I don't own Dragon Age or the mods listed.

Chapter 7: Redcliffe Castle

The group exited the passage into what looked like a dungeon. "Get away. Someone help!" The voice came from the cell with undead trying to break the cell door off. Malcolm took his sword out and ran towards the fiends. As one of the dead turned to face Malcolm, he cut off its head. Before the body hit the floor, he swung to take another head off. This time, however, when he cut this head off, the fiend was too close to the bars, so when the sword hit metal it jarred his arms. In fact, he was swinging so hard, that it caused him to drop his sword and hold his right arm.

Then the last undead jumped on him, causing him to fall on the ground. His arms were too weak to do anything except to keep the corpse from biting him. Then, as the corpse got closer and closer to biting him, Zevran pulled it off of him, as Alistair took its head off.

As Leliana helped him up she asks, "Hey, you okay?"

"Yeah. Arms are just a little weak." Leliana started to take the gauntlet off his right arm. "What are you doing?"

When she took it off, the bandage was even more red than it was before. "That's not good." She grabs a new bandage and takes the old one off. As she puts the new one on, she tells Malcolm, "Hitting the bars the way you did reopened the cut and made it worse. You need to stay in the back, away from the front lines."

"I can't. I need to lead from the front."

"No. You won't do any good in the front. Not with your wound. Use your crossbow. Speaking of which, where is it?"

"It's with our camping gear. I wasn't planning on making this cut any worse."

When Leliana looks at him, her eyes asked him about magic. Malcolm told her with his eyes that he won't. "So, use your other arm."

"I'm not that precise with my left. But I'll try."

"Hey. If you are done, can you come here, please?" Then the group walked to the cell. Inside there was a man. "Thank you for saving me. Not that I'm complaining, but what are you doing here?"

Malcolm closed his eyes and sensed that the guy is a mage. As he opened his eyes he asks the man, "Are you the own who poisoned the arl?"

"Y-Yes, but I'm not proud of it. My name is Jowan, I'm a maleficar, a blood mage, that the arlessa hired."

Alistair said, "Blood magic. Not good."

Malcolm said to Jowan, "Wait. She said you infiltrated the castle staff."

"Wait, what? No. She looked for an apostate because Connor… started to show signs of magic."

Alistair was in shock. "Connor, a mage?"

"Yes. She hired me to privately teach Connor how to control his magic. She was afraid that the Circle was going to take him away. She wanted him to learn enough so he can hide it. But that was not the only reason I'm here. Loghain said that if I were to poison Arl Eamon, who he said was a danger to Ferelden, he would help with the Circle. After I poisoned him, the arlessa threw me in here. Then after days with no food or water, she came and demanded that I reversed what I did, and I thought she meant the poison. That was the first time I heard of the walking dead. I know how it looks, but I'm innocent with the corpses. I'm guilty with poisoning the arl, I admit it, but I did not raise the dead. You have to believe me."

Malcolm studies his face. "If I let out what would you do?"

"Well, I would first start with trying to help in any way I can."

"Leliana, open the cell."

Alistair objects, "Are we really letting a blood mage free?"

Leliana argues, "He wishes to redeem himself. Shouldn't everyone get the chance?"

Malcolm looks at her. "Open the cell." As she walks to the cell door, Malcolm looks back at Jowan. "If you do want to help, come with us."

As Leliana starts on the lock, Jowan asks, "You're letting me out? I will help however I can." After Leliana's done with the lock, Jowan opens the door and asks, "So, what's the plan?"

As the group of five starts walking, Malcolm tells him, "First, we need to head to the courtyard and open the gates so the rest of the group can join. Then we confront this evil." Then skeletons rose up and attacked.

In the courtyard. The group went through the door that lead to the courtyard, and Malcolm looked around. After a bit, he found the lever that opens the gates. After he pulled it, Halia, Ser Perth and the rest of the group ran to the steps in front of the door to the castle.

When they got close to the first group, Ser Perth said to Malcolm, "The knights of Redcliffe are ready and at your disposal."

Then one of the knight magically got pulled away from the group and into a sword. When the knight was known away, everyone saw the fiend that killed him.

Alistair yelled out, "Revenant!" After a few minutes, the revenant and the corpses that arisen with it, were down for good this time.

Perth walked up to Malcolm. "Now that's taken care of, shall we enter the main hall together?"

Malcolm nods. "Yes, and we need to hurry." All but Jowan ran up the steps and through the doors.

When they got in the main hall, Malcolm saw Isolde standing there with her head down, Teagan dancing, and a boy clapping. When they got closer, the boy stopped clapping and raised a hand, and Teagan stopped dancing and sat down next to the boy.

Then the boy spoke up, with a voice that sounds possessed, "So these are the one you talked about, Mother. The ones who stopped my soldiers."

Isolde replied, "Y-Yes, Connor."

"And what is in front of the others? I can't see it well."

"H-He is a man, Connor. Just like your father."

Connor groans. "I'm sick and tired of hearing about him."

Ser Perth exclaims, "Maker's breath! What is going on here?"

Isolde looks at Malcolm. "Warden, please. My son is not well. Please help him."

Connor puts a hand on his face. "M-Mother?" he asks in his normal voice. "W-What's going on?"

As Isolde kneels and talks to him, Connor puts both hands on his face. "Connor? Connor, talk to me."

"Get away from me, fool woman!" Isolde steps back. "You are beginning to bore me."

Malcolm speaks up. "Why didn't you tell us, Isolde?"

Halia tells Malcolm, "I knew it. I knew she was holding back."

Isolde looks at her. "Please. Please don't kill my son. Please help."

Malcolm looks at Connor. "Connor, if you can hear me in there, I will help you."

"Connor isn't here, so you can't help him. You can help yourselves by leaving and letting me have my fun."

Malcolm takes a step forward. "Only way I'm leaving is if you make me."

"Very well, then. Uncle. Kill them." He runs away as Teagan gets up and ready for battle and corpses rise.

Malcolm gets his shield out, but not his sword, as Teagan rushes him. Malcolm dodges an attack, and block another. "Teagan. Remember who you are." After a flurry of attacks, Teagan used a corner of his shield and hit Malcolm right above the elbow, hard enough to loosen his grip on his shield, then Teagan knocked his shield away. Then Teagan stabbed Malcolm in the side of his abdomen. When Teagan swung at Malcolm's head, he ducked, (Crack!) and got an armored knee to the nose, braking it. Malcolm fell on his back, broken nose, stabbed gut. Malcolm held his wound with one hand, while he used the other to get up. After he got up, he backed into a corner.

Alistair said, "Malcolm, what's going on with your hand?"

He looked down. The blood from his wound started to climb up his hand. Panicking, Malcolm tried to wipe it off. Leliana and Alistair started to walk towards him. "NO! STAY BACK!" Out of the corner out of his eyes, he saw someone still coming. Blue mist started to come out of his eyes. "I SAID, STAY BACK!" he said and swung his arm in that direction, causing a giant wave to throw everyone off their feet, then he passed out from the exertion.

By the time Halia stood up, Leliana was already checking on Malcolm. Halia walked over to Alistair. As she helped him up, he asks her, "What in the Maker's name was that?!"

She looks at him. "I don't know." She walks over to Leliana. "How is he?"

"He's alive, but unconscious."

Alistair walked up to Halia. "You knew, didn't you? You knew he had magic."

She turned around. "Yeah. Yeah, I knew. So, what?"

"Why didn't you tell me?"

"Oh, like you didn't tell me you were the son of a king?!"

"That was personal."

"So, was this!" They stared at each other, with tears falling from Halia's eyes.

(Cough) They looked at Malcolm. His eyes slowly opened, as he coughed up some blood. Leliana had tears falling on his face. He looks at her. "Hey, Leliana?" (Cough)

"Yeah?"

(Cough) "Would you please cry somewhere else? I'm having a hard time breathing as it is," he jokes with a smile.

"They are tears of joy, mon chérie, so I'm trying to share them."

"Well, share them with someone else." (Cough) "Between the blood and your tears, I'm surprised I haven't drowned yet." She smiles at that which makes him smile.

Alistair walks over and kneels next to him. "Malcolm, what in the Maker's name was that?"

Malcolm looks at him. "I-I don't know. Help me up." As he got up, he noticed that he was sore where the wound is. He reached down with his hand and felt it. When he pulled his hand up, there was no blood. "That's strange." Confused, he loosened his armor just enough to get a hand in to feel around where the wound is supposed to be. "Leliana. Feel around."

When she did, he winced a little. As she pulled her hand back, she said, "I didn't feel anything." She looks at her hand. "There's no blood."

"Wait, there's nothing?"

"Not that I could tell."

"YOU! YOU DID THIS!

"No. I didn't summon any demon. If only you would let me help-"

The four of them looked to see Isolde yelling at Jowan.

"HELP! YOU POISONED MY HUSBAND! WHY WOULD I ACCEPT YOUR HELP?!"

"There is a way to kill the demon without harming the boy."

Teagan asks, "What do you mean? Is the demon not within Connor?"

"Not physically. The demon likely approached Connor while he slept. Killing the boy is the easiest way, but a mage can enter the Fade and confront the demon."

"Without harming the boy?"

"Right. Normally, it would require more mages and a lot of lyrium, but I have… blood magic. I can extract that power from someone's life source. It requires a lot of it, however. All of it, in fact."

"So, someone has to die, no matter what choice we choose."

Isolde spoke up. "So be it, let it be me."

"Isolde, you can't be serious."

"Either someone kills my son, or I die so he can live."

Malcolm yelled, "NO! I will not let a family be torn apart, again!"

Jowan argues. "We don't have a choice. Someone will have to die."

"What about the Circle? The tower is not that far away."

"The more time we waste, the longer the demon is in control."

"I thought you wanted to help."

"I do. It's just that, if we take too long, the demon will no longer be passive."

"Then we split up. Leliana and I will make for the tower, while the rest of you will keep control of the situation."

Isolde looks at Malcolm. "Are you sure?"

He looks back with some hatred in his eyes. "Yes. I will not let your selfish actions kill anyone else."

"My what… How dare-"

Teagan looked at her. "Don't lie to us. You wanted to keep Connor here, rather than the Circle, where he could be safe."

"But… I-"

"If you would have told Eamon, none of this would have happened. It's your selfish actions that caused Eamon to get poisoned."

"I…"

Malcolm spoke up. "Enough. While Teagan is right, we can argue about this later. Halia," he says as he turns to her and puts a hand on her shoulder, "keep them safe."

"You keep Leliana safe."

He smiles. "But, not me?"

"No. If you die, I'll just take over. But you need to keep her alive, so she can take control if I die."

"Ouch. That hurts."

"Just get going."

"Okay, okay." As he started to walk away, he remembered something. "Oh, Halia. Don't kill anything living." Then he ran away from her.

"Hey!" was the last thing he heard before him and Leliana exited the building. Before they left Redcliffe, Malcolm got his crossbow and fastened it on the back of his waist, and some of their camping gear.

As they left, Leliana asked, "How long should it take us to get there?"

Malcolm took his map out. "If we follow the road a few days, then a few hours from the docks to the tower. But there is a shortcut, here," he shows her, "that should take some time off."

Leliana looks closely at that part of the map. "But there might not be land there that we can walk across."

"Well, we'll cross it when we get there."

Few days later. They are walking alongside a stream. Suddenly, Leliana tripped and Malcolm caught her. If Leliana didn't trip, an arrow would have got her in the arm. Malcolm looked at the nearby hill and saw an archer. As Malcolm spun around and grabbed his crossbow, an arrow deflected off his shield, which was on his back. Malcolm quickly fired and scored a hit in the archer's gut. As he reloaded his crossbow, a thug jumped out of the nearby woods. Malcolm used his crossbow and smashed it into the face of the thug, shattering it in the process but putting the guy out of commission. Then a third thug jumped out. Malcolm rolled out of the way, picking up the second thug's weapon in the process, and ended up on his feet.

Looking at the weapon, Malcolm could have used his fists better than a mace, but he can't be picky in this situation. The thug leaped him, with a downward strike with his spiked mace. Malcolm dodged to the left, and delivered an upward-diagonal right-to-left strike, however, he did not compensate for the weight difference, which allowed his opponent to dodge his attack. Malcolm put all his strength into this next attack, which caused both weapons to fall into the stream. Using the momentum, Malcolm spins around, grabs the thug's arm, and delivered a strong punch, which broke his neck with a sickening CRACK!

Malcolm looked over and saw Leliana kill a fourth thug. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the first thug was trying to sneak away. Malcolm reached down, grabbed a rock, and threw it at him. As the rock hit his helmet, Malcolm walked over to him, pulling his sword out. Leliana walked with him. "Wait. Don't kill him."

When Malcolm reached the thug, he asks, "Why? They just tried to kill us."

Leliana inspects the armor of the guy, then looks at Malcolm. "He is no ordinary thug. None of them are. Take a look at their equipment." She looks at the guy. "You know what I'm talking about, don't you?"

The guy clutches where the bolt hit him, as he stands up. (Cough) "They said it would be an easy job. Kill the little redhead; deal with the others as we pleased."

Leliana looks shocked. "'Kill the…' You were sent to kill me?"

Malcolm raised his sword. "No one kills my friends."

Leliana raised a hand. "No. Not yet. Who sent you to kill me?"

The assassin goes for a parchment. "No idea. All we knew was to kill you, and where to collect the money. Heh. Money. I'd be lucky just to keep my life."

Malcolm was not amused. "Don't make me search a dead body for the location."

His eyes go wide with fear. "H-Here," he hands over the parchment, "t-this is where I was to go for the money."

Leliana takes it. "Thank you, now go."

Malcolm steps into the guy's personal space. "And if I get even the feeling of you following us…"

The assassin limps away. "Don't worry. I'm not that stupid."

Leliana turns to Malcolm. "It's Marjolaine. It has to be."

"I thought you escaped from her?"

"So did I. But what if… We have to see her." She looks at the letter. "Hmm… it seems like she is in Denerim. If we have time, I would like to seek her out."

Malcolm puts a hand on her shoulder. "We will. Just after we save Connor." He moves the hand to the side of her face. "I promise. We just can't waste time before we deal with the demon. But I promise, after we deal with Redcliffe's problem, we will find her. And I will be there, beside you, where I belong." He leans his head to hers and kisses her.

After they drew back, Leliana grabs his hand. "Thank you, mon chérie. Maybe it's time to end this for good."

They spend the next few days getting to the Lake Calenhad Docks. When there they had a brief talk with a templar guarding a small rowboat.

Meanwhile at Redcliffe Castle. Halia was going to go mad. If she had to listen to the spoiled brat complain one more time, she was going to take Jowan on his offer to use Isolde to fuel the ritual. This time, Isolde was complaining about not having any proper meals.

Halia walked, more like stomped, her way to Isolde. "Listen, lady. If you don't like the food, then don't eat it! So that way, those of us who are grateful to have some kind of food can have it, while we wait for Malcolm and Leliana to bring the mages! If you were to stop complaining, then the rest of us could be better prepared for when more undead attack." She walked away before the human made her do something they both would regret.

Alistair walked up to her. "Was Lady Isolde complaining again?" Halia looked at him. "Don't tell me you're thinking about Jowan's offer."

Halia looks at Isolde out of the corner of her eye. "If she doesn't stop, freeing the boy will be a side effect."

"Hey. Remember what Malcolm said."

She sighs. "He said, 'Don't kill anything living'. Expect I won't be the one to kill her."

"Well, in a way, you will. You would be the one to tell the blood mage. So, he kills her on your orders."

She sighs again. "You're right. But if she doesn't stop complaining about the food, I'll make her taste your cooking. Then she'll eat what we find."

They both chuckle. Alistair asks, "So is that why Malcolm left me here? So Isolde could taste my cooking?"

"Maybe. Or maybe so the undead could eat something and stop attacking."

They laugh this time. "Help! More monsters!"

Alistair looks at Halia. "Well, duty calls." He runs off to help.

Halia watches as he goes to help. For the first time since Tamlen, she had feelings. Halia shook her head. No, she must remain loyal. There is still a chance that he could still be alive. She has to stay strong, for his sake.

A few days later. Halia woke up and didn't hear the human complaining. She thought she must have died while she slept. As she got up, she saw Alistair running towards her. "They're here." Since Halia thought he meant more undead, she went for her daggers, as bows proven to be ineffective at killing them. "No. I mean Malcolm and the mages are here."

She gets up and follows Alistair to the room where the mages have prepared for the ritual. She only gets the last part of the conversation. "…want to enter the Fade and confront the demon?"

Malcolm notices Halia but answers to the elder man. "I would like to send Jowan."

Everyone, other than Malcolm and Leliana, exclaims, "What?!"

Malcolm continues, "Irving, Jowan wants to help."

The elder human, who was called Irving, replies with, "Let loose a blood mage in the Fade? What if he tries to control it?"

Jowan adds in, "I know I said I wanted to help, but are you sure?"

Malcolm looks at Irving. "This man regrets what he has done to lead to this. This is his chance for redemption."

Jowan says, "I… I'll do my best."

Irving adds, "Then, let's begin the ritual."

Half an hour passed. Malcolm and Alistair watched Jowan's kneeling figure. Isolde was pacing back and forth. While the rest of the group was keeping watch for any undead that would come, Halia was outside, something about fresh air. Then Jowan stood up saying, "There. It is done."

Malcolm used his magic and could sense that there was no more demon possession. "He's right."

Alistair asks, "How would you know?"

"My… magic. It allows me to sense any magic, active or not. However, I was so focus on helping that farm girl, that I didn't sense that she was a mage. I know that is no excuse but… I should have told you." Malcolm turns around. "All of you. It was personal, and I didn't trust any of you enough. Next time we make camp I will explain. Trust me."

Teagan walked up. "Whatever happened is none of my business. But you saved lives today." His face darkened. "However, my brother is still suffering."

Isolde walked up. "The Ashes! The Sacred Ashes will save him!"

Malcolm looked at her. "Wait. The Sacred Ashes? You mean THE Sacred Ashes of Andraste?"

"Yes! We had a scholar from Denerim, Brother Genitivi, looking for them!"

Teagan said, "Isolde, we don't even know if they're real."

"Brother Genitivi found proof that they're real." She turns to Malcolm. "Please, Warden. Look for Genitivi at Denerim."

"I will. Just calm down." He turns to the group. "Alright, next stop, Denerim. Let's move out." They then left Redcliffe to head to Denerim.