driftfleet | Sixth Blight

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Sixth Blight - video

Who: Riona and you!
Broadcast: Yus
Action: On the Blue Fish, if you'd like!
When: Now?

[There's the distinct sound of a canine sniffing nearby when the feed turns on. Anyone with an acute ear may also hear a different kind of sound, something akin to snuffling. The animal causing it is revealed a moment later. To those not from Thedas, it looks like a pink, hairless mole. But any Thedosian would know that it's a nug.

The camera pans over to Riona, who's feeding said nug while Kiter cautiously sniffs at the other animal. She shakes her head.]

A favor for a favor, I suppose. Sister Nightingale has fallen into one of those comas. For the time being, Schmooples here is in my care. If you were expecting to see her in the interfaith center, I'm afraid it'll have to wait. [She looks over at her puppy, smiling conspiratorially.] You and I will be brainstorming what to draw on her face. Tit for tat, too.

[When she looks back at the camera, her smile falters, and pronounced concern sets in its place.]

Also, Dr. Beverly Crusher seems to be missing. Normally I'd suspect she's gone home, but her things are still here and her name still shows up on the communication device. Something is amiss. If anyone has seen her the past few days, please do let me or any of the crew on the Blue Fish know.

[Her disappearance puzzles her, along with her obvious worry. It's not like Beverly to do that, and with them having left the planet, there are only so many places she could be.]

Those matters aside, we've now returned to the dull void of space and to confinement in our ships until we make land again. There's only so much to entertain in the fleet, especially when you've been here awhile. Recently, I returned home for a few months. Here only a handful of days passed, but it felt much longer. I find myself feeling a bit homesick. So, I have a request.

[She pauses, uncertainty flitting across her face. For a moment she glances down, and finds herself fiddling with her wedding ring, which she's recently gone back to wearing on her hand. She clasps her hands together and looks back at the camera.]

But first, I suppose I should introduce myself to those who don't know me. My name is Riona Cousland [And here there's the slightest pause, a moment of hesitation. She swallows the trepidation back.] Theirin. I've been here nearly eight months.

[Whatever caused her hesitation seems to have passed. She relaxes, and continues:]

In my time, I've heard quite a few things about people's worlds. Comparing them to Thedas - where I am from - always interests me. I love hearing stories, and I'm always happy to share ones from my world, in particular the ones of my home country.

So. Let's do an exchange. A tale for a tale. It can be anything you experienced, or perhaps a legend or fable from your world that you're fond of. And I will tell you one in return. Simple enough, and a good way to pass the evening, no?

[She smiles, wiggling her fingers in good-bye before shutting off the feed.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[He bowed deeply, before a thoughtful look came over hi face.] If you wouldn't mind - I would like to hear about your family. Or at least, where they came from.

[Sadness flickers over her face; she can't help it. Not enough time has yet passed for it not to rise it when her family is mentioned. But luckily now she's at a point in her life where she can talk about them without the grief being overwhelming, helped a lot in part that she finally let the anger go, and has made peace with what happened as much as anyone ever can.]

Such as they are. My brother and I are the only ones left who bear the name.

My family comes from Highever, on the northern coast of Ferelden. It is one of two teyrnirs in Ferelden. From what I understand of your Westeros, they bear the equivalent rank of what the Starks and Tyrells are, in that they rule a particularly large area but still answer to a monarch. The teyrnir once belonged to the Howe family, but about... four ages ago? When the ruling lord passed and left no heir, it passed to the captain of his guard, a Cousland. We've reigned there ever since. [She pauses, a frown creasing her brow.] Well, with the exception of one year.

[She looks at him, and he presses his lips together. He could see that speaking of her family hurt her, and not out of bitterness but from true sorrow. He almost immediately regretted asking, pressing his stubby fingers together.]

I see ... yes, it would be like our great houses. [He rubbed his chin thoughtfully, tipping his head like.] So, you are of royal blood, and that is how you became Queen?

[His question turns her sorrow into panicked alarm. Her head raises up, eyes narrowed. Reflexively she makes the video private.]

I... no. I married into it. How did you know that?

[She's tried very hard to keep that under wraps. But somehow it got leaked and Tyrion knows, and now she wants to know how he found out.]

[Well ... that was surprising. He lifted both of his eyebrows upwards.]

You were married to Alistair Therrin, correct? Not the one that we had here, but one of the others. He was the King of Fereldan - is - I should say. I just made the logical leap that you were now Queen. Especially if you had a more legitimate line to the thrown through blood.

[That is a whole lot of information he knows, and a whole lot that she had been trying to keep hidden. Maker's balls, how had that leaked out?]

Let's just... back up a moment. Forgive me, Tyrion, but these are all things I've been trying to keep quiet, so it alarms me when someone knows them.

[She did just drop her married name, so she can understand where that connection is possibly being made, but she feels like she's missing something.]

How did you know he was a different Alistair, and how did you know he was a - ah, wait. He announced that when he came, didn't he?

[He looks at her for a moment, completely non-plussed, before he understands that it was not public knowledge from her end that yes, he had made that public. Ah ... ah.

Something like a wince covers his scarred face.]

Ah yes. Precisely so. Therefore I ... judged incorrectly that yours was the noble line, not his, and that you were not together ... I do apologize, Riona. I meant no harm.

It's all right. I just worried. For a time, I took pains to keep all that quiet. It's not so necessary anymore.

[She smiles wryly.]

If you want to hear the story, I can tell you and set things straight. It's... a little long though. Just as warning.

[As much as she loved her family, she prefers to talk about this than reminisce about them right now.]

I understand completely. My own past is ... equally complex. [His marriage to Sansa, his relationship with the Starks and Jon and Theon. All of the above.]

I want to - but only if you want to. It is rude to pry.

It began as a precaution. When I came here, I had no idea who was who or what I was doing here. Announcing my being a queen was... not a smart idea. And then Alistair came, and I hadn't wanted him to find out secondhand. But after awhile... it just became about not wanting people to treat me differently. You reveal you have a title, and people start looking at you funny...

[She huffs out a laugh.]

I offered, so it's not prying. Well, before I get into it, there's some background you should know.

[Maker, where does she start?]

About a year and a half ago, my country faced annihilation. Thedas is plagued by creatures called darkspawn, beings that are driven by a thirst for destruction of life. Their blood, which carries what we call the taint, will kill any life it comes into contact with. Typically, these monsters are mindless and aren't terribly organized. When they aren't making raids on the living, they live and dig deep below the surface in the Deep Roads, searching for the Old Gods, powerful dragons once worshiped by the Tevinter Imperium. When they find one, their taint corrupts it and it becomes an Archdemon. The dragon can somehow unite the minds of the darkspawn and organize them into an army. That's when a Blight starts.

[Not fun.] The first one nearly wiped out Thedas. It was stopped thanks to the efforts of those who banded together and called themselves the Grey Wardens. They defeated the first Archdemon, and they've stood vigilant against the darkspawn and all the Blights that have since come. There had been four of these, and the fifth was about to start. Not that we knew that for certain in the beginning. It just started out with large raids. With no Archdemon sighted, no one was calling it a Blight. But the raids threatened Ferelden, so King Cailan called for all the lords of Ferelden to send their men to the south to the ruins of Ostagar meet the horde head on and stop it. What few Grey Wardens were in Ferelden gathered there to aid in the fight.

I was recruited to be one of them. That story is... for another time. [It involves the loss of her family, and she's not ready to get into that.] Leading Cailan's army was General Loghain Mac Tir, teyrn of Gwaren. He had been a friend of Cailan's father, and a revered hero.

[She snorted, her mouth hardening into a thin line.] Such as he was. When we clashed with the darkspawn at Ostagar, my future husband and I were tasked with lighting the signal fire to tell Loghain to send his forces. But when we did... he fled. He left Cailan and all of us for dead. The darkspawn overran us, and Cailan was killed.

Alistair and I were the only Wardens to survive. The darkspawn surged north, and Loghain declared himself regent, ruling alongside his daughter, the queen. That didn't go over well with a lot of the nobility, and they rebelled. And that's how Alistair and I were left to deal with a dual threat: civil war and a Blight.

[Tyrion listens to all of this carefully, nodding his head at parts. This fit remarkably well with Hawke's story - the male Hawke, at least. He had never heard this tale from Marian before, after all. One corner of his mouth twisted as he considered just how rich Thedas's history really was ... just as blood-soaked as Westeros's.]

So how did you deal with these dual threats? Solving the Blight, then the civil war? [He would have gone with solving the civil war first - that way they had more soldiers to throw at the real enemy.]

We technically resolved the civil war before the Blight, but only just so. For most of the year that the Blight raged, we dealt with both.

The darkspawn were making to surge through Ferelden unchecked. Grey Wardens typically fight them back with the aid of an army, but, well, there were two of us, and said army - what was left - was busy fighting each other. Luckily, ages ago, treaties were signed by the peoples of Thedas, bidding them to aid soldiers to Wardens during Blights. Alistair and I managed to get our hands on them, and we set about banding together the peoples that signed those treaties. [Which were monumental tasks in and of themselves, all things considered.]

You recall when I spoke about the merry band of misfits that once traveled with me? How we rather narrowly saved the day? This is what I was referring to. A number of people joined me along the way, Leliana being one of them.

[Each with their own stories. Maker, she could spends days talking about the Blight and everything that happened during that time.]

That was how we set out to handle the Blight. As for the civil war... well, ultimately resolving that is how I wound up a queen, but I'm getting ahead of myself.

[Here she pauses, her expression thoughtful as she mulls over how to proceed. She could just give him the basics of how it all played out, but she feels like she'd be leaving an important component out. If she's going to tell him this, she wants him to understand where she was coming from, and why she made the decisions she did. Her voice cracks a little as she continues.]

Such a strange time. I traveled with such an odd bunch of people, trying to get peoples to cooperate - which is like wrangling wild cats, I might add - and trying to stay alive. The most tumultuous time of my life, and yet somehow... I ended up falling in love with somebody. Of all the timing. [She laughs a little at that, even if it's not entirely humorous.]

[He looks at her, before he speaks quietly.] You cannot control when you fall in love, or with whom. I fell in love with a miller's daughter who was a whore, and then not a whore. I fell in love with a whore who turned to be a good woman, who turned out to be a murderous whore. It's ah. Well. Complicated. Beyond all measure.

[Someday, she may ask him about those women. But not now. She'd only do so as a distraction, and she told herself she wouldn't keep doing that.]

Alistair... [Where does she even start] I lost everything right before I joined the Wardens. Between that and the disaster at Ostagar, I thought I'd never smile again. But he helped me remember. Got me to smile and even laugh. I gained friends, but he... was my support. And I suppose I just felt a connection to him. I can't quite describe it.

[Okay, no need to go into this much detail.]

Listen to me ramble. So we fell in love and it was all quite lovely... until he told me he was Cailan's half-brother. He was the bastard son of King Maric, Cailan's father. That in and of itself wasn't bad, I should say. Very surprising, but not terrible.

It... got so when we arrived at Redcliffe to enlist the aid of the arl there. Arl Eamon is an influential and powerful noble in Ferelden. He was also Cailan's uncle. He was our best chance at stopping Loghain and ending the civil war. And he planned to do that by putting forth Alistair as the heir to the throne.

[She would never, ever forget that moment. The deafening shock that fell over them all. The way her mind froze in terror as she realized that she was going to lose him.]

So believe me, I understand complicated.

[One day, once he's had more to drink, he'll tell her all about it. There was the story of his life in that horrific story, everything he ever hated about himself or doubted about himself.

Instead he sits there, one corner of his mouth tilting up as he listened to her tale.]

Well. Yes. That would do it. Although I am surprised they allowed a bastard to take the throne - not that it's not politically impossible ... just unheard of in succeeding.

It surprised all of us, Alistair included. When he told me about his parentage, neither he or I thought that it would happen.

[What a rough night that had been.]

I was terrified. After having lost so much, the thought of losing him, too, was more than I could bear. But what was I to do? As a Warden, I really didn't have my status anymore. With having lost my title due to... other circumstances as well, I really had no leg to stand on.

[Her mind had gone through a thousand possibilities, each more unlikely than the last.]

Eamon called a Landsmeet. It's a meeting of all the nobles in Ferelden, in which they convene in the royal palace in Denerim. Typically it's held once a year, but this one was an emergency one. We finished what we needed to and headed for Denerim. Every day we neared it, my dread grew.

Loghain met us and relayed that he had every intention of fighting Alistair's claim. His daughter, Anora, who was Cailan's wife, was a more fitting ruler. And in some ways, he wasn't wrong. But Anora...

[Her feelings regarding the woman are very mixed. It shows in the way her brow furrows and unfurrows as she chooses her words.]

A damn good diplomat and shrewd politician, but she... is very much her father's daughter. And I didn't trust her, especially after what she had done.

[He arched both eyebrows together, as he rubbed his beard thoughtfully. He nodded, thinking about between who was the right choice and who was, in fact, the choice that everyone wanted. He could understand where Alistair would not really feel welcome, sitting on a throne. Assassination attempts would abound.]

So ... you offered Anora a position of power, so she would go along with Alistair's claim, yes? [He was honestly surprised they weren't married, but perhaps that was a political move none of them put into play.]

[Riona snorts.]

Not at the time. Honestly, I don't think she would have taken up on the offer. She wanted to retain her position by any means possible. Which meant she was willing to ally with her father, despite that he let her husband die and was driving Ferelden to the brink of destruction with his choices.

[She shakes her head.]

After the disaster at Ostagar, Loghain turned away the Grey Wardens that came from the west to aid us, because he felt that Ferelden could handle a bloody Blight on its own, and he didn't want "Orlesian" Wardens in Ferelden territory, nevermind that Wardens do not associate with a nation. Not politically, anyway. Our ranks are divided up by region, but that's purely for structural purposes. But no, the fool was so paranoid about Orlais possibly invading us again that he turned away the Wardens and nearly destroyed Ferelden in doing so. On top of that, with his claim to the throne, he started a civil war during a Blight. So the forces were fighting each other rather than the darkspawn.

[It really was a damn miracle Ferelden survived the Fifth Blight.]

When Anora threw her support behind her father during the Landsmeet, I knew she couldn't be trusted. No matter what anyone says, I'll never believe that woman has Ferelden's best interests at heart. And my duty to my country - Warden or no - came first.

Well that is just idiotic. When you are on the losing side, you take what you can twist out of the winning one, and look for an opportunity to strike later. I am not entirely certain this Anora would have been any sort of decent ruler if she could not play her angle correctly.

[In other words, she never would have survived in Westeros politics. He shook his head and waited for her to continue her tale.]

...So what happened after her foolhardy coup failed?

I don't think she ever thought she was on the losing side. Her father was a formidable general and he did have support. He got outmaneuvered at the Landsmeet. [A wry smile.] They didn't expect to get outwitted by a young Warden, or for me to have garnered more support. Loghain made some... other questionable choices that I made sure came back to haunt him. Ones that I doubt Anora knew about.

[Riona did some serious investigating and turned up some nice evidence against Loghain. He did some awful shit.]

In short, he got out-voted at the Landsmeet. A majority of the nobles threw their support behind us Wardens. Loghain... refused to step down and take it. Only way to settle it was in a duel. [Something she wished hadn't happened.] Alistair fought him and managed to best him. He... was killed, as is custom. Poor Anora. [Her father's blood sprayed over her face and arms. Whatever Riona's opinion of her, she felt immensely awful for it. But Loghain had made his choice.]

Once Loghain was dealt with, that left the matter of the succession to the throne. Anora fought for her claim, and Alistair actually argued for his. It left the Landsmeet in a deadlock. So, Arl Eamon turned to me and had me be the deciding vote. Maker only knows why.

How could they not see they were on the losing side? They murdered a king before the entire world, then tried to take over on the tide of their betrayal. They didn't cover their tracks with any reasonable skill or cleverness. For the Seven's sake, they sent two agents who had no idea what they were doing to kill your Arl Eamon and didn't bother to make sure they had done the job or had escaped.

[He made a face.] Sloppy. Absolutely sloppy.

[However, he did fall silent at the rest of that, before he sighed.] ... a child should never watch their father be murdered. Even if their fathers are idiots. [Poor Ned Stark came to mind.] And why wouldn't they turn to you? Didn't you bring them an army from every different race in Fereldan? Seven, I would have voted you to be Queen.

[Well, he's not wrong.]

Point taken, though Loghain still had to upper hand thanks to him being a damned good general and tactician. On the field, anyway. He had his opponents scrambling, and he likely would have won the war if it hadn't been for Eamon.

[Tyrion's words make her smile.]

You certainly know how to make a girl feel good about herself. That said, it's not quite how it played out. Though I suspect that's why Eamon left the decision to me. Regardless of his reasons, I never saw it coming. I damn near shit my small clothes right there and then.

[Parts of the Landsmeet are a blur to her, but this moment she remembers vividly. She remembers turning her back and facing the rest of the Landsmeet, and seeing Leliana and the others looking at her and waiting for her decision.]

So scared. How was I supposed to choose, between a woman I couldn't trust and the man I loved? If I put her on the throne, I got to stay with him but I risked my country's future, not to mention I would end the centuries-long reign of the Theirin family. On the other hand, Alistair had no experience and... he'd be removed from me. How could I do that to him? Or to myself?

[She shakes her head, trying to focus.]

As I stood there, debating with myself, I thought, "Even if he's king, maybe we could still be together. Kings have had mistresses before." Granted he would go along with it. But - you know, I never told anyone this - I swear in that moment I heard my mother's voice. Like somehow she crossed over the Fade just to scold me: "Riona Ashlin, you are a Cousland, and Couslands are not mistresses of anyone, even a king." It was so vivid, because I damn near snapped back, "Well, what would you have me do? Marry him?"

[She can still vividly recall the burst of adrenaline when it took hold. Sometimes, she also wonders if maybe it had been her mother, somehow finding her way back just to help her when she needed it most. A sacrilege idea, but one she can't shake.]

It's funny... the longer I was a Warden, the more detached I felt from who and what I once was. I didn't feel like a noble anymore, and really, when you become a Warden you're supposed to cut off all ties and claims to such. But when I came to Denerim and spoke with the other nobles there... it brought it all back. My name still meant something to them. Still carried the same weight. That surprised me.

And it empowered me. In that moment, in that hall, it dawned on me what I had to do. If I was going to make Alistair king, I wasn't going to make him do it alone.

[Her eyes focus on Tyrion, and she smiles.]

I turned around, and I said, "Alistair will be king, and I will rule beside him."

[Yup. She literally up and declared herself queen. Because... #yolo?]

Edited (LAST EDIT I SWEAR) 2016-09-17 02:37 (UTC)

[Tyrion looked at her for a long, long moment at the end of that statement, before his eyes crinkled at the edges and he started to laugh. In fact, he laughed so hard that he nearly tipped right off his chair.

After he finally got ahold of himself - several minutes later - he was wiping his eyes, mis-matched eyes gleaming with humor.]

So what you are telling me is that you put together an army, seduced a bastard prince, and then named yourself Queen? If I didn't know you better ... I would have sworn you planned the whole thing.

[There is a mild look of indignatiomln here.]

I did not "seduce him". We fell in love!

[EXCUSE YOU TYRION.]

But ah... yes, the rest is true. [Sheepish smile.] I am sure others believe I somehow planned the whole from the start. Which... if they want to think I'm that cunning, they're more than welcome to.

[You are going to see that Tyrion is now covering his mouth so he does not get the snickers, Riona.]

Yes, and that makes it even more hilarious. You did this all out of the goodness of your heart - but it looks like a genius plan of taking over! Hah!

[He smirked at her then.] Nothing wrong with being considered cunning. It has always served me well.

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