Aedan Of Highever

by Milton Garby

  "Why the hell not?"

  "Apparently she didn't want the Chantry to lose anything, even one Templar. She felt I was forsaking the Maker for leaving the Chantry. No huge loss I wouldn't have been suited to the life of a Templar anyway."

  "I take it you don't agree with Chantry dogma?" Aedan surmised.

  "You don't seem to either. In fact, I remember that you punched out a Chantry Mother." Alistair rebutted.

  "I pray to no gods. I've yet to find one that is worthy of my prayers. Especially not the Maker."

  That was a new one. Alistair never heard anyone, especially another human, say that. "What do you mean?"

  "I despise anything that forces a man to his knees."

  "Oh, well. When you put it that way…."

  "My father was shocked when I told him I refused to worship the Maker." Aedan reminisced. "But he told me that we all must find our own way, even if it means we must stumble in the dark. He respected my decision and he never thought less of me for it."

  "Well, it sounds like your father was a man worth knowing."

  "Do you know anything about your father? Was he ever in your life?"

  "I know who I was led to believe was my father, but no he never had anything to do with me." Alistair's tone was mixed with sadness and resentment. "Enough. I'm done talking about this, but thanks for checking in on me."

  "I'm a Warden now, as well, Alistair. We're in this together."

  "Yes, I…I suppose we are."

  Aedan turned from Alistair and walked toward Sten, sarcastically thinking how enlightening a conversation with a qunari might be. Aedan never liked the history or philosophy of the qun. In fact he hated it. It was a representation of everything he despised! The qunari were foreign invaders and their way is "submit to our way and be slaves or become mindless slaves." Aedan had ancestors who fought in the Exalted Marches and the records in which they described the qunari repulsed Aedan. Breaking up family's, forcing them into re-education camps and if you tried to escape or refused their message they used some kind of burning poison that lobotomized its victims and then sent them to work until they died. All in all the qun disgusted Aedan. They were just another foreign power seeking to force themselves on others. And now he had to go make nice with one who murdered his rescuers. This should go over well.

  The grey-skinned giant stood by himself away from the fire. As far Aedan could tell, he was standing at attention. With no orders from the qunari it seemed all he did was wait for something to do.

  "Why are we stopping?" Sten asked brusquely before Aedan had a chance to open his mouth and ask anything, .

  "I think we should talk, Sten." Aedan answered the foreign giant.

  "There are darkspawn to be fought, is this delay needful?"

  "I need to know if I can trust you to watch my back."

  "Warden, I have sworn to aide and so I am here. The Qunari are not a people of idle promises."

  Not a people of idle threats, more like. Aedan thought himself. "Why would the Qunari send soldiers to Ferelden?" That was question that was really on Aedan's mind.

  "The antaam are the eyes and ears of the qunari. We are how my people know the world."

  "Doesn't that make your view somewhat skewered?"

  Judging from the blank look on Sten's face, he either didn't understand or didn't care about Aedan's question. "View of what?"

  "Everything! You know the world by seeing it down the edge of sword. How can you learn anything about anyone that way?"

  "It has served us well in the past." The qunari's tone was indifferent yet domineering in that answer.

  This was unsettling to Aedan. "Why would your people watch Ferelden?"

  "The Arishok asked, 'What is the Blight?' it is by his curiosity that I'm here now."

  "Why would your people care about the Blight being in Ferelden?"

  "Why do you?"

  "Because the Blight threatens my homeland and my people." Aedan answered dourly.

  "So if it were in Orlais or the Anderfels it would not concern you?"

  "Correct. I don't give a damn about the Anderfels and especially not Orlais. As far as I'm concerned anywhere that isn't Ferelden can burn!" Aedan stated sternly.

  The qunari raised an eyebrow. "Strange I thought it was the Grey Warden's duty was to defend all of Thedas. And how will you end the Blight in this country."

  Aedan rubbed his eyes in irritation. "We have to kill the Archdemon."

  "Is that all? It is surrounded by an ocean of darkspawn. You say that you're a Grey Warden. My people have heard legends about your Order.

  "What have you heard about the Wardens, Sten?" Aedan chuckled

  "Great strategists and peerless warriors. That is what we hear of your Order. So far I've yet to be impressed."

  "And I've heard stories about your people as well, Sten. And after what you did to get yourself locked in that cage like an animal, I must say, you do those stories great justice."

  Sten said nothing, his neutral look never leaving his face, but Aedan knew that stung him. "Don't you even think about judging me, Sten. I'm not the one who fucked up."

  "Parshaara, this is pointless. We should move one."

  Aedan left Sten to lick the verbal wound he inflicted. He knew he probably didn't elevate himself in Sten's eyes, but he didn't care either. Sten would be better evaluating himself before he could even think about judging others. Aedan thought it was time to discuss Leliana and her "vision". But before he did that he decided to make a little purchase Bodahn.

  "Oh, hello. Is there something you want to talk about?" She asked politely as Aedan approached the red-haired Orlesian.

  "Actually I thought I'd give you a 'welcome to the team' present." He handed her a fat lute that had purchased from Bodhan. Leliana's eyes lit with excitement.

  "Oh, how dear of you! Thank you so much! How did you know?"

  "Oh, you…seemed like the musical type to me. Would you be so kind?"

  "But of course." Leliana played a melodious tune on the lute and sung a ballad about a highwayman and the tavern girl who loved him. It sounded like the recipe to every third bastard in the country, but Aedan had to admit it, she had a lovely singing voice.

  "This was very sweet. Thank you." She said. The two of them made some small talk and she told him about how her mother left Ferelden to continue serving the Lady Cecilie and how she was taught music and dance by her.

  "Perhaps you could tell me about this dream of yours….?"

  "I knew this was coming." The former sister murmured under her explained to Aedan the dream she had about the impenetrable blackness that swallowed all light and about her troubled visit to the garden how she felt, that The Maker was calling her to help combat the Blight via rosebush.

  Aedan had never heard such a load of crap in his life. "And this made you want to help me?"

  "There are so many wonderful things in the world. How can I just sit back and watch while the Blight destroys it all. What we're doing is The Maker's will."

  "If I remember correctly the Maker is the reason that the Blight even exists in the first place. I feel more like we're wiping His ass after he took a dump on all creation rather than doing his will."

  "The Maker couldn't want such…destruction. How can you say that? You…you're such a pessimist." Leliana remarked disdainfully.

  "A pessimist is what a strategist calls a pragmatist, Leliana. I'm just repeating what your Chantry seems to be telling everyone who listens. Do you mean to tell that the Chantry is wrong?"

  "I know what the Chantry says, but what should I believe? What others tell me, or what I believe in my heart?"

  Aedan found Leliana's naiveté somewhat annoying, but her open mindedness was actually refreshing, especially considering her previous occupation. "In the real world you'll find that serving the Chantry and doing what's right are not always the same thing."

  "Oh, believe me, I do know a thing or two about the real world. It's why I joined the cloister to begin with."
/>   Now that, right there, was what Aedan really wanted to know. "What were you before you joined the cloister?"

  "The Chantry does not pry, why should you?"

  "I'm not the Chantry." Aedan answered sternly. "And it's the fact that I don't know you at that makes me curious. For all I know you could be cannibalistic serial killer with a foot fetish."r

  "Sweet, bloody Maker! No!" The former Sister rebuffed disturbed.

  "Well, then enlighten me." Aedan insisted.

  "What do you want to know?" Leliana conceded.

  "Why did you join a cloister in Fereldan?"

  "The Chantry provides tranquility and safe harbor to all who seek it. I was a…traveling minstrel for a long time and I wanted to find some…rest from that life. And my skill in battle, well, you learn a lot of things when traveling the road and lady must be ready to defend herself when traveling alone, no?"

  "Leliana, I'm disappointed. How can you expect me to trust you with my life on the field if you're not going to be honest with me?"

  Leliana's eyes went as wide as saucers and an embarrassed blush swept across her face. "W-what? What do you mean?"

  "You were not a minstrel, you were a Bard and a skilled one too." Aedan stated.

  "Ohh, you think just because I can fight and play music that makes me a bard? That's a common mistake, silly."

  "It wasn't the lute that gave you away. It was the way you handled those soldiers back in Lothering. That technique you used to disable them was called 'Cat Chases Rodent.' It is a high-level bard tactic, not something you just learn on the road. " He explained.

  Leliana was stunned. She had revealed the past she was so ashamed of to him and she didn't even know it. What's more, he played her as easily as she played that lute. "That was very well done. You'd have made an excellent bard. Yes I was a bard once, but what does it matter what I used to be? I left that all behind to join the Chantry, and I left the Chantry behind to help you."

  She had a point. "Fair enough, Leliana."

  "If I may, you seem to know a good deal about bards and your Orlesian was flawless. Where did you learn all that?"

  "I lived in Val Royeaux for a few months and I studied their approach to combat." Aedan answered direly as he remembered his brief, yet eventful time in that wretched empire.

  "Really? I haven't been there in so long!" Leliana gushed. "And I everything there so much. The Grand Cathedral, the avenue of flowers and the shoes. Oh, the shoes! I miss all the good things I left back there. Tell me, is there anything you miss?"

  "No." Aedan's sharp answer almost quashed Leliana's enthusiasm. "That would imply that there was something there that I'd have actually liked."

  "Oh, come on. There must have been some things you liked there."

  "Not. A. Damned. Thing." Aedan emphasized with distaste in his mouth. "Their wine was too sweet with no kick, and the food was too delicate with no substance. The streets were noisy with that damned chant going on all day and night. Nobles were pompous, pretentious hypocrites! And the peasants! They were weak, like cattle. Not a damned spine to be found in any of them!"

  This was upsetting to Leliana. There were some bad things about Orlais, it's true, but there were many wonderful things about it too. "You can't find the good things about Orlais if all you look for are the bad things."

  "Leliana, do you ever wonder why Lady Cecilie had to flee this country when the Orlesians were defeated? It's because we despise their values. My way of a 'for instance' I was almost arrested for assaulting a chevalier when he wanted to 'exert his rights' on an elven girl. And the worst part was I was in the wrong, I committed a crime, not him. Here, in this country we don't let anyone get away with that kind of crap, not even the nobles. That's why we hate Orlais, why I hate it."

  Aedan's words stung Leliana. "And what about me?"

  "You are not your country. But you still cherish their values, as to whether there is anything good about Orlesian values, well, you'll just have to show me they exist."

  "Well, then I will. I'll prove that Orlesians are a good and decent people."

  Morrigan watched as Aedan chatted up that red-haired Orlesian girl, Leliana. She saw him give her a lute as a present and she sung him a song. How sweet, she thought bitterly. Why was she feeling this way? He could do whatever he wished and it's not as if he ever showed any interest. Perhaps that was her fault. After what she said about his brother, he did threaten her and she had no doubt that he could follow through with it. Still she had to admit, between the two Wardens, Aedan was definitely the more desirable. She had seen that first hand.

  It seemed he was done talking with the little Chantry sister and was making his way towards her. Was he tired of his little dalliance already?

  Aedan decided to start small and asked Morrigan the one thing that has been burning in his mind since he left the Wilds. Was that really Flemeth? The two of them spoke and laughed about Flemeth and the supposed truth behind some of the legends. Aedan already knew the beginnings of Flemeth's tale, it was one that was tied to his family. It seemed Morrigan and her mother had more of a standoffish teach/student relationship rather than a parent/child one. Being raised by someone as harsh, callous and somewhat sadistic as Flemeth, Aedan couldn't really blame Morrigan for having such harsh views of the world. She just needed to be shown there was more to the world than she was told. "Dare I ask of your own mother? Few are abominations of legend, 'tis true. But I find myself curious never the less."

  That was a painful subject Aedan didn't want to elaborate on. "I love my mother. She and my father helped make me the man I am today. What else do you want to know?"

  "I-I…nothing. I wish to know nothing more. I find myself a little envious to tell the truth, but it matters little." It was an odd thing for her to hear. How someone could truly love their mother. It was something she knew nothing of, truly.

  "I was wondering if you could tell me about being a shapechanger." Aedan asked honestly.

  "I was not born as such. 'Tis a skill taught to me by Flemeth over years of training in the Wilds. The Chasind tell legends of witches changing their form to spy on them and when a child is alone and separate from his tribe that is when we strike. Dragging the child screaming to our lair to be devoured. A most amusing tale."

  Aedan laughed, "I take it that's something you've done before then?"

  "No! I would never do something as disturbing as stealing a child! They are dirty little things full of snot, tears and trouble. Although I can't speak for my mother. She after all, has lived a far longer life than I and has tastes that I can't imagine."

  "I'll bet."

  "Why do you ask? Is there something specific you wish to know?"

  "I've known Avvar shamans with such magic."

  "Really? That is no surprise, in certain remote areas of the world where these practices thrive. There are traditions outside the Circle of Magi that despite what they and the Chantry claim. The Chantry would uproot such traditions and burn them if they could, but as luck would have it some of these practitioners still exist."

  "Thank you for answering my question, Morrigan."

  "Indeed. Do you have an opinion on my abilities then? Am I an unnatural abomination to be put to the torch?"

  "Not at all. I think your abilities are very useful and I've no doubt that you've worked hard to master them. I can respect such dedication."

  That was most unexpected. "Oh? Well…thank you. You are…simply full of surprises, Warden."

  "Aedan."

  "Beg pardon?"

  "My mother named me Aedan. I prefer to be addressed as such by my comrades."

  "Very well…Aedan."

  "So tell me, did you grow up in the Korcari Wilds your whole life."

  As much as Morrigan appreciated Aedan's attention she was unused to it, and found this familiarity to be somewhat annoying. "Why do ask me such things? I do not probe you for useless information, do I?"

  "I am trying to get to know those I travel with. I would hardly consider
that useless information. Especially since you and I know little to nothing of one another."

  "Oh? You wish to get know me? I would have thought you'd prefer to get know that chantry sister."

  Aedan smiled slyly "If I really wanted to get know her, I wouldn't be all the way over here trying so hard to get know you, Morrigan."

  Morrigan returned his smile. "Very well, Aedan. But you have me at a disadvantage. You keep asking me questions and yet you tell me nothing of yourself. Let us try this: I will answer your questions if I choose to, but in return you have to answer any question I have."

  Aedan was actually liking the sound of this. "You give a copper and I have to give a sovereign?"

  "Well, if you want a lot from a woman you have to give a lot, Aedan. Do we have a deal?"

  "We have a deal."

  "Good. Now ask your questions and I might answer them."

  "Alright. Have you ever been hunted by the Chantry."

  "Aha, a very cute question indeed."

  "Do I get a cute answer?"

  "Mmm. I suppose so."

  "My mother has been hunted from time to time, by Templar fools like Alistair, which should tell you how successful they were." She carried on about how she made a game of luring the Templars into a trap. Aedan didn't feel much sympathy for them, after all they were warned.

  "Now, I believe 'Tis my turn to ask a question now, isn't it. Remember you have to answer."

  "Ask anything you want."

  She decided to take her time, try to get an insight into his character, maybe even make a request of her own. "I noticed earlier that you were drawing a picture of that girl, Leliana. Is she so special that you'd take her picture?"

  Aedan gave her a quizzical look, "Why? Are you jealous?"

  "Should I be? I believe it's my turn to have my question answered."

  "Drawing and painting is my favorite pastime. And I like to illustrate the faces of the people around me."