Heroes of the Past and Present

Disclaimer: Do not own Victorious, do not own the video game

A/N:

Chapter 16 (Notifications and Trade)

Lowtown was a strange place with dirty streets and yellow stone buildings. Tori and Jade were walking up next to her for some reason, she would have preferred Jade stay back with Aveline. Aveline, Donnic, and Brennan were a few feet behind them to watch over them and hopefully avoid attracting too much attention. Sebastian was about to come with his granddaughters when the Chantry's Grand Cleric Elthina came asking him for something. The grey haired woman was somewhat intimidating.

As they trudged through the dusty streets, people occasionally acknowledged her as her ancestor. It was more of a sadness that she responded with inside, rather than any sort of pride or joy in knowing her ancestor was a real live hero.

She put it out of her mind and recalled her studies from the prior night over what she read of Lowtown. The city was in a massive cauldron-shaped pit that used to be a quarry. The district was constructed by slaves who carved the city and its harbor out of rock.

Now, it remains a labyrinth of corridors and hexagonal courtyards with a few shops strewn here and there. The poorest live in Lowtown typically in caves that are built from the face of the cliff. Lowtown was poorly built and holds scars caused by collapsing walls. The Foundry district of Lowtown bore a thick smoke that covered the area. The musty air was only cleared out by cold winter storms, hardly a relief, Trina would think.

The walls of Lowtown were highest by harbor, and the busiest streets lead up to Hightown, home to Kirkwall's wealthiest. On the other end of Lowtown sat the Docks, and within Lowtown was the Alienage where elves lived, including Merrill. It was also home to the Hanged Man Pub, where Isabela and Varric hung out.

"I guess everyone would be out training by now?" Tori quickened her pace to keep up with Trina. The issue was, Trina wanted to walk fast in order to get used to the armor, not to keep away from anyone in particular. "Maybe I could practice while we walk?" Jade shook her head and the girls eyed her.

"It's a bad idea. Aveline and Donnic say Templars are almost always watching. If they see someone performing magic without trouble, they may rush in and take them to the Circle." Tori flinched and Trina sneered at the thought.

"Over my dead body. No one touches my sister." Tori smiled at her and Jade nodded firmly. They walked into a courtyard with about four houses on top of stairways. She looked over her shoulder for answers from Aveline. Aveline pointed to the house on the right, so she immediately turned and climbed up the steps. "So do we knock first, or…"

"Well Sarah usually just walks in," Aveline joked, "You might want to knock, or you can just enter. Gamlen doesn't usually care either way."

"Well considering everyone thinks I'm Sarah, I guess I shouldn't deviate from the illusion." She knocked first, then pushed open the door. Gamlen was adjusting some portrait on his wall. The older man had grey hair, mild stubble, and a lanky figure. He looked over with piercing sharp eyes that held a strange sadness to them. "Hey Uncle Gamlen, how's it going?"

"Who are you?" The others silenced as he turned around and crossed his arms. She was stunned! Did he seriously not think she was Sarah? How did he see through it when everyone else didn't? "Walking into my house, calling me your Uncle…You aren't my niece, I know my niece. Why are you trying to pretend you're her?" His eyes drifted to Aveline and he cleared his throat. "Aveline. What's going on here?"

"There's been a problem, I'm afraid." Aveline leaned against a nearby wall and Trina crossed her arms. "However this is Sarah's descendent, from another time. We had to find her…"

"I didn't mean to deceive you." Gamlen looked over to Trina with a growing fear in his eyes. She felt a rush of turmoil over what she was about to have to say, this was just a sad looking old man who'd lost his family. She bowed her head and scratched her forehead in thought. "What I'm about to say…Something has happened to Sarah."

"What? Is she okay?" His eyes widened and his hands fell to his sides. "What happened to her? She's alive, right? Tell me she's alive!" Remembering the stories of what happened to Leandra, Sarah's mother and his sister, she wanted to be careful to say a blood mage took Sarah. She didn't want him to start thinking another blood mage serial killer was after his family, even though that was kind of the truth. "Do you even know where she is?"

"We're doing everything we can to find her, to save her, and we will. You see, someone took her, someone from our time. I know it doesn't sound like something you'd believe, time travel, but that's the way it is. Sarah's been taken to someone whose identity we don't know yet, nor do we know the location of."

He cupped his hand over his mouth and stared down at the floor, his body began to tremble and his eyelids snapped shut. "Well then do what you can to find her! What are you waiting for?" Perhaps it wasn't a comfort knowing he had descendents, but at the same time, she could understand how he would be grieving over the loss.

"I'm sorry Gamlen. We're doing everything we can."

"Clearly not if you're here and Sarah's trapped somewhere out there where she could be dying! God knows what her captors want with her!" Trina and Tori exchanged mournful glances, and Jade stepped forward. Jade stood straight, positioning herself as Aveline taught her to stand at attention. Gamlen looked into her eyes, his mouth opened and short, shuddering breaths escaped him.

"We will do everything in our power to find your niece and get her back," Jade closed her hands, "As long as the captors have her, they have leverage. They will not do anything to her. We will find her alive and we will bring her back safe." It was saying a lot to promise this man that they could find Sarah, but that was the best they could do, and the least they could do. Trina wanted him to feel some amount of hope, rather than think there was no hope and fear he lost his family forever. "Until then, it is to your benefit that you know Sarah does have a child…"

"I already know that. How is little Rachel?"

"Safe," Trina answered. Gamlen lit up for the first time, his lips bounced up into a small smile. "She's at the estate, being watched over by the workers there."

"I'm glad. C-Could I go see her?"

Trina gave him a smile, reassuring him, "Anytime you like."

"Thank you. Please…bring Sarah back home safe, and…stop trying to pretend you are her. It's better for everyone's health."

"I would if I could." She wanted say, 'tell that to the bad guys', but didn't think it would get them anywhere in this conversation. As long as people thought she was Sarah, she had to be Sarah. "I'll try to do it less though, Gamlen. Can you think of anything that might possibly help us in finding her?"

"I don't know, I assume she has enemies."

"Yes, we know one of enemies is the one that has done this. Do you think either Meredith or Orsino would have reason at this point to try and silence her?" Gamlen's eyebrows shot up and his lips parted momentarily.

"Are you suggesting the First Enchanter or the Knight Commander of the Templars had something to do with this?"

"No! Not yet." She waved her hands before she started a rumor that Kirkwall's elite were behind Sarah's attack. "I'm just wondering how things are with them right now."

"It could be much worse than it is right now, tensions are high and Sarah was trying to ease the tensions. Since she seemed to be on Meredith's side, I don't see why Meredith would attack her at this point if she was…Orsino? He's in the same boat, neither have shown signs of contempt towards her…Just arguing like a stupid married couple."

"Got to love bitter irony…"

"I suggest if you think they might know something, you ask them. Before everything gets out of hand and you can't get information from them."

"We'll give it some thought." It wasn't a bad point, but it still didn't sound like a good idea right now. She honestly didn't want the inevitable to occur prematurely because Sarah wasn't around. If Meredith knew about Sarah's abduction, she'd accuse mages and attempt to purge them early on. If Orsino knew something, he'd attempt to cover it up and say ignore it or else Meredith might try to accuse the mages in the Circle of something and have more fuel against him.

Both of them would want to keep under wraps any sort of affair of theirs as well. This was to be no easy task.

After assuring him again they'd find Sarah, they left. "That went better than I thought, though I'm still surprised he saw right through the whole 'I'm Sarah' thing."

"He's family," Aveline shrugged, "He knows Sarah well enough to know when someone is lying to him about her. So it makes sense he could tell you weren't her. You don't exactly have her posture down, for one thing…also, you have a slightly lighter skinned complexion."

"I do?" She lifted her arm, gazing at it under the sun. Her ancestor did spend her days in the sun, so it made some since she'd be tanner. "Eh, I'll probably get a tan soon enough. I tan easily, just ask Sinjin…"

Jade rolled her eyes and pat her hands together, "So it's bugging me. Are the two of you an item or what?" Trina raised an eyebrow and turned to her, struggling to open up about her nonexistent love life to this girl. "I mean, if you don't want to talk about it, I understand. I just…I'm curious."

"It's hard to say. I mean…I'd like it, I guess, but…" She shrugged her shoulders and picked up her pace a bit. Did she love him? Yes. Did she want to be with him? Without a doubt. "I guess I'm just scared. I don't know. Me, and relationships don't usually mix well."

"Trina, he wouldn't hurt you," Tori remarked. "I think we both know that. I didn't even know you two were so close until, like, recently…but he seems like he wouldn't hurt you."

"He wouldn't. I just don't want to screw up or do something wrong. But anyway, let's focus on the more important task at hand here…"

Upon arriving at Anders's Clinic, Trina found Sinjin sitting on a crate. Before he could even stand, she ran up to him and threw her arms around his neck. The others watched with subtle smirks and knowing gazes. Sinjin hugged her back and smiled into her eyes.

"How are you guys holding up?" He asked.

"We're good. We stopped by Sarah's Uncle to let him know what's going on, he deserves to know. Also, to have hope. That being said, we've promised now to bring her back safe, so we absolutely can't fail."

"I think we can do this. You'll be great."

"Yeah…I'm going back to the Barracks with Aveline, and um…Jade…" Sinjin looked up and Trina dropped her forehead onto his chest just beneath his chin. She couldn't distinguish exactly how she felt about it, but it wasn't as though she had much choice. Her head lifted back up and her shoulders rose and fell. "Tori's sticking around here to learn from Anders."

"Right. If you need anything, well…" Sinjin looked around the clinic, his lips forming a scowl. "Damn it, there's no way to get in touch with each other…"

"It's all right, I'm sure Aveline's got everything thought out." She hugged him closer, curling her fingers into his hair on the back of his head. He held on to her, tightening his hug. After a few seconds, they broke apart and Trina looked back to Aveline and Jade. Despair was like a knife to the gut, and it was cutting deep into her as she thought of trading Sinjin and Tori for Jade, of all people. She let out a breathless sigh and shook her head. "All right. I got this…stay safe, Sinjin. Try not to kill your ancestor, okay?"

"Oh I'm sure I won't." He crossed his arms and smirked at her, wagging his eyebrows. "Don't kill Jade."

"I'll try not to." She spun around to him and smirked back, her lips tightened and she tilted her head somewhat. "I promise nothing. If she pisses me off, may Aveline hold me back. She did manage to help me out, so I am grateful for that at least."

"Okay, good luck Trina," He laughed. His laugh was a comfort to her, softening the tension inside. She waved and moved beside Aveline, while Tori moved over to Anders and Sinjin.

This was it, no turning back now.

You might look Gamlen up on Youtube and so forth, but I think you got an idea about him. Anyway, hope you enjoyed the chapter