Chapter 1: A Simple Misunderstanding
I was leaving King Alistair's barkery with some of my favorite recipes in my bag before making my way to the conclave. The King told me that he is lending me out to the conclave to show the divine his willingness to help. He thought it best send his best baker to help with all the food preparations. I needed to get there early so I can set up what needs to be and have it done efficiently. It took me about a week to get to the Conclave and when I showed the garuds my letter they pointed me the I needed to go to get to the kitchen. That is all that I remember before waking up in a cell.
When I woke up I was laying down in a bed of hay covered by a sheet and I was chained to a wall. When I looked up there was three guards with their hand resting on their weapons, as if they were ready to attack me at a moment's notice.
"Hello? Can you tell me what's going on? Why am I here? Why am chained up like a criminal, what do you think I have done? Whatever you think I did I can assure you I didn't!" I yelled at them hoping that they would understand and talk to someone about what is happening to me. Instead of doing that one of the guards simply just left. This is ridiculous.
I turned my body so I was sitting on the with my legs crossed and I stared at my hands. That is when I noticed it. A green mark on my hand. It looked the palm of my hand was split, but instead of blood spilling out of it a green light. With my other hand I began rub at the mark trying to remove it. I knew it wouldn't work, but I just couldn't take it. I continued to rub at it until my fingers were raw. I only stopped when the guards opened the cell door. One of the guards unlocked unlocked my wrist from the wall only to put a bigger pair of cuffs on my wrists. The guard put his hand on my back pushing me roughly towards the other guards and they lead me as I dragged my feet and slumped my shoulders. This must be a mistake, I have done nothing to deserve this.
As I thought this the leading knight slammed open a door, and the knight behind me shoved me again. The room was covered in dirt and hay. I stood in the middle of the room when someone kicked me in the back of my leg making me fall to my hands and knees. Before I was able to pull myself up one of the knights grabbed the back of my shirt yanking me so I was sitting straight up on my knee. I once again slumped my shoulders and I looked at my hand again.
It glew an angry green when suddenly it hissed at me and the glow got much brighter, causing pain to shoot my arm. It was almost unbearable, I gritted my teeth in the hopes that I would not yell out in pain.
Suddenly the door in front of me slammed open and two women came stomping in. One had short hair and braid that wrapped around the crown of her skull. The other was a red-head that had purple hood covering her hair. The short haired one began to circle me before leaning forward to talk into my ear.
"Tell me why we shouldn't kill you now." She growled into my ear. "The Conclave is destroyed, everyone who attended is dead. Expect for you."
"What! That's horrible!" I almost yelled in disbelief. "And you think I had something to do with it? No no no no no!"
"Then explain this." She demanded while grabbing my wrist that was attached to the hand that had the mark on it.
"I don't know what that is or where it came from!" I yelled hoping if I talked loud enough that she would some reason believe me.
"You're lying!" She yelled out at me grabbing my shirt, bringing me closer to her face.
"Cassandra!" The other yelled as she pulled her away from me. "We need her."
"This is all a misunderstanding I had nothing to do with this. I'm just a baker, I was sent here by King Alistair to help with all the meal preparations. Please just send him a letter and ask him please!" I begged them.
"What do you remember from that day." The redhead asked me.
I didn't say anything for a moment when suddenly a flash came across.
"I was being chased, things were chasing me. And there was a woman."
"A woman?" The redhead asked me bewildered.
"She reached out to me but.." I trailed off not remembering anything after that.
"Lilliana go to the forward camp. I will take her to the rift." Cassandra said before turning to me and unlocked my cuffs. She then grabbed my elbow dragging me to my feet. Then she grabbed a rope and tied my wrists together.
"What did happen?" I asked when I got steady on my feet.
She didn't say anything for a moment.
"It… Will be easier to show you."
She opened the door and I followed her out into the brightly lite world. That is when I saw it. A tear in the sky. It was gigantic and green with boulders circling it.
"We call it the breach and massive rift into the world of demons. It's not the only such rift just the largest. It happened after the explosion at the Conclave." Cassandra explained to me.
"An explosion can do that?" I asked in amazement, after that sentence came out of my mouth the Breach made a booming sound and got very bright for a moment. At the same time the mark on my hand also made a screeching noise and caused pain to rip through my arm once more making me fall to my knees.
"Every time the breach grows so does the mark on your hand, and it is killing you." Cassandra told me while kneeling next to me.
"If there's anything I can do." I started to tell her.
"Does that mean?" Cassandra asked with hope in her voice.
"If I can." I told her determined to do something. She grabbed my arm helping to my feet. She gave me a slight push in the direction that she wanted me to go. As I trudged forward people were yelling at me and giving me hateful looks. I stared at the ground not being able to meet their gaze.
"They have decided your guilt. They blame you for Most Holy, Divine Justinian's, death." She explained to me as we continued forward. Once we got a stone bridge she turned to me.
"There will be a trial I can promise no less." She brought out a blade from her belt and cut the rope that bound my wrists. I simply just stared at her for a moment before rubbing at my wrists, raw for the ropes. I walked slowly across the bridge in front of Cassandra. Once past the gate I saw what could be only explained as hell. There were constant explosions and screams of terror from the soldiers getting hit by debris. I started to jog wanting to get out of the line of fire. When the mark flared once more. I fell to my knees and yelled in pain.
"The pulses are coming faster now." Cassandra said helping me up once more. She gave me what I think to her was a gentle reassuring pat to the shoulder, to me was a slap that shock my body. I nodded and continued forward to another stone bridge that had a lot of people on it. We were about halfway across the bridge when part of the breach fell on the causing the bridge to explode. I fell to the frozen river, slamming my head against the ice. I raised my head to see what had happened. Cassandra was standing against two demons. I have to do something. I struggled to my feet and pressed my hand to my head. When I pulled my hand away there was some blood on it. I will live but I need to help Cassandra.
I looked everywhere to try to find something that I could defend myself with. To my right I saw a two handed sword that must have fallen off the bridge when it exploded. I took two giant steps towards it and grabbed it. I ran towards one of the demons and took my fighting stance.
With a tight grip on the hilt of the sword I took my left foot forward to launched myself at the monster, taking a large swing. I hit across the chest but that was not enough to kill it. So I knocked my shoulder into it before hitting it again. The monster fell before dissolving into nothing. I took a few steps towards Cassandra, trying to see if she was alright. She turned on her heels and faced me with sword in hand.
"Drop your weapon!" Cassandra yelled at me.
"Alright, have it your way." I said slowly kneeling down to put the sword on the ground.
"Wait, I cannot defend you and I cannot expect you to be defenceless." She said with a frown on her face, as she put her sword on her hip. "I should remember the you came willingly." She almost whispered to me. We continued up the mountain in silence. When another explosion rocked through the ground.
"Their falling from the breach!" I yelled out in horror. The demons and spirits pushed themselves off the ground and all looked at us with no emotions, the only thing that they wanted was for us to die.
I pulled the two handed sword out once more and launched myself at the spirit. I swung the large sword at the entity knocking it back. It retaliated with cracking me with its horrendous claws. I yelled in pain before swinging once more, making it fade away from existence. I could not rest yet, Cassandra needs my help. I charged forward towards another demon, sword pulled behind my body ready to rip forward and attack anything that stood in my way.
Once all the monsters were killed Cassandra waved her hand at me to follow. I followed her up the mountain some more when we heard sound of weapons frantically swinging at their enemies.
"We are getting closer, you can hear the fighting." Cassandra called out to me.
"Who is fighting?" I asked kind of winded from the climb. I checked the gash that was on my head from the fall from the bridge. The bleeding seemed to have stopped by a lot so that is good. I used my hand to wipe the blood from my head and wiped it on my pants. We jumped down a ledge and saw soldiers fighting demons that were falling out of a small rift in the middle of the battlefield.
One of the soldiers fell and held his hand up to somehow defend himself from the claws of the demon. I charged and stood over him and deflected the attack with my sword and slashed at the demon. Once it fell I turned and helped the man to his feet and ran into battle once again.
Once the last demon was slain I simply stared at the rift because it was a matter of time before more came through, ready to fight to the death. That was when the elven mage came sprinting towards me.
"Hurry before more come through!" He yelled as he grabbed my wrist with mark attached to it. He forced it into the middle of the rift and it began to hiss once I started forceing my hand away. Once my hand was completely out of it , the rift exploded, completely gone. I stared at my hand in shock, then turned towards the elf.
"How did you do that?" I asked in complete awe.
"I did nothing, it was you. I theorized that the mark would close the breach and it seems that I was right." He smiled gently at me.
"So I can help." I almost whispered as I looked at my hand once more.
"Hey the name is Varric," The dwarf introduced himself." rouge, storyteller, and sometimes unwelcome tag along." He continued smirking and at the last part winking at Cassandra. I could hear her almost growl at him.
"Thats a nice.. crossbow you have there." I said almost awkwardly.
"Ah yes Bianca and I have been through alot together." Varric said smirk on his face.
"You named your crossbow Bianca?" I asked almost too quickly, with a giant grin on my face.
"yep she's going to be a lot of help in the Valley."
"No. Your help is appreciated Varic but I cannot allow this." Cassandra ordered him.
"You're going to need my help, your soldiers aren't in charge anymore Seeker."
Cassandra simply grimaced at that.
"I am Solace if there are to be introductions. I am glad to see you still live." He smiled softly at me. That's a weird thing to say.
"He means that he kept the thing from killing you in your sleep." Varric said from behind me.
"Oh well thank you, I appreciate not being dead." I said in the most awkward way possible. I mentally slapped myself on the forehead. Solace didn't seem to mind he just continued to smile at me. I gave him a tight smile back and walked over to Cassandra to know what she wanted to do next. She pointed to a board that was blocking the way down a hill.
Cassandra climbed over it gracefully as ever and the others followed. I went over it as well hoping to not lose my footing and fall on my face. I thankfully did not fall. We carefully walked down the hill to the frozen lake where more demons were waiting for us. I sighed in exhaustion from all these demons that seem to be an unstoppable wave.
I charged forward once more.
After that battle we continued forward once more up the mountain. We got to what I am guessing was the forward camp because I saw the lady from earlier talking to a man from the chantry. I walked past all the soldiers that were preparing for battle. As I got closer to the clergyman I noticed he was yelling at Lilliana.
"What is the prisoner doing out of her chains?" The man yelled.
"They chaffed my wrists." I said without thinking. I squeezed my eyes shut, hoping no one heard. I heard laugh loudly. Oh dear they did hear. I opened my eyes and they the man give me a harsh glare.
"She is our only chance at closing the breach." Cassandra told him. "We need to get there now." She said poking him with her finger, making him take a step back.
"We need to go through the battle field to get there." Cassandra informed me.
"Or you could take the mountain path, be more discrete." Lilliana said after.
"We lost a whole squadron up there." Cassandra said in horror. They both looked at each other for a moment before looking at me. My eyes went wide.
"What you want me to decide?" I asked my voice going very high pitched. They just stared at me. I thought of the soldiers on the mountain and how they seemed to be lost to everyone. But what if they weren't gone yet. What if they were still up there.
"We'll take the mountain path, we need to work together you all know what is at stake." I told them staring at the mountain.