a/n: Welp, because I have so many other things I should be doing, here's the start of something I've been working on for a while, because I'm a sucker for punishment who doesn't know when to stop. Updates will probably be sporadic, at least until the end of April as it's getting down to the wire for my uni classes. But this is my last semester, so hopefully I'll have more free time by then.

Please note that, while this story features the same inquisitor as The Informant, Tillie won't be showing up as that was a crack idea sparked by a post by tumblr user "vhenan". This will follow Elleri through Inquisition, and focus on the events as well as moments in-between.

Enjoy :)

Unrelenting Expectations
Chapter One: The Breach

Her lungs burned with every deep breath of the sickly green air, her feet pounding against the ground and sending shockwaves up her legs until her thighs felt like they were on fire.

She pushed the pain to the back of her mind and forced herself to focus on the woman before her, reaching out for her, rather than the skittering and screeching behind her, gaining on her.

It's right there. Keep moving, Elli. You can make it.

Just

keep

moving…

It was the pain that woke her. Sharp stabs like lightning shooting across her palm and sending a shock all the way up through her arm to her shoulder, down her spine to the tips of her toes and back up to her hand again until she found herself jolting awake with an agonized groan, curling her hand into her chest and just riding out the wave, until it passed. Her head was throbbing, and it was only worsened by the light jabbing itself into her eyes, so she forced them closed against the unwelcome intrusion.

It took a moment for the pain to pass, and she risked opening her eyes again, only to discover that she had no idea where she was. She struggled into a sitting position, staving off waves of dizziness as she found her bearings, when she noticed that, not only was the sickly green light that blinded her emanating from the palm of her left hand, but that her hands were shackled and chained to the floor. Several armed guards stood around her, swords drawn and at the ready, watching her warily.

She was a prisoner?

She shook her head. Focus! Elleri Lavellan. Twenty-seven years old. As good a start as any. Now, what? Searching her memories, she struggled to find any hint to where she was and how she had ended up there. She had left her clan, she knew, in order to observe the results of the Conclave set in motion by the human priesthood, but the meeting had not even had a chance to begin before something went wrong. Try as Lavellan might, she could not remember what had happened. It was just... gone.

Elgar'nan, what happened?

The wooden door banged open and Elleri jumped. In strode two women. The first had her hair cropped short and her face set in a fierce scowl as she looked down at the elf. Her hand was clasping tightly around the hilt of a sword mounted to her belt as she moved to stand behind her. The second woman was clad in chainmail and a purple cowl, and stood in front of her, glaring down at her as the soldiers withdrew their swords and slid them back into their scabbards.

Feeling someone looming over her shoulder, Elleri turned her head until she could see the short-haired woman in her peripherals while still keeping a wary eye on the woman standing in front of her.

"Tell me why we shouldn't kill you now." The short-haired woman demanded over her shoulder, before moving in front of her to join the other woman, "The Conclave is destroyed. Everyone who attended is dead… Except for you."

Lavellan shook her head, her brow creased in confusion, "You think I'm responsible?"

She reached down and grabbed Elleri's shackled left hand, lifting it up roughly as it sparked in response, "Explain this."

"I… can't."

The woman released her, shoving her hand away in disgust, "What do you mean you can't?"

"Believe me, if I knew anything about it, I'd tell you in the hopes of getting rid of it, because every time it flares like that, it feels like a knife is slicing up my arm."

"Bullshit!" The woman shouted, "Our men found you at the site of the explosion, the only one left alive in a crater full of corpses!"

"Explosion?" Elleri repeated, "What are you talking about? Look, I don't know what happened in this crater, or how I ended up there!"

"You're lying!" The woman lunged forward, grabbing Elleri's shoulders and shaking her roughly.

"Hey, hey—woah, I'll tell you what I do know!" Elleri attempted to lift her hands in supplication, but had forgotten they were chained to the floor, so she didn't get them up any farther than her knees, holding her palms open before her as she struggled in the other woman's grip, "Just let me go!"

The other woman, silent until now, stepped forward, taking the short-haired woman's arm and pulling her away, "We need her, Cassandra."

After ensuring Cassandra was calmed, the other woman approached her, "Speak."

Lavellan let out the breath she was holding in a sigh, "My name is Elleri. I was sent here by my clan to observe the Conclave and report back to my Keeper with the results. She was curious about the Conclave and concerned about the outcome because it would affect everyone; not just mages. After I arrived, I remember being surprised at so many Templars, mages and humans in the same place. It was… surreal. I mean, I'd had some experience with humans, but I never expected…" She trailed off, still reeling at the memory before shaking herself back to the reality of her situation.

"I passed myself off as a servant for a while, waiting for the Conclave to start, and then…" she sighed again, her lips pursed in thought, her brow creasing as she struggled to clear away the fog from her memories, "… running. These… things were chasing me, and then… a woman?"

"A woman?"

"She… reached out to me… and then…" Nothing . That was it. Everything else was just… gone. Torn from her mind, leaving nothing behind. Everything between that woman and waking up in this dungeon was simply… darkness.

"Go to the forward camp, Leliana." Cassandra said, pulling the other woman back towards the door, "I will take her to the rift."

The woman with the cowl left the room and Cassandra stepped up to Elleri, kneeling before her as the elf still struggled to remember something—anything —else about the events leading up to her waking in a dungeon, and coming up empty. At a loss, she turned to the human woman, "What did happen?"

The human huffed out a sigh, hesitating a moment before reaching for the shackles around her hands and unchaining them, tying them with rope instead, in order to allow her to stand and follow the woman, "It would be easier to show you."

It didn't take long for Elleri to find out, once they stepped outside she let her eyes adjust to the light. She recognized the village as Haven, where many of the Conclave's attendees had made their temporary residence for the duration of the peace talks at the Temple, and where she had spent the time leading up to the meeting posing a servant. But what immediately drew her gaze was the sky. Clouds spiralled around a giant hole in the sky, ominous green light showing through that pulsed with the same intensity of the mark on her hand.

"We call it the Breach." Cassandra said, "It's a massive rift into the world of demons that grows larger with each passing hour."

Elleri looked at her as she turned around and continued, "It's not the only such rift; just the largest. All were caused by the explosion at the Conclave."

Looking up at it again, Elleri felt herself shiver. Every few moments, something would fall through, to crash to the earth below. Given what Cassandra had just told her, she could only assume it to be demons. The sight had her feeling markedly less excited about the prospects of the mission her Keeper had sent her on, and she suddenly found herself longing for the simplicity of hunting game in the forest, for the friendly competition between herself and the other hunters as they competed for the best pelts or meat. When she said she wanted to learn more of other cultures, this was certainly not what she'd had in mind. Oh, how she wished the Keeper had had a mage to send. Mages were far better prepared to deal with demons.

Also far more likely to be possessed by them.

That was something, she supposed.

"An explosion can do that?" She asked.

"This one did." Cassandra explained. "Unless we act, the Breach may grow until it swallows the world."

That was the moment pain flared into her palm again, and she cried out, the unnatural green light becoming blinding as she cradled her hand to her chest and collapsed in on herself and all of her weight sunk into her knees. Her body bowed forward until her head met the cold ground and she grit her teeth through the agony as it began to spread further down her arm. Trembling, she looked at her hand, and couldn't tear her eyes away as she watched the mark slowly move a few inches down her palm and curl curiously around the outer edge of her hand. With each new expanse of skin covered by the mark as it spread, a fresh new wave of pain pushed down her arm and she looked at the mark in horror. Finally, the pain subsided and the green light dimmed and she forced herself to sit up again, breathing hard and staring at her palm, "Creators… what happened to me?"

Cassandra stepped forward, kneeling before her. "Our men found you in what was left of the Temple of Sacred Ashes, stumbling out of a Fade rift with that mark on your hand. Each time the Breach expands, your mark spreads." She said, "And it is killing you."

Killing me? Well, that explained the agony. "H—How do I get rid of it?"

"We don't know."

She shook her head, "So… what? I'm supposed to just sit here in this dungeon while this parasitic mark just leeches my life from me?"

"It may be the key to stopping this," she said, "but there isn't much time"

"The key? To doing what?"

"Closing the Breach. Whether that's possible is something we shall discover shortly." Cassandra explained, "It is our only chance, however. And yours. We have someone who may be able to help you, but you must help us first." The stern woman said, returning to her feet.

Sighing heavily, Elleri looked up at her from the ground, "Well, I suppose I don't really have a choice, do I?"

Cassandra stared at her for a moment before shaking her head and closing her eyes, as she helped Elleri to her feet, "None of us has a choice."

"Well, Elli," she muttered to herself with a sigh, staring at the hole in the sky and feeling dread settle like dead weight into her stomach, "you've really stepped in it this time."