Mere seconds had passed. Seconds. Elissa was still in the process of getting comfortable, muscles still twitching, when a knock at the door forced her to disentangle herself from Leliana and get dressed. She was reluctant to leave, but Leliana was out already, and this was her room, not the bard's.
As the door swung open, Elissa would be lying if she said she wasn't disappointed and disgusted to see Loghain standing there. He was there, alive, which meant he had survived the Joining, and that yes, there would indeed be five Wardens from here on out.
Past his shoulder, Elissa could see Aedan rousing the others. They must be leaving.
"When?" Elissa asked, gaze returning to the pair of gray eyes locked on her. She kept the door closed, careful about just how much of her room she let the man see.
"An hour."
Elissa didn't say anything else. She just closed the door, sat solidly on the edge of her bed, and stared. Stared at her pile of armor, her sword, her shield. Two groups she was finally coming to terms with, two things she was finally coming to have faith in, and they had both betrayed her. Her brother, with his recruitment of Loghain, and the Wardens, again with Loghain.
Without hesitation, Elissa removed the necklace around her throat. She wanted to smash it. She wanted to remove as much of herself from the Wardens as possible, and yet, even as she mentally prepared herself to cut her hands open, Elissa found herself unable to follow through.
Frustrated, she stowed the amulet in her pack.
There was something comforting about being on the move again. Elissa felt safer in their camps than she did in Denerim; she trusted the people here. In the city, there were so many strangers, so many dangerous corners. Here, she knew who to avoid, which was everyone aside from Leliana and Alistair, at this rate.
The three of them had turned into their own group practically overnight. Tents were pitched away from the main party, though nowhere near as far as Morrigan's. The three of them sat together, ate together, walked together.
While Elissa suspected Leliana didn't approve of Aedan's decision with Loghain, she never voiced her disagreement, and seemed content to join Elissa and Alistair in their disenfranchisement. Very little words were actually spoken between any of them, but there was an agreement there—that they were only here because it was the right thing to do.
Elissa had once entertained the idea of up and leaving. Just once. Aedan had brought it up so long ago with her and Alistair, and Alistair had said he could never do that. Elissa had wanted to. She wanted nothing to do with any of this. She'd never seen herself outside of Highever, never wanted more or expected any different, and while she might have wanted to run away, she knew she couldn't.
She was scared of being away from her brother. She was scared of having to think for herself.
It was why she remained when he announced he'd recruit Loghain. It was why she remained when she felt so lost. Where else could she go?
She sighed, lamely tossing a twig into the smoldering embers of their campfire. She was tired, but it was her watch shift with Oghren, and the dwarf was sitting in front of his tent, nursing his flask. Elissa couldn't trust the man to put his alcohol away; how could she trust him to keep his eyes open?
As she stifled a yawn, chills shot down her spine. She shivered and pulled her cloak tighter around her shoulders, eyes flicking up to the sky. Dawn was approaching—that early morning grayness was creeping up on them, but it was hard to tell where exactly the sun was with all the clouds. A storm was coming.
Another shiver, and faintly, just towards the road, Elissa thought she heard a twig snap. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Sam lift his head up, turned towards the offending noise.
Her sword was only a few inches away, resting against the log she was leaning on. Her fingers sought it out slowly. She didn't want to make too much noise and break Sam's concentration, or her own. The mabari's eyes were better in the dark, but that didn't stop Elissa from wanting to know what she heard.
Nothing was moving. It seemed as if the trees and shrubs had quieted despite the gentle breeze, almost as if something was willing them to silence.
There it was again, except it sounded...heavier? It was a familiar noise, but Elissa couldn't quite place it. It almost sounded like...
The next thing Elissa knew, she was face-down in the grass as a bolt from a crossbow whipped overhead. She watched as it ripped through the top of Wynne's tent and disappeared into the night.
"Ancestor's ass!"
Elissa scrambled to her feet, grabbing her sword and ripping her scarf off her face as she went, and yelled, "Ambush!"
Her shield was in her tent. Another bolt zipped past, this time closer than the first, and she pulled up short to avoid it. So abrupt was the change that her momentum hit her in the chest and she fell backwards. Elissa threw herself in the opposite direction in hopes that the shadows from Leliana's tent would protect her from getting shot, but all it did was draw their shots towards them both. This time, a pair tore through the fabric, both missing, and landed with a solid thunk in Aedan's shield as he emerged from his tent.
A scream split the air as one of Leliana's arrows fired blindly into the night. Oghren barrelled after it, straight into three men belting out war cries.
Elissa blinked, pushing the shock aside, and rushed after him, forgoing her shield in favor of helping the dwarf. He brought his axe around in a low arc and stopped just short of them; the two elves were lucky enough to dodge the blow, but the human had his stomach ripped open wide enough Elissa could see his guts begin to spill out.
She was at Oghren's side the same instant, leaping between the elf's sword and the dwarf as he put the man out of his misery. Their swords collided with a screech almost as deafening as the screaming. The elf recoiled as Elissa stepped closer, putting Oghren at her back, and once he seemed to have finished his kill, they split. He charged for the elf on the right, she the left.
He stabbed at her ribs with a dagger; Elissa smacked it away with enough force to send it flying from his grasp. She pivoted, using her momentum to throw her sword cleanly through his throat.
The sound of a sword cutting through air made Elissa spin. She caught the blow just before it connected with her shoulder. Just as she managed to throw him off, an arrow pierced his neck and Alistair caught another strike aimed for her back. The offender soon found Alistair's sword buried in her chest.
"Stop!" The command was issued again in what Elissa assumed was Antivan, followed rapidly by another sentence. She caught one word from it—Zevran.
Several men with crossbows emerged from the edges of Elissa's vision, with more spreading across their camp. There were at least twelve of them, maybe more. They were surrounded.
"What the hell is this?" Loghain demanded.
"These would likely be the men you hired to kill us," Alistair snapped.
Elissa searched the faces rounded up in the camp. Morrigan was nowhere to be seen, and it didn't appear as if any of the men had noticed her separate camp, nestled so far into the treeline that the only way Elissa knew it was there was prior knowledge.
"Ah, yes," Zevran said. "I would like to report my failure in that, but...let us see if the second time is the charm, no?"
Elissa would be lying if she said she hadn't suspected it. She could feel her very veins buzzing, alight with a power she had so little control over, and as her eyes fell on their elven companion, she caught sight of him smearing a sticky green paste over his curved dagger.
Poison.
There was something so beautiful, so relaxing, knowing that no one here posed a threat to her. It was so very reassuring, and if Elissa wasn't careful, if she succumbed to this, it might create an ego she didn't need.
Zevran's hand had hardly left the tip of his dagger when Elissa was there, between him and her brother, battering the weapon aside even as the world came back into focus. Every time she did this, she was able to hold it longer, able to slow her surroundings for just long enough before it slipped away.
Who needed conventional spells when they could do what she did?
There was a ripple in the air and a thud as a raven landed sharply on the ground, transforming immediately into that of a cave spider. Zevran's dagger finally hit the grass, and even as it fell, Elissa felt herself release the magic before she wanted to, and the elf had yet another dagger pulled, launching into a flurry of blows.
Chaos erupted around them.
All of those crossbows fired in time with her slamming into Zevran—the bolts were caught in perhaps the most fascinating display Elissa had ever seen from Wynne, but she was quickly reminded that a certain elf was trying to murder her, again, and she returned to the task at hand.
One blow, a feint, towards her stomach was easily slapped aside, and the follow-up towards her chest was easily dodged. It was a dangerous dance, one Elissa had never truly practiced with a foe like Zevran, but one she knew she would excel at. It was all about speed—who could slip past the other's defenses first, who could land the first strike, fatal or not.
Several of the more physically gifted Crows rushed through Wynne's ward, directly engaging with her companions. There weren't many; between their own martial skills, Leliana's arrows, and Morrigan's fangs, those that were brave enough quickly found themselves either engaged with a qunari, a drink dwarf, an ex-templar, or a general. Those that didn't make it that far found themselves otherwise occupied with arrows or Sam's jaws.
Rather than assist their companions, Aedan chose to battle with Zevran as well. Between the two of them, not even Zevran truly stood a chance. He was skilled, tore through darkspawn and common bandits as easily as the rest of them, but his only advantage here was the close quarters. Elissa and Aedan had fought side-by-side for months, trained together even longer, and knew when to step in to give the other a reprieve, or when the other had Zevran distracted enough for a good attempt.
Somewhere, so very faint over the sounds of battle, Elissa heard a horn. At first it was just one, but then another, and another, and then she watched as the Crows began to get cut down from an unknown assailant. Arrows upon arrows, so Maker-forsaken many that they never stood a chance.
Wynne sagged and the ward fell, and suddenly, those arrows that were a saving grace were a threat.
Zevran lunged at her, and Elissa jumped, spooked, before swiping her blade between them. The pommel of her sword locked with the tips of his dagger, effectively jammed, and it was a wonder Aedan managed to get his sword in the way of Zevran's second knife without hitting her.
With both of them bearing down on him, Zevran opted to drive his knee into Elissa's stomach, disengage entirely, and refocus on Aedan while she recovered. She lost grip on her sword in the process, lungs wheezing for air they couldn't get, and staggered out of the way.
They clashed as Elissa regained her footing and her breath, and she threw herself straight back into the fray with a renewed vigor. It was impressive how long he held them off, Elissa had to give him that much credit. But if he was willing to pull dirty tricks, so was she, and she stepped in so dangerously close that she was more likely to be killed by Aedan and not Zevran. She drove her foot into his ankle, shoved with her shoulder. As he stumbled, Elissa ducked, and Aedan slit his throat.
Zevran stood for a moment, obviously in shock, as his daggers fell from his grasp. Blood seeped from his fingers, clutching at his throat in a vain attempt to stop the bleeding.
And as he fell to his knees, Elissa turned to her brother and said, "Didn't I tell you he'd try to kill us?"
Aedan just looked at the elf in disgust. "You said the same thing about Leliana." The corner of his mouth almost turned up, almost, and he said, "You seem to like her just fine."
Elissa sputtered, eyes briefly falling to the man at their feet, and then she looked back to her brother. "That's just cold."
Aedan rolled his shoulders in a nonchalant shrug. "He doesn't deserve better than that."
Around them, their friends were dealing with the last of the Crows. It quickly became apparent that their rescuers were none other than the clan of Dalish elves they had cured all those months ago; the very same woman that had greeted them before was marching her way rather purposefully through their camp right now. Mithra, if Elissa remembered correctly.
Aedan inclined his head respectfully, as did Elissa, and surprisingly enough, the elf as well. She hadn't been pleased to see them the first time, or pleased any of the other times, but she seemed...amicable enough, if that was even how Elissa could think of it.
"What are you doing here?" Aedan asked.
"One of you shems found our camp a little over a week ago," Mithra said. "He said you were assembling your army at Redcliffe, so the Keeper sent us ahead of the clan to join you. She says the other clans will be joining us shortly."
One of the Dalish, a young man Elissa didn't recognize, came up to them, whispered something in their language Elissa didn't quite catch, and Mithra grimaced.
"It would seem your settlement is under attack as we speak." Aedan and Elissa both frowned, and she added, "By darkspawn. A horde large enough it could be a scouting party."
"Do you think the Archdemon would lead the horde this way?" Elissa asked.
Aedan shook his head, frown deepening. "No, the darkspawn have spread mostly north into the Bannorn. Villages to the west, there haven't been reports of darkspawn here yet."
"It matters little. There are darkspawn in the area and we have been tasked to follow you, Grey Warden."
"To Redcliffe, then."
