No Armor Against Fate (a Dragon Age fanfiction)

Glorious

The first time the guard at the door called her "exile", Alistair's hand clenched of its own volition. He could barely control the urge to take a swing at the man. Thora's face didn't change, though. It remained as smooth and serene as always. She even took the epithet "kinslayer" in stride when it was thrown at her, secure in her own innocence.

As they moved into the vast halls of Orzammar, Alistair kept expecting to see ... something in her, some sign that it bothered her to be back here. He knew she'd never liked Orzammarian politics, and that she had intended to join Duncan as a Grey Warden even if she hadn't been exiled. But still—she'd been a princess here! And now they all looked at her as though she was lower than dirt. That had to bother her, didn't it?

When they entered Lord Harrowmont's sumptuous estate in the Diamond Quarter, Alistair could tell that she was looking forward to seeing the man, remembering him as one of the few friends she could count on. Both of them were shocked when Harrowmont's second, Dulin Ferender, all but accused her of being a spy for her murdering backstabber of a brother. The dwarf, claiming to be sorry the caution was necessary, made it clear that Thora fighting as Harrowmont's champion in the Proving was the price of winning the Lord's trust.

Thora was having more trouble than Alistair imagined giving up her name. "Exile" didn't bother her—it was what she was. But to be treated as though she were no longer her father's daughter was almost more than she could bear. She knew there was more than a little of spite and wounded pride in her agreement to fight in the Proving, to defeat her brother Bhelen's fighters and emerge victorious as Harrowmont's champion, showing all of Orzammar that the Ancestors still held her in their favor. After all, the last Proving she'd fought in had been to honor her name—let them all remember it now.

As they made their way through the crowded halls, she was grateful for Alistair and Wynne's near-endless stream of banter. The mage clearly thought of the young templar as the grandchild she'd never had, and he returned the affection. Thora loved listening to the two of them. Especially here, where their chatter seemed like the only lifeline back to her real life on the surface, far from these foolish dwarves and their petty political squabbles that stood between her and ending the Blight.

After arriving in the Proving Grounds, running a couple of small errands to gain Harrowmont more fighters, she approached the Proving Master. A true fighter, his thought was more for the sheer savagery there would be in the fighting with Thora opposing her brother than for her position in the hierarchy. Rubbing his hands together in anticipation, he asked for the name Thora would like to fight under. She thought for a moment, then, sick of these ridiculous rules, she stood to her full height—which in Orzammar actually meant something—and said, "Princess Thora Aeducan." It felt good to retake her name and to turn her back on the inflexible caste system that she had never believed in, the one that stripped surface dwarves of all connection to their families in Orzammar and kept the same old useless noble houses at the top, instead of allowing for the best and brightest to lead.

She heard Alistair's hiss of breath behind her. His face was a mask, his eyes dark and unreadable. Thora studied him for a moment. She knew that sometimes he still felt inadequate, that her past as a princess and his as a nameless bastard still made him feel less than worthy of her. She wondered if he knew how she counted on him being right there, just a step behind her, ready to catch her if she should falter. How his warmth and support were sometimes the only thing keeping her standing.

As Thora readied herself for the first battle of the Proving, part of her mind was trying to think of a way to show Alistair exactly how much she needed him. Then her opponent came at her, and the familiar sights and smells of the Proving crowded everything else from her thoughts for the time being.