Dragon Age: King in Exile

Part Twenty

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A/N: Hi again. I'm sure you all thought this was abandoned forever! I'm trying not to, but with a demanding job and a demanding toddler, time to write is hard to come by. I can't say when I will post again, only that I intend to do so eventually! Thank you if you are still reading! I appreciate you.

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King Cailan has written Alistair into the succession and is ready to recognize him publicly. Loghain will do almost anything to keep that from happening. The darkspawn give him the perfect opportunity. Alistair/Cousland, featuring F!Tabris.

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Disclaimer: Nothing you recognize from Dragon Age belongs to me.

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Kallian and Leliana stared at the place the trail had been. Seeing it now, no one would guess a road had cut through only yesterday. The trees and rocks spread as far as the eye could see. There were no gaps in the underbrush. No path. Nothing to direct them out.

Kallian, unable to tear her eyes away, reached out for Leliana's arm. "Mages," she muttered. "I need mages."

She felt Leliana slip from her grasp and heard her move quickly to the tents. Muffled voices became clearer and Kallian noticed Morrigan stepping up beside her.

"This… should not be possible," the witch said, incredulity straining her voice.

"Is it an illusion?" Kallian asked, glancing beside her.

"It is not an illusion," Wynne said as she came up behind them. "But there is magic here."

"Tis not a spell," Morrigan jumped in, refusing to be upstaged by a circle mage. "The magic is ambient. Imbued in the ground, the trees, and the air."

"I agree," said Wynne. "It seems the most unbelievable explanation must be the correct one. Those werewolves suggested that the forest had defenses. Perhaps it is inevitable that we became lost."

Kallian huffed. "We need to find the road again, and quickly! I don't want to spend another night in this void-damned place." She turned back to the tents, to begin waking the others. They needed to get moving as soon as possible.

…

It took an hour of searching to find the road, which was less time than Kallian had feared. She could see that her party now refused to stray from the path for anything of interest, no matter how near the path. She wanted to tell them to stop being stupid, that they couldn't disappear while she was standing on the path watching them, but… well, none of them had seen magic like this before.

Strange ruins became more common as they ventured deeper into the forest. None were large enough to be the ruin they searched for. A temple, Lanaya had said. Most of what they saw were crumbling remains like a single pillar or a set of stairs climbing to nowhere. Piles of marble bricks, laying where they had fallen, reclaimed by the creeping green of the wood.

One set of pillars surrounded a small, inviting clearing, and Kallian decided to initiate a break in the journey. "We'll watch the road," she told them, rolling her eyes at their hesitation. They all needed a bite to eat and to rest their legs. Trust her party to not appreciate good leadership when it was right in front of them.

They began to relax a little as the trail appeared to stay where it was. Leliana wandered a little further than the others, examining something in the tall grass at the far end of the clearing.

Kallian watched the redhead waved Alistair over, who'd been walking nearby with his wife's dog. They were leaning over something low in the grass. The dog, a few paces behind, started to growl.

Kallian took a couple steps towards them, watching, as Leliana reached out to touch whatever they were studying.

As she did, a shadow seemed to form and rise behind them, something tall and dark.

The dog barked a warning, but Kallian was already running. "Behind you!" she cried. The shadow formed into a towering figure in ancient armor as the two turned.

Alistair got his shield up just in time as the creature swung a bone sword down upon them. Kallian could hear movement behind her now and hoped it was the others, coming to help. Leliana ducked away as Alistair attempted to hold the creature off, but its powerful swings pushed him stumbling back. Kallian swore at them being caught off-guard. They should have never let their guard down at all, not here of all places.

Elissa's dog jumped at the creature just as Kallian reached them, and she made use of the distraction to stab it from behind. It let out an unearthly howl, making them all reel back at the piercing sound.

Kallian glanced behind her as she heard Morrigan cry out. She and Wynne seemed to be fighting against an invisible force, violently drawing them towards the creature. Sten, coming up between them, grabbed them both and kept them from being pulled further.

Breathing her relief, Kallian turned her focus back to the ghostly figure, who was keeping Alistair on the defensive. Zevran, appearing by her side, joined her in seeking out weak spots in the monster's armor while it's focus was held by the warrior.

Leliana and Elissa did their best to keep the creature distracted, firing arrows to keep it off-balance and unable to follow through on each dangerous swing towards Alistair.

It was Sten who made the final blow, striking the being's head from its shoulders as he came up from behind. Another unearthly screech rang out before it fell to the ground, no more now than a pile of bones. A dark smoke rose from the bones and drifted away like a cloud on the breeze.

"What was that?" Alistair asked as Elissa worriedly checked him for injuries. He was panting. "It was so strong!"

"It was a revenant, I believe," Wynne said, seeming out of breath herself. "A demon who has possessed a corpse. What caused it to appear?"

Leliana stepped forward. "I was examining this gravestone," she said, motioning behind her. "It was covered in runes, and the air around it felt strange."

"Magic," Sten scoffed, moving back towards the trail—which, mercifully, was still in place.

Kallian shook her head. "Take a breather and don't touch anything else. We're moving on soon."

Maker, she hated the woods.

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The ruins seemed to appear before them out of nowhere.

Alistair was sure there had been no sign of them anywhere in sight, and then they appeared around a turn in the trail. They rose up, dark and looming. It could be nothing else but the temple they sought.

"That's our temple," Kallian murmured. "Let's get to it." She walked up to the door fearlessly.

Alistair heard something in the brush, and turned to look. He thought he saw something scurrying away, but couldn't be sure. He shivered.

When he looked back, Sten was beside Kallian, slowly pulling open the great wooden door. With a deep breath, Alistair followed them inside. Sometimes he couldn't believe where this path had led them. A year ago, he'd been a templar in training with no hope of ever escaping the Chantry. He wondered where he would be in another year.

The party came through a small dark vestibule into a great hall with light pouring in from high windows and fires burning in the braziers. It was larger and more beautiful than any chantry Alistair had seen—or would have been more beautiful if the stone wasn't crumbling under their feet. He shared a look of surprise and awe with Elissa beside him. It was amazing that such a place had stayed hidden in the forest all this time!

"Someone's been here recently," Kallian said, ever practical. "Guess we're in the right place."

She led them down slowly into the room and further into the ruin. It was slow going, examining each hall and room. Some were collapsed, some overgrown. Some contained living skeletons and ghostly apparitions. The spiders, rats, and wolves were the least of their worries. The wind whistled around the ruin and through it, and they sometimes heard howls or moans that could have been wind… or werewolves.

"I wonder what this ruin used to be?" Wynne said, breaking through the near silence. "Is it Tevinter? Or elven?" No one answered.

Staircases led downward, unto the ground. The only light anymore was from braziers and torches. The warm light never quite touched the corners of the room. Wynne lit her staff, and Morrigan followed closely after, lighting the path ahead.

The sounds of the wind seemed further away, but there were other sounds in this underground ruin. Whispers, stone scraping stone. Echoes of something far away.

Alistair glanced behind him. Every member of the party seemed on high alert. Zevran's steps were so quiet Alistair had forgotten the assassin was following. Leliana, too, was nearly silent in her Dalish boots.

They all stopped as they saw what looked like a child run into the hallway ahead of them.

It spoke some sort of elven, sounding distressed. "Ma halani! Se vara iassa'val! Nae mal!" And then it disappeared into a white wisp, making Alistair jump.

Kallian let out a huff. "Of course this place is haunted. Why wouldn't it be?" She didn't bother quieting her footsteps as she trudged onward in visible irritation.

"Does anyone know what he said?" Elissa asked quietly.

"Twas ancient elven," Morrigan answered. "I do not speak the language."

"It does not matter," Sten said firmly. "We are not here for ghosts."

They continued down the hall, checking every side passage and room. They found the occasional treasure, but were more likely to find rats, spiders, or more of those awful animated skeletons.

Though they'd been fighting them since Redcliffe, Alistair couldn't get used to it. "Still creepy," he grunted as he smashed one with his shield.

They turned a corner to see a doorway into another great hall. Its walls were crumbling, wrapped in roots thicker than tree trunks. Light poured down from windows so high above that they could barely see them. And in the center of the room, on a large circular dais, the ghostly child waited again.

It seemed not to see them as it look around in distress. "Mamae? Mamae na mara san…"

"Can you hear me?" Leliana asked, her voice soft and kind. "What are you doing here?"

The child didn't acknowledge her, and only became more agitated. "Mamae… Mamae!" It turned again into a fleeing wisp, and the bones around the edge of the room began to rattle and form.

"Maker's balls," Kallian muttered, and they all readied their weapons.

"Do you think the ghost brought them to life?" Zevran asked casually as he thrust his dagger at the first skeleton to approach them.

"Mere proximity is more likely," Wynne said, in a tone Alistair thought sounded like the beginning of a teacher's lecture. "A single child's spirit could hardly animate this number." She fired an arcane blast that sent bones flying in all directions.

Morrigan glared at Wynne as she dodged the bones flying her way. "Only if the spirit truly is a child. One cannot always trust their eyes, you know," she said acidly, never ready to concede any point to the older mage.

"I have seen nothing yet to suggest the spirit is anything but what it appears to be," Wynne disagreed.

Before Morrigan could form a retort, Kallian yelled at them both. "Less arguing, more fighting!"

As no one liked to anger Kallian, they both turned their focus towards destroying the last few skeletons.

They went deeper into the ruin, searching through tombs and emptying side rooms of small treasures until they reached an ornately carved door. It opened into another large room, with carved statues in alcoves on the walls, what looked to be a small altar, and a pool of clear, sparkling water in the center.

"What is this place?" Alistair asked, looking around in wonder.

"It's beautiful," Leliana agreed, stepping forward beside him.

"It's a trap," Zevran added.

That stopped everyone short. He motioned to the door behind him, which now had a shimmering magical barrier sealing it.

"What?" Kallian snapped. She ran back to the door, slamming her fists against the barrier. Crackling light spread across the barrier where she hit. She ran to the far door, which wouldn't budge. "Mages! Fix this!" She waved wildly at the doors.

As the others examined the two doors and looked for other exits, Alistair felt a hand come down on his arm. He turned to see his wife beside him.

"Will you take a look at this with me?" she asked. She pulled him towards the small pool, and held up a carved tablet. "I found this in one of the alcoves. I think it's a ritual meant to be performed here, with the water and the altar."

Alistair examined the tablet. It depicted elves around an altar with a jug of water atop it. The elves seemed to be worshipping, or perhaps praying. Then it depicted one drinking from the jug, then that one standing in the pool, pouring the jug of water back into it. A small earthenware jug, just like the one depicted on the tablet, stood next to the pool.

"What do you think it will do?" he asked.

Elissa shrugged. "It couldn't hurt, right?"

He wasn't so sure about that, but regardless he was ready to follow her lead. She handed him the tablet and knelt at the side of the pool. Focusing on her, the sounds of Kallian's yelling and the others around the room seemed to fade away.

Elissa took the jug and filled it from water in the pool, then stood and went to set it on the altar. The altar was small and unobtrusive, with tattered banners laid across it. With a nervous glance at Alistair, she knelt before the altar. He could see her lips moving silently in some kind of prayer. Then she stood, took a sip of water from the jug, and walked back over to the pool.

"Here goes nothing," she said, and poured the water slowly back into the pool. As the last drop hit the surface of the water, the jug shattered in her hand. Elissa cried out in surprise as the pieces fell down into the pool.

"What the—" Alistair turned as he heard voices going up in shock behind him.

"It's open!"

Leliana ran breathlessly from the large metal door on the far side of the chamber. "The passage is open! We can keep moving through."

"What happened?" Kallian asked. "What triggered it?"

Elissa winked at Alistair. He smiled back. He'd let her have her fun.

The metal door had opened to a large, ornate burial chamber, filled with sarcophagi and complex, beautiful carvings. When they reached the most ornate tomb, raised higher than the others, a ghost appeared. Not the child that they'd seen before, but a grown woman. She spoke what seemed to be the same ancient elven, crying out for something before transforming into a shade and attacking.

As Alistair wiped off his blade, dropping with strange, demonic ichor, he wondered if the ghosts would be a mystery they would never uncover.

They found an open passage beneath the raised platform that held the tombs, and went through. It led to a small room with a strange, black pool at the center. He looked at Elissa who merely shrugged. She had no mysterious rituals to solve this one. The room appeared to have no other exit—it was a dead end.

Kallian sighed in irritation. "What now? We've explored pretty much this whole ruin, as far as I can tell. Where are these stupid werewolves hiding?"

Morrigan ignored her and moved towards the strange pool. She knelt beside it and reached down into the blackened water.

"Don't!" Leliana was beside her in a moment. "You don't know what it is!"

Morrigan smirked at the woman beside her. "I know exactly what this is," she said. She pulled her hand out of the liquid, and it was dry. "An illusion. A powerful one, I do not believe I can dispel it. But I have no need to. There are stairs here."

She stood, and took a step into the pool. True to her word, she went down a hidden staircase, disappearing below the murky water.

Kallian smiled a sharp, fierce grin. "Let's go."

She followed Morrigan through the illusion, down into the unknown.

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