Disclaimer: I don't own Dragon Age blah blah blah
Fate's Fickle Ways
Chapter 1
The Wrath of Heaven
She was running. She didn't know where, or even where she was, but Merrill was running away. Away from the horrible creatures chasing her. The world around her was dark. Odd jagged stone surrounded her, fading away into nothing. Merrill had no idea how she had gotten here. She couldn't stop to think about it either. The creatures, they looked almost like giant spiders to her, were close behind.
She had so many questions right now, but they all paled in the face of the horde of monsters running towards her.
Merrill kept running. The sound of scuttling feet and inhuman shrieks drover her onward.
This has to be a nightmare, she thought.
The ground suddenly rose up sharply before her. Merrill stared upward and blinked. There was..a figure up there. A glowing person. Maybe a way out? Either way, there was nowhere else to go, so she began climbing, grunting with the effort. She could practically feel the creatures closing in behind her.
It was an effort to scale the cliff. She was panting from the effort and still couldn't be more than halfway up.
Faster! She pushed herself. So close to the top now! The glowing figure, a woman, reached out to her. Merrill reached for the hand desperately.
'Help me!'
They were only inches apart. Even as Merrill felt something foul brush her foot she touched the woman's outstretched hand.
Then her vision was bathed in light.
Merrill was jolted into consciousness by the sudden pain that lanced up her arm. She gasped, eyes snapping open. The pain subsided and as coherency began to return to the elven woman she tried to raise a hand to rub the sleep from her eyes.
Tried, being the keyword.
Merrill looked down in confusion as she felt the heavy weight on both arms. Both her hands were clamped in heavy iron manacles.
'Wha?' was her first thought. Then came the sudden awareness of her surroundings. The dull ache in her legs from kneeling too long on a cold stone floor. The chill of winter seeping in from the bricks that walled this dungeon. Yes, it was a dungeon, Merrill determined after a cursory glance. The iron bars of the cells around her were bathed in shadows cast by the few torches scattered throughout the room. Movement to her left made Merrill realize that she wasn't alone.
There were four guards, standing around her grim faced. All with naked blades pointed towards her.
'What is going on?' She thought, panic beginning to well up inside her. Merrill fought to keep her breathing steady. 'Why am I here? I didn't do anything wrong, did I?' she began to question. It was sort of a defense mechanism of hers, asking questions. One that many people (mostly Fenris and Anders) had told her was endlessly annoying. Though, Isabela had always told her it was adorable and Garrett said he found it endearing...
'Focus!'
Just what was happening here? Surely she hadn't broken some law from….come to think of it, where was she? Merrill frowned as she realized she couldn't recall anything from before waking up in this dungeon.
"E-excuse me. Where am I?" She hesitantly asked one of her guards. No answer. If anything the guard seemed to scowl even harder at her. It was a rather impressive scowl too. Merrill had seen her share of them between Keeper Marethari and being around Fenris for an extended period of time.
So apparently she wasn't going to get any answers from her guards. Merrill scrunched her eyes shut and tried to think harder. Hazy memories came forward. There had been…a letter from Varric? And something else. A Dalish clan near Kirkwall. Yes, Merrill remembered something about that! Ever since the disaster several years ago Merrill had been working to help lead the elves of Kirkwall, and when news of a Dalish clan in the area had reach her…
Oh drat, it was still too difficult to remember!
Another sudden sharp pain in her left hand made Merrill gasp in pain. That and the sudden eerie green glow drew her gaze down to her hand. It was…glowing? Why? It had most certainly never done that before. She definitely would have noticed that. The green glow began to fade, leaving behind pain that took slightly longer to fade.
Well that just raised even more questions. Merrill's mind raced. Spending a lifetime training to become a keeper of Dalish lore and magic gave her quite a sum of knowledge to call upon but…she couldn't think of anything for this. Magic? Surely, but what kind…
The door at the far end of the room suddenly slammed open, the sound making Merrill jump and let out a small 'eep'.
Two women walked –more like marched, really- into the room. There was the hiss of steel sliding into sheathes as the guards put away their weapons.
Merrill stared up at her captors (she assumed) with wide eyes. The first woman was hooded, but Merrill could make out her features. A few wisps of red hair poked out of the hood, framing the woman's angular face. She looked as if she were studying Merrill, calculating. She also looked oddly familiar, but Merrill couldn't place where from. It was the second woman that sent chills down Merrill's spine. She was wearing armor, with close-cropped hair and several scars running across her face. The red-haired woman's look was studious, but this one's glare seemed to pin Merrill to the ground with its intensity. Its distaste.
The scary woman circled behind Merrill and the elf had to fight another shiver. "Tell me why we shouldn't kill you now." The woman leaned in close to Merrill's ear and growled. Merrill gulped, real fear worming its way into her heart now. "The Conclave is destroyed." The warrior continued, pacing around Merrill. "Everyone who attended is dead. Except for you." The statement was punctuated with an accusing gaze.
Merrill's thoughts were racing though, as memories started to come back, sparked by the words. Conclave. Conclave…right! The Conclave!
Merrill had first heard of the meeting between factions nearly two months prior, when she received a letter from Varric, who had disappeared from Kirkwall without any word or trace. Hearing from her dwarven friend had been a relief to Merrill but she hadn't paid the rest of the letter much mind; far too busy caring for the elves in the alienage.
Weeks later though, a Dalish clan had camped near the city, passing through on their way to Wycome. Merrill had made a point to reach out to them, having not had any contact with her own people since the…incident with her own clan. Clan Lavellan had been welcoming, and their Keeper, Deshana Istimaethoriel, had shared much news with her. It was a little odd to find a Dalish clan so interested with human events, but nevertheless the Keeper had mentioned the Conclave of the Chantry, Templrs and Mages meeting in Haven.
"These events will affect all of us, da'len. Not just humans." He had said. When Istimaethoriel had mentioned sending his own First to the conclave, Merrill had made a decision and interceded. She would go, she said. After all, being an associate of the rebel mage that sparked the fires of the Mage/Templar War, Merrill felt a small responsibility. So she volunteered to go in the stead of Istimaethoriel's apprentice. It took some convincing on Merrill's part, but the Keeper seemed somewhat relieved to not need to send his First all the way to Ferelden away from his clan.
So Merrill had left Kirkwall promising to share what she learned at the Conclave with Clan Lavellan upon her return. Leaving behind the alienage had been difficult, but she wasn't the only one helping the refugees and she could afford to leave if only for a couple of weeks. So to Ferelden she had gone.
Which had somehow led to this. To being chained up and locked in a dark, dank prison. Suddenly Merril very dearly missed her friends. Varric, Isabela and Aveline. And Hawke. Merrill very much felt Garrett's absence all of the sudden.
Her thoughts were jarred back to the present as the scary woman grabbed her shackled wrist and raised it to eye level. "Explain this." She demanded. The strange green mark on Merrill's palm suddenly crackled with energy, emphasizing the question.
"I..I can't!" Merrill squeaked.
"What do you mean you can't?" Scary Woman asked, as if daring Merrill to answer that. Which she did.
"I have no idea what it is. Or how it got there." Merrill replied fighting the panic she was feeling. She really, truly didn't! She didn't even kow what was happeni-
"You're lying!" Merrill was suddenly grabbed by the front of her tabard and yanked forward, as Scary Woman snapped, grabbing her. "I know what you are! Who you are! What sort of crazed ritual did you perform at the Temple?" For a moment Merrill thought she was going to kill her and almost, almost, summoned up her magic in a panic.
The red-woman intervened, pulling her comrade back away from Merrill. "We need her, Cassandra." She hissed in an (again oddly familiar) Orlesian accent.
The warrior, Cassandra was her name apparently, scowled back at her companion. "I recognize this elf. And you read my reports. Who else could have done this? She-"
"We don't know for certain, Cassandra. We don't have all of the answers yet." The Orlesian cut her off. Cassandra looked at her for a moment then over at Merrill. She exhaled, calming herself.
Cassandra's words prompted Merrill to speak up as the implication hit her. She'd said that everyone in the Conclave was…
"Everyone is…dead?" Surely that couldn't be. Merrill remembered a lot of people gathering at Haven. For so many to have been killed….Mythal, it was like Kirkwall all over again. "I-I don't understand." She said.
"Do you remember how all of this began?" The Orlesian woman asked her. No! No she's didn't and it was really starting to wear on Merrill's patience! The memories of that horrible nightmare rose to the front of her mind. Maybe that hadn't been a dream… The more she thought about the more real it felt.
"I was running…these things were chasing me," Merrill said, uncertainly. "And there was a woman there." That strange, glowing woman reaching out to her.
That made the Orlesian woman stop and look at her intensely. "A woman?"
"She reached out to me and…" Merrill trailed off. What had happened after that? After that, Merrill had awoken here.
"Cassandra stepped between Merrill and her interrogator. "Go to the forward camp, Leliana." Ah, so that was the redhead's name. "I will take her to the Rift."
The Rift? What was that? Merrill's curiosity was peaked.
Leliana nodded and turned, leaving the chamber. Cassandra approached and knelt down. There was a moment of fiddling and then Merrill's shackles were released. The elven woman let out a sigh of relief and rubbed at her wrists. Apparently nothing bad was going to happen to her.
Yet.
Which was when Cassandra replaced her metal shackles with a rope tether, binding Merrill's hands back together. Oh, well Merrill guessed she wasn't going anywhere by choice, then. Wonderful.
"What did happen?" Merrill couldn't help but ask.
"It…" Cassandra hesitated, "It would be easier to show you." She answered. With no other option, Merrill followed the woman out of the dreary dungeon. After walking through a long hallway and around several twists and turns they came to a main hall.
They were in a Chantry, Merrill realized. Not nearly as grand or tall as the one in Kirkwall (and it was still all in one piece rather than being blasted to bits), but Merrill recognized the holy symbols and statues that decorated the walls.
The doors to the Chantry opened and Merrill followed Cassandra outside, shivering as she was hit by a wave of icy wind. Creators, she had forgotten how cold Ferelden could be!
Merrill's thoughts on the weather were quickly forgotten, however, when her eyes drifted upward. She stared up at the sky in a mixture of horror and fascination.
"We call it the Breach." Cassandra answered Merrill's unspoken question. "A massive rift into the world of demons that grows larger with each passing hour."
The world of demons? The Fade?
That giant glowing hole in the sky was a hole into the Fade?
"It is not the only such rift," Cassandra continued, looking back at Merrill, "Just the largest. All of them were caused by the explosion at the Conclave."
"An explosion can do something like that?" Merrill questioned. The memories of that horrible day in Kirkwall came back. Even so, it was hard to imagine an explosion so big that it tore open the Veil.
"This one did, and unless we do something it will continue to grow until it swallows the world."
"Creators…" Merrill muttered, staring up at it. The implications of that…were horrible, and yet she still couldn't help but find it rather…pretty.
The Breach suddenly thundered, green lightning striking out from it. Another stab of pain dropped Merrill to her knees as the mark on her hand flared up. She cried out. This time had hurt a lot more than the others. This one Merrill could feel up her entire arm and shoulder.
A hand grabbed her by the shoulder and pulled her back to her feet. "Each time the Breach expands, your mark spreads." Cassandra said grimly, looking Merrill in the eyes. "And it is killing you. It may be the key to stopping this, but there isn't much time."
Merrill stared back at Cassandra. What could she say to that? A part of her wanted to laugh at how absurd it all was. It sounded like something out of one of Varric's stories. How had this happened to her? Was this some sort of punishment for all of her mistakes? For her blood magic? Hadn't she already suffered enough with the loss of her clan? Of her friends? Of Hawke?
What would Hawke do?
The question stopped her spiral into self-pity. There was a giant hole in the sky, threatening to swallow the world, and people were dying. What would Garrett have done in this situation?
He probably would have said something clever, joked about running as far away from here as possible…and then done everything he could to help.
"Okay." Merril said quietly. She wasn't sure at first that Casandra had heard her, but the woman looked at her in surprise.
"Okay? Then…"
"If there is something I can do help, then I will." Merrill answered, firmly this time. She didn't want to see any more people suffer. Not again. Not if she could do something to help. That was why she had devoted herself to helping the refugees in the Kirkwall alienage, even when Hawke had left the city. It was why she had come to Haven in the first place.
A ghost of a smile passed over Cassandra's face, disappearing quickly. "This way, then."
The village of Haven was a small one, but it was filled with people: soldiers, workers, refugees. And it seemed like all of them were glaring at Merrill as she walked through the village, guided by Cassandra.
The glares were accusing. Hateful. And painfully familiar.
"They have already decided your guilt." Cassandra said as they walked, pointedly ignoring the crowds that they passed. "They need it."
"My guilt?" Merrill asked.
"You were the only survivor of the explosion. You carry a mark linked to the Breach upon your hand. The people need someone to blame for this tragedy. The people of Haven mourn our Most Holy, Divine Justinia, Head of the Chantry. This Conclave was hers."
Yet another horrible parallel to the disaster of Kirkwall's chantry.
"The Conclave was a chance for peace between mages and templars." Cassandra continued as they left the village itself, marching along the path towards the mountains. "The leaders had been brought together to negotiate…and now they're dead."
"I..I can see why everyone is so angry, then." Merrill said.
"The people lash out in their anger, but we must think beyond that. Beyond ourselves. As the Divine did. Until the Breach is sealed." As she said that Cassandra looked back at Merrill and frowned. She opened her mouth to say something else, but stopped.
The forward camp was a mass of tents and soldiers stationed along a large bridge over the frozen river that twisted up the mountain. The soldiers there looked no more welcoming than those at Haven, so Merrill did her best to block them out, instead focusing on Cassandra as the warrior drew a knife and cut the rope tying together Merrill's hands.
"It isn't far now." The Seeker said, motioning Merrill to follow.
"Oh, good. Er, where are we going, exactly?" Merrill asked as she followed Cassandra across the bridge. She almost had to jog to keep up. Cassandra moved with a purpose.
"So um," Merrill said as the two of them moved past the bridge towards the valley. The barricades they passed were manned by clearly terrified soldiers. "You never actually told me your name. I mean, that other woman called you Cassandra so I guess that's your name, unless it's some odd nickname? Varric used to give everyone nicknames and I was never sure what-"
"My name," the warrior cut her off irritably, "is Cassandra Pentaghast, I am-I was a Seeker of the Chantry." She said in a tone that said 'no, I really don't want to talk about it'. Which was fine, bcause Merrill didn't even know what a Seeker is.
"Oh well, nice to meet you I suppose. I'm Merrill." Merrill offered a weak grin. The time for introductions was probably long passed, but it never hurt to try right?
"I know." Cassandra replied shortly. She kept walking.
Oh. Well then. That would certainly explain why she hadn't asked Merrill for her name.
The Breach let out another thundering shudder and Merrill felt another wave of pain pass through the mark on her hand.
During one of the many fights that she had been involved in during their adventures in Kirkwall, a marauder had managed to get close enough to stab Merrill in the hand when she tried to block his attack. The pain she felt then was akin to the agony coursing through her now and Merrill clutched at her marked hand, stumbling.
Luckily Cassandra seemed to anticipate it and caught her, keeping the dalish mage upright. "The pulses are coming faster now." She observed. "Every time the Breach expands it creates more rifts, and lets more demons into our world."
"It's hard to think that anyone could survive that." Merrill said, staring again up at the Breach. She looked at Cassandra inquisitively. "How did I survive that, anyway?" strange how that wasn't one of the first questions on her mind.
Cassandra urged her forward and the two continued towards the next bridge. "They say you walked out of a rift, and then collapsed. They say that a woman was standing in the Fade behind you."
So…she had been in the Fade. That horrible place with all of those creatures (demons, she supposed) had been the Fade? It had certainly looked nothing like the Fade that Merrill remembered.
Whatever else Cassandra was saying was suddenly drowned out as the Breach lashed out, and suddenly the bridge exploded in a brilliant green light that blinded Merrill for a moment. Then the bridge crumbled beneath her feet and sent her sprawling to the frozen lake below.
Merrill lay gasping on the ice for a moment, blinking away the white spots in her vision. "Are you injured?" She heard Cassandra's voice and looked up. The warrior was picking her way down the ruined hill towards her. "I think I'm fine." Merrill said, sitting up. She winced, feeling pain in her back. Still, nothing felt broken and she wasn't concussed.
Then she noticed the strange glowing miasma several feet away. The ground seemed to boil and pop impossibly and a form rose up out of it.
A shade.
"Demon!" Cassandra warned, drawing her blade. "Stay behind me!" with that command the Seeker charged before Merrill had a chance to respond.
Cassandra was a force of nature, fighting against the demon. She reminded Merrill a lot of Aveline. They even made the same kind of stern frowny faces.
Whatever other comparisons Merrill was making halted as another small rift began to form in front of Merrill.
"Uh oh." Merrill muttered, eyes darting around. Cassandra was distracted by her own foe and was too far to help.
The shade began to take shape and Merrill looked around wildly for…anything. She could use her magic, now. She was reasonably sure that Cassandra wouldn't kill her for it given the circumstances. But without a foci Merrill wasn't confident her skills would save her from a demon. She didn't even have a knife so she could…her eyes drifted down to her palms. The faint scars there. No, that wasn't an option. Not anymore. Not after everything.
But the only things around her were rubble and corpses of soldiers with their ruined fortifications and crates-
The crates! Her eyes locked onto one of the piles of debris that had followed her down with the bridge's destruction. It was full of weapons for the soldiers! And there had been mages here as well so maybe…
She dashed over to the box and praised the Creators. There was a single wooden staff among the weapons, little more than an oaken branch. It was enough.
Merrill grabbed it and turned, just in time. The shade was through the rift and had spotted her. Merrill let out a challenging cry as magic sung through her, familiar in its direction. Lightning sparked off of then end of her new staff and struck the demon. It let out a horrible shriek as the electricity coursed over it. Merrill didn't let up, shooting bursts of energy from the staff at her target.
The shade recovered its wits though and soaked up her attacks as it crawled towards the elf.
So lightning wouldn't finish it off then. Something a little more…forceful maybe? "Dread Wolf take you!" Merrill spat, spinning her staff then firing a burst of fire at the shade.
It was another page she'd taken from Hawke's book. 'When in doubt, set it on fire'.
It certainly seemed to work this time, as the shade let out a warbling cry while flames burned at its form. The demon let out a shudder and collapsed over. Merrill shot it several more times with quick bursts of magic just to be sure.
Merrill sighed and lowered her new weapon just as Cassandra sent a final sword-thrust through her own enemy, killing it.
"It looks like that's all of them." Merrill said to her, relieved. In her experience Shades always attacked in absurdly large numbers, so two of the demons was a nice break. Her relief disappeared when she saw the look on Cassandra's face, and the woman's sword pointed her way.
"Drop your weapon." Cassandra's voice was deadly. "Now."
"B-but that, it-they," the sudden threat rendered Merrill's ability to speak somewhat unavailable. "Demons! How am I supposed to fight the demons without a weapon? I have magic-"
"We don't need your spells, maleficar." The Seeker spat.
Oh.
"You know about that." It wasn't really a question. Merrill wilted back as Cassandra's glare seemed to grow. Fenris had always looked at her like that, but his glare had always seemed more personal. Cassandra's anger was…righteous.
"Varric's tale made it very clear that you are a blood mage." Wait, Varric? Cassandra knew Varric- "And make no mistake, that mark on your hand is the only reason you haven't been imprisoned for life or executed for blood magic."
Merrill gulped. "B-but I don't- I haven't used blood magic in several years!" Not since the Keeper. Since Sundermount. "And I don't need it to fight."
"You don't need to fight." Cassandra responded, not lowering her weapon.
"Well, I did just then." Merrill frowned, snapping at her captor. Irritation was beginning to replace fear. "You didn't even see that second demon!"
The two glared wordlessly at one another for a long moment. Then Cassandra sighed and lowered her sword, sheathing the blade.
"You are correct. I cannot protect you, and despite what you….were, I can't expect you to not be able to defend yourself."
"Then…" Merrill hesitated.
"I will be watching you, but you may keep your weapon." Cassandra nodded. She turned away and started walking, but then paused mid-step. She sighed again (she did that a lot, Merrill noted) and turned back. "I should remember that you came willingly."
"I want to help." Merrill agreed.
"But at what cost?" The Seeker asked, more to herself than Merrill. "Never mind. Come, the rift isn't far now."
With their normal route cut off with the bridge's crash the two of them were forced to navigate the frozen river to their goal. Which wouldn't be that bad, in Merrill's opinion, except that she still conformed to the Dalish tradition of not wearing shoes. Footwraps could only go so far.
Several more groups of demons were laid out on the path before them. More shades as well as wisp-like wraiths. Merrill let Cassandra deal with the shades while she hung back and picked off the weaker wraiths with her magic.
It was almost strange. It had been years since Merrill had done any real fighting, yet she slipped back into the role with ease. Years of fighting alongside Hawke and the others certainly proved its worth now. It was almost…nostalgic for Merrill.
The small mobs of demons were quickly dealt with between Cassandra's fierce melee and Merrill's magic.
"We're getting close to the rift! You can hear the fighting." Cassandra commented as the two women climbed the icy steps leading out of the riverbed. Indeed Merrill could, the sounds of clashing steel and demon shrieks were getting louder by the moment.
"Are those your soldiers?" Merrill asked, increasing her pace just a bit.
"Among others, yes." Was Cassandra's short reply. They crested the hill, reaching the ruins that had been transformed into a battleground. THe first thing Merrill saw was the rift: a jagged and ever-shifting ball of crystalline light that glowed with the same eldritch green light as the Breach.
She then noticed all of the demons surrounding the rift and the soldiers doing their best to force them back. It wasn't looking good. The soldiers were good, but against demons they were hard pressed, but even so she spotted several figures standing out in the fight.
One was clearly a mage, if the staff he was wielding and the magical attacks being hurled at an attacking shade were anything to go on. The second person making notable difference in the fight stood a head shorter than everyone else there, shooting demons apart with a rather familiar looking crossbow.
"Varric?" Merrill called out, disbelief and elation hitting her both at the same time. Varric was here? Why? How?
"We have to help them!" Cassandra stopped her mental inquiry, rushing past the dalish mage, sword. The Seeker was right. Merrill needed to get in there. She watched as several shades converged on Varric and she didn't hesitate any longer, following after Cassandra.
The minute her feet hit the ground Merrill conjured up masses of rock and debris around her, rock armor solidifying against her form. Then she charged.
It was movement born out of years of practice, dashing into the fray and slinging spells at the shades around her, sometimes close enough to bash with the end of her staff. Of course, such a tactic would have been more effective if her makeshift weapon actually had a staff-blade like she had grown accustomed to. A shade that she struck a glancing blow to with her staff growled and lunged forward, striking at Merrill with its claws. The attack didn't pierce her rock armor, but it did startle her well enough. Merrill blew the demon back with a bolt of lightning, followed up with quick bursts of arcane energy until the beast was dead.
'Okay Merrill, need to be a bit more careful.' She thought, slowly making her way to Varric's position. 'You might just be a teeny tiny bit out of practice.'
A wraith entered her path, hissing at her, only to be struck full in the face by a blast of ice a moment later. Merrill glanced over to see the other mage (an elf, she noted) nod at her and resume the fight.
Varric was still holding his own, but was quickly losing the advantage of range as several shades closed in. All of the other combatants were in melee with the demons, and therefore not close enough to the rogue to assist.
"Varric! Watch out!" Merrill called over the din of the fighting. The dwarf's head jerked her direction, a look of surprise crossing the dwarf's face as he spotted Merrill.
Merrill ran several steps forward and then slammed her staff into the ground. Chain lightning arced from the weapon towards one of the demons, then another, and then third. All three momentarily stunned, Merrill followed up with a fireball to the nearest demon.
Not wasting the chance, Varric jumped closer to the second shade and bashed its head with the butt of Bianca, spinning the weapon around and firing a bolt point blank into the creature's face. The final shade was crushed under the combined attack of crossbow bolts and magic.
Merrill exhaled in relief, seeing her friend safe for the moment. "Varric!" she called excitedly, running over to him.
"Daisy? Wha- you're alright!" Varric stared at her in amazement.
"Yes! Oh I can't believe you're actually here. When you-"
"I hate to interrupt, but this is more important." A voice interrupted Merrill's excitement. The mage from before, a bald elven man said, grabbing Merrill's arm. "Quickly! Before moe demons come through!" He practically dragged her over to where the rift was still hovering, still very much active.
"What am I supposed to do?" Merrill questioned, staring at the hole into the Fade. Now that she was actually here she realized that she didn't know what to do. Wordlessly the other elf held her marked hand up towards the rift. Almost instantly the mark crackled with energy and Merrill gasped as it seemed to reach out and connect with the rift. The feeling of building power filled the air as the rift hummed loudly. The noise reached a crescendo and suddenly the mark flashed brightly, as did the rift. Then it simply imploded.
The air was still for a moment. Merrill looked down at her hand then at the air where the rift had been.
"What did you do?" She asked the other elf, fascinated.
The mage shrugged. "I did nothing. The credit is yours." He pointed to the mark. So somehow the mark on her hand had…done something? Closed the rift somehow? How…strange. Intriguing.
"This weird glowy mark? How did it do…well, that?" Merrill gestured to where the rift had hovered. The elf seemd all too happy to explain.
"Whatever magic opened the Breach in the sky also placed that mark on your hand. I theorized that it might be able to close the rifts that have opened in the Breach's wake." He smiled. "And it seems I was correct."
"So it could be able to close the Breach itself." Cassandra approached them, having helped the soldiers finish off the last of the demons.
"Possibly." The bald elf nodded. Then he looked back at Merrill. "It seems you hold the key to our salvation."
Now that made Merrill blink owlishly at him then around at the others. It was Varric who broke the silence.
"Maker's breath, Daisy. Didn't I tell you not go getting into trouble? Now look what's happened."
"I don't think it was my fault this time, Varric." Merrill smiled (for the first time in what felt like a very long time) at her friend. "But what are you even doing here? I got your letter, but have you been here this whole time?"
"Just about, yeah." Varric sighed. "Technically I'm a prisoner here, same as you." His eyes drifted over to Cassandra. Merrill looked at the woman questioningly. Varric was a prisoner? What had he done wrong?
"I brought Varric here to tell his account of the events in Kirkwall to the Divine." Cassandra responded to her questioning look. To her credit the woman didn't even seem slightly apologetic of the fact. "Of course, that's no longer necessary." She scowled. She was rather good at that.
Merrill tilted her head in confusion. "But, why did you need to take Varric prisoner just to get him to tell a story? He does it all the time for free at the Hanged Man. Couldn't you have just asked him?"
Varric let out a snorted that quickly became laughter. "The Seeker here isn't really the 'asking' type." TO which Cassandra just threw another glare his direction accompanied by a disgusted noise.
"Lady Cassandra!" One of the soldiers that had been fighting with them took the opportunity to approach the Seeker. The man looked uneasily at Merrill (her glowing hand, specifically) and said, "This route is secure, what do we do now?"
"We press into the valley. Gather the men and follow us in." Cassandra replied instantly. The soldier saluted.
The other elf in the group cleared his throat. "I don't think we have yet been introduced." He said. "I am Solas." The elf, Solas, tilted his head towards Merrill in greeting. "I am pleased to see you still alive."
"Er…thank you?" Merrill replied uncertainly to that. Varric chuckled.
"He means, 'I kept that mark from killing you while you slept'." The dwarf said. The humor in Varric's voice seemed a little strained.
"You did?" Merrill blinked in surprise. Solas simply dipped his head in acknowledgement. "Then thank you. Ma serannas lethallin."
Not missing a beat Solas replied, "You are very much welcome," in flawless elven, to Merrill's surprise. It was rare to find any elves outside the dalish who spoke much of the old tongue. Solas did not have any vallaslin on his face to mark him as one of the People.
"Please don't start getting all elfy on me. We still have a valley full of demons to fight." Varric spoke up. Solas nodded.
"Indeed. Perhaps thanks should wait until we're certain that closing the Breach won't kill you."
Er, was that a possibility? Merrill felt her stomach twinge uneasily. It must have shown on her face as well because Varric said, "You'll be fine Daisy. Now come on. I don't think the Seeker is going to wait on us much longer."
Despite that, and Cassandra's clear impatience to get moving, Merrill found that she was the one leading their newly formed group out of the ruins towards the forward camp.
More demons waited for them across the river. "Varric, the wraith!" Merrill called as she started attacking one of the charging shades. Solas and Cassandra moved to assist while Varric took her warning and sniped the ranged demon.
The battle was over quickly. Having Varric and Solas to back them up made things a great deal easier. There was almost no need for the few soldiers following them to the forward camp. Hmm maybe she shouldn's kill the demons quite so quickly so they would feel useful? Merrill pondered.
"Since you're awake now," Varric said as the group crossed the frozen river. "do you remember what happened at the Conclave?"
"I didn't do it, if that's what you mean." Merrill frowned. "I don't even remember what happened."
"Of course I don't think you caused all of this. It's just...how did you even get mixed up in all of this?" The dwarf asked.
Merrill sighed. "I really don't know, Varric. I still don't remember everything."
"Just because you don't remember doesn't mean you aren't responsible." Cassandra added her two cents. Varric grimaced at her. Those two really didn't get along, Merrill noted.
"Based on my observations," Solas spoke up, "whatever caused the Breach would have to be extremely powerful. More power than a single mage could possess." Merrill flashed the other elf a grateful smile. Well at least that was two people who believed her.
"Even a maleficar?" Cassandra rebutted. Solas raised an eyebrow at that and glanced over at Merrill, who did her best to avoid his gaze. Was it really necessary for Cassandra to tell that little fact to the whole world?
"Even blood magic has its limits, Cassandra. No, whatever did this would require much more than even that." Solas said evenly. Cassandra stared at the elf for a moment then nodded.
"Noted."
"Well that's just grand. Can we stop talking about it now? I regret even bringing it up." Varric muttered the last bit of that sentence. The conversation died out as the group continued in silence.
The forward camp was not much further away, based on another of the large stone bridges that crossed the frozen river. Unfortunately their entry to the camp itself was barred.
"Another rift!" Cassandra warned somewhat unnecessarily. Merrill could very easily see the glowing rift surrounded by demons that stood between them and their goal. The soldiers defending the gate were already fighting, and losing. Even as they dashed into the fight Merrill saw a shade slash a guard across the throat, ending him.
"We have to close the rift or more will just keep coming through. Focus on it, we'll hold them off!" Solas yelled, sending a lance of ice into the nearest wraith. The surviving soldiers that accompanied their group rushed to the aid of their comrades, closely followed by Cassandra. The reincorcements struck the demons like a tidal wave, giving the remaining defenders enough time to rally.
A shade let out a cry and lunged for Merrill as she approached the rift, only to stagger back as a bolt struck it through the eye.
"I've got your back, Daisy. Get that thing closed." Varric said, reloading Bianca and aiming again.
"Right." Merrill wasted no more time and focused her gaze on the rift. Under less hectic circumstances she would have liked to simply study the thing; it was beyond fascinating. As it was…"Now how do I do this again?" It had been simple last time. Solas had just held the mark up to the rift until it disappeared. Merrill did the same now, and instantly the mark connected with the rift, energy building between the two magical constructs. The rift sputtered and then exploded, the crystals expanding and becoming a more ethereal light. Merrill blinked at it.
Did….did that do it?
"It's still active!" Solas warned. "More demons are coming through!"
Thoroughly warned, Merrill took a wary step back away from the rift even as several tendril of light reached out from the rift to the ground below.
Another wave of shades appeared, but the defenders were ready for them, and the demons met a wall of steel as the soldiers charged them. Merrill lent her own magic to the fight. They needed to clear away some of these new demons before she could try to close the rift again.
A soldier near Merrill let out a cry as a swipe from the shade he was fighting sent the man sprawling to the ground. His sword laid out of reach. The demon loomed over him and prepared to end the man's life.
"No!" Merrill pointed her staff at the demon and let loose a barrage of magical energy. It was enough the distract the shade, and enough to stagger it while Merrill closed the distance between them. With a warcry she struck with her staff, followed up by Stonefist spell that caved in the creatures head. She turned to the fallen soldier behind her. "Are you alright?"
"Y-yes." The man stuttered, staring at her, expression stuck somewhere in between disbelief and gratitude.
"Merrill, the rift!" Varric snapped Merrill's attention back to the matter at hand. The way to the rift was clear so Merrill approached and tried again. She raised the mark and again felt its connection to the rift and to the Fade.
Merrill heard another shade roar, very close behind her, but Cassandra blurred into Merrill's peripheral and she heard the sound of blade meeting flesh. 'Come on, anytime now…' Merrill thought desperately. As if commanded, the rift shuddered a final time and flashed brightly then disappeared. Merrill grinned.
"By the Maker…" she heard one of the soldiers mutter in astonishment. Merrill glanced around and realized that the soldiers were all staring at her, and felt herself blush. Even the several soldiers who had accompanied them and had seen it before looked awed.
"Well done." Solas congratulated. Cassandra, less vocal in her approval, simply nodded.
"The danger has passed for now. Open the gate." She ordered. One of the guards nodded.
"Right away, lady Cassandra." He and another soldier moved to do just that. The large wooden doors swung open, allowing entrance to the camp beyond. As Merrill started walking towards it, a voice gave her pause.
"Excuse me, miss…"
Merrill turned to see the soldier, the one she had saved, standing there. "Oh, I'm Merrill." She realized the man didn't know what to call her, after a moment.
"Miss Merrill," the man nodded. "Thanks you. For saving my life back there. I thought that demon had me for sure." He spoke with a distinctly Marcher accent, Merrill noticed now that she had a moment to properly study the man. He was young, though not so young to appear unseasoned, with coal-black stubble that matched his short hair.
"I was happy to help." Merrill smiled. There weren't very many things that she had done that people ever thanked her for, and she would be lying if she said that it didn't make her feel good inside.
"All the same, thank you." The soldier dipped his head.
"Merrill!" her ears perked up at the sound of Cassandra calling her name. The warrior was giving her an impatient look. Ah, right. Oh! Before she forgot…
"Um, what's your name?" She turned back and asked the soldier. He blinked at her and then said,
"Maxwell."
"Well then, nice to meet you Maxwell." Merrill gave him another smile and turned, walking into the forward camp.
"Likewise." The soldier Maxwell said bemused, following after her.
The forward outpost was more sparse than Merrill expected. Then again, most of the soldiers were probably out fighting demons. Those that were there, however, watched Merrill and her cadre of fighters with weary, dull gazes as they huddled around small campfires.
'These people don't have any hope.' She realized. Really, what hope was there with a seemingly endless army of demons raining down from the sky like the wrath of heaven itself?
Merrill spotted a familiar figure standing further down the bridge, stooped over a hastily set up command desk. A man garbed in white Chantry robes stood opposite of her. "Thank the Maker, Leliana made it through." Cassandra said, relief evident in her voice.
As the group drew closer Merrill could hear their voices. Angry voices. They had arrived just in time to catch the tail end of an argument it seems. Both Leliana and the Chantry man looked up as they approached.
"Ah, you've come." It sounded a lot more like accusation than gratitude in his voice to Merrill.
"You made it." Whereas Leliana sounded a great deal more welcoming. "Chancellor Roderick, this is-"
"I know who she is." Chancellor Roderick cut her off, leveling a glare at Merrill. She just stared back at him. Honestly his glares were a lot less intimidating than Cassandra's. Speaking of whom, "As Grand Chancellor of the Chantry I hereby order you to take this criminal to Val Royeaux to face execution." He said to the woman, pointing sharply at Merrill.
Merrill gaped at the man. "You can't do that. Can he do that?" She turned wildly to Cassandra.
Cassandra ignored Merrill's question, but looked supremely unimpressed by Roderick's edict. "Order me?" she scoffed. "You are a glorified clerk. A bureaucrat."
"And you are a thug! But a thug who supposedly supports the Chantry!" Roderick retorted.
"We serve the Most Holy, Chancellor, as do you." Leliana intervened quickly.
"Justinia is dead!" Roderick snapped. "We must elect her replacement, and obey her orders on the matter!"
So wait…Merrill frowned. "Er so…no one is actually in charge? At all?" She flinched as Roderick rounded on her.
"You killed everyone in charge!" He yelled.
"No I didn't!" Merrill snapped. "Why do people keep thinking that?"
"It doesn't matter." Cassandra cut in before Merrill could say more. "What matters is dealing with the situation we have in front of us."
Roderick seemed to lose whatever fire was fueling his anger, face melting into weariness. "We can't deal with this. What forces we have left are being steadily overwhelmed. Call a retreat, Seeker. Our position here is hopeless."
Cassandra shook her head adamantly. "No. We can stop this before it is too late."
"How? You won't survive long enough to reach the temple, even with all your soldiers." Roderick asked.
"We must reach the Temple." Cassandra insisted. "It's the quickest route." She wanted this done, quickly. Every moment they wasted here, more lives were lost in the fighting.
"The quickest route, but not the safest." Leliana spoke up. "Our forces could charge as a distraction while we go through the mountains." Merrill followed her gaze as the Orlesian woman pointed towards the peaks rising up behind them.
"We lost contact with an entire squad on that path. It's too risky." Cassandra responded.
"Seeker listen to me," Roderick pleaded. "Abandon this now before even more lives are lost!"
The Breach in the sky suddenly let out another explosive blast, and Merrill gritted her teeth as another lance of horrible pain raced up her arm from the mark. She managed to stay on her feet this time though, so that was something.
"How do you think we should proceed?" Cassandra drew her back to the situation. It took the elven girl a moment to realize that the Seeker was asking her for her opinion. Merrill glanced around.
"You…you're asking me?" her voice sounded incredulous even to herself.
"You do have the mark." Solas pointed out. Merrill looked at him then at Varric, who simply shrugged.
"And you are the one we must keep alive. Since we cannot decide on our own…" she left the statement hanging.
Merrill stared at her for a moment, then up at the mountains. She bit her lip, thinking furiously. It suddenly occurred to the dalish woman how very out of her depth she was. She had felt it before, fighting her way up to the camp with Varric, Solas and the others fighting beside her. No, not beside her, behind her. As much as Cassandra led the charge, even the Seeker now seemed to defer. It was…odd. Uncomfortable. Merrill was no stranger to fighting beside others, or even to being around tough decisions with lives on the line.
But she had never before been the one making those decisions.
That had been Hawke's place.
She again looked at Solas and Varric, standing beside and slightly behind Merrill. Supportive. The way she was used to standing beside the Champion.
This…this was new. New and suddenly very scary. She met Varric's gaze. Her dwarf friend was watching her, waiting. And he seemed to understand. Varric nodded to her. He would back her up, whatever happened.
Merrill inhaled slowly. Aside from her own self-doubt, she had no idea what decision to actually make! Leliana's plan sounded slightly safer, but Cassandra was correct that expedience was required… Merrill turned and looked over the camp itself.
Soldiers sat around their fires, waiting for the inevitable next clash. She spotted Maxwell and his fellows from earlier, gathering up what meager supplies they could find. They would be in the next fight.
Taking the mountain path might have less resistance, but it would also mean throwing away their soldiers as a distraction.
"I say we charge." She said after a long moment. Cassandra nodded.
"Right. Leliana, gather everyone left in the Valley. Everyone." She emphasized. Leliana wordlessly left to carry out the task.
"We'd best get to it then." Varric grunted.
"The path is this way." Cassandra said, taking the lead as their group once again began to move. Behind them groups of soldiers were already beginning to rouse. This push would be the final one. There simply no more troops left for more. It was finality tinged with hopelessness.
Chancellor Roderick's eyes followed them as they walked away, and Merrill heard his voice drift after them. "On your head be the consequences, Seeker." Merrill shot the man a look over her shoulder, then continued walking.
Overhead the Breach loomed ever larger.
AN: Yeeeaaaaah, so this isn't Outsider Effect, like I know a lot of you were hoping for. Sorry. I fully intended so sit down and write out the next chapter (which has been started if nothing else) but then...this happened instead. Getting back into the task of writing after a couple of months wasn't easy and I had Dragon Age on the brain since Inquisition came out. Here's the result. I have no idea what will come of this, it being the spawn of a crazy thought I had. We'll see what comes of it. I have to say though, it's very refreshing to write third-person narrative again. I enjoy it a lot.
So that said, hello Dragon Age fandom! I haven't paid y'all nearly as much attention as the Mass Effect cult so this will be a learning experience. This is a 'What If' story, obviously, and one that focuses on one of my all-time favorite Dragon Age characters. The thought I had was ;What if Merrill was the one at the Conclave that fateful day?' A number of semi-legitimate reasons could lead her there. I wanted to see what it would be like to place Merrill in such a familiar yet completely foreign role. I could go on for a long time about how fascinating I find Merrill's character, but I'll let the story speak for itself as I hope to go more in depth with her. When I have visited the Dragon Age fandom I've found that most only touch superficially on the character, and I for one want to go deeper into what makes this adorable maleficar tick.
This opening chapter is very 'stations of canon' and honestly the goal here isn't to see how wildly out of control things could spin, but to see what changes and reactions could come from a different character becoming Inquisitor. Certain things will be different for sure: I can say now that there will be more than nine companions in Merrill's team. At least two more, as well as one or two temporary party members. Different would-be Heralds will make appearances, playing different roles. In fact, one already has. The world of Thedas as it is in this fic is of course based off of my own playthrough of the series, and will be revealed as the story continues. I say that since I know people will ask me about certain events. All I can say is, wait and see.
Hope you guys like it, I'll see you all next time!