Chapter Seventeen: Prelude to War
After I revealed that Earth was now a near-impossible destination, if not entirely a suicidal objective, we quietly relocated to the kitchen. Sleep had no hold on us any more. The atmosphere was strange, a mix of disappointment, confusion and fear for the future, as I told the whole story of what I had seen in the Fade. No one asked any questions except Armen, mainly about what I could see and the like. Apparently, that a spirit could interact with my mind but not my body was utterly baffling to him. I was glad for the small piece of more or less practical conversation on the subject, as it distracted me from my despair long enough to think about what had to happen next. There was a pause as everyone got lost in their own thoughts, which I interrupted.
"Survival is what we have to concentrate on now," I said, "We're in real trouble."
Heads raised themselves at that, some understanding what I meant, others not quite getting it.
"What do you mean?" asked Tam, "Aside from the mage, the Qunari will take time to find us, the Templars don't know where you are, and our records were destroyed with the prison."
"I think you could kill anyone who threatens us anyway?" added Ciara, "A traveller from another world with knowledge beyond anything this world has seen? I'd be scared. Fen'harel himself would tremble if he met you.." Not sure if the Dread Wolf was ever capable of that to begin with. That said, he wasn't best pleased at my presence either once he discovered it.
"It's not gods or demons we have to worry about," Julie said, "It's everyone else." Everyone else without the brains to understand what they were dealing with, of which there are and were plenty. I owe so much to my civilisation's forefathers, their work and intelligence. Without them, I would indeed be dead. Yet my alien origin also presented disadvantages.
"I'm supposed to be a noble, remember?" I said, leaning back in my chair, "We could have kept up that deception for a few months, but now we're talking about a lifetime. Questions already might be being asked about me. In six months, in a year, in three years, someone will eventually suspect me enough to investigate." Investigate, arrest, hang. Or rather, attempt to arrest me while I kill everyone and flee to some dark corner of the world where no one will look. Not my idea of a way to live your life, then or now.
"Surely we can do everything we can to make your cover as strong as possible," said Armen, "What other choice do we have?" A reluctance grabbed me by the gut, as I realised the great threat to our enterprise.
"There's a problem with that idea," I said, "The Baron has a wife who lives in Halamshiral, right?"
"That's right..." Julie said, head tilted.
"Her name is Cecile," I said, "I met her during our imprisonment... she was the royal prosecutor, the one attempting to have me killed for murder and apostasy." Only Julie and Armen reacted, their eyes opening wide, before falling, realising the problem at last.
"So what?" asked Ciara
"She's probably the only person alive who knows that I was imprisoned," I replied, "She thinks I'm a noble, at least, but that won't matter when she contradicts the entire story of how Julie and I got out of the prison."
Tam snorted with derision and crossed her arms. "So we kill her," she said, "It's you or her. You're worth more." I was touched by her regard for me, and a little taken aback by her willingness to kill for it. There was an inconvenient fact standing in the way of me agreeing to that course of action however, beyond what would happen if the Baron found out.
"She has children," I said firmly, "I'm not going to kill her to cover my own ass unless it's the last resort."
"If she shows up with a small army, will that be the last resort?" asked Tam, a tinge of anger entering her voice, "Will you let her threaten us all? I won't forgive that." Would I let the Baroness threaten Tam or Julie, was the unspoken question I suspect. She had a point. Eliminating the Baroness, perhaps on the road or at night in her home, would have been the most prudent course of action. But I couldn't do it.
"Any army she brings won't be large enough to capture us," I replied, "I won't orphan her children otherwise. That's final." Tam turned her head away, and I worried that I had insulted her a little. Truth be told, she was simply conceding the point badly.
"What can we do?" asked Julie, "As we do not seem to be playing the Game?" Fuck the Game, I thought.
"I have an idea," said Armen, holding his hand up, "If you'll hear it." I perked up a little at that. The mage was wise beyond his years, albeit loyal to his cause. Which others were well aware of.
"If it involves the Mage Rebellion, I don't want to hear it," said Tam before anyone else could speak, "I am just saying that before you start, so you understand." I began to understand as I listened, that Tam was in the worst mood of all of us, about not being able to leave Thedas and go to Earth. Her hatred for the Qun is very much that of a born-again heretic, and her fears that they would hunt her down would haunt her for years to come.
"Luckily, it does not," Armen replied with a great deal of patience and grace, "Not directly anyway."
"Go on," said Tam, scepticism evident in her tone.
"We flee to Ferelden," Armen said, "King Alistair and Queen Anora have proven themselves to be sympathetic to the plight of mages. They granted the Ferelden Circle a good measure of independence after the Blight. The kingdom is in dire need of aid, aid that you can give them with your knowledge if you wish. They are hostile to the Orlesians, we should be safe there."
I groaned. The idea of travelling again so soon... Giving up my knowledge for refuge didn't seem like a fair trade to me either. Even the civilian improvements I had in my head would have given the country a huge advantage over the others, one that could be turned into military success with no real trouble at all. That is to say nothing about the military ideas and technology in my noggin, or the vast knowledge of my library, either. For that sort of leverage, they would have had to make me king. Still, I wasn't hearing any other good ideas, so I was prepared to go along with it.
Until Julie stood and spoke.
"No, I will not leave Orlais," she said, mustering some cold steel from her heart, "I will not run, I will not leave behind my family, I will not let them drive me away." As her father had been driven away, as her mother had...
For me, that was enough to settle the question. Tam looked like she appreciated the response as well. I wondered if that was because Ferelden couldn't hold off the Qunari, but I was also sure it was moments like that when Julie was most attractive. Eyes flashing, fists clenched, back straight, glorious words on her lips. We were far from the only people to be enthralled by the sight over the years. Aside from the fact that we would be dead without such charisma, it was intoxicating to be in her presence when she was like that.
Even Armen accepted her answer with his usual quiet smile.
"Umm, so what do we do?" asked Ciara.
"We prepare," said Julie, "If they're coming for us, we get ready. We should have time for that."
"More easily said than achieved," said Tam, before smiling, "But I will enjoy the challenge."
"Better for the mages of Orlais too, I have to admit," said Armen, "You will need them, if you want to stand and fight." Both Tam and Julie looked a little troubled at that, but a quick glance at me, and their expressions softened. Evidently, my Fade-immunity was a significant advantage for us over any magical force to the extent that it eased their concerns.
Thus, we decided to stay and fight all our would-be enemies, and make Hearth our home.
We discussed necessary steps at length, enough length that fully recalling the conversations here would be tedious, but I shall summarise them. I think it's fair to say we had three things on our mind. Money, mages and military might, in that order.
We discussed money, as it would definitely be the biggest hurdle to our aims. Nobles are not poor, not in Orlais anyway. They steal money from the backs of the peasantry and merchant classes, and they spend it frivolously. Or so Julie said. Apparently, the Baron didn't do the last part, even if his purse was filled by the former. I took her word on it. There was one huge advantage that we had; my knowledge from Earth.
America, my homeland, is what we call a 'consumer economy' and it shows. There are many wonderful things to buy, and if you sell them, you are made for life. If you're really good, you're made for several lifetimes over. Of course, with no competitors on the backwards-ass markets of Thedas, I could make us significant amounts of money in very little time. We wrote down some simple stuff that we could manufacture easily that would sell like hot-cakes, all the way up to things that would require years to develop but could probably fund entire countries if done right.
Capitalism, the first step to democracy from feudalism. Marx would be spinning in his grave at the notion, I'm sure. Good thing Das Kapital didn't make it across, or maybe our banners would have had hammers and sickles. Julie and Tam almost put them on as it was. Julie seemed particularly glad that we weren't going to rely on our 'vassals', something I still didn't understand and she didn't explain until later.
The mage situation was what we discussed next. It was far more complex than Armen had indicated before. Circles were in a state of unrest across the entire continent. A system of warning signs had been established by the Grand Enchanter, Fiona, after the Chantry forbade any more meetings of the College of Enchanters. Under increasing oppression, the Rebellion seemed certain to break into a war phase, particularly as the more fervent rebels secretly departed their Circles and made their way to Andoral's Reach, a fortress in the north west of Orlais. A vote to separate the Circles from the Chantry had failed. That they were calling it a Rebellion at all despite the lack of real fighting was proof enough that fighting would start sooner or later. I feared we had moved that situation along further by accidentally triggering the warning for Halamshiral.
Armen explained that the mages there had been primarily isolationists or 'Lucrosians', people wanting nothing to do with the conflict, because they either wanted to be left alone or their real interest was in building up wealth. They were not likely to engage in questionable magical practices either, a point he stressed pretty hard to soothe Tam's prejudices on the subject. By now, they probably had scattered to the four winds to hide from the Templars, to places known only to mages or to the forests that dominated the Dales. There were a couple of hundred of them at least, according to our resident mage.
After giving Julie, Tam and I a hopeful look for about a minute, it was agreed that our previous idea about contacting them should be extended to one of giving shelter to those mages. The war hadn't broken out yet, and with my ability, we could convince anyone that they were safe under my supervision. That was an extremely naïve view on my part, one that would cause us a great deal of trouble, but it wasn't entirely off the mark either. I could kill any mage that fell to demonic influence, and I was immune to blood magic. That wouldn't necessarily stop people believing it was unsafe, or against the teachings of the Chantry. However, since the priestesses would be against us anyway, suspecting that I myself was something magical and for our association with Armen, I didn't really care at the time.
The conversation turned naturally from there to military might. It started with a remark by Tam that mages would give our survival a real boost, for when the Crown, the Templars or the Ben-Hassrath came a'knocking. Armen expressed a little more doubt on that front, explaining that almost none of the mages that would come had never seen combat. Which I could have guessed, as being locked up in a tower for most of your life doesn't see you put onto battlefields too often. Nobles had their pet battlemages and the rest were left to rot, as far as I could tell.
Ciara asked about my Earth weapons, and I explained the situation there. I had a dozen or so of each type of weapon with me; firelances, shotguns, handcannons. That wasn't great, but it was certainly better than nothing. Ammunition was a little more troublesome. I had tens of thousands of shots for the firelances, but only about two hundred for the handcannons and about sixty for the shotguns. Beyond that, I had a significant amount of explosive compounds but only a handful of detonators, composite armour for a dozen more people on top of the armour I had already distributed, another half dozen radio transmitters and headsets, and a good number of sensory devices for seeing in the dark, seeing things by heat, distance-finding, etc. Bottom line was that we couldn't rely on those too much. Resupply wasn't coming. I would need to train to use a bow, was Tam's recommendation. I agreed, having no desire to draw still more attention to my weapons and equally no desire to hear my gun go click with no more bullets to feed it. That idea would never really bear fruit.
Once I was done explaining that, Ciara and Armen expressed a wish to go back to bed, so they went off.
Which left the three of us with nothing to do at about four in the morning. With our stresses built up, we decided to work them out until daybreak. Tam in particular needed that, as Earth had been robbed from her. It was a sad thing to see, a person's hopes taken away from them. Julie and I made her the centre of attention for a couple of hours. She cheered up, just a little, despite knowing that we weren't going anywhere. Perhaps because of it.
Needless to say, the next two or three weeks were extremely busy.
By the end, I had thoroughly explored Hearth in the cause of restoring the former home of Francoise des Arbes, remembering her promise that I would be safe there. When a dead woman makes you a promise like that, you tend to believe them. I even thought that it was perhaps a little prophetic. The Fade is funny with time.
The town had the hallmarks of actual planning in its layout, an indicator of its foundation as a human colony town after the Exalted March against the Dales. It was divided into four districts, all surrounded by the curtain wall. The space was almost perfectly divided in four by the two main avenues, but there, the semblance of design ended. In the middle was the town square I had seen on my first night, which was much more lively in the daytime.
The southwestern district belonged to the merchants, and was most familiar to me as it was where Élodie and Claire lived with their families. It was surprisingly well-to-do around there, and not entirely dominated by humans either. If I had to guess, I would have said the split was about fifty-fifty in terms of the 'races', though I use that term with a pinch of salt for reasons that you will discover. The houses there were larger, the streets were a little more clean and the people wore half-masks without fail. The district connected to the palisade section of the town via the southern gate, where many of the merchants were forced to work so to prevent fires. The 'softer' industries remained within the walls however. I spent a lot of hours there with Julie, deciding on bedding and curtains in my guise as Marquis, throwing money around like an idiot. At least I got some comfortable clothes for my trouble as well, as walking around in Earth garb all the time drew far more eyes. I refused the idea of donning a mask myself, though Julie picked two up for later. Deep blue ones with red and white highlights.
The south-eastern district was what would be called the alienage in western Orlais or Ferelden, but the term didn't really apply to a town in the Dales. On Earth, we would call it the working class neighbourhood if we were being polite, the projects or a slum if we were being a little more honest. This was almost entirely housing, with the occasional tavern, and it was dominated heavily by elves. The clue was in the hoods. I only went there once, with Tam and Ciara, to find some guy who was apparently the best carpenter in the business before he had retired. We couldn't find him, even with Ciara's help in negotiating the ethnic divide. Which was a little off-putting to say the least, along with the immense filth of the place.
The north-eastern district was the docklands, where most of the trading went on. This was where most of the human freemen and workers lived, alongside shops, taverns and brothels a plenty. Leha lived there, and I found myself visiting her place three times to get help on buying more basic materials for fixing the château. Despite her attitude, she was very very good at her job. I had feared we would need to sell the dragon's teeth to fund the renovations, but thanks to her, it wasn't necessary. I often travelled in this district with Armen, after seeing a man get stabbed for his coin purse on my first visit. I didn't exactly want to blow anyone away to make my point, so travelling with someone who was obviously a mage was my idea of deterrence. It worked horrendously well. Perhaps it wasn't the best move, as the Chantry chapel was also in that district, bordering the main square. I'm sure the Revered Mother had eyes on us.
Lastly, the north-western district was for the nobles and their servants. Mostly for the latter. Almost all of the nobility, consisting of some eleven chevaliers and their families, lived on their own estates outside the walls. I was technically the twelfth, though I maintained my own title of Marquis, which was supposedly significantly higher than anyone else's title. They maintained grand houses inside however, to participate in the Baron's governance of the town and its lands. The Baron's own house was called 'The Keep', as it was at the most north-westerly point of the town and was well-fortified on the outside. The majority of the buildings there were for the servants though, being decent but not on the level of the merchants' own. They served as a protective buffer from the vices of the docklands and the slum, the houses of the rich surrounded by those they gave patronage to. I toured the place once on my own, making note of the layout, defences, guard posts and the like.
If I was on the brink of being discovered, that was where I would have to take the fight, after all.
Our new home was much changed.
I renamed the château from 'Ancienmaison' to "L'Ambassade" on the first day, another piece of politics to strengthen my hand on Julie's suggestion. I had Armen use his magic to carve a large piece of black marble for me, with the words "Embassy of the United Nations of Earth" in Latin and Dwarfish script, and in both Orlesian and the Common Tongue. He couldn't do the symbol though, as it was too complex to put on the stone in the size I wanted, so I just had him put a simplified version of the eagle from my tattoo on it instead. It looked bizarre to me, the mixture of symbols from two different entities, but it would look official to anyone else. We placed the stone just outside the gate. Even Orlesians recognise some measure of diplomatic immunity.
It was an annoying task, even with magical assistance, but we also gutted the rooms and the attic to replace everything in them. Tam objected to anything staying, fearing the return of spirits to the place, so that was one thing. The place was in bad need of renovations as well regardless. Apparently I had very good credit, courtesy of my new holdings, and Julie exploited it to the maximum. We also had the small chest of gold and silver that she had salted away from the taxmen, which she had buried not too far from the château itself. The place really looked like a palace by the end of it. There was nothing stupidly expensive, like gold fixings or something along those lines, but everything practical was of the highest quality. It was far from minimalist too.. When I fell into one of the beds for the first time, I thought I'd never get up again. Never had a bed that comfortable before, not even on Earth.
Aside from the work, I got to know my companions a lot better.
I learned that Julie liked spice-tea from Antiva, black with honey when she could get it. Expensive but essential, apparently. She drank it while reading Machiavelli, Rousseau and Hobbes... Heavy hitting stuff. She devoured the texts, reading them cover-to-cover in two days each, collapsing into bed once the sun began to fall. Tea on the bedstand, steaming away, book in hand. The library we kept was moved from the old smithy to the new place as soon as the latter was liveable. After that, came the smithy's equipment and tools. The château had a forge building too, though it was smaller and we would have to build a bigger one, but she used it anyway. Julie paid attention to every detail, so that we could be comfortable and maintain the illusion of our nobility. I was quite grateful that she took the reins on that. I wouldn't have known where to begin. Between playing lord of the manor and actually being one, there's a knowledge gap to say the least. We grew closer, talking long into the nights about the ideas she had been reading about as Tam listened.
Tam became considerably more affectionate. I think she previously had a fear, whether at the front of her mind or the back of her subconscious, that we would abandon her. Our arrangement up until that time was a great deal more quid pro quo, simple physical pleasure exchanged. When we didn't leave her to her fate or drive her off after the possibility of going to Earth became nil, the fear disappeared and her armour dropped away. She spent her free time hunting or practising archery with Ciara in the courtyard, listening to Julie read aloud while laying beside her, trading insults with Leha seemingly for fun, or watching Armen. As for myself, the majority of my contact with her in those days was either work-related or bed-related, with or without Julie. The Qun suppresses many things, and passion seems to be among them. The genie was well and truly out of the bottle on that one. I found myself becoming affectionate to her too, catching myself smiling at her or waking up enveloped by her. She put 100% into everything and anything she did, which was more than you could say about Julie or I.
Ciara stayed her cheery, excitable self. I didn't see her very much at all, as she opted to explore our new land for most of the daylight hours, mapping it out for me. When I did see her, it was during the aforementioned archery practice with Tam or with a report on what was out there. In the evenings, she had Armen start work on the garden, clearing out the huge weeds and rejuvenating the soil there. A little flame here and there had that task completed in no time at all. She seemed entirely undisturbed by the potential dangers ahead of us, or perhaps even relished them. It would be a considerable period of time before I met a Dalish clan, so this struck me as bizarre but welcome nonetheless. I'm sure Armen appreciated her boundless enthusiasm as well.
The mage himself found that he was best suited to any number of jobs that needed to be completed. The stone carving, the garden, lifting heavy objects like they were nothing, he took on the work with good grace. The reason why was obvious. Two days into the work, he sent off what I thought was a raven with a message attached to its leg. We finally made contact with the nascent Mage Rebellion. The full circumstances of our escape from Halamshiral went with it, along with the details of my fake identity. He sent a raven to someone else as well, with similar details, but refused to say to whom and what exactly he had said. I knew he wouldn't endanger us, as that would mean putting a torch for his plans for me, so I let him away with it. For leisure, he spent time with Ciara and learned to read Latin letters. When I asked him why he would bother, Armen made mention of wanting to know about Earth's knowledge of the material world. I have to admit, I was impressed with that motivation.
The person I spent most time with when the sun was up was Leha, which was unpleasant but necessary. Aside from being a trader, she was an alchemist. Both skillsets helped me with my ideas for making coin. Aside from various tools, which we could copy from examples that I had brought with me, there was the alcohol. My father was fond of making moonshine, to the eternal embarrassment of my mother. Like father like son. Leha informed me of the sorts of drinks that nobles and ambitious merchants liked, and I came up with the products to match. By the third week, we had a whole range planned and a trademark. The former was mostly grain alcohols with various sweeteners, the sort of thing I wouldn't touch with a bargepole but that would please the yuppies of either world. The latter was a simple eagle, identical to that on the entrance stone, with "L'Ambassade" underneath it in Dwarfish script. The first of many profitable ventures, I am proud to report.
As Julie is fond of saying, the sinews of war are infinite money. Cicero was another item on her reading list. War was indeed coming, and we could feel its approach. Settling into Hearth was the strangest experience of my life, but it was among the most pleasant as well. The most strange event happened just as I was getting used to things.
"What the hell do you mean he wants to see us?" I said over breakfast, "It's been weeks, and we haven't heard a peep out of him."
Leha sighed, having arrived minutes earlier from the town herself. She had burst into our new kitchen on the ground floor looking red and flustered, which reminded me a little of how she had shown up before the Baron's first arrival. I looked to the others around the table, and most seemed as irritated at the prospect as I did. It was Armen and Julie eating with me. Tam and Ciara were out hunting yet again.
"His seneschal told me to run down here and tell you," Leha panted, "The Baron will be coming, and he won't be alone."
That really got my attention.
"Please tell me that the Revered Mother isn't the company with him," I groaned, "She already gives Julie an earful every time she goes down to the chapel." Lectures about appropriate relationships, the threat of mages, and bitching about why I wasn't going to sing the Chant of Light with my betrothed. My patience with the woman was severely tested, to say the least. Tam avoided similar censure by actually showing up, which I found rather a hilarious diversion for my nerves.
"No, it's the corvée levy," said Leha, rolling her eyes, "I don't actually know what the hell that means, I don't speak Orlesian... but 'expect a crowd' was the feeling I got from the conversation."
"A crowd of what?" asked Armen, not even looking at the dwarf as he asked before stuffing a large piece of bread into his mouth. He was filling out pretty well in a good way. I had shown him some physical training techniques early-on, and he took to them.
"Serfs," Julie replied.
I narrowed my eyes.
"Serfs?" I asked, not quite sure if I had heard her correctly.
"We're lord and lady of Ancienmaison now, remember?" she said, "We have vassals that owe us corvée... labour, and tithes of crops."
A bolt of disgust rippled down my throat. I hadn't considered that possibility. Hell, I had no idea how much land I actually owned, never mind that I would actually have what were effectively indentured servants or slaves to work it. The idea I had was to make money by exploiting my knowledge, not force peasants to hand over their crops to me. Slavery of that sort has a dark history in my world. I was determined to have nothing to do with it.
"We're not going to have vassals," I said firmly, "I don't care if every country in the world marches on us, I'm not treating people like animals."
Julie smiled at that. My stress melted away a little. I was worried for a moment that she had bought into the whole idea. It would have been completely contrary to her character, to roll with it. I smirked back. She had been waiting for this moment.
"You had no intention of going along with it, did you?" I asked flatly. She shook her head slowly.
"We'll let them work the land for free, or pay them for other work on contract," she replied, "We're going to need them to maintain our image, but that doesn't mean we need to play the way we're expected to." Which was true, and I felt a lot better about it as it donned on me that I would probably have military obligations as well. If Des Arbes thought I was going to be using my Earth weaponry for his benefit or that of the Crown, he was pissing up the wrong tree.
"I'm confused," said Armen, "Why not charge them a rent?" A fair question from someone who didn't know where my objection was coming from. He hadn't read the history books yet.
"Can't say I understand either," Leha added, "Take some money if they're going to be working anyway." Because it isn't ours to take, I thought.
Julie sighed, frustrated that the other two hadn't got the picture yet. "We will need the peasants' support if we're going to get through this," she explained after a moment to think, "When mages start showing up, or nobles start getting agitated by our presence, we can't have an angry mob ready to support templars or chevaliers coming to kill us. I'd prefer if the angry mob was on our side." Or something a lot more capable than an angry mob, as I began to think about the possibilities.
Armen hummed his approval and returned to his meal, while Leha just looked even more confused with her brow furrowed deeply.
"Why would chevaliers be out to kill you?" the dwarf asked, "I get templars, necessary risk if we're going to bring mages in. The profits justify it. But why would the nobility care?" Armen had a little chuckle to himself, knowing something she didn't.
Julie had opted to keep Leha in the dark about my true origins, until she was sure that it would be safe to reveal such a dangerous thing. Or more accurately, until we were making money hand-over-fist and Leha wouldn't be tempted to hand me over to whoever wanted me in return for a fat payday. Her obsession with money really did border that closely on the obscene, an irony we would be glad for in the coming years.
"We're going to be making a lot more money than they are, and they're going to resent that," I said, using the lesser truth to cover my real fear, "Julie is a commoner raised up by a foreign noble, we'll be outcasts even if we don't proceed with our plans." Plans we had to go ahead with if we were to both stay alive and stay in Hearth.
"There are eleven chevaliers under the Baron apart from you, and I don't think any of them will look at you twice," Leha said, "You're just someone he brought in to manage this part of his land, that's all." That was what I hoped was the case myself, but we had no idea of his real intentions.
"Only time will tell," said Julie, "With the loyalty of the people the Baron will … give to us, we can do much more than if we simply exploit them."
"They'll all be elves with no other opportunities, or second-sons and their families," replied Leha, "I doubt loyalty would be a problem."
"Loyalty enough to fight the nobles when it comes to that?" Julie asked, "No, we need to bind them to us, make them family almost. That's the only way."
"Fine, the Baron will be here in a couple of hours," Leha said, throwing her arms up, "I'll see you then."
The dwarf stormed off out of the building, into the garden. She nearly collided with Tam, who was rounding the corner, but a quick sidestep saw her dodge both the Qunari and Ciara behind. Loud mutterings boomed in her wake, which pissed me off a little.
I waved our companions over with a frown, as they set aside their bows. Tam gave a curious look, while Ciara dropped herself into a seat next to Armen.
"What did the dwarf want?" asked Tam, as she entered the room from the sunshine outside. My eyes wandered for a moment, before I remembered she had asked a question.
"The Baron is coming, with peasants to work the land," I said, "Leha's not happy that we want to pay them to work for us."
Tam merely shrugged her indifference. Her circle of concern was always tight-knit.
"So more people are coming?" Ciara asked cheerfully.
"Yes," replied Julie, "I don't know how many yet, but we'll see."
AUTHOR'S NOTE: The concluding chapter of Volume II: Laws & Customs... Very much a set-up for what's going to happen next. Which I'm quite excited about. Not much badassery this time I'm afraid, but that's what the next chapter is for.
To those awaiting my Mass Effect stories, November will be a Mass Effect month. Updates for Battlefield 2183, 2157: The Secret History of the First Contact War, and Wars of the Systems Alliance. En masse, I hope.
For the record, I have all three of the player characters from Origins, DA:II and Inquisition planned out, based on the three styles that exist in the games. One will be aggressive, one will be humourous, and one will be a paragon. One of each class as well. As you can guess, Amell was the mage and the aggressive one.
Seems like the last chapter was a little controversial on two points: Grey Warden Joining and Morrigan's Dark Ritual, and how the crew would know the secrets of either of them.
On the first point, I doubt that the ritual's basic point, drinking darkspawn taint, is a great secret to Sten, either now that he's Arishok or when he was still Sten. Furthermore, it has occurred to me since writing the chapter that the real secret of the Joining is the drop of archdemon blood. The group certainly doesn't know about that.
On the second point, there are people out there with some knowledge of what Morrigan and the Warden did. Alistair seems to have some idea in Inquisition, for instance. If he knows, it's not exactly a stretch that Sten knew, and thus could pass the knowledge onto Tam. Aside from that, people could have deduced that Morrigan had done something with the Warden even if the latter had kept entirely quiet. After all, in this version of events, no one died as a result of slaying the Archdemon, which conveniently solved a serious problem just after Morrigan did something. The assumption that it was blood magic is fairly standard follow-on from that. Her fleeing afterwards would make perfect sense in that context, as there would be no shortage of people looking for her and/or the kid if they knew about that detail, which I assumed Sten did. All of which assumes the Hero said only a little. He could have revealed most or all of it afterwards.
5 Coloured Walker: Mages would indeed need authorisations to roam, but news travels relatively slowly in Thedas and there is the bureaucracy of the problem to consider. Made worse by the unrest in the Circles, I might add. Expect trouble on that front. It was obvious there would be some.
Meebsterman: Masshole indeed.
There will be massive statues. Whether or not they'll be of Hunt, remains to be seen. I have one in particular in mind.
Blinded in a Bolthole: Cheers for the reviews... though you know a guy who's actually into horned chicks? That's... almost an achievement in itself.