Very Important Disclaimer: This is a fanfiction. I do not own Dragon Age.
A sequel to both Sunshine and Hawke's Guide to Accidentally Starting a War
In Which Nobody Knows What is Happening
Olivia woke up lying in a small bed with a lumpy mattress, staring at a low wooden ceiling. She felt groggy and had a headache the size of a small continent, along with a left hand that was pulsing regularly with a sharp, stabbing pain. Otherwise, though, she actually felt pretty good. She tried to focus on remembering exactly what had been happening before she had been apparently knocked out, but all she got was the vague impression of… being chased by giant spiders? Wasn't she supposed to be at a peace conference? All right, maybe the spiders had been a bizarre concussion-induced dream. She did feel like she'd been hit over the head. Though with her luck, it was probably both.
As she tried sluggishly to push herself into a seated position, another lance of pain went down her arm from her left hand, which… had a glowing green mark on the palm. That couldn't be good. Kind of a pretty green, though… Olivia changed her assessment of her physical state from 'probably concussed' to 'definitely concussed'. The glowing green mark sparked, accompanied with another sharp burst of pain. Lovely.
Olivia was still staring rather stupidly at her hand when the door to the room swung open, revealing a stressed-looking woman with short black hair and… "Leliana? What happened?"
The bard sighed. "There was some kind of explosion." Leliana began ticking what she was saying off on her fingers. "Except for you, everyone who was at the Conclave was killed. There is now a giant hole into the Fade in the sky at the epicenter of the blast that is slowly getting bigger. The Rift-that's what we've been calling it- matches the mark on your hand and every time it gets larger, the mark spreads. Also the Rift is periodically spewing demons and the mark is killing you. I think that covers everything."
Olivia stared at her. "Is there any good news? At all? Or is it all terrible?"
"Well, the elven apostate who stopped the mark from killing you while you were unconscious says that the mark can probably be used to close the Rift."
"That is good. Show me this Rift thing?"
"All right," said Leliana, leading Olivia out.
Outside, everyone stared at Olivia, whispering and giving hopeful looks.
"They found out that the Hero of Ferelden was here," explained Leliana, noticing Olivia looking at them.
Olivia nodded. "So," she asked, waving vaguely at the dark haired woman accompanying Leliana, "who's your friend?"
"Cassandra Pentaghast, part of the inquisition."
Up ahead, Olivia could see flashes of light and hear the sounds of combat. She rushed forward, finding that the source of the commotion came from a group of demons being fought by a mysterious bald elf and a very familiar dwarf with spectacular chest hair. The elf looked familiar as well, but wasn't someone she remembered ever meeting before, more like someone she had seen in a dream or known as a small child. Seeing him brought forward the vague, confused old memories she had been given by the elven Arcane Warrior trapped in the gem in the Brecillian Forest, all the way back during the Blight. Maybe the ancient mage had known someone who looked like him?
Deciding that it didn't matter, Olivia dismissed the thoughts of where she could have seen the elf, or at least a lookalike of him, from her mind and leapt forward just as the last of the demons fell with a crossbow bolt sticking out of it.
Olivia grinned at the archer, suddenly feeling immensely more cheerful. "Varric! I haven't seen you in ages!"
"It's been eight months," he pointed out.
"When I'm slowly dying from the darkspawn taint? That's practically forever."
"What?" For some reason, the elven man standing next to Varric looked immeasurably confused. "That can't be right."
"I'm pretty sure it is," said Olivia irritably.
"No it really can't. I'm the one who healed you when you fell out of the Rift. There was a lot of strange Rift energy, but definitely no taint. You were wearing Grey Warden armor, so I specifically checked in case it affected the mark."
Everyone who had any idea what they had been talking about stared at him blankly. Olivia thought about announcing that he was obviously wrong, then, but… She had been feeling good since she woke up. She was seriously out of her depth here. Maybe this was all a bizarre concussion-induced dream.
"Maybe all the energy running through you from the mark burned it out?" the elf muttered, seemingly talking more to himself than anyone else. "I really should think through the possible side effects of these things more."
"Okay," said Cassandra, suddenly reminding everyone that she was there. "We still need to fight our way through the demons between us and the breach. Any discussion of the mark's miraculous ability to heal the bearer of the darkspawn taint can be discussed later." The elf looked disappointed. "Later, Solas," Cassandra said firmly.
"Heal…?" Olivia stared at her hand.
"Even I have no idea how that happened," said Solas.
"Why should you?"
"Because, er, I was studying the mark while you were unconscious?" He gave a nervous chuckle.
Cassandra rolled her eyes. "Whatever. Snap out of it, Warden!"
Olivia shook herself. She could not deal with this right now. Rift first. "Do we have enough soldiers to distract the demons with a frontal assault while we sneak around the back and close the Rift quickly before more can come through?"
Leliana nodded. "That would work. Cassandra knows the way."
"Good." Olivia nodded to Cassandra. "Let's go."
"Why is this what my life is like now?" mourned Cassandra.
"Cheer up," said Varric. "You could be one of the rest of us."
Halfway up the path, the four of them ran into a small demon-spewing rift that looked like a miniaturized version of the big one. "Hurry!" yelled Solas, grabbing Olivia's glowing hand and holding it up facing the miniature rift. Olivia was about to growl at him and yank her hand away when a beam of green light arched between the mark on the hand and the small rift.
"So…that's how to close the Rift?" Olivia asked. "Also, mini-Rift?"
"They've been appearing more and more frequently farther and farther away from the large one," explained Cassandra. "Once it's closed they should stop. Probably."
"You're really filling me with confidence here," said Olivia.
As they reached the blast zone, Leliana met up with them, followed by several soldiers. "There you are. Thank the Maker."
"Was there ever any doubt that we'd arrive?" Olivia asked rhetorically.
"Cocky," said Leliana. Olivia smiled at her.
They headed down toward the crater. "Is that red lyrium?" muttered Varric, looking around.
"The stuff that drove your Knight-Commander crazy?" asked Olivia. "Never seen any, but it's lyrium and it's red, so I'd say yes."
As they climbed down into the center of the blast zone, beneath the gigantic Rift, an eerie voice began echoing around the crater. Now is the hour of our victory. "Well, that's not disturbing at all," said Olivia.
"That voice sounds vaguely familiar," commented Varric. "Though it could just be the creepy echoing quality. I've certainly heard plenty of voices like that."
"Same here," said Olivia.
Bring forth the sacrifice, whispered the voice.
Someone help me, cried second, female, voice.
What's going on here? The first two ghostly voices were joined by a third, this one rather obviously belonging to Olivia. Cassandra stared at her. "That was you! Most Holy called out to you." She seemed to finally be figuring out that Olivia wasn't the one responsible for the explosion. "But…" Cassandra was interrupted by a sparking of the Rift, followed by the appearance of the ghostly image of the Divine, held in the air by glowing energy, with a looming, indistinct shadow standing over her. A ghostly version of Olivia ran up. What's going on here? The ghostly Olivia repeated.
The ghostly version of the Divine turned to look at the ghostly Olivia. Run while you can! Warn them!
We have an intruder. The first, eerie voice came from the shadow standing over the Divine. Kill her!
The three ghostly images vanished, the disembodied conversation beginning again from the beginning. "You really were there!" exclaimed Cassandra. "Who was that attacking? What happened to the Divine? Did all that really happen? What are we even seeing?"
Olivia shook her head. "I don't remember any of this."
"We're seeing echoes of what happened here," explained Solas. "The fade bleeds into this place." He was staring up at the Rift. "The Rift isn't sealed, but it is closed. With the mark we can open it up and close it the rest of the way, but opening it is going to attract demons on the other side."
Olivia sighed. "Everyone be ready then." The soldiers drew their weapons and she held the marked hand up to the Rift.
As before, with the miniature rift, a beam of light arched between the mark and the Rift, this time forcing the Rift open. Before she could close it, a gigantic pride demon at least fifteen feet tall spilled out of the Rift.
"Just what we needed." With her free hand, Olivia flung a wall of ice at the demon, checking to make sure that the others were keeping it busy before turning her attention back to the rift. "It's not closing!"
After a few minutes, the pride demon was dead, but the Rift was still open and Olivia was beginning to not feel too well. Suddenly, she felt something…twist…in the Rift, and it closed back up, though this felt more…stable…than before. "I think…that did something," gasped Olivia right before collapsing.
Olivia woke up in the same room as earlier. Her hand wasn't hurting anymore. "Well, that's an improvement," she commented to the ceiling. She checked her left hand. The glowing green mark was still there. Olivia wondered vaguely if it was ever actually going to go away. Then it occurred to her that she had no idea what it would do to her if the mark did go away. For all she knew that would kill her.
She let her arm fall back onto the bed and stared up at the ceiling for a few minutes. It was a nice ceiling. She could really get behind looking at that ceiling…pretending that her life hadn't just taken another turn for the bizarre…
The door swung open and Olivia automatically startled upright, jumping out of bed. The woman who had entered, a nervous-looking elf squeaked and jumped, dropping the crate she had been carrying. She looked flustered. "I didn't know you were awake, I swear!"
"Because coming in while I'm asleep is much less creepy," said Olivia sarcastically. The elf looked dismayed. "Relax, sarcasm is how I cope. I'm sure you aren't really a creepy stalker."
The elf looked even more horrified. She fell to her knees and bowed. "I beg your forgiveness and your blessing. I am but a humble servant."
Now that, on the other hand? That was slightly creepy. Yikes. Exactly what had happened while she'd been unconscious this time? People hadn't acted this weird even after she'd killed the Archdemon. "All right, you're, you're fine. Um, please stand up," said Olivia awkwardly. To her immense relief, the elf did. "So…what happened?" asked Olivia.
"They say you saved us. The Breach stopped growing, just like the mark on your hand. You're back in Haven. It's all anyone has talked about for the last three days." Well, that was good. The part about the Breach and her hand, at least. Not so much the 'unconscious for three days part'. Now if only she knew why this woman was acting so…awestruck seemed like a good description. What exactly had they been saying for the past three days? "Lady Cassandra wants to talk to you in the Chantry," added the elf, beginning to back slowly away and looking terrified. "She said 'at once'."
"Okay, got it," said Olivia. The elf seemed to take that as a dismissal and bolted out the door. Olivia followed at a more leisurely pace.
Outside on the way to the Chantry, everyone Olivia passed stared and whispered to each other as she went by. This time it was less 'hopeful' and more 'awed and terrified'. The whole thing was really putting her on edge.
She found Cassandra and Leliana in the operations room that had been set up in the Chantry, arguing with an angry-looking man. When she entered, the man glared and pointed accusingly at her. "Chain her! I want her prepared for travel to the capitol for trial!"
"Not happening," said Cassandra.
Roderik glared at her. "You walk a dangerous line, Seeker."
Cassandra rolled her eyes. "I walk a line that does not end in riots."
"Stop acting irrational, Chancellor Roderik," added Leliana. "The idea that Olivia would endanger everything that she fought to protect as a Warden is ludicrous."
"And that's another thing!" shouted the man, apparently named Chancellor Roderik. "Where are the rest of the Grey Wardens while all this is going on? Maybe they're responsible!"
This time Leliana rolled her eyes. "Your conspiracy theories are getting more and more far-fetched, Chancellor."
"Besides," said Cassandra, "the Breach may have stopped growing, but it's still there. We need her."
"So, I'm guessing he thinks I was behind the explosion," commented Olivia, pointing at the Chancellor.
"She's not a suspect," said Cassandra, sounding annoyed.
"You, on the other hand…," added Leliana, looking at the man pointedly.
"Now I'm a suspect?" asked the Chancellor angrily.
"You and a lot of other people."
"But not the person who was found unconscious at the center of the destruction?"
"Definitely not," said Leliana.
"I heard the voices at the temple," added Cassandra. "The Divine called to her for help."
"So that mark and the fact that she survived are a complete coincidence?"
"Providence. The Maker sent her to us in our darkest hour."
Olivia raised her eyebrows. "Seriously?" she said incredulously.
"You were exactly what we needed when we needed it, now and during the Blight," said Cassandra. "Try telling me that's a coincidence." Olivia wasn't exactly sure how to respond to the depth of the other woman's conviction. For the first time in at least a decade, she was feeling out of her depth. She didn't like it.
"Er…" Olivia began awkwardly, not sure how to continue.
Leliana looked at her sympathetically. "You should probably get used to that," she commented. "You'll probably get a lot of that now. After what happened at the Breach earlier got out, people have begun thinking of you as a divine savior. They've already started calling you the Herald of Andraste."
"I… honestly don't know how to react to that," said Olivia.
"Maybe we should focus on the Breach," said Leliana helpfully. "That mark is still the only way we have to close it."
"This isn't your decision!" complained the Chancellor.
Cassandra melodramatically slammed a gigantic book down on the table. "You know what this is? It's a writ from the Divine giving us the authority to act. As of this moment I declare the Inquisition reborn." She walked up to the Chancellor and poked him in the chest. "We will close the Breach, we will find those responsible and we will restore order, with or without your approval!"
"Wow," said Olivia quietly. That was impressively dramatic. Chancellor Roderik glared at Cassandra and left sulkily.
"That's the plan," said Leliana. "Rebuild the Inquisition of old. Find people who will stand against the chaos. We have no leader, no followers, and no support from the Chantry."
Oddly, Leliana's summation of the situation made Olivia feel steadier, more on familiar ground. Despite everything stacked against them, it was bizarrely comforting. "Well," she said, beginning to smile. There was a gigantic hole in reality outside, she appeared to have been miraculously cured of the darkspawn taint and probably wasn't even a Grey Warden anymore, and she had no idea what was going on, but the impossibility of the situation and ridiculously long odds of succeeding in saving the world, at least, was familiar. "We've started before with less. Shall we?"
Just as the three women turned to the war table, a knock came at the door. "We saw Chancellor Roderik leave," called out an accented female voice. "I hope everyone is still alive in there."
"Yes, come in, Josephine," called Leliana.
A well-dressed woman entered, followed by… "Oh, hey, Cullen." Honestly, she wasn't particularly surprised to see him. He seemed to turn up everywhere. "So!" she said, half manically. "Let's get to work!"
Later that night found Olivia sitting on the roof of the small hut where she had been staying, generally avoiding other people. The entire town of Haven really did seem certain that Olivia was some kind of 'chosen one'. It was unsettling. She stared up at the eerie green glow of the Breach off in the distance. Up until a week ago, the Temple of Sacred Ashes had sat beneath that patch of tattered sky. Olivia's hand automatically moved to finger the pendant filled with darkspawn blood hanging at her throat.
"Thinking?" Olivia turned her head to see Leliana settling down beside her.
"Yes." Olivia lay back on the roof, still gazing at the Breach. "I don't really know what to think of all of this. Giant holes in the sky? Herald of Andraste? I mean, my life just keeps getting stranger and stranger. Every time I think that it's finally settled down into something predictable, something happens to throw it all into chaos again, and those somethings keep getting progressively stranger. Getting caught by the Templars and sent to the Circle Tower? That isn't too far-fetched. Being recruited by the Grey Wardens? Less likely but not too much so. Ending a Blight despite starting out with a group of allies made up of two people that can's stand one another and a dog? Very, very unlikely. Surviving killing an Archdemon? Thought to be impossible and couldn't have happened except for a very bizarre set of coincidences. Remember, that vision you had, back during the Blight? The one that none of us ever really figured out whether it was really coming from the Maker or just something we wanted to believe was from the Maker because of how awful things were? It's like that. Is it that everyone's right about the Herald of Andraste thing, of is it just that I want them to be right because I want an identity to latch on to because I've suddenly lost my powers and can no longer think of myself as a Grey Warden. And because I want to believe that the Maker cares about what happens to people," she added quietly. "Because I want to believe that there is some justice in the world. Sorry," she added in a more normal voice. "I'm monologuing. That's a bad habit to fall into."
Leliana laughed. "I think you're excused just this once." She lapsed into silence and the two of them stared up at the sky. The Breach and the stars. After a while, Leliana spoke again. "But for the record? I believe it's real."
"And I hope you're right."