To Alexifel and ravenshadow452: Thank you for following and adding this story to your favorites!
I probably should have done this before. I do not own Dragon Age, or its characters, unfortunately. Mia Trevelyan is mine, the story idea and actual story are mine. I am just playing in Bioware's extensive playground!
Chapter 2
Mia felt a pain in her hand, the sharpness waking her. She looked at her hands, surprised to find them shackled. Her palm flared, a bright green light coming with the pain. She gasped, inwardly freaking out. The Elder One must have captured her. Why else would she be in shackles?
The door banged open, a short haired woman coming in. The two guards she hadn't noticed before now sheathed their swords at her approach. Another woman, her head hooded, followed behind her.
They looked at her, their eyes menacing. The short haired one said, "Tell me why we should not kill you now. The conclave is destroyed, everyone who attended is dead. That is, everyone except for you."
The Divine was dead?
The short haired one did not take her silence well. She grabbed Mia's hand, the one with the bright green mark. She lifted it into the air and said, "Explain this." The mark pulsed before she dropped Mia's hand back down to the ground.
Mia closed her eyes, knowing her answer wouldn't be satisfying. She said, "I can't."
The short hair woman's voice was one of disbelief. She said, "What do you mean you can't?"
Mia opened her eyes, looking at the woman who may very well end her life. She said, "I don't know what it is, or how it got there."
The short haired woman grabbed her shoulders, saying, "You're lying!"
The hooded woman pulled her away before she could do Mia bodily harm. She said, "We need her Cassandra."
Those words confused her. How did they need her? Had they figured out what she was here to do? They couldn't have, she hadn't been here long enough to confide in anyone. She said, "I don't understand."
The hooded woman said, "Do you remember what happened? How did this begin?"
Mia tried to think, but everything was a blur. She said, "I remember running. Something was chasing me… Then a woman?"
The hooded woman said, "A woman?" Surprise colored her tone.
Mia nodded, tried harder to think. She said, "She reached out to me, but then…" She just couldn't remember. Why couldn't she remember? She remembered running to the Divine's door, and then… nothing. Nothing until the running, and the woman.
Cassandra decided to intervene. She said, "Go to the fort camp Leliana. I will take her to the rift." Leliana nodded, leaving the room.
Cassandra bent down, and unshackled her. Mia didn't want to anger her, but she had to know. She said, "What did happen?"
Cassandra helped her up, saying, "It will be easier to show you."
They walked out of the room, and started down a corridor. Her mind wandered, Garret's face coming to mind. She wished he was here. He would know what to do. Hell, he probably would have found the Elder One's identity in this time by now. He should have been the one to come through, not her. If her father had not given her a special mission should they fail, she would have insisted he go instead.
That crime would be committed by her and her alone.
Two guards opened the doors that led them outside. Thunder sounded in the sky, and a bright light pulsed. Mia looked to the sky to find a giant green hole. The tear in the fade, it had happened. She was too late.
Cassandra said, "We call it the breach. It's a massive rift in the sky that leads to the world of demons. It grows larger with each passing hour. It is not the only such rift, just the largest." Cassandra looked at her. "All were caused by the explosion at the conclave."
Mia's jaw dropped in shock. The conclave exploded? She said, "An explosion can do that?"
Cassandra walked back to her. She said, "This one did. Unless we act, the breach may grow until it swallows the world."
Mia's thoughts came to a halt at those words. The tear had not covered the world yet, it was just one tiny tear. Somehow, the Elder One had not been able to breach the fade as he had the first time. Was that something she had done on her part? She pushed her mind to remember.
Just then, as if hearing those words, the breach decided to pulse, thunder crackling. Pain seared through her, the mark on her palm also pulsing. It brought her to the ground. The mark looked like electricity in her hand.
Cassandra knelt and said, "Each time the breach expands, the mark spreads, and it's killing you. It may be the key to stopping this, but there isn't much time."
Mia zeroed in on those words. She said, "You say it may be the key, how?"
Cassandra said, "It may close the Breach. Whether that is possible is something we will discover shortly. It is our only chance however, and yours."
She did not like the sound of that. She said, "You still think I did this? You think I did this to myself?"
Cassandra inclined her head. She said, "Not intentionally, no. Something clearly went wrong."
Mia's temper was starting to boil. She said, "What if I'm not the one responsible?"
Cassandra's gaze hardened, "Someone is, and you are our only suspect. If you wish to prove your innocence, this is the only way."
Mia knew she didn't have a choice. This had the Elder One's name written all over it. She knew she had already changed history. She said, "If I can help then I will."
Cassandra led her through the town of Haven, their hateful stares upon her. Cassandra told her they had already decided her guilt. They had needed someone to blame. They were grieving, and she was the only one they could take their grief out on.
Mia ignored the stares, and the whispers. She wasn't here for them. She didn't know them. They didn't know the importance of what she had to do. When Cassandra told her there would be a trial, Mia wanted to laugh. She would not let it come to that. The fate of her world was in her hands, and she wasn't going to let some weak Chantry leaders get in the way of that.
She followed Cassandra into the valley, curious as to what this mark meant. They wanted to test it out, and she was all for it. This could be a weapon that could help her defeat the Elder One. History was already changing. There had been no mention of a mark in the secret history books the rebels had kept. The Temple of Sacred Ashes had exploded, she remembered now, but the Elder One had rounded up everyone who had served the Chantry and destroyed them with it.
Then, the ruins had been built upon, and had served as the Elder Ones seat of power.
Soldiers were panicking as they ran. They were calling it the end of the world, and it certainly looked like it. Well, at least it looked like it for them. The breach was sending green light to the ground every few seconds, the ground trembling and exploding. Little fires had started to spring up. Dead littered the ground, their eyes wide with terror. It made her remember home, for she had been a part of the rebellion for as long as she could remember and this had been a sight she was accustomed to.
The breach pulsed, and she fell on her knees, again. Cassandra helped her up. She said, "The pulses are coming faster now. The larger the breach grows, the more rifts appear, the more demons we face."
They began running again. She asked, "How did I survive the blast?"
Cassandra seemed to hesitate a little before saying, "They said you stepped out of the rift, and then fell unconscious. They say a woman was in the rift behind you. No one knows who she was. Everything in the valley was destroyed, including the Temple of Sacred Ashes." She sighed, "I suppose you will see soon enough."
They were making their way across a bridge when green light exploded in front of them. Mia fell as the bridge collapsed. They tumbled down rocks, and few hit her as they fell. She looked up in time for another green light to land not far from them. They scrambled up, Cassandra unsheathing her sword. A demon came through the light. Cassandra said, "Stay behind me!" Then she charged the demon, attacking it with strong force.
The ice in front of Mia seemed to glow as another green light flared. She knew another demon would be coming out of it, but she wasn't worried. Demons were creatures she handled on a daily bases. She saw the mages staff lying close to her on the ground, and hesitated. She didn't need a mage staff to control her magic; almost every mage had abandoned them by the time her generation came along. These people didn't know how powerful she was though, and she wanted to keep it that way for now. At least until she knew who she could trust.
She picked up the staff.
The demon came through, its eyes glowing red. She immediately attacked it with an electric strike, its jolt succeeding in dazing the demon. She focused her magic into a particularly powerful fireball, and unleashed it on the creature as soon as it came out of its daze. The demon screamed, the fire licking its way around it. Pretty soon the creature was engulfed, its dying screams making their way to the sky.
She only hesitated a moment before sending another shock straight to its head, making the demon explode and putting it out of its misery. She didn't take pleasure in killing things, not even demons. She felt satisfaction at defeating her enemy, and nothing more. She wasn't cruel, and sometimes she wondered if there would ever come a time where she did start liking the kill.
She blew out a breath, and shook her head. Her parents, and the Hawke's had raised her better than that. There should be no joy in killing, not even to those you hate.
Mia heard Cassandra finish off her demon, and looked up. The woman was covered in sweat, and flecks of blood stained her uniform. That wasn't what had Mia stiffening.
It was the sword suddenly pointed at her neck.
AN: Here's Chapter 2. I apologize to any one who read my last chapter on the app. I posted it, and then went back, and changed a couple non story related things. I didn't like how the characters I had to symbolize a later place or time in the story didn't show up when I published the new chapter. It confuses me sometimes when I read a story, and suddenly things are different with no warning whatsoever. So I am testing out a few ways here to make it noticeable that the story is going to skip forward, or they will be in a different place the next paragraph you read. Anyways, it won't update on the app which sucks, but not exactly sure how to fix it besides deleting the chapter and posting it again. If the lines aren't noticeable to you, let me know.
I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter! Lots of game content, but it will probably be that way for a couple chapters while the Inquisition sets itself up. Then... I have ideas, lots and lots of ideas.