A lot of this chapter is flashback, just to flesh out the characters a little, but don't worry, we'll be getting to the action soon enough :) Also a huge thanks to my amazingly awesome beta FrellingBlighter as for some reason I kept deciding to write half of the chapter in first person.
Chapter Two: Tower Of Flames
The atmosphere was thick with tension as Anders mulled over the information he'd been presented with, his brow furrowed above intense brown eyes. As she watched, Kallian swore she could see the thoughts swirling beneath their depths, jumping from one emotion to another with equal swiftness. She had been in the position to admire such a moment in the past, lying with him in silence, staring into his eyes with a smile as he tucked a lock of auburn hair behind her ear.
Their relationship – if it could be called as such – was often as short lived as his escape attempts however; he would often try to escape their prison and find freedom outside its walls. There were countless times in which he had begged her to accompany him, though each time she was reluctant to leave without her best friend.
Natalia had been her rock since coming to the circle, despite how odd it may seem. During her first few weeks, she had often found it terrifying to be surrounded by so many humans after a childhood as a Dalish.
One night, when slavers came upon their aravels, she had been captured and caged like an animal. It was only when she tried to escape did she realise she possessed magic. Unfortunately, it was also the moment her captors realised the same thing. Sold to the Templars - who were more than willing to look the other way about the slavery if it meant another mage was safely locked away - she shied away from most company. It seemed that even when she tried to converse, the other children were equally intimidated by her, with her pointy ears and strange uncertainty around humans.
So she remained content to sit quietly in lessons, apparently displaying her best invisible elf impression. That all changed drastically however when a young human girl was thrust into her life by a heavy Templar hand.
IXIXIXIX IXIXIXIXIXIXIXI
"Watch this one. She's… energetic." Said the Templar in a gruff tone, his clear distaste for the girl only increased when despite her obvious fear, she turned to smirk at him. With a grimace, he turned on his heel and walked away with what could only be described as an uncomfortable limp. Seeing this, the girl's grin widened, before she truly took in her surroundings. This was to be her prison and she observed it as such, surveying it's stone walls with a fierce curiosity before turning her gaze on the others in the room.
"Welcome to the circle. What's your name child?" The girl quickly focused her attention on Wynne, the groups instructor.
"Natalia." She said indignantly, clearly becoming vexed by her unfamiliar surroundings.
"Well Natalia, why don't you come and sit down with us?" Wynne offered with a friendly smile, gesturing to the space beside her with her hand.
Natalia took her seat, maintaining a cautious expression.
"Today we're learning about simply calling forth light to aid us. It's really easy to do once you know how. Now, think hard about what you're going to do and breathe deeply. Just feel it happen, like so." Wynne smiled as a ball of light burst forth onto her palm, shining a bright white like the sun. A few collective gasps could be heard before everyone began staring at their own hands intently, eyes squinting in concentration.
Kallian closed her eyes and kept her breathing steady, trying to feel the gift of magic within her. She thought of Wynne's light and how pretty it was, until she could almost feel it's warmth on her hand.
More gasps could be heard.
Curious, Kallian opened her eyes, only to be blinded by a bright light, magnificent and beautiful in her grasp. The other students were looking at her with envy, before turning back and trying again. Soon, more and more lights were gleaming, like a force against the shadows in the room, eliminating all darkness in the world. Kallian smiled; proud that she had made something so beautiful. She had never been the best with tests, like Geoffrey or Alana, but she loved to read and draw. It was here that her imagination grew to outmatch the other children. It was here she learned her art as a mage, using things that had never helped her before to finally do something good; do something better than other people.
She couldn't help but smile at the thought of Geoffrey and Alana's faces when she was the one to make her light first. They were always first at everything, remembering all the theory and writing brilliant answers to questions she couldn't… and they never let her forget it. It may have only been a light, but it felt like something special.
It was then she noticed the distinct lack of light beside her. The new girl, Natalia hadn't even tried yet, still looking around with loathing at the cold expanse of stone surrounding them. That was before she noticed Kallian's stare however. She returned the look with raised brows, blinking at her as if seeing her for the first time. Kallian smiled shyly, before looking back at her hands embarrassed at being caught staring.
Hearing a sigh, she looked back at the human beside her who had resorted to looking at her hands with a disinterested expression. After just being ripped away from her family and dropped into somewhere so unfamiliar, she no doubt had more on her mind than making pretty lights with her fingers.
Obviously thinking along a similar thought track, Natalia's expression grew colder, anger tainting her features with a darkness that seemed overwhelming even in such brightness. A red tinge began to glow about her hands, growing hotter and hotter the colder her expression became until a pillar of flame erupted into being before them, scorching the air.
The surprise on Natalia's own face mirrored that of everyone else's.
"That counts as a light yes?" She tried innocently with a sheepish smile as the rug beneath their feet caught fire. The panic was soon ended when Wynne came to her senses and set the rug awash with water from her own hands.
"No." She answered sternly, still looking slightly shocked at the events that had taken place as she pulled the rug before her to stare at Natalia through the rather large and smoking, black, singed hole that now adorned it. Natalia gulped at the look she was receiving from the old tutor.
"Believe it or not, that was a complete accident." She shrugged, scanning the room with her eyes as everyone stared incredulously. Growing more and more uncomfortable by the second, she raised a pointed finger at Kallian in an attempt to shift the attention.
"She knocked me."
Kallian gasped angrily at the girl who now refused to meet her eyes. She could almost feel her eyes fill with tears as everyone stared at her accusingly, feeling - not for the first time - how cruel life was and very alone. Everyone was always against her and she never really understood why. How could this girl hate her enough already to blame her for such a thing?
"I want the two of you to wait for Irving in his office. Now." Wynne said calmly, watching carefully as the two young girls traipsed off sheepishly, heads hung low.
They sat in silence for a while, one silently guilty while the other internally fumed. Natalia was the first to break the silence.
"Sorry." She mumbled apologetically, biting her lip. Kallian turned to eye her sceptically, sincerely doubting that this shem was any different from all the others who treated her like something they'd stepped in; especially after what she'd done.
"I uhm… I just didn't want to be in trouble on my own on my first day." She continued, staring at the floor while she nervously fiddled with her hands. Kallian had noticed it was something the girl did a lot, even when she had been grinning confidently at the Templar who brought her in; her fear had been hidden in the discreet fidgeting of her hands. Kallian began to see a little more about the girl than she had perhaps first thought.
"My name's Kallian." The elf muttered back with a half-smile. Natalia returned it with double the enthusiasm, which in turn tugged at the corners of Kallian's lips infectiously.
"Natalia." The girl offered out a hand, which Kallian looked at cautiously before slowly grasping it lightly in return. The silence returned, though less uncomfortable than before. This again, was broken first by Natalia.
"Your ears are funny." She smirked, looking at Kallian's ears with an innocent amusement that differed from the other children's taunting remarks, but still affected Kallian enough to make the tips of said ears burn with both embarrassment and shame as she averted her gaze. It was soon drawn back however when Natalia did the most unexpected thing…
"I like them."
She became her first real friend.
IXIXIXIXIXIXIXIXIXI
Kallian stared intently at Anders, waiting for him to break his angry silence. He had never gotten on particularly well with Natalia - snide remarks and witty comebacks were exchanged between the two incessantly – but he would always be the first to speak out against the injustices that were placed upon mages. He certainly would never abide by an illegal tranquillity being forced upon someone who had already passed their harrowing. In point of fact, she had been the fastest person ever to complete it.
Despite her lack of effort in almost every area of study, she - like Kallian - took naturally to magic from a young age; the firestorm incident from their youth had been an impressive feat, something some students had still yet to master despite their hardest efforts. Kallian still remembered the look on Irving's face when he walked into his office that day, not angry in the slightest. Graegoir had been a different story of course, but Irving was simply impressed at the potential of the mages before him, both with a natural flair and talent that he hadn't seen in a long time.
Everyone had been impressed with Kallian's harrowing, being put forward before Natalia - despite the brunette being three years older - due to her sense of responsibility being evidently more prominent than that of her friend's. When Natalia had finally undertaken her test however, she had passed with flying colours and demons hide having been thoroughly kicked all over the fade.
When others asked how she had managed it, she simply replied that no silly mouse demon would ever fool the most awesomely powerful mage to have ever lived. Kallian had heard a different story altogether however.
Apparently demons didn't take kindly to you accidentally tripping and landing on them when they were in mouse form. One second there was a squashed rodent, the next a demon popped out… and Kallian had been reliably informed that it was an awkward and uncomfortable moment for both parties involved.
Kallian smiled fondly at the memory, rolling her eyes at how very 'Talia' it was. She had to stop the Templars hurting her friend.
"They can't do this. It goes against all chantry law to make someone who's already passed their harrowing tranquil. It's not right!" Anders fumed; his brows drawn together in a serious expression that she rarely ever saw grace his features.
"I mean, maker knows I'm not the woman's biggest fan…" Kallian rolled her eyes as he continued.
"But she definitely doesn't deserve this. Even I know she would never touch blood magic. We have to do something!" Kallian rolled her eyes again with a scoff, knowing fine well that they had to do something. It was why she had gone to Ander's in the first place, despite the extensive Templar guard outside his room she knew he would be able to think of something. He was very inventive.
Kallian blushed at the turn her thoughts had taken, shaking herself before coming back to the situation at hand. Anders was busy pacing the length of his room, hand on chin as he repeated the word 'think' like a mantra, before sighing and stopping to face her.
"Give me a little time. I'll think of something." He soothed sincerely. Even his honest brown eyes did nothing to calm the swelling panic that was quickly rising in her chest and threatening to consume her.
"But we don't have time Anders! It's… She's-" A lone tear graced her cheek as she looked up at him through glassy eyes. He gathered her up in his arms, placing a kiss on the top of her head before stretching out his arms to look her in the eye.
"Look at me. Does this handsome face ever lie? Of course not. So believe me when I say that nothing is going to happen to Natalia. We will do something and we will stop it. I Promise." His kind smile broadened to a grin when she nodded, sniffing quietly with a look of determination on her face.
"Okay. I'll come back later tonight." She whispered her voice shaky; she was still half worried that the tears would arrive again at any moment. But she refused. Tears would get her nowhere… they would get Natalia nowhere and she was resolved to focusing entirely on finding a way to help her friend.
As she reached the doorway, she turned to see Anders rubbing at the crease in his brow, a troubled expression clouding his face.
"Anders?" His head snapped up at his name as he regarded her with a questioning look.
"Thank you." She smiled, and with that, left him to his plans.
As she made her way down the hall, she caught sight of another shadow besides her own, flickering beside her own.
"What do you want?" She said as she turned to see Jowan staring at her nervously, eyes twitching this way and that as if paranoid, seeing something in his peripheral vision. A sister of the chantry stood beside him, a friendly smile on her face. Kallian could only imagine what was going on, however her thoughts were too preoccupied with the knowledge that this man too would soon be condemned to a fate worse than death. A sadness swept over her, to see another innocent life about to be snuffed out; another friend.
"I need to talk to you in private. Where's Natalia?"
"She's right here." Kallian was cut off by a familiar voice as the woman in question bounded into sight, a satisfied grin lighting up her face. Kallian's chest restricted at the thought of never seeing that again, only a hollow mask, a mockery of the woman who used to be her best friend. It was a horrifying thought.
"You look rather… cheerful." Remarked Jowan, for a moment distracted from his worries by the infectious glow exuding from the woman opposite him.
"Cullen; surprisingly wonderful sword work." She winked, leaving no doubt as to what it was she was suggesting. Jowan laughed despite himself and even Kallian herself felt a small smile lift the corners of her mouth. The sister beside them however looked rather bemused.
"The Templar Cullen? Why would you have seen his sword work?" She asked, to the pure abandoned delight of Natalia, whose eyes lit up.
"He was showing me how good he is. Me and Cullen, we're like that." She grinned, her fingers crossed before the sister's eyes, who still seemed rather confused.
"Oh leave her alone you bully." Kallian giggled, feeling a brief moment of freedom in her friends' presence against all odds as she nudged her in the ribs.
"What's she doing here anyway?" Natalia asked bluntly.
"She means that in the nicest possible way." Kallian added with a roll of her eyes.
The girl looked at Jowan with a smile, which he returned in a sickeningly sweet fashion, their eyes meeting as if they were sharing a conversation through them. Jowan looked back at Natalia and Kallian, grasping the girl's hand in his and opened his mouth to speak. The words never formed however, as he was cut off by an excited looking Natalia.
"Oh I get it… this is that girl you said you were rutting with?" And before she had even put a thought into them, the words were out of her mouth. Kallian slapped her forehead with her hand when Lily gasped in outrage, pulling her hand from Jowan's.
"What? I mean… not in so many words. He said it much more eloquently and politely and… uhm, you were saying?" She smiled at Jowan hopefully, trying to save the situation.
"What I said, was that I had met a girl and we were in love." He placated, looking sternly at Natalia before shooting a glance at his beloved.
"Oh yes, that was it." Natalia replied with a firm nod of her head, mostly directed at the girl, who looked placated for the most part.
"Well this is her, Lily."
"Well it's nice to meet you Lily. Oh and my condolences. You'll need them with Jowan." Kallian offered with a smile, to which Lily replied with a laugh, Jowan with an indignant sigh.
"Yes, nice to meet you. I promise I don't always walk around with my foot in my mouth. Only sometimes when I feel like life would otherwise be too easy." Natalia grinned, offering her hand out apologetically. Lily took it gracefully with another chuckle.
"I'm afraid that not all my news is so happy. As I said, we need to talk privately. Follow me." Jowan said, returning to his previous twitchy state, exchanging a nervous glance with Lily before turning on his heel and leading the group down the hall.
Kallian missed the questioning look that Natalia shot her, her gaze was focused on her feet as they followed in the direction their friend had lead, with a sinking feeling that she knew exactly what it was Jowan wanted to talk about.