Chapter Nine: The Horribly Depressing Alienage
Disclaimer: I do not own Dragon Age.
"Is this…is this where the elves live?" Merrill couldn't believe it.
"Judging by all the elves walking around looking like they hate their lives and the fact that we're the only humans – and Varric – here, I'd say yes," Emma said, wrinkling her nose. "Now I can see why nobody would ever come here ever if they had any choice at all. Ever. I mean, Uncle Gamlen told us that we could have it worse but I didn't believe him and now I think I owe him an apology for that."
"Emma!" Bethany said, scandalized.
"What?" Emma asked blankly. "Oh, right. But I'm sure that since you're an elf you'll get along marvelously here."
Bethany sighed. "Well, I tried."
"It's not so bad," Fenris declared, barely glancing around. "You should have seen some of the conditions of the slaves in Tevinter."
"Tevinter abuse this, Tevinter abuse that," Anders said mockingly. "Is that really all you talk about?"
"I'm surprised that you could shut up about mages long enough to notice," Fenris sniped back.
"With the fact that neither of them will shut up about mages for five seconds, I'm surprised they don't get along better," Varric said, shaking his head.
"I'm thinking of shipping those two," Isabela confided.
"Oh?" Varric drew back, surprised. "I thought you were planning on trying to seduce Fenris?"
"Try?" Isabela scoffed. "It's only a matter of time, trust me. And I am. But that doesn't mean a girl can't dream…"
"Would you be interested in a job as a paid consultant?" Varric inquired. "I'm just about to start a new book."
"Is it about a sexy apostate mage revolutionary and a bitter ex-Tevinter slave?" Isabela asked eagerly.
Varric nodded. "I notice you didn't say anything about the abomination thing."
"Who wants to read about that?" Isabela asked rhetorically. "Justice is such a prig."
"That's why I'm cutting him out. And, you know, so that the templars don't jump to conclusions," Varric explained.
"I'll do it," Isabela decided.
"Not for nothing, Fenris, but don't you live in a freaking mansion?" Carver asked him.
"Yes, I do," Fenris confirmed with a sharp nod. "What does that have to do with anything?"
"Maybe you should try living here before you decide that it isn't so bad," Carver hinted.
"I agree with Carver," Aveline said, sounding as if the words pained her. "I do not approve of illegal squatting."
"And yet you're helping to cover it up," Emma noted.
"Yeah, you're kind of hypocritical, Aveline," Anders agreed.
"Oh, now you know the word," Fenris grumbled.
"I've heard that Alienages are worse in other parts of Thedas," Bethany said, trying to be positive. "But I don't see how that's possible unless it's on fire. Oh, I mean…"
"Funny you should mention that," Isabela told her. "As a pirate captain, I've had plenty of experience with Alienages of different nations. The Alienage in Orlais has walls so high that you can't even see the sun and it's far smaller than the one in Ferelden despite the presence of many, many more elves."
"What about the one in Ferelden?" Merrill wanted to know. "I lived in Ferelden for many years, after all."
"It's not so bad," Isabela replied. "Well, not now at any rate. Before you had the Arl's son abducting and raping whichever elven 'whore' caught his eye. He even abducted an entire wedding party in broad daylight – well, the female half of it – and ended up being killed by one of his would-be victims. Then Howe took over, punished the elves for killing the noble rapist, riots erupted, and the Alienage was closed off. Unfortunately, the plague broke out among the Alienage and no one knew if refugees from Ostagar brought it or the slaving Tevinter magisters that Howe allowed to sell elves in order to fund the civil war they insisted on carrying on during a Blight."
"I…" Merrill was at a loss for words.
Seeing this, Isabela quickly added, "But I've heard it's very nice now, really. Their leader is even a part of the King's council and everything."
"See?" Fenris asked, his tone triumphant. "Tevinter mages ruin everything."
"I've never seen so many people in one place before," Merrill said, looking slightly dizzy. "It seems so…lonely."
"Really?" Emma asked skeptically. "Because when I see overcrowdedness I don't think 'lonely', I think 'no privacy and poor sanitation.'"
"Come on," Carver said, gesturing for Merrill to follow him. "I'll help you settle in."
Emma watched him go in disgust. "I cannot believe that my brother has a thing for a blood mage! It's like he has no taste in women!" she exclaimed without the slightest hint of irony in her voice.
"I hear that," Anders agreed. "My templar senses are tingling."
"Is that because you happen to see a templar standing not twenty feet behind us?" Varric inquired.
"Oh, is there?" Anders asked, looking surprised. "Well that explains that, then."
"How you've managed to go without getting caught so long astounds me," Aveline said, shaking her head.
"He's actually been caught six times," Fenris corrected her. "And no, it is not weird that I know that."
"Let's go talk to him," Emma suggested.
"I'd rather just kill him," Anders grumbled.
"Yes, but it would be rude without talking to him first, don't you think?" Emma asked rhetorically. "Besides, the templars here aren't very observant."
"I – and my pocketbook – have noticed," Varric said, rolling his eyes.
"Hi, I'm Emma. Why are you here?" Emma asked bluntly, approaching the templar who was speaking with a distraught elven woman.
"My son is a mage-" the woman began.
"We should help her," Bethany said loudly. "That could be mother."
Emma waited for Carver to say something about how that would only happen if their mother had mage children and she didn't but he was still inside Merrill's new shack.
"And I just turned him into the templars so he ran away," the woman wailed.
"Yeah, if mother were a bitch," Emma agreed, glaring at the woman.
"No wonder he ran away," Anders practically growled. "You, madam, are a monster."
"She is not," the templar snapped. "She is a concerned mother just trying to do the right thing…a decade after finding out her son was a mage. Still, better late than never and the templars will not show mercy on him unless he turns himself in. We cannot tolerate apostates, after all."
"Not without paying ludicrous sums of money," Varric muttered.
"Mercy? What mercy? Maybe he won't be tortured before he's made Tranquil?" Anders cried out.
"You don't understand!" the woman said burst out. "My Feynriel's connection to the Fade gives him nightmares, dreams of demons! I would rather lose him to the Circle than to himself."
"That's not so bad, is it?" Bethany asked softly.
"I would rather be eaten by demons," Emma said flatly.
"I wouldn't," Isabela said, shuddering. "That's got to be a horrid way to go. Maybe if it were a desire demon. But then, I'm not a mage so being lost to the Circle isn't a real threat for me."
"Let me get this straight," Anders said harshly. "Your son has been having bad dreams so you want him imprisoned for the rest of his life and at risk of being tortured or abused at any point in his life by power-hungry templars with no checks on their power and at risk of being stripped of all emotion and free will?"
The woman looked taken aback. "When you put it like that, you make me sound like a bad mother."
"I think you're a horrible elven being," Anders declared. "And I'm trying to decide if I feel you deserve to live."
"Anders!" Aveline cried out. "Attempting to talk someone into suicide or threatening their life unprovoked is a crime."
"Yeah, well so is being an apostate and an abomination!" Anders countered.
The templar held out his hand expectantly to Varric.
"Yeah, yeah, I've got your money, Thrask," Varric said, sighing and handing over a few coins.
"We'll find your son," Emma promised. "And then we're going to send him off to live with the Dalish where he won't be hated and looked down upon for something he can't help!"
"But my son is human," the woman pointed out.
Emma drew back, horrified. "You have Dalish tattoos so, judging by the way that guy bit my head off when I asked about them, you must have been one of them at some point and you had a child with a human? It's almost like you want your species to go extinct!"
"Hey, it's not like my one human child instead of an elven one is going to cause our species to go extinct!" the woman protested, highly offended.
"Yeah, that's what every other elf off having human children is telling themselves while you all contribute to the declining population," Emma said, shaking her head.
Bethany looked like she wanted to say something but wasn't quite sure what. "Carver would know what to do."
"Let's stop in here," Fenris said suddenly, drawing to a halt in front of the Chantry.
"I thought you didn't believe in the Maker," Emma said, surprised.
"I don't but I killed a lot of mercenaries and I saw a sign on the notice board awhile back saying that I could get paid for that," Fenris explained.
"Really?" Emma asked. "Isn't it great when people pay you to do things you were planning on doing anyway? It's why I make sure to always charge the mages collective for killing templars and aiding escaped mages."
Fenris shot her a look. "While it should be noted that I do not approve of any of that, if you're really on their side then why in the world are you charging them when they could be using that money to advance your cause?"
"Because I don't want to live with Uncle Gamlen forever and so my need is great," Emma said as if it were obvious. "I'm sure my fellow mages understand."
"All mages can see is their own suffering," Fenris said pessimistically.
"That's fine then because I'm one of them," Emma said dismissively. "Now, let's go into the sacred building to discuss the fact that you just committed murder for money."
"When you put it that way, I'm especially glad that I'm not one of you," Fenris said, shaking his head, as he followed her into the Chantry.
"A mage?" Emma asked, completely uncaring that she was now in one of the enemy's strongholds.
"No, an Andrastian," Fenris said, rolling his eyes. "If I were a mage I'd be filled with too much self-loathing to breathe. Or I'd be a magister in which case I should be filled with more but probably wouldn't be."
"Not so loud, will you," Emma chastised, shooting paranoid glances around her.
"That's him," Fenris said, pointing to a very pretty armored man sulking right next to the Grand Cleric.
"Hello," the Grand Cleric greeted them kindly. "I'm Elthina. I don't think I've seen you here before."
"I'm Emma Hawke and this is Fenris," Emma introduced.
"It's so nice to meet you both," Elthina told them, smiling. "And it's always nice to see humans and elves getting along as equals. Maker's blessings upon you both."
"Wow, you seem like a really wonderful person," Emma said, taken aback. "I had sort of thought you would be horrible because you work with the Chantry to oppress mages."
"I only want the best for everyone, mages included," Elthina explained. "The situation may not be idea but remember that an untrained mage is just as much of a danger to himself as he is to others. He may get possessed without having an idea of what is going on or how to defend himself or he might cast an accidental spell that hurts or even kills himself. And then there's the lamentable fear and prejudice many of the common people have that may lead to them hurting or killing the mage in question."
"You sound so very reasonable," Emma marveled, shaking her head. "I can almost concede that the Chantry isn't just oppressing mages because they have no soul."
"I killed those mercenaries you wanted dead," Fenris said bluntly, turning towards the man.
"Sebastian," Elthina scolded. "I thought I told you that revenge was not the answer."
"I know," Sebastian said, looking vaguely guilty. "And I thought about that but then I remembered that the Chant of Light teaches that the reason that revenge is so dangerous is because it will eat away at you and consume you so that you are left bitter and unable to focus on anything else. I decided the best way to avoid that was to hurry up and seek vengeance before that happened to me."
"I…think you might have missed the point of that slightly," Elthina said slowly, sighing.
"Well now that that's over, can I be a brother again?" Sebastian asked eagerly.
"Sebastian, I first heard of your parents' and brothers' deaths when you stormed up to me and announced that you were leaving the Chantry so that you could go seek bloody vengeance in peace," Elthina pointedly reminded him.
"I sort of thought you would disapprove and that it wasn't very brother-like," Sebastian exclaimed. "So it was either be a hypocrite and disgrace everything the Chantry stood for or stop being a brother."
"Leaving the Chantry because you want to do all of that after you swear vows does not make you any less of a hypocrite," Fenris said, rolling his eyes. "Particularly since you apparently want to go right back once you're done."
"You should listen to him," Emma said, trying to be supportive. "He knows all about hypocrisy."
"You're not helping," Fenris ground out.
"Yes I am," Emma disagreed.
"I am not a hypocrite!" Sebastian insisted. "I just had some secular business to attend to and so I left the Chantry in order to take care of it. Now that it's settled, I want to be a brother again."
"Sebastian, the Chantry is not just some club you can join or leave from week to week," Elthina said tiredly. "It is a lifelong commitment and the fact that you were so quick to forget your vows the minute you wanted to do something that we could not abide by makes me seriously question your commitment."
"Come on," Sebastian protested. "What were the odds that someone would pull a Howe and I'd need to avenge their deaths? I mean, really?"
"This time it was the brutal murder of your entire family, what will it be next time? Who rules Starkhaven?" Elthina pressed.
"It certainly won't be me," Sebastian announced. "I took vows. Well…what do you guys think?"
"I don't care," Fenris said flatly.
"Normally neither would I but if I had the choice between being in the Chantry or ruling someplace, I would definitely pick ruling something," Emma replied. "In fact, if the choice was between being in the Chantry and virtually anything else, I'd generally go with 'virtually anything else.'"
"Why don't you people want me to be happy?" Sebastian complained.
"He seems a little bipolar," Emma noted.
Elthina sighed. "He's always been this way. He always has unshakable convictions and throws himself into what he cares about but he's also impulsive. I just don't think he's ready to retake the oath. Not until the matter of Starkhaven is settled."
"I don't care about Starkhaven," Sebastian said dismissively. "They can all go die for all I care."
"You don't mean that," Elthina said gently.
"Well, no," Sebastian admitted. "But it certainly sounds like it will help my cause. I'll prove you wrong yet!"
"Am I getting paid?" Fenris demanded.
"What?" Sebastian started. "Oh, absolutely. Here's what I promised plus a little extra for getting it done in a timely manner. See, your Grace? I didn't even get involved personally."
"I don't know where you got the impression that it was morally superior to hire someone to kill people rather than doing it yourself," Elthina said ruefully, shaking her head. "But it's just not true."
"Let me know if you have anyone else you need dead," Fenris told him.
Sebastian nodded. "Absolutely. In fact, while I don't know how long it will take me to find out what swine ordered my family's death, once I do I'm going to need people to help me kill them. Would you be interested?"
Fenris nodded. "If I'm still in Kirkwall, certainly."
Elthina groaned. "Sebastian, you just said that you wanted to retake your vows!"
"But I do," Sebastian said, confused. "Why, is there a problem or something?"
Review Please!