TRUE AS STEEL

There are no true heroes and no glory in war – only the ones that manage to survive. 50 Prompt Challenge, occasional Faye Amell/Zevran and Alistair/Cousland. Part of Giustiaverse.

14. Burning

Scarlet lights up the room and suddenly there is blood everywhere, the Templars have been thrown back and Jowan is running out the door to freedom while Lily screams –

Faye rushes to Irving and Greagoir's side to help the two up, but the latter brushes her away with a heavily armored hand that hurts, both outside and within. She'd always gotten along reasonably well with the Knight Commander, and now he accuses her with disappointment in his eyes.

Jowan's betrayal hurt like claws across her heart, but Greagoir's look makes her burn with shame.

1. Walking

Nobody remembers to get the newly recruited Circle mage a pair of proper walking shoes. Her slippers are better suited for the smooth stone floors of the Tower than for traveling through the rough terrain of Southern Ferelden, and by the time they get to Ostagar her feet are blistered and bleeding.

Duncan immediately buys her a pair of leather boots out of sheer pity.

16. Breaking

His heart is breaking, broken, proclaims the lines of Alistair's face. Every whisper of "We trusted him," makes Faye think of Jowan instead of Loghain, "I could have – if I had done things differently, maybe Duncan wouldn't –" she remembers wondering what she should have done, in the course of her friendship with Jowan, to prevent him from falling to the lure of blood magic - so that the day she'd been recruited into the Grey Wardens would never happen.

Every aching inch of her understands Alistair's bewildered grief and regret, and so she puts off Morrigan's verbal jabs at Alistair and lets him push the responsibility of leading to her - even though she has even less of an idea than him of what to do out in the world. She's all alone except for a Witch of the Wilds and an almost-templar Grey Warden. She's been outside of the Tower for a month and now she is one of the two people left in Ferelden with a chance of defeating the Blight.

Faye swallows hard, buries her own heart somewhere deep down, and moves forward.