"Did you have any trouble on this end?" I ask Lariole and Theryn as we head down the tunnel. I'm still buzzing with energy from that lyrium idol. Despite having used a fair bit of magic and had a time slow field up, I still feel like I'm overflowing with energy, to the point where it almost burns inside of me.
"I had to smite Hawke a few times," Lariole replies. "His magic was going crazy even while he was unconscious."
"That would explain why I'm so mana drained," Tom mutters, chuckling. He pulls out a lyrium potion and drains it down. "Much better."
"I really hope you didn't blow up the Gallows," Anders says with a smirk. "I still have friends in there, you know."
"Not my fault," I say. "Although I'm pretty sure that they're gonna need a new knight-commander."
"What a shame, that," Anders says.
"Pity I missed it," Tom says.
"And what is it with people and building tunnels under large bodies of water, anyway?" I wonder, looking uneasily upward and imagining the crushing waves breaking down upon us.
Thankfully, the tunnels eventually lead us out into Darktown, where we make our way to the secret entrance into the cellars below the Hawke estate. Once we're safely inside our home, I flop down into an armchair, still buzzing and twitching and mentally exhausted.
"Lexen!" Kirlin says, rushing over to put her arms around me, and then jerking back as if shocked. "Lexen, what happened? You're so saturated with mana it's leaking off you!"
"Sorry," I say, forcing a smile.
"We ran into that idol from the Deep Roads," Tom says.
"And blew it up in the knight-commander's face," Rispy adds.
"Oh dear," Kirlin says.
"She had it coming," Lariole insists.
"I really hope they don't send the templars down upon us all anyway," I murmur.
"Perhaps the viscount will be reasonable?" Theryn suggests.
"Oh yeah, let's just go explain Meredith's crazy to the viscount," Anders says. "Great idea. The crazy knight-commander was just killed by a bunch of equally crazy apostates. You know, if you're going to do that, I'm just going to go hide back down in Darktown again."
I sigh. "I know. But I can't put my family in danger. I don't want the templars coming after me and finding them."
"If you're going, I'll stun you first," Tom says. "With some warning if things are going to go badly, we can make everyone disappear from here in no time."
I nod, and stand. "Let's do it, then."
After being stunned and revived, I head out of the Hawke estate along with Tom, Rispy, and the two elven Grey Wardens. I really don't blame Anders for wanting to get out of here if things might go badly.
Before we even reach the keep, however, we run across the Grand Cleric herself in the courtyard near the Chanter's Board. She turns and looks to us as if she knows our every sin, but rather than judging us for them, gives us that disappointed frown that turns your bones to jelly.
"Grand Cleric," I say, bowing respectfully toward her.
"The explosion in the Gallows could be seen all the way from up here," Grand Cleric Elthina says. "Do you know what might have caused this?"
"We do," I reply with a sigh.
"Knight-Commander Meredith was keeping a dangerous magical artifact that had been found in the Deep Roads," Tom explains.
"It... exploded," I say, sheepishly not wanting to admit to my part in that to the Grand Cleric.
"The knight-commander is probably dead," Rispy adds.
"Serves her right," Lariole mutters.
Grand Cleric Elthina looks to Lariole and asks, "Why do you believe that Meredith deserved to die?"
"She locked up Lexen in the Gallows," Lariole says. "A Grey Warden! And one of us who stopped the Blight!"
"And from what I've heard, Lexen wasn't the only one she wronged," Tom says quietly. "He's fortunate that she didn't decide to make him Tranquil for the slightest perceived crime."
"Perhaps a roundabout route to justice, but justice all the same," I say.
Elthina gazes at me, and tells me, "Death is never justice."
I close my eyes for a moment and let out a deep sigh, then blink slowly at the ground. "I..."
"Maybe not justice," Tom says. "But it may have prevented many more lives from being destroyed."
"Provided they weren't killed in the blast, anyway," Rispy says.
"Not much we can do about that now, anyway," Lariole says. "It's not like we go around trying to blow things up, burn things down, or otherwise destroy them."
"It just kind of happens regardless?" Theryn says.
"I didn't mean to collapse that mine!"
"I'm still not sure how you even managed that," Theryn says. "Herren was quite cross with you."
"Collapsing a section of the Deep Roads on top of those Broodmothers was entirely intentional, however," Lariole added.
The Grand Cleric is staring at the two of them with an expression one assumes is hoping that Lariole leaves Kirkwall and goes back home as quickly as possible.
"Lexen, are you alright?" Tom asks, putting a hand on my shoulder and looking at me with some concern.
"Yeah," I say. "Yeah, I'll be fine." I'm shaking, my hand is trembling, and emotionally I think I'm going a little insane. But I'm fine. Fine enough to make sure that my family is safe.
"You're still buzzing," Tom says quietly. "Maybe we should get you back to the manor."
"I've got to..." I murmur.
"There's nothing you have to do," Tom says firmly.
"We can take care of it," Lariole says.
"Just make sure he's alright," Theryn adds.
Tom leads me back to the Hawke estate, leaving the other three to deal with the Grand Cleric and the Viscount. I'm reluctant to head back, but I don't care to argue with Tom at the moment.
"Is there something wrong?" Kirlin asks when we come back inside.
"I'm fine," I mutter.
"That means there's something wrong and you must be in terrible shake," Kirlin says dryly.
I roll my eyes and smirk at her.
"I don't know what sort of effects exposure to that lyrium idol might have caused," Tom says. "Considering what it did to me..." He shakes his head.
I slump back into the chair. "It wasn't your fault, Tom."
"I wish I could blame my behavior entirely on the idol," Tom says with a sigh.
"I didn't expect you going crazy over it to be normal behavior, no," I reply.
"Not just today, I mean," Tom says. "The way I've been pushing you..."
"What did you do to him, Tom?" Kirlin asks, going over to examine me.
"Let's not talk about this," I mutter.
"No, we are absolutely going to talk about this," Kirlin says, looking sharply to Tom. "What happened between you two?"
"I threatened him and made him kill people," Tom says softly.
"I chose to kill people," I reply. My hand would probably be shaking if I weren't clutching the arm of the chair in a death grip.
"I forced you to choose between killing and fighting me," Tom says.
"Do you think I'm ever going to refuse you anything you want?" I ask. My eyes burn from unshed tears.
"Exactly," Tom says with a sigh. "All I ever had to do was ask. Instead, I try to change who you are, force you to be something else, when this is the person I fell in love with. And the one who, despite claims otherwise, was always willing to risk everything for my sake."
"I didn't-" I protest, but Tom raises a hand and cuts me off.
"You had no idea what further exposure to that idol would do to you," Tom says. "Yet you went in anyway, in hopes that it would save me."
"I couldn't just leave things like that," I mutter. "And it was dangerous..."
"You could have just left well enough alone, stunned me, and dragged me off in hopes that distance would mitigate the effect," Tom says. "Or gone in and stolen it and brought it back to study to see if we might be able to control it."
"What was this idol, exactly, anyway?" Kirlin wonders.
"I have no idea," I reply with a sigh. "But whatever it was, it didn't hold up to a direct overcharged lightning blast."
"Normally, I would have advocated taking it back to study," Tom says. "But perhaps this is for the best. I am not so foolish that I would wish to study something in close proximity that may affect my mind or magic in adverse ways."
Maraas comes out into the room, carrying Raven. She looks around the room with bright eyes, gurgling a little. The baby reaches out toward her mother eagerly.
"I am not experienced in the role of child care," Maraas says. "But I believe she may be hungry?"
Kirlin smiles warmly and takes my daughter from the kossith. "I'll take care of this." She turns to look at me and Tom sternly. "You take care of Lexen, you hear?" She leaves the room.
"Is Lexen wounded?" Maraas says, peering at me.
"No," Tom says. "Although he has an almost dangerous level of mana saturation."
"I see," Maraas says, clearly not having any idea what Tom is talking about.
I snicker softly. "Are you learning human expressions now? Saying 'I see' to anything, even if you really don't?"
"I've found that it works better than asking for an explanation that I also will not understand," Maraas replies.
"I don't think I could readily let off any mana without blowing something else up, however," I say.
"Then let's go out and blow something up," Tom suggests.
"Will you make me?" I say, giving him a hard look.
"No, I will not," Tom says. "I will, however, ask you. You have no need to fear me."
My lips quirk into a small grin. "Alright. Let's do it."
I get up and head toward the cellar exit to see about destroying some thugs down below in Darktown, perhaps, and gesture at Maraas to come with us as well. I like having a non-mage around, just in case we run into trouble with templars or the like, and Rispy is still busy at the keep.
As we're heading down the hallway, Merrill pokes her head out of a doorway. "Oh, you're back. I'm glad you got out of the Gallows alright. I would hate to wind up there myself. It doesn't seem like a very nice place to visit, never mind be stuck there."
"Thank you for your concern, Merrill," I say. "I'm fine, though. How's the mirror coming along?"
"I don't think I'm making much progress, even with the help you've been giving me, and thank you for that, by the way."
"Is there anything else that might help?" I ask.
"Oh, well, maybe, but I- I hesitate to ask..."
Tom snorts softly. "Don't hesitate. We want the Eluvian to be repaired and functional just as much as you do."
"Well, alright then," Merrill says. "There's a special tool called an arulin'holm. Keeper Marethari will have one."
"Alright, let's go ask her to borrow it, then," I say. There will probably be plenty of things to blast out by Sundermount, too. "Come on."
Merrill opens her mouth as if to argue, but her words die on her lips as I turn on my heel and head down the hallway toward the main entrance to the manor. After a moment, she scrambles along after the three of us to keep up.
Out in Hightown, we catch the dwarf and the two other elves coming out of the keep. They wave over toward us and approach.
"Aneth ara, lethallan," Theryn says to Merrill, then turns to me and asks, "Feeling better, Lexen?"
"Yeah, I'll be alright," I say. "How'd things go?"
"You're clear," Lariole says. "Meredith might've been too dense to accept that you're a Grey Warden, but the viscount was willing to listen, at least."
"You didn't threaten him too much, did you?" I say with a smirk.
"No threats, but maybe a little intimidation," Rispy says. "Also convinced him that we had nothing to do with the unfortunate explosion in the Gallows."
"So, I suppose we'll be heading back to Vigil's Keep, if our business here is done," Lariole says.
"Would you like to visit the Dalish before we teleport you back?" I ask. "We're heading there now so that Merrill can talk to Keeper Marethari."
"They're still here?" Theryn says with a sigh. "I would have thought they'd have moved on by now. Yes, let's go."
I'm much more relaxed as we head out of the city. The mana in me lets out a constant low-key hum, uncomfortable but not unbearable. But I'm just glad that my family is safe.
Theryn leads the way to the Dalish camp out on the slopes of Sundermount. Merrill might have been the one showing us the way instead if Theryn hadn't been here, but as it is, she's trailing behind us as if embarrassed to even be here, rather than happy at coming back to her clan.
"Merrill," I say gently. "You're going to have to talk to her yourself, you know. Unless you think you can connive Theryn into doing it for you. They're not our people."
Theryn shakes her head. "I'm not going to do it. I think this is a terrible idea, but at least someone's looking out for her. Maybe you can keep her from doing too much damage."
As we walk through the camp, many of the elves are glancing toward us uneasily. I'm not sure whether that's because of the two humans, the dwarf, the kossith, being nervous about Lariole's destructive tendancies, or just because they don't like Merrill for whatever reason sent her to Kirkwall to live among humans.
Theryn and Lariole go off to chat with the clan, leaving the rest of us to approach the Keeper. Merrill uneasily comes along with us, and I have to nudge her forward to talk to Marethari.
"Andaran atish'an, da'len," Keeper Marethari says. "Have you decided to return to us and give up this foolish course?"
"I have not," Merrill says, finding a backbone. "And I need the arulin'holm. You don't have to approve of what I'm doing, but you can't deny me it. It's my right."
I'm a little surprised at this sort of tone from Merrill, of all people. She really is bad at dealing with people, isn't she. Would Marethari deny her if she had just asked politely? I have no idea. I don't know what really went on between them.
Marethari still disapproves, but agrees to give Merrill the tool she's looking for in exchange for having us look for three hunters that have gone missing while investigating a nearby cave. Naturally, we agree. There's got to be something in there to kill.
We locate the cave in question some ways away from the Dalish camp along the lower slopes of Sundermount, and head inside. I send blasts of lightning toward some giant spiders we find scurrying about. Overcharged, more energy in them than I'd intended. If it weren't for intense control and concentration, I'd wind up accidentally electrocuting my friends as well, at this rate.
We find the bodies of the lost hunters one by one. Merrill lets out quiet sobs as we find each of them, distraught.
"What could have killed them in here?" I wonder. "Surely not these spiders."
"I don't think it was the spiders," Tom says.
Further in, we encounter a male elf who is still alive. He looks to Merrill in terror when we approach.
"You!" He glances at the rest of us. "Don't you realize what she's done? She's a monster!"
"Pol!" Merrill says. "What has the Keeper been telling people about me?"
"Only the truth!" Pol says. "Get away from me!"
Pol turns to run toward the tunnel leading away from us, but deeper into the cave. With a flick of Tom's fingers, the elf is held firmly in place by a magical field before he can take more than a few steps.
"Pol, if you're going to run away, it would be prudent to run in the other direction," Tom says. He spins around the frozen elf to face the way out. "Run out of the cave, rather than further into it, mkay?"
Tom waits until we've strolled past Pol before unfreezing him, giving him a swat on the butt as he sends the poor terrified elf running for the cave entrance.
"Tom," I say quietly as we continue down the tunnel.
"Yes?" Tom replies with a crooked grin.
"You just very likely saved someone's life," I murmur. "A complete stranger, even."
Tom chuckles softly. "So I did."
On impulse, I grab him and kiss him passionately.
"Mmh," Tom says softly. "For that, totally worth it." He laughs lightly. "And you're still tingling."
Rispy clears his throat. "Hate to interrupt, but there's probably something in this cave that's going to try to kill us?"
"Yes, of course," Tom says, releasing me. "Let's go commit some destruction."
"Bas are strange," Maraas mutters.
"No, just us," I assure him.
We move on. In a large chamber in the back of the cave system, there's a rumbling sound, and something very large moves into view. It's a bit like the smaller giant spiders we'd encountered so far, but much, much larger. And even less friendly, if that's even possible.
"Stand back!" I tell my companions.
"You don't need to tell me twice," Rispy says.
I take all the built up mana inside me that has been simmering to get out, and direct it into a powerful eruption of lightning from my fingertips. The blast strikes the creature dead on, and with great concentration, I make sure that it strikes nothing but the enemy. I maintain the stream of electricity for several long moments before releasing it. The creature twitches a few times before collapsing.
"Well, that's one way to take care of a problem," Rispy says.
"What was that thing?" I wonder, poking at the corpse.
"It's a varterral," Merrill says.
"Well, I'm glad someone knows what it was," I comment. "And I thought acromantulas could get big. Not that it's really relevant now."
"I have more respect for your hunters now," Maraas says. "If they had been felled by ordinary giant spiders, it would not have spoken well for the prowess of the Dalish."
We head back out of the cave. Thankfully, we come across no sign of Pol's body along the way, so I can assume that he either made it out safely, or he got lost and wandered down some side tunnel where he got snared in the web of some giant spider who survived our slaughter.
No, I spot him back at the camp when we return, trying to hide behind one of the Dalish wagons. Merrill goes over to approach Keeper Marethari.
"We- We found the hunters," Merrill says. "Or, their bodies at least. They were most likely killed by a varterral."
"I see," Marethari says. "That is unfortunate, although I suspected as much."
"What have you been telling people about me?" Merrill demands. "We saw Pol in there, and he was terrified! Of me! If Hawke hadn't stopped him, he would have run straight into the varterral!"
"It is my duty as their Keeper to warn them of danger," Marethari says. "You have been practicing blood magic and consorting with demons. They had to be aware of this."
I snort softly. "And we've been making sure that she has the support she needs so that she doesn't have to deal with demons."
"Keeper. The arulin'holm, please?" Merrill says.
Marethari turns to me and offers me the old elven tool instead. "I will entrust this to your keeping. If you are truly her friend, then I implore you to steer her from this course."
I sigh and take it from her, and tell my friends, "Let's go." I'm burning with annoyance at these elves, and I don't trust myself to say another word to them. I stride away and leave the camp, my friends coming along behind.
"I was almost afraid she wasn't going to give it to us after all," Merrill says. "You are going to give it to me, aren't you?"
"Of course," I say, handing it to her. "Don't be silly." I smile at her. "I don't care if your clan has turned their backs upon you. You will always be welcome with us."
"Thank you," Merrill says, brightening immediately.