Chapter 10 - Mages, Demons and Abominations, oh my!
The tower was under attack. 'Of course,' Alyssa thought wryly. She knew at that moment that nothing would ever be easy in this madness she had been thrown into.
She barked orders at her small group. Alistair was there, and when they fought against the horrific abominations, she felt like she was back at Ostagar and the days when they were flirting. Wynne was a wonderful mage and healer, so her support was invaluable. And Leliana would disarm traps and shoot arrows that never missed their mark.
All in all, they were making progress, slaying everything in their way till they reached the fourth floor. Once there after encountering a demon who had a templar under her spell, Alyssa opened the door in front of them. The demon before them was no ordinary demon. Before she could whip out her blades and stab it, she suddenly found herself standing in a fortress and Duncan was calling to her.
She felt it was all wrong, so very wrong. A memory nagged at her and she blurted the words out before she could even think them through.
"Wait! You should be dead!"
The would-be-Duncan laughed at this and denied it. Then he told her that the Grey Wardens had eradicated the darkspawn and killed the archdemon. What?
She did not believe this, and before she knew it, he flickered and she saw a demon in his place. The demon faded and she saw Duncan standing there again, but this time she knew it was all a lie. She fought like she had never fought before and soon killed this fake Duncan as well as the 'mage' and 'archer' that had begun to attack her.
Once free of everything she was surprised to see a pedestal appear before her. Before she could barely collect herself she was thrown into a place where she met Niall, a mage, who explained what the place was.
Apparently she was in the Fade, trapped in the Sloth demon's realm, and she had to get through a series of tests and dimensions and defeat more demons. Once she had done this, she would be able to rescue her companions from their nightmares or dreams and only then she could face Sloth and kill him.
Niall had the Litany of Adralla and this was to be used in her final confrontation with Uldred, who was behind all the destruction and blood mages in the circle tower. The Litany would protect them against the worse of blood magic. When she understood everything that she had to do, she set out to accomplish the tasks at hand.
Once she had finally defeated everything in her way, she had to go to different realms to set her companions free. Leliana thought she was back at the Chantry and the Revered Mother before them had been a demon. She managed to get the redhead to believe her, and convince her it was all a dream.
Wynne thought that the dead mages that lay before her was the proof that they had failed and the circle was lost. She used logic on Wynne and the one thing that made her open her eyes was, "Can't you see that you are in the Fade? Aren't you a mage?"
Once Wynne was rescued and disappeared, she walked to the pedestal again, knowing that it was Alistair's turn. She didn't know how she would handle it, she dreaded being close to his dreams.
He was standing looking off into the distance a smile playing against his lips, a dreamy look on his face. Standing next to him was a woman, and her heart jolted as if it had been struck. She recognized what she was feeling as jealousy and walked up to him. He recognized her and looked down at her with such adoration in his eyes, that she found herself melting as her self-control broke down at last.
"Hey! I was just thinking about you, isn't that a marvelous coincidence?" he asked happily. "This is my sister, Goldanna, and these are her children, there are more about somewhere. We're one big happy family at long last!"
Then she saw it. All he ever wanted was a family. To belong. To be loved. And she had denied him this. She felt the tears and shook herself mentally. She could not fall apart now. She had to rescue him. 'Why rescue him,' said a little voice inside her. 'He's happy now. How can you take this happiness from him?' She looked at the fake Goldanna and saw a sly smile playing around the corners of her mouth and understood. The demon was putting these thoughts into her head.
Convincing Alistair that it was all a lie was the hardest thing she had to do so far, but she did it. Once they had dispatched the demon and the skeletons, she turned to Alistair, who grinned at her. She didn't care about the Blight and she couldn't continue being apart from him any longer.
Looking deep into his eyes, she threw caution to the wind, and kissed him.
Alistair froze. She thought he would surely push her away, but he put his arms around her and kissed her back. She felt her lips part in surprise, and he eased his tongue into her, deliciously playing with hers as their mouths worked together. They clung to each other frantically.
Then he disappeared.
Alyssa walked to the pedestal for the last time and found herself standing in front of Sloth. The rest of her companions appeared. Sloth found it amusing that she wanted to kill him. Then the fight began.
It was a difficult fight, but they won. Niall appeared before them and told her that he couldn't go back with them. She found herself apologizing and wishing she had been there earlier to save him. He didn't mind, as long as she saved the circle. She promised him she would.
Then they were back at the tower, and she took the Litany from Niall's body. Alistair was suddenly standing in front of her still looking at her with adoration. She gave a sob and hurled herself into his waiting arms. They stood there for a few minutes holding each other tightly. Wynne cleared her throat.
They broke away, looked at each other again, and smiled.
"Let's get this Uldred, and kill him," she said to no one in particular.
When they finally killed Uldred, and rescued the First Enchanter, they made their way back to the entrance of the tower on the ground floor and talked to Gregoir. First Enchanter Irving found himself promising the mages' support during the Blight and all was well.
Even though Alyssa felt happy that she had recruited her first major group to aid her against the Blight, she felt even happier when she saw how proud Alistair was of her. He positively glowed, his eyes starry and warm.
Wynne had asked the First Enchanter for permission to follow her, which also pleased her and she told the older woman that she would be honored to have her in her group.
It was in a kind of a daze that they made the trip back to the dock and when they touched firm ground, Alistair asked Wynne and Leliana to please go ahead to camp without them. They would catch up with them later.
Alyssa blushed and looked down at the ground and waited to see what he would say.
A/N: We will get an insight on Alistair's PoV in the next chapter. Get ready! You know what's coming next! *giggles*
I want to thank Harmakhis for the reviews too!
Oh, and the last thing I want to say is that I really, really, really hated playing through the Fade, which is probably why I only focus on freeing the companions, so I'm sorry I don't linger on the battles and quests in this chapter.