A/N: My first chaptered fanfiction on this site. I'm awful at writing fighting scenes and this chapter called for one unfortunately. This chapter is a prologue and details, in my opinion, what would've happened at the Conclave. Let me know if I should include anything. Criticism, as long as it isn't overtly rude, is highly appreciated and encouraged. Thank you and happy reading.
Gwendolyn brushed her hands over her clothes, looking at herself in the mirror. It'd have to do, she supposed. She was clothed to look polished, but not gaudy. Her hair was done nicely, but not elaborately. Her clothing consisted of a pale green tunic with a chocolate brown corset, laced tight enough to punctuate her figure, but not so much she couldn't breathe. Underneath were everknit wool pants, hugging her legs tightly, but very comfortable, and simple brown boots, tied neatly. Her hair was done in loose curls, falling in dark brown waves past her shoulder blades, almost blending in with her corset. Looking at her reflection, she subconsciously picked the braid from her hair, a small one, woven at her right temple that reached past her shoulder, and smiled. If only Lydia could see her now.
Sadness dampened her heart as she continued to look at the reflection. The glass bead holding her braid together was glowing blue with magic; a gift from the Senior Enchanter of the Ostwick Circle herself. It was a gift for passing her Harrowing, about six years ago. Careful not to tear, lest she smudge her eye makeup, Gwendolyn took in a shaky breath and let it out in an identical sigh and tried to smile again, noting it didn't quite reach her eyes.
"Don't worry. I'll make a difference for everyone. I promise." She swore in a whisper, glad no one else had been there with her. Her helpers scurried out of the room shortly after she had been dressed and made up. She didn't know why. They seemed like they were in a hurry.
Or maybe they simply didn't want to be near a mage for too long. Even if she were noble. Gwendolyn thought it ludicrous. The notion that mages should have such a thick and shadowy stigma attached to them. Not all mages were bad. In fact, most of the mages at the Circle were good friends of hers, with the exception of a few here and there who either kept to themselves, were made tranquil, or the new transfers.
Deciding that she was very much done with staring at her image, Gwendolyn departed, making her way to the lower level of the temple, where they were having the peace talks.
Gwendolyn walked in with another group of people, some being Grey Wardens, a couple others mages like herself. She scanned the room, almost letting out a low whistle at the display of people gathered. It seemed as though delegates from all walks of organizations were here. Of course you had your mages and Templars, seated on either side of the room. The mages she walked in with scattered, each sitting in different pews. There were Grey Wardens, in full armor, sitting in different places in the temple as well, pockmarking the formation of people with silver and dark blue. Mercenaries were there too, guarding each door, with at least one, if not two, all with armor, all with some kind of weaponry, and all with stony emotionless faces. They must be the Valo-Kas Mercenary Company that the Divine hired for added protection, just in case something (inevitably) went awry. Chantry Sisters and Brothers littered the aisles as well, although some sat at the front of the room with the two main representatives; a Templar Gwen didn't even recognize, and a mage from an entirely different Circle. She briefly wondered where Fiona was.
Gwendolyn had come to the Conclave in hopes of shedding light on the situation of her fellow mages. Her noble position might've had some more pull in the presence of the Chantry and hopefully the Divine would hear her and her fellow mages out some. She'd feared that the recklessness of the rebellion had caused yet even more stigma to be attached to her brethren. At the same time, however, she didn't blame them. Even in the Ostwick Circle, there were many mages who felt that their freedom had been extinguished when they were taken here, away from their families, homes, and loved ones. She was in the same boat with them, after all, and felt their pain.
The temple was beautiful, especially after it had been redone and looked quite the jewel as it did now. New stained glass windows took up almost the entirety of the walls, depicting scenes from Chantry history. Andraste, of course, the Exalted Marches, Maferath, turning his head in shame, and the Golden City, or a beautiful fractal imagining of it. The stone around the images were cleaned and looked smooth to the touch. pews in two rows stretched the expanse of the room, and were obviously new, fitted with ring velvet cushions.
Walking towards the front of the Temple, Gwendolyn found two people she was familiar with, smiled, and made her way through the pew, excusing herself, bumping into many peoples' knees and robes before standing in front of them. They smiled and moved aside so she could sit in between them. The first being her friend, Mirelle Rayfield, a gifted ice mage. Her black hair sat in wild curls, barely touching her shoulders. The second, Ross Adwell, a lightning mage and newly made Enchanter, had his long copper hair pulled back in a bun. Both of them were wearing their nicer robes for the event. They both came at the behest of Gwendolyn, insisting they come along.
"Why Miss Trevelyan! How lovely you look today!" Mirelle fanned herself, batting her eyelashes; a mocking example of how she believed nobility behaved. Gwendolyn hadn't much experience with her family, but from what she understood before she was taken away, Mirelle wasn't that far off. Her Orlesian accent rang through her words clearly. "But one has to wonder where your robes are. After all, you're not in uniform." Mirelle commented, ceasing the fanning, and eyeing Gwendolyn from top to bottom, making the latter blush under the scrutiny of her companion.
"I don't know completely myself. I just asked them to make me look nice and they came up with this. I wish they'd just let me wear my robes." Gwendolyn answered, pretending to straighten out wrinkles in her tunic.
"Maybe they wanted to separate you, nobility, from the rest of us. Not all of the mages are wearing robes today, but the ones who aren't are of noble standing." Ross pointed out, nodding his head behind him. Gwendolyn turned around to scope out more of the mages and sure enough, he was right. She recognized another noble male mage from Ostwick wearing a silk shirt and a hat. Others sitting on their side were women and other men, dressed in traditional Ferelden furs and clothing rather than the standard or formal robes that all mages were given upon being placed in a Circle.
"But why?" Mirelle asked, leaning forward to get a look at Ross. He looked between Mirelle and Gwendolyn before answering.
"Well, they probably wanted to keep nobility held apart from the rest of us. If they do that, then maybe they're given less stigma than those of us born of common blood." He paused to rub his hands together. Nervous habit? "Since the nobility here and the representatives will be the ones making most of the arguments, they wanted them to look presentable and polished. Looking like just another mage will not grant that kind of standing or respect, unless you're an Enchanter of some sort." He finished, leaning back in his seat, still facing the two.
"Well that's insulting." Mirelle commented, her eyebrows coming together in a decisive frown.
"A bit, yes. But it's not her fault. It's the public." Ross agreed, nodding his head once. Gwendolyn thought of him as an older brother. One of her first friends in the Circle and he continued to be a close one all these years.
"Right." Gwendolyn concurred, albeit with a voice that sounded unsure. She knew he had a point. But she also had to wonder how many nobles insisted they look the part, rather than stick together with their fellow mages? If she had her way, she'd be sitting there with her formal robes right alongside the others. Besides, they were more comfortable.
"So how do you think this is going to go?" Mirelle asked, her demeanor changing, and a grin stretching her face, showing off straight and healthy teeth.
"With any luck? Maybe we can negotiate our way to earned freedom. One can only hope, right?" Gwendolyn answered, her head high, straightening her posture. The peace talks would begin any moment now and she wanted to be ready.
About two hours later, no sign of the Divine, and no sign of these peace talks going anywhere. The representatives were either arguing or discussing amongst themselves in whispers, leaning into the other so much Gwendolyn couldn't read their lips properly. Someone from the Chantry went to go find Divine Justinia over a half an hour ago, but they still hadn't returned. The Temple surely wasn't that spacious. They could've found her by now, couldn't they?
"Where do you think she is?" Mirelle asked, leaning close to Gwendolyn while doing so. Gwendolyn offered no response as she turned her head to look behind them, hoping that maybe the Divine was simply chatting with someone else. A stretch, but she'd hoped. Nothing. Something struck her as odd, however. There were people missing from the pews. Several, actually. In each and every pew, there were empty spaces, where there were previously none.
"Something's not right. People are missing." Gwendolyn frowned, keeping her eyes on the missing spaces. Ross turned around and scanned the room with her, his own eyes narrowing, trying to figure out who was missing.
'Go looking.' A voice rang out in Gwendolyn's head. At this, she pursed her lips. 'Go searching. Something's not right.' There it was again. Her instincts were telling her to go investigate. Standing, she began to scoot her way past the knees of people once more.
"Where are you going?" Mirelle called after her.
"As I said before, something's not right. I'm going to go check things out." Was the only response she gave. Ross stood up and moved through the pew and stopped her, grabbing her shoulder and turning her around to face him.
"Gwen, maybe the missing people are out looking for the Divine. You should stay here." He reasoned. Gwendolyn frowned again, shaking her head. Her instincts told her different.
"I don't believe that. It could be true, but my gut tells me something else entirely. Please sit back down. I'll only be gone for a moment." She reasoned. Ross shook his head, standing his ground.
"No. Either you sit back down, or I'm coming with you." He squared his shoulders, looking resolute.
"Me too." Mirelle chimed in, climbing out of her seat and joining the other two, bounding on her feet. Gwendolyn looked between the two of them, and sighed in exasperation, pinching the bridge of her nose. Turning, she began to walk towards the back of the room, noticing two doors. There was the one on the left, which she entered in the first place, and a second, on the right of the room, both thresholds guarded by Qunari mercenaries.
The duo trailed behind her, told by the footsteps in her wake. Gwendolyn decided to take the door on the right, reasoning that that would be a more likely place to look than the entryway which everyone came. The Qunari standing there crossed their swords in front of the door, both looking down at the trio, eyes sending an intimidating glare that could chill the blood of even a rage demon. Ross did the talking.
"Excuse me my good gentlemen. Lady Trevelyan requests entry past this door." He bowed slightly, gesturing towards Gwendolyn with a graceful sweep of his hands. Both Qunari exchanged looks before regarding the trio once more.
"What is your business beyond this point?" One asked, eyes darting between all three of them. Ross answered yet again.
"The Lady wishes only to locate her lover. He was one that exited with the exodus of people earlier, and simply wanted to see where he ran off to. You see, he left something important behind and she wanted to give it to him before they parted ways again, but he left without a word." Mirelle and Gwendolyn looked at Ross as he continued to weave the lie. "He's awfully scatterbrained. He probably just forgot. He has a habit of that." To complete the lie, Ross smiled and made a gesture of his hands to emphasize his point, waving it in a couple small circles beside his shoulder. The two women looked at the Qunari mercenaries, who exchanged looks and began speaking in a foreign language before looking back at the trio briefly and then spoke again. Finally done, the other Qunari spoke to them.
"What is it?" He asked. "This thing that's so imperative that he see? Where is it?" He asked, his face ever wary, his companion mirroring his skepticism. Gwendolyn acted this time, grabbing her braid and showing them the bead.
"This. This bead is an heirloom, given to me by my mother. It has a magical protection spell on it and I was hoping to give it to him before he left, so that he may have a bit of extra help when he's travelling back home to Kirkwall." She explained. "After all, I don't know how these talks will proceed and it's good to have a bit of insurance just in case things go badly."
"Then why are they coming?" The Qunari motioned to Mirelle and Ross.
"They're my personal bodyguards." At this, one Qunari snorted in derision. "Mages can be just as handy to have around as someone who carries a sword and shield." She argued. The Qunari once again exchanged looks before they relented, dropping their swords.
"Thank you my good men. I'll be sure to tell my better half about your generosity." Gwendolyn nodded, her, Ross, and Mirelle proceeding down the hallway on the opposite side of the door. The Qunari pulled the door behind them and it clicked shut, the sound echoing through the grand stone corridor. It was dimly lit, with much fewer torches lit than there should've been. Gwendolyn flicked her wrist and a bright flame conjured, floating safely above the palm of her hand, flitting back and forth over the space of it. It provided enough light to safely navigate through.
"Good lie back there, Ross. You're quite a convincing deceiver." Gwendolyn commented, lightly nudging him with her elbow. At this, Ross chuckled, lightly polishing his nails on the collar of his robe.
"Oh that wasn't hardly anything." He dismissed, although with a smirk adorning his features. "The real honor lies in being your bodyguards, my lady." Ross shot back, taking a bow that was slightly more dramatic than normal. Gwendolyn scoffed and rolled her eyes, smiling all the while.
"Who do you think disappeared? My money's on a bunch of those armored brutes." Mirelle commented. Of course she meant the Templars. Mirelle and Gwendolyn always shared a mutual distrust for their watchdogs with swords back at the Circle. Even now, Gwendolyn was contemplating on whether or not it was them or not.
"It can't be just them. Mages were missing too." Ross interjected. At this, Mirelle pouted. Ever childish, one wouldn't ever guess she was the same age as Gwendolyn, being of age twenty six. Ross seemed to find it endearing however, shooting her a warm smile. "But some from their side are missing too, so you're not completely wrong." At this, Mirelle perked up, shooting him a grin, at which Gwendolyn could see the tips of his ears bloom with pink.
When they had nearly reached the end of the hall, coming closer to a door identical to the one they came in through, Ross had shoved the two women aside and sent out a bolt of electricity from his palm. Both women stumbled a bit, confused until they saw what Ross had aimed at. A Grey Warden warrior had come near Ross and out of panic, Ross fired at him, effectively knocking him back a few paces. Recovering, the Grey Warden charged at the Enchanter again, being hit with not one, not two, but three consecutive bolts of lightning. Another Warden was approaching from behind Ross. Mirelle acted before Gwendolyn, sending a cone of ice from her own fingers, the treacherous point embedding itself in the chest plate of the armor, distorting the Griffon insignia.
Gwendolyn turned on her heel, right in time to barely dodge a hit from the dagger of a Warden rogue. The Warden reeled back and unleashed a flurry of spinning blades, moving with more grace than she'd seen anyone move in a long time. She let out a sound of surprise, continuing to move back as much as she were able, dodging hit after hit, slash after slash as the Warden kept going and going at her. He had quite the endurance. Or was it she? She couldn't tell through the helmet. Daring, Gwendolyn lurched forward, tackling the Warden and sent a wave of intense heat through their body, making them yell in pain. Through this, she indeed discovered she was attacking another woman.
"They're going to disturb the Elder One!" One of them yelled, another trying to assault Gwendolyn. "We can't let the ritual be interrupted!" A good hit from Mirelle had them stuck to the ground. Gwendolyn preoccupied herself with the rogue, throwing them back with a particularly good fireball. When the ball of flame connected, the rogue cried out in pain and fell to the ground before recovering, bringing their legs into their chest and launching herself off of the ground, readying another attack on the mage. Gwendolyn took note of the Warden flicking their thumb over the butt of the handle of one blade before flipping it, holding it normally again and going to strike. Another attack from Mirelle not only rooted them to the ground but froze her completely up to her wrists. Gwendolyn noted that the blade was hollow, filled with a sickly liquid. Poison.
Focusing, Gwendolyn concentrated her energy, sending another bolt of fire at the rogue, powerful enough to thaw her out and knock her backwards, hard, into a nearby pillar. Her head slammed against it and she slumped to the floor unconscious. The second one was dealt with the same way, but instead of hitting the pillar, they simply must've hit their head too hard on the ground. Looking at the other two mages, she noted they were fending off four Wardens, two warrior, two rogue. Ross kept them preoccupied as much as he could while Gwendolyn noted that Mirelle's fingers were darting frantically, creating a myriad of ice mines around the two of them. Once they were activated, it didn't take long for the Wardens to step on them, being hit with severe blasts of cold, knocking them off of their feet. The Warriors recovered first, one darting to Mirelle, and the other going to Ross. Gwendolyn sent fire blasts off in rapid succession from her palm, starting to feel tired, using too much mana on her last attack.
The fire blasts connected well enough to give the other two a good boost. Unfortunately however, a warrior went over in her direction.
"I got the other brat!" He called, charging Gwendolyn. He was wielding a massive axe and brought it up before swinging it down in an impressive arc. Gwendolyn jumped back in time to see the axe connect with the stone ground, cracking the floor around it, sending veiny patterns out around it in the stone. Gwendolyn gulped. Of course the brawnier one out of the four would come to her. She began to manifest another bolt when something sharp connected with her right arm, dropping her to the ground. She looked to her right and noted behind yet another pillar, was a Warden archer, grinning maliciously at her. Her helmet was off and Gwendolyn noted that her eyes glowed with an eery and blood chilling red.
The warrior began to swing his axe again, Gwendolyn firing a bolt at his hands. It connected, but despite the smell of burning metal, leather, and flesh, he kept preparing another swing. This guy was tough. Gwendolyn tried rolling but the warrior corrected his course, continuing to aim at her. A ray of lightning shook him, stunning him for a bit and Gwendolyn fired another bolt of fire at his abdomen, then another, and yet another at his hands. Gwendolyn pried the arrow out of her arm and yelped in pain. She heard another cry and recognized it as Mirelle. Looking past the warrior, she saw that Mirelle had been hit with an arrow in her side. Blood was pooling around the wound at an impressive rate.
Ross hugged the smaller ice mage with one hand and sent down streaks of lightning bolts from the ceiling of the temple, each hitting and frying the Wardens around them, including the one in front of Gwendolyn, allowing her to send more fire out to the standing Wardens stunned and frozen in place. Another arrow went out, hitting Ross in his arm. He grunted and followed the direction of which he assumed it came from. Gwendolyn concentrated and envisioned a circle of flame engulfing the Warden. It came alive right when Ross had conjured an impressive arc of electric energy from the center of his palm. The Warden was knocked backwards, just like the other rogue, slamming into the wall, behind the pillar, her head connecting with an empty sconce and slumped down, either dead or unconscious. A small pool of blood was trickling out around her head.
They finally had a moment's respite. Gwendolyn jogged over to Ross and Mirelle, both injured beyond just the arrows. Mirelle had caught a gash on her collar, slicing the robe and her skin pretty deeply. Ross had slashes going from his face, down to his arms, the sleeves of his robe in tatters. Gwendolyn felt guilty that she'd barely received a scratch whilst they got most of the beating. Ross fumbled with his robe and pulled out a small vial, popping the cork off the mouth and slipping it to Mirelle, who drank the whole thing in one gulp. The wounds weren't healed, but they'd stopped bleeding.
"You go ahead. I'll make sure she's okay." Ross urged, nodding his head to the door ahead. Gwendolyn looked between him, Mirelle, the door, and then back to him.
"But-"
"But nothing. You were right. Something's going on. If there's more Wardens to be dealt with out here, we'll take care of it. You go ahead and see if you can find the Divine." He prodded. Gwendolyn frowned.
"By myself?"
"Gwen, you're more than capable. This fight took you by surprise, just like the revolt of the Ostwick Circle, but we all made it out alive from that, did we not? We can all handle this. Go. We'll be fine." He finished. Gwendolyn knew by his tone that he was finished arguing and she should be too. Sighing, she nodded and gave them both a hug before jogging off.
"Be careful!" Mirelle called out after her. It was the last time she heard their voices before going past the door.
On the opposite side, Gwendolyn was faced with another stone room with stained glass windows, though not as grand, and these ones were just simply fractal pattern of color, rather than images in glass. Basins of fire sat in two larger statues of Andraste, being cradled by stony hands, the heads of the statues touching the ceiling. Ahead was a larger door, easily three times the size of the one she just entered through.
Gwendolyn jogged forward, cradling her arm with her hand, bidding it with all her will to stop bleeding. By now, a majority of her right sleeve was stained sanguine and the pain was palpable now that the adrenaline was starting to ebb away. Closer to the door, she could hear voices from the other side. She couldn't quite hear until she got much closer to the door, a mere couple of steps away. She listened a bit.
"Bring forth the sacrifice." A voice commanded from the other side. Gravelly, aged, and dark. It made the hairs on the back of Gwendolyn's neck stand at stark attention. There was a collective sound of footsteps stomping on the floor and crackling of what sounded like magic. A pained cry could be heard in addition to everything else.
"Someone!" Another strained cry in pain. Desperation. "Help me!" The voice was feminine, also aged, but much gentler than the former. Was that the Divine? No. It couldn't be...could it? Gwendolyn couldn't stand back any longer and swung the doors open as wide as she could, jogging inside.
"What's going on here?" She demanded, looking around the room. Grey Wardens, all mages, were staring at a focal point, and that point was indeed the Divine. Justinia herself was bound in magic, floating precariously above the heads of all the mages, gathered in a circle, and all of them had that same ominous glowing in their eyes that the rogue Warden woman had. A creature, grotesque and statue like in height leered down at her, his face cracked and sporting shards of red stone, carrying a glow like those in the eyes of the Wardens. In his hands, cradled by bony, shadowy talons, was an orb of sorts. Off to the side was the missing Chantry sister, throat slit with a coagulated blood stain creating a macabre halo around her corpse.
"Run while you can! Warn them!" The Divine pleaded, her eyes welling with tears that were obvious even from where Gwendolyn stood. She stubbornly stood her ground. She wasn't leaving just yet.
"We have an intruder." He spoke, his mouth lifting up in a menacing smile. Gwendolyn gulped. He pointed a talon in her direction. "Kill her. Now." He barked. Gwendolyn heard marching and her head snapped in the direction of it, finding at least ten Warden warriors that were previously stationed opposite her in the room were making their way to her. How had she missed them? The Divine looked between Gwendolyn and the monster before brashly batting her hand, with what seemed like all of her available strength, knocking the orb out of the creature's hand.
The orb fell and bounced, rolling, and finally skidding to a halt by Gwendolyn's feet. Mind racing, and blood pumping fresh adrenaline through her being, she picked it up, her left hand scooping the rough stony object into her palm. At once, a burst of energy erupted from the orb and shook her to her core, dropping her to her knees.
"No!" The creature roared. He moved quicker than he should've been able to, swinging his arms down roughly and gliding across the floor like the rage demon she encountered in her Harrowing. A massive rush of heat emanated from the orb, engulfing her and everyone else in blinding fire. That and the creatures talons, outstretched, and a mere inches from her face, were the last thing she felt before everything went black.
A/N: Aaaaand ta-da? Let me know what you guys think and how I could possibly improve. Just so anyone who reads knows, I have NOT decided on a love interest for Gwendolyn yet. I'm open to suggestions (either gender goes and even LI that aren't canon in the game are open for suggestion as well such as Cole, Lace Harding, etc) and will be taking them for quite some time. Thank you for taking the time out of your day to read my work. It warms my soul. :3c