Sailing towards Kirkwall

"Elissa," says Bryce as Arthur and his brothers were smiling when Eleanor sees them.

"You knew it," says Eleanor as she looked at her sons.

"Yes, but Vincent told us that it was his surprise for you two," says Arthur with a smile.

Bryce walked over towards his daughter as he hugs her and tells her how much he loves her and how much he missed his little girl.

Eleanor was waiting for Bryce to release her daughter as she hugged her too, telling her the same Bryce said when Elissa suddenly had some tears falling down her cheeks.

"I missed you two too," says Elissa as she broke down when her hand grasps for Daylen's hand to find some security that she was familiar to.

"Is he?" asks Eleanor as she sees her daughter's hand clutching on Daylen's hand.

"He is," says Arthur as he knew about it.

Bryce looked at Vincent and asks, "Why did you adopt her?"

"It's better for her to be related to the Empire and if she is even related to the Emperor's family many would think twice of doing something against her," says Vincent as what he said made pretty much sense.

"Also we will be leaving tomorrow with the ship. I will let Elissa and Daylen here for a week but they need to regroup with us in Denerim since they will be joining me when I return to Tamriel," says Vincent informing them.

"They will leave that fast," says Bryce not believing that they would only stay a week.

"Yes, I don't want to risk them being in Quagmire even more so that they are now Highwinds. Vaermina and the First Emperor didn't have a good relationship nor a bad one but just to be safe I want them on Tamriel until the Veil is gone," says Vincent as the Family looked quite sad about it.

"But that doesn't mean that she can't come once in a while. Once her magic is strong enough she will be able to open portals to travel between Tamriel and Thedas without a problem," says Vincent as he could do that easily.

The family's mood rises again after hearing that when Vincent says, "But first she needs to learn everything about the Empire since she is my daughter as well."

The family understood that when Vincent sees the faces both Daylen and Elissa had since they were siblings now when Vincent says, "Don't worry, siblings that don't share blood can marry each other."

"But for now how about we eat before the dinner gets cold," says Vincent as Bryce sits down on his seat with Eleanor beside him when they all began to eat their dinner.

Vincent recounted some of his stories that he hasn't told yet on the dinner table as his adopted children and the two witches had another picture in their mind since they knew who he was when Vincent sees that Oren was almost falling asleep.

"We should stop for today it seems the little man needs to sleep," says Vincent as everyone agreed to it.

Vincent stood up with his people as they left the room leaving Daylen and Elissa behind since both looked like they wanted to stay a bit longer.

The next morning Vincent and the other were awake quite early as only Bryce, Arthur and Aedan were awake when Vincent says, "Arthur, I trust you to bring me your sister and Daylen."

"I will do my best to get them to Denerim," says Arthur as Vincent nods.

"You really don't like farewells," says Bryce as it was the second time that Vincent left this early.

"That's right, farewells are overrated. But I want you to look into something for me," says Vincent as he takes a book out and gives it to Bryce when he asks, "Can you read it?"

Bryce takes the book and only sees blank pages when he says, "It's completely blank my friend."

"Aedan can you take a look for your father?" asks Vincent as Bryce closes the book while giving it to Aedan.

Aedan sees words and began to read in the book when suddenly he arrives on the second page. His eyes were wide open when Vincent puts his hand on his lip signalizing him to be quiet about it when he says, "It seems you should listen to your son when he wants to warn you."

Vincent stretches his hand out towards Aedan to get the book back while saying, "This book was the only thing I inherited from my grandfather. It's a book that can tell you the future you are walking towards. If it's blank it means you are about to die."

Bryce opened his eyes wide as he heard that and looked at Aedan and asks, "What happened?"

"The Blight happened in the south. You send Fergus with the army while you waited for Howe's army to arrive before parting with him. He betrayed us," says Aedan as he was quite pale reading it when Vincent smiles.

"There will be more happening soon, be prepared," says Vincent warning them as he leaves with everyone towards the docks.

Once there everyone entered the ship and they were ready to leave. They parted from Highever as they began to sail back to Denerim.

Vincent was on deck when Karliah asks, "Why did you warn them?"

"Because I like that family. Also, our daughter comes from that family so warning them is the best I can give them," says Vincent when Garrett arrives at deck wanting to ask Vincent something.

"Vincent-" says Garrett when Vincent interrupts him.

"Father, it's father," says Vincent as he looked at Garrett quite warm when Garrett sighs.

"I still need to adapt to that," says Garrett as he wasn't that comfortable to call Vincent 'Father'.

"It's alright if you take some years. You are an adult after all. I still remember when I picked Lucia from the street. She also needed some time calling me 'Mister' for the first few hours until realizing that I wanted the best for her. The others were the same," says Vincent remembering his children while making a sad face

"Anyway, what do you want?" asks Vincent as he looked at his new son.

"My mother asked if we could go visit Kirkwall. It's in the Free Marches and only across the Waking Sea," says Garrett as Vincent began to think about it.

"Why does she want to go there?" asks Vincent as he found it curious that Leandra wanted to go to Kirkwall.

"My mother used to live there before she escaped with my father to Ferelden. My father was a Mage and my mother a Noble in Kirkwall. Kirkwall is known to be the strictest place against Mages," says Garrett when Vincent was holding his chin thinking if they should go to Kirkwall if it was truly across the Waking Sea.

"Captain, do you know the way to Kirkwall?" asks Vincent as he turned towards the captain.

"Of course," says the captain that was studying the seas of Thedas for a long time now.

"Can you bring us to Kirkwall?" asks Vincent as the captain nods and changes the direction towards north instead of east.

They arrived near Kirkwall as they see the Wounded Coast that the captain was mentioning.

They were right outside Kirkwall as Vincent sends a boat with a letter for the person in charge of the city for allowance to dock into the city.

This took an hour as the Nord returned with a letter. Vincent opens it and smiles while saying, "It seems that we will be able to enter the city. Inform your mother about it. We will stay for a day. I can't have the Mages in Kirkwall for long if it's really that strict except you are alright that your father begins a war."

"I will tell her that," says Garrett as he leaves to meet his mother when Vincent looks at the captain to dock in Kirkwall.

The ship was quite big but it fit between the passage to enter Kirkwall as Vincent sees the statues and asks, "What those statues mean?"

"I heard from the other sailors that Kirkwall was a city where Tevinter used to bring slaves from all over the world to work in the mines around here," says the captain as he learned quite a bit in the bars drinking with sailors as well from buying a map of Thedas from one of them.

They docked and it seemed a man in his forties came to welcome them with a woman in her forties and a Mer in his forties. The moment Vincent was visible Meredith draw her sword and something grabbed her by her hair while a dagger was on her throat.

"Attacking the Ambassador is the same as attacking the Emperor and that will be seen as an attack on the Empire making The Free Marches go to war with the Empire," says Vlad as he really wanted to kill this woman.

The two men were surprised to see Vlad behind the woman when Vincent says, "Vlad let her go."

"Yes, Ambassador," says Vlad loud as he whispers to the woman, "Next time you won't be having the time to draw you will be dead before you touch the blade."

Vlad then disappears again as Vincent says, "I'm sorry about Vlad. He is my personal bodyguard and shadow. He only has my security in mind."

"Don't worry it was our fault," says the man in the middle as he then coughs a bit before saying, "I'm Marlowe Dumar, the Viscount of Kirkwall. I'm sorry about Knight-Commander Meredith she is to fast in judging appearances and the elf beside me is Orsino the First Enchanter of the Circle here in Kirkwall."

"Nice to meet you, I'm Vincent Highwind, I'm from the Highwind Empire across the ocean. We are right now living in Denerim before returning home. But we made a stop here because one of my companions used to live here," says Vincent informing why he came.

"You are welcome to see the city," says Viscount Dumar as he was practically offering to do it himself.

"That would be great but I need from your Knight-Commander over there not to meddle with the Mages in my company. If she were to do so the Empire will be immediately in war with you. The Emperor wants to meet them to make himself a picture on how Mages are treated on Thedas," says Vincent as Viscount Dumar was sweating a bit too much.

This made it clear to Vincent that Viscount Dumar was just a puppet on the throne as Vincent turned to Meredith as everything turned dark for Meredith making her see the Twin Dragons while he asks, "Do we understand each other?"

Meredith could feel the breath of both Dragons on her body as well as their presence. She was pale from seeing that as she nods surprising both Orsino and Viscount Dumar.

"Good then, can you bring me to the Amell Estate," says Vincent as four people leave the ship while the rest stayed on the ship.

They didn't want the people to fall in hysteria as in Highever when the Legionaries marched in the streets. The people joining him was the Hawke family.

"The Amell Estate," says Viscount Dumar as he was quite in a peculiar situation right now.

"Is there a problem?" asks Vincent who could easily intimidate the Viscount without a problem after taming the wild mare Meredith.

"Yes, the Estate was sold after the only heir Gamlen Amell lost all his money in gambling," says Viscount Dumar as Leandra almost fell over after hearing that but Carver caught her.

"Can I buy it back?" asks Vincent as the Viscount was nervous while thinking hard how to explain it.

"If you want it back you must ask the actual owner to sell it to you. There is no other way," says Viscount Dumar as Vincent nods.

"Then take us there. I'm good with words it should be over quite fast," says Vincent as not only the Viscount was sweating but also his cold Knight-Commander.