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A Dalish Wardens last days: Chapter 12

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Chapter 12: Tainted secrets.

Ahimee eyes fluttered open and it took a couple seconds before she could place herself in the room. Had she seen it before? Yes, she had. She had been here when she was going to raid Eamons vault. Before she actually did that she spoke to Connor and they spoke about something so irrelevant as how horrid some toys he owned was before Ahimee gave him a staff and told him to become something he could be proud of. This room was just a random room, she doesn’t remember anything special about it but she’s here now. Ahimee sat up properly and a slight cutting pain ran through her body as she hadn’t quite recovered. Since the ogre probably just died maybe a couple hours ago she wasn’t surprised.

“You are awake…” Ahimee looked around and met with Connors sleepy gaze. “I should go tell father.” He said and rose from the floor in front of the fire. Ahimee didn’t want to speak to Eamon for the moment.
“Do you have to?” Ahimee said with a slight laugh. Connor turned to her and tilted her head just a little bit, he seemed reluctant to reply. “Surely you can tell me what is so important, right?” She continued and Connor scratched the back of his head like he was contemplating whether or not it was a good idea for him to recite things of seemingly great importance.
“They, father, Ser Alistair, uncle and Queen Anora, decided that the army has to march in the morning and Riordan had to speak to you and Alistair…” Connor finally more or less explained.
“About what?” Ahimee said keeping a casual tone and rose from the bed. She still wore pants and pretty much every part that would count as her chest, back and stomach were almost completely covered in rags with some disgusting scent emerging whenever she moved. It stung her nose and she was sure it was some kind of poultice.
“Probably about the darkspawn.” Connor replied and Ahimee pulled her boots with no toes or heels onto her bare feet. “The horde has turned towards Denerim.” Ahimee was halfway through putting her shoes on so she dropped the boot on the floor with a slight thud. She hadn’t picked up on it at first but of course, if the army was marching somewhere they had to go elsewhere than Redcliffe.

“And the archdemon was at bulk of the horde.” Alistair said from the now open door. He had probably heard them talking and Connor ran out of the room so quick that he was out before Ahimee had barely picked her shoe from the floor.
“So it turned for the capitol instead of coming here?” Ahimee asked and Alistair nodded in reply.
“Since you’re up we should go and see what Riordan wanted.” Ahimee put on her chestplate as he said this and Ahimee hummed in an agreeable tone.
“You have no idea either, then?” Ahimee asked and Alistair shook his head.
“Good to know I’m not alone.” Alistair said in such a dramatic tone and Ahimee was taken back to the moment by Flemeths hut where she had basically ran out and hugged him because she was so scared she’d be left alone with some witch of the wilds. The fact that she had also said:
“Thank the creators, I’m not alone!” before letting him go as if he had been a lit candle and she’d been burnt and then pretending that she never done anything like it.
“You’re never letting that one go, are you?” Alistair chuckled as a response and Ahimee took that as a no as she opened the door that Alistair had just randomly stopped in front of.

Whatever Ahimee had expected when she was Riordan again it wasn’t this tired out version of a man which was now before her. He almost looked like he did when Ahimee had first met him. His braided hair was neater though, not tangled like when she had met him. He didn’t have the greenish shade of sickness on his cheeks and the crinkles around his eyes and mouth weren’t darkened with pain and gravity over what he had been through. Still, the man wasn’t a ray of sunshine. His black hair and furrowed eyebrows told a different story of someone who was carrying a huge weight on his shoulders.
Riordan lit up as he saw her enter, he had probably worried like everyone else and Ahimee barely knew how much time had passed. However since there hadn’t been any panic she assumed it hadn’t been much. Ahimee smiled back at the man, trying to lighten him up.

“You’re both here. Good.” Riordan said and turned around properly to face them. Ahimee placed herself in one of the chairs and Alistair supported himself on the bedframe. Both completely prepared for a long speech of some sorts. Ahimee remembered well how Duncan taught her about the darkspawn… hours and hours of shem-talk. “You’re new to the grey wardens and you may not have been told how an archdemon is slain, I need to know if that is so.” Riordan said and Ahimee tried to remember if Duncan had told her anything or if anyone else had told her something of importance. Just that they needed to kill it, right?
“You mean there is more to it than just, say, chopping off its head?” Alistair said and Ahimee nodded in agreement. It sounded simple, but it wasn’t… of course it wasn’t! None of this was easy! It never was! The dalish needed help with sodding werewolves, the dwarves had some silly political drama, the circle was overrun by bloody abominations and Redcliffe had demon trouble as well. Not to even care for the huge dragon who had almost killed her by the temple. Nothing was ever simple!
“So it is true, Duncan had not yet told you. I had simply assumed. Tell me have you wondered why the Grey Wardens are needed to defeat the darkspawn?” Riordan asked and Ahimee looked up.
“I have wondered that, yes.” She replied and realized she had never understood that. Grey wardens can sense darkspawn and such but are they really necessary? Maybe it’s just some kind of bluff so that the grey wardens can do what they please? They did get exiled, didn’t they? However that was because they meddled in politics when they weren’t supposed to. Ahimee had meddled in politics in several ways by now though… she, a dalish elf who get amazed by the nobles heavy dresses, have decided the fate of dwarves, other elves and even humans. Riordan breathed in before speaking again.

“The archdemon may be slain as any other darkspawn but should any other than a grey warden do the final slaying it will not be enough.” Riordan begun his tale and just that first sentence had Ahimee indisputably confused. “The essence of the beast will pass through the taint to the nearest darkspawn and will be reborn anew in that body. The dragon is thus all but immortal. But if the archdemon is slain by a grey warden its essence travels into the Grey Warden instead.” Travels? What?
“And… what happens to the grey warden?” Ahimee asked quickly, it didn’t sound good. It sounded horrible. What happens to the grey warden? What happens to the one who kills the archdemon? Ahimees eyes got bigger, her posture changed as she hurried to lean forward. She didn’t even care to look at Alistair, she was too busy maintaining the eye contact with Riordan.  He looked saddened.
“The darkspawn is an empty soulless vessel but a grey warden is not. The essence of the archdemon is destroyed and so is the grey warden.” Ahimee felt as if she was back in the Fade, the feeling of nothing being real. She lost touch, her hearing faultered, her vision blurried… destroyed.
“Meaning that the grey warden who kills the archdemon… dies.” Alistair said and Ahimee turned her gaze and saw the fear or perhaps surprise over this information. Ahimee felt her heart writhe in her chest. The grey warden… it could be her, Riordan or Alistair. Pictures of Alistairs corpse flashed by accompanied by others, corpses ranging from a villager to Zevran and Ahimee felt as if she was falling. This was all… so surreal.
“Yes. Without the archdemon the Blight ends. It is the only way.” Riordan said and Ahimee was brought back to the conversation as she said the words she could’ve never imagined, ever, could escape her lips.
“Then I will take the final blow myself.” Ahimee said in such a determined tone she surprised even herself. Alistair was just about to protest, say what he felt, say what she should and shouldn’t do for her own good but Riordan spoke first.
“It warms my heart to see such courage but do not hurry so to sacrifice your life.” He said and Alistairs mouth shut quickly, Ahimee sat back down properly in her chair, she had to hear this. “If possible the final blow should be mine to make. I am the eldest and the taint will not spare me much longer, but if I fail the deed falls on you.” Ahimee acknowledged that the thought of not having to die was an attractive one, indeed. “The Blight must be stopped now or it will destroy all of Ferelden before the rest of the Grey Wardens can assemble.” All of Ferelden? Ahimee prayed that her clan would be far away by then. “Remember that. But enough, there will be much to do tomorrow and little enough time to rest before it. I’ll let you return to your rooms.” Ahimee sat still for a few seconds, she was trying to understand it all.

“I will see you once the army is ready to march then. I guess this ends soon. One way or another.” Alistair said to Riordan and Ahimee rose from the chair and started walking out of the room.
“That it does my friend, that it does.” Ahimee looked back at Riordan one last time before leaving. Alistair shut the door behind her.
Tomorrow one of them has to die… and if Riordan fails, that could be her or Alistair… what if they all fail? What happens then?
Summary:
Ahimee Mahariel is a dalish rogue who never cared for humans whatsoever, she joined the Grey Wardens out of spite and despised her human comrades, but after a year of traveling finding friends amongst the comrades seems inevitable. Ahimee even found a new love in the strangest place and a new best friend in an even stranger one.

So I'm pretty new to the whole dragon-age fanfiction thing and I think you have to actually know what the Landsmeet is... and Loghain... and stuff. So I'm sorry to all deviants out there who wants to read without knowing what the hell Dragon Age is.

Comments are appreciated.

Want to read it on fanfiction.net? :
www.fanfiction.net/s/10739573/…

Want to read Chapter 1?: A Dalish Wardens last days: Chapter 1
Or maybe the latest Chapter 11?:  A Dalish Wardens last days: Chapter 11

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So, let's see... not much left now it seems. :< I will miss Ahimee, maybe I'll do something else with her. Even if she isn't my canon-warden I can love her all the same.

Also the Mature Content-thing is really a matter of opinion... so if anything I ever written is of mature content tell me. Cos... I have no clue what counts as it and what doesn't.
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Taina-dOS's avatar
At that moment it was obvious that [[SPOILER]] and I was so relieved when [[SPOILER]]. I love mages....