I woke up on the cold stone floor of a brightly lit room in the Circle Tower. I sat up and looked around at the others just beginning to wake up. I checked my shoulder and there was nothing. Shabon came up to me and licked my face.
"Thanks, boy," I said standing up. "Is everyone okay?"
"We're fine," Ashley said helping Wynne to her feet. Leliana sat up on the ground beside me. I held out my hand to her and she took it.
"How's your shoulder?" She asked, concern showing in her face.
"It's fine," I said, rolling my left shoulder for emphasis.
"I have the Litany," Cayne said, "we should keep moving."
We continued through the tower, continuously going upward. We finally seemed to reach the top floor where we were greeted by a huge purple light that surrounded a templar that was kneeling and mumbling to himself right next to another staircase. Likely praying, poor bastard.
The templar looked up at us and immediately looked at us with disdain and anger.
"More tricks? Get out of my sight, demons. I know what you are." He said.
"What is he talking about?" I asked Ashley.
"I think he's being held here by Uldred." She said. "His cage looks like magic."
"Enough tricks!" The templar wailed. "If there's a shred of humanity in you, kill me! End this!"
"Whoa, whoa, whoa," I said stepping toward him, "no one is killing anyone, yet, dude. Are you alright?"
"Stop this!" He shut his brown eyes tightly and opened them again. "You're still here? But that's always worked before."
"We're real," Cayne said, "we're here to help."
"Pardon me for being cautious," he said with contempt. I didn't pardon him. "These mages have been sending apparitions to try and break me."
"Where are the mages?" Cayne asked.
"Just up the stairs in the Harrowing Chamber." He said. "The sounds coming from there…oh Maker!"
"We need to get in there," Ashley said.
"Right," the templar said, "you need to get in there and kill Uldred. Kill them all for what they've done."
"Look, just because a couple of crazies came down to make you cry doesn't mean we should kill all the mages we find." I said.
"To ensure safety, you need to kill all mages that you find in there."
"C.J.'s right," Cayne said, "there's no point in harming innocents."
"What?"
"You heard me," he said, "I'd rather spare a maleficarum than kill an innocent."
"Thank you," Wynne said, "I knew you'd make the rational decision."
"Rational?" the templar said, "how is this rational?"
"What is there to gain from harming innocents?" Ashley asked.
"I would do something," he said, "but as you can see, I'm in no position to convince you otherwise."
"As if you could," I mumbled.
"My cage is Uldred's doing," he said, "kill him and I will be free."
I looked at Cayne as he began to climb the steps.
"Shall we go in then?" He asked.
"Not like we have a choice," Morrigan said, "we've come this far."
I sighed and looked at Ashley.
"You sure you're up to this?" I asked. "No telling what we'll find in there, and I'm pretty sure it's not gonna be a Sunday sermon."
"We're in this together, aren't we?" She asked smiling. I smiled.
"Of course we are," I said, having a newfound understanding of her maturity in the past few days that we've been apart.
"Then, if you're ready," Cayne said, "let's go."
The Harrowing Chamber was an incredibly large room with runes decorating the floor…and abominations standing about each other in a circle with Uldred amounts them and another abomination standing up.
I recognized his small, bald head as he turned to face us.
"Well," he said, "look what we have here. An intruder. I bid you welcome. Care to join in our…revels?" I could see the crazy in his eyes, which was an inconsistency with our first meeting.
"I take it you're Uldred," Cayne said drawing his longsword. I put a hand one of my daggers ready to draw, ready to fight.
"Oh. Very observant," he said coating his voice in sarcasm. "In truth, I'm quite impressed you're still alive, but that means you killed my servants." He sighed. "Ah, well, they are probably better off dying in the service of their betters than living with the great responsibility of independence."
"You're turning these people into abominations!" I shouted.
"And freeing them in the process!" He said. "A mage is but the larval form of something greater. Your Chantry vilifies us, calls us abominations, when we have truly reached our full potential!" He gestured toward the abominations. "Look at them. The Chantry has them convinced. They deny themselves the pleasure of becoming something glorious."
"You're mad!" Wynne accused. "There's nothing glorious about what you've become, Uldred!"
"Uldred?" He laughed. "He is gone. I am Uldred and yet, not Uldred. I am greater than he was." He smiled. "I could give you this gift too, Wynne. And Ashley for that matter, such potential you show, young one."
"I don't want anything to do with your gift!" Ashley shouted.
"It would be so much easier if you just accepted it." He said, sighing, "But some can just be so, so stubborn."
"Luckily enough of them stood up to you," I said.
"And for what?" He said, "I've still won! I even have the First Enchanter one my side, right Irving?" I looked over to see a man standing straight, gray hair shrouding his face and beard hung to his sternum.
"What have you done to him?" Wynne asked appalled.
"Please," the man that was Irving said, struggling to get the words out, "stop him. He's building an army."
"You sly little fox, Irving," Uldred said, "telling on me like that." He sighed. "And here I thought he was starting to turn."
"N-Never." Irving stuttered.
"That's enough out of you, Irving." Uldred said. "He'll serve me soon enough…As will all of you…"
"If you say so, dude," I said drawing my daggers. "Don't expect us to not put up a fight."
"Very well," he said, "Fight if you must."
"Cayne," Wynne said, "don't forget the Litany, we can use it to help the mages."
Uldred's face contorted with anger.
"No one…" he muttered as magical energy emanated from him. His body began to change and grow before he disappeared into a bright light to emerge again as a huge beast, far bigger than any ogre I've ever seen.
The beast let out a huge roar and raised a great hand about to attempt to hit Cayne. Instinctively, I ran to him and shoved the elf out of the way. However noble and heroic that was, I took the full force of the blow. The force of the blow sent me flying backward into the wall. I felt my head hit the wall and try as I might, the scene faded to black and the last thing I saw was Shabon and Leliana running to me and the sound of Ashley yelling sounded in my ears.
"C.J.?" I could hear in the fuzzy darkness.
"Is she alright?"
"I think she's coming around."
I felt warmth all around me like a fire was burning not that far away and every part of my body ached. I opened my eyes to see a dark, star littered sky.
"Oh, good," the accent of Leliana said with a sigh of relief sounded to my left. I rubbed my eyes.
"C.J.," Cayne voice then came. I opened my eyes to see Cayne kneeling in front of me, "how are you feeling?"
"My head hurts like hell and I can't really see straight, but I'm fine." I forced a smile.
"Thank you for saving me from Uldred," he said.
"Hey, don't mention it," I said, "Split-second, stupid, heroic decisions are my specialty." Cayne laughed.
"Anyway, thank you," he said.
"Where's Ashley?" I asked.
"She's with Wynne, getting a few lessons in magic," Cayne said.
"Wynne's here?" I asked surprised.
"She wanted to come along and help, as did Ashley. That took a bit of convincing."
I looked over to see Leliana sitting next to me.
"You seemed to have had a rough day," she said smiling. "First you get shot in the back and then you get knocked out by a demon."
"Comes with the job I guess," I smiled. "Get scratched up, then smacked around, another day at the office." Leliana looked at me, perplexed at my modern jargon. I laughed as I felt a cold nose shove its way through my arm and then felt a tongue on my face. "Hey, boy," I said petting the large black war hound on his head.
"He sat next to you the entire time you were out," Leliana said, "you are fortunate to have such a loyal friend." Cayne stood up.
"I'm going to get some rest," he said, "you should do the same, C.J."
"What's our next stop, boss?" I asked petting Shabon's head as he laid next to me.
"Redcliffe," Cayne said, "we'll be moving pretty late in the morning so feel free to sleep in."
"Thanks, boss," I said.
"Don't call me that," he said.
"I'm calling you that forever," I said smiling. He laughed and left to his tent.
"Why do you call him that?" Leliana asked.
"Because he told me not to," I said. I looked over at her and it was obvious that something was weighing heavily on her mind, I could see it in her soft blue eyes. "Something on your mind?" I asked.
"I just," she said hesitating, "am so sorry about what happened. In the Fade, I mean."
"I told you," I said, "it's fine. Mistakes happen."
"No, no," she said, "I mean, I'm sorry about that too, but I was talking about your brother. What was his name?"
"Daniel," I said changing my tone, "we just called him Danny."
"Do you want to talk about him?" She asked. "It's alright if you don't want to."
"No," I said, "it's totally fine. We can if you want."
"It's your brother, C.J." She said. I hesitated.
"Where I come from, people didn't accept who I was or our views."
"Why not?" She asked. "You're a decent person."
"In my world," I said, "we had people who supported people who are homosexual and people who didn't. When I came out as a homosexual to my parents a year ago, they hated me and Danny was the only person who wouldn't let them kick me out." I smiled. "He was my best friend really. We did everything together. He was possibly the most honorable person I've ever met in my life. Every time me or one of his friends got into trouble, he was the first person to help bail you out. He was the kind of guy that if you walked up to him on the street, you instantly made a new friend." I sighed.
"It sounds like he meant a lot to you," she said.
"He still does," I said.
"Do you miss anything about your world?" Leliana asked. It was a fair question.
"In my world," I said, "there was so much war and death even worse than anything here. We had weapons that could raze whole nations. But honestly, I miss the little pleasures." I smiled as she leaned forward, intrigued. "I was addicted to tobacco when I was in high school, as I got older I got out of the habit but I miss cigarettes. I miss soda and sufficient dental hygiene."
"All these things," Leliana said, "they're so fascinating."
"Because they're so new to you," I said smiling, "I think everything here is fascinating. We don't have dwarves, elves, and mages in my world."
"That sounds so strange," she said, "a world without elves and dwarves seems so alien."
"How do you think I felt when I came into this world?" I asked. "You should get some rest, we'll have a long day tomorrow."
"We'll be leaving later in the morning," she said, "I'm sure we can exchange a few stories." I laughed and nodded.
"Of course," I said. "Do you want to know about the French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte?"