Senior Mage Storage Caves

"So be it." Revan focused as he grabbed Lily's breasts and momentarily freezing in shock. Allowing the young noble to shift his body weight to his lower body and send himself into a backward flip to throw Tabris off of him and into the Desire Demon. In apparent rage and frustration, Tabris unknowingly stabbed said demon multiple times as she tried to stand on her feet while Revan stood by with his swords drawn.

"Stupid shemlen! Stupid noble! You think can do whatever you soddin want!" She screamed when she stood on her feet painted in the blood of the demon who was no longer controlling her, "Well...you copped a feel! Happy?"

"To be honest, they are a bit larger than I imagined." Revan admitted, watching as the still affected Lily attacked with swift stabs meant to penetrate exposed joints and weaker parts of his armor. He avoided the attacks that he couldn't block though Lily's quicking speed was starting to become a problem. Evidently, the rage brought on by the Desire Demon's spell did not fade after it's death or perhaps it was being fueled by Lily's own emotions. Whatever was happening, Revan had to break this hold on Lily or else one or both of them would end up critically injured.

"What's the matter? Don't want to scratch these elven goods?"

"In truth, I'd rather you calm down so that we can regroup with the others."

"Why? You don't like it when your elves talk back do they?"

"You're my elf?"

"You seem to think so!"

"You're exhausting my options..." Revan said when he found his blades locked with Lily's knives. He looked upon the hilts of her weapons and found that a small thin piece of metal was wrapped to the hilts, "Locking my weapons in place and then breaking the blades using my own strength..."

"Now I'm really a credit to my race aren't I?"

"You would be if you weren't wasting your talent on this pointless effort." Revan stated while forcing the bladelock so that both his and Lily's arms were out to their sides, "Say that you kill me...what then? Do you really think that my sister will let you leave this tower alive?"

"I'll...I'll say that the demons killed you-"

"And what about Oghren and Morrigan? You really think that they'll be stupid enough to-" Revan stopped and thought for a moment to amend his case, "Alright Oghren would believe it but would about Morrigan? And if she doesn't which she won't, do you wish to take your chances against a mage that can transform into a giant spider?"

"So what? I should let you have your way?"

"Do you hate me that much?"

"Ye...Yes..." Revan caught something in Lily's voice but focused back on her face when he felt pressure build on the blades of his swords, "You're a shemlen and...you're a spoiled one! You were born with a silver spoon in your mouth! You have people who made your meals, cleaned your mess and groomed you! I was put in a dirty torn rag when I was born! Every day of my life was a struggle because of people like you! I had to rummage through your mess just to get a measley salary whenever I could get legitimate work! All while being told that I was nothing but a pathetic knife-ears!"

"It sounds like you don't hate me...but you hate your life."

"WHO THE HELL WOULDN'T?"

"Then why are you still here?" Lily's strength wavered from Revan's question while he seized the initiative to release the grip on his swords, grab Lily's sides and tackle her into the cavern wall, "Why defend shemlen lands when you could simply leave and return home?"

"Because..." Sensing the spell fade, Revan released his grip and watched Lily's eyes dart in and out between rage and confusion, "The Blight will hurt my people too..."

"My past may be easy compared to yours, but the present is another matter entirely." Revan started while pulled out a silk fabric that he'd found on the road and tied it onto Lily's chest, "In Denerem lives a man who betrayed and murdered my family. He attacked my father when my family was at it's most vulnerable and murdered everyone in the castle, men, women and children. How was he punished? His punishment was to be awarded my father's title as Teryn and along with becoming the Arl of Denerem after the seat was vacant when it's previous lord was killed as a result of Loghain's treachery."

"Let me guess...it's my fault because I gutted the old man's son?"

"No, I would've done the same." Revan freely admitted when he saw the malevolent gleam fully die within Lily's eyes, "The difference between us is that you were strong enough to save your family from treachery and the failure of justice. I...failed to even protect my own nephew...my sister's survival can barely be attributed to me since she's at least strong enough to lift a full grown ox by herself."

"Stop putting yourself down-"

"No really...she can do that..." Lily simply blinked while Revan picked his swords up from the ground, "From where I stand...my silver spoon blinded me to what was important until after it was taken away. You...you can better appreciate what was important...mourn when it was gone and...fight harder to protect it in the moments when it counts."

"What about me hating shemlens?" Lily asked as Revan shrugged, "Giving up?"

"You don't hate shemlens, my lady. You're simply too wounded by what happened with Vaughen to allow yourself to admit how the Desire Demon really got you."

"What? Do you think that it got me by luring me with desires for your thick dark rod?"

"Pardon?" Revan asked as Lily herself blushed at what she'd said. Suddenly, Lily's previous state was making more sense to him, "As soon as you stop stabbing me, we can talk about that."

"Whatever..." Lily grumbled while Revan caught an Injury Kit that she threw at him, "Look...don't tell anyone about what happened here...alright?"

"As you wish." Just then, both warriors reflexively drew their weapons and simualtanously stabbed a Rage Demon before it could fully emerge from the ground. Lily finished it off by shoving a Frost Vial into it's mouth while Revan stabbed it's mouth shut, causing the explosion to freeze the creature's internal parts while the two wardens slashed the frozen demon into quickly melting fragments, "Desire is never to far away from wrath..."

"Shut up and kill the others!" Lily shouted when more appeared out of the walls along with several shades. The energies of the spirit covered Revan's body as he decapitated a shade and turned to allow his shield to block the claw of another. He quickly cut down the offending shade, drawing the demons attention to him while Lily seized the advantage and stabbed a Rage Demon in the back with frost coated knives.

"Hey! Those are my stragglers!" Oghren shouted as he charged up the cavern and slammed his axe into a shade to slash it in half, "Get your own soddin stragglers!"

"First come! First serve!"

"The lady has a point." Revan pointed out as Oghren grumbled and used his pummel to disrupt the form of an Ash demon. The demon snarled in reply and swiped at the dwarf and hacked off it's arm before a bolt of magic took off the creature's head.

"So! You've settled your pointless bickering and have chosen to vent your frustrations on the darkspawn?" Morrigan asked while using her staff to knock aside a shade and unleashed a pulse of disruptive magic that stunned their foes, "Does this mean that you won't do obviously stupid things Tabris?"

"No promises."

"Your early funeral..." Morrigan muttered as the last of the demons were cut down, "Did you at least find something to occupy you or did you crave the attention of this noble fool?"

"See that thing?" Lily asked pointing to the Desire Demon that Oghren hacked into when it's leg moved, "It's dead...I already killed it."

"It moved..."

"It was twitching you twit...it's nervous system was probably shattered after my little outburst." Lily stated and then remembered something from her tuffle with Revan. But when she was about to speak, she noticed the blood stains on the back of the Cousland Noble from when she had stabbed her, "How's your back?"

"Yes...that's a very precise wound..." Morrigan observed, catching Lily's guilt and anxiety from the witch's implication, "Too precise for a demon...I wonder what happened..."

"I've had worst."

"You liar..."

"Come you pansies!" Oghren shouted as he ran for the exit of the storage caves, "The real action is further up in this stinking tower!"

"His enthusiasm aside...he's right..." Revan agreed when another thought occurred to him, "And knowing whose still with them...they're lacking in full team cooperation..."

"When was the last time that we weren't lacking in cooperation?"

"Fair point my lady."

"Stop that!"

Senior Mage Quarters Sidehall

"Tome Deus vi Eternus...In malefectorum, dragos te' ventim. Solariat ven deos mentoris, pluratic ven contrivarian." Mairon read aloud while he studied a page from the codex of Enchanter Rhonus. Outside, it appeared as though there was battle occuring, but Mairon was too interested in this journal, "Spake he the words, and brought life. Speak you the words... ascension. Answers lie in...Great, I can't read the rest of this..."

"Here's some notes though!" Mairon said to himself when he heard noticed a ghoul fly into the room where he sat. The ghoul had a single arrow in it's knee that hobbled it's footing. But it's screeching distracted Mairon enough for him to fire a single bolt of magic through the being's skull, "That's 83 archers!"

"That one counts as mine!" Gilead said from the doorway before he used an arrow to pierce the neck of a possessed templar and wrench it out to messily decapitate the man and then fired that same arrow into an abomination down the hall, "Stop reading that nonsense and help us!"

"But this is more interesting..."

"If you linger than your score will falter." Gilead boasted as he side-stepped Alistair who had been thrown out of another room by the blast of a fireball, "But I warn you! Gimli wants the Arcane Horror for his own!"

"Who cares? I can catch up at any time." Mairon muttered and used Force Magic to smack the door into the Dalish elf's face. He then focused back to his reading despite hearing a Dalish curse while something was stabbed repeatedly, "The words elude me, but I will defy their obstinateness. Worked by the Old Gods or the Maker himself, I will wring their secrets into my hands. I need the essence of the powerful. And the pure. And so begins a bloody road, but at the end, godhood, the keys to the Black City."

"Amell! We require your assistance!"

"Yes Wynne..." Knowing better than to argue with the Senior Enchanter, Mairon stepped over the Desire Abomination, Rage demons, Arcane Horror and ghouls that he had to kill in order to get some time alone to read. He then opened the door and shot the first thing that he saw.

To his delight, it was Durin.

"You are unfamiliar with friendly fire, aren't you?"

"But fire can't be friendly!" Mairon corrected the dwarf while unleashing a torrent of fire from each spread out hand, burning several ghouls that attempted to flank him and the stunned dwarf, "See?"

"On the contrary, you are not friendly so you can direct the fire for malicious intentions."

"I can be helpful with fire!" Mairon said in mock protest as he charged a Fireball with electric mana and fired it at an Arcane Horror down the hall. Unfortunately, Sten happened to have stabbed it's hip at the moment and was not only caught in the explosion, but was electrified by the electric properties of the attack and fell to the ground unconscious, "See...I helped."

"You took out our strongest warrior!"

"But the Arcane Horror is dead..." Mairon said to Alistair while pointing out the decaying Arcane Horror, "If you didn't want my help then how about letting me go back to reading?"

"Minus 5 for quitters!" Gimli shouted while fire bolt after bolt at charging possessed templars who emerged from side-rooms further down the hall, "81...82...how ya doing Gilead?"

"I'm on 94!"

"Impressive..." Mairon said while clapping and practically ignoring Alistair who was being tossed against the wall by a large flaming Rage Abomination, "Durin? How about you?"

"Eighty-"

"Don't finish..." Mairon then directed the dwarf to the multiple corpses that littered the inside of the library which he'd been sitting in, "I'm over a hundred..."

"So the manhood contest continues?" Just then, Giant spider leapt onto the abomination that held Alistair and proceeded to bit out it's neck while Alistair leaned against the wall screaming like a girl as Mairon laughed at the templar. Meanwhile, Oghren and Revan joined the fight with Oghren ramming a horned Abomination while Revan jump-stabbed a Hunger Abomination in it's mouth.

"Was there anything in the caves?" Leliana asked Lily while the bard tripped a ghoul so that it fell right onto Lily's knives, "And what happened to your dress?"

"Desire Demon...fight...Revan snapped me out of it...touched me...but I stabbed him first and..." Lily mumbled before she chose to focus on the possessed templar and stabbed his arm before slitting the man's throat without hesitation, "Shit...there might be another one nearby..."

"Another what?"

"Wait..." Lily thought to herself and then turned to Wynne, "Hey! Have you guys seen any desire demons?"

"I haven't..." Wynne answered while she revitalized Sten, allowing the qunari to rise to his feet and pull an abomination to the ground and pull off the creature's head with his massive strength, "Mairon! What about you?"

"There was an abomination with large...breasts..."

"Don't tell that it had a-"

"Thank the Maker...it didn't..." Oghren and Mairon signed in relief while Gilead shook his head in disapproval, "Oh...I'm sorry that I'm grateful enough to thank a possibly non-existent Maker. At least I can do so from a home!"

"This puts me at...89..." Revan said to himself while slashing through a possessed templar as the skirmish was concluded, "Is everyone alright?"

"Apart from not feeling my hands due to the bas sarabas' poorly thought-out technique..." Sten growled while looking at a disinterested Mairon, "Though...it was probably intentional."

"Who cares? Get over it." Spider-Morrigan said as it crawled into the hall with Leliana's screams joining Alistair's while Oghren laughed as he fainted and Wynne looked on with mild interest, "What? Have you never seen a Giant Spider before?"

"IT TALKS!"

"Morrigan..." Revan said while the spider transformed into the laughing Witch of the Wilds, "Try to give us more warning next time."

"Impressive spell that you utilize young lady," Wynne complemented, "It certainly needs work on grace, but it will due."

"I'm so happy to impress a caged frail old bird."

"I may be "caged" and old, but I am much less frail than you." Wynne stated just as the abomination corpses exploded and sent half of the party off of it's feet while Wynne stood unphased, "Perhaps we should note this in the future ladies and gentlemen?"

"Speaking of notes..." Mairon said while he helped Morrigan to her feet and then took a fringed book from the corpse of the Arcane Horror that he had destroyed earlier, "Hey Gimli! I found the goods!"

"No wonder they got rich so quickly!" Varric laughed, "Do you mind skipping the Third Floor and going straight to the Fourth?"

"I suppose...nothing interesting happened there..." The Orator said out loud while he thought to himself, "But...isn't that where Leliana found the feather?"

"Why don't you tell us a little about the Watchguard of the Reaching?"

"What's there to say? How do you expect one Rage Demon to fare against a group of desperate mages, two mabari hounds and a young woman with the strength to break open a locked steel cage on accident?"

"Badly I assume?"

"The Orleisan's catching on."

"I'm Nevarran!"

First Floor

"YOU! SHALL NOT! PASSSS!" After being pummeled by arcane bolts from many sources, having it's arms ripped off by the mabari hounds and being hacked into repeatedly by a human woman...Shah Wyrd happily lunged at the eldest mage. Knowingly slamming it's wounded body against the enchanter's barrier and willingly reducing it's own existence down to a pile of ashes.

"What was that?" Lealion asked Shatele as the Cousland heiress bent down and pulled a large sword from the ashes of the fallen demon, "Really...what was that?"

"It wasn't the same Wrath Demon as Wynne had encountered..." Mckellen pointed out while poking the locked door to the basement, "Perhaps it was a demon that was sealed within the Tower basement. One of Uldred's mages must have unlocked the seal and summoned the demon on our level."

"Or perhaps brother and the others did so without knowing?"

"Mairon's curious but he wouldn't dream of putting our lives in danger out of curiosity-"

"Those wardens are of the brood of darkness! They will damn our souls to the darkest pits of hell-"

"SHUT UP!" Shatele shouted as she smashed the pummel of her newly found sword into Keili's face and knocked her onto the ground unconscious though that didn't stop Shatele bending down and grabbing the mage's collar, "My brother is not a hellspawn! You be sure and remember that!"

"I don't think she can hear you dear..."

"Why not?"

"She's kind of asleep..." Lealion pointed out as Shatele shrugged and dropped the mage onto the floor, "Whatever's going on, it sounds like our wardens are having a lot of fun on the upper floors."

"Fun? It will not last." Mckellan noted while smoking his pipe and blowing out a smoke ring, "There are more than demons of wrath within the planes of the fade my dears. Some are obvious and boasterous...and others are quiet and lazy."

"Then why be afraid of the lazy demons?"

"Lady Cousland, just because one is lazy...that does not make them any less deadly..."

Templar Quarters

"I still don't see why you left us to fight while you tampered with statues!" Gilead said as the wardens and company entered the fourth floor, "Was it another tedious ritual in your Chantry Cult?"

"The Chantry is not a cult!"

"Tell that to the mass graves in Rivain..." Alistair muttered under his breath while Leliana started to argue with Gilead again, "Anyway...let's get this done with before something happens to Shatele and the others."

"They'll be alright Alistair, Shatele can look after herself and she's not alone." Revan assured the templar with a slight hint of suspicion, "Why so worried for my sister by the way?"

"Sisstteeer...she's a nice girl and I'd hate for anything to happen to her." Alistair answered as he caught Gimli smirking and running his thumb across his neck, "Call me old fashioned...but...I get worried easily for friends."

"It's understandable considering Ostagar and..." Immediately realizing that Revan was opening an old wound in Alistair's mind, the Cousland Scion chose to shift the subject, "That we're inside of an unfamiliar tower infested with demons and mages who can use blood as a weapon."

"True...I wish Duncan were here..."

"Duncan is dead. Get over it."

"Morrigan-"

"No! He needs to shut up about this Duncan fellow!" Morrigan shouted to Wynne while Alistair began to sniff, "They are members of an order where everyone is going to die sooner or later. I'm surprised that he hasn't made peace with the fact that his order is whittled down to the seven of you or that he hasn't done something more productive with his grief other than whine and cry in Shatele's bosem."

"What?"

"That was an accident-" Upon seeing Revan enter his "Spirit State" Alistair felt as though the next ten years of his life were about to become voided, "So...she didn't tell you about when she...took me...up...to my room and...I...stripped naked...and then...she stripped naked and...then she...pulled my...head...into...her...breasts and I slept there and certainly didn't defile or touch her inappropriately or in any way that she wouldn't have liked..."

"Well he's dead..." Gimli chuckled while he walked away from the increasingly tense scene and opened a side door. Inside, he saw a templar passionately kissing and fondling a horned purple woman, "Ancestor's shit..."

"Poor Alistair...least he died after touching a good set of..." Oghren stopped when he stood next to Gimli and both dwarves stared upon the purple woman, "Ancestor's tits..."

"I suppose that we'll have to find another magic knight..." Durin stood on the other side of Gimli and was very intrigued by the scene that he witnessed, "Let's ask him."

"I think that he's preoccupied..."

"Nonsense Brosca! At least he won't be for very long..."

"I don't know...me and Branka could do things for a long time..."

"Excuse me a moment..." Oghren giggled while Durin casually walked down the hall to another door in order to find anything to take his mind off of a vivid scene of Oghren and Paragon Branka...doing things.

"What was his problem?" Lily asked as she stared past Gimli and immediately went on her guard, "Okay...I was hoping that there weren't more than one of these things..."

"What is that...thing?"

"A desire demon...a demon that...uses your desires and emotions...against you..." Lily blushed in embarressment due to her earlier encounter with a desire demon in the second floor caves, "As long as we take it out before it realizes that it has leverage against you...it won't be a problem."

"Oh darling...you're so good..." The Desire Demon moaned as the brain-washed templar pinned the demon against the wall where she saw the confused and dazed wardens who watched her, "Darling...someone's broken into our house!"

"What?" The templar asked as he turned and saw the dwarves and one elf, "Who are you?"

"If you want to...we're here to save you."

"Save me?" The templar asked Gimli before he drew his sword, "But...this is my wife-" Heeding Lily's advice, Gimli unleashed a full volley of bolts that covered a full third of the opposing wall except for the spots where the templar and the demon were standing. Said templar and demon were covered head to toe with bolts that had embedded into their bodies and soon dead.

"What? He didn't want to be saved." Gimli pointed out to Lily, "Besides, I'm not the only whose on edge with all of these demons around. Right?"

"I'm actually enjoying the change in scenery." Mairon said as he and Durin emerged from the other room. Inside of said room was decorated with hacked or maimed body parts from hidden possessed templars and one unlucky mage whose spell was inaffective against Durin, "Needs a little paint though."

"You realize that this is your home?"

"Was my home and not by choice." Mairon corrected, "Unlike you Tabris, I now have options!"

"I could poison his drink..." Lily breathed under her breath while she contemplated her navel and whether or not she should throw her knife into the back of Mairon's neck, "And no one would miss him..."

"Except when you find yourself missing his...potent ability." Morrigan chuckled from next to the fuming elf, "Or...you can stop feeling sorry about your people's situation and do something about it."

"Like what-" Deciding not to be thrown into this argument again, Lily decided to ignore the witch of the wilds, "Nevermind, let's just get out of here and be done with it."

"No worries, the staircase to the Harrowing Chamber is just past-" Wynne began to state before the group entered the floor's central chamber and saw a horribly grotesque and misshapen creature waiting for them in front of a mass of flesh and other materials that no one wanted to guess, "That thing."

"First to see makes it bleed!" Gimli shouted as he brought out Kalah and then sloppily dropped his crossbow from sudden heavy fatigue, "That drink has a long kick delay..."

"Stop...making excuses..." Gilead muttered as he reached for his bow and instead felt the Lay Sister fall onto his chest, "Get off..."

"I'm...tired all of a sudden." Leliana apologized as Gilead pushed her off of him, "Sorry..."

"Mairon...Wynne..." Revan managed as the energies of his spirit form wavered with his own conviction, "What is that thing?"

"A Sloth Demon from the looks of the thing." Mairon answered with mild drowsiness, "Hi."

"Don't converse with it-"

"Hello Grey Warden, welcome to your new sleeping quarters." The Sloth Demon mumbled while it's adversaries grew increasingly tired, "All of you have gone through a long journey, haven't you? Wouldn't it be nice if you could lie down and sleep?"

"Sure...right after I..." Lily stumbled in place and then leaned against the Cousland scion, "Revan! Hold me steady!"

"Why...oh...alright..." Revan grabbed the elf's exposed hip to steady her while gulping from how easily she could stab and reopen his wounds from their earlier brawl, "Better?"

"Yeah..." The blue-haired elf answered as she threw her knife and it hit Mairon squarely in the back of his shoulder, "Oh...I missed..."

"You think!" Mairon shouted in surprise and humor as he pulled out the knife and felt a river of blood flow from his body, "Actually, I can make this work...time for a nap friends."

"I'll nap when nugs fly-" Oghren promptly fell upon his face.

"Pashara...I hate this land..." Sten stated while he fell on top of Oghren.

"I can't...resist...anymore..." Leliana muttered as she fell backwards and Gilead caught her on reflex.

"Get...off...damned...shemlen..." Snarling with frustration, Gilead was pulled from his feet by his own fatigue...

"That's alright...I saw him first anyway-" Gimli slammed his face into Kalah's hard wood and groaned before sleep took him...

"We...need...to...leave before..." Alistair attempted to step towards the demon, but slipped on Mairon's foot and fell backwards with his head hitting his own shield.

"Some Magic Knight that you are."

"We...have...to...regroup..." Revan muttered as his spirit energy faded and he fell forward with Lily trapped underneath him.

"Get...off...get...off..." Lily weakly attempted to get the shemlen noble off of her, but found her strength weakening until all she could do was turn onto her back before falling unconscious.

"Resist...please! Resist..." Wynne pleaded before she too fell under the Sloth Demon's spell and fell asleep standing upon her feet.

"How is that even possible?" Durin asked as he looked upon the sleeping Senior Enchanter and then turned back to the Sloth Demon, "No...I will not sleep."

"Why not?"

"Because sleeping in this situation will leave me vulnerable to whatever magical abilities that you hold within the Fade." Durin stated with his arms crossed over his chest, "And yes, it is very possible for you to draw dwarves into the fade. Though our inability to use and resistance magic cuts us off from this Fade, creatures who are native to the Fade are very capable of bringing us into a specifically constructed area within this place."

"Why did you tell this to the demon?" Morrigan asked before she fell upon the floor.

"I was more talking to myself than anyone else."

"You think and talk too much." The Sloth Demon said as Durin nodded in full agreement while pulled Lily's knife from his shoulder, "Perhaps you would be more restful if you slept more often."

"I highly doubt it." Durin countered, "There have been many times where I had plentiful sleep, but was no more restful than when I had a handful of hours for rest. Therefore, it is not the amount of sleep that allows rest but the quality of said rest that determines how much more restful I will be-"

"Sleep."

"No."

"Sleep...close your eyes and sleep..."

"No..."

"Sleep."

"No."

"You're really going to go back and forth all day aren't you?" Mairon asked while he charged magic in both of his hands, "Here...I'll make this simple."

"You do that Mage Amell."

"As you wish." Mairon then lifted Durin in the air, turned him upside down and slammed him into the hard floor headfirst, "There...he's asleep now..."

"Good and you should sleep too..."

"I don't know if I can trust you..." Mairon muttered while he looked upon the grotesque, malevolent and twisted face of the mage which the sloth demon now possessed as it's unwilling vessel, "Okay! I need a nap anyway!"

"Good..." The Sloth Demon stated as Mairon sluggishly moved to the sleeping Morrigan and loosened the folds of her robes. Once he smiled upon Morrigan's exposed tracts of land, he lied down next to the Witch of the Wilds and nestled his head in between her tracts of land, "Enjoy the nap..."

"I know you won't..."

"You can't possibly have been there for this next part?"

"I'll let you decide that."

"No more games fool!" Cassandra shouted at the Orator, "The only ones who could've fully known what had happened within that place were the wardens and their companions! How the hell would you know what they encountered?"

"Maybe I don't...maybe I was with them." The Orator answered with a calm smirk, "For all you know, I could just be talking out of my ass and making things up that sound more interesting."

"You're treading a fine line..."

"Wait...wait...his story checks out so far." Varric said in the Orator's defense, "But if you are going to make shit up, it better be interesting shit."

"Have I disappointed so far?"

"Not at all."

"Then let's see where the story goes now..."

Viscount's Keep, Kirkwall

Yawning, the boy drowsily waited for the woman in heavy armor to speak.

Around him were gathered the templars of Kirkwall whose gauntlets were attached to lyrium laced chains intended to restrain and suppress the young mage that knelt in within the circle of holy guardians. Behind their Knight-Captain, the Grand Cleric said a few words to bless the proceedings that were about to begin. The youth couldn't completely make out what the woman was saying, but what little that he could decipher honestly bored him.

His robes were stained with dried and freshly stained blood with many cuts and tears while his uncut black hair flowed down his back and over his face like a rag. His arms were covered with multiple cuts and scars from his part in the Viscount's rebellion and his uncaring demeanor seemed underscored by the many bruises that covered his face.

Around him, he felt his templar guards shake with terror. They had seen this youth single-handedly slaughter their comrades and send entire platoons fleeing in panic and fear while he laughed. It was only through the Knight-Captain's skill and valor did anyone survive this newly concluded Civil War.

"Decrepit Worm...you who stand before us for judgement..." The boy yawned again as he listened to Knight Captain Meredith lay down her judgement upon him, "The Maker blessed you with a gift...a gift that was meant to be used in the service of man. A gift that you were to use with responsibility and prudence, a gift that you were deigned to utilize upon a tripwire between righteousness and corruption."

"But here you kneel...your clothes reeking of your sins...your hands hardened by the stone upon which you have crawled...your eyes bereft of all life or care." Meredith continued, "What have you to say after your rebellion is done mage? What have you to say when you are brought low from your power and now kneel before those whom you considered beneath you?"

"What have you to say of your sins? What have you to say of the family whose blood was used to fuel your foul magic? What of the hundreds of parents whom mourn the loss of a child? A child that you murdered and with whose torment you used to fuel your fell magic? What of the hundreds...no...thousands whose blood is stained across the streets of Kirkwall from the lowest dungeon to the highest tower and even to the very steps of the Chantry? What have you to say of the templars, my brave comrades in arms, whom you butchered as dogs whilst they fought to uphold their Maker given duty? What have you to say of the many defenders of the Maker's justice that you crushed within their armor...their blood used to sprinkle and set afire the City Guard as they marshalled against you? What have you to say of the Holy Mothers and Sisters that you forced to dance in a foul and cruel manner before you tore off their limbs and cast them through the hearts of the horrified masses whilst they died within a pool of their own blood? What say you of your fellow mage whose lives were stolen to amuse your lust and increase your sinful power? What say you of the defenders whose bodies were defiled by your own hand for sport and mockery?"

"What say you of your own mother? The woman who brought you into this world and whom you have repaid by taking her life?" The boy suddenly looked up at the Knight Captain with a simple smile, a smile that unnerved all but Meredith, "I have nothing more to say...your guilt was determined long before you were brought before me for judgement. As the Knight Commander was hanged with his own entrails by your hand and the Viscount long since mindless and soulless because of your fell magic...I stand as the sole authority in your judgement. Before I pronounce your judgement, what have you to say for yourself? What have you to say for the family that you killed? The masses you slaughtered? The guards and templars that you murdered? Of the sinful chaos that you spread throughout this Stronghold of the Free Marches. WHAT HAVE YOU TO SAY FOR YOURSELF?"

"WHAT SAY YOU DECREPIT SPAWN OF MAGISTERS?" Meredith grabbed the collar of the boy's robe as fury colored her face, "MONSTER! DESTROYER! BANE OF LIFE! FEAR OF THE SACRED! DEFILER! DEVOURER! CHILD BORN FROM THE DARKEST DEPTHS OF THE TAINTED DEEPS! SPAWN OF THE DRAGONS! ACCURSED OF ANDRASTE AND THE MAKER! PROFANER OF MORTALS! WHAT SAY YOU? WHAT SAY YOU!"

"I wanted a pony..."

The mage answered with sorrow and disappointment as Meredith's eyes widened in horror and shock, "Preferably an Anders pony, but any pony would've been nice. Even...an Orleisan one...or a Qunari pony...I heard uncle say that they had horns in their mouths and their heads...but it wouldn't matter as long as I had a pony."

"A pony?"

"A pony."

"A pony?" Meredith repeated, "You committed these sins...and forfeited your Maker-given soul...for a pony?"

"Why else would I have done it?" The mage casually asked as Meredith swung her sword and stabbed it's cold steel through the boy's heart. The boy gasped in agony and deliriously laughed as he aged and grew ten years older, "Why does this hurt more than I remember?"

"Because mage...you have grown more aware of your own failings as the Chantry has properly educated you with your place in the world..." Mairon looked up at Meredith who wrenched the blade from his chest and kicked him down the stairs, "I know your kind far too well mage. When you told me that you committed your sins for the sake of a pony...I knew that you lied."

"I'm sorry...I don't really remember you..." Mairon muttered while Meredith stepped down the stairs, her boots printed by the trail of blood that Mairon's fall had left, "Oh wait! You were mother's captain!"

"Yes...yes she was..." Terror filled Mairon's heart as a mage's staff slammed into his back and his body reflexively recoiled in pain, "Oh look...after all these years my littler Arthunas still remembers her mother's touch."

"I specifically remember the touch of that damned rod..." Mairon spat as he looked up and saw Revka Amell in the same broken templar armor that he'd left her in, "The only time that I fondly remember your touch was after you were dead..."

"You don't remember things too well child..." Revka muttered as her staff struck Mairon in his face, "I suppose that I'll have to hit you some more. Captain?"

"Punish this sinful mage Revka..." Meredith said as she kicked Mairon in his bleeding wound, "Punish him for the sake of forgiveness for your sin of birthing him."

"So...knowing that none of this is real will make it hurt any less?"

"Arthunas? What did I tell you about imagining things?" Revka asked while she slammed her staff into Mairon's neck, serenely smiling as he gagged and choked from the lack of air, "The Maker does not smile on those who waste their gifts..."

"But...doesn't he hate parents who beat their children?"

"I'm not beating you...I'm disciplining you out of love..." Revka said before she hit Mairon in his eye, causing the mage to cry out, "Besides...you're not even human...you're a monster..."

"Here I thought I'd enjoy the nap."

Author's Notes:

Thus we enter the Fade!

Seeing as that the Mage Arc is primarily Mairon's Arc since that is his Origin Home, I started out the Fade Dreams with his. All of the Wardens will have their own unique dreams since the Duncan scenario was weak within the vanilla game anyway. Each dream will focus on the wardens darkest fears, desires and dreams from the past and present. Some will be aware that it is not real while others will be too blind-sided to even try to find the seams.

With Mairon, this is an insight into his past and his "connection" to Kirkwall that he claims to have had nothing to do with when he first met Bethany.

To those who were confused about how Revan defeat Desire Demon addled-Lily, he used her own emotions against her. First pissing her off to get her off of him and then her conflicting emotions would cause her to lash out at the first thing that she saw or touched. Sadly, that was the desire demon and from then on, Revan just had to talk down Tabris and break down the Demon's spell by showing Lily that he was not the source of Lily's anger.

I'll conclude this note with a warning for the following section of the Circle Tower Arc: The Fade Dreams will likely be the climax of the arc and will involve an event that will amount to at least 10% of non-faithfulness to Canon. I'm not going to confirm if this has anything to do with the codex that Mairon was reading or if it's an event that will positively affect the wardens. I'm just giving out the warning.

Later folks!