Chapter 1 – Dark and Faded
The air here tasted of spent magic and the ground was the color of the dead. The woman looked about the huge cavern with its shifting blurred patterns of shadowy light and tried again to put her eyes into some type of focus. She glanced down and checked herself over to ensure all was as it should be. She felt a spin of light headedness once more as she tried to take in a deep breath to regain her center. Each time she had traveled to this strange place, the adjustment period became easier for her. But the unsettling blur of this place, the familiar nauseating roil in her stomach, and the shifting dizziness in her head always left her weak upon her arrival.
"Are you alright . . ?" the man standing next to her asked.
The woman nodded, giving the tall figure near her some indication that she was ok. The man standing next to her looked stretched and thin from her angle, like a long dark shadow against the blur of dimness that was the background of this place. His robes flowed at length around him and the man's hooded cowl was pulled up over his head, giving him the appearance of some specter rather than a man standing there in robes. The woman knew he was not just a man, he was a mage. He was the key that allowed her access to and from this strange other worldly place. Without him, she would still be in Thedas and without him here, she would be lost and stranded in the place. As long as this man . . . this mage, was here by her side, all things here would be possible.
The Fade, as this place was called by most of Thedas, was an enigma to all who knew of it. It felt exotic, strange, unsettling, and yet familiar as well to the woman, both beautiful and terrible all at the same time. She noticed the mage pull forth a silver object from his soft leather hip pack that dangled from his belt. It was the mask the woman had given him before they left their bodies to travel to this place. The mage placed the silver mask upon his face, straightening it a bit as he donned it so that he could still see from its rounded eye slots. The woman shuffled through her own pack and pulled out a similar ornate silver mask. She put it on beneath her own hooded cowl and adjusted it in much the same manner. The pair looked like smiling silver faced imps, one tall and thin, the other short and stout.
The woman glanced about the blurry darkness around her. The queasiness in her stomach began to settle and her eyes began to adjust to her dim surroundings. The massive cavern they stood in seemed to engulf them in shadow and blurry faded light. It felt enormous in size as the woman peered about, swallowed by the darkness. The woman saw the blurry outline of stalactites in the distance above her, like a thousand sharp teeth in the highest reaches of the great expanse. To her, it seemed like a huge toothy beast of some great shadow creature biting down upon her as she looked about the dizzying heights above.
The woman could see points of light in the far reaches of the cavern's massive perimeter walls. The lights seemed to blur and twist in their form as she stared upon them. The lights came from what appeared to the woman to be dozens of flaring dots of red flames from blazing pyres set in the upper reaches around them in this cavern. These flickers of red dancing dots of light were set within great brass braziers and the woman could see that even though they appeared small from her vantage, they were massive in size. The red beacons were set high above the pair of strangers, along the exterior cavern walls of this shadowy place. Their pulsing glow revealed dozens of faraway passages and tunnels that dotted the walls of this place, promising an infinite network of places that came to this large area from all over this part of the Fade. A shiver ran down the woman's spine as the hundreds of red beacons stared down at her like thousands of glaring, judging eyes in the distance.
"Have you been here before," the man asked the woman in a low whisper, "to this place I mean, not the Fade?"
"Yes . . . twice before," the woman answered back, still pushing the dizziness from her head and shutting her eyes tight to avoid the red glaring dots of light flickering at her.
"Although, the experience has never been the same and always has taken some getting used to."
"Good, then I need not remind you the danger we are in at present," the man said with an edge to his voice.
The woman did not offer a response, instead stretching her senses across the cavern. The cavern was still and quiet for the moment. A deafening quiet that pressed in on her from all angles, making her feel tiny, threatening to engulf her. Her heart thumped hard and fast within her chest. This place smelled of old dampened soil, with a hint of the dead mixed with a crisp energy of fiery primal magic. The woman could almost taste this place in her mouth as she inhaled a deep breath for a moment . . . burned flesh . . . lightning strikes upon a field of fresh earth . . . and a twinge of alchemical tanginess that burned in her nose and upon the back of her tongue.
Although this dark place was deeply bathed in silence, the woman did not trust the deafening calm. She gazed into the deepening dark of the twilight horizon expecting curious visitors almost at any moment now. The woman spotted what she was scanning the reaches of this cavern for and pointed at it. The mage followed her arm to the distance and stared out into the inky darkness.
Several hundred yards ahead, the man could make out a large outline of a structure rising from the ground of this place. The structure appeared to be built in the form of a giant black shadowy pyramid, looming in the faded amber haze of this cavern. The pyramid was difficult to see clearly off in the distance from where the pair stood. It would have been impossible to see if not for the red hazy glow emitted from the beacons of light along the edges of the cavern's walls.
The pyramid's foundation looked large enough to fit an entire village within and its dark stone carved blocks gave it an almost nightmarish look from this vantage. The man noticed, even from far away, that runes could be seen crafted into each huge black stone foundation block. The runes glowed like floating blurry waves of silver light against the black expanse. The rune marks looked like waving silver phantoms hovering over the black cavern floor to the mage. The woman motioned with a nod of her head and began moving in the direction of the pyramid. The man followed closely behind her.
The woman had spent much of her adult life studying lore regarding this place, the Fade. She knew better than most its dangers, the very ones that the mage had reminded her of just moments ago. She also knew of its endless and infinite possibilities as well. She had studied years of documented works from high mages, renowned scholars, respected theologians, revered prophets, and countless others who had claimed to spend time within the boundaries of this strange realm.
The woman knew that most of the scholars she had learned from, either revered or feared this place, and all agreed that the Fade was the place where magic was born. The Fade was touted as a place where those that had died, sometimes now walked freely. It was a place where dark things from the depths of men's souls were often given form and could take action, as if they were alive in this place. The Fade was a place claimed by the supernatural yet treaded upon by the spirits of the living. She knew well the constant danger that existed here for one such as her, one that was alive and only visiting a place ruled by the dead. Until her and her companion left this place and stood firmly back on the ground on Thedas, there was nothing but danger and consequence for both of them here.
"Above us," the mage said to the woman as he nodded upwards and continued walking in a hurried pace, "they are no threat to us . . . be wary . . . and just keep moving."
The woman peeked up into the shadowy twilight space high above her. Half the area appeared as cavern ceiling with it many black stony teeth and the rest seemed a blurry amber dim shifting glow. But there was something else mixed in with the surreal amber sky and shadowy darkness. Appearing from the thick haze were several floating objects, bobbing about in a pack, high in the air above. Each of these strange things was the size of a horseman's cart, but round in their floating form. It reminded the woman of giant dark gliding bubbles drifting in the amber haze in a carefree cluster. The woman returned her gaze to the ground and hastened her steps. She had seen many strange things in this place and knew not to linger any longer than needed. The man sensed her pace and pushed onward himself.
For a moment, the woman wondered how the mage knew the giant floating bubbles were of no danger to them or even how he had sensed them prior to their arrival overhead. She coveted that ability, that uncanny sixth sense and innate power. The power of a mage! Their magic was the key to move between her world and this place that rested between life and death. Their abilities were unique to all of Thedas in that they and they alone could interact at will with the inhabitants of the Fade. It was an awe inspiring thought to have such powers and be able to tap into them with but a single thought. Many in Thedas considered mages and their powers to be living curses, but the woman was not amongst them. She pushed back her envy for the moment and continued moving, shifting her gaze away from the robed man next to her.
The mage had proven very useful to her over the past month or two, since she had stumbled across him in the woods near her cottage. Even now, the mage proved more than capable in his craft, able to move the both of them here almost effortlessly with his craft. He was proving quite a boon to the woman's complicated plans. As she stole a glance of the man again, she wondered how many times he had traveled to and from this realm. She wondered if this place frightened him still or if it was exhilarating for him. It carried both effects on her each time she came here.
"Were you frightened," the woman whispered to the mage, her mask muffling her question a bit as she spoke, "when you first came here I mean?"
"Yes, very" the man replied quickly.
"It was terrifying. My Harrowing was a thing I dreaded for many months leading up to it. And until I woke with a Templar's blade pressed hard against my exposed throat, I knew nothing of safety or comfort."
"If you can even call that feeling a comfort to wake to," the man finished.
The woman knew the mage referred to the first time his powers moved him fully to this place, to the Fade. The first time his spirit left his body, floating on the winds of magic, taking the man to a place of dreams and nightmares. A Harrowing, as it was called by most Circle Mages in Thedas, is always a pivotal time in a new mages life. It is the first true test of a new mage when their spirit immerses here completely for the first time. A new Mage is always at their most vulnerable during this Harrowing, like a new born babe into the naked open world. The woman knew that all who were gifted with the arcane gift of magic experienced this as part of their passage into magedom. Newly taught Circle Mages in Ferelden prepare weeks, sometimes months, for their Harrowing.
These Harrowing trials were always done with senior mages present, acting as nurse maids for the newly awakened mages, as well as Knight Templar's of the Chantry. These Templar's are warriors taught and trained to fight magic wielding foes. They would stand at the ready, blade in hand; set to end a young mage's newly blossoming life if they failed this Harrowing test. This was deemed, necessary, by the Chantry, as sometimes mages who were weak in mind and spirit, ended up bringing back something with them from the Fade. Something that often proved unwelcome to the natural world and its inhabitants.
The woman knew well the trials of a new mage were often lethal and far from kind at their best.
That was how it had been for her sister, so long ago.
"Sweet little Plerra," the woman thought to herself as she continued the walk towards the pyramid ahead.
Memories of her little sister, only ten years old then, blond locks of golden hair bobbing about in finger length curls around her perfect small porcelain face, filled the woman's thoughts. The girl's bright blue eyes, like sapphires sparkling in the morning sun filled sky. And a smile that could make even the grayest winter days bright with warmth, all danced in the mind's eye of the woman.
She pushed the thoughts away from her heart and out of her mind. She knew they would not serve her in any useful way in this place. She was here now, in the Fade, and all her senses were needed to focus on the here and now. Her training and her study of this place were being counted on to keep them both alive on their visit here.
The woman reflected back to her years of training in Orlais. She had studied at length the retelling of the Chant of Light while she was there. A select passage from the Canticles of Gotten Halieb the woman had read years ago now played over and over through her mind.
Gotten, who had written the retelling, had written the passage long ago during the Second Age of Thedas. He had been a great Chantry adviser and a Templar Commander in his life, the woman recalled, and had been well respected in regards to his thoughts on the Fade and mages in general.
"It is often the mistake of one, or the few, that thousands later pay the ultimate price for, and this is why a swift, just, and forceful Templar hand is needed to govern over the practice of magic. Without that presence, the world would be lost to a great Blight and a greater darkness!"
The woman wondered for a moment if Gotten had been writing about the original rise and fall of the ancient mage archon's of Tevinter, as they invaded the Maker's golden kingdom here in the Fade, or if he had been speaking prophetically about the events of the present day Harrowing rituals all about Thedas. His thoughts and teachings could logically apply to either setting, the past or the present.
She slowed her steps a bit as the pair had reached their destination. The black stone pyramid, its glowing silver runes marking it in the darkness, stood just a few dozen yards ahead. A large opening could be seen at the pyramid's base in the form of a rounded stone tunnel way. It was lit from within, with dim fluttering torches somewhere deeper within its round stretching maw.
The woman looked about the area, scanning for any movement, any sound or sight they should be wary of. But there was nothing around them but shadow and glowing amber blur. Nothing else moved or made noise in this lonely quiet place.
"Need we be concerned, about . . . other things here," the woman asked the man behind her as she paused?
The man knew what the woman was asking about, even as the woman glanced about nervously before entering the tunnel way ahead.
"Always," the man whispered.
The man paused for a moment, seeming to be lost in mid thought. He stood motionless for several long paused moments. No breath escaped his mask and his eyes were closed beneath the silvered eye holes. Finally, the man exhaled and moved once again.
"We are alone . . . for now," the man answered, sensing no other presence about the area.
The woman knew the Fade to be inhabited by many things. She knew it was considered the crossing place for a living being that had recently passed from life, to seek its way across the thin veil and move into the great beyond. She knew it was also a place for the living, the dead, and the other inhabitants here to mingle, cross paths, and interact.
That was the very reason the pair found themselves here and now. They were set to meet with one of the Fade's inhabitants, in its home, this pyramid. The woman remembered the old Dhalish cautionary tales about the Fade as she paused for a moment longer before advancing into the tunnel way ahead.
"The Fade is a place where the living and the dead share their energies, so that each new moment we exist, the world can die and be reborn anew. The spirits use the Fade to brew this secret recipe of life and death each new day, away from the prying covetous eyes of the living. Their guardians of these secrets are legion! They are both terrible and great in form and have presence in every shadow. Beware those seeking to delve too deep for those secrets, for those that seek to pick up that final stone to see what lies beneath it, may not like what they find!"
The woman knew of course, that the caution to be had in that tale referred to Demons. They were the majority of the Fade's inhabitants and also the most dangerous by far. Demons could sense the living and their intrusion within the Fade in a moment's notice and could do so from great distances away.
Both the woman and mage knew that Demons were an ever present reality here as long as they stayed within this place. And although their business here was with a powerful entity of the Fade, that fact offered neither of them any protection from the prying curiosity or passing interest from countless other forms that may be lurking about.
The woman entered the tunnel way, not wishing to pause here in the open darkness any longer. The man followed and they both moved quickly down the long stone tunnel that stretched ahead. As they advanced, many stone off shoot archways passed by to their right and left along the main tunnel corridor. They all connected to this main junction, but the woman continued to walk past them all in her rushed pace. She had been here before and remembered the way to their final destination, deep at the heart of this place. Any detour now would most assuredly lead to delay and possibly worse for the pair.
There was movement ahead where the dim light originated from and the pair slowed once more to a stop. A form was drifting towards them from the tunnel way ahead. As it moved closer and closer, the thing appeared to be something other than a man! It had no legs to its roughly humanoid form and it floated down the corridor towards them like something out of a nightmare.
The sight of the thing made the woman think back once again to her lore of this place. To a lecture she had attended in Denerim years ago, given by a well known mage and scholar named Nikadamus. Nikadamus had been well known around Ferelden and many parts of Thedas as a scholar who specialized on matters concerning the Fade and its inhabitants. She remembered taking tedious notes in that particular lecture in regards to differing entities within the Fade.
"Yes, there are many life forms within the Fade and not all are terrible and born of nightmares. I myself have spoken with great forces of pure good and honorable intent within the Fade. Spirits and Guides, they would call themselves. These beings considered themselves keepers of peace, pillars of good and guiding lights to Thedas' entire living world! I myself believe them to be sent by the Maker, to aid the world against terrible things in times of great need, offering a counter to the great depths of evil released in times of great darkness, such as the Blight.
But it is true, there are also many energies, beings, and forms in the Fade that have yet to be seen with mortal eyes. And yes, there are the other things that hide and lair in the darkness of that other worldly place. They number as infinite and can stalk a mage like a cast shadow in a moonlit night. They prey upon the weak, they offer aid in the form of dreams and promises of power, and they always claim their payment in blood and souls. They are . . . Demons!
And let me say this, true power is not measured by the force of these demons or the force to resist such terrors. One can truly only know or understand real power and divine wisdom once one can tell the Demon's in the Fade from the other beings that walk freely in that place. That is the true measure of a mage's power, knowledge and truth!"
The legless thing continued to move closer to the man and the woman until it was just a few paces away. The mage stood at the ready for what may come next, but the woman continued to stare silently at the unnatural looking floating abomination.
The woman thought the thing looked like a whirlwind storm of dark mist and swirling droplets of blood. The entity had no lower appendages and where they should have been, was only a red mist that had sprung from the ground in a swirling vortex. She saw that its upper body featured the torso of a man, with a fleshy pale sunken chest. It had an elongated pair of boney arms draped to its sides and the shape of a head atop its shouldered form. Its fleshy muscled parts were pale white in tone with a tint of rotting yellow green in places. Tendons and bone were exposed in areas where skin had been ripped or flayed here and there. She could see the creature's long pale arms dragging alongside it as it moved and its boney clawed hands scraped across the ground as it hovered towards them. Atop its form, its head was just a large humanoid skull. It was bathed in a red glow that came from its radiant sparks of crimson light that rested within deep shadowy sockets of the skull itself.
"You . . . are expected," the thing rasped out towards the pair in a whisper, its haggard voice, like a thousand serpents hissing in unison.
The pair said nothing in response, struck silent for the moment at the creature's uttered words. After another long moment, the mage glanced over to the woman seeking her instructions with his eyes. The creature turned away from them before she could offer a response as it began floating deeper within the pyramid's bowels.
The woman remembered the way ahead, but let the whirling thing move on ahead. She began to follow cautiously several long paces behind the swirling thing. The thing moved them deeper and deeper into the heart of the stony complex. On and on it lead them down shadowed corridors, through many doors, and finally it emptied them into a great room, deep within the shadowy heart of this pyramid.
The inner room they had been brought to was massive in size. It seemed every bit a place of the Fade. It was eerie to her, cloaked in fading light and pulsating moving darkness all at the same time. The woman thought the entire chamber seemed to be a blend of strange occult imagery mixed with modern Thedas dressings. She could see pieces of dark cheery wood furnishings set alongside long sturdy oak tables that were filled with types of alchemy equipment. On the floor were long thick dyed red fur bear skin rugs and fine leather covered sitting chairs that rested upon them. Delicate red and black silk tapestries that looked to be from the halls of kings and lords draped dark stone where there were walls and not amber fading shadows. Opulent paintings of knights and courtly ladies mingling about blended with marble busts and ivory statues along the shadowy exteriors of the great room and there appeared to be more hidden by the darkness of the immense place. It all blended together, sitting amongst stalagmites of dark shadowy stone along with cavern pools of silent black water in an overlap where two places, two worlds, joined as one.
In the center of the room, a single form was ever present in its eerie supernatural presence. It drew the attention of both visitors as well as from the thing that lead them here.
At the form's core, it was shaped like a charred man's skeletal frame. It was a black boney thing of pure deep shadow and inky darkness. But all around this skeletal black outline was a dazzling and shifting array of energetic pulsing light. The pulsing energy came from a pair of bright flares of green and silver that constantly fought against the shadowy darkness of the form beneath them.
The wrestling light pushed against the darkness as if they fought with one another for dominance of the area and the skeletal form seemed to be at its core. The pair of visitors found this array of visual intoxication hard to stare straight at for long and both found themselves shifting their stares down to the ground. The masks had been worn at the entities advice to help with this very feeling, but it did not seem to be helping the woman or the mage at present. Both felt as if staring much longer at the pulsing battle of light and darkness would drive them insane in a moment's notice.
The pair knelt in a show of fealty, heads bent, and they remained silent in their kneeling pause, waiting for the skeletal thing to acknowledge them. Finally, it did so and when it spoke, its voice chilled the core of all things that were within earshot.
"Rise, my child," the dark skeletal being commanded, offering no movement within the pulsing light battle as it spoke.
The woman knew well that even if the thing wanted to move from the light, it could not. That fact was why she was here. She knew well what held the thing in place and she shared the feeling of imprisonment the being felt. All her plans, her dreams, her desires, were tied to this dark entities freedom from the pulsing energies anchoring, confining it to this place.
Both figures stood as the powerful Demon commanded, although both kept their heads tilted down towards the ground to avoid seeing the maddening light array again. The blood storm servant bowed its skull slightly and then moved back into the dark hallway sensing it was no longer needed in its master's hall.
"I see you have brought a friend this time, child," the entity said to the woman as she stood.
The entities voice graveled out in a low rumble, like boots grinding over small pebbles in a dry river bed. The mage felt chills sweep over his arms and back. He gave a slight shiver from beneath his robes but tried his best to stifle his movement almost immediately.
"Yes, my dark master," the woman answered, her voice slightly muffled by the silver mask she wore, but clear enough to be heard by the listening demon.
"This is the one I spoke of during my last visit with you. He has proven to be a capable enough mage and ally, well versed in the ways of magic, blood magic. His lust for power is paled only by his devotion to me. This man has pledged his loyalties to me and through me, to you, my dark lord. He begged to see you after I asked him to bring me here, to you. He wishes to bring reality to your every desire," the woman offered as she bowed low and motioned towards the robed man standing behind her.
The robed figure bent low in another sweeping bow of respect. His silver mask sparkled and shimmered in reflection of the pulsing silver and green flares of light in front of him.
"This one . . . he smells of fear. He carries the faded stink of fleas and ticks and piss," the entity rasped out wildly, "and his powers . . . I sense . . . are as feeble and unpolished as a beggar's tin cup!"
Several long moments of silence followed the creatures hissing and pointed rant.
The woman could feel the present and probing black shadowy gaze of the demon stare wash over her like the heat of a thousand black suns wavering overhead. Beads of sweat began to form beneath her metal mask that rested upon her face. The mage dared not move or speak as he sensed their lives were but twigs beneath this powerful entities great weight.
Finally, the woman moved in a blur, breaking the long silence as she did so.
"I have offended you master," the woman blurted forth in a haste as she spun, her breathing desperate as she burst into motion.
"My judgment was poor and I shall quickly rectify that mistake."
The woman turned in a half circle and did so without any hesitation. She pulled forth a long curved shining metal blade from the folds of her robe as she did so. The woman closed on the man behind her in a single long stride and shoved the tall figure back several paces forcibly into the nearby stone wall.
Her left arm pinned the taller figure with a desperate show of strength while her right hand worked the shining curved long blade beneath the mask of the struggling taller thin man. The blade pressed tightly against the mages fleshy stubble covered throat. It had all happened so quickly and without warning, the mage found that he was nearly helpless in the pin. A choked off desperate cough was all the man could muster at this moment, trapped like a moth plucked by its wings in mid flight.
The woman paused, but only for a second. The pause came because she knew if she slew this mage beneath her blade, she was trapped here, in the Fade. She would be trapped with this dark and powerful demon entity, perhaps forever. But she was left with little choice or say in the matter as it stood. The blade pressed harder into the mages exposed throat and her arm began to move it from left to right.
"Good, good, your loyalty is like sweet honey dripping upon my tongue child," the Demon whispered in a rumbling lusty call, yet still it did not move, it could not move.
"Hold fast your blade then! You have much that needs done and few allies that have shown value of late. And still fewer that have proven themselves trustworthy or useful to our cause. Let us hope this . . . man, does not disappoint . . . either of us."
The woman sighed with relief and released the pressure of the long bladed knife from the mages throat, returning to a more normal stance under the mage. She spun and bowed deeply again towards the demon, keeping her gaze low as she did so.
The knife silently returned to its home within the deep folds of the woman's robes. The man coughed as he was released and found that he could breathe once again. But the man quickly recovered and stood motionless behind the woman, sensing the great danger he was still in.
"My patience . . . thins child," the Demon moaned at the woman. Its sorrow filled plea sounded like a hundred banshees in mournful wails of loved ones they had lost.
"My research reveals us the answer to my freedom, to my rebirth into your world. My debts stand collected and all my favors called up from the denizens of this realm. They bear sweet fruit and yet still I am here, starving to taste them as they hang just out of reach! You have proven loyal and steadfast in your pledge to my goal, yet I grow weary of the long time it is taking you in finding the final piece to complete my return!"
"I know my master and I share your impatience, your frustration, your yearning" the woman groveled.
"Each day that passes their burns a fire of rage within me that seeks to explode and roar and yet this inferno knows no quenching," the woman bellowed forth in a shouted whisper.
"I would see you free my master, loose upon the world in all your glory once again. I would know the taste of my promised favors and the feel of my vengeance satiated after all this time as we together, destroy the Chantry and their Templar's for their past transgressions on us both! It is all that I think of, it consumes my every waking thought!"
"Good, good. Then keep to task, child," the Demon purred to the woman, seemingly pleased with her passion filled words.
"Find me those that can do as I require. Remove these curses from me, my bonds that confine me to this place, so that I may once again take up power in the mortal world!"
"As you command my lord, your desire is my every pleasure," the woman replied.
"Every day I watch for the one you have bayed me watch for. The one you have seen in your visions, the one that will lead us to those that can release you! And each day, although vigilant, I find no sign of a . . . Man of the Clouds and Frost, no man that is . . . scarred by the hand of Azinthe, Demon of the Blazing Rage, no man . . . brimming full with mourning sorrows."
"He will come to you my child, as I have been promised, as I have foreseen. He will come to you, even as breath comes to your waiting breast each new moment. He will come to you seeking to ease his great burdens brought on by the rage of Azinthe himself," the Demon purred once again.
"Keep vigilant and ever watchful woman. Be at the ready to pull this man into our house when the time is upon us. That is all you need focus on!"
"What of the others, the ones in Crimson, the ones from the city by the great eastern sea? Did their minions do as they promised? Did this Red Guild bring you the lore and the gold you required?"
"Yes my dark master," the woman answered with a quick nod.
"They were true to their promise. They seem sympathetic to our cause and seem more than capable allies for us for our future plans, once you are free upon Thedas once again."
"Agreed, my child," the Demon said.
"They seek the most terrible of darkness for the world and I would see us align our cause with theirs. They are of the same blood and fury as we are. Follow the course as I have plotted then. You will find the one touched by Azinthe, he will seek you out. This one will be the one with the means to do as I require. Set him to task. He will do the rest."
"I will not fail you my dark master," the woman said with a low bow, excitement building within her voice.
The dark shadowy char bone form of the demon seemed pleased as well with the exchange. It watched from its center perch, trapped and waiting amidst the flaring twin lights about its imprisoned form.
With that, the pair of robed figures departed the inner chamber, leaving the stone tunnels that lead them there, leaving the black Pyramid in the center of the deep cavern, and finally leaving the massive cavern that rested securely within the Fade. The great darkness that was the Demon, lord of this area of the Fade, sat in silent contemplation, as it had done so many previous nights in its past. It waited for its perfect time to return to the living world, to bond with a mage of Thedas again, and to wreak its special type of dark madness upon the lands. It had waited a very long time for its second chance and it could wait a few more nights.