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Vhenan'ara	By : Arcanis_Born Category: +A through F > Dragon Age (all) > Dragon Age (all) Views: 6576 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 1
Disclaimer: I don't own Dragon Age, nor the characters from it. I do not make any money from this.

Chapter List
- 33
- 34
- 35
Dragon Age: Origins is owned by Bioware, as with all its characters, the story as it deviates from canon is mine, however, as with the personalities of characters as they deviate from those in the game.
Part of chapter is taken from the video game Dragon Age: Origins, during the quest "A Paragon of her kind." During the part of the quest taking place in the Dead Trenches, the player hears the poem spoken by NPC character Hespith. I have included that poem here, and some minor dialogue. All rights for those parts goes to BioWare.
Thank you all so much for your continued readership! It means so much! And a BIG thank you to everyone who leaves a review!
Translations:
None this chapter.

Two days had passed since Riel had defeated the spider queen. At least, she assumed it was days. With no sun to touch her skin or moon to provide her comfort, the only thing that hung above her head were legions of more rock and stone. And with it, it was damn near impossible to keep track of the days and nights that passed. Nights that Riel spent alone in her tent or upon her bedrolls.
Zevran didn't come back to her tent the night he found about what awaited her. Riel had waited for him for hours before exhaustion finally claimed her, her eyes shutting and the nightmares taking over. And when her dreams woke her and again she was alone, Riel felt a bit of her heart break even more. When she left her tent, her eyes were immediately drawn to Zevran as he stood speaking with Oghren over by the maps. His back was to her, and his shoulders were stiff as he spoke in hushed voices that even she couldn't hear with her enhanced hearing.
Even after a quick meal, Zevran had avoided her, seeming to speak with everyone but her. Always in quiet tones and away from wherever she was, Zevran wouldn't even look at her when she tried to gain his attention. The one time that she tried to speak to him, his eyes didn't raise to meet hers, and he quickly excused himself in his typical charming manner before leaving to seek out Shale.
And the days that followed were the exact same. Even after leaving the alcoved room that the dwarf Ruck has shared with them, Zevran avoided her. If a battle found them, he would fight to help her, but his charming words or playful banter were never for her. And while the whispers in Riel's mind were not as loud and her nightmares not as all consuming as they used to be, Morrigan's potion did not silence her torment completely. Not when her main source of comfort remained so distant to her.
So now, deep underground and near to the very heart of the horde, Riel found little she could do except just focus her mind solely on the next task. The next area. The next fight. The next time she could sink her blades into the screaming flesh of Darkspawn, crawler, or stalker. For it was the only thing that still gave her comfort. The only thing that still made sense to her.
Even her own allies were quiet with her. Perhaps it was just being so close to the horde that clipped their tongues, keeping their voices low and barely used. Even the over talkative dwarf seemed to have lost his will for idle chatter as the group crept along the old roads that ran under the surface of Thedas. However, the heavy silence that hung around all of them seemed to pull on Riel harder every time she forced herself from her bedroll each day.
"Hold up! There is something up ahead!" Riel whispered, calling a halt to their silent marching. Her sensitive ears picking up almost a sort of chanting, soft and repetitive that echoed off the walls of the tunnels from deeper ahead.
Pulling her daggers free, Riel motioned for the others to ready themselves in case whatever made the sounds was about as friendly as everything else down in the Deep Roads.
First day, they come and catch everyone.
"What in the name of the Creators…?" she whispered as she moved quietly along the wall toward the sound.
Second day, they beat us and eat some for meat.
It was a woman's voice Riel realized, the sound bouncing along the walls and being carried to her ears.
Third day, the men are all gnawed on again.
Fourth day, we wait and fear for our fate.
Fifth day, they return and it's another girl's turn.
Riel turned a corner and finally spotted the source of the voice. In a small room filled with giant pustules of vile and unknown things, a small figure crouched with her head bowed down low.
"Sixth day, her screams we hear in our dreams. Seventh day, she grew as in her mouth they spew."
"Hello?" Riel asked, her weapons still at the ready in case of an attack.
The taint that lived within Riel's blood told her that much like the boy Ruck was, the woman before her now was infected with the same vile corruption she was. The evil inside of her recognizing its own as it did with the Darkspawn that hunted these caverns and tunnels. However, this woman's corruption was far more severe than Riel had ever seen except for those fully made into mindless ghouls. Yet unlike the feral ghouls that Riel had come across in the past, this woman still managed to speak, even if her voice was slightly distorted and empty.
"Eighth day, we hated as she is violated. Ninth day, she grins and devours her kin," the dwarven woman continued, oblivious to Riel and her companions entering the room.
"By the Ancestors!" Oghren cursed as he got closer, his expression wide with disbelief.
The woman than rose to her feet unsteadily, her brown dress torn and dirty as it hung loosely upon her frame. Her light colored hair was frazzled and caked with mud and blood, and her face carried the dark splotches of those corrupted by the taint. Her clouded eyes remained fixed to the floor even as she lifted her head, her small hands clasped in front of her.
"Hespith?"
"Do you know her, Oghren?" Riel asked, her eyes darting between the two dwarves.
"Now she does feast, as she's become the beast. Now you lay and wait, for their screams will haunt you in your dreams."
Oghren sheathed his hammer and approached the woman, his expression full of disbelief and sorrow. "Hespith! It's me, Oghren!" he called out to her, yet she still remained unfazed, her eyes locked on the floor beneath her. "Damn it woman! Where is Branka?"
Only then did her clouded and colorless eyes lift to Oghren's. "Do not speak that name!" she hissed. "Betrayer!"
"Ah sod it, woman! Do you know where she is or not?"
"Oghren, let me try," Riel stated as she put her blades away and approached the female.
Suddenly Zevran was at her side with his hand gently on her arm. Riel lifted her eyes to his, yet he looked away quickly and released her before stepping away from her again. Confused, she tried to speak to him - to say something to break the silence that existed between them. Yet when she looked up at him and the hard look that existed on his face as he glared at the dwarven woman, Riel lost her nerve. Sighing, Riel approached the dwarf.
"You carry the mark, Dream Friend," Hespith stated flatly when Riel got closer. "Yet you are not kin of mine. How the darkness works to confuse me."
"You sense the taint in me, don't you, Hespith?"
"It is theirs. How they see. How they feel. How they know what to feed on, and what to feed."
"Where are the others of your house, Hespith?" Riel asked, her voice soft as if speaking to a child.
"Here. Gone. Left to rot as they were devoured."
"Do you know what Branka is?"
"My love, my captain. My lady and my consort. The Anvil she now seeks, Dream Friend. House and kin piled high under her obsession. Her crimes far deeper than the roads we travelled."
Riel kneeled down so that she was face to face with the woman, the taint within each other reaching out and forming a bond of recognition. The evil in Riel recognizing and reveling in the evil that it felt within Hespith. "Tell me what happened here, Hespith. Tell me what Branka did."
"They came upon us, through darkness and shadow. Dragging off some while killing others. Those that lived piled together like stones waiting to be used." Hespith's voice then broke as the memories came back to her. "I prayed, Dream Friend. I prayed and pleaded with the Ancestors. That it would not be me. That she would be picked before I was."
"Picked for what?"
"The Ancestors…. They listened…. Oh how they listened in their blessed curse!" Black tears fell from Hespith's eyes as she recounted her memories. Of the horrors that she witnessed. "Layrn. Sweet Laryn. Into her they spewed. Into her they fed. Into her they twisted and turned, until she was twisted and turned into them. And when she was full and large and perfect, she turned on those who were left. Her own husband gnashed in her teeth…"
Riel heard several gasps from behind her as her own stomach threatened to empty. It was her dreams made real. The nightmare of how and what the Darkspawn truly were.
"They call her Broodmother. And through her, our betrayal was complete. That is why they kill us. That is why they hunt us. Why they take us. Why they feed us. Why they need us. Why they hate us. However, the greatest tragedy was not that it happened, Dream Friend. No. The crime that cannot be forgiven was that it was not that it simply happened, but was allowed." Hespith's voice turned hard as she spoke, hatred and anger wrapped tightly around the final word. "Our kin became theirs. Their kin becoming hers. Hers to test. Hers to measure. To throw into the trials and traps that so many had failed against before."
"By the Maker!" Wynne gasped from behind her.
"Where is she, Hespith?" Riel asked, forcing her voice to be level despite how sick she felt. "Where is Branka?"
"My love left, Dream Friend. When I couldn't join her. When I couldn't stop her." The woman's colorless eyes finally lifted to Riel's, a tiny spark of light still visible beyond the cloud that covered them. "Forgive me, Dream Friend. For I cannot forgive myself," Hespith whispered before running away, disappearing out of the small room and out of sight.
"Darkspawn are…. They come from…?" Leliana cringed, unable to form the words past the revulsion that filled her.
Riel sighed, hanging her head down. "They come from us. Each kind of them, coming from a kind of us. Humans, elves, dwarves… Even whatever it is that Sten is."
"Maker protect us…." Leliana breathed. "You knew, didn't you?" Not an accusation. Just a question asked out of shock and surprise. Yet the words still pierced through Riel's chest as if they were blades aimed at her heart and lungs.
"When I had that potion that kept me from waking…. I…" Riel stopped, a deep shudder going through her. In her nightmares, she knew the horror of what Hespith had described. She felt and saw and endured what the Darkspawn did to those that they captured. "What happened to Layrn... What happens to any woman that these things take…"
Riel felt herself being lifted up to her feet and swiftly turned around. Then within a heartbeat, familiar arms wrapped tightly around her and crushed her to a chest that she knew almost as well as her own. His familiar scent of sunshine and foreign spices filling her as she sobbed against the memories of her nightmares.

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Zevran didn't know if his embrace would be welcomed, and breathed a sigh of relief when she did not fight against him. He had tried to give Riel the space she needed. To give her time to find out what she wanted and if that included him in any way. Yet when he heard of the things that his careless actions did to her… That the potion he had tricked her into drinking had caused her to withstand such horrors…. He couldn't hold himself back any longer.
The past few days had been torture on him. To be so close to her yet so far away. That first night he had returned to their tent, Zevran had planned on begging for her forgiveness for his brisk attitude earlier. Yet she was already asleep when he joined her. However, when he laid down next to her sleeping body, instead of cuddling next to his body as she normally did, Riel cringed away from him. When he had reached out his hand to her, she actually cried out as if in pain and told him to leave her be.
And so he did.
Each night that they made camp, Zevran would wait until Riel laid down to rest, only then would he pull out his bedroll and find what little rest he could. And each day he would busy himself with either plans to ease her journey or fighting to protect her from whatever creature that attacked him.
When they were not travelling, Zevran had sought out each one of their companions, trying to piece together everything he could of Grey Warden's and their history. What Darkspawn were and how the taint worked. Any rumors or tales that the others could remember hearing about Grey Wardens, as well as anything they knew of previous or former Grey Wardens. Wynne and Oghren had given Zevran a fountain of information, detailing different sides of the story of the Grey Wardens.
Each story ended the same. Each tale, no matter how valliant the Warden or when they lived all finished with their painful and lonely death either against the Archdemon, or among the Darkspawn of the Deep Roads. Wynne speaking of the great deeds and sacrifices that Warden made while they lived. And Oghren telling tales of the Warden's courage and death as they went for one final walk along the Deep Roads.
All of it was interesting and providing Zevran with further insights into the fraction of warriors that his Riel belonged too. And all of it completely useless in helping her to avoid the fate the rest of her kin faced. Either by Archdemon or Darkspawn, every Grey Warden throughout history died young, painfully, and ultimately alone.
Yet Zevran refused to give up. He couldn't. Not when he knew what awaited her. Even if she refused him, he couldn't let her die like that. His hope that when their work was done here and they could finally leave these damnable underground tunnels behind, that his contacts on the surface might be able to find out more for him. After all, to be successful as an assassin, one needed contacts whose expertise wasn't so much battle and killing, but information. And right now, information was all he lacked.
To accomplish any task, one needed only a few things. The desire to do it, the determination to see it through to the end, and the information required to do so. The desire and determination Zevran had plenty of. No matter what it took, Zevran would find a way to do so. All he needed was the information telling him what to do.
And each day that he spent away from his Riel only deepened his resolve to save her. The skills he had gained as an assassin acting as both a curse and blessing as he watched over Riel without her knowing. Even with Morrigan's potion, Zevran saw her falter under the weight that she carried. The sadness she existed in. He would see each time that she pretended to smile or wiped away her tears. And it killed him. However, he would not force himself or his wishes upon her again.
Although now, with Hespith's dark revelation out in the open and a glimpse into the horrors his actions had caused her, Zevran hated himself even more. To know that despite his well intentions, he had subjected to her even more pain and torture…. Could he ever do right by her? Could any of his decisions not lead to causing her further pain?
And while Zevran knew that she no longer wanted his comfort, his selfish heart demanded that he give it to her anyway. To break down and hold onto her while she cried, even if when she was through this current sadness, she would most likely hate him even more. Right now….
Right now he held on to her, giving her the only thing he could.
When the last of her sobs died and Riel finally grew quiet, she pulled from him and Zevran knew that his chance was over. Watching her as she dried her tears on the back of her hands, she avoided his gaze as she looked at the others who still stood several feet away. With the strength of a hardened warrior, Riel met each one their companions in the eye before quietly leaving the room and leading them on. All of them except for Zevran, that is.
Zevran looked over to Leliana, seeing the hurt and pain in her eyes that mimicked so closely to his own. A pain of wanting to aid her, yet being useless to do so. And the hurt of knowing that in their own way, their actions had caused Riel's suffering to grow even more.

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Laryn.
Broodmother.
That which now birthed the very evil that had turned her into what she now was. Whoever the former dwarf was previously was now lost in the twisted abomination that she had become. A writhing pink blob of seeping corruption, with massive tentacles that whipped out and grabbed at foes and Darkspawn alike. Laryn's corrupted form had grown to be three times the size of an ogre, with a bald head and mandibles on her jaws that screamed and clicked in anger.
Anger caused by the intruders that had crept into her nest and now attacked her birthed corruption as well as herself. Lashing out with her tentacles, the Broodmother attacked and swatted back Riel and the others. Not seeming to care if one of her attacks caught a Darkspawn by mistake, the Broodmother was feral in her actions. Whipping a tentacle at Riel, the woman barely missed being knocked back by its powerful swing.
Facing off against Darkspawn and the Broodmother, Riel was determined to end the poor creature's suffering. Even as the ground she walked on seemed to move on its own, and slime covered tentacles seemed to come from every which way, Riel fought with a fury that was quickly becoming as close to her heart as her love for Zevran was. Anger and hatred for the creatures that did such an abominable thing mixed with her sorrow and pity for the woman that Laryn used to be.
"Leliana! Use your arrows to pin those tentacles!" Riel screamed as she cut down another Darkspawn. "Sten! Oghren! Keep these bastards off of me!" Ducking down to escape the swipe of a Shrieks's bladed claws, Riel almost knocked Zevran into the swinging arc of a hurlock's sword. "Zevran!" she cried out, fear catching in throat.
"Focus on the enemies! Not me!" he snapped out angrily as he turned to slice into the hurlock.
Riel bit back her hurt and forced it away from her mind. He was right, even though his words stung. Bringing her mind into focus, Riel saw an opening and dashed forward, heading towards where Oghren and Shale fought side by side against couple of hurlock alphas. A higher class than the average ones, alphas were highly skilled in melee combat and served as commanders in the Darkspawn armies. And true to their status, they battled against both dwarf and golem with deadly precision, backing the dwarf into a corner against the far wall.
Sensing a weakness in the attacking alpha, Riel launched herself at the creature's back and drove one of her daggers into the thing's shoulder. It bellowed in pain, quickly shifting itself around to try and dislodged both Riel and her dagger. However Riel held on, bringing her other dagger up and plunging in into the thing's neck.
The alpha continued to shake back and forth violently even as it screamed out in a wordless curse. Finally it began to slow, the dark liquid of its blood spewing forth and covering Riel's hands and daggers. Then with a last lurch, the alpha collapsed down to the ground and Riel rolled free. She then reached down and picked up the alpha's two handed sword before tossing to the dwarf.
"Think you can wield that in mid air, dwarf?" she asked with a dark laugh.
"Just what are you planning, elf?" Oghren gruffed as he caught the blade in his hand.
"Shale! Time to see how well dwarves can fly!" Riel called out to the golem before running headlong towards the Broodmother.
"I am to take up dwarf tossing now, am I?" Shale replied, picking up Oghren easily with just single stone hand.
"Put me down you sodding pile of regurgitated piss stones!"
"Hey Laryn! You ugly, stone addled Darkspawn whore! Come at me!" Riel screamed out as she slashed at a pair of tentacles close to the Broodmother's main body. "I know you can hear me in that swollen head, you Voidforsaken bitch! Come and see if you like the taste of Warden blood as much you liked that of your husband's!"
The Broodmother bellowed in anger as it focused its attacks on Riel. Launching several tentacles at her, Riel had to twist and leap her body in various ways to avoid being hit. She then sliced out with her blade, cutting a tentacle clean in two before needing to roll to avoid another swipe. A well timed step to the side and a flick of her wrist, and Riel had sliced off another whipping tentacle.
"What in the name of the Void are you waiting for you shaved down pile of rocks?! Toss him!" Riel screamed out just before having the air knocked out of her. Flying backwards several feet, Riel cursed out as pain exploded in her chest. Pulling herself up, she knew immediately that several of her ribs were probably broken.
Just then Riel heard the Broodmother scream out in pain. Its tentacles waving frantically about, the creature's screams echoing off the walls for what seemed like an eternity before it finally went silent. Looking up, Riel smiled to herself as she saw Oghren pulling his sword out of the now dead Broodmother's skull.
"Just what do you think you were doing, Riel?" Zevran cursed out as he knelt by her side.
"I was- Zevran move!" Riel screamed, pushing Zevran to the side just as a shriek materialized out of the shadows and plunged its large claw down where Zevran's chest used to be a moment before. Riel kicked out her legs, using the momentum of the force to snap the long claw in two. Then she grabbed hold of the broken claw and shoved it up under the shriek's jaw and into its brain, killing it. "Yell at me later," she hissed at Zevran as she forced herself to stand despite the agony in her chest. "Right now, there is still more things to kill."
Zevran looked up her in both shock and anger, unable to decide to be angry at her recklessness, or be grateful for her saving his life. Instead he just followed her orders, focusing again on the remaining Darkspawn that still attacked. The image of her taunting the Broodmother seared into his mind even as he worked with the others to kill every last one of the corrupted bastards that swarmed them.
Was she insane? Wanting to die? he cursed to himself as the last genlock fell under the Sten's blade. Taking a quick look to make sure that no more threatened them, Zevran sheathed his blade and quickly marched over to Wynne and took her by the arm. He then all but dragged the old woman over to where Riel leaned her back against the wall of the cavern, her eyes closed and her hand covering her chest.
"Heal her!" Zevran snapped, pushing Wynne towards Riel.
"Excuse me?" Wynne snapped back, yanking her arm free from Zevran's grasp and piercing him with a glare.
"That is unless you want to kill yourself?!" Zevran spat to Riel, the verbal attack causing Riel's eyes to open slightly and narrow at him.
"What has gotten into you, Zevran?" hissed Wynne.
"I knew what I was doing, Zevran," Riel replied, her breathing labored as she breathed through the pain in her chest.
"By the gods, Riel! You taunted that thing into attacking you!"
Riel closed her eyes again, ignoring Zevran's outburst. Her chest hurt too much to care about his yelling. After she had saved Zevran from the shriek, she had done her best to continue fighting, but soon found herself leaning against the wall she was now. The pain in her chest tearing away the air in her lungs despite how carefully she tried to breathe.
"I saw you get hit. Do you need healing?"
Riel cracked her eyes open at the sound of Wynne's calm voice. The question almost made Riel laugh, yet she squashed the impulse quickly before she ended up hurting herself worse. "Just a bit probably…" Riel smiled half heartedly.
Wynne lifted her hand and placed over top of the one on Riel's chest. A soft blue light emitted then, bringing with it the first deep breath that Riel had been able to make since she got hit. Breathing in a sigh of relief, Riel opened her eyes and looked at the older mage before shifting her eyes over to Zevran. He was glowering, his eyes filled with anger as he looked at her.
"Better?" Wynne asked as she removed her hand.
"Much, thank you," smiled Riel as she absently rubbed the spot on her chest briefly before pushing herself off of the wall. "Let's see what these ugly things have on them. From what the notes that we found said, we should be getting close to where Branka took her house. So let's do a search then find a place to camp for the night."
"Riel, we must talk about this!" Zevran stated as he stepped in front of her.
"There is nothing really to talk about, Zevran. If Oghren was going to have a chance getting past those tentacles and strike directly at that thing, then it needed be distracted enough to create an opening. I provided that."
"Why you, though? Why not another?"
"Let's just say that I know that no matter how twisted and corrupted that thing was, I knew some part of Laryn still existed in there. Not much. Not enough to fight against the evil that turned it into what it was. But enough to get pissed off at someone bringing up the last and worst real memory that it still possessed."
When Zevran just continued to glare at her, his confusion mixing with his anger, Riel sighed and rubbed at the bridge of her nose while trying to think of another way to explain. With a heavy sigh, Riel let her own memories come back to her. The thoughts and images from her nightmares that plagued her every night.
With a look of sadness in her eyes, Riel turned her head and looked upon the corpse of the Broodmother that used to be Laryn. "When you're twisted into something like that, everything turns into anger. Fear, hope, joy, sadness, love… When you are turned, all that is left is anger. However, for a short period of time after the transformation, a small sliver of what they used to be remains. And that small shred…. that is nothing but pain, and regret. A dying mind trapped in a cage of the worst type of nightmare. Only this time, there is no waking up." Riel paused, her thoughts lost for a moment in her memories. "I used that against her. I used Laryn's last memory - of killing her husband - to make her focus on me instead of protecting herself."
"How do you know that was her last memory?" he asked her.
"Because," Riel sniffed before meeting Zevran's eyes. "I was Laryn. And my last memory was of you." Riel turned her back to Zevran and walked towards the bodies of the Darkspawn that littered the ground around them. "Come on! Let's get this over with and find some place to set up camp!"

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Later that evening Riel sat in front of the fire, eating her rationed dried meat. Not that she was particularly hungry. However Leliana had already pestered her earlier about not eating enough and she had nothing else to do with her hands. Her equipment was cleaned and repaired. The items they had found and carried with them were sorted. And their route from that point was pretty straight forward.
After the spider queen fight, the others had found notes that the crawlers had gathered from Branka's old camp. They gave a pretty detailed layout of where the woman had searched and where she was headed next. And it was those directions that they were following when they came across Hespith and what remained of Laryn earlier. The next part of the journey was also detailed in the notes they had found, basically providing a trail that would hopefully lead straight to Branka.
So with everything done and her turn at watch still not for a while, Riel had nothing to do except stew in her own thoughts as she sat and stared into the fire. Something that was exactly the last thing that she wanted to do.
"Would you mind helping me with my arrows?"
Riel looked up and forced a smile on her face when she saw Leliana standing next to her. "Of course! Although I don't why you always ask me. Honestly I think I am the reason why do many of your arrows break to begin with!"
"You are better than you think, Riel," Leliana laughed as she sat down and laid out her bundle. "Besides, I like the company. You never tire of my stories no matter how many times I tell them."
"I like your stories, Lei," Riel smiled back. "They take my mind off the stuff in my own head."
"Stuff like a certain blonde elf?" she asked, keeping her eyes on the sorting of her arrows in front of her.
Riel sighed as she took a small bundle and set to work repairing them. They sat in silence for a few minutes while Riel tried to form the words she wanted to say. "I don't want to talk about him," she said bitterly, tossing a useless piece of wood into the fire.
"See, I think that you do."
"Even if I did want to talk about him, there is nothing left to say."
"I have seen how you are together, you know. How you have changed since he joined us," she said with a sly smile. "You may have nothing to say about him to me, but perhaps there is some things that you must say to each other?"
"I tried talking to him Leliana. Instead he just avoided me, going to talk with Wynne or Oghren."
"And here I thought you were more stubborn than that."
Riel rolled her eyes as her fingers attached the arrow head to the shaft. "There is stubborn and there is chasing something that isn't there anymore."
"And what do you think is no longer there?"
Riel felt the tears at her eyes and hated them. Hated how quickly she could be reduced to a crying mess lately, no matter how hard she fought against it. "He doesn't love me anymore," she finally stated, her eyes clouding despite her efforts.
"He does so!" Leliana said quickly. Although Riel just shrugged, dismissing her positivity.
"He hasn't come to me since he overheard us talking that day, Lei. He avoids me now, sleeping away from where I am and barely ever saying two words to me anymore. Then you saw him after we fought that Broodmother. He was furious at me!"
"He was worried about you."
"Yeah well, hard to tell that when he was yelling at me."
They were silent again for a few moments, each woman gathering their thoughts. "He still watches you, you know."
"Pfft… He does not," Riel said bitterly. "Every time I look to him, he is always busy doing something. Talking to the others or doing something else far away from me. If he does catch me looking at him, he quickly looks away again."
"He is watching you now," Leliana smiled coyly.
Riel quickly looked over to where he stood next to Morrigan, both of them talking in hushed tones. Yet his eyes were not on Riel. He was looking at Morrigan as she said something to him, making him frown. Her heart hurting, Riel turned back to the arrows in her lap.
"No, he isn't."
Leliana sighed, placing another arrow in pile by her feet. "He loves you, Riel. He just doesn't know how to love you."
"That doesn't make any sense!"
"Love never does…" Leliana smiled in that strange knowing way that she often did.
"Then what do you suggest I do?"
"Learn how to love him."
"Again… Not making sense! I already do love him," Riel sighed heavily.
"Love is never easy, Riel. Falling in love can be easy. Being in love is what is hard. Especially for two people who haven't known a lot of love in their past." The two women were silent again for a few minutes, Riel's mind sorting through what Leliana said. "Do you trust him?" Leliana asked, breaking the silence.
"Of course I do," Riel stated quickly. "Well, mostly. I think," she added after a short pause. "Ugh… I don't know!" Riel finally said with a scowl.
"Don't you think that is rather important?"

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"I am beginning to see the appeal of having that fool Alistair around," quipped Morrigan as she glared at Zevran.
"Oh? Now that I find hard to believe," Zevran chuckled darkly.
"For all of his inanity, he kept you looking like the greater fool."
Now Zevran returned the witch's glare. "Now what I have done to deserve such a grievous insult, my lovely Morrigan?"
"You think I am blind as well as daft? It has been two nights since we rescued you and Leliana from the venom of those spiders. And not one have you spent at her side."
"She doesn't wish me at her side, Morrigan. And I will not be going against her wishes again," he snapped back, folding his arms over his chest.
"'Twould indeed surprise me if that were the case, and yet if it were, 'twould be clear that even she doesn't know what she wants."
"Careful of your tone, Morrigan," Zevran lightly snapped. "She may no longer see me fit to stand by her side, however I will still protect our lovely Warden. I won't have you insult her, even if she does call you a friend."
"And this is why I call you a fool! Clearly you care for the woman. And clearly she cares for you. And yet here you stand, conversing with me in hushed chatter while she sits by the fire with tears in her eyes!"
Zevran hung his head as he sighed. There was no way to easily explain the difficulties he was having with Riel. This wasn't even what he had intended to speak with her about anyway when he sought her out. However, like most of his conversations with the others lately, everything always drew back to how things were between him and Riel.
Even the giant had insulted him over the strange situation Zevran now found himself in with Riel!
"Riel deserves a man who doesn't make her cry. And I think it is obvious by now that I am not that man," he stated, his tone a mixture of regret and anger.
"Oh what rubbish!" Morrigan replied, throwing up her hands before piercing him with a glare. "Such a man does not exist, as you and I both know well."
"And what would you know of it, Morrigan?"
"I may not see entanglements such as love as others do, elf, however I do understand happiness. And that is one thing that you have indeed given her."
"And what if she deserves more than that? More than just simple happiness?" he bit back, his eyes narrowing on the woman. "What Riel deserves is a real life, away from all this pain and nightmares!"
"I agree! Which is why it perplexes me that you are standing here arguing with me instead of being over there with her!"
"Because I cannot give that to her!"
"This is what this is about then? Why you have come asking about my mother's grimoire? That it would contain some secret to prolong her life?"
"The spell you used to ease her nightmares came from there, did it not?"
"The potion I used was not something specific to the taint itself, assassin. 'Twas an old protection against blood magic and the control over one's mind."
"You yourself said that the book was old. Perhaps there is still something in it-"
"What you require I do not have, elf," Morrigan interrupted, her tone harsh. However with a sigh she continued onward. "If I were to find such a thing, 'twould not be while here, trapped under this rock and stone."
"Then you do know of something, then?"
"Perhaps…" Morrigan replied, her voice hedged. "However, you must realize that what you seek is of no small consequence. A cure for what ails Riel is not as simple as finding the appropriate herbs and mixing them together into a poultice or potion."
"You think I do not know that? Yet still I must try. I cannot just sit back and watch her die Morrigan!"
"When we are free from this place, come to me then," she sighed. "I shall….. do what I can. I can promise no more."
"That is all I can ask. Thank you."
"Do not thank me, Zevran. Not yet," Morrigan replied, her expression curiously pained. "Far too much may happen between when - or even if - I will be able to render unto you my aid."
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Vhenan'ara