The Iron Dragon

Chapter 21. Diary

Actually, it was something that was relatively easy to understand and at the same time something that was so completely banal that you wanted to discard it right away. Varric looked somewhat confused as Cassandra and the bull looked serious and seemed to be communicating with each other through thoughts. I and the inquisitor looked at each other and I had the feeling that she and I were thinking exactly the same thing. Before Varric could ask what exactly was going on here I turned to him.

"Maliphant seems to hold a great resentment against the Empress of Orlai and as he described it here, he probably would like to do something against her". Varric still had this expression on his face, which told me that he was not quite sure what I was getting at.

"The Templars suddenly appeared and helped the Freeman both financially and materially, and the only thing they wanted in return was support in the fight and help with the lyrium smuggling. The Freemen have the feeling that they are not free under the hand of Orlai and that the innocent are dying and the Empire is just watching. Maliphant's greatest wish seems to be to resist this situation by making sure that the powerful nobility of Orlai is stopped. Now here we have a mad mass murderer who feels that the nobility of the empire is the evil that must be fought, and how does a madman do it best? ". It was quiet for a while before Varric spoke up.

"By making sure that... that nobility no longer exists? ". I nodded.

"Of course, the whole thing is not so easy and I doubt very much that he has it in for every nobleman in Orlai but on the whole, Varric is absolutely right, however banal it may sound. And there is of course a way that is more than precise to plunge Orlai into chaos. Killing every single aristocrat is something I imagine to be quite difficult in the long run and they certainly wouldn't get away with it. So you kill the person who holds the country and the nobility and that would be ... ". Now Varric seemed to have figured it out because his eyes got bigger and bigger with my words.

"The Empress of Orlai" I nodded again.

"Absolutely right. It would be the first thing that comes to mind when you ask yourself how best to bring down a country, the first answer would be to kill the person who is ruling the country at the moment and that would be Empress Celene. The question is how to do that best. To kill such a powerful and well-known and above all well protected empress is anything but easy and takes a lot of time to plan the whole thing. It is really something that seems almost impossible but only "almost". Whatever it took and whatever the Freemen and the Templars really had in mind, it was something big and something that would change the world, probably in a bad way.

While the others continued to talk about the letter and the possible next steps of our enemy, as was customary for an inquisition, I moved to the strange-looking device which was also placed in the room. I remembered that I had seen something similar before, even if it had been a while ago. Not many people worked with such a device and therefore it was quite rare to find one.

"What is it?" Freya had joined me and looked at the piece as interested as I was.

"In those days, such a device was used to make and repair runes, but very few people knew how to use it, so it was quite rare to find one.

"Do you know how to use it?". I just smiled and shrugged my shoulders.

"If you are asking for detailed instructions, I am afraid I will have to disappoint you. It's not the first time I've seen something like this and I've read a lot about it, but I've never really used it, or rather I never could.

"You never could, how should I understand that?".

"Now most of these devices must be used by a magician to produce the result they are supposed to. While you could say that I have mastered something that could be compared to magic, it is very different from the abilities of a person born with pure magic. Therefore, it is not possible for me to use this work in the correct way.