Another three years had passed. Lyria was Kirkwall's Champion and now loved by all of the city for her actions in removing the qunari threat. She had well and truly made a name for herself over these few years — a mage, a noble, a champion, unbound by the templars and their restrictions. She was a wonder to behold.
Unfortunately, since the events of that day three years ago, the Knight-Commander had taken it upon herself to become ruler of the city since the Viscount had died.
Knight-Commander Meredith controlled both the city and the Circle with an iron fist and the people were chafing beneath her hand. She had too much power. First Enchanter Orsino openly campaigned against the Knight-Commander and pleaded with the people to choose a new ruler so that Meredith could be taken down a notch.
Meredith and her templars arrived and tried to shut Orsino down, but he would have none of it.
Finally the Grand Cleric emerged from the Chantry and demanded peace. Unfortunately this issue would not be solved, not today, but she begged the people for calm and patience. Things would surely improve.
As Lyria went back home after the First Enchanter's protest, she was stopped by a woman who had overheard her name.
She said that she was Delilah Howe and was searching for her brother, Nathaniel. He and some Wardens were here, following Lyria's trail in the deep roads to find what she had found, and she hadn't heard from him in ages. It wasn't normal. He always stayed in contact! Something had gone wrong. Could Lyria please go down into the Deep Roads and find her brother?
Anders knew Nathaniel. They had been friends whilst in Amaranthine together, doing Warden things with the Hero of Ferelden. Yes, of course they would go into the Deep Roads and find out what had happened.
First though, Lyria needed a bit of a respite after that eventful protest.
Lyria visited all of her friends to see what was what. Anders said that he had discovered a Tevinter potion that could help separate Justice and himself... he would be himself once more, there would be no more possession. Would she help him find the ingredients for this potion? They were unobtainable for purchase from the vendors here and they would need to search for them.
Of course Lyria agreed.
Merrill was still obsessed with her eluvian, Varric was still regaling the tavern with stories about herself, Aveline had just returned from a three week honeymoon with Donnic... even her Uncle Gamlen was less irate than normal, almost acting proud that his niece was the Champion of Kirkwall.
Lyria had received correspondence from the Knight-Commander, and being that she was on thin enough ice as it was around the templars with her precarious position as a mage not in the circle, she thought it best to go speak with her in a timely manner.
Knight-Commander Meredith wanted Lyria's assistance in pursuing three mages who had smashed their phylacteries and fled. While the templars had found a lot more of the apostates, these ones were a bit more difficult to find.
At first Lyria refused. She would not hunt mages for this woman. But then Meredith threatened her freedom and asked her to at least look into these mages and decide for herself if they were dangerous or not.
As she left the Circle, she walked into Knight-Commander Cullen... he seemed almost disappointed that she hadn't stopped by lately, ever since it became widely known that she was a mage. Surely they were still friends.
Surely he could understand not wanting to hang around the templars longer than necessary, she smiled. Then asked him what he thought of the Grand Cleric and Meredith. He lowered his eyes. He recalled Uldred's madness back in Ferelden and the look that had appeared in his eyes... Meredith was not there yet, but he felt she was close.
Unwilling to look for Meredith's missing mages just yet, Lyria was happy that she had come across the woman looking for her brother. Finding a missing Warden in the deep roads was much more appealing than to look for mages that had run from the templars.
They went back into the deep roads where they had first begun the expedition, almost six years ago now, and very quickly stumbled across a man fighting darkspawn.
It just so happened to be the missing brother of the woman back in Hightown. Nathaniel Howe. He seemed surprised to see Anders there but warmly greeted his old friend.
Apparently they were investigating this "primeval thaig" after Bartrand told them about it. Something wasn't right here and the Wardens were investigating, but he could tell them nothing else.
This tunnels were supposed to be free from darkspawn. After the Hero of Ferelden made a deal with the Architect... they had assumed the roads would be safer. They had been wrong. He asked for their help to locate the other Wardens he had been separated from. They readily agreed.
It didn't take long to find another of the Wardens he had been separated from... her own brother, Carver.
He was less than impressed seeing her down here and argued with her, telling her to stop coming after him. Ignoring of course that she didn't even realise it was him she was chasing and was in fact simply helping Nathaniel.
There was no more time for arguing. The darkspawn had come upon them in mass numbers and they needed to be defeated.
They fought and fought and used carefully placed dwarven explosives to blow a few of the creatures up. They kept coming in waves that seemed like they would never end, but finally they did.
Lyria said goodbye to her brother once more, who simply rolled his eyes. Nathaniel, on the other hand, thanked her for her help and was grateful to be able to see his sister and nephew once more.
With that excitement over with, and still unwilling to help Meredith with her mages, Lyria decided to go adventuring with Anders to find the ingredients required for his potion. It would be interesting, seeing him separate from Justice.
First they had to go into the city sewers and find a material that formed from urine... which was most unpleasant.
Next they had to go to the Bone Pits to find drakestone, commonly formed around dragons.
Which was perfect really, because Lyria needed to head there anyway to see why a bunch of her miners had recently died.
The answer was soon made clear as the biggest dragon Lyria had even seen descended and sent forth hundreds of its dragon babies at her and her group as they fought for their lives.
Eventually, the threat was dealt with and they could get back to searching for ingredients for Anders' potion.
Thankfully there was an abundance of the material he sought in the caves around these parts, and they didn't have to fight any more dragons. Honestly, with the amount of dragon-babies they had just killed surely the creatures were near extinct.
Anders said that there was one more thing he needed of her, but he would rather speak about it in private.
When they returned to Anders' clinic in Darktown, he asked for something that seemed nothing to do with this potion he was creating... he asked Lyria to distract the Grand Cleric so he could slip into the Chantry.
He wouldn't tell her why and said that it was better if she didn't know; that come what may, none of what will happen would ever be on her shoulders, it was his burden.
That did not sound good at all, but she loved him and didn't want to let him down now... and he said it was for the mages. She wanted nothing more than good tidings for all mages. She would help him... but not yet. There were other things that needed to be done, especially if she were going to the Chantry.
She couldn't gallivant around the Chantry while Knight-Commander Meredith wanted work done... it was time to finally search for these mages Meredith had "misplaced."
She asked around the elven alienage for one of the missing mages. This mage's wife hadn't seen him in ten years and suddenly he had returned... he seemed different now and she was scared of him. He said he was coming back to get her; could Lyria come back that night and make sure she was safe?
Lyria agreed.
Another mage she was searching for had boys she was looking out for in Darktown. They, too, had seen this mage since she'd fled and were also scared. They had seen what she had done to some templars and then she had raced into the sewers. She was so angry. They didn't like her when she was angry.
That did not sound good... that was two possible blood mages that Meredith was looking for. Lyria didn't want to rat out her fellow mages, but if they were blood mages, that was different. They couldn't all be as meek and sweet as Merrill.
They followed this mage into the sewers and found the area filled with demons... and then the mage herself appeared, clearly possessed. It was unfortunate but she had to die too.
The last mage was drunk at the Hanged Man and she was surprised the templars hadn't found him already.
His mother had given him money so that he could start a new life, but instead he was here, drowning his sorrows, and hoping to find a girl to kiss before the templars killed him.
Lyria suggested that he take the money his mother had given him, and flee already. Stop wasting time. Get out of Kirkwall and start a new life already. He listened to her and left.
Night had long fallen and Lyria had promised the elf that she would come back to her that night to protect her when her husband returned... unfortunately, Lyria was too late.
The elf's husband had already killed her and was weaving his magic through her blood, summoning demons. He had to die.
They soon put him and his demons down, and then Lyria would have to report back to Meredith.
Two of the three escapees had been blood mages... the other, she would lie about. It wasn't like she had never lied to these people before. It would be easy.
But it was night now and that could be something that could wait for tomorrow.
Until next time! 🐲⚔️
All screenshots in this post are courtesy of me, 