The Mistress, chapter 8/? (Rated M)

[i_paint_the_sky]

Crossposted to swooping_is_bad, dragonage_fic, and fandomfic

Title: The Mistress
Rating: M
Pairings: Starts with Cailan/Elissa, eventual Alistair/Elissa.
Summary: Elissa Cousland, the favourite of King Cailan, finds herself thrown from the political arena into something completely different as the coming Blight changes her world forever.

Read the rest of the story here




Chapter 8: Into the Wilds


Alistair continued to prattle on as they walked through the camp, though Elissa was not actually listening to him at this point. At least not most of the time and when she did, it confirmed that she wasn't missing much. In the distance, she could see Duncan standing with two men, presumably the other recruits. It would be but a minute or two before they reached them and then -

Elissa froze in her steps as she suddenly caught sight of another man, this one whom she knew only too well.

“Teryn Loghain.”

It had been a long time since she has seen Loghain in full armour and she had to admit he made an impressive figure – and an imposing one as well. She'd grown up on stories of the Hero of River Dane. Even knowing the man and their many differences, it was hard to forget that childhood sense of awe and wonder, especially with the storybook figure standing before her in all his glory.

“Lady Elissa,” Loghain said, nodding stiffly in greeting. “I wanted to express my deepest condolences for the tragedy that has befallen your family. The King told me of his promise. I'm certain he has every intention of following it through.”

“Thank you, my lord,” she replied. “I have complete faith that His Majesty will make sure that justice is served.”

“Yes,” Loghain muttered, “justice ... And now you will become a Grey Warden. It is quite the tale. I'm sure Cailan will be telling it for some time; his fascination with the Wardens goes beyond the ordinary, as I'm sure you know.”

Elissa nodded. “Yes, he seems quite taken with the notion of riding into battle with the Wardens at his side.”

“Yes, quite the tale indeed,” Loghain said. “I will admit, the Wardens are impressive but they are not as relevant as Cailan thinks.” He paused for a moment, then frowned slightly. “I don't suppose you'll be riding into the thick of battle with the rest of your fellows, will you?”

“I don't know,” she admitted.

Loghain's mouth twisted into a shadow of a smile. “If Cailan has his way, maybe you will.”

Elissa couldn't think of any suitable reply to that – she was hardly sure what exactly the Teryn was getting at. And she was not entirely sure she wanted to know either.

“Well, I should return to my business and you to yours,” he said finally, turning to face Cailan's tent. “Pray our king proves amenable to wisdom, if you're the praying sort.”

Loghain began to walk away. After a few paces, Elissa called out after him, “And if he doesn't?”

“Then simply pray,” he replied, without looking back.

Elissa stood there, watching him, for quite a while, until she heard a sound behind her and realized she'd forgotten entirely that Alistair was with her. She turned to him and saw too many questions in his eyes.

“What was tha-”

“Let's move on,” she told him brusquely, before starting to walk again.

He followed after a moment, though she could feel his eyes on the back of her head, wondering about things a stranger had no right to wonder about. She did not owe him an explanation, nor would she offer one.

It was not much longer before they reached Duncan's tent. As they drew close, Elissa heard a familiar bark; however, much to her surprised, it was not to her that Barkspawn ran first but to her companion.

“Hello there,” Alistair said, reaching out to gently rest a hand on the mabari's head. “And who might you be?”

“His name is Barkspawn,” she told him.

Alistair looked over at her and grinned. “What an excellent name. Did you pick it out yourself?”

“Yes,” Elissa replied with a sigh. “I was twelve and very proud of my own cleverness.” He chuckled, which only made her regret her twelve year old self's love of bad puns even more. “Look,” she said impatiently, “Duncan is waiting for us.”

Alistair immediately straightened up and squared his shoulders, like he was a squire trying to impress the knight he served. Actually, seemed to be exactly what he was or close enough. Not that it really mattered. They began to walk again and quickly closed the final distance, where Duncan and two other men stood.

“There you are,” Duncan said as he caught sight of them. “You found Alistair, did you? Good, I'll assume you are ready to begin preparations.” He paused, frowning. “Assuming, of course, that you're done riling up mages, Alistair.

Alistair raised his hands before him, palms up. “What can I say, the Revered Mother ambushed me. The way she wields guilt, they should stick her in the army.”

Duncan did not look amused. “She forced you to sass the mage, did she?” he asked. “We cannot afford to antagonize anyone, Alistair. We do not need to give anyone more ammunition against us.”

“You're right, Duncan,” Alistair said, looking crestfallen. “I apologize.”

Duncan only shook his head, then turned his attention back to Elissa and the other men. “Elissa, this is Jory, and Daveth. Together with Alistair, the three of you will be heading into the Korcari Wilds, to perform two tasks. The first is to obtain three vials of darkspawn blood, one for each of you.

“Go into the Wilds?” Jory exclaimed. “Isn't that dangerous?”

“You weren't recruited out of charity,” Duncan said to the man, though Elissa thought he glanced her way as well. “All three of you are skilled and resourceful. And Alistair, as the most junior member of our order, will accompany you, as is tradition. Do not worry; I doubt you will need to go far into the Wilds to find what you seek.”

“What do we need darkspawn blood for?” Elissa asked, hoping that perhaps something about this Joining would finally be revealed.

“For the Joining itself,” Duncan confirmed, though quickly added, “I'll explain more once you've returned.”

She was beginning to grow weary of all this secrecy. “Surely you could have acquired some blood before now,” she said.

Duncan looked at her, his expression stern, reminding her that there was no turning back now. “You must work together to collect the components. It's as much a part of the joining as what comes after.”

She nodded slightly. “And what's the second task?”

“There was once a Grey Warden archive in the Wilds, abandoned long ago when we could no longer afford to maintain such remote outposts. It has recently come to our attention that some scrolls have been left behind, magically sealed to protect them. Alistair, I want you to retrieve these scrolls if you can.”

“Is this part of the joining too?” Daveth asked, half a second before Elissa was going to do the same.

“No,” Duncan told them, “but the effort must be made. I have every confidence you are up to the task. It would be an overgrown ruin by now, but the sealed chest should remain intact. Alistair will guide you to the area you need to search.”

All three of them nodded, all questions asked – or at least, all questions asked that they thought Duncan might answer. The Warden-Commander turned back to Alistair and his expression softened slightly, “Watch over your charges, Alistair. Return quickly and safely.”

“We will,” Alistair replied, practically glowing at the attention. Perhaps this relationship was less squire-knight and more ... father-son. She could remember Father and Fergus and – she just barely managed to stop herself from thinking more.

“Then go,” Duncan told them all, “and may the Maker watch over your path.”

Alistair quickly led them towards a guarded gate which would let them enter the Wilds. The path took them close to Cailan's tent but Elissa could not spot the King anywhere. It was a pity too because she was beginning to really need to talk to him. Perhaps he could make Duncan release her from the Wardens because the more she learned about them, the less she was comfortable with. Dangerous missions, secret ceremonies – she knew she had promised herself to the Wardens at Highever but surely the duress she'd been under at the time would mean there were other options. And if anyone could help her, it would be Cailan. He had to see that this was a terrible idea.

Even if he did practically worship the ground the Grey Wardens stood on.

But there was no getting out of it now and so Elissa focused on the path ahead of them, keeping an eye on the forest as she watched for her first darkspawn. Her heart was pounding, almost the only thing she could hear. Almost. In front of her, Jory and Daveth were bickering about something. She didn't care what, she just knew there were being ridiculous and far too loud. Though since they did want to encounter darkspawn, maybe it was actually going to be useful. That said, she had nothing to add and so she didn't. They might all be recruits but these men were nothing like her for so many reasons, not the least of which was that they seemed to have actually willingly volunteered to be here.

She definitely would have to talk to Cailan as soon as she could.

There was a rustle in the bushes beside her and Elissa spun around, bow raised, as Barkspawn growled at her feet.

“Don't worry,” Alistair called back to her, “it's nothing.”

Sure enough, a moment later a very thin and very terrified rabbit popped into view and then, at the sight of the mabari, ran off in the opposite direction as fast as it could.

Slowly, she put her bow away. When she turned, she discovered that Alistair was now standing right beside her.

“Are you alright?” he asked.

“Yes,” she told him. “How did you know it wasn't a darkspawn?”

They began to walk again before Alistair answered. “Grey Wardens can feel the darkspawn coming. You'll understand after the Joining, if you s-... well, you'll understand.”

Elissa glanced over at Alistair, who immediately looked away and hurried his steps, calling out to correct Jory's stance or something equally mundane. He was hiding something, no doubt about it, and it was something bad. She swallowed hard. She would definitely need to find Cailan the moment they returned to the camp.

They continued walking through the Wilds for another half mile at least – after so long on the road, Elissa had become quite skilled at judging distance, as well as being able to traverse it without becoming winded. They still hadn't seen any darkspawn and she was beginning to think that perhaps this really wasn't a true Blight after all. Maybe everyone was getting worked up over nothing.

She had just about convinced her of this when suddenly Barkspawn began to growl again. Moments later, she heard the sound of a sword being drawn and, pushing the encroaching horror she felt away, Elissa looked up and saw Alistair and the others preparing for a fight.

And then she saw it.

The creature – the darkspawn – was shorter than she expected. For some reason that was the first thing she noticed but it was far from the last. Its face, if you could call it that, was scrunched up and twisted, with sunken eyes that stared at her like she was a hunk of meat waiting to be eaten. It snarled as it walked forward, which gave her an even better chance to notice its long, sharp teeth, dripping with blood. There were traces of more blood along its armour and on the blade of the crude sword it carried.

As it advanced closer and closer, Elissa froze. She couldn't help it; she had never seen anything so terrible or terrifying. She wasn't sure how long she stood there but finally the sight of the others fighting, of Barkspawn standing before her, hair bristled and barking, made her realize she was in another battle for her life. And suddenly she was drawing her weapon and the arrows began to fly.

The first darkspawn fell but another took its place and then another and another. It was just like before, like home, only somehow even worse. Or maybe better, since at least these enemies weren't human, weren't something that was supposed to be trustworthy and good. And finally, just like before, there were bodies scattered around her, many with her arrows sticking out of them.

“Are you alright?”

She spun around with another arrow notched and found herself face to face with Alistair, her arrow's tip resting on his breastplate. She quickly lowered her weapon, tried to catch her breath, and eventually realized he'd said something.

“Sorry, what?” she muttered, finally able to take a careful look around. Jory and Daveth were both still standing and looked to be gathering the vials of darkspawn blood.

“Are you alright?” Alistair repeated.

“Yes,” she told him. “Yes. Are you?”

He smiled. “It will take more than a few genlocks to take me down.”

She frowned. “Genlock?”

“That's the name for the type of darkspawn that attacked us.”

“You mean there's more than one type?” she asked, her eyes widening in horror.

He nodded. “Unfortunately, yes. These ones are actually the easiest to deal with.”

She shook her head in silence, holding back her millions of questions that had answers she probably didn't want to know.

“Well then,” Alistair said, turning towards the others, “since we're all still in one piece, more or less, we should probably move out. We still need to find those scrolls.”

Somehow, Elissa managed to get her feet moving again. She was even able to retrieve a few arrows from the bodies, even though to do that she had to get much closer to them than she would have liked. And then they began to walk again. This time, she did not keep track of distances or how long it was taking or anything beyond putting one foot in front of the other.

“Look over there,” Daveth called out, pointing to the distance. Elissa followed the gesture and quickly spotted an old, ruined stone building.

“That looks like it,” Alistair said as he started to walk in that direction, the rest of them close behind.

Soon they were walking on the remnants of a stone floor, walking past columns that must have once been a sight to behold. It did not take long before they found a chest in the middle of ruins – or at least, the remains of a chest. Elissa reached it first and knelt down, carefully picking up the pieces and shifting them. There was no sign of any treaties.

“Well, well, what have we here?”