After a busy night of stopping caravans from being ambushed, helping Anders only to discover he had a spirit living inside of him, and helping a dwarf who was actually helping a strange elf who was escaping slavery, Lyria decided that first thing this morning they'd go down to the Gallows and find a certain mage...
Back in the old Amell estate, she had picked up a letter that had been written that seemed to be correspondence between a mage and her family.
It turned out the correspondence was more between her father and a templar, not another mage. Lyria was stunned to discover that her father had been communicating with a templar, had actually been friends with a templar, and that the templar had allowed her father to escape the Circle and live a life!
This mage had been a go-between for them, for the templars could not find out just how deep this friendship was. He still had a few of her father's letters and offered to give them to her, as they belonged to her being family. She gladly accepted them.
Skimming through them however, she learnt that the templar's name had been Carver... her brother had been named after this templar! What a revelation. She had to tell him.
Hurrying back to Gamlen's, she waltzed up to Carver and flourished the letters around. "I have a present for you!" she declared. Carver was suspicious but took the pages, then thrust them back at her because they were from a mage and surely she, another mage, would get more use out of them.
He hadn't looked closely enough. She pointed at a certain bit and made him read it again, and that's when it clicked for him. There were good templars out there, and their father had been friends with one, friends enough to actually honour the templar's name and plant it upon his son.
Carver didn't know what to think, and simply thanked her. After years of smacking each other around, Lyria and Carver had the first inkling of a sibling friendship rather than rivalry.
With Carver slightly happier, they set off to meet Aveline at the barracks. After clearing that caravan ambush the night before, Aveline promised their goodwill to be rewarded.
Unfortunately, as they arrived they heard nothing but angry barks coming from behind the captain's door as he yelled at Aveline and cursed her for daring to do anything other than her duty, screeching at her for being a show off and he was lucky he didn't have her arrested for not following orders.
When Aveline emerged from the captain's office, she was livid. What did it matter if she thwarted a caravan ambush during a night she wasn't on duty? All that should matter were the raiders were dead.
Something was wrong, and she would find out what it was.
Lyria sighed and guessed that she wasn't going to get paid, was she?
Suddenly another guard appeared and thanked Aveline for taking care of the ambush. She had been the one destined to patrol that region the night before, alone as the area was supposed to be quiet, and thanks to Aveline and Lyria she had not been killed.
Apparently she was on satchel duty. And that night the satchel had been much heavier than normal.
It seemed that somebody was sacrificing guards for a payment, but they needed proof. A man named Donnic was the next holder of the satchel. He was patrolling Lowtown that night, and they should go keep an eye on him... chances were that he was going to be ambushed.
That wasn't til later that night though. It was still daytime and they had plenty to keep themselves occupied. Thanks to going up Sundermount to help Aveline in the first place, Lyria remembered her deal with the Dragon-Witch, Flemeth, and decided it was high time she visited the Dalish elves and complete her end of this bargain. Her family had made it to Kirkwall safely, after all, all thanks to the woman.
As they were travelling through the city to get through to the mountains, a commotion in the markets stopped them. A man was yelling at some guards, demanding that they find his wife and bring her back to him.
The guards refused and said they did not deal with domestic disputes, then walked off. The man yelled at the market crowds and begged someone to help him.
Curious, Lyria wandered over. The man's wife had gone missing a month ago, her family was asking questions, and he was afraid that they'd think that he had something to do with her disappearance. That he had murdered her, or something. He needed to find her so her family would leave him alone.
He seemed a rude and despicable man and it was no wonder his wife had left him, but on the off-chance she had actually been murdered, Lyria agreed to investigate. The man was paying for any information, after all.
The man stopped shouting, the markets were quiet once more, and Lyria and her companions continued onwards to the mountains and the elves.
The Dalish were just as inhospitable as Lyria had ever heard, as the two elves standing guard at the entrance of the camp insulted her and told her to leave. Then the female elf realised that this was the human they had been waiting for and bade them to speak with the Keeper at once.
Keeper Marethari seemed much more cordial than the two who had been standing guard. She welcomed them to the camp, thanked them for being there, and even complimented Lyria on the light she held deep inside of her.
Then they got to why they were there. Lyria handed the token over to the Keeper and told her that a dragon-witch told her to bring it here.
The Keeper already knew. She had been waiting for them to arrive for quite some time now. She asked them to go up to the top of the mountain and perform a Rite upon the token. She'd be sending her First with them, and she knew the rite. Also, once the rite had been completed, could they please take the First with them back to the city.
The First's name was Merrill and she didn't want to be there anymore. Her clan were distrustful of her, and she wanted to be free of them.
As they progressed up the mountain, they came across other elves who jeered at her and told her that they couldn't wait for her to leave... it seemed quite sad, but Merrill held it in her stride.
Because of a recent landslide, in order to get to the top of the mountain they needed to go through a cave passage first so they could go around the landslide easier. As they prepared to enter the cavern, Merrill apologised for the elves behaviour. She was trying to do something for them — to help them — but they didn't approve of her help.
Lyria was confused, but shrugged. Elves with elf problems. She had her own problems. They all had problems.
In the cave they fought past spiders, lots of giant horrible spiders, then the walking dead, and then some Shades and a strange shadowy figure, man-like, that Lyria had never seen before.
Finally they made it through to the other side of the passage and stepped out of the spider-infested cave.
To continue onwards, they had to pass a magical barrier. Before Lyria or Anders could use their magic on it, however, Merrill stepped over to it, placed a knife against her flesh, and demanded a demon remove the barrier.
Lyria paled. Merrill was a blood mage.
Anders was just as horrified as Lyria was. But Merrill didn't care. The "spirit" had done as she had asked, and she knew how to protect herself. There was no issue as far as she was concerned.
Lyria was starting to get a better understanding of perhaps why the other elves wanted her to leave.
The barrier had barred the way to an old Dalish graveyard. Apparently, however, the spirits were restless. They should prepare to fight more walking skeletons.
Once the skeletons... and shades... and an arcane demon... and another shadowy figure had been dispatched, they could at last proceed to the very tip of Sundermount where an altar lay and perform the rite for the Keeper.
Merrill placed the token on the altar and incanted for quite some time in the old elven language. Then bowed her head and stood back.
With a great flash of light, Flemeth, the witch-dragon appeared and thanked Lyria for holding her end of the bargain. The token had held a small piece of the witch inside of it on the off-chance some woman named Morrigan did "the unthinkable."
That was yet another useful trick that Lyria wanted to learn more of, but Flemeth would not indulge her.
Standing upon the mountain precipice, the witch spoke about how they were on the precipice of change. The world would be plunged into darkness, and Lyria's destiny awaited.
Before Lyria could question the witch further, she transformed into a dragon and flew up and away.
That was just typical.
Heading back down the mountain, they gave the token to the Keeper and announced the ritual complete. Lyria's debt to the witch had been paid at last.
The Keeper spoke to Merrill once more and told her that it was not too late to change her mind; she could still stay with them in the camp if she wanted to. But Merrill had made her choice. She was leaving.
Taking Merrill to the elven alienage in Kirkwall city, the young elf was shocked. She had not imagined the elves to live in such squalor, and there was so many people there! It felt so lonely.
Despite the fact she was a blood mage, Lyria felt sympathy for the girl. She told her that if she needed a friend, she'd be there for her, then left her to her own devices in the alienage whilst they continued on with other business.
The day was still young and they had much to do, and of course, there was Aveline's business later that night once the night patrols began. It was time to keep earning some money so they could help fund this expedition.
Until next time! 😊🐲⚔️
All screenshots in this post are courtesy of me, 