9:30 Wintermarch 21st
Eventually everyone ended up in the apprentice rooms. All the Templars, the few mages, the kids, and our group. Considering the real mess hall is body galore, the Tranquil decided to deliver the dinner where everyone was sleeping for now. It was strange to see them work so…unnerved after the whole Uldred thing. Considering that all their emotions have been cut off though, it wasn't surprising. Then I remembered that a little part of them is still 'alive' inside and they are watching themselves act like a robot.
No wonder those who have awakened never want to go back. For a split second, I wanted to tell them about the cure to Tranquility but most wouldn't believe me. Not only that, why take away the only thing keeping mages in line? In their minds at least. Something like this should have only been used as a last resort as it was before. It shouldn't have been abused.
"Thank you." I said to the male Tranquil who gave me my meal of stew, bread, and fresh fruit. They even had mead, ale, and wine. I drank my wine diluted. It gave a warm feeling in my stomach. Oren was at a separate table with the other kids. They were at least talking and having fun.
"Oh this is delicious! I'm so glad the demons didn't destroy the food." Alistair chuckled.
"The storage room was not touched although it seems that a few passages have been discovered." Wynne commented as she ate.
"Passages?" Leliana wondered.
"They were most likely created by mages who sought to flee the Circle. Unfortunately, due to the chaos, it would be hard to track them down." Wynne replied.
"I don't see why they would track them down." Talen shrugged, already asking a Tranquil for seconds. "Sometimes, mages don't belong in a tower."
"Talen you don't really believe that do you?" Wynne frowned.
"Even you know Wynne that a few hate the tower. Why not let them go and get into their own problems?" Talen said. "Isn't that what started this all anyway?"
"Be that as it may, a mage is not normal. Normal people don't accidentally start fires in their sleep." Wynne chastised and Talen's face grew red.
"Good one!" Alistair laughed while Talen glared at him.
"All this magic talk is making my beard itch. I guess I got a good story out of all of this." Derek chuckled.
"What story is that?" Leliana asked.
"I got to dream!" Derek laughed.
"Oh right, dwarves don't dream because they're not connected to the fade." Alistair asked for seconds.
"The same resistance that doesn't allow them to dream also allows them to resist against magic. Although it seems like dwarves can still be caught off-guard with demons." Wynne chuckled.
"Yeah, yeah, laugh it up Senior. Still, it's good you got me out of the nightmare priss." Derek slurped all of his stew down.
"You had a nightmare?" I wondered.
"Yep. I thought I was stuck in carta prison as I slowly watched my friend starve to death." Derek shuddered. "That thing really knew how to dig under your skin."
"I had a peaceful dream where I was praying in the Chantry." Leliana smiled.
"I was Warden Commander of Ferelden and…Duncan was still alive." Alistair's face fell.
"I was being hounded by a fake mother." Morrigan rolled her eyes.
"They were still alive." Sten mumbled softly.
"I was trapped in Aeonar." Talen huffed angrily.
"We all got out and that was what is most important." Eren said. "We also got the allies we wanted which is the first step in creating our army to stop the Blight."
"Nicely said boss!" Derek laughed. Wynne got up from her meal and started to talk to the few mages that survived. In total, we only had about 15 able mages to fight with us. Templars wouldn't join us because they had to take care of them. Even so, I'm glad we were able to save them and not go through the rite.
"So where are we going to head next? We still have treaties for the Dalish and the dwarves." Talen mentioned, leaning back after eating.
"Don't forget that Eamon is also a choice." Alistair piped. I left then and gathered some of the dishes which were taken by the Tranquils. I went out to the hallway where a few Templars, who skipped on eating, were hauling the bodies from the upper floors. They were all various ages from the old to the young. It made me sad looking at all the death. At the same time, I felt that part of my heart harden in order for me not to completely break. I have to say that I am slightly ashamed for it.
"What happened here was a tragedy." Leliana said as she stood next to me. "I can't believe that one man was able to rend this tower completely."
"Like Wynne said, it wasn't just one man. The possessed Uldred turned a lot of mages just so they can believe they were 'free' for a second. This was under the influence of a demon. A wish gone wrong." I explained.
"A wish?" Leliana wondered.
"Spirits wish to join the living. A demon is formed when that wish becomes twisted and wrong. Spirits are dangerous but as long as we can keep an open mind, they can help us. But we are all full of extremes, light and darkness. Love can turn into lust, purpose into desire, wisdom into pride. How we see spirits is how we twist them. We look at them with fear and loathing and they will respond and shape themselves to it." I ranted.
"You know much about spirits." Leliana eyed me.
"Reading can teach you so much." I chuckled.
"Yet all of what I know about spirits comes from the Chantry and they say that the fade houses demons of all kinds." Leliana mentioned.
"And that's wrong. Spirits can't be defined by just spirits and demons. They just are. What makes them dangerous is how we see them. We shape them even if we don't know it. If we expect a demon, we get a demon. I mean, some start off as demons and that we can't change. With the right mental fortitude though, we can get through most dangers. It's all about being careful." I shrugged.
"How do you know so much? I am very sure that your knowledge about spirits didn't all come from a book." Leliana said. There was that calculating look that she had sometimes.
"That's a secret." I winked. 'One day I'll tell you Leliana when I make sure you're not going to kill me outright.' I thought.
We decided to take this day to rest and also resupply. Derek, Eren, and Wynne went through the storage room for anything we would be able to take. Talen, Leliana, and I helped with dragging the bodies outside. I made sure to tell the apprentices to take Oren with the other kids away. They were in the storage room trying to number all the passages that escaped mages did. We were able to get all the bodies up until the third level out and burned. Talen as well as a few Templars sang the Chant for the ones that were departed. Leliana joined them while I said my own prayers silently.
Every other time when I was helping clean, I saw Morrigan deeply entrenched into a grimoire. I knew eventually that she was going to bring up the whole killing Flemeth thing. I wanted to laugh considering that Flemeth had a back-up plan for that.
Sten kept to himself. I saw him doing his routines with his sword. It kept him limber. After we got rid of the bodies, we tried to lift the bookshelves as well as recover all of the books. Some languages I recognized, most I didn't. There was a book that was similar to the common tongue but had accents that were found in the Spanish language.
"You can throw that one out. Must have been one of the mages that smuggled in Antivan romances." A Templar said. I've read antivan romances that were translated but this was actual antivan! I put it in my pack.
Alfred was following me around most of the time when we were cleaning. Oren followed me around like Alfred, helping me gather books. Sometimes I would catch him and Alfred curled up looking through the pictures. Eren was avoiding me for the most part. I didn't blame him. It would be tough for him to be around me after what I found out. It hurt too because I didn't know whether or not things were going to be the same again.
I sat down where the stairs led up to the second floor. Alfred put his head in my lap and I petted him. Of course after all of the demons we've defeated, I realized that Alfred was getting rank.
"You need a bath." I chuckled. Alfred tilted his head and whined.
"Stinky mabari." Oren made a disgusted face. We both laughed.
"I was thinking the same thing." Wynne came down the stairs. "I have gotten permission from Eren to give him a good wash."
"Awesome, make him smell floral." I chuckled. Alfred whined and started to inch himself away.
"Oh no you don't. Eren's orders." Wynne winked. Alfred followed her. "Would you be kind to help me Oren?"
"OK!" Oren laughed after Wynne as they went back upstairs. I stayed down to pick up more books. I put them on the table in the middle of the room. I was so interested in all the books here! It reminded me of libraries. I used to spend most of my after school time just reading in them. I flipped through the pages and the letters were just interesting to look at.
"You're having a lot of fun." Leliana came in the room.
"I've always been a big reader but it was different back home. There's so many different languages. I'm not even sure where to begin to understand all of this." I flipped through another one, arranging them by the letters I recognized.
"I'm sure you'll be able to eventually learn. We have much ahead of us once the Blight ends." Leliana said, getting the last of the books off the ground.
"I hope. I got this book right here because someone told me to throw it away but it's in real antivan!" I giggled. Leliana gave me a small smile.
"You don't know how to read it?" She wondered.
"I know how to speak it but not to read it." I shrugged. "It was like that with common too."
"Was it hard to learn?" Leliana asked. I shook my head.
"I had a…friend that helped me." I sighed, remembering Rael and the way he dumped our friendship.
"Lunch is ready guys." Talen opened the door from the second floor. "The mess hall is more or less clean." He shrugged. We followed him up the stairs.
"No wonder everyone is more or less fit. I can't imagine walking up all these stairs all the time." I mentioned. Talen laughed.
"We had days where a few apprentices tried to find our Senior Enchanters. We'd go up two flights only for someone to say their downstairs. We'd prank others too sometimes just so we can see them walk up and down." Talen smirked.
"Sounds like fun." Leliana giggled. Talen side glanced and hummed.
"Those were the good days." He mumbled.
"What else did you do?" Leliana wondered.
"Besides the pranks? Just the usual. Read, train, gossip." Talen described, counting it out with his fingers.
"Gossip? You?" Leliana giggled.
"No, not me. I didn't care about it but when you're in a tower where you barely left and you're around the same people all the time, they tend to talk." Talen pouted. "They made stories about everyone so it wasn't all good. Who is with who and stuff like that got tiring." Talen crossed his arms and huffed.
"But gossip can lead to information." Leliana got close to Talen and his face got red. I giggled at their antics. "Does this mean you had someone special?"
"What!? No!" Talen took a few steps away from Leliana. He rubbed his face bashfully. "I mean I've had a few girls that I liked but there was no one special." He cleared his throat. Leliana giggled and I couldn't stop from smiling goofily. "Why are you smiling?" Talen scowled.
"Oh nothing." I giggled. We finally ended up in the mess hall with Leliana often trying to get Talen riled up. It was cute to see Talen like that after what happened before. As long as he's smiling.
"Seems like you three are having fun!" Derek laughed at a table that wasn't totally destroyed.
"We moved the bodies to the next room so it isn't so crowded in here." Alistair said. We all sat down at the table as the mages and Templars started to sit down. With only three tranquil, they do make a lot of food.
"Thank you." I said as I got my soup and bread.
"You don't need to thank them. They're only tranquil." A Templar said.
"They're still people." I said.
"No they are not. First they were mages and then they proved to be more dangerous so that's why they had to be tranquiled." The Templar replied. I glared at him.
"We're not here to argue, we're here to eat." Wynne snapped at both of us. I huffed and the Templar did the same. I angrily shoved food into my mouth. How dare he! Prick.
"So have we got a destination yet?" Derek asked.
"We're either going to Orzammar next or head to Redcliffe." Eren replied.
"Ah yes Orzammar. I wonder what all the dusters are going to think when they see me, a Grey Warden. They'll shit themselves!" Derek laughed.
"Do you have family there?" Leliana asked.
"A sister. I haven't been in contact with her for a while though. Casteless aren't allowed to write back." Derek explained. "I hope she's doing well." After that, it was mostly plan building between the Grey Wardens while everyone else was quiet. Wynne was eyeing me throughout the whole lunchtime. That meant she wanted to see me.
After the lunch, we all got started on cleaning again. Not me though and apparently not Alistair either. Wynne had tapped our shoulders and motioned us to follow her. Alistair and I shrugged before being led to a mage room.
"Is something the matter Wynne? Did you eat too fast?" Alistair chuckled.
"No but there is something I wanted to confirm." Wynne looked at me. I put two and two together.
"For Christ's sake, I am not a mage." I shook my head and huffed, crossing my arms.
"Wait what?" Alistair wondered.
"I have a suspicion that she might have magical talents." Wynne said.
"Nope, no magical stuff here. I am magically inept. I can't even command fire, I mean, come on!" I persuaded. Alistair eyed me warily.
"And what basis are you drawing from Wynne?" Alistair asked.
"I can't explain to you for it is her secret but may you please use your Templar abilities on her?" Wynne recommended. I took a step back.
"Is this going to do anything to me?" I glared.
"If you are a mage, you will feel the connection to the fade cut off from your abilities. You will feel weak and faint, almost in a fog." Wynne described.
"Are you sure about this? I've seen Nia fight and she doesn't fight with magic." Alistair countered. Thank you, you beautiful man.
"I have seen her block blood magic. You did see how she fought off the mind control without the Litany didn't you? Even Eren was underneath their control until we knocked them out." Wynne crossed her arms. I gulped and Alistair hummed.
"I think I remember something like that." Alistair said. Ok, I take back that beautiful man comment.
"Please Nia." Wynne gave me that pleading look. I groaned loudly.
"Fine, but I fall flat on my face, I'm blaming you." I pointed at Alistair.
"Why me?" He grumbled before he put a hand on the top of my head. "Now please tell us if you feel any sort of wooziness, it comes with the Templar territory." I waited. Then waited some more. I shrugged.
"Is something supposed to happen?" I asked. Alistair rubbed his chin like he was deep in thought.
"Well, that means you're not a mage." Alistair nodded.
"Well I had wondered…" Wynne rubbed her chin.
"So can I ask why you wanted me to do this? I don't like being in the dark. If you saw Nia as a danger, then you're going to need to explain to me. She seems like a good person and I really don't want to change that opinion unless I need to." Alistair crossed his arms in defiance against Wynne. He was actually standing up for me. Wynne looked to me. She wanted me to tell him.
"I am what you call a medium. Every mage has their talents and mine is the ability to sense spirits. Once, when I healed Nia I felt that pull of a spirit. I had wondered if she was a mage because of it. Of course she is not, though, how she has able to have a spirit next to her is beyond me." Wynne said.
"There have been stories in the Grey Wardens where if they rallied near a point where the veil was weak, spirits would help them. It could be that she did the same thing and a spirit latched onto her." Alistair said his point.
"Have you stayed into a point like that?" Wynne asked.
"I don't know." I said.
"A battlefield? Near Brecilian forest? A ruin maybe?" Alistair asked. I shook my head.
"I've never been anywhere besides Denerim and Highever." I said. "Anyway, my spirit isn't hurting anyone or me so can't we let this drop?"
"Not until we find out why it latched on to you." Wynne put her foot down.
"Great." I said flatly.
Beta'd by FearaNightmare :3
One thing I forgot to add in my last story was downtime. Pulling an all nighter to fight demons will definitely require rest.
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