After making a detour to the Storm Coast to meet the Bull's Chargers and subsequently recruiting the Iron Bull, a huge Qunari warrior, to her companions, Riona returned to the Hinterlands where she did locate the warden Blackwell. He, however, did not even know the wardens had been disappearing. He did offer to join the inquisition if it was their intent to close the giant hole in the sky. So with two new members to her companions, she made her way to Redcliffe to meet with the mages. Once there, things took a twist, nobody knew she was coming. But the grand enchanter agreed to meet with her until the magistrate Alexis from the imperium, could arrive...odd. Fiona, the Grand enchanter, who had originally invited Riona had no memory of ever doing so. The magister, supposedly arrived in Redcliffe just a day after the conclave, rather timely. The whole situation did not feel right at all, and then when Alexius' own son slipped her a note asking her to go to the Chantry, that she was in danger, she knew there was something weird going on. Oh and of course it had to be a trap, but they went anyway.
Upon entering the building they were greeted by the sight of a lone mage fighting demons spilling out an open rift. "You wouldn't mind lending a hand?" the mage called out cheerfully as he slew one demon.
The battle was short, but strange, the rift seemed to slow time in some areas and speed it up in others. Once she had closed the rift, the mage introduced himself as dorian, he had been a student to Alexius. Dorian went on to explain that Alexius had used magic to manipulate time to arrive in Redcliffe when he did which explained why Fiona didn't remember inviting the inquisition because time had been turned back to before she had. It also explained the weird time effect of the rift, the magic he used had been extremely unstable and it had an adverse effect on the rifts that would most likely spread further and further away from Redcliffe. It made Riona's head hurt. They needed to report this to the advisors.
Upon returning to Haven, Cassandra called a meeting with the advisors. And like all the previous occasions they could not agree on a planned on action. Josephine and Leliana wanted to go to Redcliffe, using Riona as bait to distract Alexius so Leliana could sneak in a small team to deal with the magister and gain the mages. Cullen did not like the idea of using Riona as bait at all and urged against it, insisting they go after the templars instead. Cassandra agreed with Cullen, the mages were too much trouble but they might be able to impress the Lord seeker enough to get him to send his templars. Cullen blantly said, "hang what the Lord seeker thinks. We don't need him, we just need to appeal to the order. Some might choose to follow the herald."
So in the end it was left to Riona to decide. While what was going on with the mages in Redcliffe worried her a great deal, the thought of what pouring more magic into the mark could do worried her more and since allying with one group would cut off any chance of negotiations with the other, she chose to go to the templars with a bunch of nobles of all things to demand an audience with the Lord seeker. Upon arriving at the templar stronghold it appeared that their plan worked, the Lord seeker was most anxious to meet with the herald. But once inside they realized they had fallen into a trap. The upper members of the order had been corrupted by Red lyrium. They fought with the loyal and uncorrupted templars until they reached the Lord seeker. Riona reached out to grab him when something strange happened, it felt like she fell thru darkness.
When she came to, she didn't know where she was, everything looked strange. It was dark and there was a eery fog everywhere, walking forward she passed charred and smoking bodies and some that were still on fire. It reminded her of the scene at the Temple of Sacred Ashes. She kept moving forward through the bodies until she came to a dead end where Cullen and Josephine stood staring but unseeing. Riona gasped in surprise, "Cullen?"
Then out of the shadows walked Leliana, "will this form allow me to know you better? Every thought, every action reveals more. So will this." she said moving behind Cullen and putting a knife to his throat.
"What… what game are you playing?" Riona asked confused, something wasn't right here.
"This will let me know you and being you will be so much better." she said as she slit Cullen's throat.
"Noooo!" Riona screamed rushing forward to gather his body in her arms only for it to disappear. "It's not real. He's not dead. It can't be real." she whispered to herself.
"You think you can toy with me! I shall know you." snarled Cullen coming up behind her.
Riona gasped and stumbled backwards, "You're not him!"
"This form gets a reaction from you, why? Tell me so I can know you. I won't be denied." he snarled in her face.
"You're not him… this isn't real… demon." Riona cried backing away until realization dawned. None of this was real, it was in her head. When she touched the Lord seeker the demon inside of him trapped her in her own mind so it could learn to be her. "It's over demon, your game is done."
"I'm just getting started, everything you do, every denial, every response let's me know you more." the demon said this time using her own voice and body.
Riona knew better than to respond now, she had to figure out how to get out. She began moving forward, the demon playing twisted scenes of the past and ones of the future hoping to get a response out of her but she refused. So then it just began to show her Cullen, every scene different. Some scenes were of him being killed in all different ways, even by her hand. Others were of him killing her for being possessed then killing himself. Then there were the ones where she would confess her feelings just to have him laugh in her face. It was torture.
"It's not real. He's trying to hurt you. But it's not real. I can help." a strange but soothing voice spoke from nearby but from nowhere at the same time.
Riona moved towards the voice and found a young boy. "Who are you?"
"Cole. The images hurt you. I could feel it. I've come to help." the strange boy replied.
"How are you here? This is all in my head isn't it." Riona asked.
"Yes. I can help. Your Head, envy must get out but you shouldn't get out of your own head. Make him add more rooms. Weakens his hold. You can wake up, the hurting will stop. Go up." Cole said.
Riona had a hard time following his way of speaking but thought she understood. Cole was a spirit and he was there to help her. So she did what he said and kept moving up. She went thru dungeons, then the chantry at Haven, then she was in a forest, and finally she was back at the templar stronghold going up the stairs that she had chased the Lord seeker up and then she was back in the real world face to face with the envy demon. With the help of the uncorrupted templars they were able to defeat the demon. The remaining uncorrupted templars promised to help close the breach as allies to the Inquisition.
So Riona returned to Haven to tell of her success only to have Cole suddenly appear out thin air to say the templars were almost there and to ask if he could stay and help. Against her better Judgment she agreed to let him stay despite the others objections, he had helped her after all. And then without speaking to any of them she rushed out, she couldn't bare to look at Leliana because she would just see the demon using her face to kill Cullen. And she didn't look at Cullen for fear of seeing him die again or for him to see that she had feelings for him and laugh. None of it had been real but the damage the demon had caused had been done.
