Bryce's little Spitfire

Bryce's little spitfire. He called her that on many occasions, the first being when she ran to his side at six years old crying because her father would not allow her to learn sword fighting or archery. He handed her his sword and taught her himself. Trying to be like her older brother was all she cared about, always trying to play the man of the family.

Eleanor would laugh at Howe when the girl stamped her feet if he would not teach her on certain days. She would huff and cry until he caved in. She was nothing like his own daughter, Delilah, and not even close to Thomas'  snarky attitude. Yet he taught her anyway, watching as her strength grew over the years up until she was even better with a sword than her own brother.

He did not help his own children or wife, instead helping the family who had everything he wanted, everything he deserved but couldn't have. It gave him a strange sense of comfort to know that the man who regarded him as friend could very easily be overthrown due to the trust he had gathered.

When she walks into the hall on the day her father and brother will be riding to battle the darkspawn, he admits that she has changed again in the months since he last saw her. She had been pretty before, with long dark hair that fell down her shoulders and framed a face that looked so much like her mothers.

A fascination that Howe had with Eleanor quickly changed to a fascination with the youngest Cousland, and her face was one that burned behind his eyelids every time he closed his eyes. It was wrong for his wife, this he knew, and so he sought to take visits to the Cousland home only when she was away with her mother for festivals and events.

So when he sees her again he is surprised to see her hair changed, her clothing and attitude changed. No longer is her hair long, no longer does she wear dresses – but armour – and although she is still polite, she has more of a stand up attitude which is shown when she protests against her father forbidding her to join the ranks of the Grey Wardens.

Spitfire, he calls her, and she grins sideways at him before reluctantly leaving to find her bother. But not before wishing him well. Truly, she is the reason he'll miss the Cousland family once he has them all slaughtered.

When poking amongst the corpses that lay around the Cousland estate, he is disappointed to see that most of them are of his own men, with massive wounds in their flesh from a distinctive blade. When the guard tells him they have found Eleanor and Bryce Cousland, he interrogates the former, although the proud woman would not tell him what had become of her youngest.

Bryce lay dying on the floor when he murders Eleanor, her determined face reminding him of her daughters. He tells Bryce about his lust for the man's daughter, claiming to do many atrocious things to her before he kills the man himself.

Loghain curses and screams anger and rage about the Grey Wardens that survived Ostagar, and he knows that the 'pup' of the Cousland family is the one who is gathering the armies as they speak. To save his own hide rather than Loghain's, he sends the assassin Zevran after her, furious when he learns that the crow has become captured by the woman and willingly joined her ranks.

Finally, after almost a year of hearing how she personally will kill him should she find him, the young woman catches him in his own estate's dungeons. The blade that caused so many wounds in his soldier's corpses is drawn from its sheath, the Cousland family sword glaring at him with ferocity that gleams behind the holders eyes.

She does not question him about the why and how he could have killed her family, instead raises her eyebrows and smirks at him, informing him that she will slit the throats of his wife and daughter. She tells him that she hasn't seen dear old Thomas in a while, and she mocks him, wonders how Thomas would react to a pretty, proud thing like herself seducing him and then cutting his head from his neck.

He says nothing to defend his children, instead hisses something about how he should lament the monster he helped create. But the look in her eyes shows him that she really will kill his family, right after she sends them his own head wrapped in a box.

It is fitting then, that when his mages and guards all stand dead, she calls her friends off and instead raises her brow at him again, spits in his face before hissing out 'Howe is mine, back off.' Her friends seem taken back by this, but nevertheless step away as she raises her blade again and brings it down upon his own repeatedly, the sound of steel against steel echoing around the dungeon.

Eventually he slips, and she takes the chance and shoves the Cousland Blade right into his stomach, before jerking it up to break through his ribcage bones and up to his throat. She doesn't slit it, instead watches with satisfaction as he bleeds out on the floor, saying that he will die like her own father did and even then he doesn't deserve such a merciful death when she could do much worse.

Cursing her he mutters that he deserved more, and the last thing he hears and feels is a swift kiss on the cheek as she smugly whispers,

'No, you really don't.'