Taarbas comes down to Kirkwall circa 9:37, tasked with retrieve the weapons of the floating army. She also has a personal goal of her own: to find the seven swords of the Beresaad sent to scout the Blight some years before. Skill, determination and a heavy dose of blind luck see her accomplish both goals, and she returns to Seheron with a slight headache that she figures is from returning to Blight-touched lands.
Except when she returns to the company of the balmy northern sky and boundless ocean and grumpy comrades of the antaam, the headaches don't go away. They become a monthly occurrence, then weekly, then more despite the headache potions the medics try. The sky splitting right open in the southĀ doesn't help.Ā The pain throbs in a rhythm and the rhythm forms words, and it's no language she's ever known but it's the most beautiful and dangerous thing she's ever heard. In her dreams, she starts seeing Sten again, and that just tears it.
Fearing any further danger she might pose to her people, Taarbas clears her affairs and tells the army what's up. She receives one last set of orders: head for Skyhold on the mainland, to assist their agent Hissrad as part of the alliance with the Inquisition while she can. Her plan is afterward to head to Orzammar, say her goodbyes to her sister (and possibly nephew?) and then head into the Deep Roads. She takes ship to the continent and it's a mess, but a completely Wardenless mess, which is a little odd. Somewhere along the way she meets Hawke ("Hey, you're that dwarf Qunari!" "Who are you, again?") and receives info about the false Calling. That's hope if she's ever heard it, and the way to Skyhold seems less gloomy.
The Inquisitor is--oh, Paragon's dangling everything he's so young, though surely he must be older than she was during the Blight. His eyes are bright and kind, his face is wide and solemn. Natia Brosca's eyes, Sten's face. Perhaps in some stranger, gentler world, where love might be forgiven. But there are tasks to complete right now, and no time for unreasonable sentiment, and--there's Hissrad, that giant butt with his giant horns and thank goodness he's all right.
(Or so she thinks. All she knows is: a dreadnought went to the south, and the dreadnought returned.)
Taarbas starts assisting Hissrad within the alliance, and she hooks up with contacts she made the last time she came south. (Game-wise, she's only one person, but talking to her would unlock recon missions that you would otherwise have lost with the Chargers.) Halim finds her easy company, and when he confesses that he would like to go to the Qun, when all this is over, she's more than happy to answer any questions he has.
Eventually they uncover the ritual tower, the magister, the everything. Natia is with the Inquisition's forces, and so escapes the Fade suck. Hawke does not return from the battle. Stroud heads to Weisshaupt with his report, and Taarbas...
She still hears the voices, and there's a scar on her arm that's going black. Her next destination will be Orzammar after all.
She leaves in the very early morning, trying to smile, trying to be brave one last time for people who have come to be her friends here, too. She speaks quietly to Bull in Qunlat and he chuckles--because it's been so long since someone called him friend in his native tongue, told him to be safe. She gives Leliana a hug, tells her to be kind to herself. And to Halim...She looks at him, tells him quite seriously to never forget to be kind, to be gentle, to help other people. She sounds like his mother. She knows she sounds like his mother. She breaks her taamsal to add to his Par Vollen fund. She unbuckles her blade, named Marataash under the Qun and Starfang in these lands, and places them in his hands. "Take good care of Bull for me, yes?" she says, a little damply. "And when you make your way home, viddathari, bring my soul with you. No darkspawn must claim this." She sees Cassandra, sees the way they look at each other. "Treasure her. I had precious little time with the one I first knew to call kadan. May you have tens of years more."
"Would you like a hug, sister?"
"...Paragons, yes."
They embrace, and the Hero of Ferelden turns toward the dark, cold mountains for one final battle.
--
Years on, the Inquisitor stands on the docks of Par Vollen, salt wind stinging his eyes and cheeks. On his back is a longsword etched with blue runes, its hilt bound with scarlet cord. He has come now to fulfil a promise, and steps forward, inclining his head politely to the guards before him.
"Kithshokost. Maraas shokra. Anaan esaam Qun. I bring to my people Marataash, soul of the once-seventeenth Taarbas of Seheron."
oups, + two questions : how aware is natia of her own emotions ? and, depending on her answer, how open is she about her emotions with others ?
1. Quite aware. That doesnāt mean she acts on them 100% of the time, though. She stews a whole bunch
2. As the leading Warden, Natia feels she has to put up a strong motivational front and, for the most part, she succeeds. Itās only when sheās alone with Sten or other close companions that she lets her bravado slip a little. If she's angry about something though, it will definitely show.
The first character I first fell in love with: clear!The character I never expected to love as much as I do now: SEIThe character everyone else loves that I donāt: im not sure how many people actually love him, but i despise mink.The character I love that everyone else hates: i guess sly blue but again, not exacatally sure how many people hate himThe character I used to love but donāt any longer: when you love someone, they never truly leave your heartThe character I would totally smooch: SEIIIIIIIIIIIIIThe character Iād want to be like: clear bcus he is sweet and loveable and cute all the time NO MATTER WHATThe character Iād slap: NOIZ BECUSE I WOULD WANT TO PROVOKE HIM INTO BEATING ME UP BECAUSE THAT WOULD BE GREATA pairing that I love:clearaoA pairing that I despise: minao
If Ser Blackwall was the Orlesian Warden-Constable during the Fifth Blight, itās likely that two worlds away he would have seen that flood of letters from an increasingly desperate Fereldan sister, trying to save her kadan from the Taintā¦
