A/N I while back I went and added in a small note about Elisa taking a "Small, black book" from Irving's office in chapter 8. I then forgot about it and never mentioned it in my author notes until this chapter, where it becomes relevant.
It was surprisingly easy to get the group to accept Zevran. Duran, Theron and Natia shared Elisa's "If you can control them, use them" mentality, Leliana seemed to think that all he was seeking redemption and so welcomed him with open arms, Alistair and the other two Templars disagreed but were more than willing to accept it regardless – the chantry seemed to instill a "Shut up and do what you're told" mentality on their Templars, something that made them easy to deal with provided they weren't asked to defy previous chantry indoctrination – and Jowan and Clara realised that they had absolutely no moral high ground to stand on. Morrigan was harder to convince, something that wasn't helped by Zev's agreeing with her that they should all watch their food closely. However she quieted after Elisa showed her the phylactery filled with Zevran's blood. Once they organized the group and dealt with Jacob's body and headed out to the rendezvous they set with Levi, where they would divide the group again; half going to soldier's peak and half going to Denerim to find info Brother Genitivi and the Urn of Sacred Ashes.
oOo
Elisa swore viciously, slamming her fist into the dirt she was sitting on. They were settled down for the night and Elisa had taken some time to attempt to decipher the grimoire she had taken from Irving's office. Elisa was absolutely certain that the tome held powerful magical secrets; not only had it been stored in the First Enchanter's office where it was both secure and easily accessible, it also had a distinct and powerful magical aura about it despite the fact that it held no magic of its own - something that clearly indicated that it had been owned, most likely even written, by a powerful mage. Unfortunately it was encrypted both magically and normally, making it only possible to read by someone with the blood of the intended owner.
"Frustrated?" Morrigan sat down beside the woman "I am surprised to see you so challenged by anything that the circle of magi has to offer. Perhaps if you spent less time swinging your swords about you would be able to..." Morrigan trailed off as she studied the grimoire more closely "It that mother's book?" she demanded "Where did you get that?"
"Your mother's?" Elisa asked, excited; if Morrigan's mother had enchanted this book then perhaps they could use could use her blood to trick the enchantments into allowing her to read it or even break them so Elisa could read the book herself.
"Yes, I'm certain of it" Morrigan took the book from Elisa and looked it over "before I born a young Templar joined an expedition to hunt her down. Naturally they were slaughtered but for some reason that one Templar knew that they had no hope against her as soon as he saw her and ran. He didn't want to die but was afraid to return to his superiors unscratched and empty handed, so he snuck into her hut and stole the grimoire while she killed his comrades." She held the book up, grinning "this represents the one time that my mother let her secrets get away from her and now offers me an opportunity to learn more than my mother wanted me to, I would not let it go to waste"
Elisa grinned "Then let's get to work shall we?"
oOo
They were not able to break the enchantments of the book the first night, or even the second but they eventually managed to break through the enchantments enough for Morrigan to get to work on the regular encryption. After that Elisa mainly left the book to Morrigan; she tried spells from time to time but the enchantments were powerful and they couldn't break through them anymore than they already had, even with Neira's help. Elisa trusted Morrigan to reveal most of what she found; she knew that the witch wasn't stupid enough to try and give her completely false information and hoped that she would be able to spot it if Morrigan was disturbed or interested enough to attempt to hide something from her. As Elisa was often doing something else as the informal leader of the group that was all she was able to do.
Three days before they reached the rendezvous point the group was settling down for the night when Jowan wandered off. Elisa frowned, since this was unlike him and followed him. She found him looking at a concealed fortress that had been hidden by the mountains that covered this part of Ferelden. The fortress was a tough, evil thing. Made from the strongest granite, the fortress looked as if it could hold off an army with ten men, but it was an evil thing as well; the veil was all but torn and the blood soaked aura of the place.
Aeonar
Elisa had always heard stories of the fabled mage's prison, but never imagined that it would be this bad. The very stone of the place wailed in her ears, telling her the history, name and evil of this place - not unlike the song of her own blades, but so much more malignant then them - even if she had never heard of the place she would've known the place the second she laid eyes upon the place. "Not exactly the safest place for a maleficar" she drawled, revealing herself to Jowan.
He jumped "Oh, sorry" he never took his eyes off the place.
Elisa paused, she had gotten one of the Templers to tell her about Jowan's escape and how his beloved had been sent here. She closed her eyes, remembering similar experiences of her own with sorrow and knew what Jowan faced was worse - Larius had not gone to the torture chambers hating her and in the end she had gotten a chance to say goodbye, as dark as there reunion was. "You made a mistake" her voice was soft, full of sympathy "You should never have reached for blood magic, you were strong enough without it. But you do not deserve this, you do not deserve to look at this horrible prison and know the woman you love is inside it because you made a mistake."
"What can I do?" He demanded "How can I make this right? How can I undo the fact that my Lily is in that prison because I was afraid that I wasn't powerful enough to survive my Harrowing?"
"Nothing, Not yet. Not today, not tomorrow, maybe never. I cannot promise you that you will make this right. But if you stay with us then I can promise you that one day, you will find your redemption, you will be able to look back and know that you have done more good than harm. I doubt that you will find comfort in that fact but it is all you will ever have. Your happiness escaped with the first drop of blood that fell from your bleeding palm, all that's left for you is redemption or pleasure. Decide what you want and then come back to camp."
Elisa folded into the night as quietly as she had come, leaving Jowan to ponder what she had said, and to make his decision.
oOo
Neira pressed one finger to her temple and frowned; the veil was weak somewhere nearby. It didn't bother her - Elisa's training was doing its job - but she was still aware of it and if the veil was weak then something would have most likely slipped through, and theirs was almost certainly the nearest group nearby. She walked over to where Alice was sitting with Alistair, Duran and Natia and sat down beside them "The Veil's very weak nearby, we need to be on our guard"
Alice nodded and called the others in "Neira senses a weakness in the Veil nearby, Solona and Zevran, Leroy and Kallian, and Morrigan and Theron, I want you on guard yesterday, we won't get as much sleep tonight but it's better safe than sorry. Neira, coming with me to find Jowan and Elisa; It's likely my sister already knows but better safe than sorry. Now, does anyone know what could have caused this weakness?"
"Aeonar" Elisa stepped out of the shadows, stepping into the circle the others had made as if she had been there all along "The mage prison is only three miles north of here. Jowan's not far from there deciding that he wants to live instead of dying for what he cannot undo, he'll be back soon"
"And if he isn't?" This was from Leroy, who was frowning at the thought of giving a blood mage such a clear chance to escape
"Then he's dead, or soon will be. We're three days away from the nearest farmstead, cutting through mountains where the snow never melts in order to make good time. If he doesn't come back then it's because something killed him"
Leroy nodded "fair enough"
"Excellent, now if that's settled then I'm sure everyone has things to do yes? Let's get to it"
oOo
Nearly two hours later Jowan finally stepped into camp to find Elisa waiting for him "have a good think?" she asked
"Yes, I…" his voice trailed off as he gathered his thoughts, Elisa didn't press him. Once he was ready he spoke again "I've thought about what you said and you're right. I can't do anything about what happened to Lily and I can't undo the damage I've caused. But I can help people, try to redeem myself after what I've done, try to make things better. That I can do."
Elisa grinned "Good man"
Three days later they reached Levi and Alice headed to Denerim with Alistair, Zevran, Natia, Wynne, Leliana, Sten, Solona and Morrigan while Elisa took Neira, Theron, Duran and the recruits with Levi to Soldier's peak. They would clear the fortress and see if they could discover how to perform the Joining. If at all possible the recruits would leave the fortress grey wardens in truth… or not at all.
A/N So first off, two apologies: Sorry for not posting in a while, Christmas and the resulting new books and video games - through the new video games were mainly the fault of the Steam Sale - I swear that I haven't abandoned you guys, I promise! . And sorry if the second part of this chapter seems a bit rushed, I'm leaving for Cuba tomorrow and wanted to get a chapter off before I left.
On the Cuba note I'm bringing my computer but I don't know how much time I'll spend on it. So I may post several chapters in rapid succession starting on the 8th or I may not post anything else for two weeks or so. Hopefully it won't be the latter but I make no promises.
Thanks to Latindragon for his review
Anyways thanks for reading and please review!