AN: I know, I know, I should get to my other stories, but this story was scratching at the back of my mind, just *waiting* for an excuse to be posted. Thanks to a rather happenstance post in the DAWC Challenges thread, it burst to the forefront. Hopefully, it won't take as long to finish as my other one's are predicted to be, but no less fun to write regardless.
Many thanks to Jaden Anderson and Eve Hawke, for being my muses, my betas, and the fans chanting "DOO EET, DOO EET" from the stands.
Bioware owns all, save for the individual characters... and the story plot nug! Oh, it feels good to say that, lol!
The year was 8:33 Blessed, the thirty-third year of the eighth century since the crowning of the Chantry's first Divine. In the late month of Haring, snow covered the ground in a thick blanket of white. It didn't hinder the Orlesian forces any, as they had conquered more than half of Ferelden at that point. Vigil's Keep, the city of Amaranthine, and Redcliffe had fallen years ago, with Lothering being in the process of doing so. Under the direction of the "mad Emperor" Reville, and the death of King Vanedrin Theirin unknowingly close at hand, it seemed that Ferelden would be lost to foreign forces, not for the first time.
Yet Dominic could care less about a majority of this.
Having escaped from Kinloch for the third time, all he wanted to do was to keep from the Templars from catching up to him. There was a good and bad side to his current situation: the good side being that the current blizzard might be hindering the Templars progress, with the downside being his growing chance of dying from exposure out in this Maker-cursed weather.
Huffing a breath, he pulled his hand from under his arm and swiped the errant strands of hair away from the top of his vision. The movement proved futile as the frozen clumped strands simply fell back to where they were. His hand was then jammed back into its previous position as his numbed feet returned to trudging a path through the snow. Fear of the Templars simply vanished as the wind started blowing harder, covering any sort of track with efficiency.
Squinting his eyes to block the force of wind and snow, he looked ahead to the shadowed forms of his destination: the Frostback Mountains. He had to cross those to get to his ultimate goal, but in weather like this, he might not make it that far. Perhaps he could ask for assistance from the dwarves of Orzammar, if not ask for temporary shelter? He could get to where he needed to go by himself, certainly, but he could do without the blizzard... Dominic only hoped that he wouldn't be turned away at the door, or the dwarven folk weren't as reclusive as the history books claimed.
Though it hurt to breathe now, he forced himself to keep going. This escape from the tower had to count for something.
o0o0o
The year was 19:21 KB, the twenty-first year of the nineteenth century since the founding of the Kinship of Blood. The kinship had been living underground in what the normal citizens of Thedas have come to call the Deep Roads over time. Those who were considered normal also knew to give the Deep Roads a wide berth, fearfully whispering about dark creatures that lived in those dreaded boundaries. However, as was nature of any living being, there was unrest in the kinship, as the once united front split into two main warring factions: those who wished to keep their existence secure, however taboo it may be, and those who didn't want to keep hiding who they are from the world above them.
Yet Samantha could care less about a majority of this.
It was her turn to uphold the safeguarding boundary from random adventurers stumbling where they shouldn't, yet instead of doing her duty, she couldn't help but stare out into the falling snow. Memories rose in the back of her mind, unbidden yet welcome all the same. Back then, her winter days were filled with sunshine, freshly fallen snow, and wasting the daylight hours playing games with her brother... well, save for days like today. In this weather, her mother would sooner drag her in by her ear than let her catch cold. Samantha would instead be bundled up next to the hearth of the fire, keeping idle hands busy, while the men of the household would be off doing whatever it was men did.
The red film over the entryway to the cave entrance of her new home started to flicker softly, hinting her to return to the task at hand. She palmed her favorite small dagger from its boot sheath and cut a thin line in her hand, watching as the line very slowly filled, then overflowed, with red. To be reduced to a life of darkness, with this serving as her only color, was a thing she'd never guessed would happen. Not to her, not ever. Truth be told, she was still in denial of the fact, but there wasn't much that could be done to change this now.
Her eyes lifted from her hand, to take a last look of the landscape before she had to return, when a form amidst the white caught her gaze. The form was human, this she could tell instantly, but this person was hunched over, and alone. She knew this person was a stranger, and fear of being discovered as she was prompted her to back away from the entrance. Neither made it far, as the form fell forward into the snow. Samantha stopped, her brows furrowing as the sight opened a new window of possibilities. Curiosity drove her actions, telling her to step outside of the safety that the barrier provided, smearing her blood covered palm over the correct symbol carving as an afterthought.
The wind ruffled her hair where it was gathered into a tie at the base of her neck, and she took higher placed steps in the snow out of habit, though the cold didn't affect her like it did when she was alive. As she drew close to the fallen form, all the words of caution came back to her tenfold. His dark hair and lashes were frozen in clumps, and though she could tell he had a naturally dark skin tone, it was paled and chafed from the exposure. Shivering heavily, he was subconsciously curling into himself, struggling to find a bit of warmth. Her eyes widened once she spotted the tinge of blue on his lips and whitened fingertips.
The man was going to die soon, whoever he was. Samantha looked to the barrier and back to the man, making up her mind to prevent his untimely death.
o0o0o
Trenton stopped his token group of Templars in the snow, raising the mage's phylactery to eye level. He grew confused over what it was showing him... it wasn't possible. It couldn't be...
"What's keeping you, Trenton?" one of his followers asked, having to raise his voice to be heard.
"It's the phylactery," he called back. "Something must be wrong with it." Hitting the side of its metal encasing a few times didn't fix anything; the strange sight didn't change. Similar in form to a compass, all that had to be done was to slip the vial of blood into the notch, and have it act as the needle, steering the Templars into where to go. Looking at it now, he watched the directional waver slightly, before it started whirling in rapid circles.
Another Templar joined him, taking a look at the phylactery himself. After releasing a surprised breath, he shook his head. "I've never seen anything like that in my life."
Neither did Trenton, but it didn't need to be stated aloud. What they needed was a plan on how to take this turn of events, to change it into their favor... What they needed was the assistance of- as much as he didn't want to say it- the First Enchanter. "Fall back," he said aloud. "This damned phylactery and the blizzard won't help anything."
The mage would be free, for now. But with any luck, the poor sod was probably dead and half buried in snow by now. No way was Trenton going to risk that happening to one of his men because of a faulty vial of blood.
o0o0o
If Trenton ever did find out about where the escaped mage was in that very moment, the snow around him would have melted with the sheer force of his anger. Dominic wasn't buried in snow, but far from it, thanks to a rather curious blond rescuer and fortunate timing on both of their parts. Even now, she was balancing his head in her lap, keeping the upper half of his face above water while the rest was being slowly warmed by the temperature of the cavern pool. A faint, warm glow from the blood-magically activated runes along the walls of the cave provided a soft light, not that she needed it persay.
Samantha helped the process along to the stretches of skin that weren't quite submerged by gently scooping water onto him. Though she could be warmed by it, she could never again generate body heat, so she was also careful to keep any possible skin contact to a minimum. The state of his dress, as well as their current positioning normally would have made her blush, stammer, and seek a safer distance, but having not once used her new powers for any sort of good deed made her curious over what she was seeing. As the blood flushed his skin to a more natural color, she could nearly trace its travel through his veins. Her hearing could pick out his heart beating, his soft falls of breath, both creating a sweet sounding symphony to a darker, primal part of her...
With a start, she realized she was staring at the cut made along his palm, his way to safely cross through the border. The wound was cleaned and had stopped bleeding long ago, but she was scared of this newest obsession she was having, and what it represented. Rather forcibly, she turned her eyes away to his face, to find his eyes open and watching her. Reacting on instinct, she leapt away from him, her back hitting the opposite cave wall from the strength of her jump. As she did, she realized that she dumped the poor stranger into the water into the process. With her supernatural speed, she returned to his side, lifting his head out of the water once more. "I apologize," she spoke over his coughing. "That was rude of me."
Once Dominic drew enough breath, he replied, wiping the water-slickened hair from his forehead. "I think this may have been my fault; I should have said something." If he was to be honest, he had grown rather distracted by the sight he had woken to. The last thing he remembered was trudging through deep snow, with a rather faint sensation of his legs giving out from under him. How he wound up in the care of a living statue of Andraste was beyond him... straight nose, unblemished face, clear grey eyes, and so many other features that seemed almost unreal. His first thought was that he had to be dreaming, but her reaction to his waking didn't quite fit with that scenario.
How he also wound up naked and half submerged in water was beyond him. It was after a cursory glance to make sure of this before he spoke again. "You... wouldn't happen to have my clothes nearby, would you?"
She flinched, sharply turning her head away to focus on the opposite wall. "Y-yes... they are drying, milord."
Dominic may be many things, but a lord he was not. "Dominic, please," he insisted, introducing himself.
She blinked rapidly, before nodding. "Very well... Dominic," she softly replied, nearly whispering his name at the end.
Confused, he stared up at the woman as she stubbornly continued to look away. Seeing nerves from her appealed to him, made her seem more human and less like an impersonal statue; she was still helping him keep his head above the water, and was obviously tending to him while he was unconscious, but by the Maker, if she was the one who unclothed him then the sudden shyness and obvious movements towards his decency remaining intact wasn't needed. As the silence stretched on longer than he was comfortable with, he lifted his hand from the water and moved it slowly. So far, so good... I can cast half a spell... "I believe this is when you tell me your name," he prompted.
Startling out of the staring contest she had with the wall, her eyes flickered towards him before resuming a happy medium. Her mouth opened, yet she had to work to say a name. "Samantha."
"It's lovely," he replied.
Her lashes fluttered as her head tilted to the side. Maybe it was the light, but he couldn't quite see a blush. He could imagine one there, however, racing up the smooth column of her neck and blossoming across her cheeks. It would have to be enough for him. "Th-thank you..." she murmured.
His back shifted, the blades of his shoulders lightly digging into her legs, and he found himself wanting to sit up. It had to be terribly uncomfortable for her to support his weight for as long as she had. As he started to rise, however, she halted him with a move of her hand. It was hovering above his skin, almost touching but not quite. He looked up to her eyes, meeting his with concern. "Please, you must rest," she insisted. "Preserve your strength."
"Samantha, while I do enjoy the company of beautiful women such as yourself, I realize you must have been supporting my dead weight for a long time now. I think I can at least sit up." He kept looking into her eyes, imploring her with his own, until she glanced away. Her hand moved off to the side, granting the permission he wanted, and he wasted no time with it. Hands propped under him and pushed up, bringing to light a stinging sensation in his palm. He favored it and pulled it up from the water, examining the new cut carefully.
"It has been cleaned," Samantha reassured him. "You must have scraped it against a rock."
"In that amount of snow? I would have been lucky to find one."
"With that visibility, you were very lucky to not find it with your head."
Dominic paused his examination, turning to look at Samantha. Was that a joke? A playful stab at the pride, perhaps? The way she studied her hands, twining together in her lap, made it hard to tell. Regardless of his confusion, he replied, "I'm sure I would have bounced back easily. My head's had a worse assault." If his Harrowing was any indication, a potential rock would be nothing in comparison.
This, however, finally brought her eyes up to him, narrowed with confusion and worry. Before she could say anything, he dismissed the matter with a shake of the head. "It's nothing," he casually added, returning to his hand examination. He hoped she would buy it, for the sake of not worrying over a past event. In truth, it was exactly what the name implied, but it was also a necessary evil, he would come to recognize in the following months... Summoning a healing spell, he watched as the line closed completely with a flash of green light. That had to be a pretty precise scrape, now that I think of it...
A ripple of water signified her approach, with a hand stretched out. Her skin, cooled in comparison to the spike in warmth as an after-effect of the healing spell, slipped around the back of his as she studied his palm. Wonderful, someone who now knows I'm a mage, Dominic thought to himself. At any point, he was sure he was going to be either tossed out on his rear, or locked up to be handed over to the Templars. Hopefully, he'd be clothed in either scenario. "I suppose I should thank you... for saving me," he said, wanting to get his gratitude out now.
To his surprise, her eyes darted to his before just as quickly drawing down to her lap. A soft tilt of the lips preceded a soft "you're welcome", and he could just picture her blushing again. Now that they were closer together, he couldn't really see it. Or maybe it was simply the angle, he mused to himself, tilting his head down to her level.
She met his gaze, then looked at something past his shoulder and blanched, releasing his hand and quickly backing away. He turned to look over his shoulder, and immediately wished he hadn't. A small group of the sternest people he had ever seen were lining the wall, coming from a hallway further down that he hadn't thought of before. It was the man leading them that he addressed, an aged yet not quite as soft statue of authority. "I can- this isn't what it looks like, I swear..." Dominic followed the man's icy gaze, finding them firmly fixed on Samantha, who looked just about ready to shrink away into nothingness. Dominic tried again, hoping to fix the situation. "This isn't her fault, really, it's mine-"
"Come here," the man growled to her, cutting Dominic off. Slowly, ever so slowly, Samantha crept closer to the water's edge, to where the man was standing. Once she was close enough, a hand darted out, grasped her by the arm, and yanked her out onto the bank. "You brought a stranger into our midst," he nearly hissed to her, spitting the word as if it was the most vile curse. "Without our permission, without enthralling him-"
"I'm sorry, I'm so sorry," Samantha cried, trying to squirm out of his grasp.
Dominic stood, forgoing his state of dress in light of the situation and what he thought it was turning into. "Calm down, it's fine! I can leave-"
"You know what the penalty for such an action is," the man growled to Samantha, holding her ever tighter the more she tried to break free.
"Wait! Master, please!" A different man exclaimed, stepping forward from the line. The room quickly fell silent... dangerously so. 'Master' fell so still, face hardening over the intrusion. Sobbing breaths escaped Samantha as Master's head turned.
"Do you want her?" Master asked, in a deceptively quiet voice. "Take her," he added, extending her arm out to him.
The second man's eyes flicked from Master to Samantha and back, before he reached out and did as was asked. She was released easily enough, causing Dominic's stomach to drop. This wasn't over, and he knew it.
"You both know what the punishment is," Master spoke in a clear voice. "Since you were so quick to speak on her behalf, Isaac, you will administer the punishment instead."
Isaac looked down to Samantha, who appeared to be absolutely terrified. Dominic was starting to feel a bit sick as well; what kind of cultist place did he stumble onto, and how did someone like Samantha get mixed into all of this? Isaac lifted his free hand and turned Samantha's head to the side, shifting his grip to a firmer half-hug. Her eyes with clenched tightly shut as she tried to control her shaking. Dominic had to do something to stop whatever was going to happen, he knew, but what would he do to convince them?
All rational thought left the mage as he watched fangs sink out of Isaac's gums, before they bit down onto Samantha's exposed neck. Her shaking increased, her features drawn tight with pain, and she had to bite down on her lip to hold back her cries. As Isaac's eyes turned red, the cold truth slammed into Dominic: blood magic, among the likes of which he'd never seen or read about before. They must all be blood mages, even the master who was way-too-casually standing by, watching the proceedings. Isaac's bite strengthened, drawing a whimper from Samantha and a scowl from the Master.
Master drew a hidden blade from its sheath, slicing a clean line into his palm. A quick gesture drew a red smoky spell, which was shot into Isaac's back, connecting the two men together. "Harder!" Master shouted. Isaac automatically did as commanded, now drawing screams from her.
Dominic started to shout over her screams, unable to stand seeing her tortured because of him. "Stop, stop it! It's not her fault, it's mine! Please, just stop!"
The spell was withdrawn, and Samantha was abruptly dropped. Isaac stood over her, red coating his teeth and conflict in his eyes. His back straightened, however, as Master approached. "Get back in line," he hissed to Isaac, watching as the other man obeyed. Master's gaze turned down to Samantha, softly sobbing and curled into her side, bleeding neck still exposed. As he kneeled down to her, he mused aloud, "Now, to see if you betrayed us as well as broken our rules..." Master's own fangs flashed, before sinking into Samantha's neck.
This was a different spell, Dominic could tell, but for what purpose he didn't know. His thoughts screeched to a halt once more when Samantha's back stiffened with a gasp, eyes falling open and turning red, with fangs sinking down as well. Blood mages, he thought hysterically. They're all blood mages... and I'm trapped with them, if that hallway's my only escape... If what was done to Samantha was what happened when citizens broke the rules, what happened to the rather unfortunate outsiders?
Master straightened, licking stray blood from his lips, and pinning his eyes onto Dominic. The blood from Samantha's neck was swirled into that familiar red vaporous rope, which was shot to Dominic's face before he could think to block it. And just like that, his world went dark.