The one who repents, who has faith,
Unshaken by the darkness of the world,
She shall know true peace.
Transfigurations 10:1
It was, in the end, not as bad as it might have been; probably assuming that since his status as the only man in the group would also land him in the position of the one who would be carrying everything, Dorian had come prepared with a levitation spell. They'd still left a terrible amount of tracks, but they were not as deep as they might have been of they'd been actually carrying their belongings on their backs, and, as proof that miracles sometimes did occur, Maevaris had agreed to remove her shoes – probably more because trekking though moist ground would utterly ruin their heels, yet beggars could not be choosers, and her subdued, malevolent mutterings each time she stepped into a puddle were a small price to pay.
The rain that Veldrin had been smelling since morning had set in by the time they reached the cave; it was like no rain the elf had encountered before, for the sun had kept shining above, and the droplets were fine, like a mist, humidity shrouding them from above and below and everywhere, but not causing the rising heat to abate.
The coolness of the cave was thus welcome – once their bedspreads were rolled out, and the mirror propped against one of the cave's walls, Dorian lied down, saying that he needed a moment, then fell asleep so deeply that he did not even feel Vel removing his wet shirt. She pulled the thin cover to his chest, kissed his forehead, then shook her head to Maevaris' frown.
'Leave him,' she whispered to the Magistra. 'It's the first time he sleeps properly since we set out, and we will need to be fresh tonight. We'll all need to be fresh tonight, Mae, perhaps…'
The blonde woman shook her head. 'He could not sleep at sea, I don't think I can sleep on this accursed island.'
'I am so sorry, my friend,' Veldrin whispered.
'A tad late for that, doll,' Maevaris responded, on the same soft tone. 'Rest assured that if we live, I'll make you pay for this…'
She smiled tiredly, knowing her threat was hollow. 'Maker,' she whispered, 'I had forgotten even the air on this rock is a weapon…I need to wash.' She decisively added, heading for one of the coffers, extracting a book that looked utterly non-magical, and giving Veldrin a wink.
'Fancy a swim?' the elf asked, in surprise; the human looked away and smiled sadly. For a moment, Veldrin did not understand why; she had been thinking of a swim herself, for it had indeed been long since she'd bather in a river – the reason for Mae's reaction dawned on her a second later, and her words became lodged in her throat. What could one say…
Fortunately, Maevaris seemed to have been in the situation before, and recovered fast enough for a falsely bright smile. 'I am a bit shy of disrobing in front of strangers, but just between us girls, I don't mind if you do. I'll just wash my feet and my hair and watch you frolic. I've never seen wild elves frolic!'
'It's a sight to blow your mind,' Veldrin softly laughed.
'I am sure it is, sweetness,' the other woman winked. 'Off we go,' she said, stepping out from behind the waterfall.
Veldrin was naked and dived in the pool within a second, arching gracefully as she entered the water and making no splash; it was warmer than she'd expected, which was a tad disappointing, but it felt good, so she lingered under the surface, weaving amid the rocks and scaring the trout for as long as she could hold her breath. She came up a good minute later, and brushed her long hair from her face, before realising the gesture was pointless, and once more arching back, to let the weight of the water pull the hair off her forehead.
'You know I can still see you in there,' Mae said, with a little crooked grin; far more careful than the elf had been, she'd lifted the skirts of her robes to her knees, and placed her feet in the water, her book by her side.
'I'm pretty sure you've seen naked women before,' Veldrin chuckled, swimming to shore, and placing her entwined elbows next to Mae's knees.
'Not in the mirror, doll,' the Magistra said, looking Veldrin in the eyes, but in fact, looking through her.
'Eh,' Vel said, fighting off caution, for she feared it would hurt her friend more than false politeness, 'you know that the only thing that a beautiful woman is good for when she jumps in the water is…'
'…to scare the fish,' Maevaris nodded, her glance more present. 'That is what my father used to say, it's an old Tevinter proverb.'
'It's Elvhen, in fact,' Vel corrected, poking the tip of her tongue out. 'It's one of the teachings of Andruil – but it has a practical connotation as well, I think. It's just a roundabout way of telling one one should not try to catch trout with one's teeth.'
The elf lifted herself out of the water, and though her friend was frowning, spent a short moment collecting some waterside leaves; she crushed them between a couple of rocks, at first roughly, but then in finer and finer pieces, then, for the last motion she carefully let a few droplets of water from her hair drip onto the crushed plants, making them foam lightly. She carefully collected the result from the sharper rock, placed it on the flatter one, and silently descended back in the water.
'Give me your foot,' she said. 'Come on,' she insisted, when Maevaris' frown only deepened. Looking terribly doubtful, the human took her right foot out of the water and placed it in Veldrin's hand, then sighed in pleasure and surrender as the elf worked the leaves she'd prepared into a fine lather, over Mae's heel and in between her toes.
'This, by the way, is not an indication that elves have a natural compulsion to serve the master race,' the elf said. 'Just that us tree monkeys show tribal affiliation by grooming each other, though in this particular case, I am not feeling particularly inclined to eat what I wrestled from your coat…'
'I waxed my toes before we left, what are you speaking of!' Maevaris mockingly protested. 'This feels…good,' she said, closing her eyes. 'Thank you, Vel.'
'It will sting a little when you put your foot back in the water, you scratched yourself quite a bit…'
'I don't know that herb,' the human said. 'What is it?'
'It's not one, it's three – the foaming and the stinging plants you really don't know, and I don't know the human word for them, and there's a pinch of felandaris…'
'Felandaris?' Mae asked, suddenly opening her eyes. 'Is that not poisonous?'
'No, Shem'len,' Veldrin sternly said. 'Or well, it is, in the right quantity. In this case, though…give me your other foot,' she said. The human obeyed in fascination. 'In this case, it will just make your feet numb and help you travel faster.'
'Barefoot,' Mae shuddered.
'The importance of sensible shoes…' Veldrin shrugged.
'Might have been mentioned before we left, yes?' the Magistra scowled.
'Right…because after I've twisted your arm into abandoning what you have been working for in Senate for a decade, and made you come here, to relive your worst nightmare, I am going to criticise your wardrobe. My shamelessness does have limits.'
'Hard to see,' Mae sighed, pointedly looking down at Vel's breasts; the elf merely shook her head.
'If you are not frolicking naked, you're frolicking wrong,' she chuckled. 'Ma serannas, Mae.'
'Thank me when it's done, doll,' Maevaris said. 'This does sting,' she hissed, putting her foot in the water. 'Vel,' she said, placing her hand on top of the book, 'the last time I was here…'
'Bad things happened, Amata,' Veldrin said, softly. 'Some that Varric should perhaps not have written about.'
Mae nodded. 'Yes.' She said. 'But bad things happened because I overestimated myself. I thought I could take on Titus, and I could not; the front gate of Ath Velanis was being bombarded by two Qunari dreadnoughts and it would not have opened without Titus' own stupidity. If Titus had not opened that gate, none could have entered, Arishock, pirate queens, Fereldan Kings and dreadnaughts and tooth fairies and unicorns assembled. Varric still got in unnoticed.'
'But Varric's not here, Mae,' Veldrin attentively spoke.
'No, he is not,' Maevaris answered. 'But the point though which he did enter is still described in his book.'
'Go on,' Veldrin said, swimming a foot back, and attentively beholding her friend.
'We neither need nor want Ath Velanis,' Mae seriously said. 'What we need are Titus' channeling diagrams, which are in his laboratory, provided no one has set them ablaze;
It was, in the end, not as bad as it might have been; probably assuming that since his status as the only man in the group would also land him in the position of the one who would be carrying everything, Dorian had come prepared with a levitation spell. They'd still left a terrible amount of tracks, but they were not as deep as they might have been of they'd been actually carrying their belongings on their backs, and, as proof that miracles sometimes did occur, Maevaris had agreed to remove her shoes – probably more because trekking though moist ground would utterly ruin their heels, yet beggars could not be choosers, and her subdued, malevolent mutterings each time she stepped into a puddle or onto a sharp pebble were a small price to pay.
The rain that Veldrin had been smelling since morning had set in by the time they reached the cave; it was like no rain the elf had encountered before, for the sun had kept shining above, and the droplets were fine, like a mist, humidity shrouding them from above and below and everywhere, but not causing the rising heat to abate.
The coolness of the cave was thus welcome – once their bedspreads were rolled out, and the mirror propped against one of the cave's walls, Dorian lied down, saying that he needed a moment, then fell asleep so deeply that he did not even feel Vel removing his wet shirt. She pulled the thin cover to his chest, kissed his forehead, then shook her head to Maevaris' frown.
'Leave him,' she whispered to the Magistra. 'It's the first time he sleeps properly since we set out, and we will need to be fresh tonight. We'll all need to be fresh tonight, Mae, perhaps…'
The blonde woman shook her head. 'He could not sleep at sea, I don't think I can sleep on this accursed island.'
'I am so sorry, my friend,' Veldrin whispered.
'A tad late for that, doll,' Maevaris responded, on the same soft tone. 'Rest assured that if we live, I'll make you pay for this…'
She smiled tiredly, knowing her threat was hollow. 'Maker,' she whispered, 'I had forgotten even the air on this rock is a weapon…I need to wash.' She decisively added, heading for one of the coffers, extracting a book that looked utterly non-magical, and giving Veldrin a wink.
'Fancy a quick swim?' the elf asked, in surprise; the human looked away and smiled sadly. For a moment, Veldrin did not understand why; she had been thinking of a swim herself, for it had indeed been long since she'd bather in a river – the reason for Mae's reaction dawned on her a second later, and her words became lodged in her throat. What couldone say…
Fortunately, Maevaris seemed to have been in the situation before, and recovered fast enough for a falsely bright smile. 'I am a bit shy of disrobing in front of strangers, but just between us girls, I don't mind if you do. I'll just wash my feet and my hair and watch you frolic. I've never seen wild elves frolic!'
'It's a sight to blow your mind,' Veldrin softly laughed.
'I am sure it is, sweetness,' the other woman winked. 'Off you go,' she said, stepping out from behind the waterfall.
Veldrin was naked and dived in the pool within a second, arching gracefully as she entered the water and making no splash; it was warmer than she'd expected, which was a tad disappointing, but it felt good, so she lingered under the surface, weaving amid the rocks and scaring the trout for as long as she could hold her breath. She came up a good minute later, and brushed her long hair from her face, before realising the gesture was pointless, and once more arching back, to let the weight of the water pull the hair off her forehead.
'You know I can still see you in there,' Mae said, with a little crooked grin; far more careful than the elf had been, she'd lifted the skirts of her robes to her knees, and placed her feet in the water, her book by her side.
'I'm pretty sure you've seen naked women before,' Veldrin chuckled, swimming to shore, and placing her entwined elbows next to Mae's knees.
'Not in the mirror, doll,' the Magistra said, looking Veldrin in the eyes, but in fact, looking through her.
'Eh,' Vel said, fighting off caution, for she feared it would hurt her friend more than blunt acknowledgement of the obvious, 'you know that the only thing that even a beautiful woman is good for when she jumps in the water is…'
'…to scare the fish,' Maevaris nodded, her glance more present. 'That is what my father used to say, it's an old Tevinter proverb.'
'It's Elvhen, in fact,' Vel corrected, poking the tip of her tongue out. 'It's one of the teachings of Andruil – but it has a practical connotation as well, I think. It's just a roundabout way of telling one one should not try to catch trout with one's teeth.'
The elf lifted herself out of the water, and though her friend was frowning, spent a short moment collecting some waterside leaves; she crushed them between a couple of rocks, at first roughly, but then in finer and finer pieces, then, for the last motion she carefully let a few droplets of water from her hair drip onto the crushed plants, making them foam lightly. She carefully collected the result from the sharper rock, placed it on the flatter one, and silently descended back in the water.
'Give me your foot,' she said. 'Come on,' she insisted, when Maevaris' frown only deepened. Looking terribly doubtful, the human took her right foot out of the water and placed it in Veldrin's hand, then sighed in pleasure and surrender as the elf worked the leaves she'd prepared into a fine lather, over Mae's heel and in between her toes.
'This, by the way, is not an indication that elves have a natural compulsion to serve the master race,' the elf said. 'Just that us tree monkeys show tribal affiliation by grooming each other, though in this particular case, I am not feeling particularly inclined to eat what I wrestled from your coat…'
'I waxed my toes before we left, what coat are you speaking of!' Maevaris mockingly protested. 'This feels…good,' she said, closing her eyes. 'Thank you, Vel.'
'It will sting a little when you put your foot back in the water, you scratched yourself quite a bit…'
'I don't know that herb,' the human said. 'What is it?'
'It's not one, it's three – the foaming and the stinging plants you really don't know, and I don't know the human word for them, and there's a pinch of felandaris…'
'Felandaris?' Mae asked, suddenly opening her eyes. 'Is that not poisonous?'
'No, Shem'len,' Veldrin sternly said. 'Or well, it is, in the right quantity. In this case, though…give me your other foot,' she said. The human obeyed in fascination. 'In this case, it will just make your feet numb and help you travel faster.'
'Barefoot,' Mae shuddered.
'The importance of sensible shoes…' Veldrin shrugged.
'Might have been mentioned before we left, yes?' the Magistra scowled.
'Right…because after I've twisted your arm into abandoning what you have been working for in Senate for a decade, and made you come here, to relive your worst nightmare, I am going not to criticise your wardrobe. My shamelessness does have limits.'
'Hard to see,' Mae sighed, pointedly looking down at Vel's breasts; the elf merely shook her head.
'If you are not frolicking naked, you're frolicking wrong,' she chuckled. 'Ma serannas, Mae.'
'Thank me when it's done, doll,' Maevaris said. 'This does sting,' she hissed, putting her foot in the water. 'Vel, there was something I wanted to tell you.' she said, placing her hand on top of the book, 'The last time I was here…'
'Bad things happened, Mae,' Veldrin said, softly. 'Some that Varric should perhaps not have written about.'
Mae nodded. 'Yes.' She said. 'But bad things happened because I overestimated myself. I thought I could take on Titus, and I could not, so my troubles were of my own making. Still, the front gate of Ath Velanis was being bombarded by two Qunari dreadnoughts and it would not have opened without Titus' own stupidity. If Titus had not opened that gate, none could have entered that way - Arishock, pirate queens, Fereldan Kings and dreadnaughts and tooth fairies and unicorns assembled. Varric still got in unnoticed.'
'But Varric's not here, Mae,' Veldrin attentively spoke.
'No, he is not,' Maevaris answered. 'The point though which he did enter is still described in his book.'
'Go on,' Veldrin said, swimming a foot back, and attentively beholding her friend.
'We neither need nor want the entirety of Ath Velanis,' Mae seriously said. 'What we need are Titus' channeling diagrams, which are in his laboratory, provided no one has set them ablaze; I should not be surprised that you know your way through forests, yet I am…I did not think I could make out how Varric did make it in from his fanciful descriptions, but I have the distinctive feeling you might. Thus…'
She gently pushed the book forward.
'You're not going to make me actually read Varric's…' Veldrin protested, her eyes wide in fright.
'It's better than Swords and Shields,' Mae shrugged, 'and the characters – a certain blonde, talented, brave beyond measure and dazzling Magistra, in particular – are enthralling...'
'That's what people said about Hard in Hightown, and it was god-awful,' the elf sighed.
'I was not featured in Hard in Hightown, oh great literary conaisseur…I suggest you start with Part Three, skip the heroic beach assault, and focus on Varric's own antics,' the other woman said, narrowing her eyes. 'He describes an intact dragon statue, on a deeply cracked rocky peak that lies on the other side of Ath Velanis proper – I do not know what he implies by other side, but my assumption is that it is diametrically opposed to the front gates…Maybe, if we are fortunate, away from this village you fear to rouse.'
The Magistra thoughtfully bit her full lower lip. 'It would make sense to me,' she softly followed. 'The fortress faces east, to Par Vollen – what Varric describes, though he would not recognise it as such, seems like a west-facing altar to Lusacan, the Watchman of Night, or, if he correctly appreciated the distance to the city, it could be one to Zazikel, the Madman of Chaos. Both are possible – one due to how it is set, and the other because of where it is set. Not even the Ancients dared have altars to Zazikel inside the fortress walls.'
'I can,' Maevaris said, 'draw you what magical circles you should be looking for, for either of these, just in case you find others; you would be seeing the dragon statue at their center, but it would be the specific pattern that would aid you recognise them. What I can't do is give you more bearings to where this cracked altar might be; the fortress would dwarf it, or it might be overgrown. Varric still describes parts of the journey that led him there, and what he saw on the way; it's hardly a map to my eyes, doll, but…'
'…perhaps it could be one to me,' Veldrin nodded.
'Unless Varric took one of his usual heroic licenses and just found the kitchen back door,' Maevaris sighed. She wiggled her toes in the water. 'I know it is a long shot,' the Magistra said, 'but I don't like our chances with the front gate, or even reaching it. Fabulous as a full frontal assault might be…'
'We shall still need a secure place to face Solas, Mae,' the elf said, dipping her head in the water to once more make her hair pleasantly cool.
'I agree,' the other woman shrugged, 'but we are still some ways off that; your mirror is not finished, we don't know the precise steps of your ritual, and Dorian…eh, Dorian,' she sighed, 'seems to think that the flawless postal service of Quarinus will deliver whatever Radonis wanted you two collect to Seheron, in neatly wrapped parcels, tied with pink bows.'
'Yes, that is strange,' Veldrin admitted. 'He hasn't said a word on how he's going about that – he just gave me a smug 'I have a cunning plan!' and then went off whistling. Off tune, I might add.'
Mae chuckled and dismissed the observation. 'He only whistles on tune when he's drunk, sweetness, or haven't you noticed? In any event,' she sighed, her smile swiftly vanishing, 'let's take small steps.'
'Surviving the night will be an excellent first one.' Veldrin said.
'Nah,' Mae purred. 'That's merely the fourth one; the first is you get out of the water, as all your frolicking is making me jealous and you wrinkly; the second is that you let me bathe – no peeking! – while you immerse yourself in Varric's prose, and the third is that once I am done washing, I am sure you can delight us with trout a la Dalish…'
'I beg your pardon!' Veldrin protested.
'Can also be deer a la Dalish, honey, I am always curious about native cuisines,' Mae answered, with her most resplendent smile. 'Then, we can see about surviving the night.'
Hello everyone, IVI here for a change. I hope everyone is enjoying so far as this is where we really start our first true dungeon crawl segment, which I'm always a fan of. What can I say - I'm a guy, and there's naked frolicking, ruined temples, and soon to be epic battles. Stick around as you won't be disappointed. Also, thank you again for taking the time to read our little work here. We love this world and we're glad we can revisit it with you :)