Disclaimer: I don't own Dragon Age or any of its related characters. This is just for my own enjoyment and the potential enjoyment of other fans like me, and no monetary gain was expected or received.
Rating: T
Spoilers: May contain spoilers for Origins, Origins DLC, Awakening, and Dragon Age II, Dragon Age II DLC, Dragon Age Inquisition as well as the novels The Stolen Throne and The Calling.
Chapter Three
Leaving the bulk of the party behind was a good idea for one major reason: the only way across to the tower was by boat, and the boat could only carry about four passengers. It would've taken longer to get the rest of them across than it would to negotiate the treaty. The Warden chose the best people for the job, that much was certain; her fellow Warden for presence, Loghain for political power. Leliana's presence was rather superfluous but the Warden seemed to have a thing about looting wherever she went, and liked to keep a talented thief close at hand. What she thought she would be able to steal out from under the templars was anyone's guess.
The boat reached the tower and they filed inside to be greeted by the Knight-Commander, a grey-haired veteran named Greagior that Loghain had some prior experience with. Instead of helping, however, this was likely to hurt, as the men had a rather adversarial relationship - hardly surprising, as Loghain had adversarial relationships with most people with whom he was acquainted. But he stood in the background and said nothing while the Warden went about her business.
"Yes? What do you want?" Greagior said, chin up and nose in the air.
"I am the Grey Warden Elilia. This is my comrade, the Grey Warden Alistair. We are here to negotiate a treaty with your mages, so that they will fight the Blight with us," Elilia said, in the same imperious air that the Knight-Commander used.
Greagior blinked twice, then gave the party another look and spotted Loghain at the back, who nodded with false politeness. He sighed. "I grow tired of the Wardens and their constant need for mages and recruits and whatever-have-you to throw at the darkspawn…" he began, "but it is their right. Go and speak to First Enchanter Irving. He has the power to give you what you seek."
"Where is First Enchanter Irving?"
"More than likely in his office, last room on the second floor, although I believe I had heard something about a meeting of the Senior Enchanters. If such is the case, you'll probably find him with them in the Harrowing Chamber, on the top floor."
"And how many sets of stairs is it to the top floor?" the Warden asked.
"Aw, don't be that way, Warden," Loghain said. "Think of it as a training exercise." He proceeded through the doors into the first hall of the Apprentice Quarters. The Warden and the others hurried to follow.
It was surprisingly quiet in the tower. There were mages there, going about their business, young and apparently quite shy, with their heads down, taking nervous glances at the warriors passing through their territory. "Can I just say I really don't want to be here?" Alistair said, whispering near Elilia's ear. "Mages don't like me. Mages don't like templars of any flavor, even templars who didn't finish templar school."
"Oh, buck up, Al," Elilia said, and clapped him on the back. "They're just apprentices."
"There are probably real mages amongst them. And even apprentices are dangerous, especially in large groups, Eli."
"I'll stop calling you Al the moment you stop calling me Eli," the Warden singsonged, and tousled the upflip of his hair. He grumbled and did his best to right it again.
They headed up the stairs at the end of the circular hall into the Mage Quarters. Halfway through they met up with a weary-looking white-haired woman in red Senior Enchanter robes. "Warden!" she said, surprised.
"Wynne!" Elilia said, drawing upon her perfect memory for faces and names. "You made it out of Ostagar! That's a relief!"
"As did you! It is good to see you, my dear, but what are you doing here?" Wynne asked.
"Looking for help against the Blight. I have a treaty the Circle signed Ages ago with the Grey Wardens, but I must speak to First Enchanter Irving about whether or not the mages can honor it," the Warden said.
"Oh! Irving is currently in a meeting with the Senior Enchanters, called by Senior Enchanter Uldred," Wynne said. "I was just on my way there now. I should have been there before this, but I was feeling quite tired and procrastinated the climb up all those flights of stairs. I don't know what the meeting could possibly be about, but whatever it could be, I should think this takes precedence. Come - I will take you there."
"Oh, thank you so much!" Elilia said, smiling ear to ear. "Let me introduce you to my companions. This my fellow Warden Alistair, my friend Leliana, and this is Teyrn Loghain Mac Tir of Gwaren."
Wynne smiled and nodded at everyone, but her smile for Loghain was a bit strained. "I have… had the honor of meeting his Lordship before," she said, and turned away fairly quickly.
"Oo, there's a story there," Elilia said.
"Not really," Loghain said. "She healed me after my fight with the demon at the Landsmeet. If I had to hazard a guess, either she's not sure I'm not the demon, or she hasn't entirely given up on blaming me for what happened at Ostagar. Even if she has, she has just enough niggling doubt left over to be very uncomfortable in my presence."
Wynne's shoulders stiffened, but she relaxed and said nothing about it. "Shall we continue? It a long way to the top of the tower, my friends."
As they headed up the inside of the towering edifice, Wynne told them of the history of the place, pointed out sites of minor interest, and introduced them to people she deemed to be of sufficient importance. It slowed their progress significantly, and clearly angered Loghain, but the Warden didn't seem to care, and so the tour continued as they walked. It seemed to give Wynne a chance to rest as they made their way up the stairs.
As they reached the higher levels of the tower, however, things began to look strange. It was too quiet. No mages in the halls. No templars, either. "Would they all be at this meeting?" the Warden asked.
Wynne looked worried. "I shouldn't think so. Senior Enchanters are typically allowed to meet without much in the way of templar supervision, and most of the mages in the tower are not Senior Enchanters. There should be plenty of mages and plenty of templars milling about, I should think." Her face cleared. "Perhaps I worry for nothing. Perhaps they were all simply invited to the meeting."
"Yeah," the Warden said, not sounding reassured at all, "that could be the case."
It wasn't long after that they encountered the first demon, a smallish creature of rage. "I'm beginning to think we should have brought the whole group along after all…" Alistair said in an ominous tone, after it was dispatched.
"I'm starting to agree with you," the Warden said, "but we'll make it through, no matter what. We're the Wardens, after all, and we have Loghain with us, along with a Senior Enchanter."
"I wish I had your confidence, Eli," Alistair said.
"As do I, my dear," Wynne said. "After all, I am rather… elderly."
"Where are these demons coming from?" the Warden asked after hacking her way through a second.
"Well, either the Veil is torn, or they're being summoned," Wynne said.
"Blood magic?" the Warden said.
"Not necessarily," Wynne said. "It often requires blood magic to bind a demon to obedience, but summoning may be done with a simple summoning circle. That requires no blood at all."
"What do we do if we are facing blood magic?" the Warden asked.
"Run in terror?" Alistair suggested. The Warden shot him a dirty look.
"There is a way to combat the hold of blood magic on your mind," Wynne said. "It is called 'The Litany of Adralla,' and we have a copy in our stockroom downstairs. Perhaps we should return there and retrieve it before pressing onward."
"More stairs," the Warden growled in a fair impersonation of Loghain.
"I will retrieve it," Leliana said. "I shall grab it and return before you know that I have gone." She handed off her quite-full pack to the Warden. She had spent the entire trip slipping off quietly into the rooms as they passed by, picking locks and stealing unguarded trinkets for Her Ladyship the Warden, more stealthy and somehow with fewer morals than a black cat. Strange for a Chantry Sister. She ran off the way they had come and disappeared.
She was back in fairly little time with the ancient scroll, and they proceeded on, for a time unhampered by demon attacks, until they came to the second-to-last room before the final climb. There they were attacked by two lesser rage demons, a much larger incarnation of rage, and two abominations, ghastly creatures that had once been human. It was a hard-won battle and no one felt any particular glory seeing their enemies fall, knowing that the once-human abominations had no particular say in what they did, perhaps not even in what they had become.
As they entered the next room, a young templar burst out of the door to the Harrowing Chamber above the stairs. He tried to run, but he was captured in a paralyzing flash of brilliant red light, sparking like lightning. He screamed horribly and tumbled down the stairs to the floor at their feet. Wynne gasped in shock and cast a counter-spell, releasing the young man from his cage before it could fully form around him.
"Ser Cullen? Ser Cullen! Are you all right?" she asked, as she knelt carefully at his side.
"I… I think so," he said. "But the others… oh, the others! They're killing them all! I tried to run for help," the young man said.
"Who is doing this?" Wynne said.
The young man swallowed hard. "Uldred. He's not alone. He has many with him. He has the First Enchanter and the Senior Enchanters hostage. He's turning them… into abominations if they won't join him!"
"Blast and damnation!" Loghain swore, and fairly leapt all six stairs to burst through the door to the chamber above.
"We'd better get after him," the Warden said, and ran up the stairs, not waiting to see if anyone else would follow her, either.
"Ah, Loghain. How nice to see you again," Senior Enchanter Uldred, he of the bald head and the slippery smile, said as the Warden skidded to a halt on the smooth marble floor. "Are you here to discuss our agreement? As you can see, I am quite ready to accommodate you."
"This was not our agreement, you addle-pated asshole," Loghain said. "You were to convince the First Enchanter to send all his mages to fight for us, not kill all the mages. Somewhere you got your lines crossed."
"And you were in exchange to free we mages," Ulrich said. "I got tired of waiting, and decided to take action myself."
Uldred began to… change. Soon, he was not Uldred any longer. The party looked on in horror as he metamorphosed into a massive demon of Pride.
"Yeah, I thought so," Loghain said, as though nothing out of the ordinary had happened. "Prepare for a battle; it doesn't get much tougher than Pride."
"Don't forget the Litany," Wynne said, almost whispering. "It may mean the difference between victory and defeat."
The Pride demon roared and swiped out a massive hand, catching Wynne with a body blow that sent her flying into the wall. She crumpled, either knocked out or dead, and the Warden let out a battle cry and dove in with her greatsword in an attack that was not precisely well-advised but certainly impressive. Loghain followed after, a human blitzkrieg, and Alistair was more cautious but did not mean to be outdone. Leliana was a tiny hurricane with her dual daggers, but when she found them unsuitable against the demon's thick hide, swapped them for her bow and rained down chaos from a distance.
Everyone was fighting too hard to notice the white light that suffused Wynne's body just before she climbed back to her feet, but everyone heard the elder mage call out, "He's doing something to the mages! Use the Litany!" when the demon paused to cast some sort of spell over his hostages. Leliana recited a passage from the scroll she still carried, and the spell was interrupted.
With Wynne's help, the Pride demon fell, and they cleaned up the leftover abominations. There were still some templars left alive in the chamber, and most of the mages. No telling how many of them had been Uldred's people, however, as they were all claiming innocence now. When the templars realized this, they rallied themselves and seized as many of the younger mages as they could.
"Whoa, hey!" the Warden said, with her hands held out. "No need for further unpleasantness here, is there?"
"These mages may be maleficarum," the highest-ranking templar said. "We cannot allow them to live."
"Ser Hadley, think about what you are saying," Wynne said.
"There is no choice, Senior Enchanter. Most of these younger mages were here at the behest of Senior Enchanter Uldred. They were his people, here to help him subdue the First Enchanter and the other Senior Enchanters."
"But… did you see that they used blood magic?" Wynne asked, desperation in her voice. "Seeking freedom isn't automatically being a maleficar."
"Can you trust any of them anymore, after they've been under the will of an abomination like Uldred?" Loghain said.
"So just kill them because they might be blood mages? Is that really the right thing to do in this situation?" the Warden said.
"At the least they are guilty of sedition. They must be punished," Ser Hadley said.
"Leave that decision up to your superiors, Ser Hadley," First Enchanter Irving said, coming up to them limping with his hand on his hip in pain. "Oh, I am not meant to sit on the floor for any length of time."
"Irving! I am so glad to see you well!" Wynne said.
"Not so glad as I am to see you, Wynne. I do not believe any of us would have made it out of here alive were it not for your timely arrival," the First Enchanter said.
"I had help," she said. "I never would have been able to do it if these good people hadn't been here."
"So I see. And what brought you here, friends?"
"Good timing, or perhaps the beneficence of the Maker," the Warden said. "My friend Alistair here and I are Grey Wardens. We came here seeking the assistance of the Circle per the ancient treaty you once signed with our Order and found that we were a little more needed instead."
"Well, we thank you greatly for your timely intervention," the First Enchanter said. "Now, if you could please help me down the stairs, that would be greatly appreciated, as well. Maker curse the fool who decided to house the Circle in a tower."
It took longer to get the old man down the tower than it took to climb the tower in the first place, but eventually they made it back to the front doors to come face-to-face with Knight-Commander Greagior once more. When the old templar saw the mages held in custody by the younger soldiers he became unsettled instantly.
"What happened? What's going on here?"
"Be calm, Greagior," the First Enchanter said. "The matter has been taken care of."
"Not entirely, Commander," Ser Hadley said. "These mages are guilty of sedition, Ser, under the leadership of Senior Enchanter Uldred. They may even be maleficarum."
"We have no proof of that," the First Enchanter said severely.
"I - tell me what happened!" Greagior demanded.
"Senior Enchanter Uldred led these mages in a revolt against the Circle," Hadley said. "They held the Senior Enchanters and we templars hostage and intended to take over completely in order to gain their freedom. They helped Uldred kill templars and turn Senior Enchanters into abominations."
Greagior looked to the First Enchanter for confirmation. Irving hung his head. "This… is true, Greagior," the First Enchanter said in a quiet voice.
Greagior threw his hand up in a sweeping gesture. "Take them to the dungeon and lock them away! We will deal with them later!"
The First Enchanter remained where he stood for a moment longer, head down, but then he drew himself up and turned to the Warden. "You came here seeking assistance, did you not? What can the Circle do for the Wardens?"
"We were hoping you could come and fight the darkspawn with us, First Enchanter, but perhaps now is not the proper time," the Warden said.
"If not now, there may not be a time," the First Enchanter said. "Just as the treaty speaks of, you shall have our full strength."
"Thank you, First Enchanter," the Warden said, and shook hands with him.
Wynne looked at the First Enchanter. "Irving, I seek leave to go with these people on their journey," she said.
"Wynne, you are needed here," the First Enchanter said in clear surprise.
"No I'm not. The Circle has you. These people are honorable and good. I may be able to help them on their travels."
"We would be honored to have you, Enchanter Wynne," the Warden said.
"Ah, you were never one to stay put when there was adventure to be had elsewhere," the First Enchanter said, chuckling.
"Why should I stay, when I may be needed elsewhere?" Wynne said.
"Very well, then, go, with my blessings." The First Enchanter turned back to Greagior. "We shall require all the mages from out of the dungeons when it is time for us to march against the darkspawn, Greagior. That means Seanna and Anders, as well."
Greagior started sputtering. "What? No! Absolutely not! A blood-mage's confederate and an escape artist on the loose? Never! And just what makes you think we're going to let any of the gaoled mages out of the dungeons in the first place, Irving?"
"Because the treaty we signed calls for all our mages, Greagior, not just those who aren't being punished," the First Enchanter said.
"Who are Seanna and Anders?" the Warden asked, interested.
"Oh, two of our brightest young pupils," the First Enchanter said. "Seanna, poor soul, had the quickest and cleanest Harrowing of any young mage I've ever seen, but she was tricked by a friend who turned out to be a blood mage and now she pays an unjust price. Anders, well he's prone to making escapes - he just wants his freedom, he'd never dream of hurting anyone - but he's also one of our finest young mages."
"You have a strange definition of fine, Irving," Greagior muttered.
Loghain came up behind the Warden and poked her roughly in the back. "Right of Conscription," he said in a low whisper.
"What?" the Warden said over her shoulder.
"Right of Conscription, Warden-Commander Elilia," he whispered back. "First Enchanter Irving is giving you an opportunity. Don't miss it."
"But I don't know how to make new wardens,"she said urgently.
"They don't know that, and what matter? That may change later on, anyway."
She turned to face forward and spoke up brightly. "I invoke the Right of Conscription!"