Author's Notes and Warning Continuing the Legacy storyline, includes some dialogue and descriptions from the DLC. Also, while I don't think it's outside of bounds for people accustomed to gameplay, there is a significant amount of described violence and the resulting injuries towards the end of this chapter. Thanks to jillyfae for her beta!

"I am Janeka, commander of this station and you are the Champion of Kirkwall. Somehow I expected something different of Malcolm Hawke's fledgling. There are rumors that you were a mage." The older woman, tall and rangy, radiated power. She stood over them on a weathered outcropping of stone foundation observing Aeryn and her companions through shrewd, narrow green eyes.

The fact that they were all trapped in this dank, evil prison seemed to be bothering her not at all. Aeryn couldn't help but be resentful and a bit snide in her reply, "Not accurate rumors, apparently."

The mage nodded coolly, Aeryn's mockery sliding off. "Clearly. It matters not. What matters is that the seals are weak and you hold the Key. We have an opportunity here, Champion. And you have a chance to earn your title anew."

"How's that now?" Aeryn was curious, despite herself.

Something gleamed in the mage's intent gaze. Magic? Hope? "If we harness Corypheus' power, we can end the Blights."

"Do not listen to her!" Larius came shuffling up and Aeryn eyed him suspiciously. He was certainly quiet enough to be a bloody darkspawn, popping up in their midst at will. "Please, Hawke."

Aeryn flicked her gaze over at the pleading ghoul and shrugged. "I don't know…ending the Blights has a ring to it."

"It'd be a damned good story," Varric agreed and she smirked at him.

"She is listening to him." The closer they came to the final seal, the more coherent Larius had seemed to grow and now his contempt for Janeka was definite. "She has been here too long and Corypheus' influence has always been felt by mages first." Aeryn heard the sneer he gave to the word mages.

Janeka addressed him, condescension dripping from her tongue. "You are half darkspawn yourself, now, Larius. Why should Hawke take your word? We have studied. We have dug. I have spent years..."

The companions listened to them bicker back and forth a few minutes and finally Aeryn cocked her head towards her partner. Time was wasting.

"What's the plan, Fenris?"

Fenris' brow was furrowed. "What do you mean?"

"Make the decision. I don't…I can't trust that I'm not being pushed one way or the other."

He eyed the Wardens, Larius standing by himself and the mage flanked by her lieutenants. "Who would you choose then?"

She rolled her eyes at him. "I don't know." That wasn't true. But she'd come to the conclusion so suddenly that she didn't trust it.

Sebastian glanced between them. "Is this really an argument? Larius is tainted and damaged. He's very nearly a ghoul. And Janeka seems to be acting on some authority, perhaps this idea of hers has some merit." Although…ending the Blights? The Maker had allowed the darkspawn for a reason. It was a punishment. Did they have the right? He subsided from his encouragement.

Fenris' green eyes were troubled as he looked at them both. "I would feel better if I at least knew what you were being pushed towards, Hawke."

Fine. "I'd go with Larius, if I was in charge. Which I'm not."

Varric shifted on his feet. "I don't know, Hawke. I'm inclined to let the Wardens deal with this their own way." Aeryn shrugged.

Fenris bowed his head with a frown. He, too, would tend to trust Larius over the Warden mage. But Sebastian was right…Larius was tainted and Varric had a point that the Wardens were known to have their own methods. There was look of curiosity on Bethany's face as she observed Janeka. Clearly she was interested in seeing what Janeka had to say. If Hawke said Larius, but that she didn't trust her own opinion…"We will follow Janeka, then."

"Good." Ugh…the smug tone of the mage's voice rippled over his skin and Hawke shifted suddenly, her daggers gleaming in the halflight and a dangerous glint in her eye.

Larius pleaded, "Please…do NOT allow Corypheus to leave this place. Your father…"

"My father is not here." Aeryn said flatly.

Bethany's small "hmph" of dissent came as a surprise to Fenris and he shook his head. He'd made his decision. Just because Janeka was distasteful did not make her wrong.

"Lead on then." Fenris nodded to the Warden.

"This way. Go back to your darkness, Larius. You've lost your bid."

Glowering at them all, he spoke. "This is not over. If I cannot convince you, then I must follow my duty another way." He disappeared back into the gloom with a shuffling step, allowing his threat to linger.

Janeka watched him with distaste and then turned back. "I doubt he can challenge us, but we should continue as soon as we can."

"Give us a moment."

They broke camp quietly. He turned the narrow blade over in his hands and then Fenris handed Aeryn back the knife she'd turned over. "This does me no good if it isn't in your hands."

She nodded and was appalled at how grateful she was for the measure of his trust in her. Fenris always had her back.

They followed Janeka and the other Wardens silently through the damp, dripping caverns for a while before Bethany spoke to Aeryn. "You know what Father would say."

"I do. In fact, I'm pretty sure he's telling me now." He'd been whispering urgently in her ear until she was half tempted to stuff them with lint, useless as that might be to silence a voice in her head.

"He taught us better."

"I know."

"Then why…"

Sodding little sister persistence.

Stopping so suddenly that Varric nearly tripped over her heels, Aeryn flung a hand out indicating the prison. "Because I'm standing here in the midst of proof that Father didn't always take his own sodding advice!" Aeryn snarled at her sister and Sebastian slid his hand to the small of her back.

"Stop, mo chridhe." She blinked up at him sullenly before nodding as she strode off.

Varric patted Bethany's hip and shook his head. "Maybe now's not the time, Sunshine."

"It's never the time, Varric. Ten years since Father died and it's never the time." But she subsided as well.

Janeka sniffed, clearly annoyed at the fracas. Fingers twitching over the knife she had tucked into her waistband, Aeryn barely resisted the urge to flip one past the mage's arrogant nose.

They passed an altar to Dumat, according to Fenris. There were dusty plates awaiting a sacrifice that never came and Sebastian shuddered inwardly at the channels that would allow blood to flow and pool in the stone. Aeryn pulled him away with her cool hand in his.

Varric found some records that he tucked away into his pouch, indicating that an ancestor of his had been lured here with a promise of treasure and found himself trapped for greed. "Doesn't hurt to send stuff like this back to Orzammar. Keeps the lines of communication open."

There were more darkspawn. Always more darkspawn, as if they sprang from the stone itself.

Bethany wheedled a few vials of a stout healing potion from the younger member of Janeka's troop, Alec, who was clearly susceptible to soft brown eyes and a shy smile, but they seemed not to have heard of the potion used at the Vigil. "We don't really have a need for such a thing. I'm surprised they've bothered at all. Better to make recruits of the unfortunate." He eyed them speculatively and Fenris surprised Aeryn when he beat her to wedging himself between Bethany and her Warden admirer.

Bethany wasn't a child though. "I'd rather die than be forced to your duty, Warden." She dismissed him and he backed off with a nod.

It was a wearying march, but Janeka didn't allow the briefest of rests. Even her Wardens flagged at the end; Durstan, the older swordsman, called for a pause as they reached a flight of stairs only to have Janeka snap, "We are moving on!" as she yanked Alec to his feet when he knelt to adjust a strap that was rubbing poorly.

The Wardens exchanged glances but moved forward, waiting for the rest of them to mount the carved stairs.

They were almost to the final seal when Larius turned up again.

"Hawke, you must listen to me. I swear releasing Corypheus will not end the Blights. He cares nothing for aiding the Wardens. All he wants is to be free. We must reseal the prison. "

"Tell her the rest of it, Larius. After all, you're the reason her father became involved here to begin with." Janeka's voice had a wheedling, insidious quality that felt like beetles scurrying under Aeryn's skin. Apparently her father felt the same way, the voice in her head becoming urgent.

She resisted the urge to shake her head. "What in the Void are you talking about, now?"

"Didn't he tell you? He's the one who threatened your mother. Your very young, pregnant, mother, I might add and told your father that if he didn't help the Wardens reseal this prison that they, I suppose you, would be killed. Although really I doubt he'd have wasted a potential recruit. Tell us, Larius. Did you intend to have Leandra Hawke Joined if Malcolm failed?"

There was a noise behind them and Aeryn spun on her heels. Another pack of Carta dwarves came around the corner of rubble and all of them braced for a fight. "Mistress, we have cleared the way. We can reach the final chamber!"

Janeka's eyes went narrow but to her credit, she didn't try to deny them. "Good. You have done well. Now go and defend it until we reach it."

Aeryn felt ice running down her spine. This is what Father had been warning her of. "You're working with the Carta?"

"It was necessary. They wanted something to believe in, to work for. I provided it and they gave me what I needed to find Corypheus."

The audacity of it. The blatant heresy. Threatening a man's pregnant wife to coerce him into the foulest of magics. Sebastian had learned several truths about the Wardens that had made him think better of his own boyhood fancies of joining their Order, but this? And now they wanted to release the creature at the heart of this prison?

And now, despite everything Malcolm Hawke had tried to do to prevent it, Aeryn and Bethany were still caught in the trap. Thanks to the woman before them.

What would he be willing to do to get them out? Aeryn was white as chalk but steady. Her eyes cold and clear and sharply focused, the fear she'd shown him earlier, the lapses of concentration shunted ruthlessly aside and buried by bloody intent. She had been fraying at the edges visibly, but as the Warden grew more agitated, as she showed her hand, Aeryn snapped back into clarity. Scenting blood, she deepened her focus. Would it always be that way? Would the predator always shine like that?He wondered. He'd seen that deceptive look on her face before; that tiny hint of a feral smile tipping the edges of her mouth, despite herself.

As far as she was concerned, Janeka was a dead woman.

He could see her fingers twitch towards the little pouch of poisons. Magebane, right on top. Maker, forgive me. The righteous man he once thought he'd been would have warned Janeka but Sebastian clenched his bow in his hand and kept his silence.

"You hired the Carta to bring my sister here?"

"It was necessary. We are wasting time! Come!" Janeka was losing her steady calm and she jerked towards the stairway that led to the final seal.

"You could have bloody well asked."

The mage took a steadying breath and they all could see the effort it took to keep her voice consoling. "We did request her presence once from the Gallows. The Knight Commander was less than cooperative. Once you freed your sister, well, given our past relations with the Hawke family we assumed any such request would be denied. I believed your father had told you…"

"He didn't. We didn't know anything about this. And I'd have never gone near a sodding Warden if he had." Anders had warned her long ago. The Wardens are not heroes. Some of them are unbelievably self-sacrificing, gifted, giving…but as a whole…I'm glad I'm away from them. You should stay away as well. She wondered how he was, if he was…Janeka was talking again and Aeryn yanked her attention back to the tainted mage in front of her.

"Larius should never have allowed him to leave. Your father knew too much of the Wardens for someone outside the fold."

Bethany answered when Aeryn didn't. "The whole point of you hiring him was that he wasn't tainted."

"And once you and your siblings existed, there was no reason not to bring him in. It was difficult to track him though, given the Fereldan ban on Wardens and the low number of our order there. The Warden Commander was given an order to find you, but it was apparently ignored. Of course the Blight complicated things."

Varric asked this time, "Is that how you found them in Denerim. Did Meriden…"

Janeka frowned, her annoyance plain. "No. Our information had to come from another source. Meriden was disinclined to share her knowledge of your whereabouts. As was your king, who forgets as he sits on his padded throne that one never leaves the Wardens."

"Janeka," Durstan interrupted. "He is a king. He cannot treat with the Wardens as if he were a lieutenant. It would be treason to Ferelden." Aeryn thought he looked deeply disturbed by Janeka's insinuation that Alistair was derelict to his duty. The mage shrugged his objection off, though.

Well, that was nice to know. Though they'd have to get a message to Meriden and Alistair that they had a spy in their midst. "He's not my king," was all she said aloud and felt Sebastian shift behind her.

Pushing back the distraction, she focused on Janeka. The mage's features were smooth and her control was evident, but there were cruel lines carved alongside her mouth. Hard to hide what you are when even your skin tells, Aeryn mused and looked up at Fenris, who was prodding her foot with his.

"We need to reconsider," he said grimly.

"Yeah," she agreed with him, glad to see he needed no encouragement to speak this time.

"We are not releasing Corypheus." Fenris straightened before he spoke loud enough to be heard by the group and Janeka snarled.

"Fools, you are wasting our chance!"

"Perhaps, but better to mistake and leave him imprisoned than risk what might come with him free."

"I want to know what Meriden and Alistair think of this. We'll just reset the seals and as soon as we can we'll come back."

"NO! The seals are too weak! The prison will not hold him anyway. If we release him now while he's weak, we can control him." Janeka's hands clenched around her piked staff with white knuckles. She moved to swing the staff in Aeryn's direction only to have it checked aside by a long, dark blade.

"No. You will not strike at these people."

"You cannot stop me!"

"He controls you, Janeka, and I am sorry I did not see it before. The First has the right of it. We should never have allowed you to go so far. These people are in danger because of you not the magister." Durstan turned his scarred face away from the mage and moved to stand behind Larius and the other two followed him with small bows to their former commander.

"You will regret this, all of you!" Her first spell launched without warning and aimed at her own former comrades, a crushing prison that left Alec clearly dead and the other two reeling.

Janeka was strong, almost unnaturally so. Her magic, lightning and ice and crushing force, seemed to come from all quarters as her dwarven accomplices struck viciously. Fenris took a blade to the thigh and Bethany was forced to heal him before the blood loss felled him. Varric took a defensive stance over the two while Sebastian cleared out a path between the others and the mage with rapid fire, the string humming beneath his fingers.

Roland forced Jankea into a corner, trying to reason with her and paying for it with his life as she bloomed ice in his veins, shattering him from within before Aeryn could get to him to yank him away. Janeka's Carta assassin launched into her and she had her hands full, keeping his blades from her throat.

Durstan nearly had her. "Durstan…wait. I can't..." He pulled his sword away only to try and correct when she showed her hand with a smile. Too late.

He died with a Carta blade in his back. The dwarf rounded, allowing Janeka to refresh herself with a vial of glowing lyrium.

From the step he was sighting from, Sebastian saw her exposed throat as she drank and made the shot as reflexively as he breathed. Janeka dropped the vial from nerveless fingers, lyrium splattering its lurid glow across the ground, scrabbling at the crimson tipped pinions that had destroyed her throat. The arrow kept her pinned to the wall as Aeryn stood before her, having dispatched the last of the dwarves, a cruel smile on her lips as she watched Janeka bleed out. The mage's green eyes flared…but it was only a final attempt at a healing spell that came too late, too weakly. Janeka's mouth fell slack.

"It was a damned nice shot, Vael." Varric held his eye for a moment and Sebastian nodded. It had been necessary. He bowed his head. "Maker guide her safely, bewildered and misguided though she was in life."

Next to Aeryn, Fenris murmured. "I am sorry, Hawke. I thought that it was best to follow her."

Aeryn leaned against his shoulder and Fenris frowned. He could feel exhaustion trembling under her skin as she leaned against him and he readjusted his stance to bear her weight if only for a moment. "So did I."

Larius hovered at the edge of their circle, glancing over his shoulder as if he could not believe that they had defeated Janeka. "Hawke, the final seal is this way. I believe it will only take one more effort on your behalf."

Father's voice whispered and she forced herself not to go rigid as for the first time, the words came clear. Ah. Of course. Wasn't it always the way?

"Right. Let's bloody well get this over with."

Aeryn paused again at the edge of the dias. Turning over her Father's words in her mind.

"Are you…" Sebastian sighed. "No, I do not suppose you are alright at all."

"Something's…off here, love. But I don't know what else to do."

His hand was warm on the back of her neck. "You do what you must. As you always do."

Aeryn hesitated before she asked. There didn't seem to be any other option, but still…he'd know. "I…is this right? If the Maker cursed him, do I have the right to kill him?"

He blinked at her a moment. Why would she…Ah. "I can't tell you the Maker's mind, but I do not believe He would want us trapped like this. If this is the way to end this…"

"I have to get us out of here." Her voice was a bare whisper.

"I would do it for you, if I could, à ruin. I would not see another ounce of your blood spilt over this debacle."

"But mine's the blood that matters today." She gave him a corner of her smile and straightened her shoulders. "I love you, Sebastian."

Wait, what? "Aeryn?"

"It's not going to be just a little this time." Before he could grab her, she'd slipped from his grip and sprinted to the middle of the dias and held out the Key. This time the connection was almost instantaneous and the flare of it threw Sebastian off of his feet. He pushed up to see…

No mere strands of red this time, the whole connection was crimson blood streaming from her fingertips.

"More…we must release him and kill him once and for all." Larius shouted over the dull roar of the magic.

"NO! Aeryn…" But she'd turned the blade towards herself and it gouged down her arm as it was pulled into the light.

And this time when the light dissipated, it was no mere demon standing before them.

It was Corypheus.

"Holy Shit." Varric was standing beside Sebastian, but Sebastian was focused only on the small still figure yet hunched in the middle of the cracked stone, trying to push herself back to her feet.

Corypheus' voice thundered around them. "What are you that you do not kneel before your betters?"

Aeryn felt hands on her and opened her eyes to see Sebastian's worried face. She swallowed back bile before she could manage, "I'm alright. Give me a second. Did it work?"

"Not exactly. We did release it…but…" He had a bandage out, wrapping it around her arm though the blood was no longer flowing, already clotting in fact. She sipped at a vial of restorative, but it did little to bring any color back to her lips. He wanted to shake her for her recklessness…but she was right, there hadn't been a choice.

Catching Fenris' worried eyes, Aeryn gave him a nod. She was as well as she could expect. A little flow of Bethany's warm magic over her skin got her up on her feet when Sebastian offered his hand.

Corypheus was speaking again and this time, seeing that Aeryn was alive, Sebastian could focus on what it said. "The City was wrong…it was black and empty. There was nothing to be found…"

The City of the Maker? The Golden City? That couldn't be right. Evil tricks meant to sap faith.

"You will not take me to the light? Then I will use you to fuel my release instead."

Magic flooded the room, blocking the last exit behind them and turning the seal room into a deadly arena.

It was a grinding sort of fight. Just when they thought they'd made progress, Corypheus would sap another seal and steal magic from it. The only answer was to destroy the seals first.

It was an answer which held its own dangers. Each was defended by a set of shades. And while these were foes they had plenty of experience with, Corypheus was gaining power as he recovered from his long incarceration and they were all tiring.

Bethany fell first; a bolt of electricity turning the air around her purple before she hit the ground. Varric stood over her daring Corypheus to get near enough to finish. "She's breathing, Hawke, but…"

"Just cover her, Varric. " No time to check on her as unholy fire swept the room again.

A falling chunk of stone sent Sebastian flying. Before he could correct his direction he was slammed into one of the electrified pillars. He laid crumpled and silent, his eyes shut and a sickly yellow color on his skin. Aeryn managed to drag him away from the pillar; his pulse was jittery but reassuringly strong. She couldn't stay to wake him, barely dodging another crashing stone with a leap to the side.

Fenris and Varric went down almost immediately thereafter, a wave of magical flame engulfing them and Aeryn launched herself into shadow, hoping to catch her breath.

"All alone. All alone, little bird."

But Corypheus was flagging too, unexpectedly. Before she fell, Bethany had done her best to sap his mana in shields defending against her attack. Half of his hideous face was shredded and his jaw was exposed and crooked and Fenris had broken his shoulder, leaving a withered arm dangling. There were gaping wounds where Varric and Sebastian's rune charmed arrows had dug into flesh, her poisons rotting the skin around them.

The magister had several of her throwing knives embedded, one in his eye blinding his sight on that side. Aeryn had severed both of his hamstrings on the last pass…not that it helped to slow him, but gore was pooling wherever Corypheus hovered.

Whatever he was, he wasn't a healer. He seemed to gain some strength from their weakening bodies, but as they faded, so did he now that he was shut off from the seals. It was a fine line she had to tread. She might wait too long and leave the others too weak.

In a flying dash, Aeryn buried her father's Key in the ragged skin covering Corypheus' chest. If the magister had a heart, though, she'd missed it. He didn't even bother to pluck it out before he struck again but she'd disappeared before he could track on her and the spell flew wild.

All of her advantage lay in surprise, she couldn't let him get a hold on her or they were finished.

She hung in shadow, calling up that still quiet part of her that could ignore the silent deadly flames creeping towards Sebastian and the others. She couldn't hear her father anymore either.

Ice and hunt and blade and bone. She'd attached an incendiary bomb to the Key, but hadn't been able to break the glass to blend the explosive.

Magebane hadn't been as effective as it should have been and she was out anyway. She had one tiny vial of the blended nerve toxin she'd used on Anders. She hadn't been able to find a few of the ingredients she needed in Ferelden to brew more. A priority now that they were back In the Marches.

Well. Assuming they lived longer than the next few minutes. One mustn't assume.

Suppressing a giggle of hysteria, as blood loss and exhaustion drew creeping fingers through the sharp divide of her mind, Aeryn skirted the edge of the room to avoid the flickering tongues of electricity reaching out for her. Her leg was numb along the outside where she'd brushed too close once.

He called out mockingly, materializing right over Bethany. "This little bird doesn't have the father's steel. He left that to you, didn't he? All steel. No heart. Else you'd be dragging your lover from the flames eating his body instead of worrying about me."

But Hawkes were bred tricky. Bethany, seemingly limp and unconscious, had been watching and waiting too; eking the last dregs of her energy out. Force was her specialty now, but it didn't mean she neglected other schools. Under cover of her robes, her fingers moved and her mana focused. Intent, Aeryn watched, creeping closer. Once she had trained to be attuned to the way Beth's mana built. They'd fought together often enough now that she'd relearned the feeling. She needed to launch just as…

Now.

Ghostly white hands ripped through the Veil to catch at Corypheus' body, yanking it still and spreading it open to Aeryn's blades. Wrapping her body around him, she didn't bother to dispel the shadow from around her body and used all her own deceptive strength to dig her blades on either side of the magister's spine and drag.

One of the dragonbone blades was spelled with ice and poisoned, it froze the bones and leeched the nerve toxin into his system.

Corypheus howled and writhed in the otherworldly grip, the toxin only deadening his control, lightning shattering the air around them. Thunder and hideous pain rang in Aeryn's ears. Bethany collapsed underneath them, her spell dissipated like smoke.

But it was too late. Aeryn had her knives in him now. She couldn't draw them across his throat, couldn't feel the unnatural life bleed out of him, but she could finish him, nonetheless.

Her other blade was rune-marked with a special rune. Sandal never told her what it did, exactly, never quite able to explain it in his vague, meandering way. Sometimes it reacted strangely but it always responded to her need. This time it rang with force to shatter the frozen bones into fragments. As Bethany's spell faded, as her own breath and her heartbeat stuttered, Aeryn thrust the daggers again, until the pale blades jammed together and she levered them back towards herself.

With a grunt, she dug Corypheus' spine out of his body even as he laughed . The Key in his chest exploded finally, stinking black smoke stinging her eyes as it flung her backwards; cruel, bewildering laughter ringing in her ears

The magister fell to the ground in a squidgy thud of shattered bone and rotting meat. She forced herself to her feet as the spells fell silent around her, the ancient consciousness that had maintained them gone.

Larius strode into the room, his voice sounding strangely triumphant and coherent, even through the deadened sound of the eardrum Corypheus had shattered. "You did well, Champion. Thank you. Your services will not be forgotten."

Aeryn stared at him disbelievingly. She didn't need her Father's voice prodding her to tell her something was wrong.

She lived in disguises. Larius' whole body had changed stance. His voice was wrong. His eyes focused differently. Wrong. Oh, Maker, no. "No."

Stumbling, Aeryn tried to force her body to listen but she was at the end of her reserves, every limp muscle screaming with the effort to keep her upright. The room spun. She'd barely dragged her feet a few steps, feeling like the shards of her ribs were being driven into her lungs with every breath, when the Warden Commander's body disappeared into the storm suddenly raging around them. No…

Sebastian's eyes opened as rain pelted his face and he rolled over with a groan. He'd landed on the spine of his bow and a deep bruise…surely only a bruise and not a break…was throbbing. His skin felt stretched taut and nerves screamed from the heat of the fire that had singed the edges of his armor and burned away his spare quiver as he struggled to stand. Nothing but the sounds of storm around him.

The battle was over, but who had won?

Fenris and Varric lay a few feet to his side and he could see Fenris blinking, at least and Varric pushing himself to his feet. Aeryn…where was…he looked up, searching as he pushed sodden hair out of his eyes.

The magister lay in a gruesome heap and he found the strength to offer up a prayer of thanks…but where was…He found her staggering towards the walkway they'd climbed so recently and used one of the jagged mounds of rock to lever himself up. "Aeryn…"

"No…"

Hand over hand and staggering on his feet Sebastian managed to drag his protesting, reluctant body across the arena to her side as Aeryn collapsed to the ground, lingering shadow guttering out around her. Her hair was singed nearly to her scalp on one side, a line of blistered skin where a lightning bolt had run a glancing blow across her face. Trails of blood down her ears and her nostrils. "Maker…Bethany." Sebastian fell back to his knees beside her and called to her sister while he fumbled for a potion bottle at his waist with wooden fingers, trying to wedge it between her lips and force her to drink.

Her hand clutched at his as he cradled her head against his thigh. "Stop…"

"Aeryn, you need…" He tried to haul her out of the rain that was soaking her legs and splashing up onto her face but only managed to drag her limp form a few inches before his strength gave out. "Fenris, give me a hand!" The elf groaned behind them as he moved.

"Stop him…" Aeryn was still trying to make him listen.

"Who? Corypheus? He's dead. Drink this…"

"Don't…" She coughed wetly, choking around the potion he managed to dribble into her mouth, and tried to push him off. "Don't let him…" Blood was crusted under her eyes, turning the sockets gory. Rain sliding like bloody tears down her cheek just as her swollen, bruised eyelids fluttered shut.