Stories Untold

Chapter Ten: 1000 Eyes

AN: I very highly suggest listening to 1000 Eyes by Saliva. I have known since I started writing this story that this song was going with this chapter.

Updated 10/12/2015

Orsino and Meredith were at each others' throats again. On a normal day I would have laughed at their stupidity, but things were getting heated in Lowtown. The duo were just about to get into it big time. There was no telling what would happen if Hawke didn't step in. I ran along side him, Varric, and Aveline. He had wanted Anders to come with us, but the guy was nowhere to be seen.

That is, until someone mentioned the Grand Cleric.

"The Grand Cleric cannot help you!" Anders said, making his grand entrance. "I will not stand by and watch you treat all mages like criminals!" He smacked his staff on the ground. "While those that lead us bow to their Templar jailers."

"Are you fucking kidding me?" I asked under my breath. No one answered me. Then again, most people ignored me anyway. "Someone stop him, please?"

I wasn't the only one that wanted him to shut up. The look on Hawke's face said the same.

"How dare you speak-" Orsino began, but was cut off by Anders talking over him and smacking his staff on the ground again. My sarcastic thoughts had me laughing. Oh damn! He means it guys!

"The circle has failed us, Orsino!" Anders continued, going Justice on us. "Even you should see that! The time has come to act. There can be no half measures."

"Anders," Hawke warned, "what have you done?"

"There can be no turning back," Anders finished.

I gulped. "That doesn't good. At all."

I had hardly gotten the words out when the ground started to shake and shift. "What the hell did you do?" I screamed, just before the Chantry exploded in a shower of glass, rock, and bright red light. Dust and fire rained down on Kirkwall in waves. I stared at where the building had once been in complete shock. What the hell had he done?

"There can be no peace." That was all he said.

"Why?" Orsino asked. "Why would you do such a thing?"

"I removed the chance of compromise," Anders answered, Like he had everything figured out. "Because there is no compromise."

"The Grand Cleric has been slain by magic," Meredith said, hysteria creeping into the edges of her voice, "the Chantry destroyed." She turned to address all the people that were there, mostly Templars. "As Knight-Commander of Kirkwall, I here by invoke the Right of Annulment! Every mage in the Circle is to be executed- immediately!"

I gasped as Orsino spoke. "The Circle didn't do this! Champion, you can't let her! Help stop this madness."

"And I demand you stand with us!" Meredith snapped. "Even you must see that this outrage must not be tolerated."

"It can't be stopped now," Anders said. "You must decide now."

Hawke looked over at me, but I was seething. Enraged at both Anders and Meredith. I was libel to make a stupid decision, so I left it up to him. He turned to Orsino. "It won't be easy, but we'll defend you."

"You are a fool, Champion," Meredith snapped, irritable as always. "Kill them all! I will rouse the rest of the Order!"

"Heartless bitch," I yelled, throwing myself into the fight that followed her departure. I would not allow innocent people to die because one of my friends decided to take matters into his own hands and some crazy bitch thought she was doing what was best for everyone. Fuck that!

I swung on a Templar. I missed more often than I hit, but damnit I was not going to let them get to Bethany! I cut a few of them and others took them down. Orsino stood and fought with us. He, thankfully, was not a coward like some others were. Fenris.

I snarled as the fight came to an end. I was not happy and I had a mage in my sights. I was pissed. Anders had planted his ass on a crate like he had nothing in this world to worry about. I'd fucking give him something to worry about. I could hardly even hear what Hawke was saying, but Anders made one thing sure as shit. He wanted to die. I wouldn't allow it. I stopped Hawke with a hand on his shoulder. "Let me." With those two words, he stepped aside.

Seething, I stepped towards Anders. I'm pretty sure everyone expected me to kill him with all the rage I was showing. That wasn't the case. I grabbed his shoulder and shoved, hard. "You fucking think this is it?" I snapped. "This isn't over."

Anders tried to speak, but I stopped him. "Shut the fuck up and let me speak! You don't have that fucking right anymore!" I took a deep breath. "I fucking told you to keep a boundary. I fucking told you not to let him take charge and what did you do? You fucking betrayed me!"

At this point people were looking ashamed for him. Everyone had finally arrived, but I didn't care. I was going to say my peace. "You don't get a fucking choice anymore. You took that from yourself when you let him tell you what to do! You don't have a single fucking ally in this world! I owed you my life. Now, I don't owe you shit. You're dead to me, Anders. You better fucking hope I never see you again. Next time it'll be your fucking head!" Push. "Get the fuck out of my sight!" Push. "I don't ever want to even hear your fucking name!" Push. He hit the ground. Got up. Stumbled. Turned tail and ran. I had started crying half way through. My heart broke with the realization that he was only ever for himself. Anders had betrayed my friendship and that of all our friends.

Hawke rubbed my shoulder. I'm not sure when he got there. "Let's get to the Gallows."

The city was burning. I felt like I was burning with it. The rage still hadn't simmered down, but I was dealing with it. Our arrival at the Gallows had been wrought with fire and flying Templars. The latter actually made me laugh.

Just as we had been about to pull the mages together and possibly make a retreat, that bitch had arrived. My favorite Templar in tow. If I hadn't been mad before, I was now. I had a new found hatred for that bitch since this shit had started. She was fucking bat shit. Orsino had actually thought he could talk some sense into her. I could have told him otherwise. She wasn't all there. Probably never had been. The lights were on, but nobody was home. I'm sure you get the point.

During the talk I noticed Fenris, standing at the cunts side. I sneered. He always talked about being treated like a dog, now he was allowing someone to do it to him all over again. I was going to slap the shit out of him when this was over. If either of us survived. He changed sides at the last moment. I kinda wanted to kick him. Someone needed to fill him in on what I did to friends that betrayed me. Then again, Fenris had told me before this that he wasn't sure what he intended to do. I should just be grateful that he sided with us in the end.

Orsino's speech was impressive... Oh, who the hell am I kidding? It sucked, but it did the job for the mages gathered. I took a moment while Hawke was... saying his goodbyes, to talk to Bethany.

"I have no idea what I'm going to do when this shit is over, but someone owes me a trip to Val Royeaux or something!" I snarked.

Bethany laughed and handed me a leather pack she'd carried with her. "Here, you can take this with you when you go."

I took it slowly. "Why are you giving this to me?"

"It just feels like the thing to do," she answered. "I don't want you to forget me if this doesn't work out."

I tried to come up with something to say, but in the end I just told her thank you. I couldn't think of anything to say to her. I didn't plan on looking through it now. Too much shit to do. In the end, Hawke gave a truly impressive speech. Asking me to tag the enemy, but try not to get tangled in a fight. I was good at that. I decided I'd stay low and cut some knee caps. It was a sound plan in my mind. Things... don't always go as planned.

Orsino turned coward and several mages followed him. I went from laughing in mid fight at flying Templars to running for my life. Knee caps be damned! I was not getting puked on! I hugged the corners and let my friends take it down. I wasn't getting in on that and dieing. They knew my fear of undead things. Unfortunately, there were plenty of dead things to go around.

When Hawke finally pulled what I could only describe as the core from it's head, I lost it. I ran for the railing and puked my guts out. That was a little too much for me to handle. Squeamish or not, that was fucking gross! It just wasn't over yet. Not even close.

"Here we are, Champion," Meredith drawled. "At long last."

I felt like I could rip her head off. She was so smug. I fucking hated it.

"I imagine you've wanted to be rid of me for some time now," Hawke retorted. Go Hawke!

"I bear you no ill will," she said in return. "You brought this on yourself."

"Brought this on ourselves?" I asked. "Are you fucking stupid? None of us caused this. You did!" I started towards her, but Fenris picked my short ass up and basically removed me.

"Quiet, girl," she sneered. "This has nothing to do with you."

I growled and fought to get free. I can't fucking believe this hag just called me girl! "Take that back or I'll rip your fucking head off and shove it up your-" Fenris covered my mouth to keep me quiet. I tried to bite his hand, but it didn't work out that way.

"You are no mage," she said to Hawke, "but in supporting them you've elected to share their fate."

The Knight-Captain stepped up, getting in her way. "Knight-Commander, I thought we intended to arrest the Champion."

"You will do as I command, Cullen," she said firmly.

"No!" Cullen answered. "I defended you when Thrask started whispering you were mad, but this has gone too far."

My eyes widened when Meredith drew her sword. "I will not allow insubordination! We must stay true to our path!"

Somewhere near me I heard Varric say Andraste's dimpled buttcheeks. I snorted as Fenris let me go. We were about to fight the grand bitch herself. I just knew it. Her sword tuned into a light saber on crack and she started muttering about how they were all falling prey to blood magic. Cullen dared her to go through him. I was standing next to him and still couldn't believe the one-eighty he'd done. I'd have to thank him later.

I let out a slight cough as she said something while swinging her glow stick around. "Well," I said to anyone that could here me. "That escalated quickly!" I'm kinda surprised no one groaned at my bad joke. Everyone went into the fight with a battle cry. I just screamed knee caps.

The bitch was tough. I wasn't really doing much in the way of chopping off her legs. I don't know where the hell she was getting all this damned stamina from, but this shit sucked.

Then the statues started moving.

It added to the trouble we were already having. Every other person had to save my ass. I went for the ankles in hopes that they were weak there. It didn't do a ton of good, but it gave me a solid target I could reach. I now regret having never improved my bow skills. When this was over I was so working on that shit. A smaller statue sent me flying and I crashed to the ground. Varric helped me up and asked if I was ok. Nothing was broken that I knew of so I simply nodded. I was going to hurt like hell when this was over.

I was trying like hell to contribute, but I just wasn't that good. In short, it sucked. I would probably never be as good as the people around me, but that was ok cause I still tried my damnedest. It seemed like it wasn't good enough, but the tides were starting to turn. The bitch was getting tired. I noticed a statue at the last moment, one of the last of them, and started towards it. I could at least try to keep this one off Hawke's back while he dealt with Meredith.

I ran at it, but noticed Cullen in a bad spot. He was about to get hit by the one behind him! I kicked it up a notch and sprinted at him, it almost looked like I was going to attack him. I slammed into his side as he brought his shield up to block me. The statue's arm swung right through where we had just been. I laid on the ground, not moving. I hurt all over. I had just barreled full speed into a heavily armored man to save his life.

"Ow," I grunted. "I'm never doing that again."

"Are you alright?" I heard beside me. Cullen.

"No, I'm not," I groaned as I rolled over. "Running into metal never feels good. At least we aren't dead." I looked up just in time to see the killing blow. "But she is."

When we joined the others to watch her turn into a statue herself, I got close to watch her eyes go last. It was almost funny. Things got brighter the second she was dead. I laughed loudly and turned around to tell everyone what I thought of the situation.

I was greeted by a bright green field. My house in the distance.

The Templars stood down from Hawke and his friends. There would be no more fighting today. It did not go unnoticed that someone was missing. Korbin wasn't among the bodies, but she just wasn't there. They expected to see her standing by the gate with a sarcastic remark about them taking forever. She wasn't there. They searched Kirkwall, but she was nowhere to be found.

AN2: The next chapter will be a little... fillerish. Bear with me. This isn't over yet.