The Tranquil Effect (Fenris/David)

[Lyaera Amavaintria]

Deep within the depths of a cave hidden not far from an army camp where whispers echoed that were carried by the wind and swerved past the trees of the forest outside of it. Something was hidden within said cave, a dark and almost powerful force - a forbidden magic. It had been near enough two days and unconsciously within lay an elven woman, her lower body slumped on the ground while her torso leaned slightly against a slab of jagged rock, small splats of blood painted the grayish stone.

Her left ankle appeared to be twisted due to how it was placed at an angle, the state of her body made it look as if her body had been thrown back by a strong force and the end result being her body had collided with the rock that she was know leaning unconsciously against. Her chest rise and fell, indicating that she was breathing, that she was still alive but rather badly injured.

Seconds went by along with minutes then hours, outside of the cave the sun was beginning to set, and finally after much time, black shadowed eyelids soon began to flutter open. A deep yet soft grunt was released from the woman's throat as her first instinct was to place her hand on her throbbing forehead, she moved her legs slightly which only caused her to hiss in pain. As she moved her face around to assure she hadn't broken her jaw, she could feel a dry trickle of blood that had run down her face a few hours ago when it was fresh. "Wha... t?" she managed to force out, though it sounded raspy, as if her mouth was dry.

Gritting her teeth followed by a painful and irritated cry, she forced her body up, managing to step lightly on her left foot to insure no further injury. Her vision was quite blurred, even squinting didn't help her any. What in the Creators name had happened? More importantly, where was she?

She had to get out of here - and fast!

Something... just didn't feel right.

[David]

It had been many hours, David had begun to grow worried. It had been several hours since any of the men had seen her, and the cook had begun to complain that his best helper was missing. Grabbing his sword belt and tying it to his waist, David walked out his tent and moved toward the tent he had given to Sora to sleep in. Opening the tent, he found she was not there, and had left little sign of where she had wandered off to. Dammit, where was she? Perhaps Fenris knew...

Walking out of the tent, he called out for a courier. As the young man approached him, David instructed him to seek out the elf and to meet him in his tent, as he wants to know what happened to Sora and why. The man pounded his chest in salute and ran off, as David once again returned to his tent and looked at the map of Northern Orlais. Underneath, he had another map which he pulled out afterwards. On it was several routes drawn, notes taken, and information he would need. Things would be moving quickly. It was best to plan when time for planning was ample.

[Fenris]

Fenris hadn't been able to sleep for the whole night, instead resorting to walking around the camp, aimlessly. He cringed to admit that she was still his main concern, although now in terms of stress and anger. He thought of what had caused it all to happen: truth? Or simply him being rude? From those thoughts he leapt onto other matters, and soon his words sprang up from the past, promising to speak with David. Now that he thought about it, he hadn't seen her in the camp during all of his walks, which were many. He began to wander heavily towards David's tent. When he arrived at the tent, someone leapt out of it and nearly ran him over. Fenris pushed him aside in a rough manner and continued inside, where he saw David standing by a desk. He walked straight up to David as though he owned the place; the camp, the army, the tent, even David himself. But there was a gleam in his eye that could've meant anything.

"David, you probably know that Lyaera is gone. She's decided to play it the hard way, making up an act and all. She is inexperienced of life in general, and she seeks attention intentionally. But we must find her, for she might be in danger. She would've come back by now, I should think, being the safety-seeking personality she is."

He sighed heavily and trumped rather forcefully to the other side of the table, inspecting the maps thoroughly as though they, too, were his property. He was chiefly interested on the one with paths and roads marked to it, sparing the map of Orlais only one quick glance.

"You have marked out hidden paths in this forest?" he asked impatiently.

"Never mind. I see that they are there. We must arrange for a troop to escort me as I search, or at least a patrol to scout the area, but if it will not be done, I shall find her myself." He looked defiantly up at David, constantly trying to irritate him. Challenge him.

"Anyhow, the decision has to be made quickly."

[Lyaera Amavaintria]

Deep yet laboured breaths escaped the elven woman as she ignored the pain in her ankle, yet the way her teeth grit so harshly made it look as if she were furious. She appeared to be walking normally but with the occassional limp, and whenever she buckled her fist would slam into the rocky walls in frustration. This made no sense to her, well, it made complete sense in fact... but why here? And how?

"I'm going to murder that bastard," she hissed in a deep tone, almost as if it were the very growl from a wolf. She loosened the lightly faded purplish armour from around her ribs to give her more comfort in her breathing. She hated this! And each and every time it happened! A fine slave on a leash to be pulled wherever her Master wished. Her fist slammed against the rocky walls once more, this time in pure anger, as she leaned against it slightly whilst walking along.

"No doubt I'll be found again, this time I won't be dragged back! Arghhh!! I'll kill that murdering perverted bastard!!" supressed anger was finally erupting from her very violent little mouth, but before she had time to calm herself, a most unnatural sound reached her elven ears. Almost as if she were in no mood for any bullshit, she turned only to see a small group of... skeletons?! Walking skeletons with weapons!?

"What in the Creators name?!" she said as if she couldn't believe it, but wasted no time in standing around as an arrow was fired at her and scraped across her cheek, barely missing her. She shrugged the stinging pain off as it the forming cut wasn't even there. Something dark and sinister was within this cavern, she was sure of it... and this had to be the work of magic.

Instantly reaching for her blades, within a blink of an eye the head of one of the undead went flying as it was cut from it's owner and crashed into the head of another. She cried out in pain and frustration as she felt an arrow stab into her shoulder, but continued on fighting after pulling it out sharply. They closed in like a pack of wolves and rather flexibly she managed to avoid their powered attacks, they may have been strong in attacking but she was quick. Her arms flailed in all directions while her legs kicked as she spun, cutting and slashing to the point where it was audible, like a barber performing a quick yet skilled shave.

Heads went flying and bones shattered. Another ten were making their ways towards her, and now she switched to her bow. "Fly straight and do not waver..." she whispered to her bow before firing it and killed an approaching skeleton by it stabbing into its skull, she did the same with the others before half collapsing to her knees, panting heavily before forcing herself back up.

She wanted to get out of here before those things showed up again.

[David]

Just as David began to lose himself in planning once again, Fenris barged into his tent, shouting and ranting at David. It took much of his willpower to not lash back out on the elf. How dare he try to demand anything from him? David had done nothing but treat him and Sora... Or Lyaera, that was another thing he needed to sort out.... As honored guests in the camp, and now Fenris was acting this way? It appeared that Fenris' outburst had attracted attention as well, as no sooner had he finished speaking than four heavily armed guards came into the tent with their sword drawn. Before the situation escalated, David held up his hand and remained silent, giving his guard the calm, knowing look of a man who was in control of the situation. The guards slowly sheathed their weapons, and David instructed them in Orlesian to wait outside, that he would explain to them the situation in due course. As the men walked out, David turned his attention to Fenris. The elf had some explaining to do.

"First and foremost, you will calm your tone." David began, speaking calmly, yet with an underlying force to ensure that Fenris was under no illusion over who was in command here. This was HIS legion. Fenris would do well to remember that. "And second, before I help you, I have a question that needs answering. Who is Lyaera? IF she is who I THINK she is, then you need to explain to me right now why she claimed her name was Sora, and why you kept this information away from me. Answer me truthfully, and give me the ENTIRE truth as to what is happening, and I will ride out with you and a company of men to go rescue her."

He then grabbed another map and pulled it over the rebellion map, closing the rebellion one and tossing it into a drawer. This map was more concentrated of the forests around him, several routes drawn on it, and x's all over the map, indicating caves, routes, etc. "And yes, I do have a map of hidden routes in the forest. However, it is property of the Orlesian Imperial army. You want the best chance of finding her? Then calm yourself and explain to me the full situation. Do this, and you'll have over a hundred men with you to search for her."

[Fenris]

Fenris made an effort to calm himself, but his anger wasn't something that could be erased easily. As much as he wanted to raise a commotion, all he could do was to bear with it. That's all he would do.

"I can see why this comes as a surprise, David. The... she fooled me, as well. Sora is the name given to her by her former master, it seems, and Lyaera is the name her parents gave her - or she gave herself."

He lowered his tone and gaze, and would've spoken honey-tongued if he could. What came out instead was simply a rough, low and menacing voice.

"And here's something more. I'll give you this extra, and we'll perhaps be able to work more closely in the future. Hear. She invited me over to have dinner, and the more time I spent with her, the more I began to feel as though she wanted to use me. She instantly told me about her 'dark past', 'tormented feelings', and all other sort of hogwash. I wasn't impressed, and I... well, to be truthful, I got angry. I left, she left, and now she's gone away."

He looked at David again. His eyes had that gleam again.

"Will this suffice... for now?"

[Lyaera Amavaintria]

For a long while she sat there on a rocky cliff that overlooked a chasm, groaning as she tended to the wound on her shoulder. Try as she might to make sense of all this, it was all for naught in the end. "That damn collar..." she muttered to herself, feeling around her now bare neck "which persona did he give me this time?" She pondered for a while, shuddering at the worst of thoughts... what poor souls had she toyed with this time?

Rather angrily, she punched the floor though there was hardly any reason behind doing so, she shouldn't have been surprised really. Looking down at the chasm where she had just fought off those... monsters, their bodies near littered the floor as well as a few that were pinned against the walls.

They'll come looking for me... I just know it... The thought was depressing, whatever Krios had planned for her to do she had clearly failed, and glad she was. All the constant killing and stealing, there was no honor in doing so.

And, as if on cue, her elf eyes could see figures wandering into the chasm, some held torches as well as weapons. "That was quick..." she muttered, she must've been gone for a long time and there was no hope in running from them as she was in a fairly bad state, but then something occurred to her. Why had he hired so many men? She saw a spot of white in all the armor and helmets, an unusual hair colour.

"Wait, they're not Tevinters..." she whispered quietly to herself, plus why were they so large in numbers? Was there a camp somewhere nearby? It was then one of the skeletons pinned to the wall sprung back to life and in a clear shot she pierced its skull at the very center. The more she thought that this could be a trick, the more she was hesitant. What if they were Tevinters but in disguise? Then again, Krios didn't have many friends nor much respect.

Either way, she would be found soon plus she had already made herself known, there was no taking out such large numbers even as a skilled archer. With a sigh and slight effort, she began to make her way down the rocky cliff but not as gracefully as she would've hoped as her ankle buckled and fell a quarter of the way down, it didn't hurt much, though that could've gone smoother.

For a while she was in the shadows, but now she definitely knew she had been noticed. "Calm yourselves..." she spoke, what should've been a shy and demure voice was now one of experience as well as slight amusement as she soon stepped out the darkness rather confidently instead of timidly with her back straight and a hand on her hip as she used her bow for support. She eyed the men before her, almost every single one looked confused, if their jaws dropped even further than they did now they would reach the Deep Roads. They just... stared at her, now to the point where Lyaera arched her brow, even she was beginning to become confused though nether the less, these men remained professional, letting nothing distract them, she credited them for it even.

For now, she just stood there despite her battered form, she waited for any one of them to speak or attempt to act. She knew one thing though, she wasn't about to be dragged off without answers. So she merely... and rather bluntly said...

"Where am I....?"

[David]

As Fenris explained the reason as or why Sora... Sorry, Lyaera... Had used her slave name many things suddenly became clear to David. Lyaera had been a slave for a long, long time, and was still getting used to freedom. Being a slave was likely all she knew, so perhaps she was trying to find comfort in her old name. Made things possibly seem less different. In truth, it was just a theory, but the answers he would learn as soon as they resuced Lyaera. Looking off for a moment, he gave a nod and turned back to grab his sword and shield from under his cot. Tying his sword belt over his armor, he began to head for the entrance of the tent. "Oui. For now it will suffice. Come with me, we have a girl to rescue no?"

Once out of the tent, he called for a runner to go find lieutenant Jerome and have his company form up at the front gate now, armed and ready for a search mission. Five of David's guards proceeded to begin walking behind David and Fenris, and they walked through the camp. "I can understand your urgency to find her Fenris, but we have more chance of finding her with a hundred men than with 6. We will leave as soon as the men are formed. Shouldn't take longer than a half hour. D'accord?"

The men were ready far sooner than that. Within ten minutes, the entire company of a hundred was formed and ready for march. David ordered them forward, and into the forest they marched, following what David felt was a likely route, through the chasm between two hills. "There are many caves to hide there." David explained to Fenris as they marched on. "It is the most likely place for a slave... Or slavers... To hide. If she has been captured, she will be there." He then called out to his men. "Dépêchez-vous! We have no time to waste!"

Within the hour, they arrived at the chasm, and David ordered his men to spread out and search the caves. David himself took the middle, and walked through the chasm with anyone who chose to follow. Not long after, he heard the sound of rocks falling, and a body tumbling, and he drew his blade. It was a small woman, with bright red hair. "Well I'll be damned..."

"You are in a lot of trouble." David replied to Lyaera, after the initial shock wore off. "And have a lot of explaining to do."

[Fenris]

Fenris spent the journey from the camp into the forest in complete silence, trying to weave through and between fits of simple irritation and outright lunacy. As David and his company, which now also included Fenris, reached the chasm, he felt the need to say something. He had already half-turned, lips parted, towards David, when David seemed to have spotted something. They entered a dark cave, one of such proportions that they could not see where it ended. They all had their blades out. And in the light that emanated from outside, they suddenly saw the slender shape of a woman curled up on the ground. She had bright red hair and was thin enough to fit through bars.

He moved closer, his chest rising and falling in interchanging waves of irritation and relief, and finally knelt down next to David.

"Hell, woman..."

He sighed in surrender.

"What have you been through, Lyaera?"

[Lyaera Amavaintria]

In a rather startled yet amused manner, Lyaera took a step back, a mischievous smile spread across her lips. "Well, well..." she began, her tone humorous "two handsome men fussing over little ol' me... it must be Thursday!" It was then she heard a loud growl that caused her to jump, at first thinking it was a monster, she looked behind her, then felt an odd sensation in her stomach - realizing it was her stomach.

"Ah... wow, I feel like I haven't eaten in days!" she mused before then realizing she must've seemed crazy in front of these two strangers, but then she felt her ears twitch as one of the men, an elf, spoke her name. It wasn't long until she felt her head throb slightly from over-thinking. "Uhh... not to be rude to you lovely gentlemen, but... to put it bluntly, who in the Trickster's name are you? And... how do you know my name?" she said with a sigh, turning her attention to the white haired elf at that last part... though something about him felt... familiar.

And she was in trouble, too?! "Wait, what the hell did I do?!" she responded like a typical teenager who had done nothing wrong would. She then began to pace with her index finger under her chin as she thought of how to deal with this. Perhaps these were the poor souls 'she' had messed with? For a moment she stood there, running her hand through her slightly matted hair, wincing as she got her fingers caught for a moment.

"Ah goodness..." she muttered, placing her hands together as she turned to face them, an awkward smile appeared on her lips, how in Creators name could she explain this?! Now was really no time for jokes, the situation was serious and questions needed to be answered.

"Look..." she began, her face reluctant but stern "... you may not believe this, and I don't know what you've been told, but I'm... I'm really not who you think I am, so please hear me out. My name is Lyaera Amavaintria, an escaped slave from Tevinter, formally known as Sora by my former master Krios."

Well, that was the first part over and done with, it was now time to explain what was going on, which she had already figured out. "I know what's going on," she said, clearing her throat and continued "basically, my former master dabbles in the forbidden arts, Blood Magic and the like, constantly going on about some fool Magister named Danarius, you get the idea. Whenever he wished me to do something I disagreed with, he'll use a collar to alter me... I'm apparently 'too much of a rebel' as I've attempted escape with my brother on thirteen occasions, five of which that have succeeded. The collar... gives me a persona which he prefers... being the sick perverted bastard he is, so it's mainly demure and obedient."

In an irritated manner, she ran her fingers through her hair, gripping it tightly for a moment as she breathed in deeply then exhaled. "Even going as far as using my life story to gain sympathy and trust," she growled through gritted teeth "and just so you understand, I've most likely came across either one of you due to something that he wants... well, wanted... 'cause I'm not doing a thing for him anymore now that the collar has broken, removing it was actually supposed to kill me without Blood Magic..."

She stopped talking for a while after mentioning Blood Magic then began thinking out loud. "But what could have caused it to break? It takes any form of Blood Magic to break it, or a strong force of magic, anything that relates to such... so surely this was accidental, a wonderful accident at that..." she marveled before then snapping out of it and focused her attention to the baffled men.

"I'm sorry, I know this seems odd and a 'likely' story, but I'm telling the truth, see?" she said, pointing to her bare neck "the collar is gone, it's magic has no control over me so this is who I am, I truly am telling the truth... whatever questions you have I will answer the best I can, but know this collar is an invention created by my former master... you may wonder why he values me so, but in Tevinter, slaves seemed to have become more like trophies nowadays, be it which has the rarest eyes or the perfect teeth, they will compete for and fight over who has the best slave, they'd go as far as attempting to breed you - almost as if we're Mabari or a rare species of animal. It's disgusting, really."

Ugh. She couldn't do this, already was she beginning to feel tired of talking along with feeling rather drained from lack of food. As much as she hoped they'd believe her, some of them had that look as if to say they couldn't believe her. It made her shudder to think of how she had acted before the collar broke, but before she could speak again, a rather inhumane sound reached her ears. Within seconds swarms of Shades began to appear around them, alerting Lyaera and causing her to stumble back into David and Fenris as one was literally just behind her, though she was able to balance herself.

"This isn't right..." she murmured, reaching for her bow to ready herself for battle. Is there... a Blood Mage here?

[David]

Wait... Did she just say blood magic? Did David hear that correctly? There was a blood mage here!?! David swallowed nervously, fully realizing that they had to get out of there as quickly as possible.

"Lyaera..." David began. He had forgiven her already, as her explanation was satisfactory, given the circumstances. "If what you said about blood magic is true, we need to leave. Now. We can't stand up to a..."

Suddenly the ground began to shake, and a loud roar bellowed from deeper within the cave. David struggled to keep his balance, and looked to Fenris, then to Lyaera. He shouted for his men to get out of the cave, then ran forward and grabbed Lyaera by the arm. "Everyone out!"

Tentatively, David ran up the cave, hoping Fenris and Lyaera weren't far behind. The ground opened up on the sides, and rocks fell from the roof. The cave was collapsing!

Finally, David dived out of the cave and onto the ground in front of the entrance as the dust from the rocks plummed out of the cave. He took a heavy breath and look around, making sure everyone was still alive.

[Fenris]

As soon as the ground began to shake, Fenris was surrounded by the blue glow of lyrium. But he knew it wouldn't help him here unless he'd become trapped inside. Running for his life, he dived out of the cave right after David. His words echoed his thoughts a hundred percent.

"That was close..."

He looked around to see whether the soldiers had survived, too, and saw that nobody appeared to be seriously injured. Then he looked at Lyaera, the confusion he had felt at her words now coming back to him. He felt like he needed to say something, just a comment, but for this one time he couldn't conjure anything useful. So he fell completely silent instead.

[Lyaera Amavaintria]

Her words seemed to gather no reaction... yet, she supposed that there wasn't exactly any time to as the ground began to shake and within a matter of seconds she felt her arm being grabbed and was soon pulled in David's direction, she could feel her body become fatigued what with all this running, fighting, and nonsense that was occurring, plus she felt as if some kind of large boulder had fallen on her.By the time they reached safety, Lyaera's body collapsed to the ground in exhaustion, she lay there for a while letting out deep and labored breaths before shakily getting up off the ground.

A fellow soldier of David's came up to her, a young lad no older that twenty-three or so, and placed her arm over his shoulder to support her. She couldn't focus on anything at that given moment, her head was hurting from going through the whole 'back to normal' process, certain memories and feelings came back to her, she was not a sufferer of amnesia, but it took her a while to remember what was true and false in her memory pile.

It was then she could hear a slight ringing noise which caused her to look around. "Release me," she said bluntly but not unkindly as she pulled away from the man, her head looking in all directions like a Mabari hound recognizing a scent of a person. Her gaze then fell upon the various rocks that now blocked the caves entrance and within seconds she something glisten from within the pile.

She ran towards whilst limping, a feeling of anxiety washed over her as she felt her heart sink upon recognizing what was stuck between the rocks. It looked like a collar but in a pale blue colour with an odd rune attached to it, reaching forward she pulled it out to get a closer look at it, but then all of a sudden she dropped it and stumbled back in fear, a voice had entered her ears that no one else could. Her wide eyes enlarged in slight petrification before snapping out of it. She was tired and needed rest, this was all getting too much for her now.

"That's what he used to control me..." she muttered miserably, not daring to touch it again "it's infused with Lyrium and Blood Magic, able to replace ones memories with those of lies and deciet, and to change a person... a horrible thing indeed. It's unactive, there's no way of activating it unless Blood Magic is involved, so it's harmless for now..."

Using one of her arrows, she picked it back up and carefully dropped it into a pouch, being careful not to touch it with her bare hands. "It can also be used to track me down, but as I said, it's unable to function so... whatever whereabouts its giving my former Master are very likely to be inaccurate ones," she explained to them, a look of irritation painted her features. To think, such a small and simple thing such as this able to change a person "luckily for me, this is the only one... and I'll be damned if I'm letting that bastard collar me like a Qunari Mage again!"

She then turned to the white haired elf, staring intently for a moment before then turning to David. "I should be thankful you found me, even before this incident, I'm assuming she came across you somehow... that's how you know her, me... that is," she sighed, saying 'her' in referral to who she was before the collar broke "and as I said before, my name is Lyaera Amavaintria... as you probably well know. I'm sorry that I do not know the names of those who have done me a great service, may I know your names?"

Once again, she swayed slightly, the man from before placed her arm around his shoulder as her head hung forward, holding it in her hand as she groaned. "And... if you don't mind... I think I am in need of treatment... I don't... I don't... f-feel so... good..." she felt woozy, her words became slow and somewhat slurred, her body felt heavy as it began to lean ever so slightly forward but it was enough due to the man's grip becoming lose, she then fell forward as she fainted from lack of food and water.

[David]

Dusting himself off, David slowly stood back up again as Lyaera explained the situation with... Well, everything. The collar, blood magic, things that made little sense to David but he could see the ring of truth in them. He simply listened to her, trying to take in as many facts as possible. It seemed so... Improbable. Yet the facts were there. The memory loss, the collar, the slight change of character.... She seemed the same yet different.

What a strange world he lived in...

David sighed, and just as he was about to give her his name she suddenly collapsed. Looking over to his men and grimacing, he walked over and picked her up, cradling her in her arms. "Come on... We've got a long walk back... And she's had a rough day..." He looked at Fenris and nodded, then ordered the company to reform and march back to camp. As they marched, David thought about what she said... And how odd it all seemed.

"Did you know anything about this Fenris?" He asked finally as they marched down the path. "You were traveling with her for a while, and none of that ever came up?"

[Fenris]

Fenris sneered.

"Never. A bloody wish come true that she turned this way, I tell you." But she won't be a tad less annoying, will she?

He gazed lazily at their surroundings as they walked on, occasionally sparing a glance or two at the renewed Lyaera. She didn't seem different at all, but he did like the sudden roughness in her. Then his eyes settled back on David.

"That blood mage isn't going to stay long in there. I hope that you have a plan, David."