In Which There is a Battle

As they fought their way through Adamant Fortress, the situation had quickly devolved into chaos. There were Wardens fighting Inquisition forces, Wardens and demons fighting Inquisition forces, demons, and Wardens and demons fighting each other. A couple dozen or so Wardens that Olivia's group had rescued from demons stopped fighting and retreated when she yelled at them that the Inquisition was trying to wipe out the demons, not all the Wardens and to just get out of the way before they got killed, but it didn't do much to lessen the chaos. The battle had essentially become a three-way brawl with everyone fighting everyone else and, just to make matters worse, it was raining.

Warden-Commander Clarel was, of course, found with Erimond and a man in Warden armor on the parapet overlooking the center courtyard, giving a speech to a large group of Wardens standing around a Fade Rift below her. Olivia and the others arrived just in time to see her say something to the Magister, then turn and cut the throat of the other Warden.

Olivia and the others halted at the edge of the courtyard. "Stop them! They mustn't stop us from completing the ritual!" The Wardens down in the courtyard turned to look at Olivia and her companions, but seemed a bit hesitant to attack. Olivia hoped that it meant they were having second thoughts about going through with a disturbing blood ritual they got from a sketchy Tevinter that involved killing their own comrades.

"Don't listen to him!" she shouted over the rain and distant sounds of fighting. "You're doing exactly what he wants!"

"What, fighting the Blight?" asked Erimond, folding his arms. "Yes, the ritual might involve blood sacrifice, but Wardens have always sacrificed their lives to combat the darkspawn."

Clarel nodded in agreement. "We have always made the sacrifices that no one else will. You know that. Or at least you did once, former Warden-Commander Amell," she added pointedly.

"You're right on one count," said Olivia. "The Wardens have always made the sacrifices that no one else will. But this ritual of his," here she gestured at Erimond, "will allow him to bind all the mages who complete it to Corypheus. That isn't combating the Blight, that's aiding it!"

"Corypheus?" Clarel looked confused. "Didn't he die?"

"No, he didn't," yelled Hawke from behind Olivia. "We only thought he did!"

Erimond snorted derisively. "These people will say anything to stop you."

Clarel brought up a hand to rub her forehead as if she had a headache. "Bring the demon through," she ordered.

The Wardens in the courtyard still looked a bit reluctant to obey. "Please!" shouted Hawke, walking forward. "This isn't going to help anything! I've seen enough blood magic to know that it only ever makes things worse!"

Stroud nodded in agreement with her. "I personally warned at least half of you here against this. Don't make me have to kill you to stop you!"

"Don't do this!" Olivia cried desperately. "You're really going to listen to some suspicious character from the Imperium over people you know?"

The Wardens looked around at each other. "But you've got that creepy mark thing on your hand," said one of the ones standing closer to Olivia and her group. "It could be affecting your brain or something."

"It's on my hand, not my head!" pointed out Olivia. "Besides, Stroud doesn't have one and he came to the same conclusion as me that this ritual is a terrible idea."

"You could be wrong, though," said another Warden. "I mean, what makes you so sure this is Corypheus' plan? He is supposed to be dead, after all."

"Erimond there specifically admitted that it is Corypheus' plan when I ran into him in the Western Approach earlier. He. Is. Tricking. You."

As one, the Wardens turned to look at Erimond with suspicion. He turned to Clarel. "Don't stop now. We've come so far!"

"Maybe we should all sit down and talk about these accusations," said the Warden-Commander.

At that point it was obvious to Olivia that Erimond had lost the Wardens, and he knew it. "Or maybe," he said, "I should bring in an ally that I can actually count on!" He walked over to the edge of the parapet, slamming his staff onto the ground and sending up crackling red sparks. "My master thought you might come here, Inquisitor," he shouted, completely abandoning all pretense. "And he sent me this!" Above the fortress, a huge shape swooped down from the sky.

"Oh, lovely," said Olivia sarcastically. "It's the dragon from Haven." The giant reptile landed on one of the fortress' towers, sending shattered pieces of stone raining down from above.

Behind Erimond, Clarel's expression had gone from horrified to angry. With a snarl on her face, she lifted her staff, sending lightning through Erimond's body. He stared up at her from the ground in shock. "Clarel, wait…"

The Warden-Commander ignored him, sending a second bolt of lightning arching through the sky to hit the dragon. "Help the Inquisition!" she shouted down at the other Wardens, dodging a blast of fire from the dragon while, of course, the Fade Rift decided that this would be a good time to act up and spat out a twelve-foot-tall pride demon.

Olivia swore out loud and drew her sword, automatically reacting to the sudden attack of not one, but two, powerful enemies by casting one of the Arcane Warriors' spells to make herself stronger and another slip halfway into the Fade, remembering at the last second that it was actually the first time she had tried the latter spell both since getting the mark on her hand and near to one of the Fade Rifts. Her heart jumped a beat as her body instantly became completely intangible and the entire world took on a green glow. Feeling shaken, she dropped the spell and dodged a blast of fire coming from the dragon.

Solas was staring. "Inquisitor, did you just use…" his voice cut off as the pride demon roared and charged forward and he had to pull back with Varric and Hawke to attack from a safe distance with long-range weapons, while the others jumped in with their swords.

After a few minutes of sheer chaos, the demon was dead and Olivia and the others found themselves chasing Clarel up the stairs to the battlements, dodging fireballs being rained down on them by the dragon. At nearly the highest point of the fortress, Olivia rounded the corner to the sight of Erimond standing cornered against the edge of the battlement while Clarel walked toward him, angrily slinging magical attacks from her staff.

Olivia and the others began to make their way across the roof, just in time to watch Clarel send Erimond flying across the battlement with a blast of her staff and say something angry before the dragon swooped down and picked Clarel up in its jaws, taking to the air and landing on the roof over where they had just come from. Olivia's group began backing across the battlement, toward where Clarel had previously had Erimond cornered as the dragon shook its head and dropped Clarel in the middle of the battlement, between itself and Olivia's group, before slowly advancing toward them on its claws.

They were the ones now cornered, with the dragon on one side and a sheer, hundred-foot drop on the other. Clarel lay on the ground under the dragon's head, badly injured. "In war, victory, in peace vigilance…" Olivia got the feeling that Clarel was about to do something drastic. After all, the end of that creed was… "in death, sacrifice." Clarel sent a blast of magic up at the dragon just as it began to charge toward Olivia and the others. The dragon fell, shrieking, and the battlement crumbled, sending Olivia, Hawke, Stroud, Varric, Cassandra, and Solas all plunging down into the abyss.

Olivia stared down as she fell head first, filled with mind-numbing terror, the air rushing past too quickly to scream. She reached out her arms as if she could catch herself, unthinking, and her hand flared with green light that filled the air below them as they all fell into the brightness.