CHAPTER 10

"So... are you sure of that?"

The little elven girl nodded her head shyly, Abraham couldn't help but be shocked over what he just heard.

After the commotion had died down he asked if he could talk with the girl, thinking that perhaps he could make her his apprentice, but the more he talked with her the more shocked he became.

"I... Heavens..." Abraham sighed, as he leaned his back on the chair and drank a mouthful of water, no he wasn't just shocked, he was utterly lost! How could someone have awakened his or her magic power just after being born!? Let us not talk about talent for a moment, this girl has lived in the circle for as far as she could remember, and had been trained ever since she managed to do her first steps!

This kind of advantage is something that not even talent can catch up with! This girl would always be stronger than those of her age due to this seemingly unpredictable advantage! Looking at her, Abraham frowned slightly, should he be ashamed or even guilty for what he is about to do?

Surely anyone would think of doing this, right? After all, such a talented individual could become a powerful ally in the future! There is nothing wrong with influencing her to become his apprentice.

"Avexis, say, how old are you again?"

"I'm 6 years old, sir..." Every time she spoke, she would lower her head and avoid eye contact and focus part of her attention on the red lion beside her, which she kept petting from time to time.

Looking closely he couldn't help but think that there was something different about this girl when compared to other elves, her blonde hair for example was extremely beautiful in an unnatural way, almost like she has access to shampoo and other similar products, her blue eyes seemed to shine and her ears although similar to the elves he knew, they were somewhat longer and thinner, she would definitely be extremely beautiful in the future but what truly interested him were how her features although similar were still different from all the elves he knew.

At that moment Abraham let scape a small laugh due to an impossible thought that crossed his mind, for a moment he thought that she might the reincarnation of an elven god, but that is impossible, as far as the elven are concerned every single one of their gods is still alive, just not here in the mortal world.

"Say, you seem to be quite fond of this lion, when did you two become friends?"

Avexis thought for a moment then she shook her head. "I don't know, the funny man with grey hair said that when I was found it was already protecting me in the arbor wilds. So... Leon isn't a friend, Leon is family." She stroked the lion under the chin making it purr in satisfaction.

"The arbor wilds?" Abraham thought for a moment and took his journal from his Handbag which had only one shoulder strap. He looked for a moment and soon found some information he had copied from an old book, it spoke of an old ruin found deep in the Arbor Wilds, one whose architecture reminded the writer of Arlathan, the ancient city of the immortal Elvhenan from the past, the ancestors of the elves.

Could she be somehow connected to that place? Why would someone abandon an elven child in the wilds? Sighing due to the lack of information he looked at the girl again and gasped, where was she? Standing up he looked around he discovered that everyone had disappeared.

"Hello!? Is someone there?" He shouted, but to no avail as the only answer he received was the echoes of his own voice.

Fear penetrated his heart when a sudden and unfamiliar feeling seeped into his body, he fell on the ground and started panting, his ears perked up as the sound of a song reached his ears from afar, it was a song he had never heard in his life, it felt like it was trying to convey a message through the sound but no matter how much he listened to it, he couldn't understand.

As if that wasn't enough, blue shining veins of raw lyrium broke through the ground and started warping around Abraham, he could only watch helplessly as they slowly covered his body, the ground started shaking and debris fell from the ceiling, he barely had time to see a giant hand destroying the roof of the stronghold when a rift opened underneath him and he started falling.

"Aaaaagh!" He cried, his heart beating like never before, it was the end, he thought. He would die and wouldn't even know why.

The rift got bigger and bigger, at some point, it probably grew to the point of being a thousand meters wide, he wasn't certain about that though, it was just speculation.

As he fell instead of getting hotter as common sense would demand, the air around him got colder, soon he opened his eyes wide and watched in amazement when he arrived at what seemed to be an inverse version of the world he knew.

The ground where one step on, where one builds his house was above, it was the sky! The clouds which one had to look upwards to find was now beneath, where the ground should have been.

As far as his eyes could see in this bright world, there were countless mountains, and all of them were as tall as the tallest mountain in Thedas. However, when he turned to look back he saw something he couldn't explain, it was like a dark fog, something which appeared to be distorting the space around it, all of the veins of lyrium around it were red, and a weird sound seemed to come out of it, one that spoke directly to the heart and tried as much as possible to tempt him, to make him pursue the darkest and most impure of his desires, and there, from within the fog, in a spiral of chaos where red bolts of lightning ran amock...

Eyes, he didn't know how but it was there, it looked at him, it wanted him, it wanted to consume, destroy, it was chaotic, intelligent and powerful, but there was something preventing it from acting, it offered power, it wanted to make a deal.

But Abraham didn't respond, he kept falling, falling until he disappeared beneath the clouds...

"... Sir, sir!" Avexis shook Abraham using all her strength.

"Huh... what?" Abraham opened his eyes and looked at the girl, still a bit groggy.

"Sir, are you okay? Do you need me to call someone?" She asked, worried with him.

"What? Why would you need to call someone? What happened?" It was only them that Abraham remembered what he saw, what he felt, and what he heard. Shivers went down his spine and he breathed a mouthful of air, just how? What did just happened?

"Sir, I think you passed out for a moment, it has been five minutes already..."

Seeing how worried she was, Abraham calmed down for a moment and stroked her hair. "Don't worry, I was just a little bit tired..."

The shy girl nodded and went back to her chair.

"Say Avexis, would you like to become my apprentice? I can teach you not only magic from the circle but even magic from your people, most of my studies is about the ancient elves, here take a look at my journal."

Avexis nodded and took the journal, she went through each page with interest, sometimes her eyes would shine and she would smile, looking at the page he noticed that she was reading the part about some of the ancient heroes from her race.

After some time, she gave the journal back to him and hesitated for a moment. "Sir... I don't know if I should learn magic... the funny old man said that my gift is dangerous, that many demons will want to control me, I don't like demons..." Despite how worried she was about demons, Abraham couldn't help but mutter 'cute' under his breath.

"Avexis, demons aren't that powerful, if you learn well, no demon will ever be able to harm you, I assure you that it isn't that difficult to deal with them."

Avexis lowered her head and looked at the red lion. "Can I keep Leon if I become your apprentice?"

"Of course, if anyone ever tries to hurt him or throw him out, that person will have to deal with me, so, will you be my apprentice?" Abraham smiled as he spoke.

"Alright, I'll be your apprentice, sir."

"Haha, there is no need to call me like that, my name is Abraham, just call me like that, okay?"

"Mm." She nodded and focused her attention once again on her lion.

Abraham despite smiling, was still shaken by his early experience, he knew what he saw, and what he felt was too real to be just a dream.

The deep roads were always something he wanted to visit but not like this, and that place he last saw, it reminded him of the Well Spring, a Thaig in the deep roads literally inside the body of a dead Titan, but there was something more there, it was different, much bigger in size, and he was sure that wherever existed beneath the clouds wasn't ground, it was a void of sorts, he felt it for a moment, and he knew that if he kept falling, he would forever be incapable of going back...

This feeling lingered within him, reminding him constantly of that hopelessness he felt, what could have led to this? Was it a message from some powerful and mighty being, or was that just a vision?

Besides, why now? What triggered this? Sighing he stood up and after bidding his farewell, he went back to his room and after changing into more comfortable clothes he lay down on the bed and closed his eyes, he felt so tired because of that vision that he literally fell asleep almost instantly.

...

"What did you just said?"

Knight-Commander Eron sighed and repeated his words. "I said that there is something wrong happening, we lost an entire squadron near one of the forbidden sections of the stronghold, we suspect that this wasn't the work of a demon nor a creature, it might have been blood magic."

"Are you sure about that? Why would blood mages risk their necks to invade literally the headquarters of the templar order? Don't you think that maybe this doesn't make any sense?" Edmonde replied... he had a tired look on his face.

"The evidence still points out the use of powerful magic, so there is either someone trying to scape or someone trying to break-in, what makes me worried is that it has been a week already and we didn't found a trace of their bodies and equipment, it is like they vanished and left their blood behind to remind us of their existence."

"Sigh..." Edmonde looked at his table and nodded. "Fine, we will organize a raid into the forbidden sections of the stronghold, tell your templars to prepare, we will advance with 20 templars and 20 mages. I'll tell the requisition's office to prepare some lyrium potions for all of us, we will set out to investigate this matter in a week."

Eron nodded and left the First-Enchanter chambers, his shoulders heavy with the feeling of conspiracy looming over his head, he couldn't understand what exactly was going on, would someone be so stupid to try and escape or invade this place? Why don't they simply commit suicide if they want so much to die?

Shaking his head, he cleared his mind and made his way towards the Knight-Vigilant's chambers, he needed to know what's going on, it wouldn't be good if someone was preparing a big attack against the mages and templars of Orlais, as far as he was concerned this might be the beginning of either a rebellion or of war with a still unidentified enemy, perhaps Nevarra or even Tevinter.