[FIC] The Devil Takes Care of His Own: Mhairi

[alaterdate]

Title : The Devil Takes Care of His Own [AO3]
Series: Dragon Age
Characters: Lachlan Surana (HOF); Mhairi
Rating: General
Word Count: 343
Summary: Mhairi couldn’t have known which sacrifice she would make.
A/N: Part 8/8

The fire in the ashen pit died out long ago. The remains were packed into an urn and interred in the catacombs under the keep. All so that her body could not be misused by demons. It reminded him of phylacteries, the essence of a life packed into a vile because of a small chance demons could misuse the vessel. The cold grey-blue of the room not even unlike the basement of Kinloch Hold. Except this time the blood and betrayal were of a different nature. Cremation awaited all who did not complete the Joining. This tomb might be filled to the brim with the remains of recruits the next time Lachlan returned.

He had sensed that Mhairi would not survive the ritual. She lived her life too swayed by the need to help others. Wardens wanted glory, power, not just to live, but to take control of their lives. As the magisters did all those centuries ago. That’s why the blood sang to them and waited for them to become one with it. 40 years, they said, is all the life a Warden has in them. Wardens were great liars. Misguiding both recruits and veterans alike. Lachlan knew different, had seen different. Avernus, Utha, and even Sophia whose undecomposed body was the work of no demon. Sacrifice in death had many meanings for a Warden. So that others knew the price and valued their lives, so that their body did not return from the Deep Roads to fight its brethren, and so an Archdemon did not rise up twice. Mhairi couldn’t have known which sacrifice she would make. Lachlan had already escaped two.

Red stringed petals of a flower touched his lips and he left a kiss upon them. He brought the plant from one of the few surviving patches in the arling. He remembered it from a book, a plant that retained its deep red color even in death, never wilting. It looked beautiful draped around Mhairi’s gold tinted urn.

One day we shall join you. But not any day soon.