Chapter 2: The Tower

Felicia strode down the hill toward the small bridge where a single boat sat in the water. A templar guarded it and looked thurougly bored with his task. Felicia closed her long, black cloak around herself and made sure the hood covered most of her face. She hid the staff behind a tree and walked over to the templar.

The templar saw her come and raised a hand."Halt." he barked. She did as asked and stared into is eyes fron under the hood."Whats your intention in the tower of magi young lady?" he asked.

"Business." Felicia replied simply. He arched and eye brow at that."What kind business would that be?" he asked and Felicia stepped up to him, grabbed hold of the collar and waist of his armor and threw him into the water.

"MY busniness." She growled as his armor weighed him down under the surface with paniced wavings of his arms and legs. Felicia retreaved her staff and nonshalantly jumped down into the boat and paddled onward.

She looked up at the tower. Three years had passed sins she escaped and she had spent every day preparing for this moment. She had practised her spells and reflexes to almost perfection, at least in her own mind. She would go in there and rid this counrty of the living plagues inside and then…then she would move on somewhere else.

The templars would hunt her no doubt, despite the fact that she was practicly doing their work for them when she killed the mages she had come across in her time away from the tower. She smiled at the ironi of it. She didn`t care about the templars other than another thing connected to magic and its wielders. If they got in her way she would do what she had too.

The night was dark and quiet, as if holding its breath in anticipation of the events to come very soon. Felicia offered a silent prayer to the Maker and his bride Andraste. She could conect with the holy women who had fought a great war against the power hungry mages of Tevinter. That cause had been right and justified by the chantry, why would hers be different.

The boat came to a sharp stop at the rocky shore and Felicia drew a deep breath while she stood, grabbed the staff and jumped off the boat. She held the gulp of air until she reached the gate where she released it in a sigh. She held her staff up like a spear and aimed it at the gate in a slow, deliberate motion. She allowed her lips to form a smirk, though it was more a baring of teeth than a smile. She mumbled a spell of fire and the flaming sphere flew from her staff and impacted the large wooded gate with a loud explosion and a hail of splinters and chunks of burning wood.

She stood up straight and held the staff in her hand tightly as she moved into the thick cloud of smoke and dust. When she emerged she imagined she was quite the sight for the stunned group of mage pupils and the two templar guards within. She slowly stepped from the dust cloud like a wraith of death in her back cloak and hidden face. She stopped a few feet from the blown gate while the cloud began to vanish. They were all quiet. The five apprentices and their teacher stared with wide eyes. So did the single standing templar while his fellow guard lay prone on the stone floor, dead or unconsiouss Felicia could not say. She rasied her staff and spoke.

"Finaly the day of your clensing as arrived, now die."

Her destiny awaited within this spire of stone and arcane power. Non would keep her away from it, her rightious punishment to deal out.

But her journey, was far from what she would ever expect.