One last battle.
Yet every step she took was a battle in itself. The search for the next sure footing was a constant struggle, the commitment to each step became a leap of a faith and the sense of victory when that faith was rewarded was fleeting as the realisation hit her that there remained the next step to be taken. Always, the next. On and on.
Elissa allowed her gaze to flicker up towards the sight of Fort Drakon looming over the Palace District. She could hear It. Not quite words but the draw was unmistakeable. She felt a small part of her mind straining towards the noise. It frightened her in a way she would not have thought possible, despairing as she was. Yet throughout her whole journey, she had never experienced a desire to seek out the creature in the way she did now. She had always resisted its call but with her mental fortitude ebbing, she could feel the response of the taint within her acting as a lure and pulling her closer to it. There could be no benefit to such an attraction and yet whether she was killed by a lowly darkspawn grunt or the mighty Archdemon, it mattered little. The end goal was the same. So long as he was safe.
In between the call of the creature, she could hear the song of his taint. One lone song amongst many; it was quiet but steady. Its presence was another pull and although she did not deserve it, she welcomed that connection to him. She did not know if the strength and confidence she could sense through it was indeed his own or simply her belated realisation of the qualities he had always possessed. Regardless, it was there and its existence helped her to maintain the flawless rendition of the role she was performing. From him she took her motivation so that to those behind here, there seemed little doubt that here walked their Grey Warden once more.
The projection of his borrowed confidence was a necessity. Leliana had recoiled at the murmured words and it had taken all of Elissa's abilities of persuasion in addition to choice interjections from Zevran and Morrigan to convince the Bard to allow Elissa to leave the Chantry. It was not until, scrabbling for a reason other than the truth, Elissa had argued that her position as Grey Warden demanded that she stand shoulder to shoulder with her brothers-in-arms. The mention of Alistair and Riordan had been the key and the Bard had finally acquiesced to the mounting pressure. Unwilling to allow Leliana the opportunity to change her mind, Elissa had then declined the suggestion to search the Chantry for her armour and weapons and instead advocated sourcing such items en-route as she always had. But that decision had been met with rejections from all three of her companions and it was the Warden's turn to be compelled to wait while Leliana and Zevran used precious time rifling through the various rooms of the Chantry.
At last they had returned with her armour, still damaged at the shoulder but otherwise intact, and her blades. Leliana had already discarded her Chantry robes in favour of her own armour and bow. Bard and Witch had helped to ease her feeble body back into the pieces which had become a second skin over the months. But the gaping mouth of her boots around her calves and the looseness of her armour where once it had fitted snugly only served as reminders of the limits her actions had pushed her body. She did not doubt Leliana had done all she could but health potions and trickles of water were never intended to sustain the body on their own. The final addition of her two blades on her back had proven too much and she had staggered backwards, the nearness of the bed all that prevented her from toppling over entirely. As she fought to regain her feet in an effort to banish any further suggestion that she remain in the room she was coming to view as a prison, Leliana had leant forward and unsheathed the main blade from her back and placed it on the bed. With only the smaller off-hand blade to compensate for, Elissa was able to find her centre of gravity. She had glanced at Leliana with a faint blush colouring her cheeks but when the Bard made to open her mouth to express fresh concern at the Warden's capability to defend herself, Elissa had lowered the look. Striding to the door, she had left the companions to decide for themselves whether to follow or not.
Now, she was very aware that another show of her frailty would be excuse enough for Leliana to forcibly drag her back to cower in whatever bolthole the Bard could find. So even as it drained her reserves of energy further, Elissa maintained the charade. But as they passed through the Palace District and began the ascent of Fort Drakon, the truth was that Elissa was not leading so much as following the trail of darkspawn corpses. Each area was deserted, cleared by the army some way ahead of them and still to be retaken by the darkspawn who were trapped between repopulating the lower levels and guarding the rooftop. But as she moved through the Fort, she was becoming disorientated. Her previous visit had not leant itself to memorising floor plans, distracted as she had been by escaping Loghain's inevitable reprisal, and as she now travelled from first to second floor she began to lose her way. She stumbled through what looked like a library of sorts and entered into a small hall with two doors in opposite corners. There were no corpses here to guide her.
Elissa came to a halt in front of the first door to her right. Overwhelmed by what should have been a simple choice, she leant her head against the grain of the wood and allowed herself a few precious seconds to gather her fragmented thoughts as best she could. The others were not far behind her, their engrained routine causing them to drop behind her lead, and she felt the pressure to make the correct choice first time. She could not allow the Bard to see her concerns were justified. Elissa gritted her teeth as she tried to exile the shrill of It to the back of her mind. So near as she was, its call seemed to be everywhere and reverberate through everything. The inescapable draw to it threatened to crush her without offering any assistance as to which direction she should turn. Squeezing her eyes shut, she tried to focus. She had led her companions through countless quests without direction; she could surely guide them to the rooftop of a Fort. Allowing the taint to act as a guide, she probed at what lay beyond the door she was leaning against. As far as she could tell, there was no tingling warning of darkspawn in the immediate vicinity.
A dead end?
Elissa turned away from the door and headed towards the second one. Once more, she made a demand on her unravelling mind as she forced herself to concentrate. This time the familiar sensation of the taint within individual creatures scratched at the back of her head. That seemed to make sense; the Archdemon would be surrounded by darkspawn. Her hand rested on the handle and she felt her despair lift for a brief moment. Perhaps this would end soon. Yet even as the welcome relief of the dark thought flooded through her, another reached out from the periphery of her mind.
If the army has already passed through then why...
Behind her, she heard as the others clattered through the adjoining room. The realisation of their nearness chased the thought from her to be replaced with a general sense of desperation. This door, it would have to be this door.
Passing through the open doorway from the library, Leliana caught sight of Elissa. At the sight of the Warden seemingly struggling against the door, she let out a small cry and made to break into a run. Elissa fumbled with the handle, fear clawing at her heart that she had left it too late to act. But the latch slid off the catch with a well-oiled ease and the door swung inwards. Surprised by the lack of resistance she had expected, Elissa stumbled forward into the leg hold trap placed just beyond the swing arc of the door.
The trap sprung tight around her leg and the steel teeth dug into her flesh. She let out a howl and dropped onto her other knee in an effort to remove the pressure from her trapped leg. A movement caught out of the corner of her eye caused her to jerk her head up. Sixteen darkspawn. In a row. And all with bows trained on her body. She had walked into a trap. The very trap Leliana had warned her against.
Staring at the darkspawn who would give her the release she craved, she found enough presence of mind to shout a warning to those following her.
"Stop!"
But their continued fidelity to her became their undoing. Ignoring the command, Morrigan cast a shimmering shield around herself and ran to the injured woman. She crouched against Elissa as the first arrows began to fly. Leliana took her position in the doorway and provided a distraction as Zevran flitted to the back of the room, supporting Leliana's aerial defence with a ground one.
With three times the initial target, the darkspawn lost their tenuous grasp of regimented fighting and their arrows found few marks. Morrigan fumbled with the trap at Elissa's leg while sparks of magic from the Hurlock Emissary commanding the archers rained down around her. Leliana and Zevran were making short work of the archers themselves and in a panic, the Emissary unleashed a fireball. Instinctively Elissa raised her arms to her face and she felt as the warmth of the fireball radiated against her skin. Having sensed the magical build-up as the spell was released into the room, Morrigan was already tensed and drew on the last of her mana to ensure her shield would protect both as the flames licked at her back.
The fire dissipated into the air and there was a brief moment of silence before Elissa heard a grunt from Zevran in the far corner of the room. He had escaped the full charge of the spell by being behind the Emissary although the shockwave had knocked him from his feet. She held her breath as she strained to hear a sound of life from Leliana behind her. Just beyond the door, there came a muffled groan. The Bard had thrown herself out into the hallway where she had escaped serious injury. The sound of a racing heartbeat and snatched breaths as Morrigan huddled over her was enough to reassure Elissa that the Witch too was unharmed.
"Quickly, Warden," Morrigan commanded as she succeeded in releasing the tension from the spring-loaded trap and it fell away from Elissa's leg.
Behind the Witch, Elissa could hear scrapping noises as the genlocks who had survived their own Emissary's attack crawled about the floor, searching out their dropped weapons. The whistle of arrows resumed as Leliana moved further into the room to allow Morrigan to pass behind her. The Bard focused on picking off any evidence of life which remained in the charred flesh of the creatures in front of her.
Morrigan hauled one of Elissa's arms around her shoulders while she slipped a supportive arm around the Warden's waist. Half cajoling and half dragging, she forced Elissa to stand. The jolt of pain which surged through her fractured leg caused it to give way and she fell back to the floor as Morrigan was unable to compensate for the unexpected pull of the Warden's full weight.
The Emisary gave a roar of frustration before there was a blinding flash of magic. Having instinctively curled into a ball as she fell against the floor, Elissa was unable to fight the survival instinct which her body blindly obeyed and she rolled to the side as the lightening forked through the room.
As the screams filled the air, she grabbed at the wall for support and forced herself to stand. Breathing hard, she looked towards the Emissary but even as she watched a knife appeared beneath its chin and there was a sickening sound as the flesh was slit and the blood gushed to the floor. The body made to fall backwards and with a lightness of step, Zevran moved to the side as it crashed to the floor. He turned his head and spat on the creature before turning his gaze towards Elissa. For a few moments, human and elf simply looked at one another.
Elissa broke the gaze first, shifting her weight so she could look at the scene behind her. Surrounded by defeated darkspawn and fallen comrades, it took a few seconds for the reality of the situation to sink in.
Leliana lay towards the centre of the room while the Witch was sprawled a little distance back. Both were still, save for the small shocks which caused their bodies to twitch even contorted as they were into unnatural shapes.
The numbness with which she had looked on Wynne's body resurfaced, protecting her from the impact of the truth. More blood on her hands; more culpability; more shame. She watched as Zevran approached Leliana, kicking and hauling bodies of darkspawn away from her as he did so. Elissa looked back to Morrigan. She knew it was a betrayal in itself but there seemed little point in examining either woman. The stench of charred flesh hung in the air and the echo of the screams of dying friends mingled with the scream of the Archdemon which still enveloped her. If any further proof was need, here it was. Death walked beside her.
She swallowed. Too many sacrifices. Of ideals; promises; friends. But not him. His song was still a beacon in the midst of her desolation. She would not let him be sacrificed. The strength of her conviction took her by surprise, over-riding her own desires. There was no reason to hesitate or doubt, her path was clear. Gathering the last of her stamina together, she made to push herself away from the support of the wall. As she did so, she felt as the call of the Archdemon seemed to shift. It seemed to be directed to her alone as if it sensed the new presence of the dark resolution in her heart. Elissa gritted her teeth and focused on that steady pulse of him. Ignoring the sight to her side and the knowledge that she should remain with those who had given all they had to be at her side, she took the first steps towards the doorway.
Zevran remained absorbed in examining Leliana. He had little healing skill but he recognised an injury when he saw it. He ignored the small shocks that travelled from her body to his as he touched her, rolling her onto her back so that he could better inspect the wound he had spied on the side of her face. One of the arcs of lightening had grazed across her face as it forked and whole of one side was now a raw mass of charred and blistering flesh. There was no sign that she was aware of the agony it must be causing.
The elf glanced over his shoulder, expecting to see Elissa crouching over Morrigan but the room was empty. The Witch remained where she had fallen, untouched. Zevran started up, spinning round to take in the whole room but there was no mistake. She had left.
Having been caught in his own share of leg traps, he knew she could not have gone far with the injury she had sustained. Even without it, there was no great mystery as to where she would be headed. What was questionable was the apparent lack of soul searching it had taken for the Warden to abandon her companions. He was living proof that in her right mind, Elissa was loathe to turn her back on a potential ally and even more so treasured friends.
The unexpected sound of a weak groan distracted him from his thoughts and as he turned towards the noise, thoughts of chasing after the wayward Grey Warden vanished in favour of fulfilling her forgotten duty of caring for her friend.
oOoOoOo
Mental torment had been swapped for physical pain as Elissa forced herself to cover the remaining distance to the rooftop. Yet even as her leg dragged behind her and the shooting pain threatened to rob her of consciousness, she forced herself to continue onwards. Lurching from wall to wall as she struggled to find her balance or pace, she made no effort to hide the heavy panting as she gasped for air and she could feel a thin film of sweat cover her skin.
After an age, she entered into a large room and had to cover her eyes as the sudden emergence of daylight through the open door at the far end caused her to falter after the dimness of the Fort's corridors. Staggering towards it as her eyes struggled to adjust, she felt the twin calls supplementing her almost exhausted energy. Him and It. There was little need to debate which was the stronger.
Raising her head as she stood before the doorway, Elissa committed herself to whatever lay beyond.