Disclaimer: I don't own Dragon Age or Doctor Strange any of their related characters. This is just for my own enjoyment and the potential enjoyment of other fans like me, and no monetary gain was expected or received.

Rating: T

Spoilers: May contain spoilers for Origins, Origins DLC, Awakening, and Dragon Age II, Dragon Age II DLC, Dragon Age Inquisition as well as the novels The Stolen Throne and The Calling. May also contain spoilers for Doctor Strange movie and/or comics.

Chapter Ten: Recruits

Loghain dressed himself in the new clothes that the Doctor had provided for him. Until now he had made do with what he'd had all along, the ancient leather armor and plain wool blouses and tanned leather trousers he'd worn up in the mountains, but the Doctor wanted him to impress his new students when he went to recruit them. The new clothes were similar to what Wong and Strange wore, fine fabric of a type Loghain was unfamiliar with, in a style somewhere halfway between what he knew from his own world and the unusual tunics of this world that his teachers wore. The color was black. They were patterned with a red trident, like the pattern done in lighter blue on Strange's tunic.

He checked to make certain he was perfectly shaven and that his hair was properly in place. It was growing darker, he could see that now. It was still, however, far more salt than pepper. Maybe it would help him to look sage.

He didn't know whether to try the mage or the templar first. On the one hand, it would surely be easier to convince the mage that sorcery was real, and having a recruit at his side might give him some credibility with the templar. But having a mage at his side might tip the templar over the edge so that he wouldn't even listen to the pitch. How he was going to pitch this wildness to a templar in the first place was a very good question he had yet to answer.

On the other hand, the mage probably wouldn't listen to him at all from the start. She wasn't really Ferelden, she was Dalish living in Ferelden, and that was going to complicate things with or without the templar. How was he supposed to convince a wild elf to leave her people and her clan to come away with a human? Just recruiting these two was a hell of a test.

Not to mention, Strange was going along with him, nor Wong. He was supposedly doing this entirely on his own, even casting the spells necessary to bring these two people to stand outside of time with him. And put them back inside of frozen time, if his recruitment was unsuccessful, apparently. He hadn't the opportunity to practice this spell, but he knew it now. To aid him with it, Strange had loaned him his amulet, the so-called Eye of Agamatto, which would grant him sufficient power to manipulate time. He pulled it on over his head and straightened his hair out again. A final check that all was well, a deep breath, and he squared his shoulders.

There was no sense in fretting over which to recruit first and how to go about it. On the spot he chose to open up a portal to the Grand Cathedral in Denerim, where the templar was stationed. Since they stopped fighting the mages (at least full-time) and went back to the Chantry, that was where Ferelden's templars were to be found in bulk.

He located the barracks area and found several dark-haired templars inside, but only one sufficiently scruffy enough to suit the image Strange had shown him. Damien Chasteyn didn't take much pride of appearance for a man in uniform.

Loghain closed his eyes and forked his fingers in front of the Eye on his chest. It opened and a glyph formed. He opened his eyes again as Chasteyn was pulled out of frozen time. The man continued about his interrupted business of pulling off his boots, but then noticed the unusual stasis of his templar buddies and the oddly-dressed stranger in their midst.

"What in the Void is going on?" Chasteyn said. "Who are you, old man?"

Loghain couldn't help himself. This was what he was supposed to work with? He had hoped, when he heard the man was a templar, that he had a bit of discipline already bred in. It didn't look much that way to him right now.

"On your feet, soldier!" he said. The tone of command in his voice came from long years of ordering men such as this around. The young templar shot to his feet and saluted by instinct at the sheer sound. Embarrassed, the man shuffled in place and looked away.

"I don't know you and you don't order me around, Grey Hair," he said, sulking.

Loghain paced in front of him, hands behind his back. "So this is what I came all this way for, eh? This is Damien Chasteyn. Damien Chasteyn. Pheh. Sounds like a name out of one of those preposterous Orlesian romances my daughter used to read."

"How do you know my name?" Chasteyn asked.

"I talk, you listen. Got it? Good. My name is Loghain Mac Tir. I'm here to recruit you, though I'm wondering just exactly why."

The young man's eyes popped and his jaw dropped. "Loghain Mac Tir?" He collected himself. "Loghain Mac Tir. The Traitor. Shouldn't you be dead by now, old man?"

"Many men have said that to me, at many times over the course of most of my life. I dare say they'll say it a few more times before they're finally right."

"What are you doing here? And… what did you do to my mates?"

"Time has ceased. It doesn't hurt them. You were frozen as well, until I pulled you out of time. It's… complicated. Time doesn't exist everywhere like you'd think it does."

"Time has stopped… but you pulled me out of time. What kind of bullshit are you trying to feed me? What was in those cookies Jansen's mother made for him?"

"Silence. Maker, you're sloppy." Loghain drew the young man's weapon and ran his hand down the dull blade. "This must be the most poorly-maintained weapon of any so-called 'professional' I have ever seen. Your hair's a mess and you clearly haven't shaved for several days. Do the templars really tolerate such lack of discipline? I'd have thought they'd be more strict with their soldiers of Andraste."

The young man grabbed for his sword but Loghain did not release it. Chasteyn tried to wrest it from his grip but could not manage it, even with both hands. All those long days in training with Wong seemed to have paid off, after all. He certainly wasn't on Wong's level, but if Strange was telling the truth he'd returned to the strength of his sixties, and he'd been a warrior men still feared in his sixties. When Chasteyn stopped struggling he gave the young man back his sword and stared him down with his cold grey-blue eyes.

"As I said, I'm here to recruit you, for a very important position. Evil things threaten this world every day, knowledge that must be kept from the world's populace for the sake of daily harmony. The governments and armies of the world cannot stop these creatures, these beings. The Chantry has no power over them. The only ones who can save our world are sorcerers, people who learn to use the magic of the earth and air and their own very being to become almost godlike. It's a difficult position, a difficult life, one I would not offer to just anyone. So again I ask myself why I am offering it to you, of all people, but this is what I am doing."

The young man sat back down on his footlocker at the end of his bunk, hard, like he'd been punched in the gut. He looked up at Loghain uncomprehendingly. "Sorcery? Magic? You think I'm a mage? I'm a templar, for the Maker's sake!"

"I know you're not a mage. I'm not a mage either, for what it's worth. But sorcery is real, and anyone can do it if they study hard enough. It takes someone special to take it to the level we need, however. My Master suggested that you were just that kind of person. He's made errors in judgment in the past, but I've always known him to be careful in his researches. It leads me to believe there may be something inside you that's a bit more dedicated than the face you're showing me as a templar."

Chasteyn shook his head. "All right, if you're a sorcerer, prove it. Show me something really good that'll let me know this isn't all a bunch of blather. As they say, 'Knock my socks off.'"

Loghain gestured to the frozen templars. "Your statuary friends don't prove anything to you?" he said.

"Pish. A mage could do that with a Mass Paralysis spell. I want to see something… unusual. Something no mere mage could do."

"All right. Let's begin simply, shall we? If you require more proof from there, I can give you what you desire." And Loghain raised his palm and conjured Pepper from the sanctum to his hand. The little dragon screeched at having been summarily interrupted from his nap. "This is Pepper. My… dragon companion. He's a little miffed with me right now. Apparently he was asleep when I summoned him."

Chasteyn gulped, but tossed his head. "Parlor tricks," he said. "I want to see something big."

"If big is what you want," Loghain said, and opened a portal to the sanctum. His familiar bounded through, all twenty twisted feline feet of him. Chasteyn jumped up and fell over backwards trying to scramble away. "This is Nermal," Loghain said. "He is my familiar - a magical beast that connects with a sorcerer and shares and boosts magical power. If you think his name sounds a bit silly, it's not my fault, I didn't give it to him. My Master named him. He found the name amusing. I don't understand the reference."

"What an atrocious monstrosity!" Chasteyn said.

"You're no great prize yourself, Cupcake," Nermal said, and licked a paw. Pepper trilled from where he perched on Loghain's shoulder, and Nermal chuckled. "Oo, burn."

"What did he say?" Chasteyn said, looking from the displacer beast to the dragon and back again.

"Pepper," Loghain said. "Now, you two, play nice. I hate to say it, but that's probably why the young man grows the scruff."

"What? What?"

Loghain waved a dismissive hand. "Nothing, nothing at all. Just a careless remark about an ass cheek chin. It wasn't really that good of an insult. But you know, leaving it stubbly just makes it look like a hairy ass. Either shave it clean or grow a proper beard to hide it altogether."

Pepper and Nermal both went into their own version of convulsions of mirth. Loghain remained calm and silent, not even smiling. "Are you convinced, yet, or must I play Court Magician to you further?"

Chasteyn dropped his face into his hands. "Somebody put something into those cookies. Miller. I know it was that arse. I'll kill him for this. I swear it."

"Aw, wake up, Shitheels," Nermal growled. "How 'bout I bite you. Will that make it real to you?"

"I assure you that you're not hallucinating anything, Ser Chasteyn," Loghain said. "If you do not believe me, Nermal rather likes his ears scratched."

"Not by this dickweed," Nermal said. He put down his paw and favored the young templar with a hiss.

"What would scratching your beast's ears prove?" Chasteyn said, still with his face buried in his hands.

"That he's real. And since he is at least as intelligent as you are, I think you should refer to him with due respect by name and not as 'beast.'"

"Look, all this 'conjuring monsters' business is nifty, but if you really want me to come along with you… conjure me… a nice, cold, frothy brew. Then I'll come along," Chasteyn said.

Loghain stood with his arms crossed across his chest, expression cold and impassive, mouth downturned, clearly unamused. "I begin to think more and more that my Master must be in error," he said.

"Well, what I'm trying to say is, conjuring these creatures is creepy and… makes me feel like I'm in a Fade dream. Do something… that will make me believe in this stuff. That'll make me join you."

Loghain smiled. "All right. Stand up."

The young man stood up. Nermal moved aside. Pepper flew away. Loghain stood still for a moment, and then suddenly his entire body flew into the air in a roundhouse kick that landed across Chasteyn's stubbly chin and knocked the young man flying. Unconscious for a time, when the young man came to, he rubbed his jaw and stared unbelievingly.

"How in the Void did you do that?" he asked. "What kind of magic lifts a man into the air like that?"

"No magic. A martial art that I am learning from another Master. Sorcerers must also learn to school their bodies as well as their minds."

"So they're teaching you to… fight? Like that? That I've got to learn."

"Then come with me."

The young man stepped forward. "Where exactly is it we're going?" he asked.

"At the moment? After my next recruit. After that? Out of this dimension to my Master's sanctum."

"Ah. Out of the dimension. I… won't ask exactly what that means."

"You'll find out later. For now, it doesn't matter as much."

"How far do we have to travel?"

"Just step through here," Loghain said, and opened a portal.

Chasteyn stepped close to the portal and looked through it to the woodland scene beyond. He looked at Loghain uncertainly. "Through there?"

"Right through there."

"Where is that, out there?"

"Southern Ferelden. The forests near Redcliffe."

"Just one step, and we travel from the interior of the Grand Cathedral of Denerim to the exterior of the forests of Redcliffe?"

"That's the idea."

Chasteyn was clearly afraid to take that first step, so Loghain took his arm and walked through with him. The portal closed behind them and Chasteyn looked around them at the unfamiliar scenery of woodlands wildlands and frozen elves in various positions of going about their business among the landships and campfires.

"These are Dalish," Chasteyn said. "What are we doing here?"

"I'll find my next recruit among them. If you have any prejudices, you can leave them behind. I don't need them in a recruit. If you find that impossible, I'll put you back in time and freeze you like these elves, and when time starts flowing again you can explain to them just how it is you came to be here. If they're willing to listen."

"Ookay. Yeah, I'll, ah… put any and all prejudices aside. Not that I have any, of course."

"Of course."

Loghain searched through the elves until he found his quarry, a young woman in traditional Dalish robes of ornate styling. She had a bright, sunny smile, sharp, intelligent brown eyes, and long blonde hair plaited in Orlesian style all the way down to her ankles. Loghain made the glyph before the Eye and pulled her out of time.

She staggered, pulled off balance. Like Chasteyn, she looked around at the strangeness all around her, her frozen friends and the strangers who had suddenly appeared in her midst. She leveled her staff at them. "I don't know where you came from, Shemlen, but I will make you pay for what you've done to my people."

"Peace. We haven't done anything to your people. And they aren't hurt. Time has stopped. When it starts again, they won't be aware that anything has happened to them," Loghain said, with a hand raised palm out,

She lowered her staff fractionally, but only fractionally. "There is no spell that could do such a thing."

"Not in your magic, no. Not in mine, either. My Master, however, has magic far beyond either of us. This was his doing. He stopped time wherever time exists, so that I have time to learn what I must learn. I'm only partway along, but I'm at the point where I must start teaching others what I have learned thus far. This young man is the first of my new recruits. I've come here to make you the other."

She put down her staff. "Recruit? Magic? Teaching? I-I… I don't understand. I was taught by our Keeper. I am a fully-taught mage of our people."

"Yes, but you are not a Sorcerer. I am offering you entry into a world of an entirely different sort of magic, that comes from yourself and from the world around you, not from some accidental connection to the Fade. My Masters and I can open your eyes to worlds you never dreamed existed, wonders you never knew yourself capable of. All you have to do is come with me."

"Come with you. Leave my people, you mean. Leave my clan."

Loghain nodded.

"I don't… I don't think I could ever do that. How do you even know about me?"

"My Master. He told me about your aptitude, showed me what you looked like, and told me where to find you, although not much else about you, Gilariel Almadeil."

"Well, you know my name at least. What is this… creature that is with you?"

"My familiar. If you were to become a sorcerer you may well draw one of your own, though most probably of an entirely different species. Say hello, Nermal."

"Howdy, Ma'am," Nermal said, with a nod of the head.

"It speaks," Gilariel said, eyes wide.

"Yes, he does. So too does Pepper, here on my shoulder, though not verbally but mind-to-mind. He has to form a connection first, though."

"A dragon. You talk to dragons." This clearly excited her. "I always wondered whether it might be possible."

"Pepper is not from this world, but many dragon species throughout many worlds are highly intelligent. Many can speak in the tongues of many creatures, including humans and elves."

"And this… and other things like it… is what I would learn… if I went with you."

"Many other things. I was a warrior, never thought of talking to dragons, never spent time imaging wonders, dreaming of what was out there beyond our world. Now I begin to glimpse, and I am boggled. Perhaps you would come to an acceptance more readily. Acceptance makes it far easier to gain power. You may surpass me, become my teacher."

She stepped toward him. "What would I do with this power? What is it's use?"

"Keeping this world from destruction."

"Who is trying to destroy it?"

"Gods. Demons. Creatures beyond belief. Each and every day, they tear at the fabric of our dimension. Beings that your people worshipped once kept them at bay, as did the threat of mages like yourself, but now we need intervention from a collective of highly trained sorcerers working from the shadows. No one must know about us, for the sake of harmony."

"So if I go with you… it's forever. I can never see my clan again."

"No."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, wait -" Chasteyn said. "You never told me this part. So, what will the boys back home think when they wake up and find me gone? I thought you'd slip 'em some kind of excuse until I could come back and see 'em."

Loghain turned to look full at him. "They will only see a bunk that they believe has always been empty. Your family and close friends from your home will remember you, but not where you've gone. To them, you are a templar who doesn't write home. Not so far from the truth, is it, Ser Chasteyn?"

Giladriel looked at Chasteyn. "You're a templar," she said.

"Yes, I am," he said.

"I've never met a templar before. You don't mind that I'm a mage? And a Dalish?"

"If you don't mind that I'm a templar and a human, I guess."

Chasteyn, don't even consider it. I don't believe the young lady would appreciate your advances.

What-? Get out of my head, Mac Tir! Chasteyn thought.

I'm not in your head. You're on the verge of mine. You're broadcasting quite loudly. And you're not at all hard to read, Lover-boy.

Is Fraternization forbidden?

I don't believe so. But it is… ill-advised. Particularly between former templars and Dalish elves. Besides, you won't have time or energy for such things.

"The secrets and wonders of the universe… in exchange for never seeing my clan again," Gilariel said. She turned and looked around at the elves frozen in time. "I can't even say goodbye to them one last time?"

"I'm afraid not. Quite apart from the fact that they can never know where it is you have gone, I do not possess the power to unfreeze time or pull them out of time on a mass scale," Loghain said.

"So they'll just think I've… disappeared."

"They will have a memory that you went into the woods alone. They will believe that you never came back."

She sniffled and wiped away tears. "I do not want to leave my people," she said.

"I certainly understand that. The decision is yours. If you do not wish to come, I will put you back in time and you will be again as the rest of these people are. When time flows once more, this will simply be a strange memory you probably won't wish to talk about with your friends, and you will never see or hear from us again," Loghain said.

"You're not taking as tough a line with her as you did with me, I notice," Chasteyn said.

"I don't believe I need to," Loghain said over his shoulder.

She gazed upon her people a moment longer, the friends and the only family she had ever known, and whispered words in the elven tongue to wish them well with safe travels and the protection of the gods. Then she turned back to Loghain and stood up straight and proud. "I… I cannot turn down such an offer. Take me with you. Teach me your powers."

"She trusts easy," Chasteyn said.

"She knows magic, Pinhead," Nermal said.

Loghain opened a portal to the sanctum. "Come right this way," he said, and gestured for the both of his recruits to precede him through. Chasteyn had no problem taking that step this time, and made himself look brave in front of the pretty elven lady. Gilariel took one last look over her shoulder at the Dalish camp before sighing and passing through. Nermal bounded after, and Loghain closed the portal after passing through himself.