hear her snarl. I don't want her to start a fight but she has the temper to do so. This is important to me, so she reins herself in.
"I don't know you, boy. Your royal father forced himself on my mother and took her away from me, and what do I got to show for it? Nothing!They tricked me good! I should have told everyone! I got five mouths to feed, and unless you can help with that, I got less than no use for you..."
"Use..." Rori mutters, I can sense her muscles tighten under my grasp.
"I... I'm sorry... I don't know what to say." I feel as helpless as I must look because Rori takes pity of me and gritting her teeth, she manages not to sound like she is going to punch Goldanna in the face anytime soon when she addresses her.
"Goldanna, Alistair came here to find his family."
"Well, he found it. And what good is that for me? None, that's what, unless he can see to it that his family lives as it should!"
"And how should that be?" Rori croons in a dangerously soft voice. I hurry to jump in before Goldanna can retort.
"I'd love to help you out, but I don't think we really have enough money to spare. I wish we did."
Goldanna snorts. "You, a prince marching in here with your fancy armor and such and this is all you got to offer?"
Rori and I exchange a glance. It wouldn't make a difference if we told her about the campsite and the nights in the chill of the frost. Or the days we have gone to bed hungry. That we are hunted and hunters at the same time. About the darkspawn or about that armour probably being stolen. And the one I usually wear having belonged to a dead knight and that it took Bodhan three hours of work to hammer the dents out of it. Rori shakes her head. No, I don't think it would make a difference.
"You must think I'm very stupid." Goldanna spits out.
"No, wait, I don't think that at all..." I cry out desperatedly. Why does she do that to me? What have I done to her? I.... I killed mother. Yeah, probably I did. Probably I owe her.
"But I do," Rori growls.
"I want to help if I can..." I mumble disheartened.
"You want to help? You go to whatever high and mighty folks you run with, and you tell them you got nephews and nieces that aren't living as they've a right to! You do that!"
Rori's hackles are raised when she turns to me. Oh, she looks furious. "It looks like all she wants is your money. Not that there's anything there. But go explain that to her and we'll still be here arguing when the archdemon knocks down the front door."
"Yeah, it really seems that way, doesn't it? I wasn't expecting my sister to be so... I'm starting to wonder why I came." That dream I had in the Fade, it all crumbles. I stupiudly hoped there would be a place to call home. Somewhere to return to after the Blight is over. Something to look forward to. Rori gently puts her hand on my shoulder, offering silent comfort.
"I don't know why you came, either, or what you expected to find. But it is not here. Now get out of my house, the both of you!"
"Let's leave. Now." Rori pulls at my arm.
"I agree. Let's get out of here." We leave without a goodbye and I catch the door and close it slowly when Rori is about to slam it shut. Her anger is part of her being protective over me - which is kind of cute but not very helpful.
"Well... that was not what I expected. To put it lightly," I sigh once we are out of that house. Blast, ain't I glad that Rori sent the others away shopping supplies? "This is the family I've been wondering about all my life? That shrew is my sister? I can't believe it. I guess I was expecting her to accept me without question. Isn't that what family is supposed to do? I... I feel like a complete idiot."
Rori gently takes my hand in hers. "You are not an idiot, Alistair, and I am sorry that this happened to you. You are such a wonderful man and you deserve better." Looking into my eyes, her tone becomes harsher. "But everyone is out for themselves. You have to learn that. If you keep waiting for others to make things right for you, you'll be trapped in the life they design for you and not the one you want to lead. Nobody will ever know better than you what you want and need. You cannot live up to all the expectations people will have in you. And you don't have to. Instead of wondering all the time what you are expected to do, just do what you want for a change."
Wow.
Ooookay.
I... I feel a bit run over.
"Yes..." I say slowly. "I suppose you're right. I should. Let's just go. I don't want to talk about it anymore." I turn to leave but Rori hurries back to Goldanna's house. I frown. What is she up to now?
"Sure. Just one moment," she mutters. On the wall next to Goldanna's door there's one of the wanted posters that marks us kingslayers. Rori quickly looks to her left and right, then rips it off the wall and stuffs it into one of the satchels on her belt. "Sorry, but your sister is such a golddigger. I won't take the risk."
"No offense taken. But these posters are everywhere."
"Then let's get going before she sees or remembers one."
- 25
- 26
- 27
You need to be logged in to leave a review for this story.You need to be logged in to leave a review for this story.
Report Story

In good times and in bad