Chapter 98: Insecurity

Duncan arrived back at the estate first, carrying sacks full of armour and weaponry, not anything special but serviceable enough. When he'd been there last, the stash had been raided, presumably by Loghain, but while any documents as well as the Joining supplies had been removed, the gear had been left behind. To the horror of a couple of passing servants, I helped him sort it out into piles in the foyer, and then repack it in a more useful form – I was that bored. We stored it all in the armoury, out in the barracks; Theron was beating the stuffing out of a sparring dummy, and we both left him alone.

We ended up eating supper with a small group that included Anders, Jowan, and Solona, as well as Duncan and I; Theron declined to come in from the barracks, and no one else had returned from the Gnawed Noble. Wulf was a topic of conversation; Duncan listened silently while the rest of us discussed the former werewolf openly.

"He told me werewolves age differently than people. He has no idea how old he is; I thought he might be eighteen, but he tells me he's probably over thirty." Anders was fascinated by the physiology of his transformation.

"But he might as well be younger than me, for all the cultural knowledge he has," Solona added. "I've watched him with the elven servants; he has no idea how to interact with them."

"His restraint is admirable, though," Jowan opined. "I saw one of the soldiers – who apparently didn't realise he wasn't one of the servants – try to order him around; he didn't even react until the soldier called him a knife-ear, and then all he did was draw his dagger and start flashing it around like Zevran does, looking all menacing. The soldier apologised and backed away slowly."

I laughed. "He certainly has that menacing thing down pat. Have you heard him growl? I never want to be on his bad side."

Almost as one, everyone turned and looked expectantly at Duncan; he deliberately shoveled a large forkful of food into his mouth and chewed slowly, not making eye contact with any of us. Anders sighed, and we all went back to eating as well. I wonder if he's made any decisions?

It was late when the group at the Gnawed Noble finally returned; it was a good thing Eamon, Teagan, and Aedan had stayed sober, because it was immediately obvious when he stumbled through the front door that Alistair had definitely not.

My husband was practically cross-eyed, one arm slung over Aedan's shoulders, the other being held by a rather irritated-looking Faren, who was dressed like a common soldier. And Alistair, along with an equally smashed Oghren, was singing. Loudly.

Eamon and Teagan bowed out, leaving the enthusiastic drunks to us. I shot their retreating backs dirty looks, then turned to Aedan.

"What in the Void... ?"

Aedan shrugged sheepishly. "As, erm, distasteful as this is, it's actually a good sign. The tavern was full of nobles who are sick of Loghain – the lies, the civil war, his apparent inability to even keep Denerim safe – they kept toasting Alistair, and he really didn't have any choice but to drink. Turns out even a sip at a time can be a little overwhelming after a while."

I rolled my eyes. "Well, I'm not carrying him. Think you can get him back to his room?"

"'M right here, you know," Alistair grumbled. "Could talk to me, not about me."

"And you won't even remember it tomorrow. Just don't pass out until we get to your room," Faren grumbled.

"Hey, where's Zevran?" I wondered, doing a brief head count.

Aedan's eyebrows climbed. "I thought he'd be here."

"Nope. Huh."

Faren and Aedan maneuvered Alistair to his room, and dropped him unceremoniously on the bed. Aedan excused himself to go find Zevran, and Faren turned and left without a word. They left me there with Alistair, who was looking at me with a goofy grin. I grabbed a pair of his cotton sleeping trousers from the armoire, and approached my husband with the armful of cloth.

He made a grab for me as soon as I came into reach, missing and having to correct his aim before managing to get his arms around my waist. He pulled me closer and pressed his face into my belly, nuzzling against me. He smelled like ale and smoke, and I wrinkled my nose. "Did you actually have to drink this much?"

"Yup!" he declared cheerfully, pulling me into his lap. "Aedan said so." He took the trousers from my hand and tossed them to the floor behind me. "Don't need those. 'M gonna sleep naked. With you!"

I giggled; drunk Alistair, for the moment, was cute, if pungent. I wondered if the ... performance problems in bed that I'd heard rumours of on Earth applied to a Grey Warden; in any case, it didn't really matter, because I wasn't sleeping with him until he smelled better.

"You stink, love. Let's get you undressed, and you can go sleep it off."

"But ... but..." He seemed to be trying to make a point of some sort, but he couldn't keep his thoughts straight. He pulled me tighter to him instead. "Stay?"

Damn puppy-dog eyes are going to be the death of me! I sighed. "Fine. But no funny business." He pouted, and I just laughed. "Not my fault you're drunk as a skunk!"

I helped him remove his tunic, and pushed him back on the bed; I hadn't even had time to kneel down to help him with his boots and pants before I heard snoring. Looking at his gorgeous, relaxed, sleeping face, I couldn't stay annoyed. It's a good thing he's cute. I groaned and set to work getting him the rest of the way undressed. Fighting with his pants took far too long, and in disgust I left his smallclothes in place. I lifted his legs into the bed, covered him with a blanket, undressed myself, and crawled in on the other side of the bed. I curled up as far from the smell as I could get and promptly fell asleep.

I snuck back into my own room in the early morning; Alistair didn't even stir as I left. When I got up for breakfast, Alistair was there, looking pale and wan; he tried to smile at me, but just looked like he was going to be sick. I sat far from him, just in case. Aedan, Zev, and Leli were there; Eamon, Teagan, and Theron were conspicuously absent. They asked me to lock the door, which I did, before sitting down and filling a plate. Alistair chewed listlessly on a bun, looking green every time someone offered him anything more.

Zevran filled us in on what he and Leliana had found, watching the Arl of Denerim's estate. "There's a side entrance we could access, but it goes through the kitchens. We'd be seen, even as awesome as we are."

"That was Erlina's plan," I explained. "She was going to give you all guard uniforms, and distract the outside guard."

"That's out for a few reasons, then." Aedan looked at Zevran. "Anything else?"

"The ramparts," Leli cut in. "It will take some work to get up there, yes? But it can be done. There's only one or two guards up there at any given point. We'll need another day to map out the guard's schedules."

"Very well. I'll tell Eamon to organise his distraction for tomorrow. Alfstanna and Leonas were at the Gnawed Noble last night toasting Alistair." Alistair groaned and rubbed his forehead ruefully, and Aedan smirked. "I don't think it will be hard to get them to agree to confront Loghain, especially if we don't tell them why. That being the case, I'd like to go check out a few things in the city today. Sierra, can you stick around here and play bodyguard? I want Alistair to stay close to Eamon today while he sends out messages. I'll meet everyone else in the barracks."

Alistair went off to have a bath drawn up; Wynne popped in with a potion to help with his hangover, much to his relief. Wynne decided to stay with us as we watched Eamon, and Aedan, Zev, and Leli disappeared to the barracks. I put on my armour and met a much-better smelling Alistair in the hallway outside Eamon's study. Wynne and I stayed in the hallway while Alistair braved the scowl on the older man's face and went in.

The day was boring, mostly consisting of sitting around and doing nothing. We did go on a brief walk, stopping by Bann Alfstanna's estate and Arl Bryland's. Wynne and I stayed with the small group of soldiers escorting Eamon and Alistair; Teagan chose to stay behind and keep an eye on Erlina, who'd been reported by some of the servants as asking a lot of inappropriate questions about Aedan, Alistair, Duncan, and the rest of us.

At the estates, we were left standing around while Alistair and Eamon spoke with the nobles; I did get a glimpse of Alfstanna when she greeted us. In game, she had seemed quite practical; I liked her immediately upon seeing her. She wore casual trousers and a shirt around her home, and I recalled she wore nothing but armour outside of it. She was pretty, with smooth, lustrous brown hair and a kind smile; her mouth was a bit too wide, her eyes a little too large, to qualify as truly beautiful. She looked sort of average, which was refreshing, and actually stopped to offer those of us who weren't allowed into the meeting refreshments while she spoke with Eamon and Alistair.

We left there and headed to Leonas Bryland's estate. I couldn't recall his appearance from the game, but I knew he was the father to Habren, the obnoxious teenager who I was only too happy to steal from in game. I didn't get a chance to find out; Eamon and Alistair were shown in by a servant, and the rest of us were left bored in the foyer.

Both meetings were short; Eamon deigned to inform us that both nobles had agreed to support our 'protest' the following day. We went back to the estate, and I spent the rest of the afternoon playing footsy with Alistair under a table as we played cards. I taught him gin rummy, since I was terrible at bluffing. I still didn't win, so apparently Alistair was just better at cards than me. I'd have thought he was cheating if he was anyone else.

A group consisting of Bel, Oghren, Wulf, Solona, Jowan, and Duncan came back after having cleaned out the orphanage in the Alienage at the request of the blind templar, Ser Otto. I'd forgotten about that quest, and wished they'd asked me before they had gone; Ser Otto died, which I could have warned them about, maybe prevented. I didn't say anything; I felt guilty enough, and didn't want them feeling bad.

I was surprised that Duncan had agreed to the quest; it was entirely unrelated to the Blight or the Civil War. When I asked him, he merely shrugged, but his eyes strayed to Wulf's retreating back, and I guessed it had been a test – of skill, or perhaps temperament? – for the would-be Warden. I wonder if he passed.

Duncan reassured me that no elves were being sold by Tevinters in the Alienage. He had learned that, using some of the coin and supplies Aedan had given them, many of the elves had secretly armed themselves; in addition, with the supplies they'd been able to buy, the plague had not spread through the Alienage. As a result, a group of healthy, angry, well-armed elves had chased the slavers out of the Alienage before they'd even been able to get established. The group had checked out the back alley and the tenement with the secret tunnel just in case, and found it empty.

Valendrian and Duncan had spoken for a while, both men urging calm and avoidance of violence. I wondered what the result would be of arming the elves, accidental though it may have been. The bigotry in Thedas didn't strike me as the kind of thing that bloodshed would improve, and I worried that a bunch of hotheaded, oppressed teenaged elves with weapons could lead to little else. Not much we can do about it now ... though perhaps Theron could put them to use in the army, like Sereda did with the Casteless.

The group went to get cleaned up, and Alistair and I went back to playing cards. We were interrupted again by the return of a group including Aedan, Prince, Anders, Morrigan, Sten, and Faren. Aedan refused to tell me what they'd been planning to do, but they returned practically dripping blood, with several barely-healed injuries among the lot, and Anders' and Morrigan's mana reserves entirely depleted. Wynne came running over to check on everyone, and after helping them heal up, all of them except Aedan were ushered into beds to recover.

Aedan, refusing to bow to injuries or fatigue, met with Alistair, Duncan, and I in the library. He limped slightly, and I hurried to his side, putting my arm around his waist and allowing him to lean against me. He kissed my forehead and wrapped his arm around my shoulders gratefully.