Chapter Eight: It Must Be Wise Since It Makes No Sense

Disclaimer: I do not own Dragon Age.

Emma immediately started gagging. "Oh Maker…" That was the good thing about her being a mage; she didn't have to look at blood very often.

"What?" Carver asked, confused. "But…why is there so much blood? Just how deeply did you cut your hand? Are you going to bleed out or something and if so, will the Dalish hold us accountable for your murder?"

"Carver! Try to be sensitive!" Bethany admonished.

"What? Do you want to have to wipe out an entire Dalish tribe in self-defense?" Carver demanded.

"Blood magic," Fenris said contemptuously, his hand twitching for his weapon. "Very, very foolish. I have a strict 'destroy blood mages' policy. I am, with reluctance, tolerating all these mages but a blood mage?"

"You can't just kill her," Aveline objected. "We need her for the Dalish ritual to keep our promise to Flemeth. Besides, it's not like she's breaking any laws."

"Except, of course, the law that says you can't be a blood mage," Isabela pointed out.

"But think of the children!" Fenris protested. "One minute it's all 'I'm just helping us get past this barrier' and 'I only use blood magic when I'm out of mana and it's using blood magic or dying' and the next they're draining a toddler dry for what literally amounts to a party trick."

"If it helps, I'm never invited to any parties," Merrill offered.

Fenris glared at her. "It really doesn't."

"It's mages like her that give everyone else a bad name," Anders complained.

"Says the abomination," Carver muttered.

"The not-quite-abomination who doesn't use blood magic," Anders corrected.

"Still, you're really not one to talk about people giving others bad names," Carver insisted. "Honestly, the templars use people like you as an example of why mages need to be locked up."

"And it is all a bunch of blatant lies," Anders claimed.

"You summoned something," Bethany said suddenly. "I can feel it. Are you insane?"

"No, I'm not," Merrill said, insulted. "I am a blood mage, yes, and I did summon a spirit but I clearly know what I'm doing."

"Everyone who thinks that she knows what she's doing?" Isabela asked. No one raised their hand. "All who think she doesn't?" Every hand flew up but Varric's. "Varric, you didn't vote."

"I have a strict 'no comment' policy on any matter ever vaguely related to mages," Varric explained. "It makes my life a lot easier and this way I know that when things eventually erupt into a bloody civil war after someone blows up the Chantry and someone else orders the Rite of Annulment that I won't be forced to get involved."

"Oh come on," Anders scoffed. "Even I don't think the situation's quite that bad."

"You know, you're actually one of my top contenders for that little act of terrorism," Varric confided. "But if you'd like to prove me wrong then I'd be delighted."

"No one ever believes in me," Merrill complained.

"Maybe it's because you don't deserve to be believed in," Fenris suggested. "You are, after all, a blood mage with a killer mirror fetish."

"Have you actually done anything that would cause them to believe in you?" Aveline inquired.

Merrill thought about it for a minute. "Well, I haven't snapped and killed everyone yet despite their rampant lack of support for me and I haven't gotten possessed. That's something, right?"

"Haven't gotten possessed yet," Fenris amended. "Or at least so you say."

"Look, the spirit helped us, didn't it?" Merrill challenged, annoyed.

"Of course it did!" Anders cried out. "You were using it to open a barrier! Have you been working with it more than that? If so then it's clearly trying to gain your trust so it can possess you easier."

"Not that you'd know anything about that," Carver said snidely.

"Exactly," Anders agreed.

"Um…is that woman okay?" Merrill asked uncertainly, pointing to Emma who was still gagging off to the side.

"She's fine," Bethany assured them. "Emma just can't stand the sight of blood. It nauseates her."

"That and her aversion to pain are probably the only things keeping her from blood magic," Carver theorized.

"To be fair, those are hardly minor things," Bethany defended while not really disagreeing with him.

"Demons are just spirits like valor or justice-" Merrill started to say.

"I AM NOT A DEMON!" Justice roared, shooting lightning at Merrill who had the good sense to duck.

"I didn't say you were," Merrill said appeasingly. "I suppose that's a spirit of justice then? Look, all I meant was that the creatures that inhabit the Fade can't help being what they are anymore than we can."

"Mages use that same excuse," Fenris said contemptuously.

"Well…they kind of can't," Isabela pointed out. "I can't think of many outside of Tevinter who would knowingly choose to be a mage given the amount of abuse they have to put up with."

"Don't pretend you know anything about spirits, Merrill," Anders sniped. "And don't spread your ignorance."

Merrill's eyes widened. "Excuse me? My ignorance? You're the one who clearly went and got himself possessed."

"Justice is a good spirit and he's my friend!" Anders insisted.

Carver snorted. "Your 'friend' who flies off the handle and attacks anyone who calls him a demon and who you can't stop from taking control of you whenever he wants to."

"What do you know?" Anders asked angrily. "You're not a mage."

Carver laughed. "Oh, that's rich. 'Only a mage would understand.' Well Merrill's a mage and she agrees with me."

"And Emma's a mage and she agrees with me!" Anders shot back.

Both men turned to look at Bethany.

"I think I'm going to have to side with Varric," she said, looking faintly panicked.

"I don't need my clan to believe in me and I don't need you to, either," Merrill said, her jaw set. "Let's just get this over with, shall we?"

After re-killing what must have been everyone to have ever been buried on the mountain (and dismembering them, to Merrill's horror, so that they wouldn't have to do so again), they finally reached the altar they were to bring the amulet to.

"Habren na melana sahlin. Emma ir abelas souver'inan isala hamin shenan him dor'felas. In uthenara na revas," Merrill said reverently as she placed the amulet on the altar.

Anders had finally been persuaded to heal Merrill's wound (since she had literally no healing abilities whatsoever but still thought it was a good idea to become a blood mage) so Emma could speak without difficulty again. "Wow. Seriously? That's like three sentences. I can't believe the Keeper made us take the crazy blood mage with the mirror fetish when she could have just written them down or something…"

The sky darkened and bright light flashed over the area. Flemeth emerged from this light. "I could have sworn I asked you to do this a year ago."

"Sorry," Emma said, not sounding at all sorry. "Carver lost your amulet."

"Stop telling people that!" Carver said worriedly. "And I did not."

"I said I would save you if you delivered my amulet and it didn't take me a year to make good on my promise," Flemeth pointed out.

"What's done is done," Aveline said flatly. "What are you going to do, take back your rescue?"

"Don't give her ideas!" Carver cried out.

"A witch!" Fenris cried out, hand twitching once more for his blade.

"I wouldn't bother with that," Flemeth said, almost amused. "I can turn into a dragon and eat you, if nothing else."

Fenris froze, clearly not interested in facing off a dragon.

"Your chains are broken but are you truly free?" Flemeth pressed, peering at him intently.

"You see a great deal," Fenris said awkwardly.

"Sounds like just a bunch of cryptic nonsense to me," Emma declared.

"Friend of yours?" Isabela asked sardonically.

"You say that word so casually as if it can be bought and sold with coin," Flemeth remarked.

Isabela crossed her arms. "You don't know me!" she said defiantly.

"You know, you sounded remarkably like those angsty teenagers I used to know back in Lothering when you said that," Emma remarked.

"You snuck into this country illegally, didn't you?" Aveline asked disapprovingly.

"Technically, I came with your group," Flemeth pointed out. "And while I might not have had to work for a year like the Hawke siblings, neither did their mother or you for that matter."

"You make a strong case," Aveline noted.

"Don't trust her!" Anders cried out. "I've heard the stories about her! She's an abomination!"

"Do I even need to point out the irony in that statement?" Flemeth wondered aloud.

Anders' eyes flashed blue. "I AM NOT A-"

"Demon?" Flemeth cut him off, looking bored. "Yes you are. You're a demon of vengeance and you're so twisted you can't even realize how far you've fallen. I could almost pity you if you weren't so self-righteous and, frankly, obnoxious. You, dwarf, are smart to keep your mouth shut."

"What about me?" Merrill asked eagerly.

"No, I suppose that I should just be thankful that you remembered at all," Flemeth remarked, ignoring her. "Even if I did likely miss the birth of Morrigan's baby and she may have even fled into the Eluvian by now."

"…It was only a year," Bethany pointed out, confused.

"Yes, well your Grey Warden mage only joined the Grey Wardens a year after the Blight ended and stayed with them for nearly three years," Flemeth pointed out.

"But…the Blight's been over for maybe a month," Carver protested.

"Don't try to figure anything out when mages are involved," Varric advised. "It will just give you a headache."

"A-an Eluvian?" Merrill asked nervously. "Does this mean you know how to make one work?"

"I do," Flemeth agreed, nodding.

Merrill swallowed as she gathered her courage. "Could you teach me how to do that?"

"I could," Flemeth said idly, watching Merrill light up. "But I won't."

Merrill was devastated. "Why not?"

"Because I do not run a charity and you do not interest me," Flemeth said bluntly. "The Dalish never have. Emma Hawke, however, does."

"What a surprise," Carver muttered bitterly.

"She's going to be involved in a lot of interesting things although for all the control she has over them, she really might as well have not come to Kirkwall," Flemeth revealed. "Seriously, almost every single other person you meet will have more of an impact than she will. Still, she's the most important person to ever live, or so I'm told. I can't quite work that one out but then, I'm old."

"The most important person that ever lived, huh?" Emma repeated happily. "I definitely like the sound of that."

"You would," Varric said fondly.

"If for all the difference she makes she might as well not have shown up then she can hardly be even remotely important, let alone all that important," Carver protested.

"Belittling your sister's future accomplishments just because you hate her for being a mage is an ugly, ugly thing," Anders said ruefully.

"One last word of advice before I go," Flemeth told them. She cleared her throat. "We stand upon the precipice of change. The world fears the inevitable plummet into the abyss. Watch for that moment...and when it comes, do not hesitate to leap. It is only when you fall that you learn whether you can fly."

"What if you can't?" Bethany asked, disturbed. "Are you suggesting that my sister jump off a cliff? Because let me tell you, she's not particularly good with figurative language."

"I'm not sure that I fear any 'inevitable plummet into the abyss'," Isabela spoke up. "Or that I, or anyone, even know what this is."

"I bet she's talking about freeing the mages," Fenris said ominously.

"If that's the case then I think that Emma should definitely not hesitate and lead the mages in a revolution," Anders said brightly.

Carver rolled his eyes. "Of course you do. Look, this 'advice' is so painfully unhelpful that it can't possibly be understood until after it already comes to pass and therefore there is really no reason to tell us beforehand since it won't do a damn bit of good."

"Fine, be ungrateful then," Flemeth sniffed. "I don't care. I was just trying to be helpful." She finally deigned to look at Merrill. "As for you child, step carefully. No path is more dark than when your eyes are shut."

"You're so wise!" Merrill gushed.

"She's telling you that you're blind to what you're doing and thus this will probably end in disaster," Fenris said flatly.

"And it's still vague cryptic nonsense," Carver added.

"I can see where I'm not appreciated," Flemeth said sorrowfully before she turned back into a dragon and flew off.

"That was weird," Varric remarked.

"Oh, now he can talk…" Carver muttered.

"Make fun all you like, Junior, but I'm planning on going through life without getting cursed," Varric declared. "Which is really no mean feat in Kirkwall."

"Ma serannas, child. Your debt is paid in full," Marethari told them when they returned to the camp.

"Our debt was never to you!" Carver protested. "Flemeth didn't need us to take her to the altar and she certainly didn't have anything important to say. And why are you even thanking us when you basically forced us to do it? I officially hate the Dalish."

"Racist," one of the elves nearby them accused. "You just hate us because we're elven!"

"No, weren't you listening?" Carver demanded. "It's because of how obnoxious your Keeper is."

"Insulting the Keeper is fighting words," the elf warned.

"Emma, your brother's a bit of a tit," Aveline announced.

Carver glared at her. "Oh, don't even start with me."

"Da'len, it isn't too late to change your mind," Marethari said gently to Merrill, completely ignoring Carver.

Merrill crossed her arms suspiciously. "You guys will let me keep trying to fix the Eluvian here?"

Marethari snorted. "Absolutely not! Attempting to fix that mirror will only bring death and destruction upon us all! You know that the demon that's been helping you only wants to fix the mirror so that it can escape into this world and kill us all?"

"I'm not listening! I'm smarter than you! I'll save us all!" Merrill shouted, her fingers in her ears.

Marethari sighed. "Young people never listen…If this trend continues and I get possessed in order to save her from her own stupidity, make sure the clan doesn't kill her in vengeance for my death, okay?"

"Yeah, whatever," Emma said, not really listening.

"I'm ready," Merrill informed them solemnly. "Let's depart."

"Hey, wait a minute!" Emma objected. "What's all this 'we' business? Who said you're coming with us?"

Merrill looked startled. "I…but I'm going to Kirkwall and you're going back there so why not travel with each other?"

"You're a blood mage," Emma said pointedly. "And I hate blood mages almost as much as I hate templars! I hate you! You're a horrible, terrible person!"

Anders nodded his agreement.

"For once, I'm with the mages," Fenris said, sounding a little sick.

"Oh, leave her alone," Isabela told them. "She's adorable."

"An 'adorable' blood mage will get possessed by a demon and brutally murder you just as easily as an ugly one," Anders pointed out.

"I, for one, am uncomfortable with blood magic but am willing to overlook it given how you're clearly a very well-meaning person," Carver announced. "Bust just the same…are you sure that you really want to tag along with a group of people that have so many members openly dislike you?"

Merrill shrugged. "I have no choice. I don't really know anyone at all in town. I haven't even found a place to stay in the Alienage yet."

Carver shuddered as he thought of what might befall Merrill when she first got to Kirkwall. "Tell you what, how about I help you?"

Emma put her hands on her hips. "You are not developing a thing for her! Geez, and you guys say that I have bad taste in men!"

"You kind of do," Bethany pointed out.

"Bethany! Whose side are you even on?" Emma complained.

"Sorry, Emma," Bethany apologized.

"Just…follow along with us and though they'll probably harass you the entire way down about what a terrible person your blood magic makes you, there's a solid chance that they won't decide to kill you for it," Carver advised. "I mean, it's not ideal but…"

Merrill smiled up at him. "I'll take what I can get. I'm glad that at least someone is a little welcoming. Thank you, Carver."

Review Please!