I don't own anything that belongs to Bioware.
Dragon Age. Oh why.
-.-.-.-.
I woke up in the dark, my hands chained together. I was assaulted by things I didn't know; couldn't possibly know. The Seeker – Cassandra, wanted to kill me. Leliana asked if I remembered anything, and honestly…I couldn't quite remember.
As Cassandra and I ran to the forward camp, the bridge shattered below us, and as we tumbled down onto a frozen river, she drew her sword and shield, and I grabbed two daggers that had haphazardly fallen with us. We argued for a moment over whether I should keep them; I pointed out I wasn't trying to escape, and if this weird, glowing, pulsing, and rather painful green mark on my hand could help, I was going to. Hole in the sky? Yeah, shit's weird. If I can fix it and run away, I'd be grateful.
According to the elf named Solas, I could, in fact, close these rifts into the Fade. I met him and a beardless dwarf, named Varric. The four of us finally made it to the forward camp, where Leliana and a "glorified clerk" (to use Cassandra's words) were trying to figure out what was going on.
"So no one is actually in charge here." I observed, and the old man glared at me, but I heard Varric snigger.
"We can charge on the temple, or take the mountain path for a surprise attack on the Breach." Leliana said, ignoring the chancellor.
"We can't risk the mountain path; we lost contact with a squadron of soldiers there. It's too risky." Cassandra replied, and my left arm pulsed with the energy from the mark. Cassandra stepped in front of me; eyeing me with a level gaze. "What do you think we should do?"
"You're asking for my opinion?" I asked, bewildered. I shot a look at Solas and Varric, and both of them were staring expectantly at me as well.
"You can close rifts. You might be our only hope of sealing the Breach." Cassandra's voice was pleading. I took a deep breath, shaking my head, rolling my shoulders back, closing my eyes for a moment as I weighed the options. After a short moment that seemed to stretch into oblivion as the sky erupted over our heads, I finally looked back up at Cassandra, fixing her with a steady look.
"We'll charge the temple. We need to do what we can." I noticed the chancellor move to speak and I cut him off harshly. "Whatever happens, happens now. I could die closing that thing, so your stupid shemlen court can wait." And with that, I strode off in the direction of the Breach, followed by everyone else as Cassandra called out to them to make way to the Temple of Sacred Ashes.
"Creators, preserve us." I muttered, falling in step behind Cassandra as she led the way.
-.-.-.-
We came upon the steps of the temple, although most of what could be called the "temple" had been blown away. I half ran up the stairs after some of the soldiers, shying for an instant as a blast from the breach hit the entrance way we were heading towards, knocking the soldiers in front up in the air. I didn't have to be an expert on the Fade or spirits or whatever to know they were dead before they hit the ground. My ears twitched; I drew the pathetic excuses of daggers from my back, one in each hand. I ran straight through the cloud of smoke to see a small tear in the Fade before us. A few of the soldiers were fighting with demons already.
"Come on, we have to help!" I shouted without thinking, racing forward to help the soldiers. Solas and Varric stayed at a distance, firing spells and arrows while Cassandra joined me in the fray, hacking and slashing at the demons. I found myself back to back with a rather tall man, wearing rather feathery pauldrons on his shoulders. He bore a Templar shield, and his sword was like an extension of his arm, but we spoke no words as we fought the demons together.
"Now!" Solas' voice rang out loud and calm, and I reached forward with my hand, feeling the tear in the world. I focused all of my energy on it, the energy bursting forth down from my hand, up to my shoulder, then back down and into the palm of my hand before exploding with the rift, and I pulled my arm back as I knew the tear was gone. I gasped, feeling drained, but I didn't have time to feel it.
"Sealed, as before." Solas was standing next to me then. "You are becoming quite proficient at this."
"Let's hope it works on the big one…" Varric appeared beside him, blood spattered from head to toe. I'm sure I looked about the same. I felt the corner of my mouth turn up in a half smile, but then I heard someone address Cassandra.
"Lady Cassandra, you managed to close the rift. Well done." I turned to look at the man I had fought beside, and despite myself, I drank in his appearance. Even though he had just been fighting demons, his blonde hair was neatly combed back, with stubble growing on his face. Even though he was addressing Cassandra, our eyes were fixed on each other. I couldn't place what his eyes were saying to me, but I could tell they were a deep honey gold-brown. And his voice-his voice - made my knees go weak, and I cleared my throat slightly, trying to distract myself from the feeling. As Cassandra pointed out that me, the prisoner, was the one where credit was due, the man walked up to me. I felt small compared to him, my forehead coming up to his chin. Yet while he looked down on me (literally), I felt no sense of disdain or resentment coming from him, which was odd and yet pleasantly surprising.
"I hope they're right about you." His eyes were fixed on my own. "We've lost a lot of people getting you here." I felt a stab of guilt in my stomach as he mentioned the sacrifices made for us.
"I can't promise anything," I met his gaze as evenly as I could, as if we were sizing each other up for a battle, even if moments before we had been fighting back to back. "But I'll do my best."
"That's all we can ask." His voice was surprisingly soft, making me blink in surprise. He backed away to speak to Cassandra. "Get to the temple. Leliana will try to meet you there."
"Then we need to move quickly. Give us time, Commander." Cassandra replied, turning to continue on.
"Maker watch over you, for all our sakes." The commander's gaze met mine again, and I could only swallow and nod slightly as he turned to help a limping soldier get back to regroup. Then, I turned my attention to the Breach.
"Creators, give me strength, Fen'Harel, please don't take me today." I whispered, trudging meaningfully behind Cassandra as Varric and Solas followed.