Chapter Text
It took a lot less time for Alistair to get home than it had taken to leave. His disappearance had obviously been noticed, as Duncan was waiting for him outside the castle with a look of stern disapproval on his face, but Alistair was still so angry that he didn’t feel the usual sting of regret at having disappointed his mentor.
He stormed through the castle, startling a servant or two in his wake, before he reached the chambers of Eamon’s adviser, Loghain, and the man who had ordered Jowan’s capture.
Alistair hated the man, something about him just put him off completely, but Eamon seemed to trust him, so Alistair had always put up with him.
Luckily, he didn’t have to knock, as Loghain was standing out in the hall. His mabari, unimaginatively named ‘Dog’, was sitting beside him, panting.
“Loghain?”
“Prince.” The older man always said it with a growl.
“The guards just took a man from the market, on your orders.“
“Your father's charged me with keeping peace in Fereldan. The boy was a criminal.“
“What was the crime?” Alistair demanded.
“Why, kidnapping the prince, of course.”
“He didn't kidnap me! I ran away!” He exclaimed.
“Oh, dear. Oh, how frightfully upsetting. Had I but known.“ Loghain had raised a hand to cover his mouth as if in shock.
“What do you mean?” Alistair asked hesitantly.
“Sadly, the boy's sentence has already been carried out.”
“What sentence?”
“Death.” Loghain stated in a sinister tone. “By beheading.” Alistair gasped, rocking back on his heels.
“No!” Alistair shouted, shaking in shock and clenching his fists.
“I am exceedingly sorry, prince.”
“Why?” Alistair gritted out, so angry that he felt like he was going to hit the other man if he didn’t leave.
And so he turned around and fled, without waiting for an answer.
The fountain was always the place where he went when he wanted to relax if he couldn’t train with the guards, but today he went there because he had nowhere else to go. He sat on the steps with his face in his hands, feeling conflicted - because how could he feel so strongly at the death of a man he barely knew, and how could Loghain just do that? It wasn’t right.
He felt a wet nose nudging him and lowered his hands to see Duncan looking at him with worried eyes. Alistair sighed, reaching over to scratch him behind his ears in a familiar gesture.
“It's all my fault, Duncan. He’s dead because of me.”
“He was the prince. I don't believe it. I must have sounded so stupid to him.“ Jowan muttered to himself from his place against the wall of the dungeon, where he was chained up.
“Woof!”
Jowan jerked his head up to see Lily’s face looking in through the bars of the window.
“Lily! Down here! Hey, come on--help me out of these.“
Somehow, Lily managed to squeeze through the bars and padded over to him. She came to a stop and just stared at him for a moment, and then whined.
Jowan understood what she was saying. She was telling him how stupid he was for getting into this mess.
“Hey, he was in trouble. Ah, he was worth it though.” Jowan sighed, bringing up the image of prince Alistair in his mind’s eye. He was a bit embarrassed that’s he’d ogled the man, and so obviously at that. It had been one of the most interesting days in his life, meeting royalty.
Lily stepped up close to him, grasped the chains in her teeth and yanked, tearing them right out of the wall. Jowan pulled them away from his body and rubbed the spots where they had lain.
“Don't worry, Lily. I'll never see him again. I'm a street rat, remember, and there's a law. He has to marry nobility.“ Somehow the thought didn’t sit well with him, even though earlier he’d been thinking that if it were he, he would just choose a suitor and deal with it. He didn’t like to think of the shy, naive man being forced into something like that.
“Woof woof!”
“I'm a—I'm a fool.” Jowan muttered, rubbing his chafed wrists.
“You're only a fool if you give up, boy.” Startled, Jowan’s eyes darted around at the voice, landing on an old man sitting in the corner who he could have sworn hadn’t been there before. Or maybe he had been there so long he had became a permanent fixture, blending right into the surroundings.
“Who are you?”
“A lowly prisoner, like yourself. But together, perhaps we can be more.” The old man rasped.
“I'm listening.” Jowan replied cautiously.
“There is a cave, boy. A cave of wonders. Filled with treasures beyond your wildest dreams.” The old man opened his palm, where glittered jewels were nestled. “Treasure enough to impress even your prince, I'd wager.”
“But the law says that only a noble can marry— Wait, were you listening in?”
“Yes, yes.” The old man rasped dismissively. “You've heard of the golden rule, haven't you boy? Whoever has the gold makes the rules.” He grinned, showing a bad mouth.
“So why would you share all of this wonderful treasure with me?” Jowan asked suspiciously.
“I need a young man with strong legs and a strong back to go in after it.”
“Ah, one problem. It's out there, we're in here?”
The old man walked over to a portion of the wall, pushing a brick inward with his walking stick and revealing a hidden exit.
“Mmm, mmm, mmm. Things aren't always what they seem. So, do we have a deal?“
Jowan looked to Lily, who huffed - her equivalent of a shrug. It was up to him.
Jowan pulled a horse by its reigns across the dessert with the old man on its back, Lily walking alongside them. The wind was blasting the sand everywhere, making it hard to see and getting grit in his clothes.
They slowed to a stop at the entrance of a cave, shaped like a lion’s head. It came to life and spoke just as Jowan was studying its eyes, so he got quite a shock when they filled with bright light.
“Who disturbs my slumber?”
“It is I, Jowan.” He said nervously.
“Proceed. Touch nothing but the lamp.”
The cave opened up with a roar, and a staircase appeared in front of him.
“Remember, boy—first fetch me the lamp, and then you shall have your reward.” The old man reminded him.
“Come on, Lily.” Jowan patted his leg, petting her on the head as she came up to put her at ease before they continued on.
He descended the staircase into darkness, and upon reaching the bottom, entered a golden chamber filled with treasure.
“Would you look at that!” He said in wonder, trying to take it all in. There were heaps of gold here, chests near overflowing with treasures of all kinds there - some things were stacked haphazardly while others almost looked organized, like the statues of the old dragon gods sitting side by side and seeming to stare right at him, or crests from paragons long forgotten hung neatly on a wall with not even a speck of dust obscuring their symbols.
“Woof!”
“Just a handful of this stuff would make me richer than the King!” Jowan exclaimed in awe.
Suddenly, Lily darted out from behind him towards the treasure.
”Lily!” Jowan scolded.
The mabari stopped in mid-run, a paw hovering in midair over a rug on the floor. She looked back at him contritely.
“Don't touch anything. We have to find that lamp.”
Jowan started across the room, Lily following obediently at his side.
“Grr.” Lily began to growl after a few minutes, brushing up close to his leg.
“What’s wrong, girl?” Jowan asked, looking behind them but seeing nothing.
Lily just huffed, so he shrugged and continued on. However, not a minute later, Lily suddenly whirled around and clamped onto something with her jaws. Looking closer, Jowan saw that it was a piece of fancy carpet.
“What - Lily, drop it!” He commanded. Lily reluctantly did so, and the object suddenly went flying across the room to cower behind a pile of treasure.
“A magic carpet! Come on. Come on out. I'm not going to hurt you.“ Jowan whispered soothingly, crouching down on his haunches and placing his hands palm down on his thighs in an nonthreatening posture.
The carpet came out a bit at a time, shyly floating over to them. Lily growled at it, causing it to shake a bit and back away.
“Take it easy, Lily. He's not going to bite. Unlike you.” Jowan said, amused at how shaken Lily was at a piece of carpet.
Lily snorted and looked away, obviously miffed.
The carpet turned and began floating away, seeming dejected.
“Hey, wait a minute. Don't go. Maybe you can help us.“
At that the carpet looked around excitedly, then flew back over and tried to wrap itself around them.
“Hey, whoa!” Jowan laughed. Perhaps it had just been waiting for someone to come along and be kind to it.
“You see, we're trying to find this lamp.” The carpet immediately made a motion for them to follow it. “I think he knows where it is.” Jowan grinned, and they hurried after after it as it led the way.
They passed through a long, dank cave, until they emerged in a giant underground cavern cast in blue light. In the center of the room was a tall pillar with a staircase going up it. It was surrounded by water with unevenly placed stones forming a bridge. At the top of the pillar was a beam of light.
“Wait here.” Jowan told the mabari.
“Arf?” Lily questioned, but did as she was told.
Jowan began to cross the bridge, carefully balancing on each stone until he made it to the end. He climbed the stairs quickly, finally reaching the magic lamp. It was a small thing, looking no bigger or more special than any other lamp he had seen around. In fact, he’d seen a much fancier one in The Wonders of Thedas, where all sorts of interesting things had been gathered.
“This is it? This is what we came all the way down here to—”
Then Jowan looked down over the side of the pillar and saw Lily, breaking free of the carpet who was holding her and darting towards a small statue of Andraste wearing a pendant made of diamond.
“Lily - NO!” Jowan yelled, but it was too late. Lily snatched the figurine up in her jaws.
There was a rumble from below, and then the room began to shake.
“Infidels!” The cave roared, sounding like it came from the Void itself.
Lily whined and hunched down, ears flat to her head.
“You have touched the forbidden treasure.” Lily carefully placed the statue back onto ground, but it immediately began to melt. “Now you will never again see the light of day!”
Jowan raced down the steps, but they melted into a muddy ramp, and he skied down until he flew through the air. The water had turned into lava. Jowan was falling right toward it, when all of a sudden Carpet appeared and caught him, baring him away.
Lily was standing on one of the rocks of the bridge now. She looked left and right, and saw rocks exploding into lava. Carpet raced over and Jowan grabbed onto her by the middle, barely keeping a hold of the heavy mabari just as the last rock exploded.
“Whoa! Carpet, let's move!”
They raced back through the caves, dodging walls and falling debris. Lily buried her head in his lap and whined.
“Come on Lils, this is no time to panic.” Jowan looked up to see that they were heading right for a wall. “Start panicking!”
Carpet went into a dive that had Jowen and Lily clutching onto it for dear life, sliding along a wall then through another cave just as the lava poured out behind them. Finally, they emerged through the internal entrance.
Outside, the cave began to growl and close. They were almost to the top when they ran into a rock face, jolting Jowan and Lily off into it. A boulder dropped on the carpet, sending it to the floor. Jowan grabbed onto the rock wall and held on.
He looked up and saw the old man, waiting and within reach.
“Help me out!”
“Throw me the lamp!” The old man yelled back.
“I can't hold on. Give me your hand.”
“First give me the lamp!”
Jowan reached into his clothes and pulled out the magic lamp. He handed it up, and the old man raised it above his head, eyes flashing with a strange gleam as if possessed.
“What are you doing?” Jowan asked fearfully, seeing the old man reaching for something that glinted from his clothes.
“Giving you your reward. Your eternal reward.“ He pulled out a crooked dagger and raised it to stab Jowan, but Lily darted forward and bit into his wrist. The old man screamed and let go of Jowan, who felt right back into the cave. Lily was kicked off right after him, and Jowan was not looking forward to the impact, or in finding out if the lava had made it into the chamber below.
He remembered hitting the wall - what had to be at least three times judging by the pain in his throbbing head - before he fell into merciful unconsciousness.
Alistair was sitting on his bed petting Duncan, who was leaning up against his side comforting him
“Alistair? What’s wrong?” The King asked in concern from the doorway.
“Loghain has done something…terrible.” Alistair said in a miserable tone.
“There there, my son,” Eamon said in a tone that Alistair hadn’t heard in years. “We'll set it right. Now, tell me everything.“