They’ve been in the fade. I’ve felt it. But no special reaction. Damn it. I may be wrong. But I still need them. But they shouldn’t take so many risks. Marilyn is now weaker, I can feel it. Maybe it’s a good moment to take her mind. If she only abandoned that idea of messing with the others. Evelyn is quieter, but I don’t feel the power in her. Damn it, why did my seed split in two? Together they made the perfect offspring.
(Excerpt from Edanhor Blank’s journal, as found in Highever on 9:25, 14th day of Haring)
A PINT OF ALE
That's all I need.
I feel tired and a bit sick after all the experiences in the Fade yesterday. I still blame myself for what happened to Ser August and I didn't want to leave his side at all during the night, but Eve has almost forced me to get out of his room saying she'd watch him while I rested a bit myself. She says that with the black circles under my eyes and my red nose because of the mosquito sting, Mihitu will be scared to see me so I better do something to change it.
An ale will heal all my pains.
Shit! The problem is that I left the purse in the bedroom where Ser August is resting, so I can't pay for one. Now who can I cheat into inviting me to one? I look around the room. I'm not asking Mihitu, I don't want him to see me with this face… Mister Coughname-Tall-as-Hell? Nah, he's only nice when cats are involved.. and the tiny lady mage by his side would faint if I cough near her.
The newcomer dwarf, the one who is always eating olives, seems as broken as myself, and I can't see the pretty dwarfette, the one with beautiful clothes and a wealthy father. Suddenly I see the Knight on Shinning Armor. Ah, he surely is the perfect victim! He won't say no to a damsel in distress, even if my distress is just that I'm dying of thirst.
He's sitting alone in the bar, looking in the distance with his only bright eye. I remind myself I should learn how to make eyepatches as I sit by his side.
"An ale for your thoughts?" I say. I can't pay that ale, but I know he won't let a lady to invite him. Even if the "lady" is a dirty, sweaty elf rogue.
"My Lady! How nice to see you again!", he says, like coming back from a far away place.
"I'm sorry, I didn't notice you. I was… I was lost in my memories".
I feel all warm inside. I can't help it, I love when he calls me "lady".
"But you look sick!!!", he shouts, when his only eye focuses on me. "Shall I call the healer again?"
I smile, remembering our first meeting. I blushed so deeply when he greeted me calling me "My lady" that he thought I was sick, he rushed to get a healer, and finally the one who had to be healed was him... I don't know why, I found the complete misadventure cute and innocent and made me like this clumsy knight more than I would admit out loud. I wonder how he survived so long out there...
Art by Aosuka
"I think a pint of ale will be the right medicine, my lord", I say, with my best smile. "If you care to invite me".
"You can have as many ales as you want while I am here, my Lady. I'll pay for them. But try not to get drunk!", he jokes.
Didn't I say he's a complete cutie? I almost feel sorry for taking advantage of it. Almost.
"The only price you'll have to pay is to accept my company, if you allow me", he smiles again. "Only for talking!" he adds, a bit nervous. I giggle.
"I always enjoy a good conversation" I reply. It doesn't seem a high price to pay, if he buys me more than one ale. "Anything special you want to tell me?"
"What do you want to talk about?".
I shrug. Of course, my curiosity is attracted to his lost eye, which he barely hides under his black hair, but it wouldn't be polite to ask about it, even for me. So I just shrug.
"I don't know... how did you end up in a place like this one, for example?"
He laughs. He has already drunk two glasses of wine, his only eye shines. I can't help but notice it is a beautiful shade of green. Like Mihitu's
"Like everybody did, I guess. I needed a place to spend the night, and this one was the closest".
I tilt my head. "Oh? But... you surely come from somewhere... and go somewhere too..."
He chuckles. "Ah, yes... Well... I come from Orlais...". His eye wanders around the tavern, if he looks for somebody, I can't tell for sure, but I think he's looking at the Orlesian tiny girl sitting in the table near. Maybe he arrived with them? I can't recall.
"Oh? But you don't seem Orlesian"
"No... I'm from Highever... but I've spent several years wandering... out of Ferelden"
His eye darkens for a while, and he swallows his third glass of wine. I look at my empty jar of ale, not sure about what to say. "I see. If you don't want to talk about it...". One pint of ale is more than enough, I guess. I finish it and prepare to leave, but he raises his hand and asks for another round. I freeze. All right. I can stay a bit longer.
"So... what was the reason to come, after all these years?"
He whispers a single word "Lindy…". His expression is now bitter, his eye seems lost somewhere behind the counter. His lips suddenly curve in a sad smile, and it is as if he was greeting somebody lost long, long ago...
I look at him, suddenly interested. A female name, maybe a lost love, more than probably, for the sad expression in his face.
"Who is she?"
"My... my love...". He sighs, and his only eye shows a glint of sadness.
"Lucky girl" I say, wishing somebody felt the same for me. "Is she waiting for you somewhere?".
"In the Fade, I guess...", his face dark.
"Oh!", I stammer... "Is... she... dead? I'm... I'm sorry"
"A petty noble... a rat... captured her one night...".
"All nobles are rats!", I hear the olive-eating dwarf screaming at us, while raising his ale jar. He must have overheard our conversation. The knight – Kyle – doesn't seem to mind. People around the dwarf cheer with him, as if he had told a funny joke. I can't tell.
I haven't met any nobles yet. Except when I tried to steal from them, and I can't blame them for not being kind to me when they found out.
"And you rushed to rescue her?" I ask, reaching for my second jar of ale. This is like hearing a fairy tale.
"Yes, blind of rage... "
_____________
Left to right: Kyle, Ivans(rival), Monty (ex-caiptain ash warrior, the one had accept Kyle after bloody night), Antoine Rieul
It was already night. Not the time everybody was sleeping, but definitely not the time to pay a visit to a noble man. Kyle stood up in front of the door of the house. Ivan had told him Lindy was there, after a group of hooded men dragged her away from him in the marketplace. How he knew, Kyle didn't know... he didn't want to know, because if his rival had had something to do with it... well, he'd make sure he would never do something like that again...
The house was a wealthy one, on a couple of hours distance of Denerim, the kind minor nobles which didn't live there used, owned, or rented, when they came to stay long times in the capital. Kyle didn't know who lived there, and he didn't care. He only knew Lindy, his sweet Lindy, was held captive there... and he would get her out, safe and sound, or he would die at the attempt.
Kyle tired to open the door, but of course, it was locked. He didn't think it twice, and started knocking, hard, loud, in all the rage of his sixteen years, so it would be heard in all the silent neighbourhood. "I know you're there!", he shouted, when nobody opened the door. "Release her!!! Get out, you coward, and face me if you're a man!!"
Some minutes later, in which Kyle had already started to kick the door, appart from knocking at it, suddenly a small window opened, and a mischievous face looked straight at him.
"Stop doing that! You're going to awake everybody! I'm going to call the guards!!"
"Release her!", Kyle shouted. "I know she's here!!"
The eyes narrowed, looking at him. "She? Which she?"
"You know who!!" he shouted, "Lindy!!! You captured her in the marketplace!!"
The thought that maybe the information Ivans had given him were wrong didn't even pass through his mind. Fortunatelly, the noble didn't want to play games. "The Nevarran beauty, huh?". He chuckled. "Quite a temper. She suggested her boyfriend would come for her... I take this is you?"
Kyle stepped back, all pride and poise, and said, sort of relieved. "Yes! She's my beloved, and I'm going to take her with me... or die in the attempt! Release her!" he repeated.
"Ah, you like challenges", the face said. "All right. I'm a fair man. Defeat me in a duel, and she'll go back to you... Die... and I keep her for my amusement, as I planned".
Kyle felt the blood coming to his head, but he tried to stay calm. "I accept. Open the door and face me".
The face chuckled. "I didn't see I were going to face you, personally".
Suddenly a group of men arrived from nowhere. They probably had got out through a back door or something, while Kyle was speaking to the noble. They jumped over him, three at a time, but Kyle was already one with rage, and the closer they got, the faster they died, until his army of a hundred men was defeated...
_____________
I look at him suspiciously. "Are you trying to tell me you faced me one hundred men alone?". I find that hard to believe.
He smirks, but the way he holds his glass, knuckles white from the strength, says he's not amused. "Fifty, one hundred.. who cares? His idea of a fair fight was way different from mine. It wasn't an easy fight, believe me. But I won. And I faced the coward again..."
"Nobles are all cowards", shouts the dwarf again, followed by a new chorus of cheers. I guess he's also a bit drunk. "And the next round of ales is on my behalf!"
The bartender serves us another couple of drinks. Great. My jar was already empty. I take a long sip and look back at him. He looks so serious I must admit that, at least he, believes what he's telling me. I put my fist under my chin and listen to him, bewitched.
_____________
Kyle stood in front of the door again, armor covered in blood, corpses behind him. The small window was closed, and now nobody was peeking through it, but he didn't care. His rage ruled now, and he didn't need windows or keys. He ran against the door, like a living ram, and the door fell down like butter under his weight.
Kyle moved forward, the black of his silhouette outlined for a moment against the stark light outside. When he entered the dark corridor, though, nobody was there. If the nobleman was behind the door, he had already ran away, like the coward rat he was. He sniffed the air, like a beast, and walked determined until he reached a room, lit by some torches, where he stopped for a moment.
There she was, her blue eyes staring at him in a mix of reproach and hope. A couple of men were holding her, and she was struggling to release herself, but she was unharmed... and Kyle sighed with relief. It was his mistake, because a third man, one he didn't expect, came out from behind the door and jumped over him, wielding a dagger and slashing the right side of his face at the attempt.
Blind of pain, Kyle stepped back with a hand over the right side of his face. He tried to blink to focus his eyes and he realized the right one was a screen of red, while blood poured between his fingers. He couldn't hesitate, though, and held his sword in front of him trying to avoid being murdered while unable to see. But a female cry changed everything.
"Kyle! No!!". It was Lindy's voice. Kyle could see her blurry shape getting rid of the men who held her, rushing to help him. But the man who had wounded him also saw her, and was faster than Kyle. He forgot his foe, grabbed Lindy from behind and used her as a human shield for a moment, with his dagger, still dripping Kyle's blood, pointing at her throat.
The man laughed. "She's mine, and you're defeated. Surrender". Lindy struggled, but the dagger in her throat pressed and a ruby drop shone in her neck, making her stop for a while. "Don't listen to him!" she managed to shout.
Kyle wiped the blood of his right eye, blood and maybe something more, like water pouring from the eyesocket. He was unable to see anymore from that side, but he didn't care. The other eye started to focus and he could clearly see that despicable being holding the love of his life, the woman who owned his heart, and pouring her precious blood. No trade could be done. That bastard had to die.
"I won't surrender to you. Release her", he said, letting his arrogance speak in his behalf, somehow sure he didn't want Lindy dead either.
He was wrong.
The noble smiled… a grim, creepy smile, and slowly, clearly enjoying it, sank his dagger in the beautiful, white skin of Lindy and slashed from one side to the other. A choking sound, blood out of her mouth, and suddenly he threw her away, like a broken rag doll, making his only tool of trade useless to fullfill his madness.
Kyle saw her falling to his feet, saw the blood and her eyes, still trying to focus him, still trying to say what her broken throat couldn't express. A farewell, an I love you… an I will wait for you in the fade. All those were the last words Lindy told him through her sapphire eyes, but when he finally managed to kneel beside her, they already were looking away, unfocused, like crystal balls. "Avenge me", was the last word Kyle read in those blue pupils, and thus, he jumped forward, ready to grant her wish. Or to die in the attempt. Or both. Nothing else mattered, after all.
His sword fell down, and there was blood, but Kyle suddenly was held back by the arms of a group of men and the cry of an old friend. Ryan Cousland's voice tried to tranquilize him. "Kyle! What are you doing? Are you crazy?" He stopped, panting like a beast, and saw the bastard noble in front of him, holding his right arm with his left hand, while his dagger, the dagger which had killer Lindy, was on the floor, still hold by the right hand Kyle's sword had separated from the noble's arm. The guards who were holding Lindy minutes ago rushed to assist him, and dragged him away of the room while spitting his hate to Ryan.
"Hold your mabari, young Cousland… his bite won't be unpunished"
Kyle shouted, and the sound which came from his chest was not human. Ryan knew he could not hold him for a long time, so he stood in front of his friend. "Let him go. They will execute you if you kill him. Let him go…"
Ryan had ran to help him, with a group of ash warriors he had befriended in the city, and their common friend Seth, after hearing from Ivans himself what had happened to Lindy. When they saw the corpses at the door of the manor, and knowing his young friend, he imagined what was going to happen and rushed into the manor.
But it was too late.
Kyle's beastly yelling finally turned into tears of rage. Ryan held his friend, his chosen brother, from his shoulders, while Seth kneeled beside Lindy, shook his head in sorrow and covered her face with a cloth. Then Ryan realized what had happened and rushed to take her in his arms, asking for a healer. But it was too late. And Kyle continued looking at the scene, shocked, not knowing how to react… and only one thought in his head.
"Revenge"….
_____________
He stops, as if re-living the story again had been too much. I fear for the glass in his hand, he holds it so tight I wonder how it is not broken yet. I feel guilty for having brought so terrible memories back.
He's not a storyteller. I've had to deduct the entire story from his short phrases and spare words. But somehow I can see it in my mind. The blood. The dead body. His despair, his impotence, his rage…
"I'm sorry", I whisper. He shakes his head, trying to take his dark thoughts again.
"I had to leave Ferelden after trying to kill him a second time… and failing again. I failed to her... and I did something terrible...…"
"And now you've come back, to avenge her", I venture. He nods.
"I've been wandering for twelve years. But now the time has come. She knows. She demands it…"
Twelve years, I shudder. And he still mourns her. I suddenly feel sad. Very sad. Or maybe it's all the ale I've drunk.. I think this is my fourth jar… I start to cry.
"Oh, no, my lady! Why do you cry?".
"At least your Lindy loved you… The boy I like isn't interested in me". I lean over his shoulder and cry even more.
"How can he not like a lady like you?", he says, suddenly being the one who comforts me.
"He thinks I am too young!!!" I sob. "But I'm not!!! I'm a fully grown adult, see?" I point to my chest. "But I can't help being an elf, that's why my breasts are so small". I cry again, and I hide my face between my arms over the dirty bar surface.
I just raise my head a bit and ask:
"Do you think he's gay?"
"Shhh", he hushes, definitely uncomfortable. "You're a bit drunk".
"No, I'm not!" I shout.
Yes, I am.
Gosh. I feel pathetic. I am pathetic. And that makes me cry even more. Kyle just stares, not sure about what to do. Finally he says: "You'd better go back to your room and have some sleep, my lady. Do you need any assistance?".
My head is a bit clouded but I still can control my thoughts. Do I want Mihitu seeing this tall, handsome, kind and one eyed knight (who seems to be more or less HIS age) carrying me to my bedroom? Would he feel remotely jealous? Would it ring a bell?
I shake my head. No. It's too clear I am drunk. And I don't really want him to notice me in this state. So I make my best to control my limbs and thank the kind knight, my knight in shinning armor, by kissing his cheek.
"Thanks, Ser Kyle. No need for that. But when I feel better we'll talk again. And then I'll be the one who will invite you to an ale… But just one… next time"…
I get back to our room swearing that I will kill the bastard who is moving the steps while I climb them. But I don't fall a single time. Well, at least, until I reach the bed…
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