When I Look at You (a Dragon Age fanfiction)

Alone

The next day they made it back to Redcliffe Castle, finding that the mages had already arrived. Apparently it was shorter to take a boat across Lake Calenhad than go around. Una wished someone had thought to mention that, and perhaps to offer her people a ride. They could have used the rest.

Preparations were made for the ritual, then everyone was banished from the chamber except the mages. Una took a look back at Wynne, lying down with a peaceful expression on her face, before the door closed.

It seemed to take forever, as Una paced back and forth before the door and Isolde knelt in a corner, murmuring ceaseless prayers. But eventually it was over. The demon had been defeated, Connor and Wynne were safe.

The mage and child were both resting and the rest of Una's crew were at work reoutfitting, refurbishing, and generally preparing for the next step on the journey when Bann Teagan and Arlessa Isolde called for Una to join them. She debated for a moment before asking Alistair to come along with her. Alistair's affection for the Arl and his family was likely to affect how the conversation went, but she couldn't deny him the chance to be part of it, at least.

They walked into the Arlessa's sitting room, where Una found herself at the receiving end of Isolde's fulsome expressions of gratitude. "Really, my lady," Una said. "Anyone else would have done the same."

Watching her, Alistair could see she meant it. She honestly thought most people would have gone so far out of their way to save an abomination. What an extraordinary woman, he thought, and how much he had grown to care for her. Suddenly he knew he couldn't go another day without telling her how he felt. If she didn't share those feelings, so be it—but he couldn't hide them any longer.

His decision made, he was able to return his attention to the conversation at hand. Bann Teagan was asking Una's opinion about what to do with the blood mage, Jowan, who had poisoned the Arl in the first place. Alistair knew exactly what he would do, but wasn't sure what Una's decision would be. He could tell she was uncomfortable with a man such as the Bann asking for her guidance, but then she took a deep breath and Alistair saw her golden eyes darken.

"Jowan knows the consequences of his deeds," she said. "He should be made to suffer them." Una took a deep breath. "He should be executed."

"Really?" The Bann seemed surprised.

"Justice must be served," Una said, and there was steel in her voice as she thought not of the blood mage but of Arl Howe. Isolde murmured her agreement in an equally harsh tone.

"Very well," said Bann Teagan. "Then I won't wait for Eamon to be healed. We will deal with the blood mage immediately." He looked at Una again. "There remains the question of how to heal Eamon."

"Is there no way other than finding the Urn of Sacred Ashes?" Una asked, hoping against hope. She knew where this conversation was going; she knew, especially with Alistair standing there, that she had no choice but to agree to go off on this wild goose chase ... but she wasn't going to be sent off chasing a mythological curative without at least some protest.

"We've tried everything," Isolde said wearily. "Even the mages cannot help Eamon now. The ashes of Andraste are our only hope."

"And you are the only person who can find them," Teagan added.

They were strong shoulders, Alistair reflected. Strong, lovely shoulders. But could they hold all of this? Avenging her family, forming an army with a cobbled-together crew, resolving a civil war, stopping the Blight, and now finding a religious relic that had been lost for centuries, if it had ever existed at all. There had to be a limit to what one young person could handle.