A Tale from Tevinter
Chapter 21
Within the Shadows
Marian Hawke stood at one end of the arena. Opposite of her stood a mage, one who's name she had already forgotten. "This is stupid," Marian ground out, grasping her hand into a fist as she tried to reign in her temper.
"It doesn't matter how stupid it is," Bethany breathed out. Her fingers were going over Marian's robes, tucking back any loose threads and checking the sash about her waist. Marian didn't have the heart to tell Bethany she was wasting her time. If anything she wanted to send her sister over to assist the tattooed mage whelp who stood opposite her in the arena. "You have to take it seriously. Loch's a stupid brute, but he's within the law to kill you in the arena." Marian raised her brow and twisted her face at Bethany in a look that begged, 'Oh, please'. "Don't give me that look! Don't be such an ass. Use a staff!"
"You would do well to heed your sister, Messier Hawke," Fenris said from just behind her. "Our master has deemed to honor the challenge." Marian craned her head to peer over her shoulder, past Fenris, and up along the raised spectator seating that surrounded the arena. Two observers stood farther off from the small crowd of tower students that had gathered into the dilapidated arena which lay in the bowels of the tower.
"No staff," Marian reiterated her original, self imposed handicap on the challenge she'd received. "So, just so I'm clear, if this nug-humper can kill me he gains my apprenticeship?" She asked, glowering at Hadriana who stood next to Danarius. "Wonder who suggested it to the flea brain mage? One of you just go tell him that I'd happily let him have it!"
"If you forfeit the battle, then not only do you lose the apprentice, you also forfeit all the gifts Danarius has given you," Bethany huffed, yanking the cinch around Marian's waist so tight the woman bowed as the breath pushed out of her lungs. Marian looked over to Fenris, blinking amber and gold eyes several times as she processed just what 'gift' Danarius had given her in the elf. His 'services' would be up for the taking by this other mage? Andraste's' flaming ass they would be!
"I'm talking about Mother!" Bethany blushed as she caught the look her sister was giving Fenris. She had a suspicion that the magister had offered her sister Fenris' full set of skills. The look of realization, then horror, that crossed her features when Marian looked at the elf all but spelled it out for Bethany.
"Right," Marian pushed her sister's hands away, moving to take her place in the arena. Her demeanor instantly becoming serious as she glared death upon her opponent. "I have two virtues I must protect then!"
"Pardon?" Fenris asked, while Bethany flushed a deeper red.
"It's starting!" Bethany yelped as she jumped back off the edge of the arena. The runes that encircled it began to glow and come to life. "Don't get knocked out either!" Bethany called to her sister, her hands clenched in tight fists to her chest. "The shield only absorbs magical energies. If you get knocked out, you lose!"
"Well why didn't you tell me that before?" Marian huffed, turning to her sister. Her booted foot tapping impatiently against the stone covered floor. "You mean I have an option other then killing this idiot?"
"Hawke!" Fenris and Bethany yelled at once. Marian froze. Literally. A psionic blast crashed into the wall of ice she had encased herself in, splintering away some of the shards, but the encasement withstood the first barrage. The second, however, shattered the ice cocoon. Bethany shrieked out, grasping to Fenris as the cocoon fell into thousands of pieces, leaving nothing standing in its wake.
"She's gone," Fenris said, taking the young mage's hand from his cloths, gently removing her death grip from his black tunic. Bethany gasped as she took in the arena that stood empty of any trace of Marian.
"What?" Bethany asked.
"She flees!" Loch sneered, turning his tattooed face up to Danarius with a victorious grin. "Truly an unworthy opponent, and one equally unworthy to be your apprentice!"
"Unworthy?" Marian's voice asked from behind Loch. Marian flicked her hand, brushing off the dust from her shoulder. She had a mind to say he had it backwards. She only had one Master Mage whom she felt unworthy to have served, and it wasn't this sadist.
Bethany's mouth remained unhinged as she watched her sister reconstituted her form from the very sand that lay between the cracks of the arena's stone floor. Such a skill was near impossible to use unless you were of elvish blood! She wondered how Marian had accomplished such a feat. Was she even aware of what she'd just done? Loch spun, throwing a fire blast in the direction of the voice and retreating two steps away from the battle mage. Marian sidestepped the blast, not bothering to waste any of her mana by deflecting it. His aim was so atrocious there was no point.
"Forfeit your rights as Magister Danarius' apprentice, and I will let you live," Loch growled menacingly as he slammed his staff upon the ground. An armor of stone answered his summons.
Marian yawned.
"You mock me?!" Loch hissed, pulling energies about him. Marian gave him much the same look she had given her sister not too long ago. 'Oh, please'.
"You really asking me that?" Marian shifted her weight, but did not summon any magic shield of her own. Loch yelled, spinning his staff and bringing it to bear on Marian. White lightening shot from the staff, arching and jumping right to the place where Marian had stood. Loch blinked, trying to understand how she had disappeared this time. His eyes fell to the ground, but it was from his side he received a blow to the side of his face.
Loch spun from the blow, staggering before falling to one knee. Marian waited a moment, retracting the elbow that had unhinged the mage's jaw. She waited until she knew his ears had stopped ringing before she advanced in a flash upon him, using her training under Vivianna to supplement her speed and strength. She gripped the mage about the collar, hoisting the man up until she had his ear to her lips.
"Consider yourself lucky," Marian whispered, before blasting his chest with a force push that knocked the mage out of the arena. Everyone who had gathered to watch the display moaned with disappointment upon the anticlimactic conclusion. Marian proceeded to answer the disappointment with a rude gesture she had learned from the sailor's she'd spent two years with. "Get a life, you leeches!"
"H-hey!" Bethany gasped, as she was pulled away from Fenris and into a headlock by Loch. The tattooed mage had a hand raised to Bethany's ear, and a small glowing orb of energy gathered in his palm. Marian took a step, and Loch tightened his hold over her sister's neck.
"Don't even move-gah!" The man gagged. His body racked with convulsions. Fenris pulled Bethany from the mage's grasp, placing himself between her and Loch. Fenris dared a glance to his master, prepared for the command to strike the mage down. However, what he saw explained the sudden choking struggles of the mage. Loch coughed, blood bursting from his mouth, and spilling across his chest. Thick puddles of deep red poured from the mage, pooling upon the stone floor beneath him. The man bled from more than just his mouth. The red pool filled also from rives that ran under his robes, down his legs, and over the slippers upon his feet. Several students gasped, but most awed as they watched the blood pour with more force from Loch's mouth, then ears, before it fell in steams from his eyes.
Several students clapped when Loch fell, broken, red eyes rolling backing his head. His body was a lifeless heap of flesh upon the ground. Marian's jaw set, her eyes had also followed the flow of energies to find the cause of the gruesome scene. At the back of the theater, above the other spectators, stood Danarius. A spell lay under his breath as his hand made a final gesture, crushing the boy's skull. The action was greeted with a hearty cheer from all the students about them.
(zXz)
"Blood magic," Marian cursed under her breath as she made her way back to her room. She held her fist in a ball. The desire to punch through the magister's face a compulsion she was attempting to ward off. "Of course, blood magic. No wonder he reeks of death! I'm not surprised."
"You don't approve?" Fenris asked. Her ever present body guard was only slightly surprised. As far as he could tell, every mage in the tower aspired to uncover the secrets of blood magic. The battle mage's own sister was a blood mage. Though, he remembered how that knowledge had distressed the Marian when she discovered this truth. The raven haired woman turned upon him, and it was one of the first times he'd ever received an admonishing scowl from her. "He saved your sister," Fenris about swallowed his tongue when he realized she was making him not only defend his line of questioning, but vicariously defend Danarius' actions as well.
"No," Marian spat, picking up her pace in anger. "I do not approve. Not of blood magic and not of killing a child! He wanted to kill that boy! That idiot was an un-battle tested pup. I've been fighting with things he'd only ever read about for years. I know he was talked into challenging me."
"Maybe you simply underestimate the man's arrogance?" Fenris asked, earning a tired sigh from Marian.
"I know Hadriana talked him into it. She was grinning ear to ear at the start of the combat. Only time her face fell was when he was knocked out of the ring."
"And you think Danarius approved of this premeditated show?" Fenris asked, not disbelieving the scenario the woman was laying out.
"He accepted the boy's challenge, didn't he?! I know. I don't have proof for any of this, but... I just know. He wanted me to kill that boy. I'm sure of it," Marian frowned, biting into her lip. "I wouldn't do it, so he did. That's what it came down to. You don't honestly think he stepped in to save my sister for altruistic reasons, do you?!" Marian turned a questioning glance to the elf. Fenris swallowed, more because she was actually differing to his judgment. It was a strange habit she had often taken to in their time together. His opinion was of no consequence normally.
"I've never seen my master be 'altruistic'." Fenris admitted, crossing his arms as he followed Marian to her quarters.
It had been a week and other then the challenge issued by a student at the tower, no threat had been made against the battle mage's life. Fenris idly wondered how much longer his master would continue to lend him out to his new apprentice. He was unsure of the length of remaining time he had left to spend at woman's side. He'd come to conclude, though he hated to admit it even to himself, that he did not want it to end. There were several other conclusions he had reached as well, but they were thoughts he dared never entertain during the daylight hours. At night, however, that was another story. He had the opportunity to idly wonder quite a few things since she'd taken to insisting he share her bed.
That sounded more provocative then it actually was. Which there in also laid part of his problem.
He laid with the woman for a week without a shred of contact. He wouldn't normally bemoan such a thing, but he was finding it near impossible to actually sleep. This was different than any scenario he'd found himself in before. He was bound to serve her, and this included sleeping in her bed upon her request. Unless she actually asked for more than just sleep, that would be the extent of it. He shouldn't have even kissed her before without express permission, but he attributed that to a weakness she brought out in him. One he was finding rather distasteful. Maybe he had done it because he had been riding out the emotions that the Keepers had locked away, or maybe it was the fact that her father had actually forbade any relations between them. In either case, it had made him bolder then he would have dared otherwise.
Marian Hawke opened the door to her chamber. As she leaned into opening the heavy door, it shot inward, pulling her with it. Marian gasped, a shield of ice already forming around her, but she was tossed back, knocked off her feet into Fenris. She and the elf fell hard, but both were on their feet within moments. Marian was aware of Fenris pulling her into his arms, and spinning her about. Pinning her between the wall and his back as he shielded her from whatever attack may follow. However, a shattering of glass is what answered them from inside the chamber.
The elf's tattoos were glowing bright silver, but he did not have his weapon. The great sword had been left inside the room. Inwardly he cursed himself for assuming his mage was safe within the tower. Fenris didn't speak, but gave Marian a look that warned her to stay back. He pushed through the door that had blow back closed to reveal Hawke's well lit quarters. It didn't take long for his eyes to glance over the surroundings and then fall onto the mode of escape the intruder had taken. The room's large window's glass was blown out. The thick red drapes were the only things moving in the room, billowing over the shinning bits of glass that littered the stone floor.
"Fenris?" Marian asked from behind the elf. Fenris growled in his throat, realizing that he needed to work on his 'stay put' non verbal commands with the mage. "My room!" Fenris ignored the devastated nature of her quarters, instead rushing to the window. He peered out, but it was as he feared. There was no fleeing figure for him to see, no trace of the intruder.
"Stay here!" Fenris barked, locating his great sword amongst the remnants of possessions that had been strewn about the room. Holstering the weapon, he rushed past her, but Marian gripped him by the wrist. Her golden eyes were filled with such confusion. She could have died. Fenris extracted his wrist from her grasp, but he paused. Reaching out, he barely traced his fingers down her cheek to remove the image of the crumbling stone features that flitted through his memories. Again the thought echoed through his mind; she could have died. "Until I return, bare this door."
Marian said nothing as he left.
Hawke made her way back to the broken window, carefully peering out the portal to the shattered glass that lay below. There was no body to accompany the fallen glass, nor did she see the form of any one fleeing in escape. Spinning on her heel, Marian went to her door, twisting the latch that locked the entrance.
"Do come out," She said, turning back slowly to face the room. There were but two places she figured a person could feasibly hide in her quarters. Her bed, for starters. Then there was the dividing screen that separated her tub. It wasn't until she had walked midway toward both those objects that a sound broke the calls of the wind that flew through her window. A scrapping sound alerted her to her folly in observation. She assumed correctly that the intruder had not taken flight, but staged an apparent escape. Too late, though, Marian heard the sounds of metal against stone. That was also the moment when she felt steel biting into her neck.
"I would not cast that spell," came a cooing woman's voice in her ear. The voice was warm as honey, but held a warning in its depths. The first thing that struck Marian was the language that was whispered into her ear. The woman was speaking the dwarven common tongue, not the Arcanum of Tevinter. "One twitch, and my blade will slice you ear to ear."
Marian blinked, her golden eyes going wide with stark realization and horror. Her mind replayed the one armed Keeper drawing a finger from across Vivianna's neck. A cut that went high under the jaw, slicing her from ear to ear. Based on where she felt the blade cradled under her own chin, Marian felt assured the fate she would suffer would be the same as that of her master's. Had Vivianna received that same warning? Vivianna had cast though. A blast of frost had taken down the side of the barracks. If this was the same scenario, then there was no way she would be able to cast faster than her master had. Releasing the spell, Marian bit her tongue as the accusations swam through her head.
"Very good, little one. Now, let us be quick, and don't bother lying to me. I'll know. Now, where is it?"
"Where is what?" Marian snapped as long hairs tickled the back of her neck. The blade under her throat tightened. Marian allowed it to pull her head up, and view a better purchase of the ceiling. The assassin had been hiding above them. Claws on her boots were helping her to anchored into the thatched stone work and beams of the ceiling. No doubt, this was how she had also managed to climb the tower. The strength it must take to do either task was impressive.
Marian held her breath as she evaluated the danger she was currently in.
"Your master returned from the ruin isle outside the city with a wondrous treasure. I want it. Where is it?"
"Surly, as you've already tossed my quarters, you can see I do not have whatever it is you are looking for!" Marian spat. Anger blinded reason as Marian contemplated Vivianna's last moments in this rogue's clutches. She was here for a treasure? Was this woman not so much an assassin, but a thief then? "Everything that was hers was in that chest." Marian gritted her teeth. "Everything she owned of any magical import."
"Not everything," The woman stated again. "Now where is it?!"
"Did you kill her?" Marian asked, her eyes finally hazed over with rage as she lost all patients for the game. "Did you kill her because you wanted something that doesn't even exist?" The woman said nothing, but the blade pulled higher about her neck, cutting into her skin. Marian gurgled a laugh against the fine silver of the dagger. "There was no treasure on the isle! I was with her. We brought back a few books from the magister who had taken residence there. Some old journals. There was no treasure!"
The blade about her neck released some of its tension, and Marian took that moment to strike. Knocking her head backwards, she took a chance that the woman's face still near right behind her. The guess was accurate, and Marian knocked the woman in the face with the back of her skull. Marian felt the skin split on the back of her scalp as she collided with the woman's teeth, but she continued the fall backwards. She fell to her back to avoid the momentum of the blade that sliced through the air where her neck had been. laying on her back, she looked up. She could see the woman suspended by the metal claws on her boots that sunk into the crevasses of the stone ceiling. The woman, brown skinned with chocolate curls of hair, held a hand over her nose. The thief's almond eyes flashed with shock as she looked down at the mage on the floor.
Marian was face to face with her master's killer.
The lighting sizzled and burned upward, but the spell was unfocused and cast in the blinded fog of anger. It sizzled through the air that rogue had occupied, but was now empty. Marian just caught sight of her dark curls as the woman flipped to the side, dislodging from her perch of upon the ceiling. As she tumbled through the air, a glint of silver flung from her hand. The rogue flung a dagger to where Marian lay, and it was just by the reflexive crane of her neck that Marian avoided getting the blade in her eye. Instead it sliced along her cheek, cutting away raven strands and drawing blood.
The blood burned upon her skin.
It was hot and raw, but it not with pain. Marian could feel the potential in it, feel it's power. The sheer potency of it caused her to gasp in wonder. Reaching a hand up near her cheek, she hesitated as the tips neared the cut. Instead, she continued upward, grasping the hilt of the dagger that had lodged between the seams of the stone floor. Marian held the distinct impression she wasn't alone, and this did not account the woman in thigh high leather boots who was rising up from her roll. Time slowed to a crawl as Marian heard words spoken in a langue she did not know. Could not know, for she had never heard their like spoken by any human tongue. Yet, somehow, she understood. The chant echoed through her heart, reverberating through the marrow of her bones. She knew it then for what it was, and the ferocity of it stilled the hate that had boiled inside her.
It was the loudest she'd ever heard the call of a demon.
Marian rose to one knee, her eyes locked onto the brown skinned woman who's dark curls tumbled about her shoulders as she pulled a second dagger free from the holstered upon her back. The dagger in her own hand felt as hot as fire. She had the overwhelming urge to plunge the blade into her own flesh. She could use her blood then. Us it to pull the blood from this woman as Danarius had done to the boy in the arena below. The woman spoke again in her honeyed dwarven tongue, but Marian barely make out the words over the demon offering her the secrets held inside her veins.
"I will have my dagger back, little lark." The woman said coolly, rolling her weight onto her hip as she pointed her blade towards Marian. "Lay it on the ground, and turn around. I'll leave and let you live."
"Let me live?" Marian asked, cocking a brow at the woman. Slamming the hand that held the dagger into the stone tiles, the stone blew apart on impact. The floor shattered around the impact, and rose up about her arm. Reformed shards of rock created a clawed gauntlet as it moved up Marian's arm. Had she been aware, she might have recognized it's similarity towards Fenris' armored hand. She, however, had held no conscious thought towards its formation. Marian rose fully to her feet, tossing the dagger on the ground where it skidded to a halt before the rogue's feet.
"What? A duel? You have no idea what you're getting yourself into," The rogue sighed, bending down to retrieving her dagger. Marian was her the second the rogue's hand closed about the fallen hilt. The woman was fast though, and had her blades spinning defensively about her form. The blow Marian had meant to deliver changed as she pulled back, using the stone pauldron and gauntlet as a shield from the slicing blows the rogue used to parry her assault.
They broke apart, Marian kicking out with energy that sliced through the air, cutting her draperies in half. The rogue's fingers slipped into her bodice, procuring a small vial from between her breasts. Almond eyes glinted as she tossed the concoction into the air above Marian. The glass broke apart when it hit the ceiling of the room. A thick, purple cloud filled the chamber, causing Marian to gag as it assailed her nose.
Bringing a hand to her mouth, she tied to spot the rogue through the debilitating, poisonous cloud. The smoke was disorienting though, and she couldn't see the rogue through the obscure dark and purple smoke. The light is was saved her. The white light of the sun flittered from the smoke, unhindered by glass or curtain from her window. Marian summoned a torrent of wind, coughing as she cast the cloud of poison out of the tower and towards the light. She saw the blades coming for her, but she was only able to barley spin herself free of the attack. Marian's staggered, her legs were shaking as the toxin worked its way into her nerves.
"You killed my master," Marian gritted out as the rogue danced lightly to the side, her daggers spinning twice in her hands.
"Then I believe I did you a favor, Love," The woman smiled at Marian.
"She was my friend!" Marian spat, blushing for having called Vivianna her master. This woman was obviously not of Tevinter. She wouldn't understand.
"I've killed allot of people, Darling," The woman said, nodding at Marian. "I wager you have as well. Difference being the people I kill tend to have it coming. Can you say the same?"
Marian held up her stone gauntlet. It crumbled, shattering under her command. The shards of stone propelled forward, slicing through the air at the rogue. Each stone wrapped in magic. The honey skinned woman flitted to the side, dropping low and coming in on Marian's flank. Marian expected the move, spinning to face the attack, and tossing the shards of ice she'd been gathering in her other hand at the rogue. To Marian's surprise, the rogue took the blow to the shoulder, but she did not desist. Two blades were coming in for her ribs, and Marian knew she couldn't pull away in time.
A glow of white light blinded both the combatants for a second, and it was just as the daggers were meant to plunge into Marian's chest, that they were there no longer. Marian breathed exhaled a breath of relief when she saw a familiar wisp of white hair and olive white skin. Fenris had grasped the rogue by her long, dark curls. One swift yank, and he flung the woman back against the far wall.
The rogue coughed as the air was knocked from her lungs. Twin blades slipping from the rogues nimble fingers as a white flame sunk into her chest. She retched, paralyzed, as she felt a hand grasp about her heart.
"Stop, Fenris!" Marian called, coming up to the elf and putting a hand on his shoulder to calm him. "Release her."
"Why?" Fenris hissed, his moss eyes narrowing at the rogue who had been a breath away from killing his mage. "She was going to kill you!"
"Yes," Marian nodded, as the rogue's painted lips began to turn a purplish hue even under the applied color, "but you don't need to do this."
"I was commanded to protect you," Fenris growled, but his grip about the rogue's heart lessened as Marian ran her hand along his glowing, lyrium lined arm.
"You have, and I am not dead," Marian said, turning an amber eye upon the rogue. "She will answer for her crimes, but there is no reason her blood to lay upon your hands."
"She tried to kill you," Fenris repeated through grit teeth, turning his glare on the battle mage, but he released the rogue who collapsed to the floor. "As you would wish. However, I think it is unwise to show mercy."
"L-listen to your master, sweet cheeks," The rogue coughed, pulling herself upright as she inhaled deeply. That was the last thing the woman said before Marian cast a spell that slammed the rogue's head into the wall, knocking her unconscious.
(zXz)
When the thief next awoke, it was to the feeling of a massive head ache, and her hands and feet being died down to the arms and legs of a large chair. The rogue pulled at her arms, testing the knots, but they gave no room for even her to maneuver. The woman groaned as the pain in her head doubled. A shifting in the room drew the rogue's almond eyes over to the figure of white haired elf who stood beside the window she'd destroyed. Her climbing claws were taken, and lay upon the table which stood not too far from the chair she was tied upon. Her daggers lay with her equipment.
"Andraste's tits, this seems so damn familiar! Oh yes, there was that night in the Pearl," The woman tipped back her head, letting it lull to the side as she eyed the black leather clad warrior. The elf appeared to be brooding. His arms were crossed, his white hair falling over half his face as he stood near the window. "The act was different, but the outcome was nearly the same. Hey, big boy," She called over to the elf, a small grin playing on her lips as she slid farther down into the chair. The action caused the hem of her already reveling skirt to rise up upon her calf. "No need to be all the way over there. I'm very amiable."
The elf's eyes followed the rogue's ministrations, even as she pulled her knees apart to invite him over. He did not react for some time, but the human began wiggling her eyebrows at him. "Does that usually work?" He asked, curiosity drawing words from him, though he made no move to draw near.
"Well... yes," The rogue cooed, attempting to shrug as far as the bindings would allow. "I can see we're alone. There could be worse ways to pass the time."
"You intend to draw me near so you may somehow gain your freedom?" The elf asked, his tanned, olive skin a stark contrast to the sudden glowing silver that drew across the markings of his arms.
"Oh, that's nifty!" The rogue commented, genuinely interested in the glowing tattoos. The elf gave a displeasured expression, or that is to say the expression he had did not fault. Gripping his right hand into a fist, he ran his other hand down his arm. The effect abated some of the silvery light. He was trying to quell it? "Does that happen often, or only when you're turned on?"
"That," the elf paused, his eyes floating to the door of the room, "I fear is an unfortunate side effect."
"Unfortunate?" She asked, blinking thick dark lashes in the direction of her capture. "I find it intriguing."
"Unfortunate for you, I wager," The elf smirked as he nodded his chin in the direction of the door. A moment later it burst open, and slammed close just as quickly. The thief craned her head to spot who had entered the room, but she couldn't see over the blasted chair's raised back. She wasn't surprised when a woman, a mage, in black robes with raven hair and golden eyes came into view. The rogue found herself disappointed with the new addition.
"We were have a lovely conversation," She smiled at the mage, pointing a finger at the elf. "I was making some fine progress. If you would be a doll and come back in a few hours, I'd be most obliged." The mage turned her golden eyes from the intruder she'd secured to the chair, back to the elf who gave a meager shrug at the questioning glance. The annoyance and flush of color that crossed the mage's face was hidden quickly, but not before the almond eyed woman caught the expression.
"Oh, ho! Now, now. I'm sorry, Darling," She cooed, leaning forward to wink at the woman who stood before her. "I'm not trying to move in on you or anything. However, if you're feeling adventurous, I wouldn't be opposed~"
"Shut up!" The mage roared, slapping the bound rogue hard across the mouth. Her tongue rolled against the coppery taste that filled the chamber, before spitting it onto the floor.
"Nice punch you have there," She commented, sniffing once at the sudden feeling of warmth trickling from her nose. Had this mage given her a bloody nose as well? "I like it rough, sometimes, but never in the face."
"Maker help me," The mage cursed under her breath, but she leaned down into eye level with the captured rogue. "Tell me. Who are you?"
"That depends who you ask." When the mage pulled back her fist again, it's effect was quick in urging a prompt reply. "Isabella! It's what my mates call me. I don't think I'd count you as a mate though."
The mage eyed her once over, then paced away from her. "Who hired you?" Isabella balked at this question, giving a becoming laugh.
"Hired me? Honey, I'm not for sale~" The mage was upon her in an instant, another blow delivered to her opposite cheek. "Maker's balls!" Isabella cursed as she spat crimson onto the ground.
"Who?!" The woman roared, placing one hand on her shoulder as she reached back with her fist once more. This time Isabella could see the energies that gathered about the limb as she prepared to strike her once again.
"No one hired me," Isabella said. "No! I mean it!" She yelled emphatically when it looked like the mage intended to blast her face with another magical blast. She wasn't one for torture. "I wasn't hired by anyone. I was in a brothel when I heard that a an expedition had cleared the mage ruins just a outside of Minrathous." It wasn't exactly a lie, but she had no intention of betraying her buyer. Too much future profit to be lost if she rolled completely over.
"If that's true, then what exactly was this treasure you came in search of?" The woman asked, her golden eyes burning with fire as she stalked back towards Isabella.
"There was a legend," Isabella said, tilting her head as she held her chin high against the mage's interrogation. "Every sea leg knew to stay clear of the cursed isles if they wanted to make port here. An old magic was buried there. A gem that could summon all who drew too close to it. Something so beautiful it was terrifying to behold. They said your party cleared the isle. You came back with artifacts from the cursed lands. Also, there was talk that you had brought the gem back to the city."
"There was no gem."
"Ha! Please, what do you take me for? A gem. Ruby. Big as your fist!"
"We brought several relics back to the city," The mage breathed, bowing her head as she took a deep breath. " Old and useless bits of enchanted tools for creating potions. Like I told you, the only thing we found of any import were a couple journals. There was no treasure."
"Bullocks," Isabella countered, disbelief clearly etched across her face.
"You killed my master, Vivianna-" The mage said, her eyes softening for the first time since she'd see the woman.
"Hey, now, I don't even know who this master of yours is~" Isabella countered, but the mage was on her again. Isabella silently cursed herself as she flinched for the blow that didn't come. Instead the woman just held her gaze, looking Isabella straight in the eye as she her hands poised over the rogue's bound wrists.
"She had long hair. It was silver hair, but not gray from age. The air around her was always cool, like a winter wind. Her eyes were blue as the sea. When she went into the barracks, she was ambushed. Her throat was sliced from ear to ear. You did that," The mage stated with a surety. Isabella wanted to deny it, but the hurt in the woman was trying to hide valiantly kept bleeding through. It made Isabella flinch again, as she had when she braced for the blow to her cheek.
"She wasn't supposed to be there," Isabella said, turning her head to the side to break off the accusatory gaze the young woman held on her. "No one was suppose to be there."
"Did you hire the sell swords to steal the amulet?" The rumbling voice of the elf asked, breaking his silence for the first time during the interrogation.
"Hire the what?" Isabella asked, genuinely confused by the elf's question. Catching the look, the warrior did not press the question further. Nore did he clarify. Instead, he turned his attention to the mage who was still staring at Isabella with such a lost expression. "What will you do?" The warrior asked the woman with golden eyes who stood on the verge of silent tears.
"I don't know," Came the stark and honest reply.
(zXz)
Fenris stood beside Marian as the cell door closed. He watched as the master mage, Jared, gave her a conflicted glance. One that spoke of respect and disappointment all at once. The master mage's apprentice, however, beamed up at the Hawke daughter with such admiration. The thin looking boy placed a hand on her shoulder and whispering words of awe and praise.
"I know it must have been hard," The lithe boy had said, his wide eyes full of joy. "You did the right thing." A final squeeze and Severn left to follow on the heels of his master.
Fenris cast his gaze back from the chained rogue who occupied the dungeon cell, back to the woman who was rooted rigidly beside him. The two appeared locked in a staring contest.
"What's wrong, Sugar?" The rogue, Isabella, hummed while pulling the chain that bound her leg as she sauntered as close as she could to the cell door. "You don't got the guts to take me on all by your lonesome? Common in. I promise I'll be gentle."
His mage says nothing to the captured rogue's desperate attempts to lure the woman into her cell. Her face goes gaunt, becoming even a bloodless pale before turning and leaving the rogue to her city sanctioned fate.
Fenris followed her, casting one glance back at the rogue who's almond eyes give him a final, suggestive wink before he rounded a corner on the tail of the fleeing mage. His green eyes glace at her, but she says nothing to explain this strange decision. They leave the dungeons, passing through the barracks yards. Some men, several guards of varying shapes and sizes, stumble over themselves as encircle the woman. His fingers grip the hilt of sword, and the men back up slightly when they catch sight of Fenris. There's a flicker of recognition in their eyes, though Fenris is lost as to how they would know him. Maybe they knew him as all did; from the lyrium scars. Keeping a safe distance from the elf, they attempt to huddle around Marian. They are jabbering about how happy they that Vivianna's killer has been caught. She looks even more ill then before, nodding a thanks as she extracts herself from their grasping hands and lauded praise. Fenris bumped into the soldier who was still reaching for the mage. He sent the man a daunting glare before continuing on the path Marian chose.
She paused as she reached the gates to the Arcane Halls, her breath hitching as her gaze fell upon the iron gated entrance. She takes a deep breath before she enters, and Fenris waits to follow her lead. The students have long given up on their classes. Far too much excitement and intrigue for one day, Fenris guessed, as he watched all the eyes that followed them through the tower. Not them, but her. They were drawn to Marian as she climbs the tower, leaning out doorways to try get a better look at the woman. He knew what they are looking for. The blood. They were trying to discern if Hawke had taken the rogue out of the tower to torture her in the dungeons. Her clean state, lacking any scent of blood, earns even more curious stares. She is an anomaly among them. It is only when she reaches the landing of the tier to which she now lives, that someone addresses her.
"Danarius wishes to see you. In his quarters," Hadriana spits out the message like a curse. She had been standing by Marian's door, but once the message was delivered, she swirled her lavender robes about her legs, stalking away from the battle mage. Marian went to her room, opening the door and going inside. I would have taken the lead from her, but the point that had held me to her side is secured in a dungeon cell. I still follow her inside. Though, I'm not sure why. My master will be pulling me back to his side again, I assume. Absently, he realizes that he will need to stop thinking of the woman as 'his mage'. Not that he meant to start thinking about her as such, but, again, he had allot of time to ponder things when he should have been sleeping.
Spinning on her heel, his mage turned to face him. Her golden eyes flashing with an emotion the elf could not recognize. "Let's go," She said, her fists clenched by her sides. "We'll leave. To the void with all this! We'll go by wagon, or ship, or even by bloody foot!"
"Go where?" Fenris asks, taken aback by the strange request. She sighs, shaking her head.
"The destination isn't the point!" She says under her breath, her eyes finding the battle damaged floor suddenly vastly interesting.
"If you wish to go somewhere, then you must have someplace you wish to go." Fenris says, gesturing back toward her door, "You will need to get Master Danarius' permission to leave the city. He may allow me to accompany you. If that is your wish."
"No!" Marian exclaims, stepping right up to the elf, her hands gasping him by the black leather of his armor. "I don't want Danarius' permission. I don't want any of this! I want to leave Minrathous. Leave the Imperium all together!"
"You... Want to run away," Fenris says calmly, attempting to hid his shock. "You should not think on such things," The elf warns, separating Marian's clenched hands from his chest. "There are... punishments. Running away from an unfulfilled contract is a crime. He would be within his right to kill you."
"Fuck Danarius!" Marian breaths out such hate, her eyes giving her the appearance of a dragon as she spins away from the stunned elf. Even as she seethes, the air in the room grows hot. Fenris can feel his markings start to glow as magic begins to flow in waves off the mage. "I know what he did to you."
"You know?" Fenris asks, crossing his arms as his own anger begins to take root. There were many things Danarius did to him, after all, and he was never in a mood to discuss them with anyone. Let alone the woman who'd been haunting his dreams.
"I know," Marian returns, reigning in control of her magic, "that he brags about those marks. I know he put them on you. I know you don't remember me. You don't remember anyone, or anything, after you were marked. Do you?" Fenris didn't bother to react. The question is rhetorically asked as far as he can tell. The woman paces her rummaged room, murmuring things about hair turning white with fright, then going on about people she can't find. She mentions the name 'Varric', a person she plans to question later apparently. She wasn't directing her questions to Fenris. He was used to people ignoring his presence, however this felt different. Her thoughts jumped from one tandem to another. Things he could not correlate. It was as though her mind was flitting about, as a moth edging towards the flame.
"You will need to see Danarius," Fenris intoned, keeping his posture neutral. "He will want to know why you let her live." The last, he added as a warning. The mage was in a very aggravated state, and he did not want to see her tell his master to 'fuck off' to his face. No matter the amount of courtesy he had extended to his new apprentice, he never tolerated insolence.
He did not want to see Marian hurt under his master's hand. Or, worse yet, to be the one to do it. "Why... did you let her go?" Fenris asked, attempting to pull the woman's thoughts together before she faced his master. "You swore an oath in your trail. You swore to kill her. While wearing that pendant-"
"Andraste's flaming ass!" Marian spat, "I know what I said!" Her body was shaking. Her hands were balled into white knuckled fists. Her pacing had stopped as she stared incredibly at the elf, her eyes hazed over in rage, but something else ebbed into their depths. "You want to know? To know why I didn't avenge Vivianna?"
Fenris remained silent. Indeed, he was curious, but apparently not nearly as much as the mages that surrounded them. He simply hoped she had an acceptable answer to give his master that would not earn her some form of punishment.
"I wanted it too much," Marian seethed, the words hissing out through clenched teeth circled the lone table that laid near the fireplace. Grasping her hands about the high back of a chair, she kept her withering gaze upon table that still held the rogues blades and climbing gear.
"You wanted...?" Fenris' soft rumbling voice coaxed her, gently. He was trying to urge a cognitive formation of her thoughts.
"I wanted to kill her," Marian admitted softly, only because she had her teeth so tightly clenched she couldn't open her mouth. "I didn't just want to kill her. I wanted to rip the blood from her body. To boil it under her skin until it scorched her flesh. I wanted to slice her open. To pull every organ out. Slowly. Bit by bit. When she cut me," Marian raised a finger to her face, tracing the cut that rested high on her cheek gingerly, "I felt... I felt like I could do that. Do all of that. I knew I could. I could make it last days, while I drained her until she begged me for release."
"I've never heard a demon's call so strong," Her tone changed from the vicious one into one that was mystified. Her early declaration appeared to make her nauseous as she took a deep breath and swallowed hard before continuing. "Not once have I ever heard a demon's offer when I wasn't in the dreaming in the Fade. Even when we were traveling. When my family was in danger, I'd never..." Her voice trailed off, her shoulders slumping as she finally turned those amber colored eyes up to Fenris. He flinched, recognizing the expression. Lost, confused, and looking for an answer. From him, it seemed as she asked, "I did the right thing? I gave a thief and a killer over to the guards. That was the right thing," She murmured, shaking her head to clear her thoughts.
"You could have allowed me to do it for you," Fenris remarked, giving a small shrug. He had clutched the rogue's heart. He still couldn't fathom why she stopped him.
"You would have killed her, because Danarius ordered you to keep me safe," Her fire may have died back in regards to the rogue, but she still spat his master's name like a curse. "As long as I am able, I will never stand by and allow you to kill on that man's command. Not when I can stop it. You're a person, not a tool!"
"I am a slave," Fenris returns, but there is no bite in his words. "Besides," The elf cast his gaze to the side, finding the shadows and cobwebs in the room's corner suddenly very interesting, "I wasn't doing it because of my master's was command. I don't- She hurt you."
When he finally did find courage to glace sidelong at the mage, the woman was looking at him as though he'd grown another head. "I-uh. Thanks, I think. Alright," She took a breath, scratching her fingers through her hair. "Let's get this meeting over with."
(zXz)
Isabella lay pressed against the bars in her cell, her fingers working a thin pick into the lock. It wasn't easy to pick a lock backwards, but she still managed. The locks on her cell, however, appeared to be physical and magical. She could scream with frustration, but that did not help her. Stone scrapped again stone, and Isabella's eyes darted out toward a dark, ill lit hallway.
"Well, now," She hummed as she spotted two figures emerge from a passage that was not there a moment ago. She glanced about to ensure there was no guard about, but there hadn't been a soul to come through since she'd been locked up. Maybe they were confident that the magical locks they used were enough? "I was wondering when you'd show up."
"Did you find it?" Came the course voice of one of the masked men. They didn't appear to be concerned with the guards either. They did not hurry open her cell. Isabella hummed as he crossed her arms as they stood before her prison.
"I'd rather talk when I'm outside of this cage," Isabella hinted, waving her hands at the locked bars.
"That all depends," The first one spoke, his black robes shifting as he shrugged. Scarred arms stretched out, gesturing down the dungeon's hallway. "The cells you see, are empty. There are no guards. There are reasons for this. Reasons I could let you ponder. All dependant on what you say next."
"No, I didn't find it," Isabella snapped, knowing the man had a talent for sniffing out lies. She had taken jobs from him before, because if nothing else, the Keeper was a man of his word.
"You are certainly not living up to your reputation," The Keeper chided, clucking his tongue behind the oaken mask. "Rather... disappointing."
"You want to blame me?!" Isabella hissed, grasping the iron bars that held her inside the dungeon. "Your information was shit! No one was suppose to be there. Neither the barracks or in that apprentice's room. Take some credit for your own part in this cock-up!"
"The apprentice," The second Keeper edge forward, his eyes gaze piercing even behind the mask that covered his features. "How is she? Did you kill her?"
"I wasn't paid to knock off mages!" Isabella spat, glaring back at the one armed Keeper. "The job was only to get the stone." Isabella shrugged, waving away the aggravated glare she was getting. "I could have killed her, but she had a bodyguard. Rather fine, lanky sort of elf."
"Enough," The first Keeper, turned towards his one armed compatriot. "Turns out you were right about the elf. Nice to see at least one thing is going according to plan."
"But, the stone," the one armed keeper said, then pointed a finger in Isabella's direction, "it's still out of our hands. Plus there's the addition her. You know they will torture her."
"Uh, I figured a hanging, but torture?" Isabella hugged at the idea. "Look, this is really, really simple. Just let me out, and I'll take my ship and my men and leave the city."
"Your boat will be impounded," The Keeper said, tapping his foot as he bowed his head in thought. "A loose end."
"We can't have her mentioning us," The one armed Keeper said, to which the other man nodded.
"Hey, I haven't said a blighted thing! They think I was after some fucking ruby! I didn't give em' but a shadow of truth to make the lies look good."
"They will do things to you," the Keeper who had first given her the job said, his voice an apologetic whisper. "Things that will break every part of you."
"Then let me out-" Isabella gasped, something knocked her across the brow, jostling her senses and knocking her flat onto her back. She never saw what struck her before the world began to grow a murky black around the edges. The two voices continued to speak as darkness sucked her into the void.
"An adjustment then. Just enough for that 'shadow of truth'."
TBC~
Disclaimer: Dragon Age and all of its character's and places are property of BioWare and the respective copyright holders. OC(s) Include Artamus Dolan, Vivianna, and (sorta) Anitra.
Author's Note: Sorry this took so long, but I had to re-write up some of the combat scenes until I was happy with them. Plus I wanted to end the chapter where I wanted to end it so this is a bit long. Thank you for the interest everyone! I hope to have another chapter up next week all things willing. Exams do screw with my scheduling though.