The Protégé

Chapter 3

The three agents ran to the cave-in and called for their Inquisitor. Silence was their only answer. They quickly retreated from the caves to send word of the cave-in and get assistance in clearing it. After days of moving stone, the only sign of her was a pool of blood too large for anyone to survive. Word of her presumed death arrived on the feathered wings of Leliana's treasured birds. The spymaster spent three days in mourning while controlling and quieting rumors before sending scouts.

Lavellan knew none of this however, for she had her own problems...

I felt like I sat there for a long time, but I knew time moved differently here. How did I know that?

"Ah, my child. I am sorry," a soothing voice told me.

I turned to see a tall man in a gold mask and tattered robes. "Who are you?"

"I am the Architect, Lady Falon."

"Falon? Is that my name?"

The part of his face I could see was wrinkled in confusion. "What do you remember?"

"I-. Nothing. I forgot something important." I placed my head in my hands, trying to remember but came up with nothing.

He seemed to hesitate before answering. "Do not fret, child. You are my protégé, Falon Divus. You were in a collapse in the mines."

"Oh."

"Come," he called to me kindly. "Unfriendly eyes like to watch this place. It's fortunate he isn't here now."

"Who?"

"All in good time." He patted my head. "Come to the waking world. You have much to learn."

I snapped up in a bed and glanced around the unfamiliar room, not that anything seemed familiar. The old murals did little to make the cold stone walls feel cozy. A throat cleared, and I turned to see the tall man from my dreams. Next to him was a normal-sized but deformed human.

"Good to see you awake, my dear," the tall man, the Architect, greeted me. "This is a follower of mine, the Seeker. He may be a darkspawn, but he'll do you no harm."

That word triggered a memory. I remember darkspawn could corrupt people and make them sick. It dawned on me that both of them were darkspawn, but the Architect felt... older. "Hello," I cautiously said to the Seeker, who nodded back.

"He'll be keeping an eye on you while you aren't with me."

"You said I was your protégé. What is it we studied exactly?"

"We studied the corruption and the Black City. We were trying to find a cure for this curse or a way to make it more bearable, at least." He smiled slightly when he saw me rubbing my temple, trying to remember. "Do not force yourself. If you learned it once, you can do so again."

They left me to get dressed. Once I finished, I met them on the other side of my door. They walked me to the lab. There, the Seeker left us to go check on two others, Seranni and Utha. Meanwhile, the Architect walked me through our exact experiments and had me return to my role as his assistant. I learned about the role of Grey Warden blood in disrupting the song of the Old Gods. He walked me through how he and his brethren reached the Black City, though he could barely remember any of it. When I asked about his background, the Architect seemed not to know. He could only remember the Black City and everything after.

"Out of curiosity, my dear, might I draw a bit of blood from you?"

"Ah," I replied awkwardly. "Sure." I offered up my arm.

He chuckled. "I can't draw blood from metal."

"Oh," I let out. I forgot I had a metal arm. Wonder how I lost that. A pang of something unpleasant rippled through my chest. I offered my real arm. After a quick sting, he had his sample.

"Excellent," he muttered to himself as he inspected the red liquid.

"Out of curiosity, were we close to a breakthrough?"

"Oh, yes," he exclaimed. "Unfortunately, the guardian of the City and his master have woken up. Their goals are different from ours, so it's quite troublesome."

"Maybe we can shift the guardian's loyalty?"

He smiled slightly. "That may be impossible. The guardian eats like a king as long as his master regrets. It's a spirit of Regret, after all. And the regret of someone that powerful... I couldn't match it."

I hummed in thought. "I'm sure we'll find something."

We went back to our experiments. Eventually, the Seeker and two women joined us. I suspected the elf to be Seranni and the dwarf to be Utha. They seemed to be suffering from the same corruption as the Architect and the Seeker but in a different form. The women seemed nice enough, though they were a little cold. They quickly warmed up to me after a bit of conversation.

"We'll have to sneak you outside, so you can get some light," Seranni told me. Utha nodded in agreement.

"Do so away from the city. It isn't safe for us to go out on that side yet," the Architect warned us.

"Yes, master," the two women complied.

"Yes, master," I repeated after them with a little delay.

We went back to bumbling about the lab. Seranni and Utha provided a little extra explanation when they saw my confusion on certain topics. After a day in the lab, I was exhausted. The Seeker walked me back to my room and promised to bring me a tray of food. I answered his knock on my door a few moments later.

"Thank you so much," I said in greeting. I took the tray off his hands and asked him to help me light a fire. "We have to come up with a different name for you. Calling you Seeker feels wrong for some reason."

"What do you suggest," he asked in his rough voice.

"I don't know. I don't really remember any good names. How about Halla?" I grinned at his disgusted expression.

"No," he told me flatly. He paused in thought for a moment. "I like Ortan. It was the name of a dead city we visited."

"Ortan it is then! Would you like to have tea with me, Ortan?"

"I'll have to decline, but I'm grateful for the offer, my lady." He bowed. "If you need anything, come find me. I'll be around."

With that, he vanished. I plucked a book off the nearby shelf and began reading. It was a tome on spirits of all things. It could help me figure out a way to deal with Regret, so I decided to make that my evening reading. I thought it was evening anyways. Looking around, I realized there were no windows. We must've been underground. I shrugged and continued to read until my eyelids grew heavy. I changed and crawled into bed.

In the Fade, I followed the Architect's instructions to find the Black City for as long as I could until I woke again. This became my routine for a number of days. I lost count as the days turned to weeks. During the day, our research progressed bit by bit. Each night, I made a bit more headway towards the Black City. It was only a matter of time before I reached it.