The Dalish Commander (The Daughters of Thedas Book 2)

32: Realin's Past and Oghren's Family

Soundtrack:

I Am the One ~ Inon Zur (The Joining)

We made camp around the same area we had on the journey to Kal'Hirol. The others, with the exception of Justice and Velanna, conversed with Sigrun to get to know her better.

"You still cling to the Creators, but I barely see any Dalish left in you," Velanna suddenly said.

"Velanna," I sighed. "I am still Dalish as much as you are."

"I heard the stories about you. How you chose the humans over your clan. How you did everything you could for the humans during the Blight. How you served them as our enslaved ancestors had." She apparently either didn't hear about my efforts in Orzammar and the saving of Zathrian's clan or she had deliberately forgotten.

"Are you trying to pick a fight?" I knew the entire camp was watching us by now. "Are you not happy unless you are arguing with someone?"

"You abandoned our people, Realin, your clan."

I narrowed my eyes at her. "Do you really want to accuse someone of abandoning our people?" I stood, intent on walking away before it became a full-fledged fight. If Velanna had dropped the conversation then, it wouldn't have been. But what she said next caused me to lose the calm I was grasping. And my temper.

"You abandoned our people in favor of a Shem. You abandoned Tamlen to his fate. You just left him for dead. For a human!"

I spun around and took several strides back to Velanna. "I didn't abandon them! I left to protect them from my taint!" Everyone was silent. No one but Oghren had known about that.

"Oh, shit," I heard Oghren breathe.

"If I hadn't left with Duncan, I would either be dead or one of those fucking Broodmothers! I had no other choice but to become a Warden. A choice I made to protect my clan. Because I didn't want the taint to spread to the others! You think you know what happened that day? You don't! You didn't have to face the heartbreak of not being able to find your best friend, someone you loved. Of not knowing his fate!"

Velanna stepped back.

"And you sure as hell didn't have to see him become a ghoul or have him beg you to end his life!" I turned away, fighting the tears of anger. I took several deep breaths to calm myself down before I turned back to Velanna. "I left to protect Clan Sabrae. You left for revenge. Now you tell me who abandoned her clan." I turned and disappeared into the trees surrounding our camp. I was angry enough to use language I normally didn't use. I needed to calm down again. And resist the urge to strangle Velanna. How dare she accuse me of abandoning my Clan!

~~~

I felt two of my Wardens behind me as I sat on a rock throwing my belt knife into a dead stump. "Now you know the truth of why a Dalish would willingly agree to join the Wardens," I said, not bothering to look to see who was behind me. By their footfalls, I knew Oghren wasn't one of them.

"She shouldn't have done that," Nathaniel said. "She shouldn't have forced you to reveal something so personal."

"I can't imagine what it was like for you, dealing with the Blight and that. I can see why everyone respects you."

I gave Anders a look.

"Well, most everyone."

"Oghren set her straight on Tamlen's death, although he admitted that he didn't know the whole story about the tainting. And we're not going to force you to tell us either. I'm sure it's a painful one and none of us want you to relive that."