Chapter 12: Embraced by Darkness

After Sabriz was knocked unconscious while Anders healed Hawke and Varric, the mage explains his plan to enter the mind of Sabriz and try and find out why he seemed so close yet distant with them all. Hawke disagreed with this plan but Varric sided with the mage and agreed too, he wanted to know why the khajiit was hiding in so much pain and yet hid behind a smile.

"Do it but try not to hurt him, he is in enough pain as it is and we don't want him mad with us for snooping in his mind" Hawke said, feeling uneasy about this idea as he gently fixed Sabriz so he is laying better on the ground.

"Don't worry about anything Hawke, I won't hurt him." Anders reassured the man as he approached the khajiit slowly and kneeled by his side, he sighed loudly and held out his hands over the khajiit to get a grasp at the right power before he begins. He slowly closed his eyes and his body began to glow when he started to use magic, Sabriz body started to glow purple when the power flowed through him and making Anders body ache with pain but he continued to his power when suddenly the mage's shot open.

Hawke and Varric saw Anders's eyes pure black but he wasn't moving at all, his body tensed up and the magic between both bodies continued to glow.


"You shouldn't be here, sir." A child's voice is heard throughout the darkness, Anders turned around to see a small khajiit standing there with his little arms crossed.

"Who… Who are you?" Anders asked with a questioning look as he hardly recognized the light blue eyes that the khajiit boy had.

"I am Sabriz, son of the chief RavorFang and I will ask you again, why are you…" Before the boy could finish, he looked behind him at nothing when he took off into the darkness in fear. Leaving Anders in confusion as he watched the boy run away, he shrugged his shoulders and continued to walk when he paused to see a black door with a skull in the center of it.

Anders looked at the door for a moment before he reached out to open it and when he did, the whole place around him changed to a dusty wasteland with few dead trees and grey color clouds with no sign of rain. It seemed so gloomy that it made Anders wonder if it was the place Sabriz kept talking about, but there wasn't anything about it that being beautiful and green with clear blue skies with flowers blossoming.

Anders turned his head to continue walking when he spotted a young khajiit teen tied to a dead tree and badly beaten, blood dripping from his wounds and mouth when Anders was about to approach the boy. The mage paused to see black smoke rising up from the ground in front of the khajiit and took a form of another khajiit with pure black fur and red eyes, the creature approached the boy and slowly lifted his head to face him.

"I have heard your words and I have come for you, my boy" the dark figure hissed with a wicked smile, its jagged teeth showing white as it growled in pleasure to see something so weak slumped before him.

"By the twin…" the boy groaned in pain "moons, I will kill you… even… if it means getting myself… killed" the boy struggled to speak loudly but the pain was too unbearable that it even hurt to speak.

The demon laughed loudly when he let go of the boy's head and walked around the boy with his hands behind his back, "Do you not see! They abandoned you here! They left you to rot away!" the demon moved towards the boy fast and tightly gripped his neck, pressing his head against the tree.

"Look at yourself! They do not care if you lived or died! You are a worthless worm to them! A pathetic khajiit with no intentions of going back, you are NOTHING!" The demon hissed into the boy's ear, not caring if he was choking the boy, he only enjoyed it more when he made him suffer.

Anders tried to help out but a powerful force kept him from interrupting the event happening before him, he wanted to help his friend but he could only watch helplessly as his friend was tortured.

"I was summoned for a reason you filth!" the demon released the boy's neck and watched as the khajiit coughed and gasped for air before the demon raised his armor spiked arm and smacked the boy across the face, creating more wounds and pain for the young man.

"Your pathetic and useless! You are a nothing! That is why you're here and not back home with your family!" the demon grabbed both of the boy's ears and pulled his head up by force, making him cry out in pain when the demon's claws pierced two holes on each side of his ears as blood slowly dripped down.

"YOU ARE MINE AND YOU WILL ALWAYS BE MINE!" the demon roared dominantly when he released the ears and pulled out a spiked mace as he walked in front of the boy and raised his mace high above his head.

"NOOO!" Anders screamed in horror when he fell to his knees, the sight of watching young Sabriz getting beaten by a demon made tears well up in the mage's eyes as he banged his fists against the invisible wall.

He dropped his head in defeat when he could no long watch the boy get beaten, the screaming of pain and agony echoing in the mage's ears at the same time as the sound of the mace beating against flesh and bones cracking. Anders couldn't take it anymore; he moved his hands to cover his face as he began to weep helplessly to the horror able sounds when the noises went silent.

Anders slowly lifts his head, tears running down his cheeks when he saw the boy's slunk body just hanging there as blood slowly dripped down his bloody bruised up face. The demon standing before the injured teen, smiling wickedly as he used his mace to cut the ropes off and watched the limp body hit the ground, no sounds of groans or cries came from the boy just the movement of his back to show he was still breathing but badly hurt.

"Get out of here!" the demon demanded with a dark laugh when he kicked the body and walked away, black smoke covering up his body before disappearing.

The images were soon fading away until the next was sure to come and Anders had no way of stopping it until it was all over and done with. Another image appeared of Sabriz a little older with shackled on his wrists and wearing rags for clothes, he seemed to be distant with the other prisoners that tried to talk to him.

The prisoners would try to talk to him but he just remained quiet, he didn't want to talk nor did he care to try when he glanced over to see stone walls. He sighed and looked back down at the wooden floor while the wagon took them all to a place where they were to be executed, the eyes full with life that Anders saw before was empty in the memory of Sabriz's past.

"Hey cat!" a man dressed in grey and blue armor called out, Sabriz shot his head up and glared at the man with so much hate and spite that it made the man nervous to talk to him now so he just looked away.

Sabriz quickly moved to pin the man against the edge of the wagon with his strong arm, "Don't you dare talk to me, filthy Nord!" Sabriz hissed in rage as he moved back to his seat and turned his head away.

The damage the khajiit made had caused a dark bruise on the man's collarbone; the others looked at the khajiit in shock to see him filled with rage and anger. Anders was sitting next to Sabrize and yet his friend could neither see nor hear him, "You lived a terrible childhood that it made you go angry… but why so much hate? When I first met you, you seemed so happy and carefree of what you do… even seeing us frown about something, you went out of your way to make us smile and laugh…" Anders sighed softly and reached out to touch the khajiit's cheek but it was no use, his hand went through him and that was when the memory faded.

Anders sighed and looked around the darkness, waiting for another memory to appear when he heard a jolly giggle and laugh. The mage looked around him for a moment when he saw a strange man dressed just like Sabriz standing there, humming to himself when the strange man looked over and waved.

"Hello Sabriz! Cicero missed you so much!" the jester went running over to the khajiit dressed in black and red armor approach with the same grim look on his face when the jester gave him a hug.

"Get off me or I will beat you up again!" Sabriz hissed, glaring at the little man that was hugging him.

"Oh Sabriz, you hurt poor Cicero's feelings…" the jester looked at the khajiit and pouted at him, moving away quick before the khajiit tried to punch him.

"I DO NOT CARE WHAT YOU FEEL!" Sabriz roared in rage when he chased after the jester, trying to catch him but the little man laughed and jumped off a bridge when he landed on the second floor and stuck his tongue out at the furry man before giggling.

Sabriz was in so much rage that he hit his limit when he snapped, his eyes widen and teeth showing with anger soon changed to a wide smile. He started to laugh loudly and making the other assassins peek through the door to see what was going on when they saw him smiling and laughing, they looked at each other and whispered among themselves about him.

"Cicero! You slippery bastard!" Sabriz held his sides when he fell back, laughing more and unable to stop when he wiped away his tears and tried to stand up only to fall back down again. Cicero smiled happily to see his buddy finally smiling and not brooding around, beating up people that got in his way.

Anders could see it now, how Sabriz became so cheery and smiling but that didn't help him understand why he could hear voices in his head every time he is near something or close to something dark.

The memory faded away when the mage was about to crack a smile, he looked around for a moment to see what was to come next when nothing came.

"Who dares to enter the mind of my prized son, ANSWER ME!" a deep and dark voice would demand, making Anders flinch a little when he quickly looked around to find who was talking to him.

"Anders!... My name is Anders. A close friend of Sabriz" the mage answered, a little spooked by the booming voice when he looked ahead of him to see a black cloaked man with his face covered with bandages, only one eye showing as he approached the intruder.

"You dare to enter the mind of MY LISTENER!" the cloaked man yelled "I should take your soul BUT! I won't due to the closeness my champion has for you" the man stood close to the mage and examined him from head to toe before glaring at the mocking eyes the man had.

"Who… Who are you?" Anders questioned with a hesitant voice, worried that this stranger had the ability to roam the mind of his friend's head.

"I go by many names, The dread father, the void, The dark lord…" he leaned in close to the mage's ear, "Sithisss…" he slightly whispered as he moved back and looked at the shock on the mage's face.

"Your… you're the god that Sabriz has been talking about!" Anders was in shock to see why his friend kept it a secret; Sabriz was working for a very dark and evil man or mage.

"Yes but I doubt you would understand anything, your mind is weak and below me." The man slowly walked around the mage, talking with so much pride like a demon and yet appearing to look like a helpless weak man.

"Anders is not weak, DEMON!" Justice spoke through Anders, glaring at the cloaked figure before reaching out to grab the man by the neck to only grab smoke.

"Call me what you want, Sabriz will always serve me until the day he dies and is welcomed home" the man laughed wickedly before looking at the glowing body of the mage.

"You do not own him; he is a free man to choose what he wants!" Justice said sternly "YOU HAVE NO POWER TO KEEP HIM DOWN!" he points at the cloaked man, anger running through his body.

"HE CHOSE TO SERVE ME, FAKE!" the cloaked man yelled, grabbing the mage by with neck and slamming him hard against the ground with brute force. "He will never turn against me!" he leans in close to the choking mage and whispered wickedly, "Because the rest of his people turned on him when he needed them the most! The twin moons turned their heads and refused to help when he was brutally beaten by the daedric prince of domination!" the man lifted the mage again and slammed him back down before letting go of his neck.

Anders coughed and gasped as he curled up, turning to his side to try and breath properly from the tight grip on his neck when he felt a hand full of his hair grabbed and pulled up. The mage cried out in pain when he was faced towards the man. "Sabriz… He has friends who care about him the most, he will turn on you!" Anders groaned in pain, forcing himself to speak loudly for the other to hear while tightly gripping the man's arm to release him.

"Friendship means nothing to him when it comes to business! The only true friend he has is my Keeper and Sabriz will to anything to get back to him!" the man laughed wickedly before tossing the mage to the ground and kicking his side hard, making Anders cry out in pain and falling to the floor.

"I am his friend and… I will do anything to save him from you!" Anders yelled at the other, anger raising again when Sithis growled and punched the mage across the face.

"He will never allow it and you will see!" Sithis reached down and grabbed a hand full of the mage's shirt and lifted him off the ground, "THAT HE IS THE TRUE SON OF ME!" with that, the dark man throws Anders across the darkness. Making the mage break through a door that appeared out of nowhere, Anders hit the floor and groaned in pain when he slowly looked up to see Sabriz standing there with four grey robed old men. "I see you come from a darken path, young Dragon Born" one of the old men would speak, taking one step forward.

"I have heard your call and here I stand…" Sabriz got on one knee and bowed to the four old men, "Masters… I wish to learn and train in the way of the voice." He lifts his head to smile at the four though the old men did not smile back.

Anders couldn't decide if these men were evil or good, he watched as they trained the khajiit the shouts and when it was done. The khajiit left the temple to start off on his journey but something told Anders that this was dark and cruel, on one of Sabriz's out bursts of rage. He used his power of the shout to burn and freeze so many innocents that did no harm to him, he laughed insanely as he watched the people of Riverwood burn and screaming in agony.

"BY SITHIS! YOU WILL ALL PAY FOR IT!" Sabriz screamed loudly among those who screamed in horror, he laughed wickedly before releasing another fire shout and smiled happily.

Anders watched in horror to see what the true face Sabriz held when the khajiit turned to face the mage, giggling and smiling so widely that he looked completely out of his mind.

"I see you, MAGE!" the khajiit stormed up to Anders and grabbed him by the shirt and lift him up high, chuckling as the mage struggled to break free of his hold.

"Please Sabriz! Stop this insanity before it consumes you whole!" Anders begged, looking down at the mad khajiit with fear.

Sabriz said nothing when he dropped the man and stepped back a few, he snickered when he got on all fours and changed into the AchDemon but with a skull head. Standing so tall above Anders that it scared him, the mage screamed loudly in fear when he turned away fast to get up and run. The demonic dragon chased after him with a wickedly booming laugh, the loud footsteps got louder when Anders was grabbed and picked up off the ground. The mage was tossed up into the bloody red sky and fell back, when he saw himself fall into the mouth of the beast and closed shut.

Anders gasped loudly for air when he snapped back to reality; he pulled himself away from Sabriz and shook in fear. His eyes wide horror as he stared at the body of a dark demon, Hawke and Varric went to his side as Hawke touched his shoulder and immediately Anders hugged him for comfort.

"What happen to you, Anders?" Hawke asked but the man was too scared to answer, he remained quiet.


Note: I am so proud of this chapter, i hope you all got a glimpse of Sabriz dark side X3 please comment and if there are any questions please feel free to express them. thanks and see you all in chapter 13