Fitz and the Tantrums - The Walker

One Republic - Rescue Me

Taylor Swift - You Need to Calm Down

No More Kings - Critical Hit

Lorde - Royals

Blue October - Into the Ocean

Chapter Eight:

We left for Val Royeaux Thursday morning before even the birds had a chance to wake up. By horse the ride was approximately five days, we would spend two to three days there and another five days on the return. I could practically feel Jack Frost nipping at me in the gray morning light as we saddled up.

"Are you certain you don't want to ask him to come?" Alistair asked me as he mounted the Inquisition Charger. By him I assumed he meant Fenris.

I shrugged as I went around checking my saddle was put on right and the stirrups weren't too long and loose for me to mount up. My bog unicorn stood a silent sentinel as I went around her. "Do you want to go wake him up and ask him?"

"I wouldn't go asking Broody anything this morning." Varric added from atop his own horse. "He's gone from pissed off and loud back to brooding and silent. Let sleeping elves lie."

"What he said." Emma agreed. She looked up at Bilbo and back at me. "Are you sure this is okay? He's your horse."

"You could ride Boggie with me."

From the gates Solas let out a sleep roughened laugh. "You've named the Bog Unicorn, Boggie?" My undead four legged companion turned its head to Solas as if to ask, 'yeah, and bro?' Solas' laugh cut short as Boggie looked at him with dead eyes. He cleared his throat. "Forgive me, apparently he likes the name."

"She." I corrected with a gentle pat to Boggie's neck. She leaned into the touch. "Good girl."

"I don't think this is going to work." Emma said nervously. "And I've never ridden a horse. Maybe I should just stay?"

Cassandra, already on her horse and looking every bit as exhausted as I felt, gave me that look again. The one that asked me if I really needed this many people in our party. Oh wasn't she in for a surprise.

I nudged Boggie over to Emma and Bilbo. "Bring Bilbo over to the steps and use the steps as a mounting block. He's a good horse, he'll wait."

It took her a couple of tries, but Emma finally got it. She sat atop Bilbo looking quite proud of herself. "Woah, high." She said after looking down. "Really high."

"Not that high." I gently took the reigns from her and settled them properly in her hands. "Think of this just like driving a car. Squeeze a tiny bit with your legs and Bilbo will walk, a little harder goes a little faster. We're not going to go too fast going down the mountain. Just take it easy, keep about the same space as your horse between us and stay with me. Okay?"

"Okay," Emma told me with a nervous half smile.

"Are we ready?" Cassandra asked.

"Lay on Macduff."

"You will one day explain to me who this Macduff is."

"You want to hear the story of a man named Macbeth?"

"Do not get her started on Shakespeare!" Emma cried a second too slow.

I stuck my tongue out at her. "It was storming, lighting and thunder, where three witches enter the scene. They're old, too old to be natural and wicked to look at. They meet in a deserted place, where no one in their right mind would go voluntarily."

Around late morning I began to lose my voice, but I finished the story with a flourish of one sided acting. I lay in the dirt, gripping my short sword pressed against my side.

"He dies!" Varric exclaimed in what I assume was outrage.

"Oh, that was very good." Solas clapped lightly. "The court intrigue, I'd forgotten how twisted it can all become."

"What a crock!" Varric went on, "who's the author? We need to talk. How can they just kill him like that?"

"He had it coming," Alistair said. "Murdering your way to the throne is evil."

"The not being born from a woman part was ingenious." Varric continued almost as if he wasn't really talking to me any more.

Emma sat there glaring at me with an expression that asked, 'really?'

"So that is who Macduff is." Cassandra concluded. "Interesting. You use the term completely out of context."

I propped myself up in the dirt to look at her. "Seriously? That's all you got from the story?"

"I learned a great many things. Namely, not to ask about anything written by this Shakespeare."

"See!" Emma said.

I rolled my eyes at them both, got up and began to dust myself off. "Well that was one of his darker tragedies. Shakespeare did some really light stuff, lots of romance, then some dramatic comedies, and a truly ridiculous amount of poetry."

"Prolific guy, huh?" Varric asked as he cleaned up the last of his midday rations.

"Incredibly." I coughed, rubbing my throat. "Now I'm super thirsty and losing my voice. Gimmie that food."

We'd gone far enough that the snowy ground had transitioned to muddy ground and then dirt and damp grass. The sky had cleared of the morning fog and birds chirped happily from the treeline. I threw some of my bread at the ground near the trees. A few of the braver ones flew down, grabbed some and flew up again. In the distance Lake Calenhad picked up the sun's rays and reflected them back.

"We might be able to make it to Gherlen's Pass." I said to Cassandra, "if we push it."

She shielded her eyes from the sun and looked up at the sky. "If it stays clear, we will continue until an hour after sunset, but the pass is tricky."

"Tricky?" Emma asked after swallowing.

"We're heading into the shadow of the mountains that house Orzammar. It can get cold and dark quickly in the forests below." Alistair told her as he began opening a paraffin wrapped egg.

"Remember that time we had a negative two day at school and we still had to go to classes?"

Her face fell. "Oh god. I remember that. I wrapped my scarf around my face and the moisture from my breath froze on the outside of my scarf!"

"What is negative two?" Solas asked from his perch on a nearby log.

"The temperature. Right now it feels like mid to high thirties, maybe in the low forties. Anything thirty degrees or below is enough to freeze water. Anything below ten or twenty is painfully cold. Anything under zero is negative, meaning less than zero. So a zero degree day endangers you with frostbite. Negative two turns boiling water into snow when thrown in the air."

"And those bastards still held class!" She looked down at her oat bread, dried jerky and cheese. "I miss burritos."

"With guac?"

"And brown rice."

"Double chicken."

Emma groaned. "Chicken."

I handed her another piece of jerky.

With the addition of Emma and Alistair, the Inquisition entourage was a bit more impressive. Emma looked good in browns and cream with accents of blue, her dark hair tied up in a bun at the top of her head. Alistair's gear was finished the morning we left. He stood there in the sunlight on the bridge into Val Royeaux, wearing dark greens and obsidian mail. The sole living heir to a throne to boot? The maidens would swoon.

Swooning was good.

"The city still mourns," Cassandra told us all as bells rang in the distance.

On cue, people began their shock and horror responses to seeing us, or rather, me. Maybe we shouldn't have been wearing Inquisition symbols? Maybe the group was too big?

Nah.

"Just a guess, Seeker," Varric addressed Cassandra, "but I think they all know who we are."

Dry sarcasm from Cassandra. "Your skills of observation never fail to impress me, Varric."

The Inquisition soldier, no doubt from the troops we sent in advance, was heading toward us in a quick lope. "My lady herald." Instead of bowing she knelt on one knee.

I hated the bowing. The kneeling was effing worse. "Up, off the ground." I told her at the same time Cassandra said, "You're one of Leliana's, aren't you? What have you found?"

The kneeling woman looked up at me, then Cassandra and with a touch of uncertainty, she stood. "The Chantry Mothers await you. But…," She paused taking one glance behind her, "So do a great many templars."

Cassandra turned her attention to me. "You knew they would be here."

I shrugged. "Luck and logic."

She eyed me wearing a look that told me she wanted to call me on it.

The recruit kept going. "The people seem to think that the templars will protect them from the Inquisition!" She moved out of the way to make room for us as I took a step forward. "They're gathering on the other side of the market. I think that's where the templars intend to meet you."

"They wish to protect the people? From us?" Cassandra's disbelief almost sounded a bit hurt too.

"With all the tales the Chancellor has been telling them, I'm not surprised." Emma straightened her gloves and smoothed back wisps of hair, "Didn't I say he was a troll on roids?"

"You did say that." I shot a glance to Alistair as we walked past the statues of Andraste and her people. "You good?"

He tugged a little at the neck of his armor. "What is this made of?"

"All the obsidian I could locate."

"Oh." He loosened it a bit again. "Good."

"I did not expect the templars to make an appearance." Cassandra went on as we walked.

"The people may just be assuming what the templars will do." The recruit went on keeping up with Cassandra's angry stride. God her voice was high. "I've heard no concrete plans."

"You think the Order's returned to the fold maybe? To deal with us upstarts?" Varric asked.

Cassandra shook her head. "I know Lord Seeker Lucius. I can't imagine him coming to the Chantry's defense, not after all that's occurred." She paused, so we all paused, and she addressed the recruit. "Return to Haven. Someone will need to inform them if we are...delayed."

The recruit bowed her head. "As you say, my lady." Then another bow to me.

Christ. I hate the bowing.

We cleared the end of the walkway, entering the Summer Bazaar and the guards sent up the warning. When they called out my title, I could practically hear the air quotes. "Yeah, yeah." I muttered at the one that looked like he'd gone full peacock in all that gold armor.

Another minute and we were...oh shit that is a lot of people. I cannot tell you, reader, how many people actually live in Val Royeaux. I can't even tell you how many people were in the courtyard of the Summer Bazaar. What I can tell you is that it was a lot of people.

"Em, I need you to stay between me and Alistair."

She didn't need to be told twice. Without being asked Varric took up a position behind her. I glanced at him. He nodded and adjusted Bianca's strap. Cassandra took the lead while Solas moved inward. The least geared surrounded by those who could take the damage. I kind of wished we'd already picked up Sera, but that would be later today or tomorrow.

There were people praying in the crowd. Some to the Maker to protect them from the evil of the Inquisition. Others to Andraste, asking her to bless the Templars in their fight against the Inquisition's forces. Either way, we were the bad guys.

"Shiny. Let's be bad guys."

Someone heard me, then someone else cried out. The people parted before us with shock and horror. We moved through the throng, heading toward the wooden stage where the Chantry Mothers were already waiting for us with Ser Barris.

"Good people of Val Royeaux, hear me!" Oh yeah, she saw us. Her beady little eyes followed our progress toward the stage with anger. "Together we mourn our Divine. Her naive and beautiful heart silenced by treachery!" The people parted further, many of them taking more than two or three steps back to make room for us. "You wonder what will become of her murderer." One finger pointed toward us. No, more like at me. "Well wonder no more!"

"Drama queen." Emma muttered beside me.

"Behold the so-called Herald of Andraste!" Again with that finger pointing at me. "Claiming to rise where our beloved fell."

"I claim jack and shit, in that order." I called up to her. The final few people fell back and we made it to a couple of feet from the templars guarding the stage. They glared at us too.

"We say this is a false prophet!" She called out to the people, ignoring me. "We say the Maker would send no heretic in our hour of need!"

"Heretic," Varric snorted. "It's not like you're preaching another god."

"No," Solas said bitterly, "but you are of another religion, and that scares many."

Emma elbowed me. "You're supposed to speak up."

I rolled my shoulders, gave my neck a quick crack and stepped up and away from my group. I went around and up on stage. The templars had their hands on their weapons as I did. Ser Barris got in my way. "I won't touch her or anyone else. You have my word."

He waited while the people murmured. While the Chantry Mothers backed away. "If you do…"

"I won't." He moved a step back, enough for me to reach the center stage where the Mother had been denouncing me. I began to strip off my left glove. "I didn't ask for this. I didn't start calling myself the Herald of Andraste. That name was given to me when this," I pocketed the glove and held up my hand, "stabilized the Breach. People were grateful and they gave me the title of Herald. I did not ask them to. All I want to do, all the Inquisition wants to do is close the Breach, stop the spill of demons into the world and find out who tore a hole in the sky." The green line across my palm bled a little energy. "You can label us the enemy. They can label us the enemy. You can tell your children that I am a terrible person, but I'm the one with the power to close the Breach and we are trying our damnedest to find a way to do it."

"It is true!" Cassandra chimed in right on cue. "The Inquisition seeks only to end this madness before it is too late!"

"It is already too late!" The Chantry Mother said.

My left hand, the one with the mark, almost felt tense with the approach of Lord Seeker Lucius. As if it knew the demon was in there. The demon in a human meat suit began to make his way up the stairs.

"The Templars have returned to the Chantry! They will face this 'Inquisition,' and the people will be safe once more!"

I mean, I said I wasn't going to touch anyone, but I saw the punch coming and well… I grabbed the possibly possessed templar's hand before his punch could land. I got in his face when he sneered at me. "Try it."

The Mother drew back terrified. "You were going to hit me!" Her voice was a shocked stage whisper.

He tried to free his hand from my grasp with a hard jerking motion. I used his momentum to bend his arm out of shape and planted a foot in his thigh when his body turned. With a satisfactory POP his shoulder dislocated and he yelled out in pain.

One of the other Sisters on stage drew the Mother away from the violence. Again the Mother said, "He was going to hit me!"

In the meantime the possessed Lord Seeker had gone to Ser Barris. "Still yourself. She is beneath us."

I looked at Ser Barris over the Lord Seeker's shoulder. "Is she really?" What do you call it when you're playing devil's advocate to someone being duped by a demon?

Ser Barris, instead of looking down and away like in his script, met my gaze and then, with a hard, steady glare, watched the possessed Lord Seeker.

I met the Lord Seeker before he could reach center stage. He was big. Like Alistair was big. At least six foot something on my five foot four-ish. I left my left hand ungloved, letting the green energy from it be seen by him. His eyes strayed to it for the briefest of moments. Then he turned to address the crowd of people.

"Her claim to 'authority' is an insult. Much like your own." He was looking down at Cassandra when he said it.

Ooo. That was new.

Cassandra, brow furrowed, went after him as he began to leave the stage. "Lord Seeker Lucius, it's imperative that we speak with-"

"You will not address me."

I grabbed Ser Barris' arm before he could follow. "He's acting strangely, isn't he? Giving orders you normally wouldn't question."

He looked down at my hand silently. My left hand not the one on his arm.

"Some of his closest men like that one," I jerked my head at the one whose arm I dislocated, "are also acting strangely."

Ser Barris' eyes met mine and without actually saying yes, I knew I was right.

I lowered my voice as I leaned in. "My hand is reacting to him. And it only reacts to demons. I'll send a friend to Therinfal Redoubt. Gather up any templar that is willing to leave and be ready to go if you have to. Demons don't just let people go. They fight. They'll want all of you."

"The only destiny that demands respect is mine." The possessed Lord Seeker's voice pulled Ser Barris' attention from me.

I squeezed his arm pulling it back. "The Templars don't deserve what he'll do to all of you."

Ser Barris, either having enough of me or enough of the Lord Seeker pulled his arm firmly from mine. "If you are sent by the Maker, you will come. Until then, I am a templar."

"I was training to be a Templar," Alistair addressed the templars behind Lucius, "and I chose to join the Inquisition. You can too!"

The possessed Lord Seeker stepped up, almost chest to chest with Alistair and stared him down. "I will make the Templar Order a power that stands alone against the void. We deserve recognition. Independence!" He turned and addressed me as I rejoined my group. "You have shown me nothing, and the Inquisition...less than nothing."

I flexed my left hand and the demon's eyes followed.

"Templars! Val Royeaux is unworthy of our protection! We march!" And he did, bumping Alistair with his shoulder as he turned and moved out with the other templars.

"Charming fellow, isn't he?" Varric said to Emma.

"That was fucked up." She said in turn.

"Has Lord Seeker Lucius gone mad?" Cassandra said in shock.

"He's not normally like that?" Alistair said, almost in disgust. "Good to know."

"He was always a decent man, never given to ambition and grandstanding. This is very bizarre."

"He's possessed." I told them all after the templars had gone out of sight.

Solas hmmed over it, rubbing his chin. "That would explain the change in behavior. A corrupted spirit-"

"You should have said something!" Cassandra nearly yelled it at me.

"And risk us, the handful of soldiers we have spotted around, against the Templar Order and nearly two hundred angry, frightened people? In what universe do any of us come out of that confrontation alive?"

"We could have done something." She insisted, a touch of the anger draining from her tone.

"Right. You or Al could have attempted to smite him. The demon goes bonkers, orders the templars to attack. Chaos erupts as people run for cover and we prove the Chantry right. We're the bad guys." I looked out toward the long walkway where the Templars had exited. "Or, I could have used the mark to try to force him out, again, cementing what the Chantry has said." Shaking my head I met her hard, irritated gaze. "I know you don't want to think about it this way, but this is a chess game Cass. And none of us know all the pieces on the board yet. We can't think that taking out a rook will get us a checkmate."

Her shoulders sagged. "I...you are right. Though I am loathe to admit it. We must help them."

"We will." Alistair assured her and gently touched her shoulder. She didn't push him off.

A man wearing long, fancy robes with dark skin approached. "Pardon me, are you not the Herald of Andraste?" He was bumped by one of the people leaving.

The crowd had begun dispersing rapidly once that templar had hit the Mother. Now the stragglers were moving off too.

"That's what they call me."

The mage held out a slim, cream colored envelope with a gold seal. "I have an invitation for you."

"Thank you." I nodded at him. He bowed slightly in return and returned to wherever he came from.

"An invitation? From whom?" Varric asked with much too much interest.

I opened it while leading the way back toward the exit. Lady Vivienne de Fer's handwriting is astoundingly immaculate. Me being a heathen who never really learned script, squinted at it for a moment before I figured out what it said. She was obviously fluent in common. There was a single pen pause in her script.

"If I might have a moment of your time?" A voice asked from behind us.

I turned around, and the others followed suit.

This Fiona, the one that will be erased with time travel magic in a matter of days, paused, before she spoke, her gaze shifted to Alistair. Like any good political figure, she hid her surprise instantly.

She had Alistair's eyes. I mean, her's were bright, almost green, but they both had the same eye shape. Otherwise the Therin/human blood in him was dominant. Her hair was dark, his brown with a little bit of red.

"Grand Enchanter Fiona?" Cassandra spoke up, breaking the seconds of silence.

"Leader of the mage rebellion." Solas took one step closer, watching her with what I'd say was a touch of admiration, "Is it not dangerous for you to be here?"

"I heard of this gathering, and I wanted to see the fabled Herald of Andraste with my own eyes." Though her gaze wasn't exactly on me, rather slightly to my right, where Alistair stood.

"If it's help with the breech you seek," she turned her attention to me, "perhaps my people are the wiser option."

Alistair shifted toward me, his voice low, "Do you really think talking to the leader of the rebellion is a good idea?"

She heard him. Poor woman. Seeing her son for the first time in what was probably all of his life, only for him not to know her. Talk about an emotional rollercoaster.

"I think speaking to the woman who stands up for the rights of others has the right to be heard." I replied. "Or have you already forgotten that you as a member of this Inquisition and a former Warden have been tasked with the responsibility to stop whatever it is causing rifts?"

He turned a pinkish color. "Ah...right." Alistair gave the Grand Enchanter, his mom, that flushed, sheepish look. "I am sorry."

"Go on Grand Enchanter," I told her giving him a meaningful, we're talking later, look. "Before my friend decides to open his big mouth again and insert his other foot."

"Ask about the Conclave," Emma murmured, "you're supposed to ask that." So much for original dialogue. I shot her a glare as Cassandra picked up the conversation.

"Yes," Cassandra said with a touch of accusation. "You were supposed to attend the conclave, and yet somehow you avoided death."

"As did the Lord Seeker," the Grand Enchanter replied, "you'll note. Both of us sent negotiators in our stead, in case it was a trap. I won't pretend that I am not glad to live." The very briefest of glances at Alistair, hidden behind shifting her attention to me. "I lost many dear friends that day. It disgusts me to think that the Templars will get away with it. I'm hoping you won't let them."

"I'm not sure it was them." I told her and the group.

"Lucius hardly seems broken up over his losses, if he's concerned at all." the Grand Enchanter went on. "You heard him. You think he wouldn't happily kill the Divine to turn people against us?"

"Paranoid." Alistair muttered so low I'm pretty sure she didn't hear him.

"So, yes," she said, "I think he did it."

"And I think someone outside of this squabble did it,"I said. "This comes down to one bad guy who has a lot of cover and a lot of reach that's hiding behind the chaos he caused."

"You are certain of this?" Fiona asked me. "Truly certain?"

"I'd bet everything I have on it." I assured her. "Someone is trying to play both sides and I'm going to out them, one way or another."

She nodded at me. "Consider this an invitation to Redcliffe: Come meet with the mages. An alliance could help us both, after all. I hope to see you there." her gaze again shifted that tiny bit to Alistair, "Au revoir, my lady Herald."

"Let us return to Haven," Cassandra said, watching the Grand Enchanter turn a corner and moved out of sight.

"Or," I looped one arm around Emma's left arm and one arm around Alistair's right arm. "Or, we could go to a fancy upscale Orlesian party."

"Party?" Varric perked up. "What kind of party?"

"The kind the Enchanter to the Imperial Court throws."

Zoom, plunk.

There would be Sera. I grabbed the arrow out of the ground.

I have to edit the next chapter, but nine is written and it is coming.

If, and I mean maybe if, I had a Youtube channel would anyone follow/watch? Usually story time because, let's face it. I have A LOT of stories.