Disclaimer: I do not own anything to do with Dragon Age: Inquisition. They belong to BioWare, who, I might add, has made a game I'm absolutely hooked on.
Notes: The characters named here are from my own playthroughs. I'm trying to keep mostly to names given in the game, such as Lavellan, but the given names are mine.
This story involves fighting, killing, drunkeness (and the mishaps therein), sex of all kinds (with pregnancy of all kinds), and all the fun, gory shite that can come from a Dragon Age story VERY loosely based on the game. (except perhaps the first two chapters, which introduce the characters)
Synopsis: What if there wasn't just one person that walked out of the Fade? What if there were . . . five?
SPOILER ALERT! This story goes through the ENTIRE GAME, so it may give away parts you may not have gotten to yet. If that makes you want to wait with reading this, please bookmark it or favorite it so you can read it after you beat the game.
All these warnings exist throughout the story, but only go here at the beginning.
Dragon Age: Inquisition X5
Chapter 1: Five from the Fade
It was dark. Everything hazed over in a gross green fog. Lavellan reached a hand out beside him across the hard but smushy ground. The land was hard to explain. He found his brother's hand, tugged him up to standing. His left hand hurt, and when he looked, there was a band of green across it that hadn't been there before. He looked at his brother. The band of green was across his hand, too.
The pair of Dalish Elves made their way, stumbling, across the gooey, slimy-looking terrain. There was a large cliff-edge, steep enough they wouldn't be able to hold each other's hands as they climbed.
Halfway up, they spotted someone ahead of them. A bulky creature, short, and obviously heading in the same direction they were. The being slipped, and the two Lavellan pushed back to give the Dwarf a boost back up. They continued the trek in silence.
"Yuck."
Something was behind them. Looking back, the first Elf saw that there was also a Human caught in here, with the same green mark on their hand as he and his brother. Looking back up, the Dwarf had the same thing as well.
"Oi and shite!" Something trudged past them, walking somewhat easily on the slick terrain, catching the spikes that protruded out the side to use as leverage to get up. Just from the size alone, the Lavellan knew it was a Qunari.
Suddenly, there was skittering. The Human looked back. "Spiders!"
That was it. It was a mad-scrabble for the top of the hill. A shining figure stood up there, reaching her hand out towards them. One by one, she pulled them up.
Suddenly, they hit burnt ash and gravel. But something was wrong. There was a pain in the left hand, and the world was foggy and mostly black. There were footsteps coming, and then, blackness.
"Five of them?" The woman asking was a Seeker. A nicely built human female with dark-brown hair cut short, since it was more practical than long hair on the battlefield. She wore armor, simply fashioned and marked with the symbol of the Seekers, a group she had left when she had become part of the Chantry.
"Yes, Lady Pentaghast." said the soldier.
""Are any of them awake?" asked the woman beside Lady Pentaghast, a red-head in a hood who wore chain-mail over her clothes.
"There are two." the officer replied. "The pair of Dalish. The Dwarf is snoring like a Dragon, the Human is just lying there, and we're not sure about the Qunari. It just kneels there, eyes closed. Flinches every time that mark on it's hand get's bigger. They all do."
"Let us go." said Pentaghast. "Come, Leliana."
The woman in the hood followed after. "Cassandra, what are we going to do?"
"That Apostate said they might close the rifts. Since the two elves are the only ones awake, we will have to use them to see whether it is true or not." The pair stepped into the room where the two Lavellan knelt. The marks on their left hands sparked, and the pair winced.
"Explain yourself!" Cassandra snapped.
The pair remained silent.
She grabbed the wrist of the Dalish with the blue markings on his face. "Explain this!"
"I can't." he replied. He looked over at his brother, who remained silent.
"What do you mean 'you can't'?"
"I remember running. A woman, reached her hand out to us." said the Lavellan Cassandra was currently yelling at.
"Leliana, go to the forward camp. I will bring the prisoners to the rift."
The woman in the hood walked away.
"What is going on?" asked the pair.
"It is better if I show you." Cassandra tied their wrists together, with a small space of rope holding one elf to the other.
They stepped outside, and the pair stared.
There was a lot of swirling clouds, with rocks hovering inside a swirl of green that reached from the ground up into the sky.
"What is that?" came another voice.
"They woke, and Leliana said to bring them to you immediately." said a guard.
The Dwarf, Human, and Qunari all stood there, hands tied, staring up at the green mess.
"We call it the Breach." said Cassandra. "There are many other rifts, smaller, but this one is the first, and also the largest."
"Sweet Andraste's tits, that's a big hole." said the Dwarf. "Arg!" The marks flared up again.
"Each time the Breach gets bigger, so do your marks, and they are killing you."
"Oh, wonderful." said the Qunari. Now that they weren't all shaded tones of green, they could see that the Qunari was a woman. In fact, only the two elves were male. Her horns arced backwards and curled down and then forward. One horn was adorned with a short metal cap, but the other was bare.
"So, if we help, will it aid in proving our innocence?" asked the Human.
"We will see."
As Cassandra led them through the small village, people scowled, frowned, and a few even tossed over-ripe fruit at them.
"They have already determined your guilt. They need it. Divine Justinia, our Most Holy, has died. The Conclave was hers. It was a chance for peace between Mages and Templars. Now, it has been destroyed. Like children, we lash out at the sky, but we must think beyond ourselves, as she did." Cassandra drew a knife and cut the ropes from each of their wrists. "There will be a trial. I can promise you all no more than that."
"Well, that's comforting." said the Dwarf. "This is going to get messy."
"I like messy." said the Human. "But this, this is a disaster."
The Qunari just snorted and followed, tilting her head back and forth to get the kricks out. With a huff, she picked up the Dwarf and kept walking. "You're too slow, Muffy."
The blue-marked Elf looked over. "Muffy?" he asked.
"What, got a problem with my name?" the Dwarf asked. "I know it's not as fancy as those Dalish names, but it's mine, and I like it."
"Dalish names aren't all that fancy either." said the other Elf. Now that they could see, his face-marks proved to be green, almost like the marks on their hands. "I'm Faize, and this is my twin brother, Obsinion."
"Clan Lavellan." Obsinion added. "So? What the flat-ear called?"
Faize hit him. "Don't call her that. You don't like being called 'knife-ear'."
Obsinion stuck his tongue out, only for the bridge they were crossing to suddenly explode and fall from under their feet. The whole group fell down onto a frozen river, along with some supplies. A demon appeared ahead of them, and they backed up.
"Stay behind me." said Cassandra as she rushed over to fight it.
More green bubbly lumps appeared around them, and then, more demons popped up. Casasandra wouldn't be able to defend them from all of them.
The Human looked back. "Weapons." she said, snatching up two short knives. Beside her, Obsinion grabbed a sword and wooden shield, and Muffy grabbed a great-axe. Faize took hold of a bow and the few arrows that hadn't broken in the fall. The Qunari took the basic mage staff that had fallen, blasting the demon that was going after Cassandra's back with a burst of flame that destroyed it on sight.
Faize jumped back, away from the demons and fired a few arrows. He hated close-range combat, while his older twin seemed to live for it.
Obsinion laughed as he slashed through one demon. "Now this is getting good." he said. He ducked as another fireball sailed overhead and roasted a shade.
"WOOOOOO!" shouted Muffy as she swung her axe around. "Well, that looks like all of them." A demon rose up behind her, only to go splat moments later. Muffy looked back. "Thanks, Rose."
"Whatever." said the Human.
"Put the weapons down!" Cassandra ordered.
"Oh, fine." said the Qunari. "Let's us be helpless and defenseless." Under her breath, she added, "Not like I need a staff, anyway."
"Wait. I cannot always protect you, and you should be able to defend yourselves." Cassandra sighed. "This way."
The Qunari leaned her staff over her shoulder and sighed. "This day just gets worse and worse." she muttered.
"I hear fighting." said Rose, the Human. They reached another bridge, this time with a green lumpy crystal, constantly shifting and contracting and bumping out floating overhead. There were a few soldiers, as well as a mage and a Dwarf with a crossbow.
Almost instantly, the group joined the fight. And somehow, in all that mess, Faize ended up next to the mage, who happened to be a bald Elf with no symbols on himself to say if he was Dalish.
"Now!" shouted the mage, grabbing Faize's hand and holing it up to the funky-looking crystal. There was a stream of green energy from the mark, and then, the crystal exploded.
"What just happened?" asked Faize. "What did you do?"
"I wasn't my doing. The credit is completely yours." said the mage.
"So, this mark. It can help." said Obsinion. "By the way, baldie, you don't have any marks. You a slave?"
"Apostate."
The Qunari remained stoic. "Great, a run-away Circle Mage."
"Never lived in a circle. But on the topic at hand, at least we know now that the marks of your five captives can close the Rifts. I believe they can also close the Breach."
Cassandra nodded. "Varric, what are you doing here?"
"Fighting, what's it look like. Your soldiers aren't in control of the valley anymore, Seeker. You need me."
"Nice Crossbow." said Faize.
"Bianca? She's something, isn't she?" Varric smiled. "I'm Varric Tethras, storyteller, merchant, and sometimes, unwelcome tag-along."
Cassandra sighed. "Lets go."
"I'm Solas, if we're sharing names." said the mage.
The others nodded as they continued on.
"So, you're a mage?" Solas asked.
The Qunari glanced at him out the corner of her eyes. "Yeah, what of it?"
"You don't see many Qunari mages." Solas replied.
"I ran away once my magic manifested. I wan't going to be some Ben-Hassrath pet." she said.
"You never gave us your name." said Muffy.
"Don't wanna give it." she replied. "If we live through this shite, then maybe I'll give it up."
"Fair enough." said Solas.
"Given that you said you ran away, I'm guessing your Tal-Vashoth." said Varric.
"Good guess." the Qunari replied. She flipped her staff to the other shoulder. "Duck!" A blast of fire sailed over them and struck another shade. This caught the attention of the two other shades with it, but Faize and Varric put them down before the others could be harmed.
"You accused me of being a Circle Mage. Were you in a Circle?"
"Sort of." the Qunari replied. "There were a few apprentices that would help me out with studies when I was in town. Almost got in a fight with a Ben-Hassrath out in Orlais a few times, but I always outsmarted him."
Faize looked at her. "Really? A Ben-Hassrath spy that failed to handle a Tal-Vashoth?"
"No, he didn't fail." she returned with a snort. "I just got the better of him with a bit of ice."
"Open the gates!" Cassandra called.
The soldiers opened them, frowning at the five prisoners that walked in with Cassandra. As the group walked along the bridge, they could see that they weren't trusted. That the soldiers blamed them for the death of Divine Justinia.
"Put them in chains!" a man shouted. Chantry cleric, if Obsinion and Faize had done their homework right.
"They are the only ones who can even hope to close the Breach, Chancellor Roderick." Cassandra returned.
"I order you . . !"
"You order me? You are a clerk. An over-glorified bureaucrat." Cassandra looked over at Leliana. "We need to reach the Breach."
"It's hopeless." said the Chancellor. "Call a retreat, Seeker."
"It is not hopeless." said Leliana. "If our soldiers charge here, we can cut a path through." She looked at them. "There is a mountain path that you can use to get there."
"No. We lost a squad up there, I will not risk it."
"Do we have a say in this?" asked Muffy. "We are the ones with the mark."
"Fine then, what would you lot have us do?" Cassandra asked.
Faize looked at his brother. He could see the elder wanted to charge. "Charge." he said.
Muffy nodded. "I hate sneaking around."
Rose shrugged. "Charge or the mountain, I don't really care, so long as we get up there."
"Charge." said the Qunari. "We're not going to make it for that trial. What happens, happens now."
"Very well, then. We charge. Leliana, gather everyone in the valley. We'll meet you at the Conclave."
"On your head be the consequences, Seeker." said Roderick as they passed.
Muffy didn't even look back as she gave him the finger.
"That was tasteful." commented Varric.
"I've lived under the Chantry my whole life." Muffy replied. "Said my Chant of Light every morning and evening, like a proper Dwarf of Orlais, and look what happened? I end up here with this thing on my hand, and the Divine Justinia dead. Not the way I wanted my family to end up, probably tossed out of Val Royeaux for what I apparently did or didn't do."
"Nice to know someone here honored the Chantry." said Cassandra.
The pair of Lavellan hung back a bit, talking.
"She's cute."
"You think every girl who swings a sword is cute."
"Better than you."
"Really?"
"I'm just saying. None of the Elven girls would even look at me."
"And she wants us tried and hanged."
"Hey, if these marks do what baldie there says they can do, we'll become heroes, and then, well, who knows."
Faize looked at his brother. They had nearly the same hair color (black and nearly-black), the same eye color (vibrant purple, almost alive), and if it wasn't for their markings, they would look exactly identical. Even the fact that they had rather large, innocent eyes. "I wish you the best in your endevors, then."
"Get up here, you two." Rose shouted.
The Qunari, who had been behind them with Solas, grabbed both Elves and slung them under each arm, muttering something in Qunlat under her breath. "Here, they've . . . damn and shite, this place looks awful."
"That's an understatement." said Varric.
Muffy looked at the large Fade Rift in the center of what had once been the Conclave. "Hard to believe anyone made it out alive."
"Mind putting me down, you over sized ox?" asked Obsinion. "Not that I mind the ride, but your rump isn't much to look at."
The Qunari put them down. "You have an idea for getting us up there, right?"
"No." Cassandra replied. "Let's get down and see if there's anything."
"That'll be easy." said the younger Lavellan.
"Faize!" Obsinion shouted. "Oi and shite. Does he have to jump over everything?" He looked over the rail. "Hey Faize! You dead?"
"Nope, and the ash is a softer landing than I realized."
"That was a corpse."
"Oh, gross!" Faize backed away from where he'd landed, shaking the charred flesh off his boots.
"Someone! Help me!"
"What?" asked Cassandra. "That was Divine Justinia's voice."
"Bring forth the sacrifice."
"Who was that?" asked Muffy.
"My guess, the one who created the Breach." Solas offered.
"What's going on?"
What are you doing?"
"Oh, hell."
"Damn and shite, your ugly."
"Did you find her?"
"Those . . . those were your voices." Cassandra said. "What are we hearing?"
"Past events. The Veil is very thin here. This place bleeds with the Fade." Solas replied.
Above them a black inky figure appeared. "Bring forth the sacrifice."
A image of Divine Justinia appeared, her arms out to the sides, as if she was being held there. "Someone, help me!"
The images of the five mark-bearers stumbling in appeared."What's going on?" "What are you doing?" "Oh, hell." "Damn and shite, your ugly." "Did you find her?"
The dark inky figure pointed at the images of the five. "We have intruders. Kill them all."
"Those were you five. You were there." said Cassandra. "Who was that? Is the Divine still alive?"
"We don't know." said the Qunari as the images above faded away. "There something wrong with this Rift."
"It is closed, but not sealed." said Solas. "I believe one of them can re-open it, and then it can be sealed away properly. However, opening this Rift will attract attention from the other side."
Leliana's group came into the ruined temple. "We're ready."
"There will be demons coming through." warned Cassandra. "Get ready."
Muffy approached the Rift, holding up her hand. Just as the previous Rift did with Faize, there was a green stream out of the mark, and then, an explosion. This time, a huge Demon appeared. A Pride Demon.
Instantly, they started to attack it, but the Demon just laughed it off, swinging whips of electricity at them.
Muffy looked up. "It's worth a try." She held her hand up, and the light arced from her hand causing another explosion. The Pride Demon dropped to his knees, weakened. "WOO!" The Dwarf ran over, swinging her axe like a mad-woman.
The Demon staggered as it tried to stand. It lashed out, swinging the whips of lightning around everywhere. Suddenly, it laughed again, as if the attacks weren't doing any damage at all.
"Elf! Disrupt the Rift!" Muffy shouted.
Faize, who'd been back a ways so he could fire the arrows safely, ran towards the Rift. He faltered slightly as he saw Obsinion get hit hard and flung into a wall. He ducked as Rose got tossed in his direction. Holding up his hand, Faize hoped he was close enough to disrupt the Rift again.
Again, the Pride Demon staggered, and the hits against it seemed much stronger. With a howl, it vanished back into the Rift.
"Now! Seal it!" yelled Cassandra.
They didn't need to be told twice. All five of them held their left hands out, their marks letting green light arc out. There was a massive explosion, knocking almost everyone within a close proximity away.
Cassandra, Solas, and Varric were among the first to get up. While the others were cheering over a victory, they were looking for the five that had closed the Rift.
"Oh, damn." said Varric, rolling Muffy over. "She's out cold."
"The Qunari as well." Solas added.
Cassandra turned over the Elf that had been standing in front of her, as though trying to shield her from anything that might have happened. It was the one with the blue marks, Obsinion. "Are they still alive?" she asked, checking for a pulse.
"Looks like it." Solas replied, kneeling to check Rose.
"Get them back to Haven." Cassandra ordered.