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peopleofthedas2010-11-06 03:15 pm
lenna_nightrunner) wrote in peopleofthedas2010-11-06 03:15 pm
Vir Lath Sa'vunin Chapters 11 and 12
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 (Language and Violence)
Authors: ![[personal profile]](https://s.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
twist_shimmy and lenna_nightrunner
Post Word Count: 2250
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, our three Wardens do some bonding and Caerwyn finds another reason to hate magic.
Eleven: He Sounds Like He's Missing Something or Someone He Knows He Can't Have Now. And if He Isn't, I Certainly Am. (Suzanne Vega)
TESNI
When I woke, there was a durgen’len making breakfast at the edge of the camp. No, there were two of them. The redheaded girl I let come with us in Lothering and Alistair had taken third watch, so they were the only ones I had expected to be up and about. Alistair was leaning on their wagon, making pleasant small talk, but his smile faltered into nervousness when he saw me approach.
“Morning! Look who found us.”
I nodded at the dwarves. “Bodahn and Sandal, right? Good to see you made it out of Lothering.”
The older dwarf shifted from foot to foot. “Your friend here says I should ask you if it’s alright to set up camp.”
I blinked at Alistair. “I don’t see why not.”
He shrugged back at me. “I just wanted to... check.”
“You’re more than welcome,” I said to the dwarves, “assuming you have some arrows.” Shemlen may not be able to make arrows that could fly in a straight line, but dwarven craftsmanship was something I’d been raised to trust.
Bodhan smiled widely. “Arrows, boots, cheese knives, you name it! Let me just show you....”
I had no idea what a cheese knife was, but soon I had plenty of acceptable arrows to last me until I found the time to make more. Alistair began to disassemble his bedroll while I filled my quiver and kicked dirt onto the embers of our fire.
“Is your brother up yet?”
I shook my head. “Let him sleep. This has been a hard few days for him.”
He sighed and began yanking viciously on the ties to his bedding. “Not just him.”
I felt my shoulders tense, but forced myself to take a deep breath. When he saw that I wasn’t about to lash out at him again, he offered a slightly crooked smile. “Have to say, this party you’re putting together hasn’t exactly been helping.”
I sighed and resisted the urge to rub at my forehead. “I know.”
“The Chantry sister I can see, and we kind of got saddled with Morrigan,” he added, saying her name like hahren Paivel used to say ‘shemlen,’ “but the murdering qunari seems like--well, a risk, doesn’t he?”
“He’s also large, and strong. He’ll be useful eventually.”
“What, am I not large and strong?”
“Sure,” I admitted, “but it can’t hurt to have a spare.”
“Oh, wonderful, I get it. Sten’s around in case I die, then, is he?”
“One can never be too careful.”
His face fell. “I... really hope you’re joking.”
“Of course I’m joking. I like you, Alistair.” When he stared at me in surprise, I narrowed my eyes. “Don’t give me that look.”
“I’m sorry, you’re not the easiest person to read, and you’re also kind of scary.”
I crossed my arms. “No, I’m not.”
“Sure you’re not. And your scary brother doesn’t have half his face completely obscured by a black tattoo, either.”
“He likes you, too.”
“Huh. The two of you have a funny way of showing it.”
I glanced around the camp before taking a step closer to my fellow Warden. Everyone else was either asleep or distracted. This was as much privacy as I was likely to get all day. “Our parents are dead,” I said bluntly, and realized as soon as his forehead furrowed in confusion that I should have prefaced that. “I practically raised him. We lost our... best friend to the sickness that almost killed Caerwyn before the Joining. He blames himself for the death of his lethallin and for endangering me.”
“...Oh,” Alistair replied.
“So if we seem....” I hunted for the right word.
“Prickly? Unapproachable?”
“...Yes, thank you. Standoffish, you know why. Adjusting would be hard enough without the added grief and an archdemon screaming in our dreams.”
Alistair sighed. “Well, if it makes you feel any better, I’m an orphan too. Never knew my mother or my father.”
“I remember mine. Caerwyn doesn’t, though.”
My brother chose that moment to exit our tent, glare at us both, and stalk off into the trees in search of water. Alistair watched his back for several moments before turning to me. “And you’re sure he likes me?”
I nodded. “He told me last night. ‘Tanlin him salin. Ellin.’” When he stared at me blankly, I tried to translate. “Basically it means the three of us share a bond now. Three bloods became one. Ellin means ‘our blood.’”
Alistair considered this for a moment. “So... are you going to teach me elvish?”
“Not a chance.”
“Good. I’d butcher it, anyway.” He grinned at me. “What about the others? You like any of them, or am I special? I like being special.”
“I’m fond of the dog,” I replied.
“And the rest?”
“...Morrigan doesn’t have a spare,” I admitted.
This appeared to put him at ease. “Then we should put her in harm’s way as soon as possible. Maybe we can turn her in to some Templars?” he suggested hopefully.
I shook my head. “We need a mage.”
“Okay so... we get a spare mage, and then we turn her in?” When I shrugged, he blinked. “Wait, really?”
In Lothering, we’d talked about where to go next, and anything except the Brecilian Forest sounded like an excellent idea. In fact, I was completely apathetic to all our choices. “Don’t we need the mages?”
“But Morrigan’s mother....”
“Isn’t here.” And I didn’t trust her for a second.
Alistair shook his head. “You’re a cold, cold woman.”
“I know.” Some flicker of emotion must have crossed my face, because he apologized instantly. Before I could reply, there was a loud yawn from our left, and I turned. Poor timing, on my part. Morrigan was stretching lazily, and her robes weren’t up to the task.
“If you intend to apologize for every stupid thing you say, Alistair, ‘twould be best for you to cease speaking entirely and let the bard write you a sign.”
Alistair shook his head. “Morning, Morrigan. Missed out on the beauty sleep, I take it?”
When that shocked her into silence, I had to resist the urge to laugh. “If any of you argue on the road today, I’ll put one of my new arrows through your spine and leave you to the wolves.”
“Oh, dear.” Leliana had just come within earshot, and was staring at me with sad eyes.
“She’s joking,” Alistair explained.
“No, she’s not,” Caerwyn called from the treeline, striding back into view holding our now-full waterskins. “She’ll do it.”
The grin that passed between the two of us was utterly lost on the others, which meant that the day of walking to get us closer to the place where the mages lived passed in blissful silence.
Twelve: The Status of My Fear Soars. I’m Waging a War: a War in Me. (Kenna)
CAERWYN
She was doing it to annoy me. All right, not just to annoy me, but that was clearly a perk for her. Every time she mentioned where we were going I could see a very slight smile on her lips.
Mages. That’s what I got for saying I hated magic: an entire tower full of mages.
When we got to the shore, Tesni decided that one of us should keep a camp near the docks. That way we’d know if there was any news about Loghain or his soldiers and we’d have some warning. So she left the purple man at the camp with the dwarves. He grumbled about not being in the action, but it was decided that Morrigan would be useful in a place full of magic and another knife-fighter would work better in closed quarters than a huge creature swinging a giant sword around.
We were supposed to recruit the mages and maybe the mage-wranglers to help us fight the darkspawn. But, of course, nothing is ever easy. Some kind of evil magic’d taken over the place, and the leader of the Templars said we'd have to go in and fight it if we wanted there to be any mages left to help.
"See?" I grumbled. "Magic leads to trouble."
Morrigan crossed her arms and narrowed her eyes at me. “‘Twill certainly lead to trouble for those who do not respect its power.” She looked around at a nearby group of Templars warningly.
Maybe we could leave the uppity bitch with them. They didn't seem very happy that she wasn't locked up in the tower, anyway. Their leader was watching her like a hunter watches a wolf: knowing there’ll be a fight and wondering who’ll win.
“Have fun,” I said, gesturing toward the group.
Tesni gave me a look that meant 'shut up or I'll shut you up,' so I hung back with Dalasen and Alistair while she agreed to let the Templars lock us in the tower and found more mages to be useless at us.
There was an old one and some young ones: not exactly the powerful magic users I’d imagined would need to be locked up. The old one said she’d take us through the tower to where the evil magic was coming from, but someone had to stay with the young ones.
The staring woman stepped forward immediately. “Would you like to hear a story?” When the younger children nodded, she smiled at them warmly. “Come over here and sit down, then. I’m going to tell you one about a Nevarran dragon hunter. Does that sound nice?”
Almost as soon as she began the story the fear left the children’s faces, and even the older ones joined them on the cold stone floor. We left the room to the sound of laughter.
We hadn’t even come across any enemies yet when it hit me, hard: everything was full of magic. I could feel it, smell it, taste it in my mouth somehow. At first it just made me feel uneasy, but soon after we started cutting through the demons it was so strong I felt sick to my stomach.
“Something up there is very wrong,” Alistair said, looking at the ceiling, and Tesni nodded her head in agreement. Even the dog looked wary.
Then it became crippling. When Alistair’d taken down the last of a group of the horrible deformed creatures we kept running into I had to stop and take a few breaths. Too much. Too close to the Beyond. It was here, all around me. There wasn’t enough separating me from it.
I leaned against a wall and squeezed my eyes shut. Help! I can’t look away!
“Caerwyn....” Tesni put her hand on my shoulder.
I took another deep breath, gritted my teeth, and stood up on my own again. “I hate,” I said as I opened my eyes and looked at her, “magic.”
Morrigan was about to say something undoubtedly sarcastic and self-righteous, but I glared at her so fiercely that she shut her mouth and turned away.
Alistair and the old woman were looking at me with concern. Tesni gripped my shoulder encouragingly. “Can you fight?”
I raised an eyebrow at her and spun my knives in my hands. Then I Iooked toward the door that led to the next level of the tower and took another deep breath. “Yes.”
Floor after floor, circle after circle. Spirits and demons and monsters and things that should’ve been dead but weren’t. And I couldn’t feel them like I could feel the darkspawn. Everything was a haze of sickening magic and they kept sneaking up on us.
A door opened and another group of demons surged toward us. We were ready this time. As the mages began to hurl bolts and balls of light, Tesni aimed an arrow at one of the deformed creatures. It was dead before the others reached Alistair and me, and we cut through them as fast as we could while Dalasen ripped them open with his teeth and claws.
Unfortunately, Tesni’s skill with a bow could be a weakness in a place like this. It was hard for her to keep far enough away from enemies to get a good shot, and she didn't have the time to get her bow out of the way to fight with a knife before they got near her.
She hated it, and it was beginning to show. Every time there was nothing for her to shoot she would move to sling her bow over her shoulder and grab her knives like we used to do when we hunted.
"No time," I shouted over the noise of clashing blades, blasts of magic, roaring demons, and battle cries as they echoed off the stone walls.
Tesni gave me an irritated look, but when I cut down the abomination in front of us and nodded toward a group of fire demons that'd just come through another door, she turned her attention to them.
"See?"
"Watch out," she warned as she nocked an arrow, reminding me that if there wasn't enough time for her to draw a knife then there definitely wasn't enough for my 'I told you so's. I whirled and stuck my blade into the strangely solid form of a black spirit. Alistair launched another one toward me with his shield and I kicked it to the ground so he could pin it there with his sword. One of Tesni's arrows flew past his ear and killed another abomination that was trying to attack him from behind.
I liked fighting with Alistair. He made it almost fun. He, Tesni, and I were fast becoming an unstoppable team. I had to admit that even Dalasen was definitely doing his part. We could let the mages do whatever they wanted and he made sure they didn't get hurt. It was efficient, it was beautiful, and it was difficult to imagine how I'd used to be satisfied killing rabbits and wolves with Tesni or Tamlen. So much’d changed so fast.
The fight took us through another doorway, and I took down the last demon as we crossed into another room. I whipped around to see if there were any more coming at us, but the rest of the group’d stopped dead in their tracks. They were silent, even the dog. I looked up to see what all of them were staring at.
My eyes widened.
"What," I asked, beginning to feel a little dizzy, "is that?"
"Can you fight?"
EDIT: I forgot the friggin' italics. Tesni and Caerwyn were not pleased. Fixed now.
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*bounce bounce giggle* take that, skanky bitch-ho!
Does Caerwyn have some level of latent magical ability? I don't remember reading that, but perhaps I missed it.
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i feel so sad for him. :( the losing tamlen scene is traumatic.
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Yeah, poor Caer. He'll get over it. Maybe. Eventually.
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Tesni wasn't there. It was the only way we could find a will for her to LIVE.
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oh, tamlen. ;_;
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She's also practical and wants to keep her new clan safe.
So... we'll see how those two things balance out!
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DIES.
DED.
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Now I have a vision of Greagoir and Cullen on horseback rounding up a herd of mages.
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What, we totally have an intercom up in here. <<;
Ta Da! 15 minute mage wrangler sketch of doooom!
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Re: Ta Da! 15 minute mage wrangler sketch of doooom!
I will be the wind beneath both your wings, emma lath.
*giggle*
Re: Ta Da! 15 minute mage wrangler sketch of doooom!
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It was hilarious to me when I drew it this morning, but I had been up all night and had slipped into that special sort of sleepy where everything is funny. I would have giggled at just about anything. XD
Re: Ta Da! 15 minute mage wrangler sketch of doooom!
Marrrvellous.
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Oh, and thanks. ^_^
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Not to be vain, but I think everyone should see that at least once. And read the little ficlet that goes with it. Gah. -fans self-
Really, I hate that picture for one reason... I promised myself that WYW! would stay at a T rating... and every time I see that I can't help but want to go all hot priest smut fest all over it.
Those tiny wee lovely little buttons desperately need to be undone slowly by Maeve's teeth. Just sayin'.
Re: Ta Da! 15 minute mage wrangler sketch of doooom!
I wants hot priest smutfest. And it seems from the discussion today on other thread that I'm not alone.
Re: Ta Da! 15 minute mage wrangler sketch of doooom!
I do have an outline somewhere on my compy with Mae slipping in the confessional with Alistair and Anders confessing to some rather naughty things, which Mae promptly acts out.
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