Chapters: 26/26 Fandom: Dragon Age: Origins, Dragon Age (Video Games) Rating: Mature Warnings: Major Character Death, Graphic Depictions Of Violence Relationships: Zevran Arainai/Female Mahariel, Female Mahariel/Tamlen (Dragon Age), Female Mahariel & Female Surana, Female Mahariel & Male Tabris, Female Mahariel & Morrigan (Dragon Age) Characters: Female Mahariel (Dragon Age), Zevran Arainai, Male Tabris (Dragon Age), Female Surana (Dragon Age), Female Amell (Dragon Age), Sten (Dragon Age), Morrigan (Dragon Age), Alistair (Dragon Age), Jowan (Dragon Age), Tamlen (Dragon Age) Additional Tags: Multiple Wardens (Dragon Age), Dalish Origin, Dragon Age: Origins Quest - Nature of the Beast, POV Mahariel, Survivor Guilt, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Complicated Relationships, Canon-Typical Violence, Suicidal Thoughts, Death Wish, Childhood Trauma, Grief/Mourning, Background Relationships, Minor Alistair/Morrigan (Dragon Age), Minor Surana/Amell, Blood Magic (Dragon Age) Series: Part 6 of We Few Against The Wind Summary:

Months after Ostagar, Lythra Mahariel is traveling and fighting alongside the contentious group of Grey Wardens, battling the Blight in spite of her despair over Tamlen's death and resentment at being torn from her clan. She decides to break away from Alistair's quest to save the Arl, in order to venture into the Brecilian searching for the Dalish - taking Tabris, Surana, Amell, Sten, and Zevran with her. What she finds there may destroy her, or set her free.

“It’s not the healing, so much, that I’m worried about. I just want to know if you can control my mind with this… entropy stuff.”

“Why would you ask such a thing? I would never. You are not my enemy.”

He looked at her dubiously. It did not seem like Morrigan to have such scruples. If mind control was the most expeditious way to get what she wanted from someone, friend or foe, he was sure she could come up with a way to excuse it. A way to make it seem entirely reasonable. After all, if a fool was weak minded enough, twas their fault if they were easily controlled, was it not? The thought came into his mind in her voice, her cadence. She hardly needed a spell to live in his mind.

Truth be told he’d always been deathly afraid of mind control, ever since the first time he’d learned about it at the Chantry. As a templar in training it was ground into him that mages would try to manipulate and control him, and half of templar training was practicing resistance to such things. For years he’d carried a protective carm, a small worry stone, but he wasn’t entirely sure that it was effective. He’d gotten if from another templar initiate, slightly older than himself but no more than a child as well, who swore it was protection against mind control.

The question wasn’t really whether or not Morrigan could mind control him, but whether or not she would try. And after their argument in Honnleath and the coldness that had become a wall between them, she might have reason to try to break his will by force of seduction and magic. He couldn’t be sure that she hadn’t done that… and the doubt was maddening. He wanted to trust her. He couldn’t.

We Few Against The Wind

This is the master-list for my current WiP Dragon Age series. Will update.

[Spotify Playlist]

I didn’t forget about this fic. Just trying to replay DAO as a mage for inspiration and since I hate DAO’s actual game mechanics it’s slow going.