[OPEN] I know dark clouds gonna gather 'round me

[mactears]

WHO: Loghain + OPEN
WHAT: A catch-all for Loghain for November.
WHEN: Throughout the month of November.
WHERE: The Gallows, Kirkwall, Sundermount.
NOTES: None yet, will update as needed. Starters for specific characters under the cut.

I. SUNDERMOUNT (OPEN + MORRIGAN)


The woodsman who had placed the cabin up for let likely hadn't expected for Loghain Mac Tir, the Traitor Teyrn of Gwaren and father to the Queen of Ferelden, to become his tenant, but there it was. He paid well for this private retreat in the wilderness, and with a promise to make some modest improvements to the property, one can scarcely suggest that the land owner himself is coming away at a loss.

There's a single-paddock stable attached to the cabin, which is where Sooty now rests eating from her feed back, while Loghain chops wood for the wood stove. Lying on the ground some distance away from him is a peculiar-looking dog--clearly part mabari, but with the unmistakeable ruff of a wolf around the face and hackles, too. Every so often, she rises up from where she rests in the grass observing Loghain's work with intelligent topaz eyes, and trots off into the undergrowth, only to come back sometime later to find another place in the sun to rest.

When he isn't in Kirkwall, this is where he spends a great deal of his time:  fixing up this run-down cabin, and trying to befriend the strange dog that now hangs out around the property.



II.  WARDEN OFFICES (ALISTAIR + NATHANIEL)


Alistair and Nathaniel Howe wish to speak with him.

In Loghain's experience, this can go one of two ways:  he's being ousted, or he's being murdered.

Nevertheless, at the appointed time he arrives outside the Wardens' office and knocks once to announce himself. "It's Loghain," he calls, then rests his hand on the latch without pressing it yet.



III. THE LIBRARY AT NIGHT (TEREN)


While much of the drama surrounding his initial appearance at the Gallows has died down during the intervening months, the easiest time for Loghain to conduct any research in the library is still after dark, when the rest of the researchers and students have long gone to bed and there's no one but himself present to peruse the shelves.

He'd laid out his old notes from Maric's initial disappearance across his chosen work station, along with maps of northern Tevinter and some other assorted reference books, and paces behind his desk, as is his wont, while considering them. The wolf-dog that rests beneath the table dozes, but every so often opens her lambent gold eyes, ears pricked and alert.



VI.  DARKTOWN (ANDERS)


It is some time after the company's return from Blackmarsh that Loghain makes his way into the streets of Darktown, dressed in a set of unremarkable brown and grey work clothes so that he won't be so easily noticed or identified. The dog isn't with him; she's well enough--and independent enough--to be left to her own devices on Sundermount during the daylight hours.

Reaching the clinic, he steps over the threshold and searches out Anders in a glance. Not wanting to disturb him from his patients, however, he hands back, patient.



V.  LOWTOWN (CARVER + OPEN)


Loghain isn't much of a drinker, but the only place to do that around Kirkwall appears to be the Hanged Man--which is where he is now, seated alone at a seat in front of the hearthfire, gaze alternating between resting on the fire and examining the occupants of the tavern. A few people have, over the past several months, identified him, and even given him some trouble, but generally not at this hour early in the evening, before the city has time to get drunk enough to make its worst decisions.

So here he sits with a tankard of ale, unwinding, and making himself available for conversation to whomever happens to come along.

Comments

[arcaneadvisor]

Morrigan + loghain
All this time and Morrigan's been so lucky. Only Zevran and Leliana to know the whole story but of course it couldn't last forever, of course in the face of someone who knew Alistair's half-brother and father it would all evaporate.

"Kieran? Will you tell your new friend all about your newest adventure, I see no need to bore you."

"Of course mother." But he hears the strain in her voice, watches her walk with Loghain to a safer distance.

How to start? And what to tell Alistair since there are a hundred things she'd rather do than have that conversation. Drawing herself up from her core, her eyes narrow. Do you remember this, Loghain? Readying yourself to defend your child? "Yes he is my son and a good lad, whatever you have to say of it you will say to me and not to him," she instructs, fear having that way of sharpening her voice so.

[mactears]

Loghain knows the wolf-dog's temperament well enough by now to surmise that she will be fine in Kieran's company--not inclined to growl or bite at a child--and so is willing to fall into step alongside Morrigan and follow her some distance away into the woods. When she rounds on him with the fierce protectiveness of a lioness, he's unsurprised; it's no less than he would have expected from her.

But Maric's grandson has nothing to fear from him.

"His father," he starts, but finds it difficult to finish the sentence. His brows draw together into a deep furrow, and he looks beyond Morrigan towards where Primrose (the hound) is now playfully nosing at Kieran's hands.

[arcaneadvisor]

What is she to say now? Of all the possibilities the idea of someone who knew Alistair's family this well wasn't one of them, who has the weight of history upon him with all of them even with her own mother decades ago in the same hut she was born and raised in. The words catch in her throat. Of course she's aware of him and Alistair.

If her loyalty is to be thrown anywhere in this grudge that's gone on long enough it should embarrass the pair of them enough to end it, she goes with Alistair, she owes him that much. If she were who she was ten years ago she would raise her chin, curl her lip, tell him that her son is her son alone, and that he bought three lives through his own coming into being in one night.

No longer is she that so she says what she must. "Kieran knows his father is a good man, for that is what Alistair deserves, and if there is anything different heard then any who say it shall say their piece to me." Ten years is long enough to see herself as who she was then; who survived from Ostagar to the slaying of the Archdemon without disappearing after? It ranks him higher than near anyone else in her estimations. "Kieran does not know that Alistair is his father."

[mactears]

"Kieran does not know that Alistair is his father."

But there it is--the truth that Loghain had suspected the moment he'd seen the boy, his face, that Theirin nose--Maric's grandson. A legacy for him, a piece of him that still exists in the world, and will continue to exist long after his father has--

"I would do nothing that would bring harm to him." This said quietly but fervently, before Loghain looks to Morrigan again. There's an unexpectedly unguarded quality in his eyes.

[arcaneadvisor]

"You will forgive me if I have my doubts. Wardens have hardly proven themselves of late." Near two years now since she departed Orlais for the Inquisition, with what little that's come out of the Grey Wardens doing even less to bring comfort to her now.

She has more to fear. To wonder at with however much is learned of Corypheus when here her son lives and breathes with his Old God soul within him, when they still fear and hate abominations especially with the idiocy of the Wardens. They wouldn't see anything else. They'd see something monstrous. Weisshaupt had questioned how the Wardens all survived the Fifth Blight. Too many might learn. Too many might hound them.

(Was this the price to be paid? To look over her shoulder the rest of her days?)

"What is he to you that you would bring no harm to him?" Morrigan presses. She wasn't there for Ostagar but she remembers. Remembers hearing who died. What happened. How Loghain fits in: that was Maric's son too, same as Alistair, same as Kieran is his grandson. (But he isn't, same as he isn't Flemeth's grandchild. He's Morrigan's son alone and that's how she intends for it to be.) If he's dropped his guard that's his own business, she's inclined to keep at it for an answer.

[mactears]

That question, her fierce protectiveness of the boy, should not startle Loghain so, and though he gives her a look that is almost affronted for a moment, it quickly fades. No, she has no reason to trust him; even hearing his own voice making such promises makes his stomach turn. He's proven himself capable of making the hard, bloody choices that no one else is willing to make. Would that not also extend to this boy, the blood of Maric's body, if the chips were down again?

Loghain looks to Morrigan's eyes, and decides that yes, her caution is warranted. Better she keep her guard up than trust to his sentimentality. It is never guaranteed.

"I fear," he starts after a pause, "I have no answers for you that will satisfy. Only an old loyalty to a King whose trust in me was misplaced." He lifts a hand to rub his jaw. "I'll leave you both be."

[arcaneadvisor]

Kieran is happy enough where Morrigan can still spy him; a boy and a dog, same as he was with that ugly (blast and damnation whatever accident made the other dog he cared for so) creature Zevran brought into his life for a time. She's loathe to drag him away when she knows she's about to be disappearing off herself, her, Gwenaelle, Thranduil, Alistair, all the faces that he knows and cares for most all at once again. Not a child but accustomed to the company of adults he's going to miss them.

"He is innocent," she says for want of-- well because he is. Kieran didn't ask for anything that came to him. He didn't ask to be her son. Didn't ask to carry an Old God's soul. Didn't ask for any of the legends of Flemeth or Asha'bellanar no matter the falsehoods or grains of truth in them, the deeds of the Fifth Blight.

If she can keep the line of Theirin from him too then...then she protects him.

"Let me speak with Alistair, you're the first two know outside him and I. The last person he met who lived through the Blight was Oghren. There must be some tales you might tell him he hasn't heard a good dozen times before." Morrigan isn't good at making offerings but she'll try. It might all go easier if she tries, she learned that one the hard way.

[mactears]

That offer is orders of magnitude more than what Loghain had ever hoped to expect, and it shows on his face just for a moment, before he nods and looks beyond Morrigan to where Kieran and the wolf-dog play. (Primrose, he decides; a good name for an intelligent hound.)

"I wish you luck in that endeavour," he replies with the ghost of a smirk at the corners of his mouth, referring obviously to Morrigan's intention of speaking with Alistair. Then he nods and adds, "But yes, I'd be glad to share some stories with the boy."