DISCLAIMER: I do not own Dragon Age, damn it!
A/N: This is yet another fill on the delicious Dragon Age Kink Meme LJ.
Do note the opening chapters detail the events in Origins and then move onto Awakening.
Magical Realism
Chapter One.
Neria Surana watched in the dimness as Alistair fumbled with the pouch that he kept belted to his side. The Dead Trenches were taking its toll on the group- Neria yearned to be out of the dark and around people, even if it was in Orzammar, she knew the isolation was getting to Alistair as well. The stench of Dark spawn was stifling and now they were pressed of time in finding Branka; especially considering they had found evidence that the dark spawn were growing in numbers here. If anything, only Oghren and Morrigan seemed to be marginally comfortable in the stifling darkness. Neria was jerked from her thoughts when Alistair finished fumbling and pulled out a dried rose and held it out to his elf companion.
"I want you to have this Neria, I found it at Ostagar. Just to show you that through all of this darkness, there is still beauty in this world"
Neria looked at the proffered rose and then at Alistair before accepting it gently, knowing that it was very fragile and all but leaped onto Alistair, hugging him tightly and kissing him on the cheek, the affection for the man in front of her growing more and more each second.
"Thank you, Alistair. This means so much to me"
Neria whispered to him before pulling away from him and touching his arm affectionately. Cradling the rose to her chest with her free arm- she looked at the one man who could reclaim the throne and who she was sure now, loved. Alistair's cheeks were red and Neria knew from the smile on his face that he was happy with her reaction, with her affection. He cleared his throat and gestured back to their campsite, were you could just see the menacing glint of Oghren's battle-axe.
"We should go back, before Oghren comes marching after us"
Alistair told the elf-mage, his voice was slightly deeper in tone as he gestured back towards the party camp. Neria smiled at the man who held her affections and began to walk the short distance back to camp, holding each other's hands. Crawling into her tent after casting protection wards, Neria brought light into her small enclosed space with her staff, opening her pack and pulling out a worn hard back. Flipping through the worn, yellowing pages; Neria came to the story that she sought and placed the rose in between the pages before flicking further forward until she reached another story. Sighing, she read the opening paragraph before closing the book shut with a snap and rolled over and looked up at the fabric roof.
She knew that she couldn't allow herself to hope, that she couldn't let that small place inside of her take over once more that told her that she could have a happily ever after, that she found her prince charming like the ones that she read about in her story book and that it was all Alistair.
Quickly she quashed the notion and stored it away. But doubt was already in her mind that maybe this notion that she had held for most of her young adult life wasn't just naive and that she wasn't foolish for thinking this way again at all. That everything that happened at the tower- in helping Jowan try to escape to be with Lilly which resulted in Duncan conscripting her to save her life being lived as a Tranquil was all just part of her own fairytale, as tragic as it had been.
Clutching her book as if it were a life line, Neria rolled over and tried to harness her thoughts and feelings. She didn't miss the Circle Tower, but she missed some of the people inside of it. She missed Duncan and she missed being outside and feeling the wind, but then she remembered the stories she read in the library as an apprentice; the stories that had helped her through the lonely nights when she could pretend that Templar Cullen was her prince and she the princess and wondered if maybe it weren't so crazy to think after all.
"Warden, are you awake?"
She felt herself being shaken and she jerked upright, not realizing she had finally fallen asleep after what had felt like days. She heard her name being called by a gruff, deep voice that she eventually recognized to be Oghren's and knew that it was her turn to be on watch. Sitting up, she quickly stretched, not really listening to Oghren's report as she picked up her staff and her book of fairytales and sat herself down in front of the small flames that had been burning for some hours.
"Thank you, Oghren"
Neria called to the dwarf who had just retreated into the tent that Neria had just vacated. She heard a belch in response and the clinking of glass which signified to the elf that Oghren had settled down. Opening her book, she began to read from the beginning of the volume; reading the words that she had read so many times over the last years as she continued her inner war with her heart and her brain. Just as she was becoming immersed in the story, her thoughts and reading were punctuated by the sound of moving rock. Closing her book and standing, she picked up her staff and brought fire into her staff and sent it shooting through the cavern where they were camped.
"Circle Mages, always studying"
She whirled around at the disparaging voice, fully alert to find Morrigan standing a few paces away holding her staff out and ready to fight. Neria looked at Morrigan as the sprinkling of moving rock sounded again. This time, the two mages moved forward towards the sound and as Neria extended the light outward, feeling the swell of power as Morrigan readied to cast.
"Urgh, that stench is worse than the dwarf"
Morrigan took a step back from the entryway of the tunnel that they had happened upon; repulsed at the stench emitting from it and Neria finally saw the opening that they had been seeking since they had come to a stop in the cavern. Turning around, she hurried back to the camp, rousing first Alistair who in turn, disturbed the drinking dwarf as Neria pulled the two tents down and hastily repacked them. Alistair came to help the elf-mage close her bulging pack. Primarily the small group's healer, it fell to Neria to carry the bulk of their travelling gear- not that she minded not being in the fight half the time.
"Morrigan and I found a tunnel, it's not going to be...pretty"
Neria told Alistair, nodding towards the entryway where Morrigan stood waiting for her three companions to finish up the hurried, pack down of their temporary camp. Oghren had wandered over to the mage and from her facial expression, was making comments of a lewd nature. The two companions watched Oghren make what could only be construed as an obscene gesture before Morrigan called out to them
"Come on, Neria, the smell isn't getting any better and besides, the little man thinks I'm inexplicably attracted to him. Alistair, I promise you that once we are away from this stench that you can have some more attention from the elf-mage"
Trying not to smile at Morrigan's comments and risk offending Alistair and fully knowing that Morrigan couldn't stand to be around the man, for whatever reason Neria ignored her friend's comment and hefted the heavy pack onto her back and fixed her herb pouch to the belt that she wore around her torn and dirty robes. Handing each of her companions strong pouches of herbs to ward off the stench and kept consciousness; they set off into the dark way, lit only by the light emitting from both Neria and Morrigan's staffs'. Rounding a corner, Neria stopped short at the sight of sacs of flesh that grew from the walls. As her companions trudged on, trying to avoid touching the protrusions, Neria on the other hand couldn't resist the opportunity to study one of the biggest sacs as they walked past them.
"I knew you were always off in the Fade, Neria but this is a new front, even for you"
Morrigan said as she poked the elf in the side as Neria looked at the sample she had cut from the sac and enclosed it into an empty vial for further study. Satisfied now, she allowed Morrigan to drag her away and further into the labyrinth of tunnels. Whispers were echoing around them, a macabre poem which described an unknown horror that no one wanted to neither know nor face.
"I don't like this"
Neria whispered, her voice stammering her nervousness; the only hint that she was uncomfortable. She held her staff out in front of her, ready to attack and her companions echoed her movements. They rounded one last turn and stopped dead at the sight of a hunched over female dwarf who was clearly tainted and muttering the very poem they had just heard.
"Hespith?"
Oghren was the first one to react, recognizing the tainted dwarf in front of them. He took a step forward towards her and stopped just short of touching her, lowering his axe until it was level with his hip; not threatening but still ready to fight if needed. Hespith began to speak about the House Branka, about the quest to find the Anvil of the Void and the monstrosities that had taken place; what Branka had allowed the dark spawn to do when they had captured the house; which was to allow the dark spawn to turn one of their own into an abomination, wiping out the entire House Branka in the process. Neria could see the disbelief in Oghren's stance and his cursing as Hespith turned around and ran away from them, disappearing around yet another corner.
"Hespith, come back here"
Oghren growled, hoisting his axe over his shoulder and breaking into a run after her, his companions following close on his heels. For once, it seemed Morrigan was speechless as they happened upon a stinking, enormous...thing writhing and seemingly anchored to the ground, tentacles flailing. Neria was the first to move; summoning ice within the cavern and slowing the movements of what she was sure was now a dark spawn broodmother and formerly was the dwarf Laryn. As the broodmother roared as the ice tore into her flesh, Oghren and Alistair leapt forward as Morrigan began to single-handedly fend off the influx of dark spawn who had come to the broodmother's defence. As Oghren slashed his way through tentacles and flesh with Alistair close on his heals and Morrigan and Neria defending them from the persisting genlocks, Oghren managed to dodge the vomit and stench of the fighting broodmother to climb up her gluttonous body and cleave her head clear off.
The amount of blood that spilled from the severed neck was enough to turn Neria off eating meat for the rest of her life. She persisted, however in ending the stream of dark spawn who were enraged that they had killed their broodmother and determined to end the group's lives. But not before getting through Morrigan and Neria's combined force of elemental and arcane magic which allowed Alistair and Oghren to slump in a corner, weary and rest. When the last genlock had been disposed of in a rather unsatisfactory manner, did Neria turn around to the dwarf and human who were drinking from Oghren's never ending supply of ale like their lives depended on it.
Leaving the two with Morrigan, Neria followed the whisper of song that was calling to her, which as she crossed through the tunnels, became louder and louder until Neria happened upon the source. Upon touching it, she felt a rush of raw power sing through her and realized that this was lyrium in its purest form, something that she had only ever read about in a book and never thought she would encounter in her lifetime. Now Neria felt energized and ready to cast were as before she had felt drained and tired.
Footsteps that she recognized behind her alerted her of her companions approaching and she looked up and let go of the lyrium vein to accept her staff back from Alistair, their hands touching as he held the staff before relinquishing it to her.
"We are getting closer to the Anvil, I can feel it"
Morrigan announced and Neria nodded in agreement, knowing that the lyrium was likely singing to the witch as loudly as it was to the elf. They pressed on, the amount of lyrium veins almost doubling in number until they came out into another cavern where there stood stone shaped crudely in the form of a humanoid. One approached and began to speak; introducing himself as the legendary Paragon Caridin and telling another part of the story about the Anvil of the Void that Neria and her companions hadn't been told about in Orzammar by Bhelen.
When Caridin had finished speaking, did Neria tell them what they had come for- to find Branka or to return with a crown for the next dwarf king of Orzammar to result in aid for the blight that needed to be stopped topside. As if the dwarf had heard her name being called, Branka herself emerged from the darkness. Neria stopped herself from calling to Oghren not to go to his wife but she resisted, opting to stay silent as Caridin began to argue with the dwarf over why the Anvil shouldn't be destroyed and Neria saw the choice she was going to have to make- destroy the anvil or return the only living paragon back to the Orzammar with the Anvil intact and an army of golems at her disposal. Caridin's story however weighed heavily on her mind and Neria found she couldn't condemn innocents into being imprisoned into something they didn't volunteer for. Decision made, Neria tried to bargain with both the golem and Branka knowing that Branka wouldn't be happy with what Neria wanted...regardless of the fact that the golem was willing to compromise, to a certain extent of course.
Branka drew her sword and leapt into action, intent on killing Oghren and everyone else who would stop her from securing the safety of the Anvil. Given no choice, Neria began to defend herself and her party as Branka attacked them using abilities everyone knew no dwarf should have until the golem finished with Branka. He turned towards Neria and thanked her for the right choice that she had made, for stopping history repeating itself once more before advancing to the Anvil and fulfilling his side of the bargain.
Caridin presented Neria with the crown forged of a lightweight metal that had appeared from Maker knew where. As they walked back the way they came, Neria felt a shockwave ripple through the room urging them to move quicker and this was how Neria knew that Caridin had destroyed the Anvil after so many years of protecting it. Heart heavy with enlightenment over what had transpired through greed over power; Neria began to lead the expedition that would return them to Orzammar where she would crown Prince Bhelen King of Orzammar with the blessing and crown of the Paragon Caridin who she was certain would never return to the city. Weary, she caught Alistair's hand and gripped it tightly, wanting assurance that she had done the right thing, once more doubting her decisions that she was making for the good of Feraldan.
