Caelyra had delivered vengeance upon the man who had murdered her family, gained favour with a few of the nobles, had saved the Queen, and had made a secret deal with the Queen to ensure she retained her queenship. It had been a good day!
If only she could tell Alistair that he no longer had to worry about having a crown he did not want. He would find out soon enough though.
For now though, in these last hours before the Landsmeet, Caelyra and her companions needed to check out the elven alienage in the city. There had been unrest in there ever since Ostagar and the Queen was sure it was something to do with Loghain and Howe.
When they entered the alienage there were sick people everywhere, and a small crowd of elves circled two Tevinter Magisters... what were they doing here?
One elven woman was angry and upset, and was demanding answers from the Magisters. People were being taken, those people were never seen again, the Magisters weren't helping with the plague like they claimed — there was something else going on here!
Other elves told her to shut up, but Caelyra was interested in hearing what this woman had to say. People were going missing, there were Tevinter Magisters... it did seem very suspicious indeed and she wanted to know more.
The woman couldn't tell her much, only that people had disappeared and never seen of again. They were inside that building that served as a so-called hospice and no one was allowed in.
Caelyra went around the back and bribed the elven guard 6 gold coins to move aside so they could see for themselves what was going on in there.
Inside were two men who they quickly dispatched of, piles of gold coins and riches, paperwork suggesting that people were being shipped somewhere, and a few elves in cages.
The elves couldn't tell them anything of import and they let them free. It was clear to Caelyra that this was a trafficking operation, but there had to be more information somewhere else.
Following the back alleys through an apartment, Caelyra stumbled across a couple more of the Tevinters and slew them, taking a key from one of their bodies. The key opened a door to a back area where a man was surprised to see them. Apparently they weren't expecting any shipments that day...
Definitely a trafficking operation. Caelyra and her group took down all the men then looked around, trying to find a warehouse or some large building where a lot of people could be being kept.
They stepped into the largest of the buildings and were quickly stopped by a group of people, led by an elven woman.
She demanded to know what they were doing here — that they had been approved to conduct their trade here and had paid handsomely for the slaves they were taking.
Caelyra had been right. This was a trafficking situation. The elven woman said she didn't want to fight, but to converse, to stop the unnecessary bloodshed of her fellow Tevinters. Caelyra told her to go or become the next victim of bloodshed. The elf stormed out, declaring that she would be returning with King Loghain's men to sort this out.
Caelyra would like to see Loghain worm his way out of this one. The elves were not loved by the humans, but slavery and trafficking? This would surely be another notch against the mad man.
They fought through the building, until they wandered into the main storage area.
A Magister stood in the centre of the room, surrounded by armed men, and in the corner was a cage with more elves in it.
The Magister tried to offer them a deal. 100 gold coins and a note personally implicating Loghain in this slavery, but the Tevinters would be allowed to continue their business, take their new slaves, then leave before the Landsmeet was concluded and they could be captured.
Morrigan thought it was a good deal; Alistair and Wynne did not. And neither did Caelyra.
They fought the Magister for what felt like hours. His armed men weren't there to protect him, but to serve as his life force. Every time they damaged the Magister just a little bit, he'd sacrifice one of his men and appear at full strength once more.
But he eventually ran out of men.
Caelyra had won.
He tried to weasel out of things one more time, offering to extend her life force considerably if he were allow to just... leave. But Caelyra denied him and left his body on the floor.
The elves who had been caged thanked them for the rescue but didn't quite understand what was going on. Were Caelyra and her companions also from Tevinter? Were they their new masters now? Caelyra reassured them and told them that an angry elven woman had sent them on this quest.
The old elf smiled, knowing exactly who that angry elven woman was, and bid them farewell and more thanks.
After all of that excitement, it was now time for the Landsmeet... at last. Arl Eamon asked her to bring Alistair and meet him at the Palace.
They hurried through the streets of Denerim, surprised to not be accosted by anyone for a change, and soon entered the Palace. All of the nobles were there already and there were gasps of awe of Caelyra and her group pushed there way onto the floor.
Arl Eamon was speaking to all who had assembled, imploring them to see that Loghain was dividing Ferelden just as sure as the Blight itself. It was a rousing speech and when he had finished, claps arose within the hall.
Loghain took centre stage and begun spouting off about Orlesians and how Alistair would be a mere puppet to allow their great enemy's return to Ferelden, to make them slaves once more.
Then as Caelyra came closer, Loghain pointed at her and declared her the puppetmaster.
Instead of responding to that nonsensical remark, Caelyra looked directly at one of the assembled Arls, Wulff, the one who had just lost his lands and family to the Blight, and declared the Blight was a greater threat than any imaginary army from Orlais. Then, before he could get a word in, she accused him of trafficking his own people and weakening them further.
Loghain acknowledged that he had sold off the Alienage, but it was to protect the rest of the city from the Blight. The Blight was the greatest threat, but did they really need Grey Wardens to end it? That the Wardens had failed at Ostagar so what would stop them from failing here?
He then demanded to know what she had done with his daughter, the Queen. They had murdered her, hadn't they!?
Queen Anora took that as a timely moment to make her appearance.
Caelyra stood proud, ready to hear the Queen's rousing words against her father, but instead, she condemned the Wardens and Alistair for daring to demean the greatest general Ferelden had ever had.
Caelyra was livid. She had promised that woman the throne and this is what she said in "support" of them?
The time for a vote was upon them. So many people yelled that they were standing with the Wardens, against Loghain. Caelyra felt that perhaps the Queen's words hadn't mattered at all... but then two people stood with Loghain.
Eamon looked downcast. That did not bode well.
Caelyra didn't understand. They had the majority vote? Why did this not bode well? It was as though Loghain had been victorious when he clearly wasn't.
Loghain crowed and demanded Eamon, Alistair and Caelyra be placed under arrest for treason. Eamon yelled that they would not be taken without a fight and the Landsmeet erupted into chaos.
Everyone clashed weapons against one another, Caelyra and Alistair aimed for Loghain whilst Wynne and Morrigan took down Loghain's support.
Then, finally, the Chantry Mother demanded this chaos to stop. To instead settle this like gentleman — with a duel, one on one.
And so Alistair and Loghain took the centre of the room and circled one another, then begun the fight.
Alistair stunned and knocked over Loghain several times and wailed on him with his mace. loghain didn't stand a chance.
Loghain actually seemed pleased when Alistair had bested him. Kneeling down before him upon the palace floors, he commended Alistair and said that perhaps there was a little bit of King Maric in him after all.
Alistair was not taking any compliments. Swinging his sword against Loghain's head, he yelled that this was for Duncan! And Loghain fell, his decapitated head rolling across to the other side of the room.
It was over.
Eamon congratulated Alistair on his victory and told him to prepare to become King. Alistair was horrified. No, he did not want to be King. Anora nearly squealed with joy as she pronounced to all assembled that they must've heard that, surely, the man didn't even want to be king.
Eamon turned to Caelyra and asked for her mediation.
Caelyra had several choices here. To declare Alistair King, Anora Queen, convince them to marry one another, or marry Alistair herself and become Queen in her own right. But she didn't want that, and neither did Alistair. Despite Anora's treachery, Caelyra looked over at her and announced that she would remain Ferelden's Queen.
Anora demanded Alistair deny his right to the throne and that of all future heirs, terms he very readily and happily agreed to, then she stepped forward and announced to all the assembled nobles that it was time. They would prepare for the Blight and the battle against the darkspawn, and Caelyra would be her new General.
After the Landsmeet had concluded, Anora found Caelyra and apologised for her betrayal... she was hoping that somehow her father could be redeemed, but it had not worked as planned.
Caelyra waved her off. It didn't matter. Not anymore. All that mattered was taking the fight to the darkspawn and ending this blight before it took any more lives.
All the forces Caelyra had gathered were preparing at Redcliffe and the Queen had sent her armies down to Redcliffe too. She asked that Caelyra meet her there to prepare for this great battle.
Caelyra could not wait. She gathered her people and they set off for Redcliffe immediately. The blight would very soon no longer be a threat, she'd make certain of it.
Until next time! ⚔️🐲
All screenshots in this post are courtesy of me, 