This book is the continuation of the fic "Dragonage: The Knight of Heide". If you lack context, be sure to read on the first part before proceeding.
Usual disclaimer: I don't own anything of Dragonage Inquisition, except for my OC's.
With that mentioned, let the adventure continue. POV's gonna be split between two main characters, their introductions will be as follows.
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The winds howled like a thousand souls in torment, bringing with it the chilling bite of winter.
I pushed on in spite of the heavy snowfall that had blocked the path leading into the Ivory King's Throneroom, still somewhat confused as to what awoke me from my century-long slumber. Something had breached the gates of Eleum Loyce, come to claim or unleash the Old Chaos upon the world! That is the only explanation. Why else would the magic of the city compel me to action?
I had awoken in the same state I had begun my long sleep, in my full battle regalia and with my sword still in my grasp. The ice had melted off my armor, and I had stepped off the pedestal from where I stood back to level ground. My fellow knights did the same, for they too were summoned by the old magic of Eleum Loyce.
"Lady Cerwynn!" Sir Athis saluted stiffly, "Our duty calls?"
I nodded, picking up my helm and brushing it free from the encrusted frost. "Come, let us attend to the matter quickly."
Presently, I and my fellow knights arrived at the Grand Cathedral in due time. We tried our best to ignore the state of decay that had befallen our kingdom, but failed. The pangs of sorrow were keenly felt as we surveyed the frozen forms of the citizens of Eleum Loyce who were caught in the sudden blast of magic that the sages have unleashed to contain the Old Chaos even before our beloved King sacrificed himself to keep it within the heart of the city.
"Step lively now!" I commanded, drawing my blade free from my back. Something was amiss, I knew it. "Ready yourselves! We are not alone!"
The Grand Cathedral was as we had left it, frozen and devoid of all life- save for the Oracle herself. As always, she remained silent in her vigil. Calling upon us in our sleep was enough evidence she had foreseen what would soon befall Eleum Loyce.
The gates into the Cathedral thundered as something powerful struck it from the other side.
"Stand by me!" I cried, dropping my visor as the second strike shattered the frozen barricade. My knights, only five strong but all powerful warriors in their own right, did the same as I and drew their weapons. When the gates were flung open, we called upon the old magicks of Eleum Loyce and prepared to unleash the powers of Winter upon the intruder.
There was a pause, as we regarded the stranger who breached the sanctity of Eleum Loyce. He stood alone, armed with a single black-bladed axe that bore the stench of evil upon it. The armor was black as pure obsidian, decorated with the pelts of great beasts to keep his body warm from the cold winds outside. The make of his helm was unmistakable. He was of the lost kingdom of Heide. How had he even crossed the border without a single scratch upon him from the guardians?
"Who dares tread through the Ivory King's soil?" I addressed the intruder. "State your business or face the wrath of Eleum Loyce!"
"I've come to take the Old Chaos for my master." The unknown knight declared, offering no further explanations. "Stand aside, or be cut down like the rest."
"No!" I replied, "We shall give you this one chance to turn back!"
"So be it." He sighed, summoning a powerful fireball out of nowhere and striking Sir Athis upon his shield!
My comrade's buckler shatters on impact, but Sir Athis recovered from the attack quickly. "For Eleum Loyce!" I cried, leading the charge against the insolent Heideian. We soon found out that the stranger was more than we could handle. He was quick, a lot more than we expected. With two casual swings, he cut down two of ours even before we could deal a blow of our own! The three of us left put up a front for a while, but were quickly subdued by the far more powerful stranger. He does not stop for us, however, and walks past our bleeding bodies.
The pit in the middle of the Throneroom led into the heart of Eleum Loyce, the same place where our King had gone centuries before to battle the Old Chaos on its own turf- never to return. He had given us a specific duty, to keep watch over the city lest the Old Chaos escape and his sacrifice mean little. Seeing the stranger make a mockery of our vows in this manner angered me to no end, and I pursued him as he prepared to leap into the pit.
"NO!"
I grabbed him from behind in an attempt to seal him with me in a pillar of ice, but was unable to.
The man burned hotter than the fires of hell, and I recoiled as he pushed me aside. Unfazed by my poor attempt, the stranger did what he came for and leaped into the pit, leaving me and my surviving knights to watch on in astonishment.
Sir Athis grasped at the wound in his side, "Leave him be...the Old Chaos will devour him. If even His Highness had a problem with it, how much less for an interloper like him?"
"Are you suggesting we stand by and do nothing? No, I shall see this one through the end!" I declared, "Stay if you need to, but I have a duty to uphold. The stranger shall not unleash the Old Chaos upon this world."
"Lady Cerwynn!"
I ignored my comrades as I made a blind jump down the pit, bracing myself for whatever lay beyond the steam clouds wafting free from the fiery maw of the earth. I could feel the rise in temperature from the dizzying height I leaped from, I could taste the acridity of sulphur in the air. When I arrived at the heart of Eleum Loyce, I saw the stranger again.
This time, he stood before the Ivory King himself! His Majesty had not changed a bit since he left, except for the charred state of his royal armor. The stranger stood amongst the bodies of slain Eleum Loyce Knights, who had gone faithfully unto the maw with our King to deal with the Old Chaos. Fires burned all around, and a sea of flame boiled beneath the small island we found ourselves stranded upon.
A brief duel of fates, but even our King fell before the stranger.
The axe buried itself upon his chest, tearing his wondrous soul free from its prison. I watched helplessly as the stranger devoured my King's essence and moved to address the hungry fires burning before him. The air had grown heavy, and I found myself weakened to the point that I could barely stand on my own two feet. I collapsed, sweat pouring in rivers as I looked on. He ignores me as stretched forth his hands over the river of flame, calling on the Old Chaos to come for him.
It did, in all its fury.
The stranger, however, held an unseen power greater even than the primal fire of the Old Chaos. He breathed in the flames, tearing the Old Chaos from its bed and wrestling its control away! The fires of the sea soon died, leaving a charred and heated husk from where it came. The stranger stepped away once the deed was done and walked towards the portal that quickly opened in the middle of the island. With one word, the magicks of that thing spirited him away from this plane of existence and out into the unknown- taking the Old Chaos with him!
"My King!" I gasped, feeling the air grow thin with each passing second. I had noticed my liege move in spite of his wound, "You yet live!"
"He had taken but only a splinter of me..." The Ivory King rasped, "I worry more that he has taken with him...the Old Chaos! He must not have it! The Dark One, whom he serves...You, o Lady Cerwynn...you must follow him..."
"What is your bidding, my lord?" I asked.
"Take this." My liege handed me his greatsword, filled with the essence of his own vessel that kept him from succumbing to Chaos. "Return...or slay the Old Chaos upon the thief...Save the realms...Until then, Eleum Loyce shall remain frozen in time."
"It will be done, I swear it!"
My King's body enwreathed itself in ice, a mirrored fate of our kingdom as Eleum Loyce grew ever colder, its citizens remaining trapped in a frozen limbo. My King was wise in doing so, for without a proper end our Kingdom will be reduced to a rotting shell of its former self- likened unto the fate of Drangleic and all the others. Eleum Loyce will endure, Eleum Loyce will remain pure...
Eleum Loyce, is eternal.
I pushed the Kingsblade upon the island floor, using the ancient power within it to force open the fabric of space and time. With the portal open, I journeyed forth into the unknown, sniffing out the trail left behind by the Knight of Heide.
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Credits go to Lord Pyrus, who provided the idea and concept of Amata Cerwyn.