DA FF: Blades (5d: Leader)

“Send for them,” I say, uneasy about going after Jeremiah without the added support of the Silent Blades. “Who knows if he managed to get his hands on the relic or not.”

“He doesn’t have the dreamer,” Caleb says, frowning at me.

“It doesn’t matter,” Sylas insists, backing me up. “We shouldn’t risk it.”

Time seems to crawl by as we wait for the Blades to arrive, and all I have to fill the hours is strategizing. Based on the letters we found at Karinn’s we’re able to pinpoint Jeremiah’s hideout.

The contact sends scouts to keep an eye on the place, and it’s unsettlingly quiet.

It only takes a few short days for the Blades to reach us, but it feels like forever. I’m more than ready now.

I sneak into Jeremiah’s hideout with Sylas and Caleb, while a group of Silent Blades enters from the opposite direction. Creeping down a narrow hallway, I start to hear voices, muttering some kind of chant.

Peeking around a doorway, I see a group of Jeremiah’s men standing along the walls of a large room, with Jeremiah in the middle. A black portal has opened at his feet, and he’s summoning a demon. It claws its way through, with twisted, long-fingered hands and skeletal arms. I can hear it hissing words to Jeremiah, but I can’t make them out.

“What is that?” Sylas whispers beside me, and I follow his gaze to a dagger Jeremiah is gripping. The blade is made out of some sort of red crystal. It gives me chills just looking at it.

“The relic?” Caleb wonders out loud.

“We have to make sure he can’t use it,” I say, determined.

“If he hasn’t already,” Caleb mutters.

Seeing the leader of the other group waiting in the shadow of a doorway across the room, I give him the signal. The Blades flood into the room, distracting Jeremiah’s men while I go straight for Jeremiah and the demon.

Jeremiah spins to face me, sheathing the dagger and waving his staff to hurl deadly shards of ice my way. I manage to deflect some, and dodge a few others, but several cut into my limbs and my side. Caleb’s arrows whiz by me as my blades clash with Jeremiah’s staff, knocking the demon back several steps when it would have rounded on me too. Then Sylas is there, rushing it as I battle Jeremiah.

I shift my focus, knowing they can handle the demon without me. Jeremiah shoves me away, and I leap back into a defensive stance.

“Ilara…” he says, eyeing me warily. “Think about this. Think about the power we could have.”

“‘We?’” I raise an eyebrow at him. “I believe you tried to get me killed. A couple times. There is no ‘we.’”

“The relic-”

“Should never be in your possession,” I interrupt coldly, lashing out at him with my blades again.

He manages to deflect one, but doesn’t see the second one coming. I bury it in his chest, and his staff clatters to the floor. He looks at me with shock, and then he crumples to the ground.

I carefully bend to retrieve the dagger, and a nearly overwhelming urge to take it for my own shocks me. Just holding it in its sheath, I feel power coursing through me.

I swear I can hear my heartbeat in my ears as I gaze at the relic’s beauty. Energy courses through me like fire, even though I’m not a mage, and I know…

“-lar-…”

I know I can have anything I want… All I have to do is just take it…

“-ara…”

Then I hear something. Like a whisper in my ear.

“Ilara!”

Startled, I gasp, and drop the cursed thing. Sylas and Caleb are looking at me with concern, and the Blades are standing around, having defeated Jeremiah’s men.

“You alright?” Sylas asks, glancing at the relic.

“Destroy that thing,” I say, taking a step back from it. The hand that held the relic still tingles, and I tighten it into a fist. “Crush it into a million pieces, right this instant.”

 

Neutral Ending 2

It takes a few weeks to get everything settled with the Silent Blades. I’ve been chosen to lead them now, with Sylas and Caleb always by my side.

It’s a slow process, but the Blades are returning to what they once were. Better, even. Everyone has renewed their vows to the organization, and have sworn to uphold our rules. Anyone who wanted to follow Jeremiah’s lead and become mercenaries has already left.

Briall has become an important ally in Minrathous. He still mourns the loss of Vaellen, but he understands there was no other way. Vaellen had been in Karinn’s clutches far too long.

After going through Karinn’s estate, our Minrathous contact had found further evidence of blood magic, but it isn’t clear what she had wanted to accomplish with Vaellen. With both Jeremiah and her gone, and the relic destroyed, scattered, and buried, no one would be able to follow the cryptic research notes she left behind.

Maybe it’s paranoid of me to have gone to such lengths over the relic, but I want to make sure I never set eyes on that thing again. It had crept into my mind so easily, like a poison, and I never want to feel so out of control again.

Now I have to turn my attention to a new issue. The Breach.

A new power, the Inquisition, has risen to close it, and the smaller rifts. I’m not sure what to make of them yet, but I think they could make good allies.

 

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For easy navigation, and do-overs. ~ DA FF: Blades (Chapter Master Post)

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Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, lore, etc. are the property of BioWare, and their respective writers. The only things that are mine are the original characters and plot of this story – DA FF: Blades. I am in no way associated with BioWare. No copyright infringement is intended. This is for entertainment purposes only.

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