Mire Musings

Fallow Mire

The wind shifted and the smell rolled over them like a crashing wave. Almost immediately Shaehari's vision blurred and she gagged. 'By the Dread Wolf, what could make such a stench?!' She quickly switched to breathing through her mouth, but even that could not completely erase it. Somehow the torrents of rainfall that had long since soaked her through could wash away everything but the foulness of the air. Iron Bull glanced over at her and did his best to cover his amusement. Catching his expression Shaehari pointedly turned away from him.

'Stupid shems getting captured in this stupid swamp and stupid Isaac going along with this stupid mission…' Shaehari's grumblings were well hidden underneath her hood. The rain continued to pour as she tucked herself in further in a vain attempt to ward it off. Her efforts were for naught as her horse chose that moment to rear up its head and a small curtain of water flew from its mane up into her face. Shaehari sputtered and shook herself; beside her Iron Bull lost his fight and let a short burst of laughter escape him.

Ahead Isaac glanced back at her. For a moment she thought he might say something before he turned back again as if dismissing her misery. He returned his attention back to Varric and continued the conversation as if nothing had happened. Shaehari fixed them both with a glare: it could just be a friendly chat, but seeing how he ignored her it must be about whatever foreknowledge he feels is important enough to share with Varric and not with her. 'Seems shems are all the same; a promise means nothing to them'. Feeling miffed at his apparent disregard Shaehari reverted back to elvish as she continued cursing everything and everyone around her while ignoring the Sera's giggling and Blackwall's groaning behind her.

The downpour had begun just a day past and thus far showed no signs of stopping as they traveled south on yet another mission. Ostensibly, this was simply another means of spreading their influence: rifts in the Fallow Mire would normally go unnoticed by greater Fereldan and spreading the Inquisition's presence would strengthen their case with both the mages and the templars. In reality, Isaac had argued strongly for the rescue of the soldiers and offered the chance for a new recruit and the discovery of a new route through the Frostbacks. As if that weren't enough, he reminded them that the context of his knowledge lacked an important detail: he didn't know how much time they would have. Shaehari felt a now-familiar anger surge up in her: Isaac's foreknowledge now got all the attention of the council, leaving her more of a tag-along that ever before.

'The shem even had the audacity to take matters into his own hands when my clan was in danger! He didn't even discuss it with me before making his decision. Is it really that difficult to come speak with me?" Shaehari sighed as her anger dwindled to a simmer once again. 'That is, if he ever finds more than a minute to speak with me.'

Shaehari felt a frown form on her face. Ever since Isaac had revealed to the inner council the truth it seemed as if he suddenly had a million things to do and no time to do them. Before she could count on seeing him for at least part of the day but now she was lucky to catch him before sundown as he moved from one companion to the next. It was strange to see, especially when he had agreed that beyond them only five people needed to know: the three advisors, Cassandra, and Varric. Shaehari had briefly considered Solas, but a cloud had passed over Isaac's face and he adamantly refused to discuss it with the apostate. 'Odd, since Solas is the one he approaches most. Why ask questions that he already knows the answer to?' Shaehari shook her head. 'Get it together Shaehari; it doesn't matter what he does so long as he stays focused.' She refused to consider what else it could be.

She was so lost in her thoughts that it wasn't until Iron Bull repeated himself that she noticed him speaking. "I'm sorry, what?"

Iron Bull had a glint in his eye as he asked again, "How did you and him end up coming out of the Fade together?"

Shaehari rolled her eyes as she looked away from him. "Shouldn't you already know, Ben-Hassrath? We both came out of the Fade with no memory of how we had gotten in there."

"So, were you two having another secret rendezvous before everything went to crap? Perhaps you went looking for a quiet room, where no one could hear?" Bull's grin widened as Shaehari blushed before her expression darkened like a thundercloud.

"One, don't ever insinuate such things between me and that shem again," Shaehari growled as Bull held up a placating hand. "I would sooner burn him alive than let him touch me like that. Two, I had never seen him before explosion, much less met him."

"Really?" Bull inflected the word as his eyebrow rose. "Strange seeing as the two of you are usually inseparable."

"Not by choice," Shaehari scoffed. "With these damn marks both of us have to work together to seal rifts. Moment that's done, he can vanish back to wherever he came from. I'd rather be back in my clan."

"Hmm, I don't think that it will be that simple."

'Oh?' Shaehari turned towards Iron Bull. "What makes you think that?"

"I've been listening to some of your soldiers. Most of them see you as two halves of the Herald, rather than two people forced together. If you go your separate ways as soon as the Breach is closed, there's a good chance people will take that as an end to the Inquisition."

Shaehari tilted her head. "Would that really be a bad thing? The Inquisition was just a response to the threat. No threat, no need for an Inquisition."

"It could work out that way. Maybe all the assholes that sat on their hands will step up and take care of wrapping up. It won't happen, but it could. That reminds me, do you know what's going on between the boss and Red?"

Shaehari quickly brought up a look of simple curiosity. "Nothing unusual. Why do you ask?"

Iron Bull huffed. "She and the boss have been speaking on an almost daily basis for a week now. Before they all but ignored each other outside of the war room; now they are thick as thieves. The Ben-Hassrath want to know if she has plans for him after the Inquisition but when Red learned I was interested…well."

Shaehari couldn't keep a smile from arising. "Leliana gave you the third-degree."

Iron Bull laughed. "Not quite that bad, but enough. It seems the Nightingale has taken Isaac under her wing."

Shaehari nodded. 'That she has.'

The hours passed by as they continued south. Varric soon fell behind to speak with Bull and Shaehari took her play beside Isaac. The rode in silence for a while, neither quite knowing what to say. Finally, Shaehari glanced up at the path ahead. "We'll be arriving at the Inquisition camp soon. Feel like sharing anything before we get there?" She hadn't meant to be as biting as it came out, but thankfully Isaac seemed to understand.

"There are going to be a lot of undead between us and the soldiers. As I recall there were four pillars along the dry, well, dryer path that would lure the undead and the terrors that lead them out of the mud onto solid ground. If we light all four with Veilfire, that will make leaving the Mire much easier. Beside that, I think there may be a rogue apostate and only two rifts in the area."

Shaehari nodded and narrowed her eyes. "You waited this long to tell me?"

Isaac turned and met her gaze with a smirk. "You waited this long to ask?"

Shaehari felt her jaw drop briefly. 'That little…' "I presume you might want to give me a heads up of your own accord, or do you enjoy being the important one out of the two of us."

Isaac recoiled slightly before glaring. "Oh yes, terribly important. I just love being reduced to a common crystal ball for fortune tellers. I could just write everything down and then take a nap instead of being a handicap."

Shaehari was ready to retort before she cut herself off. 'Really? That's how he views it?' "Isaac…" She began but was interrupted by the approach of an Inquisition scout out of the surrounding Mire. She exchanged a few words with them before leading them back to the main camp. Once there Shaehari and Isaac left the others briefly to speak with Scout Harding. Isaac smiled at the dwarf. "Good to see you Harding. What have you got for us?"

Shaehari nodded beside him as Scout Harding turned towards them. "Thank you for coming. Maybe you two can solve this mess. Our missing patrols are being held hostage by Avvar. Barbarians from the mountains." Shaehari frowned. 'Why would the Avvar come so far north? The southern clans told us that they never left their mountains.'

"What are they doing up here?"

Scout Harding replied, "Their leader wants to fight you. Because you're the Herald of Andraste."

"We're not the Heralds." Her voice and Isaac's were completely in sync as they repeated themselves for the thousandth time. 'Mythal have mercy, how many times do we have to say it?'

Scout Harding hid a smile as their companions laughed. "I know, I know but he believes you are and that is how he is going to act. They say that you were sent by your god and that they will challenge the will of your god with their own. I think that their leaders just a boastful little prick who wants to brag he killed you."

Isaac turned to Shaehari with a spark of mischief in his eyes. "Well, you heard the lady. Go show their leader the might of Andruil."

Shaehari growled, barely hearing in the background Varric making a bet with Iron Bull. "The elven gods are gone, as you well know. But what about you? Where's the might of your god, shem?"

Isaac shrugged aside her verbal thrust. "Eh, he's not likely to show. In our Old Testament he was fine with challenging foreign gods but nowadays he's more laid back. He'll leave me to fight my own battles." His easy reply briefly caught Shaehari off guard before she noticed the flash of discomfort in his eyes. 'I don't think he's mentioned his faith before. He always seemed fine around the Chantry priestesses.'

"Actually," both Heralds turned toward Harding. "The Avvar only believe that one of you is the Herald." She turned pointedly to Shaehari; whose eyes widened.

"Oh, hell no. Why?"

Harding shrugged. "Getting to our troops won't be easy. You have to fight your way through the undead…wait, you're not squeamish about undead, are you?"

Shaehari grinned and replied. "They're just corpses possessed by spirits." Confidence oozed from her as she continued, "They burn just as easily dead as alive."

Isaac shifted uncomfortably. "We have many stories of undead where we're from but nobody believed they existed. I'm sure I'll be fine till I have one screaming in my face." Shaehari and Harding looked at him strangely.

"The undead don't scream Isaac."

Isaac merely sighed. "This is going to be fun."

Two hours later…

Fun was definitely not the word that Shaehari would have picked to describe this place.

"I have no idea why places like this exist," grumbled Varric as he scanned the water's surface for movement.

Bull grunted an agreement before cautioning "Just remember; anything poking up from the water could be some horrible monster acting like a stick."

The smell had worsened as they ventured deeper into the Mire. To his credit Isaac refuse to show that the smell affected him at all, though their early encounters with the undead worried her. He had been fine until he made a third normally-fatal blow and the corpse kept attacking him. She had been quick to fry it before Isaac could be hurt, but the fear in his eyes was all to alarming. She tried to prop him up. "Come on, you've faced demons you can handle a dead body."

Isaac grumbled. "A demon you can kill. These things…I think I understand why people favor them so much in horror stories. Nothing like seeing the monster keep coming even when it should be dead. Especially then."

"I know right? These things are friggin weird." The ghost of a smile crossed Isaac's face in response to Sera. Blackwall came up beside him. "Try focusing on the limbs. If it can't go down, at least taking its arms will keep it from attacking you."

"Thanks guys."

Soon enough they found the first of the pillars Isaac had described. Jogging toward it Isaac quickly circled it, paying attention to a strange symbol on the opposite side of a brazier. Blackwall muttered, "There he goes again. I don't get it, are these places familiar to him or not?"

Isaac seemed to be satisfied with his inspection and called "Shaehari!" She quickly came over and feigned an examination of the pillar while Isaac lowered his voice and explained. "If we light the brazier it will light the pillars and bring the undead and the demon that leads them to dry ground. We kill the demon; the flare will change to normal fire and keep a clean path back." He motioned at the slate on the opposite side. "There are four of these as well. I think the symbols create the formula for a poison, but reading it creates an empathic reaction."

Shaehari frowned as she examined it. "Let's leave it alone then." Isaac looked at her oddly and she continued, "If it really does affect the reader, I'd rather not pursue it without either Solas or Vivienne with us. If we really need it, we can come back."

Isaac relented with a nod. He remained quiet while Shaehari relayed the information Isaac gave her as if she had deciphered the pillar. Ignoring Varric's grumbling about the bog she turned to Isaac. "There is a lot of you for me to keep a barrier up, so try to be careful." Glancing back at the brazier he gave a small grin. "Y'all ready?"

Shaehari felt her magic envelop the group as a barrier. "Ready."

The fight was short and furious. When the Terror finally fell all the corpses around them fell as well and the beacon changed from the pale green of Veilfire to a warm orange glow. Isaac glanced up at it. "Three more to go." As they continued down the path, Shaehari kept half an eye of Isaac. He was strangely quiet now; eyes fixed the ground in front of him. She nudged him.

"Keep your eyes up Isaac."

The smell of rotting flesh greeted them before he could respond. Isaac gagged while Shaehari's eyes watered. 'Creators have mercy, what is it now?' Looking further ahead she said, "Look, signs of a plague."

Isaac immediately backed to the other side of the path. She looked at him with a raised eyebrow and he whispered to her, "Likely the plagues of my world were different than yours. I'd rather not test my luck."

Shaehari rolled her eyes. "If you were going to catch something, you would have by now."

"Right, which is why you're over here away from the plague bodies."

Some time later…

Shaehari rested her hands on her knees. Her breath came in heavy pants. 'Next time we're waiting till either Solas or Vivienne can come along. I can't cover this many people and fight at the same time.' She felt a hand on her shoulder and saw Isaac looking at her with concern. Ignoring the warmth that sprouted from where his hand touched, she shrugged him off. "I'm fine. Let's focus on the soldiers." Isaac nodded and backed off, glancing down at the bodies of the Avvar guards on the outer ramparts of the castle.

"What the hell are these guys eating up in the mountains? It's like facing a clan of Goliaths." Nearly everyone in the party looked strangely at him.

"Goliaths?" Varric's tone was disbelieving but not quite as lost as the rest of the party. Isaac's shoulders slumped.

"Oh, forget it."

They advanced on the central keep of the castle. Passing among the rubble and crumbled pillars Shaehari felt her nerves begin to fray. 'They think that I'm the Herald. Rubbish, but it means that they'll all be aiming for me.' Another staircase, and they reached the inner sanctum. Across the pillared hall the leader of the Avvar saw them and began pounding his hammer against the ground. "Herald of Andraste, face me! I am the hand of Korth himself."

Shaehari barely kept herself from rolling her eyes. 'Switch a few words around and he sounds just like the templars did.' She called up her barrier again, wincing at how thin it now appeared. 'We're going to have to end this fight fast.' The leader charged their position as more Avvar poured in from the sides. From atop the staircase where the leader was several archers took aim.

Shaehari barked out, "Varric, Sera take out the archers. Blackwall keep the other Avvar off of us. Iron Bull, Isaac," she hesitated after his name but continued, "the leader's yours." The others rushed to follow her orders. Isaac's face became a mask of determination as he followed Iron Bull. The Avvar leader cast little more than a dismissive glance at Isaac before turning his attention to Bull. "Stand aside Qunari, I will deal with you after the Herald."

Bull simply laughed. "Big talk. Let's see if you can back it up."

Any further conversation was lost in the tumult of battle. The archers high upon the walls were quickly felled and the Avvar in front of Blackwall were forced onto the defense as they tried desperately to push against him while defending themselves from ranged fire. Their efforts were soon for naught as lightning fell upon them from above. The shocks surged through them, leaving them vulnerable to the Warden before them. The other Avvar dealt with, Shaehari looked up to see Iron Bull lock the leader's arms before Isaac dashed around the side and stabbed through a gap in the armor. The leader fell, nearly taking Isaac's blade with it. "Nice one boss."

The castle was decently sized, but they were able to find the missing soldiers with no more trouble. Opening the door Isaac stepped through with Shaehari right behind him. The wounded soldiers looked up at them with relief in their eyes. Not even a moment passed by before whispers of gratitude reached their ears. While Isaac went to each of them to check on their condition, Shaehari hung back. She listened as the whispers echoed around her; "I knew they were going to come for us." "They're both here!? I didn't think we would get that much of a rescue." "Of course both came. They ARE the Herald." Disbelief colored Shaehari's thoughts. 'Bull wasn't spewing crap after all. Leaving might end up being harder than I thought.' When a soldier came up personally to thank her, she attempted to brush it off but couldn't resist a slight warm feeling. 'But it is a nice change from before.'