Author's Note: For those of you familiar with this story and wondering what the hell is going on, see my profile for an explanation and accept my most humble apologies for my idiocy.

For those of you who are new, this is a reboot of my take on the Human Noble origin, with a FemCousland/Leliana romance. It includes some scenes from the game, though rarely exactly as they occurred in play, but is mostly made up of what I thought took place between those scenes.

I had 54 chapters done when I went temporarily insane and deleted all my stories, so updates will be fairly regular in coming for a while. I'm going to be looking for inconsistencies and errors to patch up as I go, and yes, I do have it plotted out to the end, but my life can get incredibly busy with little to no warning, so please bear with me when (not if) things get slow.

Disclaimer: Talia and anything else you don't recognize are mine. Everything else belongs to Bioware.

"We surrender! For the love of the Maker, we surrender!"

Talia Cousland drew back, staring at the soldier with something beyond hate. The bastard claimed to have been at Ostagar, had withdrawn at Loghain's command, and he had still had the nerve to call the Grey Wardens traitors? Before she could spit on him and relieve him of his head, a woman's voice spoke up.

"Good. There has been enough bloodshed." The auburn-haired Chantry girl, her robes spattered with no small amount of the blood that had been shed, stepped forward, blue eyes fixed on the three that remained of Loghain's hounds, expression stern. As well it might be, since they had been trying to kill her, too, for no greater crime than trying to stop the fight in the first place.

"I trust you've learned your lesson?" Her voice had the gently lilting accent that Talia had heard in Orlesian traders who had visited Highever on occasion.

"Aye, m'lady," the coward swore, his earlier arrogance vanished along with his ruddy complexion, ghost pale now beneath the stain of his own blood.

Talia shook her head. "I'm not done teaching." Alistair flanked her on the right, Morrigan on the left, both of them wearing the same implacable expressions, though each for very different reasons. Brego's snarl rumbled like the first warning of an onrushing avalanche, and the mabari crouched low as she lifted her sword – her father's sword, watching the eyes of her target widen, mouth dropping open to stammer out a last futile plea.

"No!" The girl moved between them, dagger sheathed and arms outstretched. A quick chopping signal from Talia brought Brego to the ground mid-leap as if he'd been pulled down. "These men have surrendered. You must show them mercy."

"Mercy?" Talia felt her lips skinning back from her teeth in a mirthless smile. "I'll give them the mercy of a quick death, Sister. The same 'mercy' they were going to extend to us. Step aside and pray for them, if you are so worried about their souls."

She didn't move. "You are better than that." Her tone was earnest, pleading, eyes never leaving Talia's face. "You are Grey Wardens."

For less than a week, Talia wanted to say. The darkspawn blood had barely been dry on her lips when the last battle at Ostagar had been entered and lost. She'd lain insensible in Flemeth's hut for…she still wasn't sure how many days, only to awake and find -

"The last two, thanks to this filth and their master," she snapped, glaring past the sister to the three men, seeing the shadow of intent fall over the eyes of the leader an instant before he moved.

He lunged forward, dragging the Chantry girl back against him with one hand and starting to bring his blade around to her throat, but a slight twitch from Talia's sword hand was all that it took to bring Brego off the floor. One hundred fifty pounds of solid muscle sailed through the air, latching onto the hand holding the sword and dragging it away from its target in a spray of bone and blood, the weapon clattering to the floor.

The man screamed, high pitched and wavering, and his grip on his would-be hostage loosened. Quick as a cat, she twisted free and spun, driving her knee up and into his groin, adding a new note of agony to his wail as he crumpled to the floor.

And still she kept herself between Talia and her quarry. "Call him off!" her face was pale as she stared at Brego, who had reduced the hand in his jaws to splintered bone and was starting up the arm. "Please!"

"Brego, out!" The dog obeyed the command instantly, releasing the bloody, ruined limb and moving to heel beside his mistress, burly head swiveling between the remaining two, who looked as though they would stay rooted to the spot if every darkspawn in the Blight were to come through the tavern door.

"You still think I should spare them?" Talia demanded, trying to tamp down the urge to simply knock the fool aside. With word being spread that the Grey Wardens were the cause of the King's death, they could ill afford to alienate potential allies, and the girl had fought on their side, when it came down to fighting.

"Yes." She plainly knew how unreasonable the notion sounded, but she remained resolute. "Enough blood has been shed, and more will be before the Blight is over. The Maker would not have us bring death to each other, when there is a greater foe to be fought."

"Told you that, did he?" Talia asked tersely. The girl flushed, but showed no sign of relenting.

Her breath escaped her in a frustrated hiss, and she turned to her companions. Alistair gave her a helpless shrug and Morrigan shook her head in disgust.

"Send them on their way, if that is your wish," the witch sighed, rolling her eyes. "Shall we pack a lunch for them, as well, or perhaps give them our tents so that they may stay dry as they make their way back to report our whereabouts?"

"Damned if I'm going that far," Talia grumbled under her breath, turning back to the leader of the soldiers, who was still curled on the floor, holding the mangled remains of his hand and moaning. "Look at me, traitor."

She waited until his eyes focused on her through the pain haze. "I am letting you go to take a message to Loghain Mac Tir." She would not call the man Teyrn; he had lost all claim to that title. "Tell him that the Grey Wardens know what he did. We know, and we will make him pay." She doubted that he would lose much sleep over the threat that all two of the remaining Grey Wardens posed. She didn't know if it was what Duncan would have wanted, or even what a Grey Warden was supposed to do, but she felt better for having made the vow, and when she glanced back at Alistair, he was nodding in agreement, his face set in hard lines once more.

The man gaped up at her for a moment, then nodded frantically, pushing himself to his feet with his uninjured hand and shedding more blood from what was left of the other. He swayed, and the other two caught him before he could fall.

"If you're still here by the time my sword is clean, he won't get the chance to bleed out," Talia informed them, pulling a cloth from the pouch at her hip and turning away, hurried footsteps clanking on the floor behind her.

She stared down at the blade, memories of it in her father's hand warring with her mother's voice. Howe must not get his hands on the Cousland sword, Talia!

"One more thing." She turned, and the two men, who were half-dragging, half-carrying their barely conscious leader, stopped as if they'd been called to attention, their eyes locking on Brego. "If you see Rendon Howe, tell him that Talia Cousland is coming to cut out his treacherous heart."

She couldn't be sure that Howe and Loghain were conspiring, but the two betrayals coming so close together felt like more than a coincidence. "Tell him that," she repeated, her voice suddenly hoarse, feeling raw emotion rippling across her face unchecked: hate, pain and a bottomless grief that would swallow her whole if she let it. "Now, go!"

She dropped into a chair, laying the sword on the table beside her, hearing the tavern door open and shut. Alistair and Morrigan joined her as the innkeep marshaled help to haul out the bodies of the three who hadn't survived. Brego butted against her, and she wrapped her arms around his neck, heedless of the gore that covered his head and muzzle. They'd both need baths tonight.

"Thank you." The Chantry girl approached, blue eyes warm and approving. "I know that was hard for you to do."

Talia lifted her head, regarding the girl - woman, she corrected herself. Up close, she looked to be several years older than Talia. She regarded the woman wearily. "You know nothing about me." Retrieving sword and cloth, she began cleaning the blood from the blade, careful to get all the traces from the elaborate metalwork of the hilt. Her vision blurred, and she closed her eyes, waiting for it to pass. She had not cried since she had left her parents to die, and she would not cry until she had put Howe's head on a pike to feed the crows.

"Nor do you know me," the woman replied, "and if we are to be traveling together, we should at least be properly introduced. I am Leliana."

Talia gritted her teeth against the compassion in the soft voice. She'd never been good at hiding her emotions, and they came surging to the fore all too frequently now. It took a moment for the words themselves to filter into her consciousness, and her head came up. "Come again with that?"

"I'm coming with you." She said it as if it were the most reasonable thing in the world. "To help you fight the darkspawn. It is the Maker's will for me."

"More crazy? I thought we were full up already." Alistair's voice, pitched for her ears only, and she reached for the mug of ale that had been set beside her, taking a quick drink to hide her smirk. His joking could get tedious, but it had also kept them both from simply shattering beneath the crushing burden that had been placed squarely upon their shoulders. It didn't get much crazier than the notion that two half trained Grey Wardens could raise enough of an army to turn back a Blight. You laughed at what you could or you really would go crazy, and if on some days the laughter sounded more like sobs…well, they had a silent pact not to mention it to each other.

After she had gotten her expression under control, she turned back to the woman - Leliana, she corrected herself again. "I don't think that's such a good idea," she told her, not bothering to keep the sarcasm from her voice. She'd let the men go, but she wasn't happy about it, and saw no reason to pretend otherwise. "We might actually need to kill something at some point. Or someone."

"I know that," Leliana replied with a sigh. "Perhaps I shouldn't have stopped you this time, but there was no need for them all to die. I won't do such a thing again unless you should attempt to harm an innocent."

"Innocent by whose definition?" Talia countered, feeling her temper rise at the implication. "Because if you think that the three who just left were innocent -"

"I know they were not," she answered, her face serious, "but killing them would have served no purpose."

"Besides preventing them from reporting our location to the man who would like to complete the extermination of the Grey Wardens, you mean?" Morrigan demanded in exasperation.

"He would have discovered that anyway," Leliana said, shrugging. "The reward offered for information on any surviving Grey Wardens is not a small one. More than one pair of feet has crept from Lothering since you arrived. Would you kill them all for being hungry and desperate?"

"No." Talia finished cleaning the sword, tilting it to and fro in the firelight before returning it to its scabbard. She'd tend to the edge when they camped tonight. "But I'm not going lay down and bare my neck to their blades, either. If the people here are in such dire straights, shouldn't you stay and help them?"

"Lothering will fall." Her tone was matter of fact, but the blue eyes were sad. "It is in the path of the Blight, and the Arl has withdrawn his forces. All who do not flee to the north soon will die."

"You could go with them," Talia suggested. "It would be safer."

"If safety was my goal, I would," she replied simply, "but it is not. This Blight is an affront to the Maker's creation. Your duty as Grey Wardens is to fight against it, and it is the Maker's will that I fight beside you." She cocked her head, her gaze becoming challenging. "I think I've shown that I can do more than pray."

"She did pretty well, actually," Alistair admitted reluctantly.

Morrigan glared at him, amber eyes sparking with irritation. "You obviously took a harder blow to the head than Mother thought."

"Maybe I'd just like someone to have a civil conversation with?"

"If that is all you wish, I'll find you a sheep. Anything smarter would surely be beyond your intellect."

"Peace, Morrigan," Talia sighed. Three days of creeping through the Korcari Wilds with the two of them sniping back and forth had left her ready to scream on more than one occasion, just to see if the darkspawn horde that it brought down on them would be an improvement.

She turned her attention back to Leliana, whose lips were twitching visibly at the conversation. "What makes you think that it's the Maker's will that you come with us?"

The woman ducked her head, then lifted it again. "I…had a vision," she murmured, looking nervous but resolute.

"A vision?" Alistair gave a low whistle. "Did it involve a talking halibut and a hat rack? Because I always hated that one –"

"Alistair!" Talia snapped over her shoulder.

"Sorry." He didn't sound overly repentant.

Leliana simply looked resigned; unsurprisingly, such ridicule was nothing new. "I am coming with you," she announced defiantly. "You can't stop me. I'll just follow you, if you won't let me accompany you."

Talia wasn't impressed. "Not if I tie you up."

"Promises, promises." The redhead's eyes took on a saucy gleam, her lips curving in a teasing smile.

Talia blinked, staring blankly at the woman, then back at Alistair, who was suddenly looking anywhere but at her or Leliana, and whose face had gone an interesting shade of scarlet.

Morrigan's rich laugh filled the common room. "Oh, this could be entertaining, indeed. I've changed my mind; bring her along, by all means."

Heaving another sigh, Talia turned her eyes back to Leliana, who wore an expression of chagrin. "I'm sorry," the redhead said quietly. "That was…inappropriate."

"I'll take your word for it," Talia murmured, wishing that her mother hadn't been quite so scrupulous about dragging her from the dining hall when Fergus and his friends had gone too deep into their cups. She'd always suspected that there were gaps in her education.

Leliana gave her an odd look, but went on earnestly. "Please, just give me the chance to prove myself to you. I know that I can be of help. Your dog likes me," she added, smiling as Brego approached and began snuffling on the ground at her feet.

"Ah…not precisely." Talia came to her feet and nudged Leliana backward a step, then bent down to take away what he had started chewing on. "Don't eat that," she scolded him without any real heat. Picking up the hand - half a hand, really, she pitched it into the fireplace.

She straightened, wiping her hand on the hem of her tunic. "I've got to take him out to hunt. You're sure you want to come with us?"

Leliana swallowed hard, keeping her eyes turned from the fireplace. "Yes. I do. It's –"

"The will of the Maker. I know." Talia shot an inquiring glance toward her two human companions, giving them a final chance to speak, then shrugged. "Suit yourself."

She started for the door with Brego at her side, stopped and turned around. "But we will bring Loghain to justice," she promised, her voice deadly quiet, "and Howe, as well. Come between me and them on that day, and I'll kill you myself."

Leliana met her eyes, nodded slowly. "Fair enough."