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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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"Come on, Alistair! It's no use moaning. As king you have to learn Orlesian."
"Alright, but how about we start with the real essential things?"
"The basics seem rather essential to me," Rori retorted while she strapped her luggage to her horse. I tried to do the same and didn't even get to lift the package off the ground before some stable boy almost broke his neck, diving for it. He practically yanked it from my hands. I grabbed it but he wouldn't let go. "It's his job, Alistair."
"Is this another king-thing? Next they're going to masticate my food. Just so you know, that's when I'm drawing the line - king or no." I huffed, glowering sullenly at the boy. I felt ultimatively stupid and useless just standing around, watching others work while I smiled and waved. "Talking about food what's the word for cheese?" I asked. Basics she said. What could be more basic than cheese?
Rori rolled her eyes. "Le fromage."
"Where is the cheese?" I sought to improve my mind.
"Oh come on! When will you ever need that line?" Rori groaned. I gave her my best puppy-dog-eyes. That always worked with her. Okay, most of the time. Sometimes. "Fine! Où-est le fromage?"
"See, this at least is useful," I grinned. When she poked out her tongue at me, I ruffled her short hair that had grown long enough by now to form tiny incredibly cute curls on her head. "And how to say 'I love you' in Orlesian?"
That had Rori smile. One of those lately rare adorable smiles that lit her whole face and brought the glow of liveliness back to her eyes. She tiptoed to whisper the words into my ear, tickling me with her breath. "Je t'aime."
Now I smiled, too. "I love you, too." I slid an arm around her waist and pulled her closer. "And how to say 'kiss me'?"
Instead of answering right away, Rori wrapped her arms around my neck, her head tilted backwards, eyes closed, lips slightly parted. "Embrasse-moi," she murmured.
"Your desire is my command," I replied, crushing my lips against hers. She eagerly accepted and I came to the conclusion that learning Orlesian wasn't as dull as I had thought.
"In case you're done, your Highness, the troups are ready to leave," Eamon interrupted my Orlesian lessons.
I beamed at Eamon and waved. "I suppose, I smiled and waved at everybody about twice at least in all my glorious kingliness. If this is all that is asked of me as king even I should manage."
"I should ask Dagna to create a waving King Alistair doll," Rori mused. "They would sell like hot cakes..."
"Your ideas to refill the treasury are becoming a bit... fanciful lately," Eamon complained. By his sour expression he was glad to get rid of Rori for some days and that way separate her from Dagna. The tiny dwarf had only arrived yesterday and already the two of them together really had strange ideas and their combined charme too often convinced Bodahn to give it a try.
While Dagna now had time to create the artificial arm for Ser Cauthrien - the actual reason why she had come to Denerim - we were about to leave the capital to chase the remaining darkspawn that had fled from the city and now were running around Ferelden aimlessly. When Duncan had said they would return to the Deep Roads once the archdemon was defeated, I didn't expect them to have that much trouble to find their way back. We were kindly going to show them the right direction since Denerim according to Rori was completely darkspawn free.
I was glad to leave the city behind. Denerim seemed suffocating already. Or maybe it was Eamon pestering me with kingly business the moment I rolled out of bed. So slaying darkspawn sounded like a vacation to me.
There were some who weren't that delighted about my departure, though. "You are crazy! Mad! Nuts! You have to be! And now you leave me alone! You mustn't go! What should I do? What can I do?"
"Levi, if two junior Grey Wardens could end a Blight, you can rule a city," Rori patted the newly minted Arl's shoulder.
"I have no clue what an Arl has to do!" Levi shrieked, grabbing the front of my cape. He was trapped somewhere in between pride and terror. To restore the family's honour was what he had always dreamt off. However, even in his wildest dreams he hadn't seen himself as Arl of Denerim.
"And I have no clue what a king has to do. And nobody seems to care," I said with heartfelt sympathy.
"You're not alone, Levi," Rori assured him.
"Exactly, because you know, I have a dream," I intoned in my best king-voice, my arm wrapped around Levi's shoulder and we both gazed up into the blue sky. "That we all stand together for Ferelden to rebuild what was destroyed and make it even better and if you ask me: Can we make this happen. I say: Yes we can!"
"He doesn't believe that rubbish, does he?" Bann Alfstanna murmured behind my back. "Has nobody told him how Fereldan politics work? The Landsmeet uniting for the sake of this nation... excuse me while I laugh. We didn't even manage when an archdemon was breathing down our necks."
"Perhaps dreams like this are exactly what this country needs?"
Thank you, Rori!
Alfstanna snorted. "He wants the Bannorn to work together, he has to learn how to brownnose, bribe, blackmail and threaten them effectively."
Now didn't that sound like fun? I was so looking forward to it, I can't tell.
Alfstanna left and the stable boy came running again to help me, so I hurriedly pulled myself into the saddle - only to fall off the other side.
Doom!
DOOM!
In my panic I had hurried a bit too much and the momentum catapulted me over my horse. The rattle of King Alistair falling of his horse, hitting the ground in full plate armour probably could still be heard in Amaranthine.
Arl Bryland's and Arl Wulff's faces where the first to appear in sight, looming worriedly over me. "And I tell you, he is Maric's son! He's the spitting image of his father. He talks like his father. He even falls off his horse exactly like his father. What more prove do you need?" Leonas said.
"Hmph," Wulff grunted. "We will see if he can stay on his throne longer than he can stay in the saddle."
Charming.
I wasn't even yet crowned and they already doubted my claim - just like Anora had forseen. Of course she also had done her best to plant the seed of suspicion.
The two Arls were shoved aside by Rori, much more concerned about my well-being than my heritage. "Alistair?"
"You know, I think we really should reconsider this escape plan to Orlais." I bet Anora Mac Tir had never fallen off her horse in front of the assembled nobility of Ferelden.
"Do you want to walk there?" Rori replied, holding out her hand for me to pull me back to my feet. Sighing I climbed back into the saddle, waved and smiled.
When we rode through the city gates I felt a weight being lifted of my shoulders. Denerim in that short a time had become the synonym for my burden. Leaving it behind I felt free although it was an illusion. I would never be free again.
Rori took my hand and squeezed it assuringly, comfortingly. I smiled thankfully and was rewarded with her smiling in return.
Then we passed by the pyres. The days after the Blight you could smell them everywhere in Ferelden. A whole forest got cut down to burn all the corpses, the darkspawn, the humans. And there was this huge tainted dragon rotting on top of Fort Drakon. We had to chop it into handy pieces and carry it down all those stairs. I have never before and never afterwards been that grateful that Rori had activated Shale in Honleath. Needless to say Shale herself wasn't as delighted.
Avernus and his crew left with us for Warden's Peak. That's how we dragged along a cart with the archdemon's head, all its organs and blood in barrels and several cages of living darkspawn. Avernus grinned from ear to ear and kept shouting at us to hurry up because he couldn't wait returning to his lab. And the soldiers did hurry because nobody wanted to stay around him and his creepy freight for long.
Especially the nobles avoided Avernus like the plague. And that was the reason why I was to be found with the Grey Wardens mostly. I wore a beatific smile and waved stupidly at the banns from afar whenever they turned in their saddles and beckoned me to talk to them.
It was bliss...
"You are a hero, your Highness!"
Almost.
"You and Lady Rori all alone against the darkspawn, the last of the Grey Wardens make the impossible happen! You have to be so proud of yourself! The people adore you! I adore you! Did I already say you are a hero? My hero!" The young doe-eyed soldier exclaimed, clapping her hands over her heart. She even sighed and fluttered her eyelashes.
"Err... excuse me, but I don't remember we've met before..."
"Oh! How rude! I didn't even introduce myself. Name's Mhairi and... you are my hero, your Highness! I do want to become a Grey Warden like you... and Lady Rori! And all these heroic men and women..." She turned to look at our new recruits with undisguised pride and adoration. James was stuffing two sandwichs into his mouth. Darrian had trouble staying in the saddle as he balanced an applepie in each hand. His black eye spoke of his confrontation with Nan. Gilmore's face was smeared with jam. Jowan hadn't even bothered with slicing his loaf of bread but cut the whole thing in the middle, turning it into a super-size sandwich. And Solona looked like a chipmunk with her cheeks puffed and gravy dripping from the corners of her mouth. Cullen sat on her head, nibbling a cookie he held in his tiny paws.
Rori and I watched them with amusement. "Feels weird, doesn't it?" I sighed, all melancholic. "Suddenly we are the old stagers when only one year ago we've been in their places. They are the future of the Grey Wardens in Ferelden while for me, it is over."
"King or no, you will always be a Grey Warden," Rori said gloomily. For her it was a curse she intended to break. For me it was still mystified by the fellowship and the heroic duty. What can I say? I'm a hopeless romantic.
In the meantime Mhairi hadn't stopped babbling. I swear she only stopped when she had to breathe - and she could go without for an incredibly long time. "I'd do anything for you. You need something, anything, just tell me and I'll be there. You are so brave! King Alistair the Brave. How does that sound?" Mhairi beamed at me as if I was an epiphany. "What you did for Ferelden... for Thedas... you should be canonized!"
"Ha! If the Grand Cleric was here, her head would explode," I laughed out loud. "She keeps muttering 'The Maker moves in mysterious ways' whenever around me. My coronation already is a test of faith for her."
"But you are in line with Calenhad the Great and Maric the Saviour!" Mhairi exclaimed, her face glowing with admiration. "My heart is filled with pride when I think of Grey Wardens as king and queen of this nation!" She expectantly smiled at us from ear to ear.
"I wish more would share your enthusiasm," I muttered, beaming back at her.
"I so wish to be a Grey Warden," Mhairi prompted.
I somehow got the feeling I was missing something essential.
"If only someone would recruit me." she added, winking frequently at me.
I was about to ask her if she had dust in her eyes, when Rori shouted: "DARKSPAWN!" causing everybody to jump. I hadn't even felt a tingling at the back of my head while Rori already worked like a compass, leading a group of soldiers towards a small village aside from the main road.
When we arrived the darkspawn was already gone, the houses burnt, corpses lay scattered like broken dolls. One of them picked itself off the ground and staggered towards us, a scrawny thing with dirty blonde hair... it looked somewhat familiar...
"Alistair!" it howled, swaying from side to side as it scrambled forward.
"Ca-cammen?"
"They took Gheyna!" Cammen shrieked in a high-pitched voice, his face a mask of fear. The Dalish hadn't stayed in the capital after the defeat of the archdemon but had chased the darkspawn fleeing into the woods. I would have thought they would have returned to Brecillian Forest by now. Well, obviously they hadn't and here was poor Cammen more dead than alive, screaming at me in horror. "Lanaya, Gheyna! They dragged them away!"
Rori closed her eyes, moving her head from side to side. Then her arm shot upwards and she pointed a direction. "They're not far yet. We could reach them before they disappear in the Deep Roads."
"Please!" Cammen begged, dropping to his knees, his hands raised in a pleading gesture.
Without any further questions I stirred my horse to follow the darkspawn. "We'll bring them back, Cammen."
"Why should we risk our lives for some elven tarts?" Bann Franderel snorted.
I ignored him and so did Rori. If they didn't want to follow, fine! We wouldn't waste precious time with Bann Franderel's ignorance. We both knew first-hand what was at stake.
We chased through the woods, off-road, the horses jumping over roots, branches whipping at our faces. More than once did I almost fall off my horse. At this speed I certainly would have broken my neck. Rori was riding with Solona, Gilmore with Jowan. They clung to the riders in front of them, Solona prayed silently, her lips moving constantly as she pressed to Rori. Jowan screamed like a girl whenever Gilmore's horse vaulted across a fallen tree or rock. Soon his cries were answered by the shrill frightful shouts of the darkspawn's captives.
We knew where they were and they knew we were coming. Even without all the noise we were making, sneaking upon darkspawn is absolutely impossible for Grey Wardens. We sense them, they sense us. It sucks. Rori's words, not mine. But she does have a point.
Alas, I shouldn't have been surprised when suddenly a Hurlock jumped right into my way from behind a tree. I knew there was something nasty nearby. Unfortunately my horse didn't share this knowledge. It reared and I slammed onto the thankfully soft ground. The only reason I didn't get to hear yet another obligatory "Just like Maric!" was the absence of Fereldan nobility. It was us Grey Wardens, the Fellowship of the Blight, faithful Mhairi and the rest of my personal guards - and Teagan, cursing under his breath as he thought aloud about one hundred ways to kick the king's royal ass.
I was still rolling around on the ground, avoiding my horse's hooves while Teagan decapitated the Hurlock just by riding past. Master Dennet had always said Teagan was one of the best. I really don't want to repeat what he uses to say about me. My frantic mount disappeared between the trees same time as half a dozen darkspawn srpung up like mushrooms. I turned and slammed my shield into a Genlock's ugly face, then whirled round to block the blade of yet another Hurlock. Somewhere ahead the shrill cries of Shrieks announced the presence of even more darkspawn. Mhairi appeared at my side. Jowan, having fallen off Gilmore's horse, came running to our aid.
Cornered in a hollow surrounded by steep rocks on three sides, we were engaged in a raging battle, about fifty darkspawn against Ferelden's Grey Wardens, our fellow Heroes of the Fifth Blight minus Wynne, Teagan and some royal guards. It felt like old times...
Lanaya had escaped her captors and around her the forest came to life. Trees swayed their branches against the darkspawn, roots tripped them, a bear suddenly broke through the undergrowth, savaging the nearest darkspawn.
Gheyna wasn't as lucky. Hauled over the shoulder of a huge Hurlock, probably an Alpha, there was little she could do while the beast vanished inside the darkness of a cervice, not caring at all about its minions fighting for their lives.
Without any hesitation Rori darted after the escaping darkspawn.
Without any hesitation I darted after Rori.
Without any hesitation, but cursing like a sailor, Teagan darted after his king.
Last but not least there was Mhairi, following us like a faithful mabari.
She probably was the only one who thought this was awesome.
"Ohhhh! The Deep Roads!" she exclaimed and with admiration gawked at the remains of dwarven architecture as if we were about to have a sight-seeing-tour.
Passing by the statues of some long forgotten dwarves and through an impressive gate, Rori lunged into the darkness, following the darkspawn blindly until she ran straight into some cobwebs. Now, that had her running right back and into my arms and that's exactly where she stayed until Solona appeared and gave us some light.
"Hurry or we'll lose Gheyna!" I called out to the mage. She hurried although it turned out it really didn't matter.
The Hurlock hadn't gotten far. Actually he was stuck in a huge spider web a few yards down the passage. Above it dangled a fat black spider. It hissed when Solona's light touched it. That, however, didn't stop it from thoroughly wrapping the darkspawn up. Another smaller package already dangled from the ceiling. Rori whimpered and ducked behind me - with Solona and James. Maker! Were there any Grey Wardens not afraid of spiders?
"Spiders are pretty useful animals." I teased the scaredy-cats. "They terminate a whole lot of nasty vermin."
"I'm pretty sure Franderel would regard Gheyna as vermin, too," Rori agreed in a very small voice. "And she wouldn't end as a broodmother. Still, someone should get her, right? Any volunteers?"
Solona could be convinced to blast some spells at the spider until it retreated and Mhairi volunteered to get Gheyna.
All well that ends well.
I thought Rori would recurit her as a quid pro quo. Mhairi for sure expected it but Rori was busy getting away from the spider as quickly as possible.
Cammen was so grateful, he wanted to become a Grey Warden, too, when we returned Gheyna to him. As he shot himself in the foot when he was startled by a noise in the woods, Rori declined his offer. While the elves enjoyed their reunion, I met a chorus of disapproval. Not openly. It all happened behind my back. I heard the whispers as I passed by, spiteful remarks about Rori and Zevran's relationship, about his and my relationship, about the Dalish and my backscratching, about Amethyne and Shianni, about how the new king patronized the elves, how he even risked his life for them...
Rori heard it, too. And it made her hopping mad. It made me angry, too. And sad. And insecure. I didn't really know how to react. Rori just climbed an overturned cart, rising above the assembled soldiers and nobles. She didn't shout or clap her hands to gain their attention. She just stood there, her head held high, and the whispers around her died as all eyes turned to her.
"When the darkspawn abducts women, they do not kill them," she said in a voice so low, her audience had to strain their ears. She spoke matter-of-factly, calmly but with a heartfelt grief and undisguised horror. "They spit into their mouthes, they feed them human flesh and make them drink human blood. They violate them. And the women grow, infected with their corruption and filled with their seed. They turn into broodmothers - and give birth to hundreds of monsters, adding to the darkspawn horde."
Thus said she climbed from the cart and, accompanied by their shocked silence, walked through the passage the crowd opened for her until she came to stand next to me.
I'm not sure I would have told them. We hadn't yet heard from Weisshaupt if they wanted to keep the existence of broodmothers a secret. It wasn't anything that would make recruiting more difficult. Like the Joining or the Calling. Everybody knew darkspawn was evil. Real evil. But with Weisshaupt one never knows. They totally love their secrets.
Rori for sure had put my actions into perspective. Suddenly I wasn't a collaborator anymore but a considerate leader having risked his own life for the sake of his people. It wasn't about the elven women anymore, it was about preventing more darkspawn from swarming Ferelden and cause even more destruction.
At the end of the day after some more darkspawn hunting, we set up camp in an abandoned village. Some of the banns had left us by then, travelling back to their own lands to deal with the problems there, mostly including darkspawn.
I was dead tired, I didn't care much about anything anymore, really. Some banns came to complain about Avernus and his freight. Others didn't like sharing a camp with elves. The next felt outraged by a certain redheaded drunken dwarf. Then there was this useless discussion about who would get which room and where which tent had to stand regarding the importance of their inhabitants.
I only got one thing to say to them: "Suck it up!" I would have loved to add they could kiss my royal ass but all I got out was a yawn.
I stubbornly ignored Teagan and the fit for a king room at the tavern crammed with nobility and went to help Rori put up our old and battered tent in the death strip that separated Avernus and the Wardens from anybody else. I knew I was adding fuel to the fire and I couldn't have cared less.
Rori's face was grey with exhaustion. Still she refused to sleep. Instead she went for a walk.
I groaned out loud - and inwardly, too. I was so tired I was tempted to just haul her over my shoulder and drag her back to the tent. Unfortunately she was already gone so I had to catch her first and that meant walking into the forest. The fading light, painting dots of dim gold onto the forest floor, turned into dusky grey, mirroring my exhaustion. When I found Rori she was armed with a branch and was furiously beating up a tree, her movements lacking the fluid grace she used to show in battle. Panting she stopped as she heard me approach. She didn't turn to look at me, though. Just stood there with her shoulders slumped. The way she held herself, she could have been a hundred years or more.
"With the shadows beneath your eyes you look like a racoon," I sighed, pulling her into my arms when she was about to escape again. "You need to sleep, Rori."
"I can't!" she cried, breaking free from my embrace. She was swaying and her hands trembled as she ran her fingers through her hair. "After the Joining the first nightmares were a shock," she said hoarsely, more like talking to herself. "I got used to them. They increased slowly as I began to sense the darkspawn. And after the Deep Roads there was another exacerbation. Then I slayed the archdemon... It should have been a slow process with the taint growing stronger. I could have adjusted to it step by step until it would have become unbearable. Those things Riordan could do, sensing the generals amongst the darkspawn, listening to the archdemon's plans for the attack... it took him decades to get there. I got catapulted there within a heartbeat..." She groaned, banging her forehead against my chest and clapping her hands on her head as if she feared it would explode. "Their whispers are always in my mind," she breathed, her voice hollow with despair. "They increase when I sleep. I am right there amongst them as if I was part of them, as if I belonged there!"
Blast!
The dreams had become worse for me, too, after the battle of Denerim. I was standing pretty close when Rori rammed her sword into the archdemon's skull and the corruption swept me off my feet as well. I knew what she was talking about. Kinda.
After the Joining the darkspawn enters our minds. It's like a background noise. First you don't really notice it unless it's completely quiet around you. It's like the distant murmur of a river. You don't really pay attention to it, it's just there. With the taint growing stronger, you start approaching the river and the murmur slowly becomes louder. Rori, however, all of a sudden found herself standing next to a roaring waterfall.
Helplessly I held her as she cried with her face buried at my chest.
"I shouldn't have persuaded you to do the ritual," Rori sobbed. "It should have ended with the archdemon's death..."
Whoa! Wait! I didn't like where she was heading. This was not Rori-like at all. She had said she hadn't had the time to get used to the change but that didn't mean she wouldn't adjust at all. It was only a matter of time, right? She had to grit her teeth and bloody blast it give it a try, right?
Right?
I opened my mouth to say something encouraging and comforting but really everything I could think about sounded like empty phrases.
"Maybe I can help." A whisper in the dark made us both jump. Our hands flew to the hilts of our weapons. Between the trees glowed a pair of eyes like a cat's. "I do not mean no harm." The voice went on soothingly. "I tend to forget humans cannot see in the dark like we do." A small ball of dim light formed next to the speaker's head and I became aware, it was Keeper Lanaya. Rori and I let out the breath we had been holding and relaxed. Damn sneaky elves!
"You risked your own lives to save mine. Ma serannas." Lanaya put her hand over her heart and bowed slightly. "I am in your dept. Allow me to repay you for your kindness." Thus said she untied an object from her belt that strongly reminded me of a spider net. It was a circle of strings woven together, small beads adorning it and one bigger stone right in the center. It reminded me of a spider sitting there, waiting for its victims. Needless to say, Rori wasn't delighted. Three feathers were attached to the circle with leatherbands, flowing softly in the night's breeze.
"Err... what is that?" Rori asked suspiciously,
"You would probably call it a dreamcatcher," Lanaya answered after a moment of thought.
"You mean, it will stop my nightmares?" Rori blurted out hopefully. Suddenly she didn't care anymore that thing looked like a spider web. Lanaya could have handed her a heap of Ogre dropping and told her to place it on her head whenever she laid down to sleep and Rori would have gladly done as told as long as the nightmares ended.
"No," Lanaya said. The disappointment on Rori's face was heartbreaking. "Stopping your nightmares would mean to cut you off the Fade."
"Then what is it good for?" Rori pouted.
"It will help you find the strength inside of you and face your demons," Lanaya explained. "In your dreams, you enter the Fade but you don't control this journey. The dreamcatcher will allow you to act instead of being thrown around like flotsam by the waves."
"You mean, I'm going to morph into a mouse again?" Rori groaned and pulled a face.
"A mouse?" Lanaya frowned.
"We once were trapped in the Fade by a sloth demon," Rori explained. "A mage showed me how he had managed to turn into a mouse and escape through a mousehole to another level of the demon's dimension. Later I also learnt how to turn into other... things. It was all very strange." She shuddered at the memory, hugging herself.
"That is an extraordinary experience - especially since you aren't a mage. Would you mind telling me the whole story some other time?" Lanaya said. "As for your question, the dreamcatecher works differently for everybody. It does not have power of its own. It enables the strength inside of you."
"So what do I have to do with it?" Rori asked with her old bloody-blast-it-attitude. She straightened and reached out for the circle of strings and beads and feathers.
"We need a drop of your blood to activate it..."
"Bloodmagic!" I groaned in exasperation. "Why does it always have to be bloodmagic!? I've been trained to become a templar!"
"Your Chantry demonizes bloodmagic," Lanaya observed.
"They have every reason to do so," I snapped. Admittedly I sounded rather meek. I felt somewhat obliged. That's ten years of Chantry indoctrination for you.
"Well, I give a damn," Rori said matter-of-factly, already pulling her dagger from its sheath to prick her thumb. Lanaya guided her hand and one crimson droplet fell to the large bead in the middle of the web. A reddish gleam enwrapped the bead and spread across the strings. I felt the sparks of strong magic at work, setting my templar instincts on alert.
I opened my mouth to voice my qualms once more and shut it at once when Rori spun round with a smile so bright and hopeful it made her eyes shine. She pressed the dreamcatcher to her chest like a child would do with her most precious cuddly toy, convinced it would chase all the monsters away and keep her save while she slept.
"Bedtime!" she cheered, grabbed my hand and bounced off towards the camp. She stopped dead to turn on her heels and pounce a rather startled Lanaya and hug her tightly. "Oh thank you! Thank you!" She let go of the elf as quickly as she had lunged herself at her, took hold of my hand again and giddily dragged me along.
Maker have mercy! I prayed the Dalish artifact would allow Rori the rest she desperatedly needed. And I really hoped I wouldn't wake next to an abomination some day.
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Hoping One Day We'll Make A Dream Last