This is the angst chapter, which is not my specialty. I did my best.

Warnings for Rite of Tranquility and character death in the alternative timeline.

The first thing he notices is the light being wrong.

Actually, the very first thing he notices is that his knees are getting wet and that two men run towards him with their swords raised high. He jumps up from his crouching position just as one goes up in flames. The other one more or less skewers himself on Carver's sword, mumbling something about "Blood of the Elder One". Foul smelling water hits his face when the body falls, the splash echoing against stone walls and then it is silent again.

An eerie grey light permeates everything, not even the yellow flames of the torches on the walls can change it to a warmer color. They are underground, in a dungeon or maybe a prison. It reminds Carver of the dungeons under the Gallows of Kirkwall, the cells where they locked up mages and templar traitors.

"Displacement?" Dorian says at his side, sounding more curious than shocked. "Interesting. Where did he send us? The next cluster of arcane energy?" He turns to Carver as if he expects him to answer. With no answer coming, he looks around again, scratching his chin. "Fascinating! It probably wasn't what Alexius intended." He crouches down, letting water run over his gloved hands.

The water looks oily and black in the strange light. Carver wonders where the light is even coming from, it seems the walls themselves cast out the green glow. He looks at the palm of his Herald-hand, willing the mark to shine. It sparks erratically and it takes some concentration to make it glow steadily. The mark has a different shade of green than the light coming from the walls and Carver is strangely glad about that. It feels like an important distinction.

"We were in the castle hall and then... it was like a rift but spinning," he says.

"The amulet Alexius used is the anchor for — oh!" Dorian stands up and points at the walls as if he sees them for the first time. "Not simply where, when ! He displaced us in time!"

Carver stares at him until the message sinks in like a ball of dread in his stomach. "He moved us in time? Forward or backwards? And why?"

Dorian has an amused glint in his eyes. "Excellent questions, we shall find out, won't we?"

"Is this amusing for you?" Carver asks and he can't keep the menace from his voice. "Is it interesting? Fasc-i-na-ting ? What about the others, what happened to them? Is that just fascinating?" He takes a step towards Dorian.

Dorian's face falls. "I'm sorry." He picks at a clasp on his jacket. "It's not, yes, I shouldn't... I tend to to make fun of... nevermind. It's not fascinating, I'm sorry."

Carver lets out a breath and turns away. "Andraste's arse. Why did he do this? Why — " his breath gets stuck in his throat. "Merrill." He whips around to Dorian again. "Do you think the others are here too?"

"I don't think the rift was large enough to pull more than us through. Alexius wouldn't have risked catching himself or Felix in it." Dorian takes his staff in hand and walks towards the gate where the unfortunate guards had come through. "Let's look around, find out where and when we are."

Carver holds his shield close to his chest, weighing his sword in the other hand and falls into step with Dorian. "What was the point of all this?"

"If I had to guess — I think he wanted to remove you from time completely. You never would have been at the Temple of Sacred Ashes and couldn't have interfered with whatever was supposed to happen there."

"Something with the Elder One, whoever that is."

"Probably a leader of the venatori, some magister playing with godhood. It's always the same old tune, 'Let's play with magic we don't understand and it'll make us incredible powerful.' I don't even want to think what this does to the fabric of the world."

Carver snorts. "If this is an old tune, you shouldn't be surprised by the general bad opinion of tevinter mages."

"Yes, I grant you that one," Dorian says with a nod. "I countered his magic and it went wild. We didn't just travel through time, we punched a hole through it."

"Can we get back?" Carver holds his breath as they round a corner and come towards a row of cells on either side.

"I have thoughts on that. They're lovely little thoughts, like little jewels — "

"Please be serious," Carver says quietly.

"Sorry," Dorian says. "I know you're worried about your friends."

"And my girl." Carver almost can't say it out loud.

"The little elf who smiles?"

"Yes."

"We'll figure out a way," Dorian says and he almost sounds convincing.

The cells in this hallway are empty of life, except for some rats. A few steps take them up to another level, here the floor at least isn't flooded anymore. In a cell at the far end, someone is chanting, "Andraste blessed me, Andraste blessed me."

"Hello?" Carver says, but the man in the cell ignores him as if he isn't there. "Serah, can you hear me?" A huge crystal of red lyrium takes up half of his cell and seems to have grown around the bones and skulls of whoever has occupied this cell before the chanting man.

The young elven man peers through the bars of his cell but his eyes are blind. He keeps chanting, his mind locked away, unaware of anyone trying to talk to him.

"I know you," Carver says more to himself than to the elf. "I talked to you in the village."

"Carver," Dorian calls out, "over here." He stands in front of a cell that is almost entirely filled with a red lyrium crystal and in the middle is a person, leaning against the wall.

"Fiona?" Carver asks as he recognizes the small figure. "Is that really you?"

"You... you're alive? How? I saw you disappear..."

"Alexius sent us through time..." Carver stares at the mage in the cell. Golden veins pulse in the red lyrium, creeping into Fiona's skin. Carver looks closer at the part where she seems to be trapped in the crystal. "Is that.. is the lyrium growing on you?"

"In me," Fiona says, her voice shaking. "It takes over and feeds on you. And then one day, they harvest it."

Dorian pinches the bridge of his nose. "How could this happen? Can you tell us what date it is?"

"Harvestmere... 9:42 Dragon."

"Nine forty- two ?" Dorian calls out. "We missed an entire year!"

A chill runs down Carver's spine. What could happen in one whole year? What did Merrill have to live through? "Do you know of the others? Where they are?"

Fiona shakes her head slowly. "I only know that your spymaster is here, they torture her." A sob shakes her and the red crystals on her body crackle. "Please, you must stop this from happening."

"We have to go back in time," Carver says, "none of this should have happened."

"If we find Alexius and the amulet," Dorian says, pinching his chin, "I should be able to recreate his spell and bring us back to our time."

"You must go," Fiona whimpers as a red crystal breaks through the skin on her side. "Hurry. Before the Elder One learns you're here."

They find Varric and Cassandra next, locked in cells, both not believing their eyes when they see him.

"Maker forgive me, I failed you. I failed everyone." Cassandra shakes her head. "The end must truly be upon us if the dead return to life."

Carver glances at her and Varric. A red glow hangs on them like fog, the same red glow that fills their eyes. The red lyrium crystals don't yet grow out of their bodies but they are definitely infected. "We didn't die. Alexius sent us into the future."

"Junior," Varric says, "why does weird shit always happen to you?"

"I wish I knew." Carver takes another look at Varric's eyes. "You don't look so good, dwarf."

"Bite your tongue. I look damn good for a dead man."

Dorian turns back. "You're not dead."

Varric frowns. "The not dying version of this red stuff? Way worse, just saying."

They find Vivienne in another cell, composed and regal, even with the red glow of the poisoning lyrium around her. It takes a bit to convince her that they are real.

"You look..." Carver doesn't quite know how to end the sentence.

"Red lyrium, Darling." Vivienne says. "It's killing me. It's killing all of us. Don't worry your pretty head about it."

"What happened in the last year?" Carver asks.

"Since your death in the throne room, the Venatori assassinated Empress Celene. In the chaos that followed, they invaded Orlais."

Dorian shakes his head. "Alexius assassinated the Empress? Why?"

"No, not the point," Varric interrupts. "Alexius is just a servant. His 'Elder One' assassinated the empress and led a demon army in a huge invasion of the South. The Elder One rules everything. What's left of it, anyway. Alexius... is really not the one you need to worry about."

"Looks like I should find this Elder One and have a little chat."

Varric looks up to Carver, red fog dancing around his eyes. "Be careful what you wish for."

Vivenne grabs a staff from a pile of weapons as Cassadra and Varric pick out a sword and a crossbow. Vivienne lets the staff light up and shoots a vicious white light into the wall. "I would like to hurt something very badly right now." She turns to Carver. "Lead on. Anywhere is better than this place."

"Do you know of anybody else?" Carver looks from one to the other. "Anybody?"

"They took her first," Varric says quietly. "She fought so hard."

Cassandra turns to him. "We have not seen her. I don't know if she still lives."

Carver swallows hard against the pain in his chest. They climb up another level through empty dungeons. Blood is splattered on several walls and the blood has been used to draw geometrical patterns on the floor.

Cassandra stares at the symbols. "Andraste have mercy, bloodmagic."

The further they go into the dungeon, the more red lyrium crystals grow out of the walls. It looks like the red lyrium tries to cut off their way, making the hallways narrower.

"Don't touch that stuff," Varric says.

"Wouldn't dream of it." Carver steps around another red glowing wall towards stairs upwards. "Do you know where this leads?"

"There's several levels of these dungeons and different sections under the castle," Vivienne says. "At first, they had mages walk relatively freely. The venatori are much more trusting of mages than what I'm used to and I tried to use that to our advantage. I played along, mingled, tried to..." She sighs, hanging her head.

Cassandra puts her hand on Vivienne's shoulder. "They caught you when you opened my cell."

Vivienne inclines her head. "I am no spy, unfortunately."

"I'm grateful that you tried."

Carver opens the door to a platform with two bridges to the sides, stretching over an abyss that seems to go down endlessly. He takes a hurried step back from the edge, there is no railing, nothing that could stop one wrong step from being deadly. The two guards attacking them worry Carver less than the deadly chasm under his feet.

One of the guards runs towards Vivenne with an animalistic scream. "We get you now, mage, the ritual is starting, you'll be quiet soon, you'll — " the rest of his tirade dies in a scream as he burns up in a white flame.

The other guard falls quietly, his throat slashed as he tumbles over the edge of the platform and disappears into the darkness.

"What was he yelling about?" Carver asks Vivienne.

"The Rite of Tranquility," she says, calmly. "They've been threatening unruly mages with it for months now. Apparently, they didn't know how to execute the ritual or didn't have the necessary enchanted branding iron." She glances over to him. "The rite is not very common in the north and the venatori have other ways to control mages."

"So, there aren't many 'unruly mages'?"

Vivienne shakes her head. "No, I'm afraid not. Magical binds, bloodmagic, and red lyrium — without hope, not many had the strength to resist."

"But he said the ritual is starting now, there could be mages who..."

"Yes," Cassandra says, gripping her sword tighter. "It could be Merrill, if anybody resisted, it would be her."

"We have to stop it." Carver runs towards the nearest door. He throws it open and starts to run forward into another dungeon with red lyrium on the walls but Cassandra holds him back.

"Wait, let me check the other door." She runs across the platform and opens the other door. "Over here!"

Carver runs up to her. "How do you know?"

She looks at him with a frown. "There is something... like a hum or a scent..."

Dripping water and the occasional distant scream is all Carver can hear and he doesn't want to catalogue the smells. Cassandra walks ahead with secure steps and he hurries to catch up with her. "I think only you can sense this."

Vivienne clears her throat. "The Seekers found the rite and have the most experience with it."

That explanation is enough for now, but something has him wonder what exactly the Seekers know about the Rite of Tranquility.

The dungeon is empty, almost overgrown by red lyrium, corpses encased in it like in a morbid display case of red glass. They have to climb over a red lyrium boulder to reach the stairs and it burns like fire under the soles of Carver's feet.

Varric stomps on the lyrium with a disgusted sneer. "You're not getting me, filthy shit." He helps Vivienne over the obstacle, staring at the lyrium licking his boots in defiance.

"Doesn't it hurt?" Carver asks as he helps Varric down.

"Not anymore, Junior. At least not more than the usual death by Red does."

The stairs led up to an open hall, empty except for more overgrown corpses. The lyrium here looks brighter, the red glow hurts in Carver's eyes. There is a table next to a fire place, notes scattered on it.

"This must be a harvesting lab," Cassandra says. She stares at the bright lyrium, her hand stretching towards it.

"Where is the ritual?" Carver interrupts. Cassandra's gaze flickers, the red glow in her eyes turning oily. She blinks a few times and her eyes return to almost normal, red fog clinging to her the only evidence of the infection.

"This way." She runs out a door, leading them into a hallway. Armor is clanging as soldiers march into the room before them and then a chant begins. A circular pattern has been drawn on the ground in the center of the room and six soldiers stand around it with their swords held in front of their helmeted faces. Red crystals grow out of their arms shoulders, fused with the metal of their armor. Their armor used to be of templars but the symbol on their chest has been replaced.

They can't see what happens in the middle of the circle but a scream has Cassandra grab her sword tighter. "It's the ritual."

"Stop!" Carver yells and runs towards the circle. The red templars turn to him as one, their swords raised, when one in front rips his helmet off, his sword dropping to the ground.

"Carver," Cullen says. "It can't be." The red crystals on his shoulders cast an unsettling glow on his face as he stares at him.

Behind Cullen, a mage kneels on the ground, the branding iron hovering over her forehead as the knight says the chants. She turns to look at Carver and her mouth falls open in shock.

Merrill. A smile spreads across her face.

The knight speaks the last chant, the branding iron lights up in white glow, Carver storms forward, time slowing to a crawl as he screams. Cullen turns to run with him but falls to his knees, a sword sticking in his stomach, Carver strikes down the templar stepping in his way, the iron presses down and Merrill's scream dies.

"No!" Carver falls to his knees, catching Merrill as she sinks to the side, her mouth still open but silent. Around them, the other red templars fall to the attacks of his companions but Carver doesn't see it. The glow of the chantry sun on Merrill's forehead slowly fades to a dull red.

"No, no, no, no." Carver pulls her closer and draws his thump along the edge of the fresh mark.

Deathly calm settles over her features. "Carver." Her voice is serene and has lost all warmth and joy. "You were gone."

"Merrill," Carver sobs, the tears falling on her face. "Merrill, I'm so sorry."

Merrill's eyes study him with detached interest. "I thought you were dead."

Carver pulls her close and cries into her shoulder. As long as he doesn't see her dead eyes, he can still believe that everything will be all right, that nothing has changed his wonderful Merrill.

Varric kneels down beside him. "No. Not her. Maker damn them all."

Carver looks up to see his companions looking down on him, their eyes wide in shock. Movement at his side catches his eyes. Cullen struggles to sit up in a pool of his own blood and pulls the sword from his gut in one swift move. More blood gushes from the wound, turning his armor red.

"Carver, you're alive," he says with a brittle voice. The sword clutters to the ground. "If I had known..." He looks at Merrill in Carver's arms. "I should have protected her but I didn't. I followed orders. I failed you... I failed..." He sinks to the side and stills, the rest of his life dripping out of him in dull red.

"Shouldn't we help him?" Merrill sits back and looks over to where Cullen lies. There is no warmth in her voice.

"He's already dead, Daisy," Varric says.

Merrill turns to him, the same detached interest in her gaze as before. "Varric." She looks at the other companions. "Cassandra, Vivienne. Dorian. It is good that you're alive."

Vivienne holds out her hand to Merrill. "Can you stand my dear?"

"Yes." Merrill leans back and stands up, stepping out of Carver's embrace.

Varric puts a hand on Carver's arm. "Can you?"

For a moment he isn't sure. He wills his legs to work but they refuse. There's too much weight, too much to carry and not enough hope. Another sob has him shaking. He looks up to see Merrill holding her hand out to him. With the tears blurring his vision, the mark on her forehead almost isn't visible.

"Carver," Merrill says, her cold voice reminding him of what has been done to her. "We have to go, it's not safe here."

"Yes." He gets up with Varric's and Merrill's help, careful not to put too much weight on her. Her wrists are chafed bloody, cuts with dried blood mark her arms and she is painfully thin. The red fog wavers around her just like it does with the others.

Cassandra raises her hand, almost touching the mark on Merrill's forehead and then turns away. "Do you know where Leliana is held?"

"Yes, I can show you. I heard the guards talk about her, they fear her." Merrill starts walking towards a door on the other side of the room and Carver hurries to catch up with her.

Her magic is gone, she has no way to defend herself anymore.

Merrill leads them through another prison level. Even her walk is unnerving, her posture too straight, her gaze too straight ahead. No curiosity, no wonderment about little things. There is a weed growing in a crack, straining away from the red lyrium crystals and she doesn't see it. She walks in a world devoid of wonder and excitement and she just stands aside when guards attack them, just waiting for the fight to end.

Numbness has spread inside Carver. Whenever he looks at Merrill's impassive expression, something else inside of him dies. Every fight is just a set of motions, long practiced and repeated like an automaton.

When another guard with red glowing eyes falls before him, his face cut in half, Dorian comes up to him. He heals a cut on Carver's arm that he didn't even notice. "Carver, my friend, I'm very sorry but — "

"What?" Carver barks at him.

"I'm sorry for your pain and I'm horrified at what happened but I need you alert." Dorian takes a step back as if he expects Carver to attack him. "If you fall here, it will be the end of everything. But if we go back, none of this will happen."

Carver looks at Merrill and then back to Dorian and takes a deep breath. "You're right. I'm... I'll try."

"Please don't leave me behind," Merrill says, surprising him with her sudden appearance at his side.

Carver forces himself to look at her, to look into her dead eyes, fighting the pain threatening to overwhelm him. "I'm not going to."

Merrill nods. She waits for Carver to gather his things and then follows him up the stairs to another level. "I remember."

Carver misses a step and stumbles to keep his balance. "What do you remember?" The door opens to more red lyrium, locked rooms, and muffled screams.

"I remember I was sad. I cried a lot. I thought about you and it hurt like a wound."

Carver swallows against the lump in his throat. "And now?"

"I don't hurt like that. I don't know how." She looks up to Carver and for a moment her eyes seem to come alive. "It's all gone. But with you here, a part of me is still alive."

Carver searches her eyes for something, some familiarity but whatever life was there, it is gone. Pain screams in his chest and he bites down on it, covers it under a layer of despair and makes room for anger. He readies his shield. "Stay behind me and don't get hurt."

Varric throws him a nod and lines himself up behind him and Merrill, promising to protect her as well. Cassandra takes up her familiar position at his side, Vivienne and Dorian stay behind them. The next group of guards fall to their deaths before they can scream.

Yelling leads them to an unguarded door. Someone inside shouts, "You will break!" and Carver recognises Leliana's voice as she answers, "I will die first."

Carver kicks the door open and runs in. Leliana's arms are tied to the ceiling but when she recognizes him, she wraps her legs around the torturers neck and snarls, "Or you will."

The man gurgles until his neck breaks. Carver hurries over to cut her off and carries her to a bench to sit her down. She looks like she's aged fifty years, her skin grey and carved by deep wrinkles. Dorian starts a lengthy explanation as to how they got here but she interrupts him and stands up with surprising strength.

"And mages always wonder why people fear them... No one should have this power."

Dorian raises his hands. "It's dangerous and unpredictable, yes, but before the Breach, nothing we did — "

Leliana's hand cuts through the air. "Enough! This is all pretend to you, some future you hope will never exist. I suffered. The whole world suffers. It is real." She looks at Merrill and the mark on her forehead. "Some have suffered so much that they would envy her for her inability to feel this pain."

Carver looks away to hide the tears in his eyes. "We have to find Alexius to get back."

"The guards spoke of his room," Merrill says quietly. "He locked himself inside."

Leliana nods and picks up a bow from a pile in the corner. "It must be on the other side of the castle, through the courtyard." She doesn't look behind as she strides out of the cell.

As they step into the courtyard, the hair on the back of Carver's neck stand up. "There's a rift... holy Maker, is that the Breach?" He stares up to the sky. What used to be a hole in the sky in their time, now stretches across the whole sky, as far as he can see. There is no sunshine, only the green light from the breach. Rocks and statues are floating in the sky, drawn to the spinning maw above.

Varric shakes his head. "The whole sky is the Breach now."

"This grew in just one year?"

"And rifts all over the place too."

Carver adjusts his grip on his sword. "There's several rifts near by."

Dorian nods towards his Herald-hand. "The mark should still work here."

The demons rising from the rifts are strong and aggressive but Cassandra, Vivienne and Varric have not lost their abilities and Dorian and Leliana quickly fit in. Merrill stays to the side, hiding behind cover whenever they get attacked. Even if she can't feel emotional pain, she feels physical pain and she aims to avoid it.

Carver glances at Merrill and replaces his pain of seeing her like this with anger. Soon, his rage fuels him to hit harder, faster and he rips every rift apart with all the power he can give. At some point, Varric has to urge him to use a health potion so that he doesn't stumble from exhaustion.

Vivienne comes to his side and looks over to Merrill. "I'm sorry. It's not right."

Carver laughs out bitterly. "Didn't we have this conversation before?"

Vivienne lowers her head. "I did not see."

"Well, if we're successful, you'll never need to." Carver turns away from her, his voice fading as pain chokes him.

They enter the royal living rooms and ball rooms on the other side of the courtyard. The castle is trashed, the roof caved in, and red lyrium is growing from the walls. What they find from the people who lived here or took over the rooms, are notes of fear and snarling optimism turned into despair and hopelessness.

The trail of destruction leads them to the locked doors of the main hall. The path is familiar, they came this way when they entered the castle, today and also one year ago. But the doors to the throne hall remain closed. The pattern on the doors lights up as they approach, the light crawling through the lines from the bottom to the top.

"How did he even find this? He must be so paranoid," Dorian says as he hovers his palm over the pattern, casting his own magic onto it. "This is ancient, possibly elvhen."

"Can you open it?" Carver asks.

"There must be a key for the servants, he has to eat after all." Dorian traces the pattern again and then pulls his hand away as if it burns. "A key with lyrium enchantments would be my guess."

"Where in the void can we get this now, here?"

"Lyrium enchantment are dangerous," Vivienne says.

Merrill turns to her. "Not for me."

Carver forces himself to look at her, to bear the blankness of her gaze. "Could you draw the enchantments if we find the key?"

"Yes."

Carver digs into the bag at his belt and pulls out an uneven but deliberately formed stone. "Dorian, does this look like an elven key?"

Dorian takes the piece and holds it up. "My friend, I have a new appreciation for all the shit you keep collecting. Now we just need to — "

Merrill holds a splinter of red lyrium in her hand and holds the other out to Dorian. He gives her the stone and she traces the runic patterns on the stone with the glowing crystal in her hand. It lights up and pulses. No pride shows on Merrill's face for what she accomplished, as she holds the stone out to Dorian.

Dorian points to the center of the doors. "Put it right here."

The pattern lights up with a hum and the doors swing open.

They enter the throne room, the familiar columns leading them forward to a lone figure standing bowed over the empty throne, holding himself up on the arm rests. Next to him a frail human lies more than sits on the floor and looks at them with eyes so deeply sunken in that they are invisible.

"I knew you would appear again, not when, but I knew I didn't destroy you." Alexius pushes himself off the throne and turns around. There's no red fog clinging to him but despair clings to him just the same. "My final failure."

"Was it worth it, what ever you tried to achieve?" Carver yells at him. "All this suffering, was it worth it?"

"I doesn't matter," Alexius says. "We can all just wait for the end now."

"What did you do?" Dorian asks.

Carver steps forward. "What's ending?

Alexius lets out a chuckle. "The irony that you should appear now, of all the possibilities. After all that I fought for, all that I have betrayed and now, what have I wrought? Ruin and death."

"Spare me the theatrics," Carver spits out. He glances at Merrill, how she looks impassively at the scene and he winces at the pain in his chest. Everything that made her, her love, her curiosity, her empathy, it's all gone and he just wants to wake from this nightmare and never see her like this again.

Alexius shakes his head. "There is nothing to hope for. The Elder One comes, for you and me, he's coming for all of us."

Leliana rushes to the person huddled on the ground and pulls him up, holding a knife to his throat. "Enough!"

The man looks like a corpse, grey skin stretched over bones and eyes rolled back in his head.

"No," Alexius cries, "Felix!"

"That's Felix?" Dorian runs forward and stares at the skeletal man. "Maker's breath Alexius, what have you done?"

"He would have died!" Alexius cries out. "I saved him."

"That's not saving him," Carver says, "that's condemning him."

"Please don't hurt my son, I'll do anything."

Leliana snarls at him. "You can do nothing." Fixing her eyes on Alexius, she draws the knife across his son's throat and let's the dying man drop.

"No!" Alexius stumbles forward to catch his son in his arms but he is too late. His grief quickly transforms into anger, a rift opens in the middle of the room and demons once again rise from the ground.

They scramble to get back into a secure formation, hindered by Alexius turning invisible and reappearing at different spots of the room. His spells hit Cassandra and Leliana in the back before Varric gets him with a bolt that seems to make it more difficult for him to stealth himself. Rushing after the flickering shape of Alexius, Carver desperately searches for Merrill, to make sure she is safe.

At last he spots her, hidden behind the throne. Just in that moment, Alexius runs up towards her, a spell singing in his hands and Carver runs faster than he ever has. His shield drops from his hand, light shoots from his Herald-hand and it hits Alexius like a lightning bolt and reflects into the rift. He whips around, snarling at Carver, the ball of light in his hand spitting and hissing and Carver jumps up the last step and plunges his sword into Alexius' chest.

Blood hits Merrill in the face but she doesn't flinch. Carver turns around and closes the rift before he collapses against the throne. The remaining demons fall to ashes and silence stretches out in the hall.

Dorian kneels down beside Alexius' corpse. "He wanted to die, didn't he? All his lies and justifications."

Carver sighs. "I know he was someone important for you once but really, you can do much better, trust me."

"Once he was a man to whom I compared all others. Sad, isn't it?"

Carver pushes himself off the floor and walks over to Dorian. "Well, in my experience, idolization is seldom a good idea and most people can't live up to it." He kneels down and removes the amulet from Alexius' neck and hands it to Dorian. "Will this work?"

Dorian nods. "Give me an hour and I should be able to rework the spell and — "

Lelaina steps up to them, her deeply sunken eyes staring in unsettling red. "An hour? No, you cannot wait, you must go now."

The ground begins to shake and a shrieking sound seems to permeate the air. Decoration crumbles from the columns and dust and rubble falls from the ceiling.

"The Elder One," Leliana whispers, looking scared for the first time.

"You have to hurry, Junior," Varric says. "This... this is bad." He exchanges a look with Cassandra and then looks at Vivienne until she nods too. "We'll hold the main door. Once they're through, it's all on you Nightingale."

"No," Carver calls out, "I can't let you sacrifice yourselves."

"Look at us!" Leliana says. "We're already dead. The only way we can live is if this day never comes."

Merrill's voice comes from the back. "Please go, Carver. Don't let this be the true world."

Carver looks at Merrill and then nods at Dorian. With the amulet in his hand, Dorian steps up to the throne and lets the amulet float in front of him in a green light, his mouth forming words.

Cassandra, Varric and Vivienne walk towards the main doors, their weapons ready.

At the door, Vivienne turns to Carver. "Herald, please make sure that I see." She steps into the hallway and the door closes behind her.

"Cast your spell," Leliana says. "You have as much time as I have arrows." She steps inf ront of the doors, arrow and bow in her hands. As the sound of fighting becomes louder on the other side of the door, she begins to chant. "Though darkness closes, I am shielded by flame."

The door breaks down, Varric's lifeless body is tossed inside. Red templars and terror demons stalk inside on spindly legs and the first fall to Leliana's arrows. She keeps on chanting as she fires arrow after arrow. "Andraste guide me. Maker, take me to your side."

Carver watches as she keeps shooting until an arrow hits herself and she stumbles backwards. He starts to run towards her but Dorian holds him back.

"You move, and we'll all die!"

Out of arrows, Leliana now hits the attacking templars with her bow until one grabs her from behind and chokes her. Behind Dorian, the green spinning vortex opens, slowly widening. Carver turns to Merrill, who watches them without emotion. He tries to find words to say. Leliana cries out and he sees her fall to the ground. Just as Dorian pulls him towards the vortex, an arrow flies towards him, aimed for his heart.

He sees the arrow fly towards its target, too fast to step out of the way. But then Merrill steps in front of him, gasping as the arrow pierces her back and she falls into Carver's arms.

"No!" Carver holds her frail body up, blood quickly seeping through her clothes.

"Carver, now!" Dorian yells, holding out his hand.

"Go," Merrill whispers, "go, vhenan."

Carver lets her fall from his arms and Dorian pulls him into the silence of the portal as he sees her head hitting the ground. Her blood sticks to his hands.