Author note: Some nudity and suggestive rape in the later part of this chapter, you have been warned!
After a few hours of preparation the small group of Wardens finally got the bann convinced. They had gotten part of the city in an uproar ever since they began to order some of the wooden houses by the docks torn down to make the village something resembling a wall. Every way into the main square had been cut off save for one, which now held many easily defendable positions. The trick was that killing these creatures would be difficult – swords had little effect unless they could take off body parts and arrows would have no effect at all unless you were actually able to hit a piece of bone which was moving and at a distance. Despite Tamlen's best efforts Lyra had put her mind to going, though her bow and daggers would be of little actual help. She would think of something.
Elissa had picked up a mace from the smithy as had Alistair though neither of them liked not using a sword. Duran had stuck with his two handed axe, claiming that it would kill anything living or otherwise, which had silenced all objections.
The village had in half a day been turned into a little well-run fortress. No one seemed particularly pleased with it but they all saw the need for security.
Only as the Wardens had started to plan how they would actually sneak into the castle had the bann shared the secret of a passageway – leading from a mill down several ladders, under the lake and finally up into a small storage room in the prison. The tunnel had been well made, but the thought that a lake rested on top of her head was an unpleasant one. Elissa moved hunchbacked being slightly too tall for the otherwise well-made tunnel. Alistair had even bigger problems due to his hight while Duran and the elves just trotted along somewhere behind her, without doubt happy as they could be.
She pulled up in her belt for what felt like the hundredth time, her sword had just the right weight not to be uncomfortable, but this mace kept dragging her belt painfully down.
"Do you see anything yet?" she asked Alistair who had volunteered to go first as it was his lantern. Something she had thought stupid when he said it but now she certainly wasn't complaining. Save for his lantern and a light-globe, which Lyra had found in a market in some human city, they had no light sources and despite the wonderful work that must have gone into it's making, the light-globe was fading quickly. Only Alistair's lantern gave sufficient light and she, as well as those walking behind her, had often stumbled on the relative uneven floor.
"I asked; do you see anything?" she asked again, this time with a bit of a bite to it. She had not intended it but the darkness, the close quarters and the knowledge that tons of water could roar down upon her any second made her uneasy.
"No! I still don't see anything" he snapped back.
They walked half a minute in silence before Duran broke it. "It is pretty shoddy craftsmanship really. Ye'd think the tunnel would collapse any day"
"It is much better than trying to jump over the walls to the castle" commented Alistair dryly.
"Aye, 'just saying a dwarf would never have built it this way!"
"They might have made it this hight though!"
"ha! Ye have not seen Orzammar"
Elissa felt her temper flare but let it fade. The rest of them didn't like the place any more than she.
"I think I see something" Alistair commented, not long after. The floor had begun to go upwards slightly. "It is a wall – who's got the ring?"
Elissa removed the bann's signetring from her beltpouch. "I do" The ring was needed to unlock the secret door.
The prison cells were as dark as a tomb, and if the tunnel had been unnerving then this was worse.
All around were moans of starving prisoners and though Elissa felt compelled to aid them she could understand Duran when he spoke against it. They would die from one of these undead as surely as from starvation or lack of water, not to mention that they might attract much unwanted attention.
"You there, you are human?" Something about him caught Elissa's attention. Not only was he not screaming to be let out, but he also wore a very fine robe – despite his many injuries, the man must have been brutally beaten.
"We are, what happened to you?" She moved closer to the cell trying to get a better look in the dark.
"I was tutoring Conner, the arl's child... when one day the arlessa came to me accusing me of poisoning her husband! I was thrown in the cell when I denied it. Afterwards she had me beaten and tortured, no matter what I said, no matter how I pleaded, she didn't release me."
Elissa felt a strong sympathy for the man, how he must have suffered.
"Elissa, are you coming?" it was Duran asking, with a tone that implied an urgency.
The man in the cell fell back against the wall, seeming too tired to fight his fate.
"I will return for you when it is safe." she whispered, before walking as quickly as she could to the party who had moved ahead of her, albeit slowly.
Despite the foul smell in the prison the next rooms were even worse. They had been garrison for the soldiers and guards, but now it looked more like a feeding pen. The blood had dried but it was everywhere, the floor the walls, even some spots in the roof, despite the roof having a decent hight.
A few half-eaten humans still lay in their beds, dead, or at least Elissa hoped it was the case, and that it wasn't an undead sleeping.
"What do we do from here?" Tamlen asked, holding a piece of rabbit pelt tightly over his mouth and nose.
"We are in the garrison, the only way to get to the Residence would be through the courtyard. I think we should at least try and see if there was any survivors." A round of nods, they opened the courtyard half expecting it to be littered with the corpses of guards though thankfully that was not the case, not even one of the walking dead was present.
"Clean air!" Lyra took a deep breath. Something Elissa took some pleasure in as well while pocketing her, for the occasion, strongly scented handkerchief. A horrible stench of roses was still preferred to that of dead corpses, but only just.
"I wonder why we haven't seen any of these 'undead' you don't suppose the townsfolk made it up?"
"I have seen walking dead before Elissa, and I don't think they have any reason to lie." Tamlen countered.
She nodded, indeed there was little reason for them to lie. "I just expected that we would have found some of them by now."
Alistair looked instantly worried. "Could they have attacked the town?"
A 'maybe' was forming in Elissa's mouth but Tamlen spoke first.
"The gate is down" he waved in the direction of the portcullis which was indeed still firmly planted against the ground.
"We should get moving while it is still light" It was agreed and they moved to the heavy double-door which lead to the residence.
I had been a joke of the Maker, surely. Inside stood all the missing undead, some eating from a corpse, one eating from another of the undead – the undead who was getting eaten made small gurgling sounds as it happened. Several others lay as they were dead, with the slight exception that their feet were all still moving like a pendulum in motion. A few of them had even begun to beat on what may have been a fellow undead though whatever life it may have had was long since gone.
The stench was as only mutilated corpses could make.
"Maker preserve us..." Alistair voiced before he got ready for battle, which sparked the rest of the group to get the weapons ready.
"Fight them in the sunlight! Might even the odds a bit." Duran called, as he started moving back further into the courtyard. The other Wardens following suit keeping their front to the undead horde who was starting to notice the intrusion. When the dead finally charged it was not the onslaught that Elissa had expected, they simply rose from whatever they were doing and started walking, though in good pace, towards their small group. It might not have been a frightening sight but it sure was creepy.
Elissa had hoped that as the undead would enter the sunlight that they would simply crumple to dust or something similar permanent, but she was disappointed. The light did have an effect, they didn't seem to care for it overly – not the light itself but perhaps how it forced more color to the world or maybe it had something to do with the magic sustaining the dead corpses. Elissa didn't get to ponder the question overly long as the first corpse was charging her, if you could call it that. With a slight gait the walking corpse threw itself at her shield. Clawing, screaming, biting, at whatever was in range. A hit from her mace bashed most of its face out of order, tearing out one eye while the cranium made a horrible crack sound. The monster kept at it though, hardly even noting that it should have been more than dead now.
Another of her swings connected, this time at the at the chest. To her horror her mace almost went strait through it only to hit some bone in the midst of the rotted flesh. Elissa made a jump backwards pulling her mace out of the creatures ribcage. Something splattered on her face but there was hardly time, the first undead thing was slowing signs of dieing but two more was almost ready to circle her.
"Little help!" She yelled casting a quick look to see Alistair fighting with three as well though two already lay unmoving on the ground. She returned to the not-quite dead corpse in front of her and gave it a hard swing, hitting it in the lower back. Something snapped, and the corpse didn't more again. A hand, almost a claw, tore at her right shoulder, forcing her to take a step back, giving a wild swing with the mace though it didn't hit anything.
What happened next seemed happened so quickly that Elissa missed the act itself, but a glance backwards told the story. Lyra had vanished almost as the fight began though Elissa had not thought more about it, but now the darkhaired elven girl was reloading one of the walls two ballista, a huge crossbow like weapon mounted on the wall walk.
Elissa didn't linger on it and pressed their advantage. Those who had been struck by the spear was still partly moving though they seemed almost dead – in the real sense of the word.
Moving out of the way so Lyra would have a better shot, Elissa ran with shield first into two of the undead, these were more like skeletons with a bit of clinging flesh than the others had been and as such seemed quite a bit easier to kill. A single swing snapping their spinal cord was enough. She gave Alistair a glance, he was doing poorly and she herself seemed to have been spared most of her attackers. Entering the fight behind the undeads' lines worked great, the ones attacking Alistair had been the more meaty kind, the ones still punching hard and took quite a lot to kill, but since Elissa could focus on doing damage they fell a bit easier. In the background she heard another 'twang' – Lyra's ballista – followed by Duran's shout though over the piercing noise the undead were making she couldn't make it out.
The battle ended not long after, the tide had turned when Lyra had gotten the ballista to work, which had shook the undead. Those who didn't flee had been crushed by mace and axe. Tamlen had been the only one truly injured though Alistair would be feeling it tomorrow as well.
"If we want to take a look inside then it should be done now, though Tamlen will be even worse if we don't get him to a healer." Alistair looked torn, not truly wishing to go and not wishing to stay.
The answer would be a combination, if they didn't continue then the undead might truly begin gathering their troops, assuming they hadn't killed most off just then. "Lyra, take Tamlen to the city and then return if you can." Lyra had looked up from Tamlen's arm which was bleeding heavily and the armor on his leg had been torn up and was covered in blood as well. They all were though, so it was hard to tell if it was serious or not by that alone. After wiping the worst blood and gore from their faces and having a short rest the three of them continued, leaving the elves to leave through the main gate. The house was far from empty, but the groups of undead they encountered was much smaller than they had been at the main hall, allowing flank attacks. It became more and more apparent that the undead, while still quite clever didn't know the first thing about combat and in some cases not much else. One of the undead bastards had been fighting and fleeing ever since the first battle though and he was becoming better and better, nimbly avoiding their swords while he himself had begun to use one of the old guards' sword. The thing had even attempted an ambush ones, though with little luck.
"What now Alistair, you are the only one who knows this place?" Duran asked when they took a small rest in the dinning room. A vast place with a chandelier resting high above the long table.
"We should try the audience halls, perhaps, from there we can enter the study and then there is a secret route to the arl's bed chamber." Elissa nodded, too tired to think more on it. Nothing in her many years of combat training could have prepared her for the exhausting work this was.
"Lets just go to it then" she sighed getting up from the chair. Though the chair had not been touched by the undead it was now covered in blood and some white-purple mush which Elissa wouldn't want to know what was nor how she had gotten it on herself.
The audience hall seemed to be the sanctuary of the castle's few survivors, though there was no locks or closed doors.
"Teagan?" cried a quite beautiful woman hopefully, carrying a slight orlesian accent, as they entered the room. Though the sight of them changed her tone significantly, more to dread than anything. "How did you get here? Where is Teagan?"
"Teagan is in the village, and we fought our way thought." Alistair replied, his tone as cold and hard as Elissa had ever heard it.
"Alistair?" she looked away in a brisk motion, her own voice taking on a barely confined coldness. "Is it safe for these people to leave?"
"There is still some of those things hiding" provided Elissa, "but I would think it safe if you run."
The woman swallowed a lump. "It may be the only chance" She bowed her head as she faced the survivors of the keep, there were about 20, most of them servants and a few guards. "I am sorry for what happened here, but please, save yourselves." Two of the elven servants needed no more encouraging and made a run for it the rest of them following shortly behind, guards and all.
"You would be the arlessa?" Elissa asked, politely, to the woman who hadn't moved when the rest ran.
"I am arlessa Isolde" she sighed. "I had hoped bann Teagan had come with you, not that I mean to sound ungrateful."
Alistair had already moved to a door at the back of the room, undoubtedly leading to the study. "We should get moving."
"Alistair!" Elissa scolded, even if the two of them did not get along, as everything indicated, the arlessa still had a certain rank and most likely knew more of the problem. "What happened here, my lady?"
"The arl was poisoned, just the same day as we heard news of the the loss at Ostagar. It was that mage" she almost spit the word like it was a curse. "He poisoned the arl and turned my Conner into..." She broke off, undoubtedly fighting against the grief. Not a single tear formed and she continued. "Conner is, changed I don't know how but he is no longer himself. He kills and... He is no longer my little Conner."
Even Alistair was moved to a degree of sympathy.
"How come ye and the other didn't get killed then?" Duran seemed to be the only one still unaffected by her grief.
"He is still Conner, he listened when I begged to spare them, but" she shook her head. Elissa could guess what she was going to say. Conner might have listened but he still ordered the attack on the village.
"Why did you expect bann Teagan, my lady?" Elissa asked, recalling the arlessa's hopes earlier.
"Conner always liked bann Teagan, he would always find time to dote on Conner. When... when we learned that the arl was poisoned, Teagan left to see the Knights off on their quest, and didn't come back. Then Conner started changing and then the dead..."
More strange coincidences. "What do we do now?"
"What do ye mean?"
"Well, maybe the mage could shed some light on all this..."
The arlessa scoffed. "He is a lier! He poisoned my husband!"
"My lady, what is the alternative, if we seek Conner and he attacks we will defend ourselves."
"No!" Isolde looked immensely frightened for her child's safety – considering that he had turned half the castle's occupants into undead Elissa was more worried about how their group would fare against the child. "There must be another way! There must!"
"What then, my lady? We cannot let the child be. What if was he who poisoned your husband?"
"It can't have been, Conner is very protective of the arl. Even I have not been allowed entry, only our healer have been allowed..."
"If we just came to speak, would Conner then attack us?" Alistair asked.
The arlessa shook her head. "I do not believe so, unless you approached Earmon's quarters."
"Where is Conner now?"
"He usually sits just outside the bedroom, but I..." She looked away from Alistair. "I know I have not been kind to you, but please spare my child. He has done nothing wrong." She looked up sharply, finding Elissa. "Maybe if the mage died, would the spell be lifted?"
The group exchanged glances. It was possible, though none of them had any way of knowing one way or another, save perhaps Alistair.
"We will speak to Conner first, maybe we can understand the whole thing afterwards."
The arlessa looked doubtful at Alistair but she resigned to his comment. Perhaps thinking that she had no right over their judgment.
They found Conner where the arlessa had said, sitting by himself on the floor just outside the arl's room. Inside they could see the arl lying in bed with an old woman sitting on a chair nearby.
Conner was rocking lightly back and forth, his eyes closed almost if asleep. He could not be very old, 12 maybe 14 maybe but there was a childish way about him.
The floorboard creeked as they got through the top of the stairs and Conner met her eyes for a brief moment. His eyes didn't seem like those of a child his age.
"More playthings my pet, and so filthy! Why have they come you think?" The words seemed strange, not quite fitting with the boys voice.
"Conner?" Alistair asked, though somewhat doubtful.
"Who else?" The boy laughed, rising form the floor in a fluid motion with a grace that not even a cat could have managed. "Why do you come here, disturbing me?"
"We would like to speak to the arl"
"Ha! You are not the first. The woman downstairs wants to see the arl too, so would everyone! The arl is dying, draining away from the poison in his blood. Not even a bloodmage can cure him."
"A blood mage?" asked Elissa, not quite believing what she head. "You had a blood mage visit him? To cure him?!"
The boy dignified her with a glare. The eyes were still unnerving. "The blood mage made excuses, he was hardly a true practitioner! Now the healer, she helps, stops the dieing with the aid of a little magic from my side."
The boy took a step closer to the group who remained where they were.
"You do not fear me? I am pleased. Fear is hardly a way to establish a deeper connection."
"You are a desire demon, aren't you?" Alistair asked, not moving in the least.
"And so it wishes to guess, pet? Just like you, always guessing!" she said the last with a sneer.
"It was no guess" Alistair commented, not breaking eye contact with the boy. "I was phrasing it as such out of politeness."
"Is that so..." The boy smiled wide, taking another step towards the group. Alistair remained fixed to the spot while Duran got his axe ready, Elissa gave her mace a squeeze for good measure.
"Why do you do this? Why Conner?"
Conner tilted his head, giving Alistair a measuring look. Everything about the whole thing seemed wrong, perhaps it was just the possession but maybe the demon was all around. Elissa felt a tingle all over, even more so as the creature came closer.
"Why?" Conner gave a hollow laugh. "Why not? I was all but summoned after all. This poor boy tore the veil apart, all his desires were calling to me and my like. He wanted his father to live, to be a great hero, he desired, and I came!" Conner laughed like it had been a joke. He gave his own hair a stroke, leaning into the hand in a enjoying the feeling.
"Would you leave, peacefully?" Alistair asked, still not moving from his spot.
"Would you leave the most fun you ever had?" The boy smiled "I think not. Even killing the boy will leave no harm on me. I gain little from leaving such a sweet kid. Such a lustful kid."
Alistair turned, looking each of the Wardens in the eyes. As he looked into Elissa's she should see that he wanted an input, she shook her head. The boy was not yet lost, though she couldn't see how he may be saved.
"Will you let us speak with Conner?" Elissa asked, in her kindest voice she could muster. "The real Conner."
Conner tapped his lip thoughtfully. "Very well human, I shall grant you that, only because it will be entertaining. I shall of cause be listening in on your little chat."
The transformation happened quicker than Elissa would have thought, there were no dramatics, no true change to the boys features, no nothing, but a lost and confused child.
"Who are you?" the boy asked, Conner, the true one.
"My name is Elissa, do you know why we are here Conner?"
"I can guess," the boy frowned bowing his head. "I didn't know. I am so sorry. I never meant to hurt anyone!"
"shh, it is alright Conner" Elissa soothed. "Do you know why this happened?"
"I... I tried a spell, it said that if used right you could make a powerful being come and aid one gravely wounded. I... I just wanted father to be all right."
"We know Conner, we want him to get better as well" - but how to get something we can use from the boy?
"Where did you learn of the spell Conner? From the mage your mother mentioned?"
Conner shook his head. "From a spellbook, I don't know where it is now but I used it in the study."
Elissa looked at her friends, Duran nodded and headed down the stairs.
"Think Conner, is there something else that we should know, something we would have missed?"
Conner's head jerked one way and another. "Her name,... She won't tell me... It holds power..."
Conner stopped twitching, and started to rub himself behind his ear. "So unfair, asking the poor creature such nasty questions!"
"You won't share your name?" Elissa asked, slightly surprised. She had never heard of names ever being secret.
"Why give such valuable knowledge away? A name, a true name is a thing of power. No one would ever give such a treasure away."
"Is that what you meant earlier when you said that he was always guessing?" Alistair asked, seeming much more confident again.
"Perceptive, though it will not aid you! Even should you know it none of you have power to use it against me. Leave me, you have had your fun, you shall leave me to mine." With that Conner moved towards a room next to the arls, perhaps his own room, while he undressed, throwing vest and shirt in every direction. Within the room a woman had been tied to the bed, and to Elissa's dread, the girl was naked.
"We got to do something!" she hissed to Alistair who gave a nod and followed Conner in, Elissa following close behind.
"You care to join me?" Conner asked with a laugh. "I doubt it, don't you my pet? Oh yes..." Conner finally let his pants slide and Elissa instinctively looked away.
"What would a mortal do now, I wonder?" Conner tilted his head stroking his hair yet again. "Kill me to do the right thing? Maybe you dare not, my body is precious to the arl after all, and I am what keeps him alive. Maybe you will just slay the girl then?"
Conner gave the girl's leg a fond stroke.
"Forgive me, Eamon" Alistair said, a voice so low that Elissa could only barely hear it. She felt a small tug at something in her mind, a small movement in the shadow dancers she had seen back in Ostagar.
With a movement faster than she could follow Alistair grabbed his mace and struck out against the naked boy.
It was as if time itself froze. "So it would strike at me! You were right my pet, such emotional creatures these are" Conner laughed, as had it been his own joke. Alistair, it seemed, had frozen in place.
"And you, you are like this one here are you not?" Conner motioned at the girl who had been bound and gagged. "Female! Does this mean you will strike her down then? More sensible than your friend?"
"You disgust me!" Elissa could not contain it, and indeed if they were to die then she might as well give the demon her piece. "You play with lives like it was a game, there is not even anything at stake for you! We risk our lives and you just think it is a game?!"
Conner seemed less amused, more serious even. "It is how I live." he shrugged. "I wish to see your world and so this is how I do it. The only way I can keep my host alive is by letting him keep his mind – to that end I am willing to grant him these favors."
Elissa was taken aback. "Favors?! Conner wouldn't want this!"
The boy laughed merrily. "If you bothered looking you would find that he do, I think" Conner gave a little sway of the hips.
"Conner would not ask his father to be kept alive in constant death, he wouldn't ask to gain glory by sending soldiers – dead soldiers – to slaughter a nearby village who can't defend themselves!"
Conner looked thoughtful, again tapping his lips with a finger. "Maybe you are right, but even so, what does that say? He would likely still do all these things I do. Take a woman to his bed, get innocents killed in his name? I have listened to the desires of many in my time. There is never simple glory! There is never easy love! There is no miracle cure to revive the dead!" the boy growled, almost like the demon felt cheated.
"How do you know that for sure?" Asked Elissa eyeing a chance to make things right against the odds.
"I found the boo-" It was Duran's voice.
No! Bad timing! Elissa didn't get to think any more about it when everything went dark, only to brighten a few seconds after. Elissa looked back at Duran still standing in the doorway completely covered by a layer of stone.
"He is not dead." Conner assured her, perhaps he even sounded a bit sad.
"How do you know there isn't such things?" Elissa asked again. She had to trust the demon to some extent, it could have killed them all many times over if it really wished it.
"Whenever I glance into this world of yours, so brim with life, the view is always the same! Some mageling thinking they can make a name for themselves with my powers, some warlord demanding aid. Some helpless moron who does not have the courage to even take a woman for himself!" Conner shook his head. "It is all the same"
"You don't like this then?" Elissa asked, praying her idea was right.
"It is life, if I want to live in your realm then I want it to be a real life."
Elissa shook her head. "This isn't real. Perhaps a warlord may wish for death and a mage for power, but this is a boy – full with childish fancies. No one lives as they would like to – which is something we can all be grateful for!"
Conner stroked the woman's leg again, and then his hair again leaning into it, slightly closing his eyes. "I think, woman, that you have won your case – for the time being! I will let this one live a bit, perhaps visit once in a while to see what he makes of your so-called life. It shall prove entertaining and perhaps I will see another side to this life, perhaps not."
Conner bend down, taking a knife from somewhere below the bed. Elissa was about to stop him when she noticed her legs wouldn't move. With a few quick strokes the bonds holding the girl on the bed was cut, though she did not move either. Nothing in the room did, save for a possessed naked boy with a knife.
"Tell the male he was wrong then" Conner said with a smile as he sheathed the knife again and gently lay it back below the bed. "I am no desire demon, though what people ask of me is certainly mostly something they desire, always for they own pleasure. Conner gave a small stroke on his hair before the boy collapsed on the floor. Almost half a minute passed before the spell holding them all faded. Alistair cut nothing but air – thankfully – Duran's stone prison faded to nothing. The girl started crying while gathering the sheets around her.
Elissa, she just stood there. Contemplating what had just passed.
