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Chapter 3

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The chasind man was thrown against a boulder and began to spit out blood. Arkan advanced on the man and picked him off the ground.

"Now tell us, why are you attacking Ferelden and who are you truly serving, cause to hell it isn't Kalor!" Arkan snarled as he threw the man towards the fire at Vakar.

"Why do you care? You're just a fugitive mage and he's a failed soldier, what love could you have for this place." The man snapped, freeing his hands from the ropes. Vakar took one large step and kicked the man in the head.

"We began to care when you killed innocent women and children in cold blood." Vakar yelled bradishing his sword and placing it at the man's face.

The man looked behind him to find Arkan preparing a spell. Suddenly the man was lifted into the air and felt a crushing weight on his bones. The man began to scream in agony.

"I'll tell you everything if you just stop...PLEASE STOP!" the man yelled writhing in pain.

Arkan lifted his hand, the man fell to the ground and clutched his chest. He looked up to see Arkan's sword directed at his face.

"Now talk...or I'll do a hell of a lot worse to you." Arkan demanded.

The man was dragged to the fire and put onto a tree stump. He spat out blood and glared at Vakar then Arkan.

"Ok first things first you two can really punch hard when your mad." The man cringed."But to the point of your brutal interrogation I don't actually know who it is that is giving Kalor these orders... but, but you should know that he has been acting weird. Every now and then he clutches his chest and he seems to be in a great amount of pain. Sometimes he nearly collapses and we don't understand why." the man tried to explain.

"What do you mean?" Vakar asked looking at Arkan for an explanation.

"He means that his connection to the fade is getting thinner by the week, he's getting a lot weaker, but its his master that's causing him the pain." Arkan explained grimly.

"Excuse me. What's that elf trying to say? Why is he talking about the fade and what connection does it have with Kalor?" the man asked standing up quickly.

"Your master is actually dead. Someone else is basically controlling his movements by making him an abomination, but it is the caster that is keeping the demon inside his dead body. So whoever is in power over him is very unimpressed with the way he is handling this war or it is an inexperienced or very old mage that is losing control by accident." Arkan explained as he paced around the fire.

"So Kalor's dead and is being kept alive by some demon inside him? Wait ... that's not important to my position right now. So I've told you all I know so are you going to let me leave?" The man asked hopefully.

The two men looked at one another and laughed.

"You seriously believed that we'd let you go for that. Hell no! We're going to take you to Denerim for trial and you can explain the full situation of your war and your plans there. Now get up!" Arkan shouted as he went to his staff and pulled it from the ground.

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By daybreak the three men were a week's march from Denerim. The chasind man had his hands tied in front of him and was pushed forward every few steps by the ever nagging tip of Arkan's sword. Vakar was at the front of the party group. He quickly lifted his hand in a miiltary fashion for the group to stop.

"Why are we stopping Vakar? We still need to cover a heck of a lot of land to get to Denerim and I don't believe that our friend is in any hurry to stop for a picnic." Arkan asked looking at their prisoner.

"NO, no I can wait. I'm in no hurry for my trial... so can we stop." The prisoner said smiling, he quickly retreated when he saw the two men glaring at him.

"We've stopped because of a very large, very heavily fortified camp and I have no idea if it's one of ours or one of the enemy's." Vakar told Arkan while trying to be as stealthy as possible.

Arkan knelt down to try and not be noticed by any tower guards, then began to grin. Vakan looked over his shoulder and grinned with Arkan.

"What are you planning? And am I going to have to save your ass again because of it." Vakar chuckled placing his hand on his friend's shoulder.

"I'm planning on saying hello to our mystery campers. My clan's Keeper always said that negotiation was the first step to peace... even with your own enemy. Well let's see if it works. Stay here please, you see the first sign that I'm in trouble you get the hell out of here. Last thing that I believe we need is for the enemy to get one of their men back. Now... wish me luck will you and follow the plan." Arkan grinned and with a slight salute he flipped and landed into the mystery camp.

"I'll never understand that elf from the looks of it, but he does make a good point. Damn I hate that, oh well..." Vakar smirked and suddenly twisted his body to find the prisoner about to flee. Vakar ran after the escaping man. "Oy! You're not going anywhere."

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Within the camp the elf strode plainly trying to attract as much attention as possible. All the soldiers stood up from their R&R and lifted their weapons. One of the soldiers ran at Arkan and stopped him in his tracks.

"What are you doing within this camp elf. If you haven't noticed there is a massive number of chasnid running amock in Fereldan." The man said motioning his men to surround the lone elf mage. The elf looked round, smiled and began to laugh.

"Arrest this man. We don't know if he is in league with the foul demons that now plague this land. The Ranger captians will want to question him. Now please elf come quietly and we won't harm you." the man asked politely still with his weapon trained on Arkan. Arkan nodded his head and followed the soldier to the centre of the camp which had a large veridian tent. The men walked to the entrance and the soldier entered the tent. Arkan looked around his captors and shrugged his shoulders.

The soldier exited the tent and motioned Arkan to enter. Arkan strode proudly in, hand on the hilt of his sword and staff in hand. He looked round the tent. The tent was dark only lit with one orb of light over the war table. The table was large and round and around the edge of the table it contained the coat of arms for every Arling and city of Fereldan. Arkan tilted his head and looked behind him to find the soldier had left. He the walked to the chair and found a heartwood bow of very fine craftsmenship.

Arkan chortled as he heard the slight footsteps of someone behind him. "So I take it that your in charge of this little rabble of ill equiped men I take it." He turned around and found a beautiful human woman standing in front of him. She had dark brown hair and green eyes and wore very well made dragonscale armour. Arkan was suddenly taken aback and smiled.

"So you do reconise me Arkan." The mysterious Ranger Captain smiled putting her hand on her hip. "Its been a while."

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