Chapter III: Emissaries of Light

Errusten is purged, and its inhabitants become victims of religious government-sanctioned terrorism. Tally is thrust into the open world.

The axe thumped as it hit the ground. Tally wiped the sweat from her forehead and stretched her neck. She felt her bones pop back into place, the sound echoing into Elof's ears. He laughed through his nose, smiling fondly at her. Their working day was done, and he circled around to the front of the sawmill, more than ready to return home.

"You've got the hard job." Elof said. "Wish being a sawyer was as rewarding as it is challenging, eh?" 

Tally shook her head. "It's honest work. I wouldn't complain about a little more coin," Elof wiggled his eyebrows at her in agreement. "but I don't want to wish for another war." Tally finished. 

"Wouldn't have to wish for a war, just a colder winter." Elof proposed.  

"If we had a colder winter, we'd be starving as well as poor." Tally retorted, hopping down the sawmill ramp to Elof. "I had to kill a deer this morning. Couldn't have done that knee-deep in snow." 

"Killed a deer? Little lawbreaker you are." Elof joked. Poaching laws were in place, strictly speaking. But small, simple Errusten was neither benefitting from, nor threatened by, the laws of the land.

"The Imperials can't eat every mule deer in Tavaun, can they?" Elof and Tally practically skipped across the bridge. Directly forward was Ralnor's cabin, and up the hill to their right was Elof and Lola's. But downhill and to their left, lurking in the darkness behind the trees, were tall, hooded figures with torches in their hands, the stomping sound of their feet travelling over water to Elof and Tally. 

"Tal, go back to the mill. Hide there." Elof ordered, but his words fell on deaf ears. Tally ran straight ahead as fast as her feet would carry her, went inside her home, and barred the door. Ralnor's head shot up at the sound, panic spreading across his face. An axe--the axe Tally had threatened Fawkes with--rested against the wall. Tally grabbed it, and stood in front of the door, axe balanced in her hands, waiting, trembling. 

"Talaedra?" Ralnor croaked. "Talaedra, child, what's frightened you?"

"Hush," Tally whispered over her shoulder. "Don't let them hear you." 

"Them?" Ralnor whispered back. 

"Them." Tally repeated, solemnly looking into her father's eyes. 

They grew closer. Tally heard their feet march toward the door, and then, quieter, heard them pass. Tally inched closer to the door, expecting to hear more feet march away. Instead, a haughty, booming voice sounded from beyond the door.

"By the order of the Emperor, we demand entry!" Echoed an elf's voice. Tally remained silent. She gripped the axe's handle tighter. 

"Open the door willingly, and this will be much easier." He directed. Tally said nothing, taking a few steps backward.

A different pair of feet stomped up to the threshold. "Have it your way, then, heathens!" A new voice yelled. There was a harsh, loud bang, and Tally flinched as the door splintered and fell. The dark cloud of Inquisitors poured into the cabin, ducking under the doorframe, their heads nearly reaching the ceiling. Just at the sight of them, Tally felt as though she were already burning. She screamed at them, the loudest, shrillest cry she could manage, and she swung the axe at the nearest of the elves. She missed them with the sharp head of the axe, but she hit, and kept hitting, until one of the elves managed to snatch the axe from her hands and throw it aside. He grabbed her by the throat instead, lifting her with his one hand, and holding her against the wall. 

The other elves--the taller, stronger elves--all strode to Ralnor, crowding around him before lifting him up unceremoniously and dragging him away. Tally screamed protests and pleas, but none of the elves seemed to notice. Her mind was a swamp of panic and disbelief and "No" that wouldn't cease. She kicked at the elf that restrained her. He only snarled. She threw a blow at his nose, but he barely flinched, and took hold of her wrist, pinning it, too, against the cabin wall. 

Ralnor, who looked now like a weak old man, limp in the arms of elves, allowed himself to be dragged away without protest. I don't want her to remember me, weeping and praying, undignified. I want her to think I was unafraid. His face, marked by exhaustion and framed in auburn, was stoic, and as he was carried past his daughter, he even smiled. 

The elves took Ralnor out the door and downhill, but the elf that held Tally didn't move. He remained, clutching her throat and her wrist, staring at her with disgust. Tally's chin quivered until, finally, she let out a cry of defeat, and sobbed furiously, trapped in the elf's grip. 

"For God's sake, have some dignity." The elf grumbled. 

"Dignity?" Tally hissed. "Do you demand dignity from every family you tear apart?" The elf snorted a laugh. "Do you think your persecution is dignified? Do you think it dignified while you torture us and watch us burn?"

The elf squinted his eyes. "We are the emissaries of Light. We will root out the evil of heresy and witchcraft until all of the heathens of this world are burned. And then," He paused and raised his chin smugly. "Then we will make this world anew. We will bring about a purer, divine age." He seemed to get lost in his fantasy, his face freezing in villainous bliss before souring again as he looked into Tally's eyes. "Elves are the closest creatures to God that you will ever find. But you? You're nothing. Your very creation was a crime against God. You're a half-breed. An abomination."

He saw Tally again begin to panic. It amused him. "You half-breeds are even weaker than men. I could crush the life out of you with one hand."

"Go ahead." Tally challenged. "No one's stopping you." The elf said nothing in reply. Tally snickered. "You can't, can you? They only want my father. Did they even know I existed?" Still, he only stared. "But I'm a loose end, so what'll it be?" His glare became shifty, and his stance less confident. He's bluffing, Tally thought, he'll have to let me go, and then following them will be easy. I'll get Papa back home before sunup. 

All panic and fear subsided, and Tally looked down her nose at the elf in front of her. "What a dreadful life. You're no emissary of Light, you're a lackey, hanging on your master's every word. You have no clue what to do." Tally paused. "I pity you." She said, and it was the most heinous insult she could have possibly put together.

The elf looked into her eyes then, and, snarling, he tightened his grip on Tally's throat. Tally raised her free hand to her throat and tried to claw his hand away, but his fingers only squeezed harder, and after a moment, Tally went slack.

He let go of her and allowed her to fall to the floor. He walked backwards slowly, still staring at the girl, waiting for her eyes to open, hoping she would move, but she remained motionless. In a fit of paranoia, he ran, not bothering to close the door, and left Errusten as quickly and quietly as he could.

When Tally finally came to, she was alone, on the floor, slumped against the wall. I couldn't have been out for much longer than a minute, could I? The cold wind blew in from the open doorway. I saw stars when I went. He must have thought I was dead. What an idiot. Tally peeled herself from the wall and stood on shaky legs, body weaving back and forth. The fire was low, but Tally could still make out the lantern near the door. She lit the lantern and took it with her outside. 

Tally could not see the torches of the inquisitors, nor could their footprints be seen in the dimly lit grass. Looking south, towards to road, it was blacker than pitch, so she turned north, where Elof and Lola lived uphill. They'll help, Tally thought, They'll help me get my father back. Maybe they heard the men, maybe they're already planning together. She ran up the tall, steep hill.

Tally smelled the house before she saw it, and once she saw it, she ran faster. Her friends' home was cloaked in a shroud of flames. Elof stood in front of his burning home, a black sillhouette against the brilliant flickering gold. Elof fell to his knees in a fit of sobs. He screamed. 

Tally ran to him. "Where's Lola?" She all but wailed. "Did they do this?" 

Elof looked up at Talaedra from where he sat, sunken and defeated on the grass, streaks of tears shining in the light from the fire. "They took her. Those damned kidnappers, came all the way from the Empire. Took my wife. Burned my home." He cursed through gritted teeth. Talaedra, silently, let her pooling tears fall as well. She was no longer numb, nor bereft, she was angry. This was a purge, she realized. 

"They took my father." Tally fumed. "I want to find them."

Elof gave a short, cold laugh. "I want to find them, too, girl, but they're gone." He stood and wiped his face on his sleeve. "You should leave Errusten. And... take a weapon with you. Those men are going to come back for us. For all of us. We're loose ends."

"What about you?" Tally asked, complaining. 

"I'll be waiting when the fuckers who took my wife come back."

Tally nodded, and took one last look at the burning cabin before rushing back downhill. The air was thick with the smoke from wood and paper and plants.

Tally ran back home, lantern still in hand. She thought of where she could go, where she would be safe. She was too old for an orphanage, unsafe in the nearest hamlets, too far from the cities. If she was presumed dead--and she was certain she was--then she would be safest using a different name. Then, she remembered; I have lots of those. 

She had found the list once by accident, when she was new to reading, excellent at rooting through drawers. She opened the drawer now, and found the list still there, untouched. Tally unfolded it, and felt a chill go through her spine.

Talaedra

Tallis

Talyse

Talia

Talyn

The list continued, most of the names ridiculous, but some simple. "Tallis," she said aloud. That's who I am now. She left the list in the drawer. She would only do this once.

She still had to hide. Anonymity. Safety in numbers. A place the Empire can't find me. That's what she needed, if she was to live long enough to get Ralnor back. She only knew one person outside Errusten.

She would find the thieves.

Author's Note

Tallis's name is attributed to the Tudor/Elizabethan-era composer Thomas Tallis, not the Dragon Age: Redemption character.