Aedan Of Highever

by Milton Garby

  "How can they be anything else when Zathrian's curse prevents them from being more than what they are?" The spirit rebutted. "Should they be allowed to suffer for the crimes committed by others who have been dead for centuries?"

  The spirit had Aedan there. Lycanthropy is a disease and if not treated then that is all a person will ever be.

  "Please, mortal…you must go to him. Bring him here. If he sees these creature, hears their plight…surely he'll be willing to end curse." The Lady begged.

  "Doubtful." Aedan said flatly. "Zathrian didn't even care about one of his own people when the curse turned her. To him if you're a werebeast, you're automatically his enemy. If he's not willing to listen to the words of those who were once his clan, why in the hell would he listen to me?"

  "Will he truly let his rage blind him to the suffering of his clan?" The spirit asked. "Tell Zathrian that if he comes, I will summon Witherfang, and if he does not then he shall never find Witherfang and the curse will take hold of his people."

  Aedan couldn't risk the clan joining Zathrian's hateful curse. These creatures didn't deserve his rage, but moreover he needed the Dalish clan's warriors to help him against the Blight. "I will find Zathrian and bring him here kicking and screaming if I must." He promised.

  "We are grateful, mortal." The Lady thanked.

  "This passage will take you to the entrance of these ruins. Please return with Zathrian as soon as you can." The spirit pointed towards a door and Aedan felt like an utter moron finding out that there was a shortcut passed all the bullshit that they had to go through to get down here.

  They made their way up through the passage way and Aedan began to wonder how he was going to bring Zathrian down here without risking the wrath of his clan, the last thing he needed to do was kill the very people whose help he needed. When the came out of the secret passage way, fate it seemed was finally on Aedan's side, for who could be there as if waiting for them but Zathrian himself?

  "Ah, and here you are already." The Keeper said as if nothing was wrong.

  "Somehow, I had a feeling you were waiting here for us." Aedan seethed.

  "Oh, really? Aren't you the intuitive one?" Zathrian responded gravely.

  "What can I say? My mother didn't raise me to be a fool."

  And then Morrigan started chuckling as if someone had just told a joke. "He wishes to see if we have done his work for him. Is that not why you are here now, sorcerer?"

  "Do not call me that, witch." The keeper rejected deeply offended. "I am the Keeper of my clan, and I have done what I must. Tell me, do you have the heart?"

  "You and I, Zathrian. We need to have a little…heart to heart first." Aedan established authoritatively. "For starters, why didn't you tell me about these ruins before I entered the forest?"

  "There was no need, I knew you would find them eventually…" Zathraian said as if it was all okay. "But why are you leaving them without Witherfang's heart?"

  Aedan grinned sinisterly. "I think you know why."

  "I suspect that the spirit itself has already spoken to you and told you of our history, is that not correct?" Zathrian then walked towards the passage way. "You do realize that she is in fact Witherfang?"

  Aedan wasn't surprised and didn't try to look it. "Yes, I figured as much."

  "She is the powerful spirit of this very forest that I summoned long ago and bound to the body of a great wolf. Her nature is that of the forest itself. Beautiful and terrible, serene and savage, maiden and beast. She is the Lady and Witherfang both, two sides of a single being." The old elf explained. "The curse came first from her. Those she afflicted with it mirrored her own nature, becoming a savage beast as well as human."

  "The curse came first from you." Alistair pointed out.

  "Those beasts attacked my clan and they are they were the savages then as they have ever been. They deserve to be wiped out, not defended." The keeper didn't raise his voice or look it, but he was obviously angry. Aedan didn't give a shit. "Come. I will accompany you back to the ruin. Let us speak to the spirit and I will force her into Witherfang's form. He may then be slain and the heart taken."

  "Won't you consider talking to them?" Leliana requested.

  "Why? You claim that they have regained their minds, but they are still savage beasts. Their nature has not changed."

  "Their nature was forced upon them by you." Wynne scornned. "What you have done to these creatures was both unnatural and perverse, Keeper."

  "All they will want is revenge…or a release that I will not grant them." Zathrian declared. "No. Let us take the heart and end it."

  "Will killing Witherfang truly break the curse?" Leliana asked angrily.

  "No, it will simply end the curse, not change the humans back. The curse is far too powerful for that. Even if there was a way to change them back I will not grant it to them. They are no better than their anscestors, worse even. The deserve nothing but misery."

  Aedan was getting tired of hearing Zathrian self-righteous rants and decided to force the Keeper's hands as well as risk his own people's existence. "Zathrian, either you come with us to speak with the Lady of the Forest or my companions and I leave this accursed place, and you and your clan can suffer the curse by yourselves!"

  They gave the old man a moment to let that sink and then he sighed exhasperated. "I fail to see the purpose behind all of this…but very well. Let us see what the spirit has to say."

  They made their wasy back down the passage way and to say the werewolves looked pissed see the man who had cursed them would be an understatement. Finally after so many centuries the spirit and her creator were reunited.

  "So, here you are, spirit." Zathrian observed.

  "She is the Lady of the Forest!" Swiftrunner snarled as he ran up to the keeper threateningly. "And you will address her properly!"

  Zathrian was not intimidated. "So you have taken a name spirit? And you've give names to your pets? These…beasts that follow you?"

  "It was they who gave me a name, Zathrian. And the names they take are their own." The Lady explained. "They follow me because I help them find who they are."

  "Who they are does not change who their ancestors were. Wild savages! Worthless dogs! Their twisted shapes only mirror their monstrous hearts!" Zathrian lashed out furiously.

  "It was the Clayne, wasn't it, Zathrian?" Aedan interjected. Zathrian's angry scowl at the mere mention of that name was his answer. "You're older than the foundation of this kingdom. The Clayne inhabited this region before they were absorbed into Ferelden. But before that you cursed them and wiped out what few of them remained."

  "Yes." Zathrian seethed. "After what they did to my family I swore to avenge them. My pain is eternal, human. As is my vengeance. This is justice!" the elven mage declared.

  "There is no justice in this, old man!" Aedan yelled. "You had your vengeance. The men who wronged you are dead! How can you let this continue?"

  Zathrian glared at the human warrior angrily. "You are not Dalish! You could not possibly know what it's like to struggle to survive the way we do!"

  "And you think your actions honor your people? Your family?" Aedan argued.

  Zathrian's face twisted with anger and his eyes were filled with pain at the mention of his family. "Tell me, if you held your daughter's lifeless body in your arms, if your family had been slaughtered the way mine was, would you not wish an eternity of pain on those who did it?!"

  Aedan's mind instantly went back to that moment when he found little Oren's corpse, his life ended before it even began and how Aedan still had yet to avenge his little nephew and his mother. Aedan wanted revenge more than anything. "Vengeance is my sole purpose for existing, mage." Aedan answered with hatred lacing his words. "It's the only thing that makes me wake up every morning. But you've had your vengeance! The ones who killed your family are dead! You have no right to inflict your revenge on others!"

  "My pain is eternal! If I must suffer, then so must they!" The old keeper swore.

  "
Are you sure your pain is the only reason you will not end the curse?" The Lady asked ominously. "Have you told the mortal how you started the curse?"

  "He said he bound you to the body of a great wolf." Aedan answered.

  "Indeed he did." The spirit acknowledged. "Witherfang and I are bound as one being. But such a powerful feat of magic could not have been accomplished without Zathrian's own blood."

  "Blood magic?" Wynne gasped. "This is more heinous than I thought."

  "Your people think that you've rediscovered the immortality of your ancestors, Zathrian, but that is not true." The spirit announced. "So long as the curse exists, so do you."

  "No! That is not how it is!" Zathrian denied vehemently.

  "I can't believe you'd betray your own people this way, Zathrian!" Aedan shouted in disgust.

  "It is not a betrayal! I did what was necessary, what was just, and it still is!"

  "The curse would not end with Zathrian's death. His life, however, relies on its existence. But I believe his death plays a part in its ending." The spirit explained sadly.

  "Hrrr! Then we kill him!" Swiftrunner roared. "We tear him apart now!"

  "For all your powers of speech, you are beasts still!" Zathrian reminded spitefully. "What would you gain by killing me? Only I know the ritual to undo the curse, and I will never perform it!"

  "You see! We must kill them all!" Swiftrunner screamed furiously!

  "See? They turn on you just as quickly!" Zathrian accused. "Do what you came here to do, Grey Warden, or get out of my way!"

  Aedan glared down the self-righteous elven mage with anger in his eyes. "You will undo this curse, you miserable bastard, or I will beat it out of you!"

  "Were are doing what's right here." Alistair declared sternly.

  "Then you will die with them, as you all deserve!" Zathrian drew his staff and engaged a paralization hex on all the werewolves and forced the Lady back into the beast. Then just as Aedan and company whipped out their weapons, Zathrian made the roots within the ruins come to life and began turned them into sylvans, and to top it all off he summoned warrior spirits.

  While the summoned help took on the treacherous beasts and their miserable sympathizers Zathrian himself released lighting and earth on them, he even used the roots of the ruin to try and grasp at them so that he may squeeze the life from them, just as those horrible human took his children's lives from them. Zathrian being a three hundered year old blood mage and dalish keeper was very powerful in terms of magic, but even so, he was only one man against a group a very powerful combatants.

  Morrigan froze the trees in place as Oghren took his hammer and shattered them like glass. Shale began tackling and wrestling the sylvans to the ground. Sten proved that these spirit held off the warrior spirits with his greatsword while Zevran stayed to the shadows and dirked the spirits from behind. Leliana stayed at a distance and launched fire arrows that set the sylvans afire and burned like paper. Wynne began using her magic to release the Lady and lycans from their parlysis. Alistair let loose a very powerful Cleanse Area to rid the whole chamber of the summoned spirits and the strong Holy Smite to end Zathrian's spell casting.

  With the Keeper's magic finally disabled Aedan made his way over to him, dodging the the falling sylvans and swinging roots, and when he finally reached Zathrian the Warden decided not to kill him with Starfang but instead proceeded to beat the old man to a bloody pulp with his bare hands!

  Zathrian swung his staff at Aedan, but the Warden's mailed fist punched through the staff and into the Keeper's chest! With Zathrian knocked flat on his ass, Aedan stood over him and proceeded to punch the old mage's face. Hard. Again. And again. And again. Then just to make sure he understood his position, Aedan began kneeing him in the ribs and felt them break beneath his robes. Zathrian gave a loud groan as his ribs became gravel and then tried to creat a fire spell in the palm of his hand, but Aedan saw what he was doing and grabed the bloodied elf's hand, crushing it in his own and sent the spell back into the fade. Zathrian fell to the ground and grabed the remains of his staff then suddenly teleported away from the angry Warden and over to Witherfang. He was leaning onto the paralyzed creature with a knife from his robes held firmly in his fist to finally finish the wretched creature.

  "This is for my children!" Zathrian cried out but before he could stab the great wolf in the neck Leliana shot him throught shoulder with a Shattering Shot that knocked him back from Witherfang.

  Aedan walked back over to Zathrian as he pulled the arrow from his body and kicked the elf back against the wall. "And this one is for Danyla!" He yelled out as he continued to beat down the mage with all of his might and rage. As Zathrian's bald head had become bruised, cut and welted Aedan let up, in order to break the curse he needed the old hypocrite alive. "You want to continue, old man?" Aedan demanded.

  "No, no more." The old elf sadly begged through a bloodied mouth, his spirit crushed and tears of pain and defeat crawling down his face. "I cannot…cannot defeat you." As he conceited defeat the sylvans fell down dead and the roots retreated back into the walls and the earth.

  "Kill him! Finish him off now!" Swiftrunner yelled out and his accursed brethren all barked and howled with approval.

  "Yeah!" Oghren agreed. "Bleeding duster deserves it! Start with the toes and work your way up!"

  "No!" Leliana cried in horror. "My Lady, please, don't kill him!"

  "Peace, Swiftrunner." The Lady beckoned. "If we do not have mercy in our hearts, how can we expect others to have mercy in theirs?"

  Zathrian attempted to stand up dispite all of his broken bones and possible concussion. "You ask the impossible, spirit. I am too old…too old to know mercy. Everytime I see the werewolves all I can think about is my children's faces."

  "Is that the real reason why you won't break the curse or are you just afraid of dying, old man?" Morrigan lectured.

  Zathrian took a moment to pause. Was that the truth? Was his sole reason for living to see those afflicted with the curse suffer? That is when the old Keeper began to see how low he had sunk. He was now using his children as an excuse to continue his hatred. Zathrian felt ashamed. "And what about you, Spirit? You are just as much a part of this curse as I am."

  "You are my creator, Zathrian, nay, you are my father. I have known fear, hope, love, and joy, but above all else I desire an end." The Lady wept.

  Zathrian had not expected that. He was for too consumed in focusing his hatred on the Lady he had not taken into account that spirit was also just as much apart of him as his children once were. He looked around the chamber, the Lady with pleading eyes, the werebeasts holding onto the hope that perhaps the curse will finally end, and Grey Wardens whose deeds brought all this together. Perhaps it was in the Creators' will that these outsiders found them. "You shame me, spirit. Perhaps…perhaps I have lived for too long." Zathrian had finally admitted.

  "Then you'll do it?" The Spirit asked her voice full of hope. "You'll end the curse?"

  The Keeper looked at all present one last time. He would miss his clan, he had guided them for so long but he knew that Lanaya with her kindness and wisdom would make a far better Keeper then he ever did. "Yes, it is time to end it." With that Zathrian took the Lady's hand in his own and raised them up towards the roof. All of a sudden a great white mist came over them and the werewolves. Aedan and his companions shielded their eyes. When the light died down the looked to see that the werewolves were not there and in their place was a large group of humans who were all embracing, laughing, and crying but Keeper Zathrian and the Lady of the Forest were gone.

  "It is over." A human said that Aedan guessed was once Swiftrunner. "She is gone…and we are free."

  Aedan couldn't help but smile at all these people finally released from their curse. "What will you do now?"

  "We will make for the closest human settlement. We still have families to return to." The man looked at his saviors one last time. "You have our eternal gratitude and we will never forget you." And with that th
e humans, once beasts, ran back to their original lives and Aedan thought it was best to return to the Dalish Camp, hopefully all of the hunters were cured of their affliction with the breaking of the curse.

  The Grey Warden's company made it back safely to camp without any incident, and to look at the Dalish now you'd think a miracle had occured. All of the hunters who had been wounded by the werewolves and stricken with their curse were now healed of their injuries and cured of the lycan's sickness. As Aedan witnessed all the elves laughing and embracing one another he made his way over to Lanaya.

  "I can't believe it! You actually did it!" She exclaimed happily, and all of the elves of this camp began to huddle around them to thank Aedan and his companions. Then Lanaya began to look on sadly. "Zathrian is gone, isn't he?"

  Aedan looked at her and asked "Did you now of his connection to the curse?"

  "I had my susupicions, but I didn't want to believe it." She replied sadly.

  "How did he die?" an elf child asked. All the elves began to look at Aedan intently for an answer as to what happened to their beloved keeper. Aedan explained to them all calmly about Zathrian's connection to the curse and why he inacted it to begin with. The Dalish all expressed shock and some were even angry, Aedan, however, knew that if they were to fight against the Blight they would need to have a high morale and most of all hope.

  "But…." Aedan continued. "In the end he died with forgiveness and humility in his heart. He died letting go of his hatred so that his beloved clan may live." When Aedan explained that all the elves had a look pride, joy, but grief in their eyes. With that they all shared a moment of silence for the one who had led them and kept them safe for so long.

  "I suppose with Zathrian gone I am the Keeper now. And the very least we can do to thank you for all that you have done for us is give you our full support against the Blight." Lanaya declared.

  "So, you'll honor the treaties?" Alistair asked gladly.

  "Yes, when you have need of us, the Dalish will be there for you." The new Keeper confirmed.

  With that Aedan gave Lanaya directions to Soldier's Peak were they could meet up with the rest of his growing army. His company gave farewells to the noble elves. Aedan had a feeling that with Lanaya as the Keeper ths particular clan was going to have a positive impact on his own country.