Frostback Mountains – From the Ashes

Kost POV

"So, that's how Kost deals with grief." The words were so soft, she was almost certain she didn't hear them. But when she turned to Blackwall, she saw him glance at her. "Did you know that?" he asked. "About him?"

"Bull says Kost 'denies' things," she answered slowly. "Is that what you're referring to?"

"No, I'm referring to overworking." Ah. "But denial would also make sense. Denial makes it easier to work too hard." That was true. "I imagine it's harder to deny Lucina's death, though. Or any of those left behind." It hurt. It hurt more than anything. "Need a shoulder?"

"…Not yet. But I thank you for the offer."

"You're always welcome."

"Tree!" At the words, I lunged forward and projected a barrier around the group, preventing a falling tree from crashing onto the army and killing those underneath. I had to do this a lot. The high winds of the damn blizzard we were walking through… they were knocking trees down left and right. My arms shook from the exertion of holding the barrier.

Some part of me wanted to just… cut it up. To fracture the barrier into shards, into threads, and use that. But I couldn't. I just couldn't. Because every time I tried, I thought of Lucina, and I couldn't do that. I was on a job. Job. No mourning until the job was over damn it.

So, instead, I warped my barrier and made the falling tree slide off, thudding into the snow. Another one down.

I sighed and rolled my shoulders, ignoring the sour looks of people passing me by. I knew they weren't really angry. They were just… tempers were running high. Everyone was trying to logic out a reason 'why' this happened. 'Why' did Haven have to fall? 'Why' did so many people have to die? 'Why' did certain people live? And those sour looks were from people who were thinking 'if he had cast a barrier before, it could have saved us all'.

It wouldn't have. The ambush had been too fast. But I couldn't blame them for thinking that.

"Kost…" I smiled at Lady Montilyet as she approached. She was shaking badly, even under Master Rutherford's coat. He must have lent it to her, since she was one of the few who had not managed to snag a coat or blanket prior to leaving. That said, I thought some of her shaking was from lingering terror. "Here," she murmured, passing me something. I whistled when I realized it was a 'warming charm'. A damn good one. "Solas, Dorian, and Vivienne crafted some from… something." Looking at it, I'd say this highly complicated, very competent charm… was made from intricately tied bits of wood and string. "It should help, a little."

"Yes, it should," I murmured. I slipped it into my coat and smiled as it took effect immediately. I no longer felt like my arms were going to freeze off. "We will need shelter soon." Before we all froze.

"Cole and Sera scouted ahead. A little bit higher, the blizzard isn't as bad, and there is an easily defensible area for all of us." Oh, good. "Cole said something like 'the mountains are glad to guard us' or… something…"

"There are some old belief systems that believe all things have a spirit to them." Was it old? I wasn't sure, really. I mean; there could be some… never mind. Even if there were some in the present, it was still an old, as in age, belief. "Maybe there's something to it. And maybe he's talking to the Frostbacks."

"If that's the case, I wish he would convince them to stomp bombarding us." Ha! "…Do you mind if I hang onto your arm? I was clinging to Samantha, but Roderick can't walk anymore, so she's carrying him." I was honestly surprised he wasn't dead yet. "And I… my shoes…" Weren't meant for this sort of thing.

"Here." I offered her my arm, and she took it with a smile. I thought she also just liked having the reassurance of someone… you know… being there. "Let's keep moving forward."

Despite my words, though, I looked back. Just… for some reason. It was an instinct thing. And in our slowly fading footsteps, I found blood and corpses. How fitting.

The sound of arguing made me groan. I should probably intervene, but I had just stopped fifty fights in the past hour, and while I was relatively certain Miss Nightingale, Lady Montilyet, Master Rutherford and Miss Pentaghast were actually arguing about something important, I did not feel like getting involved. So, instead, I moved to the outskirts of the camp, to a little 'cliff' overlooking the path, just to find the space to breathe.

The area Cole and Sera had found was perfect for a large army. And, from here, I could see that the blizzard was dying, meaning that by the morning, we would be all right to moving forward. The thing was… all we knew was that we couldn't return to Haven. We had no destination and, honestly, we didn't really have much of an idea of where we were.

"Ah, Kost!" I glanced back and smiled when I saw Master Pavus walking up. "Wonderful day, isn't it?" he noted jovially. The words dripped, however, with sarcasm. "Truly, I think it is the… fourth-worst day I've had in a while."

"Only fourth-worst, Master Pavus?" I asked teasingly. I felt myself relax just a little. "Such high standards."

"Of course. And, please, call me Dorian. We are comrades, and we research together." Yes… "Though, I imagine it will be hard to find the will to pursue. When Felix was ill, and I had my falling out with Alexius, I just turned to the bottle."

"I can understand that feeling." And no small part of me was very, very bitter at the fact that the prisoners had been carted around with us. Under guard, but still. Good people were dead and they weren't. We should've… no, that was a bad line of thought. "I couldn't bring myself to use the threads on the trees, even though they probably would've made things easier."

"Maybe after a good few days of drinking, you and I will find the courage to do so. After all, Lucina would be sad if we didn't." True. "I have all her notes with me. I couldn't bear the idea of them burning."

"I thought you just grabbed copious amounts of books?"

"Vivienne and I had the same brilliant idea of using the books to cart out important documents." Oh. That made a lot of sense. "Still, what a mess. How are you holding up?"

"I'm…" He immediately gave me a skeptical look to make me reconsider the 'fine' part of that sentence. "I'm holding." Truer, at least. "And that's better than many."

"True." He sighed and stretched. "We'll need to set up something to keep everyone warm through the night. Not many have the energy for cuddling and sex right now, so we can't use that." I burst into laughter at that, and he grinned. "Well, it's true." Yes, but still…

Movement caught my eye, and I nearly groaned when I realized it was from the horizon. Did one of that damn army manage to follow us? I narrowed my eyes to get a better look at the thing coming close. And then froze because… "Dorian?"

"Hmm?"

"What's that on the horizon?"

"Well, let's see…" He hummed a little in thought. "Something with magic. That much is obvious. Whoever it is, though, is pretty low on mana. I can see how large the fire can bloom, but at the moment, it's cinders and ash clinging to warmth." The thing came closer… "Bit of a thin figure, though it's hard to see through all this damn snow. Honestly, Kost, the only physical thing I can see is that they have red hair not unlike Saman-"

I didn't even wait for him to finish the name. I jumped down, landing hard in the snow. My teeth rattled and chattered, but I kept going, slogging a path threw. My heart hammered in my ears as I got closer, and the 'thing' got closer. Red hair, bronze skin. Mage. From a distance, it looked like Samantha. This was… it couldn't be but…

"Lucina!" The name tore itself from my thought. And the figure reacted, a slight lifting of the head. I quickened my steps. "Lucina!" This was… it couldn't be… it couldn't be, but…!

"Kost?" The wind almost swallowed up the soft call. But I knew that voice. I knew that voice. "Kost, is that… WHOA!" She slipped and fell, crashing into the snow.

I caught up then, though, and picked her up easily. "It's me, Lucina. It's Kost." I caught a small, tired smile. She was absolutely covered in injuries. Burns, arrow wounds, barely healed… she looked like shit. But she was breathing. She was alive. She was alive.

"Oh, good, I thought I went the wrong direction. I'm sorry." Shaking my head at the apology, I tried to glance at her face, to reassure her, but I noted the absolute mess of burns and lacerations and decided it was best to just return to camp. I could smile and reassure her later. "The Elder One's name is Corypheus." Huh? "I got him to talk. He talked a lot. So, I decided I needed to try and get the information to you guys." She laughed a little, a fragile bit of sound. "I guess I didn't want to die as much as I thought."

"Easy…" It was much harder walking through snow when you were carrying someone. Especially when you looked down and saw that someone's blood dripping into the snow.

"He's really arrogant. That's why it worked as long as it did." Lucina, seriously, shut up and focus on breathing. "Only reason why. He was so arrogant that he never considered that he might have the wrong person." Well, nice to know. A person like that never planned for losses either. "Samantha's mark is called the Anchor. Corypheus made it. Samanth got it when the Chantry exploded. He exploded it to create the Anchor." Oh? "Corypheus is one of the magisters from the Chant, who broke open the Veil." Wait, what? "He plans on doing it again. He said the city was black when he arrived, that the throne was empty." Huh. "Had a weird orb. Old, powerful… think it might be connected to…" She started coughing, deep hacking coughs that made my bones rattle. "Sorry, I…"

"Just focus on breathing, Lucina. I got the message." She smiled sweetly at that. "I got it, so… so just focus on living." This was just… "How did you even survive?"

"Oh, some healing magic, a bit of fire… I used a Bounded Field combined with fire magic to keep myself from freezing during the blizzard…" Seriously? "Oh, I… burned some of my blood though. I guess I'm technically a-"

"That's fine." Freaking… something. Freaking something, she was alive… "I can honestly guarantee not a one of us will care."

"Oh, good." And there was a smile. "I'm glad I found everyone." And we were glad too. "Can I pass out?"

"Not yet. Let me get you back to camp."

"Okay."

The camp had erupted in a flurry of motion when I brought Lucina back, and Grand Enchanter Fiona had seized command of coordinating what few healing mages we had to spare to tend to her. Madame de Fer cast something called 'Resurgence' to help with healing in general, and Dorian apparently had a very good grasp of anatomy, so he went to assist.

I just focused on two things. One, morale of the camp had risen some. And the 'war council', minus Lucina, was waiting outside the tent where Lucina was being treated, and possibly saved. I wasn't hoping for more. It defied all logic that she even made it to us to deliver information. If she lived on top of that…

Oh, there was a third thing. As soon as Miss Pentaghast heard the name 'Corypheus', she dragged Varric over. Because, apparently, he knew our enemy.

"Corypheus? Well, shit." Varric sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose as if to ward off a headache. "That's… not good," he murmured. The rest of us clustered around him, with occasional glances at the tent. Samantha was still crying from relief and worry, leaning into Lady Montilyet's shoulder. Deidre and I sat in the show, Master Rutherford and Miss Nightingale standing behind us. Miss Pentaghast completed the 'circle', and prevented Varric from 'escaping'. "Tits of Andraste, that's…"

"Tell us what you know," Master Rutherford prompted. He was frowning. "How would you know? I'm guessing something with Althea?"

"Hawke? Yeah." Varric sighed again. "So, the Wardens had Corypheus locked up for who knows how long. They couldn't kill him. He emits some song only they can hear, drives them mad. They can fight it off, but it's difficult. Thing is, maybe in light of seeing firsthand the horrors of the Blight, some Wardens got the idea in their head that they could bind and control him. Stupid, but I don't know, maybe they're desperate. Junior's letters make references to how shitty the life is, and it just ends horribly in something they call the 'Calling'."

"Agrona, Serenity, and Alistair mentioned it too," Miss Nightingale murmured. She became rather thoughtful. "It's basically a 'last dance' in a fight. I do not know the reason why, but at a certain point, Wardens will go into the Deep Roads specifically to die. It's called the 'Calling'. I think Agrona and Serenity are planning to just drink poison, for… a reason they never told me." She squirmed at the skeptical looks. "They always got this dark look in their eyes. Especially Serenity. Whatever it is haunts her over ten years later. Since it had never been a life or death thing, I never pressed, and it's not really relevant not." That was true. "Continue, Varric."

"Yes, yes, Nightingale," Varric sighed. Again. He was not enjoying, and it was always bad when the storyteller wasn't liking the story. "Anyway, they decided to release and 'control' Corypheus. And that meant they needed the children of Malcom Hawke. Curly, I think you remember those assassins that almost got Sunshine in the Gallows?" Master Rutherford immediately groaned, facepalming. "That is a yes, and I will find out later what caused that reaction."

"You can find out now," Master Rutherford growled. "Meredith wasn't exactly happy, and guess who had to run around trying to figure out how they even got in." Ah. "On the bright side, there are fifty different secret passages in and out of the Gallows." What. "I think you all used some of them to get the mages out?"

"Based on what the Hawkes could remember about their parents' secret rendezvous." What?! "Regardless, story. They needed them, and long story short, they trapped us in the Deep Roads." What. "And the only way out? Through Corypheus. Especially since the seals on him were weakening, and then were basically snapped."

"So, unknowing of how big of a threat, you were forced to choose between unsealing him and dying in the Deep Roads?" Deidre asked, incredulous. Her shock only increased when Varric nodded. "That's messed up! Why didn't you cut his head off?"

"Hawke did." And everything went quiet. "Well, more like she iced him over and made his head explode via ice spikes to the skull," Varric elaborated. It didn't change how all of us were staring. "And yes, he was dead. We checked the body. Dead and deader than dead. After a really impressive magic fight. First time I really realized how strong Hawke was." How strong was that? You heard the stories, but if there was even a grain of truth to them, she was the most powerful mage and, in another lifetime, might have been considered a god. Scary. "Anyway, yeah, that's all I have. He should be dead, and now he's not, meaning…" Meaning we had an immortal as our enemy.

"There has to be a catch," I whispered. All eyes turned to me, but I ignored them thinking hard. "There has to be a catch, a way to kill him. Everything that lives can die. That's a rule of reality."

"…Then we have to find it," Samantha whispered. She had stopped crying, but she hadn't moved from Lady Montilyet's shoulder. "We will find it. I'm not letting that bastard win. We will make something from Haven's loss." Somehow. First we had to- "Fiona!"

Everyone whirled as Grand Enchanter Fiona approached, swaying a little as she walked. But she was smiling. "She will live," she whispered. And there were cheers. That… that was the first bit of good news all day. "She has many scars that will likely pain her for some time. And…" The smile faltered. "She… lost her eyes." She… "If she has them, they are scarred over. She will never see again. She traded her sight for her life." Her smile returned. "But she has her life. She will live. And, aside from what I mentioned, and some lingering weakness… she will make a full recovery."

…She was alive. She was blind, and would have to adapt, and damn if we weren't going to help… and she was alive. She was alive when we had no hope to even see her corpse to give rights too.

Maybe there were such things as miracles.

Next Chapter - Samantha