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peopleofthedas2011-05-10 07:49 pm
solitae) wrote in peopleofthedas2011-05-10 07:49 pm
The Thing with Feathers, Ch. 6 (DA2 fic)
Title: The Thing with Feathers, Chapter 6
Characters: Lilian Hawke (mage), Fenris, Anders, Varric, Isabela, Merrill
Rating: T
Word Count: 2000
Summary: "I want everyone in Thedas to have a chance to hear our version of it. This is just the beginning. Mages will be free." - Lilian Hawke. It may have started in Kirkwall, but now the revolution spreads with Hawke and Anders at the center.
Much thanks todrakontion for the hard work as a beta. Also, I blame ouyangdan and the rest of you that hang out in the Fade Bar IRC for a certain food reference.
In Chapter 6: Chantry confrontation as promised, and an old friend shows up.
"Foul and corrupt-" continued the Revered Mother rather than answer her. Coward. The last of the music faded away, as did the voices. The square fell into thrumming silence. Fear, uncertainty, she could taste them in the air. But people had to know. They had to see.
Lilian lifted her voice to quote the Chant with her, inflections different from the usual mindless flow. "Foul and corrupt are they," her words accused the Chantry as surely as the Chantry accused her. "Who have taken His gift," she threw the phrase into the night like a gauntlet. They called it a curse. Everyone called it a curse, but it was not. Not until they made it so. "And turned it against His children."
The Revered Mother stared at her, anger in the woman's dark eyes at Lilian's effrontery. Lilian merely smiled sweetly at the greying woman a good two decades her senior. The mother was off-balance, uncertain how to answer the charge. Off-balance was good.
"I tell you again," this time Lilian delivered the words with quiet steel, forcing the woman and the crowd to lean in to hear her. "We are here to serve men, to use His gift." She paused, daring the mother to contradict her. "Do you see us harming anyone?"
Before the Revered Mother could answer, Lilian heard a quiet uncertain voice from near Anders. "They healed my boy, Mother Delia," grateful tears rang in the woman's cry. "My Riley. They wouldn't take no coin neither."
Maker bless you, my good lady.
The Revered Mother flinched, but before she could speak, another chimed in weakly, telling of how they had eased his pain. Some wounds couldn't be healed, but they had done their best. Lilian didn't dare take her eyes off this Mother Delia and her templars, but she caught sight of Isabela slipping around behind them even if they didn't.
Fenris, she knew, lingered behind her shoulder, ready to charge at the first sign of attack. The rest were nearby, Aveline wearing a scowl, Anders still close to the young woman he'd been healing. Lilian could have pointed to each of them without looking, having fought so long with them.
These templars were no match for her friends.
"They will bring demons down on us!" howled a different voice, and Lilian recognized her admirer from before. Ahh, yes, the ruddy-haired woman who had run to the Revered Mother. "And then what good is their healing?"
Not so many blessings on you.
"Mage-lords!" spat a deep bass. "They will doom us!"
Voices rose on both sides, defending and accusing, growing shriller by the moment.
"What say you, Revered Mother?" Lilian demanded with a twist of magic that made her voice loud over the crowd. The templars all focused on her, and she gave them a nasty smile. "Demons or healers? Or perhaps..." Her eyes flashed. "We should let the Maker show His favor."
Her snarl hushed the seething crowed, and she loved it. Loved the look of utter terror that the Revered Mother hid so quickly. So little faith when faced with a true threat? Fury and disgust replaced it, and Lilian canted her head, curious if she would take the bait.
"So be it, mage," announced the woman. "May the Maker judge you justly."
Lilian could see the templars reaching for their swords, and she knew more than one of them was gathering for a smite.
"Varric," she kept her voice level, calm. "Anders, get the people back. It's only the templars we're meant to fight." She glared at the crowd supporting the Chantry, and most fell back as a glow surged around her hands.
"Stand down, good people," echoed the Revered Mother, and Lilian nearly laughed. So protective of its flock, this chantry. Why, their own dear mother would leave them in harm's way unless reminded. "In Andraste's holy name, we will slay these heretics."
Then she did laugh. "So claimed Knight-Commander Meredith before the Maker struck her down!"
"Seize them!"
Energy burst from Lilian's hands before the templars could get in a smite, her fury throwing most of them back like so many twigs. They crashed to the ground as a smite hit her an instant too late, and her connection to the Fade wavered. She stumbled, but stayed on her feet, knuckles white around her staff.
The templars tried to close on her, but Isabela took down two from behind before they even realized she was there. Fenris and Aveline charged on the bulk of them, and Varric's arrows sprouted from eye-slits and throats. A shield went up over her, and she automatically snatched one of the vials from her pouch. The lyrium burned going down, and she shook her head to clear it before Anders's shield dissipated.
Both mages cast from behind her, and she gritted her teeth, relieved that her ploy to draw the smite on herself had worked. At least for the moment.
The templars scrambled now, Merrill knocking them over or locking them in place while Fenris hacked them down. Isabela seemed to be everywhere at once, and focused lightning shot from Lilian's hands.
Only two left.
Just as she blasted one of them back, she heard shrieks rise from the crowd, and a roar split the night. The earth rattled beneath her, her skin crawling with that disgusting sensation that meant demon. Seven sodding hells!
Chaos erupted in the already churning square, people running and howling. "Go!" she yelled, trying to be heard over the crowd as she launched herself for the vile spiked beast. Already, the templar-turned-Pride Demon lumbered toward some of their earlier patients, and she screamed at it.
"Come and get me! You know you want me!" Lilian shot lightning at its face and pummeled it with earth until the stupid thing turned toward her, blissfully unaware of Isabela running up behind it. The pirate leaped, plunging her daggers into the creature's back and climbing him even as it swatted at Lilian.
Fenris snarled at it, dancing into range as she stumbled back, and Lilian felt Anders at her back. A cool wave of healing spilled over her like a caress, and together, they sent magic surging through the demon. It was nearly down.
A sudden smite rocked them both like a punch in the stomach, leaving her gasping as she fought to keep to her feet. Anders went to his knees behind her, and she hissed, searching for the templar she'd forgotten.
He was charging for her, and she screamed at him. "Are you stupid?" Her staff spun, blade coming up toward him just as he closed. "Kill the sodding DEMON!"
Lilian's howls had no effect, but the sudden blade in his face made the templar stumble, and someone tackled him from the side even as Fenris and Isabela appeared next to her. Their defender finished off the templar quickly.
The elf snarled and pushed her back, muttering something in Arcanum that she was sure was insulting. "I love you too," she hissed, fumbling for another potion before she realized that the demon was down.
Isabela stopped her from drinking it, the captain looking her over for wounds before wrapping an arm around her. Lilian sank into her for a moment, recovering.
"Hawke, are you alright?" The familiar voice made her blink, and she turned to look at the man who had joined in the fight.
Blue eyes. Very blue eyes. And blond hair. And a sweet worried smile. And an innocent corruptible face. What by Andraste's bloody tits was he doing here?
She stared at him confused for a moment, then held up a finger. "Stay there."
Lilian shook her head and crept around the square now in utter disarray. Most of the people had fled when the demon appeared, but she found Anders kneeling next to a few mangled bodies. No doubt townsfolk that hadn't made it away in time. "They just wanted healing," he whispered, and she heard his voice catch. "We shouldn't have..."
"Stop," Lilian murmured as she stroked the healer's hair tenderly and felt him lean into her. "If the blighted Chantry would let us heal, then nothing would have come of this. This is not-"
"You knew what would happen." Anders tried to hide the accusation in his voice, but she heard it all the same.
She bit back the urge to snort and remind him of what he had done. Instead, she sighed, fingers still curling in his hair. "I suspected, of course, but I didn't know a bloody Pride Demon would join the party, Anders." He nodded against her side, shoulders slumped. "Guess that one must have been a transfer from Kirkwall."
He grimaced at her jest but said nothing more.
"Where's Mother Delia?"
He shook his head with a shrug, and she bent to kiss the corner of his mouth warmly. "I'll go check on the others."
A massive stinking Pride Demon corpse did wonders for discouraging unrest in the square, and even those who had stared at her in horror, as if she had turned into a demon, discovered reasons to run as far they could.
None of her own had taken any serious damage, and Lilian quickly healed the minor injuries once her magic recovered. The worst was a nasty bump on Aveline's head, but surely her skull was hard enough to sustain it.
That left her with one thing to deal with: the pretty blond former templar who she'd not expected to see again. She squeezed the bridge of her nose before turning toward him. Once, after she'd rescued him, there had been something between them, but that affection had become a strained "just friendship" after Carver betrayed her. She shook her head. It didn't do to think about him, even if a part of her wondered...No, not now.
A hug. A hug would not hurt, and when Lilian moved to embrace him, he wrapped his arms around her tightly. It felt good, steadying. "Some of the rumors had you dead or worse, Hawke."
"You shouldn't believe everything you hear," she murmured, pulling back from him. "Keran, what are you doing here?"
His sunny smile greeted her, and he ruffled her hair. "I-"
"Hate to interrupt, Hawke," Varric's voice broke in, "but that Revered Mother beat a hasty retreat to the Chantry, and I don't think she was the only one."
Lilian rolled her shoulders wearily. "I guess we did give them too much excitement to hope they'd sleep now, right?" She grinned at the dwarf who rolled his eyes.
"Always too much excitement with you around, Hawke. Don't you know, you're responsible for that demon?"
She made a face at Varric then frowned. "Maker's balls, even when we fight the demons..."
"C'mon, Hawke, can't let 'em think that, right?"
Lilian shot the dwarf a broad grin, and he winked at her. "What should we tell them, Varric?" As they gathered up to press on to the Chantry with Keran joining them, she draped an arm around Varric's shoulders.
"Let's see," he rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "You have to be the beautiful heroine, of course."
"Of course!" Lilian laughed, and Varric wrapped his arm around her waist.
"And the Revered Mother wanted to lure you into her wicked clutches," mused Isabela, winking at Lilian as the pirate came up on her other side, her arm curling around her shoulders. "Because she was taken by unnatural lusts."
"Your stories always have unnatural lusts," teased Lilian, giggling when Bella's lips touched her neck. "Besides, this is a Pride Demon, not a Desire Demon."
Isabela grumbled, "Desire Demons are more fu-" Lilian pinched her hip. "Ow!"
"So in exchange for one of her templars, the Pride Demon offered Mother Delia..." Varric prompted.
"The seat of the Divine," suggested Anders.
"Jellied ham," chimed in Aveline, and Lilian choked on a laugh.
Varric snickered and shot a glance back. "What?"
"Why by Andraste's pinkest knickers would a Pride Demon offer her a jellied ham?" chortled Lilian.
Aveline scowled at her. "I don't know." She flushed slightly. "I hate these sodding stories."
"A jellied ham and copper marigolds!"
"Shut it, Hawke!"
Lilian couldn't help giggling. It was just too easy to fluster the stalwart swordswoman. "No, I want to know what she-"
Aveline growled, "So help me-"
"Ladies, ladies," interrupted Varric placatingly, "there's no reason the Pride Demon can't offer her a goat-"
"VARRIC!"
Their jesting continued along with the story, and their laughter rang through the night as they marched on toward the Chantry drowning out the low rumble of unhappy voices rising as they approached.
----------
Note: I had intended to write to a schedule, but that just isn't happening right now. I only managed to get out half of what I had planned for this chapter, but I didn't want to leave it hanging (and I think it would have gotten really long). Anyway! My point is, I'm still shooting for weekly updates, but sometimes it may be a bit longer even with me working on this steadily. Thanks for reading!
Characters: Lilian Hawke (mage), Fenris, Anders, Varric, Isabela, Merrill
Rating: T
Word Count: 2000
Summary: "I want everyone in Thedas to have a chance to hear our version of it. This is just the beginning. Mages will be free." - Lilian Hawke. It may have started in Kirkwall, but now the revolution spreads with Hawke and Anders at the center.
Much thanks to
drakontion for the hard work as a beta. Also, I blame ouyangdan and the rest of you that hang out in the Fade Bar IRC for a certain food reference.In Chapter 6: Chantry confrontation as promised, and an old friend shows up.
"Foul and corrupt-" continued the Revered Mother rather than answer her. Coward. The last of the music faded away, as did the voices. The square fell into thrumming silence. Fear, uncertainty, she could taste them in the air. But people had to know. They had to see.
Lilian lifted her voice to quote the Chant with her, inflections different from the usual mindless flow. "Foul and corrupt are they," her words accused the Chantry as surely as the Chantry accused her. "Who have taken His gift," she threw the phrase into the night like a gauntlet. They called it a curse. Everyone called it a curse, but it was not. Not until they made it so. "And turned it against His children."
The Revered Mother stared at her, anger in the woman's dark eyes at Lilian's effrontery. Lilian merely smiled sweetly at the greying woman a good two decades her senior. The mother was off-balance, uncertain how to answer the charge. Off-balance was good.
"I tell you again," this time Lilian delivered the words with quiet steel, forcing the woman and the crowd to lean in to hear her. "We are here to serve men, to use His gift." She paused, daring the mother to contradict her. "Do you see us harming anyone?"
Before the Revered Mother could answer, Lilian heard a quiet uncertain voice from near Anders. "They healed my boy, Mother Delia," grateful tears rang in the woman's cry. "My Riley. They wouldn't take no coin neither."
Maker bless you, my good lady.
The Revered Mother flinched, but before she could speak, another chimed in weakly, telling of how they had eased his pain. Some wounds couldn't be healed, but they had done their best. Lilian didn't dare take her eyes off this Mother Delia and her templars, but she caught sight of Isabela slipping around behind them even if they didn't.
Fenris, she knew, lingered behind her shoulder, ready to charge at the first sign of attack. The rest were nearby, Aveline wearing a scowl, Anders still close to the young woman he'd been healing. Lilian could have pointed to each of them without looking, having fought so long with them.
These templars were no match for her friends.
"They will bring demons down on us!" howled a different voice, and Lilian recognized her admirer from before. Ahh, yes, the ruddy-haired woman who had run to the Revered Mother. "And then what good is their healing?"
Not so many blessings on you.
"Mage-lords!" spat a deep bass. "They will doom us!"
Voices rose on both sides, defending and accusing, growing shriller by the moment.
"What say you, Revered Mother?" Lilian demanded with a twist of magic that made her voice loud over the crowd. The templars all focused on her, and she gave them a nasty smile. "Demons or healers? Or perhaps..." Her eyes flashed. "We should let the Maker show His favor."
Her snarl hushed the seething crowed, and she loved it. Loved the look of utter terror that the Revered Mother hid so quickly. So little faith when faced with a true threat? Fury and disgust replaced it, and Lilian canted her head, curious if she would take the bait.
"So be it, mage," announced the woman. "May the Maker judge you justly."
Lilian could see the templars reaching for their swords, and she knew more than one of them was gathering for a smite.
"Varric," she kept her voice level, calm. "Anders, get the people back. It's only the templars we're meant to fight." She glared at the crowd supporting the Chantry, and most fell back as a glow surged around her hands.
"Stand down, good people," echoed the Revered Mother, and Lilian nearly laughed. So protective of its flock, this chantry. Why, their own dear mother would leave them in harm's way unless reminded. "In Andraste's holy name, we will slay these heretics."
Then she did laugh. "So claimed Knight-Commander Meredith before the Maker struck her down!"
"Seize them!"
Energy burst from Lilian's hands before the templars could get in a smite, her fury throwing most of them back like so many twigs. They crashed to the ground as a smite hit her an instant too late, and her connection to the Fade wavered. She stumbled, but stayed on her feet, knuckles white around her staff.
The templars tried to close on her, but Isabela took down two from behind before they even realized she was there. Fenris and Aveline charged on the bulk of them, and Varric's arrows sprouted from eye-slits and throats. A shield went up over her, and she automatically snatched one of the vials from her pouch. The lyrium burned going down, and she shook her head to clear it before Anders's shield dissipated.
Both mages cast from behind her, and she gritted her teeth, relieved that her ploy to draw the smite on herself had worked. At least for the moment.
The templars scrambled now, Merrill knocking them over or locking them in place while Fenris hacked them down. Isabela seemed to be everywhere at once, and focused lightning shot from Lilian's hands.
Only two left.
Just as she blasted one of them back, she heard shrieks rise from the crowd, and a roar split the night. The earth rattled beneath her, her skin crawling with that disgusting sensation that meant demon. Seven sodding hells!
Chaos erupted in the already churning square, people running and howling. "Go!" she yelled, trying to be heard over the crowd as she launched herself for the vile spiked beast. Already, the templar-turned-Pride Demon lumbered toward some of their earlier patients, and she screamed at it.
"Come and get me! You know you want me!" Lilian shot lightning at its face and pummeled it with earth until the stupid thing turned toward her, blissfully unaware of Isabela running up behind it. The pirate leaped, plunging her daggers into the creature's back and climbing him even as it swatted at Lilian.
Fenris snarled at it, dancing into range as she stumbled back, and Lilian felt Anders at her back. A cool wave of healing spilled over her like a caress, and together, they sent magic surging through the demon. It was nearly down.
A sudden smite rocked them both like a punch in the stomach, leaving her gasping as she fought to keep to her feet. Anders went to his knees behind her, and she hissed, searching for the templar she'd forgotten.
He was charging for her, and she screamed at him. "Are you stupid?" Her staff spun, blade coming up toward him just as he closed. "Kill the sodding DEMON!"
Lilian's howls had no effect, but the sudden blade in his face made the templar stumble, and someone tackled him from the side even as Fenris and Isabela appeared next to her. Their defender finished off the templar quickly.
The elf snarled and pushed her back, muttering something in Arcanum that she was sure was insulting. "I love you too," she hissed, fumbling for another potion before she realized that the demon was down.
Isabela stopped her from drinking it, the captain looking her over for wounds before wrapping an arm around her. Lilian sank into her for a moment, recovering.
"Hawke, are you alright?" The familiar voice made her blink, and she turned to look at the man who had joined in the fight.
Blue eyes. Very blue eyes. And blond hair. And a sweet worried smile. And an innocent corruptible face. What by Andraste's bloody tits was he doing here?
She stared at him confused for a moment, then held up a finger. "Stay there."
Lilian shook her head and crept around the square now in utter disarray. Most of the people had fled when the demon appeared, but she found Anders kneeling next to a few mangled bodies. No doubt townsfolk that hadn't made it away in time. "They just wanted healing," he whispered, and she heard his voice catch. "We shouldn't have..."
"Stop," Lilian murmured as she stroked the healer's hair tenderly and felt him lean into her. "If the blighted Chantry would let us heal, then nothing would have come of this. This is not-"
"You knew what would happen." Anders tried to hide the accusation in his voice, but she heard it all the same.
She bit back the urge to snort and remind him of what he had done. Instead, she sighed, fingers still curling in his hair. "I suspected, of course, but I didn't know a bloody Pride Demon would join the party, Anders." He nodded against her side, shoulders slumped. "Guess that one must have been a transfer from Kirkwall."
He grimaced at her jest but said nothing more.
"Where's Mother Delia?"
He shook his head with a shrug, and she bent to kiss the corner of his mouth warmly. "I'll go check on the others."
A massive stinking Pride Demon corpse did wonders for discouraging unrest in the square, and even those who had stared at her in horror, as if she had turned into a demon, discovered reasons to run as far they could.
None of her own had taken any serious damage, and Lilian quickly healed the minor injuries once her magic recovered. The worst was a nasty bump on Aveline's head, but surely her skull was hard enough to sustain it.
That left her with one thing to deal with: the pretty blond former templar who she'd not expected to see again. She squeezed the bridge of her nose before turning toward him. Once, after she'd rescued him, there had been something between them, but that affection had become a strained "just friendship" after Carver betrayed her. She shook her head. It didn't do to think about him, even if a part of her wondered...No, not now.
A hug. A hug would not hurt, and when Lilian moved to embrace him, he wrapped his arms around her tightly. It felt good, steadying. "Some of the rumors had you dead or worse, Hawke."
"You shouldn't believe everything you hear," she murmured, pulling back from him. "Keran, what are you doing here?"
His sunny smile greeted her, and he ruffled her hair. "I-"
"Hate to interrupt, Hawke," Varric's voice broke in, "but that Revered Mother beat a hasty retreat to the Chantry, and I don't think she was the only one."
Lilian rolled her shoulders wearily. "I guess we did give them too much excitement to hope they'd sleep now, right?" She grinned at the dwarf who rolled his eyes.
"Always too much excitement with you around, Hawke. Don't you know, you're responsible for that demon?"
She made a face at Varric then frowned. "Maker's balls, even when we fight the demons..."
"C'mon, Hawke, can't let 'em think that, right?"
Lilian shot the dwarf a broad grin, and he winked at her. "What should we tell them, Varric?" As they gathered up to press on to the Chantry with Keran joining them, she draped an arm around Varric's shoulders.
"Let's see," he rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "You have to be the beautiful heroine, of course."
"Of course!" Lilian laughed, and Varric wrapped his arm around her waist.
"And the Revered Mother wanted to lure you into her wicked clutches," mused Isabela, winking at Lilian as the pirate came up on her other side, her arm curling around her shoulders. "Because she was taken by unnatural lusts."
"Your stories always have unnatural lusts," teased Lilian, giggling when Bella's lips touched her neck. "Besides, this is a Pride Demon, not a Desire Demon."
Isabela grumbled, "Desire Demons are more fu-" Lilian pinched her hip. "Ow!"
"So in exchange for one of her templars, the Pride Demon offered Mother Delia..." Varric prompted.
"The seat of the Divine," suggested Anders.
"Jellied ham," chimed in Aveline, and Lilian choked on a laugh.
Varric snickered and shot a glance back. "What?"
"Why by Andraste's pinkest knickers would a Pride Demon offer her a jellied ham?" chortled Lilian.
Aveline scowled at her. "I don't know." She flushed slightly. "I hate these sodding stories."
"A jellied ham and copper marigolds!"
"Shut it, Hawke!"
Lilian couldn't help giggling. It was just too easy to fluster the stalwart swordswoman. "No, I want to know what she-"
Aveline growled, "So help me-"
"Ladies, ladies," interrupted Varric placatingly, "there's no reason the Pride Demon can't offer her a goat-"
"VARRIC!"
Their jesting continued along with the story, and their laughter rang through the night as they marched on toward the Chantry drowning out the low rumble of unhappy voices rising as they approached.
Note: I had intended to write to a schedule, but that just isn't happening right now. I only managed to get out half of what I had planned for this chapter, but I didn't want to leave it hanging (and I think it would have gotten really long). Anyway! My point is, I'm still shooting for weekly updates, but sometimes it may be a bit longer even with me working on this steadily. Thanks for reading!
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*rolls on the floor clutching her stomach laughing*
BRB, DED NAO
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Now, they'll get to the Chantry, and Mother Delia will preach about breading sinners.
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Mmm, and I've been planning on bringing Keran in for a while! I know he doesn't have much screen time, but I totally fell in love with him.
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It's fanfic. You can make the templar from the docs looking for "information on apostates" part of your crew or a romantic interest if you want! ;)
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And for a moment, I thought you were talking about Samson there. *laughs* Not really someone I want write about as a romantic interest. XD
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I like to balance it out. Too much RAWRKILL can kinda drain you.