The Legend of the Champion
There was no longer a darkened room when the two women regained the use of the eyes.
Before them now was a barren, rocky valley with pockets of pillars of smoke scattered all around the area. They themselves were on top of a clear that had one path to their left and one descending down to their backside. To there backs was a mountain with an unusual peak size. Orion was standing above them, grinning like the sadistic bastard the elf was attributing to him now.
"I'm terribly sorry about all this, but since this is my head and not yours, traversing down memories is…more strenuous for you two than it is for me." He clarified sympathetically. Dyana didn't know whether he was sincere in his concern or not. Kora was definitely on the latter side by this point; she thought he was enjoying tormenting them so.
"Thank you for that…after the fact." The elf retorted as she took the time to survey her surroundings. "So…where are we now?"
Orion cocked his head. "This place is…well, I cannot tell stories as Varric use to, but I can show images of his words, even if my mind is not the original one it was presented to."
"His – what?!" Dyana asked frantically.
Orion sighed. "Right now, Varric is telling Cassandra the story, and she is visualizing it…that visualization is what you're seeing before you now."
"Incredible." was all Dyana could muster to say.
"So why is this place in tatters? It's like Din'Anshiral took this place by the thraot and choked most of its life away." The elf huntress inquired.
"Yes, this place is very barren, with scars of horror and death abroad and aplenty. As to the why, well…that's why." Orion stated as he pointed behind them.
They turned to what he wanted them to say: approaching the clearing were three armored creatures, teeth sharp and poisoned, eyes burning with ancient fury and hatred.
Dyana did not need to ask Orion what they were, for she knew, as Kora did.
These were darkspawn, the Great Foe of Thedas. The bringers of the Blight. Specifically, they were the main body of the darkspawn, the hurlocks.
Kora went for her bow, but stopped and asked, "They…can't see us…right?"
Orion's smile did not fade. "As I said, in this place, in my mind, you are shadow and mist to these memories. Your interference is impossible, and the same can be said for them.
Something in the monsters' movements made Dyana finally spoke after seeing this abominations firsthand – if only in memories. "What are they seraching for?"
"Prey." was Orion's flat response.
"I'm glad we're not it." Kora added, releasing the grip on her bow and slinging it back over her back.
After some moments, the darkspawn stopped and hissed at their direction.
"I thought you said – " Kora began to shout.
"Be at peace, huntress. It is not us they notice." Orion explained smugly.
"Then who?" Dyana asked.
Orion's smile multiplied in size. "Let's just say…the hunters have now become the hunted..." He motioned to the path behind them.
The two woman saw three other figures come storming down it. They were better identified as they got closer.
One was a male, short black hair and blue eyes, in his mid-twenties, clad in fine armor and a mighty greatsword over his back. To his far left was a woman about the same age as he was, with short black hair and brown eyes. Her clothes and stave gave her away as a mage. Between them was another man, but he was, by far, their polar opposite in all things.
His armor was black tinted and constructed unlike anything the noble and the elf had ever seen before, with one arm covered in armor and the other barren except for a leather glove as its only protection. His staff was adorned with a red sphere encased with wooden vines and it base was a sixteen inch blade. His hair two was black, but unlike his clean shaven counterpart, his face was coated with a fuzzy beard. His eyes were burning with fiery hatred, as equal as the monsters, but with a much different purpose.
"Who – is – that?!" Dyana asked, in of the trio before them now.
"Which one?" Orion asked back, arms crossed and face gleaming.
Right before she got the words together for a response, the darkspawn howled at their new adversaries. One of them decided to charge.
"Stupid mistake." Orion said softly.
The bearded man's hands glowed blue, as he drew his staff out in a swinging down motion, a spectacular bolt of lightning was launched right at the creature, sending him flying and almost killing it outright.
"By the Gods…" Kora shivered.
The two charged in rage at the attack. The man's face transformed into a snarl as he pushed one back with another electrical charge and the other was set aflame. The amazing thing was that the mage did all this like he was taking a stroll, and he literally was taking a stroll as the third darkspawn was cut down by the other man and the woman incinerated the already burnt alive one for insurance. The two woman just stood in all at the quick dispatching of the beasts while Orion looked like he was watching a play for the tenth time.
The last wounded darkspawn tried to get back on his feet, but the male mage stomped down on its hand, denying its attempt to retrieve its discarded weapon.
In an act of defiance, the darkspawn roared loudly, and then too was set aflame, burning to death very quickly.
"Incredible." Dyana said.
"This is just the teaser. Wait until you see them actually trying." Orion explained.
The other man approached his fellow and sank to one knew to analyze the dead fiend at his feet.
"Scouts." He claimed.
"We will have to fight them sooner or later." The woman added, walking through Kora and causing her to gasp again while Orion simply laughed.
"This is funny to you?!" She yelled on the verge of spilling his guts open.
After a few failed attempts to stop his laughter, he finally mustered, "I – I'm – I'm sorry. Your reaction is…ex – expected. I'll do be – better to fix it."
"You had better." She threatened.
Her tone made Orion form a half-smile. "And if I didn't? If you struck me down, how, I should ask, would you ever find your way out?"
"I'll think of something."
"Good luck with that, lethallan."
The male mage ended all attempts at altercations between them by saying, "Then we make our stand here. Both of you, prepare yourselves."
The three of them got into their respectful fighting positions, and as the male mage claimed, more darkspawn entered the clearing.
As the fighting commenced, Dyana asked, "You never answered my question."
"You never specified your question." he retaliated.
"Orion…"
The man-elf sighed. "Okay, fine. I did bring you here, so I suppose I should you both know who's who. Right, then. The human warrior, the one with the greatsword chopping down that Hurlock over there, that lad is Carver. The woman beside him, tearing down those three darkspawn with fire and ice; that is his twin fraternal sister, Bethany. And over there, their leader, their brother, and the one completely outdoing them both in combat and magic is –"
"Garrett." Dyana finished, realizing now who they were, who the mage was. "That's – That's Garrett Hawke, the Champion of Kirkwall."
Kora's eyes widened as Dyana did by this revelation. They weren't standing in a moment of history - with one of the most revered and important figures in all of Thedas's timelines.
"Yes it is…though he is not titled as Champion right now; that honored position is bestowed much later in his younger life. Right now, he is just Garrett Hawke, an apostate fighting alongside his family."
"I never seen a staff like his." Dyana examined as the Hawkes finished up with the new batch of enemies rather quickly.
"Yes, it is a most unusual weapon for a mage, isn't it?"
"What is it?"
"The Staff of Parthalan." was his forthright answer.
"That's the – I thought it was a myth. A fable." Kora said, her voice caught between disbelief and amazement.
"Of all the things you have seen in recent days, you brush off his choice of weaponry as falsehood?" He asked in a jesting tone, though his words carried the weight of annoyance and ill-temperament with them. "No. It was not. He finds it much later on in his life at Kirkwall...but I'm jumping ahead, aren't I? Silly me." He chuckled.
"We can't keep this up forever." Bethany declared, drawing the 'guests' back tot he action before them.
"We'll all make it through this – together." Hawke stated matter-of-factly.
"I hope you're right, because they're still coming." Carver pointed out, blade raised in advance of the approaching wave of blighted beasts.
"Perhaps we'll be lucky and they'll run out of darkspawn." Garrett joked.
"Trying to lighten the mood, brother?"
"Is it working?" he asked back with a grin.
His younger sibling scoffed before looking back at the rampaging horde of enemies coming for them. "Ask me after we survive this."
"See? It's working. You're become an optimist. I knew you had it in you." Garrett said with an every-growing smirk, making Carver grow one himself.
Bethany's expression turned to ice and disgust. "Here they come. Shall I deal with them?"
"All yours, sister." Garrett permitted proudly.
Smiling wickedly from ear to ear, Bethany focused herself, and flames burst from her hands as she sent a fireball at the darkspawn, sand on contact triggered an intensive burst of fire and blood on the four, quickly dispersing them, though one took longer to die than his three dark brethren.
"She's incredible." Dyana examined.
"One of the finer specimens of mages ever seen on this good earth. Sadly, the stock of good mages had diminished with every passing generation. Excluding an Amell or two, of course." The man-elf commented.
The second horde went down as fast as the first, though the trio were showing signs of wear and tear.
"Hang in there, Carver. We'll get out of this." Garrett reassured the young warrior.
His reassurance was be put to the test real quick.
Soon the earth trembled and bounced back and forth under the feet of the fighting trio, igniting their prepared battle stances - and the visiting ones, igniting their growing fears, albeit two of them in this matter.
"Was is that?!...Orion?!" cried the elf.
"O, beware, my lord, of jealousy; It is the green-ey'd monster, which doth mock The meat it feeds on." the man-elf uttered ominously, his eyes rolled back, his aura dark and dangerous.
Both woman looked at him like he was losing control of himself. After a spell, though, his dark figure reverted back to the original standing he preferred, and he groaned. "Sorry you had to see that. It's another unfortunate side effect of being this age, having the knowledge I do. Sometimes...random shit just comes out."
"How do you - "
" - control it?" he finished with a pained smile. "It's...immensely complicated. Another time. A great foe comes."
As he spoke, the foe he spoke of did indeed come.
The ground-shaking was caused by the being with its gargantuan horned head coming over the horizon.
An ogre, standing over eighteen feet tall, a behemoth of his kin, galloping down towards the Hawke family.
"Is - Is that - " Kora could not fin the words to speak at the sight of the massive monstrosity who stopped his running by dragging his large feet into the ground, creating two four feet trenches behind him, striking its enormous fists down in a smashing position, with dust clouds temporarily shrouding its colossal form, and then silence was rent asunder as the ogre roared mightily, challenging the miniature foes across from it.
As Orion had previously described of Ogres, they wore less armor due to their gigantic bone and muscle structure, but still bore metal on their skin as a necessity. This particular one had crude-crafted bracers, cuisses (upper leg protection), a sliver of a chestplate strapped across its thorax, and a shoulder guard on its right side. Not armed to the teeth, but still no less a very, very dangerous threat.
"Yes, that's a ogre. And at a rather rare height, I should normal. Normally they don't go over sixteen feet, except for the alphas. I'm sure Varric is embellishing its description to Cassandra right now just for the hell of it."
Dyana's eyes advanced from the Hawke siblings to the Ogre, and proceeded to replicate the act several times before daring to ask, "That's embellishment?!"
Orion shrugged so innocently, the act could interpret him as either a passing bystander or a crafty smuggler. Either prospect was not of paramount importance at the present moment.
The attention returned focus upon the giant beast howling mightily at the Hawke trio. The ogre's knees then bended and its fists pummeled into the ground, its horned head pointed straight as an arrow.
"It's going to charge! Clear off!" Garrett ordered.
Had Carver and Bethany not obeyed, they would have been flattened like pancakes under the rush of the ogre. Still, its missed them by a few feet, and hit the side of a cliff so hard, the impact when the horns met rock left chasms the size of merchant wagons in its wake. The ogre shook the flawed blow it off like dust, though.
"Those things are tough." Dyana commented.
"That's why the darkspawn use them when they can." Orion said back.
Over the next several minutes, the Hawke siblings out maneuvered the ogre as best as they could, with Hawke issuing out commands, sometimes explicit when Carver made a flat jest or two; Carver striking and retreating before the ogre had half the effort prepared to react; and Bethany making sure the beast focused on her as best as she could with spells of ice flicking off its skin and fireballs leaving burns but no other damage. The ogre struck left, Carver dodged. The ogre struck right, Bethany moved out of reach. No matter how strong it was, its attacks' speed was no match for the agility of the humans. Something would have to give soon enough.
"Shit. More darkspawn coming!" Carver shouted out, getting a good look at the ogre's reinforcements right after he just narrowly missed being pulverized under its fist, and Garrett chided him with insults of insolence.
The oncoming darkspawn seemed to grow bolder and fighter harder with the aid of a great war beast at their side, as evident as it was with all three Hawke siblings struggle to fend them off and the ogre at the same time. Bathany had to take time from distracting the ogre to freezing darkspawn whilst Carver shattered them with each precise strike of his sword, while running away of the ogre's renewed attention on him, and Hawke's spells were doing as much havoc on the ogre as his sister was, though the hurlocks were not as lucky when a stray fireball blew four of them straight back to the Fade.
The darkspawn assault thinned out after a good while, and soon all that was left on the smoke-filling, blood drenched battlefield were Hawke, his twin siblings, and the ogre.
After another missed charge, the ogre turned to face his face, and finally Bethany' magic struck true: a Winter's Grasp was cast right into its eye, freezing it beyond repair, trigering a vicious screech of pain from the ogre.
"Carver, get him!" Garrett ordered.
"You don't need to tell me twice!"
"If you mess up, I'll have to! Go for behind his leg! That should do it!"
A slash from Carver's sword left a brutal cut behind the ogre's right leg, right between where the femur and tibia meet, causing the giant to sink to one knee whilst booming a screeching howl. A shower of electric bolts from Bethany bombarded the beast so bad, that when the attack cleared its face had turned more ugly than when it was in its normal form. Scars were birthed from the bottom of its left ear to barely passing its nose.
"You're going to like this bit right here."
"The way you're saying it makes me think I will not like it." Kora retorted bitterly.
"Well, maybe you won't, but you never know until you see it, right?"
With the beast on the vestiges of its last legs, Garrett's eyes transformed into fireballs, burning with abhorrence of his dying foe, and vigor of his next act.
"Get back. Both of you." he instructed fiercely.
As Bethany and Carver went to find sufficient cover, Garrett Hawke's hands moved so fast the elf barely caught the motion, let alone her human companion depicting only the very end it. Suddenly both armored palms lit up in white energy, with more seemed to grow inward, and went into a tearing position. The ogre bellowed in intensive agony as a pure white chasm of magic split straight up and down through its center. It almost seemed like something was ready to explode fro, the inside of the monster. It was defenselessness and helpless against this power.
The next part scared the shit out of the woman more than anything else they had previously witnessed, and Orion just stood behind them, grinning like a fool.
A black mist poured swiftly out from Hawke's pair of hands, then transmuted into shadowy figure reflected his own, ten times the normal size of any human hand. One went left, the other followed to the right. They both met at the chasm of magic tearing the ogre's inside to shreds, gripping it as if to enlarge the fissure further out more. The beast's howl of suffering from within and without was beyond the meaning of excruciating.
Hawke's seemed to struggle against either the massive form of his foe of the greatly amounting of energy he was putting into this attack.
Then, in an extremely grotesque display, Garrett's hands moved apart, and the magical chasm exploded, a flash of light preceding the flying of giant limbs and bones as well as gushes of blood the size of qunari bodies.
All that was left of the ogre was a pool of blood in a half moon shape, and its former body parts scattered and terribly dismembered.
This all happened within a five to seven second time-frame.
"What - the fuck - was THAT?!" the elf demanded to know, abhorred buy the sudden act of a magical atrocity and a marvel before her daring eyes.
"H - H - His hands! They - they - they just - "
"Manifested into titanic shadowy ones as a a portion of the Veil turned the ogre's insides into mush, they grabbed the beast right in the center of it and ripped it apart in a sea of blood and flesh?" he quipped, then laughed. "Yes, his arms just did that." He ceased his laughter to point at the ogre's head. "Oh, look. It's tongue is still moving. Imagine that." he explained with wit and sick humor.
Dyana wasn't even pay attention to hear his source of humor. Nor was Kora, but only Dyana spoke up. "I've...I've never seen a spell like that before."
Orion nodded. "Nor will you ever any, most likely. It's one of the most rarest of spells known to, well, anyone in the studies of magical arts. A...variation of it does exists, albeit it less fine tuned that what we saw, even so mastering it, but...how you see it - "
" - is Varric's embroidering?" Kora finished, able to find words to speak now.
"Exactly." he responded pleasantly.
More war cries reverberated across the clearing, and numbering roughly twenty to twenty seven strong, more darkspawn entered in and formed a half circle, enclosing on the Hawke family, cornering them and blocking off any chance of escape.
"There's no end to them." the Twins said at the same time.
As it seemed the beast of the Blight prepared to utter kill the humans under endless waves of crude blades and flesh-gushing mouths, something suddenly changed the entire atmosphere of the battle.
A deafening and godly roar out of seemingly nowhere brought quietude upon all.
All deniznes, including those unseen by those in the 'memory', looked above to view its source.
The mountaintop seemed to move, and all below soon saw it was no structure of nature as all.
Colossal wings unfolded majestically, revealing its bearer: a fearsome, towering avatar of death and destruction.
A dragon. A High Dragon, no less.
"What in the - " Kora began, but oxygen vanished in her lungs.
"Oh, yeah. I almost forgot all about this part." he recalled.
They both cried out, "There's actually a - I thought this part was just - there's actually a dragon in all this?!" at the sight of the titan roaring down upon the tiny and bewildered combatants.
"This actually happened?!" the elf queried frantically.
Orion didn't even look to acknowledge them. He was kept his eyes on the dragon, smiling like not a thing in the world could worry him. "Wait for it..."
The dragon roared a third time, then descending, bringing unholy fire and agonizing death upon all.
The women screamed at the coming monster. Then all became blurry and black.
When they awoke, they found themselves lying on the floor in the familiar setting of a blackened chamber room, with lightning, if artificial, illuminating the endless passages before them.
"We're back. Did you enjoy yourselves?" Orion asked, walking in front of them.
"What - just - happened?" Dyana asked as she helped her elven sister-in-arms rise up.
He gestures around to their surroundings. "The memory ended. Well, it was abruptly ended, I should end, else it would not have ended at all. You'll see soon enough was is going on. Words cannot explain the visualization you experience; only by actually perceiving them as they are will you uncover the truth."
"Can you make sense for once?! Please?" She pleaded, swearing in elvish shortly afterward.
Orion chuckled. "I'll try to." Kora was doubtful he was intending to honor his promise.
"Whatever that was...it felt real." the human noble commented, still reeling on what she had just witness. "To actually see the Champion...it's unbelievable..."
"As I said, it is how Cassandra saw it in her mind as Varric described it, though many of the things you saw do come into their possession, like the Staff of Parlathan, but later on. So, in a way...what happened was real...and yet what happened was not." He explained fatherly.
"What that...thing real, too?" Kora gasped with fear and anger.
He turned to her and smiled. "Essentially, yes. Why it was they will be explained, I believe, very shortly." He flickered a writ, and the passages appeared to move past them at astonishing speeds. "So much information...so many memories...it's easy to get lost in them...and even more easy to lose yourself in them."
"Is this going to happen a lot?" the elf asked in a loathing tone.
"Truthfully, yes." He confessed without pause or hesitation, quietly chuckling to himself as he was sure the elf was on the verge of ripping his head off.
"At least we're a little prepared now." Dyana said.
Orion turned to them now, with a cocked brow and a disappointed smile on his face. "My dear, dear Dyana Cousland-Arkbrook, you must be prepared always. Remember: To expect the unexpected shows a thoroughly modern intellect."
"Thank you for the lesson, Hahren." Kora chided to her 'guide'.
"Now, now. There's no need for name calling." He appealed.
"If what you say is true, then why weren't you upfront with us beforehand?" the human inquired with a touch of chagrin.
Orion was going to say something smart, than retraced his steps and said instead, "Truthfully, I...was having too much enjoyment."
"When we get out of this fiasco, I swear by Elgar'nan, I will break you."
"We'll cross that particular bridge when we arrive at it, and I assure you we shall, but all in due time. From now, watch and learn." Orion demanded politely, motioning them to gaze at color and form neared the end of their solidification. "Ah, here we go. You asked me why the 'memory' was terminated rather rudely. This is why."
The room there were 'in' before came back into view, and the Seeker, Cassandra, was ready to choke the dwarf to death, judging by the glare on her face.
"Bullshit! That's not what really happened!" the Seeker said, cursing the dwarf outright, and causing the women to jump, Kora's desire of venting was put on hold as the attention resumed back onto the dwarf prisoner and his Chantry captor.
"Does that not match the story you heard, Seeker?" he asked smugly, his flawed appeal to satisfy her interest irking her all the more.
"I'm not interested in stories or legends. I came to hear the truth." she maintained, her military posture in prestigious display.
"Well, what makes you think I know the truth?" Varric asked with skepticism. His bluff's bait was hollow; even the two woman caught the fib right off the bat.
"Don't lie to me!" she said, fingers pointed, like she was the accuser and the dwarf was the accused party. "You know him even before he become the Champion!"
The dwarf's hands were raised in defense. He seemed to realize he wasn't going to get out of this mess like that. "Even if I did, I don't know where he is now." His face turned sour then. "And why do you want to know about the Champion from me anyway? I thought everyone knew about the great and powerful Champion of Kirkwall. He was an archmage without peer. A God among mortal Men. You've read the story, I assume? What else is there to know? What else do you need to know?"
"As I said, Varric, I'm not here to listen to stories. I'm here to learn the truth, the truth from one who was there through it all...even the worse of it."
The dwarven rogue shrugged. "That all depends on what is defined as 'worse', Seeker."
"How about the invasion of an army of qunari as well as the destruction of a Chantry temple, which ultimately led to the Mage Rebellion we are dealing with now?! Does that count as 'worse', dwarf?!" When no response came of him in the immediate aftermath of her short rant ("Now there's a surprise." Orion commented.), she spun around, frustrated at Varric's lack of decor, her back turned to the dwarf as she groaned and considered her next move.
"She's persistent, isn't she?" Kora asked, impressed.
"Trust me: you have no idea." Orion said, suggesting he has had, to a fine point, firsthand experience with Cassandra' persistent nature.
"Do you have any idea what's at stake here?" She asked in a semi-panicked state of mind,
Varric answered quickly, looking like a man who solved a centuries-old puzzle in less than a minute. "Let me guess: You're Chantry's fallen to pieces and put the entire world on the brink of war? And you need the one person who can help you put it all back together. Am I wrong?"
"The Champion was at the heart of it when it all began." she stated, denying no misgivings of Varric's deductions. She knew fools who looked innocent and were far from it, and this dwarf, as far as she saw it, was either the cream of the crop or the largest of Bronto droppings she'd had ever grazed eyes upon. "If you can't point me to him, tell me everything you know." she requested, with the women taking notice at it not sounding at all like an order or demand, but a plea, a favor, a cry for help.
The dwarf lunched forward, seemingly to peer long and hard at his captor. "You aren't worried I'll just make it up as I go?"
Her eyes spoke first, her words forming themselves after. "Not at all. The question is: Will you?"
After a lingering moment of heavy consideration, the dwarf fell back into the stone chair, hands clasped together, and said, "Then let me tell you what really happened. You might want to take a seat; if you truly want to know the truth of the Champion, you'll need to hear the whole story…"
"And here - we - go." Orion said, snapping his fingers at the conclusion of his words.
As the world around the visitors changed again, Varric Tethras began the tale - the true tale - of Garrett Hawke, the Champion of Kirkwall, his words echoing across the vast space of Orion's mind, and every time he spoke, images in the form of painted pictures from a book came before their eyes: "The Blight had been unleashed on Ferelden, the fifth of its kind. Darkspawn poured out of the Wilds, clashing against the army at the ruins of Ostagar. The battle was a disaster. King Calian died on the field with his men, betrayed by his most trusted general, Loghain Mac Tir, Teyrn of Gwaren. Unopposed, the horde on the village of Lothering, one of a few set directly on the Imperial Highway. The village burned, and many innocents were slaughtered. The Champion's family barely escaped in time…"
-~0~-
Author's Notes: Line from the Dark Knight. Line from Shakespeare's Othello.
From those who have played it, the demo version of DA2 and the actual introduction of DA2 utilize different lines between Varric and Cassandra. I combined some of them here. Check them out; you'll see what I mean.