Chapter Seven: Discoveries
We got a fire going with little difficulty, though I was hoping to impress my companions with a little Earth chemistry. You see, the flying machines of my world required fuel to work just as the newer machines created here do. I had intended to take some of this fuel to make the process of creating a cooking fire much more easy, but when I checked the tanks containing it, they were entirely empty.
Long gashes were along them in parallel in groups of three, like something had clawed at the metal. This discovery changed my perspective on our arrival to Thedas somewhat. While slightly disappointed that I couldn't wow anyone, I reflected that it was probably the reason we crashed rather than landed. This was because I had incorrectly assumed that the pilots were still alive once the transition was complete, but it was not the case. The clawmarks on the fuel tanks were a clue that would only fall into a bigger picture some time later.
So, it was left to Armen to show his skills. As well as his electricity, his repertoire of tricks extended beyond that to my surprise. He almost set me on fire in the process. We gathered plenty of dead wood and gorse, piling some of it up for later use and putting the rest in a stone circle just off the ramp of the helicopter. I had a firelighter from my world, and as I bent down to light some of the dry brush, the elf created a small fireball out of thin air and chucked it.
The tinder burst into life, surprising me. The others were off getting more wood, thankfully, so there was no embarrassment or sudden violent rebuke. Still didn't stop me from checking to see if my eyebrows had been singed off, which they hadn't. I gave Armen my Number One Officer-Is-Pissed-Off look, which worked well enough.
"Sorry, didn't think you would bend down when you did," he said, smile scurrying away quickly. He was either genuinely sorry or I was scaring him, so I let him off and decided to address the other question the event had raised.
"You can summon fire too?" I asked.
"Yes, lightning and fire are my specialities," he said, his smile returning, "They're agents of change. Quite appropriate for me, don't you think?"
"You could say that," Julie said, returning with an armful of twisted logs, "Bet they're great against people who annoy you." She dropped the wood and dusted off her hands.
"And for cooking," Armen added, not denying her point. Given what I had seen earlier in the morning, I had no doubt he was a formidable force to be reckoned with in any fight. Turns out he wouldn't have been so great against me, which in retrospect is a little funny.
Tam emerged from the woods with half a large tree dragging behind her, which meant we would have enough for the night as long as the elf's tricks held out. Which they would. All that was left was to start cooking. I only had two MREs left, after four of them disappeared into the mouths of my fellows in the morning. I realised that the food was going to disappear far sooner than I had hoped. Definitely before we reached Julie's village, especially if we ate three square a day. Annoyed at this development, I started what I had on the fire quickly, before getting up to get some more from my stash with the weapons.
"Mind the food," I said, "I'll get more."
I got up and walked off to the cave, as the others made themselves comfortable, laying out the blankets we had stolen from the prison on the grass and sitting down. At least they were getting comfortable. I still couldn't shake a bad feeling, as I approached the cache.
I slowed my pace, searching the ground for any signs of disturbance. The grass and soil seemed to be mostly the way it was when I was captured, albeit more solid now as it was dry. There was nothing resembling signs of human activity, but there were a number of tracks leading into the cave. Wary of the fauna of Thedas as I had become by necessity, I drew my handcannon and crept up on the entrance. I flinched as something emerged.
It was a pair of black nugs, the first time I ever saw them. They're similar to large rabbits in my world, with larger ears and shorter hair. Weird paws though, too much like hands for my liking. The two looked at me, both heads tilted in curiosity as I pointed my weapon at them. I guess they were investigating the place as a potential burrow, and hadn't expected to see me.
I lowered my weapon an inch, as they obviously weren't a threat. They scurried away along the cliff wall, probably to some other burrow or cave to hide. There is a comedy story in my world where a rabbit kills several knights before being killed with a "holy" hand grenade. I was quietly amused that I had drawn my weapon on them, remembering the story, as I holstered it. I wasn't the only one amused, however.
"What are you doing?" Julie asked from behind. I almost jumped out of my skin. I guess I was so deep in my thoughts that I hadn't heard her approach. She wasn't laughing, but her eyes were. I quickly coughed away my surprise, to cover my bases. Getting jumpy at the sight of a nug was more or less something to be ashamed of.
"Just... making sure the cave is safe," I said, pulling down my armour into a more comfortable position, "You know, in case anything dangerous is hiding in it."
"Like two cute little nugs?" she replied, "Well, cute except the paws. They're … sordid."
Easy to see why she'd say that. They're a little too much like human hands for comfort.
"Is that what a nug is?" I replied, not answering her joke question, "Are they tasty?"
I pretended to search for them again, one hand on my weapon, running around a couple of steps as if I desperately wanted to eat them. I got a giggle from my audience out of that.
"They are, but I'd rather have steak," Julie replied, "Can we go get some?"
"After you," I said, holding out my arm. She bowed gracefully, playing along with the joke, and proceeded inside.
The cave, despite being well hidden from the outside, was still large enough for both myself and Julie to walk upright inside. It curved around into the cliff face, meaning the opening wasn't obvious, but anyone bothering to search would find it easily. Both of us are far from small, particularly by the standards of Thedas, so I was surprised that no one had found the hiding spot considering its size. Not to mention that the sunlight fell into it almost directly at that time of day. Both my captors and the poachers for dragon parts had plenty of opportunity. My relief was audible when I turned the corner to find all the boxes and packs entirely undisturbed. Even the large firelance I had hid at the back was dry, my fears of flooding unrealised.
"What is all of this?" Julie asked, banging the top of a metal container with her palm.
"Weapons, mostly," I replied, "We were transporting them to our allies, one of my duties was to go along for the ride to train soldiers."
"Weapons like yours?" she asked, eyes wide.
I nodded in response. She looked at the boxes like they would explode any moment, but stood her ground. Anything that could lay a dragon low was probably something absurdly powerful in her mind, and she wasn't wrong. Of course, the weapon I had actually used to kill the beast was gone, and there was only one other remaining. Though the damn beast would have bled to death eventually anyway, considering just how many wounds it had taken.
I reached up and grabbed Fraser's bag, the one I had filled with the rations. It was tipped over, probably from the nugs having a good sniff at it, but it was otherwise intact. Yet more cause for celebration.
"Here, carry this," I said to Julie, "It's all the food I have left." She moved further into the cave and put the bag on her back, fiddling with the straps. She shifted the weight around a little, but it was far from a real burden. Another otherworld innovation that would catch like wildfire later; backpacks with wide straps and belts. I watched her as she was realising the potential of such a thing, then went to the back of the cave. I wasn't quite finished yet.
"What are you doing now?" she called, as I picked up the large firelance.
"Just moving some things," I replied, depositing it on top of the boxes. No need to hide it if we're camped outside, I thought. Anyone looking to sneak in would be mincemeat regardless.
"Moving weapons?" she asked. I wondered if she was bothered by the sight of the weapons, but that was far from the truth. I turned to her with a smile.
"Weapons aren't the only thing in here," I said. I put on the pack filled with sleeping bags, some of them hanging off the side of it, and picked up a large container.
"Ouch," I said, involuntarily. My bruises had complained loudly of my exertion, stabbing me with pain in parts I was using to lift the far from insignificant weight. I put down the box again, and rubbed my shoulders.
"Are you alright?" Julie said, coming closer.
"Yeah, just battered a little from all that's happened," I said, "Your little stunt with Tam didn't help."
She looked somewhat troubled at that, though she need not have bothered. Julie was easy to forgive. A little too easy. Or maybe I just hadn't been in good company for months and was thinking with something other than my brain, which probably makes more sense. It's hard to tell, so many years later.
"I wish you had mentioned the map before, but I had to see it again," Julie admitted, smiling again. She closed in, stepping over the box on the ground, and put her arms over my shoulders slowly for faux-dramatic effect. It was far from a platonic embrace, all my senses feeling heavy as she whispered in my ear. Yeah, very easy to forgive, teasing or not.
"I'll make it up to you, when we're alone," she said, "It seems we keep getting interrupted... pervert guards, prison breaks, mages, interfering Qunari..."
"We're alone now," I pointed out helpfully.
"True."
Julie and I exchanged a look, and broke off. We dropped the bags to the cave floor. Began relieving ourselves of other obstacles. I fiddled the straps of my armour, and placed it down against the boxes. She unhooked her toolbelt. They fell to the ground with a thud and a clang, as we moved to be close again.
Her lips met mine softly at first. The feeling was electrifying, and I was intoxicated immediately. My heart began racing and my breaths more ragged with every second. My hands went to her hips as we kissed. We moved closer, her hands wandering, mine drawing her as close as possible.
Beginning to explore each other a little with everything at our disposal. Julie found the buttons on my clothing, and began to undo them. My hands brushed across her stomach and went to her belt, starting to untangle the mechanism to undo her work clothes.
A groan erupted from below, a stomach crying hungry.
Just as suddenly as the fun had begun, it stopped. We remained entwined in other ways, the heat of the moment still there, but the focus on one another broken. I wish I could say that it wasn't my fault, but I was as hungry as anyone else. Perhaps more so, being so unused to hunger. I guess some needs come before others, though the one being sated was among the few keeping me sane in the wake of all the crazy.
"Perhaps we should eat," Julie said, sounding disappointed a little.
"I'm sure the others are wondering what we're doing too," I grumbled, the interruption jarring me like nails on a chalkboard. The urge to grind my teeth was damn near overwhelming.
Julie chuckled, as we parted fully. My calm restored itself, as she took my hands. "I'm sure they have an idea," she said. I suppose we had been giving off all the signals to that end. Not that Tam or Armen seemed to pay heed. They were too polite to make noise about such a thing, but it did put ideas in their heads too.
"Okay, back we go," I said, defeated.
"We will continue another time," said Julie heartily, "Look forward to it."
She flashed a quick grin at me, to which I could only return one of my own. Placated for the moment, we dressed ourselves fully again, shaking dirt off as we did so. I picked up the box, more carefully this time. It was damn heavy, but I balanced it across my back and held it with both hands, the backpack helping to spread both the weight and keep it in place.
Julie led the way, throwing her own pack over herself again and marching out into the sun again. She held her hand up to cover her eyes as she looked over at the others.
Both Tam and Armen were getting stuck into their meals without a care in the world, chewing away at the meat and gathering more from the cooking bags with forks. I snorted at the sight, their sizes disproportionate from one another and their talents at odds, yet they were seeming equally matched in capability and appetite. They didn't speak to each other, just ate quietly.
"By the way, what is in that box?" Julie asked, as we made our way across the grass to join the party.
"Books," I replied, "Just in case you can't get back to my world, you can still read about it."
Julie gave me a look like I had said something bizarre.
"You were transporting weapons and books?" she asked, as we stepped over the blankets, "That seems like a strange combination."
I set the box down to the side as we arrived at the camp fire.
"The books weren't really meant to be with us," I said, "They were for the education and rebuilding effort to come later, after we had built up the militia and secured the town."
"Books from another world?" Armen piped up, swallowing his latest bite, "How intriguing."
Intriguing indeed, given what they would lead to. Like I said, the weapons weren't the most dangerous thing I brought through, provided I could hide the technology they contained. Which was easy enough. The content of the books on the other hand, as well as the contents of my head, weren't so easily hidden, as I didn't rate them as worth hiding in the first place at first. Not sure I would have with the benefit of retrospect, either.
"It sounds like you were also Tamassran," said Tam, "A book and a gaatlok firelance are the same thing; a weapon." Which pretty much sums up my thoughts now. My reaction then was less agreeable.
"You can't kill thirty men or more in less than a minute with a book," I said, truthfully enough, "I know what I'd rather have if I was facing an enemy."
"Books contain ideas, and ideas can raise armies," Tam replied, "The Qun is proof of that. You could defeat a large number of people with your firelance, but you couldn't defeat an army."
I frowned, fairly sure I could defeat a feudal army single-handed if I hit the right people. I didn't lack for self-confidence in my ability to fight or read a battlefield. Particularly when the potential combatants were so unbelievably primitive.
But my hunger was gnawing at my gut now, so I let the point slide and started preparing the meals.
We ate more or less in complete silence, not out of any animosity with each other but because of sheer ravenous need. The beef steak went down even better than the curried chicken had, being somewhat more filling, or feeling as much at any rate. The others very much enjoyed it, leaving the side snacks alone and simply laying down to digest the meal. I was nowhere near as full, probably because I was used to eating far more in a single sitting even in a combat zone, but I wasn't exactly jumping around either.
I rather lazily sat about with the intention of cataloguing the books that had come through, hoping for something relatively useful. It was in fact a treasure trove, though I was only looking for one particular thing, a book that remains with me to this day and makes me feel better on the bad days.
There were books on every conceivable topic.
Many of them unsurprisingly relevant to civil affairs, given that we were trying to rebuild several nations from the ground up. Aside from a note from the international school sponsoring the project, there was an inventory list and the sheer variety was enormous.
From technical subjects like mathematics and chemistry, historical texts on Earth history and classical studies, western philosophical texts on life, politics and morality, a geography textbook and a marching band guide, through to Fraser's selected works on military matters from both Eastern and Western perspectives, which obviously weren't on the list. Scanning the names of the texts, I figured that if I wanted some heavy reading, there was no shortage of it. Not a single fiction among the selection, which annoyed me as I thought I would get bored eventually. However, the last entry caught my eye.
It was a picture book.
It is entitled "Earth, the Human World." A large, wide tome, it contains pictures of many places of my world, including many of my homeland. Cities, countryside, monuments, warzones, and peoples of many nations feature throughout. It was exactly what I was looking for. I rummaged through the box for it quickly, desperately. I found it at the very bottom.
Delighted, I called Tam and Julie over.
"I found a book with images of my world," I said, as they crawled over the blankets. The pair double timed it, and Armen stood up and walked around the the back. Soon, I had all three hovering above me, Julie on one shoulder, sitting cross-legged, Tam on the other, holding her legs, and Armen peeking over the top of my head, leaning on his staff. The announcement had the effect I had hoped for. I now had solid proof beyond some magic crap that I wasn't from Thedas, and I was very happy for it. I was unprepared for the effect it would have on me though.
I opened the book at the table of contents, and ran my finger down until I found the picture I was looking for. Where first looks at America goes, you have to go with the classic one, the first look that many of our ancestors saw first upon arrival. I still can't think of any more appropriate way to introduce a complete newcomer to my homeland, and I was actually quite excited to see what they'd think of it. I flicked through the corners of the pages to find the right one, and turned the book to a double-page spread.
It was the city of New York, a panorama picture with the city's buildings in the background, which are no small accomplishments of engineering in their own rights. But in the foreground, the massive Statue of Liberty stood, robbing the attention of the Thedosians. Many will be familiar with it now, but on the off chance that something catastrophic has happened since I have written this, which is bound to happen in the fullness of time; the statue is a monument of a crowned woman in a robe, bearing a torch and a book of laws. She is the personification of both freedom and my homeland.
"New York," I said, "The largest city in my country."
Julie and Tam grabbed the book from my hand and looked at it in shock, holding it between them in front of me. They clearly focused on the monument rather than the city itself.
"By Andraste... It's huge!" Julie exclaimed, "Those are people near the bottom!"
I nodded the confirmation, smiling widely.
"This is your Creator deity?" asked Tam, "The one from the prayer you said when we picked up the mage?"
"No, it's not the Creator, and that wasn't a prayer... This is the Statue of Liberty, but it's fair to say that we worship her as often as we do him," I said, "At least, back home we do. This says that there are no slaves or nobles, that everyone is free. There are others who feel different about how to run things both at home and elsewhere, of course. We tend to end up fighting them."
Geopolitical rivals often had differing ideologies, something that has been true on Thedas long before my arrival and will be long after I have died.
"How did you make such a thing..." Julie said, "It would have taken years."
"It did, as far as I'm aware," I replied, "It was a joint project between an ally and us, as we are both countries ruled by their peoples. It used to be the first thing new arrivals would see of my country, before we invented flying machines."
"Are those buildings behind it, across the river?" Armen asked, pointing a finger.
"Buildings," I confirmed, "We call them skyscrapers, because they reach hundreds of feet into the sky."
Armen looked at the picture again with wide eyes.
"And people live in them?" he asked.
"No, they're used for commerce," I replied, "The smaller ones are where people live, mostly."
"Your country must have many people," the elf continued.
"Over three hundred million," I said, knowing it would seem absurd, "And that's not even a tenth of the population of the world."
At the time I left, it wasn't even a twentieth. As for now, there could be as many as ten billion people worldwide, or everyone could be dead. We had weapons that could destroy a city or country easily, maybe they finally used them. I don't know.
That's the thing about knowledge, it can destroy a civilisation as easily as it can build one, if people are stupid enough. I guess the elves know all about that, and you'd think others would learn by their example. Apparently not.
And so it went.
We flicked through more of the images of my world, and the others asked me questions. Julie mostly asked me about technology and structures, Tam about people or religions, and Armen about obscure details that others might have missed. I answered as best I could, not being an expert on everything. Some I just couldn't answer at all, particularly when the pictures moved away from countries in the West and onto areas where I had no real knowledge.
Some of the captions helped there, but it wasn't much. Various warzones from a decade before or more were also pictured, and I was able to talk a lot more about them.
However, the more we looked, the more depressed I became. Thedas was not home, and there was always a doubt in the back of my mind about whether or not I would be able to return. I was not some vagrant with no ties or family when I was taken. It's not like I had kids or anything, but I had parents, siblings, cousins, nieces and nephews. If I could not return, I had a lot to lose.
Seeing pictures of Earth exacerbated the feeling of near-remorse greatly, and I am not proud to admit I was on the verge of utter despair by the time we finished.
I must have looked extremely sullen indeed, because we stopped a little early when Julie slammed the book shut, waking me up a little from my downward spiral.
The next incident during our stay at the crash-site was a magic-related one.
We had opted to relax for a while, as we had already decided to spend the night. If by some stroke of bad luck we had been pursued from Halamshiral, then we would throw off our pursuers by doing so. In the mean time, we could recuperate a little from the excitement of the previous night and morning.
We would eventually need to stop somewhere to get feed for the horse, and doing so at night didn't seem like the best idea to me despite the anonymity it might have given us. I preferred going in the day, when we simply looked like merchants on the road rather than people deliberately trying to sneak around anywhere.
So we split off to do whatever we wanted for a little while.
Tam went off into the forest to hunt, after I informed her of just how many of the rations were left and how long they'd likely last if we ate them for every meal. Dinner would be something a little more fresh, I suspected. I hadn't yet seen her archery in action, but given her proficiency with her dagger, I had no reason to doubt the Qunari's skills. Admittedly, I was more than a little worried that she'd run into a dragon, which prompted my own behaviour at this time.
Julie had decided to do something considerably more intellectual with her time. Using the documents with my fake name on it and some of the books as a reference point, she began translating the letters of the Latin alphabet, which my world mostly used, into those used by the Common and Orlesian languages. I helped her in this task by clarifying the sounds of certain letters and accents, as I was sitting beside her the whole time.
To my surprise, she had a very workable grid for translating all of them after a couple of hours. Another hour later, and she was skimming the books from my world, focused on the subjects they covered and inquiring after them to me. If you think that being able to accomplish this task in a few short hours is unusual, you'd be right. It should have taken days or weeks. I was astonished at first, but the feat was child's play to someone like Julie.
Apart from helping our surprise linguist, I concentrated mostly on our defence. I was still in a bad mood, and there was nothing for it but to do something practical. I still didn't know what was beyond much of the brush surrounding us, or above the cliff face.
With this in mind, I retrieved two of the weapons Fraser's squad had used. One was a precision firelance with a telescopic sight, designed to hit targets a mile or further away. I didn't have the training to use it at a huge distance, but I was fairly sure I could put one through the eye of a dragon if another showed up in the vicinity. The other was Murphy's weapon. What we call a machinegun, a firelance designed to fire dozens or even hundreds of shots a minute in sequence.
It was pure paranoia on my part, but I wished to have something ready in case Goldie or someone like him showed up again. Some noble prick with plenty of lackeys could have overwhelmed me by sheer force of numbers, but not if I was armed with that. I spent my time between checking that all the weapons were in good working order, helping Julie, and watching Armen do strange things.
The elf was busy with the helicopter at first, muttering about the Fade and the like. I had assumed quite correctly from the tropes of my world's fiction that the Fade was a magical realm, but I had no idea of its nature and still don't due to my... condition. Regardless, Armen touched various parts of the helicopter and hummed to himself, like he was just having a stroll. Occasionally, he took out a small journal and scribbled something in it with a quill, using an inkpot that he levitated in mid-air with his freakin' mind or something.
It had only been half a day since I met him, but already I was getting jaded with the sheer number of abilities he had. His attention turned briefly to the graves, where he seemingly paid his respects and did something magical to determine Maker only knows what. He brooded for a few hours after that, before finally turning his attentions to me.
As I sat, watching Julie read, which I have to admit became a pastime of mine, the mage approached with no small amount of levity about him, swaggering as he did so.
"So, shall I heal those awful bruises?" he declared, wiggling his finger in the direction of my face, "How did you even get them?"
Truth be told, so much had happened that I had completely forgotten about those particular blemishes. My face must have made me look like a thug or something, not good for hiding ourselves later. Still, I felt a lot better at being reminded of the circumstances.
"Sorry again, my fault," said Julie, wincing as she took a look up from a book, "Je peux vous récompenser pour ces blessures bientôt, oui?"
"That sounds good," I said, getting her meaning, "But there's no need to say sorry. You thought I was hostile... and then we needed to convince Baldy."
"Baldy?" asked Armen.
"The prison chief," said Julie, "We needed to put on a show for him, to convince the bastard that we hated each other. It was part of the escape plan."
"What sort of show?" the elf said, "A boxing match?"
Julie and myself smiled at each other knowingly, but said nothing. Probably because the show was practice for something else entirely. Which we were both increasingly enthusiastic for, with another interested party in the background.
A common desire to rip the clothes off one another can create agreement where none would usually exist, with certainty. Regardless, Armen got the hint quickly, being the sharp fellow that he is.
"Anyway... Do you want me to heal you or not?" he said.
"With magic? Sure, I'd like to see that," I said, putting down my weapon, "What do I do?"
"Just stay still, and I'll heal the injuries," he replied, kneeling beside me, "This is not my best spellwork, but it will work on a bruise easily."
His hand hovered beside me for a moment, before glowing with soft white-green light. I was reminded of the display I had seen before, and thought that if he could summon lightning, then his powers of healing were probably considerable as well no matter what he said. I let him work, as he moved it near the side of my face for a number of minutes. It felt slightly warm, but no more than what I would have if it had just been his hand. Finally, he closed his fist again, and frowned.
"That's not right..." the mage said, rubbing his chin.
"What, have you turned me into a frog?" I asked, tone dripping with sarcasm, "Or am I just green?"
Armen smirked briefly, before his face returned to one of worry. Which set me to worrying a little.
"No, the healing energies didn't work," he said, "At all."
"...And that means?" Julie asked, sitting down beside me herself to watch.
"I'm not sure," the mage replied, "May I try again? I may need to touch you directly."
I didn't see any real reason to deny him. It was healing magic, not a thunderbolt, so I just gave him a quick nod and set my head still again. He opened his hand again, but this time, actually touched my face where Julie's fist had impacted it. I felt a tingling sensation that pins and needles could compare to but not quite. It didn't extend far beyond that, but that was more and more the thing that did not draw my attention.
Armen appeared to be in increasing distress as he continued to pour magical energy through his hand and onto me. He seemed to sway, and then fell straight over, his grip on his staff the only thing keeping him from slamming to the ground. The elf's magic stopped and he regained full consciousness, rubbing his temples and sitting down properly to get his bearings. It seemed that nausea or something had overtaken him.
"Are you good?" I asked, "Take a moment... I don't really understand what happened, but you collapsed."
"You succeeded, at least," added Julie, "Well, mostly." The bruises were partially healed, now nothing that wouldn't be gone overnight. She rubbed my cheek a little, to emphasize the point, and probably to tease me a little too. I put my hand over hers as she did so, and then pressed down a little to see if it hurt. It didn't; she was right, the elf had succeeded.
"I believe I did," Armen said, breathing heavily, "Ser Hunt, you have an impossibly high resistance to magic. It felt like... the mana was being pulled out of me. I expected something like this, because you had to travel through the Fade, but... it seems magic has no real effect on you unless the mana is applied directly."
So, you'd have to get very close for very little effect.
"What, so he's immune to your lightning?" asked Julie. Which was a question I really wanted the answer to myself, truth be told.
"He's immune to any energy drawn directly to or from the Fade," he said, "Only direct physical contact allowed me to heal you, and I think I would've died if I had continued what I was doing. The faster I tried to heal, the more mana I applied, the faster the magic dissipated."
That didn't seem so bad at all. Anyone trying to get that close to use magic would feel my wrath long before they could succeed, I thought, and even then it would not result in serious damage.
"So mages can't hurt me unless they get close enough to touch?" I said, rather pleased at the prospect.
"Not quite," Armen smiled weakly, "Trying to affect you directly won't work, but I can think of a few ways I might get around it. Burning your surroundings with fire, for instance. It is an advantage of course... but the real issue is healing. Undoing your injuries takes so much effort that I really don't recommend that you get hurt. Healing any injury beyond a small cut or a bruise would kill the mage."
So it was a tradeoff. One I could live with more or less happily. We discovered at various other times that there are ways of circumventing the problem, both for people wishing to kill me and for those trying to heal me, but for the most part, magic cannot affect me.
Overall, I have to say that I was fairly pleased to hear it. Between the beam explosion at Halamshiral and Armen's own lightning bolt, being immune to a direct hit from that crap was very good news indeed. It strengthened my hand against the only foes I then feared, aside from dragons.
It was an overly optimistic assessment. I was being overly optimistic of course, as I wasn't rating blades or arrows anywhere near as dangerous as I should have.
"How is that even possible?" Julie asked.
"It's far too complex to explain, particularly to a non-mage," sighed Armen, "But essentially, in order to transport Sam to Thedas, something clothed him and most of the other travellers in a very powerful protection against the Fade. This couldn't be natural, or we would have heard about it before. Someone brought him here."
"I presume you don't mean the Maker?" said Julie.
"I have no idea," replied Armen, the corners of his mouth turning slightly with amusement, "It would be the first time I've heard of a deity bringing people from another world."
"So you don't know who could pull this off?" I asked. Primarily motivated by the desire to shoot the culprit to pieces, and turn him into a fine pâté.
"I wouldn't think it was possible at all, even with blood magic, for any living mage," Armen said, "Either it was magic used on something specifically designed to do this, or someone out there has world-conquering power but is using it instead to punch holes in reality to bring through people from another. I'm not sure which is less crazy."
I asked what the Fade was at this point, which Armen explained in clear terms.
Dreamworld, realm of gods, demons and spirits. Vacation spot for fadewalker mages, etc etc. Source of all mages' power, and source of their threat. I was sceptical about all of it, but most of all, I still couldn't believe in demons. There is a phrase in my world, "Absolute power corrupts absolutely." I imagined that the "demons" were simply mages driven mad and twisted by their own power. There were plenty of people, magical and otherwise, like that. But I was wrong.
"One more thing to think about, I suppose," I said at last, "I didn't know healing magic was a thing until just now, so I'm not really too worried about it." You know, unless I fell down and broke my damn leg by accident or something. I figured that would be just my luck.
"Try not to get injured then," said Julie, the primary suspect in case of the majority of my injuries. I laughed at her assertion, my amusement hollow. She just hugged me with a smile, knowing it would wind me up further. But I let her do it, as it cheered me up.
A loud, flat thud erupted to my left. I winced with surprise, despite already knowing who and what it was.
Tam had returned, a sense of gleeful triumph around her. She was not empty handed either. She had shot three small deer-like creatures, their coats a glistening white in the sun. They had rather impressive antlers in a twisted shape, and I couldn't help but compare them to Tam's own small horns. I frowned to myself, thinking that is was cannibalism of a sort for her to eat such a creature. Which was stupid of me.
"What did I miss?" Tam said as we stared, oblivious to the startling progress we had made in figuring it all out.