AM:Some might have seen it and some not but I changed the first chapter. It was just too much information dump not necessary to the story. And again this is still a work in progress, so leave a comment, ideas and so on. Share what you think and why you think so.
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Chapter 4: Grey Warden's Duty
Or
Of God's and Corruption
"Avada Kedavra"
Avada Kedavra or the Killing Curse, one third of the three so called Unforgivable Curses was emotion driven and soul based magic. Like the Imperius Curse Avada Kedavra was labeled as an Unforgivable not because what it did to the victim but what it primarily did to the caster. If Avada Kedavra simply killed the victim and did nothing else it would only be classified as black magic like many other spells which had been developed to kill someone or something. The problem is however that an overuse of Avada Kedavra would slowly change the mindset of the user.
Continuing usage of the Killing Curse gave the user more and more the impression that it was an acceptable way to solve a problem. The same can be said of the other two Unforgivable Curses which like the Killing Curse slowly but surely change the user's mind, even his very soul, that the use of said curse was desired. Using Avada Kedavra one would start delighting in the death of one's enemy, using the Imperius the user would not only demand absolute obedience but would also expect it for every whim and using the Cruciatus the user would not only delight in the agony of its victim but slowly drive the user utterly insane.
All three curses would act like drugs to the user's soul and only continued use would satisfy the addiction. The wizard or witch would become playthings to the magic of curses itself. However there are of course exceptions to the rule. It is after all still magic and with magic nearly everything is possible. Using Cruciatus and Imperius the user must have at the moment of usage one simple mindset. He or she must delight in causing pain and he or she must delight in subjugating the victims will, otherwise neither one nor the other curse would take hold and the addiction would not take place, so things like righteous anger are not 'enough' to fuel the Cruciatus for example. The Killing curse however is a little trickier. Simply put the Killing Curse is a one shot curse which either works or not and should it work the curses magic would leave the first addictive imprint on one's soul.
Of course like many drugs a onetime use would not make you automatically an addict, it can, but mostly only continued usage would make the addiction taking hold. This of course is a dangerous edge one walks upon and many before thought they could guard themselves against the consequences by using the spell in only the 'right' situations, never realizing they already fell into the spells trap. There were of course similar exceptions with the Cruciatus and Imperius Curse as well but those were even more complex. All this and more went through Harry's head as he threw the only spell he knew which could one-shot a dragon, if you were very lucky. The only spell he swore to himself to never use against a human or similar being.
For Daphne it was an awe inspiring sight, because it appeared not like she expected a jet of green light but a mighty thunderbolt. Thinking about it why that was the case Daphne came to the conclusion that Harry used not one put two spells, the first spell was obviously the Killing Curse, the second spell Harry had cast however seemed to be some kind of thunder bolt like spell. The thunderbolt she saw was not only a spell with its own attack pattern but also worked as a carrier spell for the Killing Curse. That at least was the conclusion she came to watching both spells at work.
Said bolt impacted into the flank of the dragon and in with a electricity like effect, the spells crawled along the skin of the mighty beast searching for a weak point to enter and do its purpose. Nearly the whole body was already encased in arcs of green light which jumped from here to there when finally the curse reached the head and its tendrils punched into the creature's eyes and mouth.
All in all it took maybe two seconds before the Killing Curse finally did its work, two seconds the mighty dragon tried to throw off what was crawling along its skin. When finally the first tendril found a weak spot two things happened. First the green light seemed to flow into the weak spots at breathtaking speed, leaving only white bluish glowing and crackling flashes of lightning behind. The second thing that happened was the moment the dragon started to collapse, showing the Killing Curse had finally done its work, the flashes of lightning still jumping around on the dragon's skin jumped in the dozens from there to anything else in its vicinity.
Dozens of smaller thunderbolts jumped from victim to victim as they incinerated huge amounts of smaller abominations in the size of dwarves and humans. The last six of these grotesque monsters, which were lucky enough not to stand to close to their dying brethren, were picked of one by one by Daphne and her bow. When finally everything besides Harry and Daphne lay dead on the ground, the latter took a deep breath to get her bearings together while Harry still tried to get hold on to the magic running havoc through his system. The stench was horrible.
What followed next was something Daphne had never seen before and Harry only in a different way. Exiting the dead dragons body was something wraith like, crackling with energy and giving of a scream not meant to be heard in the world of the living. The wraith, looking like a black and formless cloud, hovered for a moment above the corpse only to flee to one of the tunnels and disappearing into it, destination unknown.
"By the Aspects, what kind of abomination was that?" Daphne exclaimed with an uneasy feeling in her stomach, looking from where the wraith has disappeared into to her kneeling and shaking husband.
Harry ignored her as he touched his wife's leg and tried to apparate away, he had no luck. The moment he tried to do it his magic literally pinned him to the ground while the singing in his ears got remarkable louder. It was like magic itself didn't want him to leave until he did something specific, whatever that was. In the back of his head a small part of Harry's mind noted the similarity between under the effects of Felix Felicis and now. Thinking furiously what magic would possible want from him he said the first thing which made any sense whatsoever to him.
"Daphne, the dragon and those six bodies." he said with a very shaky voice as he pointed over to the six abominations which Daphne had killed with her bow and the giant corpse of the dragon.
Looking at Harry with a raised eyebrow Daphne could only shrug her shoulders. After summoning a special bag from her storage space, a bag which was so heavily enchanted with protections you could easily place the most vile and evil things in it to protect yourself, she made her way to the dragon corpse. With a wave of her hand the six abominations she had killed turned into pebbles and were summoned into the bag. A second wave of her hand and all those electrified abominations were put together as one big pile at the side of the cave, a snap of Daphne's fingers set the pile on fire.
Concentrating on her tattoo and therefor on her storage space again Daphne summoned twenty-one palm sized, black stones which with a wave of her hand twenty of them placed themselves around the corps of the corrupted dragon. The last stone she placed on the dragon itself. Pulling out her wand Daphne started to recite a rather long and complex incantation which ended in tapping the rune stone on the dragon. One after another the runes on the stones started glow until all twenty-one glowed. The moment the twenty stones surrounding the dragon pulsed on time they disappeared along with the dragon as well only leaving the stone which had been on the dragon itself now lying on the ground.
A last wave with the wand in her hand the black stone now with a red glowing rune on its surface jumped into the bag in her hands as well. Turning around Daphne went back to the side of her husband and gently helped him onto his feet. Giving his wife a grateful smile Harry once again concentrated on his magic which had stopped pinning him to the ground and apparated with a mighty gong away with Daphne by his side.
Having arrived in a new place Daphne left the arm of Harry and gave the surroundings a curious glance. The pair found themselves in the courtyard of a really big castle or Fortress covered in snow and ice.
"Harry, what are we …" Daphne asked without looking at her Husband only to be interrupted by being flung to the side as the overflow of magic in her husband's body simply exploded. Daphne had already asked herself in the cave how Harry could possible reign in these huge amounts of magic and a curious glance with her magic sight had given her a surprising answer. Either the ritual itself had placed certain locks on Harry's magic, which she found rather unlikely, or something or someone had placed them on him, making sure he doesn't explode like a bomb.
Now however these locks had just shattered one by one and all that magic naturally wanted out. Using the momentum behind her short flight Daphne took the moment she had contact with the ground and made a backward roll. Coming to a stop on her knees, the young blond slowly stood up to face her husband only to see the sight of her burning Harry. Better safe than sorry Daphne erected the strongest magical shields she could think of as she studied what was happening in front of her under her magic sight and thought furiously what to do.
While Daphne exercised her flexible body and put her skills in not hurting herself falling to the ground to the test, the magic, which was pouring out of Harry in huge amounts, set his body literally aflame in what looked light blue electrical fire right out of a magical furnace. It took maybe five seconds before the pain of the release was so unbearable that finally Harry screamed to the high heavens in hope to get at least some relieve. Thankfully what was happening to him wasn't nearly as painful as the Cruciatus. A lone tear ran down Daphne's face at the sight of her husband being in pain and her being unable to do anything. She hated it as much seeing Harry in pain as he hated seeing her in pain but regrettably she could do nothing to sooth him.
Ten seconds after Daphne had been flung to the side the magic in Harry seemed to be getting violent, more violent that it already were. Harry's magic started to lash out like lightning strikes and attack anything in the vicinity. A shed to Daphne's right side was reduced to a pile of smoking stones and charcoal and a statue of Andraste to her left was simply blasted to oblivion. There was even a moment where Daphne really started to worry as one of those magical thunderbolts impacted on her shield and in one short moment nearly crashed through it.
From how it felt like at first it seemed someone would use a hammer weighting tons and not even a fraction of a second later it was replaced by a feather. However, that feather was still able to bring Daphne to her knees as she desperately tried to keep her magically shield intact. For one tiny moment Daphne thought she had felt how the magic in the thunderbolt recognized her, for a lack of a better word. The only question was where the rest of that energy went which just a moment ago crashed down on her.
Only the tiny fraction of a second after she had asked herself what was happening gave her the answer. An explosion behind her told the story of something being reduced to atomic particles. It seemed that Harry's magic not only recognized her and tried to protect her. It apparently could adapt itself enough to do just that by using her magical shield as something akin to a Faraday cage.
Under her magic sight Daphne saw a very inspiring and maybe even awe inducing sight. In her vision she saw Harry's magic as something like a green glowing gas which slowly covered the ground and saturated the air. The gas however seemed to be in conflict with a slightly blue glowing gas which seemed to seep into the world via cracks in the air. Recognizing the cracks as tears in the veil Daphne concluded that the gas had to be this world's magic in its purest form, which the magic gifted people only used in a more diluted form.
What she saw was truly impressive as both 'gases' started to annihilate each other where they touched, glowing in a bright purple while doing so. While the purple glow was surely creeping closer and closer to the cracks in the air several shadows seemed to jump out of these cracks and possessed a good three dozen corpses lying on the ground. Unluckily for the newly possessed corpses they were promptly incinerated via magical thunder bolts the moment they only twitched. In all of Daphne's musings Harry's magic didn't pause even a second and still lashed out here and there.
The latest victims just happened to be the newly possessed corpses. A dull bang brought Daphne back to the present. Looking quickly around she noted that Harry had obviously screamed himself horse and was lying on his back on the ground taking deep breaths. From the look on his face and the now very much lower intensity of the magical furnace and storm that was pouring out of him she concluded that he was slowly burning out. A second dull bang drew Daphne's attention to the battling magic in the air only to see the last tear in the veil completely glowing purple until said glow simply vanished with a dull bang as well.
"Harry?" when he finally stopped expelling magic like a volcano Daphne made careful steps to her on the ground lying and panting husband.
Taking out her wand she started to cast one spell after another over Harry and with every spell her face got a more thoughtful look with a slightly grim edge. Daphne only acknowledged with a quick glance that Harry's magic rushed inside the big castle in which courtyard they were. Only now she got the time to take the surroundings in. The castle was from her perspective huge, easily as big as Hogwarts had been once upon a time. Steps, which had been driven into the very stone the castle stood on, went up to the main entrance of the building with only small interruptions.
The first was a small plateau half way up for steps coming from the other side and the somewhat bigger plateau before the mighty doors into the building itself which were now wide open. The courtyard was encased by a 4 meter high wall with the only way out being a gate in between two eight meter high towers, along the wall where many houses, workshops and open stables, with one or more piles of still smoking debris in between. However what confused Daphne slightly was how fresh and cold the air tasted. From her point of view she could only see the sky, no mountains in the distance or trees from behind the wall.
The only exception was when she looked through the open gate and saw a path going down and some stone formations in the distance. Maybe this castle had been built on top of a mountain? Bringing back her concentration to her spells Daphne frowned. Aside from Harry being unconscious, having seriously depleted his magic and with many sore muscles there was something in his system which didn't belong there. There was something dark and corrupting, eating away at his body which just barely kept the harmful presence at bay.
Several loud but dull bangs and a loud, angry and terrible painful scream coming out of the castle interrupted her musings and Daphne not only stretched her senses out but fired several detection spells in every direction. From what she could feel and the readings she got from her spells Harry's magic had found one mighty and many tiny tears in the veil inside the castle and had just completely dispersed itself. On top of that there seemed to be still something living inside, completely to the contrary of the abandoned look and feeling the castle gave her.
"Why not … there seemed to be a reason we are here." Daphne mused out loud, grabbed her staff with her left hand while her wand was still in her right.
A simple wave with her wand had Harry and all their stuff floating above ground behind her as she made her way up the stairs and into the castle. Daphne gave the entrance hall only a casual look, noting the old banners, armors in the corners and a piece of parchment on the wall. She could look at everything later, after she made sure this place was safe and secure. Fast steps brought the blond woman through a pair of doors and into a big hall. Noting the wooden pieces, tables and chairs lying around Daphne gave this big room a much longer look.
There was a door to the left and a door to the right. In front of her she could see the gallery of another floor from which you could see down onto the one she was standing on. With a glance to the ceiling and comparing it to the high of the gallery she noted that this halls ceiling was at least on the level of the second floor ceiling, probably even somewhere in between of the second and third floors ceiling.
Stepping through the door on her left first Daphne found a room which maybe had been a small armory once upon a time. The broken weapon racks and armor stands gave credit to that assumption. Turning back to the big hall she made her way through the door on the other side and found a small hallway. Two doors seemed to be blocked from the other side and one was blocked by debris of big stone blocks.
Following the hallway she came upon what had been a library. Book shelfs nearly completely covered the walls with the only exception being two doors and two fallen over shelfs. The bigger part of the library seemed to be intact but there were still a huge number of ruined books. Shrugging her shoulders Daphne stepped through the room and just wanted to open the door when a sound from the other side stopped her.
Holding her ear to the door she heard something that sounded suspiciously like moaning, groaning and scrapping of metal on stone. Stepping back from the door she placed the unconscious body of her husband behind a stone pillar and layered him with one protective spell after another. With a flick of her right hand her wand disappeared back into her wrist holder. Gripping her staff with both hands she aimed the top at the door and fired something what looked like a small glass ball.
When the small ball impacted the door, the door was reduced to saw dust and the dust then spread into the other room. Having already determined that there were no living beings in the next room Daphne fired a fire arrow into the dust cloud. The dust cloud went not only up in flames but literally exploded. The shock wave of the explosion was enough to throw the library into complete disarray and the fire wave tried to set anything aflame.
Luckily Harry and she herself had been protected by all those protection spells she had placed on him and the surrounding area, where she still stood. Making a face at that amateur mistake Daphne cast a fire suppression charm on the room and made her way into the next one.
"Ah … possessed corpses … tch." Daphne muttered as she noted the burned black bodies in the vicinity of the former door and a good dozen on the ground on the other side of the room.
"So … how was it? Best kill it with fire. Works at least against Inferi." she said and pointed her staff at the biggest concentration of Zombies.
The only warning that something was going to happen was a slight shimmer in the air right before the top of her black staff, the top Daphne was currently pointing at the zombies trying to stand up. No two seconds later a stream of orange and yellow fire poured out of the staff and happily consumed what it touched and could. Guiding her magical flame thrower Daphne methodically sterilized the room via fire. When she finally stopped everything organic had been utterly consumed.
Leaving the staff in the grasp of her left hand Daphne made a slight flick with her right hand causing her wand to appear in it. Two smooth waves with her wand had the protection spells in the room behind dissolved and was Harry floating behind her again. Leaving the room with her husband following next to her Daphne made her way along the gallery she had seen before and up a flight of stairs. At the top she stopped seeing something interesting.
To her slight right in the corner of a small hall stood a mirror covered in symbols, symbols she recognized as being part of this worlds magic. Not only that, before the mirror were four burned out summoning circles. What really got her attention however was the tall standing mage in one of the two doorways leaving the hall. The man was roughly 1,8 meter tall, clad in blue and white robes and had a magic staff on his back.
His bald and aged head gave Daphne a good estimate of his physical age of around eighty. Slightly sunken in eyes watched her like a hawk his pray and his protruding ears gave him a funny overhaul look. Daphne gave herself a mental shrug and walked up to the man to greet him, Harry closely following while hovering behind her.
Seeing more details of the mages robes Daphne recognized it as a Grey Wardens uniform. She herself had never seen one but one of the books in the Circle of Magi in Fereldan had many pictures and descriptions about them. While coming closer Daphne interestingly noted how casual the mages gaze wandered from her to her floating husband and back to her. The slight flicker in the mages pupils at Harrys floating filled her with a nice amount of satisfaction.
"Interesting, how interesting," the mage said with a hint of enthusiasm in a pleasant but unused voice, "Say young lady, am I to thank you for this remarkable day full of events I would have never thought of? But where are my manners, allow me to introduce myself. I am Avernus, Gray Warden, mage and only living inhabitant in this once glorious castle. May I have the honor of knowing your name?"
Daphne lifted slightly her left eyebrow and gave the mage an amused but calculating look. Now that she was closer she could taste his magic in the air and gave her much more useful information. It tasted old, ever active, slightly stale and somewhat corrupted while the corruption was waging a never ending war with it but was somehow locked in place. Being the avatar of Lady Life Daphne saw his spark of life and how it had been twisted and changed.
Aside from that his whole posture, the way he half bowed and spoke to her told her of a man dedicated to something, a man who knows how to move and conduct himself when faced with nobility, maybe even royalty. His choice of words and how he spoke them told her of a well read and educated person and the wear and tear in his uniform spoke of his diligence to his work, standing and role in life. The slight gleam in the man's eyes however gave Daphne warning. That man was not altogether there anymore, for whatever reason. The open curiosity with which Avernus studied Harry however made her smirk a little. Too many people were afraid of magic in this world for her taste, it was nice to meet someone who wasn't.
Giving Avernus a respectful nod Daphne said "My name is Daphne Green and the man floating behind me is my husband Harry. He is at the moment rather indisposed, as you can see. After he brought us her there had been an … incident, which led to him expelling most of his magic."
It had been so long, maybe even too long in Daphne's opinion since she had the chance of playing word games with someone that wasn't Harry. Every word, every phrase and information given was carefully calculated, even the aloof posture and the slightly friendly and open look on her face and of course while doing so Daphne watched this man like a panther on the prowl. So she didn't miss a certain spark in his eyes the moment she mentioned her Harry's magic.
Avernus regarded the young woman and her husband in front of him with new interest. At first he had cursed whoever unleashed the strange magical wave, it surely had demolished his current experiment. However after he saw what it had done not only the veil itself, it had never felt more stable than now, but also to his possessed former commander and the summoning circles he was positively giddy about how that had happened.
Piercing together what information he could gleam form the young woman - "Daphne, her name is Daphne." he reminded himself - but also what he could see and feel through his eyes and magic Avernus concluded the following. Both these people were mages, both could wield a form of magic he didn't know about, both came her for a reason and both liberated him of some of his boredom. Avernus took a moment to contemplate how he had truly missed a conversation with another living being.
"Am I to assume correctly you came here for a reason?" Avernus inquired politely.
Daphne tilted her head to the side and gave a sidelong look at her husband, "I am unsure. The manner of our arrival says we are here for a reason, which I don't know … but can give a very good guess." the last part Daphne added in her thoughts.
Avernus only blinked at the cryptic answer. Daphne had said her husband brought them here and with her husband being unconscious...
"If I may?" the old mage asked, looked pointedly at Harry and flex his magic a little.
Daphne eyed the mage a moment, seemingly looking for something before gave a small nod. After having permission the old mage knelt beside Harry, placed the palm of his right hand on Harry's forehead and concentrated. Avernus used the same exercise many healers in his time used for looking for alignments inside a patient's body. He send a probe compressed of his magic into the floating man which in a sense 'asked' his body if and what was wrong.
What was fascinating however was not that he got an answer but how he got it. For a short moment Harry's own magic grabbed Avernus' probe, dragged it to the problem and then kicked it out. With a sigh Avernus removed his hand and stood up. If he was honest with himself he was rather excited, finally he could test a part of his theories. However the news he brought weren't something he liked to give.
"Unfortunately I am the bringer of bad news. Your husband has been infected with the taint and while his body seems to hold it at bay remarkably well at the moment sooner or later he will be consumed by it. I would guess the reason of bringing you here with him would be the wrong believe that the Gray Wardens have a cure for the taint." Avernus tried to keep his tone bland and emotionless but couldn't quite manage it.
Having a chance for a new test subject was too good to ignore. The blank look on Daphne's face however gave him pause. It was like she knew or suspected something. However her non-reaction to the taint was strange.
"Young lady, do you know what the taint is?" whatever else could the non-reaction bee but no knowledge about the problem?
"Yes." Daphne said simply, still having an unreadable look on her face.
"Of course, while we can't directly heal the blight disease or taint a victim can by joining the gray Wardens mitigate the problem. Yes, that should solve the problem. I have all the needed ingredients for a joining potion here it will …" Avernus started slightly to ramble, already imagine all the new experiments he could do with only one new Warden. Of course the more extreme experiments he probably would have to avoid.
"No." Daphne said softly and interrupted he old mage.
"Excuse me?" Avernus regarded the woman with a cold look, "Should your husband Harry not join the Gray Wardens he will die in about a month, no matter what you try to do."
"Let me elaborate, I will Harry not allow to drink your joining potion." the soft voice and still blank face did slightly unnerve Avernus.
For just a moment the old mage played with the idea of simply conscripting the young man then and there. Unfortunately he had no idea if said right was still available to him, with them having failed their little rebellion some one hundred and fifty years ago. Forcing the issue could be an idea but something made Avernus wary of Daphne, there was something unnatural. He snorted at that thought, pot calling the kettle black.
"Young miss, there is no other choice but …" Avernus was interrupted as a book appeared in Daphnes hand out of nowhere.
The old mage had no problem admitting he was rather startled at that feat. He watched the blond young women as she leafed through the pages, stopped after roughly one third and showed him what was written inside.
"According to First Enchanter Richard Annesley the Gray Warden's joining potion does have only a thirty percent success rate but it also was a lucky discovery to begin with. Something like this will never be given to my husband." Daphne declared dispassionately.
Avernus however was only listening with half an ear, he found reading the diary very interesting and even disturbing. The theories postulated by the First Enchanter about the Gray Wardens beginning and much more were very interesting and most of all very dangerous. Such information had always been tightly controlled by the order and now here was prove that someone had somewhat pierced the truth on several occasions.
Oh the order knew its origins. The speech given to the recruits about how the first Gray Wardens drank the blood and mastered the taint was very prosaic, and totally false. The truth of the matter was that the Tevinter Magisters frantically searched for a way to defeat the corrupted god and maybe even get an advantage against the horde. To that end they experimented with the blood of normal darkspawn and that of the twenty captured dead dragon bodies.
After tens of thousands dead the Magisters finally found the right mixture of lyrium, archdemon blood and darkspawn blood to give some poor bastard's the edge they needed. The platoon of Anderfels soldiers mentioned in the story was just the first group of trained soldiers desperate enough to do anything to stop the blight. While First Enchanter Richard never hit the bullseye in his theories he did however hit very close, in every damn theory.
Avernus was not a fanatic follower of the order, however he was intelligent enough to know what could happen with such knowledge in the wrong, meaning non Gray Wardens, hands. So he can be excuse for trying to limit the damage already done. Unlike the young practitioners of blood magic Avernus didn't need to cut himself to use the power in his blood and the gifted abilities with that school of magic. Any and all information had to be controlled. Unfortunately Avernus forgot the easiest way of controlling that information, namely letting Daphne join as well.
Daphne however was prepared. She had seen how his look changed from disbelieve to determination, she could feel how his magic started to stir and how his very blood started to sing with it. The moment she felt how an attack crashed into her mind shield Daphne retaliated. Avernus had been rather startled when he discovered he couldn't enter the woman's mind. Normally he would slip into the mind of a victim and then wrestle with it for control, but being stopped like that was new.
He had no time to react and could only watch in surprise as the woman retaliated. In one fast and fluid move Daphne had pointed her wand at the mage and fired her spells, one after another in rapid succession. Avernus felt how he was lifted from his feet and not half a second later crashed into the wall on the other side of the room. Before he could ask himself how he was still alive and more importantly healthy after crashing into a granite wall several metal half rings formed like horseshoes crashed into him and fixed him against the wall.
Like a star he was pinned to the wall and those metal rings held him there. His arms and legs were secured by four each, he had one around his neck and even his staff had been pinned to the wall by six. To add insult to injury the metal rings were not only pink but also sealed somehow his magic, he couldn't feel a single drop, even his blood magic was sealed. Looking back to the woman Avernus definitely didn't like what he saw. Both staff and wand were pointed at him, the tips glowing red with power.
The look in Daphne's eyes promised pain and murder and her face was frozen in a mask of absolute fury. Slowly she walked to him with a grace that he had seldom seen. Interesting enough her voice didn't betray anything she felt and stayed on a pleasant level, something which put a good amount of fear into him simply because of the extreme contrast to everything else.
"Gray Warden Avernus, I will not let my husband be used for any ill prepared experiments. I have nothing against him joining your little order, I even would join myself to stay at his side but don't mistake my attitude for acceptance to your methods. The joining potion, which by your reaction to the diary was as ill made as hinted, is nothing but poison you to this day still don't understand how and why it works the way it does. Meaning you will show me how it is made and we will find a better method before Harry or I join your order. And you will help me to the best of your abilities, will you not?" Avernus could only nod.
"Good …" here Daphne paused a moment and her face and eyes slipped back into a blank mask, "And make no mistake little blood mage. Should because of you my husband die I will not only make your death very painful, but I will also bring the castle down around your ears and hunt your order into extinction. By Andraste, the Maker and the Aspects that I promise you."
The last part Daphne nearly purred, sending a shiver of dread through Avernus' spine. What kind of woman was that? The small smirk and sparkle in her eyes told him enough that she would follow through. Nodding with satisfaction Daphne made a flick with her wand and vanished the metal rings securing Avernus and his staff to the wall.
For the next ten days Daphne and Avernus arranged themselves into a very careful form of coexistence. Meaning Daphne acted like she always did and Avernus treated her like a very poisonous snake ready to strike. Of course nobody could stand alert twenty four hours a day and seven days a week and Avernus finally let himself relax after the fith day. At the question about what she did with her husband she stared a moment at him blankly and explained in a rather bland like voice.
"I have cleared out Sophia's old room, etched some runes into the stone and door and left him there. It does not matter how much time passes here, the moment I open the door on the inside exactly one day went by." Daphne left it at that and searched for more books about the blight, darkspawn and taint.
Avernus was unsure how he should handle Daphne's meddling in his affairs, namely his experiments, but after the first time she gave him a dressing down about useless experiments he relented. It could of course have something to do with several books about magical and general experiments, how to conduct them and ideas about equipment and more.
"Let me get this straight, you just took some poor sod, caged him in, tortured him with ice, fire, electricity and more, with between every step probing his body with your magic, and … really? I mean seriously?" The blank look she had given after reading his journal about the experiments spoke volume.
Interesting enough Daphne didn't seem to care about his former subjects in particular, only in the sense of wasting material Avernus mused.
He did try to defend him, "Human experiments were a new field I never encountered before. The human body is just too complex compared to anything what I had learned and done in other places."
Daphne's look said loud and clear what she thought of that explanation. Mumbling something about 'primitive' and 'stupidity' several books and appeared on his desk which he found later very interesting and informative. Who would have thought to use rats on the first try on living things? Or these strange devices with those fine looking glasses? How interesting.
After the first ten day's had passed something happened so out of the blue that Avernus was very astonished. Early in the morning, around one hour after they had shared breakfast, the young woman entered his laboratory, stepped up to the table he was sitting at and apologized. At first Avernus only blinked without comprehension what she was apologizing for.
"What are you apologizing for my dear?" the old mage asked slightly confused.
For a moment Daphne regarded the mage with a strange look on her face "I apologize for my extreme reaction regarding your attack on my person eleven days ago. I'm not apologizing for defending myself but for escalating it so fast."
Avernus blinked at her and sighed. Somehow he felt rather bad about himself. Oh he knew that he was an immoral bastard. Having experimented on his fellow Wardens to understand the taint and get more power out of it to help further his order's goals did make him a bad person. The old mage resolutely ignored the tiny voice in the back of his head reminding him that four out of his former five comrades encouraged him to use them.
They had been painfully aware that they would either die because of starvation or being by being tortured to death the moment they would be captured by the Kings forces waiting outside. So they concluded why not let their main researcher use them to further the power and abilities of the Gray Wardens for later generations. But now, now he felt rather bad because the young woman apologized for something he had provoked. Who knew he would still be able for such simple human reactions?
Sighing he closed the book he was reading and placed it back on the table "I have to apologize as well yo … no … Daphne. As I was saying, I have to apologize as well Daphne. It seems for a moment I became rather overzealous in my attempt to control information that should have never been outside the order. For that I am sorry."
With that Avernus gave Daphne gracious bow and she herself a nod of acceptation.
Smiling slightly the young blond woman was about to turn and leave Avernus to his readings when he reached for a book and drew her attention "If I could have your attention for a moment, Daphne?
I have read all those books you gave me and find myself really fascinated. Many points in these books about experimentations show me better ideas how to proceed and some suggest procedures I would have never thought about. However, nearly everything in those books is useless because we don't have the acquired equipment or the knowledge required to conduct further experiments. I must confes this is something I'm not familiar with."
While explaining Avernus pointed on several chapters, pictures and explanations in several books to illustrate the problem. Avernus was aware of his strengths and weaknesses. And while he was an avid note taker and could plan an experiment with every step in between including possible deviations he was not someone who could design and construct the necessary equipment. Oh, he would be able to build something giving time and ideas, however it wasn't one of his strengths.
Daphne carefully went through the books and studied the described tools needed to continue Avernus experiments, or at least a new series of experiments. The blond had deliberately chosen those books, simply because everything needed was not to that technological advanced and could be created in a world on a level equal to the one she was in. Not to forget that they would need magic to run many of those devices.
Magic, Daphne could only shake her head. From what she and Harry could gather the magic system of this world hadn't notably changed in the last five hundred years. Magical research as a science didn't exist and only the art of potion making, called alchemy here, had somewhat evolved in the last centuries, and even that was minimal at best. Funny enough even the Tevinter Empire hadn't pioneered further advancements in the magical field and their form of magical experimentations hadn't changed since the creation of the Gray Wardens.
Yes, every now and then something appeared you could call an advancement but sooner or later those would disappear again. The reasons were varied but in the end were one of three. The advancement would either disappear again because something that was used for them was destroyed and had been irreplaceable, the knowledge was deliberately destroyed or it disappeared together with the death of its creator. It was ridiculous.
The only people who had something akin to science were the Qunari, and those horded any and all knowledge for themselves. It was more than ridiculous. It was like humanity collectively refused to advance themselves. That didn't mean there weren't schools dedicated to mathematics and the like, far from it. In the last years Orlais pumped huge amounts of gold into their schools of art and science, or what went for science in these lands. The thing was there was simple no one to challenge excepted theories and procedures.
The Chantry of course was partly at fault for condemning all those who tried to unravel 'the Maker's creation'. Opening all books at certain pages and placing them on the table in a way Daphne could see the pictures and descriptions for things that were needed she pulled out her wand and started to cast. After every wave, chant or incantation something new appeared in the room. Be it a simple table with chairs or distillery for potions, be it several workbenches with a huge amount of different tools or a huge device including a network of tubes and several glass and metal vessels.
While casting Daphne mused how certain people Harry and her have encountered in many of their lives would react to what she was doing. People like Professor McGonagall and Hermione Granger would probably reprimand her that conjurations would definitely not last and be a very bad idea to begin with for laboratory equipment. Meetra Surik, bless her soul, would probably be highly amused and Durnik together with Polgara would disapprove her frivolous use of Magic.
Daphne wondered what all those magic users in their birth reality would think if they knew all those rules they had postulated were not rules but exceptions? Magic as Harry and Daphne wielded was not something you could cage or describe with rules. Fact of the matter was that their magic, unlike the magic of the universe they currently inhabit, approached the domain of gods. Meaning as long you had the power, the intent and the imagination you could do everything with it.
Spells, rituals and rules only existed so the human mind could process what was chaotic in nature. Conjuration for example had been a year six skill in Hogwarts. A spell in that field would be the Gemini Charm, to duplicate nearly everything. The amount of power you pushed into a conjuration determined the time a conjured object would stay in existence and how frail it would be against a Finite Counter-Spell.
However, should the power you use for a conjuration exceed a certain point a conjured object would become real and more importantly stay that way. Interesting enough the amount of magic needed heavily increases with the rise of the atomic number of the conjured element. That was one of the reasons why even in their birth reality you could magic a water based liquid permanently into existence but nothing else, it was one of the five exceptions according to Gamps Laws.
Harry and Daphne herself however were magically at a level where they could permanently conjure something with little problem, not everything of course. Daphne herself had her limit at the moment with Indium, Harry hit the limit with Gold. That however didn't mean that Daphne and Harry were magical gods, far from it. It just meant that their magical reserves where very, very deep and their magic very, very potent. Interesting enough understanding chemistry and the structure of elements and atoms extremely helped.
In contrary what some might believe it didn't mean that now everything conjured in that room by Daphne's hand was one hundred percent pure glass, granite or wood. Magic being magic had a simple odd quirk. In the event of conjuration at a permanent level it either creates a pure structure, like a glass container without any imperfections or contaminations in its atomic structure, or it recreated something, an exact duplicate down to the sub atomic level, the caster had already seen somewhere. The only real downside behind permanent conjuration was the inability to conjure something with magical properties.
Now in this case she created exact duplicates of those items and equipment the books had shown and described. Coming down from her magically induced high, something Daphne always felt after using huge amounts of magic, she first conjured a non-permanent and simple seat to sit down. Amusing enough Daphne had totally forgotten how taxing it could be to conjure something permanently. She felt rather dizzy now.
Avernus himself look astonished. Like he couldn't believe what he was seeing. What kind of magic was that? Maybe Daphne would explain it to him? Well, definitely not now, she looked ready to collapse. It seemed it had taken huge chunks out of her.
"Well," Avernus clapped his hands together, feeling rather giddy, "let's do it, shall we?"
Over the next week Avernus and Daphne would completely overhaul Avernus labor. The cages were thrown out, the holes in the floor closed and the stone floor and walls got a proper cleaning. After that the new workbenches and everything else Daphne had provided would be given places where someone could comfortable work at and with them.
Interesting enough in the middle of the elevated platform where Avernus' former table resided Daphne placed to metal tables able to strap people to it. At Avernus questioning look the young woman shrugged her shoulders.
"Sooner or later we have and will experiment on human sized beings." She easily explained.
It was only after Daphne had summoned dozens of rats that Avernus conceded with embarrassment that he didn't have normal darkspawn blood and only seven vials of archdemon blood. And while that would be enough for the next one hundred and five years, each vial had two hundred and fifty milliliter, for normal recruitment Avernus hadn't wanted to use that up.
Daphne only sighed. Why did people always wait to give the important information at last?
"Wait a minute," she said and pinned the mage with a look, "didn't you say before you had everything here for a joining potion?"
"Why yes. However you don't necessarily need normal darkspawn blood. To only use archdemon blood you would even increase the possibility of surviving your joining, the downside is the use of exorbitant amounts of said blood in comparison to one drop of it in the traditionally potion" Avernus answered with a shrug.
Shaking her head Daphne summoned a certain bag from her storage and withdrew a single pebble from it. She simply threw the pebble to the side and with a wave of her hand turned it back into a hurlock corps. Avernus didn't even blink at that piece of magic, he came long to the conclusion that Daphne's magic was so alien that he shouldn't be shocked seeing what it was capable of.
"If you would let me my dear." the mage said and flexed his magic.
The hurlock's throat exploded in a red mist, which condense itself above the corpses into a small red ball. The red ball slowly grew as more and more blood left the corps and gathered itself into the ball. After Avernus had sucked the Hurlock dry he placed all the blood into a ten liter glass container hanging inside a rack next to one of the workbenches. Daphne simply vanished the remains of the Hurlock while Avernus closed the glass container with a plug and placed several spells on it to keep the content in stasis.
"Now, shall we begin?" Avernus asked and placed a small vial into a fitting beneath the glass container filled with blood where it was filled with blood moments later.
Over the next five days the both of them would feed twenty rats, four each day, one of Avernus' modified joining potions. After that they placed them in small cages, one each, to observe them. Wary of the taint Daphne had decided to add certain things to wear before the start of their experiments. In addition to her normal clothes now she wore dragon hide gloves up to her elbows, a face mask out of dragon hide and a dragon hide lab coat. Everything enchanted to hell and back with protection, health and sterilization runes.
While Daphne was constantly checking how the taint and the potion interacted and changed the rats bodies biology she gave Avernus more books about why and how it was a good thing to start with rats and not humans in their experiments. On the side Avernus had much fun with the magical microscope, introducing the taint to blood samples and studying the reactions, always on the lookout for something game changing.
It was at the start of day five when Avernus asked the question of how they would and could get more information about what happened insides the rats that had been introduced to the joining potion.
"See this?" Daphne had answered and pointed at a small crystal next to one of the cages, "These crystals magically observe any being placed on the runic field that covers the bottom of the cage. They record how the health and the body changes over time. Regrettably they only can memorize up to one hundred hours, after that the crystal is full, and are only one time uses but for our purpose that is enough."
Daphne removed all four crystals and cleared the cages with a spell, only one rat had survived until now, clearly tainted. Walking to one of the workbenches she placed one of the crystals into a fitting and tapped a rune. A moment after a bunch of information was displayed on the glass surface standing at the back of the table. All the while she patiently explained how to use the table, navigate the information given and the magic behind it. What was for Avernus astonishing was the fact he could use and replicate this with his form of runes and glyphs. Interesting enough he could read the information on three crystals at the same time, the table had the ability for that.
For the next two weeks both magic users would go through hundreds of rats, increasing the number used per day to twenty. It got so bad that Daphne had to leave the castle and the peak altogether to summon some rats from surrounding villages. Aside from that the only time when they left the labor was to sleep, eat or take a stroll outside to clear their heads. Avernus had the time of his life.
Consequently Daphne was asked by Avernus about her magic, what it could do and where it came from. From her studies in the Circle of Magi tower Daphne already knew that her kind of magic was impossible to completely recreate with the magic of this world. While her magic treated outside of the rules of reality the magic of this place had interestingly enough rules which bound it to this reality.
So Daphne didn't feel too bad when Avernus correctly guessed that her and Harry's magic was not of this world. She even indulged him and spun a tale about two magic capable humans, reincarnated with their memories intact into a strange world, a tale with just enough truth to satisfy a clearly mystified mage. Daphne at this point knew enough about Avernus that he wasn't one to talk needlessly about secrets, and promised that he would never do so.
But not leaving anything to chance without the input of her Harry the young blond placed some heavy compulsion charms on the mage which made it impossible for him to share that secret with anyone not in the know. Over the next two months, after continued adaptations to the joining potion, Daphne would introduce other species for testing. Mice, cats, some wolfs and even some stray Mabari.
"Are you sure you are ferelden?" Avernus asked with disbelieve after she came back with six Mabari.
Daphne had only shrugged. Of course the increase of success of the joining potion was not the only change they were looking for. Next to the door to Avernus room, Daphne had shuddered at the knowledge of him having a room next to his vile torture chamber, was a list with points to better the potion.
There were items on the list such as higher success rate, increase of time before biological collapse, no reduced fertility, increased strength, stamina and vitality and many more. Some points had already been accomplished, like the rise in strength and such after they had been successful in incorporating Avernus Experimental Draught. Others they still had a long way to go.
However there was one point Daphne was adamant about solving. It was the corruption and later destruction of the soul. That had been a discovery which had made her feel sick. Harry, in his representation as an Avatar of the Aspect of Death, had ones explained to her how he saw souls, how he perceived them. It was something simple and complex, unfathomable beautiful and innocent and something he was adamant about protecting. Souls were part of his domain and nobody had any right to twist, corrupt, use or destroy them.
It was like how Daphne herself saw life in general. The ability to give life, birth it and bring it into the world was so wonderful she couldn't even describe it. So it was while analyzing their experiments with the wolfs that Daphne saw something she didn't like. The taint somehow not only consumed and twisted them, it also twisted and consumed the primitive souls in those poor creatures. It didn't mean that their souls were forever lost, far from it.
It just meant that what defined them was destroyed and therefor lost. The soul is a curious construct with a core and an outer shell. The core is the anchor it is the bases for all live and allowed beings to develop themselves. In contrast the shell is which interacts with live, which binds a person to his or her body. The shell is not only huge but also keeps information about any life that soul had lived. An acknowledged old soul for example has a very complex soul shell, indicating many lives.
It also means that a person is somewhat influenced by his or her soul shell from her past lives, but not much. Daphne and Harry for example were old souls. And here lies the problem. A soul is only core without the shell when it was newly created, a very rare occasion these days, not so much at the beginning of all creation. The tragedy lies in the inability of the soul to recreate its shell and because the taint is consuming that shell …
Thinking back Daphne could remember one of their past lives where she and Harry stumbled upon a so called Sith Lord. A Sith Lord who had dabbled so deep in the dark side that he acquired the ability to utterly drain a person's soul shell to gain immortality. Harry had not been pleased, oh no he had been furious. The resulting conflict had been brutal when Harry went all Avatar of Death on the fool. In the end the fool had been locked away in a pocket dimension ruled by Slaanesh Daemonettes. His immortality would be put to good use for all eternity. Lord Death himself had just shrugged with his shoulders.
Daphne just hoped Harry wouldn't do something drastic. Maybe she was missing something here?
It was the end of Cloudreach and Daphne was looking down at several sheets of paper detailing all their work. Looking around the room what has once been Avernus bedroom. It had started with the question of where they would place all those books about the taint, their research notes and those books Daphne had loaned to the blood mage so he could extend his knowledge. They had needed a room which could be better controlled than the library in the castle itself or the Warden library inside this apart standing tower, some two levels beneath them.
So they came to the conclusion to move Avernus bedroom somewhere else and place all books and other information inside this makeshift library. They would have more time later on when they were finished and could bring some order into the castle. Looking around Daphne noted from her comfortable seat the four rows of book shelfs, the shelfs standing to the wall only leaving open some places for the windows in between the shelfs.
While she was sitting on a very comfortable seat going over the reports on a long table in the middle of the room a magical quill was dutifully copying book after book. She could of course have just use magic to make a copy permanent but hadn't felt like it.. While the quill method took way longer it also took way less magic. Looking back at the report Daphne could only sigh. After one thousand three hundred and twenty-six rats, five hundred sixty mice, one hundred cats, twenty wolfs, twelve mabari and fifty-two changes to the joining potion they were ready for human experiments.
Don't get here wrong, Daphne had no problem using other human beings or similar to test something intended for her husband, she just disliked to motivate herself to not ignore those morals she and her Harry still had. Well, whatever.
It was the morning of the 2nd of Bloomingtide when Avernus stepped into the antechamber of the labor and saw a most curious sight. Kneeling on the ground where by the looks of it eight humans and two elves, six male and four female, behind them stood Daphne with an almost bored look, all bound and a bag covering their heads. Avernus had wondered where she had disappeared too these last three days and from the looks of it she had been busy.
When she caught sight of him Daphne happily smiled, something that Avernus tended to treat with caution.
"Avernus, good to see you, let me introduce you to these fine ladies and gentlemen. From left to right we have," at that Daphne stepped behind the first, a male elf, and placed her hands on his shoulders "Bragan, loner and dalish elf using his time teaching shemlen males and boys the error of their ways by turning them into pincushions and raping the women and girls.
Next is this handsome fellow, Marcus, a serial killer with a taste for very young girls. Following him is this proud female, Yvonne. A whore who thinks it is a good idea to strangle her newborns with their very own umbilical cord, a weak ago she reached number seven."
And so it went. With every person introduced by name and all their wrongdoings Avernus learned things even he would never do. Every last one of them was a very twisted and sick individual. Avernus had an idea what Daphne was up to but was unsure how to approach it. After some thinking he decided to tentatively ask.
"Daphne, why did you bring these … people here?"
The smile and shine in her eyes was something he better ignored, for the sake of the rest of his sanity "Avernus! We have reached the limit of animal experiments. Now it is time to start with human experiments and these fine ladies and gentlemen have graciously decided to help us. Aren't they the nicest of people?"
Avernus answering smile and gleam in his eyes didn't necessarily speak of much sanity left, but who was complaining.
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AN:I'm still unsure about the explanation given to the so called Unforgivables. It may still change ...
Some reviewer: Yes that was the Archdemon. But even this way only a Warden can permanently kill it.
ww1990ww and others: Yes, Harry had been once upon a time the God Emperor. I just use allusions like that to expand on his character and Daphne's of course.
Kaioo: Wards is a fanon concept and not canon. the closest in canon would be jinxes, curses and charms declared in a similar manner I believe, like Anti-Apparation-Charm and Anti-Disapparation-Jinx. About the power scale, Harry's and Daphne's magic is simply much more diverse and more directed to small scale as I understand it, it can still do a shit ton of damage. DA magic in my mind is a 'only-full-throttle' type of magic which isn't as powerful or versatile as the other system.
darkpiro9: Yes, however I will expand on that problem later on. Maybe you will like my solution.
Vatsyayana69:Maybe he had been bored? Will be expanded on.
So, thanks to the reviewers: Inverse Psyche, Blackholelord, Guest(Hammer), Naruto-Uzu-Uchiha, Yami-Guy, darkpiro9, FateBurn, karthik9, .com, JMK2, ww1990ww, Kaioo, RoyalTwinFangs, exaigon, Burrk, nlaj1, Guest(jay123), Reven 6666, Dark Cerberus, Skelo, NotSoSlimSh4dy, He-With-Many-Hyphens, T-B-R, Seele Zeit, Colshan, Nargus, Otaku-ka-ren, doubledamn, Konda020946, , MrHm31, Dovahkiin1503, orion0905, Devils Joker, GhostSixTwo