#aliducan

But now, as he watched her kick a Hurlock off her sword he wonders how he could have missed this. Her inky black ponytail whipping behind her, miraculously clean of blood, and her shield breaking the neck of a second enemy. She turns to him now and he feels his heart stop when his eyes find hers. She runs toward him and for a wild moment, he thinks she’s going to leap into his arms and kiss him. ‘Duncan wouldn’t approve.’ he thinks deliriously.

Instead of her lips, he finds himself being shoved to the ground as she leaps past him to drive her boot dagger into the throat of a genlock that had come up behind him. Tainted blood shoots from the wound, coating her hair as she flinches away from the spray. A glob slaps him across the cheek and he’s thrown from whatever reverie had taken hold of him.

Sweet Maker, he’d only killed two. The tower guard had fared much better and Alistair was supposed to be a Grey Warden damn it.

“What in the ancestor’s angry asshole was that?!” She was yelling at him. That’s fair. “Are you a warrior or aren’t you? You know that as Grey Wardens, we’re supposed to actually kill the darkspawn and not offer them ourselves as a feast? Because whatever the hell you were doing, it very much looked like the latter. Is this why they need two wardens to light the beacon? Because I need to babysit you?”

Ouch. Harsh. But she did literally just save his ass, so maybe he’ll just swallow the indignation for the moment. “Sorry, I just-”

Her expression softens a fraction. “Did you get dazed by an emissary? Same thing happened to Gorim the first time we went to the Deep Roads together.” She offers her hand to help him up.

Alistair was pretty sure that Gorim’s daze was for the exact same reason as his, regardless of what Khalda thought. He takes her hand, grateful that she’s not trying to ferret out the real reason behind his stupor. “Who’s Gorim?”

And like a switch had been flicked, her face fell back to its stony expression. She pauses before answering, “Someone from a past life.” Without waiting to see if he was following, she marches to the door of the Tower.

He jogs to catch up. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to dredge up a painful memory.”

“It’s moot now and we’ve got a tower to clear.” Her tone doesn’t exactly leave room for argument. She slams open the entrance door with a resounding crash.

“So not going for stealth then?” He hears the guard behind him chuckle, but Khalda moves on without acknowledging him.

She doesn’t utter another word as they fight to the top. He manages to avoid another Aeducan-induced episode. There was one close call when she used a convenient ballista to impale a darkspawn and let out a giggle when it flew into the wall. A giggle. Damn, she’s bloodthirsty. What did it say about him that he found that charming? Best not dwell.

Bursting into the top floor of the tower, they find themselves stopped short by an ogre. A very very large ogre.

“Are you fucking kidding me?” Khalda says incredulously.

“How’d it fit up the staircase?” the mage wonders aloud.

“Do you want us to ask?” Alistair asks, grinning in spite of the hellish situation.

The mage is spared answering by the mountainous darkspawn taking notice of them. It screams out a battle cry and charges.

Khalda screams one back and takes off in a flash, shield at the ready.

“She’s a mite terrifying, isn’t she?” the guard asks as they charge together following her.

Alistair can’t fight the dopey grin he feels spread across his face. “Yeah.”

Any further conversation is stalled by the raging monster. There’s a moment of panic when the ogre, apparently annoyed by the energy balls being fired at it by the mage, decides to take the matter in hand, literally and scoops up the frantic man. His screams turn to gurgles and Khalda leaps into action, slamming her shield onto every inch of the beast she can reach. When this fails to free him, she rears back with her sword and stabs it through its most vulnerable area.

It roars in fury and drops the mage. He falls in a heap and the guard rushes to his side. Alistair can see his back moving with stuttering breaths. He’s alive, good. He turns his attention back to the ogre and Khalda.

She bangs her sword against her shield in an attempt to keep his attention. Alistair rather thought that was pointless since she’d stabbed it through it’s nether-bits. Chances are she had its undivided attention. Did darkspawn even have… that… business? I’ll have to ask Duncan. He’ll know. He tries not to imagine his commander’s reaction to that particular line of questioning. He shakes his head. You’re in a battle. Focus.

It charges her and he feels his breath catch in his throat when it reaches down for her. He runs after it, but he needn’t have bothered. When it reaches out to her, she dives under its arm and slices a decent sized chunk out of its thigh. The ogre screams again and falls to its knees. Alistair stops short when she sprints around it and lunges up its chest. Her dagger sinks deep in the fleshy chest and her momentum forces the ogre to its back. One boot braces against its chin and her sword sinks home through the temple before it can even think about reacting.

The dying gurgle is surprisingly soft coming out of its mouth. After its thick arms fall to the stone, there’s a long moment of silence, broken by the disquieting slurping sound of Khalda’s sword being freed from the darkspawn skull.

She hops down grinning and looks to Alistair. She must see something odd on his face though because her smile falters into a look of confusion.

“You’re… magnificent.” he breathes. She surprises him by blushing. He’d have thought her unflappable. Like before though, her guard is only down for a moment.