Title: The Great Escape III: Safe Haven
Pairing: Jowan/f!Surana friendship.
A/N: There will be some Awakening characters you may recognize in this chapter. Reviews are much loved!
)O(
They are not prepared.
One moment they're walking through a clearing. Emma is trying to ignore the whistling and suppress homicidal thoughts, while Jowan seems fixated on the sky above them. The next moment, the whistling stops and this startles her. She looks straight ahead only the see the twisted reflections of men.
They are not undead, but nor are they quite alive either. No soul inhabits the body. They do not fear for themselves, only existing to serve the whims of their master. Emma has never seen a darkspawn before. It's a monstrous creature, but hopefully mortal. The darkspawn brandish crude axes and rusty swords at them. Her breath catches in her throat and she prays magic can save her now.
All at once the monsters charge towards them. Emma gathers her willpower and zaps a human-sized one as it lunges at her, causing it to stumble backwards. If she can only disorient the creature enough...An arrow sails past her ear and she regains concentration. The humanish darkspawn from before is back on its feet, but it has lost its weapon. Instead, the beast brings a large fist down hard upon her skull.
The pain quickly turns to rage and suddenly her hands are alight with fire. Emma projects the flames towards her foe, fueling them with anger. The darkspawn wails and sinks to its knees where it wriggles helplessly like a fish without water.
She needs lyrium but they have none. Emma willl soon be powerless save for the blood in her veins.
"Jowan," she calls out, "Blood magic!"
"I can't!" he yells back.
"Yes, you can!"
"No, I mean, I've given it up!" he elaborates. Damn...
"You might have mentioned that before!"
"I'm sorry!"
Emma has no choice now. She pulls her own dagger from her boot and slices one palm open. The blood bubbles up instantly. It still burns from the remaining energy of the fire spell as it finds the monsters' corrupted skin. Their black eyes widen in horror as their blood begins to boil in their veins. It won't be long now.
When the last of the darkspawn are dead, Emma scans the clearing. Their tainted blood is already causing the grass to wilt. And lying a few feet from her is their only ally: the Whistler. He certainly isn't whistling now. In fact, he is moaning in pain, which is somehow even more annoying.
She crouches down and tells him to be silent, not because it is necessary but because her head is already throbbing as it is. His wounds look worse than they actually are, just a few scrapes here and there and a broken arm. Even a novice healer like herself should be able to fix him up.
Emma coaxes him into sitting up by promising to give him something for the pain. The sadistic part of her wants to just knock him out and be done with it, but as tempting as that is, she needs him ready to move as soon as possible.
"Hold still," she says, gently taking the fractured limb and focusing all her energy on mending it. This works well for a while until she realizes that the Whistler is entirely too close and, in fact, his lips have been applied to her own. For a second the elf's mind goes blank and she can't remember what it is she's supposed to be doing. Then she pushes him away with all the strength of a small woman. The Whistler falls back into the grass, putting all his weight on the broken arm, and screams.
All Emma can think to say is, "Serves you right!"
"Sorry..." the Whistler replies sheepishly. "I just thought...I don't know...maybe...you..."
"Oh Maker..." Emma suddenly begins to feel dizzy and feverish. That is when she realizes that blood loss and a blow to the head might not be the best combination. The grassy field seems very inviting and she can feel herself falling...
"Emma? Emma, can you hear me?" Jowan is there but it's becoming harder to hear him. "Stay with me, okay? You can't fall asleep. Do you understand?" Emma gets the impression that this is very important. Her friend's voice is tense with concern and panic. But the Fade has never looked so beautiful. "I'm so sorry, Emma," Jowan sobs. "This is all my fault..."
And the world is enveloped by blackness.
)O(
Emma regains consciousness a few times, but never for very long. All she really remembers is the sensation of floating...
But then she awakens with a feeling of clarity and only a slight mental fog still clouding the very edges of her mind. For a while, she doesn't bother to open her eyes. Her skull feels like a darkspawn is hitting it repeatedly with a hammer. The elf's hand still aches as well, and there is a bandage wrapped around it. She isn't worried about scarring though since the cut was made over an existing scar anyway.
Emma is surprised to find that there is a roof over her head.
She is even more surprised to find that she is not alone. Jowan is hunched over in a chair beside the bed, snoring quietly. He looks so tired that Emma almost regrets waking him.
"Jowan..." the elf hisses. His beady eyes flutter open and he straightens in the chair, gasping for breath. He looks awful. "You look awful." she says.
"I had a terrible dream." Jowan explains. "Lily was...screaming. They were killing her, Emma, and then you were there and you...you kept telling me to run..." tears well up in her best friend's eyes. "I just watched. I watched them hurt her. I couldn't move...I couldn't look away...I couldn't...save my dear, sweet Lily..."
Emma doesn't know what to say or do. She knows that if she speaks, she will ruin everything. Jowan cradles his head in his hands and cries. He cries for all of them.
And she waits.
"We raced to Denerim after you...Well, while you were sleeping." he finally says. "It only took a few hours. Thankfully, we didn't encounter any more darkspawn. The safe house had a healer so..."
Emma nods, reaching out to take his hand. "Get some rest. You're exhausted." she commands. She doesn't know what else to say. Jowan seems uncertain about this, but eventually does as he is told.
Once she is sure he is gone, the elf throws back the covers and gets out of bed. Her knees wobble for a minute before agreeing to support her weight. There is a metal basin on a table. The water in it is lukewarm, not quite refreshing or relaxing, but she splashes her face a few times anyway. Emma stares at herself in the mirror. She does not do this in a narcissistic way, however, especially since the image reflected back at her is just so weary and scared.
So now the templars are trying to take my youth from me as well, she thinks bitterly to herself.
After raking her fingers through her copper colored hair a few times, the blood mage gives up on making herself appear presentable.
Then the chantry's bell begins to ring again and again and again until it nearly drives her mad. She cannot possibly understand why such a thing is even necessary. It doesn't help her headache much either.
A door slams somewhere in the house.
"I swear I'm going to skin this sodding cat someday!" a female voice yells.
"He's not so bad..." a man's voice protests. "You're just cranky."
"It's hard not to be cranky in these times, Anders." the female voice sighs.
A few minutes later there is a knock at the door. An elven woman with blond hair walks in, a tabby cat trailing closely behind her. She shuts the door much softer this time.
"Did you sleep well?" she asks. Emma nods. The other elf half-smiles, "I'm glad to hear it."
"Where exactly am I?" Emma queries nervously.
"You're in my house," says the woman. "I work with the Collective, providing accommodations for mages such as yourself. Don't ask how I got mixed up in all this, it's a long story and you'd be bored by the end. You can call me Namaya."
Emma introduces herself, unsure of what to think of this Namaya person. Can she be trusted? It is anyone's guess. She is on their side, however, and for now that is enough.
Namaya says she has some unpleasant news: the king is dead along with the Grey Wardens and the army at Ostagar. Supposedly, the Wardens betrayed King Cailan to the darkspawn and Teyrn Loghain pulled his troops out just in time. That is the official story anyway. None of it makes sense to her. Grey Wardens are sworn to defeat those monstrous creatures and yet they would side with the enemy? Not likely...
But Denerim is in chaos and willing to believe just about anything.
The whole thing is starting to give Emma a headache.
She is not prepared. She is not free. Apparently there is certain protocol, paperwork that must be filled out before someone can be found who is willing to risk everything to destroy her phylactery. Until then, Emma must wait.
But for now, at least, she is safe from them...