Wizard, Warden, Champion?
Disclaimer: I don't own Dragon Age or The Dresden file. They are rightful the property of Bioware and Jim Butcher.
Author's note: Normally I won't be doing this as I suck at writing, plus I have bad grammar and spelling. But this idea won't get out of my head, so here we are, with my first attempt at a fanfiction story. If anyone would be so kind as to let me know of any grammar or spelling error, I'll be grateful for the help. Also I will appreciate if a responsible Beta would accept to correct this story.
"We live in strange times" Bob said philosophically. "They're peers, of a sort, Harry. Hey, word is that even the Almighty and Lucifer worked a deal on Job. Spider-Man has teamed up with the Sandman before. Luke and Vader did the Emperor. It happens."
"Spider-Man is pretend and doesn't count," I said.
"You start drawing distinctions like this now?" Bob asked. "Besides, he's real. Like, somewhere."
I blinked. "Um. What?"
"You think your universe is the only universe? Harry, come on. Creation, totally freaking huge. Room enough for you and Spider-Man both".
...
Bob's eyes widened. "Oh. Oooooohhhhhhhh. Uriel's people—Murphy's dad and so on—did they say anything about your body?"
"That it wasn't available," I said.
"But not that it was gone?" Bob pressed.
"No," I said. "They . . . they didn't say that."
. . .
". . . but that means that I'm dead right?"
"There's a difference between dead and . . . and gone."
. . .
"I'm headed for the great beyond and you still won't give me a straight answer" I demanded, smiling.
Uriel regarded me pleasantly. He said nothing.
"I tell you what big guy just tell me something, something useful, I'll be happy with every I get"
He pursed his lips and thought about it for a moment. Then he said "No matter where you go, there you are"
(Excerpts from Ghost Story)
Chapter 1: No Rest for a Wizard
Given the way my life has typically progressed, I probably should have guessed that What Came Next was pain. A whole lot of pain. I tried to take a breath, and a searing burst of agony radiated out from my chest. I held off on the next breath for as long as I could, but eventually I couldn't put it off anymore, and again fire spread across my chest. I repeated that cycle for several moments, my entire reality consumed by the simple struggle to breathe and to avoid the pain. I was on the losing side of things, and if the pain didn't exactly lessen, it did, eventually, become more bearable. I felt the rest of my body next. Which turned out to be completely naked. I could feel something rough and hard against my skin. I clenched my fingers, but something was wrong with them. They barely moved. It was as though someone had replaced my bones and flesh with lead weights, heavy and inert, and my tendons and muscles were too weak to break the inertia. But I felt hard earth beneath my fingertips.
"Holy Maker that corpse just moved," a startled voice cried.
"Easy Caver, it not an abomination," said an older male voice. "It seem like he's still alive."
"Well then, we can't leave him like this," replied a womanly voice in an older motherly tone. "Caver, dress him with the clothes from the other corpse, I know it's not proper but there's no other choice."
"Sure there's another choice," replied the startled voice from before who must be Caver. "We leave him and continue south."
"We will do no such thing," stated a different woman's voice resolutely. "That traitorous bastard, Loghain left us all to die at Ostagar and I'm will not do the same."
"Come on, stop being a virtuous idiot and start being realistic," raged Caver. "We have to keep moving, there are Darkspawn everywhere. We 're already being slowed down by your wounded templar husband so why burden ourselves with another man who is going to die any second now?"
Darkspawn? What the hell are Darkspawn? Being a wizard; I knew plenty of supernatural entities and creatures. Hell, I could list enough of them to fill out an entire book. But the thing is that the supernatural realms are far bigger, than the material world, and humankind is hugely outnumbered. I could spend a lifetime learning about new beasties and barely scratch the surface.
Time to see what kind of trouble was in now. My eyelids were in the same condition as everything else. They didn't want to move. But I made them. I opened them and cried out weakly at the intensity of the light.
"He sounds quite lively to me," add a young feminine voice.
I waited for a moment, and then tried again to see clearly. Then again. On the four or five hundredth try, I was finally able to see. I was laying down on brown earth of a mountain trail with other corpses strung along it path. I turned my head to look at my audience. It made my head feel like it was about to fly apart every time I twitched it, but I persevered. There were six of them, three men and women. Oh and a dog of some strange breed that bore a similarity to the American Bandogge Mastiff.
The female speaker was good looking, round eighteen years old, with black curls that framed her face and reach down to her bare shoulders. Her eyes were a light golden brown colour and she possessed a pale skin tone. She wore a white corset over the top of sliver long sleeved shirt with matching pants and had brown knee high boot. There was chainmail belted on her back and front that started just below her breasts and ended just before her knees. Around her neck she had tied a red and purple neckerchief. Held in her right hand was what I recognised as a wizards staff.
I met her eyes briefly and she hastily looked away. Judging by the way her face flushed, it was due to my current state of dress, or therefore lack of, that had her look away and not for her fear of triggering a soulgaze.
While I have been in many awkward situations such as being caught by Charity Carpenter having her teenage daughter Molly exiting my hotel room shower or pretending to be my brother Thomas's boyfriend to avoid getting arrested for snooping around his apartment, I had been clothed during them. This however is like that cliché nightmare that everyone has had at one point, where you find with little to no clothes in public and everyone laughing to you. While no one was currently laughing, this being real and not a dream hardly made me feel better.
"Can I please have some clothes before I die of Hypothermia," My tongue didn't work right. My lips didn't, either. The words came out a slushy mumble.
"Well, if that were to happen it would settle this argument and make Caver happy which is rare," joked a young man, who I guessed to be somewhere in his mid twenty's. I judge him to be related to the teenage girl, my guess is an older brother, as he possessed the same colour eyes, hair and skin tone. He was handsome in a rugged sort of way, what with his short wind blow style hair and full beard. He had red tribal paint on face which started under his left eye and continued on in a downward curve that end half way down his right check. He wore grey plated amour on arms, legs and the front of his upper body but not on his back which instead was covered with a thick grey fleece lined small brown jacket. Fixed diagonally to his back was a big double edged two handed sword that was near three quarters his height.
"Sorry if I'm not cheerful at moment, seeing as we are presently homeless refugees fleeing from a horde of monsters," snapped Caver. He was a typical macho teenager. Tall, muscled, and going by the glower on his face, he had an aggressive behaviour. His facial features were similar to the previous man except the eyes were blue in colour and he had no beard. His hair, which was done in a left part style, and skin tone was the same colour as the other two which thanks to highly trained observational skill obtained through years of professional investigation lead me to the conclusion that the three were siblings. Unlike the prior outfits his was relatively simple. Brown pants with match knee high boots and a long sleeveless sand colour over shirt with yellow shoulders and collar. He had too had long double edged two handed sword on his back mirroring his brother.
"All the more reason for you to hurry and clothe him already," retorted one of the other women. She was well muscled in an appealing feminie way. Tied to each of her upper biceps were matching brown leather band. Her hair was orange, done in a loose shoulder length ponytail and used a brown leather headband to keep any hair from falling in front of her face. Her eyes were a pale green with a dusting of faint freckles under them and across her nose. She was dress in light brown pants, knee high brown boots, a white long sleeveless shirt and over that had wore a brown leather no back singlet which had diamond shaped metalled studs woven in at regular intervals. She was armed with a broadsword and a distorted hexagon shape shield that had a symbol of a downward pointing divine sword engraved on it.
"Since you're so intent on saving him, why don't you do it?" Caver snapped back.
"I rather not have my wife perform such a task," answered the last man of the group. He had short black hair with the fringe spiked up and was wear armour that had the same matching sword symbol on his chest plate as the one depicted on the shield his wife carried. He wore a red and black long kilt decorated with star burst symbols that reached his ankles. He also looked sick, as his eyes appeared to be glazed over and his veins were visible beneath his skin all over his face and neck.
"Enough Caver, please just do it before we lose more valuable time," requested the final member of the group. She was an older woman and obviously the mother of the two teenagers and the bearded man. Her skin tone was same as their and Caver's eyes matched hers. Her hair may have been the same black as theirs in her youth but now was a dark grey. She was wearing a light brown dress with a matching brown neckerchief and corset.
"Why doesn't it have to be me?" protested Caver. "Why can't Hawke or the templar do it?"
"Because the templar is wound and since I'm the eldest sibling, seniority has it perks like making younger brothers do things instead of me," replied the beard man who was Hawke.
"Fine then," grumbled Caver. Who set about his task of awkwardly dressing me in corpse pillaged clothes. "But I'm not going carry his ass all the way to the Wilds".
The clothes were uncomfortable as they fit poorly on my long frame, were really filthy and were torn in number of places. I didn't like wearing dead man clothes but beggars can't be choosers. And a beggar I was what with most of material possessions having been burn to ashes along with my apartment and rest out of reach figuratively speaking.
"I don't expect you to," his other mother said. "You will be busy fighting Darkspawn, so I'll carry him"
"Are sure you can manage that mother?" asked Hawke. "You're already tired for all the running and while doesn't look heavy, he is pretty tall".
"Don't worry brother, I'll use heal on him," reassured the teenage girl. "While it won't restore him to full health, it should be enough for him to travel with mother's help and not overtax either of them".
She stood next to me, hunch over slight with her arms held low. Then a bright blue white glow rose up around her like a whirlwind and I felt her magic.
It was different to mine, different to how most practitioners and supernatural beings performed magic. We utilising the energy around us that is produced by life it's self and shape it with our will to modify reality to a certain degree. Her magic didn't use the energy around her but instead drew it from a different source which felt like the Nevernever. She also didn't use any incantations at all.
Magic is a kind of energy. It is given shape by human thoughts and emotions, by imagination. Thoughts define that shape-and words help to define those thoughts. That's why wizards usually use words to help them with their spells. Words provide a sort of insulation as the energy of magic burns through a spell caster's mind. If you use words that you're too familiar with, words that are so close to your thoughts that you have trouble separating thought from word, that insulation is very thin. So most wizards use words from ancient languages they don't know very well, or else they make up nonsense words and mentally attach their meanings to a particular effect. That way, a wizard's mind has an extra layer of protection against magical energies coursing through it. But you can work magic without words, without insulation for your mind. If you're not afraid of it hurting a little.
Unaware of my scrutiny, she continued on with her spell. She straightened, raising her hands upwards at the same time and I too was suddenly surrounded in blue white glowing ethereal whirlwind. Her magic rushed into me, a sudden tide of hot, living energy, rejuvenating the body, mind and soul. Raw vitality radiated out into my bones, running riot through my limbs. My weariness and pain vanished as swiftly as darkness before the sunrise.
I shakily got to my feet with the assistance of the sibling's mother and leaning heavily on her, with my right arm draped over her shoulders and her left arm secured around my waist, we head off south along the trail.
(Time Skip)
As we travelled, I tried to puzzle out what was going on. Instead of going on to Heaven or Hell or whatever, I find myself alive again. I was in an unfamiliar landscape currently fleeing with this ragtag group from these's 'Darkspawn'. So I decided to utilize my finely honed investigative skills to obtain more information.
"So who are you guys?" I asked the motherly woman helping me shamble along.
"I'm Leandra," she replied. "Those three are my children; the eldest is Garrett Hawke," The breaded man inclined his head slightly. "The twins are Bethany and Caver," Bethany gave me a small smile and a little wave while Caver just grunted in acknowledgement. "The other two are Aveline Vallen and her husband Ser Wesley Vallen," The orange haired woman glanced in our direction at the mention of her name before returning her focus back to her husband who condition looked to be steadily worsening as he struggled along. "And this good little boy is Katan," the dog barked at the praise and wagged his short tail.
"What about you?" Leandra inquired. "What's your name?"
"Harry Dresden," I answered and continued on with my questioning. "Where are we heading?"
Hawke answer this one. "We are going south to the Korcari Wilds to escape before we are completely surrounded by Darkspawn".
"Darkspawn?" I repeated. Stars and stones, I felt like the new guy again. As if that feeling didn't suck enough when I was a ghost.
"Are you the village idiot or just daft?" Caver asked me scornfully, so much for not appearing to be a moron. "What, did you think a group of really ugly bandits attacked and left you to die?
"You're the village idiot," retorted Bethany, coming to my defence. "Those bandits from the Imperial highway probably robbed him after they were run off. As Darkspawn won't steal his clothes".
"Darkspawn," Ser Wesley interrupted before the two siblings start squabbling. "Are tainted creatures created by the hubris of man, who sought to enter the realm of the Maker and claim the Golden City as their own. Instead they corrupted it with their sin, turning it into the Black City. They were cast back out, their own evil transforming them into the monsters now know as the Darkspawn".
If anything the explanation left me more confused and with more questions. While being corrupted and twisted into a hideous monster because of their greed or foolishness sounds like some cheesy movie plot, it never the less has happen plenty of times. Like those who choose to take up the coins of the Order of the Blackened Denarius. But this 'realm of the Maker' and Golden City? Was that some place in the Nevernever? And this 'Maker', was he one of those a near forgotten Old Gods that was almost consigned to oblivion in relation of the dawning of the twenty century.
But before I could press for more details, Katan let out a low rumbling growl that drew all of our attentions. I decided to extended my wizard senses forwards to find what had set him off.
When I say wizard senses, I mean it in a similar fashion to spider sense. Spidey's enhanced senses detect when he's in danger and warn him that he's got incoming. A wizard's senses don't do that (though I suppose with enough work, someone could come close). What they do sense is the presence of magic, in both its natural state and its worked forms. You don't have to be concentrating to make it happen—it's natural in every practitioner. The theory I've heard espoused most often is that the ability to sense such energies makes it possible for a regular person to become a wizard, providing the kind of sensory feedback he needs to gradually work with more and more energy. So while a regular person who lacked the sense could, technically, learn how to use magic without it, it would be a process as difficult as someone who was born blind teaching himself to paint.
What I felt was a dark sensation, the kind that destroys, warps, rots, and corrupts. Scarily the sense was faintly like the Skinwalker's only much weaker and more diluted. It was like light beer compared to Absinthe but however tiny, it still bear enough of a familiarity to make me weary. And the sensation was not created by a single individual but a group of them and they were heading directly at us fast.
A group of what appeared to humans came boiling out from the crags in the trail ahead and came tearing toward us screaming, a high and terrifying sound.
"Darkspawn!" shouted Caver unnecessarily reaching for his sword.
They wore black angular armour with spikes at the ends on their hands, forearms, shoulders, chest, side of the thighs and feet. Secure around their middle was a ragged olive loincloth. Chainmail cover it neck and head but left its face uncovered. The one handed sword that they carried matched the style of their armour, black and angular. As for the creatures themselves, the skin that was bare of armour displayed deathly pale skin, like those of a corpse. As they rapidly approached, I got a better look of their faces and wished I hadn't. Their faces like the rest of their body were pale and resembled humans. But they lacked lips which exposed greying rotting teeth. There were also no eyebrows and the noses were flatted against their faces, as if someone had tried to squash them. What were most disturbing about them were the eyes, not the fact that were filmed over with grey but what they seem to contain. Hunger, desire, longing, lust, rage and malice. A multitude of emotions all intertwine together in a seething tide of madness.
"Guess their ears were burning" Hawke joked as pulled his giant blade from his back.
"That's not all of theirs that will be burning" Bethany stated grimly as cross her right arm in front of her body, channel her magic into that hand as she did so. She then swung it back in an arch, pitching from her hand a ball of fire the size of a baseball at the oncoming Darkspawn. It slammed into the front row of Darkspawn and detonated with the same force of a grenade, setting a light or stunned by the concussion of the explosion.
Hawke, Caver and Aveline surged forward with furious battle cries and attacked, hoping to eliminate them before they recover. Blood flew accompany by shrieks of pain and death as the human warriors cut them done with ease. While the three had charged into the fray of battle Bethany instead had chosen to hang back. She wasn't the only one as one Darkspawn had done so as well and thus avoided being hit by the fireball. I missed seeing it before due to it having been at the rear of the group and my attention being draw to the faster individuals of the group.
This Darkspawn was taller than the rest, had pointed ears and his gaping mouth was like that of a gaping piranha. The fingers on its hands were elongated and had three inches long claw like nails on each one. It was dressed in a black apron over a black bottom dress with a red sash. On face was a leather strap that run down between its eyes were it split apart like an upside down y and continued on to encircle the back of the head in the same way.
It held it hands before itself, moving them in circle like patterns and gathering glowing blue energy in between them.
So this type of Darkspawn can use the same type of magic as Bethany.
Bethany attacked the thing, turning her staff around to point the end at her opponent which shot out a small burst of energy. She then spun the staff around to point the other end at the Darkspawn and fire another burst of energy. Final she twirled her staff around herself and over her head before slamming it down butt first into the earth. A trail of blue energy shot fourth from it and raced towards the magic wielding Darkspawn. The first two blue bolts hit the Darkspawn which hurt it but didn't stop its spell casting. Then the energy trail reached it and erupted upwards for the ground, catching thing in an uppercut. It was sent reeling, the spell interrupted before it was complete.
Bethany then repeated the stance and action she used when casting the fireball. This instead of fire, ice shot from her hand and froze the Darkspawn solid.
All the other having been slain, Hawke went charge at the frozen Darkspawn and with a cry jumped a foot into the air, sword held high over his head. He came down in a massive two hand sword stroke that shattered the Darkspawn into chucks of frozen meat.
I was impressed by how effective this group of people were. They very skilled fighters and made good use of tactics. They were quick to capitalise on the advantage Bethany had created with her remarkable skill at evocation. Evocation is 'quick and dirty' magic, aka "kaboom magic", or "battle magic", which has the advantage of can being used on the fly but may take a while to learn a new evocation.
"That seems to be the lot of them" commented Aveline observing the group's handiwork.
"Let's get moving before more discover us" ordered Hawke and we started off again.
We had barely made it to the clearing at the top of the next slope, when my wizard senses felt a presence of what I could now identify as a Darkspawn. There was only one of the things this time but it was big as ground start to shake from its footsteps as it drew closer. It came charging up from the other end of the slope, forcing Hawke, Aveline and Ser Wesley to dive aside to avoid getting trampled. It halted in the middle of the clearing giving a swift bellow, before it turned and oriented on Caver, Leandra and me. Oooh crap. The thing was about nine feet tall and built like a brick house. It had pale skin like the others but for its shoulders and outer side of it limbs which were grey. Its armour was the same as the rest of its kind and was worn in the same style. It had the standard facial features, pointed ears, no eyebrows or lips and sharp pointed teeth. But its head seemed to sprout two black curved, spiky horns like that of gnarled tree branches. It wasn't armed, by that made little difference. The thing could probably pick up a minivan one handed and crash it like a soda can.
While Leandra and I cowered in perfectly rational fear, Caver decided to act like the irrational teenager that he was and confront the giant monster.
"You soulless bastards!" he cried and swung his blade at the monster. Sparks flew as the blow was block with its armoured forearm. It then reached down for the hapless teen.
I saw with grisly foresight what it intend to do. I was weak that couldn't stand without the help of someone's but there was no way in hell I was just going to sit back and let a mother's child be killed right in front of her.
I extended my free hand towards the monster, focusing all my remaining will into it and a bit of soulfire. Soulfire is the ability to use the soul to enhance magic. Unlike Hellfire which gives power to the means; Soulfire gives power to the intention. And I used that intention to save Caver's life.
"Forzare!" I yelled, letting loose the spell. I had used my standard force-projection spell formed around the matrix of soulfire, and what had been an instantaneous exertion of force became a long-term entity capable of manipulation and exertion to the same degree.
You can imagine the surprise of the Darkspawn. Instead grabbing Caver and squishing him like a tomato; itself was instead seized by a massive silvery simulacrum of my own fist.
I could feel my fingers close over the pale giant's body, felt the numerous spikes of it armour press painfully into the silvery construct as if it was my own flesh. The monster bit and clawed at the construct that held it. I could feel the pain of it but it was a small thing, really, something I might have gotten from a rat.
The sensation was unpleasant as hell and so put a stop to it by flinging it at the cliff behind me with the force of a wrecking ball. It slammed into it with bone cracking force and slid down to the ground. It lay there for a moment, stunned into immobility from the collision. Then my fist came crashing down at it, like a sledgehammer, and drove it face first eight inches into the earth.
"Oh, yeah, its hammer time baby!" I crowed, elated.
I pounded the Darkspawn in a similar fashion a few more times, spending it deeper into the dirt with every blow. I stopped when it was about six feet under and undoubtedly dead.
I released the spell and sagged instantly, letting Leandra prop up most of my weight. My hand had also gone numb. This was no surprise as the soulfire that I had drawn upon had come from its aura and as such I couldn't feel anything below my wrist. It flopped loosely at the end of my arm and didn't respond when I tried to move it. It would e grow back in time. Have a good time, enjoy myself; things that uplift the human spirit and it'll come back before I knew it.
The rest had recovered from the sudden attack and now stared at me wearily. Tension ran through the group as a result my little display. I didn't blame them for looking at me as though I was a wolf in sheep's clothing.
"By the Maker," whispered Bethany in awe, breaking the silence. "What kind of magic was that?"
"Another apostate," said Ser Wesley, distaste evident in his tone. "The Darkspawn appears to be sending your lot scurrying from your hidey holes".
"Didn't you just call me a prostate?" I asked mockery in my voice.
"What? No!" Ser Wesley spluttered indignantly.
And with that the tension eased and the Hawke siblings let out chuckles or in Bethany's case giggles.
"Thank you mister Dresden, for saving my son," said Leandra, looking up at my face.
"Just returning the favour ma'am," I replied, quickly averted my eyes. "We should get going again".
"Flames" cursed Aveline as we turned around to see more Darkspawn rushing at us. "We're too late".
"Can you do any more of that magic?" asked Hawke and the others faced off with the Darkspawn.
"No, I don't have enough magic left to light a candle, let alone stop all them" I answered.
"Well then it's up to us then brother," Caver said grimly.
"Right you are," quipped Hawke and charged forward to meet the Darkspawn. "Let's have at it!"
Hawke and the group engaged them and quickly began cutting them down. However it became quickly apparent that it was futile as more and more Darkspawn keep on coming.
"There's no end to them" Bethany said in despair.
The Darkspawn shrieked and howled in triumph and started closing in around us but paused in shock and fear as low thunderous growl rolled thought the air.
We all turned to see on top of the cliff behind us, a massive pair of maroon folded bat wings. They unfurled to reveal a freaking dragon! It was the size of a plane with spikes that ran down it neck along it spine to near the end of its tail. It head was shaped like a bird and had a bony crest with a horn rising from the centre on top of its head, and a horn that ran along each side of its mouth like tusks. There were four curving horns emerging from the back of its skull, two to each side.
"How did I not notice that before now?" asked myself, voice dry.
The dragon let out a bird like shriek before down low towards us. We hit the deck as it swooped past us, fire spewing from it maw. It set many of the Darkspawn alight and even swept some up in its claws and mouth before dropping them for a fatal height. It quickly banked around and landed in the middle of the clearing, spend us and the Darkspawn scrambling for safety. It seemed to ignore us focus solely on the Darkspawn. It spat at them fire and lashed out with its tail and claws. The slaughter was over in seconds; leave the dragon standing there, a Darkspawn clutch in one huge claw, alone amidst the fires.
It regarded us for a moment, before being engulfed in bright swirling yellow white light. The light shrank in size until dispersed to show a well aged woman. She appear to be old and yet not. Her face was mostly smooth with only a few age lines. She possessed eyes that were the colour of amber like those of an animal, which were ringed around with maroon eye shadow. The lips sported the same shade of colour as her eye shadow and had matching small steel hooped earrings with fangs dangling for each of them. On her forehead was a steel tiara that was exactly the same shape as the bone crest the dragon had. She had pure white hair, styled into horns, like those of her dragon form, and a flowing mane that reached just past her shoulders.
Her outfit was a sleeveless low v cut maroon dress with a long train and black legging. The arms, hands and legs were completely encased in grey steel armour. Encircling her neck was a maroon collar that reached up to her chin and down over her shoulders. The edge of the collar had black feathers attached all round it.
She approached, walking calmly through the still burning fire. She stopped just shy of us and remarked, "Well, well, what have we here?"
Hell's Bells, this day just keeps getting better and better.