A/N: Chapter two is now updated.
Chapter 2: Amell
Gifted with a power considered dangerous by most, you have spent most of your life secluded in the remote tower of the Circle of Magi to be trained and watched closely by the dreaded templars.
Life in the Circle tower of Ferelden was boring. Or at least it felt that way to Dylan Amell. Most mages spent their time studying or practicing their magic while being closely watched by the Templars. Dylan, spent most of his time playing pranks on both Templars and mages, or working in the infirmary, treating minor wounds from poorly aimed spells or miss-blocked swords. When Dylan woke up that morning though, he could tell it was going to be a different sort of day. For one, there were whispers of one of the apprentice's going through their Harrowing.
Dylan had hated the Harrowing, and not only because they pretty much throw you to the demons to see if you could resist, but the surprise of going into the fade while knowing you could be walking to your death always made people a bit sick. Dylan knew the mage going through the Harrowing though. Mairi Surana was one of Dylans friends. A shy elven girl with a mischievous side, she, Dylan, and their friends Jowan and Anders, had quickly become friends.
"Dylan!" came a call behind him. He turned to look at who was calling him to see Jowan walking quickly towards him.
"Hello Jowan. What's got you so antsy?" Dylan asked, observing how Jowan fidgeted, his eyes darting around as they often did when he was nervous.
"Did you hear about Mairi?" He asked. Dylan furrowed his eyebrows.
"I haven't heard anything other than she went in for her Harrowing early this morning. Why?" He asked suddenly growing nervous, "She passed didn't she?" Jowan nodded.
"She passed, they just brought her back an hour ago, they're saying hers was one of the quickest and cleanest Harrowing's next to yours." Dylan smiled, relieved,
"Good for her! I knew she could do it. Now you just need to make it through yours and we'll all be full mages. Let's go check on Mairi." He said, starting towards the apprentice's quarters, but stopped when Jowan didn't follow.
"Wait, I wanted to talk to you. It's about my Harrowing." Dylan sighed and turned back to him.
"I've told you before Jowan, I can't speak about it. You'll find out when it's your turn." Jowan made a strangled noise from the back of his throat and looked nervously around.
"That's just it, though! I'm not going through my Harrowing, they're going to make me Tranquil!" He exclaimed quietly. Dylan inhaled sharply, looking around before pulling Jowan into his quarters.
"What do you mean?! How do you know this?" He hissed.
"I can't tell you, not yet. I came to tell you that the First Enchanter wants you and Mairi in his office. But afterwards, come meet me in the chantry." Dylan frowned in confusion.
"Why there? People are always coming and going from there."
"I'll tell you later. You should go get Mairi." He said before scurrying off. Dylan blinked, wondering what all that was about, before heading to go see Mairi.
He came into the apprentice's quarters just as Mairi was stirring.
"Wake up sleepy head! You don't want to miss your first day as a newly Harrowed mage because you were sleeping do you?" He asked cheerily. Mairi groaned and sat up, rubbing her eyes blearily.
"Dylan, do you have to be so cheery?" She asked softly, peering up at him. Dylan grinned mischievously.
"Of course! Now come on, apparently the first enchanter wants to see us in his office."
"But I didn't do anything!" Mairi protested, shooting up to her feet. Dylan laughed.
"Don't worry, I'm pretty sure we're not in trouble. But we should hurry up so it stays that way."
Mairi nodded and limped over to him, frowning and rubbing her hip and shoulder.
"Ouch! Why do I hurt?" She asked. Dylan grinned and let a wave of healing energy wash over her to help.
"You probably fell when you went into the fade. The stone floors not the kindest to land on." Mairi sent him a grateful grin before leading the way to the first enchanters office. On their way, Dylan caught sight of one of the younger Templars standing guard in the hall outside the library, and grinned. The awkward and shy way he held himself told him who it was, even with the Templar helmet.
"Oooh, look who it is Mairi! Lover boy!" He teased her. Mairi looked to where he was looking and blushed a deep red, the color so obvious on her pale skin.
"Oh, please don't embarrass me please." She pleaded.
"Don't worry, I won't say anything…. But you will." He said gleefully, steering the smaller girl towards the Templar.
"Good day, Ser Cullen!" Dylan said, grabbing the younger man's attention before Mairi could make her escape.
"Hello Cullen." Mairi squeaked out.
"Oh! Hello Dylan. H-hello Mairi." Cullen greeted back nervously. "Congratulations on passing your Harrowing, Mairi." He said, shifting from foot to foot.
"Th-thank you." Mairi said, peering up at him shyly. Dylan just smiled and kept silent as the two seemed to forget him.
"I-I should get back to my d-duties." Cullen said, his head turning as though wondering if his superiors were close by. Mairi looked down in disappointment but smiled in understanding after a moment.
"A-alright. I guess I'll see you l-later?" she asked.
"Of course!" Cullen said brightly before shying away again. "Or… well… yeah." He mumbled. Dylan took this as a sign to step in.
"See you later Cullen." He said before grabbing Mairi and dragging her away.
"Oh! That was so embarrassing!" She mumbled, hiding her face in her hands before she ran them through her short dark hair.
"Not to mention awkward! I wasn't aware it could take so long to say so little." Dylan said, laughing when Mairi whacked him in the arm.
"Don't! Don't! It's your fault! I was so nervous with you standing there with your face looking like that!" Dylan rose an eyebrow,
"And what does my face look like?" He asked. She growled,
"Like the cat that ate the canary!" Before they could tease any more, they arrived at the first enchanter's office, to see Knight-Commander Gregior, First-Enchanter Irving, and a human whom neither Dylan, nor Mairi recognized.
"-already have most of our senior enchanters, we've committed enough of our own to the war effort." Came Gregiors angry voice.
"Our own?" Irving huffed a laugh, "Since when have you felt such kinship with mages, Gregior? Or are you afraid of letting us out from chantry supervision where we can do some good in this world?" He argued.
Before Gregior could get more fired up, the unknown man stepped forward.
"Gentlemen please! Irving, it seems you have some guests." He said, indicating Dylan and Mairi. Gregior huffed.
"we'll speak more on this later, Irving." Before stomping out of the room. Irving just sighed and beckoned them closer.
"Good morning Irving." Dylan said with a mischievous grin while Mairi shifted nervously.
"Are we in trouble?" She asked. Dylan nearly face-palmed. 'don't ask that! You'll seem guilty.' He thought in exasperation. Irving chuckled.
"No, no. not yet at least, is there something I should know Mairi?" He asked. Mairi blushed and looked down, shaking her head.
"N-no. I only just woke up. Not enough time to do anything." She muttered, making the older men laugh and Dylan really did face palm at that.
"Mairi! That's like confessing!" He said causing her to duck her head and mumble an apology.
"No matter. Congratulations on becoming a new sister in the circle." He directed towards Mairi, who smiled proudly back.
"Are these the two you were talking about, Irving?" The dark haired man asked. Irving nodded.
"Yes, this is Dylan Amell, and Mairi Surana, their some of our most talented here in the circle. Dylan, Mairi, this is Duncan, the warden-commander. He is here recruiting for the kings army and for the wardens.
Dylan perked up and eyed the man with new interest.
"A grey warden?" He asked. "I'd love to be a warden!" He exclaimed. Mairi shuffled and clasped and unclasped her hands nervously.
"I think I'd rather stay in the circle for a few more years." She said. Dylan turned on her
"What do you mean?! Stay in the tower? No way, I'd love to be a warden, and actually use my talents for something useful!" He said. Mairi laughed nervously.
"Yes, and face darkspawn. I'll take my chances with the Templars." Dylan rolled his eyes and Irving and Duncan just laughed at him.
"I don't think I would want to have you both go." Irving said, "I was hoping to train one of you to eventually take my place as first-enchanter." He explained, getting surprised looks from the two.
"Wow! As nice as that sounds, I still want to be a warden." Dylan said. Duncan laughed.
"Well, we would certainly welcome you. But decisions don't have to be made right now. I'll be leaving to join my companion in the morning, before traveling to Denerim." The two looked at Duncan in interest.
"Who's your companion?" Mairi asked curiously.
"A dwarven friend that decided to join us from Orzzamar. Now, I'll leave you three to talk, I'm going to go rest, it's been a long journey." Irving nodded.
"Then I'll have Dylan show you to the guest room, I would like to speak to Mairi privately." He said escorting them out the door. Dylan winked at Mairi and grandly gestured down the hall.
"If you'll follow me good sir! Stay close or you might get lost, I mean, just look at how long this hallway is and… OH look! There's the Chapel, oh! And the store room. " Dylan exaggerated as they passed each area until they got to the guest room. "Aaand, here's your bedroom for your stay." He said as he opened the door and peered, making sure no one was going to jump out at him before entering. When he turned to face Duncan, he noticed his amused grin.
"Do you always check rooms before you enter them?" he asked. Dylan grinned,
"Most of the time, you never know when one of the templar's or other mages will try and get back at you for a prank or other planned mishaps you pulled on them."
"Well, it seems you've made the best of living here." Duncan laughed. Dylan shrugged
"There's too many serious people here, they really need to lighten up. So tell me, what's going on in Ferelden?" Dylan asked curiously. Duncan studied him for a moment before seemingly coming to a decision and nodding to himself.
"I forget that you probably don't get much news from outside the tower," He muttered before clearing his throat, "Unfortunately I can't tell you much as I haven't paid too much attention outside of recruiting for the Wardens. I can tell you that the king is amassing an army to fight an unusually large horde of darkspawn that have gathered in the wilds, just south of Ostegar. It's the largest horde we've seen since the last blight." Dylan nodded, frowning thoughtfully.
"Do you think another blight is starting?" he questioned. Duncan shifted and looked to be gathering his thoughts before he said carefully,
"We've not seen an archdemon yet, the King believes this is just an abnormally large horde." Dylan narrowed his eyes, noting that Duncan didn't say what he or the wardens thought.
"And the wardens? What do they say… or think…. or feel… or whatever it is Wardens do?"
"We believe that extreme caution should be used and the more forces we have, the better off we are. If it is a true blight, it would be best to beat back as much of the horde as possible before the archdemon makes an appearance." Duncan explained before folding his arms. "Now, I think I've kept you long enough, and I need to rest and gather information and supplies before I leave tomorrow afternoon." Dylan nodded and gave an elaborate bow.
"Then I shall leave you to it, good sir!" Then spun on his heel and strode out the door with his nose up in the air. He only made it several feet back down the hallway when he was stopped again by Jowan.
"You know, Jowan, I was just on my way to meet you in the chapel, I didn't forget." He said dryly. Jowan shifted and wrung his hands.
"Oh, good, we need to hurry though." Jowan said, grabbing Dylan's arm and practically yanking it out of its socket as he dragged Dylan down the hall.
"Ow! No need to cause bodily harm! I can move on my own and you need to relax, you'll draw unwanted and suspicious attention." Dylan said, yanking his arm back, straightening his robes and continuing to follow Jowan into the chapel and back to a corner where Mairi and a red haired initiate stood conversing. Dylan's eyebrow rose,
"You know, I'm not sure having this conversation with an initiate standing right next to us is very smart." He commented, taking in how the girl was shifting anxiously, her eyes darting around as though looking for listeners every few seconds. He then looked to Mairi who was standing in her new robes with her new staff and clearly didn't know what was going on by the look of slight confusion on her face.
"Now will you tell me what's going on?" Mairi asked impatiently. Jowan sighed,
"You know the girl I told you I met several months ago?" He asked. Dylan blinked and looked at the initiate incredulously, already able to tell where this was going. Mairi however seemed to be clueless as she motioned Jowan to go on with her hands. "Well, this is her, her names Lily." He said, introducing her.
"You seriously got involved with an initiate!?" Dylan whisper yelled, "You know that's forbidden!"
Jowan and Lily both tried to hush him as they looked around frantically.
"Quiet! You think we don't know that?" Jowan asked. Mairi frowned in disapproval at them,
"Is that what this is about? You two being involved with each other? Because you know what will happen if you're caught." She cautioned.
"We know, but that's not what this is about." Lily said,
"Is it about you being made Tranquil?" Dylan asked Jowan, causing Mairi's head to spin to him in surprise.
"What do you mean, Tranquil? How do you know?" She demanded to know.
"Lily saw the forms, Knight-Commander Gregior signed it and everything." He said. Dylan sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose, this was far more serious than he liked things to be.
"Can't you talk to Irving about it?" Mairi questioned. Dylan, Jowan and Lily all shook their heads
"No, because than he would have to explain how he found out, which would get Lily in trouble and would also bring into question why she told him which might bring their relationship into the light." Dylan told her.
"Plus the First-Enchanter has also signed the form." Lily added. Mairi blew a piece of hair from her face as she took on what Dylan liked to call her thoughtful look.
"But why would they want to make you a Tranquill, usually you have to ask or have been dabbling in the forbidden magic's to get turned into one." She said, eyeing Jowan thoughtfully. Jowan looked a bit sheepish as he explained.
"You know the rumors going around that one of the apprentices have been practicing blood magic? Well, they suspect it's me that's doing it."
"But you're not, right?" Mairi asked. Jowan immediately denied the accusation, but now Dylan was watching him thoughtfully, 'as much as I don't want to believe it, where's there's smoke, there's usually fire. And Jowan is gullible enough to believe blood magic could help things.' He finally nodded,
"Then you have a plan, I suppose?" He asked. Lily nodded and hastily explained.
"We're planning on destroying his Phylactriphy. But we need to get into the repository and we can only do that with a Harrowed mage." Dylan nodded while Mairi looked ill at the thought.
"Oooh, think of everything that could go wrong! And if we're caught." She moaned. Dylan cocked his head.
"Actually, I think it's best if Mairi doesn't help." He said gaining surprised looks from the anxious couple and a thankful look from Mairi. "The fewer of us involved the smaller the chance of being caught. Do you have everything you'll need to break in? What about the keys needed?"
"We were thinking that if we got a rod of fire to burn the lock off, that would work, but it would be suspicious for an apprentice mage to ask for one." Dylan nodded in agreement.
"Alright then, I'll get everything put together, you two get ready and we'll meet in the repository at 7 o'clock tonight when everyone's at dinner." He told them before turning to Mairi,
"I need you to come with me Mairi." He said before spinning around and striding off, not having to look to know that Mairi was hurrying after him.
"Are you really going to help them?" she asked fretfully. Dylan frowned.
"No, we're going to Irving. As much as I hate to admit it, what they're doing is really dangerous, and Jowan's been acting stranger than usual and it's not all because of Lily. I want to make sure that if we're caught, you and I won't get punished too harshly." Mairi nodded and fell silent, chewing on her lip nervously as she followed him back to Irving's study.
"First-Enchanter, we have a problem." Dylan announced as he walked, unannounced into the room, causing Irving to look up from his desk where he was busy signing papers.
"Oh? What's happened now?" He asked, raising his eyebrows at them. Dylan paused to gather his thoughts and find the best way to phrase things when Mairi blurted out,
"Jowan's planning on destroying his Phylactriphy!" Dylan sighed in exasperation while Irving just looked at her in amusement.
"You couldn't have phrased it any better?" He asked before turning back to Irving, who he noted didn't look too surprised. "Jowan found out that he's going to be made Tranquil and is planning to run away from the tower and wants our help to do so."
"And I suppose the young initiate he's been dallying with has told him this?" Irving asked, clearly already knowing the answer. Mairi nodded,
"Yes, and she's planning on helping him then running away with him."
"I see, and what was your answer?" Irving questioned. Dylan shrugged,
"I told them that I would help, but it would be better to leave Mairi out of it so we had less of a chance of being caught. But I figured I would give you a heads up." Irving nodded,
"Good, I assume they have a plan in place, you should continue to follow the plan. I'll alert Gregior when the time is right and we can catch them in action. If one of our own should be punished, I will see one of Gregiors punished as well."
Mairi and Dylan looked at each other, understanding that, while they may not like it, it was a harsh environment they lived in and if they didn't look out for their selves, they would get stepped all over.
"Now, go on now, so you don't draw their suspicion." Irving said, shooing them out the door. After the door closed, Dylan turned to Mairi,
"Okay, so you should probably go move all your things into your new room and make yourself busy, and please don't do anything to draw attention to yourself." He pleaded. Mairi nodded and made to go, before pausing and turning back,
"Do you think their plan will work? The one with the fire rod?" She asked. Dylan immediately shook his head. He had been in the repository a time or two and knew what to expect.
"No, the door they want to blast through absorbs any and all magic, it has to be opened the normal way, but there's an artifact that will amplify the rods power, if we push it to face the wall next to all the phylactriphies, then it should blast a whole in it. I'll let them figure it out on their own, but I better start working on getting it out of the store." Dylan said, grimacing at the thought of dealing with Owain, who anymore was told that Dylan had to get permission from a senior enchanter in order to get anything out of the circle stores, he just caused too much mayhem otherwise. Mairi seemed to follow his train of thought and laughed,
"Good luck, but think of it this way, now you can just have Irving sign it without having to try and come up with a semi believable excuse." Dylan perked up.
"You're right! Oohhh, I could do so much with that…" He moaned at the thought of all the lost opportunities he was missing because of all this. Mairi just patted him on the back sympathetically and went to move all her stuff. Dylan waited for a few moments before going to get everything he would need for this little adventure.
Luckily it only took Dylan less than a whole hour to get the rod from the store and tell Jowan and Lily that the plan was good to go. The only thing left to do was wait, unfortunately for the rest of the tower, that meant several hours of non-fire related pranks by Dylan. Including, but not limited to- putting his homemade itching powder in Templar helmets, putting the cooking spices into differently labeled jars, conjuring a snow storm in the dining hall and convincing all the younger children to start a snow fight, and creating the illusion of a bunch of mice in the girls sleeping corridors. Safe to say, the whole tower was on edge and Dylan had been 'banished' to his room for the night and was to miss dinner. Luckily, this played into his plans because now people wouldn't be wondering where he was.
At 7'oclock he snuck his way down to the repository where he met up with an anxious looking Lily and a sick looking Jowan.
"Turn any greener and I would mistake you for a frog, Jowan." Dylan joked. Jowan threw him a nasty look but straightened up.
"Good, you're here. Now, I'll say the password, then you use any spell you want on the door." Lily said, getting straight to the point. She spun and held her hand to the door and said, "Sword of the Maker, Tears of the Fade." then turned and nodded to Dylan. He rose an eyebrow and shot a small bolt of lightning at the door, smiling at the thought of him and Anders joking about being able to just shoot lightning at fools whenever, as he did so. The door clicked and then opened, leading them straight to another set of doors.
"This is the door, quick, use the rod." Jowan urged. Dylan pulled out the rod and pointed it at the lock carefully, he wasn't entirely sure if the door would absorb, reflect, or counter the blast, and he didn't really feel like being fried. Luckily, the door just ended up absorbing the blast in a show of lights.
"Well, that didn't work." He said, turning to look at the others who had identical looks of barely concealed panic on their faces.
"It didn't work! Why didn't it work?" Jowan squeaked.
"Of course! How stupid of me, Irving and Gregior wouldn't both have to use a key if you could just use magic to open the door! Why didn't I think of that?" She breathed in exasperation. Dylan looked down the hall to where he knew was the way to where they needed to be and started down it.
"Well, here's another door down here, maybe we can look for another way in." He said.
"Brilliant! Your absolutely brilliant Dylan!" Jowan exclaimed excitedly as he grabbed Lily and tugged her down the hall, practically running. "Slow down! You don't know what we'll run into!" Lily hissed, trying to tug her arm back. Dylan nodded in agreement.
"She's right, Jowan. We don't know if the sentinels will attack us or not." He explained. Ten seconds later he regretted saying anything as they were indeed attacked by three sentinels. Dylan sighed in exasperation as he shot several ice spells at them before shooting them with lightning, effectively taking them out. "Remind me never to say anything like that again, I swear I just jinxed us."
Jowan and Lily both looked at him in disbelief.
"How did you do that so quickly?" Jowan asked, his tone slightly jealous. Dylan laughed,
"Anders and I spent almost a month practicing shooting those two spells as fast as we could. They're not very powerful by themselves, but put them together and they're a pretty deadly combination. You should see Mairi with her fire and ice spells! And she actually packs more of a punch than Anders or I could get." He said, proud of how well she did when she did finally convince the two to teach her. Lily shook her head,
"Unbelievable." She muttered, "Well, come on, we better hurry."
Dylan just sighed and led the rest of the way, taking out the various sentinels that would start attacking them, before entering the room where all the old artifacts were stored.
"Wow! Look at all this!" Lily exclaimed softly, looking around curiously. Even Jowan looked amazed. Dylan, however was getting antsy, and immediately found the statue of a sitting hound.
"Look here! This statue should be able to amplify the power of the rod!" He said, walking around it and examining it before looking around at the walls, trying to figure out which wall was the one next to the Phylactriphies. He spotted a huge bookshelf and walked over to it, trying to look behind it, and nodded when he saw the cracks along it. "Look! A weak spot on the wall, if we can move the bookshelf, we should be able to break through the wall." He said. Jowan and Lily hurried over.
"Good job! The Phylactriphies should be on the other side of the wall!" Lily said, standing back to watch as the boys worked to move the shelf.
"Uggh! I seriously need to work on my strength if a bookshelf like this can defeat me." Dylan moaned as he nearly through his shoulder out pushing the bookshelf out of the way, even with Jowan's help. Lily made an irritated noise in the back of her throat.
"Can't you ever be serious?" She demanded to know. Dylan threw her an equally irritated look,
"Can't you lighten up? You're not making things any easier by being nervous and snapping. All it does is make everyone tenser and that means you'll start making mistakes, so chill." He snapped at her, getting an irritated look from Jowan.
"Leave her alone, Dylan." He warned. Dylan rolled his eyes, he really didn't know what Jowan saw in her, and they both knew it was pointless for Jowan to threaten him because they both knew Dylan could take him down without hardly lifting a finger.
"Then let's get this over with." Dylan muttered and went and positioned the statue before gently pointing the rod at it and letting off a blast of fire. He nearly yelped when the small, steady stream of fire was suddenly high power blasted at the wall, completely shattering it. They all stared at where the wall used to be.
"Well, that certainly worked." Dylan said dryly. Lily scowled at him before striding through the new entrance and nearly jumped in joy.
"This is it! There's the Phylactriphies!" She said. Jowan smiled and sprinted up the steps and over to the table that held several of the little bottles.
"And here's mine!" He said, picking it up and staring at it in awe, as though he couldn't believe he had it. "To think, my freedom is in this tiny little bottle." He muttered before dropping it and watching it smash on the floor. Lily squealed.
"We did it! Now let's get out of here and no one will be any the wiser." She said. Dylan just nodded, not really wanting to face the upcoming confrontation, but he knew that what he did was right, so he just slowly followed them out of the basement.
Of course, just as they were walking out, Irving, Gregior and three other Templars showed up.
"There they are! You were right Irving, an Initiate, and she doesn't look to be under a thrall, and with a harrowed mage as well! Think of all the damage they've done." He said angrily. Jowan and Lily looked like the world had just been ripped from under their feet while Dylan was just relaxed.
"Yet, they have been caught, and no more harm has been done for it, and all on account of said Harrowed mage." Irving defended. Jowan shot Dylan a wounded look.
"You told them?! I thought you were my friend!" He said. Dylan gave him a regretful look as he moved to stand next to Irving.
"I'm sorry Jowan, but you've been far too suspicious lately, something needed to be done." He said.
"And you! What's your excuse?" Gregior demanded of Lily.
"W-we just w-wanted to be together. Please, don't send me to Aonar!" She pleaded. Gregior scoffed,
"You think you'll have a choice? And after having taken vows." He motioned to the Templars to grab her, which set Jowan off.
"No! You can't take her!" He shouted, pulling a knife out and sliced his hand open before directing an attack at the Templars, Irving, Gregior and Dylan, blasting through the shield Dylan had tried to raise and knocking them all back onto the ground several feet away.
"Jowan! What have you done?" Lily asked in horror, stepping back from him.
"I did it for us, Lily! I only just dabbled." Jowan said pleading for her to understand. Lily shook her head and stepped back. Jowan gave her a pained look before running away.
Dylan had to take a few seconds to process what just happened, but was slightly miffed that he didn't see this coming sooner. He quickly jumped to his feet and helped Irving up. Gregior and the other Templars where already standing and two of them were already chasing Jowan.
"Blood magic! To think it's so powerful." Gregior muttered angrily, turning to snap at Irving, "Are you pleased with yourself? If you had only let me act sooner, and to think, we don't even have his phylactriphy anymore."
"Don't forget you agreed to wait. Don't place all the blame on the First-Enchanter!" Dylan argued, wanting to defend his mentor. However, this just caused Gregior to turn on him.
"And you! This wouldn't have happened if you hadn't helped him!" he yelled, causing Dylan to go on the defense.
"Hey, I was just doing what I was told! I could have kept my trap shut and let them escape." He told them. Irving also said,
"There's no need to punish Dylan, Gregior, he is a loyal member of our circle and has done us a service by bringing this to our attention."
"He needs to be punished!" Gregior demanded.
"I'll take him." Chimed a new voice, causing everyone to spin around, only to see Duncan striding towards them. "A warden must be loyal to their cause, even at the cost of friendship, we would be pleased to have him." He explained. Gregior started to turn red at the new development.
"No! We're not losing anymore mages!" He stated. Duncan just raised an eyebrow and crossed his arms, clearly conveying how unintimidated he was.
"You have no choice, either let him come freely, or I will just conscript him." He said bluntly. Gregior scoffed before turning to Lily, who had been standing quietly off to the side.
"And you! What do you have to say for yourself?"
"I-I have seen what I have done wrong, and, and I will submit myself to whatever punishment you deem necessary, even Aenor." She said softly, looking so heartbroken about everything that Dylan felt sort of bad for her. Gregior nodded, pleased that at least one person was accepting his judgement.
"Good, now that everything has been resolved…" Irving said, turning to Dylan and smiling proudly at him. "I would suggest you two leave before anything else happens." Dylan snorted
"You mean before all the rest of my pranks have been discovered?" He asked in amusement "Alright, don't let Mairi take the blame though, please? And tell her I said goodbye."
"Of course, I would suggest coming back at a later date, to properly say your goodbyes, but leave enough time for her temper to cool, or you might end up on the receiving end of one of her fire spells." Irving said, accurately predicting what Mairi's reaction would be to being left alone with no goodbye.
"Than we should leave now, we can join Duran in the Inn before heading to Denerim." Duncan said, as he motioned Dylan to follow him.
"Good thing I have everything I need, don't need to be caught by darkspawn without my underpants." Dylan said sarcastically, though quietly pleased with how everything turned out.
To his surprise, Duran didn't wake up until several hours after dinner, and he only woke up to a knocking on the door. He quickly grabbed his weapon and strode over to the door, opening it carefully, only to see Duncan with another, blonde haired, brown eyed human.
Duran studied them for a moment before stepping aside to let them through.
"So this is your Dwarven friend?" The human asked cheerfully. Duncan nodded and introduced them
"Yes, Duran, this is my newest recruit, Dylan. Dylan, this is also one of my recruits, Duran."
Duran nodded his acknowledgement to the other man.
"Pleasure to meet you!" Dylan said cheerfully before looking around the room. "Are we staying here for the night? Or moving on?" He asked. Duran looked to Duncan in question, if they stayed in this room, they would have to decide who got the bed, or go buy more rooms, if they left that night though, they wouldn't get far before having to stop for the night.
"Since I didn't intend to leave tonight, I'll go get us two more rooms, we'll leave at dawn tomorrow for Denerim." Duncan said, striding out the door, leaving the other two to a slightly awkward silence.
"So, were you born on the surface? Or in Orzamarr?" Dylan asked, clearly trying to start a conversation. Duran gave him an amused grin.
"Orzamarr. I've only been top side for three days." Dylan blinked in surprise before gaining a mischievous grin.
"Is that so? I'm surprised you haven't fallen into the sky yet. It takes magic to keep you on the ground, you know." He said.
"That might work on dumber dwarves, but you're a few too many decades short to trick me verbally, boy." Duran said, giving him a deadpan look. Dylan grumbled, obviously playing because the look hadn't gone away.
"Don't worry, I'll get you somehow. Just you wait."
Duran huffed out a laugh, "that'll be a long time coming, kid."
"I'm not a kid." Dylan said, scowling at him.
"To me you are. How old are you kid?" the Dwarf asked. Dylan crossed his arms.
"Twenty-Three. And you?"
"I'm Thirty-two." Duran laughed. "I still get to call you kid."
"I'm glad to see you two getting along. However, it would be best for us to all get some sleep. Tomorrow we'll head to Denerim first thing in the morning. I've secured us some horses for the distance so we can get there the day after." Duncan said as he strode back into the room. Duran scowled at him.
"Horses? Don't know how to ride." He said. Duncan rose an eyebrow and looked over to Dylan who shrugged.
"I use to ride before I was brought to the circle. I'm sure I can remember quickly."
Duncan nodded in acknowledgement before turning to Duran again. "We'll help you out Duran. For now, Dylan, this is your key. It's for the room across the hall. I'll be in the room to the left of this one." He said, passing the Mage his key, nodding to the both of them and heading to his own bed. Dylan turned and gave a mock salute to the Dwarf.
"Good night, good ser." Then went to his own room. Duran huffed and chose to get some more sleep, he had a feeling he'd need it the next day, if horses were to be involved.