Dragon Age: Origin
Levyn /
Chapter Six – Fire, The Children
Somewhere in the Deep Road.
The Scholar paced around his chamber impatiently. Hands clasped behind his back, he muttered something inaudible under his breath. Every now and then, he paused and cast a glance at the few darkspawn that crawled on the floor.
"We need to get her," he murmured thoughtfully. "We need to get her back."
One of his darkspawn minions turned his head, hearing the Scholar's voice. "The girl, Scholar?"
"Yes."
"Why that girl, Scholar, if I may ask?" The darkspawn finally lifted his head up slightly and looked at the Scholar questioningly. " Out of all females on the surface…"
"She's different… she…the ritual has already started on her." The Scholar waved her hands exaggeratedly and resumed quartering the cavern. "We need her—"
"We need her for me!" A small voice hissed inside the cave—a small, unusual infant-like voice that sent a chill creeping down everyone's spine, as a little child at that age shouldn't be able to talk at all. "You promised, my love. You promised!"
"Hush, my sweet," the Scholar replied to the voice softly. "I intend to keep that promise. Don't worry."
"I've been waiting for so long, my love. So long," the voice complained.
"I understand, my sweet." The Scholar hushed quietly. "It won't be too long now."
Fear flickered through the darkspawn's face. He quickly bowed his head back down, his nose nearly touching the ground. His body shivered, seemingly terrified of the presence of the infant voice in the chamber.
"We still have enough troops under our command?" asked the Scholar after a while.
"Yes, Scholar," replied the darkspawn.
"Then do not fail me again." The Scholar retreated to the shadows, his voice ominous. "I will not be so kind next time around."
"Levyn, are you home, mage?" Tabi shouted excitedly as she entered the door.
"Hi, Tabi." Levyn was by the fire, watching a poultice shimmer as it boiled in the cauldron. He jerked his head up and grinned toward the Chasind woman.
"Have a look at this. Look," Jethro's wife's face was pink. She seemed very thrilled about something. "Ta-da!"
She dragged someone from outside and pointed excessively. The person turned out to be Gladys. Earlier that week, she finally agreed to leave the house for the first time since arriving in Gwaren almost three months ago, to go to the daily market with Tabi and Boo. They were all very excited, as it was a huge improvement for the Chasind girl. Since gaining consciousness after the night the darkspawn attacked, she had restricted her activities from stepping anywhere outside the house. Venturing outside seemed do some good , as her once pale face slowly returned to a normal, healthier colour. Her appearance seemed to be changed, too. By allowing Tabi to do something to her long hair, these days her dark brown curls, which usually covered her face, were braided and tucked neatly behind her ears.
The blood mage straightened up and tilted his head to have a better look at the Chasind girl, whose face was now red as a tomato and kneading her hands awkwardly. The first thing he noticed was the layers of bandages that usually obscured the upper part of her face was gone, revealing her whole face without any cuts and bruises for the first time. Then his glance moved up toward her eyes….
Wait.
Her eyes.
Levyn frowned and moved away from the fire. Gladys' eye sockets no longer looked hollow and gashed. Instead, apart from some mild dark circles, they looked…filled. He looked closer, and realised it was because there was something inside her eyes. They were opaqueish and shimmered in some pearly glow, giving the Chasind girl an otherworldly appearance.
"Your eyes….someone put your eyes back?" The mage's brows shot up.
"No, not exactly." Tabi watched as Boo headed toward the back of the house for some eggs. "They are…er…marbles."
"Marbles?" The blood mage's eyebrows cocked further up.
It turned out they had bumped into Zac, the local Dwarven weaponsmith. The Revered Mother had contacted him and made a request to do something about the Chasind girl's eyes. They wouldn't bring her sight back, but they would make her look less scary. The only reason she still refused to take those bandages off and stepped out of the house in the first place was because she was terrified of what others might think upon seeing two empty sockets on her face.
Zac had done a pretty good job. Not only did these two marbles fit Gladys's eyes perfectly, he also managed to get a senior Chasind mage to enchant the stones, so the taint could be constantly contained without the Chantry or Levyn doing sessions on daily basis. Not that the blood mage was complaining or anything; he honestly wouldn't mind doing it.
As the matter of fact, he rather enjoyed doing it. Despite the incident when she had asked him the true reason why he left the Tower in the first place and he brushed her off politely, he liked talking to her. Her voice soothed him, temporarily released him from the nagging guilt about what he had done and whom he had betrayed. He often found himself wonder, more than once since the girl woke up, what she was like before the farm, when she has eyes and was able to see. What colour were her eyes? What kind of family did she have? How desperate were they to sell their daughter to a completely strange family?
Has she ever loved someone?
Of course he wouldn't dare to ask her that. He wouldn't allow himself to ask her that. No, hadn't he hurt enough people already? No, if he had any common sense he would leave, right now. Leave Jethro, Gladys, leave Gwaren, for that matter. He was bad luck. Bad things happened whenever he was around. The darkspawn had attacked the city once already; what else was going to happen if he stayed longer?
Perhaps he should.
The girl was getting better, wasn't she? And she was in good hands. There was really no need for him to dwell within this city anymore. He should leave and head to the wooden hut Morrigan had told him about, or move on to help other travelers on the road.
Boo's excited squeak outside the house suggested Jethro had returned from the market. They all moved toward the table by the fire, while Tabi quickly prepared a light meal for them to eat. Despite her frail frame, Gladys' appetite had been increasing over the last couple of months. After constantly seeing her, red faced, requesting others at the table for leftovers, the Chasind woman decided to cook another separate meal, enough to feed an full grown Templar, for her to eat.
Jethro was also very impressed with Zac's craftsmanship.
"The dwarf's skill is amazing, I assure you that," he gushed after gulping down two bottles of ale. "His family has been here for generations. It is said they were here way before the darkspawn, when the Dwarven Empire still ruled the Deep Roads."
"Him, truly?" Levyn arched his eyebrow. "I think I've read something about that before. Gwaren was built by Dwarves?" He suddenly remembered the faded storybook he and Neph found way at the back of the library when they were young.
"Aye, mate." Jethro waved his fork with bit of meat still attached. "Been here way before Ferelden! Their only surface city! They used it to trade salts with us surfacers. They couldn't produce enough salt down there, you see. Hey, isn't this nug meat?" He frowned at his wife.
"Zac swore you couldn't tell the difference!" Tabi giggled. "I think he ows me some coins!"
"What in Ferelden was he thinking?" The Chasind logger shook his head. "I've been logging out in the forest for years and you think I couldn't tell the difference between meats?"
His wife pouted. "But you don't mind, though?"
"No I , the Chasind man grunted. "Just make sure you put lots of spices in it for seasoning next time you cook them! I can taste dust in my mouth. Now, if you guys excuse me, I need more ale to wash this down!" He stood up, pushed himself away from the table and rushed to the kitchen, with little Boo, somewhat excited, following.
The remaining three in the living room roared with laughter.
"It doesn't taste that bad, Tabi." Gladys smiled. "I've eaten something far worse than that. Mum used to pick those water bugs near the pond for us to eat. "
"That? Those are yummy! Boo loves them!"
The Chasind woman arched her eyebrow. "They taste okay."
"Can you two not gross me out?" Levyn gagged. "Andraste's knickerweasels!"
"You never had any of those while you were in the forest?" Tabi asked.
"NO! I ate normal salt meat and watered down red wines!" the blood mage cried. More laughter ensued.
Gladys decided to return to her room for the evening, saying she might pay Gwen a visit sometime tomorrow. She stood up, managed to find her wooden stick and headed toward the stairs.
Suddenly she froze.
The wooden stick fell and made a loud clatter on the floor. Levyn half turned his head, thinking perhaps she needed help, only to notice her back was as stiff as a timber pole.
"Gladys?"
The Chasind girl did not reply. Staring ahead, her body began to shake uncontrollably.
"Gladys?" Sensing something was wrong, the blood mage left the table and walked toward her. She looked a lot like the night she woke up. Her face was frozen and chalk white. "Gladys, what's wrong?"
"They…they are coming." A meaningless gurgling sound kept bubbling up from her throat. The Chasind girl took a few moments to squeeze the voice out; she looked absolutely terrified, confused and, strangely, as though she craved for something.
"Who's coming?" He touched her shoulders gently.
"The…the thing…the darkspawn." Her lips trembled. " Whole lot of them. They are at the gate….They are coming…no…no…they are coming….they are coming…they are coming to get me!"
Somewhere afar, outside the house, a high pitched, blood-curdling shriek broke the evening bliss, followed by someone's painful scream.
Within seconds, the alarm was heard across the entire city.
The darkspawn were here.
It was a surprise attack. By the time Levyn and Jethro arrived near the entrance of the ally way, the darkspawn had already smashed through the gate and swarm in. Large armored ogres could be seen among a large group of hurlocks and genlocks in the square, tossing people around and smashing buildings. The hideous bug-like darkspawn, which the blood mage saw at the farm, were hopping from the battlements and launching themselves on the terrified people. Their twisted human-like faces snarled and split into four pincers, revealing the skull underneath. They scythed their teeth into their victims' body and tore large chunks of flesh off before devouring their unfortunate prey almost immediately, splattering blood everywhere. There were dying people and dead bodies everywhere on the street.
"Holy spirit of the forest!" Jethro was completely gobsmacked. "What am I looking at here?"
"Maker preserve us." Levyn raised his staff as one of the darkspawn spotted them. "Here they come!"
They managed to fend off a handful of hurlocks and the bug-like things, before a Templar sprung into view, carrying a wounded elf, waving his sword and shield, trying his hardest to shake off a group of three genlocks. Fingers crackling with magic, the blood mage fired some arcane bolts toward the Genlocks, knocked one out promptly, while Jethro knocked his arrows and sent several shots through the remaining little beast's chest.
The Templars looked slightly relieved and dragged the injured elf toward their direction. Upon a closer look, the mage realised it was Wolf, Lily's brother.
"Thank the Maker, the lyrium effect on me was running dry…oh, it's you!" His face twisted slightly as soon as he recognised Levyn. "The order has been passed around, we need to pull back to the docks and seal the gate there!"
"Pull back?" Jethro jerked his head around and gaped at the Templar. "Is Gwaren lost?"
"Not yet," said Wolf through the gritted teeth. "There is little time. We can talk about this once we are all behind the gate. Now please make haste, go fetch Tabi and the kid, Jethro! And you," his gloved finger pointed straight at Levyn's nose. "Get Gladys! Hurry!"
"Has he ever called you by name?" Jethro looked at his friend suspiciously after Wolf staggered off with the elf.
"Nope," replied Levyn simply. He nudged the Chasind logger, indicating to head back to the house. The blood mage wasn't really keen to explain to his friend why the Templar refused to address him by his name. Especially in the time like this.
"Humph." The Chasind man cast him a curious glance before increasing his pace and rushing back to his house.
Suddenly, the air around them turned icy cold and stale.
It was very quick, possibly within the matter of seconds. Almost at the same time, Levyn smelled something. Something he smelled not very long before. It was filled with blood and rotten flesh. The kind of air that sent shivers down the back of his neck. He knew this smell.
"Jethro." He grabbed his friend's arm.
"I know." Jethro's eyes narrowed.
Without announcing out loud, both of them held their weapons tighter. It was very quick; they barely had time to breath in and out. Almost in the next second, several ear-splitting cries erupted abruptly around them. Ghasty shadows rose from the ground and launched themselves at the pair. Levyn only just had time to cast a protective Arcane spell around them.
Maker's breath.
Sharlocks.
"Jethro, I cannot hold this spell very long." The blood mage watched as the sinister creatures sneered around them, but were unable to touch the pair. "But we can't just go back to the house like this, with all the sharlocks at our tails. We won't make it to the docks with them behind us."
"Leave it to me." The Chasind logger unsheathed two daggers and away he went. His arms waved, his legs moved, his muscled body suddenly became a blur. Like a swift dark wind, he shifted with an elegant grace, darting in and out of the force field. His blades shone under the bright velvet moon, glittering in silver light. They rose and fell, followed by painful screams. The creatures' dark blood spilled and pooled next to their feet. Levyn was in awe, and almost forgot to hold the spell.
"Are you sure you are just a logger?" He eyed his friend suspiciously as he finally stopped and dropped the daggers. They were absolutely surrounded by dead Shrieks.
"When you spend a lot of time in the forest, dealing with wild animals and creature become part of your life. You tend to have plenty of opportunities to practice your skills." The Chasind man inclined his head slightly. "Now we must make haste, before more of them catch up."
"Oh, yes. That's right." Levyn's mind jerked back to the reality. "Come on."
Jethro's wooden hut was in sight. They increased their steps. Suddenly, it was the familiar foul smell again. The Sharlocks had managed to catch up to them. The blood mage cursed, trying to figure out where those things would sneak up this time. He cast a side-glance at his friend, who appeared to think about the same thing.
But it wasn't a Shriek.
A large, shadowy object launched itself on top of Levyn. Completely off guard, he was under the monster the next minute. It clamped its eight spiny legs around the blood mage's arms and chest. Its human like face tilted and glared at him, as if trying to figure out what was so special about its prey.
It was one of the bug-like darkspawn. It stared at him for a while, before grinning at him wickedly. Its already huge mouth split open bigger and wider. At one stage, it began to tear from the nose. The tip of the skin transformed into pincers. The blood mage felt like he was being submerged in a bucket full of ice. His body froze.
"Maker's breath!" he whimpered
The creature sneered and bent its head, ready to feast upon the mage. Suddenly, it went stiff. Before Levyn figured out what had happened, an arrowhead pierced through its chest and inches away from his. The blood mage held his breath for a moment, too scared to move a muscle just in case that arrow sunk a bit deeper.
"Evening, boys." Tabi's voice rose somewhere above them. They both jerked their head up and saw the Chasind woman standing at the second floor's windowsill, eyebrows arched and holding a long bow in her hands, looked deadly fierce and defiant. "Haven't your mothers' told you don't play around outside after dark?"