Author's Note: This is an older idea I was kicking around a while back (a LONG while back). Can't remember why I backed off on it. Still, I thought you guys might enjoy reading the few chapters I put together for it. Couple other things to note: Firstly my writing lately has not been going well, edits not withstanding. I don't know why, but I'm feeling burned out, so I'm taking some time to try and get my head in order. Secondly-And I'll be repeating THIS message at the bottom of every chapter of this I post, but FF is being weird about sending notification emails in regards to PMs. As a result you may not see my response to any review unless you specifically check the site. It's not that I'm ignoring you. Otherwise? I hope you guys (and girls) enjoy these chapters.
Black Emporium
Kirkwall, Free Marches, Thedas
9th Age (Dragon): 40th Year: 11th Month (Firstfall)
Deep within the bowels of the Kirkwall undercity was a small nook, which in turn held a relatively small, but definitely reinforced, wooden door. Getting beyond this door was something of a trick as, in order for the door to be opened, one needed a very specific password. Or a battering ram. The latter was actually more easy to come by, though using one on this particular door, tended to result in fairly immediate death upon breaching the door into the sanctum beyond.
Regardless, once beyond the door, whichever method was used, one would find themselves inside the notorious arcane reliquary shop known simply as 'The Black Emporium'.
Many centuries ago, a certain Nobleman of the city of Kirkwall, known now only as Xenon the Antiquarian, got it into his head that he deserved to be immortal. Being far too grand and special a person to simply die like some common peasant. So naturally he set about on his quest to finding immortality, throwing huge sums of gold at the problem, until one day he actually stumbled upon a solution. Far away, in the Antivan wilds, lived a witch. One who, at least according to his sources would, for the right price, agree to grant him immortality.
Naturally Xenon grasped this chance with both hands as it were, and gained what he had sought for so long. Unfortunately, in his over eagerness, Xenon forgot something rather important when he struck his bargain. He forgot to ask for eternal youth in addition to eternal life.
Xenon aged, and despite his efforts he could not stem the ravages of time. Soon enough he could barely move due to the withering his body endured despite the magics sustaining it, and was forced to flee underground for his own protection.
Here it was that he established a means by which to search for a cure to his condition. A vast reliquary of amazing objects was gathered, from near and far, by mercenaries in his employ, even as his body continued to wither.
Eventually as his funds finally began to dry up he began to arrange for the sale of the less useful objects in his possession to those with the tastes, and more importantly, gold to buy his goods. Thereby funding his continued research for the cure to his aging. Thus it was, the Black Emporium was born.
Xenon as he existed now, barely resembles a human in any recognizable fashion. Indeed some would believe that he has in fact become a literal vegetative plant, for the way in which his physical form had become twisted this way and that. Becoming fused to his seat and gnarled beyond all recognition.
Still, despite this handicap, the search goes on, and so too does the Black Emporium. Despite the occasional efforts of the afore mentioned battering ram wielding idiots.
The Black Emporium, despite its apparent failure to yield up the solution it was intended to find, was nevertheless a fantastic place to find all sorts of magically and historically significant bric-a-brac.
There were in this hidden reliquary, the fabled bone chimes of Navarra. The greatly feared and revered Ring of Unheeded Wisdom…as well as a Golem by the name of Thaddeus Gigantus, Crumbum the Third. An Urchin who disturbingly never seemed to age (whom he presumably kept around for research purposes), and a tiny bear who, Xenon himself would tell you, was name Chauncy.
But none of those particular 'artifacts' were actually what drew the universe's attention to this little strange hole in the wall on this day at this time.
No, it was another artifact, not one of the many hidden in various places about the Emporium, not some long forgotten tome, or tree of ancient knowledge. Not even the box which tended to scream hysterically if you nudged it the wrong way….No it was a mirror. One which stood in the middle of the shop right out in the open, not a few feet from Xenon's semi-mummified husk.
Xenon liked to refer to this mirror as the 'Mirror of Transformation', a grand name which the device actually embodied fairly well. If one stared into it long enough and envisioned changes to their physiology it indeed would bring about those changes for you. Not that this was the mirror's original purpose of course.
No somewhere along the line the mirror had been found in some long forgotten ruin, cracked from it's original frame, affixed in a new more arcane and suitably impressive looking frame, hit with a hammer a few dozen times, re-enchanted rather poorly by a drunk blighter somewhere north of Varantium, and then hauled rather bodily all the way to Kirkwall far to the south. It was advised that you try not to stare at the crack in the mirror when transforming yourself, the results could be horrifying.
No this mirror was once, quite a long time ago, what the ancient Elves of Thedas referred to as an Eluvian. A so called 'Seeing glass'. All but the most learned of modern Elves had forgotten the Eluvian's true purpose by and large, so maybe Xenon could be forgiven for the way in which it had been so poorly handled.
Eluvian were, quite simply put, trans-dimensional trans-locational devices. Which is to say you stepped through one, after providing the appropriate password of course, and generally ended up on another plane of existence known as the crossroads. From here you could access any number of the constructed Eluvians across Thedas and even, it was said, places far beyond! Transporting you to just about anywhere the Ancient Elves had set foot at the height of their power.
Now the vast majority of Eluvians led to simple mundane places in various cities and fortresses the Elves had constructed during their long reign as the undisputed rulers of Thedas. However, a forgotten few led…elsewhere. One or two of them even bypassing the crossroads entirely.
Several led to the realm, known somewhat fancifully as the Fade, a dream world from which much magic flowed into the lands of Thedas, and which quite unfortunately played host to hordes of demonic monstrosities.
Another led to a rather similar world to Thedas, and a great distance away, known as Nirn. Yet another led to a large island on some unknown world inhabited by giant rampaging lizards…
But this one, the forgotten and battered Eluvian in the Black Emporium, and perhaps one or two more besides, led to another world entirely. A small, relatively unremarkable world, the third such orbiting a relatively small star in an entirely different galaxy and universe…
And it was likely this fact would have been completely forgotten forever, were it not for a strange twist of fate which resulted in the still silence of the Black Emporium being shattered, rather loudly it must be said, as the afore mentioned mirror exploded in a shower of glass shards, and magical detritus, throwing a pair of rather startled humans across the room to come down with a crash amongst a number of crates, barrels and statuettes. One of the crates started screaming in response, though nobody paid particular attention to this in the sudden chaos…
As the two humans, one male one female, stumbled to their feet, Xenon, rather startled by the sudden and unorthodox interruption, finally regained his voice. "W-what! You can't be in here!" He shouted unhappily, "You don't have an invitation!"
One of the humans, the male one, staggered sideways clutching his head and accidentally laid a hand on one of the statues to steady himself. "DON'T FONDLE ANDRASTE!" Xenon screeched. "This is utterly unacceptable, you can't just barge in here, from…fr—" He trailed off for a moment before screaming rather shrilly. "You broke the Mirror of Transfiguration! You bastards!"
One of the humans muttered something unintelligible to its companion, and they nodded regaining their balance. Xenon of course had no interest in what they had to say at this point and had decided to have them thrown out. "Thaddeus! Thaddeus? Don't just stand there, get them you lumbering oaf!?"
This is when things went even more pear shaped with the new, and very confused arrivals, who had Xenon been listening more closely, were asking each other where exactly they were. Thaddeus Gigantus, the big golem in the corner straightened as he received orders from his master and took a slow lumbering step towards the pair of intruders.
Now, again, had he been paying attention, Xenon would have heard the male human sigh rather wearily as he noticed the moving mountain that was Thaddeus. He then pulled out a stick from the sleeve of his rather strangely cut shirt, and flicked it almost negligently at the ancient Dwarven killing machine responsible for most of the battering ram related deaths in the city. A jet of water burst forth and hit the golem hard enough to cause it to stagger back nearly crushing poor Chauncy the tiny bear and prompting more yelling from Xenon.
Then quite suddenly the water turned to ice and Thaddeus ground to a halt. Now, had that been the end of it, Thaddeus might have regained his senses and used his prodigious strength to break free of the ice. However more water soon cascaded over the frozen behemoth before once again turning to ice. This repeated a couple times, until it became quite clear that Thaddeus the golem was not going anywhere any time soon.
Ironically, it was witnessing this which finally quieted Xenon. "Uhm—well bother, that's never happened before." He muttered. The humans ignored him, possibly not realizing the ossified husk in the middle of the room was who had been screeching at them. "Uh—I say, you wouldn't happen to be willing to—" He stopped as the humans started towards the door murmuring to each other. "Come now, that's just rude! I'm talking to you—No, come back, at least buy something—Won't you at least tell me how long Thaddeus will be stuck like this? No?" There was a beat of silence followed by the sound of a door shutting and Xenon huffed a sigh. "Bugger…."
Darktown Sewer
Beneath Kirkwall
Wall-Eyed Sam, was not the most brilliant thug in Kirkwall, in fact he was probably one of the stupidest. This had led him to getting stabbed more than once in his short and pathetic life. The most recent of which had been when he'd run off with that tome a certain Pirate Queen and the entire Qunari nation had been after… In retrospect he should have been glad he hadn't ended up dead and not just perforated by an unhappy pirate who had promptly taken back said stolen tome.
Life hadn't much improved since then for Sam. He'd fallen in with the East Side Dodgers…then the West Side Thumpers…then that weird cult led by a girl who believed she was an Old God. Finally ending up with a small band of miscreants in the Darktown sewers, who in all honesty were not much brighter than he.
Wall-Eyed Sam had spotted tonight's meal ticket, which per agreement between this particular informal little club of thievery, had earned him the lion's share of whatever they took off those they'd robbed.
He was looking forward to getting blackout drunk at the Hanged Man that evening. He'd seen the pair of strangely dressed Fereldens, at least that's what their accents suggested they were, exiting through that door everyone knew to stay away from into the sewers.
They looked somewhat worse for wear, but each of them had some strange but finely cut clothing on them, the lad had a pack, and he'd spotted a nice little bauble around the girl's neck.
Being the dutiful sort he was—in his dreams at least—Sam had hurried off to find his friends, and had brought them hurrying back to observe the strange pair who had just made it out of the sewers in the time he'd been gone.
"Honestly, Harry, who in their right mind sees a magical mirror of 'mysterious purpose' and thinks, oh yeah, I'm going to speak a special magical tongue in its presence just because it's got these little snake carvings on the frame." The female complained.
Wall-Eyed Sam smiled happily to himself at that. Only folks who talked about magical stuff was mages as far as he was concerned. Mages always had valuable stuff on them. He'd be eating and drinking well tonight! He might even make enough to buy an hour with one of the girls at the Rose.
Big Tag would be taking the lead though, things always went better when Big Tag led the way. Big Tag was a bruiser, who'd grown up in Darktown. Nobody messed with Big Tag. Well except the Carta….and the Coterie, and the Guard….the Templars…Hawke…
Okay so plenty of people messed with Big Tag. But not little prissy foreign mages, that was for sure. Besides, they had them outnumbered!
They paused as they listened to the pair talk. "Look, I'm sorry 'Mione, I really am, I didn't mean to get us in trouble again. I'm certain we'll get things sorted out soon enough though. Right?"
The girl sighed, rubbing at her head idly. "I'm sorry for snapping at you Harry, really, I'm just frustrated. I'm sure you're right we'll get this sorted out…"
Apparently Big Tag had gotten tired of waiting at this point and stepped out into the pale moonlight filtering down from above, the signal for the others to come out and encircle the strangers.
The two strangely dressed mages stiffened slightly at their appearance. "Alright you lot, you don't belong down here see" Big Tag rumbled scratching his belly before pointing at them with his cudgel. "So you gonna have to pay right? Your money or your life."
The male cursed and rolled his eyes, and the girl sighed before addressing him. "Look we're just lost, we'll get out of here as soon as we can, there's no need for—"
Big Tag spat on the ground, "Shut it, Dog Lord Bitch!" He growled, causing the girl to look affronted. "This here's our patch and you gonna pay the fee. Or we take it out of your hide. You choose."
The pair hesitated, and Big Tag grew impatient. "Right, boys, looks like it's the hard way. Let's—" He lifted his cudgel to stalk towards the pair when all the void broke loose.
The boy huffed irritably before yanking a…stick? from his sleeve and flicking it at Big Tag. Who promptly was tossed across the tunnel to slam bodily into the wall. The other thugs, including dear Wall-Eyed Sam goggled at their fallen leader for a moment before doing what came naturally to them. Namely running at the pair screaming while waving their assorted ad hoc weaponry wildly.
Sam charged, brandished his shiv threateningly at the girl only to see her level another stick at him, a determined look on her face, before finding himself flying backwards at speed.
Luckily for ole Sam, he didn't hit a wall like the others, instead bouncing and rolling down the tunnel to fetch up against a wall with a clang.
A clang? Wall's down there were made of mud and limestone, not metal! Sam tried to roll over but found himself pinned by a weight on his back. He peered blearily at a pair of armoured boots which came to rest in front of his face. He then followed those boots up past the greaves and onwards until his mildly addled mind focused his eyes on the helmeted head of the soldier above him.
Ah sod, it was a Templar. He fought to get up, but the boot on his back just added pressure. "Stay down scum, we'll handle things from here."
So Sam, wisely, decided to stay down, you tended to do that when a knight in full armour was all but sitting on you. As a side effect it meant he had a front row seat to what happened next. The pair of mages watched the arrival of the heavily armoured soldiers skeptically. In fact the boy made a point of commenting on the fact. "Okay, did we take a left turn at Narnia? I swear those are knights coming at us…"
The girl sighed rolling her eyes as the Templars fanned out silently around them. "Harry, is now really the time for that?" She asked keeping her stick pointed outwards towards the Templars. Sam couldn't help but giggle a little inside, well at least if he didn't get to rob them, he'd get to watch the Templars beat six kinds of sod out of them. That's what Templars were for after all, as far as Sam was concerned.
Finally one of the Templars spoke, "Surrender Mage, and we'll go easy on you, Knight Captain Cullen says you all get a fair trial, but if you fight, we'll take you down." The first knight warned carefully, perhaps perplexed by the small sticks the mage were wielding, most mages preferred staves of one kind or another.
The boy looked to his companion, who gave him a subtle shake before he sighed shaking his own head. "No, I'm sorry, I can't do that, I don't know who you are or who Knight Captain Cullen is, but I won't be turning myself over to anyone, fair trial or no. We've done nothing wrong."
The knight might have protested, but the sound of additional boots marching into the tunnel stalled him. The Knight then squared his shoulders, emboldened by the reinforcements "I'm sorry to hear that, men prepare to—"
"That is quite enough Knight Sergeant." A voice rang out as several pairs of boots marched past Sam's spot on the floor.
The Knight stopped, looking quizzically towards the pair who'd just led another squad of soldiers into the room. The first, another Knight, though this one had more elaborate armour, the second a woman, with tightly bound red hair, wearing a watch officer's uniform.
The Knight then stuttered, coming to attention as he recognized the two before him. "Knight Captain, Guard Captain Aveline."
Wall-Eyed Sam groaned, the Guard Captain was perhaps the most humourless prude he'd ever had the misfortune of running afoul of. That she was somehow a friend of that pirate wench who'd stabbed him only added to his consternation regarding the lady. She shot him a quelling look and he fell silent.
The Knight Captain waved the other Templar down. "Would you care to tell me what is going on here Sergeant. I was coming down here with Captain Aveline to conduct a search and heard the ruckus…"
"Er yes sir. We had been keeping order down here as best we could, per your instructions. But—well we found this lot," He said prodding a groaning Big Tag with his foot. "Trying to rough up this pair of mages."
The Templar hesitated, then admitted somewhat grudgingly. "The Mages have done nothing wrong that we can tell, they defended themselves we think. But given the present mood in the city, and the fact this is Darktown…"
"You thought you'd try and get them off the street." The Knight Captain completed.
The Knight appeared relieved. "Yes sir,"
The Guard Captain nodded to the Templar leader, some silent message passing between them. "And you two, does that story match your version of events?" She asked sternly eyeing the strangers quizzically.
The pair glanced at each other, easing slightly. "Yes ma'am…Captain Aveline was it?" The boy asked, and she nodded in agreement. "That about sums things up, I'm afraid we're a bit lost and were trying to find our way up out of here…but we don't really know our way around. This lot." He said indicating the other thugs and Sam. "Decided to rough us up, and we put a stop to that. Unfortunately these men came in afterwards and demanded we surrender."
Captain Aveline nodded, and shared another look with Cullen. "Sounds about right for these lot being here. Wall-Eyed Sam and Big Tag if I'm not mistaken. Still, leaves me with some questions though, if we agree to keep the Templars out of it would you be willing to come up to the keep to answer some of them for me? Just need to wrap this up cleanly. We have enough trouble with mages in this city without another fight between you and the Knight Captain's boys."
The pair glanced at each other again, this time the girl shrugged, then jerked her head silently at the Guard Captain. The boy cocked his head quizzically then shrugged as well. "Alright, we could actually use the help Guard Captain…"
"Then so long as you continue to mind yourself and obey our laws, you'll have it. But first we should get you to the keep before anything else happens." Captain Aveline looked to her men who had accompanied her and jerked her head at the sorry group sprawled on the ground. "Lieutenant, sergeant take your men and get these boys up to the lockup. Knight Captain, this little diversion has disrupted our plans for the raid. I'd be surprised if the targets didn't see or hear this and do a runner but we can continue if you wish."
The Knight Captain paused. "No, you're right, we've lost what little surprise we had, and it was a low probability we'd catch anyone useful anyway. We'll call it a night. Knight Sergeant Ingram, you are to take over the patrol down here for Knight Sergeant Cade's squad. The rest of you are finished your shift for tonight, head back to the Gallows and rest."
He turned back to the Guard Captain, "Captain Aveline, would you mind terribly if I accompanied you, I'll make sure none of the more eager Knights bother you, and I admit I want to hear what these two have to say myself."
She dipped her chin slightly. "Very well, I'd appreciate the company this time. You two, may I ask your names?" She said turning her attention to the pair as a guard hauled Sam to his feet.
The young woman answered first. "Hermione Granger."
Then the lad, carefully tucking his stick back into his sleeve. "Harry Potter."
Lowtown Market
Kirkwall
Captain Aveline Vallen had to admit she didn't quite know what to make of these two. She was more accustomed to Mages than most, and even still these ones gave her pause.
Not just because they'd been down in the undercity in the middle of the night. No, that was just about normal for Kirkwall these days. There was something off about these two. Not in a bad way that she could tell, the seemed harmless enough, but in a fashion that had her hindbrain kicking her frontal lobe trying to get her to notice something.
As she led the group marching up from Darktown towards Hightown and the Keep, she kept shooting sideways glances at the pair. Who appeared not to notice for their part.
The first thing she noted, was that while somewhat scuffed and dirty, the clothes the pair wore were of fine quality. If somewhat less colourful in variety than most mages favoured. Then again not all mages could be Orlesian, or that idiot Anders. Who had more feathers in his clothes than a peacock had on its whole body.
The second things she noticed was that they were young. Not the youngest she'd seen by any stretch, but still barely out of their teens. And they stuck close to each other, clearly they were good friends in one way or another. That much had been obvious by the near silent way they communicated with each other.
The final note, and that which really caught her attention was this, they were clearly new to Kirkwall, enough so they were still looking about wide-eyed at the city even the rundown quarter that was Lowtown, with interest and a fair degree of worry.
She wondered at that, these two must have come up from the docks if they'd managed to avoid familiarizing themselves with Lowtown prior to entering the under city.
She was about to turn her attention back to the task of safely getting them back to the keep for her little chat when the girl noticed something in the sky and gasped, drawing the boy's attention. Aveline too looked up in interest but saw nothing of note. It was a clear night well lit by both moons as it was. Had something on the rooftops caught her attention?
Whatever it was had the boy curse once quietly under his breath before collecting himself, and she filed that away to ask about later.
Finally they reached the stair leading up to Hightown and glanced at the two youths again. They duly acknowledged the change in scenery with a couple glances at each other but otherwise seemed unaffected by the grander surroundings as the entered the city's more elite districts.
So they were accustomed, at least to some degree, to more developed cities. That was a bit odd. By their accents they were almost certainly Ferelden as she was, but most Ferelden cities bore more in common with the mud and stucco of Lowtown then with the granite and marble of Hightown. It was always possible they were from another Marcher city, though their garb didn't match that theory either. Maybe Jader in Orlais, it had enough Ferelden's doing business there on a regular basis but possessed typical Orlesian pomp and flare.
The last possibility didn't really match up either. These two did share the more refined accent of high born Fereldens or Tevinters who spoke common, but their dress, while odd was certainly not grand enough to suit the Northerners tastes. Magisters from Tevinter favoured outfits which would make an Orlesian Duke jealous. Not that the Orlesians would ever admit it.
Also, a pair of Tevinter Magisters wouldn't be caught dead in Darktown without a heavy escort of soldiers. It was all very strange.
The Guard Captain was finally stirred from her rumination on the strange pair when they exited the market district and passed the home of her old friend Hawke. Hawke had left the city long ago, shortly after that madman Anders had blown up the Chantry, but that didn't mean her home had remained empty.
About two days ago a detachment of soldiers bearing the mark of the Orlesian Chantry had arrived and…detained, Varric Tethras, a mutual acquaintance she would have considered a friend if pressed. They'd promptly drug him off to his friend's former estate and barred the door. She would have protested a private citizen of Kirkwall being taken in such a manner, but they came bearing a writ from the Divine herself barring her from interfering.
She hoped the Dwarf was alright. No matter how much of a pain in the arse he was.
Though, seeing the pair of grim soldiers at the door, she couldn't help but wonder if that was a vain hope.
Aveline led the way across the courtyard and up the steps towards the keep. Nodding farewell to her men as they peeled off to take Wall-Eyed Sam, Big Tag and their cohorts to the cell block. Coming to the great metal doors of the Keep, overshadowed as it was by the steel cormorant of Kirkwall.
"Open the door Lieutenant, it's just us." She said sternly to one of the guardsmen who nodded before thumping the door twice.
The door swung open, as one of the interior guards heeded the call, allowing them in out of the evening cold. She turned briefly to eye the strangers, noting the mildly impressed expressions on their faces when they first saw the Keep's entrance hall. "This way please, we'll conduct this meeting in my office I think." It was a small mercy this incident had happened in the middle of the night. This way at least they wouldn't need to listen to the constant harping of the Seneschal before getting to business.
Most of her retinue broke off and took up posts around the hall and the barracks, in the end it was just her and the Knight Captain who accompanied the pair into her office.
"Pull up a chair," She instructed before pacing around her desk, only to pause when she realized they were one seat short for the Knight Captain. He waved off her hesitation.
"Don't worry about it Captain, I'll grab one from out in the barracks." He offered turning to head back for the door when the boy, Harry if she remembered correctly, spoke.
"Actually, if you don't mind I could handle that for you?" He offered sincerely.
She paused giving him a quizzical look, before glancing at the Knight Captain, he too had paused looking curious, unsure of the lad's meaning.
Apparently Harry took this as permission as he pulled out the stick she'd seen earlier from the sheath around his wrist. What happened next would have dropped her jaw had she not been more expert at hiding her surprise.
With a brief wiggle of his stick a chair appeared, floating, from thin air. One that matched those already in her office. He waved the stick again and the chair lowered to the floor with a thump she felt beneath her feet. He noted their pause as they regarded the chair. "Go ahead Knight Captain, it's quite safe, the conjuration should last the rest of the night with the amount of power I put into it."
The Knight Captain took his hand away from the door before pacing back across the room. He raised his hand to tentatively test the chair's solidness before raising an eyebrow at her and sitting gingerly at first in the new seat.
Cullen then spoke. "I'm sorry Guard Captain, would you mind if I spoke first for just a moment, I find myself curious."
She waved for him to proceed and he turned his attention to the pair in the seats beside him. "Thank you by the way…Harry was it?" He clarified, and the boy nodded. "I admit that is quite unlike any magic I've seen before. And I've seen quite a bit."
The boy looked mildly chagrined, "Ah, I didn't realize, you both seemed familiar with magic…" He looked to them curiously. "Though, unless I'm mistaken neither of you have any yourselves?"
They both nodded agreement. Cullen spoke again. "It's quite alright, as I was saying I appreciate the gesture, I was merely surprised."
Harry nodded again. "Now, I believe you wanted us to answer some questions Guard Captain?" He said looking at her, meeting her eyes firmly.
She changed her estimation of him somewhat, she'd perfected her stare over her years as a watch woman. Not many could look her in the eye when she was evaluating them. This lad, despite his youth had some grit in him to not flinch from her stare. "Yes, and I hope you don't mind but I think we'd be best served to jump right in, I'll start with the basics. May I ask where you are from? Your accent has me a bit stumped I must admit…"
The boy winced at her blunt question and shot the girl next to him a look. "Uh—that's a bit more complicated a question than you might think. Could you tell us where we are first, then we can tell you how we got here and go from there." He suggested weakly.
She felt her eyebrow hike at that odd response to her query, she glanced at the Knight Captain who shrugged. "I see no harm in it."
The Guard Captain turned her attention back to the boy across from her. "Very well, I find it hard to believe you don't know what city you're in, without being drunk that is, but stranger things have happened. This is Kirkwall."
The boy looked blank at the name and she sighed. He must not have been well educated in geography. "It's in the Free Marches."
He continued to look blank, before he looked to the girl who shook her head, and took up the thread of conversation for him. "We don't know where either of those are, but I'll explain what we know of how we came here, perhaps that will clarify matters." She suggested before pressing on. "Harry and I were assigned the task of examining an artifact found by our…employers. They had found it in some strange ruins on another continent, and sent us to examine it on site. It was some sort of strange mirror, unlike anything we'd ever seen before. While looking it over Harry accidentally activated it somehow and we got pulled through it. We ended up in what appeared to be a shop specializing in strange arcane object down in—well that sewer…"
Cullen looked to her curiously to see if she knew what they meant. She had to admit she did, though it didn't explain how they got there. "The Black Emporium. Are you telling me you were somewhere else and got pulled through a magical mirror into my city?"
The boy nodded, "Essentially yes. Unfortunately I think it might be even more complicated than that."
Aveline sighed, somehow she'd known it would be. Strange magical mirrors aside. "Very well. Can you explain that a little?"
The boy shrugged helplessly then turned to look at the girl. She looked at her steadily almost as hard to read as the boy when he'd stared her down. "Do you have a map Captain?" The girl, Hermione, asked politely.
Aveline nodded easily pushing to her feet before pulling a rolled up map off her shelf and spreading it out on the table. The two leaned forward to examine it. Finally after about a minute of study Hermione sighed and leaned back. "It's what we feared then. That map does not match any land our people know of. It makes us wonder just how far we've travelled, and the nature of where we've been sent." She said pointedly looking at her friend who looked miserable. She then noted Aveline and Cullen's curious looks.
"I don't know how to explain, and were you not the only authority figures we've encountered since arriving here I wouldn't even consider trying. You see there are a number of things that don't make sense to us either. First and most obvious to me at least is that despite being from nowhere we can see on this map me and Harry both speak the same language as you."
Aveline nodded, that was indeed odd when pointed out like that. Hermione pressed on. "Second as I saw you had noticed earlier, Harry and I reacted strongly to seeing your night sky. Quite simply it's very different from that we see at home."
That was somewhat stranger still. As far as she knew the night sky was virtually the same anywhere you travelled in Thedas, that was what allowed people to navigate using the stars as guidance.
The younger woman sighed leaning back in her chair. "Which brings me to the final and most confusing and worrisome point. Where we come from our people are aware of the geographic nature of the entire world. We've literally mapped all the way around it and every portion of its surface. And I'd swear to you on my magic that the land described on that map right here does not exist on our world."
That made the Captain's stomach lurch, then she became suspicious. "You'll excuse me if I find that hard to believe Miss Granger."
She nodded easily, seemingly un-offended by the doubting tone. "I understand, I'm merely telling you what I've noticed since being here. What it all means I have no earthly clue."
The boy snorted. "Sure you do, if I have a theory, unlikely and insane as it is, you most certainly do. I managed to screw up so spectacularly that I got us sent to another world somehow."
Hermione frowned at the boy's bleak tone. "We don't know that Harry. There were many lands lost throughout history, it's possible we simply…well not simply really, there is that extra moon in the sky after all—but we may have experienced a temporal event."
Aveline looked curiously at Cullen wondering if he understood any of that. To her surprise he seemed to. "She means that it's possible they went backward or forward through time. As odd as it sounds I have heard the mages theorize about such things before."
She feigned indifference to that notion, shrugging as she was willing to set that aside for the moment, mages were always theorizing about something, it was half the reason they were such bloody menaces most of the time. She'd have been inclined to believe the two across from her were lying were it not for her skills at reading people, both of them read as honest. "Alright, let us say I believe you and accept that you are from a far off land, if not necessarily another world. Or at the very least that you believe that's the truth. Once you ended up in the Black Emporium, what happened?"
"We sort of stumbled around a bit, disoriented from being thrown through a mirror you know?" Harry cut in, tiredly. "Someone started yelling about us not being invited then told that stone giant to throw us out…"
"Golem," Aveline interrupted, at his curious expression she explained. "It's a Golem, the proprietor of that…shop, is rather proud of it. It's one of the Dwarves' more formidable inventions."
Harry just nodded accepting that. "I froze it in place, adding ice until I was sure it wouldn't break out. It didn't take long after that for us to decide to leave. The owner was quite upset and the mirror was…broken, obliterated really. Hermione was telling me just before those fools jumped us that the mirror couldn't be fixed anyways. The one back home was damaged too, and nothing we did could fix it."
Aveline nodded sagely, she couldn't help but wonder at the similarities the mirror they described had to Merrill's little 'pet project' down in the alienage. "Well we got out of the shop," Harry continued tiredly. "And found ourselves in a stinking sewer and promptly decided to get out of there, we'd just made it out when those idiots found us. You know the rest really, they demanded money or our lives. Then when we didn't respond right away they attacked. We fought them off then the Knight Captain's boys showed up and started threatening us."
Harry shrugged. "We didn't know them, didn't know if we could trust them, so we declined to cooperate, you arrived before it escalated."
Aveline nodded, looking to Cullen who was also nodding thoughtfully. "Yes and it's a good thing we did, otherwise things would have gotten ugly. As The Knight Captain told you he and by extension his men have some experience with magic. They are what we call Templars and are trained for fighting rogue mages."
At Harry's surprised look she decided his people must not have had something similar if they really were from as far away as they thought. "I have no idea who would have won that fight. Nor do I care to speculate, I just know it would have been ugly. So thank you for being reasonable when we stepped in."
Harry and Hermione both nodded acceptance. "Believe me we're glad things ended peacefully too." Hermione offered.
Aveline leaned forward on her desk considering. "As…outlandish as your tale is I admit I have no legitimate reason to question you further or doubt your accounting as accurate. Which leads me to my next matter of business, you are strangers who entered this city by apparently non-standard means. Thus you bypassed the gate guard, who would have asked you some basic questions before allowing you in. I'd like to cover those quickly and then we can see about proceeding from there. Unless you have any objections Knight Captain?"
Cullen shook his head, looking pensive as he eyed the two people seated with him. Aveline pressed on. "Excellent, as I suspect your business in this city involves figuring out how you got here we'll leave that question aside for the moment and proceed to the next. How long do you intend to stay in Kirkwall?"
Harry and Hermione looked at each other and shrugged. Hermione spoke up first. "We'll likely spend some time here, hopefully a method which we can use to find our way home is nearby. If that doesn't pan out, we'll have to try looking elsewhere…" She said sounding rather hopeless at the mere thought of it.
Aveline nodded. "Very well, do you have somewhere to stay or would you like us to arrange somewhere at one of the travellers inns for you, I suspect you are short on funds so we'll pay the first week for you."
Here Harry shrugged. "Depends, I assume your city uses gold as its primary currency?" She nodded. "Then we should be fine, besides, we have a comfortable tent with us, and as you've seen we can conjure much of what we need… We should be fine for lodgings."
She had to concede he had a point, though she wasn't fond of the idea of people setting up tents wherever they pleased…although. A thought occurred to her and she smirked. Cullen huffed a laugh and then explained at the two young adult's curious look. "The Captain has an idea for where you can stay I believe, one she probably thinks will nicely tweak the local leaders noses if I'm any judge."
She gave him a droll smile then looked back at them. "There is a room or two here in the Keep which have been without use since the Viscount's death last year. While I can't recommend you pitching your tent in the throne room, as that would be way too far, even for me. I can say that the antechamber which is just around the corner from here is more than large enough for most tents."
Cullen snorted, "What she's failing to tell you is that this arrangement would have one particular benefit above all the myriad of other camping sites around the city, it will piss off the Seneschal to no end. And he'll not be able to do a thing about it. In the current political environment The Keep and its environs are entirely under the jurisdiction of the City Watch and no one else."
Harry snorted in amusement but spoke up at Hermione's conflicted expression. "As much as I think annoying political twits is good fun, are we sure that's a good idea? The last thing me and Hermione need is more trouble."
Aveline shrugged. "The Seneschal is largely a toothless wyvern. As the city is currently under chantry control via the Templars, at the command of Captain Cullen here, Bran has no ability to actively control anything at the moment. The most he can do until the Chantry releases control is bitch and moan."
At their still conflicted expressions Aveline sighed. "Look, I'll admit I have one or two additional motivations in all this, keeping you close by while I investigate the viability of your claims is to my benefit. You will be kept out of sight and trouble for the most part up here in Hightown and I'll be able to more easily find you should my investigations turn anything up."
She shrugged, "I am in contact with the few other mages in the city at this time, and they may have information that will help you. Either way you and I both win if you take me up on my offer. If you don't, no skin off my nose really. Besides having to hike around town to find you."
Harry and Hermione shared a long look, before the girl eventually sighed and threw up her hands. "Fine, but if we get attacked by angry mobs I blame you two."
Harry nodded, then turned to smile at the Guard Captain. "Okay, can you have someone show us the way?"
Aveline watched as her husband Donnic led the strange pair out of the barracks and towards the throne room's antechamber, before turning her attention back to Cullen who remained in her office. The man had catapulted out of the chair upon the two mages departure and was now examining it closely, prodding it with his fingers as well as a small knife from his pocket. "I must say, this is quite unlike any magic I've seen before, if I didn't know better I'd say this was a normal chair…and to use mana so casually?"
She nodded agreement. "The first of many odd things about them…" She grumbled, before settling in her chair. "Tell me, what were your thoughts on them?"
Cullen looked up at her, "You mean in regards to their story, in general, or in my capacity as a Templar?"
"All of the above?" She suggested, shrugging.
He nodded, smiling in amusement as he once again cautiously took a seat in the chair. "I can honestly tell you I have no idea what to think, as strange as it may sound I've heard weirder from the mages who I've watched over throughout the years." He sagged somewhat into the seat, stretching out casually. "In general, they seem like a fairly savvy pair, the lad reminds me of some of the more seasoned mages I've worked with among other things, and the girl of some of the more scholarly ones. I'd say neither of them are strangers to combat. And it's just a hunch but neither of them struck me as liars, take that as you will."
He paused considering then allowed his eye to flick to her. "It's my observations as a Templar that worry me more. You may or may not be aware but a Templar of any rank has a number of abilities available to them as a result of their lyrium consumption." She nodded soberly, her previous husband Wesley had told her. "I probed the boy while he was here and noted a few things. First while I can feel his magic it didn't in any way react to my presence, I even risked performing a small dispelling rituals and yet this chair remains and his magic was undimmed."
She blinked in surprise at that, she was aware just what abilities a Templar possessed. "What do you think that means?"
He shrugged. "I haven't the faintest. A Templar's ability to dispel magic and drain mana comes from their ability to block a Mage's connection to the Fade. That partially blocking the Fade's access to those two even momentarily went unnoticed and utterly failed to affect this magic I'm sitting on right now leaves me stumped. It's almost as if he's not drawing from the Fade at all, and instead drawing from somewhere else allowing him to utterly ignore my abilities."
He sucked on his teeth a moment before sighing, "There is one other thing…"
She cocked her head, before nodding pointedly and he continued. "I have become accustomed to having a feel for just how powerful any given mage is when I meet them. It comes in handy when determining how to deploy my men for battle. I've been in the company of mages of all stripes and ages, even learned to tell the difference between a mage's normal strength and that gained by blood magic when they cast. The latter feels false, 'off' if you will. Though I still need more hard evidence before I can accuse and confront a blood mage…"
She made a gesture indicating he should continue, and he sighed. "Those two who just walked out of your office and are even now pitching a tent in the antechamber are the two single most powerful mages I've ever met. And like I've said I've met all sorts, even a Grand Enchanter or two."
Aveline settled against her desk thinking and he eyed her speculatively. "How about you what about your impressions?"
She sighed, "I have no way of confirming your assessment as to power, but I'll take your word for it. I can believe it, both of them were utterly confident in their abilities, the boy…Harry, he conjured a chair from nothing and didn't bat a lash. Neither did his companion. That was only a short time after an admittedly brief scuffle in which they'd used magic to take down some opponents. Neither seemed fazed by the mana they'd expended."
The Guard Captain paused considering. "My other impressions were more personal, I agree that Hermione is clearly the scholar of the pair, Harry the warrior. When I looked at him I could have sworn I was speaking with one of my officers and not a young mage."
Cullen nodded, "I feel similar, his attitude felt like one of my more solid lieutenants."
"There is one other thing, though I was hesitant to mention it in front of them…" It was Cullen's turn to gesture for her to continue and she did. "As you've no doubt noted from our conversation I've been to the Black Emporium before, I can easily believe that it would have had such an artifact within it. But that was not what gave me pause…."
She considered rocking her head back and forth on her neck briefly before shaking it slightly. "You are aware I was…am, friends with Hawke?"
He nodded. "Yes, you should hear the boys talk about some of the adventures they've heard about."
She nodded, suspecting that many of those so called adventures were tales Varric had told after one too many pints. "Hawke kept interesting company you'll recall, in particular the mages concerned me. Bethany her sister, was an apostate until the Wardens claimed her for their ranks. Anders, that lunatic who got it into his head to blow up the Chantry…"
Here Cullen nodded soberly. "I owe Hawke one for dealing with him, if I'd had to hunt him down who knows what would have happened."
She nodded, thinking of how much it had hurt Hawke to have to put down a former friend like that. "And one other, Merrill…"
Cullen nodded, knowing who she meant. "She's an odd one, if she weren't vouched for by both Hawke and yourself I'd have hauled her in long ago. Sweet little elf, can't be twenty yet. Seems shocked and awed by everything she sees, even us Templars. And yet she reeks of Blood Magic." he noted sounding conflicted.
Aveline nodded. "She was a Dalish Keeper's first as I recall, they have different views on magic, part of the reason they stay separate from those in the cities….Cost her in the end as I understand it. Regardless, I had a point. That story those two were telling me about the mirror reminded me of something to do with her."
"Oh?" Cullen asked surprised.
"Yes, she had an artifact, a mirror. One she claimed was a relic of her people. The ancient elves if I remember right. She spent a great deal of time cleansing it and repairing it. Though nothing really came of it that I know of. She was always reluctant to talk about it…I wonder if she might know what it is they encountered?"
Cullen considered. "You could always ask her I suppose. It would hardly hurt. Just do me a favour and keep her away from my men, she makes them jumpy. Whether she's been vouched for or no."
She nodded. "Perhaps I'll see if she'll meet them tomorrow morning." She mused.
He got up. "Alright, now, as fascinating and potentially worrying as a pair of strange, and powerful new mages are, I am needed elsewhere, I have one last watch position to check on tonight and then I must sleep as much as I can before dawn. The Seekers wish to speak with me about something."
She winced. "Good luck, I had my interview with them last week. I thought I'd never get out of there."
He smirked, "Thanks, take care of yourself Captain, and please keep me informed of what our new…friends get up to." He requested casting one last lingering look at the magically created chair before pacing out. Aveline settled back with a sigh. Something told her her life might have gotten more complicated.
Harry sighed as he stared up through one of the windows of the keep's antechamber, brushing a hand irritably through his unruly black hair.
Hermione looked up from where she was stowing some of her supplies into her pack. They had just finished placing a few—needfully subtle—wards around their tent where it now stood off to one side in the large palatial chamber, and were preparing to enter the tent for the evening.
"What?" She asked, perhaps a touch sharply.
Harry closed his eyes, allowing himself to ignore the two moons glowing in the clear night sky through the window. "I'm sorry Hermione, I've really messed things up royally this time haven't I?"
This time it was her turn to sigh. "Harry, I've already told you, you couldn't have known that the mirror would—"
"No, I couldn't have, but I still shouldn't have spoken bloody parseltongue at a mysterious magical mirror should I? I mean seriously? What kind of idiotic moron does that? Honestly, and I have the gall to call myself a Cursebreaker? I'd have been lucky having my licence confiscated…" Her friend growled harshly.
She eyed him seriously. She knew right then he was beyond platitudes but she needed to say something. "What do you want me to say Harry? Yes, you messed up. Yes, we're in a difficult…no, unprecedented situation here. But we'll handle it, we always do."
Harry sagged, "Yeah, but you shouldn't have to always be the one helping me clean up my messes. How many times have—"
Here, Hermione tried to cut across him. "Harry, I—"
"No!" He barked sharply, startling her. Harry rarely raised his voice to her. "How many bloody times have I drug you into danger, because I was too stupid, or bullheaded, to do things properly? How many times have I nearly gotten you killed, or damn near ruined your life? I keep…" He growled inarticulately as he strangled a particularly vitriolic curse, "getting us into these situations, and you keep having to bail me out! It's not right—"
"Harry!" She snapped back, mostly to get him to stop shouting, if he carried on there was a good chance someone would hear and come investigate. When he quieted she pressed on more quietly. "Harry, you need to calm down, I know you are frustrated with yourself right now…"
"How can you stand it Hermione?" He asked bitterly, hanging his head. "How do you keep putting up with me? It's nothing but trouble when I'm around. Even now, with Voldemort gone—"
She stared at him, then sighed standing properly and pacing over to him. "I can stand it, because you're my best friend, I can stand it because you've been there for me since the beginning. I can keep putting up with you, as you put it, because you never mean for these things to happen, and because you work just as hard as anyone to fix things when they go wrong. You've saved my life more times than I can count, and you have always been my best friend, the first one I had upon entering the Wizarding world…."
She pursed her lips for a moment, seeing her efforts hadn't yet got through to him, before quirking a rueful smile at him. "I put up with you because I love you, you big oaf." She just held him for a bit, before pulling him down into a kiss. "It will work out Harry, we'll make sure of that. We always do." She said smiling encouragingly up at him. "Now come on, I have something I want to do before we try for bed."
He nodded, quirking an eyebrow at her. At least she'd managed to pull him out of his funk for the moment. He had moments like this, after the war, and likely always would. The trick was getting him out of them. She'd always been the best at it, though she herself didn't realize that.
She bobbed her head at his questioning look. "We're going to try and send a message home. Now, maybe it'll work, maybe it won't, but we'll keep trying. For the sake of our own sanity and for those who might be worrying about us."
He stared blankly at her for a moment then started nodding slowly, agreeing with the idea in principal. "Okay, how?"
She chewed her lip for a moment, "Well obviously sending an owl isn't going to work. But we do have a couple other options to try. First is the mirrors."
Harry dug one of the new communication mirrors he had obtained after the war. Hermione nodded before settling in expectantly. "Er—Nymphadora Tonks" He tried, hoping to get in contact with his friend at least. She would be in a good position to contact the others who might be worried about them. Sadly the mirror stayed silent.
He sighed then looked to her, "Do you have your mirror, It'd be nice if you and I at least could talk with each other. She nodded and soon enough they had indeed confirmed they had working communications between them. "Okay so what's next?"
"Patronus Message" She said firmly.
Harry considered that. Not only was he short on happy thoughts right then he was uncertain how a Patronus might travel between worlds. Still he gave it a shot, dredging up what good feelings and memories he could. A situation helped somewhat by the recent kiss. "Expecto Patronum" He incanted aloud, giving the spell extra focus and power. Sure enough Prongs appeared. "Hey Prongs, I need you to carry a message for me." Prongs bowed his head before waiting. "Message to Nymphadora Tonks. Hey Tonks. Don't know what you've heard, but me and Hermione likely went missing on your end right? Look it's a long story, but we're okay thus far. Please send back a message if you get this…End Message."
Prongs nodded then looked about for a moment uncertainly before slowly starting for the window, picking up speed once he passed beyond it. Harry sighed. "Prongs seemed a bit less certain than he normally does when I send him out…Let's hope he figures out a way home."
Hermione nodded, patting his arm. "Let's hope, now come on, either way we're both hungry and it's getting late. We should settle in for the evening." She said firmly leading him back towards the tent.
Harry agreed somewhat reluctantly casting a worried look out the window that prongs had exited through. Finally he shook his head sadly and moved to follow her inside.
Across Kirkwall, many people were startled as the witnessed a glowing stag darting this way and that across the city before diving down amongst the buildings.
In the Alienage, Merrill, formerly of the Sabrae clan of Dalish Elves, was quite surprised when she exited her house's privy on the way back to bed to find her room occupied by a large glowing…Halla? It wasn't quite like any Hart or Halla she'd seen before that point. And it was standing there taking up most of her room, sniffing carefully at a certain mirror in the corner.
"Um—Hello?" She said, her voice a bit groggy still. The stag gave a start and turned to look at her. "May I help you?" She ventured, then nodded to the Eluvian, "I'm afraid that mirror doesn't work the way it's supposed to, I've tried fixing it…"
The Halla considered her a moment before bobbing its head as though it understood, and turned as if to leave, before stopping to consider her.
Perhaps it was the good feelings this strange beast was emanating, but…Merrill wasn't worried when its eyes fell upon her. She just smiled and tentatively raised a hand to touch it as it approached her. It's coat, feeling both real and not to her tentative touch, was warm and comforting and she giggled.
The Halla paused a moment at her touch before tentatively leaning forward and bumping her forehead with its nose. In that moment, Merrill felt something wonderful.
It had been years since she'd felt so happy, so sure and comfortable, so warm. Loved. Her heart swelled in her chest and she smiled, recognizing on some level what the strange apparition had done. "Thank you."
The Halla nodded slowly before backing off, allowing her one last pat on its flank before turning its attention to the window.
Merrill watched in astonishment as the Halla took a running leap and soared into the air through her window. She watched in awe as it streaked skyward.
Finally as the glowing beast faded from sight she sighed, smiling to herself. "Well that was nice. I'll have to look into that when I can…" She cast a curious glance at the mirror shaking her head. Whatever that was it had been interested in her Eluvian. The one she'd carefully repaired under the watchful eye of her friend Hawke.
Sadly the Eluvian was sealed, and would not open for her or anyone else who lacked the key. It was useless to her, and yet she could not bring herself to destroy it or otherwise be rid of the thing. Still…she'd keep an eye on it. Something about it had drawn that wonderful creature here.
She was soon settled in amongst her sheets on her little straw mattress bed, it didn't take long after that for her to fall asleep, her troubled mind soothed by the Halla's presence. That night she dreamed of glowing beasts, laughter and warm embraces.
The next Morning.
Kirkwall
Free Marches, Thedas
Aveline pulled her canteen from her belt as she slowly made her way down through the Lowtown Market. Taking a sip of the still warm tea she kept within. The Market was quiet this time of morning, most of the shopkeepers still asleep in their homes or tents, the few here were up still working at opening their stalls.
Aveline liked this time of morning. Trouble makers seemed to prefer the late hours of night and evening, they too being in bed by this time. The city, usually an unrelenting cacophony of sound, was virtually silent.
She nodded to a watchmen as she passed into the Lowtown residential district, if such it could be called. To her surprise she saw a familiar face just stepping out his door when she entered the courtyard there.
Gamlen Amell. Hereditary uncle of her friend Hawke. It was strange to be seeing him down in this part of town these days, though she knew why he was here. He'd been residing in the Hawke estate after her friend had vacated the city, but with those Chantry soldiers using it in their investigations he and his daughter had taken up in his old home in low town.
Gamlen was an odd fellow, in times past he had been a crotchety, bitter old spendthrift who had spent what little gold he had on whores and booze. He'd gone through a real change in recent years however. Slowly warming, ever so slightly as a result of his family's efforts. He'd been shattered when Leandra, Hawke's mother, had been murdered. And had looked set to fall back into old habits when his daughter had come back on scene.
Charade Amell was a fiery one, and she'd done much to turn her father around. Oh Gamlen would likely never be a truly warm or welcoming fellow, but he wasn't the miserable scoundrel he'd been before. He'd even told Hawke how proud he was of her for everything she'd done before she'd been forced out of the city.
"Gamlen," She greeted, as she paced over.
He looked up from the sack he was tying off, his brow furrowed at being addressed. Though it smoothed again when he recognized her. "Ah…Guard Captain, morning. What brings you down into the rat's nest this early in the morning?" he asked brusquely.
"Going to check on Merrill. How are you this morning?" She asked politely.
He shrugged. "Fine I suppose, hear tell those…soldiers are just about done up at the estate. Me and the daughter should be able to move back in soon enough." he paused considering, then shrugged. "It's odd you know, I never thought I'd miss the hustle and bustle of having Hawke around…But I do. Void, I even miss that damn beast of hers!" He grumbled.
Aveline couldn't help but chuckle at that. Gamlen and "Dog" had a contentious relationship, one famous amongst those who knew them. That he was admitting to missing the Mabari war hound was telling. "So, you checking up on little Merrill are you? Good, she stops by every so often looking to the plants. Nice lass, for an elf…" He added that last bit a moment later, though she could tell it was halfhearted. He really did like Merrill, but was too stubborn to admit giving up his dislike of elves. "Seems sad though these days. Misses Marian I can tell."
Aveline nodded, Hawke had been Merrill's closest companion in years past. And though she wouldn't admit it, Aveline strongly suspected Merrill had harboured a crush for their fearsome leader.
"It's a good thing I'm going to check up on her then. But first, how are you and Charade holding up?"
"Fine for my part, Charade's handling well enough too. Would be nice to have Orana around of course. Girl was magnificent at taking care of things…But I understand why she went with Hawke and Bethany."
She nodded. "Yes she was very good. Though I don't think she ever quite got used to the notion of being free."
Gamlen chuckled. "No, I don't think she did at that…"
She sighed, taking another swig of her tea. "Well, I'd better be off if I want to catch Merrill, she's an early riser and I want to see her before she begins her rounds."
Gamlen nodded understanding. Merrill was well known for the way she doted on the Elves of Kirkwall. She made it her business to check on as many as she could every day.
"Yes, well. Goodbye then I suppose. See you around." He said, his customary grumpy tone in place, though she could tell it was mostly a put on. He had a reputation to uphold after all.
She nodded to him, securing the canteen to her hip again before returning to her walk. It took only a few minutes for her to make it down into the alienage from there, and the sight which greeted her made her sad.
Merrill was up alright, and tending the Vhendahl tree, nobody else would be doing it if she didn't it seemed, most of the other elves had fled the city in recent months. Only a handful remaining in the alienage proper. Boarded up houses were everywhere in the small, formerly tight knit community.
To her surprise however, especially given her recent talk with Gamlen she found Merrill appearing reasonably happy, fairly dancing about the tree as she watered it with her large can. Humming to herself happily.
"Merrill," She greeted as she slowly paced over.
The elf gave a small startled squeak before blushing in recognition. "Aveline!" She shouted happily dancing over and hugging her before backing off. "It's been too long. How have you been? I'm sorry I haven't been up to see you, but I've been busy. So many to see to, so little time, and the tree, you'd think one of the others would care enough to at least water it…"
Aveline chuckled at Merrill's familiar babbling cadence. "I am well Merrill. I understand why you've been busy. I must admit though you seem in a better mood than I was expecting."
Merrill looked at her curiously before getting an "oh" face. "I am in a good mood I suppose. I saw the most wonderful thing last night!"
Aveline cocked her head curiously. "Oh and what was that?"
"A Halla! A glowing one! They never do that normally, what it was doing in my house I don't know, but it was looking around for…never mind! But it was wonderful, I felt wonderful while it was around, so beautiful…" Merrill sighed happily.
Aveline nodded, smiling slightly, she had suspected it might be that, if she hadn't heard that report from one of her guardsmen the night before, she'd suspect Merrill had been chewing too much Elfroot…
The night before one of her guardsmen had returned to the barracks in quite a state, apparently he'd nearly messed his armour when a glowing hart had erupted from the antechamber window next to where he was patrolling the battlements.
"Yes, several people in the city reported seeing it." Adeline noted, also thinking of the confused citizens who were gathered at the keep this morning to report the strange creature. "And actually I suspect I know where it came from, and wanted to talk to you about it."
"Oh?" Merrill asked confused. "I didn't make it, though I wish I could…"
She raised a placating hand at the slight elf's worried expression. "No Merrill, I know it wasn't you. You see we have some…unusual guests up at the keep. We, the Knight Captain and I that is, were wondering if you might be able to help us in some matters concerning them?"
Merrill, cocked her head curiously blinking those big innocent eyes at her. It was odd, but Merrill always struck Aveline as a little bird-like, though she couldn't say why. "Oh, who are they, if they're Dalish, I'm not sure how much help I'll be, Sabrae isn't too happy with me right now, and the other clans are…"
"Easy Merrill, they're not Dalish, they're mages though, and strange ones at that. But you might know something about the method they used, or at least claimed they used to enter the city." She watched Merrill become even more curious. "They claim to have come through a mirror in the Black Emporium."
Merrill blinked again, before becoming very animated. "An Eluvian? They came through an Eluvian, in the Black Emporium? But…I never saw one down there, only that mirror of transfiguration…unless—" She cut herself off then frowned, stamping her foot. "That mirror, it'd been tampered with, I knew it as soon as I saw it but I didn't know what it was originally, there's been another Eluvian in this city all along and I didn't know it?" She said sounding distressed.
"Was, another Eluvian in this city if what they tell me was true." Adeline interrupted before Merrill got it into her head to go look for the thing. "Apparently it didn't react well to them passing through it and shattered."
Merrill considered her, then sighed. "And so another artifact of my people is gone. Curse Xenon and his meddling. It figures—" She trailed off grumbling before collecting herself. "Alright, I understand, you thought of me when you heard their tale because of my mirror yes?"
Aveline nodded, Merrill was usually a little…scatterbrained, but she'd always displayed the curious ability to become frighteningly well focused when it mattered. Especially when it came to all things elvish. "Yes, their tale was most odd too. They claim to be from a land, if not a world, far away, and that they were examining a strange mirror in some ruins when they accidentally activated it and were pulled through against their will."
Merrill twitched noticeably, then cocked her head again, a common gesture from her when something interested her. "Really, another world…" She paused thinking about that. "The Eluvian were reputed to reach far and wide from the crossroads. All across Thedas, and if the rumours were true, beyond. I had always assumed that part of the stories was an exaggeration, like one of Varric's lovely tales about…never mind. If they really are from so far away…but you spoke with them? They speak common?"
Avenline nodded agreeably. "Yes, and they even pointed out how confusing that was to them. From what the girl, Hermione said, it sounded like this world at least what we know of it shouldn't exist considering what they knew of their own. They didn't recognize Thedas from the maps and apparently even the night sky was different."
Merrill blinked at that, smiling. "Fascinating. Do you think they're telling the truth?"
Aveline hesitated then nodded cautiously. "They didn't strike me as liars. They at the very least believe what they said to me. And…well their abilities from what little I know of them support the belief they've been educated in magic. Somewhere very different from the circles or any other magical tradition we know of."
Aveline wondered if Merrill ever got a crick in her neck from cocking it to the side like that, but continued, explaining what she meant. "It is my considered opinion given what I know about that glowing Hart…Halla, that they were the source of it. It was quite unlike anything I've seen before from you, Anders or even Bethany. Also, they performed a feat of magic which had even the Knight Captain excited like a child on Satinalia." She noted chuckling in remembrance.
"Really, Cullen is always so calm!" Merrill noted startled. "What did they do that it got him so excited?"
Aveline smiled thinly relishing the anticipation she'd created in her friend. She'd always been jealous of the way Varric could keep others on the edge of their seat whilst telling a story. "The boy conjured a chair."
"Conjured…as in?" Merrill trailed off uncertainly.
"As in they made one from thin air, one which wasn't an illusion, Cullen was able to sit on it in full armour. They told us it'd last the night, and it did. It only faded out again this morning. Not long before I came to see you. Gave me quite a start."
Merrill looked thunderstruck. "I've never heard of such a thing! I've seen mages call ice, fire, rock and even lightning, but I've never heard of making something out of nothing before…Oh, that's amazing!" Merrill gushed excitedly. "Do you think they could teach me? I can't imagine what magic must be like in their lands if they do such things—I wonder if it was blood magic? No, you would have told me if it had been…oh this is so exciting!"
Aveline chuckled, pleased with the response her story had garnered. "No it wasn't blood magic though it was certainly strange. I don't know if they would be able to teach it or not. Some things about their magic had even Cullen stumped."
Merrill shook her head in awe of the notion. "Still, just imagine the things they might be able to do?" She blinked a moment before focusing back on her, forcibly reining in her excitement. "And you say Cullen was confused about their magic, not just the conjuration I assume?"
"Indeed, he tested them a little with his Templar abilities while we talked with them. Nothing too harsh," She hurried to say as Merrill winced. She understood, by all accounts a Templar's abilities caused a great deal of discomfort in Mages. "But Cullen was able to note that their magic, which was apparently fairly strong was entirely unaffected by his attempts to block the fade's influence. The chair didn't react in any way when he tried to banish it."
Merrill, smiled sighing happily. "I wonder—No, there is so much that is strange about them. Do you think I could meet them?"
Aveline nodded. "Yes, that's the other part of why I came to see you, they are staying up at the keep for the moment, and I thought perhaps you could speak with them a little and confirm that what they went through was an Eluvian. Also I thought it might be nice for you and they both to meet each other."
"What are they like, aside from their magic I mean?" Merrill asked curiously. "Are they old, I bet they are if they can do such wonderful things! Are they Elves? Human, not Qunari surely, you'd have mention if they were…"
Adeline raised a hand again to stop her. "They're very nice Merrill, and no not actually all that old, at least to my eyes. Perhaps a year or two your senior if that. Human, though they are dressed strangely, I suppose I shouldn't be surprised considering where they claim to be from…"
Merrill nodded. "I'd be happy to meet them…The other elves, those who are still in the city at least…they are managing well enough that they don't need me to check on them every day anymore. Do you think they'd mind meeting me?"
Aveline shook her head. "I imagine they might be quite eager especially if you let them know you know a bit about those mirrors. They seem quite distraught finding themselves stuck here."
Merrill nodded eagerly. "I'd be happy to meet them. Just let me put my things away! Oh my, I haven't been this excited in ages, I hope they don't—" Aveline didn't hear the rest as Merrill had hurried off inside her house babbling to herself. She shook her head fondly. Those two up at the keep didn't know what they were in for.
Unknown Location
Thedas
A patronus, could move very quickly when it wanted to. Being largely unimpeded by the usual laws of physics and such which dictated something's speed. Oh they couldn't move at the speed of light, more's the pity, but they were still very fast.
Prongs, had been bouncing across northern Thedas all night long since leaving that strange elf's house in Kirkwall. And thus far had little luck in finding more of those mirrors which sang with otherworldly magic.
That was until a few minutes ago when Prongs had sensed on some primeval level another mirror somewhere to the north of his position and set out, searching a deep forest for that elusive mirror.
And so it was, that Prongs entered the lands and forests which constituted the Tevinter Imperium, specifically those forests they had seized from the elves of Arlathan so long ago. His arrival at the small hidden ruins deep within the forest surprised the ruin's sole occupant, an elf, bedraggled and confused, stumbling from the ruin's shadowy depths.
The elf and the patronus found themselves staring at each other. The elf had seen many strange things in his time, many wonders of magic, modern Thedosians had forgotten or purposefully forbidden, and while he'd seen illusionary animals of great quality he'd never seen one like this strange glowing Halla which allowed a small shiver of warmth to breeze across his soul.
Solas his name was, though that was not the only name he'd gone by. He watched the Halla as it watched him for a moment, before it shook its head and seemed to dismiss him on some level turning its attention back to the ruins and bounding off.
He did not move to pursue it, it moved far more quickly than he could, especially in his diminished state. Though he stayed still for a time pondering what he'd seen. In the end he came to a single conclusion as the Patronus carefully searched the ruins below, it was heartening to know that strange wonders of magic could still existed. That thought made him smile wanly before he turned to stumble off into the forest.
Prongs for his part was frustrated, he'd searched the ruins, and indeed he'd found another mirror, this one too was sealed. Unfortunate, but he was getting a feel for this magic, this mirror and the one in Kirkwall were sealed differently, and he could hear the faint distant echo in this world's magic indicating there were others out there, some undoubtedly sealed like these ones, but yet more not closed properly. He would find one, and he would relay his message.
Harry Potter did not realize it, but his Patronus, embodying as it did his fallen father's animagus form, allowed a small sliver of that man's soul to house itself within it whenever it was summoned. It seemed only right to the ephemeral intellect of the Patronus that his creator's father be able to watch over and aid his son, if only in some small way.
Prongs…and that small sliver of James Potter, bounded onwards.
The Keep
Kirkwall, Free Marches
Thedas
Harry shuffled out of the bathroom yawning tiredly, whilst morosely reflecting on his own inadequacies. He tried not to wallow, but it was hard considering that he'd literally woken up in the wrong world this morning. And that he'd managed to get his girlfriend stuck here too!
It was then, a few minutes later after feeding the familiars, that he stumbled outside the tent in order to do some morning stretches and look around a bit, and to distract himself from his worries.
The antechamber of the Viscount's Keep, where he and Hermione had pitched their tent was actually fairly nice, even by the standards of someone used to the modern age back on earth. The room's construction was fine, and while well appointed it didn't strike him as overly gaudy or lavish considering it's function. It was a large open room with banners lining the pillars between the high windows and benches where people could sit while awaiting an audience, only the occasional piece of art decorating the walls.
He was stretching his arms while examining a sadly unmoving portrait of a rather sour looking man in armour when his attention was drawn away as the large imposing metal door of the chamber opened fractionally and a Guardsmen, in plate armour with orange livery poked his head in. "Ah, you'd be one of our new…guests would you?" He asked rhetorically. "You have a visitor if you are willing to meet them. A mage, though Captain Aveline vouches for her…"
Harry paused considering, the Captain had mentioned knowing some of the local magicals, perhaps this was one of them? "Sure let her in."
The guard nodded, stepped back out of sight, a murmuring was heard before a…girl? Stepped into the room.
She was without a doubt the strangest girl he'd ever seen, and that was saying something considering he was good friends with Luna Lovegood. She was short, about a head shorter than himself, though she was thin and lithe, as opposed to stocky and broad. She had roughly hewn black hair which was partially braided and the widest pair of big hazel green eyes he'd ever seen. Her elegantly tattooed face was…both angular and soft at the same time, which was an odd contradiction in terms. Her nose more smoothly joined her forehead without being large and obtrusive and her ears…
Harry did a double take looking at the strange young woman. At first he'd thought his eyes were playing tricks on him but the girl stepping into the room with a large staff slung across her back had very definitely pointed ears.
Not as big and protruding as Dobby's by any stretch, but very definitely pointed in a way which was clearly not human.
As for her manner of dress…She wore a finely woven green tunic over chainmail and leathers. Her shoulders were clad in small fur pauldrons and a green scarf was wrapped about her neck. On her hands were well woven leather bracers, and on her feet…
He would have called them knee boots had they actually possessed coverings for her feet. He was reminded rather starkly of Luna Lovegood in the way in which she padded through what was essentially a castle in bare feet.
She looked around a moment before her sharp eyes fell on him and she blinked in surprise. "Oh hello, I didn't see you there…"
She paced towards him cautiously. "My name is Merrill, Aveline…the Guard Captain, she suggested I come meet with you. I hope you don't mind me intruding, but I have to say what she told me was intriguing…"
Harry interrupted gently. "I don't mind, and if the Captain suggested you meet us it's probably a good idea, we're not exactly used to this area yet." He assured her, then paused. "I'm sorry, I should introduce myself. I'm Harry Potter."
Merrill bobbed her head in greeting. "Hello messier Potter."
He smiled back at her, something about her sincere attitude really did remind him fondly of his friend back home. Though he did have questions. "I'm glad to meet you Merrill, you can just call me Harry though. I hope you don't mind me asking, but are you an Elf?"
She blinked in surprise at him. "Yes, I am—" She paused considering him curiously. "I assume then that wherever you are from you do not have elves?"
He shook his head. "Not exactly, we have a similar race, though they are very different from your own. I'm sorry if the question was rude, I was just caught off guard." He paused considering, trying to think of a how to improve his first meeting with a member of a strange race. "If I might ask are there any…customs I should observe when speaking with a member of your people, I don't want to accidentally insult you…"
She laughed, clearly startled by his attitude. "You're worried about offending me? That's different!" She said, causing a note of worry to enter his mind. "No, you don't need to worry about customs as I'm effectively a city elf. If I were still among the Dalish you'd need to worry more. And you are not likely to offend me unless you start calling me 'Knife Ear', filthy elf or thieving scum…"
He nodded easily, then bowed to her slightly in thanks, "I'll remember it, thank you Merrill…I'm sorry is there a last name I should know?"
She shook her head. "No, I'm just Merrill now. I used to belong to a couple clans but I'm on my own now."
He nodded, and was about to ask about that when he noticed the flap to the tent lift out of the corner of his eye and Hermione stepped out. He waved to her grabbing her attention. "Hey 'Mione. Have a good rest?" He asked, before indicating the young elf across from him. "This is Merril, and she's an elf. Cool huh?"
Hermione blinked in consternation at Merrill who waved cheerily at her before pacing over. "She tells me that there aren't many traditions we need to worry about as she's what she referred to as a City elf. And that she won't be easily offend so long as we refrain from calling her Knife Ear, filthy elf or thieving scum."
She nodded sagely receiving his message, she wasn't easily offended and so long as they used some common sense nothing they said would cause insult. Also she got the message that there were more kinds of elves and that they were not necessarily treated well considering the slurs he'd just warned her about. He smiled thinly at her. "Not quite like Dobby is she?"
Merrill blinked curiously at the byplay between the two. "I'm sorry what's a Dobby?"
Harry chuckled. "An old friend we will miss dearly, as I told you we don't have elves like you back home, but we do have a species called house elves. They're very different though. Not the least of which is because they're easily knee height at best."
She nodded, fairly goggling at him. "I see, how very strange." She turned her attention to Hermione and bowed slightly at the waist. "Greetings serah. As Harry has told you my name is Merrill. Aveline suggested I come see you…"
Hermione nodded, smiling now as she got over her surprise. "Hello Merrill, I'm Hermione. I'm pleased to meet you. Might I ask why the Captain suggested we see you?"
Merrill smiled at the friendly greeting, a rare thing to receive from a human these days, and she'd just received two such greetings in as many minutes. "It was for a couple reasons really. She mentioned you were mages and were unfamiliar with the area, and thought we might be friends. Also she told me how you got here, and knew I might be able to help you."
The two strangely dressed humans looked at her curiously and she explained. "Oh I'm sorry, I should have led with that I suppose. I just get so frazzled sometimes. She told me about the mirror you came through, and while I don't have a functioning one, I have studied Eluvians…that's the magic mirrors in case you were wondering, extensively in fact!"
Hermione blinked then smiled at her. "Ah, it's no problem Merrill, and I can't tell you how glad we are to hear that somebody knows about how we got here."
Harry nodded firmly. "Yeah, you have no idea what a relief it is…"
"Perhaps we should invite her inside, it'll be more comfortable to talk about such things in the tent rather than out here." Hermione suggested.
Her friend shrugged easily, "Sure, could use a spot of tea anyways. Would you like some as well Merrill?"
She looked doubtfully at their little tent but nodded not wanting to be impolite. Harry smiled in anticipation, this time he'd get to see someone react to a new magical wonder, instead of the other way around. "Alright this way then." Hermione chuckled no doubt anticipating the same thing.
Harry held the flap open and Hermione ducked through, Merrill hesitated but followed soon after. Harry stepped in behind her just in time to hear her gasp in surprise.
On the outside their little tent was perhaps at most twenty square feet give or take a foot here or there. On the inside however…It was much larger. In fact it was larger than some apartments Harry had visited. It possessed a living room/dining room, kitchen, storage room, washroom and bedroom. Though Hermione had claimed that space at his insistence. He had been bunking on the pullout bed in the living room during their expedition, and so had continued to do so once here. They may have been dating, but they were taking things slow just in case.
Merrill was blinking dumbly at the space before her before whirling, nearly bowling into Harry to stare at the tent flap, before spinning around again nearly tripping over Juno who had come to check her out. "It—that's not possible is it? It was tiny on the outside…but."
Harry just chuckled, "Yeah that's about the same as my reaction when I first saw one of these. Come on take a seat, we'll talk about things, would you still like that tea?"
She nodded slightly at him taking in the space around her. "This is incredible. You—this is magic isn't it? You did this?" She asked as Hermione, smiling led her towards the table. Not knowing Merrill was just realizing this "tent" was many times more luxurious than her little hovel down in the alienage.
"Not myself no, I was given this tent for my expedition before we left home." Hermione explained. "Though I am capable of the magic necessary to expand a space like this."
Merrill still blinked at the world around her as she sat with thump in the seat offered, before coming back to herself a bit, and noticing the dog now looking at her expectantly beside her. "Oh, that's Juno, don't mind her. She's very well behaved." Harry assured her.
She nodded tentatively reaching out to pet the dog's head. "She's beautiful…I'm sorry there's so many questions I want to ask you, but what kind of dog is she, I haven't seen one quite like her…"
Harry just smiled, he knew how she felt, he'd felt that way enough times over the years. "She's a Border Collie, though she's been magically enhanced to be smart enough to be a familiar. Not that Collies aren't smart enough as is…."
She scratched the dog's head nodding. "She's like a mabari then? They're magically intelligent warhounds native to Ferelden."
Harry shrugged. "Sounds about right, though Juno's not a warhound, just a companion."
Merrill nodded, then gave a start as Hermione returned depositing a steaming cup of tea in front of her. She stared at it a bit. "It's warm, but how do you—" She looked about then spotted the stove in the kitchen. "You have a stove, but what about the smoke, I didn't see a pipe on your tent…"
"The magic of the tent vanishes the smoke Merrill don't worry. Be careful drinking that, it's fairly warm." Hermione cautioned sitting herself down after handing off a cup to Harry.
Merrill eyed the cup speculatively before smiling, "I'm sorry I knew I should expect the unusual around you, Aveline told me about the chair. I guess I just didn't expect you to keep surprising me even beyond that!"
Hermione nodded, "Yes, we don't really know what magic here is capable of, we just do what we've always done…"
Merrill smiled in understanding. "Of course, and I have no doubt mages here could do this too if they thought to, but most are too busy trying to cook Templars or hide from Demons to bother inventing…"
"Demons?" Harry asked curiously before shaking his head sharply. "Sorry, as you can tell we have our questions too, but we've gone a bit off topic."
Merrill nodded, and the two humans didn't know it but she was wondering how it was that they could not know of Demons. "Yes, that's right, I'm sorry too. You wanted to hear what I know about Eluvians…" She said taking a tentative sip of the warm tea whilst settling into her surprisingly comfortable seat.
"Eluvians are elven magic," She started simply, as she got into her element. "They date back to the time of Arlathan, the ancient elven empire thousands of years ago. Back in that time, my people ruled the world and humans were relatively primitive…er—no offence."
Harry just chuckled. "None taken, we're not from around here, and besides until fairly recently humans back home could be considered relatively primitive too."
She nodded her thanks. Then continued. "The elven empire, if the stories are true was not connected by roads, but by Eluvians. Mirrors which allowed one to step from one city or settlement to another with barely a pause. They, the ancient elves that is, were capable of great feats of magic, and were said to be immortal. But when the empire eventually fell to the humans of Tevinter…much was lost. Elves became mortal, our people scattered when our cities fell, and our magic became diminished. We fled south, and attempted to start anew, but the rising human empires did not trust the elves…."
She sighed sadly. "It is a long miserable tale, and you did not come here to hear it, but the elves civilization no longer exists in any meaningful way, and the Eluvians are another forgotten magic from a bygone age. I'm the only person I know who has studied them at any length. And I likely wouldn't have done that much if my clan hadn't lost some of our number through one."
She saw their intent expressions and elaborated a bit. "The Mirror was hidden in a ruin near where we had camped. Some of our scouts happened across it only to vanish when they interacted with it. That mirror was damaged because of it. I spent many years trying to repair the mirror, and yet despite knowing some of my clan managed to use it, I cannot open it. Each mirror is different, what works for one does not work for another, and something changed in this mirror when I repaired it…"
Harry and Hermione nodded solemnly. "So you're telling us that you have a mirror but that you don't think it will help us." Hermione clarified.
Merrill nodded soberly. "Yes, I'm sorry. I'd be willing to show it to you though, perhaps with your magic you'll have more luck than I?"
Harry nodded. "We can try. Though as I understand it from what you were telling us, it is unlikely to lead to the same place the mirror we came through did. It likely won't lead back home?"
She nodded, "Yes, the mirrors all linked to another at a specific location. Some directly but most through a place known only as the crossroads. It was said Arlathan, the capital that is, had a great building housing hundreds of mirrors leading to every corner of the empire, the fade, the crossroads and beyond…But it was destroyed during the siege of the city…"
Harry and Hermione nodded. "Well, I'd say seeing your mirror would be a start, though maybe you can show us around a bit too, if we can't get your mirror to work we should at least learn our way around a bit."
Merrill nodded happily. "I'd be glad to show you around, and to show you the mirror. Er—I hope you don't mind though, my home is a bit well… it's not very nice compared to your tent…" She admitted shamefacedly.
Harry smiled gently at her. Though it was Hermione who spoke "Don't worry about it Merrill, I'm sure we'll manage fine. Now was there anything else you'd like to talk about before we go do all that?"
Merrill considered, there were in fact hundred of questions she wanted to ask. But she knew they didn't have all day, and the two were likely eager to see if her mirror could send them home. She'd have to content herself with a couple of the more pressing ones. Or at least what she considered pressing. "Do you like Kirkwall?" She asked suddenly. "I mean, I wasn't sure I liked it at first when I arrived here, it's so big, and dirty…and smells bad if I'm being honest. But It's not so bad now that I'm used to it and know my way around."
Harry chuckled. "Can't say we've seen all that much of it. We arrived in that shop…The Black Emporium Captain Aveline called it? And nearly got mugged by some thugs when we got out of the sewers. Then the Templars wanted to arrest us, but Aveline called them off with that Knight Captain of theirs and led us up here…"
She nodded sagely. "Well I look forward to hearing what you think once you've seen a bit of it. Just two more questions before we go if you don't mind that is?"
They shook their heads. "You mentioned House Elves, that they were different from us, could you tell me about them?"
Here Harry sighed loudly, drawing a playful glare from Hermione, Harry explained. "You're in for it now. This is her favourite topic." He pushed to his feet, and Hermione frowned at him.
"Where are you going?" she asked looking put out.
"To get something for us to eat, this is going to take a while…" He said playfully.
Author's Note: Thanks for reading! Hope you enjoyed it. As stated in the author's note up top, notification emails for PMs is not working right now on FF, as such if you want to see if I replied to your review (should you post one) you'll need to check the site periodically.
