Freely We Serve (a Dragon Age fanfiction)

Power

There wasn't time for leisurely healing. With the aid of spells and poultices, they patched up everyone's wounds as best they could before moving through the rest of the building. Most of the rooms had only one or two men in them, easily dealt with.

Finally they came to a long hallway that sloped downward, with a single door at the end. Several soldiers were watching the door, and Judith and Morrigan alternated fireballs and cold spells until they'd finished them all off, saving everyone else's energy. Judith uncorked a lyrium potion, feeling the warmth of it spreading through her. She closed her eyes, glad to have the power available should she need it, while Kylon watched her worriedly. He was comfortable fighting under her leadership, but something about that look on her face after she'd taken a lyrium potion disturbed him. He thought less of himself for his discomfort, but couldn't stop it.

Judith took the lead again, skirting dead soldiers on her way to the door at the end of the hallway. She kicked it in, sure that this was the final room, and here they would find the people responsible for the slavery and the unrest in the Alienage.

Soldiers lined the walls of the room, most of them with crossbows. In the center stood a tall, balding mage in Tevinter robes. He smiled as Judith came through the shattered door. "So at last, here is the Grey Warden I have heard so much about," he said pleasantly, his voice melodious. "Poor Loghain speaks of little else these days. 'Warden' has even triumphed over 'gold' in his vocabulary." He shook his head at Judith, his eyes crinkling with mirth. "Such a lovely girl to cause so much dismay in Ferelden's regent."

Judith met his eyes, unmoved by his smooth voice and friendly manner. "I've come to tell you that your operations in Ferelden are finished. You would do well to turn around, get on your ship, and go back where you came from."

"I believe I will take that advice," he said. "I am no fool. However ... perhaps we could make a bit of an exchange before I depart?"

"You can't be thinking of making any kind of deal with this slaver," Kylon protested. Judith cleared her throat warningly.

"Dissension in the ranks?" mocked the Tevinter mage. "Maybe you're not such a formidable opponent after all, if you can't keep your own people in line."

"You wanted to talk. Do so, or go." Judith's eyes were steely, and she crossed her arms over her chest, waiting.

The mage held up a piece of vellum. "I have here," he said, "a little letter authorizing the sale of elves from Denerim's Alienage for cold, hard gold from Tevinter. It bears not only the signature of Loghain Mac Tir, but also the seal of Gwaren. I don't suppose it would be of interest to you?"

"You know it would. What do you want?"

He tapped the paper against his lip, making a show of deliberating. "I think ... 100 sovereigns might do it. Then I give you this lovely piece of paper, which you need to depose our dour friend, and I take my slaves and I go."

"An interesting starting offer," Morrigan said.

Zev, his eyes snapping in rarely displayed anger, said, "Look these elves in the eyes first, before you have them hauled off. This is not a deal that will leave your hands clean."

Judith paid them little attention. She needed the letter. Could she get it without payment, without losing the elves? Or would the mage simply destroy it? She turned her head, looking speculatively at her team. Meeting Zev's eyes, she raised her eyebrows, her eyes shifting in the mage's direction and back. The narrowing of his brown eyes was enough. She turned back to the Tevinter mage. "You can't have heard much about me if you think that's a deal I'll agree to. I don't pay slavers, and I won't be party to it, either."