The next day, Anora met with Kitranna, Eamon, Fiona and Alistair so they could try and work out who exactly would be taking the throne.
“You marry each other, and all our problems are solved,” Kitranna pointed out.
“I really don't want to be king,” Alistair said with a grimace. “And it would be a bad idea.”
“You're Maric's son,” Eamon pointed out, a frown between his eyebrows. “Who is better suited than you?”
“Maybe the administrator we already have?” Kitranna said, gesturing to a scowling Anora. “But whatever. I still say the marriage option is best.”
“There are so many problems with that,” Alistair said, his gaze straying towards Anora as well. “And I don't even want to do it anyway!”
Anora nodded. “Gray Wardens cannot have children,” she pointed out. “What is to prevent this same problem from occurring in another twenty years time? Or sooner, should the worst come to pass?”
“And the Chantry may have concerns about a Gray Warden taking a throne,” Fiona mentioned, steepling her fingers, a pensive expression on her face. “They leave us alone a great majority of the time, but this would be exactly the kind of thing that would gain their attention.”
“If you don't do it, it could be that we'll have a civil war anyway,” Kitranna said. “If we put Alistair on the throne, and, I don't know, kick Anora into the street or something--” she ignored the outraged sounds that both Anora and Alistair made. “--Loghain's supporters will accuse us of making Alistair a puppet, right? It's not like we have the Divine to tell them he's the Maker's chosen or whatever. And if we pick Anora, we have the same problem, just the other way around.”
“My father has directly endangered my life,” Anora said.
“It is possible that you could be accused of lying about that,” Eamon said quietly.
“You have mentioned that,” Anora said, sending a venomous glare in Eamon's direction.
Kitranna rubbed her forehead. “I mean, look, we want to not have a civil war, right? This seems like the best way to do it.”
They argued for some more time, but it seemed both Anora and Alistair were softening towards the position of marriage. Fiona was still extremely wary of the idea of Alistair taking the throne, and Eamon didn't want Anora to rule. Both Anora and Alistair would have been happier with Anora ruling alone, but all parties saw the benefit in marriage. Eventually, they came to a shaky marriage agreement, something no one was really happy with but everyone saw the advantages of.
Any drastic changes, such as crowning Alistair or marrying the pair, would have to wait until after the Landsmeet, however.
The day of the Landsmeet, Eamon and Anora went to the Landsmeet hall first, with Kitranna, Alistair and Fiona arriving after the meeting was well in swing. The sight of Kitranna and Fiona sent up gasps and mutters in the assembled crowd, but no one moved to throw them out, so that was a good sign.
“My Lords and Ladies of the Landsmeet, Teryn Loghain would have you give up your freedoms and traditions out of fear!” Arl Eamon was making his speech from a balcony on one side of the enormous hall. He was in ceremonial armor, and Anora was nowhere to be seen. Presumably she was lurking somewhere out of sight, for the moment.
“He placed us on this path, yet we should place our destiny in his hands?” Eamon continued. Fiona watched him with her arms folded, a scowl on her face. “Must we sacrifice everything good about our nation to save it?”
“A fine performance, Eamon,” everyone looked over to see Loghain emerging from a door on the other side. “But no one here is taken in by it.”
Fiona's scowl grew darker, and Alistair had a glare to match.
“You would attempt to put a puppet on the throne, and every soul here knows it,” Loghain continued. Alistair shifted from one foot to the other, his scowl giving way to a more uncomfortable expression. “The better question is, 'who will pull the strings?'” Loghain caught sight of Kitranna, Fiona and Alistair as they moved through the crowds. “Ah—here we have the puppeteers,” he sneered, pointing to them as they approached. “Fiona, I would have expected better from you—of course, one cannot expect much from Orlesians.”
“You, expect better from me?” Fiona snapped. “You allowed Tevinter slavers to operate in Denerim!”
The crowd began to mutter to itself.
“And your friend Howe really liked torturing people,” Kitranna added with a smirk. “A lot.”
“Howe is responsible for his own actions,” Loghain said, folding his arms. “He will answer to the Maker for any wrongs he has committed in his life—you know that. You were the one who murdered him.”
“Hey now, let's not throw around words like 'murder,'” Kitranna said, holding her hands up. “I mean, come on—didn't you basically get half of the army and your King killed? Not that you exactly had a great plan in the first place...”
“Surana,” Fiona hissed.
“It was you Wardens who killed Cailan, urging him to die in battle with your grandiose tales of darkspawn and Archdemons!” Loghain accused.
“Is it really a grandiose tale when darkspawn are banging on your doorstep?” Kitranna said, rolling her eyes. “This entire farce is ridiculous,” she raised her voice to address the crowd. There's an Archdemon in the South, and you want to waste your time having fights with each other!”
“There is no Archdemon,” Loghain sneered. “The likes of Archdemons have not been seen for hundreds of years, who is to say this entire affair is not a fabrication for you to take the Ferelden throne?”
“For what it's worth, I don't really want the throne,” Alistair piped up.
“There is an Archdemon!” Fiona exclaimed, shocked. “And the longer you delay our efforts with this, the more likely it is that the darkspawn will overrun us all!”
“You say there is a threat, that only you can save us from, yet you have killed Howe and made off with the Queen, my daughter!” Loghain curled his hands into fists, and the crowd began to murmur in a more excited way.
“Only because Howe kidnapped her first,” Kitranna said.
“I doubt that,” Loghain tilted his head back. “Does she even still live?”
“I believe I can speak for myself,” came Anora's voice from the same balcony that Eamon stood on, and she strode out, to a number of shocked gasps and murmurs from the crowd. “Lords and Ladies of the Landsmeet, my father is not the man you knew. This man his not the hero of River Dane. He turned his troops aside while your King fought against the Darkspawn—he poisoned Arl Eamon, and he allowed Tevinter slavers to prey upon the elves of the Alienage.” she folded her hands and lifted her chin up. “He allied with men like Howe, who tortured and killed many who were undeserving, and who locked me away so that I may not be an inconvenience. I would already have been killed, were it not for the Gray Wardens.” She gestured to Kitranna, Fiona and Alistair.
“That's pretty much it,” Kitranna said with a nod. “The Queen's right. Now can we please get a move on here?”
“So, the Wardens' influence has poisoned even your mind, Anora?” Loghain said with a slight sigh.
“Your paranoia about Orlais has blinded you to the truth,” Anora said. “So much so that you will do anything to reach you goal—even if it endangers our land, our people!”
Kitranna shook her head. She'd had enough of this. “You'll all die if you don't pull yourselves together to fight the Darkspawn,” she called out to the assembled crowd. “You don't have the time to waste on this nonsense. Half of the Ferelden army was lost at Ostagar—why do you think that is?” she looked at Loghain. “I'm going to advise you to either join up with us, or get out of the way,” she said. “I really, really don't have time for this.”
The assembly muttered to itself—the evidence against Loghain was steep, but his supporters were many, and for many people, the evidence for the Wardens didn't hold up upon close scrutiny.
“You would judge me, would command me?” Loghain exclaimed. “An elf witch who aided a blood mage?”
The crowd stirred.
“Oh, don't tell me...” Kitranna groaned and closed her eyes.
“I know that the only reason you are not sitting in a cell in Aeonar is because the Wardens recruited you,” Loghain snapped. “Is this who we should put our trust in? Criminal mages?”
“If we're going to pull the 'aiding maleficars' card, I'm going to remind everyone that you paid a blood mage to poison Arl Eamon,” Kitranna snapped. “So we're about even on that front. Also, I think I need to say the whole 'there were slavers literally kidnapping people and it was endorsed by Loghain' thing again.”
“If I were to attempt to assassinate Eamon, I would send my own soldiers,” Loghain dismissed. “I would not work through a rogue maleficar.”
“Curious, Loghain,” called out one noblewoman, a woman dressed in heavy armor. She leaned forward, over the balcony she stood on. “My brother said there was an apostate you met, and let avoid the Chantry's justice. Quite a coincidence, no?”
“Interfering with a Templar's sacred duty is an affront to the Maker,” said a Chantry representative, a Mother whose name Kitranna did not know. “The Chantry will not forget this, Loghain.”
Loghain tilted his head back, glaring down at them.
There was more posturing, more throwing accusations back and forth. Collectively, the Gray Wardens had more supporters, with the combined might of Eamon and Anora's supporters both. It had been a good idea to get her on their side after all. Some nobles still maintained their alliance with Loghain, even despite all the evidence against him.
Eventually, Anora called for an end to the meeting, bringing everything to a head. They needed to make a decision quickly and with a minimum of fuss (of course, fuss had already been made, but she was trying to mitigate that).
Enough people were against Loghain that most of the guards followed Anora's orders. Someone called for a trial by combat, but Anora quickly nixed that idea as idiotic, and Anora removed Loghain as acting monarch. After some scuffling between the guards loyal to Anora and those loyal to Loghain, they did manage to arrest Loghain and hopefully remove him from their hair for the moment.
It was still uncertain if Alistair and Anora's wedding would indeed go through. They had spoken of it and there had been a generally favorable response, but nothing was very certain, especially now. Anora was the monarch for the moment, and having one leader instead of several vying for control of the throne was the important thing.