Exchange of Kings

The room was set up beautifully with a luncheon set up and ready. There was hot food which would be served once the meal itself had begun but on the dining table there was bread, cold cuts, cheese (lots of cheese), fruits and vegetables ready for consumption by those who would be there this day. There was fresh cut flowers in vases and a variety of lovely decorations, wall hangings, everything that could be set up to make the mood light was.

The dining table had three chairs around it but was large due to the meal they would partake in.

A slight rustling then the door opened by a guard's hand to allow Arl Eamon entrance to the room, "The King and Commander of the Grey Wardens will be along soon, Ser. You are welcome to the appetizers and ale. If you require anything do not hesitate to call." He closed the door and it was quiet once more.

The older (but no less able) man nodded, dismissing the guard even as the young man closed the doors behind him. Slowly, he approached the table, his hands folded across his back in a stately manner, and he inspected the table with a casual interest. The food wasn't really a pressing matter - more for Alistair's benefit than for his own, he suspected.

It was no mystery as to why he'd been invited here by Alistair today, and he'd be insulted if the boy thought he could really dress it up with an impressive buffet. But it was something that the Arl believed in very strongly, that Alistair should be king, and he was ready to defend that position, if needed. It was good that the Commander was back in the City - and admirable and brave woman who had saved them all - but he knew that her being here would only complicate matters. Alistair became . . . difficult, when the dwarven paragon was involved, and it would be harder to get the King to listen when the very reason he wanted to leave was walking freely around his city.

Well, it was all something he would deal with in stride. Dealing with Alistair - even when he'd been a child - had never been easy, but as hard as he was on him, he'd always had some affection for the boy. Now if only he could make him see reason, see what his responsibilities were, he'd have to worry less about his own nerves.

Alistair was standing just outside the room - trying to prepare for the storm that he was about to walk into. He sighed heavily, thinking about how Nygozy had avoided him the past two days and spent her whole time with her bodyguard and the rest of the Wardens.

The King had managed to avoid seeing Bowen though, the Nevarran was difficult to miss in the corridors with his thunderous laugh and his heavy steps, so whenever he heard him, Alistair rushed off somewhere.

He also managed to not be caught by the Wolf - he guessed that Drake was keeping her busy, or else her duties with the others did it. He didn't care as long as those icy piercing eyes didn't find him

And yet there he was, standing in front of the door like an idiot. Man, life was unfair. Where the hell was Josie?

The last two days had been much more hectic than Nygozy had wished to deal with but there it was. Kidnappings, strange happenings and enough to keep the warden commander on edge. However, she took her duties in easily enough. She knew her people and knew what to do a lot more than when she had started as a duster escaping from probably death.

In a sense she felt bad about avoiding talking to Alistair but it had to be done at this time. In the other sense, she was happy to let him wait as he had done to her some time ago. It felt petty but there was also the thought that he deserved worse. Then a sliver of a consideration felt sad about it. Man, she had to get all of that under control. Flip flop emotions were not the best way to go through life!

As she came closer to the hallway she could tell without going further that Alistair was already there. Well, wasn't that a bonus?

A grin came over her face as she silently tread in the shadows until she was behind him then touched his back with the sheath of one of her knives, "Stay still and hand over all your coin." It was hard not to laugh but she managed with only a slight snort holding it back.

Alistair yelped and turned around, hands in the air and wide eyes. Then he whined

''You always do that and I always fall for it! That's unfair! Zevran was a bad influence!''

Sighing and trying to recover his composure, he pointed at the room

''Eamon is inside already... I can just feel his disapprovement from here''

"Of course it is unfair. I win, you lose so it equals unfair. I thought you would have learned by now." Nygozy smirked for a moment then moved sideways so she could look past Alistair at the door, "He is is he? Punctual to the moment as per usual. I believe the man lives on exactness."

She sighed then walked down the hallway a bit so the Arl could not hear them at the door. It was unlikely he'd caught them talking there yet but if they continued, and the conversation got heated which was possible, then he would hear them, "It's not going to hurt him to stew for a bit. Let him simmer about thinking you are trying to impress him. Don't mind me, I'm in torture mode today."

''I hope you're not going to torture me'' Alistair looked at her suspiciously

Following her, he lowered his voice dramatically

''I am sure he thinks you're a bad influence for me. I want to end this as quickly as I can, and then leave this city with you and the Wardens...''

Nygozy leaned against the wall and examined her fingernails without any seeming worry in her mind whatsoever. She took out one of her knives and started cleaning under her nails, "They never look any good any way. I don't know why I bother." Alistair's words had been heard but at first she was paying no mind to it.

Finally she put away her knife and grinned, "Oh I know he believes that I am a bad influence but I have my ways of convincing him that I am right and he's not thinking at his best. I have been doing some research." She grinned expressively, her eyes lighting up with mirth.

Her eyes dipped before looking back up at him, "You still have a LOT of sucking up to do mister."

Alistair sighed again and leaned against the wall beside her, playing with one of his buttons. He wished he could wear an armor. A full plate, in fact. Wearing that stupid outfit made him feel exposed, like bait for the predators.

''How much do you think we have to make him wait...?''

"Until I'm bored of it." Her mind snarled about how she had saved that damn man's life, save his child, saved his whole county from a fate worse than most of them could have even guessed at and here he decided that Alistair needed to be king? Was the man blind?

''Alright then''Alistair nodded and looked at the ceiling, humming for himself ''Hum-humm-hum-hummmm-hum-hum-hummmm''

Maybe they could just stay there in the corridor. It felt nice, actually, being beside her again

"Or until I get to you," came an irate voice from down the hall. For once, Macha was glad for her fancy nobleman's shoes, because they clicked menacingly on the floor as she approached the duo standing in the corridor. She directed her glare towards Alistair, and when she stopped in front of the two of them, crossing her arms over her chest, she even flashed Nygozy a pleasant smile before looking disapprovingly back at Alistair.

"Alistair Theirin, you weren't seriously going to go in there without me, when you've dragged me to every other meeting and event since you became King?" She was shorter than the King by a good inch or two, but she felt that she was able to exude the same sort of presence that made you shrink away from your mother in fear even when you were a grown man or woman. She turned her eyes to Nygozy, sighing dramatically as if she was spilling all of her life's troubles onto the dwarf. "Honestly, Ny, he acts like he doesn't understand a word of what any of them say, and uses me as his translator. If I had any faith in his ability to understand politics, I might have let him swim on his own once or twice, but the disaster that would come of that would have reached you in the Mountains."

While she was clearly joking to her dwarven friend, she was dead serious with the man. "I had to hear it from a guard that you were meeting with Eamon today. What was your plan - say you didn't want to be King, and then the second he told you 'no,' just shut up and agree with him? You've hardly ever been able to deny anything he's wanted since you've become King."

"Since before becoming king." Nygozy corrected, "Uncle Eamon says jump and he jumps."

Her eyes shifted to look at Alistair as she spoke then turned back to Macha, "That is exactly why he accepted being a king in the first place instead of giving the job to Anora and since then he has been nothing but miserable, I'm betting, because I have been nothing but miserable. You see ... Uncle Eamon figured it would be a good idea for his nephew to drop a Dwarf on her head before she went into a huge battle with a big big dragon that could eat her in one snap as a tasty treat. That man gave a huge boost to one's ability to complete what had to be done. It's a good thing some of us have the ability to push matters into the back of our minds and wait for a proper time to be able to snap."

She rolled her shoulders, "So you see, you are not the only one who has some fun planned out for an old fart who has no clue where his brain or reasoning is." She smiled without humour, a large one that meant danger, "This will be an interesting luncheon indeed, cause I'm ready to snap."

Nygozy glanced at Alistair again then pushed away from the wall to give Macha a hug, "Where have you been these last couple days? Sin said that you were here for the fight but I never got to see you." She slapped the other woman's arm in a friendly way, "I missed you, Matchstick."

Macha smiled at Nygozy, and returned the hug, even lifting the dwarf up an inch or so off the ground before letting her down. "Actually, that's something I wanted to talk to you about. I was in the city: there's a recruit I want you to meet. But that can wait for later - it's not as important." She paused, and her face took on a more serious, quizzical expression. "What are you saying about you and Alistair?" She looked . . . distressed. Eamon . . . Eamon had said something like that to Alistair? And he'd listened?

"Is that," she asked, looking up at Alistair with irritation dawning in her eyes. "Is that why you asked me to marry you? Because daddy told you he didn't like your girlfriend? Because I thought it was strange that Ny'd suddenly disappeared from the Castle after that and . . . and I'd thought that, maybe, you'd gotten into a fight over who'd kill the Archdemon or whatever but - that was the reason?" It was as if someone had suddenly told her that up was down or all around - it just didn't make any sense. Alistair was a little indecisive at times, but she'd always genuinely respected him. But that was low.

Alistair just wished to disappear in that very moment. Maker's breath, it was bad enough to deal with an angry Nygozy, but adding an angry Macha to the mix was worse. What was going to be the next, adding... the Wolf? Sinjan or Drake? Bowen? He shivered.

Drake. He remembered the talk with him and frowned. He had to had balls, that was it

''Stop yelling at me, you two'' He snarled angrily ''I am fed up with all of this, fed up with this city, with this throne, with Eamon and with you two yelling at me lately. If you don't have anything useful to say, then just leave me here to sink in my own hole or help me to get out of it, but stop with this harassment already''

A brow rose as Alistair yelled even though she was amused at Macha's reaction. She turned her head and looked at him calmly, "Drake is a good influence on you. Now use those balls to deal with your uncle for once."

She turned and glared at him, speaking in a low tone that did not bode well, "But yelling? Truly, Alistair, how much yelling these last couple of days have I done? I've avoided you so I wouldn't yell at you because I was not ready to talk to you. No ... I went into a complete trance and walked off and the only one who was able to get me out of that was my bodyguard, Kai, who you sent to watch over me, probably to make sure I didn't do something crazy because I had held everything in for so long."

Nygozy rolled her shoulders, "To find out everything was rather disconcerting and I know you are fed up with everything. It is not something you were ever wanting or should have been put into so let's go face that stupid man and get it done with before I do lose it and start carving people like kindling." She stomped off towards the room where Eamon waited.

Macha frowned, her arms still crossed over her chest with purpose. She said nothing, though - even she could see that, right now, this was between Nygozy and Alistair. She was just a convenient third-party to yell at. She shouldn't take it personally, and she didn't. More so, she was worried for Nygozy and Alistair themselves - it was perfectly obvious that something was brewing there.

She turned on her heel, following after Nygozy towards the door, but keeping her pace slow enough that Alistair could overtake her easily, so that he'd come into the room next to Nygozy. He was, after all, her King, and even if she would only ever see Alistair, her friend, she had to observe propriety when in an official meeting (even if it was only a meeting with Arl Eamon).

He could hear footsteps now, and turned a reservedly curious look towards the door - from the sound of them, they couldn't be Alistair's. And then, of course, the reason for that was made perfectly clear.

"Ah. Commander Nygozy. I'd been told to expect you," he said with a nod, though he hadn't honestly known whether or not to really expect her. He respected her - honestly and truly, he did - but he knew that she couldn't have the best opinion of him, after what he'd asked of Alistair at the Landsmeet. He didn't regret it, though. He would do what was best for the country. Even if he wasn't willing to go to the lengths Loghain had been willing to go to, Eamon would still do anything within reason to keep Ferelden strong, and unfortunately for the parties involved, love was less important than duty.

"Where, if I might, is Alistair?" With her, he didn't bother using the boy's title. It might have seemed rude of him, but he'd raised the boy for most of his young life, and as much as he'd pushed for the then Warden to become King, it still often slipped his mind to refer to him as such in private conversation. And, for now, this was a relatively private get-together.

"You should know I always turn up where there is a shadow brewing." Nygozy said with a smile but said smile did not extend to her eyes. She walked over to a chair opposite of the king's and dropped down into it before taking a piece of cheese and popping it into her mouth while watching the Arl, "I noticed that you did not say it was a pleasure like you had in your estate some time back."

She watched as Alistair came in then Macha and gestured towards the other woman, "And I'm sure you remember Macha since she is more to your liking and are likely pleased to see her."

Ok now you're just being snarly. Whatever. I never was snarky to the man before so he can live with it. I don't care if he's in a royal position.

Ouch she was still quite mad and here he had put his foot in his mouth on that one too. No no. He had to stand up for himself but he would just remember to leave Nygozy out of it. Macha was different though. He'd offered her a lot even if he would have dropped everything. Ok so that wasn't so great either.

Alistair stepped into the room and gestured for Macha to preceed him into the room then closed the door.

He proceeded to the king's chair and coughed. This was going to be so hard, "Uncle Eamon, I believe you know why I have called this meeting."

"Of course," he amended, letting the brusk nature of her words slide away, presenting her with a politely apologetic smile. "It is always a pleasure to see you, Commander Nygozy." Let her take it how she would, Eamon was never one to lie to someone for personal integrity. Whatever her opinion of him, it truly was an honor to meet with the woman who had saved all of Ferelden.

He turned his eyes towards the door, where the dwarven paragon was motioning. "Ah," he said, more surprised this time. "Macha. I was not expecting you." The young woman nodded in return, bowing her head to the extent that was respectful and not a bit more. There were very few people a Cousland had to honestly bow to. "It is a pleasure, as well." She, at least, had some noble bearing about her - she could see the hard decisions that Alistair often could not, because she had been raised in a world of nobility and politics. He, unfortunately, had neglected to give Alistair extensive schooling in that field.

And then, of course, he turned his head the King himself. "And Alistair. My apologies for arriving early. If I've rushed you, or the ladies, then it is my fault to bear. It is good to see you, my boy." As the guest, it was hardly up to him to address what they all knew was the matter at hand, so greetings were all he could give, for now.

And there it was. Leave it to Alistair to get right down to the subject - even if he seemed to often be indescisive at things, he'd always been good at being blunt, whether or not it was done with the appropriate tact.

"It seems," he started, "that I might understand. But you would do well to explain it further, Alistair. We have had this discussion before, and I do not see why anything should have changed."

The first thing Alistair did when both women was in the room and the Arl had made his pleasantries was to put up a hand towards the women so that they would not start. This was his show and he was going to stand up and delegate it for once.

"Yes, Uncle, we have discussed this on many occassions and you have yet to actually listen to my concerns. You likely thought I was just being a whiny brat." He took a deep breath. This was not going to be hard, it wasn't going to be hard, just say what you need to and inform him what he needs to know, "I should not have taken you up on being the king. Anora was actually the better choice of the two of us but you insisted that the country needed me in power."

He put up a finger to stay his uncle's words before he could say a thing, "This is my turn, Uncle. Since I listened to you instead of anyone else I have not only destroyed friendships doing as you wished that I do but I have been a blundering, unsuccessful king. Nygozy would have made a much better queen than I do as a king but she was dismissed out of hand only due to her race even though she'd proven herself in more cases than I can remember."

Alistair shook his head, "And Macha ... our dear friend has been of extraordinary service to this crown and even though she was a perfect match for your ideals there has always been that one outstanding fact. I. Am. No. King."

He punctuated this with a fist to the table to make sure his uncle understood how he felt about this, "You want me to be one but you forget that I was never raised to know anything in this manner and also was told to never want the position so never looked for information on how any kingly services were to be. I do not understand even a quarter of what anyone around here says and require Macha to go over whatever I do in triplicate. I have tried my best to learn these things, to learn how to be appropriate in this role and what everything means to the land and our people but I ... cannot ... learn it."

There was no way that he would turn to look at either woman as he did not want to be distracted, "You literally have to take the throne as I have done nothing but almost destroy everything out of not understanding or knowing what to do. The only reason we have not been attacked by one nation or another has been due to Macha covering my ass."

He sat down and took a chunk of cheese, "And Uncle ... if you do not take the throne then I will discuss giving it to Anora."

Eamon nodded slowly, not assentingly but rather in comprehension. It seemed, then, that Alistair had been giving this much more thought than he'd realized. He would have to speak his mind plainly, if he was to get Alistair to see his point.

"Alistair," he started. "In the year since you have been King, Ferelden has nearly completely rebuilt from the disasters caused by the Blight. I have said it before, and I will say it again - Anora was always her father's daughter. She would never have been good for this country. You are and always have been the only right ruler for Ferelden."

He paused, turning half a step to look at the gallantry on the walls of the room before looking back at Alistair, his eyes severe. "None among the court expect you to be the perfect king right away. If your insecurities are what govern this idea of yours, then I can assure you, wisdom will come with time. And until then, you will have people like Macha and I, who know which steps you should and should not take." The Cousland woman made a slight noise at that, but remained otherwise quiet and still. He ignored her as if he hadn't noticed at all, and continued. "I understand your desire to return to a life of adventure, Alistair. I do. It is not easy for a soldier - for a man - to come home from way only to return to his duties. But return he must, or his house will fall to ruin. And you, Alistair, are no mere soldier - you were a Grey Warden, and are now a King. In all of this time, can't you see the image that brings to the people of this country? They need a man like you to lead them - a proven warrior, and a legitimate heir to the dead King. Someone like I would not have anywhere near that sort of rallying power."

Oh no there he was going again. Why couldn't he see? What was those words already said? Oh no we want Alistair on the throne no matter the cost and Alistair just wants a life of adventure and excitement.

"No." He shook his head, "Uncle, all of the rennovations, repairs, construction, how to address all of the issues in this city ... was ... Macha. I did none of it. I could not even understand what was being said. I just smiled and nodded, smiled and nodded. I've gotten rather good at it see?" He smiled and nodded as if he understood the universe at large.

"If it had not been for Macha then the city would still be in ruins. Don't you see? The only reason I am good on the throne is as a head figure. Uh ... figure head. People see me and they see the king who helped bring down the blight and that is the ONLY reason they like me.

"Zee king he is not joking about what he says. Also," A head rolled onto the table and stopped before the edge just before Arl Eamon, "There are problems which have come up with Alistair in control. It may not be his fault, per se, but I believe it is something any royal who had been in this form of position, at least in ruling lands, would have been able to avoid and prevent."

Zevran stepped from the shadows and bowed low then smiled right up to his eyes, "You see, Alistair he has tried and tried very hard to do as requested but suffice it to say, he has not succeeded in de least. And you can safely believe that I would not lie about this. I mean, with him out of the way I can woo the little beauty he so sufficiently tossed away on your demand."

He winked at Nygozy, "As you see, these marks under the ears are signs of a cult."