There and Back Again Ch. 125-126

Then he told them she'd be leaving to head to Weisshaupt. The entire group started buzzing, talking amongst themselves in shock, until Aedan silenced them again. To my surprise, he announced she wouldn't be leaving immediately, or alone.

"Until her sister has negotiated a deal to allow the Dalish safe ground and has Joined as well, she will remain and train with us. I want any of you with combat training in different techniques to work with Seranni and evaluate what style works best. I'll not send someone on a journey that far unless they can protect themselves. Also, anyone who wishes to accompany Seranni and Velanna to Weisshaupt, please come talk to me."

I gaped. It hadn't occurred to me, but sending a single female elf across multiple countries probably wasn't the safest thing. I wondered who, of our companions, might be leaving as well. I wonder if Weisshaupt will ever let them go, once they arrive.

After a brief celebration, involving yet more food and some ale, I headed to bed early. Alistair followed me, a concerned look on his handsome face.

"Sierra?" He sat on the sofa in front of the hearth, pulling me into his lap. "What's wrong, sweetheart?"

I sighed. "Ripples. Ripples I can't predict. I don't know what's going to happen, and it's driving me crazy. Will Seranni be alright? If some of our Wardens go with her, will they release them? Will they figure out why you and Aedan were hiding me? Will they ever let Fiona go if they think there's more to learn? She supposed to go back to the Circle and lead a vote to separate from the Chantry, like seven years from now. Not that I think it was a really smart plan, but what happens if she doesn't? I've changed so much, and I don't regret it, but...I know enough of what's coming to be afraid, and yet I can't predict it anymore."

"Now you know how the rest of us feel." He smiled at me to soften the comment.

"Yeah, but you haven't seen what I have. The Chantry in Kirkwall blown up, the Grand Cleric dead and Meredith becoming Lyrium in the Gallows...The Templars ending the Nevarran Accord, the mages fighting for their lives at Andoral's Reach. The next ten years are going to be terrifying, and now I know I've changed some of it, just enough to make it even scarier." I shuddered.

He held me tighter and kissed the crown of my head. "Come. Let me make you forget, at least for a while."

He carried me to bed and proceeded to make good on his promise.

In the morning, nothing was resolved, but unsurprisingly, I still felt better. Aedan and Alistair left to go for a ride out around the Vigil, and I was back to my training. I sparred with Seranni -- guiltily pleased that she was as bad with daggers as I had been when I started -- and then managed to get on my horse without getting more than a couple new bruises. Riding was another matter, and I bumped along, feeling my ass turn blue as Samuel urged the beast to do something horrible called trotting; by the end of the lesson, I'd at least learned that I was supposed to push up on the stirrups to keep from jarring myself, and though I didn't have the rhythm down, I understood the concept.

Varel was too busy for protocol lessons, but I ran into Leliana at lunch, and wheedled her into eating with me, correcting my formal table manners -- something she was more than capable of, and mistakes were punished by sharp pokes with her fork, to my dismay -- but it also gave me the opportunity to corner her about a few matters.

"So...how're things with you and Nate?"

She smiled brilliantly, and then her face fell and she avoided eye contact, studiously staring at her soup.

"You love him, don't you?"

The agony on her face when she finally looked up and nodded was heart wrenching. "I do. I never planned this, but I do. And yet...I cannot stay here."

"Why not, Leli?"

"You know why. I have responsibilities. And what would I even do if I stayed? I'm Orlesian, Sierra, or close enough for the Fereldan nobility to hate me regardless. Nathaniel's got enough of a battle on his hands to recover his family name after his father...But with an Orlesian lover? Or worse, wife?"

I raised an eyebrow at her, fighting an ironic smile. "Do you remember what you said to me when I told you Alistair deserved more?"

Leli sniffled, shaking her head.

"You told me that what he deserved should be his choice. If Nate wants to fight the nobility for you, shouldn't that be his choice? He's hardly unaware of the issue, I'm sure. If Cailan can make a bastard and an off-worlder a prince and princess, Nate can marry an Orlesian. He obviously thinks you're worth it, if he's talking marriage."

"And what sort of wife would I be? I'm a bard, not some pampered noble. What would I even do with myself?"

"You don't think Amaranthine will need all the help it can get to recover from Nate's father, Bann Esmerelle, and a darkspawn invasion? You would be an enormous help to him, not to mention you could work with the Chantry, open a school...just be a wife, be loved, maybe even be a mother. Would that be so terrible?"

A few more stray tears trickled down her cheek. "No, not terrible. It would be wonderful, no? But I still have responsibilities."

"Do you really think Jus...I mean, Dorothea wouldn't understand?"

"I've been told to report to Val Royeaux, and then I'm being sent to Haven with a bunch of Chantry scholars."

I wracked my brain for a long-forgotten epilogue slide. "And nothing will be there. The temple will be inaccessible, and no one will know why -- some sort of ancient magic, an act of the Maker, or something more nefarious? But more to the point -- have you told her? Maybe for once you could be happy! If you tell her...I'm sure she'd let you go."

I wasn't sure if that was more reassuring, or less; her face crumpled, and scrubbing tears off her face angrily, she fled from the dining room.

The next few days continued along the same lines. Alistair and Aedan rode to Amaranthine for most of one day, returning late; they reported a good start on the walls of the city, and housing for the few elves remaining in Amaranthine -- most of them had been sold to slavers, unsurprisingly -- had begun construction; Nate arrested Esmerelle and installed Delilah as at least temporary Bann; they confirmed the tunnels under the city were still sealed, the entrances guarded, the smugglers out of business. To my chagrin, both men had no difficulty riding horses, and neither fell off nor bruised their butts from their travels. Show offs.

Voldrik, along with some of the Orzammar stone masons, had begun work on the Vigil's walls; Cailan had ordered stone shipped from the quarries near Denerim, after the Alienage was finished, so we didn't have to find a source of local granite after all.

I spent some time reconnecting with my friends -- Zevran, Conrad, Anders, Solona, Wulf, Bel...even Oghren. I had barely seen them in Denerim, if at all, and things had been too busy since we'd arrived at the Vigil for much more than brief chats in the hallway. I got to know Sigrun and Seranni a bit better, and started learning some elvish swearwords surreptitiously from listening to Seranni and Velanna talk.

I ordered a set of non-descript leather armour from a grumbling Wade; he reluctantly admitted that the armour given to me in Orzammar was flawless, but I needed something less noticeable for if I was travelling. The whiny armourer cheered up considerably when he learned that he'd probably be making Archdemon hide armour for Aedan and a new set of Archdemon dragon bone plate for Alistair. Herren rolled his eyes, mostly tolerantly, and only sniped at me sarcastically a little bit.

I'd finally gotten to the point where I'd stopped needing healing after riding lessons when the schedule I'd gotten used to was suddenly completely disrupted. I was sitting in the dining room eating breakfast with Aedan, Zevran, and Alistair, half-listening as they discussed sending out patrols to keep an eye on the darkspawn activity along the Pilgrim's Path and the Knotwood Hills, to check in on Kal'Hirol, and to scout the Dragon Bone Wastes for signs of the Mother's army, when we were interrupted by a messenger.

It wasn't Maverlies; the young man was clearly a new recruit in Cailan's army, and by the shortness of breath, had ridden hard all the way from Denerim and hadn't stopped running since he'd gotten off his horse. It immediately made me nervous when he was so intent on blurting out his message that he didn't even stop to stumble over what titles to call Alistair or me, and didn't awkwardly genuflect like almost every other commoner we'd met since the Landsmeet.

"Commanders, my Lords, my Lady... I have urgent news from His Majesty in Denerim. He wishes you to depart for the capital immediately." He offered Aedan a thick envelope breathlessly.

Aedan gestured for the man to have a drink and take a moment to collect himself. "Take a breath, man. Now, what in Andraste's name has happened?"

The messenger opened his mouth, and the next words out of it would send me reeling.

"The ship carrying Her Maj- er, I mean, Lady Anora, to Nevarra was scuttled. There were some survivors, but Lady Anora wasn't among them."

*************

A/N:

Now this site is officially caught up with what is publiched elsewhere. From here on, for the next little while anyway, you'll probably get one chapter per week, or maybe every two weeks, depending. I am trying to pick up my writing speed to publish faster, but real life intervenes, unfortunately.

And by the way, for the grammar nerd (Hooray for grammar nerds!) who wrote me to inform me that 'alright' isn't a word, I regret to inform you that in Canada, in informal writing (especially dialogue) alright is indeed a word, with a different, though related, meaning to 'all right'. All right means that, literally, all is right. "Are those tax figures all right?" "Why yes, all of them are right." Alright means acceptable or 'okay' or sufficient. Like when someone trips and falls down. They are not all right -- at best, their ego is bruised, and maybe their butt, not to mention other possible injuries -- but they may be alright, as in 'in acceptable physical condition and capable of continuing with the hike.' See? :)