Chapter 3 – Fool's Gold
"And what would be the terms of this…arrangement?"
There appeared to be something in Audria's eye. It would explain the rapid blinking, light strobing across her eyeballs making her dizzy and slightly nauseous. The ground appeared to be rising up, threatening to hit her squarely in the face.
Or.
All those symptoms might be due to the sheer rage coursing through her veins as the Grand Enchanter's words entered her ear and then bounced back and forth between the inside of her skull and her tired brain.
Just a thought.
Audria took a simple, single breath, about-faced and began walking towards the door.
"Uhh…Herald?" Varric's voice followed her progress.
"Keep up Fuzzball!" Audria called briefly over her shoulder. "If we walk fast, we should be able to reach Therinfal Redoubt by tomorrow morning."
"Therinfal…" Cassandra began. "But, Herald!"
The doors slamming after Audria was not loud enough, so she turned, and pulled them closed with both fists so hard, the frame rattled. They immediately opened again, yanking the mage off her feet and smashing her nose painfully into the Seeker's emblem of holy flaming eye.
"Herald!" the Seeker was frowning. Audria did not need to see the woman's face. Cassandra could convey a frown without moving a single facial muscle. It was quite a talent.
"What do you mean, 'go to Therinfal Redoubt'?" she asked. "After coming all this way to meet the mages?"
Her nose was bleeding; coldness slid down from Audria's right nostril, over the edge of her lip to fall on her chin. She could smell and taste blood, but the pain was good. Pain was…after all they had been through. All they had seen…red lyrium growing out in spikes from the Grand Enchanter's aged body, adhering her to the dungeon walls as everywhere lay the stench of rotting corpses…foul, greasy water reeking of excrement and death seeping through the eyelets in her boots and wicking up her socks…a single arm; flesh torn from bone hanging from a rusted chain in the ceiling…her companions falling one by one…they'd dragged what had remained of Varric into the hall, a demon carelessly kicking the man's head across the bloodied stone…
She'd seen it all. She'd felt it all. That…monster had done it, never mind that he'd done it to save his son. Trying to cure a child by destroying the world the child lived in. What kind of logic was that? And her. She'd let him do it. Grand Enchanter Fiona. No choice? No bloody choice? That was all she thought she needed to explain it all away?
"Herald."
Audria lifted her head, the Grand Enchanter visible just behind Cassandra's shoulder and behind that, the Tevinter Magister hanging limply between two Inquisition soldiers. For a moment Audria thought she too had been overcome, infected by the red lyrium from her future by the wash of scarlet across her vision.
No.
The rage had to speak.
It needed a voice. It needed to be heard.
Shouldering Cassandra aside, Audria stepped back through the Chantry doors, bringing herself before Grand Enchanter Fiona in quick, angry strides.
"What are the terms of the arrangement?" Audria repeated, each word bitten off between her teeth. "You tell me Grand Enchanter. Tell me what arrangements you would like."
The former Grey Warden turned Grand Enchanter seemed taken aback at first, but rallied quickly. "Well of course-"
"The same kind of arrangements you set up with that…Tevinter – sorry Dorian, no offence-" Audria interrupted harshly.
"Oh none taken, dear Herald. None taken."
"- To enslave every mage you should have protected?" Audria continued without a skip in speech. "The same kind of arrangement you had for every young apprentice you made homeless when you decided to dissolve the Circles? The same kind of arrangement you had for every elderly mage too old to cast a useful spell? The same one for every Tranquil across Thedas because it was too difficult to give a damn about someone who'd had their personality removed?"
"We had no choice, Herald!" Fiona all but screamed at her.
"No choice, no choice, no choice!" With every word Audria stepped closer until she was nose to bloodied nose with the older mage. "After being given sanctuary by this country, you not only bite the hand that feeds you, you tear it off completely, crap out the bits you don't want then lift your leg on the whole lot and piss on it? What choice did the Arl and his family have when you and your Alliance stole his village and lands? What choice did these villagers have when you showed them all how trustworthy mages are and kicked them out of their homes?
"Do not speak to me of choice, Grand Enchanter," Audria gritted, fighting a sudden urge to vomit. "And I'll not speak of terms of any arrangements to you or anyone else here because I've changed my mind."
Audria stepped back, breathing hard and clutching at her guts because she really was going to throw up; salty saliva pooling at the back of her mouth. The Grand Enchanter looked even more surprised than previously, but not as much as Audria's companions appeared to be.
"I don't need you," Audria told the senior mage, swallowing hard. "I don't want you."
Grand Enchanter Fiona's mouth opened. Audria could see it in the other woman's eyes: but we have nowhere to go…
"But, Herald..."
"There. Is. A. Hole. In. The. Flippin'. Sky," Audria hissed. "With demons pouring out of it," she added with another – emergency - swallow. "Not soft cushions and free cocktails on the hour every hour for every…sodding…mage."
Jerking her head back, she spat: "Goodbye."
Another sharp turn had Audria facing the exit once more. She wobbled unsteadily but hastily towards it, shot out through the doors, rounded the corner of the Chantry building and managed to make it as far as the Sisters' vegetable patch in time to empty the scant contents of her stomach in as explosive a manner as was involuntarily possible. Wiping her mouth on the back of her hand, Audria leaned her head against Chantry wall. Cool and gritty and musty with age and the frequent rainy weather of Ferelden, the sensation was a balm to her throbbing head.
Even the sound of someone clearing their throat behind her did not cause Audria to remove her forehead and that someone patting her awkwardly on her back did not either.
"The Templars have already heard of the Inquisition's decision to approach the mages," Cassandra reminded her softly after a while. "It is likely they will not speak to us."
Audria closed her eyes.
"I know," she sighed.
"Then…"
Audria turned slowly, leaning her shoulders against the stone and shivering despite the sun bearing down on her face.
"We return to Haven," Audria told the warrior. "And prepare as best we can."
"But without either the Mages or the Templars…" Cassandra's eyes narrowed as her sentence ended abruptly. She folded her arms and regarded the Herald with a keen look. "You have a plan," she stated.
"Nope," Audria said, the 'p' making a popping noise as she spoke it. "No plan."
"But-"
"If the mages choose to follow and choose to help the Inquisition to close the Breach," Audria said with a shrug, launching herself from the wall. "Then well…it'll be their choice, won't it?"
Pushing her hair irritably off her face, she inhaled deeply and cast her gaze towards the long stretch of dock and abandoned boats beside the waters of Lake Calenhad. "But first I need to light a pyre."
"A pyre?" Cassandra exclaimed. "What for?"
Audria had already begun to move past the Seeker. She paused, looking down at her feet. "For the Tranquil," she explained. "Sera found them in a locked warehouse down by the docks. Skulls really; about a hundred of them, along with documentation detailing how the Tevinter were - are - turning them into some kind of seeing-device…Huh." She snorted, lifting her face to the sun. "All these mages and they want to know what they can get from the Inquisition. One Tranquil and all he wanted was to be able to help us. Clemence, his name is. Was very keen to join." She turned to Cassandra. "What does that tell you?"
Cassandra scowled. "It tells me the Tevinter are as monstrous as we thought."
Ignoring the Seeker's statement, Audria continued her way down the path. "It tells me the Tranquil had no choice, Seeker."
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