Theron did he best to hold in the irritated sigh that desperately wanted to escape as the Knight-Commander of the Circle was explaining to him what happened. The elf was annoyed, first werewolves, and now demons were running amuck!? Some luck he had. The thing that got him the most though, was the fact they had just locked the door and thrown away the key. Theron was raised to believe that was never an option, and he didn't like that this was a backup plan for them.
Theron shook his head, "So let us go in," he said "we're not part of your brigade and are expendable to you."
The Knight-Commander stared at him as if he were crazy- which he probably was. "I assure you, a demon is a force to be reckoned with, and there is an entire army of them in there."
Theron nodded, "That may be so, but those people deserve at least a little help. Besides, I have confidence in our abilities."
The Knight-Commander shook his head and sighed, "All right, well, it's your funeral." he said and he lead the party to the doors, "I'll warn you though, once you go in there, I'm locking the door behind you, and I'm not going to open it again unless I know for sure that it's clear. Meaning if you don't have the First Enchanter to vouch for you, I had better not sense a damn magical thing coming from in there, understand?"
"Perfectly." Theron said
The Templar stared at him, this elf was completely mental, wasn't he? "Open the door." he commanded, and Theron nodded his thanks to him as he lead his merry group through.
"…Do you think they have a chance?" a Templar asked his commander as the doors were bolted shut.
The Knight-Commander stood there in silence for a moment as he thought, "I have heard tales of Grey Wardens, but those two looked awfully young."
"Meaning, sir?"
"Meaning I think when the Right of Annulment comes… We'll be fighting their demon controlled corpses."
"All right," Theron said, turning around to look at the three who had followed him, "survivors are our first priority then. Have you all faced a demon before?" Alistair nodded, but the other two shook their heads, "Okay, if they're in their true form, you'll be able to know right quick that they're a demon, because they are UG-LY. But if you hear a voice calling for help, feel free to investigate it, unless it sounds like it's getting further away, then it's a demon." He thought for a moment, "But that really shouldn't be a problem if we stay in a group, so just stick close, okay?" They all nodded and agreed. Theron grinned "All right, let's kick some demon ass then."
He turned and examined all the doors in front of him, knowing they were going to have to pick apart every room looking for people. He walked up to the first door, and exhaled sharply, looking at his companions. "Ready?" he asked
Alistair nodded, "Ready." he confirmed
Theron creaked open the door, and they all stepped in mostly quietly. Mostly because it seemed to Theron that Alistair didn't even have to be breathing to make some of the loudest movements he had ever heard. He looked to Zevran who was staring at the other rogue with a quizzical expression as to why the warrior was so loud. Theron just shrugged, and they all fanned out to search the room. There were no survivors, but a few corpses, but one thing Theron was glad to learn was that all the doors from in that hallway lead to this room, which meant he wouldn't have to creep his way through a bunch of different rooms.
After they had checked every nook and cranny from top to bottom, Theron walked to end of the hall and pushed the remaining door open. Theron could feel it, even before he had opened the door that the room was filled with magic, some of it due to the mages that were in there, but mostly the feeling came from the six demons that rose from the floor.
"Zevran! You and me, grab the kids!" Theron quickly ordered, knowing that they could run the fastest of the group, "Alistair, Leliana! Kill the demons!"
The two elves torn across the room, grabbing the children. As Theron was sprinting to the other side of the room with a boy no older than ten slung over his shoulder, a rage demon stopped him in his tracks as it climbed out from the depths of the Beyond right at his feet. The child screamed, and Theron's leg swung out in reflex, but the demon caught his foot and seared through his leggings easily with fire. Theron called out in pain, as the demon burned it's inhumane handprint onto his right calf, and it was all the elf could to keep his balance and not drop the kid.
An arrow whizzed by his ear, and struck the demon through the eye. Theron watched while the kid hid his face in his neck, as the demon dissolved back into the floor, and the rogue turned to look back at Leliana who was smiling at him. She winked, and Theron nodded and smiled his thanks to her.
As the elf turned to examine the rest of the room, he saw a white haired mage defeating the last of the demons. He tried to set the boy on the ground, but the child clung to him, "Please don't let me get me." he pleaded quietly in the elf's ear.
The elf smiled, "Hey now, they're all gone." he replied
He peeked up, and saw the coast was clear. "You… saved me." he said
Theron grinned, "Technically that was Leliana, all I did was run us to a demon."
The boy stared at him with big green eyes, and Theron blew the his hair out of his eyes.
"Put the boy down, now!" Theron looked to look at the surprisingly loud voice that came from the older woman with white hair.
Theron leaned down, and place the boy on his feet, but the boy didn't leave his side. "Do not worry, we're here to help." Theron said
"Asher, over here, love." a red headed woman called, and the boy looked up at Theron.
Theron smiled at him, "Go ahead," he said "I'm not going anywhere."
Asher nodded at him, then left to go stand by the other children.
Theron walked back to his own party, where the white-haired mage eyed them skeptically, "I am Wynne, of the Circle, and these children are under my protection." she said
Theron nodded, "I'm Theron, this is Alistair, Leliana and Zevran. We're here to help however we can."
The red headed mage in the back raised an eyebrow, "You guys don't look like Templars or mages…" she thought aloud.
"We're not," Theron explained "Alistair and I are Grey Wardens, and we're here to try and pick up a Treaty."
"And you were told the Circle of Magi was in no shape to help." Wynne chimed in
Theron sighed, "You speak the truth. But when we heard that the Templars had given up on you guys, we wanted to make sure you were all right."
Wynne sighed, "Did they call for the Rite of Annulment?" she asked
Theron opened his mouth but the shut it again, trying to think of the right way to phrase it. He couldn't though, so he just decided to be blunt, "Yes, but the Knight-Commander said that if we could give him proof that the Circle was safe he would revoke it."
"What? How can you get proof?" The red headed mage asked
"He said that if we can bring the First Enchanter to him, and he vouches for us, that that would be proof enough." Theron explained
"Then our mission is clear, we must make our way to Irving then." Wynne commented
Theron opened his mouth the agree, but then stopped himself. "…Our?" he repeated dumbly
Wynne started giving orders to the two mages behind her, then turned back to the elf "Yes, our." she said then trotted up to the barrier. "I erected this to kept the demons away from the children."
That worked out well. Theron thought
"You won't be able to get passed it without my help." She turned back to Theron and his group, "Are you ready? Be aware, I don't know what lies beyond this barrier."
Theron looked down at his singed leggings, wondering if he should chance them. "Yes, we're ready. The sooner we find the First Enchanter, the sooner we can get out of here." he said, coming to the decision that he was just going to fight more demons and probably tear them more.
Wynne nodded, "All right. Be on your guard…"
"Hey!" Theron's eyes snapped open at the sound of the voice. "Hey, Theron, are you all right? You fell pretty far."
"…Tamlen?" Theron muttered, as his eyes began to focus
"Yeah, yeah, it's me. Do you feel like anything is broken?" he asked
Theron squinted his eyes, trying to think. There was something wrong with Tamlen being above him, but he wasn't sure why he felt that way. "What happened?" he asked
Tamlen pulled him into a sitting position and pulled up Theron's shirt and jacket to look at his back to see if anything was bruising, "You thought you heard something so you climbed up in that tree to take a look, remember?" Tamlen explained "But one of the branches snapped under your weight and you couldn't grab onto anything, so you fell to the ground like a log."
Theron turned around to look at the other elf, the confusion obvious on his face, "What's your deal, Theron?" Tamlen asked, placing a hand on his forehead to see if he had fever
"…This… isn't right." he said
Tamlen raised an eyebrow at him, "Theron, did you hit your head on the way down? Do you feel nauseated?"
Theron shook his head, "No, no. I mean, I feel like…" like what? He couldn't explain it, but this whole situation felt wrong.
"Theron, what's the last thing you remember?"
The dark haired elf ran a hand over his face, trying to think… "Uhm, we were brawling again, and Marathari put us on watch…?" Was that right? That didn't seem right, but everything seemed fuzzy.
Tamlen nodded, "Then you fell out of the tree, remember?"
Theron stared up at him for a moment, he could remember that, but it was strangely vivid, not like the other memories he tried to conjure up. Tamlen pulled him to his feet, "Come on, friend. Let's get you back to the clan. I want Marathari to look at you." he said as he nearly dragged Theron behind him
Theron shook his head, what did he remember? Brawling, scolding, getting put on watch… Grey Wardens? No, that was impossible. Grey Wardens didn't travel out here. He took in his surroundings, everything looked normal…
So why did it feel so wrong?
