p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;" align="center"This chapter is a little shorter than usual, but I preferred to leave this on its own, rather than put it with the rest. br /It's important to see what's happening to Callisto, and if you are confused, worry not. br /I'm making things vague to leave some mistery, obvs ahahah/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;" align="center"span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"CHAPTER 4/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-US"'Ok, maybe I should have thought this through a bit better…' Callisto trailed off as she attentively watched the patrolling /spanThe sun had gone down hours ago and the only light was provided by the Breach. It was oddly beautiful to admire during the night, not so blinding as it was during the day. At least, when it was dark, she could gaze up at it without the fear of going blind. Her eyesight had never been perfect, and she had obviously lied to Solas when she'd told him that her health was untouched by the /Since she'd woken up almost two weeks ago, she'd notice a subtle worsening, but nothing she couldn't handle. The contours were only a bit smudged here and there…br /'Not the time for random strings of thoughts, focus!' she chided to herself, trying to bring her mind back to the task at /She needed to slip out of Haven unnoticed, but she had underestimated the number of guards that would be watching the gates and the escape routes. During the day it was hard to make an accurate guess about the numbers, too many people moved around the village, and many were soldiers or scouts off to do some business, mixing with the actual guards on duty. And she most certainly couldn't just go up to the Commander and ask him how many and where exactly the guards were supposed to be…br /'I guess I've burned my chances with him, he'd know I'm up to something…' she reasoned, cursing herself for being blunt and directly ask for /Going head first usually wasn't her method, she didn't like to ask for help on principle, and she found the whole sneaking around to be highly entertaining. Also, it didn't require talking to people, which was a /Callisto didn't exactly know emwhy/em she had done it this time around, maybe she'd thought that since her brother had been tagged as the 'Herald of Andraste', she could impose some sort of authority in his place too…br /Obviously she'd been /Not only the Commander had refused to spare even one of his men, he had downright defined her request as insane and /emspan lang="EN-US"Well thank you very much, you brainwashed chantry candy-boy!/span/emspan lang="EN-US" She huffed, her eyes still focused on the soldiers standing /spanThere was no time to brood over her defeat, /If she wanted to go, it was now or /Sister Leliana had probably caught her letter by now, which meant she would have eyes on her /She took one last deep breath and made her way to the gates, as nonchalantly as she could manage. Her heart was beating at an alarming rate, anxiety was clutching at her stomach horribly, but her face was showing none of it. Years of leaving with this condition had made her quite good at hiding it. Which didn't mean she didn't feel like throwing up at any given moment, that /As she walked down the stairs, the two men posted gave her a nod to acknowledge her presence, which she reciprocated with a /emspan lang="EN-US"Yup, I'm absolutely not suspicious at all! /span/emspan lang="EN-US"She thought, moving past them and through the still open /spanOnce outside, she allowed her lungs to breathe /Part one was down, now there was all the rest to /Trying not to look emtoo much/em obvious, she looked /There was just a few people outside, most were soldiers going back on forth through their tents, there was no sign of the /He probably was one of the few people who would know her on sight, which gave her the advantage of anonymity if she got caught at some /'I admit it would be quite suspicious if they caught me though. The survivor that sneaks out in the middle of the night to go check on the breach by herself…' she thought out /emspan lang="EN-US"Yeah, it doesn't sound /span/emAs she neared the smithy, Callisto started to pick up her pace, bringing the hood over her face. Hoods were a must when one wanted to sneak around, even though they didn't help the whole emwhat-are-you-talking-about-I-am-absolutely-not-suspicious-at-all-excuse-you /emvibe she wanted to give /The trebuchet came in to view and, finally, just behind, laid the path to her objective./p
p class="MsoNormal"'Ok, I did not remember this much of a trek to get here!' she complained loudly to no one but herself. The wind had picked up slightly as she climbed up the path, the greenish light just enough for her to see where to put her feet /The silence was almost as overwhelming as a crowd, and Callisto talked to herself to fill the void. Well, in this case. She was emalways/em talking to herself, she found it useful to process her thoughts, though people usually regarded her with strange looks when she did it in /After another particularly steep set of stairs, the Breach finally came into /It hummed and shifted, creating amazing light tricks that took her breath /How could something so beautiful be the bearer of so much destruction was beyond /She took a moment to stop and write down what she was feeling, taking the wooden board she had harassed the Quartermaster for (not that she minded, Threnn was a bit of a bitch…) and quietly scribbling on the /A paragraph and a quick sketch were enough for the /Cautiously and extremely aware of her surroundings, she proceeded towards what was left of the entrance of the /What she remembered to be a magnificent sight, was reduced to ashes and charred bodies, petrified in horrendous poses of pain and /Callisto tried her best to ignore both the corpses and the smell, but eventually had to stop and empty the contents of her stomach on the /With nothing more to retch, she was left with only a sting odor in her nose and a constant feeling of /But she steeled herself and went on /This had to be done, one way or another, and she would not yield, not even if faced with so much /Step after step she made her way inside, or what little was left of /Once again she took her papers and noted her surroundings, how nothing more than a few stones remained standing and all that was left was what she supposed to be the infamous red lyrium sticking out of the ground and the /It was the first time she saw it, though she had read quite few researches coming out of the Marches about it. Even without magic in her blood she could hear it sing, murmuring a song long forgotten than begged to be in her veins. It felt strange, emvery/em strange when she took notice of it. Was it so strong a presence that even she, that had nothing to do with magic, could hear it? The thought of such power made her /A shiver run through her whole body, a warning to steer away from the contaminated crystal. A warning that she heeded /Watching her steps cautiously, she finally arrived where she wanted to /There it was, up high, the majestic horror that was the Breach!br /It was absolutely stunning to look at, but something was /It emfelt/em /The Breach was emtalking/em to her?!br /It whispered sweet words at her ear, lolling her senses, hugging her body, urging her to move /Callisto was feeling faint, a voice was telling her to emjust let go/em, to be finally free…br /She made a /Then /At some point the light increased, and her head started pounding endlessly. The pain was so strong! Too much to bear!br /emspan lang="EN-US"Let it go...br /span/emThe voice whispered /emspan lang="EN-US"There will be no more pain…br /span/emIt said, trying to lure her /emspan lang="EN-US"You will be /span/emWhy was it so alluring?br /emspan lang="EN-US" /span/emOne more step and the green light engulfed her /She was /There, in the blinding white, she could feel the pain no more. /p
p class="MsoNormal"-/p
p class="MsoNormal"Here we go! br /Now, the next ch is already half way through more or less, so you won't be left hanging for long!br /Also, for any possible reader of my other story, Undercover, a quick headsup: the story is momentarely on hold due to plot-thinking process, it will resume shortly!/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;" align="center"span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"CHAPTER 4/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-US"'Ok, maybe I should have thought this through a bit better…' Callisto trailed off as she attentively watched the patrolling /spanThe sun had gone down hours ago and the only light was provided by the Breach. It was oddly beautiful to admire during the night, not so blinding as it was during the day. At least, when it was dark, she could gaze up at it without the fear of going blind. Her eyesight had never been perfect, and she had obviously lied to Solas when she'd told him that her health was untouched by the /Since she'd woken up almost two weeks ago, she'd notice a subtle worsening, but nothing she couldn't handle. The contours were only a bit smudged here and there…br /'Not the time for random strings of thoughts, focus!' she chided to herself, trying to bring her mind back to the task at /She needed to slip out of Haven unnoticed, but she had underestimated the number of guards that would be watching the gates and the escape routes. During the day it was hard to make an accurate guess about the numbers, too many people moved around the village, and many were soldiers or scouts off to do some business, mixing with the actual guards on duty. And she most certainly couldn't just go up to the Commander and ask him how many and where exactly the guards were supposed to be…br /'I guess I've burned my chances with him, he'd know I'm up to something…' she reasoned, cursing herself for being blunt and directly ask for /Going head first usually wasn't her method, she didn't like to ask for help on principle, and she found the whole sneaking around to be highly entertaining. Also, it didn't require talking to people, which was a /Callisto didn't exactly know emwhy/em she had done it this time around, maybe she'd thought that since her brother had been tagged as the 'Herald of Andraste', she could impose some sort of authority in his place too…br /Obviously she'd been /Not only the Commander had refused to spare even one of his men, he had downright defined her request as insane and /emspan lang="EN-US"Well thank you very much, you brainwashed chantry candy-boy!/span/emspan lang="EN-US" She huffed, her eyes still focused on the soldiers standing /spanThere was no time to brood over her defeat, /If she wanted to go, it was now or /Sister Leliana had probably caught her letter by now, which meant she would have eyes on her /She took one last deep breath and made her way to the gates, as nonchalantly as she could manage. Her heart was beating at an alarming rate, anxiety was clutching at her stomach horribly, but her face was showing none of it. Years of leaving with this condition had made her quite good at hiding it. Which didn't mean she didn't feel like throwing up at any given moment, that /As she walked down the stairs, the two men posted gave her a nod to acknowledge her presence, which she reciprocated with a /emspan lang="EN-US"Yup, I'm absolutely not suspicious at all! /span/emspan lang="EN-US"She thought, moving past them and through the still open /spanOnce outside, she allowed her lungs to breathe /Part one was down, now there was all the rest to /Trying not to look emtoo much/em obvious, she looked /There was just a few people outside, most were soldiers going back on forth through their tents, there was no sign of the /He probably was one of the few people who would know her on sight, which gave her the advantage of anonymity if she got caught at some /'I admit it would be quite suspicious if they caught me though. The survivor that sneaks out in the middle of the night to go check on the breach by herself…' she thought out /emspan lang="EN-US"Yeah, it doesn't sound /span/emAs she neared the smithy, Callisto started to pick up her pace, bringing the hood over her face. Hoods were a must when one wanted to sneak around, even though they didn't help the whole emwhat-are-you-talking-about-I-am-absolutely-not-suspicious-at-all-excuse-you /emvibe she wanted to give /The trebuchet came in to view and, finally, just behind, laid the path to her objective./p
p class="MsoNormal"'Ok, I did not remember this much of a trek to get here!' she complained loudly to no one but herself. The wind had picked up slightly as she climbed up the path, the greenish light just enough for her to see where to put her feet /The silence was almost as overwhelming as a crowd, and Callisto talked to herself to fill the void. Well, in this case. She was emalways/em talking to herself, she found it useful to process her thoughts, though people usually regarded her with strange looks when she did it in /After another particularly steep set of stairs, the Breach finally came into /It hummed and shifted, creating amazing light tricks that took her breath /How could something so beautiful be the bearer of so much destruction was beyond /She took a moment to stop and write down what she was feeling, taking the wooden board she had harassed the Quartermaster for (not that she minded, Threnn was a bit of a bitch…) and quietly scribbling on the /A paragraph and a quick sketch were enough for the /Cautiously and extremely aware of her surroundings, she proceeded towards what was left of the entrance of the /What she remembered to be a magnificent sight, was reduced to ashes and charred bodies, petrified in horrendous poses of pain and /Callisto tried her best to ignore both the corpses and the smell, but eventually had to stop and empty the contents of her stomach on the /With nothing more to retch, she was left with only a sting odor in her nose and a constant feeling of /But she steeled herself and went on /This had to be done, one way or another, and she would not yield, not even if faced with so much /Step after step she made her way inside, or what little was left of /Once again she took her papers and noted her surroundings, how nothing more than a few stones remained standing and all that was left was what she supposed to be the infamous red lyrium sticking out of the ground and the /It was the first time she saw it, though she had read quite few researches coming out of the Marches about it. Even without magic in her blood she could hear it sing, murmuring a song long forgotten than begged to be in her veins. It felt strange, emvery/em strange when she took notice of it. Was it so strong a presence that even she, that had nothing to do with magic, could hear it? The thought of such power made her /A shiver run through her whole body, a warning to steer away from the contaminated crystal. A warning that she heeded /Watching her steps cautiously, she finally arrived where she wanted to /There it was, up high, the majestic horror that was the Breach!br /It was absolutely stunning to look at, but something was /It emfelt/em /The Breach was emtalking/em to her?!br /It whispered sweet words at her ear, lolling her senses, hugging her body, urging her to move /Callisto was feeling faint, a voice was telling her to emjust let go/em, to be finally free…br /She made a /Then /At some point the light increased, and her head started pounding endlessly. The pain was so strong! Too much to bear!br /emspan lang="EN-US"Let it go...br /span/emThe voice whispered /emspan lang="EN-US"There will be no more pain…br /span/emIt said, trying to lure her /emspan lang="EN-US"You will be /span/emWhy was it so alluring?br /emspan lang="EN-US" /span/emOne more step and the green light engulfed her /She was /There, in the blinding white, she could feel the pain no more. /p
p class="MsoNormal"-/p
p class="MsoNormal"Here we go! br /Now, the next ch is already half way through more or less, so you won't be left hanging for long!br /Also, for any possible reader of my other story, Undercover, a quick headsup: the story is momentarely on hold due to plot-thinking process, it will resume shortly!/p