Siris of Tevinter "the City of Slaves" Part.2

Enjoy!

It was done.

Siris looked at the sea and wondered, only for a moment, how Ferelden was.

The Grey Warden Mage Anders looked if she was sick. Nothing. Not even a tiny sign of Blight. How could this be possible? She remembered perfectly the excruciating pain as the corruption invaded each part of her body… She remembered. It wasn't a dream. So how could she be "fine".

Fine…

Anders said that word looking at her with disgust: she was not a mage, not a human, not blighted and she was wasting his time. Then Fenris said something… what was it? She could not remember; but the mage burst into rage… literally. Blue light coming out of his mouth and eyes and his very skin. An abomination. Although, he looked better than some abomination Siris saw back in Minrathous. Less goo, less "bwaaaaarrrr…"; even if this "Justice", as Hawke called it, did not look kinder than the usual demon.

Anyway, Siris did not want to be anywhere near the human/Grey Warden/Abomination. She had enough of creepiness for one day.

That happened two days ago. Since, Siris was looking at the sea, empty thoughts, not hungry, not thirty, not wanting anything. Confusion was the only thing she could feel. How did all this happened to her? A slaver from Tevinter attacked by darkspawn, running to a Grey Warden to know if it's the end and now… nothing. What was she supposed to do now? She should probably go visit Lady Caravel as promised, but what will she tell her? She still had two weeks or so to go to Ostwick; two days for travel… What will she do until then?

"I should ask how do you feel." Fenris said, sitting on the edge of the cliff next to her. "But I think I know the answer. You are a slave from Tevinter?"

"I used to be… I think." Siris slowly answered. "How did you know?"

"You cursed in tevene when Anders' dementia was showing."

"Kaffas…" The young elf muttered; then decided to change subject. "When Domne Anders…"

"Anders." Fenris grumpily corrected. "He's no lord."

"When he checked if I was sick… I remembered something."

"I'm not sure I want to know; Magic is creepy and dangerous." The white-hair elf mumbled.

"Well, you might want to know, because I remembered you."

Fenris went silent, as still as ice. His face was pale; which looked a bit strange with his usual dark coloured skin. However, Siris did not divert her eyes from the sea.

"There were rumors among the slaves, back in Minrathous." She said. "A magister performing a ritual. One of his elven slaves come out of it strong and… changed. Lyrium covering his skin, his hair… completely white and no memories to identify himself. The ones who saw the slave were terrified to speak of him. They called him the White Wolf. Fenris, turns out to be his name…"

Siris took a moment to think. She remembered him well. She saw him once, from a distance. Master Danarius was visiting her Master. Usually she was studying for him, but a plague took too many house slaves, so she had to help in the kitchens. Fenris came for wine. He looked like a ghost. Now… he looked better, but was he better?

Fenris said nothing. Was he chocked? Perhaps. But Siris was not done yet.

"My master, as Magister Danarius' friend, was traveling to Kirkwall to look for you; when we were attacked. I know that if he does not give word to Domne Danarius, this one will come personally. Master is dead. You must stay on your guard."

"He's here?!"

"I don't know."

Siris stood up. She felt a bit dizzy, but the feeling disappeared quickly. What will happen now? Should she go back to Kirkwall? Planning her journey to Ostwick? Looking for a job? Perhaps she had a shot to become house servant somewhere in Hightown. Or, she could take advantage to her knowledge on Tevinter and ancient elven Culture. Something good had to out of it, no? Perhaps the Circle would be interested… But did they take elven non-mages researchers? Siris shook her head. No, she needed to go to Ostwick. Lady Caravel was a gentle soul, but Siris did not know how the human mage would take it if she was late for their meeting. With any luck, the mage was nothing like the Magisters in Minrathous.

Fenris accompanied her back to Kirkwall, but then went straight to Lady Hawke estate. She probably needed to know her lover ex-master was still looking for him. She probably already knew that, but now the man himself will show up in Kirkwall sooner or later.

Siris wondered to the city with no real plan. The alienage made her sick, Lowtown was a dump, Hightown's folk looked at her like some kind of diseased animal. She bought some food: bread and an apple. The southerners seemed to have a thing for cheese; but the smell and aspect did not encourage Siris' appetite. The elf found a quiet place to eat: a step, in stairs leading to a big building with a lot of women in white and red dresses. Was it some kind of temple?

"Come on… You have to."

"But I'm not sure…"

A couple of elves were quietly arguing not far from Siris the man was trying to convince the woman. Their seemed to be siblings: same blond hair, same height, same kind of face shape. Twins? No matter.

"If he's a mage, you have to tell them." The man said, worried. "Who knows what he might do to you, to us."

"Maybe nothing?" the woman wondered.

"Maybe not. But are you willing to take the risk?"

"But… I'm scared. He was good to us. To many."

"I know… But the poor girl could have died." The man said. "I'm not letting a human killed one of us because "it's not his fault", or whatever crap he wants us to swallow."

"I… I don't know."

Siris stood up and came to them.

"Adaran atish'an." She said.

"A dalish?!" The elven man said.

"I'm not." Siris said. "I couldn't help but hear you talk about a mage?"

"Ah… hum… yes. Come."

The siblings brought Siris in a quiet place where no one could hear them.

"In the docks, there is a mage, a healer." The man said. "He is good to us, don't ask much for his services."

He looked worried at his sister. She was holding her arm like it hurt. In fact, it did. She pulled her sleeve up to revealed a bandage wrap around her wrist. With her authorization, Siris unwrapped the dressing. She closed her eyes. Somehow, she hoped it wouldn't be that. But blood magic had its way to scar. The tevinter elf pull up her own sleeves to show her own marks.

"Blood magic." She said. "I know. I'm from Tevinter. The pain goes away, but not the scar. What happened?"

"I cut myself with a kitchen knife." The elven woman explained. "It wouldn't stop bleeding so I came to the human. He helped us before, but then I felt dizzy. I woke up in a cellar with dead bodies around me and my arm like that. I couldn't move. He came back, collected blood, use it to summon monsters, and left with the… demons. I saw it all! But I'm… I'm… terrified."

"I went to look for her when she did not return home." Her brother said, taking the elf in his arm when she started to cry. "I found her in the old clinic, but the man was gone. Our people found him doing the same trick in Hightown, but only my sister can testify; otherwise the humans won't believe us, not even the Templars will! And maker knows how paranoiac they are."

"How about a letter?" Siris said.

"We… thought about that but…"

The siblings didn't know how to write. Siris might have the solution for that: she could, although her Common wasn't good. The girl could write books in tevene old and new, in ancient elven and even in qunari. But Common? Her Master never asked to be his scribe: just a researcher. But she could try. After all, she had a little vocabulary. Whoever will read the letter will have to fill the grammatical gaps.

The siblings showed were they lived in the alienage after buying some furniture for the letter. It was the best all three could do. Going to the Chantry or the Gallows was too dangerous either for the young lady or her brother. So, writing a letter that Siris will deliver was for the best. In case the malificar would be watching.

The woman, Alia, described to her everything again and Siris tried her best to write down as many things as she could. Did it make sense? The only way to know would be to let the addressee -probably a templar- try to read it.

The three elves agreed to give the letter in two days, to make sure the malificar would not associate Siris as a spy or anything. At this point, the siblings could only think of so many situations that would end with their painful death. While offering Siris a bath and some food, they also tried to know how it was Tevinter. But the young elf knew that telling them the truth would spook them even more. So, she made up some excuses to not tell the parts about mages and blood magic she witnessed and, sometimes, suffered from.

The bath was not warm, but it was good to be clean again. Alia did the laundry while Siris would wear some of her clothes. Ilia, Alia's brother, fixed something to eat. He also offered to give her news about the land.

"Have you seen Lady Hawke?" He asked. "She a ferelden mage shemlen, but a good one. Because of her nobility, the Templars have let her alone. Moreover, she's Kirkwall's Champion. That's right! She saved us all from a qunari attack! Challenged the Arishok and killed him in single combat."

Killed an Arishok in single combat? Siris has a hard time believing that. Amongst the qun, the Arishok was powerful and usually the best warrior in the ranks. The elf heard numerous times Magisters and Nobles from Tevinter cursing that title, that enemy.

"Then, Hawke openly announced she was in love with an elf, Fenris." Ilia continued. "Ever since, the shemlens have been more agreeable with the elves in the city, isn't that right sister?"

"Fewer templars going nuts when one of us turns out to be a mage and no humans to raid our homes during the night!" Alia said from the other room where she was doing the laundry.

"Serah Hawke even headbutt Knight-Commander Meredith and the first enchanter during a fight they had. Put some minds at ease, but for how long?"

"I'm just glad the Knight-Commander did not go mad because a mage hit her." Alia added, sitting at the table with her brother and their guest.

They chatted until night. Talking did wonders for the siblings. They were so anxious!

The next morning, Siris helped with all the housekeeping. When alia and Ilia went to work, the tevinter elf wondered the city, learning as much as she could about the humans in Kirkwall. She witnessed two Templar raids, four city-guards interventions, seven crimes: six theft, one murder. But she also saw a chantry sister sing the chant of Light for sick people in the street, a merchant offering some food to an elven child and numerous act of charity of the sort. Kirkwall had its downsides, like in Minrathous. But it also had good in it.

The second day, Siris wondered in Hightown while her hosts were working. She was enjoying the sun a bit before taking a shuttle to the Gallows. The letter was ready in her traveling bag. This morning, she said her goodbyes to Alia and Ilia. After delivering the letter, she will go to Ostwick. Being in the city was nice and all, but she recognized too many tevinter slavers in the streets, and the arguments between mages and templars here were unhealthy. Will it be better in Ostwick? Probably not. However, she won't know until she gets there.

Beside, Siris did not see the point of delaying the news about her not having the Blight to Lady Caravel. The human was kind enough to worry about the former slave, why making her study something for nothing? If something happened that dreadful day, it wasn't because of the Blight. Not directly anyway: being cure from it might have been a side effect. But a side effect of what? Now that was the right and crucial question.

While thinking of lady Caravel, Siris found herself thinking of Thom Rainier. She wondered how the man was doing? Was he fighting bad people to protect innocent? Was he building something great with other criminals looking for redemption? Was he dead, killed in action or executed in public? Another question that Siris was anxious to learn the answer. She knew the man deserved a second chances. But after meeting Anders, Siris was not sure the Grey Warden were the best fitted to offer such an important thing. That mage was… unnerving, to say the least. Siris made a promise to Hawke she would not say a word about Anders being an abomination, but… that man was just wrong, and in many, many levels. Who would willingly allow a spirit to get in your head? Who would expect that it would not go wrong? A spirit is not an abandoned puppy. You can't just allow the thing in your head like you would let a spirit into your head. If one thing Siris learnt from magic in Tevinter was that spirits were fragile: anything can turn them away from their original purpose and changed them for the worst!

Anyway… Now was not the time to worry about Anders. The man was a Grey Warden. He could not be capable of hurting any innocent: he made an oath! Then again… the Templars made a similar oath. Some seemed to forget that. It was scary to see that Templars in Tevinter were sometimes better that in the South. About the "protect the innocent" part… the rest was simply embarrassing.

Siris stood up and headed to the port. A templar recruit was assuring the shuttle's round trips. Apparently, there were many things to be careful about: presence of mages, identity of the passengers, why these wanted to visit the Gallows… Siris, still mindful that the malificar might be watching, used her elven appearance to her advantage and posed as an envoy from the Keep. The templar did not question: an elf doing that kind of job? Of course! She could even ask who to deliver the message to without raising suspicion.

"Knight-Captain Cullen might help you with that. He handles every message for the Knight-Commander when she's in duty somewhere." The recruit said.

His accent was terrible: was he from Orlais? Siris heard about the strange accent there, but never though she will hear someone speak that strangely. Anyway, she thanked him with respect and left the shuttle once at the Gallows.

The place was horrifying. It reminded her too much of "home". And when you know about Kirkwall history, it wasn't surprising. Siris looked around, wondering who the "Knight-Captain Cullen" might be. Most humans looked the same to Siris, but the feeling was worst when they all start wearing the same uniform. She had to asked around, pretending to be new to the job. After being laugh at by numerous knights, a young lady-templar-recruit gently showed her a man in the other side of the courtyard.

The man in question was in armour and obviously tired of all the people trying to have his attention. There were a lot of humans asking to see their families living in the Circle, asking compensations because of abuses from templars, wishing to meet Meredith (those people were nobles) and some, (all elves) wanted to deliver messages.

"These humans…" Sighted an envoy. "Always complaining about something."

"You would do the same if your child was taken from you by force." Another one bitterly replied.

Siris waited patiently.

Eventually the knight just asked his subordinates to bring back the humans to the shuttles.

Next chapter: "the Malificar" Part 1, coming soon.