Bonds Through Blood Spilt [Alistair, Mari, Isa]

[saekohotd]

It was never long before Isabela got in some kind of trouble, but this one was going to cost her. She had been smuggling mages for some time now, and no one had been the wiser. There were so many lives saved, and people had been on her side since the beginning. Getting caught came right out of left field. An obviously very clever mole had tipped off her dealings to the Templars, and to say the least, they were not happy. On top of that, Isabela was caught red handed. The raid on her scheme had been right in the middle of a job. Not only had Isabela been seized, but she was sure the mages that were left with her would be tranquil by tomorrow…or worse…

Isabela put up the best fight she could, but when you are surrounded by Templars, there is not much you can do. She tried to defend the mages with her, but the Templars did not hesitate to kill them. They wanted to capture the one doing the most damage, and that was Isabela. A few lost lives were nothing to them, especially those of mages. Isabela had evaded some of the Templars, but in the end she was caught and now there was nothing to get her out of this situation. Her crew was away with her ship, and by time they got to her she would be dead.

As Isabela was dragged through town it was obvious the Templars did not take it easy on her. Her body hung as two Templars hauled her away. Her feet scrapped the ground and blood dripped from several parts of her body. Her arms already started to bruise and her clothes had been torn. Blood soaked hair hung in her face just barely over the large golden loop earring that symbolized who she was. The earring was a symbol of her life as a Rivaini pirate and she hoped everyone around could see it. She was not ashamed of what happened, she was happy that she could help so many people be free, even if it cost Isabela her own life. As she spit blood on the ground she saw it splatter and could only think that it was finally over…..

[Mariana]

Mariana popped another piece of pickled ginger in her mouth as she strode through Kirkwall with Alistair, feeling queasy. She hated being on land, especially the first few days while she got her land legs. The land just... didn't move right. Not, she supposed, that it was supposed to move, but she'd spent nearly her entire life on the rolling deck of a ship at sea. Standing on something stationary was unnerving at best.

What she really needed to take her mind off her stomach and the awkward stillness beneath her feet was some strong booze and a good lay... Or maybe a game of shoot the templar. There was a whole group of them dragging a woman between them, and Mariana could see the glint of gold in her ear. The broad golden hoop of a Rivaini pirate, matching the one Mariana wore herself. Well, pirates were pirates, but they did have a code of sorts.

Unslinging her bow from across her back, she notched an arrow and let it fly to skip off a templar's pauldron. There was a clang and a shout, and the whole lot of them turned as Mariana offered a saucy bow. With their attention diverted, the other woman should be able to escape if she could run. No guarantees of that, though - the stranger looked rough and might not even be able to walk.

"Want to learn a new game your kingliness?" Mariana asked loudly enough for the templars to hear, turning to Alistair with an impish grin. "It's fun, I promise - you guess how many shots it'll take me to get an arrow through a templars eye slit, and if you guess right I buy the next round of drinks." Pitching her voice lower so that only Alistair could hear, she added, "Get her to the ship, I'll meet you there."

With that, she let off another shot, attracting yet more of the templars attention before she turned and ran, several templars following close behind. They were slow in their armour, but she kept a pace that would have them close on her heels. The closer they were, the longer they'd follow - she just hoped enough of them abandoned their charge for Alistair to get the woman to safety.

[Alistair Theirin]

After having been days at the sea and then finally on land in the city Kirkwall, Alistair found himself happy to be on shore once again, as he many times had been sick during his travel. Walking alongside Mariana as their ship had anchored at the docks for some refreshment, they decided to take a look in the city where the Mage-Templar war first began. It had been three years since Alistair last visited Kirkwall, and now he was there again, only that he was there for some other reasons then securing alliances and figuring solutions to other sorts of trouble with his sort-of-uncle Teagan. The city had changed a lot since then, especially since the Mage-Rebellion. Like all other free city states of the Free Marches it had become a place under martial law, governed by the Seekers of Truth and the Templars.

As Alistair and Mariana walked through the streets, they could see the people were afraid and they were not allowed to stay clung together in groups more than two as the Templars had gone strict on the rules. With no Viscount to rule Kirkwall, it had fallen to the Templars and the Seekers and from the Gallows their activity was heavily observed, where rumors had it that they were plotting on how to lure the mages out from their hiding places. Watching the people whisper in the streets made Alistair feel pity on them and he hoped things would get better soon, even he knew it would take a lot to settle the war, a war that was slowly tearing the entire continent to pieces, also Ferelden whom so far had only felt a small portion of it.

Stopping in the middle of the streets in low town, Alistair and Mariana spotted a woman in the distance being forced and dragged away by several Templars. It made Alistair angered and frustrated to see the Templars go that far in search of mages, but the woman they saw did not look like any mage, rather she looked as one of the Rivaini woman, like Mariana…and Alistair thought there was something familiar with the women.

Something had to be done, and Mariana was quick to act as she took her bow and began shooting at the Templars. It certainly was not the way Alistair wanted to do it, but now as she did, there was no other choice than but to fight them. Alistair looked at Mariana when she spoke and he was about to answer her when she suddenly had to run as the Templar`s came chasing after her. Alistair was left confused and alone, but was told to secure the woman to safety as Mariana drew the attention of the Templars. Alistair wanted to help Mariana, but knew the woman whom was wounded needed his attention. Watching Mariana run around the corner as the Templar`s followed, Alistair went to the woman who laid on ground and helped her up carefully, but then he noticed who she was and he was shocked to see that it was one of his old friends. “Isabela?” He asked in a surprised tone as he held her up carefully, wondering if she was alright and how she had got into this mess. “Are you alright? Can you walk?...” He continued, waiting on her answer as he looked around concerned, hoping that no other Templar`s would come and cause trouble. Alistair however knew Mariana could take care of herself, he had seen her in action against assassins and he was sure, if she could handle them, then she sure could handle a few Templars.

[saekohotd]

Just as Isabela had given up hope, she heard a clang come from the Templar on her right. An arrow had been shot at him, and Isabela tried to raise her head to see who had done it. She could barely see through her hair, but to her it looked like another Rivaini pirate. The girl continued her assault and Templars rushed in toward her. Isabela heard clanging footsteps on the ground that felt like they were shaking her. She tried to struggle against the men who had her held, but her energy was exhausted, and she had been carried so long her arms felt as if they were going to fall off. She heard a few more men rush by hollering when suddenly she was dropped to the ground. Her face hit the pavement hard she tasted more blood fill her mouth. She tried to lift herself, but her arms were like jelly at the moment and she looked more like a wobbly chair with a missing leg.

She heard the Rivaini woman yell something to a well armored man. The man came over to help her up, and Isabela struggled a little at first but had no energy to really do so. “Isabela? Are you alright? Can you walk?...” [/b], she heard the man say. How did he know her name? She looked over and couldn’t believe her eyes. It was an old friend she had met at the Pearl. It was obvious that her luck was the only thing keeping her alive anymore and when they got out of this she was going to drink to that.

”Alistair?? Is that really you? Bloody crazy, what you are doing!!” she said with an attempted laugh. ”Just so you know I was fine!” She reached over and wiped some blood off of her face. She could barely stand on her feet, but a lot of the feeling was coming back. She took a few shaky steps and then seemed to be alright on her feet. ”I think I can walk….I should be fine in a second or two…” She held on to Alistair and got her bearings a little but still seemed a little uneasy as she clutched his shoulder. She watched as there was mayhem all around them, and wondered what was going to happened to them now.

[Mariana]

The good news was the templars had all abandoned their charge to follow Mariana. The bad news was, now they were all after Mariana, and had picked up some reinforcements besides. "The pirate... does not... approve..." she panted under her breath as she ran. It had seemed like such a good idea when she started them chasing her, but she hadn't expected them to be quite so intent. And now she had fresh templars joining the chase as they went even as the others dropped off, and she was staring to tire. That was very remarkably not good.

She sprinted through lowtown, the chase lending her speed, until she found herself facing a wall. Walls were bad, very bad, horrible in fact, but she was lucky enough to be both bold and fast. Planting her feet, Mariana spun around and charged the mob only to drop to the ground and slide though their legs. It didn't work quite the way she intended of course, the gritty ground slowing her more quickly than the sea-slick deck of her ship. Instead she found herself standing on the midst of her pursuers as she rose.

This was bad. This was very bad. Very, very bad. She bowed to them with a cheeky grin as they turned to her in shock and took off again, but before she could get away one of them grabbed her arm. Spinning, she unsheathed her dagger and drove the blade between the plates of his gauntlet and took off again as he howled in pain. But she was tired. So tired. And whichever way she turned there were more templars, but no one willing to step in and help. Well, she was almost back to the docks now and with the bastards in heavy plate there was only one thing left to do.

She jumped. With a great splash Mariana was in the water and swimming hard. The water hit her like ice, dragging at her arms, but the templars didn't wade in past their waists and she swam on. Her ship was nowhere in sight, but still she kept swimming. They found an archer and started firing at her, but she just ducked below the surface and swam where they couldn't see her. Mariana's lungs burned, her body ached, she had no idea how far her ship was, but she kept going.

Turning so that she swam parallel to the shore she came up only after she'd hidden herself behind a Nevarran merchantman. The Bastard wasn't far, and after a few long minutes more she was hauling herself aboard her own ship, wet and shivering. But the templars had seen her come aboard and were calling orders for fire. They had to leave now.

[Alistair Theirin]

"Oh ha! And I`m the bloody King of Ferelden...oh wait, that I am, ha!" Alistair replied with a joke and with a smile as he held Isabela up carefully while she tried to stand. "Hmm yes, it looked as if you could handle those men quite easily when they were dragging you through the streets.” He continued joke fully in a serious and a calm tone, looking at Isabela with an arched brow and a bright smile, happy to be with an old friend again who reminded him quite a lot of the good old days when he was just a casual Gray Warden. Slowly and gently he moved his hand to touch her forehead and with his thumb he carefully removed some of the blood that was dripping down her face, seeing that she was quite wounded. Then as she almost stumbled when she tried to walk, he caught her in his arms and with a look of concern he spoke. “No as I see it you can barely stand because of what they did to you. Let me help you, we need to get away from here as quick as possible or I fear more Templars may find out you have escaped, again.” Alistair then took the opportunity to pick Isabela up as he would carry her back to the ship, however just as he was about to walk an old woman in the street took notice on what was happening and hysterically she began to shout: “Templars! Templars! The Mage conspirators are escaping! Do something!”

“Oh great, just what we needed…a hysterical old woman and some more Templars.” Alistair said in an annoyed tone as he tried to make fun of it, and just then, another group of Templars came and blocked the path which Alistair had planned to take back to the ship. There was at least six Templars and they were all armored, holding a shield and a sword in hand, ready to attack the Mage conspirators. “You are going nowhere, conspirator!” One of the Templars spoke in a vicious voice, and as Alistair looked upon them he could see in their eyes through their helmet that there was something about that them that was not right, they seemed to have some problems. Could it be because of their addiction to the Lyrium or because of something else? Alistair was not sure, but no matter, he would not let the Templars do any more harm to Isabela. Then as Alistair thought of placing Isabela carefully down as he would try and fight them, they were all surprised when the sound of six recoils from a crossbow could be heard in the distance. Then all of sudden, six arrows came flying at the Templars and they all stroke and hit them, causing them to fall dead to the ground instantly in front of the eyes to both Alistair and Isabela.

"Bianca you Minx! That was Beautiful!" Another familiar voice was heard in the background and Alistair was shocked when he turned to see it was Hawke`s and Isabela`s good friend Varric, the most famous dwarven bard in Thedas. Oh how happy Alistair was to see that man, and just in the nick of time as well. Looking upon Varric, Alistair could see he stood upon the roof of the Hanged Man as he caressed his crossbow while looking down upon the King and the Pirate. “Now isn’t that a lovely sight, I knew you two would need my help eventually…” Varric spoke to Alistair and Isabela with a smirk on his face, telling them that he had been observing most of the scene. “You have been watching us? And you just stood by when all this happened?...” Alistair spoke out loudly for him to hear, as he was both shocked and upset of the fact that Varric had been standing there for some time.

“Oh well, it’s not like I have been standing here all the time, but you seemed to handle the Templars well, so I figured…why interact when there is no need.” Varric replied in a smart tone as he watched the King and the pirate with a smile, leaning on his crossbow before he then noticed some more shouts and screams in the distance. It seemed as if more Templars were on their way and the people were running scared from them, seeing that there was at least twenty Templars heading their way. “Eh, you should start running; I will cover your path from the rooftop. Now go, Templars are on their way!” Varric commanded the King and Isabela to leave, as now it was about to get more serious. With a firm grip he picked up his crossbow and began running over to the other rooftop, aiming in the direction of the Templars, starting to shoot them one after another. "Did somebody order a shot in the face?"

As Varric began shooting at the Templars who were heading the direction where Alistair and Isabela found themselves, it was now time to run for safety. As Alistair stood there seeing the citizens running wildly through the streets, trying to hide themselves from harm, he held onto Isabela and the thoughts run through his mind, hoping that his close friend Mariana was alright as she had been chased by most of the Templars in the district. Then as Alistair came back to reality, he held Isabela firmly in his arms and started to run through the streets while Varric shot at the Templars who approached them. It was a good tactic, but it was exhausting Alistair.

After running through the street labyrinth of Kirkwall, Alistair and Isabela finally arrived the docks, however as they run down the steps and got a view over the harbor it was clearly that the danger was far from over. An entire company of Templars stood in front of them, fighting the pirates at Mariana`s ship and it seemed Alistair had to pass the crowd to get both him and Isabela to safety. Then as Alistair stopped to watch what was happening in front of him, Varric came running behind them in the fastest paste he could with Bianca in hand. “Don’t stop, keep running!!!” He shouted as he passed Alistair and Isabela, shooting his way through the thick crowd of Templars that stood in his way and behind him another group of Templars followed. As Alistair turned to see what Varric was running from, he was surprised and quickly he went to follow Varric.

[saekohotd]

She laughed as much as her body would let her at Alistair’s attempt at humor. It made her remember the good ol’ days and some of the companions she used to have. After Zevran had disposed of her husband, this was what her life was like, and she was not giving it up for anything. Freedom like this was priceless: friends like these were priceless. As Alistair gently wiped away the blood from her skin, Isabela smiled. He had grown into quite the handsome man, but she was sure the other pirate girl he was with had him around for more than one reason. Just as she lost in thought she heard, ”Templars! Templars! The mage conspirators are escaping! Do something!”[/i]

”Old hag…” she grumbled a she glared at the old woman. Another group of Templars came and blocked the way that Alistair had started taking them. There had to be at least six, and when on spoke, something seemed off. It was unfortunate that they did not have the time to prod and investigate because Isabela would have loved to take a Templar down a peg. Just then she heard six shots sounding like they came from a crossbow. And not just any crossbow…

”Bianca you Minx! That was beautiful!”[/i] , she heard and she was for certain…It was Varric!! That damned dwarf had made it after all, and she had never been happier to see him. After him and Alistair bantered for a second, Isabela yelled up to him, ”Now this is a story you don’t have to embellish! Well, unless you want to say there were twelve Templars. We would let you get away with that.” And just as the reunion started, it was time to end it. There were more Templars heading their way, and Alistair held onto her as they made their way toward the docks. Their pace was still steady, but she could tell Alistair had become exhausted. Isabela felt, and wished that she could be a little faster on her own two feel to lighten the load.

They finally made it to the docks, but it looked like they fun there had just begun. There were Templars and pirates all fighting in front of a ship. Isabela assumed that this ship was their ride to safely and she thought to herself, cant anything be simple. She knew this was going to be hard on all of them and she wanted to just run up and save the day, but her body was in no sort of condition to do anything like that. Just as she thought she had run out of options, Isabela reached over to her belt and pulled out a miasmic flask. As they were running, she lobbed it ahead to stun at least a couple of the Templars. The way she had seem it was that as long as they could get past these brutes and on that ship, they were safe. She wasn’t about to be picky about how they did it. She tried to shifter her weight more to her own and give Alistair a rest and a better fighting chance. It would be a miracle if they all made it out of here alive.

[Mariana]

Where were they? Mariana was shouting orders for the ship to sail, but she still couldn't see Alistair or the woman. With his luck they'd been taken by templars, and she's have to bloody go back and rescue him. Again. She hopped up on the railing, scanning the dockyard again for some sign of her... whatever Alistair was to her at this point. Companion? Lover? Guest?

Wait... She thought she saw something moving, and the sun flashed off a sea of polished armour. Alistair had the girl and a dwarf and they were running, but the bloody templars had cut them off. An unfamiliar bubble of rage built up from the pit of her stomach straight through her chest to catch in her throat, and Mariana's hand tightened around the rigging.

"DOWN! She shouted to Alistair, and with a leap and a grab she had hold of a rope on a barrel winch. Half a heartbeat and she'd sliced clean through, and she was dropping fast, swinging, the barrel on the other end flying wide through the ranks of the templars. Letting go of the cut rope had her landing neatly in front of Alistair's company, and she spun around, drawing her other dagger as she glared at the scattered templars. "Back to the ship," she said darkly. With that, she charged. The templar's who'd fallen she ran through as they lay on the ground, those who'd run quickly disposed of by the dwarf with Alistair.

The templars were dead or scatteres, but regrouping quickly. They were already lighting barrels of tar by the time Mariana and her companions had reached the ship. Bloody templars... Mariana was fuming as she ran aboard, flaming barrels crashing aboard her ship as she shouted to the mages to put them out! Another sharp order had the gangplank pulled aboard, another and the mages were readying a long series of fire spells. "Burn it to the ground." No one argued - and the docks were little more than a mass of flames as they sailed away.

[Alistair Theirin]

(I say we end this thread here, next stop, Antiva! )