The Iron Dragon

Chapter 40. Gotcha!

It wasn't long before we heard something happening in the garden of the property and I leaned slightly over the balcony to have a look into the garden. I watched as the water from the pond slowly began to deform and I reckoned that we had caught the attention of something bigger that was now preparing to confront us. Out of the corner of my eye I could see Varric moving away from us and turning towards a larger door that I had not paid attention to before. It seemed to have been closed and this must have caught his attention. He was just a typical rogue for whom closed doors were something like an invitation to open them. Closed doors did not count in the world of a rogue. I could see Varric disappearing into the now accessible room and coming back a little later with a note. I went to him and skimmed the note, which described that the Lord of the manor had probably enlisted the help of the Order of the Templars to provide him with a magician who could help his daughter, but it didn't seem to go well.

"He had a magician come for his daughter but he seemed to have left after a thorough examination of the child. Apparently, he considered the child too dangerous to be trained. He apparently saw how far her power went and what really lived in her and left shortly after. Before that he told the father that his daughter's power could break out uncontrolled at any time and that she was too dangerous. And this magician seemed to be very powerful himself. The Lord himself writes that he felt his power clearly the first time he met him. If even this magician could not help the child, her situation must have been quite terrible and the child's power must have been truly incredible. However, shortly afterwards there must have been more problems, because in the eyes of the Lord the mage now knew about the existence and the power of his daughter and that's why he paid some Templars to get rid of him, but these Templars probably asked for more and more gold to keep the circumstances of his daughter from becoming known. So they blackmailed him. As if this man didn't have enough problems already". I looked at the last lines and just shook my head.

"To the very end, he seemed to refuse to see what his daughter was. He was convinced that her power couldn't break out because she hadn't even received any kind of training. He wanted to protect her and hide her, and I think that made things much worse. He didn't want anyone to know about her. He practically kept her imprisoned in her own house, but what choice did he have". I sighed and put the letter aside. What a hopeless situation. I stretched myself a little tired and then went back to the others.

"Then let's get this whole thing over with." The others nodded and drew their weapons again while I slowly walked to the end of the balcony. The fact that it went down a few meters there before we reached the yard again didn't bother me much and so I took the next step right after I reached the edge. My body, of course, immediately went down towards the depth, but I didn't mind and watched the ground quickly come much closer to me. I could hear Freya clearly drawing in the air and following me to the edge but by the time she did so I was already light as a feather on both my legs and smiling up at the others. I saw Freya's worried look which calmed down when she saw that I had arrived downstairs safely.

"Dragon, remember? ". She shook her head, smiling, and then answered me.

"It will take me a while to get used to the fact that I don't have to worry if you suddenly jump into the deep. Give me some time and I will get a better grip on myself". I had to smile at her words and nodded understandingly.

"You'd better do that as soon as possible, because I have a tendency to jump into the depths often without looking how deep it is". To be honest, I had only realized below that the others could not follow me in this way and that they now had to take the stairs with difficulty while I waited for them here.

"Then I hope that I will get used to it before my heart stops through these daring actions". I heard them murmuring the last part and now it was my turn to shake my head. I liked this woman.