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Hoping One Day We'll Make A Dream Last	By : kruemel Category: +A through F > Dragon Age (all) > Dragon Age (all) Views: 3679 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: Dragon Age and the characters of the game do not belong to me. This is a no profit fanfiction

Chapter List
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"So what are you doing here?"
"Chasing darkspawn? Although it has become more of a hide and seek, don't you think? Now, where did they go?" I carefully peeked down the narrow alley where the darkspawn had disappeared. The houses on each side of the road stood so close they almost touched. It was possible to lean out of the window and shake the neighbour's hand and impossible to avoid getting hit by the content of chamberpots emptied onto the street - unless one pressed against the wall in time. It was one of the poorer areas of the city so we waded through mud consisting of excrements, dirt and gore. Bloated corpses, covered with swarms of fat black flies, lay scattered all the way down the alley. It was deadly silent but for the humming of the insects and the smacking sounds of our boots in the mud. The smell was... ewww.
Somehow I've never manged to get used to the smell. Everything else after some time gets somewhat bearable. Maybe because you learn not to look too close or blend out the noises. The smell you cannot ignore, though.
"You have to learn to delegate tasks," Teagan whispered behind me. His voice choked by the effort not to breathe through the nose. "Others can hunt down the remaining darkspawn in the city."
"But I am a Grey Warden! That's my duty."
"You are king," Teagan hissed. Eamon had sent him along to babysit me. Him and a dozen knights. We had lost them somewhere in the labyrinth of alleys as they couldn't keep up with Rori. I couldn't keep up with her since her senses had heightened immensely ever since she had slain the archdemon. And she had a way to just jump over walls, climb roofs and such. Impossible in heavy armour. Cursing under my breath, I fantasized about spanking her for doing her lone-wolf-performance. At least the tingling at the back of my head told me which direction to go.
"Your duty is to stay alive so that this nation has a leader, not to stick your head through a door first and almost get it crushed by an ogre," Teagan gasped as we hurried around another corner into another narrow alley.
"They are down here," Rori murmured when we finally joined her. She was crouching next to a door in the ground leading into a very dark cellar. I guess, I could be grateful she hadn't crawled into the hole all alone.
"There are seven Grey Wardens now," Teagan pointed out. Seven meaning Rori and I plus Gilmore, Darrian, James, Solona and Jowan. Eight if you want to count Barkley. Nine with Cullen the Rat. "They do not need your assistance. Rori is capable of handling this herself."
"What should I do? Sit on my throne and twiddle my thumbs?" I growled. Needless to say that's exactly where Eamon wanted me to be.
"There's more than enough to do that doesn't involve risking your life. Why do you think I stayed in the Chantry when Redcliffe was besieged by undead? I'm not the man to turn away from a fight. We didn't know if anybody in the castle was alive. That meant I was the last Guerrin. Like you are the last Theirin," Teagan explained patiently, although he started to sound a bit unnerved. "Rori can handle this," he beseeched me.
Right, nothing could stop her. But not like she was some kind of superhero, although that's what people called her. It was more like she felt she would break down if she stopped going. Rest was unbearable. What she rather would have forgotten was swept to the surface and the nightmares were much worse than they had been before.
I dealt far better with the pressure and trauma. Blame it on my templar training, I do have a disciplined mind forged to concentrate on duty and blank out the whole rest. I've never been good at meditation when it came to staring at a candle for hours and emptying my thoughts. But when there is someting to do, I can focus like any other templar. Next to me, Rori was a complete mess. All I could do was being there for her when she needed a shoulder to cry on. My shirts were mostly wet these days.
She had trouble letting go of the baby. No, I don't mean it like that! We did clean our faces from the ashes. Anything else would have been just gross. However, for her it was still very present. For me, it was over. I was sad but I didn't mourn like I did for Duncan. Rori had gone into labour with the knowledge that it would kill her child. She had seen this tiny creature of no more but a few inches, she had held it in her hands. Afterwards she almost drowned in guilt while her body and its after-birth condition reminded her of her loss every day over and over again.
In addition the taint was strong inside her and the nightmares tore at her sanity. She woke screaming, tearing at her own skin, convinced there were maggots crawling in her flesh. Or she would dream of birthing darkspawn instead of a human baby.
No surprise, she would only sleep when exhaustion forced her to lay down. When she was awake, she appeared harrassed, burdening herself with more duties than a single person should have been able to handle.
So I certainly wouldn't let her run after darkspawn alone. She was a dangerseeker back then, her actions close to suicidal. Every time we went hunting, I made her promise she would return alive and still kicking. And I made sure I was there to remind her of her oath.
That's why we were sitting in front of that hole and knew the darkspawn was down there while they knew we were up here.
"I go in first," Rori said.
"Oh no, young lady, perish that thought. I will go first!" I yanked her back so forcefully, she landed on her hindquarters in the mud.
"No way!" Teagan yanked me back and I came to sit next to Rori. "Did you forget about the ogre and your almost curshed skull?"
"The door is far too narrow for an ogre to squeeze through," I pointed out sullenly. Mud had seeped into my armour.
"How about someone else goes in first?" Teagan groaned desperatedly. "Someone dispensable?"
"Hey! Why is everybody looking at me?" James sulked..
"How about a spell? A fireball or some frost to freeze them?" Solona suggested. She and Jowan had undergone the Joining the morning after our three guinea pigs. Avernus had decided the new recipe was working extraordinarily well since even James had made it through.
"The stairs are too steep," Jowan reasoned. "You won't get the right aim or radius without climbing down."
"Alas, we must outwit them! That's how we do it in Antiva!" Zevran chimed in, jolly as always.
"Got an idea?"
"No, nothing specific." the elf rejoiced.
Marvellous!
"We could send James in first," the elf suggested after a moment of contemplation.
"Hey!"
"Or we prong one of these stinking corpses onto that dungfork over there and have our make-shift puppet climb down the stairs. And Solona can hide in its shadow," Zevran went on thoughtfully.
And that's exactly what we did.
I admit, it wasn't the best plan we ever had.
The head of the unfortunate but thankfully already quite dead man was swaying from side to side, Teagan and I grunted and groaned from the effort of balancing the dungfork. Solona in front of us summoned her magic - and the moment our puppet poked its head around the corner, it was cut off its shoulders by a jagged darkspawn blade. Same time Solona's spell turned the cellar into a glacier.
With a battlecry Teagan and I charged forward - and slipped on the ice covering the floor. Teagan landed on his hindquarters and I slammed into the opposite wall right next to a darkspawn trying to stay on its feet by clinging to a shelf filled with now broken jars of pickles. I clung to the very same shelf to keep standing which was definitely more than the shelf could withstand. Boards, frozen pickles and shards of broken glass rained down on the darkspawn and me, sending us to the ground.
Face to face with the darkspawn I could smell its foul breath and see the murderous gleam in its red eyes. It snarled, I squeaked and Solona blasted a well aimed spell at the darkspawn's head. It exploded right into my face. Blinded by ichor, I wished I had stayed in the palace and twiddled my thumbs while sitting comfortably on my throne.
Meanwhile Rori and Zevran skittered through the cellar, trying to kill darkspawn, and darkspawn skittered around, trying to murder the girl and the elf. In the end Zevran climbed onto an empty barrel and hit at any beast sliding past. Rori, having lost both her swords, sought cover behind some sacks and threw frozen potatoes at her opponents...
That's when my dozen knights caught up with us and thundered into the cellar. A dozen men in heavy armour going down like ninepins. It was a hellish noise as they all flopped around on the frozen ground with darkspawn amongst them. In the end we somehow managed to kill the darkspawn and not get killed in return.
The mighty Heroes of the Fifth Blight had struck again!
"Just like old times," Rori grinned when we finally crawled out of the damned cellar.
"I almost had a heart attack!" Teagan groaned, clutching his chest. "You could have died!"
"I could slip on that rug in front of my bed and break my neck," I pointed out. "That happened to Knight-Commander Dursley back at the monastery. And it was an extraordinarily ugly rug."
"The sharpest lives are the deadliest to lead," Rori chirped.
"Calendar motto?"
"The one for my birthday next week."
"How very fitting."
Teagan wanted us all to return to the palace, just we didn't make it there because we ran into a completely devastated Levi Dryden at the market. He stood there like all dressed up and nowhere to go..
"Rori! Alistair! This... this... Arl... confiscated all the goods we brought here from Warden's Peak!"
"Arl who?"
"The Arl of Denerim!" Levi cried, wringing his hands. "I showed him my documents of transportation and that it was for the king but he didn't care. He threatened to kill me! There was nothing I could do but watch his men cart the wagons away."
"Vaughan, that prick!" Rori snarled.
"Do you require my services?" Zevran asked hopefully.
"Yes!"
"No!" I stopped the elf before he could saunter off in the direction Levi pointed us. "He is a prick and getting rid of him sounds awesome. But lets first talk to him. I do not want to start assassinating unpleasant nobles before my coronation."
"Oh, but afterwards..." Zevran rubbed his hands giddily.
"No!"
"But it's only Vaughan!" Rori exclaimed when we marched off towards the alienage. "Best way to get rid of him. He's nothing but trouble."
"RORI!"
"Hey, what do we have an assassin for when we don't use him? He gets a paycheck every month, you know."
"Don't forget the bonus," the ex-Crow added merrily.
"That's a success fee, Zev."
It wasn't hard to find Vaughan. We only had to follow the ruckus.
"Maybe you want to reconsider?" Zevran asked politely when we arrived at the centre of the alienage. The tree mysteriously had survived the darkspawn attack. The whole alienage had burnt down, there was nothing much left but soot and the skeletons of former ramshackle huts. But the tree wasn't even scorched.
The elves had put up make-shift tents or built themselves shelters from the refuse they had found in the streets. Vaughan and his men just trampled their beggarly dwellings down and kicked the elves that didn't scutter out of their way fast enough as they rounded up some of the young and pretty women.
Vaughan and his men laughed, cracking smutty jokes while they groped and beat the women.
One look at Rori and I did reconsider. I had seen her in the same place at Fort Drakon, so I was pretty much biased. Teagan, though disgusted by the assault, tried a politically reasonable approach but since nobody was listening, he followed at our heels when we charged.
Just we never got there in time.
Vaughan had grabbed Shianni around the waste and she kicked and screamed and bit his tongue when he shoved it into her mouth. He shireked and jolted backwards, then slapped her across the face and pushed her down, ripping at her skirts. He gave a damn if the crowd was watching and his men cheered for him when he forced Shianni's legs apart.
Blood was dripping from his mouth, his grin a nasty sneer. He fumbled around with his pants, the moment when he had to let go of Shianni's hands. She bolted upwards, crashed her forehead against Vaughan's nose and sent him tumbling back. Before he could recover, the elf had pulled his dagger from its sheath and without a moments hesitation rammed it between Vaughan's legs.
He shrieked like a stuck pig, the scream dying on his lips when Shianni drove the blade into his guts over and over again in a frenzy.
It all happened so fast, even Vaughan's guards couldn't prevent it. Cursing, they finally pulled Shianni away from the Arl, a fist colliding with the side of her head, feet kicking at her ribs.
"Stop! Merciful Andraste! Stop!" I shouted at the top of my voice. Just nobody seemed to care. I pulled a man away from the elf, he turned and punched me straight in the face. Rori kicked another in the knees and was hauled against the tree by the next. A brawl started and the situation was getting out of hand.
"BY ORDER OF THE KING, STOP THIS NOW!!" Teagan roared next to me. And strangely they obeyed. Grimly he glared at Vaughan's guards, a man like a rock while I just looked foolish with the blood spurting from my nose. And of course I didn't have a handkerchief. Rori fished for one in her pockets and brought half a dozen to light. All mine!
"The knife-ear murdered Arl Vaughan Kendells!" the huge bald bully that had punched me growled.
"It looked like self-defense to me," I objected.
"Stabbing him like thirty times?" a young noble with a face like a horse snapped indignantly. I hadn't seen him before but by the crest on his armour he was one of Bann Esmerelle's men.
"She slipped and fell," Rori dead-panned.
"Thirty times?"
"The ground is quite slippery."
"Leave the woman alone," I ordered in my best king-voice.
"Nobody asked for your opinion, asshole!" Big bald bully snarled. "Who do you think you are giving orders?"
"Last time I checked I was the King of Ferelden." I replied politely. "As far as I recall, giving orders is one of the privileges of being king. Even better, you have to obey. So if you kindly left the woman alone, I'd very much appreciate it."
Boy! This was the very fist time being king was somewhat fun. Big bald bully oggled me, then Teagan. Teagan nodded, his grim expression getting a whole lot of grimmer, and big bald bully hurried to bow. His buddies let go of Shianni instantly and threw themselves into the mud.
The noble guy stayed quite unimpressed, though. He and Rori exchanged some scathing looks before he addressed me. "Your Majesty, this woman is responsible for the Arl's death! I demand she is brought to justice!"
"He tried to rape her. He is very much responsible for his own death," Rori hissed, her fists clenched at her sides.
"She is an elf!" The noble prick snorted. "You are certainly not going to fraternize with an elf!"
By now every single elf of the alienage had closed in around us. An ominous silence had overcome them, tension brooding within. One didn't have to be a genius to realize the danger we were in. Meaning, even I got whatever we did next would be essential for the outcome of this encounter.
"So what? He cannot just rape her because she's an elf!" Rori cried. In the meantime Solona and Jowan pulled Shianni back to her feet and situated her savely behind us. They would have brought her away if not for the solid wall formed by the inhabitants of the alienage.
"This is Denerim, not Highever," the noble snapped, poking his finger at Rori's chest. Rori grabbed it and bent it backwards until the noble whimpered in pain. I really didn't see no reason to stop her.
"This is Ferelden. No man has the right to harass any woman nowhere in my kingdom," I said resolutely. "That applied for Vaughan and it applies for you. Arrest him!"
"What!?" the horse-face shrieked. "You cannot do that! My mother, Bann Esmerelle, will hear of this!"
"Undoubtly," I agreed unblinkingly.
The elves finally made way, forming a narrow passage when my guards led the ranting noble and Vaughan's guards away. His corpse still lay in the mud, blood soaking the ground.
"Seems you need a new Arl of Denerim," Shianni observed, kicking Vaughan's side one last time. She spat two teeth onto the muddy ground, then defiantly wiped the blood off her mouth with her sleeve. "We'd very much appreciate if he wasn't a sublime idiot, rapist and tyrant."
"Three wishes at once? I'll do my very best," I promised, unable to bite back a lopsided grin at the feistiness of this woman.
"When humans do their very best for elves, there's nothing much to be expected," Shianni snorted. She elbowed Jowan in the guts when he offered her his arm. Her knees were quite wobbly but she stood there with her head held high, ignoring her torn blouse and ripped skirt.
"I... i am..." I wanted to say sorry, because I was. It was and is a mystery to me how people can just pass by that much misery and accept it as normal or - even worse - the Maker's doing. Rori and Teagan grabbbed me by my arms and dragged me along before I could appologize for all the atrocities humans had ever committed and my own ignorance.
"We're done here," Teagan insisted when I opened my mouth to protest. So we passed through the crowd of elves, still silently regarding us. It was damn creepy and I was glad when we finally had passed them by. I didn't look back because Rori told me not to.
"Your Majesty," Shianni called after me when we arrived at the gates of the alienage. These damn gates that separated them from everybody else were the only thing still standing next to the tree. It was a stark contrast of hope and despair. "Thank you." She inclined her head and the assembled elves followed suit.
I grinned sheepishly and waved like the fool I am. I didn't think I had done something special. Teagan very much disagreed.
"Eamon will have my ass on a silver plater," he groaned. "Alistair! You cannot value the life of an elf more than that of a human noble! What are you going to do next? Declare the freedom of the mages?"
"This wasn't about elves and humans. It was about a man ravishing a woman," I explained. "Race does not matter in that case."
"Wrong. When it's elves and humans, that's what it always is about. They aren't human. They are subhumans. And thus you treat them as lesser beings," Teagan lectured me. He was hopping mad.
"But that's unfair!" I really didn't get why I got scolded when I was sure I had done nothing wrong. Rori had always told me to listen to my heart. And my heart beat with pride.
"Yes, it is.," Teagan admitted in a far softer tone. "The world in general is unfair. You cannot change that."
"But I am king!"
"Alistair, Ferelden is not yet prepared to accept elves as equals," Teagan sighed. "And I very much doubt it will be during your reign, may it last for decades. You should have arrested that elven woman as well and charged her for the murder of Arl Vaughan Kendells. Your political opponents will use this against you."
"Yes? Well, I don't give a damn! If it had been Rori instead of Shianni, nobody would even think about condemning her! But because she's an elf we do? I cannot do that." Angrily I marched off, walking at the very front of my little party. Strange how suddenly I had become the leader when it had been Rori's place all the time.
"He's right, you know," she said gently when she joined me.
"I thought you at least would understand," I snapped.
"I do," she said sharply. "But that doesn't change the world we live in. You did the right thing and they still will hold it against you. Many see elves as lesser beings and those who don't wouldn't go to the stake for their cause."
"So what do ypu expect me to do?" I pouted. "Go back there and arrest her because I displeased some nobles?"
Rori shook her head. "That would cause a riot."
"Good, I wouldn't have done it anyway."
When we arrived back at the palace, Eamon acted as if Vaughan's death was the end of the world. I'm not going to repeat what he said. It was basically the same Teagan and Rori had said already. Eamon immediately called a meeting and after a lick and a promise to wash off the darkspawn ichor, I, Rori and my most important supporters gathered in Bann Angus Mac Eanraig's bedroom, simply because he was still bedridden. The darkspawn had very much turned him inside out and he was still sipping his meals through a straw. His body was bandaged from head to toe and only his eyes, the tip of his nose and his toes were visible. Eamon and Teagan were there. Bryland, too. And Bann Alfstanna. They all sat on chairs around Angus' bed. And they all got pretty much upset about the incident and how I handled it. So upset that they didn't talk about anything else for the next fifteen minutes. Enough time to devour three cheese sandwiches and half a bottle of wine.
Bryland called it a disaster. Eamon used the word debacle in about every sentence. Alfstanna said it was a catastrophe and that Esmerelle was going to freak out.
"Bah! Let the stupid cow rant all she wants," Angus put them off, his voice muffled by the bandages covering his face with only a tiny hole where his mouth was. "Vaughan would have caused more trouble in a year than this young fellow here ever could in a lifetime. Urien was a good old chap but his son was a sadistic prick and not fit to rule anything, let alone the capital of Ferelden."
"That means we do need a new Arl. The Kendells clan is extinguished," Arl Leonas observed.
"Bann Loren is a remote relative of Urien Kendell's greatgrandfather, I believe," Alfstanna remarked.
And then they all started to unpick the genealogy of Fereldan nobility. It was like watching paint dry.
"I spy with my little I something that begins with C," I whispered to Rori.
"Hm, is it perhaps a chair?" she guessed.
"Nope."
"Bann Esmerelle's family is related to Urien Kendell's wife..."
"Is it cheese? Maybe the last cheese sandwich on your plate?"
"Yes! Now, that was too easy!"
"My turn. I spy with my little eye something that begins with... uhm... B."
"Is it Angus' bed?"
"No."
"But can we really give Denerim to Esmerelle? She openly opposed Alistair during the Landsmeet. She was one of Howe's most loyal allies," Bryland added for consideration.
"Is it a beard? Eamon's beard? No? Then it's Teagan's."
"Giving her the power over Denerim would make her one of the most powerful nobles in Ferelden. Amaranthine and Denerim combined would make her incredibly rich!"
"She's already richer than is good for her," Bann Angus grunted.
"My turn." I stuffed the last cheese sandwich into my mouth while scanning the room. "I spy with my little eye something that begins with A."
"Giving her Denerim could bias her towards Alistair," Teagan thought aloud.
"Not when she is the closest relative anyway. She will regard it as what rightfully belongs to her. I know her, the word gratitude doesn't even exist in her vocabulary," Arl Leonas sighed.
"Is it an armour? Uncle Angus' armour?"
"No."
"We could avoid her openly siding against Alistair."
"Hmpf! When has Esmerelle ever done something openly? She lies in your face and plots behind your back."
"Is it an Arl? Arl Eamon?" Rori guessed, chewing on her lower lip as she looked around the room for something else beginning with A.
That got her Eamon's attention. "Do the king and future queen of this nation also have an opinion regarding the vacant position of the Arl of Denerim?" he asked icily, his glare boring into us. I slid down in my chair, a very wide, very sheepish grin spreading across my face.
"Err...," I began, nudging Rori's side as she was still craning her neck to get a better view on the rest of the room.
"Oh! I know! It's the armchair by the fireplace!" she exclaimed into the tense silence.
"Now, the armchair cannot become Arl of Denerim although it probably wouldn't pay any less attention to important political matters than the two of you do," Eamon droned.
"Indeed," Rori agreed. "The armchair would be a bad choice, better than Vaughan, though. At least it wouldn't kill anybody solely for its entertainment. I'd still rather suggest Levi Dryden."
"The merchant? He's not even a noble. Esmerelle is the closest relative to the Kendells."
Rori straightened in her chair and folded her hands in her lap. With her ankles crossed and that expression of tense concentration, she appeared like a student in front of an examining board. "As the Kendells are all dead, the king possesses the authority to name a successor. He doesn't necessarily have to consider relatives. That's how Maric could declare Loghain Teyrn of Gwaren without the permission of the Landsmeet."
"True, but that doesn't explain your choice of a commoner," Eamon pointed out.
"The Drydens used to be a noble family before Sophia Dryden rebelled against King Arland. They lost their titles and lands back then, so they are not like any common commoner," I explained. I was as surprised by Rori's suggestion as were the assembled advisors. Levi was a good man, braver than he thought himself to be. I couldn't imagine him as an Arl, though. Since I couldn't imagine myself as a king, he probably was exactly the right man for this position. "Levi fought bravely to defend Denerim."
"As did a thousand other commoners," Leonas Bryland retorted.
"The Drydens would be absolutely loyal," Rori re-entered the discussion. "Returning their titles to them would be like a dream come true. Alistair could do with some more supporters."
"And that's why Dryden's nomination could displease the Bannorn," Eamon responded. "He would be seen as King Alistair's bootlicker."
"An immensely rich bootlicker," Rori exclaimed, her cheeks blushed when she lunged into a sweeping speech. "I mean, Bann Esmerelle is rich, too, but she would only strive to make herself richer. The Drydens are a merchant family. They do know the formular of success. Denerim is a commercial city - without any commerce happening right now. Declare Levi Dryden Arl of Denerim and he will feel personally responsible to rebuild this city and turn it into the most important trading point in Ferelden. Levi has the knowledge and he has the money to make this happen. That's more than can be said about us. The treasury is empty, the capital destroyed, the banns already complain about the taxes being too high, we'll face a famine next winter..." Rori shrugged, all eyes on her making her blush. "Just a thought," she added in a much smaller voice.
Into the following silence, Angus Mac Eanraig boomed with pride: "Every inch a Cousland!" Pause. "Sure, she's the shortest of all of them but even a short Cousland is outstanding!"
Yeah, and that's how Levi Dryden became Arl of Denerim. Maker, Bann Esmerelle was so utterly pissed off! But that's a different story.
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Hoping One Day We'll Make A Dream Last