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HAS THIS EVER HAPPENED TO YOU?!

You have isolated your victim to study it at length, seeking to become them. You are nearly satisfied you know your chosen subject, ready to take on its form, leaving the poor soul to rot. You crave bottomlessly to be more, more powerful, more skilled, more inspired, and being them will be so much more interesting.

They will tell you what they think, they will tell you what they feel, they will tell you what they see. Are all these shapes useful? Will they let you know them? Will they tell you more about them?

For you must see more. You have not yet seen enough. You must rise--

--to the occasion at the

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Jowan wasn't quite sure what had happened. One moment he'd been in the dungeons of Redcliff - dark, dank, and frankly quite full of horrible things even before the dead had started rising - and he'd been fairly certain that sooner or later one of the walking corpses was going to rip the door down and kill him if he wasn't lucky enough to starve to death before then and then...

And then he was here, in a hallway full of white marble and elegant pillars and light that made him squint after that dungeon, and he wondered if maybe he'd died already and hadn't noticed somehow. Or if this was some sort of merciful hallucination before the inevitable death. That would be nice at least, he'd had quite enough of the dungeon and everything that had happened, was happening still he supposed, in it.

So he wandered rather vaguely through the hallway, looking up at everything and deciding that it wasn't a bad hallucination, though it did make it all the more obvious how grimy he was and how long it'd been since he had a bath. Or a bed. Or a meal. So while the pillars and everything were nice, he did wish that whatever this was had involved a delicious meal instead.

It didn't stop him from wandering further, however, turning down a hallway with a sort of vague curiosity as he figures this likely isn't real and will probably end one way or another soon, so he may as well see what it brings. He wasn't expecting to see another person though, and stopped to stare at them in surprise and slowly building suspicion. He'd thought that this was simply a trick of his own mind, but it occurs to him now that it could also be a trick of the Fade instead, some last attempt to get him to agree to something to save his own life, which sounds much more believable really.

"All right, you may as well get on with it," he said after a moment, sounding rather put-upon at this point. "What's it going to be? Everything will be all right if I just use a little bit of blood magic? Just get possessed for a few moments? I'm not that stupid you know."

What?

"What?" Alistair gapes at the strange man who just decided to wander up, stare at him for a bit and then start talking about blood magic of all things. That's not exactly the sort of reaction he's used to. Even in the crazy, magic mansion where nothing makes sense and everyone from Thedas seems to know him on sight.

After a too long moment he manages to remember how to talk, offering in a strained tone, "I would really appreciate it if you didn't use blood magic. Ever. Please. Or get possessed. Don't do that either."

Why is he- Why would he even- He must be new but that has to be one of the weirdest reactions Alistair has ever seen.

Shaking his head he shifts back a little, getting some distance between him and the slightly worrying new mage. "Just so you know - I'm not a demon." Sure, he can understand how someone - anyone, mage or not - could come to the conclusion that they're stuck in the Fade. But how could he be a demon? He's much too charming for that. Or too big of an idiot, that could be it too.

Jowan stares for a few moments as well, thrown off just as much by the other man's reaction as the stranger seems to be by him. Honestly, he'd rather like to believe him that he's not a demon and this isn't the Fade and a last minute attempt to possess him, but that would only lead to more confusing questions about where he actually is and what this place is, and demons just makes far more sense.

"Well if you were a demon, you wouldn't outright tell me if you wanted to be sneaky about it, would you?" he pointed out reasonably, trying to sound as though he knew exactly what demons were like. In truth, he'd never met one in the Fade before, just the walking corpses around the place which hadn't been particularly sneaky or talkative.

But from everything he'd learned, demons tried to trick mages into accepting deals with them, and one of the easier ways to do that had to be by pretending not to be a demon. It stood to reason, didn't it?

"Sure, that's a good point. I would say I wasn't a demon if I was one trying to trick you. But I'd also say it if I wasn't a demon. I mean, going 'yes I am a demon and I have you now mwahaha!' isn't going to convince you I'm not one."

This argument needs some kind of name. The 'demon paradox' maybe. Or the 'it's impossible to convince someone you're not a demon' problem. Which is a problem because he really doesn't know how to prove he's not a demon. Except by just... not possessing the mage in front of him. But that's sort of a long way to go about it.

The whole uncertainty isn't helped by the niggling sense of familiarity Alistair gets the longer he looks at the other man. He's sure he's seen his face somewhere before, but where?

A Ferelden mage, talking about blood magic and possession. It's not exactly unexpected, given what happened at the Circle. Maybe that's it. A survivor from the tower. ...And that reminds him of something that might help prove he's not a demon. Maybe.

"Look, I got trapped in the Fade by a demon once myself and it gave us all these nice dreams so we'd want to stay. Does this look like the sort of thing a demon would try and keep you trapped with?"

Jowan blinks at the question, looks around at their surroundings, taking in the clean brightness of it all, then looks back at the other man. "Yes, actually."

He gestures around at them, indicating everything that they could see and the implied grandeur beyond. "This place isn't a cell in a dungeon and there's no bars to stop me from leaving. If there was a meal here as well, maybe a bath, then this would be exactly like something a demon would create to keep me trapped."

Jowan rubs at his arms absently, and while his stomach has been empty for so long that he doesn't really feel hungry any more, the idea of food does suddenly sound rather good.

"So you can see why I'm not really believing that this isn't too good to be true, can't you?"

The last time she'd seen the mage had been, of course, in Redcliffe. Jowan, the blood mage imprisoned for poisoning Arl Eamon at Loghain's request, standing a distance away in one of Wonderland's halls. The Warden stops dead, heart pounding. He'd seemed penitent enough when last they met, more afraid than anything, and he'd also been the one to step into the Fade and save Conner. Though his fate had been left to the Circle when they departed, she felt he'd at least begun to work to make up for the immense horrors that had befallen the castle.

"Jowan, isn't it?" Robyn Cousland steps forward, encouraged by the dagger at her hip and the mabari that trots at her side. If he's going to attack, be it out of confusion or what have you, she'll be at least marginally prepared.

Briefly, she wishes she understand more about the abilities of those wielding blood magic, because she has little to no concept of what he might be able to do to her.

"Warden Cousland," she begins, a hand at her chest, tentatively engaging in a civil conversation with a man who'd acted for their enemy. "We met at Redcliffe, though the circumstances were dire."

The chances he would even remember her are slim; would that be better, or worse, in this case?

"I can explain what's happened to you, I... imagine you're more than a little confused by all this."

That's at least a little more what he'd expected of a demon, that it would at least know his name, but he's never heard of them walking with mabari before and that makes him all me more concerned that maybe this is something else, and if this isn't the Fade and she's not a demon, then where is he?

But whatever the answer might be, Jowan takes another step back as the woman advances, acutely aware that she's got at least one weapon and a very large dog and he's a mage who spent the last who knows how long locked up in a dungeon.

He stops moving and pales further beneath the grime as she mentions Redcliffe and his hands immediately come up in a defensive gesture. "It's not my fault! I know Lady Isolde thinks that it is, but I had nothing to do with those corpses or anything, you have to believe me!"

No, not the Fade, and not a demon, though she's prepared to explain just the same way she's told the story a dozen times. Having been one of the earlier arrivals from Thedas to Wonderland has provided her the opportunity to offer the unbelievable truth of where they are and what it means for them.

"I know." Some of it is his fault, and she has an inherent dislike of anyone working for Loghain, but she'd learned a lot about the mage in their short time in each other's company. And... he had managed to save both Conner and Isolde, though he'd been coerced into it.

"You don't remember me, but I know what happened." More or less. "Redcliffe is safe, now; the Arl has recovered and his son is no longer possessed."

Thanks to not only Jowan's part in the story, but many others.

"But, this isn't Ferelden anymore," she says, offering the smallest, most wary of smiles. "As you've likely realized."

"You... you do?" That makes Jowan stop short and he stares in confusion for a moment. He hadn't expected an answer like that; he'd just assumed that anyone who knew what had happened in Redcliffe and his role in it would, entirely understandably, think he deserved a good deal of what he got. Or think, as Lady Isolde had, that he'd been responsible and lying about it.

His eyebrows raise higher as the warden continues speaking and it almost sounds too good to be true. "The Arl isn't dead? And Connor... he's all right?"

Uncertain, Jowan looks between her and the dog, half wondering if this was all going to turn into some sort of dream in a moment and he'd wake up back in that cell again.

"I don't know where this is, or who you are. What you say sounds like a dream, a way I wish everything would turn out. But how would I know if any of this were real? You could just be a part of the Fade making me feel better before those corpses get through the door and kill me."

"You know the Fade better than I do," Robyn offers, shrugging lightly. "Does it feel like a dream?"

She had thought something similar, when she'd first arrived, as had many others from Thedas. Unfortunately, or fortunately, depending on what you thought of the place, Wonderland is real. It feels differently than her dreams, she thinks, though, perhaps most disturbingly, there is no connection to the Fade in the place. Another of its endless mysteries.

"I do know that you practice blood magic," she adds, almost sternly. "And though Connor's possession wasn't directly your doing, I also know how the Arl came to fall ill." They'd found Jowan in a cell, after all, and he'd been more than willing to share his story with them in hopes of freeing himself before being killed by demons (or any other dangerous passers-by). "I don't know why you first started it, but you can't continue that here, not when so many people might be put into danger."

For a much younger woman, she's sounding more and more like Wynne, these days.

"I don't practice it!" Jowan protests immediately, backing away again, half afraid that this warden will likely take matters into her own hands here. He doesn't know if the wardens are anything like templars when it comes to magic, but he can't imagine many people forgiving blood magic. "I swear, I don't use it any more! Please, I don't know what you've really heard about me or from whom, but I'm not like that."

Maker, this whole conversation makes his head spin and Jowan takes another step back, this time towards a pillar to lean against. He's not even certain if any of this is real after all that had happened to him, if the woman before him is a demon or as she claims and how she came by her knowledge, and the combination of sudden change, confusion, and everything that had happened to him in Redcliffe leaves him feeling more than a little light-headed.

"I've learned my lesson, I swear," he mumbles. "Can I please just wake up now?"

No; fortunately for Jowan, the Wardens are more likely to look the other way on blood magic than the templars. Though she has her own opinions about it, of course, their order has to make difficult choices and take unfavorable routes to protect from darkspawn. If it involves blood magic...

Well, it hasn't come to that yet. Thankfully.

"I'm not going to hurt you," she says firmly, not growing any closer so as not to startle the mage. "But there are some who may try, if they've heard of your reputation. My advice is to keep your head down, particularly if you have, in fact, stopped using it."

For his sake (and she's thinking of both Cullen and the elf, Fenris, here), she hopes that he's abandoned that particular branch of magic.

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Jowan | Dragon Age Origins

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