Opposites Road

With the dawn came the realization that they had survived. The battle itself was terrifying, only Shale could possibly claim to not fear for her life that night. The psyche up that Ealisay had given herself and her men drained after midnight. After that Ealisay was content to merely survive with her sanity intact. Her body ached with the heft of her shield, the Cousland arms covered in blood and her person covered in gore. When the sun hit her body she let go a deep breath and collapsed against the nearest barricade. Major whined softly and lay next to his mistress. Shale looked around nonchalantly and then down at her.

"What an exciting change of pace." she replied. "Instead of killing live things we're killing dead things. Hmm."

Even sober the men kept to their wits and their plan. Shoot the first thing that came out of the shadows and don't step into the shadows themselves. Ealisay never noticed in the fighting that Bann Teagan wasn't participating in the fighting. She hoped his excuse was oversleeping and not cowardice. The villagers looked up to him and he was pissing his knickers in the chantry with the womenfolk. She tried to wipe away some of the gore from her face but merely smeared it to her lips. She spit it out of her mouth and then looked around the center.

"We lose anyone?" she asked loudly.

"No my lady." came the reply. "Murdock is checking on the knights."

The doors to the chantry opened and Bann Teagan and Mother Hannah came out. The two elders were slightly disgusted by the appearance of so many body parts laying around. Behind them slipped out the rest of the villagers, one young woman running off to a nearby house. Teagan's gaze continued over to her and he started down the steps towards her.

"You—you did it." he said in amazement. "You are truly a paragon of your house. We are in you debt."

"Teagan, I'm going to ask this as nice as possible." she started and looked up at him with piercing gaze. "Where is the secret entrance to the castle? Show me now so that I can find out what's going on."

"Alright, I will tell you. I didn't tell you because I thought you would go into the castle and the men needed a strong warrior to lead them." he said quietly and knelt down in front of her and handed her his signet ring. "It is in the Mill my ring will open the lock."

"Thank you." she smiled sadly and strained to get to her feet.

He stood with her and cleared his throat. "I will have Perth and his knights waiting at the castle gates. So you can have help when you make your way to the front gates."

"Right." she deftly lifted Major's head with her foot. "Come on slug lets go." Major yawned as he got to his feet.

"Maker watch over you." Teagan replied as Ealisay and her companions trudged up the hill towards the Mill.

"So we are going to the castle, are we?" Shale asked as they topped the first hill. "Surely we've splattered enough of those things that they could finish them off."

"Apparently not," Ealisay replied tiredly. "Lets just get this day over with. I smell like a graveyard and feel like I'm covered in pond scum."

"You look like you've been rolling around in a butcher shop." Shale replied. "You could always dunk yourself in the lake."

Ealisay grimaced at the thought of rolling around in meat and shook her head. "I don't know if you're going to fit into this tunnel of theirs."

"So I'm not going with you?" Shale asked slightly put out of not going through the castle slaughtering monsters.

Ealisay could hear the pout and smiled. "Of course you are. I'm only joking."

"Glad to hear it."

Major barked excitedly as they were met by the Knights. All had made it through and they bowed deeply when they saw her. Perth came closer to her, studying her and her companions. "My lady you made it through. Maker be praised."

"Yes indeed, ser and I see as did you and your knights." she replied gesturing to the men slouched against the crates nearest the cliff.

"Thanks to you," he replied.

"Look! From the castle!" a knight shouted and they turned to see a woman in noble clothing and a guard, untouched by whatever plagued their friends.

"My Lady Isolde!" Perth gasped and bowed. "We had feared you had perished in the castle."

The woman looked up at Perth with a heaving chest. "No, some us have been spared." she replied in a thick Orlesian accent. "Is Teagan here? I must speak to him."

"He is down with the rest of the villagers." Ealisay replied. "Major go fetch Bann Teagan." she turned back to the Lady as Major ran off to do as she said. "Since you've been in the castle you can tell what exactly is going on and don't sugar coat it."

"Your impudence-"

"Listen, Lady I've been up all night fighting creatures I have no idea on how they came to being plus trying to save your husband's life." Ealisay let her exasperation show. "Now what happened to cause this? I'm guessing a demonic possession."

Isolde looked bereft and hung her head in shame. "It is Connor, my son. He has become something else since my husband took ill. There was a mage I hired to tutor Connor... He was poisoning Eamon I think he might have done this."

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The mention of a mage made Ealisay's ears perk up. "A mage to tutor your son? Why? There are plenty of chantry scholars willing to die to tutor an arl's son."

"Connor has shown aptitude... for magic."

Ealisay shook her fists to the sky in irritation. "By the Maker, woman!" her anger deflated when she saw the incredible sadness in the woman's face. Isolde knew she had caused this mess. "There are so many things I could say... I'd give you a hug but I'm covered in corpse stuff."

"I was just trying to protect my son! I didn't know-" Isolde started to cry.

Ealisay softened. "Oh, now none of that." she cooed and went over to Isolde.

The woman immediately clung to her, drying gore and all. Ealisay patted the older woman's back and looked up helplessly at Perth. The knight pointed to the path and Ealisay craned her head to see Teagan coming with Major prancing beside him.

"Isolde?" the man asked as he came closer.

Isolde looked up at the man and let go of Ealisay. "Teagan, you are alright. I had feared that they might have killed you. It is Connor, he has done something."

Ealisay looked over at the vista of the castle from the cliff and then back to the two relations. "I'm going in."

"Please, don't hurt my son," Isolde pleaded. "Teagan you must come back with me to the castle, alone. Connor always loved you. He might listen to you."

"No." Ealisay snapped. "You are both staying here."

Isolde frowned. "Who are you to say that?"

"Someone who isn't emotionally attached to the situation." she thought for a moment. "Where is this mage you hired to teach Connor?"

"He is in the dungeon."

"I'll be right back." she replied and started for the Mill. "I promised a man I'd find his daughter."

As she opened the door to the Mill she turned back to them. "Don't do anything stupid while I'm gone."

She let Shale and Major go in first before she slammed the door shut behind her. The tunnel was on the opposite end of the Mill from the Ashes hiding place and it was thankfully wide enough for Shale to fit into. The distance from the Mill to the Castle was a large one and Ealisay struggled to see in the darkness. Luckily, as with most tunnels for escaping, this one did not fork off into other directions. Major kept point sniffing the air with his sensitive nose while Shale kept to the back. The end of the tunnels led to a doorway into the dungeons.

The mage was still in his cell as evidence of the trio of corpses attacking the last cell on the left. Major charged at the attackers and brought one down by the throat. Ealisay rushed over and brought the other two down with her shield and swipe of her sword. Major made sure they didn't get back up.

"H-how did you get in here?" the mage, young and human, asked anxiously.

"Through the tunnel." Ealisay replied gesturing in the direction of said tunnel. "You're the mage the arlessa hired." It wasn't so much a question as point of knowledge. She knew who he was and he couldn't lie to her. "One that poisoned Arl Eamon."

"Yes but I didn't want to-"

"I don't give a good god damn, mage." she cut him off with a raise of her hand. "What is wrong with the arlessa's son? Is he possessed? What?"

The mage thought for a moment and nodded. "He is very vulnerable to the Fade as an untrained mageling."

"If I let you out, will you stay in the village and figure a way to free him? I have no intention of letting any more people die because of it so killing him is out of the question."

"Yes, I feel terrible about my part in this I thought Loghain would help me get free of the templars." he said sadly and rubbed his face with both hands. "But he's abandoned me too."

Ealisay nodded. "I'm guessing the jailer is dead?" the mage nodded. She looked over at Shale. "Shale, be a dear and break off that door."

Shale sighed and stepped infront of her. The golem grabbed the iron bars and with a massive jerk ripped the door out of the hinges so that the door swung opposite from the way it was designed to.

The mage eyed Shale warily as she stepped away from the cell and behind Ealisay. He started for the tunnel but Ealisay grabbed his arm to stop him.

"Yeah no you're coming with me first."

"But you said-" he sputtered his eyes wide.

"Yes and we'll go as a group but first I promised the blacksmith I'd find his daughter and you know the castle better then I do. I need to find a maid named Valena."

He sighed and nodded. "If she isn't dead then she is on the lower levels, hiding."

"Do you need a staff to use your abilities?" she asked since he was a mage and he did not have a staff she could not be sure if he would much use.

"No the staff is just a tool." he started and then realized her patience was thing after all the fighting and that was all he needed to say.

"Alright then." she replied and started her way to finding one maid.

There were a few decaying bodies laying on the dungeon's floor and she made sure to remove the heads from the bodies to be sure. The maker would forgive her of this precaution. Up the stairs were more of the creatures as they wound around the castle's chapel and armory. Ealisay had half a mind to raid the armory just to spite Isolde. She stopped the train of thought and shook herself. Over the night she had gotten spiteful for those she was helping. Andraste calm her she had a purpose in helping these peopl.

Through a couple of rooms she was attacked by the creatures and in another room they were beset by deranged mabari and thankfully the mage was handling things quite well considering. They reached the First floor hallway that led to the kitchens and staff rooms. The hall was boobied trap with a crude tripwire that was easily removed from service but she made enough noise to cause more corpses to come after them. Shale and the mage were making quick work and after searching the first to rooms to find silence the third was opened to a terrified woman screaming bloody murder.

"Be silent!" Ealisay snapped slapping her hand over the girl's mouth. "You're safe."

The girl relaxed slightly. "Thank the Maker. They sent someone to help us."

"What is your name?" Ealisay asked wearily.

"Valena, I'm the arlessa's maid." the girl replied.

"Thank goodness." Ealisay replied and smiled reassuringly at the girl. "I came to find you for your father. Now come, we're getting out of here- fast."

She took the girl's hand and they retarced their battles through the castle and back to the tunnel. The young maid followed close behind her savior, giving Shale and the mage wary glances. Shale was probably the strangest...second strangest thing she had ever seen in her life. The tunnel was just as oppressive leaving as it was arroving and the sunlight that greeted them made her blind for a second.

Teagan and Perth were waiting for her with Owen wringing his hands like a worried fishwife. Valena cried out and ran to her father who opened his arms to his little girl and hugged her to his chest. He looked up at Ealisay with tears brimming his old, and now sober eyes. Ealisay couldn't help but wish someone would do that to her.

"You brought him with you?" Teagan's harsh question ripped her out of her daydreaming. "He poisoned my brother and caused all of this."

"But he might know how to save Connor without killing anybody," she turned back to the mage and put her hands on her hips. "Correct?"

"Well the way you think would take more mages and lots of lyrium." the mage answered woefully. "There isn't time to get these things together."

"Why?"

"You would need to go to the Circle and ask them for help."

Ealisay turned to Teagan. "What's the fastest way to the Circle from here?"

"Teagan frowned. "A day's sail on the fastest ship."

Ealisay pursed her lips in thought and then nodded. "Do you a "fast ship" available?"

Teagan looked over the cliff and then back at her. "Yes, it is in the harbor and can be ready within the day if need be. You're going to go to the Circle?"

"Yes." she came over to him and placed a hand on his shoulder. "You and the Arlessa are needed here for the people and the knights and can help watch over..." she gestured to the mage. "I can also bring the Mages faster by ship."

"Jowan." Teagan offered. "I will inform the captain of the departure."

Dried bits of gore flaked off her chest. "I really need to get out of this armor." she grumbled walking away from the group and made a note to visit the tavern. Now.

"Why are we still helping these people?" Shale asked as they crossed the bridge towarge the tavern.

"Arl Eamon," replied. "We have to get to the Arl and this is the only way I can see to do so."

"I see." Shale said nothing else.

The group of men that had fought with her and had family to return to were drinking with over flowing mugs when she came in. They greeted her with a cheer and raised their mugs at her. She made her way over to the tavern keeper and leaned on the bar.

"What can I do for you, my lady?" he asked putting down the wet rag he was using to wipe the counter.

A bath and clean pair of clothes if you've got it." she replied with a halfhearted smile and shrug. "If not then an ale."

The bigger man smiled warmly and bent down to retrieve something from underneath the counter. It was a small, delivate bottle and an equally delicate stemmed glass. "For you I think regular ale is not something you deserve and as for the bath? Just worry about drinking as much as this as you can and it shall be ready for you."

Ealisay gave him a thankfull smile and took his offering over to a table of to a deserted corner. Major trotted over to the table next to her and sat, like a proud guardian of ancient relic. The drink the keeper had given her was full and fruity with a hint of nuts that reminded her of spice cakes. She took delicate little sips as she had been taught to do with such and beverage. The drink warmed her, softened her until she was lounging back in her chair and rubbing Major's ears.

The men left her be and it was nearly and hour before the keeper came over to her again. "Your room awaits you. Last door on the left." he replied quietly. "I will have my barmaid bring something up for you to eat. The drink is yours to keep. It is made to take on the road for long trips."

Ealisay smiled up at him and pushed herself to stand. "Thank you." Major stalked after her giving the men who watched her languid movements and warning glare.

The bath was heaven against her body, easing her aches, cleansing her mind and washing away the horrors she had produced the night before. The large stone tub was hidden behind a screen so that the bather could not be seen by the passersby or other users of the room. As she brought soap against its age old advesary, filth, her mind figured out how she should approach the Circle and her request for ther aid.

"What do you think, Major?" she asked out loud. "I know I should be respectful. Mages should be respected for all that power. Except for that Jowan character I don't think I shall respect that man. I should haul him with me and hand him over to circle. Probably help with making the negotiations a little easier." she sighed and started to wash her hair. "This is getting a little complicated but if the Arl could help me get back at Howe then its worth it."

There was a knock on the door. "My lady?" a young woman's voice called from the other side of the door. "I brought you the things you asked for and a plate from the kitchens."

Ealisay straigthened in the tub. "Come in!" she called hopefully the girl could hear her. The door opened and closed and there was shadow of a woman against the screen. "Do you need any assistance?" the girl asked.

"No, but thank you, dear." she answered politely.

"No, thank you." the woman replied. "For everything." There was a loaded silence. "My Lady? May ask a question?"

"Yes?" Ealisay couldn't think of another way to agree without sounding snobbish.

"Are you going to marry Bann Teagan?"

The question made Ealisay's eyebrows shoot up her forehead. "What makes you ask that?"

"Well a fe wof us came out of the Chantry behind him and we saw him get on his knees before you and he gave you his ring."

Eailsay blinked a few times in confusion. Then the picture of what the woman was talking about blurred into view and she snorted. "No, dear he gave me the signet ring to open a secret tunnel into the castle so I might recover something. I have no more interest in marrying the Bann than I am to fight more of those things."

"Oh," the tone was regretful. "It would have been very romantic if you towo did fall in love and marry. The two heroes of Redcliffe and a wonderful wedding."

Ealisay couldn't help but chuckle as she rinsed off and climbed out of the tub. "That is very romantic but sometimes those stories don't have a happy ending." she wrapped a towel around her torso that covered all of her naughty bits and stepped around the screen to face the girl. "Thank you for the food and clothing. I think I can handle this by myself."

The girl curtsyed slightly and scurried out of the room. She was probably going to gossip with the other women on what she said about the rumor. Ealisay looked down at the dress and food the girl brought and sighed. Complicated was not the word for the insanity she had stepped into. Atleast she was clean.