CHAPTER 7

"Did you called me, First-Enchanter?" asked Abraham as he entered Henricus's chambers.

"Yes, please sit down, Abraham."

Abraham nodded and sat down on the chair opposite of Henricus, who was sitting behind his desk.

Henricus looked at him and sighed. "So Andraste said to her followers: 'You who stand before the gates, You who have followed me into the heart of evil, The fear of death is in your eyes; its hand is upon your throat. Raise your voices to the heavens! Remember: Not alone do we stand on the field of battle.

"The Maker is with us! His Light shall be our banner, And we shall bear it through the gates of that city and deliver it To our brothers and sisters awaiting their freedom within those walls, At last, the Light shall shine upon all of creation, If we are only strong enough to carry it.'"

Hearing this Abraham blinked his eyes. 'What?' This isn't the first time that the first-enchanter used the chant of light to deliver some sort of subliminal message, he was always doing that as far as Abraham could remember, but why now?

"You may have noticed already Abraham, but our most talented mages never remain on the circle where they were trained, once they complete their harrowing they are sent to study in other Circles... Your friend Oliver for example is one such case, a year ago after completing his harrowing he was sent to the circle of Montsimmard."

Henricus paused for a moment he started coughing and drank a mouthful of water from a glass bottle on the desk.

"Are you alright, first-enchanter?"

"Mm, don't worry, this bag of bones should have at least three more years before giving up, haha!" Henricus laughed but little did Abraham know that he was speaking quite literally. "You Abraham is also a talented apprentice, you might not have special gifts like Pawen and her magic music, but your talent far surpasses hers."

Abraham nodded, there was indeed a difference between having talent and having special gifts, besides Pawen who had the ability to use a special kind of magic through her music, he has met some people in his time in the circle who also had special gifts, such as a boy who could speak with animals and a girl who could naturally shapeshift without ever learning that kind of magic.

However, no matter how gifted they were, they never managed to compare with him or Oliver, they were always one step ahead of the others.

"The thing is... You have a higher calling Abraham, and for this occasion, I have prepared a gift for you." Henricus opened the drawer and took out a letter bag from it, he put it on the desk, and from within he took out a glass cube with a drop of blood floating inside. "Do you recognize it?"

"This..." Abraham opened his eyes-wide, what was going on here? Why is the First-Enchanter holding his phylactery?

"Do you know what's the theory behind this sort of thing?" Seeing Abraham shaking his head, Henricus smiled, he knew it was just a matter of time, today he would acquire a powerful ally for his cause. "Behold Abraham, for this my fellow mage, is the biggest hypocrisy of the chantry and the templars!"

Holding the glass cube, a red aura spread from Henricus's hand and when they reached the cube the drop of blood suddenly started to shake, then it moved from the center towards Abraham.

At that moment Abraham couldn't help but frown in disgust, so that was how it worked them? All this time they called blood mage abominations but to keep an eye on every single mage they resort to blood magic?

No wonder... No wonder there were so many factions in the Circle that wished more than nothing, to sever their ties with the chantry, such hypocrisy was truly befitting of that religion who painted anyone they didn't like as the source of evil.

Seeing the expression on Abraham's face, the corners of Henricus's mouth raised slightly. 'Now, to finally bring him to my side...' Without warning, Henricus threw the glass cube on the ground, shattering it into dozen of pieces.

"What!? Why... Why did you do that!?" Abraham stood up and looked at that mess on the floor, what could possibly be happening, could the First-Enchanter be plotting against him? Could he be trying to forcefully make him an apostate? Frowning he turned to look at the First-Enchanter and raised an eyebrow seeing how he was smiling.

"Now, look at what I have here." He took out another glass cube from the letter bag, but Abraham could tell that the one he destroyed was his, so why was he holding another one? "This is fake, to know the difference your magic essence would have to be the one here. This Abraham is my gift for you, but do not waste it now, wait for the right moment to use it."

"I'm sorry First-Enchanter, but what is going on exactly, what are you trying to do?"

"I am preparing you for the future Abraham... Look, inside this bag, there is an ancient elven message stone, keep it with you, I only hope that when the calling of freedom arrives you will answer to it, it might take a decade or more, but it will definitely happen."

Seeing the serious look on the First-Enchanter's eyes, Abraham nodded, but that didn't mean who was accepting to be made part of this clown show, he wasn't ready to be hunted by half of Thedas.

"Prepare your belongings, Abraham, today you depart to the White Spire, the Circle of Val Royeaux."

Nodding he took the bag and after giving one last look towards the First-Enchanter, he left without saying a word.

It was unexpected but that would definitely bring him a lot of benefits in the long run, however, he was getting curious about what exactly is going on here... The way things happened makes him think that there was more going on in the shadows than he could perceive. It wouldn't be too far fetched to say that the path ahead was dangerous.

After gathering his belongings and taking a simple stave from the requisitions' office, he bid his farewell to Pawen and her husband Edwin, wishing them well, and left with a group of templars assigned to escort him to the White Spire.

Naturally, Henricus gave them the fake phylactery to be brought to his new home, hopefully, those incompetents wouldn't break it by accident and make him donate a few more drops of blood to make a new one later.

Orlais was quite beautiful despite its problems, be it the landscape or the flora everything gave it a refreshing and good feeling.

But the roads weren't without their dangers, although few in between the darkspawn still roamed those lands, places were wars had happened were infested with bodies controlled by wisps, they were like slightly intelligent zombies who mimicked the memory of the dead and kept fighting with anything that entered their territory.

After a few days of travel, they stopped to rest on the imperial highway, an old monument from the time Tevinter conquered half of Thedas, although it was full of bandits and poachers they would have to use this path to arrive at Val Royeaux.

After tying the horses to some logs they set up camp to rest for the night. Abraham never spoke to the templars, nor did they tried to strike any conversation, ever since Dianora left the circle the ones who replaced her were a bunch of bastards with prejudice against the mages.

But that wasn't something exclusive to the circle of Ghislain, through all of Thedas, many Circles were starting to grow restless with the abuses they are suffering, many factions have been born and the vast majority of the mages already express their feelings of dissatisfaction towards the chantry and the templars.

"When you need us you never hesitated to ask, but when we are being repressed that is how you repay us!?" Those were the words of a rogue First-Enchanter recently hunt down and executed. Apparently, his son was killed after being suspected to be a blood mage, based on what Abraham heard, the templars didn't even bother to investigate the accusation and directly proceeded to chop down his head.

Thus began the restlessness of the mages, who could tell if they wouldn't be the next thrown in a political game, who could tell that they wouldn't be made a scapegoat to send a message to the growing factions of apostate blood mages?

Shaking his head, he looked upwards and sighed seeing the full moon in the sky, he wondered what he could do to protect himself from this situation, even if his former teacher protected him from the shadows he was still a mage, who knew what those templars were capable of?

As he thought about that, he heard the sound of hurried footsteps approaching, the templars also noticed and prepared themselves for whoever might be approaching. One of them even lit up a torch to increase how far they could see, after all, they already had bonfire lit, whoever came would see them from quite the distance anyway, at least that way they could increase the distance that their eyes could see.

There, coming out of the veil of darkness created by the night, were a group of two templars and three mages, one of the mages was being carried by the others, his face was swollen and he was quite hurt.

"Halt! Who goes there!?" The templars who accompanied Abraham shouted and unsheathed their swords, it wasn't unheard of that blood mages would sometimes dress up as templars to sneak attack on unprepared templars.

"Wait! Don't attack! I'm Knight-Captain Lambert, I'm escorting a circle mage to the White Spire!" The one who identified himself as a Knight-Captain took out his helmet and raised both hands, in one of them he held a scroll.

"Do you have proof of your words?" The head of the group of templars escorting Abraham, a Knight-Lieutenant approached them slightly.

"Yes, we have the scroll with our orders!" The Knight-Captain threw the scroll in his hands towards the Knight-Lieutenant.

Taking the scroll he opened it and nodded, to confirm his identity he did the same and threw his scroll towards the Knight-Captain.

"Alright everyone, it seems our group just got bigger." The templars complimented each other and started talking while the other three mages approached Abraham.

"Young one." An old woman, probably in her fifties approached Abraham. "Tell me, do you know any healing spell? I fear that if we don't treat his injuries soon the boy will die..." She slowly put the boy she was carrying with the help of the other male mage on the ground next to him.

"What happened to him?" Looking closely, Abraham couldn't help but ask, it looked like he received a hell of a beating.

"Sigh... This helpless boy didn't hear our advice and went on to challenge the son of a magister, in the end, that person made a trap for him, it was three against one, they would have killed him had not the templars noticed that something weird was happening on the streets they used to patrol..."

She stroked his head, there was a look of worry in her eyes.

"Well, I might be able to do something." Abraham nodded towards the woman and touched the boy who was probably the same age as him in the forehead.

Blue light spread through his fingers and enveloped the boy in a gentle aura.

"What's going on there?" A templar asked seeing the light.

"It's just a healing spell you shitty donkey!" Hearing Abraham's words, the group who had just recently arrived couldn't help but look at him in surprise, but what made them shocked was how the templars merely muttered something and let him go...

What the hell was that? How come the templars didn't punish him for his words!? At that moment their views of Abraham turned 180 degrees, they are now thinking that he was quite a powerful individual, with either intrinsic power or powerful connections.

After an hour or so most of the injuries of the boy were healed, the only things he didn't manage to heal properly were the broken bones and some internal injuries they were too complex and difficult for him to heal in just an hour, he would have to spend the entire night doing this to heal him completely.

"Sigh... it's done, he should be much better by dawn."

"Thanks, young one, I don't know what I can do to express my gratitude."

Abraham shook his head and smiled, he decided to be straightforward with her. "Don't worry about thanking me, truth to be told I only helped because I wanted to practice my healing magic, back at the Circle of Ghislain there weren't many times that a person with this level of injuries appeared seeking help."

The woman however shook her head and smiled. "Even then you had no obligation to help, I'll be forever in debt with you."

Hearing this, Abraham couldn't help but give the woman another look, why was she so grateful about such a little thing? He was only helping a fellow mage... there was more to this story, something she wasn't telling him.

"Who are you exactly."

"My name is Wynne... I'm a mage specialized in battles from the Circle of Ferelden..." Wynne avoided his eyes as she spoke, Abraham wasn't stupid she was lying about something... those eyes, her white-grey hair, and this face that spell bravery...

Wynne... Wynne... Wynne... where did he hear that name before? For some reason, he remembered the battle of Ostagar from dragon age origins, wasn't there a female mage in the camp? Could it be...

Abraham opened his eyes wide, that's right! This woman... it's her! One of the companions from the first game! What the hell was she doing here!?

"You said you're from Ferelden? I thought I heard you talking about magisters, this boy is obviously from Tevinter so what are you doing exactly? Traveling around the world?"

Hearing his words and noticing the way he looked at her, Wynne frowned slightly, somehow she felt naked in front of him as if the boy had somehow seen trough her words, however, she couldn't tell the truth, as a spirit healer her identity was quite... sensitive... if the templars discovered that such a powerful asset was being allowed to leave the circle tower to do missions they would strip her from her leaving permission.

Had that not been a problem she would have summoned a spirit to heal the boy already, the thing is that she doesn't know much about common healing spells, she could at most heal some superficial injuries and help someone recover their energy, the boy's problems were beyond her capabilities without summoning a spirit.

"You could say so..." She nodded.

Not wanting to pressure her too much he decided to ask about the boy. "Then, who is he?"

"His name is Rhys... he's a... friend."

Abraham nodded, Rhys wasn't a name he was familiar with... whatever her relation with him was, he would have to discover through the common way. He looked at the other mage, but the man simply turned his head and refused to speak, in the end, not even Wynne knew who he was. Having no other choice, Abraham decided to call him Baldy, due to his bald head.