Dragon Age: Revengeance

ACT I

Chapter 9

Isabela gave up trying to pick the lock to their cell and half-heartedly kicked the door. "It's no use," she said, "They've petrified the lock. I'd need a hammer and chisel to open this."

Hawke scowled. "Why did it have to be blood mages? I hate blood mages."

"What about Merrill?"

"That's different, Merrill is nice." She sighed heavily. "I suppose I better call her and let her know how it went."

The pair had been searched for weapons before being thrown into the cell, but the search had been perfunctory; the Venatori blood mages clearly didn't fear them escaping. Especially now that their god had awakened. Hawke withdrew the elven sending stone Merrill had given her and squeezed it until it glowed.

"Merrill, Hawke here, come in please."

After a few moments Merrill's cheerful voice emanated from the red crystal. "Hawke! How is the mission going?"

"Not well, I'm afraid."

Isabela snorted. "That's an understatement if ever there was one."

Hawke ignored her. "Listen, we've been captured by Venatori blood mages. Do you think you could send a rescue party? We're locked up in one of the cells and the lock has been turned to stone."

"That doesn't sound good. Oh! I have an idea though. I've been meaning to test something out, and this sounds like the perfect opportunity. Sit tight, Hawke, help is on the way!"

"Don't you think you should have mentioned Razikale?" said Isabela, as Hawke put the sending stone away.

"Nah. I'm sure a Tevinter Old God has more important things to worry about than little old us."

After she said this, the entire fortress shook violently, as if from an earthquake. Moments later the tremors subsided. Hawke brushed stone dust from her shoulder and frowned.

"You know, like redecorating."

"What's the word?" said Shokrakar.

"Hawke and Isabela are alive," explained Merrill, "But they've been captured by Venatori blood mages, and we need to rescue them."

Shokrakar looked from Merrill to her fellow Valo-Kas, then back again. "How? We have no defence against blood magic."

Merrill raised a finger to indicate that she should wait, then disappeared below decks. After a few minutes she returned with a bowl of glowing liquid. Shokrakar regarded it uneasily.

"Do I even want to know what that is?"

"Lyrium Vitaar!" Merrill declared brightly. "I've been working on it ever since you came aboard. Not only will it protect you from physical harm like a normal Vitaar, it should also protect you from magic, including blood magic. In fact it should greatly increase all of your physical abilities, and allow you to shift partially into the Fade. I took inspiration from an old friend named Fenris, he has these Lyrium markings you see-"

Shokrakar held up her hands to silence her. "Understood. So we paint ourselves with this new Vitaar, storm Aeonar through the Eluvian, kill all the blood mages, then bring Hawke and the Admiral back alive. Simple."

"Yes." Merrill hesitated. "Except … no."

"No?"

"Umm, there's just one slight problem."

"Explain."

Merrill held up the bowl. "I only have enough of this to use on one of you. And I don't have the ingredients to make more. Sorry."

Shokrakar sighed. "It's going to be one of those days." She began to remove her armour. "Fine, I shall go alone."

"Oh, I can come with you," said Merrill. "I know how to defend myself from blood magic, you see."

"Very well. Try not to get possessed. I would hate to have to kill you."

Merrill smiled. "Aww, how sweet." She raised the paint brush from the bowl of Lyrium. "Now this might sting a little..."

The two Venatori mages never saw what hit them. Shokrakar struck them with such swiftness that they were dead before their bodies hit the floor. And that was with her bare hands. She regarded the Lyrium paint with interest, turning her hands back and forth.

"Impressive," she said.

"My word, you've killed them both," Merrill astutely observed, bending to examine the remains. "That must be because of the hardening of the skin. Vitaar is fascinating!"

"Focus," Shokrakar insisted. "We are here on a rescue mission. Which way?"

"Oh yes!" She withdrew her sending crystal. "Hawke, this is Merrill. We're inside Aeonar now."

"We?" said Hawke.

"Yes, I brought Shokrakar with me. She just punched two Venatori to death. Do you know where you are?"

"I'm in a cell, inside a prison." There was some hushed whispering before she spoke again. "Right, try searching for a cell where the lock has been turned to stone. That'll be the one we're in."

"Copy that, Merrill out."

Shokrakar regarded her with bemusement. "Copy that? Merrill out?"

Merrill shrugged. "I don't know, it just felt like a covert, military type thing to say. Isn't that how you soldiers speak?"

"No."

As they continued to search the dimly lit hallways of Aeonar, they encountered three more Venatori. As each one tried and failed to exert control with their blood magic, Shokrakar Fade Stepped up to them and attacked. The first she slammed into the wall with such force that his skull fractured. The second reacted about as well as could be expected when headbutted by a horned giant. The third drew a dagger and tried to stab her, much to her amusement. She broke his arm and drove his own dagger into his face.

They found the cell they were looking for several minutes later. One lone Venatori mage was guarding it. Shokrakar dropped on him from above and twisted his head clean off. She tossed the head away as Merrill ran up to join her.

"You're very good at this," she said.

"I get paid to be," Shokrakar replied. She turned to regard the heavy cell door, and then phased her fist through the lock, displacing it into a thousand pieces as she rematerialised. The door swung open easily. Isabela emerged, glancing from the broken lock to the painted Qunari mercenary.

"Well look at you," she said, "You're positively glowing."

Hawke appeared behind her and rolled her eyes. "Very good. Can we leave now?"

They retraced their steps and returned to the dusty storeroom containing the Eluvian.

Formerly containing the Eluvian. It was gone now.

Merrill scratched her head in puzzlement. "That's odd. It was definitely here when we arrived. Who could have moved it?"

"Umm, I think you all better come and take a look at this," Isabela called out. By following her voice they found she had made her way up a spiral staircase to the battlements outside. One by one they joined her and stared in bewilderment at what they saw.

"Well," said Hawke after a strained silence, "That explains the tremors we felt earlier."

Aeonar was no longer occupying the same position it had. Some force had lifted the entire fortress from the ground, and was now propelling it – alongside a sizeable chunk of ground upon which it sat – through the sky.

It was now a flying fortress.