The morning had already been a little busy for what Solona was used to in their time in Denerim, but it seemed that today was one for momentous changes. After sealing their shady deal with the elf, she and Aedan decided to head to the market. They got their meals at the inn free for services rendered, but it was nice not to either be eating fish or something that was tasteless and a uniform grey color for once. That, and they'd run out of jobs from the Chanter's Board for now, so Aedan was going to go check and see if anyone had posted new tasks.
They had just gotten to the bottom flight of stairs when Solona suddenly felt like something very wrong was about to happen. Her skin prickled and she held her staff tightly, looking around the small bar room for the sign of danger. Keran seemed unaffected by whatever ill premonitions she was experiencing, and the only person still here this early was a man sleeping off his hangover with his face firmly planted on the bar top.
She was about to dismiss the bad feeling as something from dinner the night before going wrong, and then her premonition of danger materialized. The doors burst open with a crash, one being ripped clean off its hinges with the force of entrance. Four men in heavy plate armor came streaming in the door, the last one to enter holding a glowing red vial in his left fist, a sword in the other. "Her!" He shouted, pointing his sword. "That's the one! Kill anybody that gets in the way!"
With a rallying battle cry the other three charged forward, and Solona only managed to get off a weak spell to weaken one before the very heavens seemed to open up and crash down on her. The Templar clutching the vial unleashed his full power and a blast that sent Solona's ears to ringing and had her collapsing on the floor. Out of the corner of her eye she could see Aedan get knocked off his balance and crashed straight into a table that broke when he landed on it, and Keran was knocked away from her as well with a high pitched yelp.
Whatever the Templar had done made her hurt everywhere, hardly able to breathe as the full force of his will tried to crush the very life out of her. She could tell that her powers were going to be of little use with whatever enchantment the Templar cast on her. It was like freezing to death, only the cold came from the inside and not the outside. For a panicked moment she though she'd been somehow made Tranquil, the Fade completely cut off to her, then realized that if she was panicking then her ability to tap into magic had only been temporarily suspended as opposed to the permanent kind.
Aedan was on his feet in enough time to intercept the first Templar that came for Solona, blocking a powerful swing from the Templar's two-handed sword on his shield with a terrible screech of metal on metal and jabbed at him with his shorter sword to get the man to back off of the prone mage. A second one screamed a curse when Keran bit into him, but the third slipped past the two, yelling something about 'blood thralls'.
Solona looked up to see a sword coming straight at her, and she managed to get her palms on the ground and push to the side. The sword buried itself in the wooden floor with a loud crack, the Templar trying to decapitate her cursing when he missed. Wrenching his sword free, he took another swing at her, this time scoring a hit with the tip of his blade from rib to hip. Crimson blood immediately sprang forth, and in a moment of desperation Solona managed to summon a thread of her powers and send a wave of bitter cold through the floor, freezing the Templar's boots solidly to the wood planks.
He nearly came crashing to the floor when he tried to pursue the mage as she hauled herself to her feet with the aid of a chair, but ended up flailing around and dropping his sword instead. Mustering the reserves of her strength, Solona took her staff in both hands and clubbed the Templar across the side of the head with it. He did fall then, collapsing straight on his face, the ice shattering when he went down.
The Templar fighting with Aedan was wounded badly, his face turning an angry purple and bleeding from a broken nose from where it'd been smashed with a shield. Various other wounds bled between the slits in his armor where a deft sword had struck, and he was visibly tired from swinging his two-handed sword around. Aedan was only a little better; his shield crushed inward from a heavy blow and rubbed in all the wrong ways on his shield arm, making it more painful to deflect blows. Out of the corner of his eye he could see Keran warding off the Templar he'd engaged, but wasn't having much success in toppling the fellow.
Suddenly the Templar collapsed where he stood with a gurgling gasp, coughing up blood as he fell only to reveal Kallian standing right behind him with a bloodied sword in hand. She looked drawn and pale under the dirt on her face, the action obviously either having been distasteful to her or else exhausting to perform.
Seeing two of his Templars go down and the third on his way to being beaten, the man holding the vial called for his last remaining conscious comrade to retreat. With a final strike meant to push Aedan back, the two-handed wielding Templar did just that, and the two disappeared back out into the street, Keran following them as far as the door, barking loudly the whole way. Once he turned back to look at Aedan for approval for the job well done did the warrior finally look back at Solona.
She was pale and shaking, her entire side coated with her own blood. She had sat down in a chair, presumably because she could no longer stand and was attempting to heal herself. The brilliant blue healing glow was a dim pathetic light though, her magic severely hampered by whatever the Templars had done to her in the first few seconds of the skirmish.
Quickly Aedan went to her side and checked on the wound, making a face as he did so. "This tops your other prize winner for sure. Maker, he got you good." Solona tried to laugh, but it came out as a pained groan instead and she doubled over her wound, pressing her palm to it as hard as she dared.
"Hate to interrupt the friendly banter, but you ain't safe here." Kallian cut in quickly, her gaze strafing around the room like she expected more Templars to teleport out of the walls. "You got a safe house?"
"No. Nowhere in Denerim is safe now." Aedan replied, offering to help Solona to her feet. She got up slowly, trying hard to hide just how much pain she was in with little success.
"If they've got my phylactery out… Then they've finally decided to hunt me seriously." Solona managed to say through clenched teeth. "They'll be back with more. And soon. I doubt I'd be able to help in this state."
"Kallian, can you get us out of the city?" Aedan watched the elf carefully, wondering if she would decide that tangling up in Templar business was more than she was willing to bargain for.
Apparently she was wondering just that same thing, and kept looking from the Templar that she'd stabbed to the one that Solona had clobbered over the head then to Aedan and back. "I can try."
"That's all I can ask of you." Aedan replied quickly.
"Grab the potions under the floorboard upstairs." Solona whispered through clenched teeth, leaning heavily on a table. "If I use those, I'll be able to keep up, at the very least."
Nodding, Aedan left up the stairs immediately, returning a few minuets later with the travel pack and a half-empty vial of blue lyrium potion in hand, the others that they'd gathered so far tucked away in the pack. Solona downed the drink quickly then healed up the remainder of her wound with her restored power. Her color didn't return, but she wasn't in pain anymore. "Let's go. We've no more time to waste."
"Follow me." Kallian was out the doors quickly and set a fast pace, leading the others though the backstreets of Denerim. She kept clear of any main roads and regularly stopped to look down streets before signaling for them to proceed. They stayed near the river, always only a few streets over from it, using the heavy traffic to stay hidden in plain sight. The walls of the city were in sight when Kallian finally stopped, breathing hard from running and leaning against a building in its shadow.
"This is the last bridge before the exit. Cross it an' follow the trader traffic out." Kallian gestured with her hands the directions, keeping on the lookout for unwanted droppers-in the whole time.
"Thank you." Solona said quietly, likewise out of breath, but handling it better than the bone-skinny elf. "I'm in your debt."
"Yeah, you probably are." Kallian replied with a nod. "But one good turn deserves another. You 'an him took on blood mages an' slavers to get me free. I lead you outta the city 'an stabbed one Templar in the back fer you. Maybe we're even. Maybe I still owe you. Either way, good luck gettin' free."
"We need to go now." Aedan mumbled, seeing a group of people heading for the bridge that they could blend in with easily enough. Solona nodded and with one final look back at Kallian who stood resolutely in the shadow of the building alone, the two headed out of their hiding place and walked toward freedom.
-0-0-0-
There was always a sense of diving underwater when dreams strode into the realm of the Fade. Everything was never as it seemed here, constantly changing shape and form according to the whimsy of the one who shaped it. Solona walked along what appeared to be dry cracked earth pierced by jagged black rocks and scattered with idols of unknown origin. Sometimes they would shift and seem to come alive, but that too was only illusion.
It was familiar here, uncomfortably so. She felt she knew this place, and her suspicions were confirmed when a tiny little creature skittered across the surface of one of those impossibly cruel looking rocks. "Mouse." She said, folding her arms over her chest and waited until the creature came to her. Running was hardly any use. This was his realm, so any distance she tried to put between herself and the demon was also an illusion. The familiar weight of her staff hung on her back, comforting though that too was not a real physical object.
The overly large mouse jumped off its rock and bounded toward her, stopping just outside the reach of a good swing with her staff and in a burst of light transformed into a person. He was blonde and had the sort of face that one dared to take a second look at in passing, with a haughty expression despite having claimed on their first meeting that he was a failed apprentice. Well, that and the red robes of a more senior enchanter he was wearing, but illusions couldn't all be perfect.
"Well well, look who we have here! Never thought I'd see you again in my grasp. Come to take me up on my offer, have you?" Mouse had dropped the innocent act. Both of them knew what he really was, so there was no need to be coy. "I'd still like to see the world through your eyes. The mortal realm seems like such an interesting place."
"It's not that exciting. And you'd hardly be thrilled with taking over my body at the moment. You'd be hunted down immediately and killed." She said it calmly, watching Mouse with something that amounted to disinterest. It was true of course, and she wanted to know why she had ended up here, of all places.
"Oh yes, I know all about that." Mouse smiled, and suddenly Solona felt much less confident about dealing with him this time around. "My little snack has gotten herself into some trouble, yes?"
"I was unaware that you were such a gossiper."
"No need to be snide, I'm simply concerned that my favorite might be in need of some… help."
Oh. That's why she was here. "Everyone can use some help every once in a while. I prefer not to get mine from body-stealing demons, however." She replied, dropping her arms from her relaxed stance, more ready to take action now that the demon's intentions were being made clear. He had drawn her here on purpose, sensing her weakness after the day's battle.
Mouse looked almost offended. "So suspicious! But I think in your case, you may want to not throw off my offer so quickly. Didn't you feel helpless? Powerless? Could you feel death brushing its icy fingers on you?" His voice had gone low, seductive almost and he began to pace, walking slowly around Solona.
"I'll have no dealing with you. I didn't before, I won't now." She replied, going stiff and mustering her will against the demon's temptation.
"But it will happen again, you know it. You fear it." The demon replied, the outer image he conjured beginning to waver, showing the towering Pride demon that lurked underneath the handsome mask it had created. "The Templars can overpower you with a thought. A wave of the hand and all of your magic is useless. What will you do when there are no longer others to defend you in your weakness?"
Her heart hammered in her chest, cold fear spiking through her. What if- "No! I'll not listen!"
"You hardly know this man." The demon took Aedan's form, walking around front of Solona and staring at her, piercing grey eyes boring into her. When he spoke next, it was with Aedan's voice. "This woman brings nothing but trouble. I've protected her because she's useful… but I wonder how much she's worth? There's got to be other mages that can help that aren't being dogged by the Templars."
"Stop!" Solona felt the weight of her staff in her hands, a burst of arcane fire leaping from it.
Mouse/Aedan simply leapt out of the way, cackling and he resumed his blonde handsome form. "What if they come again, and he simply takes off? How will you defend yourself, I wonder? You can't rely on others forever, my pet."
"I will make it through on my own power." Solona replied, trying to sound brave, though her voice wavered. "I have before. I can again."
"Hmmm, but perhaps there is something I can do for you, in the meantime." He was practically purring with satisfaction, reveling in Solona's disquiet. "We can make a deal. I know things. Old things. Old magic that would make you powerful even when the Templars take the Fade from you."
"You speak of blood magic." Solona hissed, her hands glowing with a spell waiting to be cast. "I'll learn no such thing from a demon."
"Oh dear, don't simply toss this aside because of what those know-it-alls say. You hate the Templars and their Chantry so, and yet you conform to them so easily… What sort of reasoning is that?" He was waiting; he knew that he had her here.
She almost didn't dignify that with a response and tried to will herself to wakefulness, but found that it was harder to rise from the Demon's lair than she thought unless the creature was pacified or else killed. "Evil only begets evil. I will not take any deal from a demon. The strings attached to such an ability will be a greater price than I am willing to pay."
Mouse shrugged, apparently having heard the argument before and was unbothered by the response. "It seems a lost cause for tonight. But if you should so happen to change your mind…" He turned with a shrug, then smiled at her over his shoulder. "I am but a thought away, my pet…"
-0-0-0-
Solona woke shivering, the rosy light of dawn peeking through the forest that surrounded Denerim's walls. Dew collected on every available surface, a low thick fog blanketing the whole area. A feeling of disgust and panic welled up inside of her, and she squeezed back tears. She'd almost given in to the temptation of the demon, lured by her own mortal weakness and the perceived unreliability of the one person she could still consider a friend.
And Mouse knew it.
A/N: You know I was always disappointed that you never see Mouse again as the Mage Origin. He was a clever little bastard, and he's the one demon that you could talk with but never have the option to kill. I figure that since he was the original demon that you have to face in your Harrowing, that he must have some kind of connection to you. It's a loose end that's never explained or tied up. So, since this is my universe and I can do what I want with it, I brought him back! Yay! Can you smell the sweet scent of resolution? Also, I've decided that we're going on a MWF update schedule type dealieo instead of an "every other day or whenever I feel like it" schedule. As always, thank you all for the support and I hope you enjoy the stuff I keep throwing at our poor heroes.