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Mira: A victorous Magi?

"That was rather easy." Mira remarked after the demon seemed to give up but she knew better then to completely assume that it did. "So, what now?" She slowly walked towards the portal whilst keeping her staff at the ready and an eye out for anything that could be a threat to her. "August, i'm coming for you. And Gideon, you're a dead man." She felt hatred flow through her as she thought about Gideon. The man, who may have caused the anullment of the circle due to blood magic. Oh, how she hated Blood Mages. The lowest form of mage, the foulest of the foulest. The mages that gave all magekind the bad reputation mages have. If there was no threat, she would enter the portal.

"They weren't a demon." August protested, anger and adrenaline spreading through his body, "Not yet. If I could go to bed without feeling any sort of remorse, I'd be the same as you. Just smaller."

"There would be glory in slaying you in the physical world, yes." August agreed, starting to pant in anticipation, "But in the Fade..."

He drew his sword and raised his shield, "Only the Maker will see this."

Cerenna's eyebrows shot up. She instinctively began to reach for her sword, ready to find this woman's pursuers or help her flee, but she quickly quelled the fight-or-flight reflex, replacing it with wariness. This was likely some machination of the demon, or even its very self in disguise. But to be hostile or accusatory would be rash, she knew, especially if this was somehow genuine. She decided to carefully play along, flashing a glance over at Purpose to communicate her caution.

"From where have you come, falon?" she asked, speaking calmly. "What can I do to help?"

Solen frowned. "Of course, unlike you... I will never wind up in situations as hopeless as yours." He growled angrily, this spirit was beginning to infuriate him. "Someone has to not be an embarrassment to the name. Sired nothing, almost like you don't wish for our family to grow, live further than this generation.." He stated harshly. He may have harboured more than a bit of resentment towards his brother. Sertin said nothing and so she got nothing in return. The elf crossed his arms, glaring at Kerin, at Sertin. "Is that what you wanted me to do spirit? Vent?" A sigh emitted from his frame.

Ingrid could hardly believe what he was saying. It can't be true, can it? He has to be mistaken, he has to be. Unless... Something about all of this felt very strange to Ingrid. "That's what I've been doing. It's why I went to the F-" said Ingrid. She stopped just upon starting the 'Free' of 'Free Marches.' Ingrid looked around, an anxious expression formed on her face, something was wrong. "Where are we?" Ingrid asked.

August

The demon's many eyes leered down at the Templar, and its grotesque mouth twisted into a toothy scowl. "Your precious 'Maker' can watch you die!" With a powerful fist, the apparition of Pride hammered down at August, striking his shield. The blow was not nearly as strong as August might have expected, however, and scarcely staggered him.

A light spontaneously erupted beside August in the harrowing chamber. It took form as a blue, shimmering armored figure--perhaps a fellow Templar? With seemingly only a flick of its sword, the spirit drove the demon to its knees. "Strike now, noble one!" The spirit cried to him. "Do only what you must! For your family, for righteousness, for your Maker. Be not the sword, but a shield! Do only your duty." The pride demon struggled to rise, but for the moment, it was vulnerable to a finishing blow. The spirit beside August stood ready, shield raised as August's was. While much in the Fade seemed devoid of feeling, this spirit seemed to speak to something within August. Something good and true.

Cerenna

"The shemlen! They spied me bathing in the spring! They pursued me, and when I refused, they...they're trying to take what little our people have left!" Distant sounds of slaughter could be heard, and cries for help. "They stripped us of Arlathan! They herded us into their alienages, like their 'cattle'! Please, help us. Stand up to them. Drive the shemlen back to their wretched cities, and help us reclaim our lost glory!" The Dalish woman had fallen to her knees before Cerenna. Her tone of voice veered between desperation and bitterness. The voice of a man came echoing from the distance, thick and cruel. "Hey, I think that elf [&@%!] went that way!" The Dalish woman looked up at Cerenna, tearful and expectant.

Purpose thoughtfully stroked his chin. "An ancient city, lost. A people, broken. Glory..." Purpose turned to Cerenna. "Don't give in to it. It wants you to be prideful, to want raise yourself and your people above others, at the expense of others. You don't need to disparage or harm others to reunite your people. Rebuild. Teach acceptance and understanding, humility and cooperation, not imperialism or bigotry."

"No, please!" The Dalish woman continued to look up to Cerenna. "Show us the way back to prosperity! Drive the shemlen from our lands! My clan...! Please...!"

Solen, Mira

Solen elicited no verbal reply. Instead, he found himself being pulled upwards by some unseen force, vanishing into the ceiling, onto some other plane.

No further threats emerged to face Mira. Stepping into the portal, Mira felt herself pulled in all directions, before emerging elsewhere.

Solen found himself laying on a flat expanse of what seemed to be dirt, while Mira found herself standing, no more than ten meters apart from one another. There was nothing else in sight, save for untold miles and miles of plain, in every direction--however, there was what seemed to be a cloud of mist, adjacent to the two mages. If they looked closely at it, they would see images two qunari fighting in an arena--one especially large qunari hefting a massive battleaxe, and the other, rolling about with two pink daggers.

Revas

Hissrad's axe smashed into the ground, splintering stone. Revas found himself alive, and on his feet, as planned. "Come on, puny one, is that all you're worth?" Pride-Hissrad taunted Revas. Quite done feeding the demon's bloated ego, Revas shrugged, and hurled one of his daggers at Hissrad. The dawnstone weapon lodged itself in Hissrad's shoulder, provoking a growl, and renewed charge.

Revas ran for the spiked walls, as Pride-Hissrad pursued, axe at the ready. "See, now, the brave Qunari! Fleeing from his death! What happened to duty and bravery?" Stopping about a meter away from the spikes, Revas turned to face Hissrad.

Hissrad charged, winding up his axe for a swing. Revas waited patiently, dagger at the ready. As the apparition of Pride was about to attack, Revas attempted to roll to his opponent's side, and hamstring him with his remaining dagger.

Ingrid

The shadowy figure seemed to tense, as soon as Ingrid had asked the question. Gorion replied, however, without missing a beat. "Why, we are in the hold, of course, my dear!" He laughed heartily at such a silly question. "Is this not exactly as you recall? Or have you been away, too long?"

Mira: Overcoming the first set of odds in the fade

Well, that was a..... odd sensation. But it seems that I'm free of the demon. Maker help August if he is tricked by one as i will have to slap him for being a fool. Mira thought to herself as she looked around and saw an elven mage. "You know, not many apostates would attend a rally near templars." She remarked as she looked at the elf. "But having another mage that knows this is the fade is a boon and will assist my efforts to make that [&@%!] of an enchanter pay for sentencing my circle to death if the templars get out of this in one piece." She addressed Solen as she offered her hand to him. "But that mist over there, it seems to be featuring two qunari fighting and seeing as Gideon has pulled us into the fade itself or at least, our minds into the fade, i would assume that only a few people who were not killed during that ritual are trapped in nightmares by the demon that controls this portion of the fade. But how to free them? We could invade the nightmares and assist the dreamers but it would be hard to avoid being taken as a demon or tell who is a demon or not. But where are my manners? Mira, Circle Mage and soon to be murderer of Gideon."

Solen rose himself up, dusting himself off. "I am not an apostate. I merely do not come from your circle." He stated simply refusing the hand offered to him. He shook his head of Sertin and Kerin, clearing to focus on the mist. "Perhaps we are to break the spirit's hold. If we challenge it, force it to show inconsistencies the others will note and break free as we did."

Mira - A wrong assumption

"Ah, my apologies." Mira told the elf regarding her wrong assumption. "I think, the demon that i face got a bit upset at my refusal to give in to it's temptations and maybe, along with the disruption of it's illusion, we can free the people trapped. But i would assume that some won't be willing to give up their playthings that easily and perfer for them to be dead so we will have to introduce them to the concept of death and with some luck, it will weaken the demon's hold over this portion of the fade or the foul thing itself for us to fight our way out. If we happen to bump into gideon, i will kill him, bring him back to life just so i can kill him again for betraying my circle and undoing all of the small amount of good will that we recieve."

"Vengeful, however I must decline your ability to kill Gideon, as you are you can't kill a gnat." Solen said simply, before he walked towards the mist. That was one way of disruption. "It's fine and well to stand and talk, but that is the trouble with those templars and your Gideon, you talk until you have nothing but drastic measures to resort to."

"Unlike that Malficer piece of [&@%!], i loathe blood magic and it is because of blood mages that we have such a bad name and had I known he was either power hungry or a damn fool, i would have never taken part in the damn rally." Mira informed the elf before taking a few steps towards the mist. "And if we are lucky, we won't have the knight commander pulling a Kirkwall on us. Some, including myself, will most likely be tranquil for our actions and to silence our tongues. Others, they will be executed, all to give the people of starkhaven something to shut them up for the actions of one [&@%!] and his cove of blood mages. But if i can kill him before my gift of magic is stolen from me, i will be somewhat content with my fate even if it effectively kills me as a person." She looked at the mist again. "But this mist shan't enter itself. If we are correct, this is a portal or a small hole in the demon's illusion. I would go as far as to suggest that it is a small exit in case of boredom or if they accidentally trap someone that is far too strong for them. We should naturally enter it and disrupt a demon's fun."

"But I left the hold, I went to a lowlander town and took a ship across the sea to the Free Marches." said Ingrid. She began shaking her head. "It would take weeks to get home. None of this makes any sense. How did I get here?"

Cerenna closed her eyes, her face drawn up in a conflicted grimace. Everything the woman was saying made her feel the familiar sear in her chest, where all her hatred for the injustices against her people compounded itself into a bitter burn. If this had been real life, she knew what she would have done.

But Purpose's words rang in her ears, and she knew that this was not real life, merely its imitation. The rational part of her mind battled back, and she repeated to herself that this was not real, that the demon was trying to manipulate her feelings. At that thought, her anger turned to the demon, and her thoughts to how she would resist it.

And so she drew her sword, but remained where she was. "The nation of our people shall fight back if attacked, but shall not seek vengeance against the shemlen if they respect our independence," she told the woman. "And I shall do no different. Let your 'shemlen' come. I won't give a fight unless I get one."

Solen, Mira

The mist was shockingly solid to Solen's touch, tensing up into a white, floating stone when he came into contact with it and dissipating back into mist when he backed away. The scenes of Revas, Ingrid, August, and Cerenna's situations were now visible in the mist as well.

"What is this?" called a voice from behind them. They would recognize the owner of the voice as Safana Pentaghast, First Enchanter of the Kirkwall Circle of Magi.

Revas

Playing against the demon's expectations, Revas' gambit worked in his favor. His dagger drew deep and splashed blood about as Pride-Hissrad fell to one knee, howling in anger. The large qunari tried to swing his axe in an arc behind him, just barely reaching Revas' position. With instinct as his drive, Revas managed to duck out of the way.

"Grr! Face me like a true warrior! Do away with your tricks and your flashy motions!"

Ingrid

"You..." Gorion muttered. For a second his form became slightly translucent before returning to its former solidity. "My child, you are speaking as if ill. Perhaps my sight was wrong. Perhaps you are not quite ready to accept your destiny." he muttered, standing up from his seat dismissively.

Cerenna

The elven apparition shrieked and continued to plead inaudible words until she suddenly burst aflame, crumpling on the ground.

"Look not, my friend. The demon is reaching the end of its rope. I feel it may be trying to stretch itself thin, and this is but its last attempt to strike at you."

"I'm not stupid, demon. And I'm not going to be swept up in any more of your illusions." Revas feinted with his dagger, but instead of striking with his blade, he pivoted away from that side of Pride-Hissrad. With the momentum of his turn, Revas poured his strength into a mule kick, attempting to drive the apparition forward into the veridium-spiked walls of the arena.

Mira: The Misty Mage.

"The fade, First Enchanter." Mira called out to the enchanter. She knew it could be a demon posing as her but she also knew that the first enchanter could just be the first enchanter. "That [&@%!], Gideon and his [&@%!] blood mages have trapped us here and i would guess that Gideon is either possessed by a pride demon or was a moron all along." She had pure hate in her tone as she saw others in other illusions. "Those who weren't killed, are trapped in illusions and seem to be either designed to break us or entice us. I would hazard to guess that the demon that rules here has allowed his minions to toy with us." She told the enchanter. "I think, if we go into the illusions, we can disrupt the demon's hold and free them. But it could also tell Gideon, that his trap is coming undone. I do not know if our bodies are being used as some kind of source but i am willing to guess that the more people we break out of the illusions, the weaker gideon or the demon's hold will be and with some luck, we will have a chance of defeating it."

"You told me the gods guide us all, whether we know it or not. But look at the lowlanders. In the name of their Maker, the lowlanders forsake the gods and imprison those who can best hear them, then they wonder why they suffer? If we sit by, how long will it be before these Templars hunt our Shamans in the name of their god? Just look at how they treat the elves, elves our ancestors fought with against the Tevinter Imperium of old as they encroached on our lands. How long will it be before these lowlanders do the same to us?" said Ingrid, passionately arguing with Gorion. "Perhaps that's why the gods sent me north, to aid the lowlanders in their struggles, so they too can live freely and reconnect with the gods. And so our hold needn't suffer their advances in the future. Maybe that's my destiny."

Solen nodded sagely to himself, drawing back from the solid mist. His gaze focuses on Mira as she talked before he wet a finger and tested for wind with it. "I wonder if your mouth merely make noises from the wind that escapes from the cavern in your head. I'm sure it gets in through your ears." He muttered to himself. Before he focuses now on the first enchanter. "As the lady so numerous lay said we are in the fade, with our knowledge of the arcane we seem to have slipped free of the demonic or magical holding placing us in false dreams. By the way you may seek to watch.. Sorry I didn't get your name." He looked at Mira, before turning back to Safana. "Never mind not important, I recommend you watch her after we remove ourselves from this fade touched place, she seems to seek to resort to blood magic to see Gideon harmed. I however will be glad with a sharp knife in his ribs and to be done at that."

He tapped at the mist with a staff. "But that would require us finding an egress from this confounded place."

MIRA

"Yes, I do indeed seek to chop my own head off by using blood magic to kill Gideon." Mira sarcasticly told the elf. "Gideon, I will flat out murder for betraying us and giving the templars a cause to kill every mage in Starkhaven." She told the elf. "First enchanter, if you feel it's best, i will submit myself to confinement or any other punishment you feel is suitable. I did not know they were blood mages. Had I known, you would have been the first person i would have informed."

August clenched his eyes shut and gritted his teeth as the huge fist lurched towards, resigning himself to the pain and possible death it would bring. However, the pain never came and he opened his eyes to silently gaze upon his new ally in awe. August glared at the demon in righteous rage, the spirit filling him with self-perceived power and bravery.

He took two steps back, bracing his heels against the ground, and with a shout, he lunged forward and thrust his blade towards the center of the demon's cluster of eyes.

Cerenna kept her sword held out, and nodded. "Well, I suppose I'm as ready for it as I can be, given the circumstances," she said. She bent into a combat-ready stance, her eyes darting all around for anything that would approach now.

Revas

Revas' kick launched Pride-Hissrad farther than what would have been logically possible, likely an effect of the demon wearing itself thin. The apparition burst into a cloud of pale green smoke upon contact with the spikes. Revas' vision suddenly went white.

Ingrid

Gorion turned back with alacrity unbefitting a man of his age. "You know nothing, pitiful human!" he shouted, before catching his breath. "I... I mean... child... I... Oh, enough of this."

Gorion's image disappeared into thin air, and Ingrid slowly blacked out.

August

As August struck forward, so did the accompanying spirit of Duty. Their blades met in the demon's skull, and an explosion rocketed outwards as the demon's form was consumed in fire. August was flung back into a dark void, falling for what seemed like minutes, maybe even hours.

The last thing the young templar heard before blacking out was the spirit's voice once more. "Stay vigilant, noble one, and hold your conviction close at heart."

Cerenna

Cerenna saw nothing coming at her, prompting Purpose to speak. "Brace yourself. I feel we may be facing something new."

Cerenna's vision was filled with white and she felt herself being lifted off the ground.

The Center of Pride

First Enchanter Pentaghast raised her eyebrow at Mira. "You will do no such thing, young one. Striking Gideon down of your own volition without due process only incriminates us in the eye of the Templars further. He must be brought forth and judged by-"

Before she could continue, several bursts of purple flame erupted from nearby. Out of these bursts stepped several figures; Revas, Ingrid, August, Cerenna, and Knight-Commander Forender, all awake after their ordeals in the fade.

"Safana, what is the meaning of this? Why are we here? Why am I here?" the heavily armored dwarf asked, stomping forward angrily. "This doesn't make any sense."

"Such things are not unheard of, though they are quite rare. If I recall correctly, similar circumstances transpired in the Ferelden Circle of Magi some time ago." answered the First Enchanter.

Forender groaned and rubbed the bridge of his nose. "Lovely. A rift in my own damned city. The Divine is going to love this."

Mira: A mage fadebent on revenge?

"But he makes us all seem guilty in the eyes of the templars. I mean, look at Kirkwall! Merideth sentenced the entire circle to death because of one apostate's horrible actions!" Mira protested before letting out a sigh. "Yes, First Enchanter." She uttered and knew that it was pointless arguing this with her. She spotted the others arriving via a purple flame. "Oh, it seems that we don't have to break them out of their illusions. This will save us time and effort." She stated with relief filling her voice.

"Knight Commander, I know this probably won't work and by association, i won't be surprised if you have deemed me guilty but I want to let you know that I had no idea that Gideon was a blood mage and the only cause i had was equal rights for our kind via peaceful means. Not via Gideon's selfish means." She told the commander.

"August, we probably should have a long talk after this." She told her brother and seemed to avoid looking him in the eye as if she was ashamed. But of what? was she ashamed of being decieved by Gideon or her brother being a templar?

Adjusting his vision to the new sights he beheld, Revas' gaze fell upon the mage speaking of 'illusions', 'blood magic', 'guilty', and 'rights'. Instinctively, he readied his daggers, and he addressed Knight-Commander Forender. "Basvaarad! See now the destruction your 'Circle' has wrought. If their deeds were not enough, they condemn themselves with their own tongue!" The Qunari surveyed the several mages in proximity to him. "End them now, or they will end us. Itwaasam." Revas kept in a defensive stance, ready to engage the mages if--when it came to that.

Solen looked at the Qunari, his focus forced upon Mira by talk.. well more of her pushing wind out her mouth. "For the sake of the argument will you ever quiet. I have half a mind to sew your mouth shut, protests will not do us well here." He ran his hand through his hair, parting his lips if to say more before shutting it upon further inspection of the Qunari. Turning he looked around, adjusting his clothing slightly as he did so. Could it be.. "What did the demon show all of you?"