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How to Adopt a Warden and Other Tales	By : Royality Category: +A through F > Dragon Age (all) > Dragon Age (all) Views: 2658 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Dragon Age, nor the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

Chapter List
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Outside of Redcliff, Alistair pulled Izarre over to the side away from the rest of their party. “Look, can we talk for a moment?” he asked nervously while looking towards the town. “I need to tell you something I, ah, should probably have told you earlier.” Izarre crossed his arms, considering all of the many, many things that this could possibly be. He also had some serious doubts that it wasn’t something he already knew about Alistair anyway.
“I’m not going to like this, am I?” Izarre asked as he unfolded his arms. Looking to the ground, Alistair shuffled his feet.
“I don’t know. I doubt it,” he shrugged as he looked up. “I never liked it, that’s for sure.” There was another sigh from the worried Warden before he managed to speak again. “I told you that I was raised by Arl Eamon, right?” Izarre nodded in response.
“And I was raise by Teryn and Teryn Cousland. Who cares?” he then asked. He didn’t see a point to why Alistair wanted to bring this up, especially now, but Alistair smiled a bit. If anything, Alistair felt a connection with Izarre, at least when it came to their upbringing. Sort of.
“Well, I’m sure that was because you were such an adorable orphan. Me, not so much,” he laughed at his own memories before shaking his head. “No, the reason he raised me was because…well…”
“Spit it out, Alistair,” Izarre insisted, feeling uneasy about their private chat and about the looks they were getting from a distance by their other companions.
“Well, because…my father…,” Alistair spoke softly as he lost his smile. “…was King Maric. Which made Cailan my…half-brother, I suppose.” Izarre looked confused and took a step forward to close the gap between them.
“So…you’re not just a bastard but a royal bastard?” he said in a hushed voice.
“Ha!” Alistair laughed loud enough to make heads turn before he quieted himself down. “Yes, I guess it does. I should use that line more often.”
“Think it would help?” Izarre smirked, but Alistair shook his head as he tried to get back on track.
“Iz, I would have told you but….it never really meant anything to me. I was inconvenient, a possible threat to Cailan’s rule and so they kept me a secret. I’ve never talked about it to anyone.” Izarre’s lips pressed together at this. Being adopted into a noble family himself, he understood all too well how the lines of succession worked. To Alistair’s surprise, he gave a nod. “Look, everyone who knew either resented me for it or they coddled me…even Duncan kept me out of the fighting because of it. I didn’t…,” he paused as he reached out to touch Izarre’s shoulder. “I didn’t want you to know as long as possible. I’m sorry.”
“But…,” Izarre asked as he looked up. “Does Loghain know?” It was a troubling thought that Loghain tried to take both of King Maric’s sons out in a single swoop.
“Why wouldn’t he?” Alistair asked while sounding surprised. “He was King Maric’s best friend. I don’t know if that means anything though…I certainly never considered the idea that it might ever be important.” To that, Izarre pulled away from Alistair’s touch.
“You should consider it, Alistair. Bastard or not, you’re a possible heir to the throne.” Alistair frowned at this as he thought about it, but shook his head anyway.
“Let’s hope not. I’m a son of a commoner, and a Grey Warden to boot. It was made very clear to me early on that there was no room for me raising any rebellions or such nonsense. I’m sure you were given the same speeches.”
“I don’t share a bloodline.”
“As far as the rest of the world is concerned, neither do I. Besides, if there is an heir to be found, it’s Arl Eamon himself…though…if he’s really as sick as we’ve heard…” Alistair went silent in thought. “No, I don’t want to think about that. I really don’t.”
“Alistair…”
“No, just no,” he said firmly putting his hands up. “So there you have it. Now we can move on, and I’ll just pretend you still think I’m some nobody who was too lucky to die with the rest of the Grey Wardens.” Izarre scoffed at that.
“So what does that make me?”
“That makes you…the reason I think we have a chance of setting things right…among other things.”
As Alistair walked off into the sunset, Izarre found him to be a bit more heroic. He wasn’t exactly the same cowardly Warden that he met in Ostagar. Something was beginning to change, but Izarre wasn’t sure if the change was within himself or with Alistair.
Or both.
Unfortunately, the moment of reflection was abruptly interrupted when a screaming young man from town ran up on Alistair in a panic. Apparently the walking undead wasn’t just something found in old forest ruins. The town had been completely overrun with them and had been killing the townsfolk night after night. Inside of the barricaded Chantry, Alistair ran into his uncle.
Sort of.
There, Bann Teagan explained how hordes of undead had been constantly attacking the town since Arl Eamon took ill and how in a few hours, they would be attacking the wrecked town yet again. How to help the town was something to consider and Izarre also knew that he needed the support of the Arl for many things now, and not just with the darkspawn. The game of political musical chairs always went better when the participants had family support. To Alistair’s surprise, Izarre decided to help the town and actually managed to do by gathering local support and increase morale. He also made some of the best threats Alistair had ever heard. To add insult to injury and despite being scrawny and short, Izarre somehow managed to kick down a few steel-bolted doors as well. It was amazing how much work got done before dusk when the night settled in. Upon a hill, in full moonlight, undead swarmed from the castle only to get ripped apart by the Warden’s party. A second wave hit the lower levels, but had the same amount of luck as the first.
When the sun finally rose, the corpses fell to the ground as if they were just mere puppets who had their freshly strings cut. Returning to the cliff to speak with Bann Teagan only made things worse. The Lady Isolde had plenty of secrets, enough to raise suspension from everyone she spoke to, and after beating back more of the undead inside the Redcliff castle, her secrets finally surfaced. The great evil she spoke of earlier was actually her own son, Connor. He was a young lad, no more than twelve, and had torn the Veil while making a contract with a demon in order to save his dying father. The Arlessa had hired an apostate to train her son in secret, who had been showing signs of magic. What she didn’t know at the time was that the apostate had his own secret deal with Teryn Loghain to take the Arl out of the game.
Things were adding up as without Arl Eamon to challenge Loghain for control of the throne due to his blood relation to the former King Cailen, Loghain’s victory was nearly inevitable. However, something unlikely happened. The blood mage did try to make peace, feeling guilty for his crime however, and offered to cure Connor’s affliction by sending another mage to the Fade to slay the demon which possessed the child, but Izarre didn’t like it. It involved blood magic and a sacrifice. The very idea left a bad taste in his mouth.
Lucky for him, there was another way. The Mage Tower held both enough mages and lyrium to create the ritual in other way, one that didn’t involve killing the boy’s mother. Not to mention, as Alistair reminded the Warden earlier, the mages did owe the Grey Warden’s their allegiance.
(AN: A few lines of dialogue have been taken directly from the game or have been paraphrased from game dialogue. Anything recognizable as game dialogue is not mine, and I bow to the Bioware writing team.)
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How to Adopt a Warden and Other Tales