"You're not going without me!" Ashley yelled as I stood my ground in front of the Chantry.
"Ash, you're still weak from the battle last night. You can't just put yourself in danger mere hours later." I was trying to keep a level tone with her, but honestly the more she yelled at me, the more I wanted to yell back.
"That's not for you to decide!" Her tone was elevating more and more.
"You should go back to camp, Ash," I said, "there's no telling what we'll find."
"We're not going to be separated anymore! You promised!" I bit my lip and turned around to walk up the hill where the rest of them were waiting for me. "Charlotte Jane Mason!" She always called me that when she got furious with me. I silently prayed that she wouldn't try to throw any magic at me, though I knew she really wanted to. She didn't say anything after screaming my full name at me. I would imagine she was still standing there glaring at my retreating figure.
"Shabon!" I called when I realized he wasn't with me. I stopped and turned around to watch him run after me. Didn't even look at Ashley.
"Is Ashley not joining us?" Leliana asked when I got up the hill to meet the rest of them.
"No," I said simply, "she won't."
"Is she all right?" Alistair asked.
"She's mad," I said, "but she'll get over it. We have more important things to attend to."
"Right," Cayne led us up the hill. I felt really guilty about making Ashley stay behind. Not to mention that I promised her that I wouldn't do that back at Ostagar.
Fuck, she's gonna be mad. A little part of me still wondered why I really cared about Ashley like I did. She wasn't with me anymore so it's not like I was really supposed to care about her this much. Honestly, it was because she was my best friend. And I really, really shouldn't have left her there on her own.
I walked with Leliana and Shabon on either side of me up the same fucking hill that we'd only walked about five times the day before. We came to the mill to see Bann Teagan standing at the cliff looking up at the castle.
"The castle seems so quiet," he said as we approached him, "you would think there was nobody inside it at all." He turned to us and said with a far more serious tone, "But I shouldn't delay further. I had a plan…to enter the castle after the village was secure." I listened to him intently, eager to what he had to say. "There is a secret passage here, in the mill, accessible only to my family." I looked at him quizzically as Cayne asked exactly what I was thinking.
"Why didn't you enter the castle earlier?" He asked.
"I had no idea what lurked in the castle!" Teagan exclaimed. "And I couldn't abandon the people of the village! What if-?" He stopped, looking past us at something that definitely had all of his attention now. "Maker's breath!" He muttered.
I looked behind me toward the path that led to the castle to see and woman dressed in noble's clothing her and her hair done up in a bun. A soldier ran behind her wearing a guardsman's uniform. Did she need protecting? Or was he sent to watch her, I wondered. To this day, I still don't know. She and her guard ran past us to Teagan.
"Teagan!" She exclaimed, exasperated from running. Now that I saw her up close, she looked like she hadn't slept in days. Her bun was frayed and fear was etched into her eyes. "Thank the Maker you yet live!"
"Isolde!" Teagan looked stunned. "You're alive! How did you..? What has happened?"
"I do not have much time to explain!" The fear set in as she caught her breath. "I slipped away from the castle as soon as the battle was over, and I must return quickly." She hesitated before saying the rest of what she had to say. "And…I need you to come with me, Teagan. Alone." I looked at her like she was insane.
"Excuse me." I said. "But what the hell is going on?"
"What?" Now it was her turn to look at me like I was crazy, as if I had said something completely outrageous that could get someone killed. "Who is this woman, Teagan?" The way she said woman disgusted me. I heard Alistair sigh behind me.
"You remember me, Lady Isolde, don't you?" He sounded like he dreaded saying those words, I didn't blame him at the time as I was getting annoyed too.
"Alistair?" Isolde looked surprised and disappointed at the same time. "Of all the…why are you here?" Who cares? I thought.
"They are Grey Wardens, Isolde. I owe them my life." Thank you Teagan.
"Pardon me," I disregarded that, "I…I would exchange pleasantries, but…considering my circumstances…" Before I could open my mouth to say something smart, Morrigan kicked me as if she sensed what I was going to say. Perhaps she thought the same.
"Please, Lady Isolde," Alistair begged and I couldn't help but shoot him a glare at his tone, "we had no idea anyone was even alive within the castle. We must have some answers!"
"I know you need more of an explanation," she admitted, "but I…don't know what is safe to tell." She put a hand on Teagan in desperation. "Teagan, there is a terrible evil within the castle. The dead waken and hunt the living. The mage responsible was caught but it still continues." I could see tears brimming in her eyes. This was a desperate woman. "And I think," she hesitated, as if what she was about to say pained her, "Connor is going mad. We have survived but he won't flee the castle! He has seen so much death!" She took Teagan's arms and gripped them tightly. "You must help him, Teagan! You are his uncle. You could reason with him. I do not know what else to do!" She had to take a moment and step away from him.
"What about Arl Eamon?" Cayne asked. "Is he alive?"
"He is." She confirmed as she looked over at the elf. "He is being kept alive, thank the Maker."
"Kept alive?" Teagan asked. "Kept alive by what?"
"Something the mage unleashed. So far, it allows Eamon, Connor, and myself to live." Isolde sighed. "The others…were not so fortunate. It's killed so many, and turned their bodies into walking nightmares! Once it was done with the castle, it struck the village!" Isolde seemed to see that she was becoming more and more panicked and composed herself. "It wants us to live, but I don't know why. It allowed me to come for you, Teagan, because I begged, because I said Connor needed help."
"A mage caused all this?" I asked.
"He is an…infiltrator, I think," she struggled to find the words to explain it, "one of the castle staff. We discovered he was poisoning my husband. That is why Eamon fell ill."
"Eamon was poisoned?" Teagan asked incredulously.
"He claims an agent of Teyrn Loghain's hired him. He may be lying however, I cannot say." I couldn't help but chuckle.
"I think Loghain is going to be a constant thorn in our sides, yes?" I said rhetorically.
"So why must Teagan go alone?" Cayne asked.
"For Connor's sake, I promised I would return quickly and only with Teagan," she said. "Teagan, I know you could order your men to follow me when I return to the castle. I beg you not to, for Connor's sake!"
"She's right," I said, "if she goes back with a bunch of soldiers, who knows what will happen?"
"Is it possible that this "evil" could be a demon?" Morrigan asked offering her knowledge of magic. Isolde's eyes widen in fear.
"I do not know. Oh, Maker's mercy! Could it truly be a demon?" Her eyes began to fill with tears again. "I can'y let it hurt my Connor! You must come back with me, Teagan! Please!" Desperation dripping in her plea.
"Enough questions." Cayne said. "We need to decide what to do." Teagan looked back at the castle for a moment and then looked back at Isolde.
"The king is dead, and we need my brother now more than ever. I will return to the castle with you, Isolde." Isolde's face brightened.
"Oh, thank the Maker! Bless you, Teagan! Bless you!" I looked over to see that Teagan's face was not as happy or relieved.
"This is a mistake." Cayne said definitively. "You're going to get yourself killed." Teagan looked over at the elf, acknowledging his concern as thoughtful.
"I cannot let Isolde return alone." He said. "Perhaps I can help Connor or Eamon. Perhaps this is really a trap, but this is my family. I must try." I admired him thereafter. Bann Teagan, one who put his family before himself and the people before that. "I have no illusions of dealing with this evil alone. You, on the other hand, have proven quite formidable." Cayne smiled and laughed. "Isolde, can you excuse us for a moment? We must confer in private before I return to the castle with you."
"Please do not take long! I will be by the bridge." And with that, Isolde took her leave with her guard.
"Here's what I propose," he started immediately after Isolde left, "I go in with Isolde and you enter the castle using the secret passage. My signet ring unlocks the door." He shook his head in doubt. "Perhaps I will…distract whatever evil is inside and increase your chances of getting in unnoticed. What do you say?"
"So it's all up to us?" I asked.
"Ser Perth and his men can watch for danger at the castle entrance. If you can open the gates from within, they can move in and help you." He sighed. "I don't think there's anyone else who can help you. If you choose not to go, then it's up to me to do what I can." He took a ring from his finger and held it out to Cayne, speaking hurriedly. "Here is my signet ring. It will open the lock on the door in the mill. Whatever you do, Eamon is the priority here. If you have to, just get him out of there. Isolde, me, and anyone else…we're expendable." I looked over at Cayne, wondering what his reaction would be and then we pleased with his answer.
"I don't believe that. We will rescue you all; I promise." Teagan smiled.
"You're a good man. The Maker smiled on me indeed when He sent you to Redcliffe."
"So we are just going to send him with that woman? It seems so dangerous!" Leliana said beside me.
"Not like we have a choice," I said.
"But I can delay no longer," Teagan said. "Allow me to bid you farewell…and good luck." Teagan took his leave, following the path that Isolde had.
"So," I said, "to the castle?"
"I hope Bann Teagan is safe when we get there," said Alistair.
We entered the castle by entering through the mill next to which we had the whole encounter with Isolde and Teagan. It didn't take long for us to find the trapdoor that Cayne opened with the signet ring. We walked through the dank and windy tunnels until they came to a door the Cayne opened.
We came out of the tunnels into a small room with another door on the other side. It looked like a storeroom. I walked up to the door on the other side of the room and opened it, stepping across the threshold into what looked like a dungeon. A long hallway with cells lining them. At the end of the hall, I could see walking corpses like the ones from the previous night shambling toward one particular cell.
"Help!" Someone cried. "Get away from me!" I drew my daggers and ran after the corpses, dispatching them with the help of Leliana's arrows and Morrigan's magic. I turned to the person imprisoned in the cell. A mage with dark hair that hung around his face, beaten bloody and obviously tortured. His eyes were filled to the brim with utter fear. "Thank the Maker you've come!" He said, his eyes not matching his relief.
"Who are you?" I asked as I could hear the others catch up to me.
"My name is Jowan, I'm a mage of the Circle." I looked at him quizzically. He looked a bit young to be a full blown mage, no more than twenty. "I was hired by Lady Isolde to train her son, Connor."
"Connor is a mage?" Alistair asked. "I would never have guessed."
"She wanted me to train Connor so that he could control his magic, she didn't want the Circle to take him away." His face fell. "I was also sent here by Loghain to poison the Arl." That's when his story seemed to fall apart.
"So you're a Circle mage who was hired by Loghain? I highly doubt the Circle would let you go off on your own to Redcliffe to teach her son how to hide from them." His face fell even more.
"You're right," he said not putting up any argument, "I'm an apostate. I escaped the Circle not long ago and was hired by Loghain."
"What about the corpses?" Cayne asked. "Do you know what caused them? Lady Isolde seems to think that you did."
"I didn't cause the walking corpses!" He shouted, finally jumping to his own defense. "Lady Isolde has already asked me about the corpses. She," he hesitated as if reminiscing on a bad memory and regarding some of the wounds that were obviously torture wounds, "had me tortured. I didn't have anything to do with the corpses walking about the castle."
"Do you know if it could be a demon?" I asked, remembering what Morrigan suggested earlier.
"It could be, but I do not know." He said. He must have noticed that I was getting ready to suggest we move forward, but Jowan spoke again. "Before you go, I want to offer my help. I have done some despicable things and I want to make amends for what I've done."
"You poisoned Arl Eamon under the hire of our enemy, in what dimension do you think we would trust you after that?" I asked incredulously.
"I know that you don't exactly trust me, and I don't blame you, but I beg you to please allow me to make amends."
"I think we should let him go," Leliana said, "even if he doesn't help, we should set him free."
"Just let loose an agent of Loghain?" Alistair said. "So he can stab us in the back later?"
"We could at least free him and let him run away." I said. "Though that's hardly punishment for running away from the Circle." I looked over at Cayne. "What should we do with him?"
"Leave him for now," he said, "we'll clear out the castle and then come back for him when it is safe."
"Then I will remain here," said Jowan, "I'll await your return if you so choose."
We left Jowan in the cell and I wondered what exactly he'd gone through to end up there. We continued through the castle, finding a serving girl as we explored. The castle crawled with the dead and spirits haunted the corners of every room. As I ventured through the castle, and overwhelming sense of uneasiness. I wondered if this was how all those people in those supernatural movies felt.
We found ourselves in a courtyard where corpses attacked us once again. I saw the gate where Bann Teagan said Ser Perth and his knights would be waiting. I ran for the gate immediately, finding the switch that would open the gate. I pulled the switch and ran back into the fray, not even looking to see if the knights were following. The snarl of Shabon caught my attention. I looked over to my right to see a great spirit with a sword and shield smacking away my warhound with the giant metal shield. I ran around the spirit while Alistair distracted it and Morrigan shot magic bolts at it. From behind, I leapt from the ground and sunk both of my blades into the shoulders of the spirit.
It writhed in agony and attempted to throw me off, but Alistair took advantage of the opening and stabbed it in the chest. I narrowly avoided also being impaled by his sword by letting go at the precise moment. The spirit dissipated and I collected my daggers. I saw that the fight was over and everyone was safe, including Shabon who bounded to me when he saw that his master was okay. The black warhound even came up and licked my hand.
"Ser Perth," I said when I saw the knights.
"Warden," he regarded me, "we meet again." I nodded. "We should get into the castle and seek the Arl." And with that, we entered the main hall of the castle.
There are few things in my life that I can truly say disturbed me so much that I could never erase them from my mind. What we found in there, I can never forget as long as live. We walked into the main hall to see Teagan dancing about like a circus monkey in front of a child that was no more than ten years old. Isolde stood beside him, visibly frightened. Teagan stepped aside to side on the floor beside the boy. It was when the boy spoke did I realize what we were truly dealing with. The voice that came was not the voice of a boy. It was deep and seemed to have an echo as he spoke.
"So these are our visitors?" He asked, my skin prickling as he spoke. "The ones you told me about, Mother?" He looked to Isolde expectantly.
"Yes, Connor." She stuttered, fear dripping for her voice.
"And this is the one who defeated my soldiers? The ones I sent to reclaim my village?" He asked. My hands started to twitch because my first instinct was to fight. This world changed that part of me.
"Yes," she answered.
"And now it's staring at me! What is it mother? I can't see it well enough." Isolde looked at Cayne who led us.
"It is an elf, Connor," she said. "We have elves in the castle." Connor grinned.
"Ah, yes. I remember. I had their ears chopped off and fed to the dogs!" The child laughed manically. I looked over at Cayne to see that he was getting rather furious. "Shall do I the same to him, Mother?"
"Connor, I beg you, don't hurt anyone!" Isolde was desperate, almost grabbing him but stopping out of fear. I could see Connor for a moment, the real Connor. He shook his head and rubbed it as if trying to relieve a migraine.
"Mother?" He said, his voice normal. "What…what's happening? Where am I?" His voice rose as he became more and more frightened. Isolde breathed with relief when she heard the child's voice.
"Oh, thank the Maker! Connor! Connor, can you hear me?" I watched him change back into whatever he was before and scream at his mother.
"Get away from me, foul woman!" He snarled. "You are beginning to bore me." Isolde turned to us.
"Grey Wardens," she pleaded, "please don't hurt my son! He is not responsible for what he does!" I believed her. There was no way that this was a little boy, something had to be inside him.
"You've been protecting him this entire time?" Cayne asked.
"Connor didn't mean to do this! It was that mage, the one who poisoned Eamon—he started all this! He summoned the demon! Connor was just trying to help his father!"
"It was a fair deal!" Connor shouted. "Father is alive, just as I wanted. Now it's my turn to sit on the throne and send out armies to conquer the world! Nobody tells me what to do anymore!" Teagan laughed.
"Nobody tells him what to do anymore! Nobody! Ha-ha!"
"Quiet uncle!" Connor shouted again, it looked like he was losing control. "I warned you what would happen if you kept shouting, didn't I? Yes, I did." He looked at us again, for a moment meeting my eyes where I could see nothing but raw power that was not his. "But let's keep things civil. This man will have the audience he seeks. Tell us, what have you come here for?"
"We came to help," I said. Connor regarded me again more intensely.
"The foreigner speaks then!" He said grinning as I widened my eyes. "Tell me, foreigner, who do you wish to help? Me? Father? Yourself? Which?" I did my best to not show the fear that I felt.
"We've come to help the people you've terrorized." Cayne said authoritatively.
"I was just having fun! Everyone else had fun too!" Connor laughed. "Are you having fun, Uncle?"
"Marmalade!" Teagan shouted.
"You see?" Connor laughed. "We're having fun! I think you're just trying to spoil things. What do you think, Mother? I think it's threatening me."
"I don't think," she stuttered.
"Of course you don't. Ever since you sent the knights away, you do nothing but deprive me of my fun. Frankly, it's getting dull. I crave excitement! And action! This man has spoiled my sport by saving that stupid village, and now he'll repay me!" For a moment, I saw the humanity return to him and Connor sprinted off and out of the room. Teagan stood up and the guards around the room drew steel. Isolde cowered in the corner as Teagan drew a sword and lead the attack on our party.
I drew my daggers and went straight for Teagan, hitting him in the face with the pommel of the dagger and knocking him unconscious. One of the guards came after me and I could tell that his mind was not his own. I knocked him unconscious, refusing to kill him.
The other guards were similarly dispatched, all of them knocked unconscious and Isolde came from hiding to Teagan's side and shook him until he woke.
"Teagan!" She shouted. "Teagan, are you alright?" Teagan stood and shook his head to clear it.
"I am," he said, "better now. My mind is my own again."
"Blessed Andraste!" Isolde breathed. "I would never have forgiven myself if you had dies, not after I brought you here. What a fool I am!" She said it, not me. She turned to us. "Please! Connor's not responsible for this! There must be some way we can save him!"
"We are not about to kill a child." I said authoritatively. I looked over at Cayne but he would not look at me. He was not considering this!
"Connor is no longer a child." A voice came from the entrance. I turned to see Jowan, the mage we had left in the prison had escaped. "He is an abomination." Isolde's anger flared.
"You!" She shouted pointing an accusatory finger. "You did this to Connor!"
"I didn't! I didn't summon any demon, I told you! Please, if you let me help…" Isolde was having none of it.
"Help?" She screamed. "You betrayed me! I brought you here to help my son and in return you poisoned my husband!"
"This is the mage you spoke of?" Teagan said. "Didn;t you say he was in the dungeon?" I jumped to Jowan's defense.
"If he wants to help then we should let him. Maybe he knows another way. I don't really think that you're in a position to-." Now she rounded on me.
"How dare you!" She said. "If this man hadn't poisoned my husband, none of this would have happened! He should be executed!" Teagan then jumped to my defense.
"Your secrecy made his actions possible, Isolde." He said.
"But I…" Isolde stuttered. Jowan interjected.
"I know what you must think of me, my lady. I took advantage of your fear. I am sorry. I never knew it would come to this."
"Well, I shan't turn away help. Not yet. And if Connor is truly and abomination—." Isolde cut Teagan off.
"He is not always the demon you saw. Connor is still in him, and sometimes he breaks through. Please, I just want to protect him!"
"Isn't that what started this? You hired the mage to teach Connor in secrt to protect him." Good guy Teagan.
"If they discovered Connor had magic, then they would take him away! I thought if he learned just enough to hide it, then…"
"We hardly need to throw blame around," I said. "We need options, we are not killing Connor, there has to be a way."
"Where is Eamon now?" Cayne asked.
"Upstairs, in his room. I think the demon has been keeping him alive." Isolde said.
"So if we destroy the demon, then…?" Teagan said.
"Then my husband may perish, yes," her voice was grim.
"Jowan," Cayne said, "what can you add?"
"The demon in Connor needs to be destroyed. Killing Connor is…the easiest way to do that, certainly. But," he added, "there is another way. A mage could confront the demon in the Fade, without hurting Connor himself."
"What do you mean?" Teagan asked. "Is the demon not within Connor?"
"Not physically." Jowan said. "The demon approached Connor in the Fade while he dreamt, and contrls him from there. We can use the connection between them to find the demon."
"You can enter the Fade, then? And kill the demon without hurting my boy?" Isolde asked hopefully.
"No, but I can enable another mage to do so. It normally requires lyrium and several mages, but," he hesitated, "I have blood magic."
"Blood magic?" I asked.
"What do you mean, Jowan?" Isolde asked.
"Lyrium provides the power for the ritual. But I can take that power from someone's life energy. This ritual requires a lot of it. All of it, in fact."
"So someone has to die?" I asked. "No. This is insane."
"I will do it." Isolde volunteered.
"Isolde are you mad? Eamon would never allow this!" Teagan said.
"So we can either kill the boy or kill Isolde." Cayne said. I rounded on him.
"No one is dying here!" I shouted passionately.
"If we kill the boy then—." My anger flared so much that I picked up the short elf with strength I didn't know I had and held him against the wall slamming him against the stone.
"We are not killing anyone!" I shouted. "There is already so much death, why would you even consider killing an innocent!" Cayne did not look angry. He looked sympathetic. It's what I remember most about him; it was very hard to get him truly angry. I let go of him and he slid to the floor, landing on his feet.
"C.J." He said. "We will find another way." He clapped my shoulder and walked past me.
"There is," another voice from the entrance, this one all too familiar. I looked over to see Ashley standing triumphantly. She walked toward us. "You said that you need mages and lyrium. The Circle has plenty of both and they owe us anyway." She would not even look at me.
"The Circle is a day's journey across the lake," said Bann Teagan. "Will you decide this?"
"I will go across the lake to the Circle." Cayne said regarding me. "I will return soon."
"Please," Isolde begged, "Connor will not be complacent for long." Cayne nodded and looked at me.
"Will you and Leliana stay here with Teagan?" He asked. I laughed.
"I'm starting to get suspicious of you leaving us alone together." He laughed as well.
"You work well together." He said. I smiled and watched him leave with Alistair and Morrigan. Ashley then walked up to me.
"Ash, I—." She cut me off when she slapped me across the face with a loud smack. "Deserved that." I finished. Without another word ran off to catch up with Cayne.
"Sounded like it hurt," I heard Leliana say as she walked up to me.
"I deserved it," I said, "but she understands why I did it."
"Are you sure?" Leliana asked as she inspected the red welt that was forming on my face.
"I hope so."
I watched as the Circle mages were gathered around Connor and Morrigan who were both passed out on the floor. Ashley had originally volunteered to go into the Fade and sever the connection between Connor and the demon, but First Enchanter Irving said that it was too dangerous as she was just learning her powers and would be susceptible to possession.
I stood at the back of the room alone, waiting patiently for them to finish. Shabon sat beside me, patient and alert. Leliana prayed at one side of the room for both Connor and Morrigan's safety. Cayne and Alistair watched patiently and Ashley observed diligently, trying to learn all she could from them.
Connor then awoke and then Morrigan awoke. I watched Isolde fawn over Connor, relieved her son was safe. Cayne went to go converse with Teagan about what to do next.
I wondered to myself how strange this whole adventure was about to get and in the coming months I would realize that there perhaps would be no limit to just how strange things would become.
Author's Note: Thank you guys so much so much for sticking with this story if you did. I know it's been a while but I'm coming back into it and if you pay attention to a few future author's notes I'll be announcing some cool things I plan to do with this series. Please favorite and follow this story if you liked it and leave me some feedback in a review! I welcome all feedback.