*Sigh* So this is my last week having a job… Anyone know someone who's looking to hire a software engineer? Preferably in the Idaho? My prospects are not looking particularly good at this point in time.
You know I just suddenly noticed this has over 60 reviews. Can you all believe that this was once just a quickie one-shot? I certainly can't.
I really want to thank everyone who took the time to review last week. From working so much to get a project done before my last day to the very fact that the job I've been working at since I was in high school is coming to an end, it's been a very stressful week and I really needed the extra boost the reviews and Eva gave me. So thanks you USAF713, shauna, Bingham Vance, Evalyne, and asteracaea.
Anyway, enough depressing you all…
I am amazed how many of you said you would follow the story if I posted it somewhere else! To be clear on something, I wouldn't stop posting it on FF. net, I'd just post the chapters a week sooner on the other site. It's still undecided as of yet if I'm even going to take it to another site, it kinda depends on how cheap my boyfriend can get the hosting and domain name for.
If I do take it somewhere else I'll be sure to post a link to it here.
Ok, one last thing before I let you read. I really recommend you read Eva's story Abandoned Sanctuary (if you aren't already). As we've been writing our own stories and betaing each other's it's been very interesting to see the way one story affects the other. Not directly or very obviously, but little things that you wouldn't really notice unless you'd read both. Her story has inspired offhanded comments in mine and mine in hers.
Nothing major, like I said, just little things.
Anyway.. Enough from me. Enjoy your chapter and your week!
.oO***Oo.
Kallia growled in frustration. The small group kept encountering possessed Templars and, true to their training, they kept targeting her. Every time they dispelled magic it was like a punch to the gut and her stomach was about to revolt at the mistreatment. Not to mention the long skirt of her robes kept getting in her way.
Lack of sleep was making her impatient and sloppy. Rather than allowing Alistair to take point, she kept stomping ahead of him. Kallia could feel his concerned gaze on her back. She was downing Lyrium potions like they were water, the tingle of excess magic in her system the only thing keeping her running after nearly two days with only three hours of sleep. Even Wynne was drinking a potion or two more than she should have needed.
Alistair couldn't get Jowan's words out of his mind. She gets so caught up in taking care of everyone else she forgets to take care of herself. He had doubted the mage at the time (not that he really had any reason to believe him…). Kallia was always so on top of things, always seemed to know exactly what to do and making sure everyone was taken care of. She had even gone out of her way to heat the water for the men as she had done for the women when they bathed in the cold streams and rivers… How could someone who makes sure everyone else's needs are met forget about her own?
But as he watched her stomp her way into the next room where he could hear the quiet mutterings of what he was sure was a demon, he could see exactly what Jowan had meant.
"Demon! Die!" Kallia yelled as she kicked in the door.
"Do you hear something, love?" a Templar asked the purple-fire haired demon.
"It is nothing, my darling," the demon brought her hand up to gently brush his cheek. "Just the door, I will get it. The children have finished supper, tuck them into bed while I see who it is."
"Don't be loooong," he sing-songed as he slapped the demon's rear. "The children will want to kiss you good night!"
She turned to face the mage and her companions. "You are intruding on a loving, intimate moment and I dislike interruptions," the demon pointedly glared at Kallia who was now standing with lightning sparking from her fingers.
"And I dislike demons, now you die," Kallia launched the lightning bolt at the demon. The demon turned and in front of the Templar.
"Help! There are bandits at the door, they're going to murder the children!" She cried, sounding like a frantic housewife.
"They won't get past me!" he yelled.
And even when he thought Kallia was a bandit and not a mage she was the first one he went after. He swung his sword at her and she tried to freeze him but when she stepped back her skirt got in the way and she fell backwards.
The world spun for an instant then blinding pain split her chest. Someone was screaming, crying out in pain, and it was with an almost detached mind that it occurred to her that she was the one screaming. Kallia felt the magic enter her system but the pain didn't lessen any. A vial was held to her lips and she downed the bitter liquid. The pain lessened and she sat up with a wince.
"Mage bane, couldn't heal. Not life-threatening now," the older mage panted as she downed a Lyrium potion. Kallia nodded and muttered her thanks before standing and assisting Alistair and Zevran with the killing of the demon, completely ignoring the fact that the top of her robe now hung open. They had apparently managed to take down the Templar on their own and with Kallia's assistance the demon soon fell as well. Alistair turned to Kallia. He looked ready to scold her for barging into fights but before he could say a word Kallia turned to Zevran.
"I need a dagger," she informed him. He arched an eyebrow but a dagger appeared in his hand seemingly from thin air. He flipped it so he held the blade and held it out to her hilt first. "Thank you," she said curtly as she took it.
She bent over and stabbed the dagger into the long blue fabric of her robe. When she was done none of the under skirt remained leaving only the blue over skirt and apron. Kallia nodded, satisfied with her work and held the dagger back out to Zevran, who she noticed had picked up the excess blue fabric and cut himself a long strip with another dagger.
Kallia happened to glance at Alistair and, noticing his bright red face, reached up and untied the two long leather cords that held her hair in the plaited buns at the nape of her neck. Using one of the cords she tied her robes shut, the other she used to pull her hair into a loose pony.
When Zevran took the dagger back, instead of putting it back wherever he'd pulled it from he knelt in front of her. After wrapping the fabric around her thigh tightly, he slipped the dagger between her skin and the makeshift holster. "You never know when you might need it again, my dear Warden."
Alistair wasn't sure which made him more angry: the fact that the elf's hands lingered a moment longer than they needed to or that Kallia didn't seem to care. She even thanked him, then laughed when the elf replied, "Oh but for the chance to touch your creamy thighs I would gladly give up a dagger, my dear Warden."
She laughed! Alistair decided that she was simply too tired to notice and tried to dismiss it from his mind.
Wynne was looking at her disapprovingly but Kallia ignored her. She'd rather wear mere tatters of her robes than end up dead because she left them in one piece.
.oO***Oo.
Cullen opened his eyes to see her kneeling before him once again. She wore only her undergarments as she pouted, "Don't you want me, Cullen?"
"You aren't real, begone spirit!" he shouted and began reciting the chant to prevent mind domination once more.
When he opened his eyes, Kallia was gone.
.oO***Oo.
Kallia took the Enchanter's Cowl off her head and examined it. There would be no repairing it, the metal had cracked when the last Arcane Horror had tossed her against the wall. She'd been lucky the blow hadn't cracked her head open as well. She turned to examine her group, everyone was a little worse for wear but she seemed to be taking the brunt of the damage.
Kallia could tell neither Alistair nor Wynne were particularly pleased with her at the moment but she was too tired to care. She downed another Lyrium potion and started up the stairs to the next room.
Kallia was about to storm through another door when she felt a hand on her shoulder. She turned her head to see Alistair's scowl, the thought entered her mind that he shouldn't scowl. No, he looked better with a smile, even when she sometimes knew the smile was just to prevent her from realizing he didn't actually feel like smiling. Maybe she should smile, that usually made him smile.
A hysterical giggle bubbled in her throat but she forced it down.
"Maybe I should take point," he told her and moved in front of her before she had a chance to respond.
.oO***Oo.
She was crouching before him, her long hair put up in buns to keep them out of the way. Her golden robes were immaculate, just the way she'd always kept her blue apprentice robes. She was looking at him with the soft, caring expression she usually reserved for the children of the Tower.
"What have they done to you, Cullen?" she whispered sadly. Her hand came up and reached through the barrier to gently touch his cheek.
"You aren't real," he whispered but couldn't stop himself from leaning into the touch as he began reciting the chant again.
When he opened his eyes, Kallia was gone.
.oO***Oo.
"Oh look, visitors. I'd entertain you but… too much effort involved," the abomination turned to face them as he spoke.
"Sloth demon," Kallia whispered under her breath for her companions, not that it made much of a difference. Several witty retorts were on the tip of her tongue but you never knew how long an abomination would feel like talking before they got bored and just attacked, so instead she asked the practical question. "Who is that man and what have you done to him?"
"He's just resting, poor lad. He was so very, very tired. You want to join us, don't you? Would you like to just lie down and… forget about all this? Leave it all behind?" Her companions were saying something, something about resisting, but it was taking all Kallia had to stay awake without having to warn them to stay awake as well. "Why do you fight? You deserve more… You deserve a rest. The world will go on without you…"
Kallia's world faded to darkness.
.oO***Oo.
She was kneeling before him naked. The blood mage had cut off her hands knowing that was what she used to channel her power. There were tears in her eyes but she didn't let them fall. She just held her head up with as much pride as she could with the blood mage holding her hair to expose her neck.
"Beg for her life, Templar. Beg and I might spare her," he pressed the knife into her throat and a small trickle of blood appeared. He could tell she swallowed the whimper that tried to escape her throat.
"This isn't real," he whispered, his voice cracking. The blood mage slit her throat. Cullen closed his eyes but he could still hear the gurgling as she tried to breathe and only managed to get lungs full of blood. "It isn't real," he repeated, this time it was more to assure himself that he had not just killed her.
When he opened his eyes, Kallia and the blood mage were gone.