Restricted information (Alarian)

Everybody's favorite Warden Messanger + Regalia are back this time with an incredibly confused awestruck Alistair.

“Alistair, did I ever tell you about the origins of the chantry?” I ask to Alistair who sits opposite me too absorbed in eating his dinner to notice my presence. I repeat the question twice more with no response. Getting tired of repeating myself I throw a soft cloth at his head. “What?” he looks at me and puts down his spoon. “I’ve been repeating myself for the past five minutes. Do you want to hear about the chantry and how it began?” He shrugs and puts the now empty bowl away before coming back and sitting down “Sure.” I quickly summon Liz to assist me and grab an old, and rather dusty, book from the top shelf of the library. I place the book on the table “What’s that?” he asks leaning over and trying to read the cover but fails as it”s written in Elvish, a language he can only barely speak. “Stuff the Chantry won’t tell you.” I explain and flip through trying to find the correct page. Liz stops my hand and points to a bolded title, there it is. “Don’t tell Leliana I’m showing you this. More importantly don’t tell the inquisitor or she will probably kill me...again.” Alistair nods slowly in agreement. “Once, a long time ago, the maker created the fade and with it the spirits. After the spirits he created Thedas and the world of Men, but his discontented spirits grew jealous and whispered into the ears of these new creations. The old magisters used this knowledge the fade beings taught them to enter the golden city, and thus destroyed it and were sent back, twisted and cruel, a terrible form of life. The first Darkspawn. According to the modern chantry Andastrate succeeded in an uprising against the “False Gods” of the imperium alone, but that is not the case. And that is why I tell you this in hushed whispers when no one is around, as there was another, an elf by the name of Shartan who lead a rebellion and allied with she who would become the bride of the maker, but she betrayed him, to his death. The chantry teaches that all those who do not follow are to suffer in darkness when they die, but this too, is not the case.” Alistair looks at me with wide eyes and interrupts me then “How do you know, how do you know that?” he asks looking at Liz and I in some confusion. “You’re talking to an incarnate spirit and their regalia how else would we know except it’s our reality.” Liz says with an overly dramatic sigh. “Perhaps I’ll just show you.” I tell him to stand and grab his hand “Close your eyes.” I cast a spell and the three of us disappear in a flash of light.

“Open your eyes Alistair. Just be careful it’s bright.” We stand outside the gates of heaven. AListair looks around in fear “Am I dead?” he asks pointing to himself. “No you’re not dead you idiot I brought you here because I want to show you something we’ll be back home in less than hour calm down.” He stops trembling and takes a breath. “Okay. Let’s make this quick.” I give him a quick grin and walk over to the gate “P’tuha hei shah-ahar!” the gatekeeper looks over the wall from his tower “Oh it’s you!” I wave “Shalom Shoer! how are you? It’s been a while.” The gates open and I lead Alistair inside and over to Shoer, the gatekeeper. “It sure has been a long time, what brings you up?” he says with a sigh and a smile “Showing a friend of mine the ruins.” Shoers expression darkens “Y-you’re not actually going over there, are you?” I shake my head rapidly “Oh heck no I’m not setting foot anywhere near it ever again.” He waves to Liz whos standing behind me explaining things to Alistair. “Well I best be getting back to my post. Nice to see you again, Messenger.” He bids us goodbye and returns to the tower. I lead Alistair further in past groups of elven spirits long since dead, their overseers, and the accompanying regalia. Liam runs up to us out of breathe with Emile following shortly after “You- You really got to stop getting into fights with people Alarian. We can’t keep up!” Liz clasps her hands in annoyance and gives me a slight nudge at my misbehavior. Emile seconds Liams statement. “Uh...Sorry?” Both of them give me a less than pleased look and show me their shared desk which is almost overflowing with paperwork, most of it I later find out is either more information regarding The Herald of Andastrate, also known as The Inquisitor, Marien Jade, and her motives or complaints about me coming from people I’ve worked with in the past. I notice a file marked classified laying on top of one of the piles “Restricted information?” Emile hands me the file “For your eyes only.” I take it and slip it under my cloak, I’ll read it later. In the mean time, I still have to do what I came here in the first place for. “Follow me.” The trio, and Alistair follow me to the edges of the dominion, and what was the gold city comes into view. “Tell no one of what you see here, am I understood?” I ask sternly and Alistair nods. The ruins of a great kingdom now sit twisted, charred and black as the oncoming cover of night with no stars to light the way. “The Maker used to live there, with Andastrate at his side. The bride of the Maker in the golden halls. But then the Magister's came, jealous and cruel. And they're cruelty and malice poisoned the city, turning it into what stands before you. A ruin and the downfall of Men.” Alistair stands breathless next to me, staring at the black city. “What happened to the Maker and Andastrate? Where are they?” I point to my left to a small dot in the distance. “They live there now. I would call them forward but...I’ll save that for later. You will meet them one day, and have free will to go between here and there as you please. One of the benefits of being half elven and half human.” I turn and give him a small slightly pained smile. “I have not been there in a long time. Maybe one day…” I trail off “We should go home.” I begin walking towards the gates once more and Alistair walks quickly to keep up with me. “Are you three coming to dinner? Zevran made Latkes the other night and there's leftovers.” Though I don't see it happen I know Emmie and Liam looked at each other before running off towards us, Liz came at the word dinner. These three will never pass up food, especially when they don't have to cook. I take Alistair's hand when outside the gate and the two of us show up in our living room again. “How did you look that little tour? Fun to learn some secret information?” He shrugs “I mean it was rather dark but...interesting. Thanks for that, I guess.” And with that he goes off to do his own thing. I gather the others and we spread the documents of the file out on my bedroom floor. Well this is interesting, it seems I’ve got some new “bargaining” information on the inquisitor. Emmie was right when she said it was “Restricted information”. I'll need to keep this well hidden...

I wrote this over the past week while I was home sick and board out of my mind. 

I hope you liked it!

Until next time,

Max