Alistair was putting on his armor very quietly. His muscles were bunched making his tense face more apparent to Lucia as she smelled his slow boiling rage. What was he angry about this time? She questioned his mood as she slowly rose from the cot and stopped him while he was attempting to murder his strap for not buckling.

Taking it in her hand she threaded it and tightened. He shrugged off her hand and went for his sword and shield.

"What's wrong?" She asked him giving him a little space by going to put on her armor across the tent. He didn't answer but angrily strapped his sword to his back.

"Nothing. Just people who don't think I've grown up yet. I would introduce you but you already know them."

He said it with such bitterness it caused Lucia to flinch and feel a spike of guilt. It had been before she had gotten to know Alistair and had called him "child" and would still agree with some of that statement… she wondered what had happened to make him this angry.

"I have to go." He all but snarled and she gripped his arm before he could leave.

"Wait just a moment. You know that you can talk to me right?" She asked him.

His eyes were hard as they scanned her face and he angrily tugged his arm out of her grip, she allowed him to go with a worried expression.

"Duncan has your orders."

She watched him leave and sighed before grabbing her bow and pulling up her hood. She searched for Duncan and found him sighing and rubbing his forehead. She didn't know the extent of her anger before he was being crushed against a pillar with her barring her fangs beneath her mask at him.

"What. Did. You. Say. To. Alistair?"

Duncan was the only other person she knew here, besides Alistair, and she highly doubted Alistair would say something that would make himself angry. Duncan for his part almost had her fooled with his face, but his mood she could smell and he didn't smell confused.

"Before you lie to me, tell me why you would say something of this nature to him, you know that he will now work to prove himself and probably be reckless. What context did you decide to say something so stupid as to make him do that?"

"I would not allow him to participate in the battle."

It had the effect of dumping cold water on her skin. She released Duncan quickly as she shuttered and tried to get her anger under control, it would be that, Alistair would be pissed because he would not be allowed to participate in the fighting. She paced while Duncan collected himself from the ground and waved off a few other Wardens who had witnessed the attack.

Hissing through her teeth she glared at Duncan and resolved she would not kill him. Not yet. It would have to look like an accident and she would have to have time to draw it out. She didn't know why Duncan was treating Alistair like this but she would make sure he would pay for this, Alistair, for all he was worth was a child, but he knew how to fight in a battle. He knew how to carry himself when given orders, and she could easily keep an eye on him if things went south, but she couldn't watch him if he was across a battlefield.

"You… have my orders?"

I took every ounce of her self control and pride to make the words which tasted so vile on her tongue come out of her mouth. Duncan did not comment on her slowly wavering self-control and quickly took her by the arm, aside from the other Wardens.

"I do, but we must walk together, I have to meet the King and I do not have the time to walk you to your station and meet him without causing him delay."

Having little to no choice, she followed him.

"I need you to patrol around the battle and help where it is needed. I know your sight and aim is remarkable, too remarkable to be allowed to stay in one spot. You're also fast enough and strong enough to be patrolling the battlefield and helping where help is needed. I also need you to stay out of this fight, do not engage any enemies head on, and if we should fail, then I need you to promise me you'll save Alistair."

She wasn't a hot blooded warrior, she knew that she would not be able to last very long in a battle like this, even with all of her strength and stamina she would be useless on the front lines, not to say she shouldn't have been placed with other archers, but Duncan obviously had a plan.

"I will do as you say, but remember Duncan, I do not enjoy being used, I remove a finger for every time I feel I am being used, and when I run out I'll go for your toes, and if you continue to warrant mistrust then I remove another very important bit of your anatomy."

He nodded, missing the usual fear most individuals would have in their eyes when a person of her reputation or lack thereof would threaten them. Her eyes narrowed and glowed as her fangs thirsted for his blood, she didn't enjoy looking at the smug look on his face, she didn't like it at all. All too soon he turned from her and she took deep gulps of air to make sure she would be calm for the oncoming battle.

A hand close on her upper arm as she watched him turn his back on her, and before she could throw a dagger into his back he was gone from her sight.

"Good luck."

It was similar to having a bird fly near your face when you got too close to its nest full of precious eggs. Her eyes turned to the new annoyance as she grunted and shrugged off his hand. She did not know who he was, even in the armor of the Wardens she didn't know everyone, and she had no desire to return the foolish settlement. Who says that sort of statement if they are not preparing themselves for death?

Propelling herself into the air, she left him gaping at the spot she was in as her body latched onto a nearby tree. Looking at the battlefield she knew it was not high enough for her to be able to view the whole battle, not if she wanted to help and not have neighboring trees obscure her view.

Growling under her breath she searched for something that would serve her a better purpose and she found it just a small leap from her position. Making sure her quiver and bow were securely strapped to her body she took a deep breath and leaped to the stone tower.

It was far from a tower, only a tall stone structure that was all that remained of the tower crumbling around it. Her claws gripped the weaker stone as she latched onto the vertical structure and hoped she would not fall. It would be troublesome to have to heal right before battle.

Gritting her teeth she began to think to the side of her body where her magic was stored. Little magic was hers to command but being a vampire did have some useful benefits accompanying the perks of being an assassin, it required her to be creative and make up new spells which cost less mana and were almost untraceable to those who would seek to find her. Becoming invisible, draining life, and this little trick she had picked up from an Archmage.

Crouching to the stone she made sure her magic was working before slowly extending her legs so her body was standing up on the stone. She smiled and began to run up the tower when the top was reached she drained the magic and allowed her body to crouch on the top. The trick was useful when running up vertical surfaces which were impossible to climb, oh she had fun with this particular trick when she was asked to kill a child in Dragons Reach.

A rush of nostalgia hit her and it was quite unexpected. She did miss the old days, back when she was painfully naïve about most things concerning the Listener and most things concerning Astrid. Lucia wished nothing more than to go back and do events differently, fixing all mistakes, and mending all past relationships, but she could not, and with all the regret there were lessons to be made from making simple mistakes.

A brush of a stained tear from her cheek and bringing her bow from her shoulders she gripped it before putting an arrow into the string and resting both on her thigh. All she could do now was to wait, as fate would have it, she would not have to wait long.

The mist came before the first of the darkspawn even touched the battlefield with their tainted strides. It was the prologue before the creatures came from the trees. They came slowly, easing their tainted disfigured bodies, oozing with dead rot and roaring their crazed cries. It was an impressive display, Lucia had seen greater armies and lesser things commanding them, the prime example was standing on the front lines of the army she was apart of.

A blazing golden target for all to see stood the King, and Lucia felt rage at seeing he was the commander. Temptation burned hot in her chest and tasted sweet on her tongue, he was just at the right angle for her to put an arrow into his back, just enough to take him from the battle and teach the child a lesson. As badly as she wanted to do it, she knew Duncan would not approve, and like it or not he was almost her equal… almost.

The lesson she knew from her time as an assassin and third to the Listener was that sometimes you must take a step back and not interfere, allow mistakes to be made and leaders to gain experience from failures. It was her hope that this failure was not going to kill all those here, because it would be very bad indeed if she would have to save Alistair and his cute little Warden friend.

She saw them now, just at the end of a bridge not too far from her position, although they were looking onto the battlefield rather than looking up at the sky and temptation struck her again to shoot an arrow at him so he knew she was above him, but she stopped and lowered her bow when she though back to his behavior earlier in the tent. No, he did not need another reminder of his exclusion from the battle, he would need to have a calm and focused head for Duncan's plan to work. He did not need

To make matters worse, it began to rain. A slow drizzle turned into a downpour which would hit her sideways given that the wind was worse here than anywhere else. It turned her into a confident assassin to a wet kitten, at least the rain was colder now that the wind had taken care of making this battle one with poor visibility. Nothing her eyes couldn't cut through, but the other archers firing from the wall would find it a little harder to see their intended targets.

Almost as the thought came through her head a torrent of arrows were launched from the front lines as well as the wall and she held her breath as the lines of Darkspawn charged. She stood and made sure she was in stealth mode before preparing one of her arrows, putting a touch of magic into it before releasing and watching it do its intended job.

Five darkspawn exploded as her arrow ripped through their bodies, settling in the head of the sixth one and dropping him to the ground. Fully aware of her power she decided to downsize it in favor of using stealth and surviving the battle without revealing too many of her tricks. Should she wish to she could kill many of the spawn on the field with around fifty arrows and openings, but she did not wish to do it knowing she would be noticed for it.

Having already done something worthy of being noticed already, she had no wish to continue on the path of becoming a heroine of this battle tale. A snort came from her as she thought to the king, he would be a whiny child should she outscore him in this battle, but it would not be worth challenging a king and winning so she kept her magic to a minimum and tried to make sure her kills would not be noticed.

Keeping it on her mind she tracked Alistair while firing into areas in need of help. She would keep her promise to Duncan and do two impossible tasks at one time, should Alistair choose to join the battle after he was done with his minuscule task, she could not and would not stop him, and should they fail she would know where he would be and it would be too easy to slip behind him and knock him senseless while carrying him from the battle.

He disappeared into a stone tower and she set herself back to the task of making sure no one became too overwhelmed in battle. The air began to smell sweet and tempting as more of the spawn bled to death on the battlefield. It became harder and harder for her to concentrate and she constantly had to remind herself there would be time for feeding at a later date.

The task became impossible when a fireball launched itself to her position and she was forced to leap or face a fiery death. When her legs hit the ground they broke and she cried as she fell. With the battle going on she would receive no help with her injuries.

Almost helpless without vials of blood her call was answered as a stray darkspawn came to finish her off. As it came close she grabbed its skin and sank her teeth into its neck. It was a strange sensation, feeding from something which stank worse than rot but its blood smelled more potent than most pheromones and as she pushed its dead body off of her she hardly could tell the difference from herself and the monster laying dead at her feet.

Power coursed itself through her veins and she almost became lost in it before another emotion clouded the air. Looking to the sky she found the answer she was looking for when she had though of what Alistair's task had been before the battle had started. It almost made her smile. Of course there was more to the plan of attack than just attacking, they would set up a trap, and Alistair was the signal bearer. She could think of worse fates to have.

It took several long moments before she realized the intended recipients of the signal were not going to appear. They had quit the field, in other words, had placed a dagger into the fighters backs. They had the sense to incapacitate the victim but allow them to bleed the slow death upon a floor. Pathetic. The least they could have done was add poison to the blade to make a target feel before they died on the floor.

As she thought the thought three large spawn slithered into her vision and roared as they challenged her. Arrows dispatched them quick but the appearance of the spawn made her cold blood run colder. The battle had been lost, the line had broken, and already the spawn were spewing from every crevice they could find to attack those who were no present at the front lines.

Alistair…

Her mind drifts to him as she cuts down another spawn. She had been charged with making sure he survived the battle, even if it was lost. Her mind drifts to Duncan and if he knew this battle was a lost cause, she knew him well enough from his actions that he would prepare for all situations of this sort and make sure appropriate steps were taken.

Making her way to the tower she paused long enough to smile and smirk. He did not ask her to save the king, he asked her to save Alistair, he did not ask her to save his life, he asked her to save Alistair. Why was Alistair so important to him? Why did he matter more than the king of this land?

Not being able to piece together this puzzle was making her frustrated so for the moment she stored it back in the crevasses of her brain and tried to focus on the task she had been set, she would eventually have to deal with this puzzle but later when her task at hand did not require a clear head.

Getting to the base of the tower was not tiresome but she eyed the giant building with malice. She would have to get up the walls fast before the tower was too overrun for her to clear, even now it seemed to be very overrun. Only hoping Alistair knew of the invasion she planted her feet on the base of the building and began to run up its walls to reach the top.

It seemed as though she was not the only one trying to reach the top of the tower.

A shape was approaching the tower rapidly and it reached her destination before she did. Violently roaring and ripping stone apart like pieces of parchment it made short work of walls and when it had its intended prize it roared again and pushed off from the tower. She had to rush to the other side of the tower to avoid rocks blundering her body and after she cleared them she saw what was inside the beast's claws.

Alistair was there along with the female warrior from the Joining she had witnessed. She sighed wondering if he had a special skill which allowed him to be captured and taken from places he should stay put in. It took her a moment to notice something falling in the air, Alistair was injured, and this beast stank of magic. Either it was a slave for a mage or it was a mage itself, either way it was escaping with her objective.