Border Crossing

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"You're late." Baralai Fairchild despised the rain, almost as much as he despised mages. He was waiting at one of the bridges that crossed the river that in turn divided the two largest kingdoms in their land. It was the same bridge where he had waited countless times. Templar or no, gold was gold, and this gold also got rid of troublesome mages.
"You want the gold or not?" A black clad man snarled as he jumped down gracefully from his equally black steed.
Baralai muttered something rather unbecoming of a Templar, then held a gloved hand out. "Gold first, then the cargo. Try anything..." He words were cut off as the mage he was transporting broke free of his restraints. It all happened so quickly that he didn't see the flash of lightning and the proud Templar was crashing into the raging river below.
Six months. It had been six months and the fallen Templar still woke in a cold sweat after dreaming of that night. The mage had rendered him immobile, though wide awake when he had plunged into the river, his heavy armour weighing him down until a pig farmer had dragged him from the river several miles away. It had taken months to get back to health and pay back the farmer for his kindness. In that time word had gotten out that Fairchild the Templar was a deserter.

Alice Gormanghast was scowling into the mirror. She hated this world she had been born into, even now as her maid pulled tightly on the laces of her dress she thought of nothing but a way to escape. Her brother's were all war heroes, famous to everyone in the kingdom for their brave deeds and triumph in defeating several of the dragons. But Alice... All she was known for was to be the prize her father handed over to the man he deemed brave enough to end the war altogether. She was the proverbial Princess in the tower, useful only for luring in prospective suitors. The young brunette didn't even realise her rose coloured lips were quirked into a slight smile 'if only they knew'. Indeed, her father would have a literal heart attack if he knew his prized daughter had secretly been learning how to shoot a bow and handle a sword. She lost herself for hours at an end in books that told of the thieves guild, and their mysterious leader who was sometimes known to have a higher moral code than the knights of their kingdom.

Garrik broke Alice's heart a little more with each of those words. She was always going to be 'Captain', and it hurt that Garrik always saw her as that first. "I asked for another option... but fine. You go do what you think is best. I'll do what I've always done; fight."

Bear suddenly grinned darkly at Kane. "Is that so? One little touch... and your plan fails..."

"You're not listening to me." Garrik said firmly, refusing to walk away from this. "We need to go and talk to the dalish. We need their help. The magic man is not enough. Let me help this time. Do make me watch you kill yourself. I won't do it." 

"One little touch and I kill you." Talon like claws snapped out and snaked around the former Templar's neck. "I'll rip out the shard I suspect she is hiding in you and make her feel true agony with it. Have you ever heard a dragon born scream? I have. It's lovely."

Alice stared at Garrik for some moments, clearly having trouble accepting help. "Fine!" She declared at last, like Garrik had just won some kind of battle.

That alone was enough to stop Bear following through with his threat, but not enough to silence him. "I'll be there when your Pirate Queen sister rips the shriveled lump of a heart from your chest, and I'll savour every last moment of it!"

"No!" The magic man was so angry he was spitting. He banged his cane on the deck several times. "The dalish worship the dragon and avoid humans. They won't help you."
"They avoid them so much they have children with them," Garrik  snorted. He turned to Alice, a dimple appearing in his cheek where he was trying to hide his triumphant smile. "Thank you, Captain."

Kane didn't hide his grin. "Her screams were lovley. She begged me to end it but what fun would that be? Where would we be now? And my sister...that defiant glare..
The little elf doesn't have that. Not to mention her breasts are...far less than perfect..."

Alice was smiling too, knowing none of them had any idea she could speak the dragon tongue. "If they worship dragons, they can still help us find one, wouldn't you say, Garrik?"

"You're a sick son of a bitch!" Bear snarled. "All this just to get another shot at violating your own sister?!" He was trying hard not to think of any harm that may have come to Yena, as he blamed himself completely.

"There is a dragon in the mountain. Why would you need another?" The magic man snapped, hobbling away from them. Only once he was out of ear shot did Garrik speak again. "There's something strange about him. He switched personalities in the middle of this ordeal. More like a spy..."

"Mind your business, Templar. Your skin is not a snowy white either." Kane snorted. "You're even more of a murderer than I could have ever dreamed!" 
Yena moved ahead of them, walking as if she were asleep, as if she had no control over herself.

Alice smiled sadly and reached up to pat Garrick's cheek. "Everyone is a spy when you're a Pirate Queen."

"I never claimed to be innocent." Bear snorted. "Only that I would never have such desire for a woman of my own bloodline!"

"We could go back to your cabin and you could interogate me for a while." Garrik purred, leaning close to her. "I promise to play the bad guy." 

"She is hardly my blood." Kane hissed. "Now shut up. We are crossing." He shoved Bear ahead of him, a bind snaking around his wrists as he moved.

Alice's smile softened and she rested her forehead against Garrik's. "You really think you have it in you?" She breathed, taking hold of both of his work rough hands.

Bear snorted again when he saw the binds. "Not your blood? Keep telling yourself you're adopted?"

" I don't know..." Garrik pulled her against him and kissed her deeply. "I seem to roll over and purr like a kitten when you are near." 

"You know nothing. You are a foot soldier. You do nothing but spill blood and worship your king. Which you will do in the Fade if the need arises."

Alice smiled once more and kissed Garrik before pulling away and walking toward her cabin. "It's two days sail around the southern peninsula before we even reach the edge of the Dalish lands, think you can survive me that long?" She remarked with the wolfish smile the Captain of the Bloody Rose was known for. 

"I have no king." Bear replied confidently. "Only the maker can judge me, just as he will judge you for stepping food in the holy city."

Garrik wore his own wolfish grin as he followed her, slamming the door behind him. 
Even though he'd been the one to fight for speaking to the dalish, it was truly the last thing Garrik wanted to do.
He'd grown up with these elves and they had made his life hell. A half breed was considered a bad omen among their kind. If his mother wasn't their most powerful mage, they'd both have been killed the moment of his birth. 
He stepped off the ship ahead of the others, glad the heavy mist covered the Isle from view. Not that it mattered. His mother knew he was there.

"You have no maker either, you fool." Kane snorted. "Your little elf told me the Black city is abandoned. There is no one to save you. Your soul will rot here. I'll make sure of it." 
Yena paused, turning back to the two men. "The path is open. They say the throne is free for the taking." She said softly. "Can i...hold the heart now?" 
Kane laughed at her, dropping Bear's shirt over her head. Even then he did not touch her. "A moment." He told her. "I don't need you dying on me. At least not until I can open the Veil completely." He dropped the necklace into her fingers, once again keeping his skin from even brushing hers.

Alice was also somewhat apprehensive. The brief time she had been married to Anaris hadn't exactly given her acceptance from other elves, Queen or not. She silently slipped her hand into Garrik's and squeezed tightly. She didn't wish to be here either, it had been her feelings for him that had made her give in to his insistence to come here.

"You fool, you think you can simply walk up to the throne and claim it?" Bear sneered. "If that were true, don't you think any mage would have done so by now?" He added, his bound hand desperate to reach out and touch Yena.

"She will like you, Captain." Garrik said, though his voice was gruff and almost distant. "She always had a soft spot for humans." 
The dalish were watching from the trees. It was almost impossible to see them. It would have been worse if one elven child hadn't come tumbling out of the trees, shouting about being a king.

"As I said before, that's why you're here. With you and the dragon I have nothing to fear." Kane told him. The monstrous grin he wore matched his new form. "If you even think about betraying me..." he snatched the heart back from Yena and began to squeeze it in his hands. The tiny elf was on her knees, whimpering in pain. "I think you get where I'mgoing with this."

Alice still hesitated. "What about... non humans? How does she feel about them?" She whispered rather cryptically, suddenly fearful that this Dalish mage would know with one look what Alice was truly descended from.

Bear was about to surge forward and help Yena up, only stopping himself at the last moment. "I get it, I can't kill you in this place." He growled.

"She doesn't care for dwarves and other elves." Garrik told her. "Since you look like neither I believe you will be all right." The elf child set off the alarm that they were there, disappearing into the trees. 

"Good boy." Kane purred, slipping the necklace around his neck. She snapped his fingers at Yena. "Lead on, waif. No point in playing."

"All this because my brother is a monster..." Alice murmured, squeezing Garrik's hand once more before they set off into the trees.

"Why are you even doing this?" Bear asked as they walked. "Was one kingdom not enough for a privileged brat like you?"

"All this because I preferred the sea air to the trappings of the trees." Garrik corrected, patting her on the bottom. "I hate the forest. I hate how it feels like everything is closing in on me. I can't breathe here. I never met my father but I often wondered if he was the same." 

"One kingdom is never enough. I want the world. Surely you can understand that." Kane turned his head ever so slightly. "That feeling of power is...powerful...overwhelming...like a delicious dish you can't get enough of. I gorge myself until I am I'll and it's not good enough. My sister is not so different. She has become a Queen in her own mind." A slow wicked smile spread over his twisted lips. "It is proof she should be at my side."

Alice had to disagree. "My family hated me, the times I managed to escape to the forest were my only freedom." She confessed, though she was leaning into Garrik as they walked, like she felt they were being watched.

Bear was shaking his head in disgust. "She will take your head long before she would ever be by your side. Or do you forget that your baby sister has a much larger army than you do?"

"I broadened Dalish horizons by taking kids of my own age and younger to the cliffs and telling them to jump in the sea. My mother's people said I was a Pied Piper and sent me away to learn a lesson." Garrick told her, nodding to one of the trees.

"You obviously never fought a war, dear boy." Kane laughed, watching Yena pause at a set of heavy wooden doors. "It's never the size of your army that wins the war. It's the size of your desire to win."

"And? Did you?" Alice asked with a smile, her head leaning against Garrik's shoulder as they walked. "Sounds like you were quite a little trouble maker..."

"You assume your desire to win is greater than her desire to kill you." Bear pointed out.

"I learned nothing. A few months later, I convinced a girl that eating a slug would give her the ability to see in the dark. I had half the village believing it. My mother beat me with a switch until I couldn't sit for a week." Garrik chuckled. 

"She is weak. She doesn't scare me." Kane snorted, waving him off. He motioned Yena aside and opened he doors to an empty room, frowning at the deep darkness he found inside.

"I think you secretly enjoyed the beating." Alice mused. "Why else would you keep doing it?" She added. "I rarely had anything to do at my father's castle... He only had time for his precious sons." She breathed, speaking of her childhood to Garrik for the first time.

Bear was smiling, he had hoped Kane would say that. If the rumours of the Pirate Queen were to be believed, the over confident King had a lot to fear.

"Daughters are weak. It is most likely that your family didn't believe you would survive," a voice as soft as tiny raindrops and yet commanding as a summer storm broke the silence of the forest. Garrick went instantly still. "Or perhaps it was the hope that you wouldnt."

"Light." Kane barked at the elf. "Make yourself useful  dammit."

Alice glanced around the forest. It wasn't the first time anyone had told something similar. "They were right to hope I wouldn't. My brothers are embarrassments to the kingdom, and everyone should hope that I am stronger than I am given credit for, else Kane will destroy you all."

"What? Monsters can't see in the dark?" Bear snorted, though light would be a welcome relief to him also right then. The darkness was getting to be a bit too much, like it was a living breathing entity that didn't want any of them there.

"I have heard of this human. You dare to claim relationship to him?" A slender creature stepped out of the thick trees, more hala than elf. Her skin was white and her eyes were white, so was her hair and the sparkling dress she wore. It was hard to imagine she'd been able to hide in the trees. Her ears were longer than the standard elf. But it didn't make her look ugly. In fact it enhanced her looks. "Why are you here and why have you brought him?"

Yena didn't want to light up the room. She wanted to hide. She wanted to grab the man who was also the monster's prisoner and run. Her fingers slid into his hand and she did just that.

"I am only here because he thought you cared about more than yourself." Alice replied thinly. "He thought you would want to stop the threat that Kane has become before it spreads to your people too."

"Foolish girl!" Bear hissed as they ran. "He has the ability to kill you the second I touch you!"

"You came here for something." The dalish queen didn't bother with arguments or small talk. She didn't even look towards her son. "Ask and be on your way ."

"He'll have to find me first." Yena hissed, searching the darkness for an exit. "Please...don't stop..."

"I need to get to the Black City." Alice replied just as bluntly. "I didn't think you could help, but Garrik had quite some faith in you."

Bear yanked Yena to a stop and pressed his lips hungrily to her own. "I've missed you, piglet." He breathed against her lips.

The elven woman looked Alice over, her expression unreadable. "Humans do not belong in the fade. What would make either of you think I would simply send you there?"

"Bear." Yena gasped against his lips. She found herself believing she'd grabbed the wrong hand.  Not that she was going to complain. "I've missed you so much..."