A/N: Ah, chapter three. Here we go.
Thanks to xMorbidxAngelx for being the beta.
Disclaimer: Don't own DA. OC's are mine, though.
Solas, Angel presumed, was a mage.
Because mages are a thing, she thought to herself.
He seemed to shoot ice projectiles from out of the staff he was wielding, and even froze the demons sometimes. She briefly wondered if it took energy to cast such spells.
They'd run into several demons on their way to the forward camp. With the five of them, though, they didn't take up too much time.
Also, Varric's crossbow was indeed very useful. Angel wondered if she could get one of her own. She'd never used a crossbow before.
Cassandra soon expressed her worry for Leliana, hoping she'd made it through the mess of demons. Varric tried to sooth her worries, insisting she would be fine.
"We will see for ourselves at the forward camp. We are almost there." Cassandra said as they climbed up another hill, leading to another staircase.
Even at the bottom, they could hear fighting coming from above.
"Another rift!" Edric said as they ran up the staircase.
"We must seal it! Quickly!" Solas urged.
"They keep coming!" A soldier shouted at the top, "Help us!"
They managed to fight the wave of demons until they were all gone. Edric and Angel once again lifted their marked hands towards the rift, and the same green light emitted from it. Not long after, the rift exploded in on itself, disappearing.
"The rift is gone," Cassandra said, "Open the gates."
"Right away, Lady Cassandra."
They walked through the gate onto another bridge, and immediately heard an argument between Leliana and a man whom Angel didn't recognize.
"Ah—here they come." The man said as the group approached the two.
"You made it." Leliana said, relief evident in her voice.
"As Grand Chancellor of the Chantry, I hereby order you to take these criminals to Val Royeaux to face execution." The man said to Cassandra harshly.
"Don't talk about us like we aren't here." Edric said.
"You two shouldn't even be here!" The Chancellor shouted, before lowering his voice in defeat, "Call a retreat, Seeker. Our position here is hopeless."
"We can stop this before it's too late," Cassandra said, "We must get to the Temple, it is the quickest route."
"But not the safest," Leliana added, "Our forces can charge as a distraction while we go through the mountains."
"We lost contact with an entire squad on that path, it's too risky." Cassandra countered with a sigh. She turned around, looking at Edric and Angel, "How do you think we should proceed?"
"You're asking us?" Angel almost laughed.
"You have the mark." Solas supplied.
"And you are the ones we must keep alive. Since we cannot agree on our own…" Cassandra trailed off, waiting for an answer.
Angel sighed. She had no idea what was going on. She looked to Edric for guidance, who just shrugged unhelpfully.
After a moment, Angel finally said, "The Mountain path?" It was more of a question than anything.
"We need to work together." Edric continued for her after a beat of silence. Everyone nodded in understanding.
"Leliana, bring everyone left in the valley. Everyone." Cassandra said.
"On your head be the consequences, Seeker." The Chancellor added one last comment to Cassandra. She just shook her head in reply as they walked past him
The group of five headed up the mountain path. It was a long, uphill climb that Angel didn't expect. After about a half hour of walking they made it to a set of ladders.
Angel let out a groan of annoyance, "Ladders? Really?"
"You're the one who wanted to take this path." Varric helpfully reminded.
"Well—if I had known if involved ladders…"
"What's wrong with ladders?" Edric asked, the first to start climbing up.
"I may or may not have a thing with heights."
Varric chuckled, "You don't like heights, so you chose the path that involves hiking up a mountain?"
"Well—I was under a lot of pressure, okay? I just kind of…picked one."
Cassandra sighed in annoyance, "Remind me never to ask your opinion again."
"Duly noted."
The group went quiet as they climbed the ladders, reaching a cave.
"Ah, nice. A cave, too." Angel quipped.
"May or may not have a thing with caves, huh?" Varric smirked.
"You know—I can see why Cassandra wanted to leave you behind." Angel half-joked.
Demons lay ahead, waiting in the cave, because of course they would hide in a cave, and Cassandra ran in first, drawing her sword and letting out a battle cry. The demons were immediately drawn to her, though she easily blocked their attacks. Edric disappeared in a veil of smoke again, presumably running into the cave after her. Solas waved his hands, and Angel could see some sort of protective barrier surround both Cassandra and Edric.
That was very useful.
It didn't take long for the demons to fall.
As they made it further into the cave, Angel held back a sigh. She was getting tired. She wasn't in the best shape, she'd admit, and it had been a long time since she'd used a bow so much. Or walked so much, as a matter of fact.
She tried to hide her exhaustion from everyone else.
"Getting tired, Kid?" Varric asked nonetheless.
"What is it with people shorter than me calling me 'kid'?" Angel asked.
"'People shorter than you'?" Edric asked, "You mean dwarves?"
"Dwarves?" Angel asked, "Isn't that, like, I don't know, mean?"
"No?" Varric's answer sounded more like a question, "We are dwarves, just like Solas is an elf, and you and the Seeker are human."
Angel let out a short, dark laugh, "Okay. Dwarves don't exist. Elves don't exist. Neither do demons, or rifts, or The Breach for that matter."
"Curious," Solas interjected, "I wonder what we're doing here then?"
"Hell if I know. This is all just a fucked up dream."
"Hmm," Solas said thoughtfully, "Angel, if I may, where are you from?"
Angel sighed, "Not here."
"I think he wanted something more specific." Varric piped in.
"Phoenix," Angel answered shortly.
"And where is that?" Solas continued to prod as they worked their way through the cave.
"Arizona?" it sounded more like a question than an answer, when no one replied she continued, "You know, the United States of America?" Again, nothing, "Uhh, planet Earth?"
"Hmm," Solas repeated, "Intriguing."
"Yes," Angel concurred sarcastically, "Fascinating."
Silence fell over the group as they finally made it out of the cave. On the ground in the snow were a couple lifeless bodies. There was so much blood.
Angel shivered, this time not because of the cold.
It's not real, she thought to herself, closing her eyes briefly.
Varric just sighed, "I guess these are the soldiers they mentioned."
"That…can't be all of them," Cassandra said.
"So…there might be more holed up ahead?" Varric asked, hope in his voice.
They only had to walk a little further to find a group of soldiers fighting around another rift.
"Come on, let's give 'em a hand!" Varric shouted, running towards the fight.
With the help of the soldiers, the demons didn't last long at all. Edric and Angel held out their marked hands to close the rift.
As Cassandra talked to the Lieutenant, Solas walked up to Edric and Angel, slightly out of breath, "Sealed, as before. You are becoming quite proficient at this."
"Literally no idea what I'm doing." Angel confessed. Edric nodded in agreement. Solas gave a small smile.
"Well, let's hope it works on the big one." Varric added.
"Let's go," Cassandra said in her commanding voice, finished talking with the Lieutenant, "It isn't much farther to the Temple."
The rest of the group nodded, following her lead.
"Oh, yay," Angel quipped at the sight before her. There was a large cliff, and the only way down were the ladders attached to the side, "More ladders. And this time have to climb down. My favorite."
Varric and Edric smirked while Cassandra merely rolled her eyes.
Angel then watched as Cassandra, Varric, Edric, and Solas proceeded to slide down the first ladder.
"What the—how do you do that?" She asked in disbelief.
"Just come down." Cassandra ordered impatiently.
Angel sighed, climbing over the edge and beginning down the ladder.
"Hurry up! We don't have much time," She heard Cassandra's voice, which was decidedly much farther away now.
"So you keep saying." Angel muttered under her breath. She made it down the first ladder only to discover that everyone else had already made it down the second ladder. "What the—"
"Hurry. Up." Cassandra repeated.
"Well—I'm sorry I don't have magic sliding-down-ladders abilities like apparently the rest of the world does," Angel snapped as she began climbing down the last ladder. She heard a sound of disgust from below that could only be from Cassandra.
As she finally made it down, she saw Edric give a smile—out of being polite, she was sure. Varric patted her on the back before beginning the rest of the walk.
Angel then noticed how steep the hill was.
"And now we have to walk down a stupidly steep hill," Angel narrated, annoyed, "Cool."
"Stop complaining," Cassandra said, "It's not that bad."
Angel sighed again as they began the trek down.
Always keep your feet slanted when going down hills like this, Angel remembered her dad telling her when she was child while they were camping, If you walk straight down you have more of a chance of falling.
As they reached the bottom of the hill, Solas mentioned, "The Temple of Sacred Ashes."
"What's left of it." Varric added sadly.
"That is where you two walked out of the Fade and our soldiers found you," Cassandra informed, "They say a woman was in the rift behind you. No one knows who she was."
Angel scrunched her nose in disgust at the foul smell in the air.
They made it inside the temple, where small fires were splayed across the ground, along with burnt bodies. Angel cringed; realizing that the smell in the air must have been what burnt flesh smelled like.
This isn't real, she reminded herself again.
They walked up to a small ledge, looking towards the sky to see The Breach in all its glory.
Suddenly they heard from behind them, "You're here. Thank the Maker." They turned around to see Leliana, now sporting a bow and quiver of her own on her back, followed by soldiers.
"Leliana, have your men take up positions around the Temple." Cassandra said. Leliana nodded in understanding, leading the soldiers away.
Cassandra walked back to Edric and Angel , "This is your chance to end this. Are you ready?"
"I mean—do I have a choice?" Angel asked, mostly to herself.
"We'll try, but I don't know if we can reach that, much less close it," Edric answered.
"No," Solas interjected, "This rift was the first. And it is the key. Seal it, and perhaps we seal the breach,"
"Then let's find a way down," Cassandra said, "And be careful."
As they made their way through the temple, Angel heard a deep, menacing voice echoing from nowhere, "Bring forth the sacrifice."
Angel looked around for the source of the voice, but found nothing.
"Great, now I'm hearing things." She said.
"No. We all heard that," Edric assured before asking, "What is it?"
"At a guess: the person who created The Breach." Solas answered
"Mmh." Angel made a sound of understanding, though she was still confused.
Everyone continued walking down though the Temple, eventually reaching what looked like red rocks growing out of the ground. It reminded Angel of the color of rubies, except these ones had strange, unnatural glow about them.
"You know this stuff is red lyrium, Seeker." Varric said, distraught.
"I see it, Varric,"
"But what's it doing here?" The storyteller wondered aloud.
"Magic could have drawn on lyrium beneath the Temple, corrupted it…" Solas theorized.
Lyrium, Angel thought. Another word she didn't recognize.
"It's evil. Whatever you do, don't touch it." Varric warned.
Everyone took heed of his advice, staying as far away as possible from the red lyrium.
"Keep the sacrifice still," The menacing voice echoed again as they continued forward.
"Someone, help me!" Came another scared voice. Angel couldn't place the accent.
"That is Divine Justinia's voice!" Cassandra said urgently as they made it to a small cliff. Angel saw no way down aside from jumping.
Just great, she thought.
The rest of the group jumped down, much to Angel's surprise, like it was not a big deal at all.
Because of course it's not a problem, She thought.
Cassandra sighed in annoyance as she realized Angel wasn't with them. She looked up to see the younger girl still up on the cliff.
"Are you coming?" She asked, impatiently.
"I'm supposed to just jump?"
"Did you not see the rest of us do it?"
"It's like ten feet."
"It's not so bad," Varric tried to sooth, "Just jump."
Angel rolled her eyes, "How did you break your legs, Angel?" She asked herself rhetorically, "Well, I was peer-pressured into jumping off a cliff, you see." She answered the pretend question.
Never the less, she managed to jump down, with only a minor pain in her left ankle.
"Okay," Angel started as she realized it wasn't as bad as she thought it would be, "Maybe I was being dramatic." Cassandra scoffed as Varric and Edric let out a short laugh.
They walked towards the rift, which was much bigger than the others. As they got closer, the marks on Edric's and Angel's hands started to glow green again. They both looked at their hands in wonder.
"Someone, help me!" The voice of Divine Justinia repeated.
"What's going on here?" A third voice asked.
"That was your voice," Cassandra accused of Edric, walking up to him, "Most Holy called out to you, but…"
Suddenly a bright white light engulfed everything, and everyone had to squint their eyes just to see. A moment later, there was a vision coming out of the rift.
There was a silhouette of some sort of creature. Angel didn't know what it could have been. In front of him was, Angel presumed, Divine Justinia, who looked caught in some sort of magic barrier, holding her above the ground.
She could see another version of Edric run up to the scene from the other side, "What's going on here?" he asked again.
"Run while you can! Warn them!" Divine Justinia called out to him.
"We have an intruder," the menacing creature said, pointing a long, clawed finger at Edric's other self, "Slay the dwarf."
Another bright flash of white, and the vision was gone.
"You were there!" Cassandra accused of Edric, "Who attacked? And the Divine, is she?...Was this vision true? What are we seeing?"
"I don't remember!" He defended.
"Echoes of what happened here." Solas said, walking forward and staring at the rift, "The fade bleeds into this place." He turned back around to the rest of the group, "The rift is not sealed, but it is closed…albeit temporarily. I believe that with the mark, the rift can be opened, and then sealed properly and safely. However, opening the rift will likely attract attention from the other side."
"That means demons," Cassandra said, looking to the soldiers all around them, "Stand ready!"
Soldiers from all around gathered near the rift, while Angel noticed some on the upper levels with bows, arrows already notched. Cassandra nodded to Edric and Angel, giving them the okay to open the rift. They both lifted their marked hands towards the rift, and a green light emitted from it. It only took a moment for something to appear from the other side.
But it was much bigger than the other demons they had fought before. It stood as tall as a small building, with what looked like blue armored scales covering its body, and horns on the top of its head. It let out a deep, chilling laugh.
"Jesus Christ!" Angel cried out, "What is that?"
"Pride demon!" Cassandra answered, "Attack! Now!"
Everyone on the upper levels let loose their arrows, but the pride demon blocked all the shots with his armored arm. Cassandra and the other melee-fighters ran up to it and began attacking. None of the attacks seemed to do any damage.
"We must strip its defenses!" Cassandra called out.
"Hurry! The rift!" Solas said urgently, "Use your mark again!"
Angel and Edric nodded, holding their marked hands out yet again. The rift didn't seal, but the small explosion it made seemed to deal the pride demon some damage. It knelt down as it tried to recuperate.
"The demon is vulnerable—now!" Cassandra shouted.
Angel let loose her arrows, one after another. Her whole body was tired. She wasn't used to moving this much, let alone using a bow so much. Her arms became shaky; and she was scared of hitting one of the soldiers instead of the demon.
At least it's so big, Angel thought, I can just aim for his head and torso while they attack his legs. That way if I miss, I just miss an not hit anybody else.
Soon enough the pride demon's defenses were up again, and Edric and Angel had to use their marked hands again. This time more demons fell through the rift. Angel concentrated on those ones first. After they were down, she focused back on the pride demon.
It took a long time, longer than Angel cared to mention, but the pride demon finally fell. As soon as it was down, Cassandra shouted, "Now! Do it!"
Edric and Angel immediately lifted their marked hands to the rift again. This one was different from the others, though. It was bigger; more powerful. It took much more out of them.
Angel could feel her consciousness slipping away. She felt herself fall to the ground in exhaustion.
The last thing she saw was Edric fall to the ground beside her, unconscious.
A/N: Thanks for reading! Really appreciated. Drop a review, if you'd like. :)