Ch. 7 In Which There are Zombies and Olivia Acquires an Assassin
Despite constant bickering between certain party members, the entire group arrived at Redcliffe in one piece. Before they could enter town, however, Alistair stopped, looking nervous. "There's probably something I should tell you," he began. "Before you find out anyway."
That was never a good sign. "What? Is Arl Eamon your father or something?" asked Olivia.
"No- why does everyone think that?" Alistair took a deep breath. "Arl Eamon isn't my father. King Maric is."
Olivia blinked at him. "Why is it that nothing even surprises me anymore? Have you been angsting over me finding out about this for the past two weeks?"
"Everyone always treats me differently because of it!"
"Don't worry," said Olivia. "I promise to continue to treat you as just another poor fool too unlucky to die with the rest of the Grey Wardens. Just like me. Though if this is the reason Loghain wants us dead I'm going to punch you for not telling me why he's so desperate to get rid of us," she added after a moment.
"Um, I think it might be, actually. That and he needs a scapegoat."
Olivia punched Alistair lightly on the arm. "Next time you know something relevant to why someone might want to kill us, mention it."
Alistair looked a bit chagrined. "Sorry. Seriously, though, why does everyone think that Arl Eamon is my father? I don't even look like him," he complained. "Even his wife thinks it." They started walking again. "That's why she sent me to the Chantry to become a Templar. I got so mad I smashed my mother's amulet against the wall."
Ouch. Olivia winced. "If my sort-of-foster-parent did that, I'd have, too."
"Um, why is the road blocked?" cut in Bethany.
The lone guard in front of the wooden barricade looked uncomfortable. "It certainly isn't because the Arl got sick and then the town came under attack from zombie hordes coming from the castle. Not at all."
"That was a suspiciously specific denial," commented Leliana.
Olivia sighed. "It's always something. Who's in charge?"
"Bann Teagan."
"We need to see him."
"But…"
"We need to see him."
The guard looked at Olivia's determined expression. "Okay."
They were led down to the Chantry, which was filled up with desperate, worried people. Alistair ran up to a man in the middle of the building. "Bann Teagan! What happened here? Where's Arl Eamon?"
The man looked at Alistair in apparent surprise. 'You're alive! Good to see that someone is all right. Eamon's still in the castle, horribly ill. Also, zombies keep coming down from there and attacking us. It's been awful. I hate to ask, but…"
"How can we help?" asked Alistair before Bann Teagan could finish.
"Well…"
And that was how the group ended up splitting up and running around town to convince the holdouts to actually get up and fight to protect themselves from the zombies.
"Do these people have any common sense at all?" complained Olivia. "It's like they want to be eviscerated by zombies."
"I think Loghain had the Arl poisoned," announced Leliana. "He hired someone to 'watch for changes'."
"Why am I not surprised?" Everyone sat in silence halfway up the path between the village and the castle alongside the Redcliffe knights. "How long do we have until the next zombie attack?
Leliana looked at the sun. "About five hours?"
"Ugh. Hey who's up for cards?"
Twenty-seven games of Wicked Grace, five rounds of truth-or-dare, six campfire stories, and several songs later, the sun set and zombies began to shamble down the hill.
The zombies weren't very fast. The problem with them was that long range attacks didn't seem to do much to them. Because they were already dead, things like arrows to the eye and holes in the chest failed to really stop them. Olivia had to stop sending fireballs at the zombies because it just turned them from murderous walking corpses into burning murderous walking corpses that set fire to everything around them. They had to settle for waiting for the zombies to get in close before hacking them to pieces that eventually stopped twitching.
The zombies were carrying weapons and much stronger than rotting dead things had any right to be. Despite Wynne standing back behind the battle line and healing anyone who was too badly hurt, everyone was battered and covered in injuries by the time the zombies stopped coming down the path. Olivia frowned. "Ah, shouldn't there be more of them?"
Ser Perth, the leader of Redcliffe's knights, nodded suspiciously. "Yes. Usually, they keep coming all night."
"Then why…" Before Olivia could finish her sentence, one of the town's militia ran up the path from the village.
"They're coming over the lake and attacking the village!" he yelled, gasping for breath. "We're going to be overrun!"
"That explains that," commented Olivia. She nodded at Ser Perth. "You and the other knights stay here and make sure they don't start coming down this way again." She turned to her own group. "Come on!"
She ran down the path to the village, firing off a quick succession of ice spells when she got within range of the zombies assaulting the barricades in front of the Chantry. The militiamen who had previously been busy being pushed backwards under the weight of numbers, looked relieved to see reinforcements coming and began fighting back more viciously.
After what felt like forever, the zombies stopped coming up from the docks, and the man that they sent up to check on the path came back to report that there were no zombies attacking there, either. The battle was finally over.
The next morning, Olivia and the others were standing outside the mill at the bottom of the path, looking up at the castle. "Now that we've killed all those zombies," said Teagan, "It might finally be safe to go investigate the castle."
"Well, re-killed, really," said Olivia, "but yes…Is that a person?" Everyone looked at the path, where a blonde woman was running toward them. "How is she moving so fast in that tight skirt?" marveled Olivia.
"Teagan!" wailed the woman in a thick Orlesian accent as she skidded to a halt next to them. "You have to help me! Connor's in trouble! You need to come back to the castle with me!"
"Connor? What's wrong with my nephew? Let me get everyone and…" began Teagan, but the woman interrupted him.
"No! You have to come alone!"
Teagan looked at the woman for a moment. "All right. Just a…"
"Hold on," said Olivia. "You aren't seriously going to walk into an obvious trap?"
"Who the hell are you people?" asked the woman rudely, looking at the rather mismatched group.
Alistair sighed. "Grey Wardens. Remember me, Isolde?"
She looked surprised. "Alistair? Argh! I thought I'd gotten rid of you for good!"
Olivia frowned at her, eyes narrowing. "Wait a minute- is this the same person that sold you out to the Chantry so they could turn you into a mindless, brainwashed, drug-addicted minion because she thought that you were her husband's son?"
"Um, yeah," Alistair admitted awkwardly.
Olivia glared at Isolde. "That is so Orlesian. You are a horrible person. I hate you."
"Okay," said Teagan loudly. "Let's save this conversation for later." He grabbed Olivia's collar and pulled her away from Isolde. "Listen," he whispered. "I'm going to go with Isolde. Take this," He handed Olivia a ring, "and use it to unlock the secret passage in the mill. I'm not walking into an obvious trap without backup."
"It seems to me that not walking into an obvious trap at all would be a better option," pointed out Olivia.
Teagan ignored her. "Coming, Isolde," he called, following her away up the path to the castle.
"This is a horrible idea," commented Olivia as they left.
Olivia climbed awkwardly up the ladder at the end of the secret passageway and looked around. "Does this secret passage seriously lead to the dungeons? Who even does that? If one of the prisoners managed to get out of their cell they could just leave without anyone even noticing!"
"I think the point was that if the castle was ever taken and the arl was thrown in his own cells then he could escape easily," said Alistair helpfully.
"That sounds like a bit of a far-fetched scenario. If someone took the castle, they'd probably just kill the arl."
"I suppose…" began Alistair.
"Hello?" An irritatingly familiar voice called out from one of the far cells. "Is someone there?"
"Oh, no," groaned Olivia. She walked over to stand in front of the cell. "Jowan."
"You're alive!" He had the gall to look happy.
"And not even a zombie or anything," she snapped. "No thanks to you!" The only thing preventing Olivia from throwing a punch was the fact that the cell bars were in the way. "What happened? Besides you obviously moving on to ruining other people's lives," she added.
"This is not my fault!" Olivia glared at him. "Mostly. All I did was try to teach the arl's son to control his magic!"
Everyone ignored Alistair's shocked exclamation of "Connor's a mage?"
"And I guess it was partially my fault that the kid freaked out and used his magic to summon demons to try and save his father's life because I'm the one that poisoned him," Jowan conceded. "But only partially! If you let me out I can help fix this."
Olivia looked at him flatly. "Right. Come on guys." She turned around to leave, the others following her.
"Please!" yelled Jowan. "Olivia! I just want a second chance!"
"You've had a second chance!" She snapped back at him, furious. "You bought it with my life and look what you've done with it!" Alistair opened his mouth to say something. "Not one word!" Olivia snarled. Alistair wisely kept quiet.
They had to fight their way through half the building in their search for Connor. They found Valena, Owen the blacksmith's daughter, hiding in a closet and convinced her to take the secret passage out of the castle, but otherwise there seemed to be no one other than themselves alive.
They found a possessed Connor in the great hall, surrounded by mind controlled minions and a miserable-looking Isolde. "So these are the visitors you told me about, Mother? The ones who defeated the soldiers I sent to reclaim my village?" asked Connor in the sort of eerie, echoing voice that generally indicated possession.
"Yes, Connor," stuttered Isolde. It was impossible to tell if she was frightened or sad.
'Connor' peered at Olivia. "It's staring at me, Mother. Why is it staring? What is it?"
"Did you just call me 'it'?" asked Olivia irritably.
"That's a woman, Connor," said Isolde. "Like me."
"Not like you." 'Connor' stared more intently. "I think I should kill it."
"Connor, no!" wailed Isolde.
'Connor' attacked anyways. The fight was actually over pretty quickly, mainly because Morrigan had the forethought to fling a sleep spell over Teagan and the soldiers, whose mental defenses were pretty low from already being under mind control. Connor staggered backward. "Mother? What's happening? Where am I?"
"Connor!" cried Isolde.
The demon snarled, turning and running from the room.
Teagan groaned from the floor, drawing Isolde's attention to him. "Teagan! Are you alright?"
"Well, I don't feel mind-controlled anymore," Teagan said woozily.
Isolde looked relieved. She seemed to remember that Olivia and the others were there. "Please, Connor isn't responsible for any of this! And he's still in there! You have to help him!"
"Well, I'm not going to kill a ten-year-old," said Olivia, feeling a bit offended that Isolde might be worried about that.
"There is a way to help," offered Wynne. "It would require someone going into the Fade to kill the demon there, though, and we don't have enough lyrium for that."
"The circle does," pointed out Olivia.
"Do we actually have time to go all the way to the circle and all the way back?" said Morrigan.
"Maybe. You and Bethany can stay here, just in case."
"Why am I in the group that might have to kill a ten-year-old?" asked Bethany. "That's horrible."
"Because," Olivia told her quietly. "I want someone here to keep Morrigan from going ahead and killing Connor while there are still other options, and it would be a bad idea for you to come to the circle with us in any case."
"Oh." Olivia was relieved that Bethany seemed to understand her reasoning.
The circle agreed to help Connor instantly, mainly because Irving and Gregoir both felt indebted to Olivia.
On the way back to Redcliffe with the lyrium, the party ran into a distraught woman screaming for help. "My caravan's being attacked by bandits!" she wailed dramatically, "Right over this way! Help me!" She dashed back in the direction she had come from and everyone automatically ran after her.
When they got to the caravan, however, it was very obviously not being attacked by anything. Olivia suddenly had a really bad feeling about this. Especially when a giant tree trunk crashed down blocking the road behind them. The woman that they had followed walked up to a very good-looking blond elf armed with a pair of daggers and turned around to face them and smirked nastily, lightning beginning to build around her hands. Because of course she was a mage. This couldn't be good. The elf drew his daggers. "The Grey Wardens die here!" Brilliant.
Archers popped up from the surrounding rocks and Olivia ducked behind a crate, sending a wave of ice at the mage and her handsome, murderous friend. Then things got interesting.
When the fight was over, the only enemy left alive was the dagger-wielding elven man. Olivia poked him with a boot. He groaned and stared blearily up at her, looking slightly concussed. "I rather thought I would wake up dead. Or, well, not wake up at all. But I notice you haven't killed me yet."
Olivia rolled her eyes. "Who are you and why were you trying to kill us? The fact that you obviously knew we're Grey Wardens suggests that you have a specific reason other than the usual motive of robbery."
"Let me get right to the point," he said. "My name is Zevran. I am a member of the Antivan Crows brought here to kill any surviving Grey Wardens. Which I have failed at, sadly."
"Personally I'm rather happy that you failed," pointed out Olivia.
"So would I be, in your shoes," said the assassin. "For me, however, it sets a rather poor precedent, doesn't it? Being captured by a target seems a tad detrimental to one's budding assassin career."
"Maybe you should look into a new line of work, then," said Olivia sarcastically.
"Maybe." He looked a bit like he was honestly considering it.
"So, who hired you?"
"A very grumpy fellow in the capital. Loghain, I think his name was. Yes. It was definitely Loghain."
"Not that I'm complaining, but you seem awfully quick to sell out your employer," Olivia commented.
"Well, he isn't paying me to keep quiet. Or at all, really. It's the Crows that get paid, not me."
Olivia looked at him incredulously. "You seriously aren't getting paid? At all?"
"Nope. Severance package is a sword in the gut, so that's rubbish too. I wouldn't exactly suggest joining the Antivan Crows." That honestly sounded like the worst job ever.
"Why would anyone even become an Antivan Crow? Seriously, I can see absolutely no plus side."
The assassin shrugged. "Personally, they bought me on the slave market as a child. He got a thoughtful expression on his face. "On the subject of how awful it is to be in the Crows, there's something I'd like to discuss with you." Olivia raised her eyebrows at him. "Here's the thing," he explained. "Since I failed to kill you, the Crows will kill me. That's how it works. The thing is, I, not being suicidal, am obviously rather attached to my life. And you seem like the sort of person who could kill anyone the Crows send to kill me. So, let me work for you instead."
Olivia was rather skeptical of this. "Right. And I suppose I can expect the same level of loyalty toward me."
He seemed a bit offended. "I happen to be a very loyal person, right up to the point where someone expects me to die for failing. That's not too unreasonable, really." Olivia had to admit that it wasn't. "At this point, even if I killed you, they'd probably kill me for failing the first time, so you don't have to worry about that, eithe."
Olivia sighed. She really hoped she didn't regret this, but… "Fine."
"What?" Alistair sounded incredulous. "You're taking the assassin with us, now? In what world does this seem like a good idea?"
"One where we have practically no allies and an assassin could be incredibly useful?" asked Olivia. "We need all the help we can get."
"I suppose…" Alistair still didn't sound very happy. "Still, if there was a sign we were desperate, I think it just knocked on the door and said hello."
"Welcome, Zevran," said Leliana, ignoring Alistair. "Having an Antivan Crow join us sounds like a fine plan." Olivia was glad at least one person agreed with her. Zevran smirked and made a smooth comment on Leliana's looks. She glared at him. "Or maybe not, if he's going to spend the entire time flirting."
Olivia held out her hand and helped Zevran up. He looked serious. "I pledge my oath of loyalty to you, until such a time as you choose to release me from it. I am your man, without reservation. This I swear." Olivia thought he meant it. Then again, she'd also thought that Jowan had meant it when he said he wasn't a blood mage.
By the time they got back to Redcliffe, Connor was still alive, as were everyone else. Olivia found herself more relieved than she'd thought she would be to find that no one had killed anyone else.
Irving cast the spell to send her into the Fade, which was as creepy and disorienting as is always was, the area she was in filled with echoes of Connor and Arl Eamon wandering about calling out for each other. Olivia kept running into the demon, which looked like Connor but was rather obviously not actually a child. Eventually the demon appeared in a circle of rocks in its actual form. It looked rather like a purple, horned woman. "Very well," said the demon. "No more illusions. Now we meet face-to-face. You see my true form and stand in my domain." Olivia had the feeling that the demon was growing just as tired with Olivia's persistence in hunting is as Olivia was in doing the hunting. "It is here that I am most powerful," continued the demon. "Yet I have no desire to engage your power, nor should you be so eager to engage mine. Perhaps we should converse, instead?" Oh, here it came. The 'let's make a deal' speech.
"Whatever it is, forget it," said Olivia, flinging the Fade equivalent of an ice spell at the demon. The demon tried to blast her with some sort of energy burst from its hand, but she dodged. Olivia was getting really good at dodging things lately. Lots of practice.
Olivia materialized a knife in her hand and stabbed at the demon with it. The demon looked shocked. "How did…?"
"It's a dream," pointed out Olivia. "Anything goes." Seriously, why did nobody see that?
The demon glared at her and vanished. Copies of the demon reappeared in a circle around the edge of the ring. All of them were shooting energy blasts. Wonderful. Maybe she shouldn't have made the 'anything goes' comment. Olivia spun around. Only one of the copies looked actually substantial. Well, as substantial as things got in the Fade. Olivia glared at the demon and clenched her fist. The demon looked unimpressed, right up until the spike of stone Olivia was growing out of the rock behind it speared it through the chest. The demon looked shocked for a moment before it collapsed and Olivia woke up. "I really hate the Fade," she muttered.
