Full Story Summary: "The Herald and the Prophet. Earthlings. To make it in this new world, they will have to work together. And not die. The Prophet's convinced that everything the universe over is trying its best to prevent just that. The not dying part, that is. There's no such thing as coincidence and more than one person's doing the creeping. Keep your friends close and your sketchy, elfy mentors closer.
At least they understand each other's jokes."
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And because it is much harder here to give tags and other relevant story info in the summary, I shall list them:
Relationships: Female Mage OC (Bevin) X Solas; Female Inquisitor OC (Nichole) X Cullen; Minor/Background Relationships; Minor Dorian Pavus X Iron Bull
Other Tags: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence; POV Original Character; POV Solas; Multiple POV; Adventure & Romance; Fluff & Smut; Humor; Slow Build; Spoilers, spoilers, spoilers; Solas is Fen'Harel; Modern Girl(s) in Thedas Trope; Non-Inquisitor OC; Eventual Romance; Slooow Burn; Schemes and Plots; Foiled Schemes and Plots; Magic Free-styling; Sex Magic; Gratuitous Artistic Liberties; Literary References & Allusions; Piercings/Tattoos; Past Abuse; Angsty schmoop; Hurt/Comfort; Happy ending, I promise; Hurt/Comfort; Explicit Sexual Content
Tags will be periodically updated to reflect story content and avoid story spoilers. I've put the full range of tags above, fully aware that certain explicit ones will not apply to chapters posted here on FFN.
Story will include major and minor canon divergences.
Disclaimer: Dragon Age: Inquisition and corresponding characters belong to BioWare. The story following is a free fanwork published solely for entertainment.
There are non-fictional references and allusions to fictional works to which I have no claim (Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, etc). There may also be references to non-fictional pop culture and historical figures and events. Nothing else is based upon real people and any coincidences herein are unintentional.
Rated for: Language, Violence, Gore, and Sexual Situations.
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Chapter One: Am I the Only One Who Sees "Sim's Diamond"?
Chapter Summary: Down the rabbit hole we go!
Author's Note: Heeeavy artistic licensing going on here in order to make things a little more flowy with the introduction of a second person...and complication. This first part will be from her POV since I'm sure many of you are quite familiar with the general opening sequence, but from then, I'll switch things up more. Also, most chapters probably won't be nearly this long.
This story is also (and primarily) published on An Archive of Our Own (AO3). I have a link on my profile, if you would like to navigate there. This story is technically rated E, so the higher rated chapters will not be published here (at least not in their entirety), but I will provide links and notification to the relevant chapters. Formatting is also optimized for the other site, so if there are any hiccups here, please let me know.
Since it has long been so in the primary publishing, I will note now that this story is primarily from the POV of Bevin. She'll be important, but isn't exactly the Inquisitor, rather a kind of "Inquisitor-lite." It'll make sense later, I promise.
Update: Chapters with potentially NSFW (well, sexual) material are now marked in the chapter navigation drop-down with an (x). As I stated above, given FF's rules against explicit content, you will have to navigate to AO3 to enjoy the full, unedited chapters. Links are provided in the chapter and on my profile.
For those unfamiliar with AO3, guests are free to read and give "kudos" (a way for people to express that they like the work). Getting an account can take a few days since the site is still in beta, but it's not required to read this story there. If you're interested in Dragon Age, I highly recommend checking it out since the community there has quite a few more works produced than here on FF and the ratings are expanded.
As always, reviews loved and encouraged! I reply where I can. xx
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Fate's a fickle, sadistic bastard of a thing. Both women would, independently, come to this conclusion. Once awake, of course.
Bevin had come second through the glowing rift, seeing a girl reaching out to another woman. The ensuing energy blast had rocked the earth and sent her flying, losing sight of the other two women and the giant, glowing Sim's diamond. Scattered thoughts dimmed as her head pulsed wildly. The sight of blood upon her fingertips from her temple was the last thing she saw before her vision went black.
What she awoke to were her hands shackled in front of her and lots of yelling. Bevin tried to sit up to better see what was going on, but her vision swam and landed her back on the ground with an "oomph." Her hearing pitched to where everything was just a high buzz. She held her head as best she could with the metal around her wrists.
There was more yelling, closer this time, masculine voices. A rattling of metal on metal and the grating swing of the cell door. Footsteps and then she was being roughly dragged up to her knees. She managed to regain enough balance to not immediately flop down on her face on the rough stoney ground, but she had to focus her vision and concentrate on the woman's speech for anything to reach coherency. The weird Russian accent didn't help.
"I suppose you are going to spin the same story?" The dark haired woman was right in her face and it took a moment to process her words, a moment that only served to aggravate the woman by the prodding to her arm.
"I...what? Where am I?" Bevin managed to get out.
"What do you remember?" the woman asked as she circled her.
Bevin's eyes scrunched closed as she struggled with her recent memories. "I was walking to the store – taking a short cut through the forest. There was a bright flash of green, a bright light. It's close to Halloween, so at first I thought I'd just stumbled onto someone's elaborate setup. But then spiders – the size of freaking cars – began pouring out of it!" She paused, trying to calm her heart that beat faster with each moment that came back to her. She couldn't panic now. "I tried to run, but I was dragged back towards the green light. The last thing I remember was watching someone – female, I think – reach out to a floating woman."
"You are one of the only two survivors we found after the explosion at the Conclave," the woman seemed to back off, if only slightly. Her lips pursed, "We need to find out the cause of the rift."
"The what? Please, where am I?" Nothing made sense to her. Green lights, giant spiders, and now people yelling at her in strange accents wearing what appeared to be medieval armor.
The woman stepped back and turned to address a frocked woman who had been observing silently, "Go to the forward camp, Leliana. I will bring them to the rift."
Another spoke up and Bevin's eyes focused on the girl standing cuffed just outside the cell. "What happened? You aren't answering any of our questions!" It struck Bevin that she was dressed equally out of place. Though the green spark at the blonde's hand threw her for a loop.
The dark haired woman began undoing Bevin's shackles, replacing them with rope ties, as what looked to be a soldier took her signal to release the blonde's and do the same. "It will be easier to show you," she said, bringing Bevin to her feet.
She followed the woman out alongside the blonde, whom she cast several sidelong glances. Their eyes eventually met and Bevin mouthed, This is weird! at her. Eyebrows rose in exasperated agreement.
"I'm Nichole," the girl greeted softly.
"Bevin," she replied with a nod. "So… Middle Earth, yeah?" Bevin made a slight gesture around them as they walked.
Nichole responded earnestly, "I know, right? It's so weird!"
"What's with the green light show going on there?" Bevin asked, pointedly glancing at Nichole's hand.
"No idea; I woke up with it. Hurt's like a bitch, though. Everyone keeps asking about it." She grimaced as she turned her hand this way and that. She gave Bevin an odd look, "You very partial to face tattoos?" At Bevin's look of shock and confused, stumbled steps, she clarified, sort of, and awkwardly rubbed a thumb across Bevin's cheek, as if in attempt to rub something away.
Bevin looked about frantically, exclaiming, "Ugh, nothing's reflective!"
By this time, they'd reached a massive wooden door. As they stepped out into the blinding light and sudden cold, the female soldier announced, "We call it the Breach. It's a massive rift into the world of demons that grows larger with each passing hour. It is not the only such rift, just the largest. All were caused by the explosion at the Conclave."
Bevin was slack-jawed and speechless, but Nichole exclaimed, "Holy shit!" upon laying eyes on the massive whirl of green light and energy.
As the woman's words caught up to her, Bevin repeated, "Did she say 'demons?'"
A stray bolt of light shot from the rift in the sky and Nichole fell to her knees with a scream as the mark on her hand glowed brighter.
The woman stood before Nichole, "Each time the breach expands, your mark spreads. And it is killing you. It may be the key to stopping this, but there isn't much time!"
Nichole gasped in pain, unable to say anything but nod frantically.
There were whispers and hostile looks all around them as they pressed on. "What's with the looks?" Bevin finally asked, uneasy at all of the attention and anger they were receiving. She wasn't sure if it was only the cold that was making her shiver.
The woman ushered them on quickly, "They have decided your guilt. They need it. The people of Haven mourn our Most Holy Divine Justinia, Head of the Chantry. The Conclave was hers. It was a chance for peace between Mages and Templars. She brought their leaders together, now they are dead."
Bevin wasn't sure where to begin with the questions that brought up. "Mages? Like, magic?"
At the same time, Nichole asked, "What's a Templar?"
The woman stopped and turned to them as they stood on the beginnings of a path, "You two are truly not of this world? Does your world not have magic?"
Bevin blinked, "Unless this suddenly gets steampunky, we have far greater advances in technology, but nothing I'd call magic. We are from the same world, right?" she addressed Nichole.
Nichole made to speak, but the woman brought them through a set of doors and onto a wide wall. She turned to each of them and cut through their wrist bindings with a blade.
They were ushered into a tented area. "We do not have much to spare, but your clothes alone will not do in this valley," she explained. She hurriedly spoke with the woman manning the tent, who passed a sneer their way. Pressed hard enough, Bevin was finally handed a long coat and a pair of boots, both of which were quite too big. She flung the leather coat on over her sweater and athletic leggings, then laced the boots up her calves as tight as she could. Tennis shoes were grudgingly abandoned and the attending woman looked them over suspiciously.
Nichole was passed a shorter jacket for over her sweatshirt and jeans and given a pair of gloves. Her hiking boots were deemed good enough to handle wherever they were going.
Though the air was cold, the wind was dead, so their clothes weren't terrible to be marching off in. Bevin scrunched down into the high collar of her coat and tucked her arms across her as they walked back out on their way.
"Your mark must be tested on something smaller than the Breach," the woman explained, looking to Nichole.
Nichole and Bevin followed briskly behind her as they wove around the set defenses and soldiers scurrying to and fro. As they were passing over another section of wall, a blast of green light struck at the stone, crumbling it beneath them. While Bevin was able to scramble backwards enough to avoid falling down the destroyed wall, the woman and Nichole weren't so lucky.
Bevin looked on in horror as another green blast struck close, but this time, ghastly, shadowed forms arose from where it struck. The woman drew her sword and shield, but Nichole had nothing with which to defend herself – and for that matter, neither did she!
Spying a spilled crate of simple swords, Bevin began picking her way down the shambles of stone as fast as she could. She called out to Nichole and pointed towards the weapons just as two more creatures were rising from the ground. The female warrior was too preoccupied facing her own set of demons to be able to help them in time. The smart thing to do would probably have been to have stayed back up on the little wall that remained, but Bevin didn't think Nichole could take on both creatures at once and she'd feel bad abandoning someone who was apparently just as lost in this as she was (perhaps even more so).
Both took up a sword and began slashing at a demon. Her own reared back suddenly and came down upon her with force. She braced her sword and arm above her in defense, eyes scrunching closed reflexively in fear, and prepared for a blow that would send her reeling at the least. What she felt was a push of energy and the feel of static in the air, a low hum that soon died. Opening her eyes, she saw that the demon was no more than ashes and Nichole was looking at her oddly, her own monster also gone quite suddenly.
The warrior came racing back to them, sword still drawn offensively. She yelled in demand, "Drop your weapons!" Even though they complied, she still rounded on Bevin. "You are a Mage!" she spat.
Bevin could do nothing but stutteringly deny the accusation. Her heart fluttered high in her throat – Mages were clearly not held in the highest esteem here. "I-I don't know what happened!"
"You made some kind of staticky, purple sphere thing and the monsters disintegrated when they hit it," Nichole explained, looking more wary of her as she stepped away.
Bevin could only look on in wide-eyed disbelief, "I've never done anything like that before."
The warrior rubbed at her face, gritting her teeth, "This...complicates things further. But I cannot protect either of you out here nor can I expect you to be defenseless. Take up your swords and watch your backs."
The group continued on, cutting down anything in their paths that sprang up from the ground, albeit sloppily and clumsily on the parts of Bevin and Nichole. Every once and awhile, Bevin felt that static building again, a kind of itch in her fingers that she didn't know how to scratch.
"We're getting close to the rift. You can hear them fighting!" the warrior announced.
Nichole yelled back, "Who's fighting?"
"You'll see soon. We must help them!"
And what a sight it was.
Bevin felt more a liability than a help, but did her best to slash at anything that came her way. Eventually the numbers of demons were cut down.
"Quickly, before more come through!" Bevin turned to see who she could only assume was Legolas sans hair grab onto Nichole's glowing hand and thrust it towards the rift.
The crystalline green aura seemed to fold in on itself before disappearing in a shatter of blinding light.
"Woah! What did you do?" Nichole exclaimed, brown eyes wide and clutching at her hand.
"I did nothing. The credit is all yours," he replied in an accent softer than that of the warrior. "Whatever magic opened the Breach in the sky, also placed that mark upon your hand. I theorized that the mark might be able to close the rifts that have opened in the Breach's wake. And it seems I was correct." Something he was clearly happy about going by the twitch of a smile at his lips.
Nichole was still awestruck, "So magic is real!"
"What, did you miss him flinging fireballs around?" Bevin jerked her head towards (what she was hoping she was correct in assuming the race of) the elf and rolled her eyes.
"Meaning it could also close the Breach itself," the warrior added, speaking over their exchange.
The elf nodded, "Possibly." He turned to Nichole, addressing her once more, "It seems you hold the key to our salvation."
"Good to know. And here I thought we'd be ass-deep in demons forever," a man walked up, swinging a crossbow to his back and adjusting his gloves.
Nichole stepped over and bent close to her ear, whispering loud enough that Bevin was sure nothing actually went missed by any of those gathered here, "Bevin! Is that a dwarf or a hobbit?"
Bevin elbowed her sharply.
The man cocked an eyebrow at the blonde, "Never seen a dwarf before?" Noticing they both had a blank stare going, he asked, "Where are you guys from anyway?"
"Texas," came Nichole's one worded reply as her gaze shifted curiously to the elf standing nearby perusing them with equally curious eyes.
"Michigan," Bevin added. The two looked at one another.
"How come you got the warm coat? You should totally be used to this!" Nichole exclaimed.
"It's the beginning of fall. And it was in the high 60s; we haven't had snow yet," Bevin then amended, "At least not in the lower peninsula."
"So you're not from the same place?" the dwarf asked.
"Opposite sides of the same country," Bevin answered. She shifted on her feet, rubbing her hands together, feeling the cold beginning to seep in now that they weren't currently moving. "I keep asking, and hopefully the fourth time's the charm, but where are we?"
The elf was the one to finally grace them with an answer, "We are in Ferelden of Thedas."
"Not a place – either of those," came Bevin's doubtful answer. "On our planet," she added when it looked as through he was going to protest.
"Seriously?" Nichole plead, "I was really hoping we were, like, in the Swiss Alps or something, and this was just some really serious LARPing...gone too far."
"Definitely not in Kansas anymore, Toto," she replied to her with a chopped laugh.
"Kansas your country?" the dwarf asked, brow furrowed.
"Sorry, it's a literary reference from our world. Kansas is another state in our country, though," Bevin clarified.
"But how do we get back?" Nichole hit the main question on the head. At this point, she was also fidgeting and rubbing her hands together.
Bevin snorted, "I'm still not fully convinced I'm not dreaming." She looked up at the green expanse of the sky. "Granted, were I dreaming, I'd be able to shoot fireballs at will and not just this weird static stuff," she flicked her fingers in front of herself watching as the occasional blue-violet spark sprang forth.
"Channeling typically helps," the elf supplied. "There is no magic in your world?"
"No, though I may hold out for my letter from Hogwarts yet," her answer got a snorted laugh out of Nichole and more odd looks from the rest of the group.
"She's clearly a threat. As such, I'm putting you in charge of her," the warrior gave a sharp look at the elf.
Bevin was incredulous, her eyes widening, "She has the glowy, green, auroric leech in her hand and I'm the threat?"
"Yeah, but you're a threat because of your lack of skill. Demonic possession and all that," the dwarf did look at her uneasily.
"That raises far more questions than answers," she despaired, dropping her arms to her sides. "What if Nichole's a Mage?"
"She is not," the elf answered. "Aside from the mark on her hand, Nichole has no mana connection to the Fade."
Nichole made a look like she wasn't sure if this was good or bad news for her. "Can we do names or something so that I can stop referring to you two as Gimli and Legolas in my head?" At Bevin's huff of disapproval Nichole rounded on her with her hands at her hips, "You can't say you haven't been doing the exact same thing! You're the one who brought up Lord of the Rings first!"
She flushed with a scoff, "Yeah, but I didn't feel the need to voice it!"
"Everything's gibberish between the two of you, but anywho: I'm Varric Tethras. Rogue, storyteller, and occasionally unwanted tagalong," he sent a wink the warrior's way.
"Nice crossbow you got there," Nichole complimented.
"Ah, isn't she?" the look he gave it was one of love. "Bianca and I have been through a lot together."
"You named your crossbow "Bianca"?" Bevin asked.
Varric nodded, "Of course, and she'll be great company in the valley!"
The warrior cut in, "Absolutely not! Your help is appreciated, Varric, but-"
He gestured about around them, "Have you been in the valley lately, Seeker? Your soldiers aren't in control anymore. You need me."
The woman walked off with a huff.
The elf took the opportunity to speak, "My name is Solas. I am pleased to see that you both still live."
"He means, 'I kept your mark and your head wound from killing you while you slept,'" Varric inserted, gesturing to each of them in turn.
"Though you should not be up and about so soon." He looked pointedly to where a thick bandage covered the still-throbbing gash at Bevin's temple.
"So, Nichole and…?" Varric eyed the yet unintroduced party.
"Bevin! Sorry," she rushed with a bit too much force behind the name. "My name is Bevin. It's a pleasure to meet you both. And I do appreciate having my head on right, thank-you."
"Minus the marks," Nichole added under her breath.
Bevin's hands flew to her face, "Oh yeah!" and she looked about once more for any even slightly reflective surface. Her eyes settled on a patch of ice and she paced over to it. It was difficult to make out very clearly, but she appeared to have a dark raindrop-like shape about the size of her thumbnail angled across either cheekbone below the outer corners of her eyes. She thumbed at one trying to rub it away, but it held fast to her pale skin. She settled for fixing back some of the auburn curls that had escaped the knot at the base of her neck and the few pins scattered about her head.
"You did not have them prior to arriving here?" Solas questioned from behind her.
Bevin shook her head and frowned, "No. What are they?"
"They are not connected to the rift magic, beyond that, I shall have to do more research, I'm afraid," Bevin tried not to flinch away as his cool fingertips traced across one cheek, though she sucked in a breath at the apparent sensitivity of the marks.
She danced away from him to return to Nichole's side. "Well, my life has become a terrible cliché," she began flatly, "I left my apartment to get milk at the store two blocks away, and upon returning, if at all, I will get to figure out what to do with magical face tattoos."
"At least you can try makeup. As you can see, not even gloves will hide this thing," Nichole lifted her hand.
"This is true. I could be worse off," she ceded the point.
"So, you seem to be quite knowledgeable in all this," Nichole addressed Solas.
The warrior, whose name was still "Xena" in Bevin's head, filled them in, "Solas is an apostate – well versed in such matters."
"Technically all Mages are now apostates," Solas informed them. "My travels have allowed me to learn much of the Fade. Far beyond the experience of any Circle Mage. I came to offer whatever help I can give with the Breach."
"We must cease delaying and make our way to the forward camp quickly," the Warrior Princess was antsy to be back on their way.
Nichole mumbled under her breath as they began walking after her once more, "Off to Mordor we go."
"I do kinda feel like a Sam, Frodo," Bevin was totally feeling this analogy.
"A muggle Harry Potter and his magical scar," Nichole played along. "I guess that makes you Hermione!" she laughed.
At the very least, it was helping to dissolve the tension in the air. "A J to your K! The Robin to your Batman!"
"That one's not magical," Nichole laughed.
"Yeah, it was getting away from me," she grinned before her vision swam.
She suddenly found herself in the midst of a battle. The air is almost unbearably warm around her, heavy with the smell of soot and burning...something. All around her arrows are being fired down from above, swords striking at the flesh of demons. Everything is cast in a sickly color of green from a nearby rift – this one far larger than the one she had just seen closed.
There are shouts from all sides; some in warning, others in pain. Everything unbelievably loud, the ringing in her ears alone is painful. Her hands are gripped hard around a staff and she feels herself throw a charged blast at a spectral demon...somehow.
Her head automatically shifts over to where she sees Nichole trying to close the rift. She's watching for anything that may attack the blonde while she's concentrating on her priority. The ground shakes and Bevin's vision seesaws. A quick turn to the right and a massive demon is approaching. It's too close! Everyone near it is trying in vain to keep it from moving forward, but it's treating them like little more than annoying flies.
The demon lifts its arm and suddenly a whip of electricity is flying through the air. In one motion, the whip's flying over their heads and suddenly knocking Nichole several yards back into the crumbled wall.
Bevin's running to her, but Nichole isn't getting back up. There's more shouting around her, people trying to make their way over to her. Bevin's the first one to her side and sees the blood pooling under her, the flayed flesh at her throat.
The sight makes her queasy, compounded by the abrupt feeling of being pulled away.
Bevin blinked and found herself cross-eyed looking up the blade of a sword held by the owner of one of the nastiest glares she'd ever had leveled on her. "Um, what happened?" she asked, eyes unmoving from the weapon as she struggled to resist raising her hands in defense. Her heart climbed up into her throat once again to thrash around in a fashion she experiencing all too often lately.
Nichole appeared by the woman's shoulder, a worried look on her face, "Your face went all glowy blue and you fainted."
Now that she mentioned it, her face felt hot and icy all at once. Her hand raised reflexively to feel the new marks. She jerked back at the other woman's bracing of her sword at her neck, only then realizing that her head was in someone's lap. A furtive glance to the right revealed Varric with his hand braced on his crossbow, so that left – a glance up – the elf looking down at her concernedly, his brow furrowed.
Bevin looked back to Nichole, "I saw you die!"
"What do you mean you "saw?" How do we know she hasn't been possessed?" the warrior demanded, eyes narrowed.
She tried to sit up, giving the woman a sour look and pushing herself forward to sit up anyway when she moved to prevent her. Not knowing how to address the second question, though she highly doubted it was at all addressed to her for answering, Bevin attempted to describe what happened, "Everything went black and then I was standing in the middle of a battle. At one of those rifts – you were all there! I see this giant demon thing and it's got a whip made of lightning. It's stomping all around; y'all are doing a horrible job of keeping it contained." Bevin heard a scoff, but continued, using emphatic arm gestures where appropriate, "Its arm's waving around and the whip snags Nichole – sends her flying across the battle field! She's bled out a ton by the time I get there." She paused. "And then I blink, and here I am on the ground with your sword two inches from skewering me."
There was a battle going on in the eyes of the warrior. She'd just added to the pile of complications that seemed to be growing by the minute. Frankly, Bevin didn't blame any of them for thinking it farfetched, for even she herself did, but if that was what awaited them at some point in the future, there were going to be some issues with the whole "key to our salvation" gig Nichole had going on. Hard to be something when you're dead, after all.
"Solas?" the warrior deferred with a sigh, knowing this was well out of her area of expertise.
"Like the magic connected with the Breach, this is unlike any I have seen," the elf admitted from crouched next to Bevin. She could tell that he wanted to get all touchy again, there was just the slightest twitch in his fingers and brow, but was thinking better of it this time. "If what she says is true, however, we will need to take extra precaution during this battle. A vision of the future not yet come to pass may be able to be altered from its course."
Varric spoke up, "But where does it take place? Can't do much to change anything if we don't know when and where this happens."
"Bevin, what do you remember of the scenery? Was there anything that could be identifying?" Solas asked her earnestly.
She closed her eyes tightly and rested her forehead in her palm, concentrating to recall everything that she saw. "This rift is much bigger than the last. Parts of a building – ruins. There are big spires of rock cracked with green, glowing light. Scatterings of red crystals." Her hands moved like she was plotting everything for a map, "Uhm...the rift's right over a section of the building that's still standing. There are arches on parts of it. Arrows are being shot from above."
"What you've described may be the Conclave, where the explosion took place," the warrior was pondering what to do with this information. "Leliana should be ahead, we must confer with her to know the status of our forces."
Solas helped Bevin to her feet and they were off once more, Varric occasionally asking questions of the two younger women.
Bevin found herself lowly whistling the Men in Black theme, placing it squarely in Nichole's head going by her head movements and occasional hum. She watched the warrior marching several paces before them and a question came to bag her: she still hadn't caught her name and was still referring to her by "Xena" silently. She nudged the blonde next to her and threw a nod towards the third woman, "Did you catch her name?"
Nichole glanced at the woman and took a moment to recall it, "Cassandra."
She mumbled her thanks. "You don't seem very perturbed by any of this," Bevin remarked to her fellow modern girl who kept on keeping on even though she had just been told of her possible approaching death.
Nichole took a moment, "Well, you saw it, right? There must be a reason for that. Maybe you're meant to change it."
"That's mighty optimistic," Bevin replied with a smile that she didn't quite feel. Damn near optimistically stupid – had Bevin seen her own death with such clarity, she'd be hightailing it out of here. And now the pressure was on her to prevent the death of another.
There was another rift before they reached their current destination. This one went down more quickly now that everyone had a better idea of what was expected.
Once on this wall, they got yelled at by some religious cardinal who demanded that she and Nichole be cuffed and taken off someplace for trial. He clearly wasn't exactly well liked and Cassandra shot this down swiftly. At the moment, she was talking troop movements and numbers with Leliana, the woman she'd last seen when waking up in that cell.
A hand on her arm broke her from her stare off to the distance. "Here," Solas was holding what looked like a long, slightly knobby stick out to her.
Bevin took it from him lightly and turned it about in her hands, sucking in a breath when she realized that this was what she'd been holding in her vision. The smooth feel of the dark wood was the same. An ebb and flow of cool energy heated to her touch. She felt like she'd placed her hands into the gentle current of a river. "I had this in the vision," she told him. "How do I use it?" It wasn't exactly like she could stab things with it and if she couldn't get it past being a glorified club, it would be nothing but a downgrade from her sword.
"We shall address your complete lack of training at a later time," Oh, look! Another optimist. She chose to ignore the tone that suggested he thought it absurd that a world without magic would exist. He lead her to an out of the way area, "A simple energy attack is fairly intuitive. The staff will attune to your mana." He took his own staff and aimed a weak pale blue blast at an out-of-the-way rock off the wall. "Focus on the feel of the magic with the staff and push it out while aiming."
Bevin turned towards their makeshift target and set her full focus on the staff in her hands. She found the flow easily and concentrated on pushing it back and forth.
Either out of impatience or need, though possibly both, Solas grabbed ahold of her staff. Bevin could feel the magic surge forward with much more force, and she promptly found herself doubled over sneezing.
She stumbled back, face inflamed with embarrassment and a tingling across her nose and cheeks. She could see that Solas looked shocked, a look she doubted he often wore, but Varric was nearby positively shaking with laughter. Even Nichole caught giggles despite not having a clue what had just happened.
"That a normal reaction there, Chuckles?" Varric got out.
"No, that is actually quite bizarre," his eyes were laughing even if his face had sunk back into its default of "mild."
Determined to move past this, Bevin regained her composure and the few bits of her pride left and once again focused on blasting that damn rock. She concentrated on giving the magic a strong kick in the ass out of the staff. A blast, probably stronger than it needed to be, of white energy tinged in violet shot forth from the end of her staff and hit about ten feet to the right and three feet up of her target. Not a terrible start, she thought.
"Again," Solas demanded. And so she repeated this a good dozen times until she was hitting the crumbling rock with consistency.
She was feeling the drain and masked her breather with a question, "So, earlier I apparently made a barrier...thing," she wiggled her fingers in an arch over herself. "How do I do that?" From behind Solas, Nichole mocked her gesture with much gusto.
Solas arched a brow but answered, "Magic is based in Will. Press your magic out as before, instead, however, shape it around you into the state that is desired."
Closing her eyes, Bevin dipped into that flow of energy once again. She drew it out slowly this time and tried to form it around herself. At the heavy, building feel of static in the air, her eyes opened. The air around her was a blue-violet haze that gave off the occasional crackle and hiss. Everyone had backed off, save Solas, who glowed blue under what she assumed was his own barrier.
The elf "hm"-ed and held out a hand to run along the out area of the magic she'd summoned up. He was able to pass through the magic, but it reacted violently to the passage, sending up sparks along his arm. The same energy that passed along her skin like a warm breeze likely would have singed and stung him. "Can you solidify it?" he asked.
Varric called over, "Maybe a little less electricity, too! Making my chest hair stand on end."
She grimaced trying to think of a way to do that. Thinking of the hard, spherical glass of a snow globe, Bevin tried to reform the magic around her. The air cleared around her and pushed itself into a hardened, crystalline form. Bevin frowned, biting her lip. This didn't seem quite right, either.
Bevin lifted her staff thinking it would knock against the hardened barrier, but, to her surprise, it passed right through in a ripple of energy. She tried to shoot through it. This was the greater surprise to her: the blast passed right through like there was nothing there at all and went on to strike at the rocks beyond them. Huh.
"A little unconventional, but it seems you have something that works for you," Solas rapped lightly against the barrier with a knuckle and it sounded like solid glass. His voice was a little muffled.
"It kinda feels like I'm in a fishbowl," she responded. With another thought the barrier dissolved around her and she felt some of her mana return to her. The ambient noise cleared and returned to its normal volume.
"Well, Sneezy, looks like we're on our way again," Varric noticed Cassandra marching over to them.
Once Cassandra saw that she had their collective attention, she waved them over to the table that held their maps. "Leliana will be rallying her forces to the temple. We currently have two options for getting there. The first is to take the direct road and make our way through with our forces – it will be quicker."
Leliana spoke, "The quickest, but not the safest route. The second option would be to take the mountain pass while our forces charge as a distraction."
Cassandra had a look of distaste, "We lost contact with an entire squad on that path; I believe it too risky." She addressed the group, "Your thoughts?" She was met with blank looks. Up until this point, everyone had pretty much been just following her orders and directions.
Bevin had no experience with these kinds of things and she doubted Nichole did, either. She glanced up at the blonde who merely shrugged and said, "I just have the flashy hand light, you're the psychic."
Bevin scoffed, "I am hardly qualified to make this kind of judgment call. Though if the mountain pass has even the slightest chance of picking up more people, that's where I cast my vote." Then she grumbled, "Without knowing any other details." She then took a few grateful swallows of water from a flask that was being passed around.
And when everyone else just kind of grunted in agreement, that was how they found themselves walking along treacherous mountain paths with snow being blown into their faces by the strong winds that had kicked up. Bevin knew that they probably wouldn't be here if she hadn't opened her mouth. She was trying really hard to not regret this.
Bevin rubbed at her face and ears trying to get some more warmth back into them.
"You alright there, Sneezy?" Varric asked from a little ways behind her.
"My ears hurt...and my face hurts. And my feet hurt," she complained, the list went on. It was kind of a general bodily thing.
Nichole turned her head to look back at her. "The Michigander's the one who can't take the cold!" she teased with a laugh.
"Well, it's no wonder with all that metal in your head, kid." Ah, Varric had caught sight of her mostly hidden piercings through her hair. But he was right, the studs and rings were freezing the surrounding skin faster. The small gold ring in her left nostril wasn't exactly helping the situation with her face, either. At least the others were covered by her clothes.
"So, how many do you have?" he asked.
No, she wasn't in the mood to play this game. She stuck her tongue out at him and refused to answer.
They finally made it with little incident to a wooden rig built up to the entrance of a mine on the side of the mountain. And Bevin realized she had an issue. Her staff. Having only two hands. And the many ladders up.
Prior to now, it had been used fairly heavily as a walking stick. She noticed that Solas' stuck to his back with the aid of...velcro magic. She didn't exactly want to ask him for help again, but it was that or explain to Varric and his knowing look why exactly she was staring intently at the back of the elf.
"Yo, Solas?" she called.
He turned to her expectantly, "Yes?"
She motioned with her staff, "How do I do the whole 'staff sticking to your back' thing?"
"Magic," he said flatly, earning an unamused look from the new mage.
"Four year-olds can typically figure that level of stuff out, Bevin," Varric teased.
"Four year-olds are four. I've had less than a day," she quipped back.
"Use your magic to hold it against yourself," the elf explained. In a way that Bevin decided was not actually explaining.
She still tried to do as he said. To her utter shock, it didn't work. She didn't exactly have all day to work on this, though.
Seeing her not get it, Solas took her staff and magicked it to her back himself. This lead to another sneezing fit on Bevin's part.
"I was rather hoping this had been a fluke," it sounded almost like an apology and he helped steady her on her feet. At least the staff had stayed put and the episode seemed to be over.
"I'm going to die before we get there," Bevin bemoaned rubbing at her nose with her fingers as the tingles across her face slowly faded. She'd nearly whacked her head against the rocky expanse next to them.
Cassandra and Nichole had already begun making their way up the wooden platforms. Varric motioned for Bevin to head up next.
The only good thing about entering the mine was that it blocked the chilled wind. They quickly dispatched the few demons haunting the place, Bevin with a little more aggression than normal, and found bodies belonging to part of the lost squad at the mine's exit. Both Bevin and Nichole tried to avoid looking at them, neither having the stomach for that kind of gore up close and personal yet.
The group drove on, keeping their eyes peeled and ears alert for the remaining soldiers.
Said soldiers were eventually found alive at yet another rift. With their combined efforts, the rift went down in no time. Thankfully, while these scouts had been roughed up a bit, they were in well enough shape to agree to tag along and help at the temple.
As they neared the site, Bevin felt her nerves come alive. And, as much as she tried to hide it, Bevin could see that Nichole was not unaffected. They were both jittery in anticipation of what was to come and what would come to be.
There were bodies around them now. Burnt and twisted and ash. They'd been struck fast and hard enough by the explosion that death had at least been quick. They continued on through what was left standing of the temple.
Bevin sucked in a stuttered breath as she looked down upon the battlefield from her vision. "This is it," she confirmed.
Varric looked about, "The Breach is a long way up."
There were footsteps from behind them. "You're here! Thank the Maker." Leliana jogged forward from her men.
"Leliana, have your men take up positions around the temple," Cassandra commanded. She then addressed Nichole, "This is your chance to end this. Are you ready?"
Nichole looked beyond her to where the rift shimmered, "How do I even get up to that thing?"
"This rift was the first, and it is the key," Solas spoke. "Seal it, and perhaps we seal the Breach."
"Then let's find a way down. And be careful," Cassandra was already making her way down through the rubbled path.
A loud voice echoed over them. They took guesses as to its identity, but no-one could know for sure what they were hearing. Varric gave a warning against touching the red crystals – red lyrium he called it. He voiced his concern over it being here.
The second voice, this one calling for help, Cassandra identified as belonging to the Divine Justinia. Soon after, they heard Nichole's echoing in answer to the Divine's pleas.
A vision played out before them. Nichole running in answer to the divine. Off a ways, Bevin saw herself fall to the ground out of thin air, then stumble up to her knees, her face currently bare of the marks. The Divine told them to run. "We have intruders," called a voice, a visage wrapped in shadows. "Slay the humans." The image shattered in a bright light.
Cassandra rounded on them, "You were there! Who attacked? And the Divine, is she-? Was this vision true? What are we seeing?" They could only shrug and shake their heads, not having any concrete answers themselves.
"Echoes of what happened here. The Fade bleeds into this place," answered Solas. "This rift is not sealed, but it is closed, albeit temporarily. I believe that with the Mark, the rift can be opened and then sealed properly and safely. However, opening the rift will likely attract attention fro the other side."
"The means demons! Stand ready," Cassandra called out in warning. All around them, soldiers readied their weapons and got into position.
Nichole was taking deep breaths beside Bevin. "I've got your back," Bevin encouraged. "You concentrate on the rift." Nichole nodded and Bevin readied herself as she lifted her hand and began opening the rift.
Immediately, the huge demon from her vision seemed to come to life out of a stone wall. She and Nichole ran past everyone to concentrate on sealing the rift from the opposite side while the big demon was kept at bay.
Bevin blast minor demons away, flitting around Nichole who was deep in concentration. She kept a wary eye on what Solas had identified as a Pride demon, vigilant that the battle could turn without notice.
The Pride demon was pushing past soldiers, the threat of being crushed under its feet enough to move many. It was already whipping electricity around.
"Keep it back!" Bevin warned out to the forces as she guided Nichole further around the rift to stay as far away from the demon as possible. She had no idea where in this battle she had entered the vision, or if things were already going differently.
Staff held high, Bevin summoned up a barrier around them. It crystallized around them even as Bevin shot off another specter. The Pride demon let out a mighty roar and electricity crashed down around them seconds later.
The barrier shattered over them like glass into thousands of shards, but she and Nichole had remained safe from the attack.
Bevin erected another barrier, but wasn't sure how much longer she could keep this up. She certainly couldn't hold the barrier while attacking anymore. A pair of demons clawed at the barrier behind them, though they were quickly dispatched by a soldier who took up a closer position to them.
Nichole let out a strangled yell and the rift surged around them. As she fell to her knees, Bevin saw what was left of the demons disintegrate in flashes of green. She jerked forward and caught Nichole before she fell all the way. She braced Nichole while stumbling back until they were both flopped on the ground. The other woman was completely spent and already out.
Bevin let her head lay back on the ground, eyes closing in exhaustion, her breathing harsh but deepening. She eventually felt Nichole being lifted off of her. Voices spoke around her but she was too tired to make them out.
"You are still alive," this voice was much closer, familiar. She couldn't help but let out a sharp laugh. It kind of hurt.
"Can you stand?" he asked, attempting to help her sit up.
"I can't even move my arms, the fuck makes you think I can stand?" she slurred out. She peeked through her lashes at the elf, wishing nothing more for a hot bath and a comfy bed. She'd been vaguely aware of being lifted and eventually put on some kind of stretcher to be transported somewhere. A blanket was draped over her and she drifted off into a dreamless sleep.
