Disclaimer: I do not own Dragon Age or Familiar of Zero. The former is owned by Bioware, and the latter by Noboru Yamaguchi.
Mirror of Zero
Prologue
The heavy iron-bound gates exploded inwards with a bright flare of Fade-green energy, and killing the Qunari bracing both the gate and the barricade beyond with their bodies. Movement flickered through the clouds of dust and grit, and the commander barked, the Qunari hurling their javelins at the ruined gateway.
They didn't strike their target, the javelins breaking against a transparent barrier that flickered upon impact. "Saarebas…!" the Qunari commander spat as his men drew their swords. Tevinter soldiers charged through the gateway, encased in plate mail with conical helmets and carrying bucklers and arming swords.
The Qunari held fast against the Tevinter soldiers storming the fort. The Tevinter soldiers broke like waves against rock, the ringing sound of steel against steel echoing in the courtyard as Tevinter and Qunari blades crossed with each other, mixed with the shouts of men in the grip of battle and the screams and moans of the dying. Bright red blood from Human and Qunari alike sprayed into the air or pooled on the ground, and then with a shout from their commander the Qunari reformed their line and counter-charged the Tevinters.
The Tevinters tried to hold their ground, but were swept away by the hulking warriors of the Qunari. Qunari swords and axes smashed shields and swords alike into shards, cleaving through armour and sending Tevinter soldiers dying to the ground.
The Tevinter lines broke, surviving soldiers fleeing back towards the gate with the Qunari in hot pursuit. And then through the gateway strode a figure, clothed in black, with a cloak and a cowl and hood of matching colour. Greaves, arm-guards, and a cuirass of dark-red dragon bone protected key areas of her body, and the staff in one hand glowed fitfully with power.
The Tevinter soldiers slowed at the sight, though for many it was a death sentence, dying with Qunari swords and axes to their backs. Others more died as they parted around the magister, only to run into her elite guard. Encased in silverite plate, they slew the soldiers attempting to flee and cowing the remainder to turn and fight.
But the magister was already ahead of them. Sweeping her staff up into both hands, she fired a deadly, sustained burst of energy in an arc and ripped the Qunari front line apart. Qunari died screaming by the dozen, their torsos reduced to smoking wrecks.
Roaring in rage, the Qunari commander charged the magister who coolly held her ground. Instead, she raised one hand, and holding it out towards the Qunari flared with a bright red aura. The aura surrounded her and the charging Qunari, who staggered, then slowed, and coming to a halt knelt before the magister, broken and bound by the magister's blood magic.
Enraged at the sight, the surviving Qunari charged. The elite guard and the Tevinter soldiery alike made to stop them, but the magister held her ground. She gestured, and the hapless Qunari commander rose and led the charge against those who were once his loyal fellow warriors.
He slew many, but took many wounds in turn as he and the Tevinters slew those of the garrison who did not flee into the tower. As Magister Lydia Rubricatus approached the tower entrance, she glanced at her slave. The Qunari was shaking, tears mingling with blood and tears as he fought the chains which bound his mind and soul, his resolve fuelled by grief and rage.
Lydia stared for a moment, and then stepping past swept out with her staff, the glaive attached to the head severing the Qunari's head from its body with an explosive shower of blood. "Soldiers of the Imperium…" she said as she blew open the tower's doors with her staff. "…advance!"
Louise Francoise le Blanc de la Valliere worriedly watched as the Springtime Summoning Ceremony continued.
Along with the other members of her class, she was in the academy courtyard, their attention focused on Guiche as he stood before the summoning circle chanting the ancient words to summon a familiar that would be his lifelong guide and companion. Louise noted that while precisely-drawn and the runic symbols' symmetry was more than satisfactory, it could be better.
Not that she would have said it aloud: it was considered very bad manners to speak while another was performing the ancient and sacred rite. Not only was it a breach of the solemnity of the occasion, it could disrupt the summoning, and since by law and custom it could only be performed once, if it failed or was marred in one way or another, she would have impaired her fellow noble irreparably.
It had happened in the past, summoning rituals disrupted by design or by accident by another. In some cases they had even led to feuds that reduced entire bloodlines to ruin.
Louise had no desire – either for herself or her family – for such an outcome.
Though, if she did speak her opinion, her teacher would probably agree with her. The 'Zero' might have…difficulties, when it came to applying her knowledge, but her grasp of the theory was always the best in her class.
Now if only the application could match the theory…
The summoning was approaching its conclusion, Guiche sweating hard as more and more of his magic was expended to complete the ritual. The ancient words flowed from his lips, burst of multi-coloured light erupting from his rose wand as he moved it back and forth in sympathetic movements to his spell.
Louise rolled her eyes as Guiche de Gramont flourished his wand dramatically as he concluded the summoning ritual, and pointed it at his summoning circle. There was a flash of light, and an animal appeared in the middle. Louise narrowed her eyes, trying to identify it.
…
…
…
A mole…?
What kind of…well, he was an Earth Element user so it fit but still: a mole.
Guiche however, was very delighted. "A mole…!" he shouted, scooping up the animal in his arms with melodramatic theatricality. "What a magnificent creature you are, that I have called forth from the bosom of the gracious Earth with the Founder's guidance! A name you shall have, one most worthy of your beauty and strength!"
Louise barely managed to suppress the urge to palm her face as Guiche gushed over his familiar which he named 'Verdandi' before proudly presenting it to the rest of their class. Most were comradely congratulatory of Guiche, including Louise, though some she noted with distaste – specifically his female admirers within the class – were more…effusive.
As Guiche took his place among the students who'd finished summoning their familiars, the class instructor, Professor Colbert called the next students in their turn. Louise scowled as her rival Kirche von Anhalt-Zerbst flashed a triumphant grin at Louise before performing the ritual, and winced as the busty redhead summoned a fiery salamander.
Tabitha, the silent and stoic bookworm was probably the height of the ceremony so far, summoning a blue, winged dragon which affectionately nuzzled its new mistress after the bonding had been completed. Tabitha returned the gesture with gentle pats, and then leading her familiar away returned to one or another of the books that she always carried with her.
On and on it continued, Louise growing increasingly-worried as the ceremony proceeded. And finally it was her turn. "Louise le Blanc de la Valliere…!" Professor Colbert called, and Louise stepped forward.
The professor nodded encouragingly at her, as he usually did. "It's your turn, young lady." He said with a reassuring smile. "You can do it."
"Easier said than done…" Louise worriedly thought.
For all her skill in theory, Louise wasn't so much as bad at application as she was unable to perform it at all. No matter what spell she used, it would always result in an explosion. The situation had been so bad that it had led to the rather disparaging nickname given to her by her peers: the Zero.
But she couldn't fail here.
Even a weakling familiar was preferable to that.
Her difficulties in magic went back to long before the academy, and despite the supportive attitude of her father the Duke de la Valliere and her older sister Cattleya, the same could not be said of her mother and eldest sister. Both the Duchess de la Valliere and Eleanor constantly pressed her about her failures, reminding her of her obligations not just as a noble and a member of House de la Valliere, but also of their family's status as a branch of the nation's royal family.
Thus far she'd been tolerated, but if she failed this ritual…
…well, expulsion from the academy would be the least of her worries. If she was lucky she'd be confined to the family estate for life, kept out of sight as a potential embarrassment. And in the worst case…well, there went her noble title, and she might even be expelled from the family.
Louise suppressed a shudder as she drew her summoning circle: the consequences of failure were terrible to contemplate. Colbert watched as she drew her circle, and nodded in approval. As usual, Louise's work was top-class, easily the best he'd seen in her class, though Tabitha came a close second.
Now, hopefully it would work. If not…well, Colbert knew the consequences as well as she, and it would break his heart to see a smart and promising girl like Louise suffer the fate of the magical blanks that popped up every so often in magical bloodlines.
Finally, Louise finished her work, and rising glanced at Colbert. He nodded his assent, and raising her wand began the familiar summoning ritual.
Lydia turned the Qunari's blow with her staff, slamming the axehead into the stone wall on one side, and using the momentum stabbed the spearhead at the base into the Qunari's leg. As the ox-man screamed, she swung her weapon, the glaive opening up the ox-man from shoulder to hip, Captain Decimus behind her putting the gurgling ox-man out of his misery as he fell past the magister.
Another Qunari on the landing above fired a repeating crossbow at Lydia as she advanced up the stairs, but she swept them out of the air with precise parries of her staff. As the crossbow clicked empty, she levelled her staff and fired a green blast of magical energy that destroyed the Qunari's chest. Quickly advancing up to the landing, she blew the iron-bound door open and entered the chamber beyond.
Five Qunari were inside.
All of them were lying dead on the floor, foam drying on their lips and on the nearby floor.
An elf was sitting beside the window, dressed in drab field attire under a hooded cloak. "Sylvia…" Lydia remarked. "…hopefully whatever you used to poison these idiots won't poison us as well."
Sylvia smiled wryly at the magister's comment. "You're mean magister." She accused, and Lydia laughed.
"Fine, perhaps I was." She admitted. She then glanced around the room, and then taking an offered sheaf of papers from Sylvia leafed through them. She raised an eyebrow. "This is all there is?"
In response, Sylvia jerked a thumb in the direction of a safe in the wall. Dwarf runes could be seen inscribed on the frame, and Lydia swore. "Damnation…" she said. "…dwarf work…? This is going to take time to crack."
She turned and gestured to the elite guards present, others leading the clearance of the tower's lower floors, and the rest of the fort outside of the tower. "Get a message back to camp." She ordered. "I want dwarf engineers here within the hour."
"Yes magister." They said before leaving, and leaving Lydia alone with Sylvia and Guard Captain Decimus, who stayed on guard by the door.
"Now then…" Lydia began only to be cut off by a rumbling boom, the sound of something large and heavy striking fast and hard, and the fort and tower shaking as a result. The two Tevinters rushed to the window, Decimus holding by the door. The magister began to swear again.
In the distance, past the cliffs she could see at least one Qunari fire-ship, and with several puffs of smoke its cannons fired again. "A damn patrol…" she said angrily. "…a damn patrol is going to foil our objectives in this theatre? Those damn…"
Again, the magister was cut off as green light lit her up from below, the magister's eyes widening as she sensed the opening of a Fade rift nearby. Specifically, it was right below her feet.
"Magister, no…!" Decimus and Sylvia shouted, reaching out to the magister as she fell into the rift. The magister managed to catch Sylvia's hand…and was promptly pulled in after her. As they fell into the Fade, the rift closed shut behind them, the guard captain falling flat on the floor.
They were gone.
A/N
And that's a rap. Let's see how the Halkeginians deal with a Tevinter magister. And of course, there's that elf of hers too.
The title is a hint to Magister Lydia and Sylvia's characters. Feel free to guess why that's the case.