A Knight-Commanders past…
Young Meredith was riding in a horse drawn carriage with a team of templar hunters; their target… her very own sister. Meredith was not of age to take up a sword and join them, but she felt it necessary to help them find her sister before the death toll rose any higher than it already had.
The family had been housing a dark, dark secret. They were housing and protecting a possessed girl in their very own home, one who had killed night after night when she left the household at dusk to roam the streets, possessed, psychotic and out for blood to augment her powers. And that girl… was the mother and fathers own daughter, and Meredith's younger sister, Amelia. An apostate mage who had recently fallen prey to a demon while in her sleep.
But a mother and father's love for their daughter had stopped them from doing the 'Right Thing' and call in the templar's for aid. And it was only through Meredith's inability to cope with it all after so long that caused her to seek the templar's out for herself and bring them to their home.
Despite Meredith's best attempts, she and the team of templar hunters had arrived only to discover that the entire family had been slain, and Amelia long gone from the household. Distraught as she was, Meredith searched the household and discovered that all of the coin was gone, not by forcible means, but unlocked, as if they had given Amelia coin enough to escape. Despite this, mother and father, along with much of the town guard were murdered, before the templar's could get to her first. Her path to freedom was carved in blood as the town guard-who had received a warning letter from the circle tower-tried to stop her. But by now it was clear that Amelia had not only killed the guards… but her own family in the process. Meredith was only spared because she was away, seeking templar aid in the matter.
Because she had never been sent to the circle, she had no phylactery that the templar's could track her with. But, Meredith and Amelia were once close sisters and best friends. So she chose to lead the templar's to places that she suspected her sister might flee to, because they were places where she once felt safe and free to practice her magic in secret.
The carriage then came to a halt, the team of horses pulling the carriage released a series of 'Neighs' and loud snorts, their breath visible in the cold winter air. The five riders on horseback at the front, and the five riders at the back of the carriage all dismounted from their horses and began to gather around the carriage. They had arrived at yet another location that Meredith had suggested for searching.
Meredith flipped up her black hood on her cloak, and pulled it low over her face, so that she might not be seen if her sister was nearby. No, Amelia had not yet learned that it was Meredith who had alerted the templar's to her downfall and suspected that she might have been seen one night by an anonymous witness during one of her killing sprees, and not by her own elder sister.
A knight-lieutenant then opened the carriage door, offered his hand out to Meredith and helped her out. Everyone then encircled her, waiting to hear what she had to say about their newest stop, one of only many that the team of hunters had on their long list of locations.
Meredith breathed deeply and exhaled slowly, her breath visible. It escaped her small nostrils in scared, nervous puffs of cold air. She then pointed towards an abandoned boat house at the nearby lake, "My sister would come here to practice her fire spells… She always felt safe… knowing that there was an abundance of water nearby, should anything happen…" Meredith said slowly, and with a hint of sadness in her voice.
"Right…" said the knight-lieutenant, he then turned to his men, "Spread out, make sure all the sides are covered, so that she may not escape. And be careful, men. By now, there's likely nothing human left inside of this young girl.
If she's in there, don't listen to her pleas, and run her through with your blade if you have an opening."
Meredith cringed after hearing that. She knew what her sister had done, but the mental image was almost too much to bear. But she still needed to follow them. There were so many hiding places inside this abandoned building; crawl spaces, up in the rafters, underneath flipped boats, closets and behind other doors and a large space under the staircases. There were other places, underneath the U shaped docks that she and Meredith used to hide when they… played 'Hide and Seek' in their youth, happier times no less.
But with the arrival of winter, and the lake being frozen over, there was no way any human could hide under the frozen lake, even with an overturned boat in the middle of the U-shaped docks.
Three templar's with swords and shields entered the front doors, some templar archers stood on the snowy ground outside, keeping a close eye out, should the girl dart from the building during the sweep, then they'd be tasked with shooting her in the back as she tried to flee.
Still, the interior search had commenced. Two templar scouts entered the docks, the knight-lieutenant entered next, followed by young Meredith-who clutched his shoulder the entire way-who was leading rest of the hunting team of nearly twenty templar's-she assisted with a simple method of 'Point and search' and 'point and search' throughout the whole docking boathouse.
Meredith would simply lead the templar's to a place which she knew one could hide and simply point it out to the templar's and they'd search it. But they were always coming up empty handed, and it seemed that this would be yet another failed search attempt. And some of the templar's were beginning to get suspicious. Was Meredith really helping them search places which she knew where her sister would try to hide? Or was she just buying time for her young sister to get away, while they were sent on a wild goose chase?
Two templar's were then approaching a boat that was tied up inside the U shaped inner docks. It was old and rotting, its lower bow frozen into the icy water. It had been passed many times during the sweep of the dark building, and Meredith hadn't yet point it out to the search team just yet. Only now, did the templar hunters notice a dark blanket in the middle of the bow with some sort of large bulge sticking out of it.
A third templar was called over, armed with a bow and he drew it back and aimed it down at the bulge as the two templar's approached from either side, swords at the ready, shields raised. One of the templar's then moved his hand towards the edge of the blanket, while the point of his sword was pointed towards the edge of the blanket and he swiftly pulled the blanket up with a 'Hyaa!' shout. They needed to be quick. If the girl was underneath, they'd only have a moment or two before she awoke or had gotten to her feet to flee.
The shout attracted the attention of every other templar and Meredith as they looked over at the inner docks. The templar armed with the bow then released the tension of the bow string and lowered the bow at the same time. He then breathed a sigh of relief, "There's no one in here."
The bulge was only a wooden box with tools and other unimportant items stacked within. Two broken fishing poles were lying next to the box. Again, nothing important or dangerous here. It seemed as if yet again the search had come up empty.
A massive 'BOOM' then rang out from overhead. Bits of metal, shingles, wood beams, splinters and planks then came raining down upon all of the templar's heads as the entire roof and rafters exploded in a blinding fireball. A templar got a three foot sharp wooden stick right between the eyes as it flew right into the eye slit of his helmet. Two other templar's were crushed by a massive section of roof that had collapsed on top of them. And the two unlucky templar's standing on the U shaped dock fell into the water as its icy surface cracked open right after the explosion and they were dragged to the bottom of the lake thanks to their heavy armour.
Meredith and those who were left then recovered from the explosion and rain of debris as they looked up to where the roof had once been, and seemingly levitating on thin air were three horrible abominations. Massive in size, with pitch black locks of hair, burning red eyes, disfigured skin and elongated fingers, each tipped with a long sharp claw.
"So… you have finally caught up with me." said the largest abomination of the three in an other-worldly voice, filled with evil and hissed like a serpent.
"It's her! The demon child!" said one foolish templar as he charged at her with his shield raised and sword drawn back. The abomination simple drew its hand back and hit him with a force so massive that it sent him catapulting towards the outer lake and he hit so hard that he broke through the ice and sent a huge plume of water up.
The younger templar recruits shuffled back out of fear, some were visibly trembling. Before he got to ordering his men, the knight-lieutenant was kind enough to shove Meredith underneath a nearby table and ordered her to remain hidden. He then turned back to his men while drawing his sword at the same time.
"Maker preserve us!" he shouted, all the other templar's shouted it as well.
They then all formed a semi-circle around the three abominations, with the other templar's from outside entering the warehouse as well. Though the abominations themselves simply remained standing tall, glaring down at the many templar's inching towards them with an eerily calm attitude.
"Be gone demon! The maker commands you!" the knight-lieutenant ordered to the largest abomination.
The abomination then roared mightily and raised both of its clawed hands high into the air, and from the very ground itself came numerous shade demons, skeletons also rose from the icy water and began attacking the templar's as well and all hell broke loose.
The fighting was fierce, and Meredith cowered underneath the table as swords clashed, shields were pounded and skeletons shattered into tiny bits, templar's were stabbed or ripped apart by the shades and the knight-lieutenant was attempting to take the largest abomination on single-handedly. He knew that if it fell, then all of its summoned minions would disappear as well. The smaller abominations were of less importance.
Meredith watched in awe as the knight-lieutenant bashed one abominations with his shield, then slashed a rope tied to a beam and down came a stack of wooden beam, landing directly on top of it and taking it out of the fight. Suddenly, a screaming templar came flying right at Meredith and she screamed and covered her head. His body then crashed hard against the table and flipped it off over her as he continued on and crashed straight through the far wall behind her.
Meredith then raised her head, flipped her hood down and looked around. The templar's weren't doing so well against the shades or skeletons as they were outnumbered and fighting in a confined space. The table had been shattered and she was now right out in the open, and before she knew it, one of the smaller abominations looked over at her and waved one of its ugly arms at her and two nearby shades hissed at her. They then began to charge across the boathouse to attack the poor, helpless girl as they were ordered to.
Meredith released another scream just as they raised their claws and got ready to rip her to pieces. Then she heard something, "NO~!" the largest abomination screamed from overhead. And as soon as Meredith looked up, she saw that it had descended from the higher levels and smacked the smaller abomination across the room with its large arm and it crashed into a large pile of stacked boats and was buried beneath them. Though this time, the largest abomination had shouted this last word with a strong hint of a female voice, combined with an other worldly voice. Meredith looked up as she largest abomination began to rise back up towards the second level while waving its arm towards the shades, the shades paused, then moved on to attack the other templar's. She also saw the largest abomination with its hand stretched out to her, its blazing fiery eyes not burning as bright as before as it looked down at her.
It then howled as the knight-lieutenant sliced his sword across its forearm and drew black blood, it was deep, but its limb was not severed. The abomination brought its other hand down for a massive overhead blow, which the knight-lieutenant managed to block as he raised his shield up over his head. But he was knocked to his knees in the process. It then wrapped its large claws around his shield and tore it from his arm, while the other hand grabbed him around the throat. And because they were up on the second floor, it jumped down from the walkway and slammed him right into the ground. The shockwave knocked the other templar's off their feet and they were quickly pounced upon by the shades and skeletons and finished off.
All quieted down, and the shades disappeared back into the ground through black vortexes, the skeletons fell to pieces, their shields, bows and swords clanging loudly against the wooden floor. The only one left alive was Meredith and she was beginning to sit up, ever so slowly. As she looked over to where the knight-lieutenant once was, she saw the abomination rising up, with only the knight-lieutenants winged metal helmet held between the abominations hands. Blood was dripping from beneath the helmet, so Meredith knew that the entire helmet and head had been torn from the templar's body. It then turned it over and over in its hands as it looked down at the small helmet. It then placed it between the palms of its massive hands and crushed with ease, a sickening crunching and squishing sound ringing out as it crumpled beneath the massive abominations hands.
"Amelia…" Meredith said softly. She could not believe that this was the same kind and gentle younger sister that she once knew… or was it. It then started to float towards Meredith. But what it said next seemed to confirm that it did indeed recognize her, in a way.
"Ah… so many fond memories that this one holds of you." It said to Meredith in its evil, other-worldly voice. "She agreed to fully accept my power with only one exception… that I not harm you, and only you. Meredith, sister of Amelia."
"So you're not my sister… you really are a demon!" said Meredith as she began to back away, long metal chains hanging from the second floor ran over her shoulders and swung back and forth in front of her as she continued to back up.
The abomination continued to float towards Meredith, tapping its long claws against one another in delight, "Oh this is so very amusing. That it was you all along who betrayed her trust. Poor Amelia. She was so very convinced that it was her parents that called the templar's to her house. She was so very angry at them for betraying her trust that she… killed them."
"No! You lie! You killed them! I know that demons control their hosts and make them do things that they would never do!"
"But it was her choice to give in to her anger and summon me to do the deed." the abomination said with an evil laugh. Suddenly it grabbed its head and howled in pain and dropped to its knees.
"No! Get… out!" the abomination said in a female voice. Then it howled and convulsed on the ground and slowly, right before Meredith's eyes, it began to shrink in size, its long claws transformed into a soft female hands and its dark and grossly deformed skin had returned to a normally, humanly healthy pink. Now, she was completely naked on the floor, Amelia, back in human form for the time being.
"Amelia!" Meredith screamed as she tore off her cloak and put in overtop her younger sister as she helped her sit up. She then began to shake her younger sister, "Amelia! Wake up! Please!"
Amelia slowly opened her eyes and looked around, her hair was damp with sweat and she shivered in the cold air, but she managed to reach forward and hug her older sister Meredith.
"Meredith? Oh, I'm so sorry! I felt his thoughts! He wanted to kill you! But I wouldn't let him!"
Amelia then hugged her sister so hard that she gasped for air. She shivered, her teeth chattered and she groaned in what seemed to be pain. "I can't hold him off for long, he's trying to take over once again!" Amelia cried.
Before Meredith could say anything, Amelia stood up, stretched her arms outward and grabbed hold of two nearby chains. She then began to twist and twirl her arms around at lightning speed, the chains encircling her arms and getting tighter with each turn, right until they were wrapped all the way from her wrists to her elbows and constricted tightly around each arm.
Meredith could see Amelia's face grimace and contort in pain, she was obviously fighting this demon with every fibre of her being. "Please, Meredith, you have to kill me! You're the only one who can stop me now!"
Meredith picked up a nearby templar's sword and held it in two very trembling hands and held the tip over her sisters heart. Amelia was silently pleading for her to do it the entire time. Her bright blue eyes were glistening in the torch light, her small lips and her cheeks were quivering. Meredith then drew the blade back and screamed in effort. But she couldn't bring herself to do it and let go of the sword and it clanged loudly against the ground.
"I can't… I can't kill my own sister…"
Amelia roared like a demon and attempted to charge at Meredith, but because her arms were held by the thick chains she stopped just a foot or two from her Meredith. Her eyes glowed bright red once again and her teeth began to morph into fangs as saliva sprayed against Meredith's face. "Then I'm going to kill you!"
But again Amelia regained control and bit her bottom lip with her sharp teeth, the rush of pain helped her momentarily regain her mind and composure, if only for a few moments. She then dropped to her knees and unwound her arms from the chains. She spotted a dagger lying nearby, so she picked it up and began to slowly carve a zigzag pattern into her flesh, starting from her wrist and all the way up to her inner elbow. She did this so that the pain would keep her mind focused as he continued to try and beg her sister to help end her misery.
"Don't let me be his slave, sister…" Amelia pleaded, "When he takes over, I can no longer control my body and I am moved like a puppet. The worst part is that I can still see through my own eyes, sister… I watched as he brutally murdered our family with my own powers and then massacred the town guard as he… I tried to escape…"
"There has to be another way!" Meredith cried, tears starting to fall from her own eyes. "Can you stay in control for a little while longer? I'll go and get help!"
Amelia grabbed Meredith's wrist as she tried to move away, "No! There's no time! He could take over at any moment! And my blood is only going to make him stronger once he regains control. You know all about blood magic and its power! but I have to keep cutting myself in order to remain in control… the pain helps…"
"Amelia… don't ask me to-"
Amelia then transferred the knife to Meredith's hand and wrapped the other one around the handle as well, stopping her. And together they stood up, Amelia placing the point directly over her heart, seemingly unnoticed by Meredith as Amelia ran her other hand across Meredith's cheek and pulled her close. "Alright… you don't have to do anything… except…" she whispered. This caused Meredith to lean forward in order to hear what her younger sister was about to say.
"Except what?" Meredith asked. Amelia didn't answer, she ran her hand across Meredith's cheek, then onto her shoulder. Her other hand running up her arm until she grabbed her softly by the other shoulder.
"Forgive me!" She screamed, and her grip around her sisters shoulders tightened as she pushed her back so hard that when Meredith's back crashed against the nearby wall, the blade was pushed in, piercing her little sisters heart.
"No! What have you done?" Meredith cried in anguish, but her sister held her tight, not letting her move away. Their heads and cheeks were pressed against one other's. Amelia's breath's were escaping in painful gasps.
"Don't… let me go, sister." Amelia begged painfully, "Hold me…"
Though she was in so much emotional pain, Meredith wrapped her arms around her sisters neck and shoulders and pulled her close. "This isn't what I wanted!" Meredith sobbed, "I wanted you to live! To find a way to save you!"
"You couldn't… even if you wanted to…" Amelia said weakly into her sisters ear, her grip around the back of her neck was weakening. "Just know… that you've given me peace…"
"Amelia-" Meredith started.
"Goodbye sister… I'm glad you weren't a mage… but…"
"But what?" Meredith asked, their cheeks were still pressed against one another, and she couldn't look into her sisters eyes as she continued to speak and plead.
Don't… let… other's… share… my…fate…" Amelia begged.
She breathed her final breath and her grip around Meredith's neck gave way and her hands fell against the wooden floor. Meredith lowered her sister to the ground, tears dripping from her eyes as she mourned and cried over her little sisters death. She had always hoped to be able to save her, if they were found her. But this showed that even if found, a possessed mage, and a blood mage could never, ever be saved. Death or tranquility was the only way. Tranquility was not an option for Amelia, as all the accompanying templar's were dead. But still, she felt that that wouldn't have helped… she needed to die to be completely free of the spirit possessing her.
As she continued to run her hand across her dead sisters cheek, Meredith heard a noise. Piles of wood were being shuffling or moved away from nearby. She grabbed a nearby sword handle and looked over angrily. And in one corner of the room, she saw a young male mage attempting to climb out from beneath a massive pile of wood and beams covering him.
Nearby, in the other corner, she also saw a young female mage pushing aside some piles of wood covering her. But large wooden boats were still pinning her to the ground. As were there massive beams lying across the younger male mages back. These had to have been the small abominations that had once accompanied her sister in the battle against the templar's. But both had seemed to have recovered and were back in their 'normal' form… for the time being.
The younger male mage reached out towards Meredith, and pleaded with a weak voice, "Help… Please… help us…"
The young female also attempted to reach out as she laid on her back, "Yes… Please… help…"
Meredith carefully laid her little sister to the ground and left her cloak covering her small body. She then walked over and retrieved the knight-lieutenants sword and shield. She strapped the sun shield over her back and placed the sword in between her belt and hip without uttering a word to the two nearby mages. She then walked over to the templar archers torch, still burning brightly and planted upright in the snow.
She clutched the torch in her hand and walked towards the entrance of what was left of the boathouse and stood in the doorway, looking towards both mages with cold, uncaring eyes. She then tossed the still burning torch towards a pile of cloth boat covers and damaged, un-repaired boats nearby and both quickly caught fire.
"NO!" screamed the former abomination boy, "Not that! Kill us if you must! But not that!"
"Don't let us burn, please!" cried the former abomination female mage, "Stab us! Kill us! But don't let us burn alive!"
Meredith's eyes began to glow as the fire began to spread and engulf the entire boat house in its brilliant burning flames, yet she did nothing to end the suffering of the other mages, she chose to rather let them burn and suffer for their crimes. She unwillingly ended the suffering of the only mage that she felt worth doing that deed for. Any others… could die without the least amount of pity or help on her part. Better they suffer before they met their unnatural end. And with this thought, Meredith began to back away from the burning building as more and more of it began to catch fire and burn.
Soon she sat atop the nearby snowy hillside and watched with cold, callus eyes as the last of the boathouse was engulfed in the inferno, as the screams and cries of agony of the two mages still inside began to echo across the empty fields and lake nearby. Meredith watched until the screams finally stopped, many minutes later.
Nearly an hour or two had passed until a small team of templar's-only five strong-had arrived at the burned out and still smoking boat house. They discovered a young blonde haired girl who was staring at the burned remains with blank, emotionless eyes. She didn't even seem to notice their presence. Still, she had a knight-lieutenants templar sun shield strapped across her back and an officers sword attached to her hip.
"You there, miss, what is your name?" The knight-sergeant asked.
Only now did Meredith look over at them for a moment, then back to the boathouse. "Meredith…" she answered.
The knight-sergeant nodded, "Our knight-lieutenant asked us to report at dawn if he didn't return from his latest hunt… You wear his shield, young mistress… Do you know what has become of him?"
Meredith looked down at the ground and shook her head, "He is dead…" she answered honestly, "But I have avenged his death and killed all three abominations which have slain both he and his team of templar hunters."
All of the templar's gasped, including the templar-sergeant, "Y-you killed three abominations… single-handedly?"
Meredith nodded and answered with a voice devoid of emotion, "Yes… one way or another… they have all died by my hand…"
All of the templar's looked at each other and nodded in approval, "Amazing! Incredible! Unbelievable indeed!" they all said one after another.
The knight-sergeant nodded in agreement as he began to walk towards Meredith. He then knelt down in front of her, "Can you tell us where you live? So that we may escort you back, young mistress."
Meredith shook her head, "My family is dead… slain by my sister, the abomination which I have just killed inside this very building, ser templar. I am alone, and without a home to return to."
The knight-sergeant nodded in pity, "Would you like to come back with us?" he asked, "We'll take you back to our home base. It would be an honour to care for one who has avenged our templar brothers and sisters and killed many abominations before she was ever a templar!"
"Aye! Absolutely! I agree!" said all the other templar's in excitement.
"Very well… I have no where else to go…" Meredith answered plainly.
The templar's then placed the young girl onto one of their horses and led her back to their home base. She had already proven herself a slayer of abominations, and avenger of slain templar's. A true knight of the templar order.
She remained with the order and as time proved, she had no love for mages and always did… ' what had to be done' to control them. And in record time she rose through the ranks of the templar order and became the youngest knight-captain ever in Kirkwall soon after she entered adulthood. Many in the order followed her loyally and all knew that she would soon become knight-commander of the templar order one day… even if her methods seemed a little… extreme.
Hello Readers. Only recently have I played a Full Templar and Anti-mage playthrough on Dragon age 2. If you do... you discover Meredith's sad, sad past :*(
But to me it was far too brief, and as I have a habit of continuing bits of stories I hear from games, I decided to invent this small story of Knight-Commander Meredith's past. It only went so far into the game as saying that her sister turned into an abomination, was hunted and killed and that was it... This is my own idea of what happened during that 'Hunt'.
Read and leave a comment, please :) Good? Bad? Let me know!