Oliver
The entire team was now in the field with him even if he walked alone.
Somehow the Venatori had found him or his location close enough to get a message to him. They didn't claim to know his identity but he had heard through the grapevine that the Venatori wanted to meet the Silver Rook in person.
Given his own power and contacts he was able to arrange a meeting with them to which they accepted.
At least I hope its anonymous.
In truth while he knew, logically, he had managed to preserve his identity somehow he also felt really trapped by everything. Even though it was through rumor and innuendo part of him worried that they had gotten a little close to home to even get the message to him in position.
Yet he had little choice but to follow this through, curiosity if nothing else.
Maybe the Venatori will surrender. The thougth brought a smile to his face even though he hunched his shoulders.
Then at the entrance to the room he was at he hesitated before he grabbed for the sending crystal Aleia gave him.
"Are you ready?" He growled, trying to make his voice sound the least like his that he could make it.
"We are Rook." Aleia whispered from his chest.
He frowned preffering she call him by the full name, it was close enough vanity to use part of his pseudnym from his military service, but he felt like he could handle it.
With that he reached out with his bow and pushed through the thin film which serves as a door.
Ahead of him he was surrounded by cultists, most of them wearing face masks though their leader stepped forward, staff tapping on the ground. He looked up to see the second floor and gave him a short nod.
"Silver Rook." He breathed.
"You have me at a disadvantage," he growled.
Behind the cowl he saw the man's cheeks twitch. "No, I don't. I am here to parlay with you however. To entreat with you about the future of our beloved Imperium."
"Then do so." He half barked.
The cultist chuckled, "Rook while we do not know who you are I think we can reach several conclusions about what kind of person you are"
His heart beat nervously and his hand flexed on his bow.
"First, that you are a soldier. Were a soldier. Few people outside of our military effort against the Antaam would have your training, your discipline. Indeed we suspect you were a part of one of our special scout units but that could just be idle speculation on our part. Even our ranks here in the Capital has had issues finding capable bodies to fill them with so many involved in our war, so many non mages.
"Second that you are connected. Many suspect a city guard or someone with Templar Connections.
"Third, that you are a patriot. Your desire to defend the Imperium, while misguided, seems earnest."
He waited for the blood mage to continue but he refused to do so.
"Do you have a point to make?"
He stepped forward with a dramatic bow, "Indeed."
Oliver retreated as it was clear the mage was trying to look up his hood.
"Whoever you are," the mage smiled again, "you would seem to make the perfect candidate for what we are trying to do. We don't have to be enemies. You want the same thing we want. To see Tevinter reborn to our former glory. You wouldn't be fighting so hard otherwise, you would go to the Templars or the guard and let them handle it, and yet here you are...a likely veteran. Opposing us.
Oliver blinked at the offer is he serious?
He shook his head as the magister continued to look at him expectantly.
"You are right, I do want to see Tevinter return to its former glory. To knock off the rot I see in so many of our institutions and be the shining beacon we once were for all of Thedas."
The blood mage smiled as if he just won a game of chess.
"But the Venatori are not the way," his voice was a low dangerous grow, he shook his head, his heart blazed with barely contained anger. "The slavery? The blood magic? The blood sacrifices? Taking away people's minds! Their freedom! To reprsent the very worse of our society!"
The blood mage flinched back like he had been physically struck.
But then he smiled. "How young are you you simpleton? Tevinter was built on slavery and Blood Magic. We buried Arlathan. We took their treasure and made it our own. We took their people and made them serve us. Tevinter was at the height of his power simply because we put ourselves on top the rightful place over the wretched Elves. And it is we who breached the Golden City to try and make ourselves Gods!"
"And look at the pain that caused?" Oliver snapped, almost not caring about keeping his voice hidden. "We released the Blight. We have done great damage to the world! It is true that we are built on the bones of an ancient Empire but there was a time Tevinter reached new heights when we moved beyond that past."
The mage opened his mouth to speak, to argue, but then snapped shut and shook his head. "I see there is no point in arguing with you anymore. Kill him."
His guards stepped forward, hands reaching for their weapons.
"What happened to the vaunted Venatori honor?" He mocked. "We had a truce."
The mage simply turned leaving the muscle to do the deed.
Don't recognize him from the Magisterium but he certainly acts the part.
He calmed himself, his breathing, his anger as they came close. He gave it a good five count, waiting for them to step around him, he was grateful they didn't have a single bowman amongst their members, satisfying themselves with clubs and sickles.
Another second...
"Now!" He shouted to the heavens.
Daggone and Aleia stood amongst the upper scaffolding and dropped two orbs straight down. The glowing balls plunged to the earth-
Before exploding in a flash of light as it came within two feet of the ground.
The Venatori wasn't ready for this display as they flinched, screamed, and covered their eyes.
He was.
In one solid move he ripped his rapier from its sheath and plunged it back through the cloth armor of the cultist behind him, then with that there he brought his bow around, an arrow to one in front, then he spun and fired at the second one flanking him.
All of them dropped within two seconds of the explosion.
Aleia and Daggone leapt from their spots, her with great sword and him with sword and shied, quickly dispatching two more of the cultists.
The rest finally managed to rally but their numbers were significantly reduced, the results were even.
He pranced forward as one tried to flank Aleia, with no real armor she was vulnerable, but he managed to draw his attention with a visions battle cry.
The cultist swung wildly, Oliver lunged backwards as his free hand came around to bat the club out of his opponent's hand.
The Ventori growled and charged, Oliver flinched aside, then chopped him, then finished him with an arrow, killing him.
Before he knew it the immediate surroundings were clear as he looked around...just in time to see the mage fleeing around a corner into the catacombs below.
"After him!" Oliver shouted.
They tore off into the catacombs after him. Eons of dead Elves and humans packed in together, bones upon bones. Seemed a very Venatori place to hide.
Oliver felt the need to slow his mad charge off after the Venatori. Afterall if it was his turf then some caution was warranted. Still he decided to mount an arrow to his string as he moved, his two teammates staying off in the background.
"Rook! Come and get me Rook!" A voice echoed as if in his head.
"This has to be a trap." Aleia murmured in his ear.
"I know. Yet we are here anyways might as well follow it through."
Now they crept forward at more of a crawl. Past one intersection and down another. Knowing that if he wasn't trying to escape then he was likely wanting to wait for them up ahead.
"I knew you would follow us!" On cue the mage stood at the end of the corridor, his staff pointed downward dramatically, "and we knew you were working with friends! Welcome to our trap!"
In the intersection came more cultists, they pressed in close with their scimtars drawn, and in the close quarters of the catacombs removed their advantage. He spun around and grabbed a Venatori around the head, before throwing him into the wall then stabbing him.
Another cultist came running up to him right on the heels of the defeat.
Oliver took a wild swing with a sword which was batted aside then he slammed against the wall as the Venatori shoulder checked him.
He panicked, his arm came around and knocked the enemy's sword out of his hand which prevented him from being skewered like a nug.
The Venatori tried pressing his advantage and reach around with his hand and choke him, Oliver gagged, two hits to the stomach and yet he held on with barely a flinch.
Something was wrong as Oliver felt the air forced out of him-
Then a thunk from behind the back of the Venatori and his hands went lax, his head jerked up, and his legs went weak.
It took another moment but the Venatori slid down him, Oliver kicked him off, and looked up to see a dark armored figure with a bow looking there.
Oliver strained jutted his head forward to look at him, no, it can't be.
"The Shadow Dragons?" Aleia breathed.
"Shadow Dragons, press your advantage!" A woman's voice shouted at them.
Oliver turned towards it to see a hooded woman stand behind him, but the way her ears tented at her side indicated she was an Elf.
The two of them watched each other, he hadn't expected this and the woman's bearing looked especially smug.
"Fools!"
The shriek of the magister ripped both their eyes around towards him. Before they could move they already noted the knife in his hand, cutting a deep incision in his arm. His eyes already glowed a deep red as he stretched out his staff.
Oliver and the newcomer both bolted, but a force of energy knocked the four of them in the back off their feet.
As he propped himself back up to his elbow the magister began to float, red blood swirled around him pushing him up into the air, his hands gesturing out at his side.
"The True Gods of the Imperium rise again! They will wipe you from the world and restore Tevinter to its rightful place. They whisper from across the Veil giving us the secrets of ancient magic! The secrets we can use to defeat our enemies and bring the world back to the way it should have been! For the glory of Tevinter reborn!"
Oliver heard a pulsing from underneath the catacombs, then in an eyeblink a tentacle burst free from the earth, two of them. Each one of them whipped around the neck of the two lead Shadows and went taught, the two of them dropped.
"Is that what I think it is?" Daggone asked.
"That idiot is using the Blight!" Oliver agreed.
"But how!"
"I don't know but we have to stop him!" Oliver growled.
"You fools the gods have given us mastery of the Blight and together we can-"
HIs energy pulsed and faded.
The lead Shadow Dragon had her bow arm extended, an arrow head pierced the mage. He blinked, hissed, the open wound just adding to the swirling mass, the magic pulsed again, the Blight vines twitched.
The Silver Rook glanced at his savior, they nodded.
Each one of their arms windmilled and pumped. Three, four, five arrows peppered the mage's chest in short order.
And still he tried to get up, his body distending, the vines rising above him.
Oliver grunted as energy smacked him right in the teeth, the reverberation of ancient magic that he had felt before on the battlefield. It drove him to his knees.
And yet he still had enough to mount one more arrow to his string, which he shot through the mage's shoulder.
A final one sprouted from his eye from the Shadow Dragon.
Soon the corpse fell and Oliver felt calm wash over him, like someone put a blanket on all his senses. The catacombs were deathly quiet.
The three of them looked around, trying to find more threats amongst the corpses. None materialized. All he could hear was the hammer in his chest.
"Thank-"
"No thanks are neccessary, please." The Dragon's visage smiled.
"And just what are the Shadow Dragons doing here?" Aleia asked frostily.
She snorted, "the Venatori like to talk. They were bragging about a meeting in this wharehouse for days now. Of course we didn't expect to find the Silver Rook here."
Oliver opened his mouth to continue to querry, but a new noise interrupted him. The sound of rushing feet.
He cocked his eyebrow at her.
"Not mine, seems the Venatori had more resources then we thought."
"Come on, lets go, we'll find us a place to lie low." He gestured before starting to move.
Aleia blocked his path. "She is a criminal. A Shadow Dragon. They're not to be trusted. Even if they are more noble then the Venatori they are terrorists."
"You forget I'm a criminal to."
"You are a precise instrument Rook. She is a criminal."
"She saved my life." Oliver growled.
The footsteps had grown closer.
"We can debate this later, right now she saved us so she deserves a chance to explain herself if she wants." He nodded to her to follow.
They fled back the way they came, to the light.