Remember that english is not my mother tongue, so maybe I have screwed some things speaking of grammar, still, I hope you can understand it and enjoy it.
Chapter One: Nightmares
Spoiler
It had been six months since the battle where Zaltrud almost destroyed Antiva under the influence of a dark god, his army had spent the time on help to rebuild the damaged cities of Antiva and Ferelden, Morrigan and Zaltrud himself were wounded and nearly killed during the battle, Yavana took care of them, slowly they have been healing, the Beast of the Tellary Swamps made sure of that, she used to guard the temple on the day, sometimes she used her dragon form to hunt, on the nights, she slept close to her brother, while Morrigan's injuries were purely physical, Zaltrud had lost his left arm and the cursed armor that Anaris granted him to fulfil his revenge had left a mark on him, his perfect golden eyes had reminiscent of the armor's power, an emerald tone on some parts of his eyes, one night, as Yavana suspected would happen, Zaltrud had a convulsion during a nightmare, she went running to him on his aid, she sat at his side as she soothed him, she grown curious, her brother didn't wake with the convulsion, she held him and leaned his head on her legs, she stared at his short dark hair, and examined his face, he still dreaming, she took Zaltrud's remaining arm, the thought of that he had lost the other because of her let her a bitter taste on the mouth, finally she placed his arm close to her face, she laid on the floor at his side and snuggled on his shoulder, she extended her arm to touch his cheek and cast a spell to see his dream, expecting not be an uncomfortable intruder.
A cave, he was dreaming with a cave, not a fragment of the Deep Roads, but a simple cave forged by nature, that place was dark, a light came from a tunnel above, she saw four Inquisition agents holding torches and following the tunnel, one of them, a dwarf, noticed the second tunnel that lead to the place where Yavana was watching, she was unable to move, she only could turn her head around she understood it was because she was looking from Zaltrud's perspective, the dwarf kicked some little rocks in the dark cavern and listened how long they took to reach the floor, he made a sing to the others, ordering them to approach, the others were a female templar who was using a helmet, a tall woman and an Avvar mage, for his staff, his cloak and his war painting, Yavana was sure he was a hakkonite.
-Inquisitor! there is another cave down there, it's too dark to see anything, the fall is not deadly, but it seems that jump won't be a healthy choice if you like your bones, we will try to find another entrance.
-It's ok, thank you Korbin.
The Inquisitor approached to the group.
-Remain here, we are going to explore.
The agents vanished on another tunnel, the Inquisitor stared at the darkness for a while, suddenly, a tramor shook the caves and crumbled the ceiling of the cave, the Inquisitor was forced to jump in order to avoid being crushed by the rocks, he let out a gasp with the fall, his torch rolled, there was a commotion coming from the other tunnels, all of them screaming "Inquisitor" at the same time.
-I'm fine, I think I only broke my arm.
The Inquisitor recovered and tried to reach his torch, but he was freezed, he noticed something, the torch's light was illuminating a foot, a naked foot, a silhouette was standing nearby, as soon as the Inquisitor tried to see the silhouette, the light was extinguished.
-Who are you? Magister Radonis?
The Inquisitor did not get answer at first, but when he tried to call out for help, a husky voice decided to answer him.
-Shh, shh. Be quiet, you don't want your friends hear our little chat, do you? Radonis is here, you maybe already heard his desperate gasps, is this man what you were looking for?
-Who are you? Why you took the Imperial Archon as hostage? What are you looking for?
The silence was seemingly the only reply, Yavana was shocked now, this apparently was happening for real, she sought for anything around, then she noticed something was glowing, like trees, like the tattoos that the Dalish often used, it glowed with an orange light which had resemblance to the sunlight, not one, but many things began to glow like the first, all of them with a different patron, finally someone turned on a light, a light that shined like the Sun, the Inquisitor was surrounded by elves, all of them had glowing tattoos. There was a gagged man in the middle of that room, at the side of an elf that definitely had to be the leader, he had a chestplate made of rock with orange glowing jewels, at the back chestplate there were attached two symmetrical and tall ornaments that rose upon the elf's head, on the center of the ornaments, there was a sphere, like a little sun, the leader's skin was of a tan tone, his hair was dark brown and grey on his side-whiskers, his tattoos were thicker than the others and his staff was made of some kind of rusty metal, he snorted and smiled with a little contempt on his expression.
-All of those are fair interrogantes, "Herald" , and oddly enough they are connected, first who I am is not the same than who I was, but your question was who I am, know me as Enfanim, and I brought this man to Nevarra because I knew you would come, you have something that I need, that key you call "Anchor".
-The Anchor can't be moved, it's attached to me permanently, Corypheus couldn't take it and I won't help you to do whatever you want to accomplish, you all have the "cultist" word written on all the face.
Something came out from the core of the little sun, it was an orb, identical to the one that Corypheus had, the orb flew to Enfanim's hand, the elf was slightly laughing.
-Do you believe it cannot be moved because a scavenger told you so? What could a scavenger know of my people's relics? Yet I recognize his wit to create such ritual, bad luck for you is that removing it will be deadly.
Enfanim approached to the Inquisitor without any sign of fear, suddenly he stopped, he heard carefully, Cassandra's voice was calling the Inquisitor desperately, she was ordering to open the way, Enfanim motioned with his hand to command his men.
-Prepare for battle, make sure they'll suffer!
The elves took their weapons, regardless they were mages or not, all their weapons began to glow like the sun, the bowmen aimed on the lockdown where Cassandra's voice was coming.
-Wait! not her, please do not hurt her, if you let my men to leave, I won't fight you. And you have to release Radonis too.
With another sign Enfanim ordered his men to stand down, he gave his staff to one who was close of him, then he came to the Inquisitor and shook his left hand while holding the orb on the right hand.
-We have a deal.
A green smoke surrounded them both, a green light came from the Inquisitor's body crossed through Enfanim and finally reached the orb, the artifact glowed at the time the Inquisitor's dead body fell to the ground, the elf stared at the orb, pleased for the result, the orb flew back to the core of the Sun on Enfanim's backplate, a torch lighted an entrance to the cave, and Cassandra's group had almost succeeded clear the way, Enfanim gave an order and took a knife to stab the Inquisitor's chest.
-Garas! And someone escort this shemlen back to home!
The elves turned off the lights of their tattoos and Enfanim's sun, the light of the torch arrived to the cave, the elves were gone, Korbin and his companions walked in, soon they noticed the body on the floor, Korbin ran to see, he held the Inquisitor's body and took the knife soaked in blood, at the same time, Cassandra and her company finally came in, a mage, probably a Mortalitasi for her outfit made a light, then the Seeker stared at the dwarf holding her beloved's corpse, soon her eyes were full of tears, she barely was able to speak.
-What have you done?... How could you? Why you have done this?
Before the dwarf could answer the Mortalitasi screamed:
-Traitors! They have slain the Inquisitor! Kill them! kill them!
The tall woman ran to drag Korbin, saving him from a rain of arrows, the four agents ran out of the cave as fast as they could, the Inquisition soldiers climbed down along Cassandra and the Mortalitasi.
-What are you waiting for? Hunt them down!
While the soldiers and the Mortalitasi ran in pursuit of the "traitors", Cassandra ran to the Inquisitor's body, crying, she leaned his head on her chest.
-Maker, why have you taken him from me?!
Zaltrud awaked exalted, he and Yavana exchanged glances, his breath was difficult.
-What was that!
-A nightmare, darling, nothing but a nightmare.
-Do not try to lie me, we both know it wasn't just nightmare, it seemed real, a premonition perhaps, we have to warn them, we can warn them before it's too late.
Yavana shook her head and closed her eyes while she hugged Zaltrud.
-I'm sorry, but it's already too late, he may wanted you to see that, they have more servants, their chess game won't stop for losing a piece, it won't stop until they are destroyed or they give up.
-Anaris; you said the Silent Grove was protected from such kind of magic, how the hell he was able to do that? Didn't he thought we were dead?
-I never expected to fool him with that, he is aware of the dead souls, and our souls wouldn't be so easily ignored, he knows we are alive but that doesn't means we cannot hide from him. And indeed, the temple is protected, he only has shown you something he was seeing, and yet, it seems he had to invest a large amount of power to do so.
Yavana held Zaltrud's face, she made him look at her, when their eyes met, she stared at them carefully, there wasn't any clue of the emerald color that once seized of his eyes, they were golden and healthy again, Anaris may have used the little influence that remained on Zaltrud to show him his new servant, the meaning of the message was likely nothing but mockery, or a threat, despite Zaltrud and her were concerned of what the dark gods showed them, she couldn't avoid to outline a little smile, finally her brother was safe from the dark god's.
-Your eyes are like mine again, you know what it means? He has left you, Anaris won't bother you any longer, his curse on you it's over.
It had been six months since the battle where Zaltrud almost destroyed Antiva under the influence of a dark god, his army had spent the time on help to rebuild the damaged cities of Antiva and Ferelden, Morrigan and Zaltrud himself were wounded and nearly killed during the battle, Yavana took care of them, slowly they have been healing, the Beast of the Tellary Swamps made sure of that, she used to guard the temple on the day, sometimes she used her dragon form to hunt, on the nights, she slept close to her brother, while Morrigan's injuries were purely physical, Zaltrud had lost his left arm and the cursed armor that Anaris granted him to fulfil his revenge had left a mark on him, his perfect golden eyes had reminiscent of the armor's power, an emerald tone on some parts of his eyes, one night, as Yavana suspected would happen, Zaltrud had a convulsion during a nightmare, she went running to him on his aid, she sat at his side as she soothed him, she grown curious, her brother didn't wake with the convulsion, she held him and leaned his head on her legs, she stared at his short dark hair, and examined his face, he still dreaming, she took Zaltrud's remaining arm, the thought of that he had lost the other because of her let her a bitter taste on the mouth, finally she placed his arm close to her face, she laid on the floor at his side and snuggled on his shoulder, she extended her arm to touch his cheek and cast a spell to see his dream, expecting not be an uncomfortable intruder.
A cave, he was dreaming with a cave, not a fragment of the Deep Roads, but a simple cave forged by nature, that place was dark, a light came from a tunnel above, she saw four Inquisition agents holding torches and following the tunnel, one of them, a dwarf, noticed the second tunnel that lead to the place where Yavana was watching, she was unable to move, she only could turn her head around she understood it was because she was looking from Zaltrud's perspective, the dwarf kicked some little rocks in the dark cavern and listened how long they took to reach the floor, he made a sing to the others, ordering them to approach, the others were a female templar who was using a helmet, a tall woman and an Avvar mage, for his staff, his cloak and his war painting, Yavana was sure he was a hakkonite.
-Inquisitor! there is another cave down there, it's too dark to see anything, the fall is not deadly, but it seems that jump won't be a healthy choice if you like your bones, we will try to find another entrance.
-It's ok, thank you Korbin.
The Inquisitor approached to the group.
-Remain here, we are going to explore.
The agents vanished on another tunnel, the Inquisitor stared at the darkness for a while, suddenly, a tramor shook the caves and crumbled the ceiling of the cave, the Inquisitor was forced to jump in order to avoid being crushed by the rocks, he let out a gasp with the fall, his torch rolled, there was a commotion coming from the other tunnels, all of them screaming "Inquisitor" at the same time.
-I'm fine, I think I only broke my arm.
The Inquisitor recovered and tried to reach his torch, but he was freezed, he noticed something, the torch's light was illuminating a foot, a naked foot, a silhouette was standing nearby, as soon as the Inquisitor tried to see the silhouette, the light was extinguished.
-Who are you? Magister Radonis?
The Inquisitor did not get answer at first, but when he tried to call out for help, a husky voice decided to answer him.
-Shh, shh. Be quiet, you don't want your friends hear our little chat, do you? Radonis is here, you maybe already heard his desperate gasps, is this man what you were looking for?
-Who are you? Why you took the Imperial Archon as hostage? What are you looking for?
The silence was seemingly the only reply, Yavana was shocked now, this apparently was happening for real, she sought for anything around, then she noticed something was glowing, like trees, like the tattoos that the Dalish often used, it glowed with an orange light which had resemblance to the sunlight, not one, but many things began to glow like the first, all of them with a different patron, finally someone turned on a light, a light that shined like the Sun, the Inquisitor was surrounded by elves, all of them had glowing tattoos. There was a gagged man in the middle of that room, at the side of an elf that definitely had to be the leader, he had a chestplate made of rock with orange glowing jewels, at the back chestplate there were attached two symmetrical and tall ornaments that rose upon the elf's head, on the center of the ornaments, there was a sphere, like a little sun, the leader's skin was of a tan tone, his hair was dark brown and grey on his side-whiskers, his tattoos were thicker than the others and his staff was made of some kind of rusty metal, he snorted and smiled with a little contempt on his expression.
-All of those are fair interrogantes, "Herald" , and oddly enough they are connected, first who I am is not the same than who I was, but your question was who I am, know me as Enfanim, and I brought this man to Nevarra because I knew you would come, you have something that I need, that key you call "Anchor".
-The Anchor can't be moved, it's attached to me permanently, Corypheus couldn't take it and I won't help you to do whatever you want to accomplish, you all have the "cultist" word written on all the face.
Something came out from the core of the little sun, it was an orb, identical to the one that Corypheus had, the orb flew to Enfanim's hand, the elf was slightly laughing.
-Do you believe it cannot be moved because a scavenger told you so? What could a scavenger know of my people's relics? Yet I recognize his wit to create such ritual, bad luck for you is that removing it will be deadly.
Enfanim approached to the Inquisitor without any sign of fear, suddenly he stopped, he heard carefully, Cassandra's voice was calling the Inquisitor desperately, she was ordering to open the way, Enfanim motioned with his hand to command his men.
-Prepare for battle, make sure they'll suffer!
The elves took their weapons, regardless they were mages or not, all their weapons began to glow like the sun, the bowmen aimed on the lockdown where Cassandra's voice was coming.
-Wait! not her, please do not hurt her, if you let my men to leave, I won't fight you. And you have to release Radonis too.
With another sign Enfanim ordered his men to stand down, he gave his staff to one who was close of him, then he came to the Inquisitor and shook his left hand while holding the orb on the right hand.
-We have a deal.
A green smoke surrounded them both, a green light came from the Inquisitor's body crossed through Enfanim and finally reached the orb, the artifact glowed at the time the Inquisitor's dead body fell to the ground, the elf stared at the orb, pleased for the result, the orb flew back to the core of the Sun on Enfanim's backplate, a torch lighted an entrance to the cave, and Cassandra's group had almost succeeded clear the way, Enfanim gave an order and took a knife to stab the Inquisitor's chest.
-Garas! And someone escort this shemlen back to home!
The elves turned off the lights of their tattoos and Enfanim's sun, the light of the torch arrived to the cave, the elves were gone, Korbin and his companions walked in, soon they noticed the body on the floor, Korbin ran to see, he held the Inquisitor's body and took the knife soaked in blood, at the same time, Cassandra and her company finally came in, a mage, probably a Mortalitasi for her outfit made a light, then the Seeker stared at the dwarf holding her beloved's corpse, soon her eyes were full of tears, she barely was able to speak.
-What have you done?... How could you? Why you have done this?
Before the dwarf could answer the Mortalitasi screamed:
-Traitors! They have slain the Inquisitor! Kill them! kill them!
The tall woman ran to drag Korbin, saving him from a rain of arrows, the four agents ran out of the cave as fast as they could, the Inquisition soldiers climbed down along Cassandra and the Mortalitasi.
-What are you waiting for? Hunt them down!
While the soldiers and the Mortalitasi ran in pursuit of the "traitors", Cassandra ran to the Inquisitor's body, crying, she leaned his head on her chest.
-Maker, why have you taken him from me?!
Zaltrud awaked exalted, he and Yavana exchanged glances, his breath was difficult.
-What was that!
-A nightmare, darling, nothing but a nightmare.
-Do not try to lie me, we both know it wasn't just nightmare, it seemed real, a premonition perhaps, we have to warn them, we can warn them before it's too late.
Yavana shook her head and closed her eyes while she hugged Zaltrud.
-I'm sorry, but it's already too late, he may wanted you to see that, they have more servants, their chess game won't stop for losing a piece, it won't stop until they are destroyed or they give up.
-Anaris; you said the Silent Grove was protected from such kind of magic, how the hell he was able to do that? Didn't he thought we were dead?
-I never expected to fool him with that, he is aware of the dead souls, and our souls wouldn't be so easily ignored, he knows we are alive but that doesn't means we cannot hide from him. And indeed, the temple is protected, he only has shown you something he was seeing, and yet, it seems he had to invest a large amount of power to do so.
Yavana held Zaltrud's face, she made him look at her, when their eyes met, she stared at them carefully, there wasn't any clue of the emerald color that once seized of his eyes, they were golden and healthy again, Anaris may have used the little influence that remained on Zaltrud to show him his new servant, the meaning of the message was likely nothing but mockery, or a threat, despite Zaltrud and her were concerned of what the dark gods showed them, she couldn't avoid to outline a little smile, finally her brother was safe from the dark god's.
-Your eyes are like mine again, you know what it means? He has left you, Anaris won't bother you any longer, his curse on you it's over.
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