Chapter Twelve: Mage Saving

Disclaimer: I do not own Dragon Age.

"So…I'm kind of bored," Emma admitted. "There's been a definite lack of people who need to die recently and thus a shortage of coin."

"What about all those slavers we killed yesterday when we were breaking into the estate?" Carver asked her.

Emma waved him off. "That was yesterday and we've been here for about ten minutes now and nothing's happening!"

"Speaking of coin," Varric said, inserting himself into the conversation. "How much do you have? It's been about a week since you said you could come up with the fifty sovereigns."

"You can't really expect anyone to get fifty sovereigns in a week, Varric," Bethany told him. "Right, Emma?"

Emma started coughing too hard to speak.

"Emma?" Bethany asked, uncertain.

"Come on Anders, you must have something for us to do!" Emma said eagerly. "There's always all sorts of mage oppression being done."

"Well, I was thinking of slaughtering some templars who are almost unnaturally good at catching apostates," Anders said thoughtfully.

"Oh, that sounds like fun!" Emma said enthusiastically. "Let's go do that."

"I don't think that our current group would be very open to that idea and we don't want too many people there as we'd stand out more," Anders replied. "We can check it out later if you want."

"It's a date," Emma said brightly. "And speaking of dates…you know we've known each other for a whole week now and you still won't sleep with me!"

"Sleep with Isabela," Anders said, nodding her way.

"We have plans to meet up later," Isabela revealed. "Right before I meet up with Varric, actually. Sex always inspires me."

"You and Varric?" Aveline asked curiously.

"Oh, no. We're writing a book together," Isabela explained. "Besides, I'm not his type."

"I prefer dwarven women," Varric informed them. "And by 'prefer' I mean 'I am not even slightly attracted to anyone else save Bianca.'"

"That would be less offensive if you didn't say that you were attracted to your crossbow," Bethany said delicately.

"Don't listen to her, Bianca. She couldn't possibly understand," Varric said soothingly.

"You know, we should make plans," Isabela said, eyeing Fenris carefully.

"Not interested," Fenris said flatly.

"Yeah you are," Isabela disagreed. "I can always tell. And one of these days, you'll even take me up on my offer."

"You've never made me an offer," Fenris said, confused.

Isabela laughed. "Please. I make everybody an offer if they're cute. Well, that or rich. Preferably both."

"Oh, I've got something," Anders said, snapping his fingers. "Remember that horrible elven woman that we really should have killed who viciously betrayed her only son by selling him out to the templars because she's a horrible person?"

"What's this?" Carver asked, alarmed.

"I think they are referring to Arianna, a neighbor of mine in the Alienage," Merrill spoke up. "Her son is a mage and she's selflessly protected him from the moment that she found out, even moving even from the Starkhaven Alienage that she was living before because her son did magic in the open and it couldn't be hidden. Unfortunately, he's been having these really graphic night terrors recently and she's concerned that it might be a demon and so asked a templar to look into it, reasoning that a Circle son was better than a possessed one who would only hurt people and end up dead. Her son Feynriel did not share this belief and ran away so now she is looking for him."

"Right, that horrid bitch," Anders agreed.

"I don't think that's fair," Carver protested. "She sounds just like mother."

"Mother never gave us up to the templars," Emma argued.

"Well there was only that one possession attempt by your ex and we dealt with that so she didn't need to," Carver countered. "And besides, father knew what he was doing and this poor woman clearly doesn't have such an expert on hand."

"I don't think that matters whether that woman was right about the templars or not," Isabela spoke up. "What matters now is finding him. It the templars manage to track him down and he resists, he might be killed. Even if they can't find him, he won't know where to go or what to do and I don't see why leaving would clear up the potential possession."

"Where would we even begin to look for a runaway apostate?" Aveline wondered.

"Out of curiosity, do you feel any…compulsion to tell anyone about this fugitive?" Bethany asked quietly.

Aveline blinked. "Not particularly. Why would I?"

"It doesn't matter," Bethany said quickly.

"You are in luck," Anders said proudly. "The mage underground, which knows everything, has tracked Feynriel's movements to a 'retired' templar named Samson."

"Why are there air quotes around 'retired'?" Merrill asked him.

Anders shrugged. "I don't know. That's how it was told to me. I think the important thing is just that he's no longer officially a templar."

"Too bad. We need more templars willing to totally ignore their job and help mages," Emma said seriously.

"If I had my way, I'd double the patrols here," Aveline said as they just finished killing their seventh mob who had suddenly and inexplicably attacked them since stepping foot into Lowtown at night. "Lowtown is trouble."

Isabela laughed. "I hardly think that just doubling it will help. Your men would just get slaughtered. I'm amazed they don't get slaughtered already. There's more than enough outlaws to take them already."

"Well this needs to be dealt with one way or another," Aveline said seriously. "If there's one thing I can't stand it's lawlessness. That and hypocrisy. The captain is supposed to be concerned about this lawlessness and he certainly talks a good deal about it but he never seems to do anything about it."

"Speaking of…are you aware of just how many apostate you travel with? Including a blood mage and an abomination?" Fenris asked innocently.

Aveline nodded. "I do. Why?"

Fenris sighed. "Never mind."

Emma snapped her fingers. "Hey I just remembered…remember that ambush we were supposed to deal with the other day? We kind of forgot about that. What happened?"

"A guard got killed," Aveline said grimly. "If only there was something we could have done…"

"There was," Carver pointed out. "We just forgot. You really should have reminded us."

"Emma, your brother is a bit of a tit," Aveline complained.

"You always say that whenever I'm right," Carver grumbled.

"I know, right?" Emma commiserated.

"Well, well, I was told that my old friend Thrask was sending you folks after me. You're here about the boy Feyn or something, right?" a man asked as they walked by.

"Who's Thrask?" Emma wondered in honest confusion.

"He's that templar that I had to bribe because you admitted to being a mage in front of Feynriel's mother," Varric reminded her.

"Not ringing a bell, sorry," she said apologetically. "And we're not looking for any 'Feyn' either."

"Feynriel, then. Whatever," the man said disinterestedly.

"Are you Samson?" Carver asked.

Samson nodded. "I am indeed. Is that a yes about looking for Feynriel?"

Carver nodded. "Yes, we are. Do you know where he is?"

Samson shook his head. "Sorry. I really can't help you."

Carver twitched. "Then why were you so interested in whether we were looking for him or not?"

"Well…I do know that he came to me, desperate and scared, seeking sanctuary and my heart went out to him – it really did – but he had no money and you know how these things are," Samson said conversationally. "You can't afford to make an exception or you'll never get paid again. I sent him to a ship captain I know named Reiner. I sent some mage girl to him last week."

"I see," Carver said slowly. "So wh-"

"You are a terrible person," Anders said flatly. "You should help all mages for free!"

"I need to eat," Samson said defensively.

"How is that my problem?" Anders demanded.

"How is his lack of money my problem?" Samson countered.

"The plight of the mages is everybody's problem!" Anders insisted.

"It isn't, actually. In fact, I really couldn't care less,' Samson revealed.

Anders' eyes started to glow blue so Carver quickly spoke up. "Where is this Reiner now?"

"Well…that's the thing," Samson admitted reluctantly. "I think maybe he might have taken the two prisoner and is ransoming them back to the templars."

"Let me guess," Anders said sarcastically. "They have to eat, too?"

"Most people do," Samson agreed blithely. "If they didn't want to be captured and ransomed back to the templars, they should have had more money than the templars were willing to pay."

"If they had that sort of money then they wouldn't have needed his help!" Emma exclaimed.

Samson shrugged. "It's a vicious, vicious cycle. Personally, I blame society for perpetuating this madness."

"Is there any more help you can give us?" Bethany asked hopefully. "We really just want to save those poor people."

"I think he's in a warehouse by these docks," Samson told her. "I don't know anything more specific than that, though. After all, if Reiner advertised where he was then if the mage underground didn't kill him then the templars would take those mages back for free. It's just not good business sense."

It took a few tries, but eventually they found the right warehouse.

"Please, anybody, help me!" a terrified-looking mage said as she was backed into a corner by some mean-looking mercenaries.

"Not to worry!" Emma declared grandly. "We are here to help!"

It was too late, though, as the girl promptly turned into an abomination, killed the mercenaries, and was killed in turn by the group.

"See, this is exactly what I'm talking about," Anders said, outraged. "That poor woman had no choice but to become an abomination just to be able to defend herself whereas if she were allowed to live free-"

"Save it," Fenris cut him off. "Emma announced that we were here to save her before she became an abomination. And is anybody else concerned by the fact that she apparently managed to make a deal with a demon and become an abomination in all of two seconds? This just goes to show that mages could snap and become possessed at literally any moment. The minute you're about to kill a mage for whatever reason, they could get possessed on you. If you're just fighting one and about to beat then, better hope they don't make a split-second deal."

"I really do think that you're overreacting," Emma told him.

"Based on…?" Fenris inquired.

"Hey look, a letter!" Emma said loudly, pulling a letter off of the girl's corpse. "It's from someone named Olivia to someone named Thrask saying that despite his being a templar she's his mage daughter and thanking him for sheltering her all these years but that she's off to go see the world now."

"A templar with a mage daughter?" Anders couldn't believe it. "What a hypocrite!"

"Well, he is helping mages escape apparently and is trying to save Feynriel," Carver pointed out.

"That means nothing," Anders claimed. "He's still a templar."

"It's remarkable but after so many years of templar-hating I'm almost starting to become convinced that the templars might have a point," Carver said, shaking his head.

"What?" Emma gasped. "Carver, you promised!"

"I did not," Carver snapped. "But I'm not thinking about that anyway."

"How could you even say that?" Anders demanded.

"Well, there's you and Emma for one and all the rampant blood magic and demon possession every time I turn around for another," Carver said dryly.

Merrill looked down. "I'm sorry…"

"Oh no, I didn't mean you!" Carver hastened to assure her.

"Hey look, a scrap of paper that helpfully reveals the name and location of the man Feynriel is supposed to be sold to!" Isabela exclaimed. "How very thoughtful of them. Stupid, but thoughtful."

They approached Danzig and his group in Darktown and the minute they were in sight, the man in front that they presumed was Danzig began to speak. "Why, look here, boys. Volunteers! Clap 'em in irons and let's see what the Tevinters will pay for them."

"What?" Carver couldn't believe it. "Is that how you treat everybody that walks by? No wonder this area of Darktown is so deserted. You must be the laziest slavers around."

Danzig twitched. "We are not. We-"

"But," Fenris interrupted darkly. "You are still slavers, yes?"

Danzig looked taken aback. "Well, yes, but-"

"This won't take long," Fenris promised before stalking purposefully towards them.

True to his word, it did not take long for Fenris to find out where Feynriel was supposed to be although it did take a bit longer for Danzig and his men to be allowed to die.

On their way up to the meeting place, they ran into some giant spiders who were harassing a dwarf and his guards. Since the spiders wouldn't let them pass unmolested, the group was forced to kill them.

"Finally! A rescue," the dwarf said, annoyed. "My guards really are quite useless. Kept standing around and staring at the spiders instead of even trying to kill them."

"But…but they're BIG!" one of the guards protested.

The dwarf rolled his eyes. "What do you think I hired you for?"

"Looking scary?" he guessed.

"You are so fired. Not right now," the dwarf quickly clarified. "But once we get back to Kirkwall and I can find new guards."

"Yeah, that's great but we don't care," Emma told him bluntly. "Now, we'll just be on our-"

"Wait! Don't you want to hear more?" the dwarf demanded.

"No. I probably wouldn't even want to in the best of times but we're in the middle of rescuing a mage from some slavers so that's a double no," Emma said flatly.

"Well too damn bad," the dwarf said crossly. "My name is Javaris Tintop and I need someone to pacify the qunari."

"I would wish you luck with that but I don't even care that much," Emma said, yawning.

"So you may not know this but the qunari have this powder," Javaris said as if he hadn't heard her. "Now, this powder can explode! It does this without any demons or magic or anything! Now, I know this sounds hard to believe but I assure you that-"

"You realize that any idiot has heard of this, right?" Varric cut him off. "We're not stupid."

"I was kind of hoping you were…" Javaris muttered quietly. He cleared his throat. "Well, uh, anyway I want to buy the powder but the Arishok said that I wasn't worthy and that only their outcasts would be so stupid as to sell off their biggest advantage for a quick profit when they don't even believe in money. Naturally, I took this to mean that if I killed those outcasts than they'll sell me the powder."

"Then you're an idiot," Varric said bluntly. "Not that I didn't already know this."

"Then why aren't you off trying to deal with that?" Bethany inquired.

Javaris laughed. "Are you kidding? You saw the way my men ran and hid from those spiders!"

"You know Aveline, this sounds like a job for the city guard," Fenris hinted. "Or are you two busy not noticing all the apostate mages around here?"

"You know, I think dealing with the apostates might be one step below 'deal with the elven squatter' on my to-do list," Aveline said sweetly.

"You know, Fenris, your constant encouragement of Aveline arresting us is really making me think you don't like us," Emma said, pouting.

"I don't like anybody," Fenris insisted. "But you're not bad as far as mages go; you're much too selfish and short-sighted to do any real harm and hurting people doesn't seem to amuse you. Anders is just a horrible influence. And I'm just trying to point out that Aveline here is a far worse guard than even Carver would have been."

"Low blow!" Aveline said, glaring.

"What do you mean 'even' Carver?" Carver demanded.

"So that's a yes?" Javaris asked hopefully.

"No, it's not," Emma told him.

"Great, I'll make sure to wait for you in the qunari compound. Hurry back!" Javaris instructed before running away.

"I'm telling you right now that I'm not going anywhere near that compound," Isabela said flatly.

"We're not going to do it!" Emma called after him. "Oh, whatever. He'll find out soon enough."

"Take one more step and the boy dies," a man said, holding a sword at the throat of who they could only assume to be Feynriel.

"Who are you people?" Emma asked innocently. "And why are you threatening that guy?"

The man with the sword practically fell over. "Y-you don't know who I am? Or who he is?"

"No, we're just your average everyday spelunkers," Emma claimed. "Well…maybe a bit more dedicated than some given that we've braved giant spiders to get here."

"I don't know what that word means and I doubt that I could even pronounce it so therefore I am going to assume that you are lying," the man snapped.

"Okay but even so how does it make sense that you're threatening to kill the guy you're selling? You'll make no money if he's dead and then we have no reason not to kill you," Carver pointed out.

The slaver scoffed. "Please. As if you could kill me."

"If we couldn't kill you then why bother with the hostage?" Carver challenged.

"I…I…oh, shut up," the slaver snapped.

"Varric?" Emma asked brightly.

Varric nodded and stepped forward. "Of course. If I were you, I wouldn't be threatening the viscount's son. Oh, I suppose you just got a tip from a slaver that he was selling mage-flesh cheap. You never thought to ask where he got it? You never wondered if you were buying the viscount's well-known love child from his elven mistress, the boy he swore to protect even if it meant razing the entire free marches?"

"I seek no war with the Free Marches. Take the lad to his father," the slaver said, quickly removing his knife from Feynriel's throat and throwing a bag of money at them. "These fifty sovereigns was the price set on the boy. Please accept it...as an offer of peace." He then promptly fled from the cave.

"What an idiot," Fenris said, shaking his head in disgust. "That's the least believable story I've ever heard."

"And yet…it worked," Varric said, satisfied.

"Varric, you are amazing," Emma said, her eyes shining. "If you weren't in love with Bianca and I weren't in love with Anders, I would totally be in love with you."

Varric grinned. "Aren't they all?"

"Not for nothing but…who the blazes are you people?" Feynriel demanded. "Did the templars send you?"

"No, your mother did," Carver told him.

Feynriel snorted. "Same difference, isn't it. Who would have thought, after everything, I would get some bad dreams and she'd run screaming for them?"

"I know, we think she's a horrible person, too," Emma said passionately.

"Fortunately for you, we are not working for that woman either," Anders said, wrinkling his nose. "I mean, she may have told us about you but still."

"Then why are you here?" Feynriel asked, bewildered.

"We're mage fans and wish to help out every mage that we can," Anders explained.

"Oh. Well that's unexpected," Feynriel said, blinking. "Still, that sounds good to me. Do you think you can help me find the Dalish?"

"Merrill?" Carver asked, turning to her.

Merrill nodded. "Well…you're not an elf but you do have magic and we do prize that greatly. Your mother was one of us as well. I think that you would have a lonely life there, but you would be protected and educated."

"That sounds like a plan. Does anyone have any directions?" Feynriel inquired.

Merrill quickly gave him some and then he ran off.

"Whatever their differences, we really should let his mother know that he's alive," Aveline said, frowning in disapproval at this turn of events.

"So I take it you won't be reporting this either," Fenris said rhetorically.

"You know, if she did all that would happen is a massacre of the Dalish," Merrill pointed out. "Is that what you want, Fenris?"

"No and I do not have to worry because she wouldn't do anything regardless," Fenris replied.

"Why should we?" Anders asked. "You do it if you think that she has any right to know anything about him ever again."

"One thing I love about you, Anders, is how you force literally everyone else – except possibly Fenris – to appear moderate by comparison," Carver told him.

"Next time you start talking about going to the Circle, you really should consider the Dalish instead," Emma said seriously. "I mean, I'm sure they would both suck but if those are your only two options…"

"I'm a little surprised you didn't kill that slaver, Fenris," Carver admitted. "You killed the other one."

"I was paralyzed by his stupidity," Fenris claimed. "Besides, survival of the fittest. He won't last long."

"I'm actually a little offended that you seem to think believing what I say makes someone stupid," Varric admitted.

"You told him that Feynriel was the viscount's son," Fenris reminded him.

"And it's still offensive," Varric sniffed.

"So now that that slaver gave us the money you need for your expedition, you can actually fund it," Isabela remarked.

"What?" Emma asked, blinking. "Oh, no. Trust me. I made that money four days ago."

There was a silence.

"Then why are we still doing things like this when we could be trying to make our dreams come true?" Carver asked with barely-concealed anger.

Emma shrugged. "I don't know. I guess stuff just kept coming up."

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