Authors Notes: ZOMG!!! =D Try to enjoy :P

Twenty One.

Uhh, I feel awful. I knew I shouldn't have eaten that strip lamb meat. Leliana sat on a bench in the courtyard, leaning forward with her head in her hands.

"Ahh...Where are you Celina?" Leliana pushed herself up and headed through the main doors and knocked on Niklas' door.

"Enter...Ah, Leliana, what can I do for you?"

"Is Celina back yet?"

"Not that I know of, why don't you head down to the town and find her?"

"I might just do that...Thank you."

Leliana nodded her head and left the room; she strode through the giant gates and started down the long winding road to the town. The road was strangely quiet; there would usually be an occasional caravan or groups of Wardens patrolling the road, but today...nothing. An ominous breeze rolled through the trees, chilling Leliana to the bone.

As Leliana was rounding a corner she could hear talking, it was Celina and an unknown speaker. She quietly hid behind a tree and glanced out. Leliana's heart almost jumped out of her mouth. There was a strange figure with what seemed to have purple fire as hair, and a huge pair of horns sprouting from its head. As Leliana moved to get a better look at the scene she saw the dead bodies of at least a dozen men, all garbed in leather and bandanas. Bandits. She moved further along the tree line trying to get a glimpse of Celina. She screamed very loudly when she saw her.

"Oh Leliana, we were just talking about you." The Desire demon turned to face her.

"I will not fall for your tricks demon!" Leliana spat.

As Leliana came from behind the trees she gripped at her pocket crossbow with one hand, and pulled a bolt loose from a belt pack with the other.

"But we were having such a fun time."

Within a second Leliana's crossbow had unfolded, loaded and had fired a bolt. It lodged itself neatly between the demons eyes. It laughed as it fell to the ground and literally disintegrated. Celina immediately collapsed.

"Celina!" Leliana cried out in horror as she got closer to her love. She looked like a pin cushion; a dozen arrows were protruding from her stomach, chest, back and thighs. Thick dark blood poured from her wounds and mouth. Her mouth moved open and closed slowly, it was a miracle she was still alive. "Hold on Celina! Hold on!"

Leliana sprinted the fastest she ever had back to Weisshaupt. "Help! I need help!"

A group of Wardens approached. "What's wrong?"

"Just go down the road, NOW! I need to find a healer!"

The Wardens nodded and ran toward where Leliana had come from. Leliana burst through the main doors and into the healer's room. "I need you now!" The healer didn't ask why, nobody would burst into the room in such a manner unless it was urgent.

They ran back down the road to where Celina was, a few of the Wardens were finishing killing a group of demons.

"Maker, what's happened here!?" The healer shouted.

"We need mages! There's a tear in the fade!" One of the Wardens roared.

Another Warden ran back toward Weisshaupt, the healer took one look at Celina and shouted. "Get more healers too!" She knelt besides Celina and began chanting.

One of the Wardens grabbed Leliana by the shoulders. "What happened here woman!?"

Leliana just stood staring at Celina. "I—I don't know..."

It didn't look good for Celina, she would only be taking a short shallow breath every few seconds. The healer was tiring considerably, she could do nothing to help Celina at the moment, she was using all of her power just to keep her alive. The Warden who had ran back to the fort returned shortly with a large group of mages, four of them held their hands up to the visible rip in the fade and began chanting, another two knelt beside Celina and began working their magic. A young elven male also began to work, he ripped out two arrows that seemed to have gone into Celina's lungs, a white liquid began to bubble out, he quickly grabbed a piece of silk from his pack and pressed it down onto the holes. Celina's breathing slightly improved, nothing that would help her survive this ordeal in the long run though, they needed to get her back to Weisshaupt. There was a large sucking sound and a loud pop! As the tear dissipated. The mages had a quick discussion with the first healer, who was by now too exhausted to carry on healing. They surrounded Celina and as they lifted their arms, she too lifted into the air. They slowly made their way back up the path as the healers kept up their work, one of the healers collapsed and had to be carried by another Warden, leaving only one working on Celina, a huge trail of dark oozy blood followed behind them.

***

Niklas burst through the door to the healer's room. "What the fuck happened!?" Oh was he angry. I let her do this because it's safe and means she can get out and she almost dies! She may still die yet. He looked at Leliana. "What happened Leliana!?"

"I—When I went down to find her there was a...a Desire demon, feeding on her."

"How did a demon get there?"

"I don't know." Tears were welling up in Leliana's eyes.

"Can you please leave First?" A healer stared at Niklas. "You're not helping things."

Niklas screamed as he strode from the room, Leliana heard the door to his office fly open and then slam closed.

He returned a second later with his swords. "I'm going to find Lanaya." He walked briskly down the corridor and broke into a sprint as soon as he was in the courtyard.

"Maker, I forgot about Lanaya." Leliana cried out.

"If anyone can find her the First can...he's got a rather unique talent for detecting the taint." One of the auxiliary healers said.

Four healers were constantly surrounding Celina, another four would sit waiting until the first were too tired to carry on, they would swap and rest and swap and rest.

One of the healers touched Leliana on the shoulder and pulled her to the side. "It...It doesn't look good I'm afraid."

"What do you mean it doesn't look good?"

"There's a lot of damage, we can't actually heal anything, all we're doing is keeping her alive."

"Wha—What's the damage?"

The healer took in a deep breath. "Both of her legs are broken, one of her lungs is punctured in two places, the other in one, there's an arrow in her kidney, the arrow in her right leg has cut her Femoral artery, Maker...I don't know how she didn't die outright, it's almost a miracle she's still alive!"

Leliana sat on a wooden bench in the corner of the room and broke down. "She can't die! Not yet, there's so much I haven't said to her!"

The healer sat next to her. "Life can be cruel..."

Leliana sat for a minute, thinking. "Can—Can't you...Can't you splint her legs, seal her artery? I mean...Help her to heal naturally, while you keep her alive."

The healer sat thinking for a few seconds. "I suppose we could try that, though I wouldn't hold much hope to it my dear. She's lost a lot of blood."

Leliana sniffed loudly. "Thank you."

"You may want to wait outside dear, this may be unpleasant...The pain could awaken her and...Well..."

Leliana nodded. "I'll wait outside..."

She left the room and lent against the wall outside, she slid down it crying, burying her head in-between her knees. She had never felt so alone, she always had somebody to speak to, but now? Celina, Lanaya...Even Niklas, nobody was there for her. She jumped violently, as if she had been dreaming she was falling, as a blood curdling scream echoed out through the walls from the healing room.