章 7: Circle of Magi and the Joining

Once out of Orzammar they go to the stables outside to pick the horses. Faren had to ride with Darrian on one horse. They ride forwards passing Tormot's Crossing in the evening and ride to the next village on their way which was Aberbeck in the bannorn of White River. Once there Daveth asks, "Where are we going now?" and Duncan answers while riding towards the stable, "We are going the circle of magi were we will perform your Joinings."

Then there they give the horses to the stable master and they go towards an inn were they rent two rooms and go to a table and sit down to order dinner. Then Logan ask knowing the name of the Dwarf, "Well then Everd what's your real name?" Faren answers, "Faren Brosca and what's your names?"

"Logan, the other human is Daveth and the elf is Darrian Tabris and our commander is Duncan," says Logan looking at Faren.

"No last name?" asks Faren Logan that picked the interest of the other recruit too.

"Yeah no last name for me for now," says Logan with a smile on his face looking at Faren. The waiter came with their dinner once finished they go to their rooms and sleep. The next morning Duncan announces that they will take two days to reach Lake Calenhad Docks to take a ferry over to Kinloch Hold. Then Logan hands over a light wardens armor over to Faren who then asks, "Can I get a stronger armor I like it more heavier." Thinking about it Logan was too optimistic to think that just because you are a rogue you will put on a light armor. 'This is real life so I should not wonder if a rogue waves a two-handed ax at me.' He goes back to the room where he slept the last night and stores the armor again and brings a heavy warden armor out and brings it out Faren puts it on and they ride towards Calenhad Docks. It took them two days they slept in The Spoiled Princess and took the ferry the next morning to Kinloch Hold were the mages live.

Arriving there the Templar announced them and brought them to the First Enchanters Office were both First Enchanter Irving and Knight-Commander Greagoir was awaiting them. Then Irving says, "Duncan of the Grey Wardens and you bring company what can we do for you."

"We are here to recruit a potential mage as well we are here to perform the Joining on the fifth floor with your help," says Duncan looking at both when suddenly an elf woman come through the door and says, "Teacher you asked for me?" the elf woman is Neria Suranna.

"Ahh, Neria good time let me present you Duncan of the Grey Wardens, and his recruits he is here to recruit a potential mage from under us to become a grey warden. Since you are already here," says Irving going back to his desk and takes out a ring and a letter and goes over to Neria saying, "Here take this ring it proves that you passed your Haworring and bring this letter to Owain he will give you a new wand and robes and can you bring the Grey Wardens to the Guestrooms here in the Tower."

She nods and guides them to the Guestrooms while guiding them she asks a lot of questions at Duncan and he answers the question he could keeping some secret he can't tell like how the joining works and what the advantage and disadvantage of becoming one.

Then Logan asks what she is good and she explains that she is a master at Primal and Arcane magic thank to her teacher and a bit of all other. She doesn't have a specialization yet since she still wants to focus on the other schools until she can use them without concentrating too much on the spell before using it.

Once they arrive at the Guestrooms Neria leaves them alone. Logan then leaves the room after whispering something in Duncan's ear and leaves.

POV Neria Suranna

After leaving the Wardens in Guestroom she goes towards Owain to take her new robes and wand. When she meets her friend Solona Amell flirting with the new Templar recruit Cullen. Solona like her passed the Harrowing and is Wynne's student she knows almost all you have to know about Creation and Arcane magic and a bit of Primal and Spirit magic and she is specialized like Wynne as a Spirit Healer.

Neria says, "Solona are pranking the new recruit again."

"Come on Neria can't you see that he is cute enough to take him to my bed and f*** his brain out," says Solona without shame.

Neria rolls her eyes at this answer and says, "How can you be so shameless poor Cullen is as red as a tomato because of you. *sigh* I don't know why we are friends again."

"That is because we were brought here by the same Templars so we became best friends forever we were kids remember," says Solona and smiles at Neria then she takes Cullen's hand and runs towards her room with him, "Don't come to the room until later."

"Not so fast Solona I will fall," says Cullen while being dragged to Solona's and Neria's room.

Leaving Neria sighing behind who then walks to Owain to get her stuff after getting her stuff she goes to the library on the second floor to read about Creation and Entropy magic. When Jowan a friend of hers comes to her and says, "Can we talk alone in the chapel it's important?"

"I will be there in a second," says Neria putting the books down on the desk she uses and leaves to the chapel inside the tower. When she arrives at the chapel to meet Jowan with an initiate and waiting for her.

"Finally you are here," says Jowan nervous looking around and then says again, "No one followed you not even Solona?"

"She has something to do for the next hour," says Neria looking at Jowan than at the sister and asks, "What are we here for and who is this initiate?"

"My name is Lily and Jowan and I are a couple. But we are here to talk about Jowan who will be put through the Rite of Tranquility because they think he is a blood mage. We can't let this happen can you help us to find Jowan's Phylactery and destroy it?" asks Lily with a hopeful face that Neria will agree.

"What will you do after leaving here and why should I help you?" asks Neria this time looking at both.

"We will buy a farm, wide away from here so they will never find us once the Phylactery is destroyed and I hope you will help us since you are my friend," says Jowan looking with sad eyes at Neria, who says, "Why didn't you try with Anders he would help you surely?"

"He isn't around since he broke out two days ago and will need some days until he is back. So, please Neria can you help your friend one last time," Jowan says almost begging Neria for help.

"Fine what has to be done?" says Neria and light come back to the eyes of the couple. Lily says, "We only need a Rod of Fire so we can pass the door towards the phylactery chamber were all phylactery of students are stored."

"Rod of Fire should be no problem now Senior Enchanter Leorah still owes me a favor for taking care of something," says Neria looking at the couple happy faces, "See you in a minute."

She leaves to find Owain and asks for a formula for a Rod of Fire a Senior Enchanter needs to sign and goes over to Senior Enchanter Leorah so that she signs the formula as repayment for the spider hunting in the storerooms for her. Once back to Owain with the formula signed he hands Neria the Rod of Fire over and gets back to work.

Neria returns to the couple with the wand and she says, "Now we meet downstairs in the Basement we can't all go together or we will be suspicious. So see you in some minutes."

Both go down to the basement while she waits for 15 minutes and leaves the chapel and goes to the basement. There Neria finds the other two kissing each other and she says, "Am I interrupting something should I come back later." Both stopped her and they go towards the first door and Lily says some words and the door opened itself but the second door was the real problem.

"The wand doesn't work on this door maybe we should to the other door there," says Neria and point to the door on the other side of the room. After arriving there Neria used the wand again but this time it worked and the door opened, but once open the statues around the door begun to move towards the three and they defended themselves against them. Once done with them they explored the basement and followed the corridor killing their way through the basement when they arrived at a storeroom full of antic things. Inside they find some strange things like a statue that can talk but the didn't find a way towards the phylactery chamber yet when Jowan came to the idea moving a bookcase out of the way and use a statue that looks like a mabari that sits to amplify Neria's spell against a wall that leads towards the chamber. After using her spell there was a hole in the wall and entered the phylactery chamber looking for Jowan's Phylactery the moment they entered the statues inside the chamber began to move and attacks them. After some spells, the statues are lying on the floor and the group began to search for Jowan's Phylactery. Finding it was pretty easy once destroyed they return to the first floor to meet Templars and the First Enchanter Irving as well as Duncan with Logan there.

"You have disappointed me Neria a thought I taught you better than doing such stupidity," says Irving disappointed with his student.

"You were right Irving the initiate Lily is also an accomplice in this too," says Greagoir looking a bit disappointed in Lily, "And you Neria will be punished later for going against the rules but first I sentence the blood mage to death and we will send the initiate to Aeonar."

Jowan hearing this cries out, "No!" and stabs his hand and used Blood magic to overwhelm the Templars and the First Enchanter, but he couldn't overwhelm the Grey Wardens not noticing this he stretches out his hand towards Lily, who falls down seeing her loved one use Blood magic against the Templars and says, "You swore that you were not a blood mage and now this," Lily says disappointed in Jowan who she always trusted blindly. Seeing this Jowan closes his hand and runs alone outside the circle and escapes.

Some minutes later everyone wakes up and Greagoir was out of his mind from anger and commands his men to take Lily in custody until sending her to Aeonar and goes over to Irving who was with Neria once there he says, "We will perform the Rite of Tranquility on Neria for helping a blood mage destroy his phylactery and helping him escape."

"You can't do that," says Neria nervously thinking why it all ended like this.

"Yeah, you can do that to our eye candy," says Logan who was beside Duncan. Duncan goes over and says, "I want to recruit this mage as a Grey Warden even if I have to use the Right of Conscription that we Grey Wardens have to recruit anyone. Do you wanna join Neria?" She nods fast knowing such a chance only comes once and accepted it.

"You can't be serious it is like a reward instead of a punishment for what she did today," says Greagoir furiously at Duncan. Duncan then says, "It's better to use her talents against the Darkspawn then let them go to waste by making her a Tranquil."

Greagoir begins to sigh seeing that he lost this battle and retreated with his man then Duncan asked Irving for a Senior Enchanter to help with the magical part of the Joining were the First Enchanter himself prepared it so they don't lose time Duncan hands over the Joining Chalice and a bottle full of blood with some ingredients to Irving and they begin to walk up to the second floor to pick the other three recruits and they all go to the Harrowing Chamber on the fifth floor were Irving leaves everything prepared and leaves them to the ritual they will perform.

"Now we are here together I will tell you what makes us Grey Wardens so special it's that we drink Darkspawn blood and those to overcome it become Grey Wardens."

"So we will just drink some blood and everything will be good?" asks Faren looking suspicious at Duncan.

"Yes like the first Wardens have done in the first blight. As I did before you. The blood is the source of our power and those who pass the Joining become immune to the taint. We Wardens can sense the taint in the Darkspawn and we use the taint to slay the Archdemon every time they appear in the World. Now let's say the words the first Grey Warden said when they become Grey Warden as it is a tradition to remember all of them. Join us, Brothers and Sisters join us in the shadow where we stand, vigilant. Join us as we carry this duty that cannot be forsworn. And should you perish, know that your sacrifice will not be forgotten and that one day we shall join you. Now Darrian, step forward."

Darrian steps forward and takes the chalice in his hand and takes a sip and gives the chalice back. He falls to the ground and blacks out. Logan looks if he is alive and says, "He is alive," then Duncan says, "Faren, step forward." Faren does the same as Darrian before him and he blacks out too. Logan gives an ok sign to Duncan, who continues with Neria, she does the same but she just falls on one knee still consciences about what's going on. Then Daveth turn came Duncan and Logan were nervous knowing he might die if Logan wasn't here to try something on him he trained on some hare before but Logan said he doesn't know if it will work on Daveth. Once Daveth drunk from it he fell over and there was no pulse. Logan tries his Sunsinger modifier Fireborn on Daveth who all of a sudden to Neria's surprise was on fire and took a deep breath seeing him back from the death Duncan and Logan were relieved seeing him alive. "Back from the dead Daveth was it fun over there," says Logan looking at Daveth who was still lying down on the floor. Then Logan stands before Duncan and downs the rest in the chalice and still stands to the surprise of Neria and Daveth.

Logan then takes the two sleeping beauty's down to the beds while the other laughs at how he called them and Duncan put Daveth over his shoulder and put him also on a bed and Neria walked down without a problem. Once on the second floor, Logan asks Neria if she wants a robe or light armor as her uniform he also said she could get heavy armor but that he must put her through a hard training plan so she doesn't feel the weight of the heavy armor she nods and decides to go with light armor for now. Then Logan follows her back to her old room where he meets Solona and Cullen who finished with their activities and then Solona playfully says, "So you finally come to the dark side I know you can't resist forever."

"Solona I'm leaving the circle today I became a Grey Warden," says Neria with a sad expression on her face and looking at her BFF, when Solona jokes about it only for Logan to tell her what happened while the two were having fun.

Both now were angry at Jowan for doing this to her. Neria was packing something in her bag but took it back out and gave it to Solona. It was a silver hand mirror who Neria brought with her to the circle. Solona gave her hers. It was also a silver one only with a symbol of the Amell's on the back. They said their goodbye. Then they left the room Logan could see Neria cry a little when he pats her head while saying with a smile, "It's not like you won't meet again," she nods and then asks a question, "What was that before when Daveth was on fire?"

"That was magic if we say it simply," says Logan at Neria. They go back to the Guestroom were the two were still out, Daveth went to sleep and Duncan was waiting for them going to sleep all together in different beds.

Once awake they leave the circle and Duncan says, "From today on you will get special survival training from Logan for the next four month or when I send for you do you all understand."

They replied positively on it and Logan took them to the Stormcoast to train them in a harsh territory. Making a training plan for Neria which was giving her a heavy armor to train her. The same goes for Faren too. he got some training to strengthen his stamina and his legs for better footing. Neria had at first problem but after a month with the heavy armor, she didn't want to give it back.

The training was a good to improve camaraderie under them. Sometimes they want to battle against Logan in 1vs1 or 1vs2 and in the rarest case would be 1vs4. Always making them eat dirt so they get stronger.