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(open) for all we know it's just a lie
WHO: Alistair + You
WHAT: Sleep deprivation and a long ride.
WHEN: Both vaguely before and vaguely after today.
WHERE: Skyhold (before today), the road to the Fallow Mire (after after).
NOTES: Vague starterish things because I don't like doing the same thing multiple times! If they're too vague and you want something more specific you can leave me a blank comment or something, it's cool.
WHAT: Sleep deprivation and a long ride.
WHEN: Both vaguely before and vaguely after today.
WHERE: Skyhold (before today), the road to the Fallow Mire (after after).
NOTES: Vague starterish things because I don't like doing the same thing multiple times! If they're too vague and you want something more specific you can leave me a blank comment or something, it's cool.
I. AN INCOMPLETE LIST OF PLACES ALISTAIR FALLS ASLEEP IN SKYHOLD
1. In the stables with the dogs, usually. He only sleeps for three or four hours at a stretch, lightly and fitfully, but he never wakes up screaming. At worst he wakes up gasping and sweating, with concerned, wet muzzles nudging at his face. More often he times things well enough that he's woken in the still-dark hours of the morning by heavy boots or banging wooden doors, instead, and is already on his feet before anyone can reach him.
2. Draped over a table in the tavern still holding the handle of a tankard. He might look like a drunkard from a distance, but really, it's still three-quarters full.
3. Draped over a table in the kitchens with his arm curled protectively around a bowl of porridge or stew or whatever else the kitchen servants were willing to give him at the given hour.
4. Draped over a table in the dusty, cobwebby cellar library, with his arms folded on top of a book he couldn't force himself to stay awake for for very long even if the fate of the Grey Wardens and/or possibly all of Thedas is hanging in the balance.
5. Standing up and leaning against the back of a horse that doesn't belong to him, brush still in hand, until it steps away to search for something more interesting or edible and he falls right over.
II. AN EVEN LESS COMPLETE LIST OF THINGS HE FINDS ON THE WAY TO THE MIRE
1. Money. That's one good thing about wars and demons: there's more coin on the bodies than when roadside homicides are mostly the work of highway robbers. Alistair is a practiced looter, but a gentle, respectful one, too. If it were possible to close their eyes once they'd gone this stiff, he would.
2. A set of Ferelden figurines, mostly soldiers, half trampled by horses. He doesn't pocket them; he's not a child. But he takes the time to move the ones that aren't broken yet to the side of the road for someone else to find.
3. A temporary Inquisition camp full of travelers headed in the opposite direction. He doesn't consider himself one of them--he's a Warden, he's only visiting--but he hasn't found so much money on corpses that he won't borrow their fire or eat their spare food, if someone offers.
4. A Grey Warden, and not any of the Grey Wardens he was on his way to find. He recognizes the armor at a distance on the road, even in the cloudy half-dark. The sight makes his heart stop in the curious, still, emptied-out way it always does in the seconds before a fight begins. But the moment passes, and he keeps moving forward. Maybe he won't be recognizable, he thinks, now he's traded his griffon-and-blue armor for something simpler from Inquisition stores--
Or maybe it will be someone he's met before. Never mind. He raises a hand instead of his sword. The wave is a little sheepish.
II. 4. Oh look. Who could that be?
He wasn't even sure what had brought him to the Mire, beyond a need to investigate certain rumours about his brethren in the South. The Mire was just incidental.
He had been lost in thought, until he caught sight of the man walking towards him. His hand automatically went to rest on the staff on his back, until he saw first the somewhat sheepish wave, then just who it was. Someone he hadn't seen for some time. "Warden Alistair," he called out as he approached. "It has been some time."
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It is even more obvious that he's rambling nervously when he's having to half-shout it down the road. He stops. Kaidan isn't reaching for his staff, so he doesn't reach for his sword or shield, and when they're closer he tries again.
"You're very far south."
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That brought a frown from Kaidan in return. "Then I suppose it's good that I dont want to fight you either." Why would he want to fight Alistair? He sort of liked the Warden, annoying though he could be.
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"Why? Should I?" Come on Alistair, give him a little something to work with here.
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But that was what he needed to hear to relax: the relieved slump of his shoulders is visible even under his armor, and he rubs the back of his head with his sword hand instead of keeping it ready to draw.
"She recalled all the Southern Wardens to Orlais," he says, "even Ferelden's--the Commander didn't protest." Duncan would have protested. Cousland would have protested. "She plans to march everyone to the Deep Roads before we die, to wipe out the Old Gods where they're sleeping."
He doesn't say that part like he thinks it's insane. He doesn't. If they're really on the verge of dying out and leaving Thedas unguarded, trying that is better than doing nothing. But the rest of it--
"She went straight to blood magic," he says. "And not a little blood magic, either, not your normal low levels of necessary-evil blood magic. They were talking about sacrifice and--and nothing about trying to stop this from happening." This, the Calling; he gestures to his own head to illustrate. "They ran us out when we tried to protest and followed us as far as they could. We're under the Inquisition's protection for now."
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He frowned as Alistair explained, his expression getting more troubled as he began to understand just what was going on. He hadn't met the latest Ferelden Commander and it sounded like he didn't particularly want to.
He's torn between insane, and the brilliance of the idea. Wiping out the Old Gods is the ultimate dream of all Wardens, but realistically? They had nowhere near enough manpower to take on the whole of the Deep Roads at once.
No. He's going to go with insane. Because even if they all hear the Calling at once... Blood magic? On a vast scale? It was an horrific thought. Blood magic could be turned a blind eye to for the sake of trying to finish a Blight in progress, or even more on a small scale but even he couldn't stomach as much as Alistair was telling him. Sacrifice? Of whom? His brothers?
"Weisshaupt don't know," he said, sitting down on a nearby rock. Better than standing for this. "I've had communication with them recently. They told me nothing." He was close enough that he would have been sent to investigate, if not by the First Warden, then by the High Constable - and if he knew, he would have gotten word to him, he was sure.
"Who is us?" He'd heard a little about the Inquisition, heard about the good deeds they were doing. Wise to take in Wardens who were lost and potentially in danger. He just hoped there was enough with decent heads on their shoulders to make some difference. He worried about how many followed Clarel blindly, especially if they were hearing what he'd begun to hear.
"So it's true then. Everyone is hearing it." He'd begun to hear it the closer he got to Orlais, but was focused on his mission. He would ignore it as best he could, make his plans when he got back to Weisshaupt. He had time. But if all the Wardens were hearing it... he could only imagine the panic that was happening now.
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Or it could be. But it shouldn't be.
After a moment, he says, "Something is wrong. Did you hear about Haven? They're saying the attacker called himself Corypheus."
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And there it was. The last piece of the puzzle. "So it's true. He's out of his prison," he said calmly.
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In hindsight, maybe that wasn't wise.
"He has a dragon," he adds, in case this wasn't bad enough. "It can't be an archdemon, but from the way they describe it, it's blighted."
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He stood up, pacing. "He's never acted like this in all the time he's been held prisoner." Whoops. Was he meant to say that? "Do you know anyone who has been in the Deep Roads recently?"
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