Vir Lath Sa'vunin Chapters Thirty-Seven and Thirty-Eight

[lenna_nightrunner]

A Dalish-centric AU gen fic featuring two Mahariel Wardens, one bastard prince, and lingering ghosts.

Title: Vir Lath Sa'vunin (We Love One More Day)
Rating: T
Authors: twist_shimmy and lenna_nightrunner
Post Word Count: 3010
Summary: When their parents died, Tesni Mahariel was left to raise her brother Caerwyn with the help of the rest of their clan. True to their penchant for getting into trouble, Caerwyn and Tamlen went hunting one day and ran afoul of a mirror, of all things. The next thing Tesni knew, Caerwyn had been recruited by the Grey Wardens. As if she’d let some shemlen just take her brother away! Determined to keep Caerwyn safe, Tesni goes after them, and antics ensue. She’ll stop the Blight to protect her family, Caerwyn will help--grumbling all the while--and Alistair will do his best to bond with his tattooed and bristly new brethren. When all is said and done, the blurred lines between friendship and blood bonds will draw them down a path that will change all three of them forever.

In this installment, both our Mahariels could use a little help.

Chapter Thirty-Seven: What Does It Take to Get a Drink In This Place? (The Postal Service)

TESNI

“Caerwyn!” I leaned out over the battlement and stared down into the courtyard of the keep. “Caerwyn!”

“What?” He was sitting on the steps, with his sodding cat, as usual.

“You’re supposed to be helping Wynne dry those herbs the Drydens brought in for us.”

“I’m thinking,” he said. I gathered a handful of snow and hurled it at his forehead. “Hey!”

“Come on.” I strode past him down the stairs and heard him rise obediently to follow.

“What?”

“You need a project.”

“I have a cat.”

“No, you’re going to be making yourself useful. I’m tired of you moping around in the snow.”

“Snow’s boring.”

“Exactly.” I grabbed him by the wrist and hauled him through the door of the stables. What was that shem’s name? “Alec?”

A young boy with messy brown hair and nearly yellow eyes peeked out over a pile of hay in the back of the building. “Yes, my lady?”

“I have a job for you.”

“Certainly, my lady.”

Sometimes I wondered if the Drydens insisted on calling me “my lady” because of the way it made me twitch. “I want you to teach my brother how to run the stable and take care of the horses and equipment.”

“Why?” they asked me in unison, and I resisted the urge to bare my teeth.

“Because he needs to take charge of something, and you need help. I heard Levi complaining that the horses needed more care last night at dinner.” And after spending so much time staring at the map of Ferelden recently, I was becoming more and more convinced that we were going to be relying on horses in the near future, and if I had to learn to write, my little brother could be trained to handle stupid beasts.

“Sister,” Caerwyn scowled. “I hate horses. And he’s a da’len!”

“Who is currently more useful than you are,” I retorted. “Something to think about.” I disarmed my brother pointedly and left them standing and staring at one another amidst all the horses. Chat’len saw me come back into view and smartly fled for the gate.

Sodding brother. Sodding cat. Sodding shems and buildings and snow and--doors.
I was sent sprawling as Alistair flung open the main doors too enthusiastically from inside the keep.

Ow. I sighed up at him as he nearly slipped trying to get to me.

“Tesni? Oh, Maker, I’m so sorry.” He took my hands in his and pulled me to my feet.

“I’d tell you to watch where you’re going, but you should have been able to feel me,” I muttered, brushing snow off my backside and grimacing at my sodden clothes.

“Hey! You didn’t feel me, either.”

“I was--busy.” Creators’ sakes, I sounded like Caerwyn.

He looked around the courtyard. “Doing what?”

“Hating horses.”

“What?”

I shrugged. “I have a question for you. Where were you headed off to?”

“Uh, well. Somewhere away from Sten. Hadn’t thought much past the escaping part, actually.”

“What did you do?”

“I’d rather not talk about it.” He clapped his hands together and grinned at me. “So! What do you need?”

“I need you to come into the study.”

Alistair swallowed. “Will you protect me if Sten finds us?”

“No.” I opened the door to the keep, and he walked in with a resigned slump to his shoulders.

Alistair hadn’t been in my office since we were clearing the building of bones, and made and appreciative sound as he crossed the threshold. “Wow, Leliana worked really hard on this. You’d hardly know the furniture is hundreds of years old.” Alistair rubbed at the back of his neck as I shut the door.

I decided not to tell him most of this furniture had come from the blood mage Warden’s tower, and so had been in relatively good repair, and instead sat on the edge of the desk. “I need your help.”

Alistair blinked. “What? Really?”

“I have no idea how to run a keep, or lead troops, or.... But you’ve been a Templar, so you know how soldiers work, and barracks, and.”

“We don’t have any soldiers.”

“Yet.” I rested my chin on my hands. “We will, though, right? We need to.” As soon as possible, I added silently, staring out the window to where Loghain and Denerim loomed far closer than I wanted.

Alistair sighed and sat in my chair, putting his arms on the desktop beside me. “Right.”

“So we need to get the keep ready for the soldiers, fast.”

“How... have you ever spent long in the mountains?”

I looked over my shoulder at him. “Not really, why?”

“The passes to the keep are going to close soon.” When I stared at him, he elaborated: “Too much snow. If we do any major recruiting, it will have to wait until spring.”

“Well, at least Loghain won’t be able to get to us,” I muttered.

“If we’re lucky, he still doesn’t know where we are.” When I didn’t return his smile, he coughed. “So, what are you putting me in charge of, then? Can I be in charge of the kitchens? I could handle the kitchens!”

“No.” Wynne had already taken control of the kitchens. “But, you can talk to Mikhael and Levi and see about getting weapons and other war supplies. Also, the emissary--” with the dead eyes “--Pether, he will probably tell you how soon we can get mages here and what they’ll need.”

“I assume you’ll want some mages with us over the winter, then?”

I nodded. “Just in case. It would be easy to defend this keep with magic.”

“All right. I’ll see what I can do.” He rose from my chair with a tired grumble. “I guess I can’t really expect you to run the keep by yourself like you could the camp.”

I did smile at him, then, and he chuckled and shut the door behind him as he left. There was no point in telling him yet that he and my brother were probably going to be in charge without me within the next few months.

I looked to the wall to my left, where Zevran had hung the map. Too much to do, and not enough time.

We would need to split up. And if we were going to split up, I needed to get my brothers used to leading and making decisions. In that sense, the passes getting snowed in might actually prove useful. Especially since it was likely going to take days for Caerwyn to give up and agree to help Alec in the stables.

Thinking about my brother turned out to be a mistake: the door to my study opened, and he stalked in with a faint frown on his face.

“Go back to the stable,” I said.

“Shale’s scaring the horses.”

“What? How?”

“Rocks.”

...Rocks. I followed my brother back into the courtyard, ducking through a small throng of milling Drydens to find my golem hurling large chunks of debris at several hawks spinning idly overhead. Each time one missed its mark and careened back to land, the horses whinnied and my shems shuffled nervously.

“Insufferable little demons,” she snarled. “Must you be everywhere?”

“Shale.”

Her hand lowered. “Yes, what is it?”

“What are you doing?”

“Practicing my archery. I thought it would like me to remain in fighting form while we played in the snow instead of crushing darkspawn. Aren’t its chances slim enough without wasting all this time?”

“Careful, Shale. You’re dangerously close to sounding like you care.”

“Me? Certainly not. I’m simply tired of standing about in the snow.”

I crossed my arms. “Fine. Go... keep practicing. Outside the walls. And take the sodding cat,” I added, pointing at Chat’len as he approached, appearing intent on distracting Caerwyn again.

“Oh, as you like. Come here, cat.” Her heavy footsteps echoed through the courtyard as she strode toward the main gate, large rock in each hand.

Strangely, Chat’len followed. Caerwyn seemed less than amused by that development, but was soon too annoyed by my insistence that he return to the stable to do anything but scowl and walk away. I was rubbing at my temples and watching him stalk off when I felt a breath against my ear.

“I must say, I never tire of this menagerie you’ve collected, my Warden.” I tried to keep my shoulders from twitching, but Zevran caught the way my jaw clenched, and I felt him laugh. “Especially because they throw you off your guard so easily!”

“I should stab you for sneaking up on me like that.” I turned to face him, and met smiling eyes and teeth.

“Tsk, tsk,” he replied. “The first two were free, but if you make me bleed again I shall have to charge you for the pleasure.”

I shook my head. “Stop that.”

“Must I?” His smile widened.

“I feel bad for stabbing you.”

“Ah, but it was my plan both times that ended in you nearly gutting me!” He laughed, and I felt myself smile.

“Remind me not to let you plan, then.”

“Agreed. Now come inside before we both catch a chill.” Zevran gestured toward the keep, and I followed him back inside. I needed his help writing a letter to the First Enchanter, and I might as well get it over with.    

---

Chapter Thirty-Eight: Do You Wanna Know What My Love Is? Do You Wanna Hear How My Song Goes? Don’t Say No. (The Alkaline Trio)

CAERWYN

Horses. Horses.

I must’ve done something to irritate Tesni. Why else would she’ve made me spend my days in a smelly wooden shack with a shemlen’len and a bunch of very dumb, very ugly animals. All they did was eat dead grass and let the shemlen tell them what to do with strings around their faces.

What was worse was that they liked me. They liked me better than the stupid kid with the creepy eyes. At least, they didn’t kick me when I cleaned them, which was more than I could say for little Alec.

But I didn’t want to tell Tesni because she’d be unbearably smug about it. I was already facing the prospect of one person being unbearably smug about something, and I really wasn’t looking forward to it. Unfortunately, the prospect of waiting anymore was even more unbearable.

As popular and as busy as he was, it wasn’t easy to catch Zevran on his own. If he wasn’t helping Tesni learn how to get more ink all over herself, he was trying to get Alistair to blush, Sten to threaten him with a quick and very bloody death, or one of the Drydens to challenge him to a drinking contest.

So I had to duck into Tesni’s office after she’d finished another one of their writing lessons before he left. Zevran gave me a curious look when I locked the door behind me. “Ah, you have finally caught me alone. Are you going to have your way with me?”

I rolled my eyes at him.

“I have been waiting for this moment.” He batted his eyelashes.

“Forget it.” I turned to unlock the door.

“Wait.” He tugged at my shirt to stop me and chuckled. “Why are you here, cariño?”[1]

I rubbed at the hair on the back of my head and muttered, “You know.”

“Do I?” His eyes danced.

“Stop.”

“Ah,” he said. “Your songbird.”

I looked down at my feet. “She’s not mine.”

“Have a seat, my friend.” He gestured toward the chairs by the fireplace and we both sat down.

I waited for him to talk, but of course he didn’t say anything. He was going to make me admit it. Flat-eared bastard son of a shem.

“If I, um,” I swallowed. “I... she....”

“If you cannot say her name....”

“All right, all right,” I grumbled. “...Leliana.”

“Was that so difficult?”

Yes. I sighed deeply. “I don’t.... What should...?”

“Ah,” Zevran said with a smile. “You wish to, er... woo her.”

Woo. I snorted. “Something like that.”

“And you do not know how these things are done among humans, yes?"

I hid my face in my hands and shook my head.

"You would like my help."

I gritted my teeth. Did I want his help? No. Did I need it?

With my head still in my hands, I nodded slowly.

"Excellent! The first thing you must do," he said, pulling my hands away, "is stop hiding your pretty face. It is what first caught her attention, after all."

I shook off his grip and glared at him.

Zevran laughed. "How cruel your eyes can be! I have seen her admire them, as well, my friend. You must not make them as sharp as your blades."

I rolled my eyes, but when he raised his eyebrow at me I sighed in resignation. I took a deep breath and forced my expression to soften.

"There." Zevran put his knuckles under my chin and raised it so he could inspect my face. He smiled approvingly. "Now we will all be in danger of falling in love with you."

In love. Creators curse me, I blushed, and he laughed at me.

I glared at him again, and he shook his head ruefully. "It seems you will need practice."

"I still don't know what to do," I complained.

Zevran regarded me thoughtfully. "What do you like about her?"

I thought about Leliana and felt my face grow hot again. When I looked away, Zevran chuckled. "Besides her... looks."

What did I like about her?

"She, um... I don't know." I sighed. "Her... voice, I guess. And the way she plays music."

She'd made Tesni sing again. She'd made Tesni dance again. And I liked... listening to her. I liked Orlesian, and her tone, and her laugh--even though she laughed too much--and... and even the things she said. At some point I'd started to care about the things she said. That caught me off guard.

"Perhaps you could ask her to play for you?"

"What?" Alone? "No!"

Zevran chuckled again, and I suppressed the urge to narrow my eyes. Why did he have to make this so much harder by laughing at me?

"Then ask her to play for all of us," he suggested.

I considered the idea. For all of us. That wouldn't be so bad.

"And you think that'd show her I... like her?" I asked skeptically.

"It would be a start," Zevran said.

“Fine.” I put my head back in my hands. “What else?”

"I can only help you so much.” His eyes danced. “A gift must come from you, not me."

A gift. Very helpful. "I hate you."

Zevran grinned and clapped me on the shoulder. "You have many talents, my friend, but sadly, lying is not among them."



Ask her to play for all of us. Okay. No big deal. Lots of us had asked her to play before. So after dinner that night, when everyone was full of food and half the Drydens were full of drink, I focused on my empty plate and said, “How about some, uh.” I fiddled with my fork. “Music?”

Tesni stopped talking to Alistair and looked at me in surprise.

“What?” I shrugged. “What else are we going to do?”

“No, it’s a good idea,” she said, but Zevran gave her a knowing look and I saw her try to hide a smile. Smug son of a shem.

“Well?” Zevran turned to Leliana. “Will you favor us with a song, dulcita?[2] Perhaps our friends the Drydens could accompany you.”

I thought I saw Leliana glance at me before she beamed at Zevran. “It would be my pleasure. Let me get my lute.”

By the time she came back to the great hall, some of the least drunk Drydens’d assembled with their instruments. Soon everyone was clapping in time with the music and those of the Drydens who had wives were dancing. Zevran made Alistair blush by asking him to dance, and then, after laughing at him, held his hand out to Tesni.

They danced, and Leliana played and sang, and when she was tired out, the Drydens took over. She practically fell down onto the bench at the long table, panting and fanning herself. I hesitated for a few seconds, then took up a nearby cup of water and sat down next to her. When I handed it to her, she smiled.

“Merci.”

I shrugged. “De rien.”[3]

Leliana took a big drink of water. “Your pronunciation is nearly perfect, Caerwyn.”

“Nearly?” I snorted.

“All right.” She laughed. “Absolument parfait.”[4]

The corner of my mouth turned up. “C’est vrai.”[5]

She looked down into her cup. “You’ve never asked me to play before.”

“I didn’t,” I said. “Zevran did.”

Leliana laughed again. “Ah, I see.”

“You laugh too much,” I said, but when I couldn’t help smiling, she laughed again. “See?”

All right, I liked it when she laughed. Sometimes.

Then she smiled at me. That smile. That one that made me focus on her lips. And Creators curse the neckline of her stupid shirt and the way she was breathing. I felt heat in my face again and I tried to look like I was really interested in the drinking contest going on between three Drydens in the back corner of the hall.

Suddenly, warmth on my hand. Skin. I looked down to where my hand was resting on the bench between us, and saw hers covering it. When I looked up at her face, she was smiling that smile again, and she squeezed my hand.

I caught movement out of the corner of my eye and found Tesni and Zevran looking over at us from the crowd of dancers. I nearly jumped, and pulled my hand away from Leliana’s. Great. Tesni’d never let me hear the end of this.

But she didn’t say anything. She just raised her eyebrow at me very slightly before her face went blank again. Zevran, on the other hand, smirked that stupid smirk of his, and winked at me before turning back toward the crowd.

“Come, Alistair,” Zevran said over the music as he bowed dramatically in my brother’s direction. “I ask only the favor of one dance. I will not take no for an answer!”

I didn’t have to be winked at twice. I took Leliana’s hand and bolted for the hall.

---

[1] Cutie.

[2] Sweetie.

[3] It’s nothing. (You’re welcome.)

[4] Absolutely perfect.

[5] It’s true.

"You've never asked me to play before."