Demons attacked Linn's barrier as she read the Litany of Adralla. Uldred tried to drown her out with his blood magic, but she just recited it louder. As Uldred fell to the ground, Linn refocused on keeping the other mages safe. Alistair and Sten attacked the abominations while Wynne kept the group healed and protected. They had interrupted Uldred's ritual but not before he had turned a mage into an abomination. After which, Uldred had gone on a rant about the templars and Loghain.
"No… NO! I WILL NOT ALLOW YOU TO WIN!" Uldred screamed as the last abomination fell.
Uldred's body flailed and contorted, growing larger and larger. As it settled into its new shape, Linn realized that she'd had a brief glimpse at this kind of demon before.
"He has become a pride demon," Irving whispered in horror.
"Then he will die as one," Sten replied and ran for the demon.
Linn took down her barrier to conserve magic. Hopefully, Sten and Alistair could keep the demon away from the mages while she blasted him with magic. The demon turned its head to look directly at her.
"That's… not good," Linn muttered before telling Wynne to protect the other mages.
As Linn ran to the other side of the room, the pride demon followed, knocking back Sten and Alistair as they tried to hold its attention to no avail. Linn gathered her magic and focused. Sten and Alistair regained their balance and hurled themselves at the demon. As Linn's anxiety peaked, she held onto the rage. Uldred was no different than Lucifer. A bully that deserved to be put down. Linn felt a rush of dark magic as the mark seemingly agreed with her.
The pride demon towered above her as it let out a laugh at her seeming helplessness. Linn let out a beam of dark magic at the demon. It stumbled back in surprise. The dark magic ate away at its very essence. For the darkness had been sealed away for so very long, and it was so very hungry. The demon flailed as it tried to shake off the magic, and Sten and Alistair took the opportunity to slash the distracted creature as much as possible.
The beast let out a roar of rage, and once again its eyes focused on Linn. Linn gripped her staff and leapt as the demon tried to ram her against the wall. Linn escaped being crushed but fell to the floor. Her staff fell out of her hands and shattered as the unstable magic took its toll. The pride demon rose from the ground and roared at Linn, which soon turned into a shriek of pain. Sten had sliced the beast's ankles as Alistair ran to the front of the creature. With a leap, Alistair buried his blade in the demon's chest.
The demon's form twisted and contorted once again before it fell to the ground. Linn collapsed onto the ground with a sigh of relief as Wynne helped Irving to his feet.
"Maker… I'm too old for this," Irving mumbled with a look at the bodies around the room.
"Are you alright?" Wynne asked, and Irving gave her a tired look.
"I've.." Irving began when he let out a groan of pain. "... been better. But I am thankful to be alive. I suppose that is your doing, isn't it, Wynne?"
"I wasn't alone," Wynne said as she gave the others a grateful smile. "I had help."
"The Circle owes both of you a debt we will never be able to repay," Irving said as he locked eyes with Linn. "Come, the templars await. We shall let them know that the tower is once again ours."
Alistair helped Irving down the stairs as the old man complained about living in a tower. Linn had fled down the stairs ahead of them to check on Cullen. The barrier was no longer holding Cullen, and he was nowhere to be seen. Linn clenched her hands nervously as she looked around the room. Hopefully, he had left to join the other templars. Linn quickly took the lead, checking each room as she went. She just hoped that there hadn't been a blood mage that had come back to finish the last templar in their grasp. As they made their way to the main hall, Linn breathed a sigh of relief. Greagoir had opened the doors to speak with Cullen. As she got closer, the relief turned into apprehension.
Cullen argued with Greagoir as they approached, "Uldred tortured these mages, hoping to break their wills and turn them into abominations. We don't know how many of them have turned."
Irving spoke up angrily, "What? Don't be ridiculous!"
"Of course he'll say that! He might be a blood mage! Don't you know what they did? I won't let this happen again!"
Greagoir looked at Irving with relief before he turned his attention back to Cullen, "I am the knight-commander here, not you."
"Well, what does the knight-commander think, then?" Linn asked, feeling a little nervous without a staff to defend herself.
Greagoir let out a long sigh and replied, "We have won back the tower. I will accept Irving's assurance that all is well."
Cullen argued more desperately, "But they may have demons in them, lying dormant… lying in wait!"
Greagoir shouted, "Enough! I have already made my decision."
Cullen's jaw tightened, but he walked away without a fight. Linn watched him leave. Her heart felt heavy. Part of her knew that she shouldn't put too much blame on him right now; he'd just been trapped and watched his friends die. She knew how that felt more than most. Looking away from Cullen, she crossed her arms and waited for Greagoir to regain his composure.
With a look of frustration at Cullen, Greagoir sighed before turning back to Linn, "Thank you. You have proven yourself a friend of both the Circle and the templars."
"So will you help us with the darkspawn?" Alistair asked hopefully.
"I promised you aid, but with the Circle restored, my duty is to watch the mages. They are free to help you, however. Speak to them."
Linn noticed that Irving had already wandered off to check on the young mages. She turned back to Greagoir and asked, "So… if I need a favor, I'll need to speak to the first enchanter?"
"Yes, Irving," Greagoir said with a motion toward the first enchanter. "For now, I will have to oversee a sweep of the tower. There may be some survivors and we should do our best to tend to them. Please, excuse me." Greagoir paused for a moment before he called out to Irving, "And Irving… it is good to have you back."
Irving smiled in return and replied, "I'm sure we'll be at each other's throats again in no time."
Linn could have sworn that she saw a small smile on the knight-commander's face before he turned to walk back into the tower. Linn quickly walked up to the first enchanter and asked for a moment of his time. He excused himself from the others and followed Linn to a more secluded area.
Irving gave her a gentle look of concern, and she immediately blurted out everything that had happened at Redcliffe. The walking dead, the demon, the boy… Irving's eyes went wide as she continued explaining before he started to stroke his chin thoughtfully.
"So your plan is to send a mage into the Fade after this demon? Have you thought about who you will send?" Irving asked, carefully watching her face.
"I will go," Linn announced. "I can do it. I just need help getting into the Fade."
Irving let out a sigh before he reluctantly agreed. He would need time to get things ready, but then he would be on his way to Redcliffe with the mages and lyrium they needed. Linn and Alistair shared a look of relief as Wynne asked for permission to leave the Circle and join Linn to fight the darkspawn to which Irving reluctantly agreed to give her permission.
Linn gave the room one last look. Her eyes briefly met Cullen's from across the room before he quickly turned away. Feeling an odd lump in her throat, Linn turned away from Cullen and led the others out of the door. A hand on hers made Linn flinch. Leliana gave Linn a sympathetic look, and Linn gently squeezed her hand in return before letting go. The soldier was much easier to convince this time around. He had clearly gotten news from the templars. As they got into the boat, Linn decided to take one last look at the tower.
Linn remembered the first time she had seen the tower in the distance. How it had seemed so imposing. How Irving had welcomed her. How Jowan… Linn shook her head and got into the boat. It hardly mattered now. The templar rowed them to shore with awed looks at Linn whenever she looked his way.
Linn kept her eyes on the dock as they neared it. Wynne cut through the heavy silence by asking if they wanted to keep moving or set up camp. Linn looked to the sky and considered her options. They still had some daylight. It would be a waste for them to just set up camp now, but Linn also suspected that they were as tired as she was.
"Let's… let's keep moving for now. At sunset, we can start setting up camp, but it's best if we keep moving for now. We need to get to Redcliffe as soon as we can."
Sten nodded his head, and Leliana and Wynne agreed tiredly. Alistair was uncharacteristically silent. Linn raised an eyebrow at him, but he just gave her a nod before gazing thoughtfully into the distance. With a frustrated sigh, Linn turned around to lead the group. The sun slowly began to sink over the horizon as Linn led them towards Redcliffe Castle.
A yell caught the group's attention. A woman ran towards them with her hands raised, and they came to a quick stop. She explained that her wagon had been attacked. People were injured and needed assistance. The group looked to each other before tiredly deciding to head toward the broken wagon in the distance. Chills went up Linn's spine as they approached. There were certainly people up ahead, but they didn't appear to need help.
Linn heard Sten and Alistair draw their swords. Men and women ran from behind the wagon to surround their group. Linn quickly looked to the left to see a tree swaying unnaturally. She grabbed Leliana and dove forward as the tree came crashing down. It missed them by inches. Linn glared at the man who had given the signal.
"The Grey Warden dies here!" the man shouted as he drew his sword and a knife.
"You fucker!" Linn breathed out and quickly got to her feet.
Leliana had immediately started firing arrows at the assassins. Sten and Alistair had charged forward to combat the assassins in front of them, and Wynne used her magic to shield the two of them from the arrows. The mage assassin fell to the ground as an arrow flew into his skull. Linn quickly ran forward to grab his staff from the ground. A familiar feeling hit Linn as she gripped the staff tightly.
Blood pumped through her veins as she looked at the enemies surrounding them. Heat blazed through her as she focused on the archers on the hill. Raising her hand, she let the dark magic loose. Green fire tore through the archers. They screamed as they tried to desperately fan out the flames, but they were soon engulfed in the inferno.
Linn locked eyes with Wynne. The older woman's eyes showed her fear, and Linn's anger cooled as she realized that she may have made a mistake. The others may not notice that her magic is strange, but a higher up from the Circle most definitely would. A yell made Linn flinch. Alistair clutched his side as the elven assassin prepared himself to swing his sword again. Throwing caution to the wind, Linn quickly put up a barrier around Alistair. The elf looked confused as his blade was caught by an invisible force. Linn ran to the elf and swung her staff at his head. There was a loud thwack, and the elf fell to the ground. The others panicked as their leader stopped moving.
Sten charged forward and swung down his greatsword. With a single swing, two more assassins fell to the ground. Arrows flew at the other assassins as Linn raced to grab onto the fallen Alistair. Wynne soon joined Linn. Her healing magic brought the color back to Alistair's face as he thanked them breathlessly. The area around them went dead silent. Linn looked around to see that the assassins had leader was wounded and unconscious but alive.
The little voice inside of Linn told her to kill him now. Who knew what he would do if he woke up? But curiosity silenced the voice as Linn jolted him awake.
The assassin elf groaned before he looked around the area in confusion. "What?" he asked in an odd, Spanish-like accent. "I… oh. I rather thought I would wake up dead. Or not wake up at all as the case may be. But I see you haven't killed me yet."
"I decided I wanted to torture you first," Linn retorted with her arms crossed. "Unless you have some information that you'd like to share."
"Ah! So I'm to be interrogated! Let me save you some time. My name is Zevran, Zev to my friends. I am a member of the Antivan Crows, brought here for the sole purpose of slaying any surviving Grey Wardens. Which I have failed at, sadly."
"Well, I'm pretty happy about that."
"So would I be, in your shoes," Zevran admitted. "For me. However it sets a rather poor precedent, doesn't it? Getting captured by a target seems a tad detrimental to one's budding assassin career."
"Who hired you to kill us?" Linn asked quickly, trying to cut to the chase.
"A rather taciturn fellow in the capital. Loghain, I think his name was? Yes, that's it."
Linn shared a look with Alistair, and Alistair asked, "And when were you to see him next?"
"I wasn't," Zevran said nonchalantly. "If I had succeeded, I would have returned home and the Crows would have informed your Loghain of the results… if he didn't already know. If I had failed, I would be dead. Or I should be, at least as far as the Crows are concerned. No need to see Loghain then."
Linn fidgeted with her staff for a moment before she said, "So… in short, Loghain hired you to kill us, but you clearly don't have any loyalty to the man seeing as how easily you're telling us everything… And my guess is that your murder group likely won't like that you failed to kill me."
"You would be correct," Zevran quickly admitted. "Intelligent and beautiful. A deadly combination."
Linn glared at him in response before she said, "You're telling me this for a reason… What do you want? Are you willing to sell his information for your life? Not exactly loyal, are you?"
"Loyalty is an interesting concept. If you wish, and you're done interrogating me, we can discuss it further."
"I'm listening, but if you don't make it quick, my mind may wander."
Zevran immediately brightened at her words and replied quickly, "Well, here's the thing. I failed to kill you so my life is forfeit. That's how it works. If you don't kill me, the Crows will. Thing is, I like living. And you obviously are the sort to give the Crows pause. So let me serve you instead."
Linn glared at him and retorted irritably, "You must think I'm royally stupid."
"I think you're royally tough to kill. And utterly gorgeous. Not that I think you'll respond to simple flattery. But there are worse things in life than serving the whims of a deadly sex goddess."
Linn's eyes widened as she was struck dumb by his brazenness.
Sten spoke up with irritation, "And what's to stop you from completing your mission later?"
"To be completely honest, I was never given much of a choice regarding joining the Crows," Zevran replied with a pitiful look in Linn's direction. "They bought me on the slave market when I was a child. I think I've paid my worth back to them, plus tenfold. The only way out, however, is to sign up with someone they can't touch. Even if I did kill you now, they might kill me just on principle for failing the first time. Honestly, I'd rather take my chances with you."
"What do you want in return?" Linn asked.
"Well, let's see. Being allowed to live would be nice and would make me marginally more useful to you. And somewhere down the line if you should decide that you no longer have need of me, then I go on my way. Until then, I am yours. Is that fair?"
Linn looked to the others to see their reactions. Sten looked like he wanted to kill the elf right then and there, but Leliana was looking at him with pity. Alistair looked to her for direction, and Wynne… She seemed distracted by her own thoughts.
Linn sighed and said, "Very well. I accept your offer."
"What?" Alistair asked in disbelief. "You're taking the assassin with us now? Does that really seem like a good idea?"
Linn helped the elf onto his feet before turning to Alistair. "Loghain very clearly wants us dead, and we don't exactly have a whole lot of people to stop him. We could use the help. If nothing else, Zevran can probably give us a heads-up if we're heading into a trap."
Alistair looked like he wanted to argue but couldn't refute her point. With a sigh, he said, "Alright, alright. I see your point. Still. If there was a sign we were desperate, I think it just knocked on the door and said hello."
Leliana spoke up to try to ease the tension, "Welcome, Zevran. Having an Antivan Crow join us sounds like a fine plan."
"Oh? You are another companion-to-be, then? I wasn't aware such loveliness existed amongst adventurers, surely," Zevran answered flirtatiously.
Leliana immediately moved to stand behind Linn and murmured, "Or maybe not."
Linn pointedly moved in front of Leliana and stared the elf down.
Zevran took the hint and promised, "I hereby pledge my oath of loyalty to you until such a time as you choose to release me from it. I am your man, without reservation… this I swear."