Legend (Dragon Age Origins)

Chapter 21: Dealing With Demons

She found Niall's body beneath the statues and gore, his eyes cast to the high ceilings. Clasped tightly in his hands was a tattered, bound up scroll. Dru gently pressed his eyes closed as she pried the parchment from his fingers.

"The Litany of Adralla." Wynne nodded to the scroll. "The templars kept it locked within the archive room. I'm not surprised that Irving went after it, it is a powerful incantation indeed."

Dru carefully unravelled it. Scrawled across the parchment in smudged ink was a short script in a language unknown to her.

"Do you need magic to activate it?" she asked, brows furrowed as she tried to sound out the words in her head.

Wynne shook her head. "Anyone can use it, it was created for the first of the templar order, after all. All you must do is speak the words while the scroll is in their possession."

"Best not to practice now, then." Dru folded the scroll in half and tucked it into her belt. She knew she'd have to hand it over to Wynne or Morrigan later, but for now, the possibility of performing magic – as limited as it was – excited her.

She glanced over to where Zevran and Morrigan, who were slowly rising to their feet. The return to the land of the living wasn't quite as disorienting as Dru had expected. It felt like nothing more than waking up from a long and restless sleep. The events from the Fade were rapidly becoming foggy and unclear in her memory, and the prospect of forgetting their adventure entirely amused her.

"I am most pleased that ordeal is done with," Morrigan muttered. She was angrily tugging at the flesh that caught in her feathered pauldrons while they rested on the ground.

"I think you may have missed a spot, my dear. Here, allow me." Zevran gently took Morrigan by the shoulders, turning her body toward the light and revealing the blood that caked her back and bare shoulders. "Hmm," he said, "Perhaps not."

"Uldred will be at the tower's summit, in the Harrowing Chambers," Wynne informed them. "That is where we perform our final test for our initiates. It is where the Viel is thinnest, and where Uldred no doubt has summoned the demons to do his bidding."

Dru crossed her arms. "Are you sure you're up for this?" she asked. "Who knows what we'll find up there."

Wynne squeezed Dru's shoulder, offering a small smile before turning away and heading toward the staircase at the end of the chamber. 

*

The grand, open archways that lined the Harrowing Chamber overlooked a dark and moonless sky. In the shadows lurked a dozen abominations, each as twisted and demented as the next. They paced the floor, their power-hungry forms snapping at the young mages who sat, bound and broken, in a wide circle.

A pale, bald man stood at the head of the circle. His robes were torn at the sleeves, revealing deformed talon-like fingers that dripped with blood. The man's blackened eyes scanned the group of mages, before settling on a young elven boy.

Three abominations leapt at once, seizing the boy by the shoulders and hauling him to his feet. The boy screamed as they shoved him into the centre of the circle. He tried to run but before he could even make a move, he was encased in a field of blue light.

Trembling, the boy looked into Uldred's cruel eyes. The abominations struck forward, each summoning a stream of electricity from their fingertips. His back arched as the magic coursed through his body, his screams echoing throughout the chamber.

The light from the electricity illuminated the terrified faces of his peers who sat around him, each quivering in fear of being chosen next. With one hand raised, maintaining the spell, Uldred strode forward. He cocked his head as he observed the writhing child within. Finally, once the boy's screams reached a crescendo, Uldred dismissed the spell and the boy's body hit the ground.