Blood Wound Chapter 24 - It was just a thing.

[miri1984]

Title art by cave_fatuam 

In his dream, Morrigan was lecturing him on the best way to take animal form. Alim, who found the whole concept of shapeshifting slightly nauseating, was attempting to pay attention - although he had no intention of ever following through on becoming a spider he really had no way of knowing if it would be necessary some day. There was something nagging at the back of his mind the whole time she spoke, and it wasn't that Alistair was calmly talking to Loghain at the campfire behind them, or that Shale was giving Oghren piggy back rides around the camp.

Or that Zevran was lying behind her face down in a spreading pool of blood. Blood that sang.

He woke and immediately wished he was asleep again. There was… a face. Too close to him. It was covered by a mask, but the mask could not conceal that the face was the wrong shape - too tall, to long… too smooth. The taint screamed in his blood, and something else, something muted, screamed in his head.

"So, you are the Commander of the Grey wardens?" the face asked. A beautiful voice. Seductive. Low. Soothing. "Do not be frightened. Your injuries have been tended to. I apologise for what I must do. I do not wish to be your enemy. But now is not the time for this." The time for what? he tried to speak, but his lips wouldn't move. Tried to move, but his body wouldn't obey any of his instructions. The figure raised a hand, making a delicate and precise gesture. "Rest."

I don't have time to rest, he wanted to say.

I don't have time….

When he woke again he was looking into Anders' concerned face. If he'd felt better he would have made some sort of joke, I hope you bought me dinner first, but when he opened his mouth all he could say was "Ugh."

Anders gave him a small, tight, smile. "Ugh is right," he said. "You probably feel dreadful. They… took your blood."

Alim blinked. "Maker's breath. Why?"

Anders shrugged. "No idea. But they left water. You'll need lots. It's clean, I made sure of that."

Alim sat up and looked around the cage they were in. Nathaniel nodded from a corner, looking relaxed in peasants clothes - Alim supposed he'd had a lot of time to get used to prison cells lately. Velanna was up and pacing the room, full of nervous energy and scowling.

Anders was tense and obviously not pleased. "I tried to pick the lock on the door," he said. "So did Nate. But we don't have proper picks. They were pretty thorough about searching us."

"They?"

Anders frowned. "The strange one… with the mask? There's a dwarf woman with him as well, as well as a bunch of darkspawn. Less… grrr arrrgh than most. The tall one seems to be able to calm them." The older mage shrugged. "For jailors they're surprisingly gentle. I'd certainly pick darkspawn over Templars, any way."

"You might," Nathaniel said mildly.

Anders shot him a scowl. "One day they'll round up all the Howes, just like I warned you," he said. Nathaniel rolled his eyes.

"We can't have been here too long," Alim said. "Otherwise Justice would be here."

"I'd not be relying on a fade spirit's idea of the passage of time, were I you," Anders said. "He might just stand out there until winter and not realise."

"Does he even feel the cold?"

"I don't think so, remember that time he didn't get out of the way in time and you blasted him with…"

"Gentlemen," Nathaniel managed to sound remarkably like First Enchanter Irving when he was at his most pompous, "as fascinating as this is, should we not be concentrating on how to get out of here."

Alim picked at his ear. He was wearing the same clothes as the others, robes and staff and sword all gone. "If we can get out of here we're going to have to be… "

Velanna's high pitched shout cut through his musings as another elf woman approached their cage. Even from where he was sitting Alim could feel the taint crawling through her blood, but there was something else on top of it that made him frown. He'd felt the same from the strange tall darkspawn.

"Seranni? Oh creators, what have they done to you?"

The elf woman - presumably Velanna's sister, from her greeting, looked pained. "They haven't done anything. I'm fine, Velanna, it's not me he wants." It's not me he wants… Alim's nostrils flared. What did he want then? "I have to get you out before something bad happens. I don't want anyone else to be hurt."

Velanna nodded. "Yes, all right. Let me out and I'll take you home…"

"The darkspawn have your things. You can still get it all back if you're careful and clever. They're going to come back to check on you. You have to hurry."

"Careful and clever hasn't been our strong point so far," Nathaniel muttered. Alim rolled his eyes.

"You must have some idea of what's going on here," he asked Seranni.

The elf shook her head a little too quickly and wouldn't meet his eyes as she replied, fiddling with the lock on the door. It clicked, but she made no move to open it. "I don't know anything. But take this key. It opens a chest in the emissary's room. Maybe you'll find some answers there." She pushed a key towards Alim through the bars, and he took it, frowning.

That she was free, wandering around the dungeons, obviously tainted… "How did you get this?"

"I… I found it," there was a thump and a creak from behind her and she started. "They're coming. You have to go. Find a way out of the mines. Please!"

"I can't just leave you Seranni!" Velanna reached out through the bars but the other woman startled back and ran. "Wait!"

Alim opened the now unlocked door, wondering if he should tell Velanna that her sister was almost certainly dying. He glanced at the Dalish and away again quickly. She wasn't stupid, that much was obvious, for all her foolishness in the woods. Just very, very angry. And frightened.

He shook his head. He'd raise it when they were safe. Maybe. Now, they had too much to do.

Casting spells without Wintersbreath to focus was more difficult than he remembered. He'd spent too long relying on it, he realised, and he missed it keenly. Not as much as Nathaniel obviously missed his bow and daggers, however. The rogue was fair at bare fisted fighting, but as soon as he was able he looted the corpse of a darkspawn for a pair of wickedly curved daggers. Alim eyed them suspiciously. They looked a lot like they would do more damage to the user than to anyone one might try to stab with them.

Nathaniel saw him looking and shrugged. "They cut well enough," he said, waving a hand to Anders, who was busy healing a wound on his arm from one of them.

"Just don't poke your eye out with them," Alim cautioned.

An emissary dropped a staff that he gave to Velanna. Nathaniel may have been bad at hand to hand, but she was far worse. Anders was surprisingly dreadful with a sword for such a big man, but another dagger was enough to stop the worst of the attacks that he was subjected to, and a few well timed mind blasts took care of any spawn who got too close to him... as well as Nathaniel once, which necessitated a fairly well phrased apology. The mage was a natural target, unfortunately, the tallest of them, with that blond hair and gold earring catching whatever light happened to be around.

When they saw the first ghoul - with Velanna's distinctive Dalish staff strapped to her back and wearing those ridiculous robes, Alim allowed himself a small bit of hope that he'd be reunited with his staff. They found Anders' things next, then Nathaniel's, but the ghoul wearing his mage robes and carrying Wintersbreath was tougher than the others, the fight was longer…

Velanna's fireball was impressive, large and devastating. Alim kneeled over the scattered ashes and flecks of blue that were all that remained of his robes and staff and cursed.

Spellweaver was the only thing that had survived. Wintersbreath was no more.

He felt an arm on his shoulder. "I'm sorry, Commander," Anders said, his voice solemn. "I know you loved your staff."

Alim felt surprisingly close to tears. "I carried that thing nearly the whole Blight," he said, swallowing.

"Oh for the sake of the creators," Velanna snapped. "It was just a thing."

"I seem to recall you fighting like a demon to get your ridiculous robes back, serah Keeper," Anders said.

"They have unique Dalish enchantments!"

"And a plunging neckline worthy of Maggie Amell!" Anders said, causing Alim to snort in memory. Anders' face softened, and he gave Alim's shoulder another few pats. "The Commander's just going to miss stroking his staff, that's all. Polishing it. Crooning to it during long night watches…"

"Shut up, Anders," Alim said, slapping the healer's hand away and standing up. The scabbard was singed and blackened, but still useable. He'd have to rely on it to focus his spells until he could find another staff. There was one for sale in the markets at Amaranthine that had looked nice. It was expensive, but what was the point in being an Arl and having a treasury if he couldn't spend a bit of coin?

Nathaniel was eyeing Spellweaver. "I've never seen you use that," he said softly. "I presumed it was there for… status. As warden commander…."

Alim hefted the sword in his grip, scowling. "I don't like swords much," he said. "They're crude. I used it to kill the archdemon though."

"But you can channel spells through it as well?" Velanna said. "I have… heard something about that. Was it not an ancient Dalish technique?"

He grinned at her. "It was."

"How did a flat ear learn such a thing?"

Alim looked at Anders, who was covering a grin with one hand. "What did you call me?"

She folded her arms over her chest, looking unapologetic. "You are not Dalish. You did not have access to the knowledge of the keepers. Where did you learn…?"

"I can teach it to you if you want, Velanna," he said mildly. "And I didn't beat up a Dalish keeper or anything to learn the things I know. Knowledge isn't…. something that should be kept from people you know.

"It is Dalish knowledge…"

Alim shrugged. "So you should be grateful it's no longer lost Dalish knowledge, shouldn't you?" He sheathed the sword on his back, sparing one more glance at the ruins of his gear and sighing. "We need to get out of here," he said. "We can talk about sharing magical knowledge later."

"Stealing you mean," Velanna muttered.

Alim rolled his eyes and stalked onwards.