There was no word
For heaven or for earth, for sea or for sky.
All that existed was silence.
Then the Voice of the Maker rang out,
The first Word,
And His Word became all that might be:
Dream and idea, hope and fear,
Endless possibilities.
And from it made his firstborn.
And he said to them:
In My image I forge you,
To you, I give dominion
Over all that exists.
By your will
May all things be done.
Chapter 1
The dwarf Anso's nervousness was almost infuriating. The Lowtown Bazaar was not known to be safe at night, but why anyone would feel frightened in front of this group, Selden Hawke could not understand. Aside from himself; dressed in a ebony colored long coat, a belt of daggers over a red sash and his staff at his back, the raven haired Fereldan had a guardswoman with a Templar shield and sword, a heavily armored man carrying a two-handed hammer who looked quite a lot like him and a dangerously sarcastic dwarf at his side. There were not many bandits who would readily attack such a group. Still, Selden looked upwards at the tops of the buildings, looking for any sign of movement while the dwarf stumbled on about his investment in some sort of something. Hawke felt something off about the whole thing, but his dwarven companion insisted it would be worth its weight in sovereigns if they helped the bumbling idiot out. Selden did not like needing to stoop so low for money, but he hardly had a choice since discovering that his uncle had lost their entire family's riches to a bad bet.
"Anso." Varric's voice sounded friendly and kind, but Selden could hear the annoyance in his new acquaintance's tone. The dwarf reached out to touch his kinsman's shoulder. "Tell us where we need to go and we'll go get your goods, alright? I promise we'll be back."
Anso nodded nervously, wringing his hands together. "The alienage. Where the elves are. There's an abandoned house, behind the tree. That big one…the tree that is." He sighed shakily. "Are you sure those are not going to fall on me?" The dwarf pointed to the sky, causing everyone except for Varric to look up.
"Is that truly what you're so concerned about?" Aveline asked, adjusting her shield on her shoulder. The ginger haired woman looked genuinely saddened by Anso, who nodded quickly.
"He's new to the surface, poor blighter." Varric said, patting the dwarf on the shoulder before turning to the group. "So, shall we pay the Elves a visit?"
Hawke drew a breath and nodded, turning towards the stairs that would take them to the Alienage. Anso scurried into a building behind one of the shops, muttering about falling skies. "You sure he really needs our help, Varric? He seemed a bit…"
"He sounded like he was lying." Carver Hawke spoke up behind them, causing Varric to snort loudly. Selden gestured to his younger brother with a nod.
"Of course he was, Little Hawke." Carver groaned at the nickname and looked over at his brother with a deep frown.
"What? You're the one pressuring us to get the gold, little brother." Selden said, shrugging one shoulder. Carver was adamant about getting the money for Bartrand as quickly as possible; he was more afraid of the Templars than Selden was, certainly, and he wasn't even a mage! Selden took the lead towards the Alienage with Aveline at his side. Carver and Varric followed along behind, arguing about the other Hawke's distaste for the nickname.
"How do you put up with it?" Aveline asked quietly. The Fereldan woman had become one of Selden's closest friends since escaping the Blight to Kirkwall. Though she had once been married to a Templar, she was hardly an extremist. Selden wasn't a typical apostate, anyways; he shouldered the burden of being a mage silently and did his best with it. He had enjoyed his magic tricks as a child, but now he wished them away more than anything, they brought too much danger to his family. With a strong distaste for blood magic and his fellow magic users that corrupted the reputation of the "good ones;" Selden did not agree with many of his counterparts and their extreme views. He agreed with the idea of the Circle, though he was certain it was a broken system in Kirkwall if not everywhere in the Free Marches. Truly, he preferred to fight on equal playing ground with everyone. He had crafted a staff with an axe-like attachment attachment at the end so he could better fight without the use of magic, if necessary. "Carver, I mean. He seems quite disturbed by…well, by just about everything." Aveline said.
Chuckling slightly, Selden looked over his shoulder at his brother and shrugged. "He's always been that way. He had to deal with three mages and my mother throughout his life; he thinks we cast a shadow he can't stand up to. It's gotten worse since Bethany, though."
"He made an attempt to join the guard, you know." Aveline said, lowering her voice even more.
Selden scratched at his budding beard, then ran his hand through his hair, a motion he made when he was thinking. "And you did not recommend him?"
"How you read me, I'll never know." The guard chuckled before falling serious again. "He is far too extreme, Hawke. I'd say he'd be a great fit for the Templars if it would not put you and Anders in danger."
The thought of the blonde healer made Selden frown. Anders and the Templars would be a bad mix. "And we both know what would happen if…"
Whatever he had meant to say faded from his mouth though, as they came down the stairs into the Alienage. There was no one around, not even the usual beggars near the sewer entrance. Raising a hand to call for silence, Selden took the final step off the stairs and slowly pulled his staff from his back. He could see the house they were headed for, though there were odd shadows flickering against the door, coming from a fire on the other side of the large tree in the middle of the courtyard. The movement was humanoid in nature, though Hawke could make out the shape of a quiver in the shadows.
It took him only a moment to pull a spell to his hands, his fingers spreading out wide as he drew a mental circle in the direction of the shadow figures. This spell came without much decoration and with a sudden shout, the limp bodies of their would-be-ambushers flew out wide around the tree. Aveline shouted to attack and Selden could hear Varric hurriedly loading Bianca behind him. Carver ran passed him so closely that Selden felt the head of his hammer brush his tailcoat.
The next spell came to him quickly, the magic jumping to his fingers instead of his staff. Bluish purple energy coiled to his finger tips and he threw his hands forward to push aside a line of archers in front of Carver. His brother shouted in annoyance at the assistance, but Selden didn't have a moment to respond with his normal cheeky response. Varric needed help behind him. Swinging the blade side outwards in a dangerous arc, he felt the weapon connect with a body. Hawke turned on his heel, pushing his staff back into the leather armor.
Met with the grimacing face of a woman, her anger obvious, Selden shot electricity down his weapon into her body. The smell of burning hair and flesh assaulted his nose, but he kept the weapon still as she trembled to death in his spell. With a sudden movement, he ripped the blade from her body, ignoring the blood splattering against his cheek; up-close battle was how he preferred to fight. Varric had taken down his assailants with a cleverly placed crossbow bolt or two and Selden turned to his brother and Aveline to see them trying to pull the pointy-end of the woman's shield from a fighter's breastplate. Smirking, Selden and Varric watched the shield come loose, throwing the two off their feet. The four made a good team, really; Varric and Hawke stayed back while Aveline and Carver ran in to battle.
"Where're we putting the bodies, brother?" Carver asked, kicking a dead assassin at his feet. "Down the sewers?"
"Anders'll kill us, but we're not leaving them here." The blonde healer hated when he found bodies in his Darktown tunnels, but Hawke couldn't figure out where to put them and he wasn't going to leave them out in the courtyard for the Elves to deal with. Once Varric was done picking the bodies for goods, the group tossed them over the edge into the sewer drains below.
"I hate doing that." Aveline said when she pushed the last of the mercenaries over the edge.
"Just remember, Aveline, they're baddies, okay?" Varric said cheerfully, kicking his boots along the ground to get blood off of them. He dragged his feet the entire way towards the "abandoned house" Anso had directed them to. Hawke followed next, brushing some dirt off of his hands and pulling his armored glove back on.
The abandoned house seemed to be empty upon approaching it. Selden looked into the dirty window, not seeing anything inside. He waved a hand at Carver and the other man kicked the door in. As soon as the wood hit the wall, a trap was triggered. Darts exploded from a wall, one or two lodged into Carver's arm and the far door opened quickly to permit a few more mercenaries into the room. Hawke stepped away from the building to allow Aveline and Carver to charge inside. Varric stayed in the doorway, launching bolts left and right. Hawke decided against engaging in such a small space; he'd just end up hurting Carver or Aveline. Instead, he turned and looked out into the courtyard. He spotted a few curious eyes peering out from behind drawn curtains and he felt a frown pull at his lips. He disliked killing at all and certainly not someone who liked to do so openly. The Elves in the Alienage were suffering a similar plight that most mages did in Thedas; they were second class citizens, controlled and belittled because of something they could not control.
Selden was looking across the Alienage when he spotted movement; a flash of white and glowing blue. He spun his staff behind him, readying a spell. The alleyway leading up into the rest of Lowtown was blocked by a corner, but he could definitely see something. There was no way to hear over the fighting behind him, but he thought he heard screaming…
"Hawke." Varric was at his side, tugging on his unarmored arm. "There's nothing in the damned chest!"
"I told you he was lying." Carver said triumphantly, coming in from another room with a flimsy blue chest in his hands. He dropped it on top of the body of a fighter and shook his head. He also nonchalantly began to pull darts out of his arm.
"Those are probably poisoned, Carver." Aveline approached him, a motherly look on her face as she took some bandages out of her pack to wrap him up.
Selden looked away from them out into the courtyard again, pursing his lips. "There's something out there." Varric stepped from the building curiously, looking around.
"You're seeing things in the dark, mage. Sure you're not possessed?" The dwarf joked, only laughing harder when Selden pushed him playfully aside.
"I'm certain." Selden kept his staff out as he walked slowly forward, glancing towards the stairs. He was only a few feet out before a group of men came around the trunk of the large tree, each of them looking more confused than the other.
"He's not the Elf!"
"Who cares!"
"But we're supposed to capture an Elf!"
Selden looked at them all with an arched brow, gripping his staff tighter.
"We're supposed to kill whoever comes out of that house!"
"Kill or capture?"
"Maker, what's the diff-"
One of Bianca's bolts seemed to appear from the forehead of one of the men, which was Selden's cue to very quickly throw a bolt of flames from his staff. Another mage stepped back from the group and made himself a target by beginning a spell. Hawke moved backwards on his heels quickly, casting a spell at the man to interrupt the swirling red magic around him. Blood magic. Scowling deeply, Selden moved to the offensive, blasting the disoriented mage with rounds of spiritual energy, stopping him from focusing on casting. Pursuing him around the group of other fighters, Selden attacked suddenly, swinging his axe-like-blade at the face of the other mage.
The man's scream turned into a gargle once Selden was finished with him and the face of his Fereldan killer was the last thing he saw. Hawke spun around to push away another round of attackers, allowing Varric to propel more darts into their faces. As was the pattern of the night, the encounter was brief but bloody.
"I guess you were right." Varric said, sheathing his weapon.
"Not yet, Varric." Selden said tensely, moving towards the stairway. There was a black haired mercenary at the landing, walking slowly towards them. Varric, Carver and Aveline stayed back as Hawke approached.
"I don't know who you are, friend, but you made a serious mistake coming here." His voice was rough and he wore a dangerously confident grin. His voice rose suddenly and he spoke without looking behind him. "Lieutenant, I want everyone in the clearing, now!"
Selden heard Aveline's sword slip from its sheathe once more, though he did not move to do the same in preparing his staff. Behind the man, a soldier appeared around the corner, limping desperately. He called out a name and when the moonlight hit him, Hawke could see blood on his armor. The man hit the ground quickly, only to be followed by the most peculiar of people.
An Elf stood before them briefly, using a bare foot to kick at the limp body of the Lieutenant. "Your men are dead and you trap has failed." His hair was white, cut choppily around his head as if he hadn't a care in the world of how it looked. His skin was an odd tone familiar to anyone who knew the Elves of Thedas, but this Elf had tattoos unlike any other's Hawke had seen. As white as his hair and seemingly etched into his skin, they were flowing and ritualistic over his chest, neck, up to his bottom lip and they also crawled down the visible parts of his arms. His armor was black and leathery with a tented metal breastplate covering the shape of his ribcage. He appeared to have feathers at his shoulders and elbows, but upon closer inspection the points were in fact sharp pieces of his leather armor. At his back, he carried a mighty great sword, which seemed to be nearly his height. Most notably, his voice was deep and cat-like in the way he almost purred.
"I suggest running back to your master while you can." The Elf took the stairs slowly, walking passed the leader of the fallen man and down the stairs. He punctuated his sentence by putting his back to the Captain and looking at the four people in Hawke's entourage.
"You're going now where, Slave." The man growled, coming up behind the white haired Elf and grabbing his shoulder. Selden was about to speak, to try and calm the situation down, but what happened next was entirely unexpected. In a single, swift motion the Elf turned, grabbed his assailants arm and raised a fist. The markings on his skin glowed a bluish white, which Selden recognized, and then he simply pressed his fist through the other man's chest. It was if the arm had ceased to be solid and then solidified once more inside of the man's ribcage. He held his position for a few seconds, blood seeping down the man's body, before he slowly lowered the Captain to the ground almost…gently.
"I am not a slave." The words were muttered angrily as the Elf pulled his hand from the dead body and turned to face Hawke. Still clinging to his staff with the axe pointing downwards and ready to swing, Selden narrowed his eyes suspiciously and listened to Bianca, Carver's hammer and Aveline's sword clinking against armor behind him. The Elf took a two more steps down the stairs and stopped, looking at them curiously. "I apologize. When I asked Anso to provide a distraction for the hunters, I had no idea they'd be so…numerous." Walking to the right, the Elf seemed to be studying the few bodies littered around them.
Selden turned with the curious Elf, keeping his staff behind him at ready. "This was your doing?"
"I am the reason you are here, yes." Once he reached a body he kicked it gingerly with a bare foot, then turned to look at them again. Selden noticed that his eyes were an odd color of green. "My name is Fenris. These men were Imperial bounty hunters working to reclaim a magister's lost property; namely myself." He glanced sidelong at the Captain he'd just killed, gesturing slightly in his way. Then, he began ever so casually picking bits of blood and flesh off of his arm. "They were trying to lure me out into the open. Crude as their methods were, I could not face them alone. Thankfully, Anso chose wisely."
"Thankfully?" Carver scoffed behind them, dragging the head of his hammer in the dirt of the Alienage floor.
"It seems you were right, brother…about Anso being a liar." Selden slowly sheathed his staff at his back, not looking away from this…Fenris.
"He was not lying, you were merely led to believe you were working for someone else." Fenris stated, stepping over the body he was inspecting to meet them.
"Why couldn't you fight them yourself? Or run?" Aveline asked curiously, though she was not as trusting as Hawke, keeping her sword in hand.
"There comes a time when you must stop running," The Elf said. "That time has come."
"You're an important slave then?" Varric asked, stepping closer to inspect Fenris. He went passed Hawke, looking up at the Elf. The dwarf looked over his shoulder at his companions, then nodded. "Yup. That's lyrium." The comment pulled a grumble of dissent from Carver.
Fenris moved backwards from Varric's inquisition, putting his hands up. "Yes. I am sure it must look strange to you. I did not receive the markings by choice, but even so, they have served me well. Without them, I'd hardly have been able to escape my pursuers." Again, he gestured to the mangled former ribcage of the slaver captain.
Selden nodded appreciatively, heaving a sigh. "I am glad we could help, then, if they were really trying to capture you." Slavery was not something Selden thought highly of; it was worse than what they did to mages in the Circle. Indoctrination, even.
"It is refreshing to meet someone who is not seeking personal gain; I have met so few people." Fenris looked passed them, towards the house. "If I may ask, what was in the chest?"
Selden turned to look in that direction, shaking his head. "It was empty. Were you expecting something to be there?"
"I was, but I shouldn't have. It would be too much to hope for." Fenris shook his head and crouched next to the body of the captain, searching through his pockets. "It was bait, nothing more." He pulled his metal armored glove off of one hand to better dig around, Selden turned to cue the others to toss bodies away, this time they seemed to have a bit of an audience.
"Looking for something in particular?" Hawke asked, kicking the dirt in the ground to cover up a blood stain.
Fenris was silent for a moment, but then huffed angrily. "It is as I thought." He produced a crumpled piece of paper and threw it in front of him as if it were poisonous. "My former master is here in the city. I am sure you have questions…"
"That is an understatement." Carver interrupted.
"I will explain more afterwards, but unfortunately our time is running out. I need to reach him before he flees. I will confront him and I need your help." Fenris looked at Carver with a bit of annoyance, but then focused back on Hawke.
"It sounds as if you intend to do more than confront him." Aveline's voice sounded cautious, as usual.
"Danarius wishes to strip my flesh from my bones and has sent so many hunters after me that I have lost count." Fenris' voice dropped and he looked at the guard with a grimace. "And before that, he kept me on a leash like a Qunari mage; a personal pet to mock Qunari custom. So yes. I intend to do more than just talk."
Selden's eyes widened and he gestured ahead of them. "I've no love for slavers. If you need our help; lead the way."
Fenris' expression changed for a moment, almost softened, before he nodded. "Follow me, we have only a short time before he discovers his hunters have failed." The Elf turned on his heel, taking the stairs two at a time.
"What are we, brother; the Lowtown Sympathy team?" Carver asked, shaking his head.
Selden shrugged. "Better that than sitting at home with Uncle Gamlen, right?" Then, without seeing if Aveline or Varric agreed, Hawke followed Fenris to Hightown.
The trip to Hightown had been more eventful than Hawke had expected. Aside from fighting bandits along the way, listening to Carver discuss how stupid this was and with Varric gambling on how crazy their new companion was going to go when they got to their destination, they had quite a challenge once inside the mansion. Whether it had been Fenris' former master or not, the mansion had been filled with traps and enchanted with quite a few Shades and rage demons; none of which anyone liked to fight off. Then, once they'd discovered the magister had gotten away, Fenris had stomped off outside.
Hawke passed out some supplies to nurse some burns on Aveline and Carver before stepping out into the night air. Fenris was leaning against the wall of the mansion's courtyard, his arms crossed tightly over his chest. He wore a gauntlet on each hand that had pointed silver tips at his fingers, likely to help press his first into chest cavities a bit easier. They were still filled with bits of blood here and there, but he seemed to pick it all off as he went about his business. Selden canted his head at the man as he approached, noticing how he had his knee bent, one bare foot pressed against the wall.
"I saw you in there." Selden stopped walking, arching a black eyebrow. Fenris' voice was filled with an accusation and his green eyes narrowed dangerously. Hawke paused a few feet away, crossing his own arms over his chest. "You are a mage. It seems I spend my time running from magisters, only to find myself again surrounded by the cursed magi of this world."
Selden's eyes widened at the comment and he stepped closer, his boots scuffing on the stone sidewalk. "Your eyes did not lie to you, yet I do not see you turning and running away."
Fenris chuckled darkly. "I have nothing to fear from magic, aside from its ability to destroy all that it touches." He pushed off the wall, approaching Selden bluntly so that they were nearly chest to chest. Hawke looked down at the other man, who was a few inches shorter than him. Up close, he could see the way their skin differed; Fenris' was smoother though marked by the lyrium, where Selden's was rougher and he boasted a decent face of hair. Selden's hair was brushed back from his face, where Fenris' covered his right eye almost completely. They were a contrast in colors; where Selden was dark, Fenris was shock white. "Every mage desires something; what is it that you desire?"
Hawke narrowed his bright, cerulean blue eyes and canted his head. "I desire to be seen as a man not a mage." He did not appreciate the hostile Elf's accusation. "I do not bear any desire aside from that nor do I spend my free time consorting with demons nor do I fight unfairly by painting pictures in the air with blood." Selden, in fact, quite despised blood magic.
Neither man backed down from their momentary stance, eyeing up one another to see who might step back first. The door to the abandoned mansion opened though, and Carver spoke up quite suddenly.
"Oi, Elf!" Selden's eyes left Fenris' for long enough to look sidelong at his brother, who had his hammer in hand. "He who has trouble with my brother, has it with me!"
Fenris shook his head and stepped back, shrugging his shoulders as if to loosen his mood. "Forgive me. I must seem ungrateful and that is far from the truth."
"It had better be. We've killed half of the bandits in Kirkwall in one night for you." Carver belted his hammer over his shoulder and he clapped his hands together, then brushed his spikey hair up so it stood on end. He eyed Fenris, but turned to Varric as the dwarf stepped out. "Well, shall we?"
"Shall we what?" Aveline asked, looking at Hawke questioningly, noticing the tenseness in his shoulders. She leaned in the door way, her guard armor glinting in the moonlight.
"Clean up and get a drink, of course!" Varric announced, moving over to Fenris to pat the Elf's side. Fenris stepped out of range rather gracefully, though, giving the Dwarf a glare. "And you're invited…with that mood even! You look like you could use a drink…or twelve. Meet you there, Hawke? Aveline, you too! Everyone'll be there!" Aveline was rolling her eyes at the thought of 'everyone,' but the woman was nodding anyways. She'd be there.
Selden merely nodded and turned on his heel, gesturing for Carver to follow him. "Give us a bit longer than normal, I think I have blood in my blood." He could use a drink with his friends; Isabela always managed to cheer him up with some stupid drinking game and he felt the need to shake off the look Fenris had given him when he came out of the mansion.