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[Gilgamesh1138]

ROFL! Well I have no experience with teenaged boys, so I worried. *wipes brow* Phew! Thanks Lady Jess! I am sorry 72 isn't ready yet. Working on it as we speak. Ane darn you for mentioning Cadbury caramel eggs in your review on FF. Now I want some!



Thanks again, I really appreciate the feedback. Finger was hovering over the delete button on the last paragraph on the edit here, and the FF site. I will leave it then. I appreciate you keeping me from hitting the button, LOL.

[Lady Jess]

*fills in the 5th star while she's here* It's not a cadbury caramel egg but tis the closest I could get!

[Gilgamesh1138]

Aw! I tried to give you more stars and it won't let me. pouts*



And thanks! You crack me up. I was really bummed I couldn't find any of the mini-eggs, candy coated, melty chocolate. None of the stores had them, silly stores.

[Lady Jess]

I attacked the grocery store the day after easter and stockpiled...lol! oh sure I *said* I was sending them to hubby in a care package but...you know:P

[Gilgamesh1138]

LOL! I am sure one or two made it into the package right? Maybe? If it were me, probably not.... *whistles* Hey, it is chocolate, and caramel, need I say more?



I did luck out and grab some Dove chocolate eggs. I have been nom noming on them.

[Gilgamesh1138]

Chapter 72




Kai and Lelyth's siblings had all gone to the dining hall when the bells rang for lunch.  When they finished eating, she asked them to meet her in the Great Hall while she went to fetch the ashes from Fergus’ bedroom.  When she got back to the hall, it was to find her extended family, minus Fergus and Morrigan, fielding questions about Lelyth.  Even Sten was answering some while holding little Mairi on his knee.

Kai walked in, and all faces turned toward her with varying degrees of sympathy.  She took a deep breath before holding out the leather pouch with the ashes to Graeme.  Kai chewed her lower lip and sat down to face Graeme and Kylie.  Kylie looked at her with eyes bright with unshed tears, "Thank you, Scathach, my lady."

Kai's voice caught in her throat.  "It is just Kai, Kylie."  It was Graeme who sat staring at the ashes, seemingly lost in thought.

When he looked up, he had tears on his cheeks and a determined look in his eyes.  "I want to join the Scath.  I want you to make me one like my sister."

"No."  Kai kept her face neutral though her heart was pounding.

"What do you mean ‘No?’  You owe me!"  Graeme's face turned red, and he jumped up from the couch where he had been sitting.

"Graeme!"  Kylie admonished her brother.

"NO!  She owes me!"  He balled his fists and glared at Kai.

"I don't owe you, Graeme.  I owe Lelyth.  I owe it to your sister's memory to keep you all alive, safe and well cared for.  All of which I intend to do."  Kai looked Graeme in the eye.  "You will recall being a Scath under my leadership is what got her killed?  I would think that those two things alone would stop you from wanting to be a Scath.  Aside from the fact that you are too young.  You are what, sixteen Summers?"

"If you don't recruit me, I will just run away and find someone who will let me fight."  Graeme's face had turned a deeper shade of red and his eyes were bright, his chin set.  "I will, I swear it!"

"And you will get yourself killed, imekari."  Sten spoke in his deep even voice to Graeme.  "I suspect that you have had no training in how to fight.  Ferelden is not Seheron with the Qun.  Everyone knows his place there, and so your training would have begun at an early age.  You, like all of your kind, have been left to search for a place.  Now, you think that place may be the path your sister took."

"I know you are hurting Graeme, but being a Scath will not lessen that pain, nor will fighting as a mercenary or whatever other ideas are running through that thick skull of yours."  Kai felt her own desperation creeping in.  She would not lose Graeme as she had his sister.

"You have no idea what you are talking about!"  Graeme started towards Kai his fists balled.  It always amazed Kai how fast someone as big as Sten could move.  Before she even had a chance to blink, Sten had set little Mairi down gently and stood between herself and Graeme.  "Parshaara!"  Sten's big hand grasped Graeme's shoulder, encasing it in calloused fingers.  "Vashedan, imekari.  If anyone knows what she is talking about, it is Kadan.  Everyone in her family, except her brother, was killed in front of her.  You should ask her about pain sometime."  Sten's immobile face turned towards her.  "Kadan, if this imekari were to train now, how long do you think it would take him to be efficient in battle?"

"If he works hard and depending on where his talents lie, maybe two years, maybe three."  Kai looked at the giant Qunari.  He was planning something.

"Then he should train.  In two years he will be eighteen and an imekari no longer.  He could apply to join the Scath then could he not?"

"That would be...better.  That is still young though."  Kai looked at Sten.

Before Graeme could protest, Sten shook the boy's shoulder.  "That is close to the age you lost your parents and became a Grey Warden, is it not, kadan?"  Sten's lavender eyes studied her blue ones.
"That is why I said it is still young.  But I have no objections.  Sten, Oghren, Leliana, Zevran or Fergus can put you in the training area with wooden practice equipment, and we can see what you will be as a fighter.  Depending on what fighting style you are good at and feel comfortable using, we can get you started.  Then, you can train here at Highever castle with one of us until we have to move on.  After we leave, Fergus can find you a trainer for your style."

"That should be sufficient for you."  Sten's immobile face turned back to Graeme.  The Qunari's statement sounded more like an order to Kai.  Apparently, Graeme felt the same way as he nodded and allowed himself a small smile.

"If Graeme gets to learn to fight, so do I!"  Kylie's voice broke into the silence that had fallen over the room.  Kai groaned.

"Your brother is close to being a man.  You are an imekari and will be for quite a while."  Sten turned his stern gaze on the girl.

"You said that in your lands ime...kari," Kylie stumbled over the Qunari word, "are trained from an early age.  Well, I want to be trained.  I want to be a rogue like Lelyth!  I can fight.  Ask Graeme.  I broke his nose when I was six and he was ten.  I know I can fight, and I am not afraid to do it."

"Be that as it may, my one objection still remains.  You are too young."  Kai pinched the bridge of her nose with her fingers.  She had a moment to wonder if this was her curse for doing the same thing to her parents.

"Actually, little sister, you were Kylie's age, if I am not mistaken, when you got your arm broken trying to use a shield and sword in a training session proving you could fight like your big brother."  Kai heard a familiar, beloved and exasperating voice behind her.  She rolled her eyes as she turned to meet her sibling and a familiar golden eyed witch walking into the Great Hall.  It was her curse for doing the same thing after all.  Andraste's knickers!  Just what was she going to do with her own children if someone else's were this much trouble?

"Oh, finally came up for air did you?" Kai stuck her tongue out at Fergus, causing little Mairi to giggle, and even Graeme and Kylie joined in.  "Yes, and I seem to recall a certain older brother who argued with me that I was too young to be playing with sharp pointed things and I was just going to cut my own limbs off by accident."

Fergus grinned at her. "And look at you now, little sister.  A better warrior than I will ever be.  And you still have all of your limbs!  Amazing!"  Kai grinned and punched him in the arm.

Kai turned to Kylie.  “Fine, but if we test you and you need to wait, will you?"  Kylie grinned and nodded.  "What about you Mairi, do you want to fight too?  Because you really are too young just yet."  Kai got down and looked at the little girl.

Mairi giggled and shook her head while grabbing Sten's big hand bashfully.  She pointed instead to Leliana's feet encased in pretty, delicate shoes.  "You like my shoes?  Oh how wonderful!  Do you like the dress too?  They match see?"  And Leli gently pulled up the hem of the dress to show off the shoes more.  Sten growled low, and Kai had to try and keep from laughing.

"Ugh, stop trying to corrupt the child with your bubble headed love of useless frills!" Morrigan's voice jabbed the pretty bard.

"Oh Morri, you might be happier if you wore something other than those heavy boots."  Leli just laughed and batted her lashes at the witch.  "And I thought that your having se...."  Kai coughed really loudly and looked pointedly at Mairi, then back at Leliana.  "I thought your spending time with Fergus would make you a happier person."  The redhead smiled while poking fun.

"My having se..." Fergus jabbed Morrigan gently in the ribs earning him a scowl.  "What?  They must learn sometime about what goes on between men and women!"

"Yes, love, but Mairi is a little girl, and Kylie is a little young yet.  I know Flemeth had other ideas, but she was not a sterling example of motherhood, now was she?"  Kai expected Morrigan to scowl, make some scathing remark and dismiss Fergus.  Instead, she smiled and stroked his cheek rather than slapping it.

"‘Tis true, Fergus."  Morrigan turned back to Leli.  “Very well then.  Look, I am happier for having ‘spent time’ with Fergus, as you put it.  That does not mean I was struck stupid and lost all my wits.  Shoes are for walking in and should only be used as torture devices if one is say, torturing someone?"

Lelyth's siblings were really laughing now, as were the rest, save Sten and Shale.  It was into this happy exchange that the older couple with whom the children were staying showed up to walk them back to Highever.  Kai thanked them once again, asked if they needed anything, money or clothes for the children.  They shook their heads, but agreed to send word to Highever Castle if they did.  Kai also explained about the training sessions for Graeme and Kylie.  Kai offered to have a carriage brought for them, but they declined.  It was a pleasant night, and they would walk.  Kai insisted on an escort and sent two guards along with them.

Since it was getting close to the dinner hour and Kai had yet to wash up from their training sessions with the Scath, she figured she ought to take herself off to get cleaned up.  She started walking towards the hall where the bedrooms were.  She had a momentary pause as to which room she should be using now.  Kai figured that until she had their room (which Morrigan and Fergus had used) scrubbed down, she would just go back to the room she had commandeered from Fergus.  Kai got to the room and shut the door; she was just pulling her shirt off when she felt fingers tickling down her spine.

Kai whirled around to see Zev's golden eyes sparkling with laughter as he grinned at her and slipped out of his own shirt. "It is only fair that I try and catch up since you got a head start, no?"  He grinned more widely.  He dropped his shirt and wrapped one hand around her waist as the other took the shirt she had been grasping to her chest and dropped it on the floor next to his.  She had time to envision a lamppost in snow before his lips were on hers, his tongue exploring her mouth, his teeth nibbling her lower and her upper lip.  His hands had her out of the bandeau wrapped around her breasts in even less time.  The hand not holding her to him set about caressing the hard points, starting a familiar throbbing ache that seemed to pulse with the beats of her heart.

"I thought I locked the door."  Kai managed to gasp out at one point, her breath catching in her throat.

"I picked it, of course."  Zev lips moved against her throat as he nibbled his way down to her collarbone.  She could feel his lips curve in a smile.

Before she realized it, he had moved her to the foot of the bed and sat with her in his lap facing him, her back to the door.  His lips feasted on one breast then the other until her breath was reduced to gasping little cries, when he would change the intensity of his ministrations.  His hand reached up and fisted in her hair, bringing her lips to his once again.  She thought her system might just overload as it was.  But he gave her a gentle nibble here, a bite with a tongue to slick the same spot soothing it away, the next.  Then, he changed the angle of the kiss until she was so wrapped up she couldn't even moan.  She dimly registered that she could feel Zev's arousal against her inner thigh and that they were both still wearing entirely too much clothing for her liking.

It was at that point that Kai heard a deep, almost strangled, cough behind her.  Kai pulled her lips from Zev's, her arms automatically crossing over her breasts to cover them.  She felt her face getting very red while Zev looked around her to the door.  Kai turned just enough so she could see her brother and Morrigan standing in the door way.  Fergus was pale with two red spots high on his cheeks.

"Oh dear, did I forget to latch the door?  How very forgetful I am."  Zevran gave a sly grin as his eyes shone with amusement.

"And now I think I need to go find the dwarf and see if I can't get him into a drinking contest.  I know he always has a keg tapped.  I am going to need to start drinking heavily now to get this out of my head. That was a hit, little sister, a most palpable hit." And with that Fergus turned around and strode quickly down the hall.

Morrigan stood there laughing so hard she bowed over with her hands on her knees.  When she finally stood up, she wiped tears from her golden eyes as she tried to speak over her mirth.  "Oh, ‘tis a most glorious revenge, sister.  Well played, well played indeed."  Morrigan's laughter could still be heard as she shut the wooden door behind her.  Kai could only stare at the brash man sitting beneath her smirking while his hands grasped her hips.

"And thus, your dear brother has paid, plus interest.  No need to thank me for my services, my dear Kai."  His grin got wider as Kai could only register incredulity at his timing and the skill required to set the whole situation up.

"I...I honestly don't know whether to be angry or to make love to you until we both pass out.  You are unbelievable!"  Kai found herself grinning back at him.

"I would say both, my beautiful friend.  Angry sex is good sex!  And if you mean unbelievably awesome, then si, I am."  He just laughed at her.

"You think any sex is good sex.  You are a scamp, a scoundrel and a rascal.  And there is only one thing I can think to do with a reprobate like yourself."  Kai got off his lap and started towards the door to lock it for certain this time.

"Oh, and what would that be, hm?”  Kai put her back to the door to see him grinning.
 
"Since you are the miscreant, I get to make the rules, yes?"  Kai smiled at him

"Sounds both enticing and intriguing.  Shall I get unclothed now?"  He tried for an innocent look.

"Yes, and you should stay where you are.  One rule, no touching until I tell you to."  Kai gave him a sly smile of her own.  "Time to see how much control and discipline you really have.  Let's put it to the test, shall we?"  Kai had only set out to seduce one other man in her life, the only other man with whom she ever felt secure enough or safe enough with to do so.  The only other man she trusted so implicitly.

She kept her blue eyes on his pale amber ones which seemed riveted to her.  She ran her hands over her breasts the way his had only moments earlier, while slowly making her way to the bed.  She watched him watching her.  She smiled when she saw him lick his lips as if he were thirsty.  She trailed her hands down her flat belly, stopping when she got to the top of the leggings she had on.  She started to put her fingers at the hips to take them off, but changed course when she saw his eyes following her hands like a hawk follows a mouse.

Instead, she ran a finger along the edge of the leggings, tugging the top edge down and exposing her belly button and a portion of her lower belly while licking her upper lip.  When she got a little moan, she peeled them off and stepped closer.  She watched his hands flex and grasp the bed edge as she stripped off her small clothes, stepping out of them as she moved up to him, straddling his legs.  She bent down running her hands up the back of his neck to rub the base of his skull, which elicited another rumble in his throat.  She smiled, rubbing her lips softly against his.  She nibbled his top lip then the bottom before she pulled back, her breath mingling with his before her hand fisted in his hair and she just glued her lips to his.  His mouth may have met hers, his tongue warred with hers, but his hands stayed put.

She figured it was time to up the ante then. She broke off the kiss and pushed his torso down to the bed. She ran her fingers along his upper body, allowing them to play along his honey colored skin. They roamed along his chest, the muscles of his abdomen, and lower. She watched his pulse race in his throat, admired the way the sweat had popped up and beaded his skin.  Heard his gasps and moans and the sounds of the bed clothes being grasped in a vise-like grip.  He had his eyes closed as if it were taking every bit of concentration not to reach out and grab her.  It gave her a feeling of power that humbled her at the same time, that he would let himself surrender this much to her when keeping in control and always alert could mean life or death for him.  It only deepened what she felt for him and the true gift he was giving her.

"Kai."  His voice sounded hoarse and the sound of it only made her own body ache.  She slithered over him like a snake and melted onto him, trapping him in her wet, hot heat.  His hands grasped the blankets beneath them so hard the knuckles were white as he gasped her name again.

Kai leaned in and thought she would simply lose herself right there.  "Zev, you can touch me now."  He growled, and his hands grabbed her hips, fingers digging into her flesh as he moved her against him.  Again, it was like sliding across ice at breakneck speed.  She called out his name as it hit her, the peak of what she had brought to both of them.  In seducing him, she had seduced herself too.  She felt her body bow back and shudder while his did the same.

They were all slick with sweat, and she slid off to the side, her breath coming in little spurts.  She put her head on his sleek chest and listened to his own ragged breathing and a heart that galloped inside his ribcage.  His hands stroked her shoulders and her back.  "Zev."  Kai raised up to look into his face.  It took a little time, but his eyes finally opened to look into hers.

"Hmm?"  He smiled at her.

"Thanks for making Fergus pay.  And consider this your payment for all the times you laughed at my discomfort while it was going on.  You may consider that debt paid in full as well.  No need to thank me for my services, dear Zev."  She grinned at him while he laughed.

Modifié par Gilgamesh1138, 19 juin 2010 - 01:56 .

[Gilgamesh1138]

Chapter 73



Two days later, Highever, both the town and the castle, was like a beehive on the first warm day after a hard

Winter.  And finally, Maker be praised, the Spring weather didn't include cold and sometimes freezing rain that

still felt like Winter.  The servants were all running to and fro decorating the castle for Satinalia, a Ferelden

feast day of fun, foolishness and mayhem.  It helped to loosen up pent up emotions and the cabin fever that often

occurred during long cold Ferelden Winters and the slow cold starts of the Ferelden Spring.  It was a big day of

fun and play before the ground that was now soft enough be tilled had to have crops planted.  Before barns would be

mucked out after a long Winter.  Before homes would be swept out and bedding aired now that the days no longer

threatened freezing rains and occasional sleet.  Fishermen could go out on their boats once again as the sea was no

longer hit with sleeting storms and tumultuous waves.  The weather now allowed open air marketplaces to start up

trade, and the activities of making a living could start.  Satinalia was a day of frivolity before the hard work of

living began again, one last huzzah, so to speak, before buckling down into the day to day commenced.  It was also

a holiday where the town “fool” was made monarch for a day.  There would be a big wooden throne on a platform in

the town's square for the “monarch.”  Fergus, being the Teyrn, would be crowning this year's town fool.  There

would be booths with food and games of chance and skill, including a game called Drench a Wench, where several of

the town’s ladies from the local brothel would sit on a stool over a big barrel of water.  The stool would be

attached to a lever that when hit with a bag filled with beans would release, dumping said strumpet into the

barrel.  The game was a popular one, especially amongst the townsmen who had the pleasure of seeing the ladies'

clothing become satisfactorily clingy.  All proceeds went to local charities in Highever.  The game always made

enough that every charity received a fair amount.

The town would be decorated.  There would be copious amounts of drinking, eating and fun.  It was also traditional

to give gifts.  Kai could hardly wait.  To help her pass the time, she had spent the last couple of days practicing

the Scath vallaslin on a side of pork she had taken from the larder.  Her Scath, who had been taught by the Dalish,

had told her that the skin of a pig or nug was closest to the texture of the skins of elves, humans and dwarves. 

Since a vallaslin, once done, could not be undone, she wanted to practice before she put it on Zev's skin.  It made

her nervous, truth be told.  She had no desire to mar him, and Maker, what if she messed it up?

So Kai had been practicing on the hapless side of pork in the practice yard while the Scath around her worked at

their training.  She figured Leliana wasn't about to let her practice on Schmooples.  Kai was squinting over her

work, her tongue between her teeth as she concentrated, tapping the tool with the wolf's tooth.  Kai found that

having all the noise around her in the training yard made her focus more.  The practicing Scath made her think of

Rajed.  Rajed was still honing his skills in private, but he had finally allowed his brother and Naseel to watch

and give her a report.  They simply smiled and assured her that she would be pleased with the results.  They told

her that Rajed had a plan for the unveiling.

"That is a very attractive look for you, my dear Kai."  Zev's breath tickled her ear as his fingers kneaded the

nape of her neck, causing her to yelp and smack the tool, making a long line of blue along one of the crescents. 

She huffed in frustration.

"Dammit, Zev!  I am trying to get this perfect.  I am not about to touch you with these tools until I do."  She

scowled at him.  "I suggest you behave yourself when I actually get to put this on you, or I might wind up making a

tattoo of a Mabari or a nug."

Zev just chuckled at her.  "I once saw a man in Antiva who had a naked woman on his stomach and when he moved the

muscles she would dance.  You could always do something like that."  He gave her a sly grin.

"If I did that, you would spend all your time in front of a mirror looking at yourself."  Kai grinned at him.  It

was a loud shrill voice behind them that caused both of them to jump and everyone in the courtyard to stop what

they were doing.

"IS THAT MY SIDE OF PORK?"  Kai and Zev turned to find a brown haired, middle aged woman with wisps of hair flying

out from the tight bun she had tried to pin it into.  Kai couldn't help but stare.  The woman was like a younger,

plumper version of Nan.  She even sounded like her, except she spoke like a Crimson Oar.  "Andraste's ass, so this

is where it got to!  And just what have you done to it?  How am I supposed to cook that?  I should rip out your

eyes and ****** in your skull!  That is a complete waste of food that is.  And I have an inventory I maintain.  Now

my count will be off, so you are just going to have to buy another side of pork when you're in town.  And see that

you get one the same size.  I have a castle to feed, not some little farm hold."  The woman put hands on round hips

and glowered at Kai.

"Perhaps, my dear woman, you don't realize that the pork technically belongs to Kai as lady of Highever?" Zev

purred at her, using his most charming voice.

The cook turned her angry countenance on Zevran, crossing her arms in front of her very ample chest.  "I don't give

a knicker’s twist!  And if she was the Queen herself, I would say the same thing.  As for you, your charm is wasted

on me.  So save it for the chits around here that are fool enough to fall for that smooth voice and that handsome

face, including this one."  The woman nodded her head at Kai, who couldn't help but giggle.  "I have a tight ship

to run, in fact I used to cook for a ship.  Bunch of pirates they were, so know this, I can cut off what hangs down

and serve it as a snack, see if I won't."  The woman waved a dismissive hand.  "Oh, I know you're Antivan, got the

markings of one of those assassin types.  Ran into one of those once.  My rolling pin and my meat cleaver took care

of him just fine."

Zevran just laughed and stuck out his hand.  "My dear lady, you have me there.  I am Zevran Arainai, Zev to my

friends.  And I hope you will be a friend, as I have no desire to have a run in with your rolling pin or your meat

cleaver."

The woman actually laughed back as she stuck out a hand attached to muscled forearm and pumped Zev's hand before

offering it to Kai.  The grip was very strong and assertive.  "Olwyna is the name.  Your brother hired me in

Denerim.  I figured I was tired of salt water coating everything, and the men I worked for were just a little too

rough around the edges for me.  I wanted to be around people who didn't swill beer, belch and fart after every

meal.  I wanted to cook for those who would notice if it tasted good, rather than a lousy bunch of louts who

wouldn't have noticed if I served them glue with shoe leather in it."  It was at that moment that Oghren sidled up,

swigged from his mug and belched loudly.  Kai flinched, considering Olwyna's comments.

"Who's the dame with the nice rump roast?"  Oghren had to look up as Olwyna towered over him.

Olwyna just bent over, picked up Oghren by the shoulders and planted one long kiss on him while his feet kicked as

he dangled helplessly in her grasp.  She then set him back on his feet and grasped the braids of his facial hair,

giving them a tug.  "Why, tiger, I am the woman who is going to marry you!"  Oghren turned red in the face,

stammered and practically ran out of the courtyard looking over his shoulder as if the Archdemon itself was on his

heels.  Olwyna just brushed her hands together in a manner of one rubbing dirt off of them.  "There now, that

should take care of that scoundrel.  See that you bring me back a pig to replace that one.  And I will be fixing a

special set of dishes for Satinalia, so mind you all don't overeat in town, you hear?"  And with that they watched

Olwyna's ample hips walk out of the courtyard back in the direction of the kitchens.

"I must find out, my dear Kai, how your brother came to meet up with and hire such a creature.  You must remind me

to sic her on Oghren more often."  Zev winked and grinned at her.  "I was coming to fetch you and the others, my

dear.  We are going to go to the town and enjoy ourselves, no?"

She smiled and took his proffered hand to help her up.  "Oh yes, but you heard Olwyna, no over indulging in food." 

Zev shared a laugh with her.  Kai gathered the Scath and had them all get cleaned up and ready to go.  As Fergus

would be part of the opening ceremonies for Satinalia, he was already in town with the Mayor.  Kai gathered her

group, and they and all the servants of Highever, save the guards who were on duty, made their way to Highever

town.  Those guards volunteering to miss the opening ceremony would switch out with their fellows who went early so

they could enjoy Satinalia in town this evening.  The rule was, everyone got to enjoy the holiday no matter their

station.

Highever town looked as it always had.  It made Kai's eyes tear up.  It was all so normal, so familiar.  It felt as

though her parents would walk up the street at any moment, beckoning her to go to the platform where the giant,

ornately carved wooden “throne” sat awaiting the official “Fool” of Highever, the one to be crowned as “monarch”

for the day.  One year the leader had been the town tabby, a tom named Sprinkles.  Another year it had been the son

of the blacksmith.  One memorable year, it had been a Ceffyl.  Kai couldn't wait to see who it would be this year.

People in the crowd were in various costumes and funny hats.  Many were wearing the brightly colored wooden and

glass beads from Satinalias past strung around their necks.  Most had mugs filled with ales, lagers, wines, ciders

and meads.  She could smell roasting sausages and turkey.  In fact several people had sausages on sticks or large

turkey legs.  The crowd parted and made space at the front for Kai and her group.  She watched as her brother

Fergus strode up the steps of the platform decorated with Spring's first flowers and flowing banners of cloth in

green, purple and gold.  He looked so like their father, it made her heart clutch painfully in her chest with

longing.  Fergus smiled and waved his hands for the crowd to quiet.  "We have voted on someone a little different

for our monarch this year."

"You mean different from the Ceffyl?" a jovial voice called from the crowd, causing laughter to ripple out and

making Fergus grin.

"I should say we actually voted on someone who is not originally a Ferelden.  This person has just come to us from

the far away city of Antiva!"  Fergus looked down into Kai's crowd.  "Please welcome our king for the day, our

'Fool' and the young man who has gotten to know our little town and has been helping the widow Saraid Ansleygh,

Rajed!"  Fergus beckoned to the shy young man, who was blushing furiously as he made his way up the stairs.  Kai

and the others had found out that Rajed had been visiting the town and had been helping the elderly widow who had

lost a husband to illness and then her son at Ostagar.  Apparently, the old woman had taken a shine to Rajed, and

he had a soft spot for her as well.  He had been helping her tote water and do chores around her house.  The

townsfolk had taken notice as well and had adopted the Scath as if he had been at Highever all his life.  Kai

suspected it had a lot to do with his healing faster and getting his bearings back after the loss of his arm.

Fergus put a robe striped in green, purple and gold around Rajed's shoulders, pressed a scepter made of wood

painted gold in his hand and put a hideous, tri-curved, belled jester's hat on his head.  The brim of the hat was a

fake gold crown in metal with glass jewels in it.  Rajed blushed, but he was smiling.  Fergus grinned and clapped

him on the back.  Rajed cleared his throat, "Let Satinalia begin!  Dejar que los buenos tiempos!"  And with that

the crowd roared in good cheer and dispersed to take in the booths and games.  As the “king” Rajed would be waited

on hand and foot, and he would get various prizes donated by the merchants and townsfolk.  Kai hoped it help finish

the healing process.  She gave him a grin and a wave, which he returned.  Kai turned to find that her group had

wandered off to explore, save Zev who linked his arm with hers.

Zev, of course, found the Drench a Wench game almost immediately and was just as quickly banished from it, as his

aim was too good and they were afraid he would drown the poor girl.  Not to mention he would have won all the

prizes they offered for those good enough to hit the target, had he agreed to take them.  He only accepted one, two

little stuffed Mabaris which he gave to Kai for the twins.  "That would be more challenging if they made the target

move."  Kai laughed at him as she kissed him lightly on the lips.

"And you still would have won all the prizes."  She grinned at him.

"Oh si, but it would have been more challenging."  He chuckled at her.  They spent their time wandering around,

taking in the short plays and performance art.  There was a puppeteer and jugglers.  Even the falconer from the

castle put on a demonstration of the art.  She and Zev enjoyed some local wines and some cheeses, mindful of

Olwyna's admonishment.  Kai made a stop at the butchers and ordered another side of pork as well.  The afternoon

was wearing on into dusk, and it was getting close to the dinner hour when Olwyna would expect them all back to

eat.  They would return after dinner to partake of Satinalia at night.

Kai and Zev were on their way back to the front of Highever town and walking through the marketplace where

shopkeepers had started to light lanterns for the coming evening.  It was the elven man lighting a lantern who

caught Kai's attention.  She knew him; he was the jeweler who made the exquisite treasures that looked like plants

that had been all the rage of the Ferelden nobility before the Blight.  Kai wondered if he still had the set that

looked like rowan branches with red garnets for berries.  She put a hand on Zev's arm and nodded toward the shop. 

She followed the shop keeper into the store as he had finished lighting his lamps.  The man smiled at her, not

really recognizing her at first.  "May I help you?"

"Um, yes.  Well, it has been a while, and I don't see it in any of the display cases.  Do you still have the

necklace, earring and bracelet set that looked like rowan branches with berries made out of garnets?"  Kai smiled

at him as his face lit up in recognition.

"My lady Cousland!  Or should I say Hero of Ferelden?"  He leaned in, acting as if he was pointing to something in

the display case and whispered.  "Or ‘Silver Griffon?’”  He winked.  "I have been keeping my ears open when I visit

the nobles houses with their orders as well as listening to what’s said here.  I have signed up with the cause my

lady.  Your family has always been good to me and mine.  Your grandfather gave my father a loan to start this

shop."  He stood back up.  "I am sorry, my lady.  I sold that particular set already."  He gave her a sympathetic

smile.  "Perhaps I can interest my lady in this necklace set that looks like lavender?  The blooms are made with

amethysts.  It would be very becoming to madame's skin."  He said this all in a normal tone, but whispered once

again, "I will continue to serve, my lady.  Please don't hesitate to use my talents in any way you see fit."  Kai

smiled at him and nodded.

"Hmm, I will think on the necklace of lavender.  Thank you, though."  Kai stepped out into the cooler evening air

and continued her way back to the castle.  A big bonfire was in the process of being built to  set ablaze when dusk

fell into night.  Kai started forward when it occurred to her that Zev was not with her, or she had thought not,

but then she turned and found him right next to her.  "You weren't picking pockets, were you?"  She gave him a

cheeky smile.  He chuckled at her and shook his head.  He grabbed her hand, kissed it and tucked it into the crook

of his arm as the bells rang for the dinner hour.

They made their way back to the castle, meeting others in their group who had started back before the bell.  They

all made their way into the dining hall.  Fergus had managed to get away and sat with Morrigan, both of them

leaning in and talking, their heads together.  They could have been flirting or planning an insurrection.  It gave

Kai a warm satisfied glow, especially since they were all back in their own rooms now.

Olwyna had not been exaggerating when she had said she made food just for the Satinalia feast, “feast” being the

operative word.  There was enough food to feed an army.  It was set up buffet style again, as for Satinalia, the

castle was open for the townsfolk to come and eat with the Couslands.  It was one of the many ways that her parents

had connected with those who looked to them for leadership.  Kai and Zev made their way to sit with their usual

group.  There were a good number of her Scath here as well as townsfolk.  The room was warm with so many bodies and

filled with the loud humming of many conversations going on at once.

After about an hour and a half, the lanterns were all shuttered, candles were blown out.  Olwyna along with three

other servants came out carrying a huge cake with lit candles on its many tiers.  It was a huge, icing covered

confection with the colors of Satinalia picking out details of swirls and dots, and a jester made of marzipan

decked the top.  Fergus and Kai got up and blew out the candles, plunging the room into darkness, and then they all

started to whistle in the dark or made animal noises or other strange sounds, anything sounding foolish to mark the

ridiculousness and fun that life can be.  Then, the lanterns were all unshuttered, torches and candles relit. 

Everyone laughed and clapped.  Kai and Fergus were to do a toss to see who got the jester on top.  Zevran tossed a

dagger instead of a coin, having them call "blade" or "hilt."  Kai suspected Zev of tossing it so she won, so did

Fergus who laughed when Zev gave a cheeky grin and shrugged.  Kai pulled the marzipan confection in half and gave

one half to her brother.  She popped a piece into Zev's mouth, giving him a quick kiss and a smile.  Cake was

passed out to everyone present with extra pieces put on plates for others who might wander in during the evening

and smaller cakes held back in the kitchen as more people came in for some.

As they ate their cake, Sten looked at her with his intense gaze.  "I had heard there would be cake.  I am glad to

see the cake was not a lie, kadan."  Kai laughed and nodded.

"Please, everyone, meet me in the Great Hall when you are done."  And Kai grabbed a servant, whispering in his ear;

he nodded and smiled.  She made her way to the hall before the others and saw that her plans had been completed

just as she had asked.  She sat on the couch in her spot and waited as the others followed her in.

Modifié par Gilgamesh1138, 19 juin 2010 - 02:01 .

[Gilgamesh1138]

Chapter 74  FLUFF CHAPTER you have been warned!



Kai sat and watched them all wandering in, including Fiona and Wynne who placed Fi on her lap and Duncan in Zev's

before finding the paper jester hats with their names on them.  Argus had been allowed to come too, though he had a

big white conical collar around his neck that looked like a lampshade.  Wynne had explained she had put it on him

as he would not stop worrying the wound.  The big hound came to look Kai in the face and give her his classic "sad

eyes."  "Don't bother, you won't get me to take it off.  Wynne told me you won't leave the wound alone.  So, you

will just have to keep it on.  Sorry, old boy."  Kai scratched him under the chin.  Argus gave a resigned grunt and

lay at her feet.  It didn't take long for all of them to find their seats.

While waiting for them to file in, Kai gave Fi and Duncan their little stuffed Mabari that Zev had won for them. 

They laughed and proceeded to put them in their mouths.  Kai grinned at Zev and shrugged.  Kai then winked at

Fergus who, in the Cousland family tradition for Satinalia, had helped Kai set this all up.  Kai looked at all the

people who held her heart.  "I know most of you are not going to be familiar with this holiday.  And may find it a

little strange."

"That is an understatement, kadan."  Sten sat with his lips crimped in disapproval as Leliana put his jester hat on

him.  "I fail to see the need to wear such a head covering.  It provides no protection.  And that your people are

doing ridiculous things just because the weather had warmed is truly strange and serves no purpose."

"Well, at least there was cake."  Kai grinned at him.

"True."  His usually hard face softened slightly.  Kai couldn't help but smile.

"Well, during Satinalia we give gifts.  And so I have them for all of you.  I have been slowly collecting them

since, well, during the Blight.  I had hoped to give them to you last Satinalia, but well, we were all a little

busy.  So here you go."  Kai winked at Fergus and pulled over a heavy sack filled with presents wrapped in brightly

colored cloth in the colors of Satinalia.  She had the others pass them around to their soon to be new owners. 

Some were obvious due to their shape not being easily hidden by cloth.

"We all take turns opening so the others can enjoy your gift too."  Again Kai winked at Fergus.  "Morrigan, why

don't we start with you?"  Kai smiled innocently.  And they all watched as the witch opened her gift.  Her hawk

colored eyes opened wide for a moment, her eyebrows shooting up her forehead.

"What is this supposed to be?"  Morrigan scowled at her.

Kai leaned forwards to “look” more closely.  "It looks like a book."

"I know ‘tis a book, do not be an imbecile. ‘Twould not be be a useful book for one such as I.”  The witch's voice

sounded exasperated.

"I am not sure what you mean, sister."  Kai batted her lashes.

"‘Tis a copy of the bloody Chant of Light!" Morrigan huffed.

"Unabridged." Kai smiled at her.

"What?"

"Unabridged.  I figured since you're going to marry my brother, you might want to brush up on the chant.  I mean

the Chantry does get particular about that sort of thing."  Kai again gave Morrigan her most innocent smile. 

"Shale, I think you are next."  Kai gestured at the golem as Shale had been smirking at the witch as she stood

behind her and Sten on the long couch they sat on.  Shale's big stone hands were surprisingly agile and opened the

package with speed and gentleness.

The stone giant's face lit up.  In her open palms sat a white pigeon cooing softly.  "It is most generous to

provide me with a present I can squish.  I only wish I had more than one."  And with that Shale closed her palms

with a resounding CRACK.  The golem's face was one of pure satisfaction, until she opened her hands.  There sat the

pigeon, cooing, none the worse for its resting place between two stone palms.  It bobbed its head and looked at the

golem, cooing more.  Shale's face drew down into a fierce scowl before crushing the bird in one giant fist this

time.  She gave a satisfied “huh,” and opened up her hand only to look at it in shock.  There sat the pigeon

bobbing its head and cooing the same as before.  Before Shale could attempt to crush it again, the bird flew up and

landed on one broad shoulder.  Kai pointed at Sten indicating he should go next.

Sten opened his present which was obviously a sword.  There was no real way to wrap a sword without it being

obvious unless one put it in a heavy box.  The wrappings fell away and the room was suddenly lit with a rainbow of

colors from the long sharp metal.  The twins were fascinated and sat staring at it with wide eyes.  Especially when

the butterflies appeared fluttering around the blade. "What is this supposed to be, kadan?"

Again, Kai leaned forward, keeping her face schooled as well as she could.  "Why, Sten, I thought followers of the

Qun did not ask silly questions.  It looks like a sword to me."

"Indeed, but this cannot be a sword.  It has, colored light emanating from it.  And it has...butterflies.  No one

would create such a thing to fight with.  Swords are for fighting.  Therefore, this cannot be a sword."  Sten's

mouth crimped down in disapproval.

"Well, I was assured that it is indeed a sword.  It is dragon bone in fact.  Dragon bone is a quite rare and 

sought after material for weapons and armor."  Kai opened her eyes wide in mock seriousness.  "I thought you might

use it as a back up, just in case."  She smiled and pointed to Oghren.  "You're next, my fine drunken friend."

"Don't mind if I do, Warden."  Oghren was well into his cups already, this being a holiday.  It took him a little

fumbling, but he finally managed to get the box unwrapped and opened.  "What in the sodding, nug humping universe

am I supposed to do with this scented dung?"

Kai leaned forward again.  "Why Oghren, you bathe with it.  I thought since you and Felsi forged the moaning statue

in the bathtub, that you would appreciate a little scented soap.  For when you see her again."  Kai smiled.

"It has lavender, and...and flowers!"  Oghren's face got red.  "The box has LACE on it!  Andraste's knickers,

Warden, are you trying to ruin my reputation?"

"I am truly sorry, my inebriated friend.  I thought you would like it."  Kai feigned being hurt.  Oghren just

grumbled and drank heavily from his mug.  Kai could barely keep from bursting out laughing.  It was proving very

difficult.  She could see, out of the corner of her eye, that Fergus was having the same problem schooling his

face.

Kai pointed to Zaeed next, who gave his usual infectious grin and opened his gift.  A pair of gloves, which he

promptly tried to put on, only to find the right-hand glove had six fingers on it.  Zaeed just grinned and saluted

Kai.  "I can slip a vial of poison in the empty finger.  How smart of you, Scathach." And he laughed.

Naseel went next opening her package to find an apron in a garishly colored material, with a appliquéd pot of

flowers picked out in it and lace around the hem, the neck and the arms.  Naseel only stared at it.  Gnat opened

hers to find a very pink, very soft, very frilly child's dress, complete with shoes and a big bow for her hair that

matched the dress.  She grinned from pointed ear to pointed ear and looked at Kai.  "MOMMY!"  Which had everyone

laughing.  Everyone by this point who wasn't familiar with the holiday were catching on.  Those who were native

Fereldans, well they already knew.

Keiron, who wore his jester hat at a jaunty angle, grinned and opened his with relish and showed everyone an

etiquette book on proper noble behavior.  "I suspect, my lady, you should borrow this after I have read it, no?" 

Kai laughed and wrinkled her nose at him.
 
Fiona's “fool’s” present was a book of quotes about mothers-in-law.  She smiled and stuck out her tongue at Kai. 

Wynne smiled and “unwrapped” her present which obviously was a cane.  She did her deadpan Wynne voice.  "Oh, how

nice, thank you."  But she winked when she said it.  "Does this cane smell of...of cat urine?"  As soon as she said

it and her hand grasped the handle, a scruffy looking tabby cat appeared and curled around Wynne's legs before

becoming interested in hunting the butterflies hovering around Sten's sword.  Wynne giggled like a school girl.

"His name is Fluffkins."  Kai laughed at Wynne.

Leliana put her hand to her mouth and giggled before opening her present.  It was a pair of the ugliest purple and

green iridescent boots ever made.  They looked like beetle's carapaces, and Kai had been assured that the

obnoxiously colored boots were dyed from hundreds of thousands of insect husks.  What a waste, Kai had thought. 

But they were perfect for Leli's "fool's" present.  The pretty bard wrinkled up her nose, holding the boots between

a forefinger and her thumb.  "Oh, how lovely, thank you."  Leli's pretty voice said sarcastically.  "I wanted to

get you interested in shoes, but if this is what you buy, I think you shouldn't be allowed to purchase footwear

anymore."

Jarren, the quiet, steady, serious Scath, went next.  His gift, a book of jokes.  He only cocked an eyebrow at Kai

and then burst out into laughter, something Kai had never heard him do.

Rajed had managed to get back to the castle from being "king" but he was due back for the nightly festivities.  He

opened his present to find a pirate hook.  He punched Jarren in the arm to get his attention as Jarren was involved

in reading his present.  He showed his fellow Scath, who punched him back and laughed again.  That was twice in one

night too.  Kai wasn't sure if Jarren's face wouldn't go numb at the unaccustomed facial expressions.

Zevran took up his present, with Duncan and even Fi leaning in trying to "help" him unwrap it.  Zevran's hands hit

metal, and he extricated his present from the folds of purple cloth encasing it.  Kai waited to see what he would

say, as his hands held a metal chastity belt.  Kai had found it in Wade and Harren's shop before Harren had

banished them from it permanently.  "Ah, we could have so much fun with this my dear Kaidana, couldn't we?  I am

seeing a black leather corset for you, and...."  Kai laughed and put her finger to his lips.  He grinned and kissed

it.  He leaned in and whispered in her ear where no one else could hear.  "I hope you have the key."  She gave him

a sly grin and flashed the key in her palm.  "Ah."  And he nibbled her ear causing her to blush.
 
Kai went next, opening the box her brother had handed her.  Nestled inside on golden paper sat a leather Mabari

collar with her name engraved on a metal tag on it. The note read:

I begged mother and father to get a Mabari instead.  Happy Satinalia, little sister.
Love, your big brother,
Fergus

Kai hugged her brother, grinning as she kissed him.  And then it was his turn.  He looked at her and unwrapped the

tube shaped present, which was a scroll.  He popped the wooden cap ends holding the scroll rolled up and unrolled

it.  He gasped once and then turned bright pink, letting the scroll re roll on its own.  "Oh, you are evil, little

sister.  Very, very evil.  Mother and Father should have adopted a Mabari!"  But he laughed as he said it. 

Morrigan snatched the scroll and burst out laughing.

"Why ‘tis a most realistic likeness of how you and the elf looked when we walked in on you!  Oh, well played again,

my sister, well played indeed!"  Morrigan's golden eyes flashed in merriment.

"I take it you drew it yourself, my dear Kai?"  Zev's eyes twinkled at her as she nodded.

"You didn't think I would describe how we were to anyone else to draw did you?"  She blushed but returned his grin.

Kai looked at Fergus and winked.  "Well, as you have all guessed these were your foolish and fun presents.  But, I

had you all sit in certain places so I could give you all your real presents.  They are under your seats.  I hope

you all like them.  I gathered them, believe it or not, while we walked across Ferelden.  Bodahn helped me by

collecting them from the places I had stored them, Denerim and Redcliffe mostly.  These are things I hope show you

how much you all really mean to me."  She smiled at them, grasping Zev's hand.

They all ducked under the couches and chairs they sat in to grab the parcels there.  Instead of waiting this time

as each unwrapped their gift, they all acted like kids at Solstice.  Soon there were exclamations, oohs and ahs as

they showed off their true gifts.  Kai bent over and grabbed the magicked stick that she had found for Argus.  She

gave it to him while patting his huge head.  "Happy Satinalia, boy."  Argus just gave her a happy bark.  "Yes, I

will take you out tomorrow, and we can play."  She grinned at him.
She looked around the room with a satisfied feeling warming her.  Zaeed showed off the fencer's shirt to Naseel who

held up the Scath symbol brooch with malachite in it for her rank as Kai's second.  Gnat held up the instrument

case which was really designed to hold her new ball on a chain weapon.  To all who did not know, it would look as

though she was carrying a harp.  The case also had smaller hidden compartments for daggers, poisons and garrotes. 

She smiled as she looked for all the hidden pockets.

Keiron's hearty laugh rang out as he pulled out a black leather, tricorn pirate hat.  He quickly swept off his

jester hat and put it on, slapping Rajed on the back.  "My friend, you have the hook, I have the hat.  We just need

a parrot and then we could go to The Pearl and impress the ladies there."  Rajed laughed at Keiron's waggled

eyebrows.

"It could take the insufferable, indestructible pigeon.  It is flying vermin, as are parrots.  That would be close

enough, wouldn’t it?  Then, it could give it to one of the strumpets and leave it there."  Shale frowned as the

pigeon cooed in her ear.  The golem's frown turned into a grin though when she opened her present to find a smooth

rock.

"It is a pet rock, Shale.  I wasn't sure how to tell if it is a boy or a girl.  Bodahn assured me that only a golem

can tell, and that really dwarves or golems are the best owners of pet rocks.  What are you going to name it?"  Kai

smiled as the big stone giant stroked the rock's smooth surface tenderly.

The golem seemed to tilt her head in thought, at least as much as her head would go to the side.  "Norbert."  And

she continued to pet it gently.  Kai grinned and shook her head.

Wynne held up her necklace with a cloudy glass ball wrapped in silver.  When she put it on images of Greagoir,

Petra and Irving all appeared behind her.  "The Amulet of Memories.  Where did you find it?"

"In The Wonders of Thedas."  Kai felt her heart clench.  She had remembered all too well what had happened when the

proprietor had insisted she try it on to test it before she bought it.  Her parents, Oren and Oriana had formed in

front of her.  She had snatched it off lest Duncan and Cailan had shown up too.  "I found Sten's present there as

well."  She looked over at the giant.  He sat holding the leather bound book in his big hands as reverently as he

held his sword Asala when she had returned it to him.  "Shok ebasit hissra.  Meraad astaarit, meraad itwasit, aban

aqun.  Maraas shokra.  Anaan esaam Qun.  I hope you like it, my friend."

"Careful, my love, or Sten might fall in love with you and carry you off to Seheron to be converted."  Alistair's

voice sounded tipsy, he was almost giggling.

"Are you drunk in the Fade?"  Kai laughed at him

"Hey, it is Satinalia here too.  Duncan told your father, my brother and Maric about that time he found all the

Grey passed out in that drinking contest against the chap from the Anderfels.  So we had to recreate it, sort of." 

He snorted as he tried to hold back a giggle.

"Sounds like an excuse for you all to get pissed to me."  Kai told him sweetly.

"You know, that is just what your mother and Oriana said too.  Oops, gotta go my love, it's my turn with a pint." 

He made a sloppy kissing noise in her ear and was gone while she chuckled.

Sten looked at her.  "For you to have found the book of Qunari prayers in this unenlightened country is truly

amazing, kadan.  First Asala, and now this. I am...Atash esaam Ashkari, Kadan."  Kai nodded and gave him a small

smile, trying not to tear up.

"You're welcome, my friend."  Kai nodded at him.  It was Fiona who come over to Kai with tears in her eyes to kiss

her on the cheek.  Kai had given her one of Alistair's favorite figurines.  It was the golem figurine that Kai had

given him.  She had included a note which explained what it was.  She hugged her mother-in-law back.

"Well, shave my back and call me an elf!  You outdid yourself, Warden!"  They all looked as Oghren opened his Beard

Flask.

"It is also..." Kai stopped speaking as Oghren had opened the flask and poured its contents down his throat before

belching loudly, "filled.  Or at least it was.  I included a bottle of what you just drank to refill it with."

"Did you even taste it my friend?"  Zev inquired of the Dwarf.  Of course given the name of the beverage in

question, Kai figured it might be better if he didn't.  It was named "Dragon ******."  Kai didn't even want to wonder

if it was really said substance or how one would go about obtaining it.  She shook her head grinning.  Leliana

punched the dwarf on the arm and pulled out a beautiful lute made of honey colored wood.  It was obviously Orlesian

make.

Kai had found it in one of the junk shops in Denerim.  The lute had beautiful climbing roses painted on it under

its glassy varnish.  When Kai had picked it up, its varnish had been bubbled and blackened with age.  It was

covered in dust, and the strings were missing.  It was the little ornate signature burned into the wood on the back

that had told Kai it was a treasure.  It was a lute made by the famous violin, lute and cello maker Alamendine. 

The instruments were highly sought after and worth the entire fortunes of some countries of Thedas.  She had had

Fergus take the lute to the music store here at Highever Town and have it refurbished and restored to its original

luster.  Leliana for once was speechless.  Her eyes filled with tears, and she plucked the strings reverently.  She

blew a kiss to Kai with one hand while stroking the lute as a lover with the other.  "It is precious.  Thank you,

thank you so very much."
"Precious as the person who now owns it.  You are welcome, my dear friend.  It seems such a small thing for all you

have done and continue to do for me."  Kai smiled at her.

It was at this point that Kai snuck a look at Fergus.  She saw her brother clenching his fist with a stony look. 

Kai had a momentary flutter of unease, and she wondered if her gift was too soon for Fergus to appreciate. 

Morrigan, sensing his disquiet, stroked his arm while watching him with her golden gaze.  When he caught Kai

looking at him, he smiled and shook his head, his voice husky.  "I only wish I had been there to help you kill the

rotten bastard."  She reached across and gave his hand a shake.  He opened his palm and showed Morrigan Arl Rendon

Howe's ring sitting on it.  "Thank you, little sister."  He gave her a small smile.

“My dear Kai, I cannot say how much I appreciate your thoughtful gift.  Where did you get rare Antivan brandy

from?"  Zev's eyes looked over the brown bottle's dusty surface.

"Well, I found it in Vimaro's things.  He had a thing for brandies.  But he did not open this one, I don't know

why.  I took it to the vintner here in Highever.  He offered me the Sun and Moon for it, and I told him it was a

gift and I wasn't there to sell it.  I thought the poor man would fall down weeping.  Apparently, it is that rare. 

I only hope it hasn't turned into vinegar in all of its travels."  She smiled at him.  He looked at it a moment

more before stroking her cheek.

"I believe it is your turn, little sister."  Fergus looked at her.  Kai raised her eyebrow and pulled a flat box

out from under the couch.  She unwrapped it and pulled off the wooden lid.  A parchment envelope lay on top of the

contents.  Her name was written in her Father's handwriting.  She lifted it off to find the silver necklace set

made with garnets to look like the branches of the Rowan tree.  She felt her breath catch while she put a tentative

finger out to touch the cold metal.  "Zevran mentioned it, and I knew Father would have bought it for you.  You

always did have him wrapped around your little finger."  Fergus winked and grinned at her.  "I found it tucked away

in Grandfather's study in the old desk Father used."  Kai felt tears wetting her cheeks.
She opened the parchment and inside was a letter in her father's hand:
Dear Pup,
Your gave your mother enough happiness for her to have a present too.  You never ask for jewelry or other more

'girly' items as you call them.  Your mother practically ran me down to the jeweler; I think she was afraid you

would change your mind and ask for armor or a new set of daggers.  Know that your mother and I couldn't be

prouder.  And we consider ourselves some of the luckiest people in the world.  You and your brother are a constant

joy.  Happy Birthday, my fierce girl.
Your doting Father and Mother

Kai held back a sob.  "Oh put on the necklace, Kai!"  Leliana's cheerful voice broke in.  She grinned at the

redhead as Zev put the necklace around her neck and fastened it with a small kiss.

Kai realized the only person who had not spoken about her present was Morrigan.  She looked at the witch, who sat

with her present in her lap.  "Should I get you something else, sister?  I know it is not the usual sparkly jewelry

you love, but a Chasind was selling them in Lothering to make some coin to travel.  I saw it and thought of you,

since you came from the Wilds."

Morrigan smiled that slightly quirky smile she used when doing her “scary face.”  "Oh no, sister, ‘tis most

wonderful."  Morrigan held up the hoop of wood with leather lacings in a spider web fashion looped in it.  The

lacings created an empty space in the center and in that dangled a little man shaped doll.  "‘Tis a Chasind Dream

Net, is it not?"  She smiled more widely.  "‘Tis used to stop unwanted dreams and bring only pleasant ones.  ‘Tis

hedge magic, but ‘tis most effective.  With a few changes to the doll I believe I can give the Fool Templar a

lesson he will not forget."

"Um, what do you mean?  I thought Alistair had only come to you when I was in trouble."  Kai stared at Morrigan. 

She could feel her eyes narrowing.  “Alistair!”

"Uh oh!"  Alistair's drunken voice slurred in her ear.  "Some-body's in trou-ble," he sing-songed blurrily.

"Yes, that someone would be you!" Kai growled at him.

"Oh, right!  I think I hear your father calling!"  And he was gone once again.

"Oh no, once he realized he could visit me, the idiot has enjoyed coming to me in the Fade to tease me.  I think

the doll in the middle will do nicely as a substitute for the fool.  I think a few pins before bed will remind him

that only emergencies are required or wanted for his company."  Morrigan grinned wider.

"Promise you will not maim him or re

Modifié par Gilgamesh1138, 19 juin 2010 - 02:20 .

[Gilgamesh1138]

Chapter 75


Kai sat at the table in the now mostly empty dining hall reading her Scath reports while nibbling some bacon left

over from the morning meal.  She was busy with quill and parchment compiling notes and making plans and writing

instructions which she would report via the procul globe to her Scath across Ferelden.  The reports from her Scath

in the palace said they were having a harder time gathering intel.  Anora was becoming increasingly paranoid, and

Kai had to admit it had to do with their work as “The Silver Griffon.”  It was a double edged sword.  They could

continue to thwart Anora and her group of sycophantic nobles and their stealing from the people or let the petty

**** make the Fereldans as destitute as Meghren had done when he occupied the country under Orlais.  To Kai the

choice was easy, even if it made what she was doing in other areas more difficult.
Kai felt it in her bones; Anora was planning something or was already working on something.  It was just a matter

of scratching out what.  She marked down instructions for her Scath to stay cautious, but look for different

pathways of information from those who continued to surround Anora and her newest group of toadies.  Kai wrote down

instructions for them to dig more into Anora's new group of enforcers, her own twisted version of Templars.
Kai was also waiting to hear back from Talan the blacksmith about his son Georig who had been traveling as a

merchant and spy for the “Griffon.”  Georig had been on his way to Orzammar to sell wares and gather intel.  Kai

wanted to make her offer to Georig on becoming a Scath and getting a vallaslin.  If his answer was yes, then she

would also give him a procul globe and teach him how to use it.
After putting Bhelen on the throne, reluctantly, Kai had gotten the dwarven army as per the treaty to the Grey. 

Beside the Deep Roads themselves, dealing with dwarven politics had almost been worse than the Archdemon itself. 

She had despised every minute and every decision, which seemed to consist of only bad choices or worse choices.  In

the end she had been obliged to destroy a good, albeit weak, man named Harrowmont to put Bhelen on the throne. 

Bhelen, a man who had probably committed fratricide though Kai could never prove conclusively that he was guilty,

revolted her.  It disgusted her that she and her group had essentially become the man's errand boys and girls. 

But, it had to be done to help end the Blight.  Not even running errands for the Crows had made her feel as dirty.
When her party had asked her why she had chosen to help Bhelen against his opponent, who was a deeply honest and

admirable man, she had answered “strength and the status quo.”  It had all come down to strength and status quo. 

After speaking with various nobles, after visiting Dust Town, after visiting the Shaperate, after learning of

dwarven culture, Kai had seen that the dwarves were dying under an avalanche of their own making.  A mountain

bigger and heavier than the Frostbacks themselves was slowly killing them all.  It wasn't just the constant

fighting of darkspawn in the Deep Roads.  It was their inability to change.  Their numbers had dwindled, yet they

continued as if their empire was still at its height.  They labeled and banished any who dared leave to go to the

surface.  "Surfacers" were never allowed to return to the Stone if they wished. They treated the so-called

"casteless" in a horrific manner.  Then, if they weren't losing a good part of their population to their caste

system and the darkspawn, they were losing it to fighting in the arena for sport and entertainment.  All of these

things just made their numbers dwindle more. 
Casteless were the lowest of the low.  The children of casteless would be labeled as such too, with no chance of

ever getting out from under a life of squalor, starvation and desperation.  But not all casteless were born such;

some were dwarves stripped of their caste for reasons which could vary wildly, depending on the case.  The women in

Dust Town could only get out from under its grinding poverty if they produced a male child with his father’s caste

and married out of it, leading to "noble hunting."  Or casteless could join The Legion of the Dead fighting the

darkspawn until a death in the Deep Roads.  Their council had been filled to the brim with the same rich, spoiled

elite who made decisions the rest had to live by, yet never had to mix with the unwashed masses in the lower levels

of Orzammar if they didn't wish to. 
Some might argue that human nobles also made decisions others had to live by, and they would be right to a point. 

If a petty spoiled tyrant weren't on the throne, the people could rise up and take down the offending bann or arl

and replace them.  And no matter how much some might wish it otherwise, human nobles had to come into contact with

the so-called lower classes.  If the people found they could not rise up and be rid of their offending noble on

their own, they could seek justice from the crown. Usually.
Much as Kai loathed Bhelen, as slimy as she felt the man was, he was willing to change dwarven culture, to make it

grow as it would not do it on its own.  Maybe he was doing it only because he wanted to marry a casteless woman. 

Kai didn't care if that was his only motivation.  Her instincts told her that Bhelen had the stones to drag the

dwarves, kicking and screaming if needs be, out from under certain extinction as a culture.  She didn't know if he

felt it too, but Kai had felt the dwarves rotting like cloth left out in the sun too long.
While Kai had admired Harrowmont and even respected him, she knew with those same instincts born of being a noble

and raised on politics that Harrowmont was a weak man.  She was certain the dwarves would have been torn asunder

fighting each other as Harrowmont wouldn't have been able to control the infighting.  She had seen it when they had

first walked into Orzammar and had witnessed Harrowmont’s and Bhelen's groups in a battle.  She had seen the

hesitation in Harrowmont's eyes, in his posture.  That hesitation would have called to the other nobles like blood

to sharks or the weakest deer in the herd to wolves.  There were dwarven, human and elven wolves and sharks in the

world who would always look for weakness, the soft spot, the exposed underbelly.
So when the time had come, she had chosen Bhelen, even if she felt like scrubbing with lye soap afterwards.  One of

her regrets was that she was unable to save Harrowmont.  He may have made a horrible king for the dwarves, but he

was a good man.  Bhelen had had him executed.  Kai could understand it, even if she hated it.  If Alistair hadn't

sacrificed himself, if she had taken Morrigan up on her offer, Anora would have had to have been summarily

dispatched.  The games of politics were dirty, nasty and definitely not for the faint of heart.  Those games

weren’t for men like Harrowmont.
Kai snorted to herself.  It struck her, the reason she didn't like Bhelen.  He was the very personification of

herself and every noble in the human government.  It was just that Bhelen didn't try and hide behind a mask of

false civility or false humility.  Kai was once again reminded of that childhood book of the Animals of Thedas. 

Bhelen reminded her of the Antivan cobra.  This snake did not hide and strike as others did.  It raised up and

flared a hood of brightly colored skin, announcing its presence before it spit poison to blind and sank in fangs to

kill.  Blunt and to the point, just like Bhelen.  It made Kai wonder what kind of animal she was then.  She shied

away from such uncomfortable musings to get back to the problems at hand.
Kai wasn't sure what kind of welcome she might have from the new dwarven king or if she would be welcome at all. 

And truth be told, she had no idea what was going on there since she had put him on the throne.  She and Bhelen had

not parted friends, more like reluctant partners in a political game of "you scratch my back, I'll scratch yours." 

With the final battle, Alistair's death and Anora's assassination attempt, she hadn't really been keeping up with

the dwarves.  The way things were going, that was going to have to change.  Ah, let’s add yet another shelled

boiled egg to the ones she was already juggling.  Maybe it was more akin to juggling an axe, a dagger, a baby and a

crystal vase.  One misstep and it wouldn't be pretty.
These thoughts had her pinching the bridge of her nose as she felt a slight headache coming on.  Argus, who had

been sleeping at her feet, started and gave a soft "woof."  Kai turned to see Wynne, Fiona, Morrigan and Leliana

come in through the doorway making their way to the buffet to put some food on plates and grab the new drink Olwyna

had introduced from Antiva called “cafè” made from roasted beans.  It was a black and bitter drink that had quite a

kick.  Some like Jarren and Wynne drank it black.  Kai found it needed a lot of milk and honey.  Olwyna had caught

Kai doctoring hers, slapped her on the back and called her a lightweight.  She smiled to herself as the group of

chattering females, well more like Leliana was chattering, seated themselves around her.
She was just turning her attention back to the reports to give them a final run through to make sure she hadn't

missed anything, when Wynne set a mug of cafè down in front of her complete with milk and she guessed honey.  "You

looked like you could use it dear."  The mage winked at her.  Kai smiled back and then caught Morrigan's eye.
"What, do I have a smudge on my nose?  Have I a wart?  ‘Tis not like you to stare sister.  Nor is it overly wise to

do so, as others have found out."  Morrigan raised an eyebrow as she looked back at Kai with her intense golden

eyes.  Argus gave a woof of agreement.
Kai felt her face flush, and she was about to let it go, but she heard Zev's voice in her head, So it would be hard

to know when, or if, she has had the pleasure of someone's company.  Certainly not during the Blight, so at least a

year.  Or even at all.  Kai cleared her throat. "Well...um...see...I wanted to ask...and you certainly don't have

to answer if you don't want to.  It's just that something Zev said got me to thinking, and um..."  Kai faltered. 

"I...well...I mean to say that...I wanted to ask, rather, well...."
"Where last you left your brains?  Perhaps the dwarf drank them.  ‘Twould seem as good an answer as any as to why

you are stuttering like a simpleton."  Morrigan finished Kai's sentence for her in that mocking sweet voice she

liked to use.  Kai flushed and would have let it drop then, but the pretty bard piped up.
"Oh for Andraste's sake, Morri!  Were you a virgin before you slept with Fergus?"  Leliana tilted her head and

smiled at the witch.  Kai could only gape at the redhead.  Wynne and Fiona did simultaneous movements of hands to

foreheads.  Kai swore she heard one of them mutter something about “beware of redheaded Orlesians bearing lutes.” 

Kai watched as a brilliant pink flush crept up Morrigan’s pale and lovely neck and continued until even her scalp

seemed to be on fire.  Kai's old Nan had used the phrase “hear a pin drop,” but she had never experienced such a

silence as she did right now.
Wynne seemed to be watching Morrigan's reaction very closely and the flushing which Morrigan had never done

before.  "Well, I guess that answers that."
Fiona glanced at Wynn before turning a sympathetic gaze on the witch.  "I think she might actually be speechless."
"I think all of us are speechless, save Leliana, of course."  Kai grimaced at the bard, who only smiled and

shrugged.  Kai noticed that not only was Morrigan speechless she looked, what?  Mortified?  Oh my.  Kai scooted

over on the bench closer to her sister and put her arms around her shoulders.  Kai was now the more experienced

older sister in this case.  "Morrigan, that is nothing to be ashamed of."
Morrigan blushed harder if anything and looked down at her hands.  "It was just a bit...I simply..."  Morrigan

looked up her eyes bright, before she threw her hands up in frustration and huffed out.  "‘Tis not what I

expected!"
Lelianna leaned forward excitedly her eyes wide, looking like nothing more than a child at Winter Solstice about to

open a present.  "Ooh?  How so?  Tell all, Morri!  Tell all!"
Kai broke in. "No, NOT telling all, still my brother we're talking about here!  As little information about this as

possible if you please!  By Andraste's holy knickers, I thought we covered this already!"  Argus gave a woof which

sounded suspiciously like a laugh.  Kai turned back to her sister, giving Argus a shove with her toe.  "Morrigan,

sister, I just want to make sure you're handling this well.  The first time can be..."  Kai felt herself blushing

like the witch.  "Well, it's something.  So tell me, how wasn't it what you expected?"
Morrigan's blush had subsided to two pink spots high on her exquisite cheekbones.  "When I went in animal form to

the town to watch the people there, I saw how they would fumble and grope around with each other when they thought

no one watched them.  And with Flemeth, well I...I saw more than I ever wanted of how she would rut with the fools

she enchanted.  It was either watch or go outside, the hut was small."
Morrigan shifted on her seat, uncomfortable with the memories of Flemeth's sexual conquests.  "I expected much the

same once I finally let a man use this body.  But your fool brother...oh, ‘tis such stupid emotional twaddle!"  The

witch slapped her hands down on the wooden table.  "When I am with him, I matter."  Morrigan looked astounded at

the confession which had just issued forth from her own mouth.  "Only with you have I felt such a connection,

sister.  But this...this was different, somehow.  More, well, more of everything.  Deeper and more basic and...and

primal.  Yet so far above mere mating like animals or the enthralled rutting that Flemeth did.  And now, because it

is more, ‘tis filled with foolish emotion that has left me as scatterbrained as the redheaded Orlesian dimwit!"  It

was that statement which had Leli giggling.
Wynne walked around from the other side of the table and leaned in to hug the witch, resting her gray head on top

of Morrigan's dark one.  "Oh child, it's all part of being a woman and being with a man, especially that first

time."  The mage's face took on a wistful look.  "Why after my first, I felt as if I'd never have a clear thought

again.  And I didn't for a solid week."  She grinned at Kai over Morrigan's head.  "It's what our men do to us,

child, they twist us 'round and leave us dizzy and confused.  But you know what you can always take satisfaction

in?"
Kai raised an eyebrow.  She even had Morrigan and Lelianna's rapt attention now.  They all burst out into a

simultaneous, "No, what?" causing Leliana, Kai and Fiona to laugh, and Morrigan to give a derisive snort.
Wynne gave them all a sly and impish smile worthy of Zevran.  “No matter how much they twist us up, we'll always

cause them to writhe around and be twice as befuddled as they leave us."

Modifié par Gilgamesh1138, 19 juin 2010 - 02:30 .

[Narise]

Excellent as always.

[Gilgamesh1138]

Thanks Narise! *HUGS*

[westiex9]

Ooh so many chapters! its like a christmas present! im going to enjoy reading these

[Gilgamesh1138]

Thanks westie, glad you are just starting out, 75 is under construction.



I hope you enjoy it. Take your time reading it, more like episodes in a TV show than a novel. Thanks for reading!

[westiex9]

The first chapter is so sad! I remember playing as a human noble and not being able to bring myself to even contemplate the ultimate sacrifice ending

[Gilgamesh1138]

Oh I know, I have never let Ali sacrifice himself. I couldn't do it. So that first chapter I totally made up. ROFl, it isn't from experience with that ending.

[Gilgamesh1138]

Aw thanks Vil! *hugs*

[Gilgamesh1138]

Chapter 76


Putting on Zev's vallaslin had gone well, despite her own nerves.  She had not fumbled as she had feared she

would.  Zevran had laughed at this, asking her how it could have gone any other way after she had spent hours

practicing on the slab of pork she had stolen from the larder.  When she had wanted to put it off again, he had

pointed out that Olwyna would probably put Kai on a spit and roast her if she tried to take another side to

practice on.  So, now Zev sported his own blue crescents.
Kai had word from one of her Scath whom she had sent back to Lake Calenhad that Georig, Talan's son, was back in

the town there.  Kai had been packing for a short trip to the lake once again.  She wanted to make her offer of

joining the Scath to Georig in person.  Plus, since she now knew how to do the vallaslin and had committed one to

an actual living being's skin, she could give Georig his if he said yes.  It was with that in mind that she packed

inks and tools as well as clothes and sundries.
It was while she and Zev had been packing their saddlebags that they had word that Rajed was asking to see them in

the training area before they left.  Kai and Zev made their way down to the open air rotunda.  She found her Scath,

some of the off duty guards and Gnat all standing along the walls of the atrium.  It had been cleared of training

dummies and Rajed stood in the middle with a bowl of chalk at his feet.  Kai approached the shy young man with a

smile.  "Scathach, I was hoping to show you what I can do with the weapon you gave me.  I am ready now.  I had

hoped that you and, say, five of the others might spar with me?"  He gave her a shy grin.
"Certainly, which one of us would you like to go first?"  She gestured to the others standing around waiting.
"No, you misunderstand me, Scathach.  I want you all to fight me at the same time."  He flushed but his smile did

not waver.  She could see he was excited and eager.  She cocked an eyebrow and grinned back at him nodding.  She

gestured for Leli with her bow, Zev, Naseel, Zaeed and Oghren to join them.  "I am going to put the sheath in

chalk, it should mark you like a cut.  If you get a mortal wound I ask that you step out as in a real fight.  Other

wounds that you would be able to fight through, of course you stay.  Is that okay?"  He looked at all of them.  Kai

and the rest nodded and started to fan out pulling out their own weapons.
Rajed rubbed the chalk that the warriors used to keep their hands dry in practice all over the leather sheath

before winding the thin chain around the stump of his arm and once around his full arm, and spinning the rest over

his head in wide arcs.  Oghren was the first to move in.  With a berserker cry and his axe raised high in two

hands, he ran towards Rajed.  And then time sped up and it all happened fast.  Rajed, without even looking back,

slung the blade towards the dwarf while spinning in a side somersault, the chain flying out and wrapping around the

handle right below the massive blade.  Rajed came up and gave the chain a yank causing the axe blade to bury itself

in the dirt.  Another yank and he had it spinning out again in an arc that had all but Leli, who was nocking her

bow with rubber tipped training arrows, to duck as the blade came whizzing around.
Kai found herself doing a forward leap over the chain which effectively stopped her forward progress to get to

Rajed with her blades.  She was up and on her feet in a moment only to have to duck again, backwards this time. 

Leliana had managed to fire off shots, but none even came close to Rajed as they were knocked from the air by the

chain or the blade.  Rajed was moving so fast that Kai couldn't keep up with his moves.  He had apparently taken

the ones she gave him, expanded on them and created his own to go with his stump of an arm.
Her inner musings were quickly put aside, as she found herself with various small chalk marks which she hadn't even

felt hit.  She needed her concentration in full on her Scath.  As the “wounds” were not mortal, she continued to

try and get to Rajed.  Oghren was down for the count, as he had been struck across the back of his neck where his

metal armor did not reach while trying to extricate his axe from the dirt, a cut that would have sliced his head

off.  Leliana too was out, as Rajed had used the sweeping arc to knock her bow from her hands and quickly strike

the bard when she went for her blades.  He continued to spin and kick and make the blade dance on its chain.  Zaeed

was out when he got close only to have Rajed wrap the chain around his stump, grab the blade and catch his brother

across the throat, while kicking Zev who had been sneaking up and as quickly dispatching Naseel by swinging low and

catching her across the abdomen, a move that would have spilled her guts around her feet.
Kai thought she had her moment then, but in a flash the blade had swung out again and Kai had to bend over

backwards as it sailed past her nose, barely missing it.  She watched as Zev's leg got "severed" and Rajed once

again yanked the chain bringing the dagger to his hand only to "plunge" it into Zev's chest, bringing a "Braska!"

from Zev's lips.  Kai meant to move forward, but Rajed held up a hand and pointed to her chest.  It had a long

chalk line from her throat to her navel.  She hadn't even realized she had been hit.  She grinned at him while

putting her hands on her knees trying to catch her breath.  "That was very impressive and most deadly.  Bravo,

Rajed, bravo!"  There was a thunderous applause from all who had been watching.  Rajed blushed, his dark skin

getting darker, but he grinned from ear to ear.
Kai watched Gnat who was clapping walk up to Rajed and speak quietly to him while gesturing.  Kai could tell she

was asking him to spar with her alone.  She had no idea what Gnat hoped to do since he had just effectively

"killed" six foes, but it should be interesting of that she had no doubt.  Kai took herself to stand next to

Oghren, Zev and Leli along the wall.
Again Rajed doused the blade and its sheath in chalk and stood looping it in long arcs.  Gnat faced Rajed without

drawing her daggers and stood waiting for him to make the first move.  He looped the blade over his head and then

in a blink let it fly towards the diminutive elf.  Gnat simply watched it arc towards her and then sank into a

split her legs stretched out on either side of her body which turned into a roll forward, followed by her raising

up on her arms her legs in a split raised in the air as the blade sailed between them.  As the blade was pulled

back Gnat was on her feet and doing somersaults while rapidly closing the distance to Rajed.  As the blade came

arcing her way she leapt up and almost walked the chain as the blade went past.  Kai watched as Rajed's quick moves

were met with the quick agile moves of tumbles, rolls, and jumps.  Rajed's blade would land where Gnat had been

just a second before only to hit the dirt.  It ended when Rajed found himself on the ground with the beautiful

elven girl straddling his shoulders and her two drawn blades crossed at his neck.  Both were staring at each

other.  Kai would have sworn they stopped breathing for a moment.
If Kai had thought that Gnat's playing with the chained weapon with the ball and the blades had been an erotic

dance, this was more so.  "Now I really need to go take a dunk in the lake, Warden."  Oghren's gruff voice spoke to

from her right.
"Oh my."  Was all Leliana could say.  Kai looked at the pretty bard who was wearing a flushed, slightly hungry

look.
"Indeed, that had all the elements needed to be truly titillating.  That little display would compete with some of

the most sensual shows in Antiva."  Zev grinned at her.  "And I think on that note we need to get ourselves to Lake

Calenhad, no?  We have a dwarf to speak to and an inn room I am now looking forward to using even more than

before."  He gave Kai a saucy wink and a chuckle as he went to gather their saddlebags.  Kai blew air out and

followed him.
They traveled to Lake Calenhad.  Wynne had insisted on coming this time, so no repeats of needing a mage to fly or

run to get to her should healing be needed.  Leliana and Jarren came along as well.  Kai suspected that Arl Eamon,

Teagan and even Naseel herself had insisted that Kai be accompanied and protected as much as possible.  The thought

made her roll her eyes, but what could she do?  They would go whether she wanted them to or no, and on one level

she was very grateful.  The darkspawn doing what they were doing, which was not what they should be doing, made her

appreciate the company.  She gave a mental head shake.
They made it to the Spoiled Princess as night was falling.  Kai got the Ceffyls tended to and her group all

situated into their rooms.  She found she was tired and sore and decided she would rather bathe and go to bed than

eat.  Zev went with the rest to the common room leaving her to soak.  Kai felt all the tension leave her muscles

and when the water had started to cool got herself into a night shift and crawled between clean cool sheets and

duvet.  She closed her eyes and found herself in the dream side of the Fade.
As always she felt him before she saw him.  She found herself wrapped in strong arms as she buried her head in his

muscular chest.  His lips found hers, and she wrapped her arms around his neck.  Her whole being just sighed and

stretched like a cat in the sun.
She felt his lip grinning against hers.  "You told Morrigan to talk to your mother!  I should be mad at you, you

know."  His gray eyes looked into her deep blue ones.  They sparkled with mirth.  "And the witch and her hex has

caused me to drop things, break things and trip over my own feet."
"You deserved it you know.  You shouldn't pester Morrigan.  You know she will come to the Fade where you are one

day."  Kai grinned at him.  "And how do you know tripping over your own feet is the dream net's doing?"
"Hey-y!"  He said in mock hurt.  "On the other hand, good point."  He smiled his lopsided smile at her, his hand

brushing her hair back from her face.
"Besides, you were spending time with her in the dream Fade when you could have been spending it with me. 

Shouldn't I be jealous?"  She gave him an impish smile and was pleased to see him blush.
"NO! I just wanted to...you know I don't.  I mean Morrigan and I are barely friends, and that was only because of

the twins."  She laughed and kissed him, rubbing her lips against his.  "You just like to do that to watch me blush

and squirm don't you?"
"And if I told you ‘yes?’"  She gave him a sly smile.
"I would say you are a bad person."  He grinned at her.
"Do you hate me?"  Kai cocked an eyebrow at him.  He leaned in.
"Very.  Let me show you how much."  His mouth devoured hers, making the room spin, and her heart filled with joy as

it beat faster, so fast she thought it would burst.  His hands roamed along her back pulling her into him, molding

her body to his.  They fit as if two pieces of a puzzle had been snapped together.  “Always,” echoed in her head. 

It was Alistair always, nothing else mattered.  He was her sanctuary.
They tumbled backwards onto the bed in the forest clearing, her favorite spot to meet him.  She arched under him as

his big callused hands rubbed and enticed, setting every nerve alight.  His mouth roamed down her neck across her

chest and lower, only to return to nibble and bite her lips again.  She clawed restlessly at his shoulders running

her fingers up his spine causing him to shudder.  She felt his breath hitch as she let her own mouth roamed across

his broad muscular chest.  "Hey, not fair!"  He groaned as she laughed and continued.
In retaliation he let his tongue run along the edge of her ear and scraped teeth on the lobe, an erotic spot that

had surprised them both when they discovered it.  The world spun faster and faster like the chain in the sparring

practice.  Mouths feasted, hands tickled and enticed, breathing ended in gasps and moans.  She opened for him only

to close again surrounding him.  She tightened and stretched, arching until she thought she might break.  She

grasped him tighter to her, breath ending in a cry of triumph as his body had its own spasms, his lips whispering

her name in gasps into her hair.
She loved the heavenly weight of his body on hers.  She was in the perfect position to nibble his neck.  "My ears

are ringing.  How do you always do that to me?"  His sentence came out in little bursts with his ragged breathing.
"Talent?"  She laughed.  Ah, she felt so used.  Like a doll made of velvet sprinkled with gold dust.  She was

boneless.  And she always felt such happiness that surely it emanated out of the pores of her skin.  He raised up

to look her in the face, cupping her cheek while grinning.
"Talent, yes.  And that I am totally, absolutely in love with you might have something to do with it."  He kissed

the end of her nose before rolling over and tucking her in beside him.
"Well, I guess I have to admit to being totally in love with you as well.  In case you hadn't figured that out by

now.  Just so you know."  She grinned and kissed his chest, ending with a sigh of contentment.  She was just dozing

off when....
She was woken up by Zev's gentle hand on her shoulder.  "Since you did not eat last night, my dear Kai, I thought

you might like to get some breakfast, no?"
She smiled at him and nodded.  At least she’d had a good night’s sleep for once.  She hadn't been sleeping

particularly well since Alistair had broken the news about The Architect and Fiona had filled her in on more of the

details.  Those details had only served to send even more fingers of fear racing down her spine.
She brushed those thoughts aside and focused on getting dressed so she could grab a bite to eat and meet up with

Georig.  She also had some armor ideas for Rajed’s shorter arm that she wanted to run by Hulda, since she had seen

him in action now.  She had a better idea of how the armor should fit the stump and a modification that might help

him control the chain.  And she wanted Talan to make backup weapons for both Rajed and Gnat.
Kai and Zev met up with Wynne, Leli and Jarren in the common room.  The others were already enjoying some breakfast

when they sat down at the table.  Kai was surprised to see Felsi serving the morning meal, as she usually worked

the evening shift.  "Hi, Felsi, sorry I couldn't bring Oghren with me.  We are planning on leaving tomorrow

morning, so this was a short visit."
The pretty dwarf just frowned and made a scoffing noise.  "I have a message for you for that pile of walking nug

droppings."  She put her hands on ample hips.  "You tell that sodding nug humper that he knocked me up!"  And with

that Felsi turned on her heel and walked back to the kitchens, leaving a stunned group in various positions of

getting food to their mouths.
"Well, who is going to tell our drunken friend the good news?"  Zev asked with a grin.  Zev’s question started a

whole argument back and forth, ending when Wynne found a deck of cards on a nearby table.  Low card would be the

one to tell Oghren of his new “daddy” status.  Zev got the Jack of Hearts, which made Kai snort at the irony.  He

only gave her a sly grin and ran his fingers along her thigh under the table.  She rolled her eyes at him.  Leli

drew the Ten of Diamonds.  Jarren pulled the Five of Spades and started to sweat across his brow.  Kai thought she

might have a chance to beat this, when Wynne pulled out the Queen of Clubs.  All Kai had to do was beat a five, and

she drew the Two of Hearts.  With a groan she slapped it on the table.
When Wynne swept up the cards in a fanning motion and shuffled the deck with one hand, Kai knew she had been had by

a card shark.  She grimaced at Wynne who wrinkled her nose and laughed.  "What do you think we do in the Tower on

our off time?"  Kai rolled her eyes, grinning, and took herself out of the door to follow the path up the hill past

the ruins to town.
She was pleased to see the town still bustling with activity.  In fact it was almost as if they had just left five

minutes ago, rather than weeks.  Kai waved to several people as she went past.  She did grab one of the townsfolk

to inquire where Timothy was.  As it turned out, he was visiting with Talan; apparently Nila had sent him to get a

pot fixed.
Kai made her way to the blacksmith's shop and found Nila and Drysi sitting outside talking with Talan's wife Eue. 

Eue held a little baby wrapped in a blanket in her arms while Drysi and Nila drank tea.  Nila saw her first and her

face split in a huge grin as she heaved herself up; her own belly had gotten slightly larger than the last time Kai

had seen her.  Nila pulled Kai into a hug.  "My Lady!  It is so good to see you!  You remember Drysi?  And Eue you

already know."  Kai smiled at Drysi, who actually smiled back.  Besides the lack of swelling in her belly and face,

she looked like a different girl.  The girl actually smiled, and it reached her eyes.
"Hello again."  Drysi got up and gave Kai a shy hug.  "I wanted to thank you, my lady, for what you did."
"I am not the one to thank, Knight Commander Greagoir is.  I see you decided to keep the baby."  Kai went to Eue

and looked down at the sleeping infant.
"I struggled with that, but when I saw my son, I decided he was mine and the Tower couldn't take him. Why should I

leave him?  So he is mine.  I named him Gawyn."  Drysi picked up the babe from Eue and hugged him to her, smiling. 

Kai smiled back
"I am so glad, Drysi.  If you need anything or I can do anything for you, don't hesitate to tell Nila or Timothy." 

Drysi nodded and beamed at her.
"You have done more than I could have hoped for, my lady.  Thank you."  She smiled and sat back down.  Kai couldn't

figure what they all thought she had done.  As far as she was concerned, she just played messenger.
"Talan, I heard, is busy fixing a pot for you Nila."
"More likely he and Timothy are in there drinking a mug of ale with Georig and Aulber.  Hulda too, come to that. 

She always was one of the boys."  Eue nodded her head towards the workshop adjacent to the anvil and bellows.  Kai

grinned and saluted the women before walking past them to the workshop door.
It was just as Eue had suspected.  Timothy's great height towered over the dwarves as he leaned against the wall

with a mug in his hand.  "Aha, Eue told me about the party you have going on in here."  Kai managed to just get

that out before she was swept into a bone cracking hug by Timothy and a mug of ale from the keg sitting on the

workshop table was pressed into her hand.  More mugs were passed out to her group who had all filed in behind her. 

Wynne drank hers with relish, she enjoyed a good ale.  Kai remembered her shock at learning that when Oghren had

given Wynne a sample of his homemade brew in the Deep Roads.  The mage always seemed to surprise her.
Kai explained to Georig Timothy's suggestion about him joining the Scath.  She explained the vallaslin and exactly

what it meant to have one, that it could mean death.  Georig agreed to join immediately.  She was surprised when

Talan, Aulber and Hulda all insisted they, too, have the tattoo put on.  When she expressed her astonishment, Talan

explained that since he and his family all worked as the armor and weapons smiths for the Scath, then they were in

a sense already Scath too.  And so it was that Kai found herself putting vallaslins on the entire Hennslin clan,

Eue included who said she was just as much a part of it all. 
Kai showed Georig how to use the procul globe and what taps to use to activate it, along with the short and long

hand motions for communicating.  She explained that if anyone else used it without the proper code, the globe would

be rendered useless.  She was about to put the globe back into its velvet sack when it started to glow and fill

with iridescence which coalesced into the head of Zaeed.  His normally happy go lucky expression was replaced by a

stoic one, which only meant bad news.  She watched him make the motions over the ball back and forth before nodding

and signing off with him.
"What is it, dear lady?"  Timothy caught her grim expression.
"I am afraid we have to leave tonight.  The less you know, the better.  I am sorry about the abrupt departure." 

Timothy just gave her hand a little shake as he shook his head at her.  Kai turned and asked Hulda for the armor

for Rajed to be made and gave Talan instructions for making back ups of the weapons he already made.  She thanked

them, snuck a bag of coins onto the workshop table and bid them farewell.  Kai waited until they were all back at

The Spoiled Princess and in Kai and Zev's room before she told them what Zaeed had to say.
"It seems that our Scath in the castle at Denerim overheard one of Anora's boot licking nobles bragging about how

he had single handedly found some of the soldiers who deserted after the Alienage invasion."  Kai clenched her

hands into fists as she paced.  Her stomach felt as if it had ice in it.  "They found the ones relocated to West

Hill.  Arl Wulff, who has lost so much already, is under suspicion.  They have taken West Hill.  I understand Arl

Wulff is under house arrest.  It has been days, the Scath only now heard about it."
"Then we ride for Highever to pick up reinforcements and on to West Hill, no?"  Zev reached out and grasped one of

her hands.
"And pray to the Maker we aren't too late."  Kai nodded grimly.

Modifié par Gilgamesh1138, 19 juin 2010 - 02:34 .

[Gilgamesh1138]

Chapter 77

Kai stood in one of the empty, long forgotten corridors of the fortress of West Hill, Arl Wulff's holding. It had

once been an important look out for Corsairs, but as the marauding pirates had become less of a threat, West Hill

had fallen into disrepair, and its watchtowers abandoned.   Now it was most famous as the site of King Maric's

defeat at Meghren’s hands due to treachery.
The fort itself which could hold thousands now only held a tenth of that.  It had become one big storage facility

for all intents and purposes.  Massive hallways and passages were often dark and abandoned.  It was a huge maze,

and anyone could become lost and die, never to be seen again.  Or so Kai had imagined when she was a little girl. 

The Couslands had visited frequently, since West Hill was a close neighbor to Highever.  And while it was true that

her father and mother had warned her, very sternly, never to go wandering off in West Hill alone, her Scath whom

she had sent to map out the place had not come across any pitiful remains of long lost persons despite her

childhood imaginings.
Kai had figured that as it could hold thousands and only held hundreds, that a good number of the soldiers who had

turned against Anora, and their families, could safely meld into the general West Hill population and no one would

be the wiser.  And Anora shouldn't have, been the wiser, that is.  How they had been discovered Kai had yet to

figure out, but one of Anora's noble toadies had.  Useless to figure out how the Mabari got out of the kennel once

it was already gone, best to concentrate on getting it back.  Or so Nan had drilled into her as a child.
And so it was that Kai and her group had ridden hard to Highever.  She had gathered a number of her Scath and her

usual crowd.  Kai had wanted Fiona to come, the more healers the better, but Fiona had insisted on staying with the

twins and Fergus.  When Kai had argued that the woman was a powerful mage and not some twinkle fingered babysitter,

Fiona had laughed.  She pointed out that she had abandoned Alistair, and she was not about to abandon her

grandchildren or Fergus.  She was going to protect them no matter what might happen.  She explained to Kai, with

steel in her dark eyes, that she had her family back, and if Arl Wulff and the soldiers had been uncovered, who was

to say that Anora might not look at Fergus and Highever, being such close neighbors?  Especially with Anora's

paranoia growing by leaps and bounds.  Fiona had made it clear in no uncertain terms that if anyone even looked at

Fergus or Highever, she would blast their very eyes from their heads.  It was then that Kai was even more grateful

for Fiona, and truth be told, the way Fiona looked, Kai was afraid she would turn that fire on her if she argued. 

It certainly made her feel slightly better at leaving the twins behind with Fergus.
So it was that she, Zev, Naseel, Zaeed and Gnat stood in the empty hallway waiting for their appointed meeting. 

They all, being rogues, were able to sneak, a concept that she had to patiently explain to Sten and Shale who had

wanted to attend.  Their insistence had made her smile.
Kai could see the broken tiles, the dust on the floor and caked into the wrinkles of the cloth covering the low

slung piece of furniture on which she leaned.  The sheet, which she supposed had been white at some point, was now

a dull grayish brown.  Occasionally breezes would blow down the corridor from elsewhere in the castle carrying with

it murmurs and sighs.  It would lift the cobwebs gracing the paintings now obscured by the varnish turning black. 

The portraits and landscapes all looked as if they were being viewed through a window upon which someone had thrown

watery mud.  The effect was to have only parts of the paintings visible.  An eye here, a tree or maybe it was a

rider on a horse, there.  It was easy to see why the place had the reputation of being haunted.
"Scathach?"  Kai and the others turned to face one of her Ferelden Scath, Cass.  Cass had been assigned to go with

the soldiers dispersed to West Hill.  Cass told them how Anora's men had shown up at West Hill in the middle of the

night.  They had gained entrance by saying they were on their way to Redcliffe and needed a place to stay.  Before

the Arl could be called as host, they had attacked, rounding up everyone to the last child.  If the searchers found

any hidden armor which indicated the owners were not one of the West Hill Knights, they were separated along with

their families.  They had one of the nobles of Denerim called in to point out soldiers he knew.  They had packed

them all in prison wagons they had hidden down the road until they had everyone.  "But that is not the half,

Scathach.  They arrested the Arl as well and packed him into a wagon!"  Cass's face remained neutral, but her eyes

showed her dismay.
"Do you know where they were taking them?"  Kai clenched her fists.  It was very bad news indeed if they had taken

Wulff as well.
"I had Trynt follow them, but his orders were only to follow, not to take action. We are only two.  I told him that

where they went was of the utmost importance for you to know, Scathach."  Kai nodded and grasped her arm.  "Trynt

followed them to one of the old watch towers still standing along the coast.  They were taken there."  Kai and her

party snuck back out of West Hill to meet the others in the forest as they had arranged earlier.  She had told them

not to set up camp, as she was not sure how long they were going to be at West Hill itself.  She hadn't even let

them unsaddle the Ceffyls.
It had been afternoon when Kai and the others had gotten to West Hill and met with Cass.  By they time they rode up

the coast, or in the case of Sten and Shale ran up the coast, dusk was falling into the bowl of night.  Kai had all

of them fan out and stay low, hiding behind the big boulders that dotted the open space of the point of land where

the ruins of the watchtower stood.  The crumbling stone structure sat on a slightly jutting point of land between

West Hill and Highever.  There was one smaller hut made of stone next to the tower visible from their vantage

point.
From what Kai could see, there were only a handful of soldiers, and she could see none of the prisoners.  She saw

the soldiers had piled up what looked like wood and put it to the torch.  When the wind shifted and the black smoke

drifted over the land instead of out to the Waking Sea, she knew what the bonfire was really made of.  The bile

crept up her throat.  The smell of burning human flesh was unmistakable, even as faint as it was from where they

were.  Maker, they were too late after all.  She felt light headed and had to put her hand out on the boulder to

keep herself from falling over.  She placed her forehead on the cool stone.  Late, too late, always too late.  More

death, more destruction by her or because of her.  Would it never sodding end?
"Kai, Kaidana."  It was Zev's voice that broke through her dark thoughts.  "That pile cannot be all of them.  There

may be some still alive.  We need to find out."  His hand gripped her shoulder.  She looked at him, almost through

him, but his hand helped ground her.  She realized that she and he had not had any sleep for going on two days

now.  She nodded and took a handful of cold water from her canteen and patted it across her eyes and her cheeks

before replacing the veil in the hood of her cloak.  With hand signals and via the procul globe, she had her Scath

and friends start moving forward now that it had turned dark.
They made their way forward.  Anora’s men had lit torches and were sitting or standing around the fire drinking,

eating and joking as if the fuel for their fire was nothing more the usual firewood.  Kai felt her inner abyss

trying to snap its leash.  She managed to keep it locked down as she crept up on one man who had started to walk

away from the others in the dark to take a leak against one of the stones.  She put her dagger between his ribs and

flicked it, cutting his aorta.  His eyes got wide, but he made only a muffled little gasp.  She had stepped away

before he had even finished falling.
And so it went, they picked off the ones furthest from the fire, one by one.  The rest they leapt upon from the

shadows and surprised.  The men fought back.  But half drunk or all drunk and caught unawares, they fell easily. 

Kai spared one last look at the burning pile, swallowing hard, before turning to go towards the tower.  Her forward

progress was stopped by the sound of the wooden door to the stone hut next to the tower being thrown open as the

drunk and sleep dazed leader appeared in the doorway.  "Can't you keep it down you bunch of dung eating sons of

wh...."  The man's commentary was halted by Sten grabbing the man with one hand and lifting him off his feet and

slamming him against the cottage's stone wall.  The man's eyes got wide as his face turned purple.  "Shall I break

his neck, kadan?"
"No, I have questions for him.  Just keep him out of the way and out of commission for the moment."  Kai turned

when she heard as strangled yell.  Sten had tossed the man like a rag doll, as if he were playing a game of catch

with the stone giant.  The man landed against Shale's large stone torso to fall at the golem's feet, where he

slumped with blood trickling down his face from a cut in his head.
Shale shrugged at Kai.  "Oops."  Shale picked him up by the scruff of the neck, giving him a shake.  The man

moaned.  "Not completely broken then."
Kai shook her head and went to the tower and opened the door.  The inside was black as the space between the

stars.  There was a hissing sound, but it was the smell that hit her first, the iron acrid smell of blood and a lot

of it.  Kai dreaded looking in there with every fiber of her being, though she knew she had to.  She turned and

grabbed a torch from near the fire.  She walked back to the doorway and paused a moment before she walked through

the door, the torch held high.  At first she couldn't take it all in.  Her mind just couldn't process fast enough. 

Her heart beat so fast and her stomach wanted to crawl up her throat.  Impressions of blood pooled everywhere. 

Dead eyes stared at her.  The hissing had been rats, crawling over the bodies.  The rodents squeaked and scampered

from the light of the torch.  She had to close her eyes and try to breathe.  Her foot slipping in the blood brought

her back; she hadn't even realized she had been moving forward.
"Warden, you need to see this."  No, I don't. I really, really don't.  A part of her wanted to giggle, the part

that was slowly creeping up on hysteria.  She was afraid if she started giggling she would start screaming and

throw herself off the cliff.  She buckled it down and walked over to Oghren who was pointing at one of the bodies

while holding his own torch.  It was Arl Wulff and next to him lay Gwydion, the knight whose sister had been

raped.  Arl Wulff had adopted the young soldier and his sister according to her Scath.  Wulff had lost his two sons

to darkspawn while Loghain had tried to pretend there wasn't a true Blight.  She stood looking down at both of them

for a moment.  From the positions of the bodies, it was obvious that Gwydion had tried to protect the old Arl.
I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry kept echoing in Kai's head.  She was too late yet again.  Damn the Maker

and his Bride, the Black City take them both!  And take her with them, come to that.  They sent her back for what? 

Another abject failure on her part?  No, no, no, no, NO!
"KAI!" Alistair's voice sounded in her ear.  Kai swung a fist out, her knuckles connecting with the stone wall, and

hardly felt them crunch with the impact, a guttural yell escaping her lips.  Just as quickly, she felt the tingle

of healing magic as she turned to see Wynne's hands glowing from the spell she had just cast.  Kai stood looking at

the mage for a moment, their gazes locked.  Then Kai bent down and gently closed the men’s eyelids with a shaking

finger.  The pain, however brief, had snapped her back.
She made herself stand and take a good look around the room.  Kai saw something that registered in the back of her

mind rather than her conscious front.  The front wanted to be unconscious, preferably due to alcohol and a lot of

it.  But she looked again, forcing that part of herself which was screaming in horror telling her Run, RUN AWAY NOW

to shut the sod up.  There were bodies everywhere, but it was one in particular that made her take a longer look. 

Maker, was that a...?  The others came in behind her.  She walked as carefully as she could; it was like walking on

ice, slick.  Then it registered, it was the body of a woman.  She lay on her side, her arms, even in death, wrapped

around her burgeoning belly.  A hole made by a sword slit the rounded mound of her stomach.  Kai wanted to look

away, but couldn't.   She had to confirm what she thought she saw.  Something small and pale showed.
She felt her head spinning as she knelt, heedless of the blood pooling around her knees.  A tiny hand, its five

little perfect fingers each tipped with little fingernails rested on the cloth of the skirt.  They had stabbed the

woman through her abdomen, then slit her throat.  Kai felt the world tilt and her vision go black.  Then, she

vomited.  She thought the retching would never stop, bile burned her throat.  Tears ran down her cheeks, whether

from the effort of her stomach to dislodge itself from her body or because of what she saw, she could not say.
It was the feeling of a hand on her shoulder, two hands, that had her wiping her mouth on her forearm.  Naseel and

Zevran helped her get back up.  She walked back to the door and took one last look back.  She looked at Arl Wulff. 

She looked at Gwydion.  She looked once more at the woman.  Her abyss snapped its leash.  The human part of herself

watched as if from a distance.  The world tilted back, coming into sharp focus.  She saw everything as if her mind

were keeping it all, every second, marked.  Her vision was as clear as glass.  Kai looked at the blood on her

hands.  She marked how it ringed the nails, sinking into the cuticles and the sticky feeling it made as she

clenched and unclenched her fists.  Her mind carefully noted the sticky sucking sound her boots made as she walked

out of the tower.  She strode forward to the man still sitting at the feet of golem.  He was awake now.  He sat

rubbing his head, looked up and saw Kai coming for him.  His eyes got wide, his face pale, as if he were looking at

darkspawn broodmother.  He tried to crawl backwards away from her.  He couldn't go through the golem, who merely

picked him up and set him on his feet.
Kai had her daggers drawn and was going for the man's belly, her only thought to slit him open, spill his guts and

make him watch as she pulled them out slowly, in inches.  "Kai, Kai, KAIDANA!"  It was Zev's voice and his

desperate grab for her that spun her around.  She growled and raised her daggers.
"Stay out of my way, Zevran!  I am going to make him scream so loud it will be heard all over Thedas and right to

the nug humping Maker himself.  I am going to make him wish he had never been born.  So if any of you are

squeamish," Kai looked at Wynne, "then you had better stick your fingers in your ears and look away.  The bastard

is mine, and we are going to dance."  Kai flipped her daggers in her fingers and started forward again.  She barely

noticed the man was already blubbering and that even the golem was having trouble holding him in place.  Zevran

grabbed her again.  She snarled, and it took everything not to let her abyss turn on him.
The detached part of her brain noted that her abyss hadn't quite snapped the leash after all.  She had unmuzzled it

and given it more of the lead to run on, but it wasn't quite free, yet.  "Kai."  Zev grasped her wrist gently. 

"Kaidana," he used the tone of voice he used for her in private.  It was soft and did more to stop the monster in

her from running all the way to the end of its tether than his touch.  "Think, the bodies in the tower.  Did you

notice anything odd?"
"What I saw was death, a lot of it.  The Arl and Gwydion.  Including a pregnant woman and her..." Kai swallowed

hard lest she vomit again, "...and her baby.  Do you mean there was something more odd than that?"  She glared at

him.
"The only woman in the room was her, and the rest were all elderly."  He looked at her with a pleading look, his

hand reached up to stroke her cheek.  "There were no children, no young boys, no women of childbearing age.  Where

are they, Kaidana, if they are not here?"  Zev put his hand on her shoulder.  "We need to ask him questions.  They

must still be alive, and we need to know where they are."
Kai nodded.  She looked at Shale and nodded again.  She walked up to the man and grabbed him by the front of his

armor.  The golem nodded back and let him go.  He started to try and run, Kai thrust her stiff fingers forward in a

quick jab to his throat.  He stopped trying to get away as he was too busy trying to breathe.
Kai tossed him into the hut.  The back room contained a bed, and the larger front room he’d come out of had a small

kitchen area.  Kai kicked the man, her dwarven steel toed boots catching his ribs in a sickening crunch making him

roll further into the room.  "Get up."  Her voice was cold as Winter.  The man lay there panting.  "I said get up,

you Maker forsaken bastard."  She nodded at Sten who had come in, and the giant picked up the man.  Kai waved to

the kitchen and one of the chairs there.  Sten drug the man over and sat him in a chair with no more effort than as

if it were a child, not a full grown adult, he held.  She took out some leather ties for armor that she always had

on her, since she never knew when one might break.  She tied the man’s hands behind him and his legs to the chair

legs.
Zevran had been quietly rummaging around the kitchen area.  He held a bowl of lemons and a sack of what looked like

salt.  Kai cocked an eyebrow at him.  Then it occurred to her, they weren't going to polish armor or weapons with

the salt and lemons.  They could be used to cause pain without real harm.  She gave him a grim smile.
Once again, he gently grabbed her arm and pulled her aside.  "Kai, perhaps I should do this.  I have more

experience in these matters, no?"
She grasped his hand.  "No, I am not going to let you stain your soul more, and I am not going to let someone else

do what I am unwilling to do.  I am the leader, this falls to me."  She leaned in so the prisoner would not hear. 

"Thank you, my dear friend."
She let her abyss show in her eyes and turned towards the man in the chair.  "I have some questions, and I would

like answers."  Kai took a lemon and cut it in half with one of her daggers and dipped it in the salt sitting on

the table.  She walked over, showed the prisoner the lemon half and then she ground it into his head wound, making

sure the juice and salt mixed.  The man let out a high pitched squeal as he squirmed in his chair.  She waited

until he stopped screeching before taking the other half of the lemon and squeezing it into his eyes.  Again he

gave out screams, tears running down his face.
She grabbed his chin forcing him to look at her with streaming eyes.  "If you don't answer my questions

truthfully.  If I even think you are lying in the smallest way, I will cause you such pain.  And I will enjoy every

minute of every hour of it.  And I do mean hours."  Kai began pacing in front of the man.  "The lemons and salt,

they are just the warm up.  By the end of it, I will cut your manhood off, cauterize the wound and cook it up and

make you eat it.  That will be for the woman in the tower and her baby.  And when you are done feasting on your own

****, I will cut open your belly."  Kai walked over and grabbed a broom sitting in the corner of the room.  "And I

will take out your intestines and I will wrap them around this broom handle.  I will wrap a few inches every hour

while you watch me do it, and we will see how long you live with your guts hanging out."  She gave him a cold smile

and shrugged.  "I was once told by a soldier who worked for my father that he had seen the Orlesians do it to one

of his fellows when they had been captured.  The man lived four days.  He said the man screamed in agony before he

died.  Apparently it is a very painful way to linger before you go to the Maker.  He said the smell was

unspeakable, and the flies and maggots were a sight to be seen."  She smiled again.  "Would you like to see that

sight yourself?"  She asked in mock sweetness.  The man's red and watering eyes got wide as he shook his head so

hard that she thought he would knock the chair over.
"No, puh-please, don't.  We were following orders."  Kai's hand shot out, and her fist caught him on the jaw

knocking the chair over.  Sten calmly pulled the man and the chair back upright.
"I don't think that was the right answer, my friend."  Zev's smile was cold, and he used his assassin's voice.  Kai

chuckled low in her throat.
"If you answer my questions truthfully, then I promise you what you don't deserve.  A quick and clean death, a

warrior's death."  Kai snapped her wrist and her dagger went sailing past the man's face, so close it cut his

cheek, to land in the wall behind him.  She cut another lemon and dipped it in salt.  "But know how much I long for

you to die slowly."  She put the lemon and salt on the new cut now dripping blood from his chin.
What had seemed like hours only took minutes.  The man confessed that the younger women and the children had been

taken to a secret dock in a cove between the river that fed Lake Calenhad and the River Dane.  It was a little

known area, secluded and protected by the low cliff walls surrounding it leading out to the Waking Sea.  The good

news was that they were alive. The bad news, they had left two days ago to be taken to the cove to a Tevinter

slaver ship that was waiting there.  Anora was yet again selling her own people for money.  Kai untied the man and

shoved him out the door of the hut.  She pushed him down in front of the others who were waiting.  Kai noticed

Wynne looked at the man, and the subtle look of relief that he had not been brutally tortured.  She nodded at the

mage, who nodded back.  Then Kai did as she had promised.  She put her dagger to the man's neck.  She whispered in

his ear, "I don't break my promises.  But the Fade for you, it will be a nightmare from which you can never wake. 

Enjoy eternity."  And slipped the blade between the vertebrae severing his spine letting his body fall and twitch

on the ground.
She turned and grabbed a barrel of the oil that the soldiers had been using to douse the bodies on the pile.  She

took out the cork and poured it around the entrance to the tower.  Then she uncorked another barrel and threw it

in.  When the others realized what she was doing, they helped until all the barrels were opened and tossed in. 

Then she grabbed the cask of whiskey sitting there and stuck her dagger in it making it leak.  She walked a line of

whiskey to the tower, splashed some inside and put the cask down.  She took a lit torch and touched it to the

whiskey on the ground, watching the flame dance along the line she had made.  When it got to the tower interior,

the flames found the cask and the oil. She stood only long enough to make sure the flames took hold, then she

gathered them all to ride as hard as they could back the way they had come.  She only hoped that this time she

would not be too late.

Modifié par Gilgamesh1138, 19 juin 2010 - 02:37 .

[LadyAly]

Just started to read - and I must say - it has pulled me in immediately. I have a lot to read now o.O

[Gilgamesh1138]

ROFL! Danke schoene meine fruenden! ACK, my German is so bad now that I have been away for so long. Thank you for reading sweetie, you are a doll. Don't fret about reading it, take your time.

[Miri1984]

Still loving it Gil, just to let you know I'm reading! Last couple of chapters have been gripping!

[Gilgamesh1138]

Oh thanks Miri! You are a love! *HUGS* to you mama. I wanted to catch up to yours ( you creative, blessed talent, you) but mum and dad were here. I barely got Chapter 77 written.

And I admit to doing fanart of the characters. I have Ali, Kai, Zev, and Naseel drawn. Getting a USB port tonight so my computer will be able to use the scanner. Hope to have them up tonight too. I may need help with that from you. I see people put links to the art so people can jump to it. Not sure how to do that. I iz doofus and computer noob.

Modifié par Gilgamesh1138, 27 avril 2010 - 10:43 .

[Gilgamesh1138]

Chapter 78

Kai and the rest all raced as fast as they could back down the coast.  Shale and Sten had agreed to stay behind

with two other Scath and make sure the fire burnt the bodies, cremating them, since they could not run as fast as

Ceffyls and time was of the essence.  The ships had several days head start on them.   Sten and Shale would also

gather ashes to give to the families.  What was left of their families, provided Kai could get them back.
She pushed those thoughts away and concentrated on staying awake and not falling off Luna.  The rocking gallop of

the Ceffyl was not helping her keep her eyes open after two days of no sleep, going on three.  She knew Luna was

smart and could guide herself, but Luna couldn't keep her in the saddle.
They had passed West Hill again going in the opposite direction this time.  They headed West away from Highever and

West Hill towards the cove between the River Dane and the river that made the tail of Lake Calenhad.  At one point

there had been a small village called Firth Harbor.  The people who had started building a harbor and town there

had hoped to use it as a port for ships to come in and drop off supplies to be taken by smaller boats up the river

to the lake itself or up the coast to West Hill since it sat on sheer cliffs where no harbor could be built.  There

was also access to the North Road so goods could be taken to Highever or Amaranthine.  Also from the river and to

the lake, they could take goods to Redcliffe, or to the Bannorn over land.  Goods could go via River Drakon to

Lothering, then could be traded on the West Road with the Dalish and taken on to Denerim.  The plan was to use the

cove and the River Dane as another road.  Cailan had even had the cove charted for rocks so safe passage could be

made by bigger ships.  Kai figured that must be how the Tevinter ship knew how to sail in without becoming

shipwrecked on the rocks.  Anora must have provided the captain with charts.  The town and port had been abandoned

during the Blight.  It had not been repopulated as far as Kai knew.
The narrow point of the cove where the great waterfall emptied itself into the Waking Sea made it too dangerous for

large ships due to the churning waters and narrow rock bottom.  The village had been built just before the first

fork on the side closer to West Hill.  They had built it near the river for fresh water and its access to the

waterways of the River Dane.  The plan was to have the ships offload their goods at the village, while the village

would exchange goods from Ferelden.  The goods received would be rowed up the River Dane to Lake Calenhad.  Kai

figured that the Tevinter ship, if still in the cove, would be just at the area of deep water near the fork of the

River Dane where the waters of the cove were quieter and deeper.
Even though they were not close, and a forest and two forks of the River Dane stood between them and the bay, they

could hear the sound of the great waterfall from the river of Lake Calenhad as it emptied into the cove.  Kai had

her group pull up as they got close to the supposedly deserted village.  There were no lights showing through the

trees.  Zaeed and Naseel with a few other Scath had gone to scout out the village ahead.  The area around the

buildings was heavily forested.  The villagers had only cleared what they needed to build the village and the

port.  With the place deserted and no humans to tend it, Nature had started to take the area back.
The rocky cliffs of the coast's edge provided a wall of seclusion and protection on the east side, and there were

three huge rocky islands that made up the walls of the west side of the cove. The islands had slim narrow channels

between them where the sea's tides and waves made it dangerous for any boat to try and sail.  The islands

themselves were nothing more than sheer cliff walls rising to flat surfaces where trees and birds could be seen. 

Only someone with a wish for death would ever climb those cliffs to get to their tops, provided a boat could stay

put long enough down below without being dashed to pieces on the rocks.  The area was especially rough if the tide

was high or the season of the year was bringing in bad weather.  The Waking Sea could be a harsh mistress.  Maric

been lost when his ship sank trying to cross the Waking Sea to the Free Marches.
Night would soon be turning to day, and she had hoped that if by some miracle the slave ship was still there, they

could use the dark to their advantage.  That and she hoped that by this time in the night with a few scant hours

until daylight, most of the ship’s crew would be asleep.  After all, they were in a cove, secreted, and they had no

real reason to be on alert.  If the ship hadn't set sail.
Naseel returned and let them know the village was nothing but a ruin and no one was in it, though the Tevinters had

used it and left it.  Kai's heart started to sink – had, the past tense.  Naseel must have seen the disappointment

in Kai's eyes.  She gave Kai's arm a squeeze.  "Scathach, the ship, for whatever reason, is still sitting in the

cove.  It is as if they intended to set sail.  They abandoned the few buildings they had been using, leaving

detritus and garbage behind.  Yet the ship sits in the cove still.  And the prisoners are all being held in a

repaired warehouse here in the village."
Naseel shrugged.  "There is more to this than we could discern, Scathach.  We did scout and find boats the

Tevinters used to get from the village to the ship and back again.  They must have taken some of the prisoners to

the ship, but did not finish taking them all."  Naseel showed Kai a small rag doll with button eyes.  Kai grasped

it, rubbing it with her fingers.  "We found that in the bottom of one of the boats.  We thought that they could

carry a good number of us over, leaving some on shore to guard the area, after we rescue the prisoners.  Those that

stay behind can keep them all safe while we tend to the ship and rescue the rest there."  Kai felt dizzy with

relief.  Maybe all was not lost after all, not a complete failure, just an enormous one.  She carefully put the

doll into the pouch hanging on her belt.
"Warehouse first, we check on the prisoners, and then we hit the ship.  We rescue the rest.  Anyone who gets in the

way or is unwilling to surrender, kill them.  If they surrender, take them prisoner.  We will send them back on the

dirtiest, nastiest, slowest ship we can find in Denerim."  It took everything in her not to call for the slaughter

of all of the Tevinter they met, but she had no indication that the Tevinters, slavers though they may be, were in

on the slaughter at the tower.  Also, she couldn't take the chance that some were doing what they were told and had

no choice.  Kai was, despite exhaustion and her brush with her own abyss, unwilling to kill innocents.  If there

were any such creatures aboard the vessel.  The situation reminded her of the mage tower.  She understood Cullen's

behavior a little better now.  "We take all supplies and anything of value that might be traded or sold to help

these families and the rest of Ferelden.  Remember we do the work of 'The Silver Griffon.'  Then, we scuttle the

ship."
The ride to Firth Harbor had helped her clear her head and rein in her own inner monster.  The ride had given her

time to take a closer, more detailed look at her own leviathan sitting in the deep, dark, cold ocean of her soul. 

Having it come so close to turning on Zev had given her pause and more cause to ensure it had its muzzle back on

and its tether shortened once again.  If she turned on those she loved simply because they got in the way, how was

she any better than Vimaro or Concha or those soldiers?  As if he were reading her mind, she felt the light stroke

of Zev's fingers on her arm.  She gave him a small smile.  She motioned with her hands, and her Scath all vanished

into the shadows which were appearing as the world become slightly lighter.  They needed to work faster.  The sun

would be rising in less than a couple of hours.
The attack on the warehouse was anti-climactic, to say the least.  Kai had been spoiling for a fight, despite

reining in her abyss, if only to get the adrenaline pumping and keep her from falling asleep on her feet.  But,

there were only four guards, and none had been a mage.  Leliana's arrows had taken out two, one of the others had

been dispatched by Zaeed when he slit the man's throat.  The fourth had been inside.  When they had broken through

the doorway, a young brunette woman with pale eyes had grabbed the man when he was looking at the door and had

broken his neck with a twist and a sickening crunching noise.
Kai had Wynne, Morrigan and those of her Scath who had brought first aid supplies to circulate amongst the

prisoners and assess their injuries.  Kai was about to turn and leave the warehouse when the young woman who had

dispatched the guard, grasped her arm.  "My lady, wait.  Give me a sword, and I will fight with you!"
Kai looked at the young woman's bruised yet defiant face.  "How bad are your injuries?"
"Superficial, my lady.  I am fit to fight, and I know where they are on the ship."  Kai looked at her and nodded. 

She went to one of the Tevinter soldiers and took the sword off the body.
"Do you use a shield?" Kai glanced up at her.  The girl nodded.  Kai grabbed the shield as well and handed both to

her.  "Kai."  She grinned at the young woman.  "You may come to regret it."
"Mhairi, my lady.  And I know who you are.  I heard about you, and I dreamed of being a Grey Warden until you were

‘killed.’  And imagine my surprise when you showed up at the Alienage.  I have been hoping to serve as more than

just a guard at West Hill.  My da' used to say that regret for the things you do get worn down by time like rock by

the restless sea.  But it is the regret for the things you didn't that defy time and stand eternal, mocking us.  I

for one, my lady, do not want to regret not trying to stop Anora when I could."
Kai stuck out her hand.  "Well then, welcome to the fight Mhairi.  Though you should always be careful what you

wish for, no?  That is what my father always said."  Mhairi looked a Kai, nodded and chuckled as Kai led the way

out of the door.

Modifié par Gilgamesh1138, 24 juin 2010 - 07:36 .

[LadyAly]

Oh my - I have reached chapter 20 now O_O - your story is full of surprises, suspense and it drews me really in. I must resist to read at work too much - or my boss will slap me ;P