Mara awoke to darkness and rain pattering on her face, cold and refreshing. She rubbed her eyes, trying to sit up a moment before dark spots ran before her eyes, forcing to return to lying on her back.
"Astaarit." She heard a familiar voice, turning her head to see the Qunari warrior that had saved her life. "Careful, basalit-an. The elf struck you well."
"T-thanks." She stammered, reaching a hand up to her head. Sure enough there were bandages around where Zevran had struck the back of her skull, and blood was on her fingers when she pulled it back. It was likely something of a miracle she was alive, given the extent of her injuries and the fall. She reached her hand up once more, weaving comforting blue strands of healing energy, mending bone and skin until the pain faded into a throbbing ache, and then into a dull sore.
"You hadn't said you were Bas Saarebas." Sten said slowly, and she looked back over, freezing as she realized she had just practised magic in front of him. She knew about the Qunari restrictions on mages, at least enough to know that the cruelty of the Templars was pale in comparison tot he iron will of the Qun.
"I… guess I hadn't." She said slowly, putting a measure in between every syllable, turning onto her side to look at him. "You're… not going to sew my lips shut now, are you?"
Sten smiled weakly. "The Qun doesn't teach magic is dangerous, it teaches that corruption is dangerous, and that it doesn't just affect your kind. You are simply prone to it." He pulled his blade from it's sheath, and her heart stilled in terror a moment before he began cleaning it. "We pity the Saarebas, but honour them as well. They are considered some of our best warriors, and we give them purpose. Several of them guard the Arishok himself." He laid the blade down, satisfied with it's upkeep. "You have purpose, and you fulfil it well, else you would not be here. Unless you fall to demons, you have little to fear from me."
Mara nodded, giving a weak smile as she returned to healing herself. That was reassuring. She had been keeping a careful watch on him since they had freed him in Lothering, keeping any magic from his sight so as not to provoke a conflict within the group. Though she shouldn't have expected to keep it from him long.
Sitting up, she froze.
Sten sat across from a campfire, firelight flickering on his features and off of his armour. But sitting across from her was a strangely familiar elf man in leathers, unconscious on the ground before her.
"W-what's he doing here?" She stammered, sitting up too quickly and almost falling over in pain. Even magic took time to fix something as bad as she had, probably a concussion, or worse.
Sten shrugged, standing up and letting a hand to the blade at his belt. "He was here when I awoke, and hasn't returned to his senses yet. I presume he fell with you."
Mara nodded slowly, standing carefully until she was at her feet, picking up her staff and leaning on it to hold herself from the ground. "I guess so. I didn't see him, but he might have come tumbling after, lost his balance."
"It seemed sensible to kill him while he was like this." Sten said simply, his voice showing little emotion of any kind. "But he might know something. I thought it best to leave the decision to you."
She thought a moment, and then shook her head. "I… wouldn't want to kill him." She affirmed, shifting and standing up fully. "Not unless he tries for us again. But… I don't know what else to do." She looked over at Sten. "Where are the others? This should probably be a group decision."
"Gone."
"Gone?" Her eyebrows shot open, her heart stilling. "To where? What happened?"
"There were voices deeper in the forest." He hesitated a moment, unsure of how to describe it. "They whispered to us, convinced the others to go and… talk to it."
"Hell." She whispered under her breath. "That… sounds like a demon of some sort." Sten nodded gravely. "What do we do?" Sten shook his head, not knowing the answer. "S-shit." She looked away, thinking a moment. "You heard it? Could you show me where it came from?" Thinking a moment, he nodded solemnly. It was worth the chance, at the very least.
She turned back to Zevran. Even with herself and Sten, she didn't favour their odds considering the power of the magic that hung over this forest. She was absolutely confidant that Faith would protect her as it had before, but they would still need all of the help they could get. And at the moment that only meant one thing…
"Come, we'll… see if we can wake him."
Sten raised an eyebrow, but said nothing. "Na'thek." Was all he said, drawing the greatsword like a child's toy. "I will stand watch." Mara nodded and leaned down to Zevran, shaking him hard until he opened his eyes.
"Mmm..." He groaned quietly, rolling over and opening his eyes. "I… oh." His eyes widened and darkened as he looked up at her and Sten standing over him, glaring with cold eyes down unto him. "I… rather thought I would wake up dead. Or… well, not wake up at all, as the case may be. But I see you haven't killed me yet?"
"I..." She stammered. What was she to say? Simply to ask for help? For the man who had tried to kill them? No. He had clearly followed them for some time, perhaps he at the very least knew of this demon, more than her at any rate. "I had questions."
"Ah." His eyes lit up, and he gave a faint smile. "So I am to be interrogated then? Let me save you some time. My name is Zevran, as I already… mentioned. I am a member of the Antivan Crows, brought here for the sole purpose of assassinating any remaining Grey Wardens. At task at which it seems I have, sadly, failed."
"I'm rather glad you failed." She said dryly, shaking her head.
Zevran shrugged. "So would I be, in your position. But, for me it sets a rather poor precedent, doesn't it? Getting beaten by a girl and a… whatever your friend there is, and captured sets a rather poor precedent in one's budding assassin career."
"So what are these Antivan Crows then?" asked Mara, leaning on her staff with all of her weight. He seemed readily willing to answer her, probably in hope for his own life. They were on limited time, but she couldn't exactly just come out and ask what she had to.
"I'm surprised you hadn't heard of us." He said, trying to sit up before feeling the pointed end of her staff on his chest, and then laid back down. "Back where I come from, we're rather infamous. We're an assassin's league, renowned for always getting the job done… so to speak." He flashed a rather knowing smile. "Then again, I doubt the Circle tells much off us to you, no?"
Mara didn't let him know how much that shook her to hear. So he knew about her life, and where she came from. Of course he did. He probably knew everything about her family, the Circle, the first person she'd kissed…
"Then you'd have come at a cost." She narrowed her eyes. Assassin's never worked for free. "Who hired you to kill us?"
He thought a moment, a wondering furrow in his brow. "A rather… taciturn fellow at the capital. Teyrn Loghain, the Hero of River's Dane? You know him?" Mara nodded gravely. "I've no idea what his quarrel with you would be, I image you threaten his power in one way or another? Not like it matters."
"So you're loyal to him then?"
Zevran shrugged. "Not exactly. I was contracted to do a service, one I have no failed, obviously. Beyond that, no, I hold no loyalty to the man."
Mara gave a short sigh. That was all well and good, but Antivan and Loghain were far away, distant and of little concern at the moment. But Luna and the others were almost certainly walking into a trap while they wasted time speaking.
"You've clearly been following us a while, at the least. This forest, do you know anything about it? Temples? Fortresses? Spirits or demons of any kind?"
Zevran nodded emphatically. "I do. I may have… overheard you were coming here, so to speak, and looked into this forest. Plenty of spirits, but at the northern end if an ancient temple where the Dalish locked away a demon of despair."
"Maker's breath." She cursed, closing her eyes. Of course. How had Luna not warned them? So that's what had been wrong since they had arrived. Despair… and if Faith hadn't been watching over her.
"Let me guess." He raised a knowing eyebrow. "Your travelling companions have gotten into trouble with this despair?" She hesitated a moment, and then nodded. No point in lying about it, it's not like it could help him in any way. "Well… I believe I may be able to help you, if you're done interrogating me?"
Mara looked to Sten, who's face was expressionless. Zevran was going to try something, that much she could be sure of. But he knew of this demon, perhaps how it was trapped and how to keep it there. Even if he didn't, if push came to shove...
Looking back, she swore under her breath.
"I'm listening." She said as fast as she could. "Make it quick."
"The thing is," He sat up slightly, and she let him have that little comfort at least. "I failed to kill you, and therefore my own life is forfeit. That's how it works. Even if you don't kill me, the Crows will." Mara nodded. Of course. Assassin's weren't known for their homely manner. "The thing is, I'm rather fond of living. And you are obviously the sort to give the Crows some pause, yes? So, let me serve you instead."
"And what's to keep you from finishing the job later?" She asked, raising an inquisitive eyebrow.
"I was never terribly keen on joining the Crows in any case." He shrugged. "They bought me on the slave market back when I was a child. I rather think I've paid my debt back to them, tenfold. But the only way out is to sign up with someone that they can't touch." He raised two eyebrows, the meaning obvious.
She sighed under her breath. She couldn't trust him, obviously, but on the other hand, the options were limited. With help, she might be able to reach this ruin where they had been headed in time. On her own, or just Sten, she might risk losing everyone else. Even just standing here debating was costing them time.
"What would you want in return?" She asked weakly, wanting to at least appear as if she was going to reject him.
"Well… let's see." He sat up completely. "Being allowed to live would be nice, not to mention make me marginally more useful to you. And, somewhere down the line, if you decide you no longer have a use for me, then I can go on my own way. Until them I am yours. What do you think?
Mara turned to Sten, and he gave a single, solemn nod. She sighed once more, swore again, and then offered a hand out to help the assassin up.
"A shrewd plan." Sten nodded approvingly. "Though I would examine your food more closely from now."
"Come on." She said, turning to Sten and nodding. "We don't have another second to waste."
As it turned out, it wasn't nearly as difficult as she thought to track the others. In whatever haze of promises and fear the demon had inflicted on them, they hadn't made much of an effort to cover their trail. The demon spoke to them the whole of the way there, growing louder and louder the more that they followed the path that the others had taken. Zevran led the way, their eyes on him the whole time, but never made any attempt at anything.
Soon they came across the temple, and it was breathtaking. It was an ancient elven cathedral, with towering marble walls that had sadly fallen into ruin, overrun by the inevitable growth of trees and greenery.
Inside, it was completely filled with dirt and stone, only allowing for tunnels dug into it's surface, deeper into the ground. It was deep, dank and dark, more akin to something built of the claustrophillilic Dwarves than any sort of elven design. The passages were crossed and tangled in all directions; and the way went down and down, spiralling into the earth, and horribly stuffy. More than once Mara thought about the Circle, the clean floors and the soft beds, a paradise compared to here. She had to strain her eyes in the darkness, but the trail was clear enough with Alistair's metal boots driving into the soil.
The demon's voice eventually ceased trying to convince them to give up hope, and soon began taunting them, chuckling and laughing in it's unmerciful, stony voice, promising nothing but death and misery for the three. But on they went, hands on their weapons as duty drove them forward.
Now came a glimmer of red light in the room in front of them, and she gasped. A demon stood in the centre of it was what death must have looked like, a ghastly looking skeleton in a tattered grey robe, standing in a bastion circle in the middle of the floor, the prison from which it had been freed from. Strewn across the room was their comrades, lying still, and her heart froze in it's place.
They were much too late.
"And who would these miserable persons be?" asked the demon, not looking up but still seeing them well enough, a malicious smile across it's teeth. "More travellers in my forest, perhaps? More of the Grey Wardens?"
"You know exactly who I am." said Mara, walking into the room, oddly emboldened at the moment. Her heart had frozen, and the pain hadn't yet come flooding in yet, only anger and determination. If they were dead then she would ensure that no one else would ever die to it again.
"I do." It smiled, finally looking up and fixing her with the cold, empty sockets it should have kept it's eyes in. "The missing Warden. The one with your own spirit sitting on your shoulder."
She gritted her teeth, and held her staff up, magic flowing up and into her fingertips. "Then come and finish your job."
It's smile widened a little further, and then it dashed towards her, only to be met by a terrific flash of lightning from her staff, a smell of burnt refuse and leather filling the air as it let out an agonized scream, jumping back. Sten and Zevran ran forward with their blades ready, dashing in for their own blades while her magic kept it engaged.
At that moment, Leliana awoke, having been knocked unconscious upon the demon's release, when a cloud of lecherous entropic energy had been released along with it. She looked over, and was in awe. She saw flashing blue magic and a demon driven back, as if Mara were an angel guarding over her. Steel and magic flared and the demon powerful enough to defeat their entire group was brought down. Then unconsciousness took her again.