Landsmeet pt11

The Landsmeet was over.  Already the nobles were departing Denerim to mobilise their forces to add to the Grey Wardens' grand army of Dalish elves, dwarves and templars in addition to the eight thousand or so soldiers that Arl Eamon had managed to gather since Teagan began replacing Redcliffe's losses during the crisis involving the desire demon at Castle Redcliffe, at the order of Queen Anora, who was marching to Redcliffe with Arl Eamon and the Grey Wardens.

Well, to be precise, at least half of the nobles would be gathering their troops.  Between the civil war and the darkspawn, a good number of nobles would only be able to gather a tiny handful of soldiers at best, even were they to press-gang conscripts at short notice, like what Bann Sighard was doing.  Some, like Arl Wulff, were unable to do so for their lands had been conquered, their organised militias completely annihilated, the best such individuals could do was accompany the Grey Wardens with what few soldiers they still had.  Those who could gather a fighting force to march against the darkspawn were marching to Redcliffe with the Grey Wardens, the nobles riding with as much speed as they could muster to their lands to gather whatever soldiers they had.  Those towns and villages that were depleted of soldiers and guards to defend them were forced to evacuate.  Most headed north, some going to Denerim, others to places like Dragon's Peak and Amaranthine.  Others still went further north, to Highever and other settlements further north along the Storm Coast.  It was a hard blow to abandon the towns and villages but it was impossible to defend all of them without greatly dividing their forces, and with the exorbitant numbers of darkspawn, it would be senseless to waste any lives for towns that were considered strategically insignificant.

Aenian knew not how Eamon, Anora and Alistair fared on their march to Redcliffe.  They had left Denerim hours ago.  They did not go alone for Eamon's soldiers accompanied them, led by Ser Perth, leaving his household servants to remain in his Denerim estate.  Also accompanying them was Anora's handmaiden Erlina and a couple of Aenian's companions, Sten and Leliana to be specific.  They had also taken the mage Anders with them, Riordan formally conscripting the talented healer into their ranks after Aenian had decided at the Landsmeet after Loghain was killed in a duel that Ferelden was best served letting Anora continue to rule, to Arl Eamon's chagrin when Alistair had happily renounced all claim for the throne, for not only himself but for all of his descendants for all time.  Riordan had left Denerim as well but he wasn't riding to Redcliffe with Alistair.  The senior Warden was instead heading for Ostagar to do some reconnaissance on the darkspawn, his goal to locate the Archdemon so that the three Grey Wardens could slay it.

Aenian hadn't left Denerim yet.  It had only been a single day since the Landsmeet and he still hadn't visited his family.  He had told Alistair that he would like to pay his family a visit before he left.  He told the former templar that he would head for Soldier's Peak and wait there for the rest of their army to gather there once he had visited his family.  Aenian had sent Morrigan to deliver word to Keeper Zathrian to ready his people for war.  The elven Warden knew that Morrigan could travel quickly because of her shapeshifting magic.  She could take the form of a fast-flying bird and be in the Brecilian Forest in two or three days to deliver his message, approximately half the time it would take for a man on horseback to do so.  While she was at it, she could also check up on Zevran for him...assuming that nothing bad had happened to the former Antivan Crow.

The only companion to remain by Aenian's side was the mabari Vaughan.  Vaughan the wardog couldn't bare to leave Aenian's side so the elf agreed to let him remain by his side.  The two were a team anyway, so separating them was not an option.

It was late in the morning when Aenian went to the alienage.  A part of him could not recognise the place as he passed through the dirty and poorly maintained streets to where his childhood home was.  He remembered Loghain saying back in the Landsmeet that the alienage had suffered damage from the riots.  A number of buildings, in poor repair as they were, had been burnt to the ground by a mob of humans in retaliation to Bann Vaughan Kendall's murder, but Aenian had learnt that the humans had torched a sizeable part of the alienage only days after word of Ostagar's fall, more than he had thought, when Loghain had convened a Landsmeet to discuss what had happened that night when King Cailan and nearly all the Grey Wardens had perished.

When word of Bann Vaughan's father Arl Urien had died alongside King Cailan reached Denerim, that was when the mob of humans had attacked the alienage.  The bloodthirsty lynch mob killed dozens of elves and injured dozens more in the first night.  There had also been some incidences of rape and pillaging as well.  The buildings that were targeted for burning that night had been situated on the outermost parts of the alienage.  The number of elves displaced as a result had been much greater.  For several more nights after that things only worsened.  The attacks by the humans had gotten increasingly brazen and violent despite the city watch's half-hearted attempts at keeping the peace, their involvement more focussed on containing the fires that the human lynch mobs had started and prevent them from spreading outside of the alienage.  When the elves began to retaliate, that was when the city watch got aggressive, killing dozens of elves and arresting over two hundred more in a single evening.  Soris had been one of those elves who had been arrested, leaving his wife Valora and uncle Cyrion at home so that he could join in the protests with his friends.  Eventually things had settled down, but the peace was to be short-lived.

Not long after the riots, a plague had swept through the alienage.  First introduced by elven refugees fleeing the violence of civil war and the darkspawn invasion in the country's south, elves who had gotten sick with Blight sickness soon started spreading it across the alienage.  The plague had even spread to areas outside of the alienage.  In response to the plague reaching as far as the market district the city watch had closed off the alienage, locking the ghetto's inhabitants inside to be left to the cruel mercy of the plague, which killed well over two thousand of its inhabitants.  Soris, having been incarcerated in Howe's dungeons at the time had been spared from the plague, but in his time in the dungeon he had feared that his cousin Shianni and uncle Cyrion, as well as the alienage elder Valendrian had all died from the plague.  When he was released, his fears had been confirmed when Tevinter slavers, disguised as healers had taken Valendrian away, claiming that he was ill with Blight sickness.  At least Shianni hadn't gotten sick or been taken away during Soris' incarceration, the spirited and determined elf urging her people to not trust the foreign healers, whom she labelled as charlatans, but Cyrion had the misfortune of being taken and nearly shipped off to Tevinter, the only reason why he wasn't was because of Alistair and Sten's intervention.  It had been Alistair and Sten who had exposed the healers for what they truly were, Tevinter slavers.  Not only did word spread that the Tevinters were slavers who had managed to ship off dozens of elves on their ships to be sold into slavery in Tevinter, but so too did Loghain's involvement with them.  The elves had been on the verge of rioting for all the injustices they had suffered in these recent times.  It was the short mercy of Loghain's death during his duel with one of the Grey Wardens that had appeased the elves into soothing their riled emotions.  Even now Aenian would come across the odd dead elf or two lying forgotten along the street with maggots feeding on them.  He steered clear of the corpses of dead elves who lay forgotten by the rest of the alienage.

When he knocked on the door of the house he grew up in, it was been his cousin who answered.  'Cousin?' Soris said when he saw who had knocked on the door.  A bright, joyous expression shone on Soris' face.

Aenian and his cousin embraced each other in a tight, brotherly hug.  Though they were cousins, their bond was as fraternal as two sibling brothers.

Another elf approached, his hair grey instead of Soris' maroon.  Aenian saw that it was his father, Cyrion.  Father embraced son in a warm hug.  'I'm glad you came to see us.'

'I wanted to visit before leaving, father,' Aenian told his father.

'Word is spreading of what happened at the arl's palace, son.  Unfortunate with all the senseless deaths, but it couldn't be helped.  I'm convinced that Arl Howe had it coming,' said Cyrion.

'For all that he had done, not just his injustices against Grey Warden sympathisers, but all the other atrocities, including torturing Bann Sighard's son, he deserved death,' said Aenian.

'So, cousin, did you kill Arl Howe?  Or did one of your companions rob you of the chance?' asked Soris.

'Yes, Soris, one of my friends had managed to kill Howe.  An elf, in fact,' Aenian said nonchalantly, speaking briefly of his companion Zevran Arainai.

'That was rather risky, trusting a foreign assassin hired by Loghain to kill you,' Soris said.

'It turned out well in the end.  He had an opportunity to betray me to the Crows but he rejected them, choosing friendship over his old loyalties.  Now, I worry that he is being hunted by his former associates even now,' said Aenian.

'Please, come in.  You must be hungry, Aenian.  We're preparing lunch.  I can't say that Shianni would be joining us.  With Valendrian gone, she's been very busy.  The people recently chose her to be our hahren since Valendrian had been sent away by the Tevinter slavers.  I'm proud of her.  She would do well for all in the alienage,' said Cyrion.

Aenian couldn't be more prouder of his cousin.  It had been less than ten months since Bann Vaughan and his cronies Lords Braden and Jonaley had gang-raped her.  Shianni had grown from her experiences, refusing to let something horrible that had happened to her shape the rest of her life.  She was a fair and just person who looked out for her fellow elves.  Every day she got out of bed to help her people was another spit on Bann Vaughan's grave.

Aenian stepped inside the home he grew up in.  The mabari Vaughan trotted inside behind him.  Soris stepped back, staring at the mabari nervously.

'You have a mabari?' Soris gasped.

Vaughan barked in a friendly manner, wagging his tiny stub tail as it smiled at Soris.  The elf seemed less than enthused at being in close proximity to a mabari.

Cyrion went to explain his nephew's nervousness.  'I don't mean to be a bother but could you please take your dog outside.  You're frightening Soris.  You should know how much mabari hounds scare him.  Ever since he had been locked up in Howe's dungeon his fear of mabari grew.  He had endured harassment by Howe's kennel master, who took pleasure in tormenting the prisoners with his vicious mabari hounds.'

'You don't have to be afraid, Soris.  Vaughan's not like those dogs that Howe's kennel master had trained,' Aenian attempted to soothe Soris' fears.

'You named the mabari after the man who raped your cousin?' Soris said, aghast, prompting the mabari to whine as if he had been told off for misbehaving.

'Actually, I had adopted him after barely surviving the battle at Ostagar,' Aenian said.  'His previous owner had died fighting the darkspawn.  It had been him who had given him that name.'

Cyrion gave Vaughan a pondering look.  'I had heard that one of the "late" Arl Urien's soldiers owned a mabari that he named Vaughan.  He had named it after the arl's son Vaughan, who he was a friend of.'

'You mean my dog was once in the service of Arl Urien?' Aenian asked incredulously.  He turned to his pet.  The mabari barked and wagged his tail.  'So you knew Bann Vaughan?' Aenian asked his mabari.  The mabari cowered before Aenian, unnerved at Aenian's seemingly disapproval of Vaughan's prior service to his dead former owner.

Aenian sighed.  'Maybe I should leave.  This has gotten awkward.'

'No, please, don't go, cousin,' Soris said nervously.  He did his very best to not look at Vaughan.  'I suppose that...' Soris glanced nervously at Vaughan who smiled at the maroon-haired elf, drool casually dripping from his mouth, 'if this dog of yours can behave, then he has a place at our table.'

Aenian smiled.  'I promise, Vaughan will behave.'

The three of them sat at the usual table when they had their lunch, Vaughan sitting next to Aenian enjoying baked dog treats that Arl Eamon's servants had cooked for him.  Cyrion had cooked a chicken and served it with parsnip and beets.  They shared stories as they ate, Soris and Cyrion watering their throats with ale while Aenian drank water, the morning going into the afternoon as Aenian regaled of his adventures across Ferelden.  The Grey Warden told his father and cousin of how he had met his companions, the Grey Wardens Alistair, Daveth and Ser Jory, the shapeshifter Morrigan and her mother Flemeth, Vaughan the mabari, the Orlesian bard Leliana, the qunari Sten and the former Crow of Antiva, Zevran.  Aenian also spoke of other interesting individuals he had met during his adventures, like King Cailan, Ser Perth, Berwick, the Dalish keeper Zathrian, the merchant Levi Dryden, the runaway mage Anders, the young Provings champion Seweryn, the Legion of the Dead commander Kardol and the exiled elder sister of King Bhelen, Gertrud Aeducan.  He also mentioned the blacksmith who crafted the scale armour he wore, Wade, and his rather grouchy shopkeeper, Herren.

Aenian also spoke of the numerous adventures he had been on since leaving Denerim with Duncan and Daveth after he had been conscripted into the Grey Wardens to escape execution for his role in Bann Vaughan's death.  He told Soris and Cyrion what had happened at Ostagar and how he and Alistair survived, leaving the Korcari Wilds with Morrigan and Vaughan for Lothering where he met Leliana and Sten.  He spoke of how he and his companions had battled through a horde of undead in Castle Redcliffe and confronted Arl Eamon's demonically possessed teenaged child and killed him and of their lengthy quest to find the Urn of Sacred Ashes to save the comatose arl, personally slaying a high dragon while doing so.  Other adventures Aenian had been on included his quest to aid the Dalish elves and recruit them into his army, hunting down and killing the legendary wolf Witherfang and his intervention at the Circle Tower in Lake Calenhad, slaying demons and blood mages and drafting the templars into his army once he and his companions had done that.  Other things that Aenian and his friends had done included exorcising a former Grey Warden fortress of its demonic inhabitants as a favour for the merchant Levi Dryden and their brief return to the ruins of Ostagar to recover Cailan's sword, shield and armour.  Aenian had also battled against Flemeth while he had been down there, venturing into the Korcari Wilds alone, killing her and seizing her grimoire, which her daughter Morrigan wanted.

One of the more memorable things Aenian did in his travels was visit the dwarven kingdom of Orzammar.  He had spent two months underground, spending much of his time wandering the Deep Roads looking for the paragon Branka who had disappeared with over two hundred retainers searching for the Anvil of the Void, an artefact that was said to have the power to create golems.  Aenian explained how the Anvil of the Void created golems, which transformed living beings into golems that could be controlled by a special rod.  The creator of the Anvil, the paragon Caridin, who had been turned into a golem by King Valtor, had wanted the Anvil of the Void destroyed so that its power to turn living beings into mindless slaves of stone or steel could no longer be abused.  Aenian had agreed with Caridin, left with no choice but to kill Branka who had wanted to use the Anvil to create golems and use them to reclaim their old underground empire from the darkspawn.  The Anvil was destroyed and Caridin committed suicide by jumping into a river of lava after the Anvil was smashed into pieces, but the victory had been hollow.  Gertrud Aeducan, the princess of Orzammar who had been exiled from her home, allegedly framed for the murder of her elder brother, Crown Prince Trian, had died battling the golems that Branka had under her command, plummeting into a river of lava when she was dragged off a cliff by one of the golems she had been fighting.  The only consolation for all that was King Bhelen promising to send his army to march to the surface after his coronation.

Aenian had asked Soris what had happened in the alienage while he had been gone.  A lot certainly had happened, and hardly any of it was good.  There were the anti-elven riots that were instigated for the sake of punishing the elves for Bann Vaughan's murder.  A lot of elves were killed in cold blood by the shemlens, but the plague that swept through the alienage had killed far more.  The alienage had been quarantined for months and famine was all too common.  If not for individuals like Alarith smuggling in food through the quarantine, then even more elves would had starved.

And then there were the Tevinters.  Led by a small number of mages, the Tevinters had come to the alienage with the intention to help treat plague victims, or so the elves had believed.  Shianni had proved to be a constant annoyance for the Tevinters, but despite that, many elves flocked to them for a vaccine that they had promised.  What Alistair and Sten had both discovered while investigating the unrest in the alienage was a lot worse than what anyone thought, even though Aenian had speculated at the time that the Tevinters were really slavers in disguise.  The slaying of all the Tevinters, including their leader Caladrius did nothing to calm the elves, who were on the verge of rioting when Alistair had told Shianni that he had found evidence that the Tevinters had made arrangements with Teyrn Loghain.  The elves cheered at the death of Loghain, whom almost all in the alienage viewed as a traitor and a craven who didn't deserved to be remembered for his efforts in ending Orlesian rule in Ferelden three decades earlier.

It tore at Aenian's heart when he had heard that the kindly elder Valendrian had been taken by the slavers.  Aenian had fond memories of the old hahren.  Soris too was sullen about the elves the Tevinters had stolen, for his wife Valora had been sold into slavery as well.  Aenian had asked about Nesiara, where she was and if whether or not she too had been sold into slavery.  His thoughts had occasional returned to the beautiful elven woman who was his betrothed during his quest to unite Ferelden against the darkspawn, thoughts of what his life would had been like if he didn't have to leave Denerim with Duncan.  As much as he fantasised a life with a beautiful wife, he understood that had he stayed, he would had been hung for murdering Bann Vaughan Kendell.  He was glad to hear that Nesiara wasn't one of the elves who had been sold into slavery.  Nesiara had left Denerim to return to her home of Highever a couple days after he had, just before the riots.  Aenian wondered if Vaughan had not disrupted his wedding, he might be living in Highever with Nesiara at this moment.  He had thought it was for the best.  Nesiara was safe and would find happiness with another elven man, and he would be content with that.  He was a Grey Warden and thus could not afford such dalliances.  His duty to the Grey Wardens would had make it rather difficult for her, and she deserved whatever happiness she could find, even if it were in the arms of another elf.

Aenian had thought that it had been good catching up with his family.  Unfortunately he couldn't stay for dinner.  He had to get going.  He had an army to lead and an Archdemon to slay.  He feared that he had tarried too long, even though he enjoyed seeing his father and cousin again.  He had said his farewells and left.

Before Aenian left Denerim he went to the Grey Warden vault that was situated in the warehouse district, where Riordan had told him that was where the Grey Wardens kept a hidden stockpile of weapons and armour for the defence of Denerim should the darkspawn ever attack the city.  Aenian picked up for himself a bandolier of throwing knives, a quiver of bolts for his crossbow, a blue and light grey tabard with the Grey Warden emblem of a griffon to wear over his dragonscale armour, a flanged mace and a square-shaped shield decorated with the griffon emblem of the Grey Warden order.  He returned briefly to Eamon's estate to collect his belongings and some supplies for the road.

Once he departed from Denerim, he made his way for Soldier's Peak on foot, his only companion for the road the mabari Vaughan.  He regretted he couldn't stick around to say goodbye to Shianni.  She would had thrown him a party to welcome him home.  With the darkspawn constantly advancing further north, there was simply no time for celebrations.  There would be plenty of time for him to rest on his laurels after the Archdemon was slain.  Until then, he had a duty to the Grey Wardens, and as long as the darkspawn continued to terrorise Ferelden, he could not remain idle.