In Search of a Wolf - The Elves of Fen'Harel Book 1 (Dragon Age)

Shadow

When dawn rose, the team of assassins began their preparations. Laisa asked her old mentor once more if she might come with them, and once again he refused, stalking out of the cave before she could ask him any further questions. Canon and Crunch shrugged at each other.

"Don't ask us." Crunch shrugged, "We know you can fight."

"So what exactly did Harith tell you about me?" Laisa asked Canon and Crunch.

"Oh, he said you were the only apprentice he ever took on. And then he said that you left alongside a few other elves and he never saw you again."

"That's all?" Laisa raised an eyebrow.

"He said that he turned you into a killer against your nature." Canon admitted in a hushed voice. "That he pushed you and pushed you until you couldn't take anymore."

"Harith felt guilty." Crunch said in a surprisingly soft voice. "He said that you were so gentle and kind and by the end of your time with him you were covered in blood, and just...broken."

"I didn't blame him." Laisa looked away. "It hardened me. I've needed that training and those experiences to fortify me."

"I blamed myself." They all jumped. How long had Harith been there? "It's why I left them in the end. After you, and little Lemrian, and Arana and the others left us, it was quiet and you had been my shadow for so many years. The place felt empty, and all I saw in my dreams was your thin, haunted face. I needed to start anew." He gave her a long look, "So stop asking me to pull you into combat, and follow your orders."

Laisa fell silent but stewed in her own irritation as the others left. That was when she made the snap decision to follow.

Harith was slipping, she thought to herself, or he'd have realized she was following them. She had seen the drafted map of the mine and could picture it well enough from their descriptions. Laisa smiled in anticipation as she reached the place. The slaves were kept below ground, but her colleagues had not managed to get down there to scope out the area. Guards patrolled above ground, laughing and joking, while the foreman wandered off to a comfortable cabin.

They were getting ready to drag the slaves out to send them down to the mine when her friends attacked. Canon launched an almighty storm of lightning from her staff. Screams filled the air alongside bangs of thunder. The disconcerting flashes of lights allowed Harith to run into the chaos unseen.

Men began to rush Canon's position but that was when Crunch leapt in, swinging his axe with a roar. Harith had disappeared out of sight. His objective was to plant explosives and collapse the mine, she knew. No one had seen him vanish down the shaft. That was when she spotted the foreman slipping pit and making a run for the tunnel that led down to the slave quarters. She decided to follow. Her colleagues were too enthralled in the battle to notice her: Canon sending lightning bolts continuously from her staff, and Crunch smashing through bodies with peculiar grace for such a big man.

The smell of blood and singed flesh filled the air, and she nearly slipped on grass slick with blood. Down the tunnel she ran, into the darkness. Thick lumpy roots had forced their way from the ceiling and she pushed them aside, hurrying along. At the bottom of the tunnel, the world opened out into a vast cave. Wooden platforms had been constructed across it and mining equipment filled large portions of the space, tables covered in documents and at the back a vast wooden pen, with a roof, thick iron bars crossing it. Within this were dozens of elven slaves in filthy ragged clothing.

The foreman, a heavyset, corpulent man was pouring buckets of oil across the place with frenzied energy. "I'm sorry," He called out to the slaves as he did so. "But they're bringing the mine down and it's more than my life's worth to leave behind evidence or let any of you go free to talk." He tossed a lit candle and one of the wooden platforms burst into flame. He threw another and the ground lit up, the fire spreading at speed, igniting, wood charring and splintering, licked by flame. Smoke billowed, filling the air.