It was a nightmare.
The rain, the darkness, the monsters...it was as if all had been taken from the nightmares Mhairi had had as a child, she was almost certain of it. Perhaps that was it? Perhaps she was still just twelve years of age, curled up in her bed and vainly trying not to see the monsters take shape in the grains of the walls closing in around her?
But no, her childish imagination couldn't have conjured up the horrors she'd seen in the keep itself, the sight of the many dead, comrades in arms she had eaten and trained with just a week ago...her mind wasn't able to be so cruel.
She had fought darkspawn before, it wasn't that...it was how close to home it was, how personal it had suddenly gotten...it left her struggling to focus.
As such Lynn was a mixed blessing, both the knight in shining armour, saving a Mhairi overwhelmed by the sheer scale of the destruction...and the heart of the nightmare itself.
It had started with the ogre that had managed to surprise Mhairi out on the courtyard, the creature grabbing a hold of her, squeezing her so tightly she felt as if she would just explode even as it pulled back its other hand and curled it into fist...ready to pound her into a paste.
Then the Commander had been there, the elf climbing the suddenly howling ogre's back using her weapons as scaling tools before standing atop its shoulders and smashing its skull apart with repeated blows to its head.
It had been heroic, Mhairi had felt such relief...and horror. The elf was already covered in gore when she was atop the ogre...and literally bathed in it as the creature's skull burst. Yet it hadn't moved the elf. She hadn't killed the ogre with any growl of berserk rage, no cry of hatred, nor desperation...nothing to which a warrior usually turned to. Neither had she even for a moment celebrated its death, looked a little relieved...even taken a breath to steady herself. She had simply killed it and moved on...as if it was nothing but a small hurdle, it might as well have been paperwork for all the Commander cared, the fact that she had saved Mhairi's life nothing but a insignificant bonus.
That had been scary.
It didn't stop at the courtyard though, the inside of the keep was a nightmare of screams, dying soldiers and hordes of darkspawn...blood covering the floor she had admonished now dead servants for never sweeping properly...it just didn't fit with what she remembered, confusing her. The darkspawn had been everywhere...rushing at them, a wall of diseased flesh and steel, hatred made corporeal.
And the Commander had met it with a far more frightening thing...indifference...as if the chaos and horrors were nothing. She rushed in among the darkspawn...and none of them could touch the elf as she tore them apart with frightening efficiency and disinterest. It wasn't often one saw darkspawn retreat...but Mhairi had already seen it half a dozen times by now.
There was nowhere to run though, and the darkspawn always ended up cornered and desperately lunging for a warden who might as well have been a tranquil for all she cared of their decision when to die to her blades.
Like now.
Crying out, Mhairi smashed her shield into the face of a genlock, making it reel back before her sword crushed through its chest...then she smashed her shield into its face again, knocking it off her weapon. Another instantly took its place though, curved daggers lunging for Mhairi's face before she, with practised efficiency, raised her shield to push the weapons upwards as her sword darted out, digging deep into the beast's abdomen.
A squeal, fetid breath washing against her face as the creature clutched at her shield...and the genlock fell.
Turning to help her Commander, Mhairi realised there was no need, as always.
Spinning in a low crouch Lynn's weapons was a mere blur, cleaving the legs off a hurlock at its knees and gutting two genlocks as the beasts tried to close in around the elf. Moving with the spin her left foot shoot up, the heel crashing into the face of another hurlock, smashing its teeth apart even as the sword in her right hand parried a thrusting dagger of a genlock while her axe tore through the skull of another genlock.
The genlock and hurlock, the first having lost its dagger to the force of Lynn's parry, the other with its maw covered in blood and pieces of its teeth, retreated.
There was nowhere to go though, they were atop a gallery flanking the path to the inner gate of the keep, the only two ways were the stairs behind the two warriors...and the closed door that the hurlock and genlock now desperately tried to wrench open.
It was locked however, and the two turned, the hurlock the first to lunge for the woman.
The thrusting blade was casually batted aside by the calmly advancing Lynn, her own sword darting out in a lightning fast riposte, nicking the creature's throat.
It was enough to send a spurt of dark blood out of the creature's neck though. Howling, a hand reached towards the wound...only to fall limply to its side as the beast fell past the still advancing Lynn.
The genlock shrieked, desperate as it crouched low and hurled itself, head first, at the elf's abdomen, its unarmed hands reaching up towards her throat in a desperate bid to catch her off guard.
Lynn's knee shot up, crashing into the genlock's head, crushing its face and sending it stumbling backwards... Only to come to a stop as her axe hooked into its shoulder, which then pulled it back towards...and then past...the elf and her swinging sword.
The genlock slipped onto its knees as it stumbled past the elf, eyes wide as its hands reached for its throat...a nearly human look of panic in its eyes....before its head fell forward, cleanly cut from its shoulders.
She doesn't even need me... Normally the thought would have been a bitter one, but Mhairi felt too stunned to feel it. There was something...chilling with her Commander. Do I really want to become a warden? She eyed the Commander as the woman marched towards the locked door, as if expecting it to magically open the moment she got close. Not if becoming a warden means becoming...whatever that thing is.
She had studied up on her Commander, so Mhairi knew Lynn was technically a warrior of guile, trained not as a warrior, but as a rogue.
It didn't show as the elf, instead of trying to pick the lock of the door, spun counter-clockwise with her steps, sword, then axe smashing into the door, sharp blades covered in enchantments cleaving through the sturdy wood.
The kick following that tore apart the already damaged door, two shorn halves of it crashing into the floor in a cloud of splinters and dust that the elf stepped right through, unconcerned with what might await on the other side.
I want to be a hero, not suicidal. Mhairi gritted her teeth and followed though, refusing to be left behind, despite the feeling that the Commander really didn't care what she chose to do. I'll prove myself, don't you worry.
Any worries of her worthiness disintegrated the moment she got through the doorway though, replaced by irritation at the sight of the scene unfolding before her. There Lynn stood, head cocked to the side, and observing as a man dressed in blue robes standing among the corpses of templars and darkspawn alike...and pouring a torrent of magical fire into an already wounded hurlock before him. Wearing a single earring of gold and with his mane of blond hair somewhat unkempt the man gave a roguish impression, which wasn't at all helped by the constant twinkle of amusement in those brown eyes of his.
He was handsome Mhairi supposed...not that she had noticed...
A final miserable growl escaped the darkspawn...and it fell, its head merely a smouldering piece of charcoal.
"Ouch..." The mage made a decidedly unmanly sound as his hands shot up to his face...dipping his fingers into his mouth ever so briefly before he lowered them with some vigorous shaking. "...I hate fire spells..."
Great, had almost forgotten about him...ugh. Mhairi rolled her eyes as the man turned to look at the new arrivals, instantly noticing her. "Oh it's the beautiful knight, what may I do for you?" The man smirked, head cocked to the side in the way the fool apparently believed charming and pulled his robe in order. "Want to play twenty questions again?"
Mhairi winced at the slight glance the Commander shot her. I was bored... "Act with some respect maleficar, you're before the hero of Ferelden and Commander of the wardens...and how did you get out of your cell?"
The man arched an eyebrow, still smirking. "That's apostate my lady, and proud of it, and as for you Commander..." The smirk died as the man looked down at Lynn, his jugular moving as he suddenly found himself swallowing. Now it was Mhairi's turn to smirk. Good, serves you right. "...I...erm...welcome to your keep?" He made a furtive gesture towards the destruction and gore surrounding the gaping cell door.
The elf said nothing, head still cocked to the side as she regarded the mage before her, making him nervously shift from foot to foot as he looked away.
"I repeat, how did you get out?" Mhairi pressed, well aware of the distance she needed to cross to reach the man. He might not seem all that dangerous at first glance...but the now dead templars had been vehement in their insistence on keeping him under close watch...and Mhairi understood why all too well now.
"Bill here let me out." The man nudged one of the gore-covered templars with a foot and a grimace, then rolled his eyes. "Oh the pains of being an apostate! First it's all 'you're under arrest' this and 'you're a very bad person' that...the next it's all 'oh please save us with the magic we hate you for having'...it's really kind of irritating you know?"
"Not that it helped him..." Mhairi noted, eyes narrowed as she shot the dead templar a nod.
"Oh right, never mind the dozen of darkspawn, one of them still with its blade stuck in the templar here..." The man rolled his eyes and nudged the other templar corpse, which indeed had a blackened blade stuck in its chest, he raised his hands and waved them in the air with a smirk. "...surely their deaths were the cause of the eeevil apostate..."
Mhairi felt her cheeks warm in irritation. Such blatant disregard for the lives of others! Such....ugh! "Why you-"
"Who are you?" Lynn's voice cut through the two's talks, silencing them both.
Once more balancing from one foot to the other the man managed a weak smile as he looked over at Lynn, or rather a little over her shoulder. "Anders...mage of the circle, or apostate of the circle...when I fancy a walk out in the free." Mhairi snorted in a strange mix or amusement and irritation, making the man smirk as he shot her a look. "Was on my way back to the circle tower you see, dreadful accommodations you have by the way..." He shot a thumb back towards his cell with a grin more aimed at Mhairi then the woman he was actually talking to. "...when we had a bit of a run-in with these other guests that clearly didn't feel the need to pay rent...or respect proper etiquette apparently..."
Mhairi gritted her teeth, forcing the chuckle threatening to burst out from escaping her lips. Lynn didn't seem the least amused though, her head still cocked to the side, as if listening to someone else as she was talking to the man. "And your position in this?"
"My position...?" Anders blinked, swallowing as he risked a glance down at the elf whose gaze was boring down into him. "I...well I owe no one any allegiance really..." He licked his lips nervously, gaze darting to the blades in Lynn's hands. "...but I don't fancy my chances alone either...darkspawn have this tendency to stab soft fleshlings like myself...I'd rather stop them from doing that..."
Silence.
The elf regarding the man still shifting from foot to foot, weighing him up.
Then a shrug.
"Good, you're with me." Lynn moved to leave.
"What?" Mhairi's question left her lips before she had a time to stop herself. A moment later she found herself frozen on the spot as the Commander's eyes bore into her, paralysing her. "I...Commander...he's...apostate...dangerous..."
"That's funny...you don't consider yourself dangerous?" Anders pointed out, making Mhairi grit her teeth in irritation even as she felt the blood leave her face as Lynn's gaze continued to bore into her. Maker...I can actually feel it...it's like being stabbed.... She swallowed, feeling naked all of a sudden. Is she going to kill me now....?
"He comes." Lynn ordered, words clipped, hard, final.
"Y-yes C-commander..."
Finally the elf looked way, making Mhairi's shoulders sag as she breathed an audible sigh of relief. Her body automatically moved to shirk away as Lynn stepped past her, the 'argument' apparently already forgotten by the Commander, the elf now focused on the death of more darkspawn, untroubled of the dangerous mage at her back.
As if to taunt her Anders put a hand on her shoulder as he passed her, all smiles. "Aww, don't worry, I'm kind of fun once you get to know me."
"I bet you are." Mhairi pulled her shoulder away, irritated with the little smile tugging at the corner of her lips. "I'm watching you...apostate."
A bow with a flourish...and the mage moved on. "Oh I'm counting on it..."
Ugh... Mhairi squared her shoulders and moved to follow the other two, glaring daggers into Anders' back. This place will be the death of me...