Calpernia

1.

The warm wind kept lazily tugging at her clothes, throwing prickly speckles of sand against her bare arms. In retrospect, she should have prepared for this weather and brought some oils to soothe the skin. In retrospect. Calpernia sighed and resisted an overpowering urge to scratch her arm, where the skin was slowly starting to peel off. She felt warm and gross but the Teacher promised to show her something marvellous and Calpernia turned her gaze forward, where a tall gate with intricate pattern was hiding in the shadow of the cliffs that were surrounding this small valley. It seemed this once used to be a lush place, remainders of the trees still growing crooked and twisted here and there. What little information Calpernia had managed to gather, indicated that one of the Blights had swept up the place many years ago and the only sentient inhabitants of this place were the Grey Wardens up in Adamant Fortress to the west. When she asked the Teacher if they had to worry about the presence of the Wardens in the region, considering his... circumstances. He smiled at her - more a grimace then anything else - and answered that she should not bother about such things. Calpernia trusted him and ceased to worry, turning her attention back to the matter of the promised marvel.

As they approached the gate, her companion stretched out his hand and touched the gilded carvings. Very slowly the heavy doors slid open, revealing a small courtyard and yet another doorway. Calpernia was getting impatient and bit her lip in anticipation; she had seen several places of Old Imperium's glory since leaving Minrathous but it had been promised to her that this will be the pinnacle of genious, something to sway her off her feet. As they crossed the yard and her Teacher opened yet another door, a soft gasp left Calpernia's lips as she entered a hallway so tall, she hardly could see the ceiling.

"May I?"

A nod was the confirmation she needed and as she closed her eyes, Calpernia let all her senses slowly drift around. The presense of magic was everywhere. Every little nook and cranny was filled with energies, latent and yet still powerfull enough to draw on them. She saw people in an outfits recogniseable from the books she read at her old Master's house. They experimented. With magic. The vision had ended.

"What did you see?"

"Mages. Scholars of the True Imperium working on spells and rituals."

Her Teacher flicked his fingers and, one by one, the torches down the hallway lit up, illuminating an enormous hall further ahead.

"The way your skills grow with every passing day is wonder to behold, Calpernia."

She felt her face getting bright red. Calpernia cleared her throat and turned sligtly away, trying to hide the embarassment of being praised. She was proud of herself but getting compliments, as well deserved as they were, was still new to her and cost more getting used to the Calpernia had ever anticipated.

"I do my best," she stumbled for a second, almost calling him Master but angrily bit her tongue just in time. "Corypheus."

The hall ahead was as grand as she thought it would be. Multiple crumbled stairways, grotesque statues of dragons, shining dully in the fires of the torches, remains of what must have been beautiful mosaic that once decorated the walls. The decay was saddening but Calpernia's imagination soon painted her the colourful picture of how glorious this place had been. Books and scrolls. On tables, on the floor, even on the pedestals of the mighty dragon statues. Even now, under the thick layer of dust she spotted foliants, scattered carelessly. Calpernia wanted to grab and read each and every one of them, like a child in the china store, completely mesmerized by the shiny things around it, wanting to hold everything in its curious hands and see what they are made of.

"The spark in your eyes tells me enough. This is what you want to do. This is what I want you to do."

Calpernia raised her gaze at Corypheus, her cheeks blushing slightly and eyes glimmering with feverish excitement. She did not have to hide her nature from him. He was the only one who really got to know what she is and around him her shell would crumble, revealing a curious child, whose years of misery did not take away her will to explore, to learn and to grow. She owed him everything.

"These lands carry the history of the better times, when the Imperium was a force to be reckoned with."there was a sadness in his voice. But sadness mixed with a well controlled anger. "Uncover what you can, Calpernia. Search high and low and learn, so when I ascend, you will be ready to stand by my side as an equal. A bright beacon to signal the new dawn of the Tevinter Imperium."

And Calpernia agreed. Because this had been everything she ever wanted. From the moment she learned she had the gift of magic, this was her purpose and her right. She fought for it against all odds.

But that was then.

The cold desert wind was rustling with a flapdoor of a tent, unable to get inside to blow the piles of papers from the desk. Calpernia released deep sigh and watched drops of wax sliding down the candle for a while. She lost count of how long she had been here. Corypheus was right, the place had been littered with ruins that dated themselves as far as the first Tevinter Imperium even though not all of constructions belonged to her countrymen. Once laboratory was throughoutly explored and somebody sucessfully botched a time warp experiment that Calpernia did not approve due to the involvement of blood magic, the Venatori moved on to other digs. One such had been a prison, that soon was discovered to had been holding mostly rebellious slaves and Calpernia's spirits dropped even further. She had appointed the overseer to that particular dig and refused to set her foot into that dreadful place. She wished there was a way to contact Corypheus but he would only seek contact if she was needed and that did not happen for a long while now. Being stranded in this unwelcome place, with no means to communicate with Corypheus was depressing. Even more so when Calpernia had discovered the reason the ancient magister was so lax about the very close presence of the Grey Wardens. Another Venatori cell leader, Livius Erimond, was tasked with handling the inhabitants of the Adamant Fortress. Calpernia's spies were reporting things she could not believe were happening due to Erimond's blood magic abuse. She despised blood magic in any for and she despised Erimond for being a groveling idiot and yet again, it seemed Corypheus was either unaware or did not really care what his own subordinates were up to.

"Lady Calpernia?"

"Yes?" she looked up at her assistant, Darius, a young elven scribe she pulled out from yet another Venatori shipments of so-called "goods". He was a youth of fifteen, scrawny built with green eyes and ginger hair.

"Naria Arterius of the Ferelden division sends news." he nervously rubbed his arms, looking slightly sideways and finally handed Calpernia a tightly rolled scroll. As she took it from his slightly trembling hands, Darius took a bow and exited in a hurry. Calpernia shrugged her shoulders and unrolled the parchment. She was fair but stern and her people knew that. They admired her but preferred doing so from afar. Sometimes Calpernia felt lonely and yearned for the days when she had equals to talk to but as a leader of this Venatori cell she had to uphold her position and prestige. That kept people in line and prevented them from doing things that Erimond seemed to be getting away with.

As she started reading Naria's report, her eyes got wider and wider, full with disbelief and, soon, disgust. How could this go on? Why is Corypheus silent? Why was she not informed? She had to see this madness for herself.

"Darius!"