Another Within Temptation title.
Chapter 28
Final Destination
Núria awoke with a jolt and jumped to her feet at once. For a moment she felt dizzy, but she caught herself quickly. Zevran was on his feet as well, wearing a frown. 'Now what was that?' he muttered darkly. 'I thought we were going to get lost.'
'Me too,' Núria said.
'Jowan,' Leliana said suddenly, and Núria spun around. Jowan and Morrigan were both on the floor and unconscious. Darya was next to her mother, crying softly, but looking otherwise unharmed. While Leliana knelt next to Jowan, placing his head in her lap, Ivanhoe trotted to Morrigan to lick over her face a few times.
'At least someone looks after her,' Núria commented with a crooked smile. 'Is he fine, Leliana?'
'I think so, but I'm not a healer,' the bard responded softly.
'Get out of my face, horrible mutt,' an angry voice said, and Ivanhoe retreated from Morrigan with a high, sad sound.
'Are you all right?' Núria asked her, patting Ivanhoe's head in passing.
'Yes,' Morrigan said with an atypical grin. 'One down, one remaining.' She knelt and picked up her daughter, rocking her lightly.
'Could you please look at him?' Leliana asked from where she was sitting, and Morrigan gave her a disdainful look.
'I could,' she said. 'Oh, well, if you insist.' Unwillingly, she knelt beside the other mage and looked him over. Finally she held her hand over his face, and Jowan awoke with a start as though she had poured ice-cold water over his head.
'Interesting,' he said finally, sitting up and rubbing his temples. He gave Leliana a worried glance. 'You feeling well?' Leliana smiled at him and nodded.
'Oh, you're worse than those two,' Morrigan said angrily, gesturing towards Núria and Zevran. The latter grinned.
'So what now?' he asked. 'We wander through this horrible jungle a while longer, then we do the same thing again?'
'Not quite,' Morrigan replied briskly. 'We'll stay here, and when Darya has found the other Old God, we'll know. That is enough, as we're not going to try and find it physically. This is a lot better.'
'And it will be the same story?' Zevran asked. 'We find the two children and ask them to cooperate?'
'Indeed, and most likely, they will,' Morrigan replied, walking away slowly with Darya in her arms. 'Now if you will excuse me, I need a few more herbs.' Núria caught Jowan's eye and found she didn't quite like his expression.
'You have doubts?' she asked softly. The mage took a deep breath.
'Yes,' he said then. 'I doubt it will be all the same, it might be wiser to start this journey as we did the first: Knowing nothing of what we have to expect but prepared for everything.'
'Like what?' Zevran asked sceptically. 'What makes you doubt this will go smoothly?'
'For one thing … I have no idea at all what the Tevinters did to those children,' he said heatedly. 'But whatever it was, it killed them, physically, and trapped their spirits in something less than the Fade. That alone is a reason to be careful in that sphere and with those that are forced to live in it. Second, the other two said they had no contact with the ones that are with Razikale, and they made it sound as though that was a fairly new development. If something caused them to lose the contact, I sincerely wonder what that is and if that makes any difference for us.'
'I think we should tell Morrigan this,' Leliana said suddenly. 'We can barely let her walk into something unpredictable without warning her.' Jowan smiled.
'Morrigan knows this as well as I do,' he said calmly. 'Perhaps she doesn't want to see it. But I assure you she is perfectly aware of all the possibilities.'
'Or perhaps she just wants us to believe all will go as easily as before,' Leliana mused. 'I wonder why.' Jowan shrugged.
'I think you should know,' he said simply. 'There's some very powerful magic at work, and I cannot even begin to imagine how this was done. We were nearly separated when the first sphere died. I will try and stop that from happening again, and I will try and keep us protected. Morrigan, Darya and myself, I mean. The last moments of the dragon were rather … vivid.'
'You two were unconscious because you're mages, is that right?' Leliana asked gently.
'Exactly,' Jowan said. 'Darya wasn't affected as strongly as we were for some reason, but still. She is still so small … It must have been horrible for her.' Leliana gave Jowan a fond smile for this.
'What are you going to do if Morrigan dies?' she asked suddenly. 'Will you give Darya to the tower? I take your remark about protecting her to mean the child is a mage.' Jowan's expression darkened slightly.
'You know, I've been thinking about this ever since the thing with the lizard,' he said softly. 'What if Morrigan dies? And what would I of all people do with a little mage at my hands?' He smiled vaguely. 'But no matter how often I think it through, the answer is always the same: I'd bring her there with my own hands, before the templars could take her by force, and I'd beg Aisling to look after her for me. And … as long as I'd think I could do so without risking my neck … I'd visit her. But as long as she didn't show conspicuous signs of magic I'd not let her out of my hands. And I am not going to tell Morrigan any of this.' Leliana nodded slowly.
'That sounds good,' she said. 'Also I wouldn't tell what sort of child she actually is.' Jowan huffed.
'Certainly not,' he said. 'The tower is a hard enough place to grow up in as is. If the templars know she isn't only a mage … See, I have to visit her at all costs. I have to make sure she doesn't grow up feeling only resentment … Imagine what kind of power she could wield. I find the thought that such power resides in an angry, broken soul more than frightening.' Núria smiled.
'What happened to the scared thing I met in that dungeon?' she asked. 'The one who wouldn't even risk following me through the castle.' Jowan tore his eyes from Leliana.
'No idea,' he said with a serious and set expression. 'Probably he was eaten by zombies.' Finally a smile formed on his face. 'About Razikale, though … What I think is that something is very wrong with him and the children. I don't know what that is, of course, but my guess is … he isn't as deep in sleep as Lusacan was. We will be more easily detected, and we might meet resistance. We … Morrigan and myself, must be prepared to kill the children with our own hands. And the surest way for them to make that hard would be to act like actual children. I … do not know how I am supposed to do this.'
'Why you?' Zevran asked. 'We are two assassins here. Or can we not wield the sword in the sphere?' Jowan shrugged.
'I don't know,' he admitted. He threw his arms into the air in frustration. 'I don't know anything, I'm guessing! It just might be. I've heard of mages fighting in plate mail and with swords, but I also know that I never could. I'm not strong enough.'
'Perhaps it's not about strength,' Leliana mused. 'Perhaps there is a spell that gives you the strength? I mean … you can channel magic through a staff with the right properties. Can you not perhaps … channel it through a sword, not to cast a spell, but to use it like a normal fighter would?' Jowan glanced at her with his eyes narrowed.
'Could be worth an attempt,' he said. 'Hang on … let me scrape together what I know of this. The Tevinters had … what were they called? I've forgotten. But how they did it no one knows - at least they don't teach it at the tower.
'There is a spell that makes lifting heavy things easier. And … Leorah did that differently, I recall. She didn't cast a spell on something, she'd carry it and as you said channelled her magic into the object.' Zevran drew the lighter one of his two swords and offered it to Jowan.
'Try, if you like,' he said. Clumsily, the mage took hold of the pommel. 'Hold it with the point up. I'll show you some basic moves. When the sword starts feeling heavy just try out whatever spell you have in mind.'
'I don't know,' Jowan said softly, glancing at the blade in his hands with some apprehension. 'If I cannot even breathe, perhaps a sword isn't the right thing for me.' Zevran laughed, drawing his other sword.
'Come on, my sweet mage, I'll be gentle,' he said in a lascivious tone. Jowan snorted.
'Right,' he said. 'Bring it on.'
Núria and Leliana sat next to each other, watching. After a short while, Jowan took a step backwards from Zevran panting. He closed his eyes in concentration, and a slight glow seemed to come from his hands for a moment. 'He wields it like a bastard sword,' Leliana observed in a soft voice, smiling slightly. 'But you know, I've seen worse.'
'But what he's doing seems to work,' Núria commented. 'For a mage he certainly has stamina. Good on you.'
'I can hear you!' Jowan called from the distance, and both Núria and Leliana laughed. 'Give me a second Zevran, perhaps if …' He fell silent and rested the tip on the floor on the soft ground, his eyes shut again. For almost a minute he didn't move, his face not so firmly set as before but relaxed as though he were sleeping. Núria barely dared breathe, wondering whatever he was doing imperceptibly for them. Then, slowly, his eyes opened again, and he lifted up the sword with one hand. He gave Zevran a nod, and somehow the fighting seemed a lot more graceful. Zevran went at him a little more quickly, and Jowan adjusted to his pace.
'Not half bad for a mage,' Zevran commented, and Jowan grinned. 'How are you doing it?'
'It's simple really,' Jowan answered. 'Perhaps a little unorthodox. I did what Leliana suggested … Channel magic into the sword like a staff. I cannot fling magic through it, because there's no magic forged in the blade, but because I put some of mine into it I can use it as though it were practically weightless. It's not a spell to give me strength, but one where I don't need any. Or some such thing, it's hard to explain.' Zevran lowered his weapon.
'I could teach you how to fight with a sword,' he suggested. 'If the templars ever have the nerve to come after you, it would give them a pause to see you come back at them with a weapon. Perhaps they couldn't undo you as quickly as they did in the tailor's shop.' Jowan laughed humourlessly, returning Zevran's sword to the assassin.
'They could,' he said. 'They can do that to any mage. But I could at least hurt them back as long as I'm conscious. They are hard to affect by magic. You would really teach me?' Zevran clapped his shoulder.
'I certainly will,' he said. 'But I think we should not start serious training here, nor with sharp weapons.'
'Since when does a mage with any pride wish to fight with a sword?' Morrigan asked, entering their camp again.
'The Tevinter Imperium had mages that did that,' Leliana told her. Morrigan snorted.
'I wouldn't have expected you to parrot things you don't know anything about,' she said. 'I watched this sorry display for a while. Do you think if you style yourself as an Arcane Warrior they'll forget you're also a blood mage? Or are you doing it to forget it yourself?' Jowan folded his arms before his chest.
'You know what?' he asked. 'I don't need your consent or approval. Once we're done here you'll slink into your marshes or wherever you live and I'll go to Vigil's Keep with the others. I didn't hear them ridiculing me, so why would I care a fig for your opinion?' Morrigan blinked at him.
'Who would have thought you'd grow a backbone?' she asked then. 'Good, you'll need it if you wish to fight up close.' Jowan simply shook his head.
'You have your herbs, I guess?' Núria asked. 'Let's get this over with.'
This time it wasn't so hard for her to swallow Morrigan's disgusting concoction. Orienting herself in the darkness came more naturally, too, and they found the sphere with no problems. The moment they were in it, it was clear that Jowan had been right: This wasn't the same. Where there had been no landscape but only the Minrathous tower in Lusacan's sphere, there was a forest here. Not a jungle like the Donarks, but a forest like you found it further in the south, less dense with flowers and the heavy smell of their bloom in the air. It was a beautiful place, entirely peaceful and not a dreary, empty cage. There was no sound, however, nothing indicating where the twins might be.
They travelled in silence for a while, Jowan and Leliana's hands joined. The bard looked peaceful, but Jowan couldn't quite hide his unease. 'I don't buy it,' he said at last. 'There's something watching us, I know it. We shouldn't follow Darya to the children yet. We must first find the weapon.'
'For once, I agree with you,' Morrigan said. 'Perhaps this isn't as simple as we hoped.'
'How are we supposed to find anything here?' Leliana asked. 'This place could be endless.'
'I think I know where we have to go,' Morrigan told her. 'Jowan, did you sense what was coming from the Circle Tower with the sword?'
'Of course,' he replied. 'A presence. As though someone was in the building. But there wasn't a person, there was a sword.'
'Or both,' Morrigan suggested. 'If the Tevinters could trap children in a dragon's dream, perhaps they could trap a third being in a blade.' Jowan stopped dead in his tracks and stared at her.
'This would be horrible!' he said. 'But perhaps that is why it could kill them … Oh Maker, I don't like this one bit.'
'You're rather fussy for a blood mage,' Morrigan commented. 'You weren't so far from this.'
'Blood magic isn't necessarily used for evil, like what the Tevinters did,' Jowan said emphatically. 'This just seems so gratuitous.'
'Evil is a strong word, Jowan,' Zevran said. 'Perhaps they thought they could awaken the Old Gods? Then for them the sacrifice must have looked small.'
'Whatever their motives, for us this is helpful, because we can find the weapon,' Morrigan said briskly. 'And Darya indeed senses the children elsewhere.'
'Elsewhere,' Zevran muttered. 'Is there any way at all to orient oneself here?'
'Only by magic,' Jowan said. 'Or at least I think so.'
Núria had no other choice than to trust the two mages to know what they were doing. For what seemed an eternity she followed them through the forest, hoping to find another image of the Circle Tower in Minrathous somewhere. When Morrigan did come to a halt, however, it was before a large dead tree. They walked around it, but there was no opening in the almost black wood. At last Morrigan handed Darya to Jowan and transformed into a large bird of prey to fly on top of it - and indeed, she disappeared inside the large tree for a moment, returning with a sword between her claws. She landed before the others and Jowan eyed the weapon carefully.
'I wonder how credible we will be to the twins when we say we mean no ill,' he said softly.
'You won't,' a cold voice said. Núria spun around and froze. There was no need to look for the twins: The children had found them.
