Wow! So many awesome reviews this time around! Thanks so much BlessedArrow, karebear, anesor, Morninglight, Eynla, Violet Enigma and Apollo Wings for your feedback! I also want to thank all of you who have put this fic in their favorites and who are now following the story! :D
Nope! No smut in this one!
Well, maybe a little teeny, weeny bit! :P
Bioware owns everything!
Chapter 16
Velanna stood in front of the Vhenadahl tree, her face a mask of sorrow. She reached out and touched the bark, her fingers glowing blue for a split second.
The elves are slaves, they must be freed!
The whole alienage was quiet. Some elves stood in a dark corner chatting happily, oblivious to their surroundings. Velanna glared at them momentarily, the anger burning inside her once again. Why is it that the elves here allowed the humans to treat them this way?
Mages are slaves as well! Slaves of the Chantry created by man.
"Worthless shems!" Velanna whispered angrily. "They enslave themselves stupidly when they let the templars take them to the circle!"
The mages must be freed. The slavery of the elves, the slavery of the mages… slavery must not be condoned. Slavery must not be allowed to continue!
She sighed at what she knew were Justice's thoughts – even if she could have thought the same about them on her own. A noise behind her made her turn around and scowl.
"Oh! I was looking for you. Dinner is on the table," Merrill said brightly.
"Do not fuss over me!" Velanna said harshly. Merrill's eyes widened briefly and she took an uncertain step back.
"But I wasn't!" she exclaimed. "I just wanted you to know!"
Velanna turned back to the tree. After a few minutes of silence, Merrill turned to go back inside the house, but Velanna's words stopped her.
"Do you know where Anders's clinic is, lethallan?"
"It's in Darktown!" came Merrill's cheerful answer.
"I know that, you foolish woman!" Velanna snapped. "I meant, where exactly in Darktown!"
"I do know, yes. I can take you there tomorrow, if you wish?"
"I want to go there," Velanna replied, turning to face Merrill.
"Oh! You mean right now?" Merrill retorted in a surprised voice. Velanna's eyes narrowed slightly at this and Merrill quickly pulled herself together. "I can take you there, then. If that is what you really want…"
"Yes. I think I need to see it for myself," Velanna replied, a shadow of a smile on her face. "We'll eat and then go."
…
Anders managed to close the door to the clinic behind them as she trailed kisses down the nape of his neck, making a purring noise at the back of her throat that sent another spasm of pleasure tingling throughout his body. His erection throbbed painfully as he gathered her in a tight grip. He lifted her in his arms and she quickly wrapped her legs around his waist. Carrying her straight to one of the huge pillars in the room, he pinned her against it whispering her name, one of his hands on the small of her back, sliding down to her buttocks. She moaned into his mouth as he kissed her passionately.
"Anders!" she gasped as his other hand fumbled with one of the buckles that held her leather jerkin in place.
At that moment, there was a knock on one of the clinic doors and they flew apart, their cheeks a bright vermilion. Anders stared at the door with wide eyes and for the briefest of moments wished the late visitor away. The healer in him protested, however, and soon he crossed the large room in long strides, flinging the door wide open.
"I'm sorry, Healer!" a small boy called out, his head tilting back to look up at his face. "My mother is very ill and I'm afraid she's dying, Ser!"
Anders nodded, quickly turning to retrieve potions and his backpack, glancing at Rhianna.
"I'll help, if I can," Rhianna whispered to him. "I know a lot about potions and I'm not bad with bandages and the like."
He didn't think it would be possible to love her more, but after those words, he discovered that he did.
"Thank you, love," he whispered back.
"But you'll have to come with me afterwards, directly to the estate," Rhianna added, her eyes twinkling.
"If I can take a bath there, then yes," Anders grinned as he flung his pack over his shoulders.
"For shame! Is that all you want, Ser?" Rhianna teased.
"Oh, I'll be sure to show you what I want," Anders leaned over and breathed into her ear. "You'll see…"
…
The boy and his mother lived in one of the many sewer tunnels that crisscrossed the entire area of Darktown. After several twists and turns, and walking to what seemed to them like an eternity, Anders and Hawke arrived at a small opening in one of the walls. The whole hovel was damp and stank of human sweat and garbage.
Rhianna's nose wrinkled slightly, but she gave no other indication of the disgust she was feeling. When she saw the poor woman lying on the floor in a corner, her expression changed to one of sadness and she frowned.
Anders was already kneeling beside her, his hands glowing blue and white at intervals as he scanned the woman who was wheezing and coughing – her mouth opening and closing repeatedly like a fish out of the water. He gave a sigh when he was done, reaching automatically in his pack for one of his stronger embrium potions.
"I'll need your help with this," he turned to Hawke who nodded and knelt right beside him. "We must make sure she swallows the potion…"
Anders uncorked the stopper and turned the woman slightly, so that she was lying on her back, while Rhianna now slid behind the woman's head and lifted it a bit so that Anders could pour the potion directly into the woman's mouth. The woman gagged, but Anders's hand was on the woman's throat and glowed softly as he helped her to swallow, while Rhianna held her head firmly.
Once the potion was down, Anders closed his eyes, and focused, his hands outstretched over the woman. The blue and white glow that emanated from his hands over the woman's chest pulsated and gradually increased. The woman stopped wheezing and gave a sigh, as she finally relaxed and her breathing got easier. Anders closed his eyes and squeezed them, beads of perspiration covering his forehead as the glow from his hands lit up the room completely. The woman sighed, feeling healthy for the first time in a while, and a smile appeared on her face.
Anders was smiling as well when he opened his eyes and looked down at the woman.
"Thank you, Serah!" the woman whispered. "You saved my life!"
He took another bottle from his pack and placed it in one of the woman's hands.
"You must drink this potion tomorrow," he said kindly. "I'll return in the evening to see how you are doing, alright?"
"Yes, Healer!" the woman replied.
Rhianna turned to the boy and took some money out of her purse.
"Here," she told the boy. "Buy something to eat tomorrow for your mother and yourself."
"Thank you!" the lady exclaimed. "He's a good boy. He knows what to get for us. He always knows how to take care of me."
"You mean this always happens to you?" Rhianna was quick to ask.
"Yes, Serah," the woman nodded. "We live in the poorest section of the Underground City. There is no light here, and many suffer from illness and disease. What I have is a disease that comes and goes. But this time it got bad. More terrible than the other times…"
Rhianna said nothing, but her heart went out to the woman and she grimaced sadly. She was quiet when they left the hovel and did not speak at all as they made their way up to the top floor of Darktown. Anders took her hand and squeezed it, and she turned to look at him with a smile.
"I wish I could do more for them," he said contritely. "But as it is, there is nothing I can do about their living conditions."
Rhianna nodded and squeezed his hand back, her eyes thoughtful. They rounded a corner and Anders stopped, his mouth dropping open in surprise.
"Velanna! Merrill! What in blazes are you doing here?" he exclaimed.
"Velanna wanted to see the clinic, but I got lost!" Merrill practically wailed.
"We've been walking in circles," Velanna rolled her eyes. She looked terribly annoyed, but there was no indication of Justice manifesting at the moment.
"I think I can find the way back," Anders murmured to himself, but Rhianna heard him and turned.
"You mean you don't know the way back?" Rhianna's eyes widened.
"I've never been in this part of Darktown before!" Anders explained defensively, looking at the various openings along the walls. "I mean, I've been to several of the sewer tunnels when I had to heal some patients, but never so far from the clinic."
The drip, drip coming from the steady trickle of sewage water running along the walls was the only thing that broke the silence of the area, which was darker than Anders would have liked. His eyes scanned the walls looking for something that would trigger his memory, but everything he could see looked pretty much the same to him.
"Well, we'd better just look around and try to get back," Rhianna finally said. "We won't accomplish anything by just standing around, will we?"
…
There was a light up ahead, and they quickened their pace. The tunnels had turned into a maze full of thugs and mercenaries a while back, full of caves and caverns, and it seemed like ages since they'd seen any proper light. They spotted an entrance that looked like a door that was open.
"What's a door doing here? Do the mercenaries have different areas they keep locked on occasion?" Anders wondered aloud.
"Your stupidity always fascinated me," Velanna barked back with a sneer. "That hasn't changed either."
"At least you feel some sort of fascination, right?" Anders waggled his eyebrows at her and Velanna scowled.
They stopped when they heard voices coming from the open door. A girl was pleading to someone and they could hear laughter from a group of people as well. Hawke frowned and took the lead.
Rhianna walked through the door, followed by Anders and Merrill, with Velanna in the rear. The scene that met their eyes shocked them into silence at first and they froze.
A mage girl was on her knees – her hands outstretched before her, palms upturned as she begged. The bald templar in front of her had a sardonic smile on his face, his icy blue eyes glittering in the half-light of the area. At least a dozen templars stood around them, laughing at what the templar had just said.
"Please, Messere!" the girl cried out again. "I wasn't trying to escape the circle, I swear! I just wanted to see my mum!"
"So, you finally accept your attempted escape!" the templar exclaimed. "You do know what happens to mages who try to escape around here, don't you?"
"No!" the girl screeched. "Don't make me Tranquil, I beg you! I'll do anything you ask!" the girl babbled frantically.
"That's right!" the templar purred. "Once you're Tranquil, you'll do anything I ask, won't you?"
The girl visibly blanched at the same time that Hawke hissed angrily, understanding the intent behind the words of the templar. She confirmed what she was thinking when the templar made an obscene gesture, grabbing his crotch while licking his lips, and then stretching out his hands towards the girl.
"Get your filthy hands off her!" Rhianna screamed angrily as she unsheathed her daggers. Anders immediately brought his staff out in front of him, and he heard Merrill gasp behind him.
Velanna, however, stepped forward in front of them all, her skin cracked open – her eyes brilliantly glowing, the blue light filling the room as some of the templars stepped back in fear.
"You fiends will never touch another mage again!" Justice/Velanna bellowed, the deep voice booming off the walls and reverberating across the room.
Anders groaned inwardly, a grim expression on his face as he watched Velanna slam her staff on the ground with such a force, it knocked some of the templars off their feet.
All I wanted was a romantic night with Hawke, and I get this instead. Lovely!
…
The battle wasn't easy, but it was easier to fight the templars than they initially thought it would be. Velanna herself probably killed six or seven, and fatally injured the rest. Anders was having a hard time trying to keep Rhianna away from Velanna's powerful spells, as he knew that when Rhianna was angry – as she was now – she would forget about the danger surrounding her in her eagerness to attack and maim. When the templars finally lay dead at their feet, Anders's smile and laugh was cut short by Velanna's glowing form now towering over the mage girl who looked up in terror.
Glowing Velanna slammed her staff right next to the girl who cowered and covered her face with her hands. The girl's cry to Velanna filled the room and Anders literally cringed when he heard her words.
"Get away from me, you vile demon!"
Anders's heart sank and he quickly opened his pack, his hand desperately seeking the bottle of lyrium potion he knew was there. If he did not find that bottle, this was going to end very badly.
"I am NO demon!" Justice/Velanna roared. "Are you one of them, that you would call me such?"
"Velanna! She's a mage! We just rescued her from the templars!" Rhianna yelled.
"She belongs to them! I can feel their hold on her!" was Velanna's reply as Anders gulped down the lyrium, praying fervently for his mana to replenish quickly.
"She's a circle mage! She isn't a templar!" Rhianna insisted. "If you kill her, you're killing a mage!"
Velanna's glow intensified as she raised her staff high, intending to slam it on the girl and probably impale or hex her – Anders didn't know or ask – and black smoke suddenly appeared around the blonde elven mage as she let out a yell and started to bring her staff down.
At that precise moment, Anders muttered the incantation for a simple sleeping spell and Velanna dropped her staff, falling to the ground fast asleep. The girl gave a scream and ran up a set of stairs behind her.
"Good call, my love," Rhianna murmured to Anders as she bent to inspect Velanna, who wasn't glowing anymore.
"It was fortunate some of my mana replenished after all. I really thought I wasn't going to make it," Anders sighed dramatically as he sheathed his staff.
Merrill also knelt beside Velanna and shook her head, a worried expression on her face.
"She'll probably sleep for an hour at least, Merrill," Anders said. "The spell will wear off faster than most sleeping spells, because it was such a simple one. I didn't have enough mana at the time to cast a better one, I'm afraid."
"I wish I could have thought of that!" Merrill said in a mournful voice. "I was too afraid to move or think clearly!"
"We can't stay here," Rhianna said. "Can we carry her to the clinic, Anders?"
"That won't be necessary," Anders replied with a smile. "My mana has fully replenished and I could try a rejuvenating spell on her, which would probably wake her up – if that's what you want. But I really prefer her this way. I've never seen her look so peaceful before!"
Rhianna chuckled at Anders's words. "She needs to be awake, so that Merrill can take her back home."
Anders nodded and cast his spell. Within minutes, Velanna woke up and blinked her eyes several times sitting up with a confused look on her face. Both Merrill and Anders helped her up.
"What happened?" Velanna asked in a shaky voice.
"You nearly killed a mage, Velanna," Anders shook his head. "I can't believe Justice would do something like this. He always wanted to protect others, not murder them."
Velanna frowned, her eyes sweeping over Anders haughtily. "If she is a slave of the templars, she is better off dead!"
And with those words, she stormed up the stairs that led up to the main floor of Darktown, with Merrill running to catch up with her after a quick goodbye to Anders and Rhianna.
"I don't like this at all," Anders said quietly.
"Why is that?" Rhianna asked, as he took her hand to lead her to the stairs.
"Justice wasn't at all like this. This…is something different."
"Do you think the spirit may have changed then?" Rhianna looked up at Anders briefly with a worried frown on her brow. "Is that even possible?"
"I don't know…Velanna has always been a very angry person. I just don't like what I'm seeing, that's all."
…
They didn't see Velanna when they finally reached Darktown proper, but the mage girl that Anders had saved approached them as they walked towards the stairs that would take them up to Lowtown.
"You saved my life, Messere! I don't know how to thank you!" the girl curtseyed in front of Anders and Rhianna. "What was that…thing?" she added shakily.
"She's just a confused woman," Rhianna hurried to say, while Anders shook his head and chuckled.
"She's also a bit insane," he muttered. Rhianna glared at him and he winked playfully at her.
"Can I go home to my mother, now?" the girl asked.
"Yes, but try to keep out of sight. I would leave Kirkwall if I were you," Rhianna said.
The girl nodded. "Thank you again, Serah!" Then she turned, sprinting into a run and was soon out of sight.
Anders took Rhianna in his arms. "I'm really dying for that bath, now!"
Rhianna gave him a smile that didn't quite reach her eyes, but she had to laugh when his stomach rumbled. "I wouldn't mind a bath myself. I see you're hungry, too!"
"I'm a Grey Warden. Grey Wardens have terribly big appetites," he said as he leaned a bit to give her a chaste kiss.
"Well, let's go to the estate. I can fix you something to eat while you take a bath," Rhianna said with a glint in her eye. "Does that sound all right to you, my wonderful healer?"
He laughed. "That sounds just perfect, my love."
"Let me pamper you and take care of you for a change," Rhianna grinned. "You saved that girl's life!"
"I'm looking forward to your pampering," Anders whispered in her ear as they took the stairs up to Lowtown, pulling her into a tight embrace.
…