Lyria had lost her mother, the Viscount had lost his son and the qunari threat seemed to grow greater each and every day. Now both Aveline and Isabela sought her help with qunari-related matters — at least Isabela insinuated that her matter was related — and she found herself knee-deep in the thick of it, again.
The entire time Isabela had been in Kirkwall, she had been looking for a priceless relic so that the man she had once worked for would not kill her. She had since let loose that it was a book, in a strange language.
At first Isabela had said that she didn't know what the relic was, and now she was saying it was a book... Isabela obviously hadn't been entirely forthcoming about this. Regardless, they would find it and get this over and done with once and for all.
As they followed Isabela's lead, they were attacked by a group of qunari who demanded the relic back. So it was related, after all.
Unable to speak with the qunari, they had no choice but to fight for their lives and soon the qunari were dead. Which gave Lyria the opportunity to speak with Isabela. She demanded answers.
It turned out that Isabela had stolen a qunari book written by the creator of the Qun itself and that was the artefact that the qunari had been searching for and the reason why they hadn't left the city yet. Only, her head was on the block if she didn't get it for another. She didn't want to die. Could Lyria pleeeease help.
Lyria was over it, well and truly, but she would help her friend. She didn't want to see Isabela die.
They strode into the area where Isabela said the man was hiding with the relic, but inside a war was brewing. The man who had the book faced both qunari and Tevinter mages, and then ran when he saw Isabela enter the room.
She gave chase, leaving Lyria, Anders and Aveline to take on these qunari and Tevinters by themselves.
When the fight was over, they hurried outside to find and catch up with Isabela... but she was gone.
She had killed the man with the book, taken the book, and left a letter on his body for Lyria to find.
She was gone. With the relic. And the qunari were going to be absolutely furious. Lyria closed her eyes and took several deep breaths, and prepared to face the fury of the Arishok.
When they arrived at the compound, only Lyria, Aveline and a small handful of her guard were allowed to enter. As though Aveline had completely forgotten about the relic situation, she demanded the elven fugitives she was hunting.
The Arishok did not care about the so-called fugitives. He wanted to know about the relic. Where was it?
Lyria admitted that one of her friends, Isabela, had stolen the thing... which earnt her a small amount of respect from the Arishok. Not that it mattered. He had had enough of the corruption of this city. The fugitives Aveline sought were of no consequence, they were just another symptom of the corruption of this city; they were not the cause. He would have no more of it. This city was a disease that must be purged.
He signalled for the qunari to attack. Aveline's guardsmen fell before her, instantly killed by heavily thrown spears. Both she and Lyria quickly ran for it, avoiding more spears being thrown at their backs.
They met up with Varric and Anders just outside of Lowtown. The qunari were sweeping through the city, killing everyone, setting fire to everything, purging the city! People were fleeing to Darktown and the undercity to get away from it all. It was a disaster!
Aveline said they should hurry to the barracks and assemble all the guard, they needed to retain order, they needed to fight the qunari!
Lyria and her group raced through Lowtown, and fought qunari at every turn whilst the people fled in terror at the sight of these brutes.
When they neared the centre of Lowtown, they came across another large group of qunari, only these ones were fighting... Grey Wardens. Carver was there! Lyria hurried to help them and killed all the qunari in the area to get to her brother.
Finally, the qunari were fallen, for the time being, and Lyria rushed to speak with her brother.
They weren't there to fight the qunari, they were on other Warden business and this qunari attack had taken them by surprise. Another Warden, Alistair hurried Carver and the other Grey Wardens along, but not before Lyria tried to tell him about their mother.
It really wasn't the time for that, but he needed to know.
He already knew. Gamlen had sent word to him. He was sure Lyria had done everything in her power to prevent it and he would miss her, but there were pressing issues at hand... he had to leave.
After her brother and the other Wardens departed, Lyria and her group hurried to Hightown so they could get to the barracks and gather Aveline's men. On the way they were confronted with so many bodies of the people of this city, and as they entered Hightown, they watched as more qunari dragged people away.
After defeating one group of the qunari which allowed a woman to flee, a qunari-mage burst into the marketplace and with a wave of energy threw Lyria and her group to the ground.
Before Lyria could climb back to her feet and defend herself, a sword stabbed through the qunari-mage's chest and it fell to the ground.
A woman in templar armour helped Lyria to her feet and declared herself to be Knight-Commander Meredith. Lyria inwardly paled. She was at last face to face with this woman, this paranoid woman who was turning more and more mage tranquil every week it seemed.
Knight-Commander Meredith narrowed her eyes as she recognised Lyria. Lyria's name had been in far too many of her reports, but that was neither here or now. The qunari were taking people hostages in the Keep. They needed to get there and end this threat... and she would overlook Lyria's own use of magic, for now.
Lyria had been made. She swallowed. But the Knight-Commander was right. The immediate threat was the qunari; she could flee the Knight-Commander later.
Alongside the Knight-Commander, they swept through Hightown and eradicated groups of qunari that descended upon them. Just in front of the keep, a group of mages lay dead and the First Enchanter stood before them, weeping for their loss.
There was no time to mourn. They needed to get into that Keep and save any survivors and remove the qunari threat. Meredith and First Enchanter Orsino were at each other's throats within moments, arguing with one another.
Meredith wanted to storm through the gates in an angry whirlwind of force but Orsino was worried about the hostages, if he created a distraction they might able to save more people.
They couldn't decide what to do, so Lyria declared herself in charge and made the decision for them. They would use Orsino as a distraction, and enter the Keep quietly to save whatever hostages they could.
The Knight-Commander grudgingly agreed.
As Orsino threw fireballs at the qunari and led them away from the Keep, Lyria and her group snuck inside. From first appearances, it seemed that they were too late. There were so many dead on the floor, all of them with qunari spears sticking out of their chests.
All of this carnage and chaos over a damned book...
In the throne room, the Arishok stood with a contingency of his men, the nobles surrounded him, and the Viscount's head rolled across the floor.
While these nobles were unworthy, he respected Lyria. He asked what she would have him do to end this so-called madness. She suggested that they find Isabela and return the book to him. While that was worthy of intent, it was too late. Instead, he counter-offered, Lyria would face the respect of an honourable duel. If she won, his men would leave the city; if he won, well, she would be dead.
Lyria agreed to his duel.
It was a difficult fight and she found herself running out of the energy required to cast her magic, but she pulled through and soon the Arishok lay dead, before the eyes of his men and all the noble people of the city.
The qunari, true to their Arishok's word, bowed their heads and silently left the city.
The people clapped and cheered. Lyria had saved them! Had saved the city!
Knight-Commander Meredith walked in, surprised to see the Arishok dead and the qunari dispersed... she glared at Lyria, obviously dismayed that she had not been the one to win the day, that a mage had done what she could not, then grudgingly pronounced Lyria to be Kirkwall's new Champion.
Thanks to this, Lyria was saved. There was no way the Knight-Commander would risk the wrath of the people even more by jailing their saviour.
She smiled at the Knight-Commander, then succumbed to the cheers of the people.
Until next time! 🐲⚔️
All screenshots in this post are courtesy of me, 