Chapter 3: The Battle of the Tower

Felicia decided to focus on the lone Templar first. He wore the full set of plate armor his order was known and feared for with the flaming sword on its chest plate. He already held his long sword and shield at the ready. He pointed the weapon at her chest and barked.

"Stand down mage." He shouted. Felicia only gave him a wild grin in return and thrust her staff forward with a spell hissed from her lips. A wide cone of icy coldness washed over the Templar and he was frozen solid in his pose, with the sword still pointed at her accusingly. Felicia snarled and twirled the staff around in her hands once, twice and then smashed the frozen helmet. It shattered under the blow and fell apart in chunks of solid ice gore and metal. By then the pupil mages had fled and only their teacher remained.

He was a man in his late forties and wore a thick bushy beard and curly hair. His mage robe moved rapidly in the wind blowing through the smashed down gate. He raised his hands to stop her with a pleading look in his eye.

"Please stop this, before you do something you will regret." He said in a raspy tone. Felicia only snorted and threw off her cloak to reveal a black leather shirt and leggings. On the chest was the same flaming crimson eye that glared from her forehead. She had had it made for this occasion, though the tailor whom she had paid to do it had no idea of course.

"I have come here to put our wrong to right, to take from the demons of the Fade their precious vessels and to avenge all those who have suffered from our curse. My crusade is just and fair; do not speak to me of any regrets you old fool." Felicia spoke in a grand tone. She had trained and waited for this moment for three years in freedom, and a year before that while still in the circle.

"We have done no harm girl, the mages here do not deserve this." The mage said more firmly. Felicia had not expected them to agree, of course not. This man was just trying to save his own skin no doubt. She bared her teeth at him.

"We all deserve death for what we are. Don`t you see? We are a plague, a mistake by the Maker, a jest image of his power." She hissed and before the man could react she cast a spell of horror on the man. The mage`s hands went to his head and held it with white knuckles as the nightmarish images she created in his mind. He fell to his knees, screaming in a high pitched tone for her to stop. Felicia slowly strode toward him, step by step echoing in the hollow room. When she reached him she grabbed his throat and forced him to meet her blazing eyes.

"Feel the effects of you curse on you mind fool." She hissed and intensified the spell. He yelled and cried for it to end and then Felicia finally slammed him hard over the head with her staff. The mage fell down in a slowly growing pool of blood that ran from his cracked forehead. Without a second glance Felicia moved on. She saw that the apprentices had closed and locked the second gate as well. She heard them on the other side, no doubt listening to the fate of their mentor. Felicia walked up to the door.

"Do you think that a wooden door will keep me away? From dealing out my just punishment? I will not stop until you are all burned to crisps. You can never flee from me." She shouted through the door and backed away.

Drawing a deep breath she summoned another spell and a bolt of lightning sizzled from her hand. The room was momentarily lit by the energy bolt before it hit the gate with an ear-splitting boom. Unlike the fireball she had used on the first gate the lighting was pin-point and struck the door with little explosion. It shattered it splinters and it shot open, burning at the edges. Inside she saw two bodies on the floor. The apprentice had stood to close to the door and was killed by the energy. The other three fled far back in the hall way, calling desperately for the mages and Templars.

With her grand entry over with Felicia sprinted after them. The smaller rooms along the hallway were meant as the apprentices sleeping quarters, before they took their Harrowing and was moved to the mages room above. The quarters proved empty. Likely they had heard the commotion and fled already.

She was going through the last bed group when she did find someone. Under the last bed lay a little girl hiding. Felicia would have missed her had it not been for a small shuffle as she drew close. She bent down and looked under the bed to find the child. The girl shivered when she met Felicia`s eye and screamed when the older woman pulled her out into the open with a rough hand and feral growl. She sat the child on the bed and glared down at her to get a better look. She seemed to be around maybe ten years old, which meant she had not been there for more than a few years. She had a round face with freckles and blonde hair in a horse tail on. Her eyes were deep blue and very frightened. For some reason Felicia did not strike her down were she stood. It was just something about the girl. Maybe she just wasn`t the monster she thought she was. Felicia snorted at the thought. She had no time for this mage child.

"W-Who are you lady?" the girl asked in a trembling tone.

"I`m Felicia, and you?"

"Ida."

The girl glanced out the door of the room and drew a deep breath and glared up at Felicia with sudden tears in her eyes. "Why did you kill senior enchanter Mervin?" she demanded in as firm a tone as she could. Felicia did not answer her, only looked back down at her. Her fist clanged at her sides and she suddenly pointed at the door. "Get out of here Ida, before you get hurt." She muttered but Ida did not.

"What are you going to do?" the girl asked. Felicia pulled her off the bed and pointed at the door again

"GET OUT." She roared and this time Ida ran. Felicia watched her go and then looked sown. What was that? Why did she not kill the kid? Then she heard heavy footfalls on the floor above her and she grimaced before running deeper into the tower. When she reached the next chamber she found three Templars waiting for her. They did not expect her to come just yet it seemed because their defenses were down, both material and magical.

Felicia reacted quickly. She threw a spell of weakness on them and was satisfied when they sank to their knees and the shoulders slumped. They were too weak to carry their weapons and the armor that covered them. They soon collapsed to the floor, trapped in their iron plate prisons, panting and groaning. The scene was almost funny and Felicia wanted to giggle, but didn`t. Her giggling and laughing days were over. With a loud shout she summoned a firestorm that swirled around the room, cooking the Templars in their armor. They all screamed in pain and terror. She only stopped the spell when she saw smoke coming from the gaps in their armor and eye slits.

Once the spell was gone Felicia stopped to think. This was too easy. Why didn`t all the Templars come to meet her? Sure the attack had only just started but this? She would need to keep her guard up as she advanced.

The next room was the library. It was abandoned except for two mages who had apparently decided to stay and wait for her. One was a slightly older man and the other a young woman around her own age. They both held staves.

"Die you bitch." The woman hissed and threw a rock fist at her. Felicia jumped aside, barely avoiding the rock and threw an energy bolt in return. Just as the arcane globe was about to hit however, it shattered against a magic shield that flared up where the bolt hit. Felicia glanced at the other mage who had cast the defense spell around the woman.

"Protecting each other huh?" Felicia hissed and slammed the end of her staff into the floor. It shook violently with an earthquake spell and both mages fell down to the stone floor. Books and papers flew from their places on the shelves and filled the air and floor, Tables and paintings fell down shortly after. Before the two mages could regain their feet, Felicia was upon them. The man`s throat was crushed by the head of the staff as she slammed it down upon him and the woman, who sat on her knees, received a knee in the face that broke her nose and caused a pair of teeth to fly out of her open mouth. The woman`s life was ended when Felicia reached down, grabbed her head and jerked hard to the side in an unnatural angle.

Felicia stood up straight. Five dead Templars and an equal number of mages, it was a start at least. She knew she still had a much greater number waiting for her further in and thought about something that might help even the odds. She grinned when she came up with the answer and ran back the way she had come.

Felicia stopped at the three dead and burned Templars and began to hum a spell. An aura og power filled and surrounded both her and the bodies. The air crackled and then one knight moved its arm slowly. Then its leg and other limbs moved in twitchy, jerky motions. All the Templars did this until they suddenly rose up and stood in an unsteady line in front of Felicia. They all held their sword and groaned dimly as they stared forward with dead, unmoving eyes.

"Seems I got reinforcements." Felicia smirked once her walking dead spell was done. She moved back to the gate and resurrected the two Templars there as well. She left the dead mages where they lay. She would never fight with mages on her side, dead or alive.

She and her bodyguard of five undead Templars moved back to the library and to the stairs and door that would lead to the next floor.

"Break it down." She commanded. One of them moved up the stair and began to slam and kick at the door. After a while there was a crack and the door flew off its hinges.

"Charge, kill, attack." Felicia roared and her Templars went inside with raised swords. She followed shortly after and found herself in a vicious melee between her own undead Templars and a mix if mages and still living Templars. She saw a mage gutted on the edge of a sword, a Templar`s head sailing through the air and one of her undead fall with sparks of lightning sizzling through his armor. One Templar pulled the helmet off of an undead and jumped back when she saw the horribly burned and misshapen head under it. Felicia took the chance and burned the woman with a fireball that also consumed two mages. She held her position by the door and there fire, lightning and energy around the room.

The room itself was not very large so it was easy to find and hit targets. The walls were lined with more books and in the center stood a pedestal with a single book on it. The battle filled her system with rage and bloodlust. Every spell she saw cast only ensured her more of the power that needed to be stopped and cleansed from the face of Thedas. The very last mage was turned to a stone statue by Felicia and she took a look around the chamber. All her undead were dead once more. With them lay six new dead Templars along with ten mages.

Felicia considered her next move and decided on raising the Templars again. Keeping them up and fighting required part of her energy so she would not be able to use her magic as effectively but she decided that she needed the numbers. Now she had eleven undead templars at her command. She dared not use any more energy or she would be defenseless.

She and her little company moved onward.