Asunder

by David Gaider

  "How many people lived here, anyhow?"

  "Several hundred, as I recall," Wynne answered.

  "But there's room for a thousand."

  "As I said, this was once home to the Grey Wardens. At the height of the Second Blight they very likely had more than a thousand men . . . and griffons."

  That perked Evangeline's interest. "Griffons?"

  "Of course. The old weyrs opened onto the chasm. They’re sealed up now, but I understand they're still down there. Either way, this place has stood mostly empty for centuries."

  "But if there were hundreds of people here . . ."

  The thought was left unanswered. There had been, at best, two dozen bodies in the courtyard. That left a lot of people unaccounted for. All the blood left little to the imagination as to what had become of them, but how had they died? And where were their bodies?

  They proceeded through several more rooms, once used for storage. The crates looked as if they'd been torn apart by animals, leaving a mix of grain and foodstuffs strewn about. It was everywhere, some of it mixed with blood, much of it rotting. Flies filled the room like a cloud.

  And there was noise coming from the room beyond. It was pitch black there, only the threshold lit by Wynne's staff . . . but they could see the hint of movement. He heard a low droning, and the sound of many things shifting about. Hundreds of things.

  Evangeline tensed, staring into the darkness. "Arm yourselves," she whispered.

  Rhys hoped it wasn't as bad as it sounded, but that seemed unlikely. He willed his staff to come to life, slowly channeling magic until it crackled with white energy. Adrian did the same. He saw the sweat pouring down her brow.

  Wynne quietly cast a spell, moving her hands in arcane patterns until gossamer streams of energy appeared and settled onto each of them. His skin tingled, and he could feel the protection her magic was offering. "Shale." She motioned to the golem. "You go first. Ser Evangeline will be right behind you."

  "Flesh creatures are so easily pulverized," it agreed. Clenching its huge stone fists, Shale charged into the room. The others followed right on its heels, Wynne causing her staff to flare so brightly that Rhys at first recoiled. He covered his eyes, and had to blink to get his vision back.

  As soon as he did, he wished it would go away again.

  The room might once have been a barracks of some kind, but now it had been turned into a gruesome lair. In the glaring light, he could see a huge crowd of people . . . or what had once been people. Now they were twisted creatures, hunched down and feasting on human remains. They crawled over piles of bones and even each other like primitive beasts, fighting over scraps. Wallowing in the gore. Their skin was covered in blood and filth, little more than rags remaining of what ever clothes they'd once worn.

  And their eyes. As they spun around to stare at the intruders, their eyes shone like malevolent beacons. It was as if some dark force spilled out from inside them. As they bared sharp and bloody teeth in angry hisses, they took on a decidedly demonic appearance.

  Rhys had never been so terrified in his life.

  "Beware!" Evangeline cried. She raced forward as the nearest creatures rushed at her. The first she cleaved nearly in half with her sword, but the others leapt on her and almost bore her down. She threw them off with a great heave. One immediately sprang back up, hissing loudly, and she took off his head.

  Shale was already ahead of her. The golem charged forward, each step making an earth- shattering boom. It scooped up several of the possessed men and women in its arms and threw them across the room. They screeched as they sailed through the air, plowing into others and knocking them all down.

  Already others were climbing over Shale. As it tore each one off, another replaced it. Shale resorted to ignoring them, swinging about with its fists as the creatures tried to get to the mages. Each one it struck was sent flying from the impact.

  But more were coming. A surge of them rushed into the room, howling and screaming in bloodlust. Wynne gave Rhys and Adrian a dire look. "Are you ready?"

  They both nodded.

  Rhys was first. He fought down his fear and concentrated, focusing instead on the power welling up inside. It grew stronger and stronger until he shook, until he felt ready to explode. Then he extended a hand, directing the energy outward.

  The thrill as magic coursed through his body was unbelievable. A ball of black energy burst from his fingertips and hurtled across the room. It flew past Shale and Evangeline, and when it struck the far wall it expanded. It became a sucking void, drawing the nearest creatures into it. They disappeared into its depths, screaming. And then it grew, its power becoming more immense. A corona of blue energy surrounded it, sucking air and debris and everything else into its core. Creatures not close enough to be drawn inside were slowed. As if fighting against a powerful wind, they bent down and struggled to take even the slightest step.

  Adrian was next. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, and Rhys felt the heat radiating from her. When she opened her eyes they glowed red with flame. She held up a palm and a swirling ball of fire coalesced over it. Then she threw it, and as it flew it grew larger and hotter. It struck a group of creatures and exploded into an inferno. They emitted ear-splitting screeches as the flames engulfed them.

  Wynne fired lightning from the tip of her staff . As each bolt struck a creature, killing it instantly, the energy arced to another nearby. Still more of the creatures managed to get by Evangeline and Shale, and as they rushed at Wynne she unleashed a wave of cold. The entire group froze solid where they stood.

  Still others ran around their frozen comrades, ignoring them completely. Wynne blasted several, but one leapt high up into the air. It descended with fangs bared, knocking her to the ground.

  "Wynne!" Rhys cried.

  Panic gripped him. He launched a magical bolt from his staff , hitting the creature just as it was about to sink its fangs into her neck. It was blown off, and as it scrambled back to its feet Wynne blasted it with an ice spell. The creature froze, and then shattered into a thousand icy shards.

  Wynne gave Rhys a grateful look, but just then something slammed into him from the side. He fell hard, and twisted around to see the creature's face inches from his own. It was a woman— her skin mottled and diseased, blond hair hanging in stringy clumps from her scalp. She hissed, baring fangs coated with black saliva and blood.

  He desperately tried to push her off, but she was stronger than he ever would have believed. Just as she was about to overpower him, something struck her on the side of the head. A staff . Adrian loomed over them, face twisted by terror, and hit the creature again. It leapt off of him, and spun about to hiss at Adrian, and she fired a jet of flame at the creature. It was hurtled back into the shadows, screaming.

  “There's too many!" Adrian shouted, although he could barely hear. Each lightning bolt Wynne fired filled the chamber with thunder. That, combined with the screaming of the creatures as they swarmed Evangeline and the golem, made it deafening.

  "I know!"

  Adrian looked out at the mass of creatures. Rhys did the same. Already, more pushed past Shale, who all but crawled with them. Even though the golem was made of stone, they were still strong enough to slowly tear it to pieces. Evangeline was wounded as well, blood coursing from a gash on her forehead down her face and over her armor. Wynne was hard pressed— they were all sweating, and wouldn't be able to keep this up for long.

  "I'm going to summon the storm!" Adrian concentrated, pressing her palms together and forming a kernel of red flame, which slowly began to grow in intensity.

  "No! You'll kill Evangeline!"

  "It's either that or we're all dead!"

  He leapt up, throwing caution to the wind. Several creatures charged at him. He summoned what power he could and unleashed it as a wave of pure force, and they were sent flying. He raced toward Evangeline, who swung her sword in wild arcs. The creatures had her surrounded, and her grim expression told Rhys she knew she was about to fall.<
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  "Evangeline!" he called, as loudly as he could. She didn't hear him. He rushed toward her, blasting several of the nearest creatures. She spun as he drew close, only prevented from chopping him in half at the last second, as she realized who he was.

  She stared at him in shock, her face covered in blood. "What are you doing?!"

  "Down!" Rhys tackled her, bearing both of them to the ground. She struggled, as much in anger as in fear of the creatures now racing toward them.

  And then the firestorm began.

  The flames swept across the ceiling, dancing like eddies of a hurricane wind. Gouts of fire swooped down with a great roar, rushing across groups of the creatures and turning them almost instantly into cinders. Rhys could see Adrian, her hands outstretched and surrounded by a corona of fire even though she remained unharmed. She floated off the ground, red curls flying, a terrible and vengeful goddess.

  Rhys buried his face against Evangeline, and she covered her head. The heat was blistering. The roar reached a force that was almost physical. It pounded at Rhys and pressed him down, threatening to tear him apart. He tried to scream, but nothing came out. He could barely breathe.

  And then, almost as soon as it began, it was over. The firestorm vanished, followed by an eerie silence. No screeching, no thunder or roar of flames, just a faint sizzling sound accompanied by the smell of charcoal and burnt flesh.

  He lifted his head. Evangeline did the same, and stared at him with a stunned expression. There were no words to speak— he felt dizzy, strangely empty. Rhys willed power into his staff , and as the blue glow expanded, he saw the battle was over. Charred corpses lined the room from one end to the other, black smoke still rising from their bodies. Shale stood not far away, irritably brushing hot ash off its stony skin.

  "Mages are occasionally useful," it grudgingly admitted.

  Both Wynne and Adrian lay on the floor not far away. Neither moved. Quickly Rhys jumped up and ran over, coughing at both the stench and the smoke. Wynne looked singed and disheveled, but otherwise unhurt, and waved him away with a scowl. Adrian was deathly pale, barely breathing.

  He touched her cheeks: cold. "Adri?" he whispered, fear gripping him.

  Slowly she opened her eyes, just a little. "Am I dead?" she moaned.

  He laughed in exhausted relief. "Not yet, no."

  "That's a shame . . ."

  Evangeline walked over, sheathing her sword. Coated in blood and soot, she looked every inch the battle- hardened warrior. "There doesn't seem to be any more. We're safe, at least for the moment."

  Wynne lit up her staff again, nodding with approval when she saw Shale was unharmed, and looked about. "The passage on the far side leads into Pharamond's laboratory. He is inside."

  Evangeline looked incredulous. "You can't think he's still alive!"

  Wynne gave her a serious look. "I do."

  It felt strange to consider simply proceeding with their mission, as if the battle had been nothing more than an obstacle. These creatures had been innocents, possessed by demons; if Pharamond's experiments had caused this, Rhys questioned if they should be trying to save him at all. But he remained quiet. What else could they do but move on? And Wynne was correct. Now that the fight was over, he could feel that dark presence again. What ever had happened here, the heart of it was in the next room.

  He didn't feel particularly eager to discover what it was.

  The first thing that struck Rhys as they entered was the laboratory's size. It had multiple levels, and seemed to be something between a library and a workshop— and that was only the parts of it he could see by the light of Wynne's staff . Most of it was shrouded in darkness. More strangely, it was utterly untouched by the chaos present everywhere else in the keep. The books remained on their shelves, the workshop tables were cluttered with papers and strange instruments. It looked not dissimilar to the workshops one might find in the White Spire.

  The exception was the elven man sitting in a luxurious chair in the middle of the room.

  Or what had once been a man. Now he looked misshapen, his flesh hideously twisted across his frame. His arms were too long and thin, his fingers ending in talons, his lips pulled back from his teeth in a disturbing grimace. The only reason Rhys could tell he was even an elf was his pointed ears, although now they resembled horns. His eyes, however, appeared completely clear . . . and he watched them from his chair with an air of calm fascination without rising.

  The presence Rhys sensed was inside of him. A demon burned in every fiber of his being, pulsating with a malevolence that infected the room.

  Wynne stood not far from the man, Shale beside her. At first he wondered why she wasn't doing anything, but as they entered she held up a hand in warning and then gestured to the floor. That's when Rhys saw them: runes, inscribed in a circle around the chair. There was powerful magic in them; the familiar tingle of it on his skin told him that much.

  "Greetings to you all." The demon leaned back redolently in its chair, tapping its talons on the arm. Rhys found its voice was oddly cultured, though the unearthly timbre of it made him shiver. "I have waited so long for guests. You will have to excuse my lesser brethren. They become so . . . excitable . . . after passing through the Veil."

  "Are you Pharamond?" Wynne asked carefully.

  "Can you not tell?"

  "I believe you were once Pharamond. Now you are something else."

  "Poor Wynne." Its lips pulled even farther back from its teeth, in the semblance of a smile. "You have lived through events that would make a lesser human beg for mercy . . . and what have you to show for your efforts? It must be distressing for one so favored by fate to discover it has nothing more to offer her."

  She scowled but did not respond. Evangeline stepped forward, keeping a wary eye on the demon and her sword at the ready. "I don't understand," she whispered to Wynne. "How does it know your name? Why is it just sitting there?"

  "Those runes form a circle of binding. The demon cannot cross them, and I suggest we stay on this side. As for how it knows my name, it's reading my thoughts . . . or using Pharamond's memories."

  The demon's grin grew wider. "Clever mage."

  Evangeline knelt down, studying the runes more closely. "These are enchanting runes. The sort the Tranquil use."

  Wynne nodded, but now Rhys spoke up. "So Pharamond created the binding circle? That means he . . ."

  "He did this on purpose." Evangeline completed his thought. "Created the binding circle and placed himself within it. This demon is no accident."

  The idea took a moment to sink in. Everything they had seen in the keep was the doing of demons, dark spirits that had bled into this world from the Fade . . . and here was evidence that Pharamond had brought them here. Perhaps it hadn't been his intention, but he'd known enough of the risk to create the binding circle. It might even have been him that sealed the keep's doors. If they were precautions, they clearly hadn't been enough.

  The only questions that remained were how . . . and why?

  Evangeline stood back up and faced Wynne. "I trust you've seen enough. What ever your friend was researching, he did so through the use of demons. No good can come of this."

  "I haven't determined that, yet."

  "What is there left to determine? This is folly!"

  Wynne set her jaw stubbornly. "I came here to save Pharamond, a goal which has the full support of the Chantry."

  "The Chantry would change its mind if it knew what he was doing."

  "And it will." Wynne glared at Evangeline. "We do not have all the answers yet, and I will not jump to conclusions. You are free to help me or not, as you choose."

  The demon chuckled with amusement, drawing their attention. It slowly rose from the chair, its skin stretching with a leathery creaking sound. Shale took an aggressive step toward the circle, only to be stopped by Wynne. The demon smiled again, holding its arms wide. "By all means, creature. Come into the circle and destroy me, if you dare."

  "Let me squish it," Shale
grunted.

  Wynne shook her head. "No. That's not why we're here."

  "I know why you are here, Wynne." The demon extended a long arm toward Evangeline, who raised her eyebrows but did not move. "But do you know why the templar is here? Why she urges you to desist your efforts?"

  "What do you mean?"

  "Ah! Then Rhys did not tell you?"

  Wynne glanced back at Rhys, and he felt guilty. He'd told Wynne and Adrian about Cole, yes, but not what he'd learned about Evangeline's true purpose. Now he wished he had. "She is here to find out what Pharamond was researching," he said hesitantly. "And whether that knowledge would damage the Chantry."

  Adrian pushed away from Rhys. She wavered from weakness, but still had enough presence of mind to stare at him suspiciously. "What does that mean?" she demanded. "What if she doesn't like what we find?"

  "Then it remains here," Evangeline said grimly. "No matter what."

  "Meaning you'll kill us." Adrian's eyes went wide in realization. "That's why the other templars are here, isn't it? Admit it."

  Wynne backed away from Evangeline, her eyes glaring dangerously. "Is this true?" Shale took half a step in front of her, looming protectively as if the templar were about to attack.

  Evangeline remained still, one hand on the hilt of her sword, but she made no move. She looked guardedly at the others, and then nodded. "I did not ask them to come. But yes, that is why they are here."

  "I knew it!" Adrian spat. "For all your talk of protecting us, you're doing what the templars always do— protecting yourselves!"

  "It was feared the Divine might not have been fully aware of the implications of your mission," Evangeline said firmly, "and I see that was correct. I am here to watch, and decide. I take no plea sure in this, but I will do my duty."

  "And what about your duty to do as the Divine asks?" Wynne asked.

  "I am operating on the orders of the Lord Seeker, he who is the hand of the Divine. It is not my place to question his judgment."

  "So you're just following orders?" Adrian hissed. She held out her hands and a wreath of flame began to form, curling around them. Rhys tried to restrain her, concerned she was overtaxing herself, but she jumped away. "And you! You kept this to yourself! Why would you do that, Rhys?"