Alistair stood before the large map table in his study, moving markers that represented search parties and reported sightings, though there were precious few of the latter. Two weeks of intensive searching, and still his daughter eluded him.
"A report from Bromwich, Your Majesty," Captain Vordan said, entering with a bow. The captain's usually immaculate appearance showed signs of the hard riding he'd been doing—stubble on his jaw, dust on his boots. "A merchant claims to have sold provisions to three young travellers matching their descriptions four days ago. A young woman with light blond hair, an elvish youth, and a dwarf."
Alistair nodded, placing another marker on the map. Bromwich, a small fishing village on the northern edge of Lake Calenhad.
"That puts them moving northeast, towards Orzammar. Likely headed for Val Royeaux."
"To collect Master Kieran from the university there," Vordan agreed. "The riders I dispatched along the routes to Val Royeaux should arrive well before Miss Evangeline and her companions. Master Kieran will be prepared for their arrival. He is well positioned to reason with his sister and their friends."
If Kieran didn't just pack his own belongings and join them. Add a mage to the mix, and the chances of catching up with them dropped drastically. Alistair ran a hand through his hair. Weeks of personal searching had left him exhausted, the weight of his crown heavier than it had felt in years. He had pushed himself and his personal guard hard, riding from dawn till dusk, questioning travellers, and checking every inn and farmhouse along the western roads.
"You've done well, Vordan," he said finally. "Thank you."
Vordan bowed again and withdrew, leaving Alistair alone with his thoughts and the sprawling map before him.
He traced the likely route his daughter and her friends were taking with his finger. Clever of them to avoid the main roads and larger settlements. News tended to reach the smaller villages at a snail's pace. There was a begrudging admiration in Alistair's heart for their resourcefulness. Three young people—well trained but no real experience in the wider world—managing to slip through the net of the royal guard for two whole weeks was no small feat.
There were only two safe passes through the mountains – via Orzammar or Skyhold. His riders would reach both locations long before Evie and the others. His fear was that they might avoid them entirely and take one of the more dangerous routes just to evade discovery.
A soft knock at the door interrupted his thoughts.
"Enter," he called, not looking up from the map.
"Father?"
Alistair's head snapped up at the young voice. Ben stood in the doorway, uncertainty plain on his face. At thirteen, he was growing tall, already showing signs of the man he would become. His sandy blonde hair and dark amber eyes came from him, but his grace and careful dignity were all his mother.
"Ben," Alistair said, his expression softening immediately. "Come in, son."
The boy entered hesitantly, closing the door behind him. There was a vulnerability in his eyes that made Alistair's heart ache.
"Captain Vordan said you were back," Ben said, his voice caught between childhood and adolescence. "And that there's news of Evie."
"Not much news," Alistair admitted, pulling out a chair at the map table for him. "But we believe we know where she's headed."
Ben studied the map, his eyes tracing the markers his father had placed. "Val Royeaux," he said after a moment. "She's going to get Kieran."
"I believe so, yes." Alistair was unsurprised by his son's quick assessment. Ben had always been observant, even as a young child—a trait that would serve him well when the crown eventually passed to him.
"Their adventures finally took them out of Denerim," Ben murmured, a note of something like envy in his voice.
"You miss her," Alistair said. It wasn't a question.
Ben nodded, his composure slipping slightly. "She spent the whole afternoon with me the day she left. I guess that was her goodbye."
Alistair sighed. In hindsight, he had come to realise the time she spent with him in his study that night was also something of a goodbye.
"Mother says she abandoned us. That she chose her friends over her family." There was a particularly fierce glint to Ben's eyes in that moment.
"She felt trapped by circumstances and made a difficult choice."
"The marriage?"
Alistair's jaw tightened, and he nodded.
"Why didn't you call it off?"
A question that had haunted him every night since Evie's disappearance. He could have stopped it, should have stopped it the moment he'd learnt of it.
"I was under the false impression she had agreed to it," he told him.
Though he had thought she deserved better than a Renvar, under the mistaken belief that she had agreed, he'd thought perhaps she had seen something to the man he hadn't. He had been relieved she was looking for something beyond her soulmate and leapt on it.
"I would have called it off in an instant if she had said the word."
"Why didn't she?"
Alistair moved to a chair beside his son, sitting so they were eye to eye. "I've been asking myself that same question since she left," he said softly. "And I think I've figured out the answer, though it breaks my heart."
"What is it?" Ben asked, leaning forward slightly.
"She was afraid," Alistair said, the words clearly painful for him. "Not of me, exactly, but of disappointing me. Of losing my approval."
"But that's ridiculous," Ben protested. "You love Evie. You've always been proud of her."
"Yes, I have," Alistair agreed. "But your sister... she's carried a burden all her life, Ben. Being a king's acknowledged bastard is not an easy position. She's always felt she needed to prove herself, to earn her place at court. To be worthy of the privileges she was given."
"But she didn't have to prove anything," Ben said, confusion clear in his eyes. "She's your daughter."
"Exactly," Alistair said with a sad smile. "Just as you're my son. My love for both of you—for all my children—is unconditional. But Evie's position has always been precarious. The court whispers. The subtle slights – the overt ones. Your mother's... displeasure with her presence. All of it made her believe that her place in my heart was somehow conditional on her perfect behaviour."
"That's not true," Ben insisted.
"No, it's not," Alistair agreed firmly. "But it's what she came to believe. And so when faced with this marriage, she feared that opposing it openly would disappoint me. That I might choose political expediency over her happiness."
"You wouldn't," Ben said with absolute certainty.
"No, I wouldn't," Alistair confirmed, his voice thick with emotion. "I would have moved mountains to protect her from an unhappy match. I would have weathered any political storm to ensure her happiness. But she didn't trust that, Ben. And that's my failure as her father."
Ben was silent for a moment, processing his father's words. "So instead of asking you to stop the wedding, she ran away."
"With people she trusted absolutely," Alistair added. "Friends who had proven their loyalty to her time and again."
"Tai, Hirik, and now they're going for Kieran," Ben said thoughtfully. After a pause, he asked, "Would you have been angry with her? If she'd asked you not to make her marry Renvar?"
"Not for a moment," Alistair said firmly. "I might have been frustrated at the situation, but never with Evie. My love for her isn't dependent on her obedience, Ben. It's not something she has to earn through perfect behaviour or political compliance."
He reached out, placing a hand on his son's shoulder. "Just as my love for you isn't dependent on you being the perfect prince or the perfect heir. I love you both—all my children—simply because you are mine. Because you exist. Nothing can change that. Not disobedience, not mistakes, not even running away."
"I wish she had known that," Ben said quietly.
"So do I," Alistair agreed, his voice rough with emotion.
A brief silence fell between them, both lost in thoughts of their missing Evie.
"And you're not angry with her?" He asked, seeking assurances and watching him carefully.
"I'm worried for her," he said at last. "I'm hurt that she felt she couldn't come to me for help. And yes, part of me is frustrated that she chose such a drastic path. But angry? No. I understand why she did what she did."
"You were..."
"A bastard?" Alistair asked, a slight smile on his lips at his son's inability to say it to his face.
Ben nodded. "Did you ever feel like Evie?"
"In a way. I was sent away at birth, and for my early years I believed another to be my father."
"Chancellor Eamon?"
Alistair nodded. "And Eamon's wife believed me to be his mistake. Her treatment of me as such, and Eamon ignoring the situation, shaped me in ways that made me... hide my true self and my true feelings and present only a personable and happy facade. It only worsened when I learnt my true father was the king and I had a brother who had no interest in my existence. I didn't get to meet King Maric very often; I can count our visits on one hand. And I was sent to the Chantry, where my circumstances were kept secret from all but a select few. I never had to contend with an entire court judging my every move, picking apart my every expression, seeing my accomplishments and discarding them anyway. Seeing me as nothing but a disgrace."
When he put it that way, he couldn't help but wonder why he did this to her. Between Eamon and his own father, he had some very clear examples of the kind of father he didn't want to be. So he had tried to do the opposite and still failed.
"Why couldn't they leave her alone?"
"Small people have a need to make others feel small too. Evie bore it as long as she could."
"I miss her," Ben said again, his voice smaller now. "We were supposed to go riding in the eastern meadows. She promised to show me the hawk's nest she found. And now I don't know when I'll see her again."
Alistair placed a hand on his son's shoulder. "But you will see her again, Ben. I promise you that."
"How can you be sure?" Ben looked up, doubt clear in his eyes.
"Because I know your sister," Alistair said with conviction. "She may have fled the arrangement, but she wouldn't abandon you—or me—forever. She's creating space to find her own way forward. And when she's ready, she'll reach out."
"But what if she doesn't? What if she and the others just... disappear?"
"I don't believe that's what she wants. Evie loves us, Ben. She loves you. That doesn't change because she's not here."
"What will you tell Evie's mother?" Ben asked hesitantly.
"The truth. And once I can contact her, we'll have a lot more resources at our disposal to find her."