"You are Kiara of the Companions?" Dorian broke the silence. "Even in Tevinter, there are tales of your company."
"I'm the last of the Companions," Kiara corrected almost sharply and both Varric and Lelianna inhaled sharply.
"Vala….?" Lelianna trailed off, pained as she turned away.
"Andraste's arse," Varric muttered.
Grace remembered Vala, the red headed elf that walked at Lelianna's side, who comforted Lelianna when Grace couldn't. She was kind, quiet and so loving with Lelianna. It was hard to believe she was dead, but then again, Grace knew that probably all those she knew was dead or a prisoner somewhere like Varric, Vivienne and Lelianna were.
"I'm so sorry," Vivienne's words were genuine as she placed a comforting hand on Lelianna's shoulder, Grace was almost surprised that Lelianna didn't shrug it off. "I've heard much of the Companions, I'm sure they didn't go out without a fight."
A ghost of crooked smile curled Kiara's cracked lips.
"We were always fighters," she replied. "Took almost everyone with them."
There was a tone of pride mixed with grief and rage in her voice.
"You'll be making sure that doesn't happen again," Kiara glared at Grace. "You will make sure you don't fuck up again."
"You're blaming Grace?" Dorian asked in mild disbelief, moving to stand beside Grace in a protective movement which reminded the other noble of her brothers. "It is not her fault."
"I blame many people and I'm entitled to blame them," Kiara retorted sharply. "If I truly blamed her for everything, I'd kill her where she stands, however I believe you can fix this."
Never had Grace been threated so bluntly before.
"Kiara," Varric almost warned and Kiara looked away, not in shame though—she was silently standing by what she said and wouldn't take it back.
"We need to get you to Alexius, yes?" she asked after a moment and Dorian nodded, his hand comforting on Grace's shoulder. "Then let's go."
Kiara of the Companions was deadly, Grace thought as she easily fought and killed Alexius' people.
If she miss-stepped then Grace didn't not see it, Kiara's blades always struck true will lethal blows. There was a rage with each movement, rage in each step and stab, rage in each flick when the blood built up on her blades.
If she was this deadly, this dangerous, when so thin and ill then Grace hated the thought of this woman being her enemy when whole and healthy. This was a woman that would make a valuable ally if Grace could court her to the side of the Inquisition though Grace was unsure she knew how to do that when she got back to her time, to her real time.
Grace thought all this before she watched demons flee from the very sight of her.
"You'd be very useful," Dorian mused, already thinking about their real present and keeping his mind away from the nightmare of a future-present they were now dealing with—his way of coping, Grace thought, and she also thought that Lelianna wasn't wrong when she accused Dorian of not thinking of this reality and them as real. "Is there a reason they are avoiding you so fearfully?"
"A demon attempted to trap me in the Fade, it didn't work out well for it," Kiara spoke shortly as she looked towards the fleeing demons. "I'm guessing what I did spread throughout the Fade."
"I would assume the same," Vivienne said dryly as she blasted one of the fleeing demons with ice—she had been more vicious then Grace had expected when fighting, but Grace couldn't blame the older woman.
You didn't need to be from Southern Thedas to hear of the Companions. Tevinter had its own share of stories about the Companions despite the fact original members never passing through their borders.
Dorian had never really made his mind up when it came to the Companions, he had paid little interest to the slaves and such that were freed in the Companions name and other such things—most of the so-called Companions in Tevinter probably had never met the real Companions—but he had taken note of the real Companions, Champions of the Downtrodden and such in Southern Thedas.
And Kiara Cadash was the Queen of them.
Dorian could finally understand the awe and respect that Southern Thedas held the woman in, and could believe in what he used to think were wild stories.
This woman, weak and ill, corrupted and hurt, wielding stolen blades was killing more than he and Grace was and they were in full health.
Stories of her being almost a one-woman army suddenly didn't seem so ridiculous, the number of stories of her killing various things—demons, dragons, and darkspawn just to name a few—were believable.
This was a woman that Dorian would dearly want on his side if he was in Grace's place—even though her future/older self didn't seem to like Grace so much at the moment—and he knew with one glance at his new friend's face that she was planning on how to court this powerful woman to their side.
A woman that could change the tide in a battle, a woman that would bring respect and fear to the Inquisition.
And with this one woman came others, if Malika Cadash, Saya the Qunari, the Lavellan Twins Elion and Ellana and the others that personally followed Kiara Cadash was half as good as her?
Whoever this Elder One would dearly regret challenging them, Dorian knew.
"Oh my Maker," Grace breathed out as she stared up at the broken and green sky.
"Wha—what happened?" Dorian for once stumbled over his words as he stared up at the sky.
"What do you think would happen without her to close the Breach?" Kiara commented, her chin jerking towards Grace before she turned her attention to Alexius' men.
Varric, Vivienne nor Lelianna seemed to be surprised as they raised their weapons and fought, letting both Grace and Dorian regain their balance.
Magisters were a different breed of mages, Grace thought to herself as she pushed a sweaty strand of hair out of her face as she stared at the body of Alexius. She had fought a lot of mages since the Conclave and none had put up as such a fight like Alexius—though she was unsure if it was because he was a Magister or because Lelianna had killed Felix, killed his son who he had done all this for.
Kiara had called for his body to be set on fire—having a fresh corpse around with the world like it was? It was just asking for the body to be possessed in her opinion and Grace may have agreed with her—but Dorian couldn't bring himself to and Vivienne was more at home with ice-spells then fire—though Grace thought Vivienne was also being considerate of Dorian's feelings.
Their enemy he may have been, Alexius had been important to Dorian and knowing he had a hand in killing him, well, Grace didn't know how he just kept going with just a tight jaw.
Then again, Grace knew that Dorian was pushing away what was happening, focusing on getting them back and being ready to dismiss this—Grace honestly envied that as she knew she would never be able to forget this, to push this to the back of her mind.
This experience had changed everything, it had changed how she would approach the Mages and may change how Edmund would look at her when they met again.
He wouldn't understand, Grace knew, how his sister that always supported him and mage rights would turn around and chain the rebel mages. He wasn't here, he didn't see this, wouldn't know just how close those rebels brought them to the end of the world.
Yes, they weren't solely at fault, but it was their alliance, their naïve trust, that helped bring this horrible future play out.
Grace would never forget that, could never forget that.
"The Elder One is coming," Kiara spoke, breaking Grace from her thoughts. "How long till you fix this?"
"It'll take me ten minutes to reverse the ritual," Dorian spoke, purple magic leaking from his fingers as he spun his staff in one hand.
"We may not have ten minutes, Sparky," Varric said as he glanced towards the great-doors.
"Then we will just have to make ten minutes," Vivienne spoke grimly as she tightened her grip on her staff before glancing at the dwarf. "Shall we?"
"Better than becoming a lyrium-statue," Varric grunted as he lifted his newly-retrieved Bianca.
"I can't ask you to die for me," Grace spoke up, staring at her friends.
"But you aren't asking, dear," Vivienne smiled. "We are volunteering."
"We're already dead anyway," Kiara declared before she glanced at Lelianna. "Shall we?"
"Just like old-times," Lelianna almost smiled. "For the Companions?"
"Of course," Kiara nodded.
Varric and Vivienne were the first line of defence, Dorian didn't know how long they would last but he knew they would give their all to delay the Elder One's forces and that was more than Dorian could ask for.
Dorian only glanced away from the ritual for a moment and noticed Kiara whispering something in Grace's ear, her hand curled around Grace's own hand for a moment before she stepped away and took her place next to Lelianna as their second line of defence.
"How do I know that will happen?" Grace called out, not straying far from Dorian.
"You have a call which she will not be able to ignore," Kiara didn't look back as she answered. "Trust me, I know."
Grace frowned but said nothing, her fist—the hand that Kiara had held—curled tightly as she watched both Lelianna and Kiara readied their weapons, standing firm in the face of their deaths.
"Grace," Dorian called to her and the noble daughter moved to his side, forced to watch as people died for her and a chance to change the fate of the world.
It was a burden that she would carry with her, like she would always carry the memories of this moment.
She would remember the resolve in Vivienne and Varric's eyes as they sent themselves towards death. She would remember the flop Vivienne's body made as the demons threw her on the hard stone floor. She would remember the way they dragged Varric with them.
She would remember Lelianna's face, so serious and grim, as she shot arrow after arrow at the approaching horde of demons. She would remember the way that Kiara dashed forward, demons jerking away from her and reluctantly attacking, the whirl of steel in her hands.
She would remember liquid fire leaking down a fire demon's side when it attempted to get passed Kiara and towards Lelianna. She would remember the hand of a terror piercing through Kiara, remember Lelianna's scream as her arrow buried itself in the terror's throat.
She would remember Kiara stumbling, bleeding and choking, but still fighting strong as demons slipped passed her and towards Lelianna.
She would remember the choking and bloody cry of Kiara as Lelianna fell under the attacks of demons, of her snarls and blood-stained teeth as she attempted to reach her fallen friend and it took her being speared once again by two other terrors for her body to give up, blades still held in death-grips and dark eyes staring straight at her, silently demanding Grace not to let this happen again.
Kiara Cadash's dark eyes were the last thing Grace saw of that horrible future before reality twisted and she was back in time, Alexius standing before and Lelianna's guards standing over corpses, both Vivienne and Varric standing firm at her back, healthy and whole and undamaged by torture and poisoning.
"It's over, Alexius," Dorian was the one that spoke those words, watching in slight pity as his old mentor fell to knees in defeat and beseeched his apparently dying son.
Grace could say nothing, couldn't speak passed the lump in her throat as she kept her fist tight.
"Well, I glad that's over," Dorian spoke to her in undertone, one hand clasping her shoulder in support.
Of course that's when the royal guards of Ferelden's royal family marched in with an angered King Alistair between them and a rather serious-faced Prince Duncan hastily following his father, light brown eyes darting this way and that as he did.
"Or not," Dorian almost sighed.
