Part 3
9
Of course, true to my luck, our getaway couldn't be simple.
Meredith was waiting in the courtyard, followed by at least twenty Templars, including Cullen.
I turned to look at the combat-capable Circle mages. "My friends and I will keep them busy," I said in a low voice. "You focus on getting everyone straight to the docks."
Slowly, followed by my friends, I walked toward Meredeth and the rest of the Templars, stopping a few feet away from her.
"So," she said. "Here we are, Champion, at long last."
"You're insane," I said coldly. "And you'll pay for all the innocent people you've killed."
"All I have done is perform my duty," she answered in her usual hard voice. "What happens to you now is your own doing."
"I'm so tired of you blaming your victims for what you do to them," I said angrily. "You torment and kill and when the people you oppress try to fight back or turn to blood magic out of desperation and fear you use it as an excuse to hurt more people and claim to be in the right."
"Despite being a mage, you were never part of the Circle, and I tolerated it, but in choosing to protect them you will share their fate."
Cullen looked confused. "Knight-Commander, I thought we were going to arrest the Champion." Of course he did. In some ways, Cullen could be so naïve.
"You will do as I order you, Cullen," said Meredith.
"No. When Thrask started telling people you'd gone mad, I defended you, but this is going too far. He was right!"
"I will not allow insubordination," Meredith snarled, drawing her sword and pointing it at Cullen.
The sword was glowing from within with red light, the color of the lyrium statue that we had found in the Deep Roads. Varric swore.
"Recognize it?" Meredith smirked. "Pure lyrium, straight from the Deep Roads. That dwarf charged quite a lot for it."
Oh, Bartrand, you continue to cause trouble for us. Still this did explain a lot about Meredith's increasingly erratic behavior. "How in the world did you manage to make an entire sword out of that thing? It wasn't anywhere close to being that large."
Meredith ignored me. "All of you!" she shouted at the Templars, gesturing with the sword. "Kill her!"
"Enough!" snapped Cullen. "This isn't what the Templar Order is about! Meredith, you're obviously unfit for duty and I relieve you of your command!"
"So," said Meredith. "Even you fall to the influence of blood magic. You're all weak!" she shouted at the Templars, "All of you! Letting the blood mages control your minds and turn you against me! I don't need any of you! I'll protect this city from the blood mages all by myself!"
"You're insane," said Cullen. "If you want to kill anyone, you'll have to go through me first!"
"Traitor! I'll kill you!"
"Just like Bartrand," muttered Varric.
Several of the Templars walked cautiously away from the ranting Meredith and went to stand with Cullen. Nobody could blame them. We drew our weapons and the two sides rushed each other.
The Templars were all fighting each other. The rest of us charged at Meredith.
Aveline, Carver, and Fenris attacked her head-on, but she seemed to be holding all three of them off easily. I swept an ice spell across her, forcing her backward. She fell to one knee, her eyes glowing red as she gasped out a prayer.
Meredith climbed to her feet and jumped straight up, somehow flying high into the air and backfliping to land on the steps behind her. Growling, she stabbed her sword into the ground and red light ran around the walls of the courtyard, hitting the gigantic bronze statues that stood everywhere.
Slowly, the statues came loose from their moorings and began to move on their own. And now we had to fight a bunch of giant statues.
Merrill and I focused on the statues while the others went back after Meredith. I bombarded the statues with ice spells, slowing down their already cumbersome movements. Cracks began to form on the statues from the magical cold.
Merrill's eyes widened. She attacked the nearest statue with a stonefist spell and it shattered. Merrill and I looked at each other and began to repeat the process with the other statues. By the time we had gotten all of them, nearly all of my energy was gone. I only had enough left for maybe one or two low-level spells.
Gasping for breath, I turned to Meredith. Aveline, Carver, and Fenris were slowly wearing her down. Straightening, I flung an ice spell at her and she staggered back, breathing raggedly. "No! I will not be defeated," she shouted. Holding the sword in both hands, she pointed it to the sky. "Maker, aid your humble servant."
The sword exploded, completely vaporized in a burst of red light that swirled around Meredith, who screamed, falling to her knees. As the light swirled around her, she threw her head back in pain, her entire body transforming into a red lyrium statue.
As we were staring at the statue that was formerly Meredith, Cullen and the remaining Templars surrounded us, swords raised. One of them ran forward to examine the statue, though she seemed to have the sense to not actually touch it. Cullen looked me in the eyes, a grim expression on his face. Then, he slowly backed away, the other Templars following his example.
Without a word, I slowly turned and walked in the direction of the docks, my friends following me. Nobody tried to stop us from leaving.