Hero of Two Worlds

by IvoryMage

Betrayed and left for dead by the woman he trusted and loved more than anything, Vardall Amell thinks this is the end for him. But when a mysterious voice echoes inside his mind, guiding him to an Eluvian and he ends up on the continent of Tamriel, at the same time an ancient black-winged evil returns, The Hero of Ferelden discovers his destiny is far greater than he ever imagined

17. I'm Not Calling You A Liar

First of all, Merry Christmas to everyone and a happy and marvelous New Year.

Secondly, this chapter's title was taken from a song with the same name, "I'm Not Calling You a Liar". A remix of this song plays during Dragon Age 2 ending credits, and I strongly recommend all of you to hear, besides being really good, it inspired me a lot to write this chapter.

And finally, I did some changes on the first chapter, because I changed my mind about something really big that will happen in this story.

---

"I TOLD ALL OF YOU THAT WAS A BAD IDEA!" Andrew shouted while he was walking and breathing desperately. "You said no one could survive, and besides one Warden surviving, other THREE saw us!"

"Can you please calm down!?" Kaelyn holds Andrew by his shoulders, making him look at her and stop moving. "You are not helping here!" Kaelyn leaves Andrew and returns to help William to remove the arrow that Warden hit on his shoulder.

But Andrew was right in one point. This was to be something quick and simple: Kill Anders and the other Wardens to leave no witnesses. If it wasn't for the arrival of those other Wardens, this would have been a success, but now the group had one dead member, another one who was wounded, and no guarantee that Anders was truly dead.

Kneeling besides William, Kaelyn gently holds the arrow that was on his shoulder. "I'm gonna to pull it out at once, okay?"

William nods reluctantly. "Do it."

Kaelyn nods, puts her hand on William's other shoulder to support, tightly holds the arrow and pushes it. William screams and grunts in pain, heavily breathing. Quickly, Kaelyn gives him a Health Poultice, which Wiliam swallows at once and immediately feels much better and warm.

Kaelyn smiles a little. "Better?"

"Yeah... I just need to rest a little." Kaelyn applies some bandages and helps him to lay down. Meanwhile, Graham finally lights a fire, making everyone feel a little better. Sometime later, the group is reunited around the fire while William sleeps.

"What are we gonna do now?" Lindley asks Kaelyn. "We can't return to the Circle tower, it would raise a lot of questions."

"Not to mention the fact that if the Wardens find out Templars did this, that will be the first place they'll look at." Andrew says.

Kaelyn sighs. "We need to stay low for a while." She thinks a little. "Lucky for us I know a good place."

The whole group was listening. "Where?" Graham asked.

"My father's lands." Different from the other ones, who were all commoners and from simple families, Kaelyn was daughter of a minor Bann from the Bannorn, called Lloyd Gilmore. His lands were quite isolated, making there a good, and most logical place to hide.

Lindley thinks for a moment. "If that place is all what you already told me about, it would be perfect for us."

She nods. "It is. Let's rest more and make our journey there tomorrow morning."

And so they spend the rest of the day and night camping, getting ready to move to Kaelyn's father's lands in the next hours. Little do they know that they are just bringing death and destruction to that place.

# # # # # # # #

Leliana didn't have any idea how much she needed that, how much she needed to feel Vardall's touch again. She woke up hours later, after this having been the best night's sleep she had in months. Touching the other side of the bed, she does not feel Vardall there, so sitting up and looking at her surroundings, she finally spots him on a chair, already wearing his clothes and reading a book.

Vardall notices that Leliana has awakened and stops focusing on his book, looking at her. "How do you feel, Songbird?" He smiles gently.

Leliana gives him a little naughty smile. "I'm fine. I'll never grow tired from the Grey Wardens' stamina."

Vardall laughs high. "That I can assure." So he returns his full focus to the book in his hands. Leliana gets a little curious, so she gets up, wears her underwear and goes to Vardall's direction.

"What are you reading?" She puts her two hands on Vardall's big shoulders. He sighs before answering. "Avernus' old research."

"The Warden mage we meet on Soldier's Peak?" Leliana raises one eyebrow.

He confirms. "Yes, him. This... tells on details the experiments and tortures he did on his fellow Wardens."

Leliana almost sounded disgusted with that. "Why do you have such a thing with you?"

"After I sent him all the notes I could find on the Architect's Lair to help with his new, and now ethical research, I requested him to send an old copy of his previous research." Vardall shrugs. "And I can believe I'll say such a thing, but... It's almost too bad he didn't had more subjects to finish this."

Leliana opens her eyes wide and walks away a little from her husband. "How can you say this? Do you remember all that we saw on that fortress, all that death?"

"I'm not saying all the slaughter Avernus did was correct or justified, because it was not." He looks back to Leliana. "But on the other hand, he was the Warden who came the closest to developing a cure to the Calling, and that I can't ignore."

Vardall gets up from his chair. "His experiments were barbaric, but at least it gave me a start." He walks until Leliana, the book still on his hand. "With this, someday I may be able to find a cure, and that means you don't have to worry about me dying too soon." He says that last part with a little smile, but Leliana didn't share his feelings.

"I'm still not so sure..." She dodges her gaze.

"I have to make sure the deaths of all those Wardens weren't in vain." Vardall says. "Using this knowledge to cure us from this curse that is the tainted blood is the right thing to do."

Vardall had a strong point. Discard this knowledge would be like all those deaths were in vain, what would be worse. Leliana sighs. "Just... promise me you'll use this wisely and not do the same way Avernus did."

He laughs. "Do you truly know me, Songbird? Trust me. You know I never take a life without a reason."

That wasn't entirely true. While Vardall truly does not kill indiscriminately , he still was very young and someone who had too much accumulated rage. He could turn aggressive and let his rage take the best of him by the slightest action of offense, directed to him or anyone he likes, and that was what made him do some things, like Marjolaine, who Leliana decided to let it live, but Vardall killed her even so. Not to mention when he killed Brother Genitivi inside the Temple of Sacred Ashes, not because he wanted to protect the Urn of Sacred Ashes, but because he didn't wanted the Chantry to earn something that would help them to spread their religion even more. Leliana is sure that if it wasn't for her being there that day, Vardall would have destroyed the Urn without any hesitation.

Leliana then went back to dress her clothes while Vardall cleaned the mess they left on the table because of the drinks they're drinking. When she had just finished dressing herself, someone started to knock on the door very quickly.

"Vardall! Vardall!" Vardall recognised Nathaniel's voice on the other side of the door, yelling almost desperately. He promptly opens the door and he and Leliana spots Nathaniel with his eyes open wide and deeply breathing.

All of this worried both the Warden-Commander and the Orlesian bard. "What's wrong, Nathaniel!?"

"You have to come with me, now." Without saying nothing more, Nathaniel turns around and starts walking quickly.

"Wait!" Vardall looked quickly to Leliana and started to follow his friend, Leliana right behind him. "What's going on?"

Nathaniel slightly looks at Vardall, still walking quickly. "While I was patrolling together with Velanna and Sigrun, we heard sounds of battle somewhere near us. Going there, we saw Anders, Justice, Oghren and your Mabari being attacked by a group of six mysterious people."

Vardall immediately opened his eyes wide when he heard that. "What!?" He started to get concerned that Nathaniel was acting this way because someone had been hurt, perhaps even Sif. Leliana also was concerned after hearing that.

Following Nathaniel a little more, Vardall and Leliana arrive near a part of Vigil's Keep that was dedicated to the treatment of wounded people, and that only made Vardall even more worried. Things get worse when, arriving on the door, Nathaniel hesitates on open then turns to look to Vardall. "I... Just be prepared to see this, Vardall." This now was enough. Vardall quickly pushes Nathaniel to the side and quickly enters the room.

And he definitely wasn't prepared for what was inside there.

Inside the room, it was laying down the lifeless bodies of Oghren, Justice and Sif, one on each other's side. Vardall was totally non-believer with what he was seeing, opening his mouth, his breathing becoming ragged at the same time his hands started to shake.

He promptly starts to shake his head in denial. "No..." Leliana also saw that scene. She gasps and puts both her hands upon her mouth. Vardall wasn't able to blink once he approached Sif's body and saw the wounds and all the blood the Mabari had upon his skin and fur. He ignored the bodies of his other friends while he touched Sif, feeling he now was cold.

He didn't want to believe it. Vardall didn't want to believe this was real. He wanted all of this to be a nightmare, and that he would wake up any moment on his bed, with Leliana on his side. But this wasn't a nightmare, it was real, and when Vardall finally accepted this, tears began to fall from his eyes.

"No, no, no, no, no..." Vardall just stands there, without dodging the gaze from the body of his best friend. Suddenly, he feels a hand upon his shoulder, and slightly looking to his side, he sees Leliana, looking with concern to him. She could see the sorrow behind her husband's eyes. Without thinking twice, Vardall hugs Leliana and desperately tries to hide his head between her neck and shoulder. The Orlesian bard felt his tears running down her skin and Vardall's irregular and desperate breathing, but she didn't care for that, as all she wanted was to support and comfort the man she loved the most.

Nathaniel could only watch as Leliana started to run her hand upon Vardall's hair and started to whisper a little elven song in his ear, doing all that was in her power to calm him. After several minutes that looked more like an eternity, Vardall was able to better control his feelings. He still was incredibly sad and some tears still were falling from his eyes, but now he was able to better focus on things. He then changed his attention to Oghren and Justice's body, also touching them and feeling the same cold he felt on Sif.

Even that the biggest shock to Vardall was his Mabari's death, it doesn't mean the death of both Justice and Oghren didn't made him sad, it as just that, while he shared a good friendship with Justice and a great friendship with Oghren, the connection Vardall had with Sif was much, much bigger, being only surpassed by his love for Leliana.

"But..." Vardall finally manages to speak. "Who did this?"

"Templars." Suddenly, a voice echoed around the room. Looking in its direction, Vardall spots Anders next to Nathaniel.

"Anders!" Vardall quickly walks until his friend, also worried. "How are you feeling? Are you..."

Anders lifts his hand, while using his other one to hold his belly. "I'm fine, Vardall. At least now." He then moves until a chair is close to them, limping while walking. He lets out a relieved grunt after finally sitting down. "We need to talk." He then explained everything about the ambush and Justice getting into his body, now he was talking about his mysterious attackers.

"One of them used a Templar technique to prevent me from using my spells." Anders keeps explaining. "And even if it wasn't for that, I recognised one of them."

"How?" Leliana asked. "You said they're using helmets that cover their faces."

"Justice was able to kill one of them before the others ran away. We brought his body back to Vigil's Keep and I was able to take a very good look at his face." Anders talks to them. "His name was Edric, Edric Wolfee, and I remember him as a Templar from the tower. He was a pretty close friend to all the Templars who died here on the day we met. Probably he thought I was the one who killed them, just like those who were together with King Alistair."

Vardall dodges his gaze. "So... your attackers were Templars?"

Anders nods. "Yes. They already tried to ambush us and capture me again in Amaranthine, Vardall, you were there. Now instead of capturing me, they tried to kill me. And they would have succeeded if it wasn't for the others and Justice."

Vardall still was processing all what Anders told him. Templars tried to kill one of his friends, making three of them lose their lives in the process. He had a lot of accumulated hate for the Chantry and mainly for the Templars, because of all the abuse they constantly do with mages and their endless stupidity in messing with matters to which they have no right. The Grey Wardens were an independent organization that even accepted blood mages on their ranks, the Templars had no rights over them.

Putting it all together, Vardall has reached his limit. Something inside him awakened, as all the hate and rage he'd ever felt was released at once, obscuring and replacing all his feelings.

He closes his hands into fists and strongly grinds his teeth. "That's it... now those bastards have gone TOO FAR!" Vardall quickly turns around and starts to walk back to the main structure of Vigil's Keep.

"Vardall, wait!" Leliana tries to go after him, but is stopped when Nathaniel puts his hand on her shoulder. He knew very well what Vardall could do when he was in rage, and now he looked like he had more rage than ever.

Back in his temporary room, Vardall quickly wears his Grey Warden heavy armor and takes his Starfang greatsword. He also takes the research from Avernus, as he didn't want this to fall on wrong hands, so it was safer with him.

After some minutes, Vardall returns, now totally equipped with his gear. Leliana and Nathaniel tried to talk with him, but he ignored them.

"Vardall, please..." Leliana tried to talk with him. "...calm down."

"No!" He shouts while turning to look at Leliana. It was almost like his rage was leaving his eyes, turning his gaze oppressive to anyone. "The Templars have gone too far and they'll pay for this! You wait here until I return, Leliana."

That made the Orlesian bard open her eyes wide. Since the beginning of their relationship, Vardall almost never called Leliana by her name anymore, only calling her 'Songbird'. The only moments he called Leliana by her name was only when he needed to have a serious conversation with her, or when he was angry, like now.

Vardall's heavy gaze remained upon Leliana for a few more seconds, looking more like he was judging each one of her sins. After that, he turns around again and leaves Vigil's Keep, going directly to Ferelden's Circle of Magi.

# # # # # # # #

The land from Kaelyn's father was just as she told her friends. It was a relatively big village, but quite isolated. That isolation truly helped the people who lived there, as bandits or other types of threat rarely attack there. But that doesn't mean the village's defenses were weak, much to the contrary, as that place had a considerably strong military force, who was lead by Lilyth , Captain of the guard, a personal friend of Bann Lloyd and the woman who teached Kaelyn Gilmore everything she knows of being a warrior.

Talking about Lilyth, she was now talking with her guards who protect the village's only entrance and exit.

"Hold! Who come there?!" A guard from the village shouts as he spots Kaelyn and her group arriving. That calls the attention of Lilyth and the other guards, who prepare their weapons for any trouble.

"I am Kaelyn Gilmore, daughter of Bann Lloyd Gilmore!" She quickly yells to the guards, making Lilyth open her eyes wide. "Put your weapons down, men!" She orders. The guards were confused, but even so obeyed.

Looking back at Kaelyn and her group, Lilyth walks until them. "Kaelyn, Is truly you?"

Kaelyn smiles when she sees her old friend and teacher. "It's been a long time, Lilyth."

Lilyth immediately proceeds to hug Kaelyn, a gesture that she responds to. "Maker, it is so good to see you again..." Lilyth was now with a big smile on her face while looking at Kaelyn. "What are you doing here?"

She shrugs. "Knight-Commander Gregoir dismissed me and the group I'm in charge of for a time as a sort of 'vacation'." She lies. She could not tell the real reason for her arrival.

"I didn't knew Templars could take vacation." She then dodges her gaze to Kaelyn's friends. "I'll guess they are the group you lead?"

Kaelyn nods. "Yes, let me present them to you. These are Lindley, Andrew, Graham and William."

Lilyth respectfully nods to them. "Any friend of Kaelyn is more than welcome here." She looks back to Kaelyn. "Your father will be so happy to see you again, not to mention another marvelous thing that happened while you're away."

Kaelyn raises her eyebrow. "What?"

"You'll see." Lilyth then took all of them inside the village. It was a place full of life, with people working, kids playing, the village Chantry was always crowded... all of Kaelyn's friends watched all of that amazed. They proceeded until the mansion of Kaelyn's father, that was in the middle of the village, with several guards saluting their captain while she passed, the older even recognising Kaelyn.

"Was the village too affected by the Blight?" She asks Lilyth.

"No." Lilyth answers. "Besides some rare encounters with a few Darkspawn,we didn't had too much trouble." That made Lilyth remember something. "Speaking of which, I heard the Grey Warden who ended the Blight was a mage from the Circle, wasn't he?"

Kaelyn hesitates for a moment. "Yes, he was. Vardall Amell, if I remember."

"Do you knew him?"

Kaelyn denies. "Not personally, no. The only time I saw him was when he was recruited to the Grey Wardens, right after trying to help a blood mage escape the tower."

Lilyth was caught by surprise with that. "He helped a blood mage?"

This was time for Lindley to talk. "What do you expect from a mage who never obeys the rules and still is a non-believer in the Maker?"

Kaelyn looks to her friend, telling her to stop. This wasn't the moment to talk about those things. Nonetheless, they soon arrive at Lloyd's mansion, and once inside, quickly proceed to meet him. Walking inside a room, Kaelyn immediately smiles once she spots a familiar man with gray hair, reading a book.

"My Bann..." Lilyth calls Lloyd's attention, making him turn around. "...we have visitors."

Lloyd immediately sees his daughter there and smiles, putting his book aside. "So, my daughter finally manages to visit her old man, huh?"

Kaelyn giggles. "Good to see you again, father." They both proceed to hug each other, not having any real contact since Kaelyn left the village to become a Templar.

After the hug, Lloyd spots her daughter's group. "I'll suppose they are your friends?"

"Yes, they..." Before Kaelyn can talk more, they all walk ahead and bow in respect.

"It's an honor, my Lord." Lindley says. "Kaelyn always spoke highly about you."

"Please, just call me Lloyd, all of you." He returns his attention to Kaelyn. "Now that you're here, the family is now finally complete."

She raises her eyebrow. "What?"

Without saying one more word, Lloyd called a servant and told it to call someone. Kaelyn still wasn't understanding what was going on, but some seconds after it, another man entered the room, his beardless face and red hair being something she knew very well.

Kaelyn was almost speechless when she saw her brother in front of her. "Roland?"

Ser Roland Gilmore smiles, seeing his sister's shock. "Hey, Kaelyn."

Her shock was quickly replaced by joy when she immediately hugged her brother. "Maker, I... I didn't know you were still alive! When I heard what happened with the Couslands..."

Hearing that made Roland dodge his gaze. Remember the family he served with such loyalty and the terrible things that happened after Castle Cousland was conquered by Rendon Howe. "I was lucky, to be honest."

He fully explains to her what happened in Castle Cousland, telling that he stayed behind to give time to Bryce, Eleanor and their daughter, Lyana Cousland, to escape the castle. Once Howe's soldiers invaded the castle, he was knocked out instead of killed, awakening hours later as a prisoner and discovering that the Teyrn and his wife were killed, but their daughter managed to escape. Roland related how he was tortured by Howe's men for days, only escaping thanks to the good heart of one of the soldiers who released and helped him escape. Kaelyn and her friends could see how affected Roland was, almost dropping some tears or in rage sometimes.

Kaelyn was almost without words. "I'm sorry, brother. I..."

"But at least they're avenged." Roland quickly said, ignoring his sister. "The Hero of Ferelden killed Howe. I just wanted to be there to see it."

"What did you do after you escaped?" Kaelyn asks.

"I went to Ostagar to warn the Teyrn's son, Fergus, but when I arrived there, I only found corpses." Roland starts telling. "After that I decided to fight against the Blight, even participating in the final battle in Denerim, when the Archdemon was killed."

Lloyd, who was only hearing the son, now decides to talk. "After Denerim, he immediately returned home. I tried to send you a letter, but you probably didn't receive it, given how the tower was a mess, as I heard."

Instead of Kaelyn, Lindley is the one who talks. "It truly was, sir. Thanks to one of those mages, we lost a lot of good people that day." Everyone could hear rage in Lindley's voice.

The Bann looks at her. "I suppose you're a Templar too?"

"They all are, father." Kaelyn answers quickly. "Not just Templars, but my best friends."

Lloyd nods. "It's an honor to meet all of you." He looks back to his daughter. "How long will you stay?"

Kaelyn shrugs. "I don't know. The Knight-Commander didn't tell us when we could return to our duties." She lies again about her true actions. Lloyd always was a good and fair man who didn't like violence, so he truly wasn't to agree with her.

The Bann smiles. "That's no problem, you and your friends can stay the time you want. I'm gonna make sure rooms are prepared for all of you."

She smiles. "Thanks, father." Kaelyn didn't know how things would develop from now on, if Greagoir would discover what they did, or even if the Warden-Commander would find out. But now she was happy enough to be back at home.

# # # # # # # #

While Kaelyn and her friends arrived at a safe haven, Vardall arrived at Lake Calenhad docks. The Circle of Magi tower, as always, was standing in the middle of the lake, imposing as always. To Vardall, this was a place of injustice and oppression, a place that he hates and was more than happy to leave. He had requested the freedom of the Circle, but things such as that took time, so until now the tower still was under Templar and the Chantry control, which didn't please Vardall. While crossing the lake, he normally would use this little time to think about something or talk with his friends, but now he was completely alone and only one thing was on his mind now: Rage.

Now inside the tower, Vardall sees five Templars watching the entrance. They only watched as Vardall walked until them, his posture and face not a little friendly. He doesn't even let any templar talk before.

"I am Vardall Amell, Royal Chancellor and Warden-Commander of Ferelden. I demand to see Knight-Commander Greagoir now." Vardall's voice was deadly, to let clear he was not joking.

Some of the Templars wide their eyes open under their helmets when they hear who Vardall was. Two of them looked at each other, then looked back to Vardall. "The Knight-Commander is attending to a Harrowing. You will have to wait to see him." One Templar says, but that wasn't what Vardall wanted to hear.

"I will see him NOW!" As he shouts and walks even more forward, the two Templars walk back, pulling their swords as a reflex, the others making the same.

"Sir, I already told you you'll have to wait." The Templar said with a more authoritarian voice. "Now calm down before we..." Vardall finally had enough of this. Already filled by his hate for the Templars and without any type of patience, he attacks the two ones that were in front of him with a fire spell. Both of them were burned alive inside their armors, filling the room with their screams of suffering. The other Templars were now in total shock because of that sudden attack. Vardall quickly uses the spell Grease on the area where the other three Templars were, making them fall on the ground. Now he uses the Chain Lightning spell and kills all of them with just one attack.

Of course, all of this called the attention of all the mages and other Templars who were nearby. Two more Templars arrive to try to fight Vardall, but he then takes his greatsword, the Starfang, and cuts the head of one and the throat of the other. He then starts proceeding through the entire tower until the Harrowing chamber, killing violently every Templar who he sees and even some mages who tries to fight against him, but all of them were no match to the Arcane Warrior, even Cullen, who tried to fight Vardall, but only was stabbed by him and left to die.

Meanwhile, inside the Harrowing Chamber, Knight-Commander Greagoir, together with First-Enchanter Irving and other three Templars were attending to the Harrowing of a young elven apprentice, who finally had her chance to become a full mage. Suddenly, they all hear screams and sounds of battle.

"What is happening?!" Greagoir and his men were now steady to any trouble. Suddenly, a wounded, but alive Templar is thrown through the chamber's door and Vardall walks in right after, his enchanted greatsword, armor and face covered in blood.

First-Enchanter Irving opened his eyes wide, totally confused. "Vardall? What's the meaning of this?"

"This has nothing to do with you, Irving." Vardall then stabs the Templar he had thrown inside the chamber with his greatsword, killing him. He then points his weapon to Greagor. "It is him that I want!"

Running towards Greagoir, the purest form of rage could be spored on Vardall's eyes. He is only stopped when one Templar tries to attack him with him, but Vardall quickly dodges and kills him. The other two also try to attack him, but Vardall only uses the spell Walking Nightmare, fuelling both the Templars with insanity and their biggest fears, which made them attack and kill each other.

Now was only Vardall, Greagoir and Irving in the room, together with the unconscious body from the elven apredice, who sent her conscious to the Fade.

"Why are you doing this, Amell!?" Greagoir yells, but Vardall ignores him, using a Paralysis spell to prevent Greagoir from moving and running again to attack the Knight-Commander. But he's suddenly stopped when Irving casts a spell in front of him, forcing him to dodge.

He grunts heavily. "Out of my way, Irving, my business here is with Greagoir!"

"Whatever happens, you need to stop before more people die!" The old mages yell.

Vardall roars in rage. "Old-man fool." He charges his target from Greagoir to Irving. He tries to attack the First-Enchanter with some spells, but he defends himself from them, counter attacking right after. Even with all this, Irving didn't want to kill Vardall, only to stop him. He had treated that boy like his own son, making him his main student and always supporting him. But that father-son relation both of them share had disappeared, now replaced by pure rage.

After some moments, Irving started to grow tired, as his old body was starting to pay its price. Seeing that, Vardall decides to end this, once and for all. He manages to drive himself really close to Irving and quicks him on his chest, making him fall on the ground, before he could get up, Vardall uses Mana Clash on him, a spell that was a terror to any mage or magic creature. When Vardall used that spell, all the mana Irving had was drained and his old body suffered heavy damages, falling lifeless on the ground.

Having dealt with Irving, Vardall returns his focus to Greagoir, who still was paralyzed. Undoing his spell and freeing him, Vardall watches as the Knight-Commander fails on his knees. He slowly walks until the Templar, like a predator watching his prey, drops the Starfang on the ground, decided to do this with his own hands.

Recovering some strength, Greagoir looks up, only to see Vardall looking at him with a deadly gaze. "Why are you doing this?"

He grunts and then kicks Greagoir's head. "You will soon find out."

And for the next hour, all what could be heard on the tower was Greagoir's screams, as Vardall torture him for any information he had about Edric Wolfee. That worked, as Vardall discovers about Edric's group, who are composed by him, other three men named Andrew, William and Graham, and two women named Lindley and Kaelyn, the last one being the leader of the group. All of them were close friends from the Templars who died in Vigil's Keep the day Vardall met Anders, thinking it was the blonde Warden mage who killed them.

"Any ideas where they would be now?" Vardall asks, almost casually, while casting fire upon his dagger. "It would be even more stupid returning here, where I would easily find them."

Greagoir almost didn't have the necessary strength to answer, all his wounds and pain being too much for him to focus. Vardall was losing his patience, so he punched Greagoir again. "Either you tell me or I'll rip your other arm off too!"

"I... I don't... know." That wasn't what Vardall wanted to hear. Immediately he uses the spell Stinging Swarm, watching as countless insects were stinging Greagoir's flesh and open wounds. And while the swarm did their job, Vardall, now with an extremely hot dagger on his hand, holds Greagoir's head and slowly approaches the dagger from his eye. "Last chance."

"I'm... serious here, I don't know!" Greagoir cries out with almost all the air he had on his lungs. "But..."

Vardall walks away and dismisses the swarm. "Proceed."

Greagoir usually was going to be stronger than this, but after all Vardall did to him, all he wanted was the pain to stop. "Kaelyn's father. I... don't know very much, but I already heard her talking about that... her father is a Bann, who has lands on the Bannorn." That would be a perfect place to hide. They would have protection, a safe haven and could mix up in the middle of the people.

"The Bannorn is a very big place. It could take a long time to find them, but I don't care." Vardall coldly says while taking his dagger back. "Thank you, Greagoir." He then holds his head again and approaches that extremely hot dagger from his eye again.

"No, please..." Greagoir tries to beg him not to do that, but it was in vain. Without any type of remorse, Vardall slowly thrusts the dagger into the Templar's eye. Greagoir let's out a yell that could freeze people's souls, but Vardall ignores, slowly and steadily making sure he would not kill Greagoir with this, as he wanted the Knight-Commander to feel as much pain as possible. When he finally was satisfied, Vardall removes the dagger, making Greagoir fall on the ground, almost dead.

Already having what he wanted, Vardall walks away and exits the Harrowing Chamber, leaving Greagoir to suffer and die.

Walking out of the tower, Vardall is overwhelmed by the silence that place was now. Most of the people here were dead, others had escaped from the tower. Vardall really hates this place, its purpose and what it symbolizes. During his childhood, he always dreamed of becoming the most powerful mage in Thedas, in order to single-handedly destroy the Chantry, the Templars and all the Circles of Thedas, this being a reflection of how much he hated them all. But growing up just made him realize how this really was just a child's dream, and even though he now had status and power (literally and figuratively), it was nearly impossible.

But destroying Ferelden's Circle, however, wasn't that impossible...

Casting fire on both his hands, Vardall starts to burn this place, completely deciding, and floor after floor, the tower was completely consumed by the flames.

Now in front of the exit, Vardall's final movement is to cast the Inferno spell, creating a giant fire tornado right inside that place. Now, already on the other side of the lake, He goes and sits on a little bench that had there, a place where he remembers being together with Leliana one year ago, both of them watching the tower and the lake.

Now he was here alone, watching that same tower being completely burned to the ground. He remains apathetic most of the time, but not forgetting he still had one more thing to do.

# # # # # # # #

The news from the Circle of Magi total destruction had spread towards all of Ferelden and beyond, even arriving on the Divine's ears in Val Royeaux, what created a true chaos in the Chantry, as they now had many of their Templars dead, many runaway mages and no longer a proper place to keep them under their watchful eyes. The burning tower could be spotted miles away, the resulting smoke and ashes even more.

Obviously, the news about Circle's destruction had also arrived on Lloyd's lands, Kaelyn and her friends initially received that with total disbelief. They still had many friends among the Templars inside the tower, and now they're all gone.

But that was something else to be concerned with.

In Lloyd's village, Kaelyn was on a balcony from her father's mansion, watching the place and completely lost in her thoughts. She and her friends had heard some very concerning rumors to them. When the tower started burning, several people that were in the inn 'The Spoiled Princess' saw one strange man there watching the tower burning and leaving the place after some time. According to the witnesses, that man had a strange, but very bright and beautiful sword with him, and was wearing an armor with the Grey Wardens' symbol on its chest. Kaelyn and her friends were terrorized when they discovered that, as the possibility that the man was Vardall Amell. His negative opinions about the Chantry and the Templars, as well his request to give the Ferelden Circle of Magi their independence and autonomy became known around all the kingdom and beyond after he became the Hero of Ferelden.

Kaelyn knew very well the risks of her decisions of trying to kill Anders, mainly if Vardall found out they were Templars. Now the chance of that was pretty high.

Suddenly she hears some noises of someone running, looking back, Kaelyn sees her brother arriving in there, looking like he had run several miles.

"Roland, what's going on?" She asks, confused.

Her brother breathes a little more before talking. "I need you to come with me, now."

"What?" Kaelyn raises one eyebrow, still doesn't understand anything.

"Just follow me." And without saying one more word, Roland turns around and starts walking. His sister was now even more confused, but started to follow him. They both walk to a room, and getting inside, Kaelyn spots her father, Lilyth, her friends and one of the village's guards.

She gazes at everyone quizly. "What's going on?"

"We have a problem, Kaelyn." Lloyd speaks, more serious than ever. He then looks back to the village guard. "Tell us again what happened."

The guard nods, everyone being able to see that he still was a little scared. "Yes, my Lord."

# # # # # # # #

Several minutes before that meeting, that guard, together with other three, were patrolling the surroundings of the village. Normally this would be a simple and boring duty, but not on this day.

Suddenly and without any warning, the guards group is attacked by surprise by a mysterious man, who quickly strikes and kills one of the guards.

It was Vardall, who after one and a half month of searching through the Bannorn, had found Lloyd Gilmore's lands. What wasn't exactly hard, but the was times were he needed information to locate this place, so a few times he interrogated people for information, and if they didn't told him or resisted, he would torture them.

The other three guards try to attack Vardall, but he is the quickest, and using his spells he kills the other two guards and only knocks the last one on the ground.

Having finished there, Vardall waits some few minutes until the last guard wakes up. When that happens, Vardall immediately takes him by the collar of his armor.

"Listen carefully if you wish to live a little longer. I want you to return to your village and warn Bann Lloyd that, or he gives me his daughter and her Templar friends or that Vardall Amell will burn that place and kill everyone who lives in there."

The guard could see Vardall wasn't joking, his voice and expression transmitting anger. He releases the guard, who is deeply scared now.

"GO!" Vardall shouts, making the guard quickly get up and run back to the village. After that, Vardall returns to the bodies of the three guards he killed, having an idea that would help him a lot.

# # # # # # # #

When the guard finished telling what happened, Kaelyn was with both her mouth and eyes open. She didn't believe this was happening.

"I just don't get it..." Roland starts talking. "Why does the Hero of Ferelden want to kill you?" Roland had some deep respect for the Grey Wardens, always wanting to join them someday.

Kaelyn dodges her gaze upon her friends, all of them having the same expression as her. But then, Andrew decides to talk. "Guys... there is no point in hiding this anymore."

Lindley looks at him. "Andrew, don't even..."

"Continue, Andrew." Bann Lloyd interrupts Lindley.

Andrew sighs and then starts talking about their plan of ambush and kill the Warden mage Anders, and the other Wardens with him. Everything starts to go wrong when they're attacked by surprise by other three Grey Wardens, even having one casualty.

Roland shakes his head in disbelief and looks to his sister. "Why would you do such a thing, Kaelyn?"

She hesitates a little but finally talks. "Look, that mage killed some of our friends, and instead of being punished or dying because of it, what happens to him? He received the great honor of becoming a Grey Warden!" Everyone notices the rage she had up on her last words.

Roland crosses his arms while looking at her. "Just tell me something, Kaelyn. If I'm not mistaken, the Grey Wardens are an independent organization that the Templars can't and don't have control upon. So why did you still do that?"

"You really think I would let that stop me, brother?"

"Do you even know for sure it was that Warden mage that killed those other Templars?" Roland asks, but Kaelyn only shrugs. "No. But who else could?"

Now Roland has become a little more angry. "So not only you and your friends attacked someone you could not, but also didn't make sure he truly was the guilty one?!"

"That's enough, Roland." After several seconds of silence, Bann Lloyd finally speaks. "We have a bigger problem now, so let's talk about that for another moment." A severe tone could be heard on Lloyd's voice, something it was not normal to him. Lilyth then looks to him. "What are your orders, my Lord?"

"There is no way I'm giving Kaelyn and her friends to the Hero of Ferelden." He immediately speaks. "But I can't let him destroy our village." Lloyd thinks for a moment, before finally having an idea. "Lilyth, prepare the guards for their defensive positions, I'll meet you and them soon."

Kaelyn and Roland immediately open their eyes wide, while Lilyth was only confused. "What are you doing, father?" Kaelyn asks.

"I'm gonna try to talk with him." He says. "With luck I can convince him to give up and leave without any blood-shed."

Now was time for Lilyth to be opposed to that idea. "My Bann, Lloyd... You would be putting yourself at great risk."

"I appreciate the concern, old friend, but I trust you and the other to keep me safe." He says with a smile. "If we arrive at a moment where violence is needed, do not hesitate to attack him. I prefer to deal with King Alistair and the other Grey Wardens then let my daughter or my people die."

Lilyth hesitates for one more moment, but nods in agreement. "Yes, my Bann."

Lloyd then looks back to Kaelyn and her friends. "Now all of you stay here. When this is all over, we will talk." He turns to his son. "Roland, keep them safe."

That was the last thing Bann Lloyd said before exiting the room, Lilyth right behind him. Right after that, Roland looks severely at his sister. "If something happens to him, it's all your fault."

"Shut up." She then crosses her arms. Her brother don't understand her reasons, and she is starting to think no one besides her friends understand.

# # # # # # # #

It was almost night when the village was prepared for Vardall's imminent arrival. All the citizens were told to stay inside their houses for protection and all the village guards were told to stay alert to any danger. All of this perhaps sounds a little extreme to deal with just one man, but Vardall wasn't a simple man; besides he being a powerful mage, he had ended Ferelden's Civil War and killed the Archdemon. With feats and skills like these, Lloyd knew that Vardall was not someone to be underestimated.

Talking about him, the Bann was now heading to the village's entrance, now equipped with his armor and weapons and followed by Lilyth and five of his best guards.

"Remember, let's just have a conversation with him." Lloyd says to his guards and Lilyth. "Violence only as a last resource."

Lilyth nods respectfully. "Yes, my Lord."

Then they stayed there, waiting; the silence around them being only relieved by the sound of the crickets. Suddenly, they all see as someone was now walking until them, and as he gets close, they all are able to see the golden Grey Warden symbol on its armor chest and the serious expression on his face.

Vardall had arrived.

No one there was feeling any type of fear, even given that man's deeds and reputation. At the moment he was now close enough, Lloyd decided to act.

"Welcome, Hero of Ferelden." Lloyd says and acts in a very humbled way, almost like a commoner and not as a noble. "I..."

"Cut the chitchat, Lloyd.'' Vardall promptly interrupts him as he approaches. "You know why I'm here."

"I..." Lloyd sighs. "I know." He looks in a more serious way to Vardall. "And I assure you already that I will not do that. My daughter made serious mistakes, but I still love her, I can't just deliver her to certain death."

Under normal situations, Vardall would truly respect that; but now... now he wasn't with patience for that. "I told you what would happen if you did not obey me." He quickly advances with both his hands closed into fists. Lilyth and the guards there promptly assume more offensive postures and make their ways to reach their weapons, but Lloyd makes a signal with his hand for them to stop. "Please, let us all calm down, shall we?"

Lilyth and the other guards looked somewhat hesitant, but in the end obeyed Lloyd.

"Your daughter and her friends killed MY friends!" Vardall shouts in anger. "They interfered with business, they could not interfere!"

"And I understand that!" This was time for Lloyd to shout. "But like I said, I will not give up my daughter. Now please, leave; I do not wish to turn this into a slaughter."

Vardall roars while looking at Lloyd, without blinking for any second. Without saying one more word, he casts some kind of spell with his hands.

Right after that and without any warning, three undead creatures exit some bushes that were close by and attack Lloyd and his guards. Always being Irving's favorite student had its good points, as Vardall learned more than just the standard magic knowledge, an example of that being the secrets of Necromancy.

Those three creatures who were now attacking were the same three guards who Vardall killed before, now totally deformed into scary, undead forms, the only thing on their minds being Vardall's commands.

"Andraste's blood!" One of the guards yells in terror as the undead runs until them. Even being on a minor number, the undead attacked savagely and had the advantage of not feeling pain.

Having the guards distracted, Vardall pulls the Starfang from his back and tries to strike Lloyd, but the Bann is saved when Lilyth pushes him and blocks Vardall's attack with her own greatsword. "Get out of here, Lloyd!" She yells, still with her greatsword up, defending Vardall's strike. Getting annoyed by this, he strongly pushes Lilyth and makes her fall on the ground, not wasting any time to use his lightning spells to kill her. In the meantime, the three undead managed to surpass the five guards, killing all of them.

Still a little stunned from being pushed to the ground without any warning, Lloyd is suddenly stabbed by Vardall with the Starfang. This man was foolish and naive enough to believe he could solve this situation only by talking, but right now, Vardall was beyond talking.

Taking Lloyd's body close to the bodies of Lilyth and the five guards, Vardall again uses his necromancer skills to resurrect and bind spirits into the bodies of all of them. All the five now get up, being totally deformed into u dead creatures and Vardall's mere puppets; husks from who they were in the past.

"Destroy this entire place." Vardall uses his spells to command the undead. "Kill everyone you see, no exceptions." With that, all the undead now enter the village, ready to kill anyone they see. At the same time, Vardall casts the spell 'Death Siphon' around him, so that way when he kills someone, that person's remaining energy would be absorbed by him, that way regaining some of his mana with each kill.

The most nearby village guards watch in terror as they see those undead approaching them, attacking them with no mercy. Some guards try to fight the undead, but are killed by them, while some archers who were out of the undead's reach were killed by Vardall's spells. His necromancer skills were good, but not the best, so Vardall wasn't able to have a great number of undead under his command without getting heavily tired, even the Death Syphon spell would not help him with that, as it would require much more deaths in a row to keep him good. (Not to mention his Arcane Warrior abilities, which also drained very much of his mana.) With that, Vardall was obligated to always raise a new body every time one of his undead was destroyed.

At that same time, Vardall uses his fire spells to burn the houses and places from that village, and all that could be heard now was the panic screams from the village's people. Men, women, elders, children... they all were agonizing as they're burned alive, or killed by the undeads or Vardall himself. And he didn't care for all of this, didn't care for all the pain he was causing, Vardall only wanted to kill those who caused him pain.

Obviously with everything that was happening, Kaelyn, her friends and Roland quickly made their ways outside Lloyd's mansion to see what was happening. They all equipped themselves with weapons and armor from Lloyd's personal armory and ran until outside, only to find all the village's buildings on fire, corpses all over the place and ten undeads led by the so-called Hero of Ferelden.

"Maker's Breath, no!" Roland shouts in terror. This place was his home for a part of his life and now was being destroyed, he had remembered of Castle Cousland. Not just Roland, but everyone there was in total shock before focusing their attention on Vardall. "So..." He starts talking. "All of you finally decided to show up."

Kaelyn didn't want to believe her surroundings, but it was all very real. She closes her hands into fists and looks to Vardall, now with only rage in her eyes. "You son of a bitch, you will pay for this!" She takes her greatsword and runs to attack Vardall. William, Graham and Roland also joined her, while Andrew and Lindley stayed back to use their bows. Not wasting any time, the ten undeads advanced to attack Kaelyn and her group, savages all the time, but with their advanced training and with too much rage, they all take care of the undeads without too much serious injuries.

Now with a free path, they all proceed to try to kill Vardall. He however, uses the spell 'Mass Paralysis' to, well... paralyze Graham, Roland, William, Lindley and Andrew. Kaelyn wasn't paralyzed only because she managed to dodge at the last second.

Still having only one objective in mind the Templar woman charges towards Vardall, both their greatswords clashing over, over and over again. This duel was proving to be quite a challenge to Vardall, since Kaelyn was a true warrior and expert on greatswords, having used them for years, not to mention she was dominated by anger and rage, just like Vardall. And as while Vardall was a decent greatsword fighter, was a mage and had only started to use weapons such as this less than one year ago after learning the knowledge of the Arcane Warriors.

Having a window to act, Vardall tries to use his spells to earn an advantage on this fight, but being more quick and using her Templar skills, Kaelyn is able to prevent Vardall from using his spells for a time.

Now without too many choices, Vardall manages to push Kaelyn away for a while, giving him enough time to cut his right hand with the Starfang and use one of the skills he learned with Avernus' Alchemical Concoction. He uses the skill Bloody Grasp. His tainted blood is turned into a weapon and Vardall attacks Kaelyn with it, just like it was another spell. The Templar opens her eyes wide as she is hit by the Warden's blood, making it look like it was burning her skin and bones. She falls back on the ground, dropping her greatsword and terrified by all the pain she was feeling and by the power that blood magic had.

As always, the skills and spells Vardall learned with Avernus' Alchemical Concoction made him a little weak and drained part of his life, but that wasn't important now. Walking until Kaelyn, who still was stunned on the ground, Vardall casts both fire and lighting spells on his hands and prepares to strike and kill her once and for all, making her pay for all of this. Kaelyn recovers some of her senses only to see Vardall ready to kill her, but suddenly he is hit on the back part of his leg by an arrow, making him shout and grunt in pain. Looking behind Vardall, Kaelyn sees all her friends and brother, finally free from Vardall's paralysis.

Andrew and Lindley try to fire more arrows on Vardall, but he quickly creates a magical shield around him, making the arrow hit the shield and immediately fall on the ground. He used this time to remove the arrow from his leg and quickly heal. Also with his spells, Vardall attacks Andrew and Lindley, making both fall on the ground. At this moment, Roland advances to attack Vardall with his sword, who only is able to block the attack with the Starfang.

Kaelyn was only watching all of this still on the ground, only now recovering at least some strength. While trying to get up, Roland looks directly into Kaelyn's eyes. "Run! We'll hold him off!" Using this moment of distraction, Vardall pushes Roland away.

No. Kaelyn doesn't want to run. This Grey Warden had attacked her home and killed her father, so he deserves to pay for that. But as much as Kaelyn wanted to stay, she was now weak, not being able to hold her greatsword and fight anymore. She hates the truth, but Roland was right, she needed to run. If she dies here, she would never have another chance to kill Vardall.

With strengths Kaelyn doesn't even know how she still had, she gets up and flees, doing her best to get away from that burning place. Vardall immediately sees that and promptly tries to stop her, but before he could do something, Roland hits him with his shield and makes Vardall fall on the ground. Graham uses this opportunity and tries to strike Vardall, but he dodges at the last second.

He was now in a bad situation. Vardall was unarmed at this moment and between him and his greatsword it was five individuals. But he still was a mage, not just a mage but an Arcane Warrior. Then, gathering all the mana he still had, Vardall concentrates and uses what could be considered one of his most useful Arcane Warrior techniques, something that allowed him to face so many Templars inside the Circle's tower and defeat all of them.

Now ready, Vardall uses the spell 'Rock Armor', which makes his skin hard as stone. Together with that, he also makes a spell only Arcane Warriors knew, 'Fade Shroud', immediately assuming an ethereal appearance, looking like a spirit, surprising and even scaring all his five foes. With his magic, Vardall now only partially exists on the physical realm, while part of him now exists on the Fade. In that form, most of the attacks anyone wound do direct to Vardall would only partially damage him

The combination of both these spells practically made Vardall invulnerable to any damage, however this was a strong combination, but hard to maintain for too long a time. If he uses any other of his spells now or takes too long, he would end all his mana.

With no time to waste, Vardall promptly punches Roland and runs towards to get the Starfang. His enemies noticed what he was trying to, but no one was able to stop him. Immediately after grabbing his weapon, Vardall stabs Lindley, at the same time he punches Andrew, making him fall on the ground, so the Warden takes this chance to kill him as well.

"No!" Graham cries out in fury as he runs towards Vardall without thinking twice.

"Graham, wait!" William tries to stop his friend but, without success. With both his daggers, he tries to stab Vardall, but the mage only watches as the daggers hit him, without doing any damage to him. Then Vardall cuts one of Graham's arms, making him scream in pain before Vardall finally kills him by cutting off his head.

Already having killed three of them, only Roland and William were lasting.

The two warriors were quite shocked. Vardall had easily killed three of them and was showing no signs he was getting tired, at least for now. Without losing any second, they both decide to attack Vardall together. Roland runs towards him, knowing that Vardall would attack him, and blocks his attack with his shield, at the same time William runs and uses all his strength to hit Vardall with his shield, not causing any damage, but distracting him enough to Roland earn an advantage and manages to push Vardall to the ground. Even having now a practically impenetrable skin, Vardall's own strength still was the same.

Now with this opportunity, William tries to stab Vardall's face, who holds his sword's blade with both his hands. Vardall was not doing that because he was afraid of being wounded, but because he had an idea. Getting his face out of the way, Vardall releases William's blade, making him hit the ground. He then punches William with his left hand, with enough strength that makes the Templar fall to Vardall's right side. Now, with William's sword in his hands, Vardall drives it directly into William's head.

Roland Gilmore now was Vardall's last opponent, so he gets up from the ground to face him.

Feeling he was running out mana, Vardall don't lose time and immediately runs into Roland's direction, without any weapon on his hands, and starts to push him, Roland defending with his shield while he and Vardall had a contest to see who was the strongest, both looking into each other's eyes, all what they're seeing was a desire to kill the other.

Roland was a knight that was trained since his childhood, meaning that he had more physical strength then Vardall. But as an Arcane Warrior, Vardall was using part of his mana to boost his own physical strength, so he had the advantage. With all his strength, Vardall pushes Roland back, making him open his guard. The Warden then kicks one of Roland's knees, making him lose his balance and drop his sword and shield. Vardall then quickly moves behind Roland and starts to choke him.

The knight grunts and fights to breathe as Vardall maintains his forearm around his neck, applying an unnatural strength on it. He desperately tries to do anything to stop Vardall, punch him or damage his eyes, but the Warden don't give up and keeps choking him. Now decided to finally end this; with both his hands, Vardall breaks Roland's neck. Finally release him, the knight's body falls on the ground, totally lifeless and with both his eyes and mouth still open.

That was the limit to him. Vardall was exhausted, and running out of mana he dropped to his knees on the floor, breathing heavily and with some difficulty. Looking to his surroundings, Vardall only can see all the destruction he had caused, all the blood that was now upon his hands, but Vardall didn't care for that. He had killed most of those who killed his friends, who caused him pain, but one had escaped.

That fuels him with even more rage, if that was even possible. Vardall lets out an angry and guttural scream, being the only noise there besides the fire.

# # # # # # # #

Kaelyn didn't even know how much time she was running, all the pain she was feeling prevented her from having any clear thought. The smell of ashes and burned wood were prevailing all over this place, a result of Vardall's wrath and a reminder she had lost everything she loved the most. Finally reaching her limit, Kaelyn stops running and sits under a tree to rest. All of her body and bones looked like it was burning, thanks to whatever blood magic Vardall had used against her.

Blood Magic... Kaelyn wasn't surprised about that. All mages were the same to her, all wolves in sheep's clothing, only waiting for the day to rule over us all, like it was with Tevinter. They're no people; they're a danger to us all. They corrupted the Golden City, they have the power to destroy an entire city... That's what motivated Kaelyn to become a Templar, so that she could protect all the innocents from the dangerous creatures the mages are. And that was even proved once again today.

But now, as her rage was replaced by sadness, Kaelyn cried. She cried for her home, her friends, her family and more. She never was someone who showed her feelings too much, always being the more stoic type, but after losing everything, that doesn't matter anymore.

# # # # # # # #

After destroying that village, Vardall tried to search for Kaelyn for a time, but besides not finding her, he was extremely tired because of the battle he just had and all the mana he lost, not to mention the wounds he had now over his body. Because of that he was forced to stop and set a camp near a river to rest and heal his body.

Now hours later, Vardall was sleeping near a bonfire he had made, still wearing his armor and with the Starfand near his hand. He would not take a chance with any wild animal or even Kaelyn finding him and deciding to use this opportunity to kill him. After a few more minutes of a sleep, the Grey Warden suddenly starts to have a strange dream, something more like a vision. In the vision, Vardall saw himself in a strange place, fighting against a giant and black creature with red eyes he was not able to identify.

His vision ended abruptly when Vardall quickly woke up after hearing a strange noise near him. He immediately grabs the Starfang and assumes a combat posture, his eyes scanning his surroundings to search for any threat. Then, he finally spots a woman near some bushes, a redhead woman. For a moment he thinks it was Kaelyn trying to kill him while he sleeps, but looking more closely, he lightly opens his eyes wide and lays down the Starfang a little, almost daring to say he assumed a more relaxed posture. "Leliana?"

Vardall was confused more than anything to see Leliana there. She was wearing her armor and was with her bow in her back. By the way her eyes were, Vardall could tell she had cried quite recently.

"Vardall." Leliana is trying her best to keep her expression and feelings as neutral as possible, but now looking at Vardall made that quite hard.

"What are you doing here?" Vardall stops to think for a moment about Leliana being here. He finally understands what was happening. "You've been following me?" She hesitates, but nods in confirmation.

He sighs. "I told you to stay in Vigil's Keep until I..."

"Burned the Circle of Magi to the ground and killed everyone inside?! Tortured people for information?! Destroyed an entire village full of innocent people?!" Even trying her best to maintain herself neutral, Leliana doesn't manage to do that.

The two just stare at each other, the only sounds that could be heard were the wind, the crackling of the fire and the current of the river. Finally, Vardall decides to break the silence. "They deserve it, all of them."

Leliana still could not believe what she was hearing from her own husband. She already had seen Vardall blind because of his rage before, but this was a totally new level. "But Vardall, you..."

"Don't play the saint with me, Leliana!" Vardall told her as he took a few steps forward. Immediately, Leliana recoils a little and instinctively places both hands on her belly, a move Vardall didn't notice. "You also did terrible things during your days as a bard in Orlais. The people you threatened, you tortured for information... the ones you killed... have you already forgotten?"

"It... it is not the same, Vardall." While it was true Leliana did some terrible and questionable things during her bard days, what Vardall did now was much worse.

"Stop lying to yourself." He coldly says. " Your hands are as covered in blood as mine, and you already told me you liked that, that you enjoyed killing." Leliana kept herself in silence for a time and dodged her look. What Vardall told her was true, that she enjoyed killing.

Still with the Starfang in his hands, Vardall starts walking. "I already lost too much time. I still have to find her."

"Who?" Leliana raised one eyebrow.

"The leader of the Templars who killed Oghren and Sif and attacked Anders." He says. "She managed to escape while I was fighting her friends. I destroyed Ferelden's Circle of Magi and her home, meaning she has no place to run."

Leliana opened her eyes wide. "You still will not stop?!"

"Until I can make that bitch suffer and give her a slow death, no." Leliana didn't notice almost no feeling in Vardall's voice besides anger. She now had a question to Vardall, a question that she was afraid of the answer. "And... what will you do if someone tries to stop you?"

He looks back to his wife. "They will suffer like her." He coldly says. "No matter if it is a simple peasant or the Divine herself, no one will stay in my way." He then starts to walk away.

That was the answer Leliana was afraid of. Vardall already had been blind by his own anger and hate several times, where he always acted guided only by his rage. Now he was with more rage than ever, and already have slaughter innocents and others, very likely to do it again.

"Vardall!" She then quickly walks after him. She manages to grab his forearm and deeply looks inside his blue eyes, seeing nothing more than a raging storm inside them. "Please, love... stop. Leave this and come with me, it's not too late."

Leliana was committing the same mistake Lloyd did. Vardall now is beyond talking, and he would not stop. Then he strongly pulls his forearm out of Leliana's grip. "I already told you, that bitch must die!" He returned to walk away. "Don't follow me this time. Return to Vigil's Keep and wait."

Always the same, Vardall decided... one of the reasons Leliana fell in love with him. But now that was a bad thing, Leliana could not let Vardall kill other innocents. He had already killed too many people because of this revenge of his. This must have an end.

With both her hands shaken, Leliana grabs her bow from her back and an arrow, preparing herself and lifting her bow.

"Vardall!" She yells to call his attention. He grunts while turning back. "What now...?" He stops talking as soon as he sees Leliana pointing her bow to him.

"I'm asking you one last time, Vardall..." The Warden could notice on her wife's voice that she still was divided about this. Her hands were shaking as well. "Please stop, or I will be forced to stop you myself."

Even looking at this scene, Vardall remains apathetic. "Really? YOU are gonna shoot me?" He said this last part with a certain disbelieving tone in his voice.

He turned his full attention to Leliana once again. "Come on, Leliana, drop this bow. We both know you love me too much to really shoot me."

Leliana bit her lip, trying to concentrate while her hands were shaking even more now and Vardall slowly walked a little closer to her. "When we faced Marjolaine, you didn't want to kill her, even after all the pain she caused to you." He said. "You didn't want to kill her, because you loved her once."

Back to a little more close to her, Vardall finally sees something on the arrow it was on her bow, some strange liquid Vardall knew very well. ("Poison... Using Zevran's dirty tricks, I see.") He thought internally.

"Like I said, you love me too much to kill me." Looking to Leliana one last time, Vardall turns around again and returns to walk away. He was right, she loves him more than anything, but she loves Vardall's other side: The funny, shy, quite explosive one and decided side, the one who never was afraid to fight for what he believed.

The Vardall who was now here with her was now dominated by rage, hate, for an endless desire for vengeance... and now had too much innocent blood on his hands. The same side that was manifested for a short moment when he killed Brother Genitivi, when he killed Marjolaine, and on several other occasions. The Vardall she loved was now dead, replaced by this other one.

So, even with her heart heavy and tears running down her eyes, Leliana deeply breathes, aiming her bow correctly.

"My child, forgive me..." Then asking forgiveness to her child who hasn't even been born yet, Leliana releases the arrow.

Everything after that looked like it was moving in slow motion to Leliana; watching the arrow fly until its target. When the arrow hit its target, it was like a little part of Leliana had died at that moment.

While walking away, Vardall is suddenly surprised by the pain of an arrow piercing his flesh, right on his back. The shock was so much he dropped the Starfang on the ground and tried to remove it from his back, but without success.

Looking back, with both his eyes and mouth open wide, Vardall doesn't believe Leliana really did this. At the same moment they both make eye contact, the extremely potent poison it was on the arrowhead starts to work only after a few seconds. Suddenly feeling his vision to get blurry and his knees to get weak, Vardall falls on the ground.

Reluctantly approaching Vardall, Leliana is able to hear that he was now breathing irregularly, and when he looks up to her, she discovers why. Looking into his eyes, all Leliana is able to see are tears. She truly wasn't expecting that, already prepared to see anger and hate by her in Vardall's gaze, not tears. When Leliana kneels down and touches Vardall's face, he looks back to her with the remaining strength he had, and with both his eyes and expression was asking, without words, only one thing.

Why?

Leliana opens her eyes wide at that moment, even more tears falling from them, when she realizes that right now, only for this moment, the old Vardall was back, the Vardall she loves was back and was questioning her the reason of this. But that didn't lasted for long, as after a few seconds, because of both the love he still felt for her and his rage started to create a confuse mixture inside him. Part of him understood Leliana's reasons and even agreed with them, but other one was even more angry now with this betrayal. Leliana is able to see clearly that division once Vardall look to her again, neither with sadness or rage on his expression, being now only neutral and apathetic, already looking as dead as a corpse.

Even with that, Leliana only watches with heavy tears upon her eyes as Vardall starts to pass out. Looking to her left hand and to her neck, Leliana decides to do something. She removes a Blue Orlesian Ring from one of her fingers and Vardall's Warden Oath Necklace from her neck, both gifts from Vardall himself, as tokens of his love for her, love that now was being destroyed.

Even having her reasons, and most correct ones, Leliana starts to feel guilty to keep such items with her, not to mention all the bad memories they would give her during the rest of her life. Looking once again at those two items, Leliana opens one of Vardall's hands and puts those items there, returning them to their real owner. Vardall barely feels or sees that now.

"I'm sorry... I'm truly sorry..." Under heavy tears falling from her eyes, Leliana says those words, kissing Vardall's forehead one last time. "I love you. I know you don't believe in this, but... may your soul be accepted on the Maker's side, and have comfort knowing that one day, I will join you."

It was wrong to just leave Vardall there to die, but Leliana didn't have the necessary strength to just carry him, much less on her actual condition, so she didn't have any choice.

But then, without Leliana noticing, Vardall closes his right hand into a fist, and moves forward to try punching Leliana, yelling angrily. The Orlesian was able to dodge the strike, making Vardall hit just the wind and lose his balance even more, falling with his face on the ground.

Now more away from Vardall, Leliana was panting and had both her eyes open wide as she watches the Warden trying to get up on his foot again, but failing. All he could do was look up and stare directly into Leliana's eyes, I which she became shocked once she saw that duality of before was gone, replaced again by pure anger. That was it. That showed Leliana that the man she loved so much was now gone, burned by his own rage and fury.

That broke her heard even more that she thought possible, making her let out even more tears. Acting almost without thinking, Leliana grabs back her bow and leaves, not even looking behind while the rain starts to fall.

"Leliana..." And not even when Vardall calls her with such rage, saying without many words how much he hated her now. "LELIANA!"

Those were his final words, the ones Leliana would always remember him for. Not standing much now because of the poison, Vardall tries to resist, but eventually collapses to the ground, hardly breathing and being embraced by the cold arms of death.

# # # # # # # #

TAMRIEL/COLLEGE OF WINTERHOLD

"But of course, I did not die." Vardall told Arissa, Serana, Lucien, Lydia, Inigo, the Nerevarine and Bran while they're hearing everything. "After a time that I don't know how much, I wake up after hearing a strange female voice inside my head. Then I was rescued by someone I don't know who… was taken to the Nest, had my injuries treated, crossed an Eluvian and finally arrived in Skyrim. The rest all of you know."

When Vardall had finished speaking, to say his friends were all speechless was a giant understatement. Lucien, Arissa, Lydia and Inigo were literally with their eyes and mouths open wide. Serana, while also surprised, wasn't that much like everyone. The Nerevarine's expressions were hidden under his helmet and Bran was... well, Bran.

Even having revealed his biggest regret and sin to his friends, Vardall could not stop to feel at least someway relieved with that, as a great weight was removed from his shoulders.

He sighs. "I... will let all of you alone… to think about all what I said." Vardall then gets up, takes his greatsword and leaves the Arch-Mages' Quarters. None of his friends made any objection or went after him.

---

Something I forgot to tell in the previous chapter is that here in my story, all the Grey Wardens use the same armors the Wardens in DA2 uses (Only with some diferent colors). You can have those armors in DA:O with mods, something that I always do and prefer that way.

All the Wardens here uses the armors of their respective classes, so Nathaniel and Sigrun use Warden rogue armor, Anders and Velanna uses Wardens mage robes, Oghren and Justice uses Warden heavy armors and Vardall, being an arcane warrior, uses the Warden massive armor.

You can see the armor that Vardall uses as Warden-Commander going until my Archive of Our Own profile (With the same name), and cheking the link I left on this chapter there, since has something agains puting links here that I don't know why.

Keep this in mind, because he will use this armor again in the future.