Chapter 9

Retroactive Prevention Isn't Even A Real Thing

They ran all the way to the Tower, not pausing for a break. The clouds in the sky blotted out the sun and Nathaniel was beginning to think they weren't clouds of water. The air was thick was insects, stripping down the trees and bushes around Lake Calenhad. Nathaniel could barely see his way but for the golden armour that Elissa had taken up, which caught any glint of light, lit up like a beacon and showed him where to follow.

They had left Alistair's corpse burning outside Mercy's temple, Elissa couldn't bear to have his pyre in the same room as his killer. Nathaniel just hoped that she could get this monster killed, the look in her eyes was scaring him, he thought she might suffocate on her own shuddering breaths as they lit the fire. Now she carried the king's blade and wore his armour, and he had to wonder if she was actually planning to survive this.

The surface of the lake was becoming choppy, stirred up by the winds. It turned the shores into a thick grey mud which seemed to... move?

"Liss, we need to move."

Elissa glanced back at him, then over to where the shores seethed with life. Frogs, toads, snakes, crabs, all creeping up the banks toward them, covered in mud so it seemed like the lake itself was after them. The commander redoubled her efforts, to her credit she didn't look as startled as he felt by this new development. The docks were in sight.

"I don't think that's the last of our problems," she murmured, looking around the forest.

Nathaniel followed her gaze and broke out sprinting. The animals of the forest, usually tame and timid in these areas, were amassing at the edge of the paths. From rats and rabbits to bears and wolves, they started to run, crazed. He grabbed Elissa's hand, pulling her along with his longer stride. The animals started to howl.

The air was filled with inhuman cries, the swarms of insects, the creatures of water and land, all crying together to form a deafening shriek. The creatures were gaining on them, and Nathaniel didn't like their chances against every beast in the forest. Elissa pressed a hand to her forehead, the veins in her elbows bursting. He felt the stab of spirit pain and some of the smaller creatures dropped dead behind them.

He had never been to this area before, but at the docks a templar registered a flash of recognition at the commander, looking around at the impending chaos. Poor bastard. Nathaniel hoped that no one else in the area was caught outside, the inn seemed sealed up well enough and he couldn't see any other bystanders except the unfortunate templar. He couldn't say how far the effect extended, it could be wreaking havoc across the Bannorn for all they knew.

A wolf caught Nathaniel's bow between its teeth and he had to loose its catch, letting it fall. The heartwood was torn to splinters in seconds, crushed under the stampeding horde. The beasts were nearly upon them, but the docks were approaching rapidly.

"Move, move, move!" Elissa roared at the startled templar.

They caught him between their twined hands, tackling him backward into the little rowboat just as the docks fell to the mob. The boat skittered across the surface of the water with their momentum, pushing them a few feet into safety.

"You!" The templar cried. "This is somehow you fault, I can feel it."

"Just row, Carroll," Elissa sighed.

Nathaniel picked up one oar and handed the other to Carroll, who begrudgingly took it and started to row.

Elissa sank down to the bottom of the boat, a hand to her chest. Her eyes didn't see anything, she looked like all her attention was focussed solely on continuing to breathe. He was sympathetic, it didn't take any kind of genius to see what Alistair had done by sacrificing himself, he'd torn her heart out. But he kept a close eye on her, she'd have to pull herself together once they arrived at the Tower. An incompetent warrior was of no use to him. No matter how grief stricken she was, they'd unleashed something terrible and now they needed to put it back down.

She lay on her back, staring at the sky and taking deep, wheezing breaths. He wouldn't be surprised if she'd broken a few ribs, considering how badly Mercy had beaten her about.

In all his days he had never seen anything so terrifying as Elissa when she took down Mercy. He had known that she had taken part in some blood magic, had drunk the blood of a high dragon and could call on the Fade like Justice, but he'd never thought she could do what she'd done, never thought anyone would want to. The way blood dripped from her pores, her eyes turned black, she had cleaved the spirit's knees clean in half with a single blunt blow. And the noise. No human throat could produce that sound.

"What have you done?" Carroll asked.

"We're undoing it, aren't we?" Nathaniel said.

"I wouldn't know, all I see are a couple of Wardens causing trouble. Again."

Elissa stood up, her eyes fixed on the sky.

"I don't think this is the right time to be bickering."

A bird call caught Nathaniel's attention and he looked up. Damn, he should have figured this would happen.

A thousand birds were massing in the sky, a flock of every species. A crow swooped down on the boat, nearly toppling Elissa. Then another. They had to row faster, it wasn't that far to the tower. He wished he had his bow, then he could at least thin the flock. He knew the pain aura was coming and was unsurprised to see Elissa raise her hands to begin channelling. More birds began swooping them.

Thunder rolled above them, the insects and clouds mingling and lightning cracking across the sky.

The flock of birds dove as one, and for once Nathaniel was glad to feel the sting of her aura of pain. The birds scattered as they hit, shrieking in agony and anger.

"They're going to tear the boat apart!" Carroll yelled.

"They'll tear us apart if you don't row faster," Elissa growled.

Lightning lit up the world like daylight, striking on the shore. He could almost see what was going to happen before it did. The trees burst into flame, the fire spreading along the shore at an impossible speed. Around them birds plummeted into the water, breaking against an invisible shield around the boat. The town was going to be burnt up if it hadn't already been destroyed by the stampede.

His arms were burning from the exertion but he couldn't give up now. The Tower was within sight, they could have swam the distance if horrors weren't surely lurking just beneath the water.

Elissa was on her feet and wading through the shallows before they even reached the dock.

They hit the shore and Nathaniel turned.

The fire was raging inland, the animals so thick on the ground that it appeared to be living, writhing earth. Lightning was still striking the land, the air thick with insects, birds and swirling black clouds. The sight caught his breath in his throat. It looked like the end of days.

The birds were circling around for another attack and Elissa dragged him forward, snapping him back to reality. Her aura was gone, the three of them ran for the Circle Tower door. It felt like the world was collapsing behind them as they ran, the noise was enormous, the danger potent. The entire place was trembling down around them.

Carroll threw open the doors and they burst inside, slamming the doors behind them and pressing their weight against the barrier as the birds slammed against the stone wall behind them.

Nathaniel was breathing hard, he closed his eyes, trying to catch his breath enough to keep going. His chest and arms were aching. That had been close. This was very quickly spiralling out of control. He opened his eyes to see an array of very surprised mages and templars.

"Irving, Greagoir," Elissa greeted. "Nice to see you again."

"Warden Elissa, what is going on here?" A grey haired templar demanded.

"There's no harrowing going on is there? We need the chamber." She completely ignored his question.

She didn't wait for his answer, instead nodding to Nathaniel and breaking into a run. He followed her, trusting her to lead the way since he had never seen this place before. The people in the entry shouted objections after them, but they didn't have time to argue. He could only imagine the devastation spreading across the Bannorn, they had to stop this and they had to stop it now. They took the stairs two at a time, up four flights. Both were a wreck by the time they came to the harrowing chamber.

Elissa opened up her Encyclopaedia and scanned the contents. She took a potion from her pouch and shook it, Nathaniel could only guess it was the one she had to add the blood to. She hadn't been very specific on how they were to reach the monster, just telling him that they needed to end up in the harrowing chamber. He just assumed that they could summon it from here, or tear the veil, as he knew it was weak in this room.

"Okay, I'm going to head into the maze, there's no point in us both going. If I lose my wits, if enough time goes past and the plagues don't stop, you'll have to follow me. Killing the afanc is priority one, even if we can't collect the blood."

"Understood."

She sighed, closing the book, then reached up and ran her fingers over his cheek. She pressed a chaste kiss to his lips.

"Thank you for being here, Nathaniel."

He nodded, unsure of his words.

Elissa broke into a run, surprising him. She sprinted across the room, the extra weight from Alistair's armour adding to her momentum. Nathaniel watched, wide eyed, and called out for her to stop, but she didn't. She crashed straight through the far window, at the last second leaping into a swan dive, taking her down into the deepest part of Lake Calenhad.

Elissa watched the water come up to meet her and took a deep breath.

It was like diving into an ice bath, the cold completely paralysed her. She wanted to gasp for warm air, but the weight of her fall and her armour didn't let her get anywhere near the surface. It was black, her light pendant barely piercing the gloom, and the only way she could tell up from down was by letting Alistair's armour drag her down. Her lungs were already aching from lack of air. This wasn't how she wanted to die.

It was strangely peaceful underwater. She couldn't see the fire, hear the chaos. The nightmare on the surface seemed to be a thousand miles away.

She couldn't see the sky anymore and felt its absence acutely. Logically she knew that she was sinking, that was down. She was sinking downwards and the opposite way was upwards. But somehow she felt like she was tumbling, whipped about by currents, she was diving down, then sideways, then across, unable to keep her direction constant. All she could see was black and all she could feel were unreasonable forces pulling her in impossible directions. She wanted so badly to take a breath.

A school of fish swam before her, silver in the glow from her pendant. These, at least, seemed unaffected by the madness. She was falling forever, fish, rocks and weeds her only measure of distance. Surely she had to hit the bottom soon. There couldn't be this much water in one lake, it didn't make sense. Up was down, down was up, the water was infinite.

Suddenly a light flared above her. Elissa squinted, trying to make sense of it. It was a flare that could pierce any darkness, a massive fire. She couldn't understand. It was above the surface. There was nothing that big above the surface, except the tower itself.

The tower. She remembered the Tower of Ishal, where Alistair had slain that ogre while she lit the signal. The whole top floor of the tower had nearly exploded. That was it. The harrowing chamber was on fire.

Nathaniel.

He had set the tower on fire, showing her the way home. The mages were going to kill him.

Her feet hit the bottom of the lake and she started searching. She needed the deepest part of the lake, she didn't have much time before she suffocated. Her lungs were burning. There was no magic, no potion that could grant her air. The bottom of the lake was just endless mud, punctuated with rock outcrops, under the soft glow of her pendant.

She struggled forward, her armour keeping her on the ground. Nothing, just endless grey-green. The mud caught at her feet, the rocks provided no purchase, she pulled herself forward with her hands, using the rocks as holds.

A flash of movement caught her attention.

It was the same colour and texture as the mud. The pictures had not done it justice. It reminded her more of a gorilla in shape, with massive shoulders and arms and disproportionately small legs. A long tail thrashed out behind it and Elissa saw her goal. She tore off Alistair's armour. It felt wrong to see the gold sink into the mud, her last reminder of him lost forever, but she refused to let his sacrifice be in vain.

She pushed off the rock gracefully, at home in the water despite her rapidly fading vision, her body screaming for air. It was almost too easy.

Avernus had promised her that the creature would be weak, too weak to fight her, and he hadn't lied. She snagged the tail in an iron grip and looked for Nathaniel's signal. The afanc swam against her, but it was overpowered and had no claws or teeth to loosen her grip. Rubbery hands pawed at her fist, trying to free itself. She held tight. Her vision was starting to tunnel. She saw the light, her salvation, she just had to swim toward it.

She pushed upwards, eyes fixed on the light. The water turned her around, but she kept swimming, keeping the light in her view and even as she felt like she was descending again, felt like she was swimming sideways, her mind screaming at her to right herself, she just swam toward that light.

The surface came as a complete surprise. As she broke the water she nearly let go of her prize, so confusing was the sensation. She heaved a breath into her burning lungs.

Her eyes still fixed on the beacon, she saw the tower become overwhelmed by the birds and insects, the flock tearing through the harrowing chamber, breaking itself, breaking the stone. A single figure, indistinguishable in the false night, fell lifelessly from the top. She didn't let herself realise who it was, what had just happened, she had to kill this beast, had to stop this ravaging or he would not be the last to die.

Maker, she never meant for it to end like this. If she'd known, she wouldn't have done this, she would have fallen on her blade like she originally planned. This was too high a price to pay.

With a roar, all the grief and anger in her chest welling into a single outcry, she dashed the afanc against the rocks. It squealed in pain and she climbed up next to it. She wanted to make it suffer, but there was no time. Oh, Maker, she wanted it to pay. Pay for Nathaniel, pay for Dog. Pay for Alistair. There was no torture too severe, even if she had the rest of her life to plan and execute. So instead she pulled Alistair's blade from her hip.

It seemed so wrong, that this snivelling, squawking mud golem could cause this much damage. It was an oversized rat, yet it commanded the beasts and the skies, already the lake was lit with the fires that gradually raged away from the shores, spreading their decimation further over already ravaged brush and forest. There were no stars in this unnatural night.

She speared the afance, slid the blade straight through its heart, and didn't let it bleed to death. With a final swipe its head went rolling. The creature stilled. The screaming in the air stopped so suddenly that it left a ringing silence. Light began to pierce the swarm above her.

Elissa knelt beside the corpse and, although it was the furthest thing from her mind, although it made her stomach roll and flip, she pulled the sealed potion from her pouch and uncorked it. Blood dribbled over the lip of the bottle. They hadn't died in vain, their sacrifice meant something, to them if not to her. If their spirits could still see her from the Fade, she wanted them to know that she had succeeded, the cause they had given their lives for had overcome.

The potion swirled, red mixing with green and turning an electric shade of blue.

Elissa stared.

Misfortune most severe.

She almost choked on dry laughter. That didn't even begin to describe it. Oh, Maker, they were dead. It was over and they were dead. They'd promised her that they wouldn't die for her, but they lied. She sunk down to lie against the rocks. She'd have to find Nathaniel's body, give him a proper funeral. She'd have to send word to Denerim, tell them their king was dead. She didn't cry or scream at the thought, all her grief had settled into a deep, unbearable agony in her chest.

This would mean a succession war. She could see the accusing eyes of Eamon, Teagan, Delilah, Thomas. This was disgrace on Amaranthine, on her house, on the Wardens. Maker, they were gone. She'd never see them again. Nathaniel's dry wit, Alistair's radiant grin. There were no more shadows lurking in her bedroom, waiting patiently for her to notice. There was no golden figure striding down the road to Vigil's Keep, a dozen silver knights at his back. How had life seemed so good only a couple of weeks ago?

She looked between the phial in one hand and the blade in the other. She could join him. Her skin was so cold that it wouldn't even hurt. He'd give her that disapproving frown, one eyebrow quirked as he waited for an explanation, but it wouldn't last. Soon his face would fall into a smile and he'd kiss her again, warm and gold in her arms. Elissa choked back a sob at the thought. Alistair deserved better than that. They both did. She couldn't kill them on her wild mission and then abandon it before completion.

There was only one thing she could do to honour their memory, and it was the one thing she didn't want to do. She had to live.

Elissa raised the potion to her lips, and after a moment's hesitation drank deeply.

The glass phial bounced off the rocks, slipping, empty, from her weakened hand. She closed her eyes and waited. The potion burned down the back of her throat and settled, hot, in her belly. She held a hand against her face, as if this was going to magically reverse the scar she covered. Nothing happened for a long moment, and she almost hoped that nothing would. Maybe Avernus was wrong, maybe this potion had been tested and was just useless, the recipe left to rot in that tower because it was of no importance.

A pain shot through her spine, so severe that she would have screamed if her throat hadn't closed shut. Her eyes flew open, her mouth gasping, her body no longer in her own control. The moment seemed to stretch into eternity, she had never felt this kind of pain, she didn't know if she'd survive it. Her vision clouded with white, like the endless mists of the Fade.

The pain was swept away as quickly as it had come by the clouds that enveloped her, she felt her body lift up off the ground and the thought crossed her mind that maybe the potion had killed her. Her whole world was cold and white, she was weightless, floating. Echoes of the past overwhelmed her.

You know of Mercy, Warden Commander.

...it's hurting us all...

Elissa, that wasn't how it happened. You know that.

...get it off your chest.

There's nothing unresolved.

You speak of hope, and I believe you.

What are you hiding?

...some rather informative duelling lessons.

might be able to stop her from getting into a situation where her life is at stake...

If correctly prepared, the blood of the afanc shall transform the drinker into the same beast.

Never shall this evil again walk the land, the Maker shall not allow it.

...misfortune most severe...

How did you... get that?

...wasn't recruited, he was conscripted.

"That's a very severe look you're giving the empty street."

Elissa stumbled, suddenly upright. Her head spun at the sudden change of position, from floating on a cloud to standing on her own two feet in a heartbeat. Her feet sought purchase on a stone floor, she was no longer freezing cold and soaked to the bone, the air here was dry. She took in a deep breath. A pair of hands landed on her shoulders, steadying her.

She looked around, trying to clear the disorientation. She was inside, it was night, real night, books, flowers, wall hangings, Andraste's symbol, she was in a... chantry? Her eyes turned to the window she faced, seeing dead bodies of Darkspawn and humans alike littering the streets. Amaranthine? The hands on her shoulders squeezed and she realised she knew those hands.

"Nathaniel?"

He was there, alive. Smiling, holding her steady. Maker, she was hallucinating, she was dead and this was an illusion of the Fade. But it didn't feel like one. His hands were strong and warm on her shoulders, his smile as wry and reserved as ever. She could feel his pulse through his thumbs on her collarbone. Alive.

"I apologise, ser," he said. "I didn't mean to startle you. You must have your thoughts taken up by tomorrow's battle."

Ser? Tomorrow's battle? The night came back to her in a rush. Amaranthine, the night before fighting the broodmother. The armour he was wearing had been burnt in that fight, unusable thereafter. This was the first night they had sex, the night she gave up on Alistair, the night she didn't make adequate preparations for the coming battle, the night that set off the series of events that led to her freeing the afanc. Her hand flew to her face. No scar.

Elissa fought off the urge to burst out laughing. Retroactive prevention.

"No," she said, barely able to talk through her wonder. "I'm sorry, I was just... miles away."

The Maker wouldn't let the afanc free, and he wouldn't let another one be created once the first was killed. The only way to make sure was to cut off the chain reaction at the first link. Allow her to prevent the poison ever entering her system.

"Well... I won't disturb you any longer. Goodnight, ser."

"Wait, Nathaniel," she stopped him at the door. "There's a quartermaster out there, right? Could you do me a favour and see if he has an avenveil or a full face helm? I feel like I'm going to need some extra protection tomorrow."

Nathaniel bowed his head. "Of course, ser."

The door clicked shut behind him and Elissa let a bubble of laughter escape her lips. Impossible.