Joining Black mage on my etsy store, are now these two darlings. For those interested, they can be found here on my store page. They are made to order, along with everything else in my shop so don’t worry about me running out of stock!
Mages with different personalities cast spells in different ways:
Morrigan casts with quiet force, as she’s used to hiding in the woods, used to camouflaging herself
Wynne is gentle, but precise - you can tell from the way she casts that she has years of experience and knows spells like the back of her hand
Velanna casts in bursts, often powered by emotion, sometimes loud and sudden, but sharp when needed
Anders is a bit impulsive with offense, but when he’s in panacea it’s all careful focus, he’s a healer at heart and makes sure every healing spell is sent with absolute accurary
Bethany is ruthless, despite her personality, a life on the run and trained by Malcolm, she is free when she casts, uninhibited
Merrill is quick, in contrary to how people see her, she is skilled, she knows, and to her, spell combinations are a dance
Solas is precise, all technique. Sometimes slow, but careful. He’s all about the focus, waiting for the right time to strike.
Vivienne is graceful, poised. Never letting the enemy see her falter, she’s trained in combat but she is also intelligent and smart and quickly sees weak points.
Dorian is controlled - yes, for once his magic is something he can decide and can mold, he is the lightning that strikes twice in the same place, because yes, he’s practiced
orlesianbadassprincess requested this prompt. A POV switch for Compromise? What’s That? and switch it to one of the advisors. I feel kind of horrible copping out and opting for Cullen but I always prefer to write high stress/tension/emotional points from the people most likely to be having emotional responses to matters. Let’s face it after Tiaa, Cullen would be the one having the most emotional response to mages being set free and being on the way.
Hope you like it!
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Never had Cullen been so frustrated in his life, and he had dealt with years of beating his head against the wall as a templar. His hand flexed on the pommel of his sword and his jaw took on a stubborn set as he eyed the famed Herald of Andraste. The red headed viper leaned over the table and rubbed at her temples. For a moment he felt a pang of guilt and regret, for Tiaa Trevelyan was not having the best month, much less week.
No, he couldn’t think about how vulnerable and brittle she had seemed in the woods and how she had listened to him as he explained his views on the whole Mage/Templar mess. The mages were coming, at her invitation. They had a massive hole in the sky that spat demons and she had invited a veritable army of their favorite targets to sit right under it with no safeguards!
“”What were you thinking turning the mages loose with no oversight!?” he barked out, furious with Tiaa. How could she ignore the dangers? How could she blatantly ignore the safety of her own followers for mages that had shown time and again when left to their own devices made poor decisions.
“We needed to get them here,” she told him in a factual tone. “And they sure aren’t going to come happily in chains and at sword point. So I lied to them.”
That was...a dirty but effective tactic Cullen supposed. He would have preferred honesty himself but if it worked-
“You shouldn’t have given them false hope!” Leliana snapped out, apparently angry at the idea. Cullen scowled at the spymaster but said nothing. The war had been a false hope. Mages were not built for war and combat like the Templar Order had been. Anyone with sense would have realized that.
“The Alliance poses a large number of problems with how we may address the mages, not to mention the political and social enemies we are making,” Josephine said, her pen twisting in her fingers and her eyes distressed. “You were there Cassandra, why did you not speak up?”
“I may not have agreed with the Herald’s decision, but I support it,” Cassandra said, no shame or regret in her tone which surprised Cullen. Out of the five of them Cassandra, Tiaa, and himself best understood the situation with the mages. To hear the Seeker support the Herald, in spite of her own background, was not something Cullen was prepared for. “The mission as to secure the aid of the mages.”
“A mission that is hardly complete and potentially more in jeopardy than you think,” he growled out, his frustration leaking through rigid control. “Letting the monsters walk free around our camp-”
“They are not monsters Commander,” Leliana told him with a stern glare.
“Apologies, I will rephrase that,” Cullen stated with a wince as he took a breath to get himself back in order. Such attitudes were not worthy of him, even if they had become ingrained . “The Veil is torn open. Having the mages here with no one to watch over them makes abominations a fact, not a speculation. We don’t have the manpower-”
“SHUT UP!” Tiaa roared out then throwing her hands up.
Cullen didn’t need lyrium to feel the flex in the atmosphere. His hand snapped to his sword and he had it halfway out before he caught himself and stopped. Apparently Templar training was more ingrained than he had thought, much to his shame. At least he was able to think clearly enough to stop the reaction.
At least he wasn’t completely mad in it though, given Cassandra having a similar reaction and Josephine seemed beside herself. Only Leliana was difficult to read but she at least had presence of mind to put the fires Tiaa had summoned out.
The Commander wanted to snarl over it. What in the Maker’s name did Tiaa think she was doing with such theatrics. The sudden abundance of light however had him noting how pale the Herald was. Not to mention she started verbally lashing out at the lot of them which made it hard to get a word in edgewise. So he closed his mouth and tried to keep from grinding his teeth to powder while she spoke. His sword returned to it’s scabbard but the hilt rested in a white knuckled grip as he struggled with his own temper over the situation.
Andraste preserve, did the woman have no respect for the advisors that she would refuse to listen to their concerns about such matters? He certainly did not appreciate her disregard for the concern of abominations. She might have had a fair point that Redcliffe had rifts a plenty and the mages were doing alright, but the smaller rifts were not the Breach.
He wanted to say something even as Leliana smiled, seeming pleased over the points. He was thus surprised as Tiaa barrelled on with...something like a plan.
It wasn’t foolproof, there was some holes he could see but it put more responsibility on the mages to manage themselves than on his men and the few templars that had been recruited. It was a decent compromise, if a bit more lenient towards mages than he would have liked. It could work, provided the mages were cooperative.
Josephine was shaking her head. “But to do this we-”
“I. Don’t. Care,” Tiaa said causing Cullen to frown more. There was no need to take such a tone with Josephine after all. “How this makes the Inquisition look to them or anyone else. We need someone to get off their asses and help us close the Breach. Frankly after that they can throw themselves off cliffs for all I care along with the rest of you. Those are the terms of our alliance and if the mages have a problem with that they are free to try their luck elsewhere. I’m sure the rest of Thedas will be so accommodating while there’s a big hole in the sky that they refused to help us with. You can remind them of that if they are a problem. You can also remind them we’ll be happy to give the Templar Order their regards as we kick down Therinfall’s gate if they are going to be bitches about matters.”
Cullen’s frown did not ease though he managed to let go of this sword and cross his arms instead. His hazel eyes narrowing at the Herald. She had an excellent point. The rebel mages had no where else to go , no escape. The Inquisition was the only organization that had the ability to protect them and would after the mess at Redcliffe. No country was going to let them in or tolerate them after hearing how they disposed an Arl and cut deals with Tevinter. It wouldn’t matter how true such news was even. They had the Mages, no matter how they might squirm.
Tiaa turned from the table suddenly causing Cullen to blink in surprise. They still had details to hammer out about the mages and they still didn’t have a report from her on everything that had happened in Redcliffe.
“You can’t leave now, we need to discuss-” Leliana started to say apparently having the same thought.
Tiaa’s reaction was not good however. “No. We are done. Unless we’re under attack, people need saving, or we’re moving out to close the Breach I don’t want to hear from any of you. Solve your own damn problems if you insist on sitting there and critiquing how I do things. When the Breach is done, so are we.”
Hazel eyes narrowed as Tiaa threw open the door, the other three also watching her go.
“Well…”Josephine said sounding at a loss.
“Something is wrong,” Leliana stated with a frown before looking to Cassandra. “What happened in Redcliffe that has the Herald being so…”
“Completely unreasonable?” Cassandra asked already on the floor pulling something from a sack. “I would guess something that has to do with this.”
Cullen stared at the helmet, a sick feeling twisting in his gut as he stared at it. All three remaining women stared for a moment before looking at him. There was a ringing in his ears as he turned on his heel and started after Tiaa. If one of the others said something he missed it completely.
“Herald,” he called only to be ignored, just like she had been avoiding him completely now that he thought of it. She had never looked him in the face the entire time. It made his stomach turn to ice as he worried about what happened. Cullen felt like they had crumbled back to square one and it was frustrating to him. Not to mention she needed a better plan for abominations than letting the mages handle it.
“Wait a damn minute Trevelyan,” he snapped out as he caught her arm. “When we last talked I thought you understood things.”
Tiaa pulled her arm out and glared at him. “I understand things better than the rest of you do Templar. I AM a mage, the rest of you aren’t. It’s so much easier to lock people up and blame them when they aren’t you. Easier to say it’s for the public good.”
“It is for the public good dammit,” Cullen growled back, struggling to keep his own temper down. Face to face with her the small tells of strain were much more evident but going soft on her was not going to help.
“No, it isn't’. The public good would have been working to defend said public and educate them, not throw us all in towers and lock us up,” Tiaa snapped before she jabbed a finger into his breastplate. He played with the pommel of his sword again to keep from catching her hand, concerned what he might do given the topic they were discussing. “You all act like we don’t understand the risks. Like it’s somehow all hidden away. We’re the ones the demons whisper to. We’re the ones that have to find a way to ignore them and stay away from them. We’re the ones that sit there and have to deal with the guilt if we hurt someone. We’re the ones that have to sit and be in constant fucking control of ourselves because we know that more will suffer than just us if we don’t. We know that and we understand that.”
She had a point, in part. She was a responsible mage after all. How she managed to think all mages would be alright though was beyond him. They were not all strong like she was, she had to understand that. It was better to contain them all then risk one getting away and destroying their work or hurting themselves and others. “You may understand that but not all mages share that sentiment. They abuse their abilities and you know that. Everyone that knows the Chant of Light knows that,” Cullen countered, crossing his arms.
Tiaa sighed and sagged and for the first time since Cullen had met her looked truly defeated. He had to flex his fingers to keep them on his armor as he had the urge to comfort. “Needs of the many right? Your time in Kirkwall taught you nothing then,” she stated before waving back at the door where she knew the lion helmet they had carried back lay. “Go collect your helm Knight-Commander because you’ll have monsters at your door.”
Cullen could feel the color drain from his face. He wished he could have claimed it did not bother him that Tiaa of all people called him that but it did as much as her telling him to collect his helmet. His own lion helm was back in his quarters, not on the war table. How could the one on the table be his?
Tiaa walked off, seeming to drag herself out of the Chantry leaving Cullen staring after her as he tried vainly to put the pieces together and better understand. How was this situation like his time in Kirkwall? The mages...had…
Done nothing wrong…
The Commander let out a swear as he looked around for a moment to find something to kick, having to make due without. It was not the majority of the mage’s fault. They followed the leader, just like he had even though they questioned. Was he going to condemn them because of that or learn from his mistakes?
