- From the Journal of Eratus Riverwood
We ran through black streets painted with silver swaths of moonlight. I kept pace with Kallian, and though I should have felt winded at this distance, my breath did not falter as the Light sustained me. I barreled toward a battle I was ill-prepared for, risking life and limb for the sake of a foreign people and yet, I felt alive.
Power trailed and tingled along my skin as holy energies radiated within my being. Where before I had to exert my will to bring it forth, now my will was all that kept it restrained.
The sound of the sea drew closer, and we entered the shadow between two houses, stopping just short of a corner. Kallian paused, then peeked around.
“There is a building across the road.” She looked back at me. “An old fishery with a pier out back that nobody has used in years. This must be it.”
I leaned over and spotted a squat and wide structure nudged between two thinner buildings. Patchwork planks littered its walls, and its center was a single door for people beside a larger cargo entrance that was barricaded shut. Recently too, judging by the streaks lining the cobblestones towards it, indicating that something passed through it.
The Lorekeeper piped in my head.
“There is a significant degree of corruption emanating from that vicinity, intermingled with an arcane presence. Caution is advised.”
The corruption itself was alarming, but an arcane presence? That had to be the mage from the cliffside.
As if the odds weren’t stacked enough against us already. I leaned over to Kallian.
“Just how many attacked the alienage?”
“Three dozen or so.”
Lower than I first thought, until I realized it happened after the festival, where most were probably too drunk to defend themselves. They couldn’t have been a better time to strike.
“Just mercenaries?”
“No.” Kallian scowled. “That foreigner with the bow and her guards were among them. There is something not right about her and them.”
I pursed my lips while collecting my thoughts in silence.
“Is something bothering you?”
“There is a mage there.”
“What?” Kallian went wide-eyed. “How do you know?”
“I can sense him,” I said. “Same one from the cliffside, and there is something else I can’t quite put my finger on.”
I prayed that we wouldn’t have to face the likes of the darkspawn on top of everything else. Or worse.
Kallian seemed to take my words for granted and looked toward the fishery with a frown, chewing the edge of her lip with the tell-tale look of uncertainty and doubt. A lack of confidence was dangerous on the eve of battle.
“And because of that, I won’t be holding back.” I drew an inscription into the air, my hands glowing blue. “This is a blessing, I am giving it you because whatever we are facing in there is beyond anything you faced before.”
Kallian gave me a side-eye and took one step back.
“Think of it as… as me sharing my power with you.”
I hadn’t used a blessing in a very long time, mostly because there was no need to. Up to now, my reserves of power were better used for myself, and even before I landed in Thedas, my old team was strong enough to hold their own without my help. But given what we were up against, it was worth sharing my strength with her.
She studied my hand, which brimmed with a soft blue glow, then nodded.
“Do it.”
I gently pressed my palm to her forehead, letting the blessing take shape. She gasped as the air warmed and whirled, tossing her short hair about. A blue fist of might flickered across her skin for a moment as I felt the link snap in place, drawing vitality from me towards her.
“Done.”
Kallian’s eyes glossed over as she grasped her head. “What… it’s like… like a light.”
“Exactly,” I knew that feeling all too well. “Feel okay?”
She took a few careful steps, testing her balance.
“Better than okay. I don’t know, it’s like… like everything is sharper, clearer.”
She drew her daggers, slashing and stabbing through the air in a blur.
“Faster too.” Her hands fidgeted as she sheathed her weapon. “Too fast. I’ll need to get used to it.”
“I’m certain you will.” I pointed toward the fishery. “Now… you wouldn’t know of a better way in than through the front door, would you?”
“Figured you’d ask.” Kallian smiled. “Follow me.”
She led us around until we popped through another alley, except this time we were at the edge of the fishery, right where it bordered a taller building.
“There is a window up there leading to a store room.” Kallian pointed. “Used to sneak off with dried fish back when I was younger. We’ll have to jump across to reach it, though.”
I snorted. Of course, she’d do that.
“How well do you know the layout inside?”
“The store-room, the hallway on the other end of it, and a few drying rooms along the way. I know the hallway loops towards a bigger warehouse where they’d load up fish from an indoor pier but I’ve never actually been there. The drying rooms are thick enough to be holding cells; that’s probably where they are keeping everyone.”
Somehow I doubted that because if they were leaving tonight, then they’d have to stage their cargo as close as they could to the ship, if they hadn’t been loaded already. That meant everyone would be in the warehouse room which was the worst situation for us since we’d be facing off against everyone at once. The mage, Deverra, and her guards, thirty-or so odd mercenaries, along with anything else.
There was no other option though, and sometimes one just had to fight it.
“We go in through the way you showed,” I said. “Once we get inside, we find your people and get them out if we can. But if it comes to the fight, we take out the mage first.”
Kallian frowned, clearly worried about her kin, but nodded in agreement.
Before departing, I searched for my remaining lyrium vial, which was almost certainly going to be expended prior to the fight. I found it in my belt pouch among bandages and a few other non-combat essentials, but felt it clink against something else.
That turned out to be a Hearthstone, which I must’ve stuffed in there after receiving it from Flemeth.
“What’s that?” Kallian eyed the marked stone.
“A personal memento but you don’t have to mind it,” I said, putting it back in the pouch if only for sentimental reasons. “Let’s move.”
We crossed the road and scaled up the taller building, climbing along uneven bricks until we reached the roof. From the top I got a glimpse of the full scale of the fishery and realized just how deceptively small the view from the street made it out to be. It jutted past the taller buildings, cutting through several streets until it reached the ocean. It was more than big enough to store a ship and an entire smuggling operation.
Across the gap from where we stood was the window ledge that Kallian pointed out.
She leapt first, soaring through darkness before latching on to the window with grace and shimmying inside. I gauged the distance, knowing I didn’t have her particular talent in acrobatics, waiting until she signaled me over from the darkness.
I leapt and realized I overshot halfway across as I arced straight into the wall above the window. I pressed my hands forward, deadening the impact with a grimace, before I skidded down and caught the ledge with my fingers.
This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it
I hauled myself in, hoping the noise didn’t alert anyone.
Pitch darkness greeted me as I landed with a soft thud. The room was empty and true to Kallian’s word, appeared to have been abandoned for some time. A faint musk of fish permeated the air, but I could sense something else. A lingering spiritual darkness that the Lorekeeper warned me about.
It felt like the Deep Roads. Whatever was happening was far more sinister than a mere abduction.
As my eyes adjusted to the dimness, I spotted Kallian ahead, leaning against the exit door, when the Lorekeeper issued me another warning.
“There are two life-forms approaching your vicinity.”
I stayed Kallian’s hand before she opened the door. She looked at me in confusion, to which I raised a single finger to my lips for silence. And sure enough, a single breath later, we heard footsteps approach, followed by voices.
“Can’t wait till this is done.”
“Same here,” said a different voice. “If I knew Vints were involved, I’d never have signed up.”
Two sets of boots. Two people. Kallian slowly drew out her dagger as the footsteps drew close, ready to pounce if they entered the room.
“Even with the pay?”
I could hear their breaths now.
“Not enough. I’ve been up in Antiva, and you don’t tangle with Vints, not unless you are desperate. It would look worse to back out of a job though.”
Their steps passed by without checking the room. Kallian peered through a gap in the door then looked to me, pointed forward, and slid a hand across her throat.
“Boss is pretty antsy about the whole thing as well…“
I nodded.
She burst through the door. Slash. Slash. Thud.
I stepped out to witness Kallian standing over two bodies, their necks cut through before they could have uttered an alarm. I never celebrated the loss of life, but these men knew what they had signed up for. I nodded at her for a task well done as we dragged the corpses into the storage room, shutting it before moving down the hallway.
We passed by smaller rooms along the way, and as I guessed, they were all empty. However, there were signs of recent occupation, which meant people were being kept here at one point. But if they weren’t here that left only one other possible place for them to be.
Our trek went unimpeded, and all that was left was the main warehouse which the hallway ahead led into, turning into a railing a story above it in the distance. I heard the thuds and thumps of cargo being moved and two prominent voices, which took center stage as we drew close.
“The deal was a hundred denari a head!” said a voice with an entitled rage I pegged as Taoran.
“As per the written contract, it was a hundred denari a head, dependent on quality.”
Kallian tensed.
“And what exactly is lacking in quality!? I see two legs, two arms, two eyes, and a full set of teeth-”
“Enough for meager labor or fodder, which we have plenty of up north. This trip would not have been worthwhile had it not been for the artifact and the elven. But if I recall, the artifact was retrieved by someone else, and you required our assistance for the elvhen.”
We slowed to a crawl just short of where the hall opened to the fishery warehouse and witnessed the massive operation below.
Wooden coffins were stacked to the brim, as human laborers loaded bodies piled high from a set of carts. At first, I feared they were corpses, but I noticed minor movement, indicating they were asleep, sedated most likely. Armed mercenaries patrolled across pathways where they were staging pallets of coffins ready to be loaded onto a vessel.
There had to be hundreds, far more than all the elves in the alienage could account for. Humans were mingled with the elves and I noticed the tell-tale ragged clothes on some of the bodies, human bodies for that matter. The same worn by the vagrants that loitered outside of the city walls. The scale of it went beyond an abduction. It was an outright deportation of undesirables.
And as if I wasn’t disgusted enough, I sensed the miasma permeated the very air below.
Taoran’s figure marched towards Deverra who was standing atop a raised platform with her guards. A ship was docked behind her, and there was no sign of the mage.
He had to be here somewhere. At least they hadn’t begun loading, but with everyone comatose there was no way to free them and get them to safety before the fighting started in earnest. And I knew at this point that an open fight was our only option.
Kallian looked at me, and I nodded in assent. If it was going to be an open fight, we better strike first and strike fast. Her eyes scanned around looking for the easiest targets while I reached into my belt pouch, taking out the lyrium vial, guzzling the silvery-blue liquid down my throat.
The world sharpened, a warm strength spreading throughout my body, but that was when I was on the verge of exhaustion. Now I could feel with crystal clarity, and the lyrium, it sang.
It sang of fresh vineyards in the summer harvest of Northshire, the golden autumn leaves of Elwyinn in fall, and the marble white city of Stormwind, beyond which a blue ocean spanned long and far into the horizon. It sang of home, and it found in me a kindred being of the same parent. It suffused through my being, becoming one with me and in turn I became more of myself.
And the Light that was already roaring like a furnace now threatened to combust out in a blaze. I felt like a deity bound in flesh, and my mind raced through all the new possibilities awakened by my newfound power.
And I found an idea. One that would have been outlandish and foolhardy, but possible with the energies roaring through me.
“Psst… Eratus?” Kallian waved a hand at me with a look of concern.
“I’m fine,” I said. “Change of plans. I’m going down alone.”
“Wait!” Kallian grabbed my arm. “Just what are you going to do?”
“Watch.” I looked at Kallian with absolute confidence. “And have faith.”
Kallian’s mouth opened in protest, but then she stopped.
“Whatever happens, don’t reveal yourself until the mage shows up. Strike him while he is unaware,” I said, then leapt.
I let the Light loose, and it erupted from my body, causing it to radiate like the midday sun. The entire fishery sounded with the gasps and shouts of blinded men. I soared like a comet emitting an aura of holy energy, sending the miasma and darkness quailing in my wake.
I wielded the Light to a level I had never been capable of. It took on physical form around my body into geometric patterns that chimed like bells and latched on like plate armor. Wings sprouted from my back, slowing my descent and flickering with holy fury.
I landed in the middle of the entire operation, sending men and laborers scampering away from the impact. Every eye was drawn on me and in their reflection I saw not a man but an incarnation of a cosmic force birthed into a world that had never before felt its presence.
And it came not as a force of restoration but of judgment, its aura casting the weight of its gaze upon all those who looked. Every secret guilt, every secret shame was brought to light and reflected onto the onlookers. Men fell in supplication, while others teetered away. The message was clear, repent.
A young man who had been pushing a pile of coffins staggered away, tears streaming down his face.
“I-I… This wasn’t what I wanted!”
He turned tail and fled. A bearded fellow in the opposite corner dropped his sword, letting it clatter onto the floor.
“Maker save me. I didn’t mean to do this!”
As he too bolted away, more followed suit, abandoning their posts and running for the exits.
“Hold ranks! Hold ranks, you curs!” Taoran yelled from the central platform, shielding his eyes. “This is nothing more than a trick! Get him!”
Those that remained didn’t move to the order, holding their weapons in fright. But it was Deverra alone with her guards who showed no sign of fright or of regret. I could sense the miasma emanating from them, anchored to their very being and essence in a way that my presence alone could not wash away. She muttered something to her guards, who then marched in my direction.
So be it.
With my newfound fervor, I did not need inscriptions or sigils to call upon the Light’s power. With sheer force of will the ground consecrated below as I raised my sword upwards. A seal of light appeared across its hilt, claiming the weapon as one of divine providence.
How many lives were lost because of my own inaction? And how many more if I had not chosen to step in? Fury and guilt warred in my soul, and I forged them into a weapon for retribution.
I called for judgment upon the sins of this flawed world and immense quantities of holy energy flared along the blade, shooting up to a titanic and radiant projection of the sword toward the ceiling. Pale white fire sprang and danced from its surface, causing the air to steam. Men backed away.
I had offered mercy, and now they would have wrath.
The voice leaving my throat was not of my flesh alone, but carried with it the authority of divinity.
“Leave”
Deverra saw what was coming and threw herself aside, while Taoran followed suit. The bright blade fell like an executioner’s strike in a path towards the center platform.
The hulking guards made no effort to flee and vanished in a flash as the blade crashed to the ground, splintering the floor and the central platform in an explosive blast.
And with it, shattered what little resolve was left among the men. Terror and fear gave way to outright panic as they fled and bolted for the doors.
My gambit succeeded, but at the expense of an enormous reserve of power as the light just slightly dimmed and the wings behind my back shrunk. For I knew the real fight would be just around the corner.
And as if answering the challenge, the miasma coalesced to a cowled figure stepping from the deck of the ship and onto the fishery floor. Armored guards escorted him from behind along with a dark red mist that trailed in his wake, slinking out from an urn that floated along his side, the same I had delivered with my own hands to Deverra.
The mage had shown himself and so too the source of the corruption.
I glanced above and saw Kallian making her move, passing through unnoticed as the eyes of all were upon me. Taoran crawled out of the debris, having managed to avoid the bulk of the blast. He scampered up and attempted to run when the cowled figure pointed its staff at him.
“Where do you think you are going?” The mage’s voice trembled through the air.
A single black-red tendril shot forward like a vine and wrapped itself around the mercenary leader’s leg like a coiled snake. Taoran yelped as he was pulled up into the air.
“And to think the night would pass by without trouble.” The mage glanced at Taoran, whose screams were muffled as the tendril wrapped around his mouth. “I had low expectations in this land, and yet they failed to be met. Deverra!”
Deverra appeared at that moment, also managing to avoid the blast. However, she appeared to have fared far better than Taoran and showed no sign of injury or bruises. At the same time, Kallian was making her way down the ladder behind them.
“Deverra, my dear, you disappoint me, and to think I held you in such high esteem. Now…”
The mage who struck Deverra across the cheek with his staff, which the woman endured with a blank stare.
“That is but a taste of the punishment you shall endure. Do not fail me again.”
“I will not master.”
The mage turned his attention to me.
“Now, who are you?”
Kallian skulked toward him from behind her dagger drawn out. I needed to keep their attention towards me, and I did not need words when action would do.
I stepped towards him with my weapon blazing with light.
“Not one for words are you? Very well, you have made a grave error transgressing in my affairs for you face Caladrius magister of the Tevinter Impe-!”
Kallian struck at that moment, dashing past his guards, his dagger rupturing through the mage’s chest.
“Master!” said Deverra, who drew a rapier and lunged at Kallian, forcing her to parry the blows.
I expected the miasma and darkness to recede with the mortal blow, but it only grew stronger in strength. Another tendril erupted from the urn, slamming into Kallian and sending her tumbling aside. The mage’s own blood seemed to pool and add to the mist, giving it a greater degree of physical form.
His cowl fell to reveal a bald bearded man with blood red eyes that shimmered with madness. He was still alive, and his guards responded in kind, drawing their weapons.
“You… Kill them,” he said. “Kill them all!”