Three wardens. They are still at three, because Alistair has stamped his foot and stormed off like he could possibly, possibly, escape his damned duty. Of all the outcomes at the Landsmeet, she didn't expect this: to walk away thinking Alistair a child and thinking Loghain someone still useful.

Useful. Not redeemable, not punishable. Useful. The cool relief that folded her veins when Riordan at that, more than perhaps anything else, had told her that if she survived the Blight, she could make this work. Being a Warden.

There had been another relief, too, at finding an out for executing Loghain just because Alistair was pissy. She'd spent so much time in the past year killing, but that had struck her as closer to murder. Unnecessary murder at that. But if Alistair had ordered her, forced the issue, what would she have done?

Obeyed. It would have been practical. And yet...

Well.

Eldy's had a lot to think about.

She's brushing Noble Beast in the parlour of the suite they've been offered when he wuffs softly to let her know that someone is approaching. It's a wuff that turns into a barely audible growl, and Eldy lifts her head to see Loghain. He looks like shit, more than he had at the Landsmeet. She's not surprised: the Joining is a shock.

She stays seated on the floor. It's comfortable enough, and she wants to finish her task. There's a pointed message to it, too: she won't stand to greet him now. She'll stay seated, stay at her task, she'll have messy braids that need to be redone and be dressed just in the leathers that go under the blue and metal scales of her uniform. He isn't above her - an elf, a mage - not any more.

But neither will she ignore him. She just raises her eyebrows, a little, and asks, "How are you feeling?"

Eldy has never had much patience for temper-tantrums, and in light of Alistair's very public one, she has less patience than ever. So there was no possible way that Loghain's sneer would impress her, or in anyway make her feel bad for her comment, even without the circumstances.

But the circumstances...

You're asking me, he says, and for a moment Eldy's dark eyes blaze with sudden fury. She swallows it. She pulls it back into herself, back into her spine to keep it straight, into the muscles in her face to keep her expression cool, neutral. The only show of it now is in the way her knuckles are still white where she's clenched Beast's collar.

"Don't you dare bring up your record now," she says, cold as the bitter southerly wind. "You have betrayed everything you did back then. You betrayed us. Not the Maker. You.

I'm not asking how the Hero of River Dane feels. I'm asking how Loghain Mar Tir, new warden, feels, because having a sudden connection to the darkspawn and the archdemon is just a little disconcerting, and I need you to be functional."

If she wanted, she could bring up all those she saw on the roads, in the villages and towns she passed through. The devastation of Redcliffe, the corruption of Kinloch Hold, the dead lining the roads and people fleeing men wearing his colours instead of the darkspawn. She doesn't. She wants to ask certain questions - mostly to do with what he unleashed at the Circle, because she is fairly certain he has no idea what the idea of freedom could mean to mages - but it's not to be done now. Later, if they survive.

So Eldy just nods, short and sharp, at the words, I am functional, have no fear of that. Then, without quite helping it, her mouth pulls into a faint, rueful little smirk at the dig at Alistair. It's only faint, and her Circle poise re-establishes itself, but for that moment, she and Loghain were united.

It's her only moment, though, with him. Alistair is now her king, and she will stand by him and Anora both.

"Good," is what she says. "We'll get no aid from anyone outside Ferelden and Orzammar. The Orlesian wardens and their auxiliaries are at the border to stem the Blight's tide if we fail, but the political situation has made their aid impossible." There's no dig in her words: Loghain knows what he's done, and the facts and consequences will serve well enough. "Depending on how it goes, their majesties might be able to send word to them, but.... we can't rely on that. I haven't the faintest idea how to contact any of the wardens in the Free Marches, either, so..."

They are on their own. She has raised an army, but she's aware that it is in fact a number of armies and she has no idea how they'll mesh together. Nor how they will fit with the forces previously on Loghain's side of Thedas's Worst Timed Civil War. And only three wardens.

"I do... want to warn you, though, Loghain. I've seen the archdemon, in the Deep Roads. And its presence, even at the distance we saw it, is... overwhelming. The blood we've taken on, it's a weakness too. So, be on your guard for that."

The girl gives him a look. It's a look she wouldn't have worn a year ago, when they first met. She's tired of dealing with the pride of self-righteous men, the pride of men to believe themselves and all they do as right or at least, that they do what others can't. She's had to dance politics and it's the look of someone weighing up if she should clarify what she meant or just leave it.

It isn't his survival she's worried about, but more, his ability to function.

Eldy shelves it. The man has his pride, after all.

"My plan is to ask your advice. Militarily speaking. I've studied history, at Kinloch Hold, but only enough to sound intelligent not actually... be useful. Honestly, so far my tactics have been to charge in and set my enemies on fire. Which has worked but..."

She looks at Noble Beast's coat, and brushes one stop over his shoulder-blade multiple times quickly.

"I heard what you said to Cailan, that he shouldn't charge in like a fool. And you were right. So when we're drawing up battleplans, I need your help in winning. And I'll need your help in overiding the different leaders that'll be making a mess of it."

She sees a flicker of surprise, and for a moment is quietly, bitterly, entertained. She's not sure why he's surprised - did he think she would just discard a useful resource out of pettiness? Or was it something else? It is something to ponder, at any rate.

Loghain gets a smile. It's a small, almost wry thing, but still. It is a smile.

"Now that would be handy, as it was going to be the second part of what I was going to ask you." Which is true, but it's... well, 'nice' is the wrong word. But it is appreciated that he offers.

"The current plan is that we'll leave within two days. Tomorrow morning, we can discuss strategy and all that. But, early. I have some unfinished business in the alienage that I want to see finished, and we'll be heading in once most people have gone to work." There's a pause, and those dark eyes of her flick back to his face. "You'll be accompanying us. I need a warrior who can be discreet, and put you in Warden armour and you'll just be another human with a sword."

That isn't the only reason, although it is the main one. Sten can shut up, but he stands out. Oghren is loud, obnoxious, and although his heart is in the right, he's just... Loud. Shale is a golem.

She'd been planing on using Alistair, but there goes that.

The other reason is that the petty, angry side of her wants to drag him into the alleys, through the wretched buildings of the people he sold. She wants him to use his sword to fix whatever has gone wrong in the orphanage because he is human, and he'd been in charge up to a few hours ago and it wouldn't be politically expedient to drag down the Queen and lecture her on how misery increases demonic possession. Her father will have to do instead.