3Chapter Nine; Ripple
I don't have a beta so this is bound to have several grammatical screw-ups, maybe Grammarly will hopefully rectify this.
Also, I like to do the swearing of words.
"So, what do we do now mister oracle?" Alistair asked as the group stepped over the corpses of the highwaymen who thought to make a profit off of them.
'I'm getting used to the sight of dead bodies way to easily,' Alim sighed, "Well, we should probably plan out our next steps for these treaties and the immediate problems in this town."
"Problems?" Morrigan echoed.
"It's the blight, everything's gone to shit." Morrigan nodded at the blunt response, "Plus, we're going to need coin and supplies."
"So are we helping out of the good of our hearts or for coin?" Alistair asked as he whipped the blood off of his blade.
"Yes." Alim simply said, ignoring the eye roll he got from the Templar, "Now, on to planning."
"I thought you already had a plan," Morrigan said off-handedly.
"There's a reason I told the two of you about my… "situation," I'm fallible and would like someone to be able to call me out on my bullshit." Alim sighed as he reached into his pack and pulled a map from it.
"I think we should head to Redcliffe first, from my knowledge it seems to be in the most precarious position, after that we should head to the Dales, make a pit stop in Denerim to pick up a dude, backtrack to Redcliffe, move north to deal with the Circle, run through Ozamar, and finally confront Loghain in Denerim, " Alim traced the line that the group would hopefully follow.
"What's going on in Redcliffe?" Alistair asked in a worried tone.
"And why must we go to it twice?" Morrigan added.
"Redcliffe is currently under assault by a demon possessing the Arl son," Alim squinted in thought, "I think his name was Connor?" The elf shook the thought aside.
"As for why we're going to Redcliffe twice, the Arl's in a coma from poisoning." Alim ignored Alistair's shocked inhale, "The only cure is the ashes of Andraste."
"Those are real?" Morrigan asked with a raised brow.
"Very," Alim said, "Also we will have to kill a dragon to get to it." Not really, but he wanted that dragon scales and the bragging rights. "Any other questions?"
"Yeah, who poisoned the arl?" Alistair asked with a note of anger in his voice.
"An old friend of mine, Jowan." Alim looked away from the man, "He's a blood mage… and I may be responsible for him escaping the tower of magi."
"Why didn't you stop him?" Alistair asked in a dead tone.
"He's the reason I was able to get into the Wardens, had to do a wrong thing for the greater good." Alim tried to defend himself, Alistair didn't look convinced.
"Any other past decisions we should know about?" Alistair sighed as he massaged the bridge of his nose.
"Just future ones," Alim said in a far too chipper tone.
"Such as?" Morrigan made herself known in the conversation as Alistair huffed in frustration.
"I'm still ruminating on those, I want to check some things before I solidify those choices." Alim turned to look at the crowded village, "Till then, we got some people to help."
Morrigan made a sound of disgust much to Alistair's displeasure.
"Okay, so small change of plans." Alim said as the three stood in front of the chantry bored, "I want to check and see if there's a certain individual here, and while I do that I'd like you three," He gestured to the man, woman, and dog, "To go look for a lost heirloom."
"You want us to go run an errand while you wander around town?" Morrigan asked in shock.
"It's the least dangerous of the requests," Alim tried to placate as he handed the request over to the witch in question, "Plus this individual is very important."
"How important," Alistair asked.
"Collapse of century-old institution's level important." Alim said grimly, "I'll explain more when we're not in the middle of a town."
Alistair and Morrigan shared a skeptical look but begrudgingly followed the elf's lead. Alim reached into his bag and pulled out a thin metal disk.
"Use this if you need to get my attention." Alim said handing the disk to Morrigan, "Channel some mana into it and you'll be able to call me."
"What a peculiar little thing," Morrigan said as she ran her fingers over the ingrained runes in the rim of the disk.
"I managed to make a deal with a spirit of knowledge to help connect the various disks to allow long-distance communication." Alim explained, "Had to get help for it, but it worked out in the end."
"When your done make your way back here and wait for me, Depending if I have enough time I might have a new group member with me."
"New member?" Alistair echoed in a questioning tone.
"You expect me to kill the Archdemon with you three behind me, fuck that." Alim said starting to move away from the group, shouting over his shoulder "let's try to meet up before sundown!"
"At least he had the decency to tell us where to look." Alistair snarked as he pulled his map out, eyes widening in surprise when he saw a location marked for the three.
Off in the distance, Alim laughed
An hour of asking around later, Alim found himself in front of an old cottage on the outskirts of the village that was Lothering. He had thought it would be a good idea to change out of his robes into some casual non-magey clothes and tried to conceal his staff as a walking stick.
'Calm down Alim…' Alim thought all but calmly, 'What are the odds that this can go wrong.'
The elf took a deep breath as he raised his hand to knock on the door. Alim hesitated a moment before rapping his knuckles on the door in three quick strikes.
For twenty seconds the elf held his breath, anxiety building. He raised his fist to knock a second time but the sound of movement on the other side made him pause.
"What do you want." A man with short brown hair and blue eyes demanded as he opened the door. 'Carver.'
"I'm here to speak to the eldest Hawke sibling," Alim said, hoping the taller man didn't notice the stiffness that had overcome the elf.
Carver rolled his eyes before turning around, "Garret, someone's here to see you!"
Alim failed to make sense out of the muffled return shout, only gathering that the voice belonged to a man, "How should I know, He asked for you." Carver shouted back.
Again a muffled shout came from in the cottage, closer but still muffled. "Just get your arse out here and talk to the man!" Carver shouted before turning to Alim, "He should be out in a moment."
Carver retreated into the house, leaving Alim to stew in his thoughts on the doorstep. Worry rose in his throat, this was one of the decisions that were more or less out of his control. Carver had more of a chance than not of dying depending on what 'class' this Hawke was, and that did not sit well in the elf's stomach.
Carver had always been Tristan's favorite Hawke sibling, mainly because he himself knew what it was like to both be the annoying younger sibling and how it felt to have one. It also helped that he refused to play as anything other than a mage.
"What do you wa-" A man with shaggy brown hair and amber eyes Alim assumed was Garret started to say but stopped when he looked Alim in the face.
For a brief moment, the man's eyes glowed softly and Alim saw a different face on the man, a face from another life.
"Drayce?" Alim asked in a shaky voice.
"Tristan?" The eldest Hawke sibling asked in turn.
Alim stepped back as the Hawke sibling stepped out of the cottage and closed the door gently behind him.
"Is that really you?" Alim asked in a shaky tone before opening his arms up for a hug, "You have no idea how much I missed you brother!"
The taller man spun from the door, slamming a fist into the elfs jaw and knocking him to the ground, a look of rage on his face.
'Not how I expected this to go.' Alim thought, glad he had yet to drop his stone armor.
The human reached up and hefted the man up by the collar of his shirt, "Do you know how long I've been here!" The man hissed, "And you choose now of all times to show up!"
"I've been busy!" The elf hissed back in turn, "Besides, I've been stuck in the Circle of Magi."
The man's amber eyes widened in fear, frost formed on the back of his hands as Alims collar began to smoke, "Did you come here to drag me off to that prison?" He asked in a deadly tone. 'Well, at least I know which Hawke sibling is screwed.'
'This is going poorly.' Alim grimly thought as he prepared to weave a paralysis spell on the man if he got anymore violent, "No, I didn't and can you please put me down so we can talk like civilized people?"
Garret glared at the elf, but let him drop from his grasp. "I gave up the name Drayce years ago, it's Garrett now."
"Well then, if we're going by new names," Alim stood up brushing the dirt off his clothes, "Than call me Alim."
"That's a gay name." Garrett deadpanned.
"Didn't choose it, glad you still have some sense of humor." Alim gave the man a sad smile, "But I'm here on business."
Alim reached into his bag and pulled a metal disk from his bag before handing it to the man.
"The hell is this?" Garret asked as he ran a hand over the polished metal.
"My attempt at a magic cellphone." Alim pointed to the various runes on the disk, "Channel your Mana into this and you should be able to contact me."
"Alright," Garret let his hand fall to the side, "So is this what brought you out to my neck of the woods."
Alim face grew grim, "The blights coming."
"I know this," Garrett said equally grim.
"You know what's going to happen to Bethany."
Garrett tensed, "I won't-."
"We both know that's unlikely." Alim cut the man of, "You haven't had the luxury of training in a circle like I have."
Anger flashed in Garretts eyes as smoke rose from his hands, "I'm more than capable of taking care of my own."
"It's an Ogre, Garrett," Alim tried to reason, "I needed three other people to take one down, and two of them died."
Garrett opened his mouth to continue arguing but Alim raised a hand to stop him, "I'm about to encounter a demon in Redcliffe," Garrett glared at the elf, seeming to sense where the conversation was heading, "I'm going to make a deal with it on your behalf."
"No." Garrett all but shouted.
"I wasn't asking for your permission." Alim stared the man dead in the eye.
"I said no." Garrett toward over the elf, attempting to intimidate the other mage, "I'm not going to let you screw yourself over for my sister."
"I've had twelve years to refine a contract, do you think I'm going to fuck this up?" Alim smirked.
"I see you're still as arrogant as ever," Garrett sighed, "Stubborn too."
"Yep." Alim turned, "It was good seeing you again."
"Same," Garrett smirked.
'Glad that worked out.' Alim thought to himself, 'I wonder how Alistair and Morrigan are doing.'
"He didn't mention bandits or traps would be out here." Alistair gripped as he massaged his throbbing ankle, the armor on his shin barely protecting the limb from the teeth of a bear trap.
"I know this," Morrigan said coldly.
"You know, your no fun to talk with."
"And you continue to offer nothing of value in conversation."
The two were silent for a moment. "Do you think we can trust him?" Alistair asked.
"Who says I trust you?" Morrigan said in an almost defensive tone.
"I haven't claimed to know the future have I?" Alistair bit back, before letting his voice softened a bit, "The man admitted he plans to manipulate us and let any number of people die."
Morrigan didn't respond.
"I mean," Alistair continued, "He claims that he's doing this for the greater good, but he hasn't explained what that entails."
"For all, we know he could just be a power hungry con artist." The Templar tried to rationalize.
"Then how did he know those things?" Morrigan asked, trying her best to keep her mask up.
"I don't know." Alistair let out a growl of frustration.
"Beside's, you trusted him enough before we knew this to let him lead."
"I never did," Alistair grumbled.
"You didn't argue against it," Morrigan argued.
Alistair grunted, not having a counter argument. The two lulled into silence as they continued their search.
"I'd figured you'd be the first to distrust him." Alistair suddenly said after a time.
"I never said I didn't." Morrigan smirked, "But he's not the only one who is skilled in manipulation."
"Well, that's comforting."
A/N; Hey, look at me being all smart trying to set up plot points that I probably won't even end up covering this year. Then again, I might get possessed by some form of ambition and finish this within the year. Dunno.
Have a good one.