A/N: The first part in italics is from the present time of the RP Remi is from. 9:33 Dragon, just after the Fifth Blight. The majority of his back story, however takes place before the Blight. The part after the italics takes place in 9:24 Dragon while Remi is 16.

The sky? Remi hadn't expected that. He paused for a moment, thinking about it. "You know, when I was 16, I saw the sky for the first time in ten years. The windows in the Spire were kinda small, and they were high up on the walls, the ceilings were really high as well. Big, cold, empty stone rooms. But hey, that's what I was used to.

When I first stepped out of the Spire, the first thing I did was look at the sky. It was night, so it was dark, littered with stars. It was rather intimidating at first, like I would be sucked up into it. But Julien was there with me... He put his hand on my shoulder, and told me it was safe. I wasn't sure if I should believe him at first, but he had never led me astray."

o ~ O ~ o

"Remi. Wake up."

His eye lids were heavy, refusing to open up to the dim light leaking in from the hallway. An arm lifted to cover them and he peeked from his right eye to see the back of a templar, stuffing items from Remi's head-locker into a small pack. It was Julien he knew. None of the other templar would wake him up like this.

"What is it? It... is not morning yet, is it?"

"No. Get up. Now."

"Do I really have to? I have classes in the morning. I need sleep." Remi rolled over, turning away from the templar. He closed his eyes again just as the blanket was pulled off of him.

"Get out of bed. Get dressed and finish packing," the templar said, throwing a pack onto his chest as he rolled onto his back. Remi looked over the pack. It was half full already. "Are you sure you did this right?"

"And dear Maker, Remi, be quiet about it."

Remi rolled his eyes and groggily pulled himself off the bed. He wasn't sure why he was packing, and he was sure there were already plenty of items in the pack already. He was still rubbing the sleep out of his eyes as they entered the dimly-lit hall and began their journey toward the stairs. His complaints as they walked down the hall were mostly ignored.

"So where are we going and what are we doing? Will I be spending the night in your room?" He suggestively raised his eyebrows towards his friend. Julien ignored it however, pulling Remi to walk in front of him, down the stairs. "We are... going down then?"

"We are going to the phylactery chamber. You have been accused of practicing blood magic and your Rite of Tranquility has already been scheduled." Julien filled him in, however, Remi was not awake enough to realize Julien wasn't kidding.

"Oh, I see. How serious! I am to be made tranquil," Remi said, his sleepy voice dripping with sarcasm. Julien, however, was not amused.

"Yes. You are."

They continued the rest of the journey in mostly silence while Remi tried his best to wake himself up. Walking about like the undead in the middle of the night was never a good idea, especially in a tower made of stone where you can bump into walls and slip easily. Wasn't very good for one's nose.

"I could really use a cup of tea right now," he whined, bumping into the halted templar. The armor clanged lightly at the contact. When had he stopped? Could have been worse, but luckily apprentice's robes weren't made of metal. The shorter man turned to look back at Remi, shushing him. "I'm going to say the password now."

"Password? What do we need that for?" He blurted. He was shushed again and Julien turned back to the door. Julien spoke the password in a monotone and Remi wondered what language it could be, it certainly wasn't Orlesian, he didn't recognize the words at all.

"Now, cast a spell. Any will do."

Remi stepped forward, eying Julien suspiciously. He cleared his throat and raised a hand, dramatically waving it about. "Wingardium leviosa."

"Seriously? You really need to stop reading those books. Now cast a real spell, ser."

"Oh, you ruin all my fun. Fine fine." He raised his hands again and began to chant. A swirl of frost appeared in white around his forearms. It spread and shot forward, slamming into the door, turning it blue for just a sliver of a moment.

"Will that do, muggle?"

"Certainly, Monsieur Freeze. And I prefer you didn't call me muggle, I do have talents similar to mages you know."

"Right, and let us not forget the lyrium addiction that comes along with it."

Julien ignored the comment and walked into an unfamiliar hallway, leading Remi toward the phylactery chamber. "You do realize those books were banned by the Chantry?"

"Oui, because Maker forbid mages should think they could be having secretive lives, hiding magic from the rest of the world and are not hunted down by the Chantry nor have to live in old, musty towers. Besides, we are currently breaking in to the phylactery chamber. I am quite certain the Chantry would be none pleased with that, ser Templar. Do you not have honor and duty to worry about?"

"The Spire is not old and musty. And what good is all the honor and duty in Thedas if it is not used to protect your friends... You know the people you care about? If I can't even do that, what good is my honor?"

Julien opened another door and stepped into a large, cold chamber. "We're in."

Remi looked around the chamber. It was filled with shelves and tables, upon the shelves were rows and rows of beakers and vials. They were mostly dark in color, so he could not see the contents, but he knew very well they were filled with the blood of mages. In the center of the room was the row of First Enchanter phylacteries. The ones from all the First Enchanters in Thedas.

"We really are breaking into the phylactery chamber..."

"So nice of you to join us, Sleeping Beauty. Yes, we are destroying a phylactery. Your phylactery. Why else would we be coming out here in the middle of the night?"

"You really weren't kidding about the blood mage thing?"

"Afraid not, the whole situation is rather serious and you keep playing around like this is some field trip." Julien stopped for a moment, slapping Remi's hand away from a small cylinder on a table. "Don't touch that, we're just here for your phylactery."

"So the Rite of Tranquility really wasn't a joke? It has already been scheduled? Isn't blood magic a death sentence? Not that I am complaining or anything, I would prefer not to die. But Maker be damned, I don't want to be tranquil either!"

Julien scowled in disapproval at Remi's lack of respect for the Maker. "I know you're not a blood mage, but they claim to have have eye witnesses. There's no solid proof. Of course, the Rite was chosen mostly because the First Enchanter and the Commander seem to like you."

"Lucky me."

"Yes, lucky you, otherwise, I would not have been the one waking you tonight, you would have been taken and killed."

Remi cringed at the thought. He rather liked living. He searched the chamber until they came to a row of phylacteries labeled "Apprentices". His should be among these. They searched the row in silence until they came to Remi's.

He barely remembered the phylactery being made for him when he was six. A quick prick, a squeeze of the finger and the healer was gone, leaving Remi with a red-headed elf to help him find supper. She had been the one to take care of him his first year there, helping him adjust to life at the Spire. She had been like a second mother. The elf, however, had left the Spire not long after. He didn't know what had become of her.

Julien picked up the vial, looking it over. "You should probably be the one to do this," He said, offering it to Remi.

Remi looked from Julien to the vial. This was the only thing that stood between him and freedom. Of course there was still getting out of the Spire, but this would be the thing that would help the mage-hunting Templar find him if he had been able to escape.

He took the item from Julien. He ran a hand over the cold glass. Such a small and fragile item it was, just one slip and would break on the stone floor. He shook his head. Why would he do that? He hoped Julien had anticipated clean-up afterward. Blood and glass on the floor was not good, even if the phylactery chamber wasn't accessed all that often.

"So... what should I do?" He finally asked, looking over the Templar. "Do I just break it, or what?"

Julien shrugged, "I don't know, but hurry up and get it over with. We don't have all night."

Remi let out a frustrated sigh and looked back at the vial. Well this was it, a magical vial of blood that somehow would never go bad no matter how long it sat in an old cellar. So what should he do?

Remi stared at it for a moment and then without much thought, he pulled out the cork and drank it. Julien's jaw dropped as he watched his friend. "What in the Maker's name, Remi?"

Remi shrugged and re-corked the vial, then slipped it into his pack to discard later. "It was my blood anyway."

"You didn't have to drink it! That's just gross! You couldn't have come up with something better?"

"Like what? You were so full of ideas a few minutes ago. And as I said, it was my blood anyway. If you pricked your finger, wouldn't you be sticking it in your mouth?"

"If that was innuendo, that wasn't very funny."

"It could have been. Then again, maybe not. Who knows?"

Julien just shook his head. He had enough of it for now. "Well now is the next step to worry about; getting past the guard at the door. Hurry, take your clothes off."

"You are supposed to buy me dinner first, aren't you?" Remi asked as a bundle of clothes landed on his head. He looked over the robes for a moment. These were Enchanter's robes.

"Put those on."

"These? But I am not an Enchanter, I haven't even taken my Harrowing yet."

"Yes, I realize that, but the guard at the door won't. I have a forged document for him saying that you are a new Enchanter being sent to Churneau to join another mage for an experiment."

Remi looked over the document for a moment. "Do you really think this will work? I mean, this does look like the First Enchanter's Seal, but..."

"It will work. The guard is new. And stupid, and you have a Templar escorting you. He will have no reason not to believe us."

"I hope you're right, Julien," Remi said, pulling on the black robes. He remembered when they had switched from the ugly yellow robes to the blacks. Something about the female Enchanters thinking they looked more slimming. He wondered if things hadn't turned out like this if he would have eventually become an Enchanter. He was good with kids, and he often helped some of the Enchanters with their lessons for the younger apprentices, maybe he would have joined their ranks one day.

It was no use thinking about that now though, they were fleeing the Spire tonight. It hadn't quite sunk in yet, and he expected it wouldn't until after they were a good distance away from the structure as things often were.

"How does it look? Do I look like an Enchanter now?" He asked after a few minutes, looking down at the robes. Julien looked him over for a moment and Remi continued, "I probably look too young to be an Enchanter..."

"You look fine. Don't ask stupid questions." Julien turned and went for the door. How boring, Remi thought, sliding his old robes into the pack before following Julien.

"Come on, do tell; I give off an air of superiority, don't I? Plus, I look fabulous in black." He elbowed Julien and added, "No need to be shy about it, I can tell you love the look."

When there was no response, he let out a deep sigh. "Where did you get the robes anyway?" Remi was looking down at the robes now, pulling at the waistband. It was tight in a few places and the pants and sleeves were a little too short, but it could have been worse.

"I told you not to ask stupid questions..." Julien started, but after seeing the look on Remi's face, he sighed and continued, "I stole it from the laundry. It was in a pile of clean clothes that were to be sent out in the morning. I'm sorry.. they do seem a tad small on you, but it's hard finding your size and we obviously don't have time to get a set tailored for you."

Remi nodded as Julien turned away again. Was this really happening? He wondered as they reached the stairs. He pinched himself and let out a low yelp. Yup, he was awake. It was happening.

Julien looked back at him, eyes narrowed, "What are you doing now? Pay attention to where you're going. We're almost there." He went silent again and turned around as they ascended the stairs. When there were back in the main hall, he addressed Remi again, "When we get to the door guard, don't say anything. Let me do all the talking. It will be better that way."

"You're not going to let me talk? You wound me, ser! How could you not trust your best friend?"

"You are not going to talk. You are not going to say a word. Stop playing around."

Remi barely paid any attention to the conversation as they reached the door guard. Instead, he ended up playing with the hem on his sleeve. It barely reached his wrist and he found himself wondering who the robes originally belonged to.

He finally looked back when Julien produced the document for the guard. The guard read the document and then looked over Remi. He straightened up and dropped the sleeve he was playing with, trying to give the guard his most stern look.

"Well, everything seems to be in order. I can't help but wonder though; why are you leaving at this time of the night?" He finally asked.

"You know how mages are; they see one getting out and they all want a taste of freedom," Julien answered, taking the document back and offering it to Remi.

"I see what you mean," the guard answered. Remi couldn't help but roll his eyes. This one really was stupid, just as Julien had said. Well that was the first rule anyway; people are stupid. Stupid people did seem to make things a lot easier.

Julian and the guard worked together to get the door opened and Remi stepped through, Once on the other side, Julien helped the guard close it tight again. That's when Remi realized he was outside for the first time in ten years. Outside in the cold night air. He closed his eyes and breathed in the fresh air. That was what freedom smelled like.

"Let's go," Julien finally said after a few minutes. Remi opened his eyes and spared a glance to the Templar, his armor a shining light in the darkness, a beacon that led him to safety and freedom. They walked off into the night.