When I Look at You (a Dragon Age fanfiction)

Lothering

With no further display of affection between mother and daughter they were off. Una, Alistair, and Grenli followed Morrigan. There was little talking. Morrigan made occasional comments that Una tried to respond to, but there was no reaching Alistair, who was lost in his grief and anger. At night, they set up tents—Una's and Alistair's together near one fire, and Morrigan's off to the side by herself. The mage explained to Una that she was used to being alone and preferred to retain some solitude. Una wasn't sure she cared, as long as the extra fire didn't cause them to attract darkspawn.

On the second day, they arrived in Lothering, and were immediately accosted by a group of brigands trying to soak them for money. Una grinned at the head brigand. "Do you really think you should be trying to steal from Grey Wardens?"

"Grey Wardens! You traitors killed the king, and there's a lovely nice big bounty on your heads." With an expression of great glee, the men attacked, while Una was still reeling from the surprising comment about the Grey Wardens.

They took out the brigands with ease. "What was that all about?" Alistair asked. Una was relieved he was showing any interest at all in what was going on around them.

"I assume we'll find out as we move farther into town." Una shrugged. "And there's no time like the present."

They walked toward Lothering, which was teeming with refugees from the darkspawn-infested Wilds. It was noisy, smelly, and filled with the sadness of people who had lost everything. Una's eyes welled with tears as she looked around.

"Ah, Lothering," Alistair said, with bitterness heavily underscoring his attempt at a breezy tone. "Pretty as a picture."

"So," trilled Morrigan, "you've decided to rejoin us, have you?"

"Is it so hard for you to understand grief?" he shot back. "Everyone I cared about is lying dead on that battlefield."

"And you moping about helps them how?"

"Enough," Una said, her fingers pressing into her temples. "We have more than we can handle already—I don't need the two of you to start sniping at each other." Both of them started to say something, but Una glared at them and they stopped. "What should we do now?"

Morrigan shrugged eloquently.

Alistair rubbed a hand over his face. "I don't know what we should do," he said. "There are plenty of places to go, but I don't know which one to go to first."

Una closed her eyes. He wasn't actually saying this, was he? "Are you saying you want me to decide? You know you're the senior Warden, right?" He stared at her mutely, and she could see the misery and the hint of pleading in his eyes. She sighed. "All right, then. I guess it's on me. Let's head into town and see what's what."

They walked through the camps full of refugees, and were told several times by Templars stationed around the camps that Lothering had no room for more people. Alistair and Morrigan continued their sniping at each other until Una was ready to leave them both behind. Maybe somewhere in the Anderfels she and Grenli could find a nice cave far from Blight and darkspawn and annoying companions.

Sighing, she led them into the Chantry, where they met a knight Alistair knew from his days at Redcliffe. The knight told them that Arl Eamon had been felled by some mysterious and thus far incurable illness and lay in a coma in Redcliffe Castle, while all his knights were spread around Ferelden hunting for the mythic Urn of Sacred Ashes, the container that was supposed to hold the ashes of the prophet Andraste and was also reputed to have magical healing powers. Further, he explained that Teyrn Loghain was claiming that the Grey Wardens were responsible for the tragedy of the Battle of Ostagar—that they had pushed Cailan into showing off for glory and going into battle when he wasn't ready. Loghain had put it about that he was the true hero of the day, that by withdrawing from the field he had saved his own army and thus Ferelden.