"Get the fuck off me, Lavellan!" Solona Amell shouted at the willy elf sitting loftily atop her.
"Oh no, however did you end up under me?"
"Get, the fuck, off me!"
The nimble elf lithely stepped off one trussed up Solona Amell she was crouched upon, though not as quickly as she could. Amell swore harshly enough for Halla to flinch as she pulled herself off the ground.
"Why'd you even follow me?" Amell glared at her, dusting off as she tried to keep the fear out of her voice.
"Oh, you thought I would let you prance into a Fade Rift on your own?"
"And you thought it'd be a good idea to follow me? Do you know how dangerously stupid that was? You could have gotten hurt! You should have left me and it well alone!"
"And leave you to your own devices?"
"Well, considering nothing happened–" Amell swiped her hand around them, stressing her point.
"You didn't know that for certain! The last time we fell through a Fade Rift-"
"We were just fine! I would have been fine! I killed the Nightmare Demon, remember? I was just going to hop into this one, like the last time we did, look around, and hop right back out! It's high time someone started to figure out how this all works, instead of just wiggling your fingers at it and making it disappear."
"I do not just wiggle my fingers! And Solas has been trying to figure out how it works. He just needs time and you need to be patient-"
"I am better than your elven hobo boy toy. I can figure this out. There's no need for the likes of you to get involved!"
"We have a duty to our people. You to your Wardens, and I to my Inquisition. Both of us, to Thedas. To protect, to serve. You risk not only yourself in times dire such as this, but all! When will you understand? Your life is not your own. You have- Amell? Are you listening to me?"
"Oh, were you saying something? I must not have heard over your incessant self-righteousness." Amell spat.
ARRRG! That insane Halla! To have followed her, into a Rift of all things! Of course, she could have figured out this silly Rift matter with ease but still, that elf had better treat herself with more concern! How careless of her to jump after her into a Rift. Halla wasn't anything like herself. Amell was expendable. No one has needed the Hero of Ferelden for well over a decade. But Thedas direly needed her. She needed her. Halla was their only salvation, the only way for Amell to keep those she loved safe. But Halla acted like her life was worth no more than anyone else's. As if she was someone the world could afford to lose. Damn that noble-hearted elf!
She bit off an angry command to Inquisition's soldiers as she realized, Halla's companions were nowhere to be seen. Strange, this did not seem to be the Fade and they were exactly where they'd been standing a moment ago.
Something's wrong.
Amell moved to search their premise, though she kept Halla well within her casting distance. She needed to keep the Inquisitor close and safe.
"Solona Amell you come back here and listen to me!"
And Amell surely as hell did not need Halla's self-righteous bullshit.
"Go torture your own men if you want. I'm not listening to you." She scoffed, pretending to leave Halla behind despite having all her senses sweeping the area for any potential threat to the Inquisitor. Just then she sighted the Inquisition colors flying against the horizon down the road. They must have marched around to look for them when the two disappeared into the Rift.
"…we didn't have your men with us, did we?" Halla asked.
"My Wardens? No, they're…" Amell trailed off as she adjusted the magic in her weak eyes and finally caught the colors of Wardens flying amongst Inquisition's.
"After the last incident with Orlesian Wardens, that worries me." Halla said.
"Same here." Amell growled, readying her staff. But it wasn't long before Halla cried, "Commander?"
"What? Me?"
"It's the Commander. But why would he be riding here? He should be at Skyhold…"
"You're sure?" Amell squinted, but the little dots of people all blurred together.
"Yes. Come, let us watch him. See who he rides with."
Halla had settled in comfortably in bushes but cringed at the profanity Amell spouted as she followed her.
"Will you be quiet? They'll hear you." Halla chided.
"Will you shut up? My ass doesn't give a damn." Amell whispered back, rubbing her eyes.
Rolling her eyes, Halla focused on the procession coming nearer. They were close enough that even Amell with her exceptionally weak sight should be able to distinguish them.
"…and the look on her face! It was priceless!" The Commander chuckled.
"Never realized you were so vindictive, Commander." Laughed the woman riding by him, wearing the armor of Commander of the Grey, same as Amell.
"When it comes to chess…" Commander shrugged with a laugh.
"We must play together. It'll be interesting."
"Against you, Commander Amell, I fear I shall suffer a shameful defeat."
Amell made a strangled noise beside her. Halla grabbed her shoulder to still her.
"When we play, I shall raise the stakes. I must be certain you do not allow me an easy victory."
"You wish to bet money?" Commander asked.
"Come now, Commander! You know me better than that, surely? I won't do anything so mundane. Will you indulge me in wagering something you have before? I heard the tale of your match against Josephine on cards." The woman laughed as the Commander flushed crimson.
"Maker's breath! Who- no, when- I mean…"
"I know all about it." The woman giggled.
"How dare they!" Came a voice and Halla whirled, blood freezing at the unadulterated hatred in Amell's voice, too late. Amell had already burst from the bush.
"Die!" Amell screamed as she sliced her palm with a dagger and blood swirled from her wound.
"No!" Halla shouted, making to grab for her.
Amell's blood roared as it assumed the form of an Archdemon. It was no bigger than a dragonling in size, but Amell could use the blood of others to power the spell and darken the sky with a much larger creature. Halla had seen her do it before.
"Blood magic!" The woman cried a warning just as the Commander shouted, "fall back!" before both she and Commander went limp in their saddles. The Inquisition and Wardens fell back in a scramble, no doubt preparing for a counter.
But Amell was already casting, her blood coppery in the air. "Demons!" She muttered, eyes crimson with hatred.
"Stop, Commander Amell!" Halla snatched her wrist and faced her, trying to break her concentration. Amell, lost to her rage, threw her off.
"Demons! How dare they! Me and him, of all people? Him? I will slaughter them!" Amell snarled as the two caught in her spell twitched and slipped off their mounts.
"Stand down, now." Halla commanded, in that one voice, the voice of the Mark-wielder. The voice she hated to use but had always cowed Amell to obey her.
It did not work this time.
"I will kill all of you!" The Archdemon took to air with blood mist whirling around it and Halla could taste the rot in the air. Amell's golden eyes turned blood red as she looked at the woman that was and wasn't Solona Amell and the Commander.
Amell thrust her hand, just as Halla might at a Rift, and the blood beast shored.
"No!" Halla's body blurred. One minute she was beside Amell, the next she stood protecting Amell's would-be victims. She threw her hands to shield them.
Amell screamed as the Archdemon's jaw closed around Halla's head and she yanked at her magic, the beast exploding as blood splattered everywhere.
"They're not demons! This isn't the Fade!" Halla trembled as her tears mixed with the blood on her face.
"I Fade Walked. You can't Fade Walk in the Fade."
Amell hesitated, uncertainty flitting across her eyes that were slowly turning back to gold. Halla, being braver than she felt, Fade Walked again to Amell's side and took her palm to heal the bleed.
"Please don't hurt anyone," Halla pleaded.
But before she could even recall the healing glyph, Amell screamed.
"Halla!"
She turned, facing the livid woman with her hands alight with flames. It was the simplest, quickest spell of Fireball, Halla was certain, but the woman looked as if she was shrouded in a massive Inferno.
"Please, stop!" Halla screamed.
The Commander was on his knee, eyes screwed shut as he focused on nullifying Amell's hostile blood magic. The woman drew her hand back to throw that massive Fireball, and Amell scrambled to cover Halla.
"We mean you no harm!" Halla desperately called, raising her hands just as Amell threw up a weakened blood barrier around her, resisting Commander's Templar abilities.
"Strange thing to say after striking first, no? Perhaps you just simply realized how poorly your assassination attempt was planned." A voice sounded bored just behind her back.
Halla turned slowly, hands still up in the air, following Amell's strangled noise to find Zevran – Zevran, of all people! – holding a dagger against her throat. Amell's spell sputtered, barrier shattering away, blood dripping uselessly into the grass as she also held her hands up, deathly afraid to harm her husband.
"You could have caught her earlier, Zev. Did you really have to take so long?" The woman grumbled, though she allowed the spell to quiet in her fist.
"I thought, ah Zevran, why step in when mi amor has things so well under control?" He shrugged, tilting the tip of his other dagger down to indicate Amell to her knees. She did, a breath of wounded Zevran? escaping her.
"But then you did step in," the woman complained, stalking closer.
"Then I thought, perhaps my dear Warden would like to look at something before she burns these two Magelings into cinders."
"Commander Amell," The Commander said as he came to stand by the woman. He pointed with his chin at Halla's raised hands and the woman's eyes followed to fix on Halla's Anchor glowing there.
The two stared wordlessly.
"Yes, well, now you've looked. Do you want me to kill her now?" Zevran shrugged.
"Commander Cullen," Halla tried, as he was obviously still the Commander.
"Someone you know, Commander?" The woman asked. He merely shook his head.
"Don't you recognize your own Inquisitor?" Amell spat at the Commander, though she didn't move an inch from where she was kneeling with Zevran's other dagger pointed towards her.
"Inquisitor?" The Commander echoed blankly.
"Inquisitor Trevelyan is not Dalish, and she is sitting safely at Skyhold. Not gallivanting about with a blood Mage." The woman sneered.
"Inquisitor Trevelyan? But I'm… I'm the Inquisitor. Inquisitor Lavellan! Halla Lavellan! Commander, don't you remember me?" Halla took a step closer, but Zevran's dagger bit into her neck.
"…the only Inquisitor we ever had was Inquisitor Jocelyn Trevelyan." The Commander replied stiffly.
"But I'm right here!" Halla shook her Marked hand, Anchor blazing out in response. The two… Commanders of this world stared before they looked at each other.
"Well, this is going to be… interesting." The woman sighed.