Part II.

Chapter 10.

He was sitting at his desk, studying maps of the area surrounding the Sahrnia quarry. There was no way the Inquisition's small party would be able to shut down the quarry if the Red Templars were present in any force. He only hoped they would wait for reinforcements before charging in.

His concentration was shattered by the raucous shouts suddenly rising from the courtyard below. He shot to his feet and ran for the door. The piercing shriek of Despair greeted him as he threw open the door and charged down the stairs. The demon writhed in torment, a thickening cloud of smoke rising from it. The thing burst into eerie green flame just as he reached the ground, the ring of soldiers surrounding it jumping back from the sudden heat and light.

Almost as soon as the flames of the demon's combustion faded, the air began to crackle and fizz with another kind of magic.

"To arms!" he ordered, crouching into the familiar pose of a Templar preparing to confront a demon, even as the bile rose in the back of his throat. Solas had assured them Skyhold's walls held old enchantments that warded the keep against anyone or anything that would seek to harm its rightful occupants, but how could they be certain?

The crackling crescendoed and the horrible sound of space and time ripping apart drowned out the shouts of shock and fear that rose from every throat in Skyhold.

And then they were there, in the mud, their armor tattered and bloody.

Dorian was frighteningly pale, the skin drawn tight over his face. In his arms, the far paler, limp form of the Inquisitor. She was covered in blood. Her eyes were closed. Was she breathing?

"Help!" the mage croaked out before collapsing.

The surgeon rushed forward and pressed a philter of prepared lyrium to his lips. The sickening song nearly knocked Cullen back as he found himself kneeling to scoop his lover's body from the filth.

"What happened?" he barked, then whispered, "what happened to her? Dorian, please. Tell me what happened." It became a plea.

"We made it," Dorian gasped. "We're here…" He was still exhausted, drained of his magic and, it appeared, not an insubstantial amount of blood.

The surgeon pushed Cullen aside to better examine the Inquisitor. "She's still alive," she breathed, sending an audible wave of relief through the gathered crowd. "But we need to get her somewhere clean and quiet, now. Commander, can you carry her?" She nodded without breaking the stride of her orders. "Flissa, start water boiling in the Inquisitor's chambers. Marcus, bandages. All of them. And someone watch the mage. We'll need to speak to him as soon as he's recovered."

Cullen wrapped his cloak around her—to protect her from prying eyes, anything else that might hurt her—and gingerly gathered Ashara into his arms and followed, praying, cursing, fighting any visible signs of his personal distress to be once again carrying her nearly-dead body to hopeful safety.

"Stay with me, my love," he whispered against her hair as they climbed the steps to the main hall. "You can't leave me now. Stay with me. Your work isn't done. We've still so much to do. And I cannot lose you."

People stepped away wordlessly as they passed, all eyes on the unconscious Inquisitor.

Cullen stood silent, helpless once more, as the surgeon stripped the crumpled armor and shredded leathers from Ashara's body. Once more he watched healers frantically try to undo the extensive damage she had sustained in her quest to save them all. An arrow shaft sticking from her chest was wrenched mercilessly from her flesh.

"It missed her lung. Went clean through, but… Thank the Maker!" The surgeon's exclamation chilled him.

Flissa and the woman who usually took care of the Inquisitor's quarters bustled through the room carrying rags and bandages and Maker-knew-what at the surgeon's requests. Despite the seeming successful removal of the arrow and stemming of the bleeding, the concern on the surgeon's face refused to dissolve. She only seemed to grow flummoxed.

Dorian had arrived at some point during the frantic scene, and placed a comforting hand on Cullen's shoulder. "Red Templars," he murmured, some of the strength returning to his voice. "We thought we'd cleaned them all out, but there was a sniper. It had been a… bloody fight. Vivienne…" His voice began to tremble with fear and sadness now. "Vivienne had already used her Resurrection spell on her once."

Cullen felt his heart drop through the floor. "What?"

"We wouldn't have made it without… She probably can't handle much more magic at this point. Her body's ability to heal has been nearly exhausted after all that magical interference. She needs traditional medicine now. And rest. But I promise you, Cullen, she will survive." He gulped back a sob. "She will," he whispered.

"Mage," the surgeon barked. "Tell me what happened. These wounds…"

"It's the red lyrium," Dorian responded, rushing to the surgeon's aid. "It corrupts the flesh. Burns it with its disease. I—" He scrambled through his various pockets and pouches before producing a vial with a few drops of a dark, viscous liquid still inside. "I have been working on an antidote for some time."

Cullen stared at Dorian with grateful disbelief as the mage tipped the last few drops onto the wound on Ashara's chest. The blackened flesh sizzled with the contact.

"At first I thought the corruption similar to the Blight, but it's different somehow. I gave Dagna the recipe to make more of this based on the cleansing rune Ashara found in the desert. She'll bring up the stronger batch as soon as she's done mixing it up."

A shudder wracked Ashara's body, pulling Cullen to her side. "She's in pain," he cried out.

When he looked up, the others were staring at him.

Dorian cleared his throat. "Perhaps you could leave the Commander and I in privacy if you've stabilized our Inquisitor? We should discuss what happened, as we will need further military intervention." He jerked his head toward the exit, indicating for the healers to leave. "I can tend to her wounds and her… pain from here. Let the others know she's alright now. Josephine was birthing an entire litter of kittens when I got here. Thank you."

Once they were alone, Cullen let down the veil of stoicism he had struggled to maintain. "Dorian. What happened? How did this—"

"All in due time, Commander. All in due time. I will tell you everything—and we will need a better military strategy, I wasn't making that part up—but I am still drained. Transporting two bodies a hundred miles in mere seconds does tend to have an effect on one." He heaved a dramatic, though earned, sigh and sank into the sofa.

Unable to keep still for fear of breaking down, Cullen busied himself gathering up the tattered shreds of Ashara's leathers. The arrow had passed right through her cuirass, and the metal showed signs of heavy use. The edges were scorched by the arrow's passage, and several gouges and rends told the story of a savage battle. His hand trembled violently, making the plates clatter together like rattling swords. He dumped the armor on top of the soiled rags and in a nearby basket and collapsed onto the edge of the bed, staring at his beloved.

"Vivienne and Solas are with the others back at camp. In the Emprise. Bull was…" Dorian paused to still his voice. "Bull was also unconscious but Solas assured me he would pull through. That brute gets strength from the sight of his own blood. It's… it's uncivilized, and…"

Cullen let Dorian trail off, recognizing and sympathizing with the particular brand of distress in the other man's voice.

"We ambushed the quarry. The Red Templars had been taking workers from Sahrnia and taking them to the quarry. Kept coming back for more every day. People in the village were so afraid of the civil war and the sudden freeze that they didn't ask too many questions. But when no one came back, well. They were taking them prisoner. We found a few caravans, liberated the living ones. Some of them were infected or already dead.

"The Red Templars were forcing the townsfolk to work the quarry. The red lyrium corrupted them, killed them. Maybe more, we don't know. But we intend to go back."

Go back? But of course they had to go back. She was the Inquisitor. The Inquisition was the only hope the people of Sahrnia had against the threat of the Red Templars and whatever foul magic had frozen the Elfsblood River overnight.

"We believe the Red Templars are holed up in an abandoned Elvhen ruin called Suledin Keep. We'll need your help planning our assault."

Cullen swallowed the lump in his throat and nodded. "Of course…"

Ashara, still unconscious, whimpered, twisting his heart.

"Is there anything we can do? To help with the pain?"

Dorian shook his head. "Her body has been through too much already. After that rather miraculous Fade-step travel I pulled to get her back here, not to mention the amount of magic we poured into her during the battle… She needs rest and the serum Dagna should be delivering any moment. Maybe some simple healing herbs, but nothing too complicated right now."

They sat in silence for some time, the crackling fire and the still-boiling cauldron of water the only sounds.

"She's cold," Cullen whispered, noticing the faint shivering that had begun to seize her body. He found his cloak where it had discarded during the frenzy and draped it over her, tucking it tightly round her, brushing the fur away from her face.

You love my cloak, the way it smells like me. Maybe it would help you heal faster… Please, love.

"I thought you might be a bit of a sentimentalist," Dorian mused, rising from the sofa and approaching the bed. "She loves that cloak, you know. Goes on and on about how it smells like you. And you, Ser Knight, apparently smell very good." He laughed and pat Cullen's back companionably.

"Breathe, Cullen. She's going to be okay now."

The mage wandered away and returned with a pile of freshly boiled rags. They worked in silence, finishing the cleaning and dressing of her wounds. Even Dagna was quiet and solemn when she delivered Dorian's anti-corruption medicine, a grimace displacing her usual sunny grin as she set the small bottles on a low table.

"We'd split into two small groups when we ambushed the quarry. We thought we might be able to corner them, keep them from going for reinforcements. But they were… stronger than we anticipated. And the quarry had a lot of hiding places." Dorian started into the story without prompting after applying the cleansing serum to the first of the corrupted wounds.

"Ashara was with Sera, me, and Vivienne—fire and ice, plus Sera's eagle eye, and Ashara's sword and shield. Vivienne's barriers were able to catch many of the arrows if Sera didn't spot and take out the marksmen first. Ashara concentrated on the heavy warriors. It should have worked.

"But these… Red Templars… They're not like… human soldiers. Or even the Templars we've trained against here. They have abilities and strength like you've never seen. The ones we fought at Haven and those we've run into elsewhere must have been their green recruits. We've not had to fight so hard before.

"The other group almost didn't make it to our rendezvous point, but the apostate hobo managed to patch them together well enough…

"When we got there, we… we must have missed one… Ashara had already taken a lot of damage, had lost quite a bit of blood. So when the sniper hit her… it tore right through her… we thought she was dead. Between the three of us and every potion in our bags, we were able to keep her conscious….

"Sera took that bastard out with one shot. Right in the eye. Cole had to keep her from stomping its head in afterward…"

Dorian applied the serum to her chest and shoulder. "I'll need you to hold her up so I can get to the back side of this."

She stirred, moaning in pain, when he shifted her forward, leaning her against his chest as if in an embrace. "It's alright, darling. You're home and we're taking care of you," he offered her in attempted comfort, hoping she could hear.

"She will recover, Cullen." Though still weakened by exertion, Dorian's voice was certain. Cullen took it for what assurance he could.

"How did you get back?"

Dorian scoffed. "Now that was a bit of genius, if I do say so myself. Vivienne taught me how to Fade-step and I theorized that if done right, the magic could be used to travel great distances. I was nearly surprised to see that it worked so well… It wasn't without incident, though. We attracted attention from the other side. I'm afraid my own… feelings were noticed."

"The Despair demon," Cullen guessed.

"So it did make it through? Fasta vass."

"It made it through but it did not survive. It… disapparated almost immediately. Skyhold's defenses hold."

Dorian barked out his relief. "Remarkable."

Ashara stirred as though beginning to wake.

"It looks like our lady might be rejoining us soon, Commander, though I doubt she'll stay awake long. I will leave you two. I think it best that you be the first person she sees. And I need to update the girls on her progress. There's more of the cleansing salve here. You'll need to reapply it in a few hours. And again after you bathe her." He winked, attempting humor, before slipping out of the room.

Cullen watched her. She would have looked almost peaceful, as though she'd fallen asleep, if not for the shocking paleness and shallow, rapid breathing.

"I wish I could have been there. To protect you," he whispered, smoothing her hair. She was so cold to the touch. She would be, cold as it was in the Emprise and her heart so weak.

I can at least keep her warm.

He added wood to the fire and dug out as many blankets and pelts as he could find. He removed his armor carefully and as quietly as he could and climbed onto the bed next to her, pulling her into his arms and burying her in layers of warmth. She would wake feeling warm and protected at least.