Kirk Tabris

Desire

 

There were mages like Wynne, wise and experienced, who exhibited the self-control required to resist the darker beings of the Fade and their temptations, these mages would sooner die then give themselves over to such forces. Then there were mages like Morrigan, wild and powerful, ones who danced ever so radically but gracefully on the fine line between controlling dark power and being controlled by it, the words of demons were as silence upon their ears and soon silenced by the mage in their annoyance.



Of course, then there were these mages, subdued by whispers of power, glory and desire in an instant and enslaved, though it was an insult to mages of Wynne and Morrigan’s calibre to call them mages now. Half were nothing more than misshapen lumps of red seared meat twisted into a vaguely human shape, mindlessly slaughtering those who had not given over, the other half still human but damned by their foolishness and pride to forever be hunted down for their crimes against nature.  Unfortunately, as far as Kirk could see, the stupid and weak far outnumbered the wise and strong mages, but even that was only part of the problem at the Circle tower.



“Wynne, Morrigan, do you sense anything, are there any more demons or undead on this floor?” questioned Kirk, as he turned to face the pair who he had asked to magically seek out traces of demonic activity on each floor.



“I sense nothing.”



“Neither do I, I believe there is nothing more we can do, we must continue to the top, we don’t know how much time Irving has”



“If he’s alive”



“Must you be so crude Morrigan?”



“I am simply stating the facts, is that too much for your withered old heart to handle?”



Kirk sighed, he respected the power both had as mages but this was their third quibble since entering the Tower and they’d only been there about an hour, and it was starting to grate on him. He  crossed his arms as he watched Morrigan fling snide remarks at Wynne who continued to rebuke her, trying to get the wild witch to rein in her barbed tongue, the former cloistered sister; Leliana, coming to his side to watch with him, having finished emptying the room they were standing in of any valuables.



“All right, since there are no more enemies on this floor, I want you three to head up to the next one and scout for danger and eliminate any preliminary threats while I finish searching these rooms for any clues as to what happened” ordered Kirk, breaking up the fervent debate between the two mages which had begun to drift into the ethics of blood magic.



“Are you sure that’s wise? Should we really divide our numbers at a time like this?”



Kirk appreciated Wynne’s concern but he did not share it, and neither did Leliana, apparently, the rogue already moving from his side and over to the pair.



“Kirk can handle himself, as can we. Women like us don’t need protecting” reassured Leliana, as Morrigan nodded in approval and the two left the room, Wynne  giving the blonde elf a concerned look, then leaving but not before urging him to be careful.



Kirk took a quick look around the room to check that Leliana hadn’t missed anything; he didn’t think she would, but it never hurt to check once more, the whole situation at the tower was still quite a mystery and any little thing could provide some insight. Once he was done, he moved onto the next room and then the one after that, rummaging through the goods of each and taking what coin he found, briefly studying the notes and books that hadn’t been reduced to ash by the battles between the mages and the demons.  Kirk left the third room, enjoying that the only sound he could hear was the clinking of his heavy chainmail and the items he was carrying; he hadn’t realized how much the two mage’s bickering had been affecting his morale until now. It was good to be away from them even for a moment; he did not get much alone time on this journey, as he opened the door to the next room he suddenly wished his allies were still with him.



“Did you really think I wouldn’t notice your mages searching for traces of demonic presence? Foolish mortal, hiding myself until the time is ripe is child’s play for me, nay, it is instinct.”



Kirk grabbed his longbow and an arrow from his back and took aim at the demon before him, clad in purple haze, body lithe and feminine but accented with bulbous veins, a tail and horns. However, before he could fire, four other figures rose up from their kneeling positions on the  floor around the demon, he hesitated in shock, having not noticed them before, giving one time to step in front of the Desire Demon, sword and shield raised.



“My lady, I shall protect you!” cried the man from beneath his helmet, Templars he realized; ensorcelled by the demon and made to be thralls to her will. Lowering his aim slightly, Kirk loosed his arrow at the Templar, the projectile soaring through the air and into the small gap in the man’s helmet burying deep in the exposed flesh underneath, the Templar dropping to his knees and then falling face first onto the hard stone; evidently a fatal blow. The Desire Demon shrieked with laughter as the other three Templars shuffled forward and Kirk prepared another arrow, he fired an arrow at the Templar to his right, trying to kill him in one shot like he did with the first, but the Templar lifted his shield to deflect the blow as he charged forward and pinned Kirk to the wall with his shield, his arms and bow pressed against his chest, unable to move as the Templar readied to skewer the elf. Kirk squirmed as he tried to free himself, but it was to no avail, he would have to push the Templar off him and he only had a few seconds to do it.



The tattooed young city elf lashed out with his foot, kicking at the Templar’s knee causing his attacker to stumble back as he lost his balance, giving Kirk just enough time and space to reach for the dagger at his hip and thrust it between the armor and the helmet and into his throat, the Templar gurgling as he dropped. However, the other two Templars had advanced on him now, and he pulled an arrow from his quiver and began to run from the pair along the edge of the room, taking aim at the one closest in its pursuit of him as he did. As he rounded the demon’s flank he stopped suddenly and shifted his aim towards the demon who was still laughing at the whole situation in high pitched shrieks. Pulling his bowstring taught and tight he loosed his Arrow of Slaying technique at the Desire Demon before the Templars could jump out and shield her, the arrow a mere blur that first pierced the back of the demon’s skull before tearing it from her shoulders with a sickening sound and pinning it to the opposing wall; her lifeless body dropping as it did, her laughter ended and the Templars suddenly halted in their movements.



“My… lady…?” questioned one Templar as he looked around confused and obviously dazed, he stumbled towards Kirk and looked at the lifeless body of the demon before dropping his sword and shield, and removing his helmet to reveal the face of a strong young man with messy black hair and green eyes, possibly in his early twenties. The other remaining Templar following suit and revealing that he was slightly older, maybe early thirties with light brown hair and soft brown eyes, a tuft of brown beard on his chin. Kirk watched cautiously as the black haired Templar examined the Desire Demon’s body and the other moved towards him slowly, sighing with relief as the brown haired man smiled at him with open arms, the elf returning his bow to its resting position, the arrow he had grabbed should he need to take another shot, back in his quiver.



“Thank the Maker, you are unharmed!” exclaimed the brown haired Templar as the black haired one rose from where he had been squatting to examine the demon’s body to turn to face Kirk as well.



“Yes it was a close call, but I’m afraid I had to kill the other temp-“



“The creature is slain” spoke the younger Templar with a hint of pride, cutting into Kirk’s apologies.



“Yes… I know… I was the one who killed her-“



“I’m so glad you’re safe, My Lady”



Before Kirk could say anything the older Templar had wrapped his arms around Kirk and drawn him close into a deep embrace, burying his face in the shorter man’s shoulder, and as Kirk struggled to get free the green-eyed Templar moved around to Kirk’s rear and embraced his as well, pinning the poor city elf between the pair.



“H-Hey! I’m not you’re Lady!” shouted Kirk as he continued to writhe between the two Templars, whose strong arms would not let him go. It dawned on Kirk that he was still not safe, the enchantment over these men’s minds had not faded and with the demon’s death, it appeared the role of The Lady in their delusions had transferred to him.



“You’re right, you’re not our Lady-“



“-you’re our Everything”



“No! You’ve got it wrong! I’m not your Lady or your “Everything”. I’m Kirk, an elf, a man!” shouted Kirk desperately as the older Templar lifted his head from Kirk’s shoulder, his soft brown eyes filled with worry as he began to rock the elf in tandem with the other Templar, attempting to soothe his “Lady”.



“My Lady, you are obviously very distraught, please allow us, your humble knights to help relieve you of your distress”



“No! Just let me go!”



“As you wish My Lady, we shall relieve you of your distress”



The brown haired Templar buried his head once more in Kirk’s shoulder and continued to rock as the Templar at his back detached from his embrace and proceeded to remove Kirk’s bow and arrows from his back. The embrace remained tight though the black haired Templar behind managed to squeeze his hands between the two bodies and began fiddling with the buckles of the shoulder plating on Kirk’s heavy chainmail as Kirk began to shout for help, hoping that any of three he had sent ahead of him would hear his cries, though his hope was dim; he was a fair way from the stairs.



“Shhh, My Lady, there is no need to cry, the foul creature is slain and gone now” cooed the young Templar as he finished unfastening the binds that held the plating on, allowing the metal to drop to the floor with a crash before embracing the shouting elf once more. The pair began rub Kirk’s body through the chainmail as they slowly slid around him, still holding him tight but slowly moving around him till the young one was at his front and the older  at his back.



Kirk felt the older Templar’s arms move up from his waist to under his arms, forcing them up, and simultaneously spreading his legs and holding them in place by slipping his own between and leaning on the wall for support.  The black-haired Templar then dropped to his knees and set to work on unfastening the buckles on pants that lay beneath Kirk’s chainmail top. Meanwhile Kirk’s cries for help were finally silenced by the taste of cold steel as the Templar that held him slid the fingers of his right hand, still sheathed in the metal of his own gauntlets, into the elf’s mouth. Kirk could feel the buckles that bound his pants loosening at the insistence of the green-eyed Templar, and he fought back his terror and building wetness in his eyes as best he could but it did not escape the notice of the brown-haired Templar who was holding him place, and had gagged him with his fingers which were now thrusting in and out of the elf’s mouth slowly.



“Just relax My Lady, we’ll take care of you” whispered the Templar, his breath on the elf’s ear, and then it occurred to Kirk, that if the Templar was that close, he could fight back, if he could just reach…







The Templar holding Kirk gasped in shock as the elf tangled his fingers in his hair, and with what strength he could muster in that position, flung the Templar’s head back causing it to smack loudly on the wall stunning the man briefly, allowing Kirk to wrestle himself from the hold. Just as the younger Templar had nearly undone the final troublesome buckle on Kirk’s pants he found the steel boot of the elf colliding with his face knocking him to the ground. Kirk leaped over the downed Templar and somersaulted on the ground as he landed picking up one of the swords the Templar’s had discarded earlier as he came to a stop. Turning back to face the Templar’s he found the older one no longer stunned and charging towards him and the younger one rolling over onto his stomach preparing to stand up. Kirk launched himself at the advancing older Templar and with a clean swing of the sword decapitated the unarmed Templar; he kicked the headless body out of his way as it began to fall and descended upon the younger one.



“My Lady what is thi-“ was all the black-haired man could say, before Kirk drove the blade into the Templar’s mouth and through the back of his head and into the dead body of the Desire Demon, the man’s head sliding down the blade slowly, coming to a rest on the demon’s breast. Panting, Kirk re-buckled his pants shakily before collecting his shoulder plate, bow and arrows and restoring them to their rightful place on his body. He sincerely hoped that none of the other rooms would be like this.