Alistair knew Leliana wouldn't tell them anything she didn't have to. Dorian looked as though he wanted to ask more questions but Leliana's frown seemed to quell his curiosity before he had to interfere. If he was honest, Alistair didn't want to know the details, what he had seen already was bad enough, would give him nightmares for weeks to come.
They moved on, coming across the first rift they had found in this strange future then, as they approached the castle's private docks, two mages, dressed in Circle robes rather than the comparative finery of the Venatori. Disturbingly, they seemed even more fanatically devoted to this Elder One as they sacrificed themselves before their eyes saying, "The Magister needs more power for his rituals" and becoming shades.
He turned to Dorian once they were defeated hoping, since he and Alexius had apparently studied this time magic together, that he might know something about what it involved. "More power for his rituals?"
Apparently from the look of deep thought on his face and the defensive hunch of his shoulders, Dorian didn't know anything about said rituals. He shrugged, "Unfortunately, here I think your guess is as good as mine, especially if your guess was blood magic."
Alistair pulled a face. "Right..." then shook his head. In that case they just needed to push on until they found Alexius himself He told them, "The rear courtyard should be just up these stairs," and led the way up the short set of steps until they came out into the open air and just... stopped, all staring up at the sky.
It was horrifying, possibly one of the unnerving things he had ever seen, and Alistair had faced down an Archdemon. He was almost lost for words. "The Breach, it's..."
"Everywhere," Dorian finished.
And it was, the whole sky filled with that sickly green glow, the hole impossible to ignore. You couldn't look up and not see it. Worse were the floating ruins - was that actually the Black City? It looked like every time he had been in the Fade but here and real.
They didn't linger, couldn't under that terrifying sky, but had only just reached the top of the next set of stairs when a rift appeared before their eyes. Dorian cast something at it as Alistair closed the distance. He didn't manage to get there before anything spawned but the sole wraith was no match for them and the rift was quickly sealed.
The energy was still sparking on his hand suggesting there was yet another nearby and Alistair couldn't help but wonder many more such rifts they would encounter if it was the time magic causing them. At least it probably proved they were getting closer to Alexius. He hesitated a moment, turning to Dorian with a sudden thought. "Would it be better to head straight for Alexius now or will all these rifts still be there when we get back to our Redcliffe?"
"You can't mean to leave them," Blackwall objected.
Alistair favoured him with a dark look. "If it means stopping Alexius and his Elder One sooner? Shouldn't I be prepared to use any means necessary?"
The other man winced at the rebuke, but he still had far too high an opinion of the Grey Wardens, didn't understand what it meant to make hard decisions. There was nothing Alistair wouldn't do to prevent this future coming to pass, swallowing down the bile which rose as he pushed away thoughts of Fiona's blood...
Ignoring their exchange, Dorian addressed the original question. "I doubt the rifts will carry over but sadly I don't think leaving them is practical. It may take some time to modify the amulet and bring repeatedly attacked by demons won't help."
The mage had a good point. "I didn't think it could be that simple," he sighed. "All right, onwards then."
The second rift wasn't far and they shut it down quickly, then Alistair took a deep breath to prepare himself before leading them through a side door into the castle itself. Structurally it wasn't in as bad condition as the dungeons, though there were still red lyrium growths, but they weren't the main issue. Even in the entrance hall there were bodies strewn on the ground, in various stages of decomposition. If he'd thought the torture chambers were bad, at least he'd been able to convince himself the living quarters couldn't be as bad. It was no surprise Alexius had locked himself in the 'throne room' if he couldn't even keep this area clear.
The first room they checked on their way to the main hall, once a storeroom, had the look of having been roughly converted into a bedroom. On the desk was a journal, which he left Dorian to examine closer as they moved on.
In the room opposite, once Eamon's study, they met the first person to not attack outright and Alistair was ashamed it took him a few moments to recognise the young man hunched over on front of the fire. "Connor," he said, caught between relief and horror, as he realised the words he was muttering were the Litany of Adralla.
His cousin's head shot up and he flung himself across the room into Alistair's arms, clinging to him despite the plate armour. He saw his companions twitch, expecting an attack, as the younger man wept, "You're alive. They said... they said Alexius had killed you. They wanted us all to become demons - I fought but it was so hard..."
"I knew you could do it, Connor," he told him, wrapping his shield arm tight around the boy. "I'm so proud of you." The others had the decency to look away from their display of emotion as he held Connor murmuring gentle words of comfort into his hair. Leliana might have experienced physical torture and, though the mental torment Connor had experienced had left no visible scars, it was obvious to Alistair how he had suffered.
Out of the corner of his eye, Alistair saw Dorian taking the opportunity to read the journal he picked up earlier whilst Blackwall searched the room and Varric went through the desk. Leliana stayed in the doorway, presumably keeping watch for Venatori.
Alistair was hardly paying them any attention as he calmed Connor when Varric called out, "Sparkler, come look at this. I think it's Tevene."
It shouldn't have surprised him that the dwarf already had a nickname for their newest companion, and 'Sparkler' wasn't bad as far as Varric's nicknames went but it was Dorian's shocked, "Alexius' journal!" which made him look up, though he kept an arm around Connor.
Though it clearly took some mental agility to translate as he went, Dorian read the last entry aloud to them all and his shocked expression matched the rest of theirs.
If Alexius had failed the Elder One in being unable to undo the events of the Conclave, what had the Elder One been trying to do there? At the same time at being horrified at the lengths the Magister had gone to, Alistair couldn't help but feel a little sorry for him, "He did all this just to prevent his son dying from the Blight sickness?"
"Why didn't he just go to the Wardens?" Blackwall demanded.
Dorian blinked. "What would they have done?"
They did have Grey Wardens in Tevinter, didn't they? Alistair shared an awkward glance with Blackwall before answering, "Wardens are... immune to the Blight sickness." It was as close to the truth as he could probably admit. "The induction is... challenging but any chance is better than none, surely?"
Dorian frowned and looked thoughtful, which was concerning in itself. Even the most postering Orlesian noble would consider the Grey Wardens a better prospect than death and, though the soft rarely survived the Joining, it seemed Felix Alexius had already lived for some months past his initial infection.
Seeming to realised they were expecting a response, Dorian stumbled with, "Ah well, the Grey Wardens are hardly a respectable choice of career."
Blackwall looked offended but Alistair had to laugh. "No, of course, joining a crazed cult and coming up with a new school of magic which damages the fabric of reality is clearly a much more reasonable option."
"Of course," Dorian said, looking relieved. Then the frown turned and he turned to Leliana. "What became of Felix? Do you know?"
"Yes, I know," she said flatly.
Alistair could well imagine; either the young man had finally succumbed to the Blight or he had become a ghoul. Leliana didn't elaborate but Connor shifted as though he was going to say something. Alistair squeezed his shoulder and he subsided.
"And you're not going to tell me?" For the first time, Dorian sounded genuinely hurt and Alistair wondered how close he and Felix actually were. They must have known each other before all this if Alexius had been his mentor.
"You'll find out soon enough," was all Leliana would say.
Alistair hoped Dorian would be satisfied with that. "Avernus?" he asked Leliana, remembering the twisted mage from Soldier's Peak and when she nodded, shook his head in frustration. What a waste of a life. He took a deep breath, pushing away thoughts of Fiona telling him about when she had faced the Architect, he couldn't deal with those memories yet. "Well, unless you've changed your mind, we better take this fight to Alexius," he said, releasing Connor so he could meet his eyes. "Are you staying here? Or coming with us?"
"Actually, he may be able to help," Dorian said, looking down at the journal in his hand.
Connor shuddered. "Can I?" he asked, sounding doubtful. "I mean, that is, I can try but..."
He smiled at his young cousin, hoping it looked reassuring. At least he hadn't asked about Fiona, just as Alistair wouldn't ask what had become of Eamon or Teagan.
Dorian made a show of referring to the journal before he continued. "One of Alexius' associates writes he has installed a shard doorway, Maker only knows where he found it, which means all his trusted assistants are required to attend together in order to reach him. It's the height of paranoia and it would be inconvenient to track all those entrusted with the shards, unless perhaps you might know who they were or where find them?"
Connor looked almost hopeful. "Yes... yes I do. But, well, they take him meals twice a day. You could just get them next time?"
Alistair wished they could; he didn't want to drag Connor around the wreck of their home, forcing him to see what had happened but, "I don't think we can wait that long," he said gently. "Connor, I know this must be hard for you, but if you help us it could make a big difference."
Dorian looked confused, being unaware of Connor's history and Alistair was trying to think of a simple way to explain it when Leliana spoke up, her eyes on the boy the whole time. "Connor is the son of the previous Arl of Redcliffe - this is his home, even more than it is Alistair's."
Alistair nodded, returning a hand to Connor's shoulder for reassurance. He could tell Leliana didn't intend to stop there but he didn't feel prepared to argue with her. Connor himself looked pale, his hands twisting together but he didn't say anything either as she continued, "During the Blight, when his father was poisoned by a maleficar working under Teryn Loghain's orders, Connor was possessed a demon in return for preventing the Arl's death. The castle and village of Redcliffe were overrun by undead."
"Stop, please," Connor choked out, tears running down his face.
She had gone too far. "Leliana," Alistair pleaded.
"Your Tevinter friend wanted to know," she said. "Do you not think it is relevant information?"
Alistair's jaw clenched, she made it sound as though Connor had deliberately accepted the possession. He had been a child, not that Jowan had been much more himself. He would lay the blame for the whole business thoroughly at Loghain's feet. "We needed Eamon to call the Landsmeet, to reunite Ferelden, to end the Blight. None of us would be here now if he had died."
Dorian looked astonished and Alistair realised what that had sounded like. It wasn't that he really condoned making deals with demons per se but part of the Wardens' philosophy was that they would do anything necessary. Still, given the silence which followed his words, he felt the need to elaborate. "That sounded better in my head. I'm not saying demons aren't bad, or blood magic isn't wrong, just... it worked out in the end, didn't it? We wouldn't have even looked for the Urn of Sacred Ashes if we hadn't needed them to heal Arl Eamon." He was frustrated at Leliana for bringing the matter up in the first place and Connor still looked on the verge of tears.
"I'm sure that was a great comfort to the people of Redcliffe who lost family members," said Leliana coldly.
"And there are no people in Redcliffe now, so perhaps we could get back to killing Alexius?" Varric stepped in as a voice of reason. "Stick the back with me, lad," he told Connor, "and just tell us where to go. We'll do the rest."
"I..." he looked at Dorian from under lowered lashes and the Tevinter mage gave him a smile which was probably intended to look reassuring. Alistair kept a steadying hand between his shoulder blades and felt the moment when Connor relaxed. "Alright, I'll come."
"Excellent," Dorian smiled widely. "In which case I think some proper introductions are in order. I am Dorian, of House Pavus." He sketched a bow and, when Connor didn't respond continued, "Our esteemed Herald and Spymaster you clearly know already. This hairy lummox is Warden Blackwall and the charming dwarf..."
"Is Varric Tethras, at your service," Varric interrupted.
"You wrote 'Tales of the Champion,'" Connor said, wide-eyed and Alistair shook his head, he should have remembered how Connor had enjoyed reading that one.
"I did indeed," said Varric with a broad smile. "You see, we're going to get on just fine."
Alistair felt the tension in the room dissipate as Connor offered the dwarf a small smile, apparently deciding to ignore Dorian for now. "Alexius... There are five of his people with the... keys for the door," Connor told them.
He gave them his best idea on where to find them, though he pointed out he hadn't strayed far from these rooms, since it wasn't safe even within the castle walls. It seemed pointless to head to the main hall if it would only be barred to them, so Alistair led them around the castle based on Connor's directions. There was less red lyrium here, but instead a green mist those up from the stone floors and snaked around their ankles, bringing with it a sense of the Fade.
The constant glow also meant it took longer to notice the brightening of his mark, until they reached a door and heard fighting beyond it.
"A rift," Connor said, looking pale again.
"Does this happen a lot?" Blackwall asked.
He nodded and Alistair supposed this was what he had meant when he said the castle wasn't safe. It probably explained the bodies strewn around too, the Venatori had likely left the free mages to bear the brunt of the early attacks, until they were too few in number to succeed.
"Crazy cultists destroying themselves too," Varric said drily. "Who'd have thought it?"
"So, are we going in or just waiting here until one side wins?" Dorian rested a hand on the door handle, the other unhooking his staff.
"We go now," Alistair said, nodding for him to open the door.
Down a short flight of steps they could see three Venatori fighting shades in front of a rift. Dorian stepped aside to allow the warriors past and, as Alistair moved forward he saw Connor tug on the other mage's sleeve and heard him saying, "That mage, he's one of Alexius' assistants. The guards must have called him to help with the rift."
Then Alistair was in the middle of a fight, tuning everything else out as irrelevant. The two guards went down quickly and then the shades split off to target them instead. Dorian's lightning flashed out, focusing on the final Venatori and it didn't take long for them to put down both the mage and the shades then Alistair turned to the rift. He felt self-conscious for the first time, knowing Connor was watching him close it.
He had no time to worry though as, by the time he turned back, Dorian was calling him over to the spellbinder's body, where he had found what he thought he was looking for - a shard about the size of his palm - which appeared to be red lyrium. At least he had listened to Alistair's earlier warning, not touching it himself.
Alistair shook his head disbelievingly. "They're making keys out of this stuff? Sure. Another four to go, right?"
"Indeed, if your... young friend is correct."
He frowned, had he not explained his relationship to Connor? No, he hadn't actually said how he had come to live at Redcliffe either. Well, that could wait until they were back in their own time. "Cousin is probably the closest," he said
Dorian inclined his head. "Your cousin then." He looked over to where Connor was carefully picking his way across the room, avoiding the essence the shades left behind. "Should we find him a staff?" he asked and, when Alistair gave him a confused look elaborated, "He may not want to fight but neither demons nor the Venatori will care about that. Wouldn't it be better if he could at least defend himself?"
He was probably right and it wasn't as though the Venatori needed it anymore. Connor was reluctant to accept the weapon but Varric persuaded him it wouldn't hurt to at least carry it.
Alistair was soon glad of Dorian's suggestion when an enemy spellbinder Fade Stepped into the middle of their group as they ambush half a dozen Venatori over their dinner table for the second shard.
They also took the Venatori by surprise when they found the third shard, Blackwall suggesting smashing through the thin internal wall between rooms at the same time as the others rushed through the main door. It worked surprisingly well with the cultists pinned by arrows from two directions.
As they got towards the upper floors, where corridors passed across the top of the main hall, they started to find more massive growths of red lyrium.
"How much damage did Alexius' spell do?" Dorian asked.
"Rifts tore apart all of Southern Thedas, starting here," Leliana replied. "But whether that's his doing or the Breach, who can say?"
In the rooms up there, they found notes from the Venatori's studies on the Blight, learning how they had been transfusing blood from resistant prisoners and grafts of flesh to try to cure the infected, which probably explained why Fiona had been kept alive and, according to the notes, Leliana's blood had proved valuable to them too. Alistair felt sick just reading about their experiments.
They ran into the fourth of Alexius' advisors coming out of the library, this time in a fairly large group but they still made short work of them. Half the ceiling had collapsed on the main corridor leading away from the room, so the Venatori had nowhere to retreat to, given them the advantage of terrain.
By the time they found the last shard, in the chapel, which the Venatori had desecrated to the worship of their Elder One, Connor was becoming confident in his casting, though he still hesitated before joining in with the fighting.
They finally made their way to the 'throne room', where Dorian believed he knew how to manipulate the shards to open the door. Magic flickered over the strange doorway's surface once they were in place and it swung open silently.
Alexius stood with his back to them, shoulders slumped in defeat. Alistair tried to find the well of anger he'd felt on seeing Fiona but could only bring himself to feel a terrible empty grief. "What have you done, Alexius?" he said.
The Magister didn't turn around. "I knew you would appear again," he said, flatly. "Not when but I knew I hadn't destroyed you. My final failure."
Alistair was lost for words but Dorian stepped up. "Was it worth it, Alexius?" he asked, his tone also almost gentle. "Everything you did to the world? To yourself?"
Alexius shook his head. "It doesn't matter now. All we can do is wait for the end." He sounded totally defeated.
"We can undo this," Alistair tried. "Send us back, Alexius. None of this needs to happen."
"You cannot undo the past," he said. "All that I fought for, all that I tried, and look what I wrought."
A figure shuffled out of the shadows. Alistair could feel the sense of darkspawn upon them and knew this must be Felix's fate. Dorian gasped in horror, since he hadn't known what to expect.
"The Elder One comes for me, for you, for us all," Alexius continued.
Leliana didn't hesitate though, holding her knife to the ghoul's neck. It would be kinder to put him out of his misery and Alistair nodded, ignoring Alexius' sudden tension.
She drew her blade across Felix's throat and Alexius' cry would have tugged at Alistair's heartstrings if the Magister hadn't forced him to do the same to his mother already. He was prepared for Alexius' attack, met it with a Smite and took pleasure in his shocked expression as the spell failed to land.
As they fought Alexius, rifts opened around him, caused by his magic and bringing demons to distract them, but finally they took him down and even as Dorian grieved over him, he claimed the amulet. A brief examination confirmed it was the same one and Dorian told them he could probably recreate the rift given an hour.
Even as he spoke, the castle shook and it was clear that, whatever was approaching, they didn't have an hour. Since Varric, Blackwall and Leliana were from this time, they wouldn't be able to return with he and Dorian. Alistair didn't want to agree, but he knew they were right when they promised to fight to the death to give Dorian as much time as they could.
"Cast your spell," Leliana said, "you have as much time as I have arrows."
Connor hesitated and Dorian turned away to work on the portal, giving them a few moments privacy. Alistair held him tight. "I'm proud of you, Connor. Your father would be too."
"You'll fix this?" Connor asked.
"I promise," Alistair told him and watched as Connor pushed away his hesitancy and fears until there was only a confident, determined man before him.
"For Redcliffe," Connor said, head held high and Alistair had to blink away his tears, not wanting to diminish his bravery, dishonour any of their sacrifices.
"For Redcliffe," he echoed.