When Fate Summons (a Dragon Age fanfiction)

In Your Room

As Leliana's story drew to a close, servants began coming into the hall with trays. "I hope you remembered that you're feeding five hungry Grey Wardens, my friend," Thora said to Teagan. He looked confused, counting on his fingers, and Thora laughed. "Don't forget Anawyn! She has a Warden's appetite and a growing girl's appetite. I've seen her out-eat Alistair."

"Is that possible?" Teagan asked.

"Let's see." Alistair grinned, taking a plate and beginning to fill it. Everyone else soon followed suit, and shortly the platters were empty and most plates had been cleaned and set aside ... except for Alistair's and Anawyn's. Both of them finished their food and reached for the last chicken leg at the same time. While they were arguing over who got it, Duncan snatched it off the plate and retreated to Oghren's protection. "You little scamp!" Alistair said. "I'll get you for that."

"Oh, yeah, nug-humper?" Duncan giggled.

Amidst loud groans, Oghren proudly patted the boy on the head. "My work here is done," he said grandly, waving his mug in the air to punctuate the sentence.

Slowly everyone settled into seats around the fire. Alistair and Thora were on the settee. Duncan was curled up in his father's arms, his eyes blinking more and more slowly, and Anawyn leaned against her mother's shoulder. Perth and Leliana shared a single chair and seemed far more intent on each other than on the gathering. Oghren was on the floor, Anders and Teagan in arm chairs, and Jens was stretched out before the fire with his head in Sigrun's lap.

At a lull in the conversation, Alistair said, "Teagan, I believe you have a story to tell all of us."

Teagan looked at Alistair, startled. "I do?"

"Yes," Alistair said, "the one I mentioned to you earlier."

Comprehension dawned, and Teagan looked around at the assembled company. "Alistair, are you sure?"

"Everyone here is a dear friend," Alistair said quietly. "And they all know entirely more than they should already. One more secret isn't going to make a difference."

"Very well." Teagan took a sip of his brandy. "Once upon a time," he began, his eyes resting on Anawyn, "there was a young King. He had recently lost his wife, and he was sad and lonely. One day, members of a strange and secret order—an order that had been banished from his country long ago—came to him, asking for his help. You see, they knew that years before he had made a journey through the Deep Roads, and they needed his help to find a member of their order who had gone missing."

"What was the King's name?" Duncan asked.

"Maric," Alistair said, stroking the boy's curly brown hair. "Your grandfather."

"Ohhh," Duncan said. He yawned, holding his eyes very wide in an attempt to keep them open.

"The King was intrigued—going with them sounded better than sitting on his throne and brooding—and he decided to go along with them," Teagan went on. "If I recall correctly, there was a woman,

a dwarf, an ex-thief, and an elven mage. Possibly others. I'm not entirely sure."

"The ex-thief," Thora broke in. "That was Duncan?"

"Yes. He had only just joined the order at that point, I believe. You have to understand, I wasn't there for most of this. I know only what I was told officially, and what I heard by listening to conversations I wasn't supposed to hear." Teagan grinned. "So the King led the Grey Wardens into the Deep Roads, following the call of their lost member. They fought darkspawn, deepstalkers, spiders, and I don't know what all. At first, none of the Grey Wardens really trusted the King—especially the elf mage Fiona. But over time, they learned that he was perhaps foolhardy, but a man with a good heart and a great love for his people. And at some point the elf mage's dislike became ..." Teagan looked at Anawyn again. She was blinking sleepily, but still following the story. "Became something else. Something more, um, affectionate. In time they emerged from the Deep Roads—where they lost several of their members to a plot laid by some kind of human-darkspawn hybrid ... thing."