Moonpriestess30: you got it! And not to fear! I have a fifteen chapter miniature story finished that I'm going to start posting after this has finished. Though I will be taking a couple days break in between the end of this and the start of the new one. It's a FenrisxOC, and I kinda love it.


Chapter 201 – Risky Game

'What a pointless fucking waste of life,' Makatza hisses, her mood hadn't improved. They had ran down to the docks seeing young men and women become abominations in their utter overwhelming fear; even Fenris felt bitter about it all instead of justified. After fighting wave after wave of demons they crossed the waters to help Orsino, who reached the end of his tether and became something that most of the companions would forever see in their nightmares. Once they had dealt with him they took a moment to recuperate, knowing that Meredith and the worst fight was yet to come. As a mage heavy party fighting against Templars? There were going to be injuries.

'You know when I woke up this morning I did not think I was going to be high tailing it across the city with my arse cheeks being spanked by Templars,' Isabela says trying to perk Makatza up who was healing a nasty cut on her shoulder. It didn't work, the young woman seemed to be in one of the worst moods she had ever seen. 'Hey, hey sweetie,' she said getting her attention. 'Are you okay? What's-? What's going on in that melon of yours?' Isabela says poking her on the forehead.

'This whole fucking situation. Meredith had Anders, he was right fucking there! But no, every mage has to die. ''To be on the safe side,'' and then to make matters worse almost every mage we've come across has proven her fucking point by becoming abominations!' She says in frustration. 'It's just... oh Maker! It makes me so angry!'

'I can tell,' Isabela says raising a brow as the air pressure around Makatza changed and her hair began to sway. 'I know it's fucking annoying, we've just got to roll with the punches and makes sure that our people come out limping,' Isabela says softly as she offers a hug now that Makatza had finished healing her. Katza sighs and falls into her embrace pressing the side of her face onto her shoulder. 'We'll be okay and the city will pick itself up again in no time,' Isabela soothes. Makatza just makes a non-committal humming noise; only Fenris knew that she was planning to leave the city.

With a sigh she moves away, 'I had better get around to healing everyone else,' Makatza says quietly, now that she had murdered Anders she felt responsible for keeping everyone healthy. The death sat heavy on her heart and she didn't want to think about how she knew he would be in her dreams, probably for the rest of her life. She checked Aveline over, Garrett and Merrill were fine, Varric had a mild concussion from used as a bounce board by the strange creature that tore itself from the main convoluted mass of bodies. She walks over to Sebastian and begins to look for wounds. 'Are you hurt?' She asks as she can't see any obvious injuries.

'Katza,' he says softly grabbing her hand. She looks at his finger that had caught hers and looks back up at him, a tired expression on her face. 'You didn't have to be the one to kill him,' Sebastian said quietly. Before she could say any more he tilts her head to look at him, 'come to Starkhaven, please. Leave this city and be safe in my kingdom,' he murmurs looking into her eyes. He blinks and catches sight of Fenris a few feet away watching the interaction. With a heavy mental sigh he looks back at her, 'both of you.'

Makatza smiles weakly and touches his cheek. 'Thank you, no,' she says simply before moving away from his grasp to heal whomever was left.

He was left standing there with his hand still slightly outstretched, he knew that she would never be his, but it didn't mean it would stop hurting. The exiled Prince could only watch as she walks over to the Tevinter elf and embrace him softly, her touch loving and facial expressions of adoration and comfortability. Sebastian runs his hand through his hair and turns away, unable to watch any longer. He had found peace of a kind but there were occasional storms.

Makatza pulled away from Fenris and placed her hand on his chest. 'Are you hurt? Anything broken? How's your shoulder?' She asks as she lets her mana flow over him.

'What did he want?' Fenris said bluntly unable to help himself.

She smiles bitterly, 'he wanted us both to go to Starkhaven,' she says softly. 'I refused, it's okay, he's just worried for us-'

'For you, I am the after thought,' Fenris corrects.

Makatza shrugs, 'what does it matter if you were? We're not going anyway, so don't linger on it,' she says simply as she finds a cracked rib and begins to heal him, a small grunt passing his lips as she applies pressure on it.

He looks down at her and then over at Garrett who nods and walks closer. 'Is everyone in sufficient health?' Fenris asks as her cousin came closer.

'Almost brand new,' she says trying to make a joke. 'And now you are too-' Makatza slumps and Fenris catches her easily. Garrett removes his hand from her head and checks her pulse, he nods and looks at her fiance.

'Are you sure about this?' He asks.

'Meredith's red lyrium is unstable and Makatza reacts very badly to it. We can not risk her fighting and hurting herself or possibly blowing up the city,' Fenris says sadly as he holds her in his arms. 'We can leave her in one of the clear side rooms and lock the door, hopefully she will not wake until this is all dealt with,' he sighs.

Garrett winces, 'she is going to be pissed when she wakes up, I do not want to be you,' he says honestly.

Aveline and Isabela jog over to them and notice what they had done, 'oh … Broody, that's a dangerous game you're playing there,' Isabela says quietly looking at Aveline.

'I understand why, but I have to agree with the slattern on this one, I swear I've said that recently and that just doesn't sit well with me,' Aveline shudders.

He exhales heavily and looks at the women, 'suggest to me a better solution,' he says simply, his voice filled with regret. Isabela, Aveline and Garrett all share a look and as there's no forthcoming ideas he nods and begins to walk towards the door.

Garrett sighs and winces, 'oh, I can't see this ending well. She is going to be pissed,' he repeats receiving an enthusiastic nod from Merrill who had wandered over.

Sebastian looked at his bow and then walked over to Garrett. 'If you wish, I can stand guard,' he says quietly. 'My bow arm has been weakened anyway and I am no match against Templar's armour,' he admits. 'I can protect her from demons and herself if necessary,' the Prince said simply.

Hawke thinks to himself, they already had Varric and Bianca, Merrill was long range anyway, the less arrows flying about the better and it would be reassuring to have someone keeping an eye on her. 'Alright, that sounds reasonable. Just one thing though, if she's angry, just let her leave,' he said slowly and firmly. 'If she starts to get all aura-ey and genuinely frightening don't- and I mean this, don't try to stop her. We'll just have to roll with the punches. If we need you I'll flare, okay?' Sebastian nods his understanding and Garrett pats him on the back as he leaves, he catches a glance from Aveline. 'What?'

She waits until Sebastian was out sufficient earshot, 'are you sure about that, Hawke?'

'He wants to keep her safe and we need Fenris out there with us. The selfish bit? I know he'd die for her, and honestly that's what I want. I want someone like that fighting to keep her safe,' Garrett shrugs. 'Fenris can like it and lump it, it's just sensible to have someone keep an eye on her.' Aveline nods and rubs her eyes, she understood, it just felt cruel. Maybe it was. It was comforting to know she wouldn't be just left alone.

'Alright, by your judgement, Hawke,' she nods.

-x-

Sweat dripped from her brow as she rolled over and pushed herself up onto all fours, time felt that it had slowed. All she could hear was her own breathing, deep and slow, the burn at the back of her throat clinging and rasping. Hair stuck to her forehead and cheeks as she stared at the floor in the brief moment of wondering where she was. Makatza felt saliva drop from her lips as the nauseated feeling rolled around in her stomach, threatening to rise at any moment. Pushing herself up onto her knees with aching arms she looked around, there was the flash and bright lights outside the window. She could sense the amount of mana being thrown around, burned and electrified.

She seemed to be in some sort of storage room, a wrapped up cloak placed under her head for a pillow. Blinking slowly she breathed in, heavier, more purposefully than before and closed her eyes as she sought to find what was going on using her mana. The world around her lit up like a skeletal map, large shapes of mana sources taking place. In that moment she could sense Sebastian outside, Merrill and Garrett in the gallows courtyard, Fenris swinging his blade. Aveline, Varric and Isabela all grouped together fighting.

As she delved further the usual glowing blue she saw from mana began to twist and darken, red and pulsing. It began to seek her out, following her back until it felt that it needled under her skin. Pain hit and she began to scream as the source strengthened. Sebastian threw open the door and found her on her knees holding her head and weeping in agony. 'Make it stop!' She screamed as she fell onto her side. It was almost as if her skin was being pried away from her skull and someone was taking a blunt metal spike to the bone and just grinding it.

Sebastian grabbed her only to be thrown across the room as her mana reacted to her presence. 'Please, please, make it stop,' she sobs as she begins to shakily crawl forward. Her inner wolf writhed in pain and howled for a release. 'I have... have to make it stop,' she says her voice choking as she manages to grab hold of a shelf and pull herself up. Makatza didn't even see Sebastian as he lay in broken shelving, her only focus was to get the pain to cease. She stumbled along the corridor, a small trail of blood that dripped from her nose followed her. She ran her hand along the wall as she walked, tripping over her own feet, her other hand on her stomach as she fought the feeling to be sick. It felt hard to breathe and with every step the pain increased, but she knew that this was the only way she could stop it.

Once she reached the stairs she tried her best to go down them carefully while holding onto the wall but her slipper caught her dress and she fell. Her shoulder hit the step first, then as she turned she felt the entirety of her left arm take the brunt of her weight. The snap was clear and precise. Hitting the floor she lie there for a moment in a daze before slowly looking at herself, her bone has pierced through her skin, blood dripping from the open wound. It was nothing compared to the cacophony in her mind. With a wince she pulled herself upright, holding her arm to keep it from loosely waving around. Makatza coughs, tears streaming down her cheeks. 'S... Stop... must.. make it ...stop,' she whispers as she continues to walk towards the courtyard. Merrill was the first to see her and she gasped, not paying attention to the large statue that then knocked clean off her feet.

Makatza could feel the tendrils of poison creep towards her. It was wound around all of the animated statues and burrowed deep. She pants as she limps forward, feeling heat from Garrett's fire, the whistle of Varric's arrows that fly past and the clash of metal on metal from the companion's weapons. Holding her head high she looked around and finally... finally located the source.

Meredith.