Oh I am so mean with the cliffhangers.
Hmm… So with some encouragement I've finally started working on an Original Fiction… Its nowhere near ready to be seen by the public (Its barely even ready to been seen by Eva) but I've started on it. It has an existence and a very vague plotline.
That being said, because the plotline is so vague (nowhere near planned out to the point that Stars is) you'll probably hear me complaining about it non-stop until it's done :P Be prepared…
Or ignore me. It's really up to you.
Oh man, I'm finally making some progress to get ahead of you guys. I'm basically redoing all of Denerim so its much more detailed. You guys will both love and hate me for it. And I can probably guarantee there are some of you that will want to kill me in my sleep :P I'm very bad with cliffhangers.
But, to make up for it, I promise that if I get a job that pays me $30,000 a year or more, I will publish an extra chapter to celebrate. And you're in luck because there's actually a decent chance of that happening within the next week or two.
Anyway, I should probably get on with the chapter before you all decide to kill me now instead of waiting until Denerim.
So that you to my reviewers asteracaea, Eva Galana, Evalyne( - beta fishy ), and BDub.
And of course thanks to Eva for betaing.
OH! One more thing before I let you on with the next chapter. So I started reading over some of the older chapters and noticed a few misspellings and inconstancies, so when I have some extra time I'm probably going to go back and fix those. Nothing major, this is just a warning.
Damn, it is just me or do these notes get longer and longer? This one took up almost an entire page in word -_-;
Enjoy! (Finally, fwew)
.oO***Oo.
Alistair was the first one to wake up. He groaned as he sat up, "Did I get hit on the head during the last fight?" he asked and brought his hands up to rub his eyes. "Sweet Andraste, I just had the weirdest dream…"
He had been so happy. He'd found Goldanna and she had a whole gaggle of kids. He'd been retelling to them about his days defeating the Blight and then Kallia had walked into the room. She'd been wearing Warden Commander robes that had been made especially for her. There had never been a mage Warden Commander before but he'd always known she would be the one to rebuild the Ferelden Grey Wardens. She crouched to hug the children then asked to speak with him outside. Of course he'd gone.
She was his wife after all.
But it wasn't a dream, not really. Not the kind where you go to sleep and wake up on your own.
Kallia, Zevran, and Wynne's bodies were lying around him as well as that of the other man's. Alistair picked up his sword and shield, ready to defend them all should the abomination come back. His Templar instincts screamed at him to watch Kallia and Wynne to be sure they didn't become abominations as well.
Alistair faced the door and waited.
.oO**Oo.
Zevran was second to wake up. "Ugh, I have got to stop getting knocked out," he complained. "You know this really only became a problem after I joined up with you, my dear Warden."
It had been a pleasant enough dream, as far as dreams go. Well besides the hours of torture, but it had ended well. Kallia had stormed into the Crows secret hideout when he was barely beginning his training. It was a nice thought to have, to be saved before he became what he had to in order to survive.
Alistair was standing in front of him holding out a hand to help him up. Zevran held back a laugh at the look on the other man's face. Obviously Alistair was loath to trust the elf but realized he had to because of the situation. Zevran decided he had to give the man credit for at least trying to put aside his problems in order to… do whatever it is they were supposed to do while they waited for the others to awaken.
.oO***Oo.
Wynne was the next to awaken. She, however, didn't have a lot of time to dwell on all the apprentices she had failed. She wasn't able to think about Aniren. No, Wynne awoke to the sounds of a battle being fought.
A brief explanation from Alistair, shouted over his shoulder, was all she needed to jump right into the fray, sending healing spells and arcane bolts every which way. She could tell Alistair was not used to the way he was fighting. He'd become used to fighting at Kallia's side, to her doing the damage while his job was just to take it.
Instead he got a wrinkled old mage who could keep him alive but could do very little to help him take down the creature he was fighting and an assassin that he didn't trust at his own back. Not to mention the abomination was not above making cheap shots at Kallia's unconscious body, since that was apparently who he had come there to kill.
All they could do was fight him off as long as they could and hope that Kallia killed the demon on the other side of the Veil.
.oO***Oo.
Cullen could see Kalus stripped of his armor and most of his clothes and tied to the table just outside the barrier. He tried telling himself that the other Templar was already dead but it was so hard to believe when Kalus seemed so real.
She stood next to the restrained Templar and when she turned she had such a cold look as he'd never seen on her face before. "You couldn't save me, Cullen. I went off to Ostagar and you thought I would finally be safe there, away from all the Templars and the Chantry that want to kill me because I'm too powerful. Do you know what the darkspawn did to me?" She pulled a knife from somewhere in her folded robes and slowly dragged the knife across her palm. Red blossomed from the cut and she held her hand over Kalus' chest. He screamed when the drops of blood made contact with his skin. A malicious smile covered her face, "They taught me a few things."
"You're not her! She would never do that to Kalus!" Cullen screamed and closed his eyes. "This isn't real!"
When he opened them, Kallia and Kalus were gone.
.oO***Oo.
Alistair got a lucky hit in and managed to stab the abomination through the chest. It dropped at his feet dead. They rushed to get away from it, Alistair stopping only to grab Kallia's unconscious body. It seemed to vary how long the bodies took to explode and they weren't taking any chances of being close when it happened.
They got away just in time, it exploded once they were out of range. Now all they had to do was wait for Kallia to wake up. Alistair was reminded too much of their time in Redcliffe after Jowan had performed the ritual that sent her to the Fade.
As he watched a scratch appear on her face, he wondered why the demon would bother. If it wanted her body, why was it damaging it? Wynne did not seem particularly concerned with the fact that it was happening however, she just busied herself with healing them as it appeared.
"I've never seen that happen to anyone else before," Alistair commented, hoping a Senior Enchanter would be able to explain better than a failed blood mage.
"It's not entirely uncommon. Kallia just has a particularly strong connection to the Fade. She wasn't randomly selected to be Irving's student after all, and I highly doubt she earned the title of 'star-pupil' on her looks, much as she resented it." Wynne explained.
"She resented being the star-pupil?"
Wynne laughed, "No, Alistair. She resented being called the star pupil. She reveled in actually being it. Now keep an eye on the door, we don't know if more abominations will come," she scolded and shooed him off.
.oO***Oo.
Cullen heard footsteps and once again opened his eyes. An unknown man entered the room followed by her. Cullen nearly laughed; this was the worst attempt his captors had made yet! She was covered with burns, cuts, bruises and blood. Her eyes had circles under them so dark one would almost think she were sporting two black eyes. The carefully plaited buns were nowhere to be seen and her hair fell several inches below her hips in a loose pony tail.
Her robes were a disaster. They no longer shone golden but had faded to an ugly greenish-brown. The long underskirt was completely missing making her robes end at her knees, a long gash that ran from the right side of her neck down to the left side of her ribs had torn her robes open the front. A brownish cord that he recognized as her hair tie kept the robe closed but he could see the still healing wound. Her skin practically crackled with magic, her own and the healing magic of another as well as the boost of an excessive amount of Lyrium potions.
Kallia had always hated the potions, she would rather not cast magic then use one and this impostor had to have used at least ten lesser Lyrium potions (probably more by the way her skin practically glowed). That was not what convinced him she was an impostor, however. It was the robes that did it.
Kallia had spent her life aiming for those golden robes, she would never have defiled them so and allowed them to fall into such a state. Mages only get two sets of robes after all.
He began the chant, nearly yelling it now, and prayed to the Maker they would kill him soon.
.oO***Oo.
Alistair opened the door to the next room but hesitated to move forward. When he didn't draw his weapon or shield, Kallia became curious and stood on her toes to look over his shoulder. The sight before her made her gasp and rush past him.
"Cullen!" she knelt in front of the yelling man. He opened his eyes for a moment as though to check whether she was there, then closed them and yelled even louder. "Cullen, stop that blight blasted chant. I'm real! Don't you recognize me?"
He paused his chanting only long enough to reply, "Only too well. You've done this before and it hasn't worked any other time."
"The boy is exhausted and I've never seen anything like this cage before," Wynne commented. "I could try healing him but I don't think it would get through the barrier. Rest easy, help is here."
"Enough visions! If anything left in you is human kill me now… end this game," Cullen begged. She brought her hand up to the cage as though to rest it on his cheek, she stopped an inch away from the barrier however. It's never smart to touch unknown magic. "You broke the others but I will stay strong. For my sake… for theirs. Must you continue to take her form? Tempting me with the one thing I'll never have… using my shame against me. My infatuation with her a mage of all things…"
Zevran clicked his tongue. "Someone was quite the little heartbreaker when they were an apprentice. My, my."
"But she's dead now, dead. I heard about Ostagar and that's where that man took her. She became a Warden and all the Wardens died. I so tired of these cruel jokes… please… just…"
"Cullen, I didn't die at Ostagar. I survived with another Warden. This isn't a trick, we're here to help," Kallia tried to reassure him.
"Begone! You aren't real!" Cullen shouted again and closed his eyes. When he opened them, Kallia still stood before him. "You're still here? But that's always worked before…"
"Cullen… I'm so sorry…" Kallia whispered. Alistair saw Wynne cock an eyebrow at the apology and decided to ask about it later.
"I do not need your pity, I am beyond caring what you think! The Maker knows my sin and I pray he will forgive me," Cullen spat at her. Alistair was having a hard time putting this face to the Cullen he'd created in his mind from her stories. That Cullen was a nervous, gentle man. This Cullen was full of hatred and anger.
"I didn't mean to lead you on, I never knew…"
"It was the foolish fancy of a naïve boy. I know better now," Cullen informed her as he stood roughly. She looked over him as closely as the tears gathering in her eyes would allow her to. The gentleness she had always admired was gone, his face seemed harder somehow. He frowned as a thought occurred to him. "Why have you returned to the Tower? How did you survive?"
"I heard rumors and we had to come here anyway. And then when we got here… I couldn't leave it like this. It was my home," she stood as well but he still towered over her small stature.
"As it was mine, and look what they've done to it. They deserve to die! All of them! Uldred especially! They caged us like animals, looked for ways to break us. I'm the only one left. They turned some into monsters and there was nothing I could do…" his voice broke as the image of Kallia torturing Kalus with her own blood. With blood magic.
"Uldred will pay for what he's done," she reassured him.
"And to think I once thought we were too hard on you," Cullen glared at her.
"We're not all evil, Cullen. What of me? Surely you don't think I'm evil?"
"Only mages have that much power at their fingertips," He pointed at her accusingly. "Only mages are so susceptible to the infernal whisperings of demons."
"This is a discussion for another time!" Wynne broke in. "Irving and the other mages who fought Uldred, where are they?" She demanded in her best angry-grandmother voice.
"In the Harrowing Chamber…. The sounds coming from there… oh Maker…" Cullen's anger began to fade and he crumpled within himself, his anger being all that had been keeping him going.
"We must hurry, no doubt they are in grave danger," Wynne verbally shoved Kallia. "Duty first, child. Surely in your time away from the Tower has not made you forget that."
That was exactly what Kallia needed to hear. With those words all sadness fell from her face. She nodded once resolutely. "Duty first. Emotions got us into this mess, they will do nothing to get us out. Alistair, take point. We'll save everyone who can be saved." She fell in step behind him as he made his way toward the stairs.
"Are you saving anyone by taking this risk?" Cullen sneered at her. "To ensure this horror is ended, that no abominations or blood mages live, you must kill everyone up there!"
"I'd rather spare a maleficarum than risk harming an innocent," she answered quietly without turning to face him. "We'll free you when we get back."
"My cage is Uldred's doing… or one of his mage's. Once their dead, I'll be free."
"Stay safe until then, Cullen," she told him and turned towards the stairs.
.oO**Oo.
I can't help but ask the question. Who noticed Kallia's deviation from her usual personality? What is it? ;)