"This is why I never visited Sylaise all that much." Shartan grumbled as they trudged through the pouring rain.
"It was this bad even in the elfly elf times?" Sera had to nearly yell to be heard.
"Worse! Sylaise liked the rain for what ever reason! I still say that it was only to keep her lover from hunting!" Shartan yelled back and Solas laughed at that.
"Varric, this is great!" Merrill bubbled to her friend, Thorn looked at his soul mage like she was insane.
"Daisy how is this great?" Varric asked as they ducked into the cave.
"I am learning so much about my people's history, these two have taught me so much just by insulting each other." Varric sighed, only Merrill would find listening to Prongs and Chuckles argue and insult each other in the rain as something good.
"No lets go find this warden, I want to be back at the fort before night fall." Cassandra growled nudging Shartan forward as Varric chuckled.
The door creaked open and Loghain shifted his weight silently, moving forward he drew his sword. The intruder was an elf, who was pale and tall. As Loghain moved closer he saw the elf shift and suddenly he was trapped, but nothing was touching him.
"Loghain Mac Tir, you are quite skilled at sneaking for a warrior." The elf remarked, Loghain tried to move but found he could barely breath.
"Shartan! Stop this is my contact!" Seth called rushing into the room, the elf just looked at them before releasing Loghain. "I am aware, I was simply holding him until you arrived. I think that is fair given that he was ambushing me." Loghain glared at the elf's bored tone.
"Oh do stop scowling, you were right to attack me, just as I was right to stop you. Besides you got a lot closer than most would have, I mean that was within ten feet. It has been two hundred years since a warrior has gotten that close, well at least one who was not trained by me." Loghain frowned at the word.
"Yes, sorry Loghain. I would have sent word that I was bring allies but I had no way to reach you." Seth apologised.
"Good you're a proper warden, that mean we don't need that false warden blackwall." Shartan remarked, then Loghain watched as a warrior standing slightly apart was hit by lightning.
"Shit! Prongs what the hell!" The Dwarf yelled leaping a small distance back.
"In the past months that we have been together, I have given him many chances to come clean about who he really was." Shartan explained coldly, Loghain shivered at the cold look in the man's eyes.
"Still you did not give him a bloody chance to defend himself!" the blond elf snapped glaring at Shartan.
"I looked into his past both through the fade and through the spies of the inquisition, then I waked his dreams to get his side and found that he may have felt guilt but not about his crimes or selling out but about leaving his men to suffer. If he had really wanted to repent he would have cleared the names of his men, but instead he ran." Shartan growled and the others looked at each other before backing down.
"Enough! You can fight amongst yourselves later, we need to focus on the more pressing issue." Loghain barked, Shartan nodded and gestured for Loghain to go on.
The group ran up the steps to the ritual site, they could see the lights of the ritual already glowing bright. Shartan and Seth skidded to a stop when they entered main area. Livius Erimond stood performing a blood binding ceremony on the wardens.
"This is why I told you that, we did not have time to stop to go flower picking!" Seth snarled as the group began fanning out behind Shartan and him.
"And this is why we stopped to go 'flower picking'. Really will people start trusting that when the ancient powerful mage suggests we do something that maybe just maybe I know what I am doing?" Shartan asked as he pulled out a vial that glowed a strange gold green mix.
Throwing the vial at the center of the site it shattered, releasing a golden mist the quickly spread to the warden mages. As the mist wrapped around them Shartan began chanting in Elven, and Livius Erimond yelled panicking for the demons to stop him.
Cassandra rushed forward with The IronBull to deal with the demons, a shockwave of ice blasted several demons back as Seth walked forward calmly. Seth tapped his dragon bone staff on the ground, the ground roiled as vines began spring from the earth. Covered in thorns the vines grabbed the demons and held them tight as the thorns grew in size.
"That is the second reason Thorns is called Thorns!" Varric called as he slammed bolt after bolt into the demons.
The mist suddenly became blindingly bright before vanishing, suddenly more mage fire joined the battle as the warden mages cut down the demons. Livius Erimond looked around in panic, as the wardens began to move.
"H-How no one should be able to undo that binding!" the magister screamed backing away.
"Really, did your boss not tell you? I helped create the wardens, I know more about the blight and its powers than anyone in the world. It was a bit of a problem to find the right herbs to break the thrall, but I do have the inquisition's resources on my side." Shartan remarked drawing on his power to bind the mage, when a roar split the air.
Throwing his magic into a barrier Shartan blocked the dark fire that spewed from the corrupted dragon, as it swooped down snatching the magiester. By the time the black fire die enough for shartan to lower his shield the dragon was gone. Cursing the group gathered the wardens and began to move back to their base camp.
Their timetable was moved up, Shartan sent a raven to Skyhold to order the beginning of the assault. While they waited for the forces to arrive, Shartan decided to use the time to begin reading more cleansing potions. It would take two weeks for all the forces to arrive, in that time Shartan and Solas worked constantly to stall the efforts of the wardens by keeping the veil stable and closed as much as possible.