Alinn and the rest of the group that had been assigned to the tower began walking toward the bridge. The group that would be on the battlefield were a little ways in front of them, Lyonel looked over his shoulder and smiled when he saw Alinn,
"So, you lot got some special mission or something?" He asked.
"We're lighting the signal fire at the top of the tower." Alinn explained.
"Good thing you're so good at primal magic," He kissed him gently, "I'll see you after the battle my dear."
"I Love you." Alinn said before pulling Lyonel into another kiss.
"I love you too." Lyonel said. He then began to walk away,
"Don't do anything too risky emma lath." Alinn asked.
"The Maker himself couldn't keep me from you ma halla, I promise." He said before he ran off to catch up with the other soldiers.
Linara walked up to Alinn and tapped his shoulder before pointing to the tower,
"We should head over." She said.
Alinn nodded as the two of them caught up with Jolene and Alistair who were just about to cross the bridge. The battle seemed like it was about to begin with the archers shooting from the ramparts. The group began running across the bridge, a large flaming projectile came flying toward them, it collided with the bridge sending two of them to the ground and nearly launching Jolene off the other side.
"We need to get to the Tower of Ishal!" Alistair called out over the chaos.
Alinn coughed as he helped Jolene back onto her feet.
"Didn't know spawn could use trebuchets…" She muttered.
"Let's get across before they fire another one." Alinn said.
The wardens ran across the bridge, Linara heard yelling from the tower,
"May the dread wolf not hear our footsteps." She muttered under her breath. As the group got closer to the tower a terrified looking circle mage and a knight, both covered in blood ran at them screaming,
"Darkspawn have taken over the tower! All the others died!"
"What? This place was supposed to be secure." Alistair said.
"Who cares? We need to get rid of them." Jolene said. She ran past the mage and knight and went right for the darkspawn scattered around the path to the tower. Alinn charged into the battle right behind her. Despite the rain he was able to use his fire magic. Linara was in a league all her own with her bow. Alinn noticed a healing glyph at his feet, he looked at the other mage who was clearly in the middle of enchanting the weapons around him. It was then that Alinn realized Lyonel must've cast it. He smiled at the thought of Lyonel making sure he was okay even when he was on the frontlines as he cast a chain lightning on the genlocks around them all.
After defeating the second wave of darkspawn the wardens had reached the tower, and told the guards to get reinforcements if there were any. Linara yanked the heavy wooden doors open without a problem. She trotted in, leading the group,
"Stop, there's a tripwire." She said as she crouched to deactivate the trap. Alinn stood behind her, a frosty aura at his fingertips should any darkspawn try to attack her while she was unprepared.
"Should be good now." She said as she stood up, knocking an arrow as she stepped into the room full of fiery barriers and barrels of varying sizes. A mismatched cacophony of battle cries came from virtually every corner of the room once the wardens were visible. Linara shot six arrows in rapid succession. Alinn froze a Hurlock who had begun to charge. Jolene and Alistair had run right at the beasts while Linara and Alinn moved swiftly in the background. Her silent movements amplifying her past as a huntress. Linara leapt over a flaming barrier and shot an arrow right into a Hurlock general's eye, through the slit in its helmet. As the final darkspawn fell they knew this assignment wouldn't be as easy as they had all suspected.
"There'll be more where they came from." Linara grunted as she pulled an arrow out of a darkspawn. Making a disgusted face at the squishing sound it made. She once again led the group into the spiraling rooms of the first floor, each room had darkspawn in it. The wardens were skilled but this was much more resistance than they'd expected.
"Crap." Linara said as she pulled out an arrow that had apparently decided to leave it's arrowhead in the darkspawn.
"This is going to be harder than we thought, isn't it?" Alinn asked Alistair.
"There weren't supposed to be any darkspawn here!" Alistair defended.
"You try telling them they're in the wrong place, I'm sure it'll go over well." Jolene deadpanned.
"Who cares! What matters is they're here and we need to get to the top of the tower if those soldiers who are out there dying while we argue have any chance of making it out of this battle alive!" Linara yelled.
"She's right of course, we need to get moving." Alistair said. The group was silent as they continued up the blood soaked stairs to the next floor. Alinn's anxiety was causing the air around him to become statically charged and significantly colder than the air around him.
"Breathe da'len. We need you present for the battle." Linara said, resting a hand on his shoulder.
"I can't stop thinking about the others down in the front lines…"
"They will be alright, I'm sure you'll be in his arms again before you know it." She assured him.
Alinn exhaled as the group trekked on. A fiery projectile came rushing toward them. Alinn instinctively set up an ice wall in front of the group. Shattering both the projectile and the wall on impact.
"We need to take out whichever one of them is firing those things! I can only make so many ice walls you guys." Alinn said. Linara shot one of the darkspawn and kicked another one in the face. Alinn, still recovering mana from the ice wall, was using his staff as a club when any darkspawn got too close to him.
"We need some magic over here!" Jolene yelled as a hurlock knocked her to the ground.
"Do you want me to pass out?" Alinn yelled as he clubbed another darkspawn.
"I got this." Alistair said when he stabbed the Hurlock that had overrun Jolene.
The rest of the floor was comparatively easy as there were no flaming projectiles coming at them. Only two more floors before they'd be at the top, no doubt they'd missed the signal.
"The fate of all those soldiers lies on us." Jolene thought aloud as the group went up the stairs to the third floor. Jolene had somehow found herself at the front of the group, her blades shone with tainted blood. There were few events worthy of note until they reached the room right before the final staircase. A room full of caged mabari and even more darkspawn.
"Someone release the hounds!" Alistair yelled.
Jolene saw the lever in the middle of the room, she yelled over her shoulder, "Cover me!" To whom she was unsure, not that it mattered. She kicked the lever and the seven or so dogs immediately began attacking the darkspawn. The dogs ended the fight much quicker than the wardens alone could have.
"Let's get to that signal fire." Alinn said, maneuvering his way past the large dogs and the darkspawn corpses. When Alinn opened the door to the top of the tower he thought he was going to faint, standing there was a huge ogre flesh a putrid purple color.
"Are you fucking kidding me?" He barely more than whispered as he tried his best to not attract the beast's attention as he entered the room. He cast an electricity spell on the beast. Linara shot an arrow into its leg, but it was clear her arrows meant for wolves and small bears would have no effect on the beast that was now charging at her.
"Fenedhis!" She shouted before breaking into a full on run, if that thing caught her she was dead.
"Stay away from her!" Alistair yelled as he buried his sword in the Ogre's leg. Jolene felt as if she were frozen where she stood, she felt like she was back in the deep roads facing certain death for killing her brother.
"Jolene, help!" Linara screeched, Jolene came back to reality, Linara's bow had been snapped and she was pinned to the ground by a darkspawn. Jolene ran to the elf's aid. Her hands trembled but a stab wound is a stab wound if the dead darkspawn was anything to go by. She gave Linara one of her blades,
"You need a weapon." She said. It was clear Linara had never wielded a sword before in battle and was mostly kicking and punching darkspawn at this point. Jolene saw Alistair and Alinn were having their own trouble with the Ogre. She swallowed hard, ignoring the gut instinct telling her to run for her life. She saw the beast pick up the small mage and begin beating him like a ragdoll. She ran at the beast, using her dagger as a means to climb the beast. Linara threw her blade at the Ogre and Jolene was able to make her way to the creature's face even faster. She stabbed it square in the eyes, causing it to drop Alinn's limp body to the ground. Alistair bashed his shield into the back of one of its legs and the ogre was on the ground. Jolene drew her blades out of the creature's eyes and stabbed it in the throat.
Linara was kneeling over Alinn, presumably checking if he was still alive. Jolene saw Alistair was lighting the fire, she went over to the windows to see the battle. It was clear they were being overwhelmed by darkspawn, but their orders had been to wait in the tower after they lit the fire. She also noted that Loghain's troops would no doubt turn the tide.
"Another wave!" Linara yelled before making some sort of grunting noise. Jolene whipped around to see dozens of darkspawn flooding the room.
"Ancestors have mercy on me." She said as she made what she had no doubt would be her final stand. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Alistair get piled on by darkspawn after darkspawn. She closed her eyes and just swung her weapons wildly. She was unsure when she collapsed but she refused to let the last thing she ever saw be a darkspawn. She gave up, she accepted death.