Chapter 7

As the 3 mages made their way onto the elevator Anders couldn't help but be a little annoyed by Merrill's presence. He understood why it was a good idea to have her come. It would certainly be helpful to have a blood mage help with research into blood magic, but he had never thought very highly of Merrill. She was so simple, naïve.

As the 2 women chatted, Anders felt a tug in the back of his mind, you are just jealous because you want to spend time alone with Max; that is why you don't want Merrill here.

It was the first time that he had heard from Justice since the Chantry. He had felt Justice's satisfaction the night before as Max had told them they ways that the Circle had changed. He had no response for Justice, however. He hated when the spirit was right.

"Oh, you have a cat! Can we meet her? Anders loves cats!" Merrill's exclamation shook Anders out of his revelry.

"The Warden Commander gave me a cat once, Ser Pounce-a-lot. But then the other wardens made me get rid of him."

"Ser Pounce-a-lot?" Max asked with her eyebrow raised, she was trying not to smile.

"You don't like the name?"

"Oh no, it's a fine name to give a cat, if you're a six year old girl," Max said trying no to laugh.

"He wouldn't tell me who had knighted Ser Pounce-a-lot," Merrill said, "Maybe you can find out!"

"I don't think I want to know," Max said shaking her head.

Anders was just about to say something about definitely not being a six year old girl when the elevator doors opened. They opened onto a large room with floor to ceiling windows on the far side looking out over the bay. It was a stunning view. Then he looked around the room, there were rows and rows of books. This library was bigger than the one at the Circle in Fereldan. There was a large desk near the elevator and there were 2 women behind it. There were more tables past that, some of them had strange looking picture frames sitting on them. The images on the screens changed. Anders had never seen anything like it.

"You 2 coming?" Max called.

Anders realized that both he and Merrill had been standing there gawking at their surroundings while Max had gone to talk to the 2 women behind the desk. One of them had come out from behind the desk and was waiting with Max.

"Follow me," she said.

She took the 3 of them to a private room. This room also had a view looking over the water. The room contained a couch and a few chairs all turned toward the center of the room where there was a low table. "Let me know if you need help finding anything." She eyed Anders as she walked out of the room.

"Well that was a bit of a strange look she gave Anders. Do you think she knows about Justice?" Merrill asked.

Max laughed, "I'm sure she knows about Justice, but that has nothing to do with the look she gave Anders. She thinks he's hhoott." Max put extra emphasis on the last word.

"Well then why didn't she offer to open the window to cool thing off in here?"

"Not hot in that way Merrill. It means that she finds him attractive."

"Ohh."

Anders wondered if Max thought he was hot, as she put it. Before he could pursue that thought though she started to discuss her plan.

"I figured we could go out into the stacks and bring a bunch of books back here. You guys can get started with those while I look for information on the internet." Max put her bag down on the table and pulled out a strange looking thing. It was folded in the middle like a book but there were no pages that Anders could see.

"What is the internet?" Merrill asked.

"And what is that?" Anders asked indicating the black thing she had taken out of her bag.

"This is my laptop computer, and it is how I access the internet. The internet is a network of interconnected computers. It contains more information than any library could ever contain. It is also a way to communicate quickly with people around the world. I am going to use it to send a message to a friend of mine who is studying in Tevinter. And then I am going to see if I can find anything helpful on the libraries electronic database."

"I still don't think I understand." Merrill said.

"That's ok; I can try to show you how it works later but for now let's see what we can find."

The three of them grabbed as many books as they could carry on anything the thought could help them, from summoning spells to the darkest blood magic. Anders was wary of letting Merrill look at the blood magic books but Max insisted that she would be the best person as neither of them had used blood magic. She thought that if they could figure out the ritual that had summoned them here then maybe they could find a way to send them back.

As Anders and Merrill worked their way through the books Max opened her laptop computer and started clicking away on the buttons. From what Anders saw the buttons were different letters and symbols that she could press in order to form words and sentences. He saw images pop up across the screen as she pushed different buttons.

"Ohh, the picture changes! How does it do that?"

"hmm, I'm not really sure how to describe how a computer works. Ohh I know! We can Google it!" Max replied.

"Google it?" Anders asked, he wasn't sure what googling was but it just didn't sound right.

"Yeah, Google is a search engine. You type in what you're looking for and it comes up with websites that match what you put in. Ahh here we go. Hmmm. I don't think that this definition is going to help. Basically a computer is a machine that is capable of complex calculations and functions. It is programmed to perform numerous tasks. Most people have computers in their homes, either a desktop or laptop. They can do everything from play music and store pictures and videos to allow you to surf the internet.

"Music like what we heard last night?" Anders asked, he had serious doubts about the taste in music in this time.

Max laughed, "Yeah if you want. There are lots of options, you can store music on the computer or you can listen to music online. Hold on, I'll show you."

Max clicked several of the buttons and suddenly music was coming out of the computer. It was very different than the music they had heard the night before.

"Ohh I love this song," Max said. She did something to that made the music get louder.

Anders definitely liked this music better. It was more melodic. He listened to the lyrics and they were much less explicit.

Tremble for yourself, my man,
You know that you have seen this all before
Tremble Little Lion Man,
You'll never settle any of your scores
Your grace is wasted in your face,
Your boldness stands alone among the wreck
Learn from your mother or spend your days biting your own neck

But it was not your fault but mine
And it was your heart on the line
I really fucked it up this time
Didn't I, my dear?
Didn't I, my...

Anders was surprised by the lyrics of this song. The definitely struck a chord with him.

When the song was over Max turned the volume back down while another song started. "I think that is enough playing for now. Maybe later we can play with the computer more, but we need to get to researching!"

Anders picked up a book and saw Merrill do the same. Max continued to click away on the computer. She had left the music playing softly in the background. Maker they had some amazing things in this time.

Max found the amazement on the faces of the 2 other mages very entertaining as they entered the library. It was a fantastic library, she remembers having a very similar look on her face the first time she ever entered this library. She loved coming there, she would even study for her grad school classes here, even though they had nothing to do with magic.

She had fun showing them how the computer worked. She liked playing music for them too. She used I heart Radio to play one of her favorite stations from home. She left the station playing in the background while they started on their research. She told them that if it became a distraction she would happily turn it off, but they seemed to enjoy it.

After a few hours of searching Max heard a loud growling noise and she realized that it was her stomach. Judging by the looks on their faces Anders and Merrill had heard the noise too. "I haven't eaten yet," Max said sheepishly.

"Maybe we should take a break and get something to eat," Anders suggested.

"That is an excellent idea. I have plenty of food in my apartment, we can just go there."

"Ohh yes, then we can meet your kitty!" Merrill said excitedly.

Max grinned, "Yep, you can. We can leave all the books here. I have reserved this room for the whole week so no one will come in and bother anything. And that way we can come back and pick up where we left off."

The 3 of them headed back towards the elevator and Max hit the button for her floor.

"What did you mean when you said that the woman at the library knew about Justice?" Anders asked suddenly.

Max was a little surprised by the question, it was a fair question it was just a little sudden. "Well one of the things that the Circle teaches mages is history. The story of the Champion of Kirkwall is considered an important part of mage history so every one learns about it. And about all of you. It was not my favorite part of class. Every teacher always felt that they had to put me on display as a descendant of the Champion. It was annoying."

"So everyone here knows about what happened in Kirkwall?" Anders asked.

"Yep, they don't know that you are the Anders or that she is the Merrill, but if they heard the names that is the first association that most of them would make. That is why Kay asked Varric to come with her to her class today. The accounts in the history books are likely not as colorful as Varric's," Max smiled.

"Do any of them start with 'No shit, there I was'? Because that is how Varric's stories start.' Merrill asked.

Max laughed, "None of the history books I have ever read start that way."

The elevator doors opened and Max lead them down the hall to her apartment. She opened the door and Audrey immediately came to the door to great them.

"Ohh, she is soo cute." Merrill smiled and tried to pet the grey cat. The cat walked away as she tried.

"Make your selves comfortable. I will make some sandwiches." Max said.

"Merrill you can't chase cats around, you have to wait for them to want to come to you," Anders said watching Merrill trying to get Audrey to let her pet her.

Max walked into the kitchen and pulled the roasted chicken out that she got from the store. She grabbed some tomatoes and cheese and other toppings. She stared cutting pieces of chicken off when she heard Anders voice.

"You have a lot of pictures, and they are very life-like. Did it cost a great deal to commission them?"

"What?" Max replied coming out into the living room. She saw Anders looking at the family photos that she had on one of her book shelves.

"Did it cost you a great deal? They look expensive."

"They are photos, not paintings. They didn't cost me much to have them printed. The ones I'm not in I probably took."

Anders looked at her in confusion. She pulled her phone out of her jeans pocket and clicked on the camera widget. She held it up towards Anders and took his picture. She then pulled the picture back up and showed it to him. "See, a photograph." She smiled.

"That's me! That is amazing!"

"Ohh, can I see!" Merrill asked excitedly.

"Sure," Max showed Merrill the screen of the phone so that she could see the image of the photo.

"Wow! That is amazing!"

"And that is without magic?" Anders asked skeptically.

"No magic. I can get the images printed onto paper and that is what is in the frames. Pictures of the people that mean the most to me. Images that I like to see every day." Max said with a smile. Her stomach complained again so she went to finish the sandwiches. She poured them each a glass of water, she wasn't sure what the other 2 would think of soda and since they still had more work to do she figured she would just stick with water.

As they ate Max told them about the people in the pictures, who they were, how old the photos were, that sort of thing. When they were done eating she put the plates and glasses in her dishwasher and re-joined them in the living room. Merrill had managed to get Audrey to allow her pets. Anders was holding a frame that had been lower on one of the bookshelves. It was a larger frame that Max had put 2 photos in, in opposite corners of the frame.

"Who are these children?" He asked.

Max looked at the pictures and smiled. The photo in the bottom corner was of a little girl with brown hair kissing a baby on the head, and the other photo was of 3 children, 2 girls (1 blonde, 1 brunette) and a brunette boy, sitting in front of some corn stalks tied together as fall decorations.

"Well in the top one that is me, my sister, and our cousin. The other picture is me and my sister. I stole these pictures from my mother. Funny enough, everyone in that picture is descended from Hawke!"

Anders smiled at the photos, but there was a sadness in his eyes. Max was just about to ask him if everything was ok when he cleared his throat.

"We should probably get back to work," he said carefully replacing the frame.

"Uhh, yeah. Come on Merrill."

The three of them returned to the library and continued with their research for the rest of the day. Max couldn't help but notice that Anders mood had changed and he seemed more melancholy than he had been. She would see if she could ask him about it later.

Anders liked Max's apartment, it had a warm welcoming feeling. She had multiple bookshelves that were all filled. She also had pictures everywhere. He had never seen anything of that quality before. He asked her about them and when she told him about photographs and took one of him it was quite amazing. He enjoyed listening to her talk about the people in the images while they ate. She was so animated and clearly cared about all of the people in the pictures. It was beautiful the way her face lit up talking about the people she loved.

As she cleaned up their dishes Anders took a closer look at one of the picture frames she hadn't talked about. There were 2 pictures, 1 with 2 small children and the other with 3 young children. They looked so happy. He asked Max about the pictures and when she told them that she was in each photograph he couldn't help but think of his own childhood. He remembered his mother. She was a warm woman who had been horrified to find out that her son was a mage.

Anders noticed that Max was looking at him with a look of concern in her eyes and he realized that his emotions must be showing on his face. He cleared his throat and suggested that they get back to work. She convinced Merrill to leave the cat alone and they returned to the library.

Authors Note: The song played on Max's computer is Mumford and Son's "Little Lion Man". I highly recommend it if you haven't heard it as it is an awesome song!

Also, thank you for reading!