Dragon Age Origins: The Tale of Solana

Chapter 38: Lay Sister

After buying some supplies for the road, Solana still couldn't get Morrigan to look at her. They had bonded so well the other night, but now it felt as if they were starting over. Making friends in the Alienage was so much easier. As they approached the Tavern, the entrance had calmed down drastically.

It almost didn't look like the same place. "I guess the owner got tired of serving drinks," Alistair pondered, with a grin towards Solana.

"I wonder what's going on?"

"Nothing good, I imagine," Morrigan concluded. "Though, I'm sure we shall fix whatever aliment the townspeople have, despite our hurry."

Solana felt the cool sting of the words. "Yes, we will," she turned and shoved Morrigan aside with her shoulder when Solana walked by her, "and despite your attitude, it is the right thing to do. These people will be all but run over by tomorrow, do you have no sympathy? If not, learn some."

Morrigan grew quite. Solana was right... Where was her sympathy? Did she not have any? How could she, with a mother so devoid of it as her own? She looked away, disheartened by Solana's truthful words. She did not dare give Alistair the satisfaction of seeing her disheartened look.

"Did you speak to that knight yesterday? Said he was from Redcliffe...?"

"He talked to everyone in the tavern..."

The three of them listened in on a conversation two drunk men by the door sputtered. Redcliffe was there next stop, and if there was a Redcliffe knight here, it would be a great help learning what these two drunk fellows had heard.

"How are we supposed to know where the Urn of Scared Ashes is? Might as well ask us how to get to the moon!"

"He said all the Redcliffe knights were looking for it. As if they didn't have anything better to do."

"What do you suppose they mean," Morrigna pondered idly, unsure what this Urn of Scared Ashes even was. Solana and Alistair knew though, and they were confused as ever.

"What do you think Redcliffe wants with the Andraste's Urn?" Solana asked.

"Who knows," Alistair scratches his chin. The Urn was just a fable after all, not truly real. Or, so he thought. The Urn of Sacred Ashes was part of his education while at the Chantry. Andraste's dear friend Havard had personally seen to the earthly remains of the prophet Andraste. Her ashes had been left to the wind and rain, along with the pole that she had been tied to and burned against. The story goes that Andraste herself cured Havard right then, and when he gathered her ashes into an urn, he hides them away.

Alistair was bewildered by what Redcliffe knights would want with such a strange object of history. "We'll check out the Chantry before we leave, and see if anyone is still here. We need to return that Templar's locket and letter there before we head out, anyway."

They opened the tavern's door and strolled in, half expecting a crowded door way. It wasn't, but the smell was everything Solana had expected it to be. She had never been inside a tavern before. The one in the Alienage was Lebo's house, and it wasn't exactly fit for women to be near. This place was damp, and dark; the oil lamps that hung onto to the walls hardly cast a person's shadow, let alone light the hall that lead to the bar room. The smell was of strong liquor, sweat, and urine; Solana never could make sense why people would want to come to a place such as this to get away from the world. An outhouse would be much cleaner!

Four gaurds where ahead, dressed in the same armor that Teryn Loghain's men had worn that night at Ostagar. Alistair came to a dead halt in the door frame. "Loghain's men... This isn't good," he half-heartedly joked.