Disclaimer: I do not own any material related to the Dragon Age franchise. BioWare and EA do.
Author's Note: Freedom takes place simultaneously with Origins. This is my first published fanfiction. If you have some constructive criticism (key word being constructive), then I'm all ears. If you're just going to hate on my story, then don't read it.
Chapter 1: Lothering and the Imperial Highway
My name is Delyn Amell, and if there's one thing that I was always certain of, it's that magic is not all it's cracked up to be. Sure, you could cook your dinner or dry your clothes in mere seconds with a concentrated burst of flame, or you could cool yourself down on a hot summer day with a little puff of frost or a chunk of ice, all through the manipulation of pure magical energies. And those are merely the mundane uses. But none of the things that accompanied magic were or ever have been worth the trouble, not in the least. The templars were always watching, no matter where you were or what you were doing.
They took your blood and put it into a phylactery, so they always knew where you were. Until you completed your Harrowing, they retained the right to turn you tranquil, take away your very ability to think, at any time. Perhaps the worst, however, was the Harrowing itself. Though I had not yet gone through my own Harrowing, and it was a secret that the First Enchanter and Knight-Commander guarded heavily, I knew what the Harrowing entailed. One of my best friends had failed his Harrowing, and came to me in the Fade that night while I was asleep to warn me of my potential fate.
For an apprentice's Harrowing, they were sent into the Fade to find and defeat a powerful demon in order to prove that they had mastered their magic and, therefore, themselves. Even worse than the templars' blatant disregard for their safety and their lives, was the fact that if the apprentice took too long, the templars present at the Harrowing would assume the mage had failed and kill them on the spot. All of these injustices flew through my head as I was led to the Harrowing Chamber at the top of the tower by several templars. Yes, I was only a few minutes away from undergoing my own Harrowing. Now, I know what you're asking.
If I had already recognized all of these injustices and come up with an escape plan by this point in time, then why was I still in the tower, about to go through my Harrowing, instead of spending my life on the run from the templars? The answer was quite simple, really. The Harrowing is the perfect opportunity to escape. It was the one time when most of the templars were in one place, and at the top of the tower as well. Not-to-mention, the Knight-Commander and First Enchanter were also present, so I wouldn't have to worry about possibly running into either of the two most dangerous individuals in the entire tower when I made my escape.
As we ascended the final step to the Harrowing chamber, I took a quick glance around. First Enchanter Irving and Knight-Commander Greagoir stood together near a pedestal in the center of the room. Once I got close enough, I saw what was held in the bowl atop the pedestal: pure lyrium. 'So that's how they send you into the Fade.' I thought as my eyes narrowed. Greagoir stepped towards me, and my gaze shifted towards him.
"Magic exists to serve man, and never to rule over him." he said, quoting the Chant of Light. In response, I simply nodded. You see, I had always taken an extremely simple approach to the templars. I never antagonized them, I had never before attempted to escape, and I had always followed every rule. I was hoping that his, combined with the large number of templars in the Harrowing chamber with me, would cause them to relax, an action that would be their downfall.
Despite this, however, I was fairly certain that they would be just as prepared for an escape attempt so soon after I entered the chamber as they would be prepared for a possession once I was in the Fade. In short, I was sure that there would be a 'sweet spot', so-to-speak, between the moment I entered the chamber, and the moment I entered the Fade. That brief lull in their watchfulness would be my opportunity to escape. I focused on Greagoir once again as he continued his little speech. "Thus spoke the prophet Andraste as she cast down the Tevinter Imperium, ruled by mages who had brought the world to the edge of ruin," he began to pace back and forth as he continued, "Your magic is a gift, but it's also a curse, for demons of the dream realm – the Fade – are drawn to you, and seek to use you as a gateway into this world."
Irving placed himself in the conversation, "This is why the Harrowing exists. The ritual sends you into the Fade, and there you will face a demon, armed with only your will." I turned to look at Irving as he came closer and circled around to my other side.
"I am ready, First Enchanter." I replied, keeping up the act so as to not arouse their suspicions.
"Know this, apprentice: if you fail, we templars will perform our duty. You will die." Greagoir said, my eyes narrowing as he finished. I desperately wanted to say that it didn't matter whether I actually failed or not, but I managed to hold my tongue in check. Greagoir continued, gesturing to the pedestal as he did so, "This is lyrium: the very essence of magic and your gateway into the Fade." I turned to my right as Irving stepped back into the conversation.
"The Harrowing is a secret out of necessity, child. Every mage must go through this trial by fire. As we succeeded, so shall you." As much as I disliked Irving for the simple fact that he willingly submitted to the Chantry's rule without so much as a thought given to freedom, he was still a powerful mage, and so my ego swelled a decent bit upon hearing his confidence in me. "Keep your wits about you and remember the Fade is a realm of dreams. The spirits may rule it, but your own will is real." His advice, however, I almost scoffed at. I already knew all of that, for I went into the Fade every time I fell asleep. I had always thought it strange that most mages spoke as though they didn't, or perhaps couldn't, do so. I had to keep from reacting when I heard Greagoir step closer from behind me.
"The apprentice must go through this test alone, First Enchanter," then, addressing me, "You are ready." As he said this, Greagoir pointed at the pedestal. I looked between the two of them, gave them both a nod, and moved towards the pedestal. A foot away from it, I reached out my hand, and as I did so, I let invisible waves of magic envelope me. As I let my arm fall back to my side, I fell further into those invisible waves and, ignoring the cry of alarm from Irving, allowed them to carry me forward, past the pedestal and the templars, and through the wall of the tower, out into the world beyond. The instant I cleared the wall, I allowed the magic to dissipate, slowing my forward momentum and allowing me to fall towards Lake Calenhad below.
As of then, I was no longer able to contain the triumphant smirk that had been waiting to be released since I entered the Harrowing chamber. As the lake sped closer, however, my grin fell. I was far from in the clear just yet. Despite how much I had hated living in Kinloch Hold, I was aware that the Circle Tower's templars were far less strict than those of other Circles. That meant they wouldn't kill me just for trying to escape, which gave me an even greater chance to get away.
Of course, they would be able to track me down wherever I went, considering that, as an apprentice, I had never been given permission to enter the reliquary. In other words, they were still in possession of my phylactery. Of course, I had known that. That was the entire reason I had chosen the escape route I did, and practiced that spell in secret for weeks on end before my Harrowing. It gave me a massive head start, and that was, truthfully, my only advantage in the situation I had placed myself.
The one thing I had not prepared for, however, was how freezing cold the water of Lake Calenhad was. I cast a quick spell to warm myself up while simultaneously thanking the Maker that I had remembered to tuck in my arms and legs so as not to break every bone in my body on contact. As soon as the spell worked its magic (pun intended), I started swimming for shore (just like another rebellious apprentice had twelve years ago). I briefly entertained the notion half-way through my swim to come up for air, but decided against it. They already had my phylactery: there was absolutely no reason to make it easier for them than that.
Finally, (I was a terrible swimmer you see) I surfaced on the shore of Lake Calenhad, and was unpleasantly surprised to discover that my robes, when wet, felt like a full suit of plate armor. The few people who lived in the absurdly tiny settlement on the lake's shore were either inside the tavern, the Spoiled Princess if I remembered correctly, or backing slowly away from the waterlogged apprentice-turned-apostate. I ignored them all, slogging as quickly as possible up the path towards the Imperial Highway. I looked back at the tower, my home for the last fifty years, only once: when I reached the top of the little hill. I felt a slight twinge of dread as I realized that my life, from then on, would never be the same.
The dread faded quickly, however, and then came the elation, and the acceptance. For better or worse, my decision had been made, my path chosen. I would make the best of it that I could, for as long as I could. "Delyn Amell!" came Greagoir's shout, sailing across the lake towards me. Taking that as my hint that I had spent too much time gawking, I used the fade step spell, as I had decided to call it, once more.
And the invisible waves of magic carried me rapidly down the Imperial Highway, away from everything I knew.
~:~
Now, I'll bet you were expecting me to come out of the fade step spell once I was a few hundred feet away from the nearest town or something like that, but that's not what happened, and there are a few reasons why. First and foremost, the fade step is a continuous spell, so it naturally consumes mana continuously, and I have never had an infinite amount of that. Besides, I would've had to stop the spell long enough to use a lyrium potion (stolen from the Storage Caves a half hour before my Harrowing) as soon as my mana pool went dry, regardless of where I was when that happened. But that's beside the point. The actual reason why I stopped the spell prematurely was that I saw some fellow 'travelers' a few hundred feet down the road.
They were both human, so that at least decreased the possibility that I would be attacked on sight, or at least, that's what I was hoping at the time. Of course, I didn't have all that much time to think on that, considering that it's not the quietest sound in the world when a mage exits the fade step. One of the men, the older of the two if the creases on his forehead were any indication, was of a darker complexion, which was a sign of Rivaini heritage if I was remembering that one tome on genealogy correctly. The younger man was of a much paler complexion, and considering his seemingly flawless skin, I guessed that he was of noble birth and had never seen a day of actual battle in his life. Then again, I couldn't really judge anyone on that point.
The older man, in addition to his dark skin, had a mop of black hair pulled back into a messy ponytail with a few strands hanging loose here and there, as well as what I would call hazel eyes. The younger one had even darker hair, neck-length and well-kept, swept back out of his face with not a single lock out of place, and his eyes were a stormy gray that, for whatever reason, greatly unnerved me. Neither wore helmets, but they did both wear full suits of armor, though of drastically different kinds. Whereas the noble-born wore a full suit of studded leather armor, the Rivaini man wore a set of light plate armor the likes of which I had never seen, with the seeming bottom half of a robe covering him from the waist down. The fact that they were both armed with a sword and dagger each was the last thing I could take note of before the Rivaini man stepped forward, apparently deciding we had stared at each other for long enough.
"Hello friend. Are you also heading south to join the army at Ostagar?" That surprised me, for multiple reasons. First off, I had heard nothing of an army gathering at the old fortress once used to ward off attacks by the Chasind folk of the Korcari Wilds, although it shouldn't have surprised me as much as it did. The templars hardly ever told us anything of what went on outside the tower, after all. What was more surprising was the simple fact that he didn't immediately recognize me as an apostate, what with my circle robes and the absence of a templar escort, or if he did, he didn't act like anything was wrong. I may have been young when I was taken to the circle by the templars, but I remembered clearly enough how frightened most people were of mages not controlled by the Chantry.
When I answered, my response was guarded, though I highly doubt that was unexpected. And if it was, the Rivaini man did a marvelous job of hiding his reaction. "I'm heading south, but not to Ostagar," then, after a second or two, "I take it that you two are heading south to join the army?" The Rivaini man smiled, but the noble-born continued to stare at me with that unnerving, calculating gaze.
"As a matter of fact, we are. King Cailan has called all of Ferelden's Grey Wardens south to fight the darkspawn, after all." he said, as casually as though he was speaking about the weather. My eyes widened involuntarily at that. Grey Wardens were the greatest warriors in Thedas, according to the legends and the various tomes I had read. Even if most or all of the stories were greatly exaggerated, I knew that they at least had the respect of First Enchanter Irving, and that was enough to have made me second-guess how easily most of the templars disregarded the Wardens. And then I remembered something. Once, only a few years after I came to the circle, there had been a Grey Warden named Duncan, a good friend of the First Enchanter if I remembered correctly, visiting the tower.
"I swear we've met somewhere before." I said, looking at Duncan, making sure to avoid mentioning the tower in any way. "Is your name Duncan, perchance?" The Rivaini man just continued to smile, but the noble-born's eyes narrowed slightly, his hand moving upwards slightly, causing my gaze to shift to him. Almost immediately, my eyes mirrored his, for I could've sworn that, as foggy as the memory was, I had seen him somewhere before as well. Before the Rivaini man had the opportunity to respond in any way, I addressed the noble-born. "And you look familiar as well." Instead of giving me his name, the noble-born asked a question of his own.
"Are you of noble birth?"
"I am. My name is Delyn, the eldest child of Lord Aristide Amell of Kirkwall, in the Free Marches." I said with conviction and perhaps a little more arrogance than an apostate with no right to hold a title or own lands was due. The noble-born matched my conviction, but not my arrogance.
"My name is Allond, youngest son of Bryce Cousland, Teyrn of Highever." As soon as he said that, I remembered it distinctly. Once, before my magical talent surfaced, my family had gone to visit Castle Highever, and though Allond hadn't been born yet, if memory served, he and his brother Fergus shared some vague resemblance to one another.
"I don't recall us ever meeting before now." Allond said, his brow raised skeptically. I allowed myself a small chuckle.
"We haven't, actually. I met your brother once when my family visited Highever... several decades ago, actually. There's a slight resemblance between you and him, or at least between you and how he looked several decades ago." As those words came out of my mouth, I took a moment to realize just how long it had been since I had seen my family. I was seven years old when my magical talent was discovered, and it had been fifty years since then. 'Damn,' I thought, before turning my attention back to Allond.
"I never noticed a resemblance between us." he said. I grinned slightly.
"He's your brother. Of course you don't." I said, his eyebrow raising slightly. My grin only widened. I remembered what it was like to have a brother. My grin fell when Duncan jumped back into the conversation.
"May I ask where you are going, if not Ostagar?"
"Lothering. My sister settled down there several years ago, and I'm on my way to visit." I said. Allond's eyebrow raised once again, most likely at the fact that my sister, a member of Kirkwall's nobility, lived in Lothering. He did not, however, say anything about it.
"Well then, since we are all heading south, what would you say to traveling with us until our paths branch off from each other?" Duncan asked. I thought quickly.
"I would, Duncan, but my sister is expecting me sometime tomorrow. It's quite important that I travel as quickly as possible."
"Of course." Duncan said, giving a small nod. I returned the nod before moving to walk past them. I could feel Allond's gaze digging into my back for the next ten minutes, until they were finally out of sight. Once they were, I fell into the fade step once more, speeding along the Imperial Highway towards Lothering. My sister did actually live there, with her apostate husband and two apostate daughters, and it was my intent at the time to get her help if I could.
):(
I watched the retreating form of Delyn Amell until he was out of sight, then turned to look at Duncan. "Why didn't you try to recruit him? He was clearly a mage, and powerful at that, if he was able to escape the Circle, or at the very least resourceful and intelligent."
"He would have resisted. And we are stressed enough for time as it is." he said, continuing along the Imperial Highway, leaving me to silently contemplate his words as I fell into step behind him.
):(
Over the next eight hours, I covered as much ground as possible in the fade step while stopping every few miles to allow my mana to replenish itself while taking care of any other basic needs that I had, and could take care of at that moment. By the time nine hours had passed, I figured I was only a half-hour from Lothering's outskirts when I made another stop. I was sitting cross-legged on one side of the Highway, trying to ignore the dryness in my throat and the growling of my stomach. It's kind of sad, really, that my stomach was growling so loudly I almost didn't hear the screeching noise come from behind me. I turned my head to see what was making the noise, only for my eyes to go wide right before I dropped flat on the ground.
A blade attached to a long, pale arm passed through the spot where my neck had been mere seconds before. Eyes growing ever wider, I rolled to one side as another arm-mounted blade came stabbing down from above me. Using my momentum to get onto my feet, my eyes nearly popped out of my head at what I saw. Standing behind where I had been sitting was a tall, gangly creature wearing cobbled-together metal armor, with pointed ears, a mouth full of fangs, and, as I noticed, a blade attached to either of its arms. Thanks to my decades of study in the tower, I knew what this creature was, and that fact did not make it any less intimidating or frightening.
Originally called sharlocks, shrieks were darkspawn that were once elves, and just like elves, they were lithe, agile, and more physically frail than other darkspawn. However, this was the first time I had ever seen a darkspawn and, suffice to say, nothing had ever prepared me for the experience. The twisted, tainted form of what could once have been a fair and noble individual was a horrific sight, whether you were prepared for it or not. Unfortunately, the shriek was not content to let me keep thinking on the experience. Another screech sounded from behind me, and this time I reacted immediately, ducking low just as yet another bladed arm punched through the empty space that my head had just been filling.
Still ducking low, I spun away from both of the shrieks, making sure to keep them both in my line of sight as I stood to my full height once again. Glancing quickly back and forth between them both, I let a small flame burst to life in the palm of my left hand, remembering that darkspawn were supposed to be no more intelligent than clever animals. Even clever animals are frightened by fire, after all. Unfortunately, the shrieks were unimpressed. Even more unfortunately, that little spark of fire was the most I could manage with the small amount of mana I had regained before they attacked.
Suddenly, there was just empty space where one of the shrieks had been standing seconds before, and that same shriek was hunkered down low a foot or two away from me, its arm-blade swinging towards my midsection. I arched my back to get out of the way, though the blade still sliced through my robes and drew blood on my stomach. I stumbled back a step, gingerly touching the gash on my stomach. I brought the two fingers up to my face, looking at the, thankfully, small amount of blood on the tips of my fingers. The same shriek lunged again, but this time I was ready for it.
As it drew closer, instead of moving out of the way, I stepped into the arc of its arm, lashing out with my right hand to grab the back of its head. Before it could react, I shoved the flame still held in my left hand directly into its face. The shriek, well, shrieked as its skin boiled and melted off (by the Maker that's a smell), but I wasn't done just yet. I used the tiny bit of mana I had left to magically inject the shriek with a corrosive poison through the hand holding its head. I grit my teeth in pain as the other shriek's blade bit into my side, and retaliated by smothering my magical flame with the face of the first shriek and using that hand to shove it into the second shriek.
The first shriek lashed out wildly with one arm blade, but I had already hopped backwards in anticipation of my second spell's explosive result. The shriek let loose an even more high-pitched scream as its accomplice rushed past it to continue the assault, but right as it did so, the first shriek exploded in a shower of blood and gore, sending the second shriek flying to the side. My mana all but gone, I quickly moved over to the second one, which was already beginning to climb to its feet, and slammed my knee into its head, causing it to collide with the stone siding of the Imperial Highway. The creature fell back to the ground, and I brought my shoe down on its head, continuing to do so until the creature stopped twitching. Breathing heavily from the exertion, the only real physical exercise, if you could call fighting for your life an exercise, that I had had in nineteen years, I fell onto my rear, which turned out to not be the most comfortable experience, what with the fact that the Imperial Highway was made of stone.
"So these are what the army at Ostagar is about to fight? I hope the legends of the Grey Wardens' prowess aren't as exaggerated as everyone makes them out to be." I muttered to myself. Had it not been for my magic, I would have died then and there, especially considering how little physical activity it apparently took to wind me. "That's actually quite sad." I mumbled. Then I remembered my two new scars-to-be. I wasn't worried about the one on my stomach, but I hadn't yet checked the one on my side.
Turning slightly to get the best look at it I could, I spread open the gash in my robes, and winced at the sight. If the gash on my stomach was a ditch, then the one on my side was a canyon. I closed my eyes to pray to the Maker for a moment. What I was about to do was going to hurt worse than anything else ever had. A mage regains his or her mana every second that they're not casting a spell, so the minute or two that I had taken to kill the second shriek, and then rest, had worked relative wonders.
I once again summoned a small flame into the palm of my right hand, took a deep breath, and shoved it against the gash on my stomach. I had to bite my tongue to keep from screaming at the pain as I held the flame there for a few seconds. As soon as I pulled it away, I brought my left hand up to the cauterized wound to ensure that I had closed the whole thing. I didn't waste any time between checking the first cauterized wound and beginning to cauterize the second one. I almost blacked out that time around, the pain was so intense.
After about a minute, I cut off the spell, falling onto my back as I did so. "If this is what life as an apostate is like, I won't survive the week." I said between ragged breaths. I laid there in that same spot for what seemed like an hour, but could've been anywhere between an hour and a minute. Suffice to say, my sense of time was not the best, considering the circumstances. Finally, after however long it actually was, I picked myself up off of the ground, trying to ignore what was left of the stinging pain coming from my brand new scars. 'On the bright side, they say a lot of women find scars rather attractive.' I thought in an, admittedly, vain attempt to ignore the pain.
Despite how close Lothering was, I elected to use the fade step for the rest of the trek, both because that would hopefully make up for any advances the templars had made during my brief battle and the rest that followed, and because the fade step would make it impossible for me to be physically attacked until I 'phased' back into the mortal realm. Perhaps I should explain, in greater detail, just how the fade step spell worked. Essentially, I allowed myself to slip out of the mortal realm and into the fade, and because the fade mirrored the world of mortals, I could move at a normal pace in the fade, while simultaneously moving ten times faster than an ordinary person could in the mortal realm. This allowed me to shorten my travel time considerably. Allowing the invisible waves of magic to roll over me for the fourth time that day, I fell back into the fade and continued along on the final stretch of my journey.
{:}
As Delyn fell into the fade, an abnormally tall, thin, pale-skinned figure dressed in ornate robes watched him. Behind him stood two shrieks. He glanced back at them, then gestured with one long, thin finger towards the fading stream of magic that was Delyn. "Follow him. Do not attack." he rasped, the two shrieks silently leaping onto the Highway and bounding off after him. The ashen-skinned emissary smiled, though with his horribly malformed and twisted visage, it looked far more like a grimace. With that, blackish-gold waves of magic enveloped him, and he seemingly blinked out of existence.
{:}
When I exited the fade next, I was still perhaps a few hundred feet away from the ramp on the right of the Highway that was the de facto entrance to Lothering. Once again, I stopped because there was a group of men in between me and said ramp. Each of them wore a full suit of either regular leather or studded leather armor, and they had various assortments of weapons on their backs, from daggers and swords to bow and crossbows. That, the fact that they were just standing around as though they were waiting for someone, and the crates, broken carriages, and dead bodies around them did little to put me at ease. 'Highwaymen' I thought, my eyes narrowing.
I could have re-entered the fade and easily slipped past them, but I wasn't certain that they hadn't seen me yet, and it wouldn't pay to reveal my status as a mage outside the Circle. Unfortunately, by the same token, if it looked like it would come to blows between myself and the highwaymen, I couldn't use my magic to intimidate them. In hindsight, it was actually rather stupid of me to come out of the fade in the first place, although, it also would have been stupid to exit the fade once I was in Lothering, most-likely surrounded by templars, so I suppose the course I took was, in fact, my only real option at the time. Unfortunately, my next decision was made for me when the highwaymen all moved to the center of the Highway. Clearly, they had seen me.
I let out a heavy, perhaps a little melodramatic, sigh before moving towards them. One of them, whom I assumed to be the leader, stepped forward, in front of the rest of them, and exclaimed by way of initiating the conversation. "Greetings friend!" Thankfully, he didn't waste any time on preamble, and instead got straight to business. "Just a mere ten silvers, and you're free to pass." Before I could say anything in response, one of the other highwaymen, a big, dumb-looking man, practically interjected on my behalf.
"I don't know. He don't look like no refugee, he ain't got no wagons or nothin', an' he jus' showed up outta nowhere. He could be one a them mages. Maybe we should jus' let 'im by." I had to suppress a grin at the thought that I might be let past without actually having to do a thing. Unfortunately, my stroke of good luck wasn't starting just then.
"Nonsense Hanric. Everyone has to pay. That's why its a toll, and not, say, refugee tax." the leader said, convincing his less-than-intelligent companion.
"Oh, right. Even if you're no refugee, ya still gotta pay." If they weren't going to let me pass without trouble, I would combine a little bit of superstition with more than a little bit of commoner's ignorance regarding all things magic.
"Good luck with that." I said, grinning maliciously. I took a few steps backwards, allowing some very subtle magic to slip through the veil. The highwaymen all shivered as a powerful gust of cold wind ripped through the air from directly behind me, hitting them all perfectly. The highwaymen, shocked into silence, began to slowly back up, their expressions ranging from mild fear to heart-wrenching terror. They all gasped as I allowed mist to fill the air behind me, fog seeping up from the ground beneath me, both moving steadily towards the now-terrified bandits.
'One final push' I thought, allowing bright, eerie lights to appear inside the fog, flashing repeatedly in various, constantly changing patterns. And that was all she wrote. The highwaymen ran screaming in the opposite direction, each of them trying to clamber over one of the over-turned wagons they had set up as a makeshift barricade. Trying desperately to keep myself from laughing out loud, I cut off all of the spells as I moved towards the ramp off of the Highway. The highwaymen would come crawling back before long, but that wasn't my concern.
Besides, eventually someone would come along, probably after whatever battle was set to occur at Ostagar, that would truly be more than those vultures could handle. 'They'll get what's coming to them," I thought as I passed the refugee camp just outside the village, 'I just have larger concerns at the moment.' I grimaced as I entered the village proper. The man positioned to greet, or perhaps turn away, refugees fleeing the darkspawn horde was a templar. Just my luck.
He addressed me as soon as I came close. "You there! If you're looking for safe shelter, you won't find it here." I simply smiled.
"Actually, I'm not a refugee. I came south across the waking sea from Kirkwall, in the free marches. Visiting family, you see."
"Why would you be heading south for something like that with a horde of darkspawn approaching from the south?" I couldn't see his expression behind his helmet, but the confusion was clear in his voice. I shrugged.
"There hasn't been much word of the darkspawn that far north. I didn't really hear anything about that until I came into port in Amaranthine. By then, I was already in Ferelden, and I had heard about the army being called to gather at Ostagar. I figured since the King's armies were going to be holding off the horde before it had a chance to get to Lothering, I could still make it there in time, maybe convince my sister to head farther north." The templar thought on that for a moment, but then, thankfully, he accepted the lie.
"Well, I wish you luck in convincing your sister to do so." With that, the templar went back to his own business, leaving me to mine. I was actually rather surprised at how easy that had been. I had always figured the templars outside the circle would be just as vigilant as those in it. But then, he was probably quite distracted at the time. I went to move away from him, only for it to occur to me that I had no idea where in Lothering my sister lived.
Wary of interacting with a templar for any longer than needed, I turned back to him making sure to keep my warm and friendly facade up. "Sorry to bother you again, ser, but do you by chance know where Leandra Amell lives? That's my sister, and she neglected to give me directions the last time she wrote, you understand." He nodded, though whether he sympathized with my predicament, I couldn't tell.
"I don't know anyone by the name of Amell, but there is a Leandra Hawke living in a small house on the very edge of the village." he said, gesturing in the direction of a short stone bridge over a small stream. I smiled and nodded, thanking him before apologizing once again for the inconvenience. I moved off in the direction he had indicated, crossing the bridge and continuing through the small village until I reached the far edge, beyond the fences that closed off that side of the village. Oddly enough, I passed a very large man inside a cage. Not wanting to get involved in whatever was going on there, I instead continued on along the edge of the village, knocking on the door of each house and asking for Leandra Hawke.
At the fourth house I tried, a young woman with long black hair and orange-brown eyes came to the door with a simple 'yes'. I had to fight to keep my grin in place. The young woman couldn't possibly have been Leandra, unless of course my sister had aged quite a large bit better than I had. I still tried, however, so you can't fault me there.
"Hello there. Does a Leandra Hawke live here, by any chance?" I asked with a smile so strained, I could only imagine she could tell I was fighting to keep it there. Imagine my immense relief when the woman turned her head and called back into the house.
"Mother! There's someone here to see you!" Almost immediately afterwards, I heard footsteps reverberating through the wooden floors of the small home. Oddly enough, however, it sounded like there were two sets of feet. Less than a moment later, two more women rounded the corner just beyond the door. One looked to be only a few years older than the young woman who had come to the door, with short black hair and vibrant blue eyes. The other woman, however, definitely looked like my sister, and she looked the right age as well. She had medium-length gray hair and gray eyes. Then, I would have had to fight to keep the smile off of my face.
I can only assume I took a little longer to start explaining than the three women were okay with, because after perhaps a minute of myself just standing there, smiling like an idiot, the older of the three women asked, "Can I help you, serah?"
"Damn Leandra. I'm glad to see I'm not the only one the years haven't been the kindest to." I said, my grin never fading. She looked taken aback for a minute, before she stepped a little bit closer and narrowed her eyes. Then came the reaction I had been hoping for.
"Delyn!" she exclaimed, wrapping her arms around my shoulders. I returned the gesture.
"It's been far too long, sister." I whispered, elated to finally see at least part of my family again.
~:~
After Leandra and I finished our reunion, and she introduced me to her daughters, Bethany and Adrianna (the youngest and oldest, respectively) she led me into their home and we all sat down at the dinner table. "I'll be right back Delyn. I have something for you." Leandra said, moving off into another part of the house. I turned to look at Bethany when she began to talk. Or rather, interrogate.
"So you're mother's oldest sibling?" she asked. I nodded in response, and she continued. "She told us you were taken to the Circle a few years after she was born." I nodded once again. She seemed confused. "So, you escaped?" Another nod. At this, Adrianna started laughing, although giggling was probably a better word for it. Bethany and I both turned to look at her, but she had a hard time getting what she wanted to say out through the laughing fit.
"Mother didn't tell us that you were a mute, uncle." she managed to say, her laughter starting to die down. I narrowed my eyes at her, albeit playfully. 'So she was laughing at her own little jab, eh?' I thought.
"And your mother neglected to tell me that her oldest child is actually the Royal Fool." I said. This only caused a mischievous gleam to enter her eyes. "You didn't think you were the only person with a sense of humor, did you, niece?" I asked, purposefully looking away from her and towards Bethany. "My apologies for letting my inner 'mute' slip through. I didn't do much talking at the Circle. Mostly just studying and scheming." I said, this seemingly making Bethany even more curious.
"How did you escape? How long have you been on the run? What kind of things did you study? What is it actually like in the Circle?" she asked question after question, not relenting long enough to actually let me answer any of them.
"Alright Bethany, one question at a time." I said, chuckling. I held up one hand, and raised one finger. "You asked how I escaped from the Circle. Put simply, I used a spell to temporarily enter the Fade and 'phase' through the wall of the tower's top floor." There was something of a look of awe in both of their eyes when I mentioned the fade step spell. 'That's right,' I thought, remembering that Leandra had told me in one of her letters that both of her daughters were mages. I also, unfortunately, remembered that she had written me about three years ago to tell me of her husband's death.
Shaking my head a little to clear away such sorrowful thoughts and get my mind back on track, I held up a second finger and said, "I have been on the run for less than a day now. Thanks to the spell I just mentioned, however, I have a considerable head start on the templars." I neglected to mention the shrieks that had attacked me. They knew full-well by now that the darkspawn were on their way. I held up a third finger. "I studied just about everything, from tomes filled with spells, to countless maps of Thedas and all the nations in it, even bestiaries containing information on countless creatures from all across Thedas." Finally, I held up the fourth finger. "Fereldan's Circle of Magi is far less strict than some others, but its still no way for any living creature to live. You are constantly watched by the templars. You are never alone. Everything you do, every move you make, is watched like a hawk. Privacy isn't even an illusion in the Circle." I could practically sense the mischief rolling off of Adrianna as I finished answering Bethany's questions.
I turned to look at the older girl, not in the least surprised to see her grinning impishly. "What did you need so much privacy for, uncle?" she asked with mock innocence in her voice, though the effect of that was ruined by the suggestive waggling of her eyebrows.
"Oh you know, the usual things mages do. Preparing spells, concocting potions, etching runes, carving the occasional staff. Those kinds of things." I replied, my face deadpanned. She only snickered. "What about you, Adrianna? Any questions?" I asked. She thought for about half a second before answering.
"Nope. That was about it, uncle." I snorted.
"Good to see you're so easily amused." I said dryly, though I was, in truth, rather amused. Adrianna just grinned, clearly also amused at herself. I looked up and away from Adrianna when Leandra came back into the room, holding a bundle of dark gray and red cloth embroidered with gold. On top of the bundle were resting a pair of leather gloves with metal fingers, a pair of leather boots, and a gold staff with a heavy iron weight on one end and a carved woman with her arms pointed behind her and a broken circle behind her arms on the other end. I felt one eyebrow crawl upwards.
Leandra smiled sadly. "As much as I would love for you to stay and talk for a while longer, Delyn, you can't afford to." I stood from the chair as she held the bundle and staff out to me. "These belonged to Malcolm." I cast a quick glance towards Bethany and Adrianna when she said that, and both of them now looked considerably downcast. Hesitant, I ventured a guess.
"Your husband?" She simply nodded. Sighing, I said, "Leandra, I can't take these. Not if they're all you have left of him." She smiled sadly.
"But they're not. I have Bethany and Adrianna, and my son Carver." That spawned a little curiosity in me.
"Speaking of, where is Carver?" Adrianna answered me, and not jokingly this time around.
"He's with the army at Ostagar." My head snapped around to look at her in surprise, then directly back to Leandra. She shrugged.
"You try getting a young man to stay cooped up in a tiny house with his family." I gave her a small smile.
"Point taken. But still-"
"Take them, uncle. Maybe then you might actually stand a chance of surviving long enough to see us again. Maker knows you couldn't without them." Adrianna said, sticking her tongue out at me. I grinned.
"Oh, you'll pay for that one the next time I see you, niece." Then, turning back to Leandra, "All right, if you're all dead-set on giving these to me," I looked to Bethany for support, but she looked at everything other than my face, "I guess I'll take them." I reached out and took them from her, flashing them all a small smile before falling into the Fade momentarily to change into the combination robes/plate armor that the bundle had consisted of. When I fell back out of the Fade, my apprentice robes folded up in one hand and the staff in the other, I was amused to see Bethany and Adrianna looking at me in awe. "I'll teach you two that spell the next time we see each other." I said, chuckling.
I hugged each of them one last time, the staff now resting on my back and my apprentice robes, at Leandra's suggestion, held tightly in Bethany's arms. I could only assume she held them so tightly because she was thinking this would be both the first and last time she would ever see her uncle. I looked at the three of them and smiled. "Chins up. I'm free now, and I promise, you will see me again. But before I go." I said, taking the staff off of my back as I finished that last sentence. Concentrating, I began to magically carve two words into the staff, one word on either half of the broken circle at the top. When I was finished, I announced the staff's new name. "Malcolm's Honor." I looked at the three of them with a sad smile. "What do you think?"
Adrianna answered, also smiling. "I think you and father would have gotten along famously." My smile widened a little at that. A gave them each one last hug, and then turned to leave. As I opened the door, I turned my head one last time and gave them a wink. If only my true feelings had matched my bravado. I wasn't any more certain than they that I would live long enough to see them again. But, looking back, I suppose nothing is ever certain. All you can do is hope that it turns out the way you'd like.
~:~
After closing the door behind me, I took a brief moment to take stock of everything and decide my next course of action. Of course, considering I really only had one real course I could take at that moment, that really only amounted to taking stock. 'I escaped the Circle, met two Grey Wardens, killed a few darkspawn, sent a couple of bandits screaming for their mothers, and met my sister and her daughters after fifty years in the Circle.' I thought, counting off each 'achievement', we'll call them, with my fingers. I whistled quietly. "Considering I literally sat in a tower and read books for fifty years, I think today," I said before amending my statement after looking at the position of the moon in the sky, "Or rather, yesterday, was the most eventful day of my life." I let out a quiet chuckle. "How sad is that? Fifty-seven years old, and my life is only now becoming eventful?" I shook my head, still chuckling, before allowing my mirthful smile to fall from my face, replaced with an emotionless mask.
I turned around, though, when I heard the door to Leandra's house open. I was a little surprised to see Adrianna standing in the doorway with a porcelain mask held out to me. I looked at the mask, then back at her with a quizzical expression on my face. She gave a sincere smile as she held it further out towards me, rather than the devious grin I already associated with her. "Mother forgot to give you this. Father used to wear it when he was doing mercenary work to keep food on the table before we settled in Lothering. I figured it couldn't hurt for an apostate at large to keep his face hidden." Returning her smile, I took the mask, turned it around, and placed it on my face. It was strange, looking through the slightly narrowed eye holes. Thankfully, the mask didn't really hinder my vision all that much. Even if it did, I remembered a few spells that I could use to augment my sight in various ways.
"Thank you, Adrianna." I gave her another quick hug, then turned to leave. Before I actually did, however, I turned back around and addressed my eldest niece one last time. "Adrianna, tell Bethany what I'm about to tell you, alright?" She nodded, a curious expression on her face, one that gained a hint of confusion when I allowed a smile onto mine. "To do the fade step spell," I began, my smile widening when her eyes did the same, "You simply need to allow invisible waves of magic to roll over and envelope you. In that way, you can enter the fade while awake and move within it, enabling you to move much faster than normal, and move through solid objects or even other people here in the mortal realm." I explained. She grinned and nodded to let me know that she would share that knowledge with Bethany. "And now," I said, "Your new goal is to master the fade step before you see me again. The next time I see you all, you can show me that you've mastered that spell even faster than I managed to." I finished, patting my niece on the head since I figured that was something uncles did, though she didn't seem too pleased (probably because she was a fully grown woman by then).
Turning to leave once again, I fell into the fade and sped off in the direction of the other ramp back onto the Imperial Highway, opposite the one I had used to enter Lothering. If I had been possessed of a corporeal form at that moment, I would have let loose with a grin every bit as impish as my eldest niece's. After all, to put it bluntly, I had scared the shit out of those bandits on my way into Lothering, and it would only be fitting if I did so again upon leaving Lothering. So, once I took the ramp back up onto the Highway, I turned left rather than right, speeding straight through the makeshift barricade the highwaymen had put up. I passed directly through one of them, freezing him solid, before falling out of the Fade and sliding to a halt.
Turning to look at the highwaymen, who appeared to have only just regained enough courage to set back up on that side of the barricade, I removed Malcolm's, I mean my mask, showing them my face. They instantly started cowering, and, for the final touch, I gave them a quick little "boo!", and they all scattered, once again scrambling over each other to get away from me, crying in terror. I shook my head, actually cackling at their expense, before falling back into the Fade and speeding off once again.
~:~
I spotted the templars several hours later when I rounded a bend in the Highway. 'Just what I was hoping for,' I thought, knowing the only reason a group of templars of any size would be outside the Circle and not escorting a mage (which these ones weren't) would be if they were hunting an apostate. Furthermore, so far as I was aware, I was the only mage who had escaped the Circle any time recently. There were nine templars, all constantly looking in every possible direction, if the constant moving of their helmets was any indication. Each of them had a shield and sword on their back, and they all wore the standard templar armor. I took in each of these details in a matter of seconds as I rapidly approached the templars.
While still in the fade step, I passed through one of them, freezing him solid, and fell out of the Fade immediately afterward, spinning on my heel. As I did so, I took Malcolm's Honor off of my back and swung it at the frozen templar in one smooth motion, shattering him into pieces, instantly falling back into the Fade and retreating about a hundred feet in the direction they had come from before falling out of it once again. I knew they wouldn't care that they didn't know if it was me underneath the mask or not: their 'sacred duty' was to hunt and capture all apostates, kill them if they resorted to blood magic. My entire ensemble, as well as Malcolm's Honor, however, did in fact seem to give them pause. The outfit and staff really did give off the impression of a hardened apostate, not an apprentice mage (though an admittedly knowledgeable one) fresh out of the tower.
Their hesitation allowed me to make the first move. I lashed out with pure elemental energy, petrifying another of the templars, turning him into solid stone, effectively incapacitating him. The other seven templars were galvanized into moving forward by this, but before they could get far I used that same elemental energy to launch a conjured stone projectile towards the petrified templar, shattering him and sending deadly, stone shrapnel flying at each of his compatriots. Unfortunately, their armor turned out to be quite effective, which I supposed was why they chose to wear it. Of course, even running towards me now with swords and shields drawn, they still had a decent bit of ground to cover before they could reach me, which gave me plenty of time to pick them off. I grinned behind the mask as an idea came to me.
"Time to show off my inner flamboyance." I muttered, beginning to swing and twirl Malcolm's Honor in intricate patterns, flinging bolts of pure Fade energy shaped into armored fists at the templars, sometimes one per swing, other times multiple bolts. Unfortunately, the distance between us was still great enough that, now the templars were on guard, I couldn't really surprise them, so instead of being effective, my basic attacks just bounced off of their shields. So instead, I slammed Malcolm's Honor into the ground, simultaneously sending three more bolts flying towards one templar and sending pure energy along the ground towards another. When the latter reached its target, a massive spirit arm came out of the ground and grabbed the templar by the head, squeezing until it popped in a shower of blood, then throwing the corpse at two other templars. The three bolts, like the rest before them, bounced off of their target's shield, but before they could dissipate, I reached out with my free hand and took direct control of them.
I swung my arm, sending one of the bolts coming in from the side, the spectral fist colliding with the templar's jaw, sending him reeling. Closing my fist and then swinging it downwards, the two remaining bolts combined into one larger fist and flew downwards towards the templar, slamming into the back of his head so hard that his neck snapped. "Four down, five to go." I muttered, grinning under the mask at finally being able to do something about my oppressors. The templars, now reduced to half their effective strength, slowed down their advance, and in response, I made a show of how little effort I was putting into defeating them. I planted the bottom of Malcolm's Honor on the ground, wrested my arms on the top, and leaned against it. "Now, how should I handle the rest of you?" I asked, just loud enough for them to hear, though I was actually thinking about it, not just taunting them.
"Primal? No, fireballs and lightning bolts are just so... unoriginal. Though I do like lightning. Maybe a combination? But what other School should I use? Entropy? No: too boring. Obviously not Creation. And I don't particularly feel like using any Spirit spells at the moment. So what then...?" I debated to myself, ignoring the templars still slowly advancing, and then, I remembered an obscure form of magic I had learned several years ago from an old, almost ancient, tome I found in the Circle Tower. "Now, that could work." Gathering my power, I waited for about a minute before lashing out once more, casting a spell in the center of the group of five. Only one of the templars noticed the powerful gravity well I had conjured in time to get away from it. The other four were not so lucky.
The four templars caught in the gravity well stumbled over themselves trying to get away, but it was too late for them. They were already caught, and the spell's gravity only got stronger over time. It only took five seconds for the spell to reach its zenith, at which point all four templars were dragged to the ground and pulled into one big pile. 'Perfect.' I thought, thrusting lifting my empty hand towards the sky before swinging it downwards. And just as the gravity well terminated itself, the templars falling away from each other, a massive lightning bolt fell from the sky and struck one of them directly in the chest, killing him instantly. The other three tried to get away, but the lightning leapt from their comrade's corpse to each of them. Two of them convulsed until they dropped dead, just as much smoking corpses as the one struck by the initial bolt. The third got lucky.
I saw the electricity leaping around his body before it finally dissipated completely, the templar falling to one knee. I moved to swing Malcolm's Honor and finish him off with a simple bolt, only to stop dead as the last remaining templar, rather than continuing to advance, stepped up to his fallen comrade, leaned down, and drew his blade across the kneeling templars' throat, blood spraying outwards onto the ground. Now thoroughly confused, but not willing to drop my guard, I lowered Malcolm's Honor, but continued to gather my power, just in case. The templar, to his credit, cleaned off his sword on the 'skirt' of the templar he had just killed before returning it, as well as its shield, to their positions on his back.
The templar turned to look at me, and when he said nothing, I narrowed my eyes. "Why?" It was a simple-enough question to answer, but rather than do just that, the templar instead reached up to grab his helmet, and removed it. Or rather, her helmet. The woman looked to be no more than ten years younger than myself, her pure black hair (with a single streak of gray) pulled back into a messy bun, with pale green eyes vibrant enough for the color to be seen despite the forty feet between us, and fair, flawless skin. Not-to-mention, I had to grudgingly admit that she was quite attractive, though it was very grudgingly. Then, I looked at her a little more closely. I recognized her.
"Relena? That was your name, yes?" I asked, her only response a simple nod. She had arrived at the tower when she was six, ten years after I had been brought there. Even with the fact that she had been at the tower for forty of the fifty years I had been, I wouldn't have recognized her if it weren't for one very important fact: for whatever reason, ever since she had taken her vows upon being knighted as a full member of the Order, she had watched me far more closely than any of the other mages. In fact, it was her that had ensured I never really had any privacy in the tower. Of course, recognizing her didn't change anything.
"Yes, that is my name. And you are Delyn Amell." she said, and I (once again, grudgingly) admitted to myself that her voice had a certain melodic quality to it. I took off the mask and hung it from one of my new belts.
"Damn. And here I thought the mask actually worked." I said, pretending to be disappointed.
"It would have, had we not both spent most of our lives in the tower." I nonchalantly leaned on Malcolm's Honor once again.
"But there lies the difference, doesn't it? You chose to spend the rest of your days in that damn tower. When was I ever given a choice?" I challenged. She glared daggers at me.
"I am not here to argue with you over whether the fate of mages is right." she said through gritted teeth.
"You're right. That's not why you're here. You're here to fulfill your 'sacred duty'," I said the last two words with air quotes and a hint of mocking in my voice, "So why didn't you fight to the death like your friends there?" I finished, gesturing to the eight armor-clad corpses behind her. She didn't even bother to look at them, still glaring at me.
"Because it's obvious I can't defeat you alone. Where nine failed, one cannot succeed-"
"Well that depends on the one, doesn't it?" I interrupted.
"Furthermore, there is no point in needlessly throwing my life away. So I have decided I will do my sacred duty, and it is sacred, in another way." I narrowed my eyes.
"Oh? And just what 'other way' would that be?" I asked, a dangerous tone in my voice. Her face and voice were both entirely deadpan.
"I will accompany you." I almost spit, and I wasn't even drinking anything.
"Like hell you will!" Her eyes gained a hard glint to them.
"I cannot hope to bring you back to the Circle on my own, and you have not turned to blood magic, so I cannot kill you. Therefore, the only option left to me is accompanying you. That way, I can continue to monitor you, and should you succumb to temptation and use blood magic, then I will kill you, if I can." My eye almost started twitching.
"You 'continuing to monitor me'," more air quotes, "Is kind of the exact opposite of the freedom I was looking for when I escaped from the tower yesterday." I said. She just continued to glare at me. "You are not coming with me, damnit!" I shouted at the top of my lungs.
"Yes. I am." My eye actually started twitching then, and I almost wanted to start tearing my hair out. She seemed to realize this. "You only have two options here, Delyn Amell." I turned my head to look at her with a dangerous glint in my eyes. "Either you accept the fact that I am going to accompany you, or you can kill me. And I have no intention of attempting to kill you, because I already know I can't, and it would, therefore, be entirely illogical." My eye twitched a few more times, and when my other eye started twitching alongside it, I screamed out loud.
"No templar I have ever met, not even Greagoir, has ever been this damn infuriating!" I shouted at her. Naturally, she was unimpressed.
"Make your choice, apostate." I growled under my breath, before starting to pace.
"There isn't a damn thing I can say to convince you, is there?" I asked, glancing at her. She shook her head, causing me to growl again. I stopped pacing after a minute, turned to look at Kinloch Hold in the distance, then turned again and looked in the direction of Lothering. I honestly don't even remember what was going through my head at this point, I was so infuriated. Finally, I turned back around once again to look at her. "Fine. You can accompany me. But I have three conditions." I said, holding up three fingers.
"And those would be?"
"One: don't ever call me apostate again. Two: don't ever call me apostate again." I stopped for emphasis before continuing. "Three: my phylactery is destroyed, right here, right now." I braced myself, waiting for her to refuse and us to finish this idiotic argument violently.
"Fine." she said, turning around and moving towards one of her fallen comrades. My jaw was on the ground. She rolled over one of the dead templars, pulling a small glass vial out of his belt, before dropping it on the ground, standing up, and stomping on it. She turned back around and walked towards me. "There."
"You're actually serious." I said, and her only response was to cross her arms, cock one hip, and nod. I looked up at the sky, then, talking to it as though the Maker himself was listening. "Really? Forty years in the tower, deprived of my private time because of her," I pointed at Relena, "And now you stick her with me again?" I ignored her slowly-rising eyebrow. "A MAN NEEDS HIS PRIVATE TIME, DAMNIT!" I screamed at the sky. I took a moment to catch my breath, then turned to look at her.
"Are you done now?" she asked, eyebrow still cocked.
"Yes. I'm done." I sighed, turning away from Lothering once again, continuing along the Imperial Highway. Relena moved more quickly than I was until she caught up, at which point she fell into stride beside me.
"So where are we going?" she asked. I glanced at her briefly, before looking ahead once again as I put my mask back on.
"We need to get out of Ferelden. You know your fellows won't stop hunting me just because my phylactery isn't at their disposal any longer. And I don't think they'll care much that you are keeping an eye on me." I replied.
"Unfortunately, you are correct." I nodded, both of us falling silent, and I thought that was the end of the conversation. It wasn't. "We could go west, over the Frostback Mountains." she suggested. I snorted.
"Into Orlais, the seat of the Chantry's power? Not the best plan for an apostate." I rebuffed, hoping that we were done talking. Of course, because the Maker has a sense of humor, we weren't.
"Well then, what about Orzammar?" she asked. "The Chantry has no power there, and the dwarves do not fear mages." I stopped then, suddenly enough that she was caught off guard, stopping a little bit in front of me. "What is it?" she asked.
"I understand you wanting to tag along to keep an eye on the potential maleficar, but why are you offering advice? What do you care if the templars catch me, so long as I don't turn to blood magic?" I asked. Strangely enough, that offended her quite a bit. She narrowed her eyes at me.
"If you don't want a templar's help, Amell, all you have to do is say so. Would you prefer I be your silent watcher, like back in the tower? Would that make you feel more free?" she asked, her voice rising with each sentence spoken. I was honestly a little bit taken aback. I looked away from her, and back towards Lothering once again.
"Sorry." I said quietly after a minute. Before she could say anything in response, I continued walking, Relena falling into step beside me once again. We walked on in silence for several minutes, perhaps half an hour at most. She spoke first, and I turned to look at her out of the corner of my eye.
"Perhaps it's foolish of me, but I feel as though we grew up together. We were both brought to the tower at a young age, and we both spent almost all our lives there. So yes, I wanted to come with you in order to stop you if you ever become an abomination, but..." she stopped then, and we were silent for a while once again. "As for why I'm trying to help," she started again, "in the eyes of the Order, I have ignored my duty, regardless of my reasons. It won't be pretty for me either if you- if we- are caught." she finished, and then, for whatever reason, I felt the need to make the silence a little more comfortable.
"Orzammar it is then?" I asked, looking at her. She looked into my eyes for a second, then gave the tiniest of smiles. I returned it with a cocky grin of my own.
"Orzammar it is." she said, and then the silence was comfortable. To this day, I don't know why I didn't just fall into the Fade and leave Relena behind, now that my phylactery was destroyed. I am, however, glad that I didn't. Maker knows, I would've been long dead by now had I done so. But we'll get to that.
};{
Author's note: Delyn's outfit consists of the male versions of The Fugitive's Mantle, The Fugitive's Gauntlets, the boots from Malcolm's Bequest, and The Apostate's Mask from the Mage Item Pack and Mage Item Pack II DLC from Dragon Age 2. His staff is Malcolm's Honor from the same DLC. Relena wears a lighter gray version of Knight-Commander Meredith's armor with the templar sword logo on the chest piece.