Comics read-along: Issue #3.2 & 3.3

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THE READ-A-LONG

What is this? The read-a-long is an opportunity to do a long distance book club with other Dragon Age fans, where once a week one issue will be discussed in David Gaider's tie-in comics published by Dark Horse Comics.

[Official series teaser blurb]Allied with the world’s most feared warrior race-the qunari-the pirate Isabela, and the rogue Varric, King Alistair brings battle royale to the evil mage responsible for his father’s disappearance!

If you've read it and have Thoughts or Feels, comment to discuss! Discussion can be serious or snarky, but please keep it constructive and not destructive.

The Silent Grove
- The Silent Grove: Issue #1 (24-Feb)
- The Silent Grove: Issue #2 (03-Mar)
- The Silent Grove: Issue #3 (10-Mar)
- The Silent Grove: Issue #4 (17-Mar)
- The Silent Grove: Issue #5 & #6 (24-Mar)
- Those Who Speak: Issues #1 & #2 (31-Mar)
- Those Who Speak: Issue #3, Until We Sleep: Issue #1 (07-Apr)

[Until We Sleep: Issues #2 & #3]Until We Sleep: Issue #2

Varric wakes up, and the recent events are but a dream. He had never been an adventurer, merely a middleman between his family and the dwarven Merchant's Guild, his only solace...Bianca, a dwarven woman. She's there, in the flesh, the crossbow that bears her name her design, and she tries to convince Varric to run away with her. But he remembers they tried that already and failed, realizing he was in a fantasy, a dream, opening the door out of the room to find himself in the Fade.

He begins to walk, commenting he needed to find a mage, and that Anders had once told him the Fade had a tendency to lead you to what you desired. He finds Maevaris there with her dead husband (and Varric's cousin) Thorold, enjoying the illusion while knowing it was on. When Varric tells her what he found and did in the Ath Velanis laboratory, she's incredulous that he shot "the Magrallen". She explains that it is an ancient construct that allows mages to enter dreams and control people's minds, and is probably part of the reason for Titus's rise to power. Varric states they need to stop him. She initially resists, then remembers what Titus did to her and agrees to leave with him.

They step through a portal into someone's nightmare--Isabela's nightmare, with her as a qunari. Except she has bought into it, believes she is, and resists Varric trying to convince her otherwise (even while the voice over narration belies that truth). Titus finds them there and chases them out, calling on demons and declaring this his world. Varric, with Mae's help, finally talks Isabela back to her real self, and they continue on to look for Alistair.

Mae has a feeling that something is wrong, that Titus should've caught up to them by now, but instead they stumble on Alistair, who, like Isabela, doesn't recognize them at all. He is his charming, witty self, and then King Maric rides out announcing the trio are trespassing.

Varric's voiceover notes that this is when he realized how badly it would go, but the Fade has a way to disguise the truth.

Titus says "Blood of dragons. The Magrellen healed. The Fade is mine."

Until We Sleep: Issue #3

Alistair resists the truth Varric, Mae, and Isabela try to convince him of--that he's King of Ferelden, here to save his father. He rejects that, and Varric reminds him of what he said and exhorts him not to believe the stories he has to tell. Alistair grudgingly accepts the truth and they begin to plan to oppose Titus's demons.

The find Titus's dream, a Tevinter Imperium restored in Titus's idea of perfection, with the Chant of Light and the qun purged from everyone's mind, dragons who enforce the law by death, slaves who only live to serve and weep when they are deprived of it. In the horror, Maric and Alistair have a shared moment, where Maric wonders at how long it's been and Alistair vows that once they're done there, they'll be free of the place and have a chance to talk.

They find Titus and they fight. Titus does the evil overlord thing, it's disrupted and destroyed by Maric pointing out that its his blood fueling the power, and that he is the dreamer, not Titus, as he cuts Titus's head off. His dream fades to a bog standard Fade plane.

They discuss leaving--Maric indicates they can, but implies by omission that he can't. Varric shares that Maric's body in the real world didn't look too good, and Maric agrees, opining that the Magrellen may be the only thing keeping him alive now. He adds that he has no life outside the Fade, and when Alistair argues with him, Maric tells him everyone he loves--"Cailan, your mother, Loghain"--are there, no longer in the real world. Alistair points out, "I am." He finally convinces Maric to give life a second chance and return with them.

Varric wakes up again on the floor of the laboratory. The other three find him, and Maric. Mae talks of a magister exiled to the Anderfels, the Dalish, who know healing magic "to tether spirit to flesh", but Alistair realizes that he didn't need Maric, Maric needed him. He destroys the Magrellen with a swipe of his sword, and Maric disintegrates, flesh from bone then bone to dust, and the quartet leaves.

Alistair goes back to Ferelden to become the king he vowed he would be. Isabela later asked Varric if Alistair did the right thing, and Varric told her there's no way to no, you just keep trying "until we sleep".