Tatum looked around the battlefield, her ears still ringing from the venom inflicted on them. Her hand throbbed. The new wound didn't abate, but grew with every burst of energy released from the breach. Her finger tips tingled and grew numb. Whether it was from the cold or the constant pain that wracked her nerves or a combination of the two, she couldn't say. She held her wrist to keep the fire from rising.
The words "execution" and "killing you" taunted her. She felt them gnaw at her with a damned if you do, damned if you don't sentiment. She glanced around the snow capped valley, unaware of the true danger those words held for her.
"Are you alright?" Cassandra asked from behind her.
"Yes," Tatum replied with a nod and continued to walk.
"Don't worry about Chancellor Roderick, the most he can do is bark at this point," Cassandra snorted with little amusement.
The light in her palm dimmed slightly. It was a constant surge that was foreign and part of her, like a rogue limb. She couldn't understand it. Didn't want it.
They walked towards a precipice and peered down into the ruins of the temple. The whirling snow did little to make their vision clear to the path they were headed. Tatum made a fist with her wounded hand. The little strength she had remaining seemed to grow with it out of her sight.
Cassandra scanned through the whiteout and pointed down a ways. Tatum followed her gaze to the small group down below. The faint glimmer of magic and steel rippled through the virgin white snow. They rushed down the slope, sliding through snow and rocks to get to the fighters. Though their footing was terrible, they made it to a more manageable path. Panicked screams rode on the shrieking wind and the closer they drew the more frantic the fighting seemed to be.
One soldier, fighting a shade, was losing his balance on the icy stone. The shade came at him, claws ready to tear into him. Tatum focused herself, and let loose a lightning bolt at it. The creature staggered back allowing Cassandra and the group to take the field. However, the shade was now on to her, locked on with one idea in mind. The rift flashed and in the haze of pain, the shadow loomed over her, a blood curdling screech inseminating from it.
She put her staff before her to block the blow, but it was easily batted away. The soldier she had saved before put himself between her and the shade. They locked arms. Both knew that one of them was going to fall without the other. Tatum opened her hand, the embers of fire flickered to life in her hand. It swelled within seconds. Sweat beaded on her forehead. She unleashed the flaming ball of magic on the demon. It staggered back, giving the knight time to recover. He gave it one final swing of his sword before the "life" flickered from him.
Solas, the elf, hurried her to the rift. The searing anguish that had now consumed her body was now in full force as she lifted her quaking arm to the portal. She closed her eyes, not wanting to loose her consciousness from the shock. Her head swam with the dizzying noise surging through her ears and forcing itself into her body. Every ounce of her strength became like the tide on the Storm Coast; it ebbed and flowed, pulled and pushed, was violent and reserved.
She felt a hand on her back and her own falling to her side. She sighed, but it wasn't a sigh of satisfaction. It came out as more of a shudder.
"You're getting good at this," Solas uttered.
The two of them looked at that gaping wound at the sky, both knowing that her intended target was it.
And it's probably going to kill me, Tatum thought.
She turned around to the sound of shuffling steel and chainmail. The knight she had saved before came up to them, he was bloodied but stoic in his own set of pain.
"Lady Cassandra, you closed the rift," he said with a baffled expression.
"It wasn't me," she stated, her tone matter of fact, "It was her doing." They both looked at her curiously. It was almost unsettling the hopeful look that both had in their eyes. "This is Commander Cullen, former Knight-Commander of the Templars of Kirkwall. Commander Cullen, this is -."
A templar, huh?, she thought as she eyed him carefully. He certainly carried himself like one. However, she had some resentment to his Order, and some regrets for... Stop it, Tatum.. You can't change what happened. He attacked you first, she scolded herself.
"Tatum," the mage said.
"So you think you can do this, right?" Cullen questioned still trying to catch his breath.
"I'll try," Tatum replied with a slight shrug.
"That's all we can hope for at this point," he replied with an equal shrug. He looked exasperated and exhausted but turned his attention to Cassandra. "The path is clear from here on out." He looked at Tatum, sizing her up as if to see she was actually capable of stopping the current situation. "We're going to fall back to the a ways to catch any stragglers." He never took his eyes off her. It appeared to be a mix of suspicion and curiosity that crossed his face and refused to release him from it. "Good luck, you two."
He hurried past them, not uttering a word to her. She watched him leave, her own suspicions heightened.
When the snow drifts obscured the soldiers from their view they turned to the ruins and the devastation supposedly left in her wake. They walked through the crumbling doorways and broken stone. Charred bodies encased in soot and ash looked like macabre statues that would have dotted some Chaisnd's village.
She looked at the terrified faces, frozen in time. Tatum had family here. Could it have been this person? Or that person? Were they blown apart and floated on the ash they were breathing? Did she do this? Did she kill the Divine? Her friends? Why? What had happened?
The more she questioned herself, the more she became frustrated by the lack of memories. She let out a small growl that drew the attention of the dwarf, Varric.
"You alright?" he asked with a lopsided frown.
"Yeah," Tatum replied. They walked to where the breach was and saw a large rift, frozen and bound before them. "How are we going to get to it?"
Solas frowned and switched his staff to his other hand as he thought out loud. "This is the main one. I don't know if you'll have enough energy to close the breach on your own. But sealing this rift might slow it down and stop it from expanding."
"Hence not killing me in the process," Tatum remarked.
Solas's shoulders slumped. "Possibly. This is largely an unknown. It may or may not."
"Are you ready," Cassandra interjected.
Tatum nodded as her eyes panned around what was once where the Conclave was. Bodies flickered and flowed with a flame from within them.
"The world's not going to get any less mad with us standing here. Let's get this over with," Tatum replied.
For better or worse.