Varric's hand lingered on the small of Maria's back, a potent reminder of his taste in her mouth, his whiskey smooth voice growling decadent promises against her skin. She could still feel his rough stubble against her thighs, prickling the sensitive skin of her breasts. She remembered his muscles, coiled under her fingertips. Both dangerous and safe because he was Varric, and if his teeth nipped, he soothed the sting away immediately. Each touch able to light her on fire from the inside out.
She hadn't been thinking clearly when she fell into his embrace. His touch awakened something, some hidden, primal monster inside her that demanded more, insisted her fears, her worries didn't matter. All that mattered was his skin against hers, his voice growling in his ear, his fingers and mouth and tongue and…
It felt like a dream already, something dashed against harsh reality.
It was probably for the best. Nothing had changed. Nothing at all except she knew now how effortlessly he could unmake her, how easy it was to let him in, and she could never forget it. Never. If they hadn't been stopped, if Cullen hadn't come to find her...
Maria didn't know whether to laugh or cry. Thwarted desire burned fiercely in her stomach next to bubbling fear. The ache of unfulfilled longing beat alongside pure panic and Varric's hand remained resolutely on the small of her back like an anchor.
Under attack. Under attack, now? By who? Why? She slammed the vortex shut, exactly what she was supposed to, and Haven was finally safe. They were safe, she'd never have to worry about demons or magic ever again. She could return to the monsters that lived in the real world instead of the ones crawling through cracks in reality.
"Ria!" Bea's shriek carried across the tense square by Haven's gate, both alarmed and relieved. Her sister broke from Bull's grip, racing to throw her arms around Maria's neck. She nearly toppled under the force of the tackle, but managed to steady both Bea and herself before they fell to the concrete. She got her feet solidly beneath her just in time to feel Bea stiffen and to hear her sniff, audibly at Maria's neck.
Varric's cologne, subtle and undoubtedly expensive, clung to her skin like a memory. Beatrix placed the smell immediately and pulled away to sweet a critical gaze over Maria. She imagined Bea could trace Varric's leisurely path from her kiss-swollen lips, through her mused hair, scraping down to the blighted underwear that stuck uncomfortably to her when she walked.
Bea's accusing eyes swung right to Varric over Maria's shoulder. He hastily dropped his hand from her back, but not before Bea noted that too with narrowed eyes and a twitch of her button nose. She didn't look away from Varric as she uttered one word. "Seriously?"
Cullen coughed awkwardly and Maria flushed in the cold despite herself. Sweet sodding ancestors and Andraste's heaving tits, she was going to kill them all.
"Yes, Mittens?" Varric asked, all playful innocence and teasing, flirtatious innuendo. Bea's lips pressed into a tight, narrow line and she turned her scorching glare onto Maria.
Maria spent a lot of time on the other end of Bea's hostile gaze, but she never got used to it. Unfortunately for Bea, in this instance, Maria had also spent entirely too much of her life pulling her sister out of beds, couches, showers and a plethora of not-quite-dark-enough clubs to really feel like Bea had any room to talk at all. Especially since, really, nothing had happened.
"Seriously?" Maria echoed flatly, letting her eyes skip to Sera behind Bea's back. She was in the midst of using Blackwall like a damn ladder to climb on top of a building, vanishing as she vaulted over the gabled roof in a flurry of garish leggings and studded leather. Bea opened her mouth, brash and unashamed, to defend herself but Dorian very nearly shoved her aside in his haste. "Ah, good. You've finally arrived. We have a rather serious problem."
With practiced elegance, Dorian managed to insert himself between Maria and Varric, sweeping her out from even Cullen's protective shadow before Bea could continue pitching her little tantrum. He slipped one hand onto her shoulder lightly and squeezed it firmly. She looked up at him, his striking face cast in harsh shadows. "We're under attack?"
"It does appear so." Dorian kept his voice carefully light. "More information would be helpful, but the boy is distraught. I was informed you alone could calm him."
Maria didn't need to ask who. "Where is he?"
Cole rocked back and forth in the dirt, arms twisted around his skinny knees, Vivienne and Solas above him. Vivienne's boot tapped an impatient rhythm on the sidewalk and the gentle murmuring falling from Solas's mouth appeared to be doing little to soothe him. Leliana paced nearby, gesturing angrily as she snapped at someone on her phone while Josephine wrung her hands nearby. The rest of their team stood in a tight, wary circle. They parted as she approached, falling beside her effortlessly.
Maria sank into a crouch beside Cole, the same way she had the first time she met him. She remembered it rained that day and she'd been soaked through, shivering her tits off, waiting for a smuggler to show up for hours. The sea pitched gray foam and everything smelled foul. When she'd finally handed off the lyrium, all she could think about was going home and crawling into bed with a cup of Nanna's favorite hot tea, then staying there the rest of the night.
Instead, she'd found Cole. She pictured him as he'd been: bleeding, hiding behind a massive cargo container, whimpering just like he was now. Maria gently reached out the same way she had that evening, letting her fingers brush his shoulder as lightly as she could. "Hey kid. You alright?"
She didn't flinch, expecting his white knuckled grip to fly to her hand on his shoulder. The first time, he'd moved so quickly she barely registered it all, had her other hand halfway to the piece in her waistband before she'd realized he was clutching onto her fingers for dear life.
This time she wrapped her fingers tightly around his and shushed him softly. "It's alright Cole. I'm here."
"It sings." Cole whimpered, clutching her till her bones ached and ground together in protest. "Sick songs. Red songs. The pieces jar, they wanted to make the world safe but they swallowed lies and poison. It sings and it won't stop. It won't stop. It won't…"
Bea sings because she's trying to drown out… whatever the fuck she hears in her head now. She says it's a song.
But it wasn't real. It wasn't real and it could never be real. The urge to look away from Cole, to look back over her shoulder and make sure Bea's eyes didn't gleam red, that Varric's form wasn't marred by scars and battle, was hard to resist. But she managed to keep her eyes locked on Cole. "Red songs?" She repeated.
"They're red inside." Cole confirmed, his pale eyes finally visible under the jagged fall of his hair. They rolled from side to side, like a spooked animal looking for escape. Maria clenched her own fingers back around his, trying to pull him back.
"Who?" She asked tersely. Cole's frightened gaze finally locked on her own.
"The templars." He whispered. "They're coming. They'll kill you. They killed Rhys, they killed my friend, they'll kill everyone and it'll be red. It'll all be red."
"Shit." Varric swore softly from behind her. "Shit. That… that sounds to me like the Templars decided to follow in Meredith's rather insane footsteps. I guess they didn't get the 'shrieking insanity' portion of the memo."
"This?" Cullen's shock was palatable, his voice clearly shaken. "This is the order's response to our enlisting the witches? Red lyrium and attacking blindly?"
"The guards at the mountain pass checkpoint are all silent. I cannot reach any of them, I have pulled the rest back." Leliana snapped. "I do not know how many soldiers are coming, but it is a force that could easily take Haven. I have tried all… all avenues to ask for assistance."
Leliana reached up to touch her covered forearm, frowning in disappointment. Josephine jumped in. "Help is on the way, but it takes time to mobilize forces, time to get them here, time we do not…"
"They killed Rhys!" Cole wailed. His tears slid down his cheeks and Maria leaned forward, pressed her forehead against his and used her free hand to smooth the salty tracks away.
"Cole… Cole, sweetheart, look at me." She insisted, waiting for Cole's eyes to flick back to hers. When he finally met her gaze again she held it, steady. "They're not gonna kill me, okay?"
"You took his magic. You took his witches." Cole's horrified whisper carried past them. She could feel it in the way the knot of people surrounding them tightened. "The Elder One is coming to take them back."
Maria ripped her gaze from Cole and looked up to Dorian. He suddenly looked more grave than she had yet seen him. "Ah, knew we hadn't heard the end of that."
Maria squeezed Cole's shoulder and pulled away, standing straight. For some damn reason, everyone stared at her with varying degrees of both alarm and determination. Maria closed her eyes and took a breath, filled her lungs with cold, clear air.
It couldn't happen. It wouldn't happen. She clenched her hands into tight fists and tried to sort through her own chaotic thoughts. "Have they sent word? What do they want from us?"
"Nothing. We have heard nothing." Josephine's voice shook just like Cullen's, pitched on the edge of hysteria. "It is… this is a violation of the Alamarri Accord, this is primarily a civilian settlement. To attack like this…"
"Whatever the order does next, they do not expect to be held accountable or face the consequences." Leliana broke in, words razor sharp. "Clearly, we have gone beyond playing by the rules."
"We don't have enough soldiers to fight the order. Even with the witches…" Cullen muttered. "If we could control the field, if we could…"
The Elder One came with demons. Came with monsters that would rip a man to shreds. They had children in Haven, more innocent people than Maria could count. Her sister, Bull and Cole, the team that helped her close the breach...
Varric. Her heart thudded in her chest and she swallowed in a breath desperately before opening her eyes. She whipped her face to Bull, tipping her head up to stare at him. Bull would know, Bull would have an idea, he had to. He fought in Seheron, struck down witches and guerilla fighters for the Qun. She listened to some of his battle stories, knew what he'd seen. Whatever happened, he'd be prepared for it. She could count on him to keep calm, count on him to be solid in a way almost nobody else was.
"What would you do?" Maria demanded. With a hostile enemy on their doorstep, a city of refugees at their back, and a monster baying for blood, what could they possibly do?
"If we can't run, if we can't dig in…" Bull scratched at his chin and swung his considering gaze down to her. "If they haven't made demands… there's really only one thing to do, Boss."
"Accept the inevitable with great wailing and gnashing of teeth?" Dorian suggested snidely. Bull smirked, but he didn't look away from her. His gaze, both measuring and thoughtful, made her feel like a kid again. Maria felt the answer rising like a bubble through the fear, through the dread.
"Hit 'em first." She answered by rote. Wasn't that what Bull always taught her? If you were cornered, if you were out of options, if nothing else worked…
Hit them first and hit them hard. Maybe, just maybe, it would save your life. At the very least, you'd make them work for it.
"Our fate is in the hands of the Maker." Leliana whispered. "If we must perish…"
They would perish at the hands of monsters. Of red lyrium behemoths and demons with talons and teeth. Maria's fear reflected on Dorian's face, the only other person in the world who could know what the Elder One brought. Whatever he was, whoever he was, they couldn't hope to…
"Right!" Sera dropped from the nearby roof, scattering Maria's thoughts to the wind and holding a sack nearly as large as her over one shoulder. "Satinalia's come early, yeah?"
"My Satlinalia typically involves more booze. Less chance of imminent murder." Bea's snarky response only made Sera grin lewdly and wink in her general direction.
"No breeches too, right?" Sera asked wickedly, carelessly swinging the bag off her shoulder and pulling the drawstring with a flourish. Maria couldn't see much beyond colorless bricks of something wrapped in clear plastic.
"What in the Maker's name…" Cassandra started as Sera hefted one of the blocks from the bag, her pointed features alight with manic joy.
"Good stuff! Found it in the basement. Was gonna take it back to Orlais to play, but jackboot says he needs all the help he can get so…" She waved one of the blocks in a circle over her head as if to illustrate a point. One Maria felt she was clearly missing.
"Sera." Maria interrupted the show. "What is it?"
Sera broke into giggles. "The kinda stuff that goes boom, right? They were usin' it to dig for musty old relics up in the mountains. I was gonna take just a bit at a time and blow up toilets. Gross, right?"
"Sweet Andraste, is that polymer explosive?" Cullen asked, flinching away as Sera rounded unsteadily on him, holding it out with a sickly sweet grin.
"Give that to me! Before you get us all killed!" Cullen demanded, tugging the sack from her immediately and looking down into it with a scowl. "There's enough explosive in here to bring…"
Cullen trailed off, slack jawed, then lifted his head back up. He didn't look at Maria but over the top of her head, over all their heads, to the mountains rising above them. "Maker's breath, it could work."
"Cullen!" Cassandra snapped impatiently. Cullen dropped his gaze back to the sack in his hand with grim determination.
"The bulk of the force is still over the east mountain." Cullen murmured. "A strategic blast would cause an avalanche that would… but how to get this up there…"
Cullen was right. It could work. It was just the heavy, hard hit to stun an opponent, the kind Bull taught her to look for. She swung her eyes back up to Bull and he grinned down, something warm sparking to life in one eye.
But how to…
"Well, seeing as how it's a good cause…" Varric broke in, drawing her eyes to him. His smile was bright, sunny, only small lines at his brow betraying any worry at all. His eyes glimmered dark in the streetlights above them, the same way they'd shone just before he crashed his lips into hers. A mix of desperate, passionate intensity hidden by playfulness.
"I've been trying to convince Harding to let me fly the drone." Varric continued conspiratorially, eyes on hers, and she could feel the warmth of his voice settle in her stomach like a fortifying sip of whiskey. She hoped the shiver it sent through her went unnoticed, but she swore she saw Bea's eyes narrow again. "I bet it's more than capable of dropping some explosives on a mountain."
xx
Harding twisted the remote in her hands with a rather tense frown, holding Varric's gaze. He, for his part, tried gamely to tamp down his excitement from being obvious. "If you break it, I am going to get reimbursed, right?" She asked suspiciously.
"Would I damage my favorite reporter's most vital piece of equipment?" Varric responded, reaching for the remote, perhaps a bit too eagerly. Harding immediately drew back, frown deepening. Varric didn't hold back his sigh, shooting a wounded, dismayed look at her. "Harding, I'm good for it. Swear."
"Rich bastard." Bea muttered under her breath. Varric ignored her grumbling, focusing instead on the remote as Harding finally handed it over with a great deal of trepidation. He had the navigation controls pulled up on his tablet and Bianca in his ear, ready to go. Now he just had to cause a massive landslide. Really, he thought with no small amount of self-deprecation, the avalanche of trouble he'd been causing all his life was just practice for this moment.
He chanced a glance up from the display, watching the flurry of activity unfold before him. The barricades at the main roads into town were being reinforced as much as they could be with plywood, traffic barriers, hell, he thought he saw a kitchen table somewhere. Anything that wasn't nailed down was free game.
He also thought he heard the first faint pops of gunfire in the distance. A cold shiver ran down his spine and he ground his teeth together. They were running out of time. "Sera, you've got that hooked up yet?"
"Don't see you doin' anything except twiddling your joystick." Sera grumbled. Bea huffed out a small breath of laughter that brought gleaming, wicked light to the elf's face. That, Varric thought, was not a partnership anyone needed to be encouraging. Somebody, frankly, needed to step in and stop it before it careened off the rails like a runaway train and took out an entire town.
But Bea's own smile curled up at the edge like smoke and Varric looked away, thinking not of her smile, but one achingly similar if always a bit more heavy.
Maria was easy to locate, her loose red hair a beacon in the glow of the lights. Loose, because he'd pulled it out of that neat little bun at the nape of her neck, dropped the tie on the floor and carried her curvy, warm body up to her bed to ravish. He could still feel the smooth slide of her skin against his, her breath warm against his neck, her fingers tugging his hair while his name slipped from those sinfully plump lips.
It hadn't been anything except a taste, a tease, and dammit, it hadn't been nearly enough of one before they all landed back in the fire. Before she ended up back on the front line, her hair a flag for anyone to see because he was a damn idiot.
He should have thought to pick her hair tie up off the ground too when he found his. Or at the very least ripped Cole's hat off his head before sending him to the chantry so they could shove it over hers.
"Little B! Over here!"
Bull's voice boomed across the square. Bea frowned, but didn't look over her shoulder. He could see the thoughts flit across her face clearly. Bea's entire posture spoke of rebellion and mutiny, her fierce, burning desire to stay planted right where she was.
"Do you really want to get slung over Bull's shoulder in front of everyone and hauled up to the chantry?" Varric asked with a lifted eyebrow. Not that he couldn't use the laugh, but he was relatively certain they all had better things to do.
"Where they shoved all the kids?" Bea snapped. "No thanks."
Not just the kids. Anyone that wasn't a trained soldier, witch with some skill in combat, or one of Maria's more...eccentric fighters. Which, Varric supposed, was where he fit into play. As wicked and dangerous as Bea was, she didn't belong on the front lines.
"Here." He pulled the spare pistol he'd been gifted by the Seeker from his waist. "You know how to shoot?"
Bea's face blanched, a split second of fear before she could quite wipe it away. Varric couldn't help but be intrigued that one Cadash sister hardly seemed at home without a gun in her hand, the other looked at a weapon like it may bite her. Something to file away for later, he supposed. If there was a later. "This was Ria and dad's game. Not mine."
"Yeah, well. There's no safety on this, so you pull the trigger you're shooting someone. Try not to aim it at anyone you may want to have a conversation with later." Varric checked the clip before he handed it to her, steady into her gray eyes.
"Right." Bea said weakly, hand curling around the black grip. The second it did she shivered uncertainly, more skittish than he'd ever seen her. Like a cat with her tail stuck in a mousetrap, he thought.
"Little B, move your ass or I'm moving it for you!" Bull called again. Bea flicked her eyes back up to his, still unconvinced.
"Listen, Mittens. If this goes to shit, you and Cole are the last line of defense for those people." Refugees, townsfolk, witch children, all of them stuffed into the Chantry's basement. All of them, helpless. Bea may not be a trained soldier, or even half the marksman her sister was, but he'd bet she'd take down a couple templars if she got pissed. Easily.
"If this goes to shit, my sister is out here." Bea's voice hitched and Varric softened. If only, he thought grimly, he had a sibling that loved him like that. What had happened between him and Bartrand that they grew up so opposed?
What was wrong with him that Bartrand stabbed him in the back without a second thought?
"We've got her back." Varric promised, pulling his thoughts away from the dark, depressing direction they'd turned. Bea didn't look quite like she believed him, gray eyes dark with fear.
"Beatrix!" Maria's shout carried back towards them. "I swear on every last moldy ancestor we have if you don't get out of here I'll…"
"I'm fucking going!" Bea slammed the pistol into her coat pocket and tore her gaze from Varric to glare stiffly towards Maria. Their Herald stood framed in the gates of Haven, gunfire growing louder, closer. Wind whipped her hair across her face and Varric's heart thudded unevenly. Beneath the crimson strands, he swore her eyes were on fire.
"If something happens to her, I'll shoot you right in your damn cock Tethras. I swear." Bea hissed, lurching away gracelessly.
"Wait!" Sera wiggled her eyebrows pointedly and threw her arms out, droid with dangling bits of explosive in one hand, rifle in the other. "Just up and gone, yeah? Nothin' for luck?"
"You don't want any of my luck." Bea's word blew back bitter as she hunched her shoulders and stomped away towards Bull. Sera frowned at her retreating back, but before Varric could decide whether or not it would be faster to comfort the elf or to just take the damn explosives and finish the job himself, Bea looked over her shoulder.
"I'll offer a lap dance if you don't get yourself killed. Best I can do." She called back, loud enough that from somewhere on the front lines, he heard Cassandra's throaty sound of disgust. Varric choked on his own shocked laugh.
"Hear that?" Sera rounded on one combat-booted heel and thrust the explosives right at his chest. "Me and short an' sweet are gonna be all tangled up with her bits in…"
"Thank you for the image, Buttercup." Varric cut off, immediately. He didn't need to hear about where Bea's interesting bits were going to end up. It felt, first off, a bit incestuous. Second, all it did was remind him of where his bits should have been. His original plans for this evening had been much, much better than fighting for their lives against the entire damn templar order who may or may not be jacked up on red lyrium.
He watched Sera race after Bea, her long arm catching her just enough to cop a quick feel and plant a sloppy kiss on her cheek. Varric felt an unwelcome pang of loss looking at the easiness of the gesture. Varric looked back for Maria framed in the gates and saw she too was watching the breezy affection. It was too dark to read her expression clearly despite how desperately Varric wanted to. She seemed frozen, watching as Bull took Bea's shoulder and worked to untangle her from the elf. Paralyzed by the scene.
"Maria!" Her name flew from his lips without any thought, but it felt right. It felt like the only damn thing that made sense in the world. She twisted to him, and Varric suddenly realized he hadn't exactly planned what he was going to say next.
For once, perhaps at the most important moment, Varric Tethras was at a loss for words. Everything that flew through his head sounded cheap, trite, or shallow. He couldn't twist the words into something that encompassed her or them.
If there was a them.
"We'll keep them off of you!" She shouted back in the echoing chasm between them, too wide for him to bridge. Too large to cross in the short span of time they had. Varric watched her turn away, just as he heard someone scream. Close, too close.
Stay safe because I'm not ready to lose you yet. The words stuck in his throat, but it didn't matter. She was already leaping into the fray, abandoning him behind the front lines.
"Thedas to Tethras." Harding interrupted impatiently, shouldering her camera in one hand and piercing him with a withering glare. "You gonna stare after her longingly or we gonna try to save all our dwarven asses?"
Void take him for a coward when it mattered most. "I'm offended by the insinuation that I can't multitask." He held up the drone, the mass of explosives dangling from its release mechanism. "Let's get this in the air."
xx
Maria nearly lost her nerve. She could hear something in the darkness, a sound like something scratching at thin walls trying to get out. It reminded her of the tunnels beneath Redcliffe, but then she'd thought it was rats or spiders in the dark, thought that was the worst thing to be frightened of.
She knew better now. She knew what waited in the darkness. She suspected, now, the noise she heard wasn't anything you could fight with fists or guns. It was, instead, the beginning of a terrible, twisted song. One that brought terror and madness in its wake.
She watched Bull lead her sister away and fought the urge to scream after them, to beg him to take her too. They could run, they could run from the monsters and they could keep running until nobody could catch them. They could run until Haven, until Dwyka, until her own bloodstained past was nothing but a dim, horrible memory. It didn't matter what happened to these people trapped here, they weren't her people. Her people were walking away, trapped in this town, and it was her fault and...
Varric called her name. Everything stopped. Everything sharpened. Varric stood, silhouetted on the stairs against the town, droid and explosives in hand. The air crackled between them, the way it had when he pulled back after kissing her. The way it always did.
Varric Tethras would never think to flee. Varric Tethras sacrificed himself for her with a smile on his face once. The chaos pressed against them and Varric stood calmly at the center of it. Her mouth went dry and she swallowed her own self-loathing.
She didn't deserve him. She could never deserve him, never be the kind of person who should crash into him recklessly, joyously, but she could be brave. She could do that, at least, for him. She owed it to him.
"We'll keep them off of you!" She cried back, choking on all the fears, pushing away the scratching sounds in the darkness. Other things struggled to push their way to her lips, apologies and explanations. A whispered plea that she was only a broken, battered thing but that she wanted…
She tore herself away before she could say anything else. It didn't matter what she wanted, after all. Not when the world was ending, not when this was her chance to be the kind of woman her family would be proud of.
The first massive, military grade vehicle spun up the road, tires squealing. Maria didn't know much about cars, except how to hotwire them, she never even learned to drive. A detached part of her wondered why humans had to always oversize everything. The tires were damn near as tall as she was as they spun up the road, heedless of the barriers in their way or the people manning them.
Maria held her pistol up carefully, fingers wrapping around the trigger. The vehicle sped up and Maira thought she heard people yelling, gunshots piercing the darkness around them. It all fell away, not as loud as her heartbeat pounding in her ears. She held the gun gently and took a deep breath, held it.
Her mind flashed back, reminded her that a long time ago, a young Maria played the piano in a crowded, cozy apartment in Hercinia. She always held her breath before striking the first note too.
Her gunshot cut through the silence and the vehicle lurched to the side, spinning out of control. Behind her, she heard the drone lift into the air, blades slicing through the air with a ghostly whir, but her eyes couldn't look away from the vehicle as it crashed into a snowbank, figures spilling out of it. Hulking humans, dressed in gray fatigues, spikes of red lyrium ripping through their clothes, growing from skin and bone, eyes as crimson as blood.
Something was scratching at the walls. She could hear it. She knew it was there.
It knew where she was too.