Chapter Text
The fact was, it was a dog that saved the king of Ferelden. Alistair Theirin let out a groan as his wife’s mabari, Chompers, jumped on the bed.
“Aw wh-? No! Not again!” He rubbed his eyes, “I miss her too, but you can’t just crawl into bed with people who are sleeping! We’ve talked about this!”
He had in fact given the dog a very stern lecture the day before. And the day before that. And… Maker, it was no use.
That’s when he noticed Chomper’s hackles were raised. Alistair stepped out of bed, grabbing his sword just as the door opened. The man who stood in the doorway was dressed entirely in black.
For a moment, just a moment, the king wondered how they had gotten past the guards. Then, with Chompers growling beside him, the king spoke to the intruder.
“You know I would offer you congratulations for getting this far, but something tells me you are not in a friendly mood.” The intruder responded by pulling out a vial filled with a green, sparking substance.
Huh that was new.
Either way, Alistair would make quick work of this. He moved forward, sword in hand just as the intruder unstoppered the vial and threw its contents forward.
Somehow the mabari got in the way.
Both men watched the dog as he staggered a bit. Then Chompers’ eyes rolled back in his head and he fell on top of the attacker just as Alistair slayed the man. But Alistair had made a crucial mistake. He had not counted on there being more assailants, and the second attacker did not rely on anything as elegant as whatever had been in the vial. King Alistair felt something hit him on the back of the head and he dropped like a stone.
Rays of light filtered through the treetops of the eastern Ferelden forestlands, lighting up splotches of scrub brush here and there. Torania Cousland Theirin avoided them, crouching hidden in the shadows as she drew back the string of her bow carefully behind her ear, "Light as a feather, silent as a wraith."
The words were whispered so no one but she herself could hear them. She let the string loose and the arrow flew, thudding into a tree just to the side of the wyvern she stalked. Torania grimaced. She had never liked bows that much, anyway. As the creature let out a bellow, Torania dropped her bow to the ground, “Oh, to the void with this!”
The thin redhead did not look like the most feared warrior in the kingdom. She wore her hair in three pigtails, with two on either side, and one on the back of her head. She was pretty but not beautiful with incredibly prominent cheekbones, small black eyes, and a diamond shaped face. The soldiers holding back awaiting the woman’s order exchanged unimpressed looks. Apparently the woman did not live up to the stories. They only had a moment to harbor that notion, however, because the next thing they knew, the woman, their queen, had hopped out right in front of the creature.
“Weeeelll, you really are a Wyvern. When they said ‘ah help we’re being attacked by a Wyvern!’, I must admit I thought they had to have you confused for a Blighted Gurgut or something! But really-,” The woman grinned and any of the men standing at the right angle could have seen a pronounced glint in her eye, “-This is much more interesting.”
Torania hopped aside as the creature shot a wad of poison where she stood, “Now really! Was that nice? We were talking-!” The queen broke off, looking at the poison. A dark purple substance swirled inside it, “Now really? Really? A tainted wyvern? Andraste’s blood! This could get messy! Change of plans people.” The redhead announced never taking her eyes off the chimera. “I face this beastie alone!”
She lunged forward, darting to the side and weaving in and out of the monsters shot poison. Her blade, glowing with dwarven runes, bit into the creature's flesh again and again before the woman had to leap back. Wyverns were hard. The goal was to weaken them enough to be able to go in for a killing blow. The blade was as famous as its mistress, having belonged to the kings of Ferelden ever since King Maric had found it in the deep roads long ago. According to rumor, the current king, King Alistair, used the blade of his former grey warden mentor,and so Maric’s blade had fallen to Torania. The redheaded woman skidded to a halt, panting, dagger in one hand sword in the other. “There.” she took a deep breath sheathing her sword then ran forward. Torania jumped, vaulting with a hand on the creature's head, swinging her body to the side out of the way of its shooting poison as she did so. Her other hand, the one holding the dagger came around stabbing up under its chin into the vulnerable flesh. Then she threw herself back retracting her dagger as the creature writhed in its death throes. Torania landed with a roll and put a bit more distance between herself and the monster as it spewed its last bit of poison and died.
A soldier put his hand on her shoulder. Apparently some had not stayed as far back as she has advised, “Are you alright your majesty!?”
Torania laughed, throwing her head back. She could still feel the exhilaration running through her veins though it was starting to fade now. “I haven’t had this much fun in…. I don’t know how long.” Briefly her thoughts flicked to the bedchamber. But she was not taking that into account. She accepted the man’s hand and pulled herself to her feet “Thank you” The queen walked over to inspect her kill “Any idea where it came from?”
“No,” one of the man at arms replied “We’ve never had trouble before.”
Torania lifted one of the sinewy wings, “They’re clipped.” The queen’s mouth became a thin line. She ran her hands over the blighted creature as only a grey warden could do. “Chain marks.”
“It was brought here, then.” The leader of the local soldiers had come up in time to hear her remark. His voice was grim. “That’s an awful lot of trouble for some village near Edgehall. I thought it might have gotten confused and crossed the Frostbacks”
“It looks like it had some help,” Torania replied. “But it’s Blighted. Did it get that here?”
“It's possible, as your majesty knows there are still stragglers of the blight. The forest provides a plentiful place to hide. Besides who would be crazy enough to bring a blighted wyvern here? Surely your people... the Wardens... couldn’t have been involved?”
“Of course not!” Torania snapped, her brow remaining furrowed. “But that still leaves us with the fact that someone brought a wyvern here. Is this someone’s idea of a practical joke!? How many people did this thing kill before I got here!?” The guard captain opened his mouth but the queen interrupted him starting to pace. “Why here? Why here of all places. Unless…” Torania stopped pacing abruptly. A bit of color drained from her already pale face, “Unless it’s to get me away from the capital.”
“Ow.” That was the first word… er, thought… Alistair was aware of. He was unsure if he had said it aloud or not. He was aware of reaching his hand up instinctively towards the throbbing source of the pain, and feeling a lump on his head. He had time to think that that was going to make his hair look odd before a lurch caused the lump to bump rather hard into his hand and his mind went blank once more.
The envoy from Denerim met the queen about halfway back to the capital in a rush of excited barking. Torania, who would usually rush forward to hug her hound, filthy as he was, just patted his head absently looking at the man and woman who accompanied him. One was definitely Dalish by the looks of it. The other obviously from the palace “Well?” Torania braced herself for the news. Chompers the Mabari knew his mission. He was here to stop his mistress from exploding at the bad news. Something only he had any chance of doing. He carefully rubbed his head against her as the man from the palace opened his mouth.
“He’s gone, your majesty.”
“Who?” She demanded
“His majesty, the king.”
“What do you mean gone?” Torania hissed, taking a step forward.
“They didn’t tell me, your majesty! Just sent me to get you as soon as possible!” The man fell to his knees. Chompers whined and Torania reined herself in with some difficulty.
“Don’t… Don’t do that….” She flipped both messengers a gold coin, “For your silence,” she informed them before then stalking off in the direction of the capital. Chompers padding along behind her, his tongue lolling out. “Your majesty, we’re supposed to go with you!” The man called after her, getting to his feet. Torania didn’t even turn her head, “Then keep up!”
Torania punched a vase as she entered the council room. As it fell to the floor and shattered, she turned to Arl Teagan and Bann Eamon, “How could this happen!?” The queen’s bereft remark rang through the air like a slap. How could YOU let this happen, she might as well had said.
“Now is not the time for blame!” Eamon scolded the queen, who was bending down to pick up the pieces of the broken vase. “Now more than ever we need to stay calm. Alistair is like a son to me, but letting my concern for him stop me from thinking clearly does him no favors.”
Torania hardly noticed as the sharp edge of one of the pieces of the vase cut her finger. “No, blame is for when I find who is responsible for this.” Her voice was low as she spoke, while her eyes had a distinctly dangerous look to them. Teagan almost felt himself feeling sorry for the kidnappers. Almost.
“And I know Eamon,” Torania continued, standing up. “I just had to hit something. Let me rephrase,” She kept her voice determinedly calm this time. “Tell me what we know.”
Teagan held up a small vial filled with a shimmery green powder. Torania raised an eyebrow. She had seen a lot of poisons in her life this did not even begin to resemble any of them. “What is it?” she asked gesturing for the vial.
Teagan handed it over as Eamon warned, “Don’t inhale it.”
“Why? What does it do?” Torania tilted the vial around watching the shimmery substance fall from one side of the glass to the other.
“We can show you.” The queen looked up and followed the gesturing hand out of the council room. They did not go far. The outer parlor solar seemed to have been taken up by an emergency field hospital. Cots were spread around the room, each taken up by a man or woman in the loose sort of clothing worn by guards under their armor. Healers weaved in and out of the beds, through the maze of bedraggled guards “We thought it best to treat them here and hopefully contain the news the king is missing.”
Torania gave a curt nod and walked up to one of the men. She knew this one. “Gils, what happened?” The man turned his wide eyes on her and then let out an unearthly shriek and started thrashing. Torania noticed now that he was bound to the bed.
“Now really!” A grey haired woman in mages robes stalked over to them. “Now, see what you’ve done girl! You’re going to get them all riled up! Now see there you go,” she added as various other guards started stirring. “Idiots, I’m surrounded by idiots!”
“Mistress mage, this is the queen; Torania.” Teagan said kindly. The woman was obviously new.
“I don’t care if she’s Andraste herself! Out! You are disturbing my patients! You wanted a healer? Well I’m the best they’ve got, now let me heal!”
“My husband is missing!” Torania snapped at the woman.
“So is my cat!” the woman retorted back.
Torania drew herself up to her full, albeit small, small queenly height, trying to hold in her temper. “Madam, I Intend to stay here until I find out all I can so you had best get used to it!”
The mage looked Torania up and down and groaned. Then stalked off. “Pleasant chief of healers brother,” Teagan commented to Eamon who was looking a bit red-faced.
“So this…” Torania held up the vial, “Did something to everyone in the path from them to my husband? I don’t understand. That noise he just made was loud enough to wake the dead. Surely someone would have heard…. What?” She broke off as Eamon shook his head.
“They only do things like that when someone disturbs them your majesty, mostly they just lay there.”
“Well, if it knocks them out surely there would be a thump as they hit the ground. Someone would have heard that in time to stop this!”
“I believe it was your majesties who insisted on having half as many guards as the previous royal couple.“
Torania bit her lip at that trying to maintain control of herself. She turned away from the royal advisers staring point blank at the wall. “I didn’t… We didn’t… This…” She took a deep, shuddering breath. Then she turned back . “Right. Eamon, if this powder reduces you to that-” She gestured at the many cots “-with a mere sniff, then how is it we have a vial of the stuff?”
“Luck,” Bann Eamon answered, “Your dog apparently tried to crawl into your bed again just before they came for the king. Thus, the king was awake and warned ahead of time in enough time to meet an attack. By the looks of it, they managed to take down one of the attackers, and when they used the powder on your dog he fell on the body. Do you know your heavy your dog is your majesty?”
“Chompers came to get me. He was perfectly fine.” Torania was scanning the room now for someone who did not look like a guard.
“The substance is apparently made to knock out humans. Chompers came out of it within hours,” Teagan clarified.
“And this attacker?” Torania’s voice was deliberately calm, and Eamon and Teagan exchanged looks.
“Dead. No identifying information. Just a pouch with a few of those vials and two old daggers, of a kind you could buy at any merchant.”
Torania turned her sharp gaze on the two older men, “And none of our healers can identify this substance?”
“No, your majesty.”
“Well then,” Torania pressed a hand against a nearby table, “I’d say it’s time to bring in a bit of help.”