Kas watched her brother head out of the tavern, ducking so as not to hit his horns against the top of the door. This job was getting to her. Mages everywhere, and all of them on edge. Somebody was going to drop a plate and then there would be demons everywhere. And her idiot brother would run right into the middle of it, laughing the whole way. They should never have taken this job.

And she shouldn't have yelled at him. Pain in the ass he might be, he knew his responsibilities and she needed him at her back. Which meant she was going to have to apologize. Damn it. Hopefully, this damn thing would be over with soon, they'd get paid, and they'd get far away from all these bloody mages.

#

She knew she'd seen her brother go down this way. Kas growled in frustration, and then heard a shout come up the staircase. For a moment she thought about ignoring it and continuing to look for her little brother. Then it occurred to her he might have heard it to. She headed down the stairs.

#

Her hand was burning, and there were soldiers standing over her. And... sky? Why was she seeing sky? One of the soldiers moved towards her. She started to reach for her weapon, and darkness took her.

#

They were asking her questions that made little sense. "Whatever you think I did, I'm innocent." She tested the manacle that held her hands. Her legs, at least, were free, and in a pinch the manacle itself would be a fair weapon. Just not against five. They still needed her for something, which meant they needed her alive. She'd get her chance.

The woman with the sword removed the manacle and replaced it with rope bindings. Less use as a weapon, but easier to escape. The light outside burned her eyes and then...

A hole in the sky and... They thought she'd done that? "You still think I did this? To myself?"

"Not intentionally. Something clearly went wrong."

Something was definitely wrong. Where were her men? Her brother? If they'd hurt him... "And if I'm not responsible?"

"Someone is, and you are our only suspect." The woman - Cassandra's - eyes were hard. "You wish to prove your innocence? This is the only way."

"So I don't really have a choice about this."

"None of us has a choice."

#

She'd just saved the woman's ass from a demon, and now she had a sword pointed at her again. "Drop your weapon. Now."

Kas held the weapon in front of her. "A demon attacked me. What was I supposed to do?"

"You don't need to fight."

Bullshit. "Are you saying it won't happen again?"

Cassandra sighed. "You're right." She sheathed her blade. "I cannot protect you, and I cannot expect you to be defenseless." She shrugged. "I should remember you did not attempt to run."

#

There was fighting ahead. More soldiers, a dwarf with a crossbow, and a mage. Fighting demons. Cassandra charged in. Kas sighed, and followed. Her greatsword passed over the dwarf's head, cleaving a demon that was bearing down on him. No sooner was the fight done than the elven mage grabbed her arm and pulled her towards the strange rift in the air. "Quickly, before more come through."

She was so startled by his action she didn't resist as he pressed her hand forward. She felt a surge of something and then the rift... closed. "What did you do?"

"I did nothing. The credit is yours."

Kas looked down at her strangely glowing hand. "You mean this."

He nodded. "Whatever magic opened the Breach in the sky also placed that mark upon your hand. I theorized the mark might be able to close the rifts that have opened in the Breach's wake - and it seems I was correct."

Cassandra walked towards them. "Meaning it could also close the Breach itself."

"Possibly." He nodded to Kas. "It seems you hold the key to our salvation."

Well, this was just wonderful. The dwarf turned out to be Varric Tethras, a name that sounded annoyingly familiar. She shrugged. "So, I closed the rift. What now?" She needed to get back to Haven and find her crew and brother. Preferably before they'd cleaned the place out of beer and left her to settle the bill.

"Now we go to meet Leliana."

Kas growled. Varric, on the other hand, grinned. "What a great idea."

"Absolutely not. Your help is appreciated, Varric, but..." Cassandra immediately began arguing with the dwarf. And promptly lost.

And the mage appeared to be the reason the mark hadn't killed her. She shrugged. "I can't close the Breach if I'm dead."

"That is most certainly true." He turned towards Cassandra, and his tone took on a lecturing note as he talked about the mark. She stopped listening and bent to examine the remains of one of the demons.

#

Another rift. She closed this one without the mage grabbing her, and walked through the gates to find yet more arguing. The Divine was dead, and everyone appeared to be scurrying around like ants. The idiot in pink wanted to stop everything and go hold an election while demons fell out of the sky. Humans. And he also wanted to arrest her. "Don't talk about me like I'm not here." She wanted to headbutt something.

He shook a finger at her. "You shouldn't even be here." He all but threw up his hands. "Call a retreat, Seeker. Our position here is hopeless."

They ignored him and discussed their options. And then they actually turned to her and let her decide. Her decision. As it should be. She wanted to charge, but one of her last arguments with her brother came to mind. He'd want to go around, avoid the fight and hit them from behind. Which meant if he was around, he'd be... "Use the mountain path."

#

They fought their way through mines and demons, emerging into the snow again. She saw no sign of her brother, or any of her people. They did, however, manage to rescue at least some of the missing soldiers. Kas nodded when they thanked her. "It was worth saving you, if we could."

#

The elven mage commented that enough magic brought to bear could have caused the Breach. There had been hundreds of mages at that stupid temple. One had probably gone demon, forcing the templars to do their jobs, and then everybody overreacted. And now there was a hole in the sky. A big, ugly, ass-looking hole in the sky. That she was expected to close.

She came around the cliff, and stopped short. Where the temple had been there was only ruin, wreck, and corpses. The air carried the scent of charred flesh. No.

Cassandra gestured. "That is where you walked out of the Fade and our soldiers found you."

Not something she wanted to think about. She couldn't have walked out of the Fade. The soldiers had probably breathed in too many fumes. She wasn't even a mage. Bodies littered the ground. Her brother had circled back to the tavern to finish his drink. He had to have. She'd survived. He couldn't... She forced her mind away from that thought. She'd seal this stupid breach, and then find his dumb ass and buy him a whole bottle of that shitty whiskey he liked.

#

"This is your chance to end this. Are you ready?"

"You do have a plan to get me up there?" Kas gave Cassandra an annoyed look.

"No." It was the mage who answered. "This rift was the first, and it is the key." He was still talking when she started down the path.

Voices came out of the air. The others freaked out a little. Damned if she was going to show fear in front of these humans. Well, whatever they all were. The red rocks freaked Varric out for some reason. He claimed they were lyrium. She'd done security for a dozen lyrium runs, and she'd never seen any lyrium like that before.

She jumped down into the pit that had once been the temple.

Above them, a scene began to play out in the air. A woman hung suspended in the air, pleading with someone. A strangely deformed figure talked about sacrifice. And then a door opened, and an image of herself stepped through. The strangely deformed figure ordered her death, and then the scene vanished.

Cassandra immediately started questioning her again, demanding to know what had happened. Kas growled at her in frustration. "I don't remember."

That elf was talking again. Apparently, she needed to open the rift so they could seal it properly. Which meant they were about to have demons on their hands. Great. She readied the greatsword in one hand, and lifted the marked hand to the rift.

#

Kas yanked the unconscious Varric out of harm's way before the demon could finish him off. "Mage, heal him."

At her order, he pulled back and went to Varric's side. She used her sword to keep the newly arrived demons back. As soon as she saw Varric get back to his feet, she charged in again, flanking the demon. The mage was shouting something about the rift and the mark and... She turned, and held her marked hand to the rift, letting the energy pulse again. The resulting disruption drove the pride demon to its knees. Kas howled, and moved in with Cassandra and the rest of the soldiers to finish the thing off.

"Now. Before more come through."

She walked towards the rift and focused on her hand.

#

Footsteps. She sat up. An elven woman dropped a box and jumped back, startled. "I didn't know you were awake, I swear."

"Is this another prison?"

"I..." The elven woman gave her a fearful look. "No? I mean, I don't think so."

If it was, they needed to do a better job selecting guards. "Then where am I? Tell me."

The elven girl fell to her knees and pressed her forehead against the floor. What the fuck? "I beg your forgiveness and your blessing. I am but a humble servant."

Kas sighed, and forced her voice to be calmer, even gentle. Eventually she as able to determine that she'd been unconscious for three days, the breach was closed, and Cassandra wanted to talk to her in the Chantry.

#

Roderick was as friendly as ever. Cassandra, however had a markedly different tune. And a plan. "Let me guess: you need my help."

"You have done plenty." Did Roderick think she found him at all intimidating? Idiot. "Your actions will be taken into account by the new Divine."

"Have a care, Chancellor." Cassandra narrowed her eyes. "The Breach is not the only threat we face."

They argued over her. Cassandra seemed to think she was some kind of chosen one. She waited for them to get to a point. "The Breach is stable now - what more do you want from me?"

Stable, but not closed. And they wanted to give it another try. After some more arguing and some noise about an Inquisition, Roderick walked out. And Cassandra asked her to join up. She shouldn't. She should walk. But she couldn't. Not with this mark on her hand and a lot of people still convinced the Conclave was her fault. And someone had caused that explosion. Someone had killed her little brother. And that someone needed to be introduced to her sword. "We'll see how this goes."

"That is all we ask," Leliana said.

Cassandra held out a hand. "Help us fix this before it's too late."

Kas stared at her a moment, and then accepted the handshake.