8 CHAPTER 8
It hurts... Wait... It doesn't hurt anymore! Why? What happened? Where am I?
Opening my eyes the first thing I saw were the rays of light entering through the entrance of something moving, was I in a covered wagon? Shaking my head, I sat down on the bench next to where I was lying and noticed that there was only one more person inside the wagon.
It was a guy, he seemed to be older than me considering that his face looked more mature than mine. His raven hair was short, pulled back and slightly wavy, he had crystal blue eyes, and the way his beard was cut was a quite uncommon style called Balbo, while those people from Orlais would probably call his style a complete mess, there were many men in Tevinter that used similar styles, and those were usually a bunch of womanizers that wasted their times with useless things.
Noticing I was looking at him, the boy stopped reading his book and turned to look at me.
"Rhys, isn't it?" His voice was deep, somewhat strong although low, in a certain way his voice produced rich rumble sounds with plenty of vocal weight, and even thunderous somehow, the kind of voice that would fit very well a leader or a commander of an army.
"Yes... who are you? And... where am I?"
He put down his book and stood up slightly to look outside, after a moment he sat down again and said. "I am a fellow mage, you can call me Abraham if you want, the full name is Abraham Wheeler." He reached out his hand, I looked at him for a few seconds and accepted his gesture, after shaking hands with him I looked outside, but then his voice reached me again. "As for where we are... I'm no specialist, but I believe that city there is Val Royeaux."
Hearing his words I couldn't help but gasp, so they actually managed to knock me out for so many days? Even if they took me out of Tevinter just after the fight, it would have taken at least 10 days to bring me here...
Sighing I leaned my back on the bench, I couldn't help but feel kind of lost, in the end, there was nothing I could do about that girl, by now she must have been killed already, I clenched my fist and hit the bench.
"Are you alright?" Abraham asked, he seemed curious about my situation.
"Not really, I failed miserably at protecting a friend, and now they must have killed her." I decided to tell him everything, it wasn't like they would be able to do anything about this anyway. "They tainted her after drugging her, I wanted to avenge her, but they set up a trap, those cowardly bastards!"
"... Don't worry, Justice always arrives for the ones like that, sooner or later they will meet the blades of retribution." Abraham had some sort of smile on his face, but his eyes were cold, at least he wasn't like those guys, we had something in common when it comes to those scums, they deserve death!
"Yeah... maybe you're right, but still, I wish I could have done more to help her."
Abraham nodded. "Then, why don't you train more, and try to increase your power?"
"Do you think I don't do that already?" I frowned as I looked at him, what the hell was he implying?
"Well, do as you seem fit, I was just trying to give you some advice, I know at least that I would be able to escape almost anyone with my current level, although I'm not confident to defeat anyone."
Well, maybe he's right if that's the case, not only was I incapable of defeating those bastards I couldn't even escape... Perhaps I should train more, find someone to teach me or whatever...
"We're about to arrive, hold on in there!" Shouts came from outside, turning to look I noticed it came from the templars.
Well, here we are then... Val Royeaux.
...
Val Royeaux wasn't the kind of city that you could call normal, it was the true and only headquarters of an entire religion, something like the Vatican but of a fantasy world. It was the capital of the Chantry and the center of the world as far as those who cared about commerce, culture, and political power were concerned.
Its arrogance was like an aura that could be felt from far away, the white buildings were decorated with golden lines, and sometimes with colorful shades of blue and red that spread through its entrance to the biggest of the buildings.
Statues of important individuals who left their mark in history could be found pretty much everywhere, and below them, there would always be a golden plate with one or two paragraphs telling in few words how great that person was and how that person was from Orlais and a supporter of the chantry.
If one looked upwards and asked, where are the two most important places of this city, they would easily spot the two places that one could never miss when in Val Royeaux, the Grand Cathedral, and the White Spire.
The former being the home of the divine, and the latter being the home of the mages of Val Royeaux and of their jailers, the templars. However, the White Spire was more home for the Templars than it was home for the mages, as it was, in fact, the headquarters of the Templar Order, the place that houses the Knight-Vigilant, head of the order.
If Abraham was not wrong, Dianora's husband was called Trentwatch, he heard a lot of rumors about him while studying in the Ghislain circle, mostly good things, but the man seemed to be quite immobile in a sense, never doing anything too unexpected, it can be said that he always played his cards safely. At least he was not a prejudiced man with hatred in his heart who wanted the end of the magicians like the vast majority of Templars.
"Abraham, who were the ones who took me here?"
Hearing this question, he turned to look at Rhys and thought for a moment, Wynne's words resounded in his mind, reminding him of what she asked.
'Please, don't tell him that I was the one who helped him leave Tevinter, I can't allow the boy to know about me yet.'
She didn't explain the reason, but she did give him a rare tome of spiritual healing magic in exchange so he decided to keep his promise.
"I don't know their names, all I know is that they seemed to care about you and didn't thought much about carrying you all the way to the imperial highway, in fact, it was one of them who offered to pay for a wagon since now their money had some use considering they weren't in Tevinter anymore."
"Did they say their names?" Rhys asked a little bit of anxiety could be noticed from the way he spoke.
"No, they didn't, and I didn't force them."
Rhys nodded, but anyone with eyes could see that he suddenly got sadder, as if that wasn't what he was expecting to hear. Although Abraham wanted to know more, it wasn't a good time to do so, he would have to wait sometime before asking about such personal matters, after all, they barely knew each other.
As Abraham thought about this matter while finishing another chapter of the book Wynne had given him, he heard a deep sigh coming from Rhys, he was looking at the approaching White Spire.
"Are you familiar with this place?"
Rhys nodded. "I started learning magic here, when I became eleven my magical abilities manifested, and I was sent from the orphanage to this towering stronghold. I finished my harrowing three years ago and was sent to Tevinter together with my teacher, an old curmudgeonly elven senior enchanter called Arvin."
"Oh... Well then I hope you can help me during our time there, It hasn't been long since I completed the harrowing, I was transferred from Ghislain and I'll now live here," said Abraham with a small smile on his face, he looked outside and nodded to himself. "Alright, time to leave the wagon."
They stopped in front of the stairs that led up to the stronghold, after watching the templars and the mages entering the White Spire the coachman turned away and with a gesture made the horses resume their movements.
Once they entered the hallway of the White Spire they were greeted by what seemed to be a heartwarming exchange of words between two individuals.
"... As I've said, thy should never come back here, your words and threats don't amount to anything, you think mere documents that mention my name is proof of something? You know nothing!" The old man wearing the robes of the circle tapped the ground with his feet as he spoke, his cheeks getting red due to the stress and anger.
"My dear, I never said that you were guilty of something, you are the one trying to excuse yourself from something I never mentioned." A beautiful woman with slightly wavy long black hair and light brown eyes, smiled seductively as she winked towards the old man. "But since you think that there are no problems with those documents then I shall keep up with my duties as an Orlesian and make sure that Emperor Florian knows about them as soon as possible."
"WAIT! TELL ME, what is it that you want!? Why are you targeting me!? Stop bothering me with this annoying orlesian game and tell me already what you're after!" The man shouted, he clearly lost this discussion.
"Well dear, let us keep in touch then since you seem so eager to offer me some favors." She gave him a kiss on the cheeks, making the old man frown, clench his fists and mutter something as he looked at her leaving.
Abraham couldn't help but watch this exchange with some interest, did he just witness 'the game' live? Who was that woman exactly?
The templars completely ignored this situation and simply looked at the man waiting for him to notice them.
After calming down the man turned to look at the group who just arrived and nodded. "You must be the mages that were coming to our circle, welcome to the White Spire. You templars can deliver their phylactery to the vault, I'll deal with them now."
The templars nodded and left to what they were asked to.
"May ask who was that woman?" Abraham asked, hoping that the man would tell him more about her.
"That fox? She is lady Marjolaine, a pest that has been bothering me for some days already, I wished I could kill her but the laws of these uncivilized orlesians prevent me from doing so."
"You aren't orlesian?"
"No, I'm from Antiva."
Hearing this both Abraham and Rhys nodded, they finally understood why he was talking about killing her, as expected from someone from Antiva, the country of the assassins.
