![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alaterdateTitle : The Devil Takes Care of His Own [AO3]
Series: Dragon Age
Characters: Lachlan Surana (HOF); Nathaniel
Rating: General
Word Count: 851
Summary: Nathaniel is given a chance.
A/N: Part 3/8
The dripping sound must have been some sort of torture. The cracked ceilings let leaks from the floors above slip through and create rivers to contribute to the dankness of the dungeon. If they were going to lock him up they could have found a more appropriate cell. He was a Howe after all, his family built this town! Nathaniel kicked at the bars again sending another flurry of rust flakes to the ground. This wasn’t right. Damn the Wardens.
The door across from his cell finally creaked open. Nathaniel stood to his full height, ready for whatever may come.
“This is the one?”
“Yes, Commander. He was caught attempting to steal from the trophy room.”
“I can’t steal my own belongings. You Wardens are the dirty thieves here,” Nathaniel spat into the darkness.
A sconce on the wall lit up with a flame that spilled out then retreated to a reasonable size. Nathaniel clenched his jaw, he would not be intimidated, not even by magic. An elf walked into the light. Blue and white striped fabric covered him from his neck to his feet, twin silver griffons tacked on his chest caught the light and seemed almost to fly with the movement. A staff peeked out from behind him—not a simple thing either—twists of pointed tipped metal encasing an orb at the top, and at the bottom a block of steel like a bludgeon acted as counterweight.
“Who are you?” The elf asked.
Nathaniel could ask the same of him, but at a guess this was the leader of the Ferelden Wardens. The “hero” of the fifth Blight. The man who killed his father. Nathaniel swallowed his surprise at the stature of their leader. His magic must be powerful to make up for it. Somehow, he thought his father’s murderer would be more impressive looking. “I am Nathaniel Howe. Eldest son of Rendon Howe.”
The elf seemed to mull this over before turning to speak to his companion, “Someone I should know?”
Nathaniel rattled the bars. “You should! You killed him!”
“I’ve killed a lot of people.”
Of course he has, the bastard.
“Rendon Howe, the rightful Arl of Amaranthine and owner of Vigil’s Keep,” Nathaniel informed him as if he had truly forgotten.
“Oh? You mean the man who helped sell elves into slavery? The man who killed an entire family in Highever, including the children? Queen Anora granted this arling and its keep to the Wardens as recompense for his complicity in Loghain’s betrayal.”
“My father was an honorable man he would never—”
“He did. So, your father dies and you try to steal something from his trophy room? Leftover evidence of his crimes?”
“I want my grandfather’s bow. It’s an heirloom and it belongs to me. But if you deign to lock me up for taking my own property then you should kill me now because I won’t give it up.”
“Then this is your only choice,” the elf stepped forward to the cell bars and Nathaniel tried not to wince. What would be the manner of his execution: fire, ice, lightning, or the blade? Perhaps something far crueler only a mage would know how to do. The door shuddered open on its rusted hinges. “Take whatever the hell you want from that trophy room and never return.”
“You’re letting me go? And I can have the bow? Why?”
“I understand a certain attachment to sentimental things.” The elf raised his left hand and the firelight bounced off a silver band on his finger. “Someone I love gave me this ring and I’d destroy anyone or anything that tried to keep it from me.”
“But I’m your enemy.”
“You haven’t done anything to me, yet, and if you do, then I’ll kill you.”
Nathaniel almost sputtered. Instead of preemptively preventing a revenge attempt here and now, he would truly let Nathaniel go and even give him a weapon? Was there really such honor in this man’s character? Was there really honor in the Grey Wardens? Nathaniel thought back on his father and how he had sent him off to the Free Marches, preferring Thomas to stay by his side. How he yelled at his mother except in the one instance that she suggested Nathaniel be squired under Rodolphe. Did his father really do the things he was accused of? And if not, how could Nathaniel clear his family name? There was only one way to know and it meant staying in the city and the keep. There was nowhere else for him to go anyway.
The Wardens, done with him, moved towards the door and were at the top of the steps before Nathaniel called out. “Wait!” The Warden-Commander turned back, a more imposing figure when looking down on him with those shining elves’ eyes. “I swear to do no harm to you or any Warden if you let me join the Order. Then I will be bound to your cause.”
The eyes disappeared then reappeared in a blink. “What you do now is your own responsibility. If that includes the Joining, so be it.”
no subject
Date: 2020-01-12 03:24 am (UTC)