Disney World + Exams and Projects = Abigail on strike. So sorry everyone. I don't even know if I can get back to a normal routine yet. Thank you for your patience!

Bioware definitely owns most of this, except for the confusion at the end...

A Village Welcome

We finally made it to Lothering the next afternoon. The day was spent traveling and watching Helíos as he entertained me by running around us in a great circle like he was guarding us and chasing animals out of the bushes. My smiles turned into laughter until Morrigan ended our fun by telling me to "shut that mongrel up or everyone in the Wilds will know where we are".

At the edge of the village, the Imperial Highway turned into a bridge that was like a highway bypass. At one of the "exits" six men in full armour had created a barrier to block our way. A body was pushed off to the side, flies already buzzing around it. Helíos growled at the group menacingly.

"Wake up gentlemen!" A man with a chipper voice commanded. He was obviously the leader. "More travelers to attend to, and I'd guess the pretty one is the leader."

I narrowed my eyes at the lame attempt at flattery, and grabbed my hilt. Helíos's growl became much louder.

"Err…they don't look much like them others you know," another droned annoyingly. "Uh, maybe we should just let these ones pass."

"Nonsense! Greeting travelers!" The leader was way too enthusiastic.

"Highwaymen," Alistair whispered to me. "Preying on those fleeing the darkspawn I suppose."

"They are fools to get in our way. I say teach them a lesson," Morrigan sniffed.

The leader became appalled at Morrigan's comment. "Now is that any way to great someone? Tsk, tsk, tsk. A simple ten silver and you're free to move on."

"Is that what you said to him?" I pointed at the dead body beside me.

"Uh, he was there when we got here!" The leader's bravado was lost for a split second under the lie.

I pulled out my sword in frustration, unwilling to pay the amount and to let them continue to hassle people who couldn't defend themselves like we could.

"What did I tell you?" the droning one squeaked. "No wagons, and they're all armed."

The leader eyed Morrigan with worry. "Look here friend! There's no need to get violent."

"No, you look here!" I said angrily. All the pent up emotions were pushing up to the surface, and I didn't stop them. "I've had a bad week, and this little problem we seem to be having can be fixed the hard way or the easy way, and I'm not paying your "toll"."

I heard Alistair unsheathe his sword and my head started to buzz. I didn't allow my head to turn to see if it was Morrigan's doing like last time.

"Well, then I guess that means we get to ransack your corpse."

Helíos launched his body onto one of the men as the highwaymen surged toward us. I caught the droning man by surprise with a quick slice to his midriff. I barely skimmed through his leathers, but he squealed and jumped back, the leader replacing him. He didn't waste time and hacked at me like a crazy person.

They haven't had any real training. I realized. Lodan had taught me technique, these men didn't know much beyond swinging a weapon at their enemy. It made it easy to drive him to his knees with my larger sword.

"Alright! We surrender!" he screamed. "We-we-we're just trying to get by, before the darkspawn get us all."

The entire group jumped as a crash pierced the tense air. Morrigan stood poised with a finger outstretched, ice shards scattered out from her like she had thrown a plate at the floor. An axe beside the mess helped me figure out what had happened. I bite back the bile rising in my throat.

"Said the criminal to the pissed Grey Warden," I spat back at the leader like nothing had occurred.

"Yes, I'm a criminal, I admit it. I apologize."

I resisted the urge to roll my eyes. "You have ten seconds to run."

They didn't need to be asked twice. The leader pushed one to the ground in his panic as they ran into the village.

"You're letting them go?" Alistair asked. "They will only go somewhere else and do this whole façade again."

"I…What am I supposed to do?" I didn't want to kill them. I had enough of killing people.

"It seems," Morrigan walked towards me and gave me her staff, "as if you have not seen all of my abilities as of yet. I would like to take this opportunity to show you what exactly I can be capable of."

Even though my heart was screaming no, I finally gave a small jerk of my head.

She started running after the men, easily catching up to their clumsy escape. Almost twenty feet from them, the witch jumped, and transformed into a great spider. She landed on two of the men, crushing them and biting into the other with her razor sharp pincers. I looked away, the screams and Alistair's wince of discomfort telling me enough to know what was transpiring.

Helíos nudged my waist and I gave him a reassuring pat meant more for me then him. Morrigan came back and took her staff back.

"That was…very impressive," I managed to say without gagging. Their blood was all over her clothes.

The witch could see straight through my fabricated behavior, I was sure of it, but she only tilted her head in response.

"Well, there it is. Lothering. Pretty as a painting," Alistair sighed. He almost sounded content.

"Ah, so you have finally decided to rejoin us have you? For good this time? Falling on your blade in grief seemed to much trouble, I take it?" Morrigan kept on.

"I know the feeling," I muttered, but they ignored me.

"Is my being upset so hard to understand? Have you ever lost someone important to you? Just what would you do if your mother died?"

"Before or after I stopped laughing?"

"Right. Very creepy. Forget I asked."

I decided that was enough. "Alright children! Does anyone have anything useful to say?"

"Yes," Alistair volunteered. "I've been thinking-"

"No wonder it took so long then," Morrigan quipped, not missing a beat.

"Oh, I get it. This is the part where we're shocked to discover you've never had a friend your entire life," he retorted back.

"I can be friendly when I desire to. Alas, desiring to be more intelligent does not make me so."

"Anyway," Alistair turned so he was only really looking at me. "I thought we should talk about where we intend to go first."

"I'll need a beer and a map, as well as a quick lesson on what treaty goes to which group." I leaned on one foot and looked up to find two confused stares.

"Beer?" Alistair asked.

Damn it. "Uh, never mind. I'll need to talk to you guys when we have a lot more time." More confused stares met that, but we needed to move on.

"Well," the other Warden started. "There are three main groups that we have treaties for: the Dalish elves, the Dwarves of Orzammar, and the Circle of Magi. I also think that Arl Eamon is our best bet for help. We might even might want to go to him first."

"What's your opinion?"

He reeled like I had punched him in the abdomen. "Well, I don't know where we should go. I'll do whatever you decide."

"Now that is unsurprising," Morrigan commented.

"Arl Eamon is a good man, but I don't know for sure he's where we should go. I'm not going to argue about it." His sudden mood swing was kind of unnerving, but I didn't push it.

"Then we need to get some supplies and get going," I offered.

He seemed to brightened a little. "When we get to camp, we'll discuss our options better."

I looked at the small, warm looking village. "We aren't staying here tonight?"

He shook his head. "It's probably packed with refugees. We won't be able to get a room."

Alistair was wrong. The village wasn't packed, it was overflowing with people. A templar warned us that we wouldn't be able to find refuge. I didn't catch much of what he said because my head started to hurt. It didn't get better as we neared the biggest building. Once we passed it however, the pain almost vanished.

"Hey!" Alistair whined as he walked into me. "Why are we stopping. The inn is right there."

I frowned and walked back towards the building. Just like clockwork, the throb became worse. I backed up again and relief came easily. "What is that building?" I pointed.

Alistair quirked an eyebrow. "That's the Chantry of course."

"Will there be a lot of templars there?"

"Like flies to a festering wound," Morrigan said like we were talking about something gross.

I looked back at the ex-templar. "What exactly do templars do, other than hunt down apostates?"

"Mostly, they live in the Circles and guard the mages, form the world, and from themselves, in case they become abominations." He kept on looking at me like I was from the moon. He wasn't far from the truth.

"How? Do they receive special training?" I looked at the Chantry and stiffened as a templar went inside of its courtyard.

"Yes, I was trained as a young boy by the Chantry. It takes years to learn the skills," he seemed uncomfortable talking about his youth, so I dropped it.

But what did that have to do with my headaches and buzzing? Morrigan's magic and the other mages I had come across was much more agreeable to my apparent magedar. The templars didn't have any magical powers. What made them react adversely to me?

"I…I need to think about something. Let's keep moving shall we?"

The two of them exchanged a "is this woman crazy" look, but just agreed with me and didn't say anything else.