It had been a few hours since the conversation Nela had with the Wardens. The entire exchange wound up leaving her with more questions rather than answers, and the Wardens hadn't seemed too keen on sticking around. The Warden that had previously been quite friendly towards both her and Solora had exited pretty quickly following their conversation. Kara had been fast to give Nela an apology before she went after him, her faithful hound in tow. That gave her no other option than to try asking some more questions around the chantry.
During this time, Solora had managed to separate herself from Nela again. Though this time, instead of wandering around the Chantry - she had slipped out the front doors and out into the town. This left the assassin to fend for herself as she attempted to get some elaboration on what the Wardens had told her.
The search that followed only seemed to poke more holes in the story than she had been expecting. From what she was able to gather with the few people who she had asked, apparently, the other Grey Wardens died at a battle in Ostagar alongside the king. Which made absolutely no sense. If such a massacre had taken place so recently, especially in regards to Fereldan's King. Nela knew that the nobles in Orlais wouldn't have been able to shut up about it when she was in the Winter Palace, the entire scenario just wasn't adding up. It didn't help that she had to halt her investigation either, as she received one too many questioning looks after speaking to the third person.
The assassin wound up having to wait for Solora to return, though she didn't expect to be waiting till sundown for the mage to show back up. The feline slipped through the front doors easily as the mayor re-entered the Chantry, making it easy for Solara to walk right past him and over to the assassin before halting in front of her.
"Really calling it close, aren't you?" Nela commented with a bit of a grumble, looking over the mage-turned-cat who was staring intently at her.
In response to the comment, Solora let out a meow and pawed at Nela's leg. This earned the shapeshifter a confused glare from Nela as Solora let out another meow. The elf watched for a moment as the feline turned around and headed for the doors she had just returned through, only halting to turn her head and look at Nela again. She simply stared for a few moments before finally shifting her attention back to the front door as it opened again. One of the few knights who were left in Redcliffe stepped inside, the shapeshifter taking the chance to bolt out the doors and out of sight again.
Nela was able to take the hint pretty easily, standing to her feet and dusting off her already stained and burned clothing in an attempt to keep any possibly curious eyes disinterested as she headed towards the front doors Solara had just left through.
The assassin still felt quite weary of sneaking out to go speak to the mage. She knew she had to speak to her regardless, but chancing any curious eyes following after her wasn't preferred ( especially after her earlier questioning) . Hopefully, the unrest that floated within the Chantry was enough to keep anyone from thinking too far into what she was doing.
Opening the front door carefully, she took a step out. There were a number of people milling around the outside of the Chantry now - a stark contrast to the lack of people outside earlier that morning. Luckily though, no one was near the doors. Taking a short look around, her eyes easily found Solora again, the elf-turned-cat sitting towards the left of the doors to the Chantry. As quick as Nela's eyes met the cat, Solora was off again. Turning around and slipping around the side of the building and out of view.
Only taking a moment to make sure no one was watching her, Nela went after Solora - turning the corner just as the shapeshifter was returning back to her original form.
"Where in Andrastes's name have you been?" Nela questioned almost immediately, not giving the Dalish elf a chance to speak quite yet. "Have you found out anything that will give us answers at all?"
Solora gave the elven assassin a bit of a sheepish look, rubbing the back of her neck as she spoke. "No, not exactly…" At the raised eyebrow she mage received in response, she was quick to elaborate. "I was watching them prepare for the fight tonight… I want to help."
"Are you stupid?" The assassin snapped, narrowing her eyes at Solara following the statement. "You were already calling it close when you decided to approach the Wardens, it's like you want to be caught as an apostate."
"But they're Grey Wardens! If there's anyone we could speak to, surely it would be the Wardens? They rarely get involved in matters like that, I doubt they would have said anything if they knew I was a mage!" Solora's voice was rising in volume slightly as she spoke, sounding exasperated at the conversation she was currently having.
"We don't know that." Nela shot back, her voice a little more hushed. "You should be well aware of the shit they pulled during the last Blight. I trust them just as much as I'd trust an Orlesian noble with… anything."
"They still stopped the blight…" Solora shot back, her tone a bit deflated at the point Nela was trying to make. She knew the disdain many people had towards the Warden's after the sixth Blight, thus she really shouldn't have been surprised that Nela was one of them. However, that didn't mean she agreed.
"That's beside the point." The assassin pointed out, rolling her eyes as she took a step closer to the Dalish elf in front of her. Nela looked less than impressed. "It means we can't trust them."
"You can't trust them, you mean," Solora argued, directing her eyes away from Nela. Despite arguing back, her voice held a nervous undertone. "I don't have to listen to you. I barely know you."
Nela went quiet, eyeing the mage in silence for a moment before finally speaking again. "You should. As far as we know at the moment, you are the reason why we're here. Until we know what's going on, you need to stay in one piece."
Solora finally turned her head to look at Nela again, frowning slightly at the other elf's words. "Maybe you should let me look at the amulet then. I can't exactly figure out what I did without trying to use it."
"No," Nela shot down the idea immediately, taking a step back from the mage in front of her. "I quite frankly don't trust you, and we will chance just ending right back at square one again if you fuck up."
"Then you figure it out," Solora snorted, seeming to have settled on being a bit irritated. "And be against it as much as you want, but I'm helping the Wardens."
Following Solora's statement, she didn't bother waiting for a response. The elven mage transformed herself back into a cat, fixing to slip past Nela and into the village again. Though, unlike last time, Nela was a little faster to grab Solora by the scruff of her neck. Lifting the mage-turned-cat up to her level again, the action earning herself a hiss from the cat in question.
"Fine, do what you want you fucking furball," The assassin snapped, the harshness of her tone causing Solora to stop her excessive struggling for a moment. "But when you wind up hurt or apprehended because of your stupidity, don't come crying to me for help."
With that, Nela dropped Solora onto the floor, the feline hitting the floor with a soft thud. The shapeshifter looked a bit caught off guard, taking a moment to shake out her puffed-up fur. She looked back up at Nela for only a moment before running off.
The eleven assassin watched the mage go, letting out an annoyed huff before walking out from the side of the Chantry to head back inside. Upon reaching the front doors, Nela casted a single glance towards the people left outside. Each person before her looked battle-ready, and Solara appeared to be nowhere in sight. Her eyes did, however, meet with an interesting-looking mage. The mage's amber eyes seemed to almost burn a hole through her as she stared. Unsure what to make of it, Nela tore her eyes away and went back into the Chantry.
Time to figure out what the fuck she was going to do now.
With the doors to the chantry shut tightly in light of the impending fight, Solora's fate in regards to where she would be was sealed. All she had to do at this point, was wait.
Solora kept herself perched just over the door to the windmill, her owl forms' feathers ruffling through the breeze that came at her from the west. She was nervous to put it bluntly. Despite her experience with magic, especially shape-shifting, she had little to show for knowing how to fight.
Maybe Nela was right, I shouldn't have decided to join them.
She shook her head roughly, not allowing the sliver of doubt to remain for longer than a few seconds. Sure she wasn't an experienced fighter, but she did have magic, she had also hunted in her animal forms before. That in itself was an advantage, right?
With the sun now almost completely set and night beginning to settle in, Solora forced herself to turn her attention to what was happening before her. With the Grey Wardens in tow, the first line of defense sat right across the bridge in front of her. From the Warden's group of companions, only the two wardens she had met earlier, their mabari, and a very tall man that she had heard earlier was a Qunari from the whispering guards. The rest of their group had ended up remaining down near the Chantry with the rest of the guards.
Solora had opted for not showing herself until she felt it absolutely necessary. Biding her time until she felt she was needed, and from the looks of it - that could be soon.
There had been screaming just a few minutes earlier as the screeches and groans from the incoming undead could surprisingly be heard coming from the direction of the Redcliffe castle. That was when the Warden's group had split themselves up and Solara decided to follow the Wardens themselves up near where the horde of undead would be making their first appearance.
From ahead, she could vaguely see the beginnings of undead making their way towards the wardens and guards who had placed themselves at the village's first point of entry. As they got closer, it was easier for Solora to finally see the undead they would be fighting.
Creators was it terrifying.
They couldn't quite measure up to the darkspawn she had seen a handful of times during and even after the sixth blight, but if she were being honest. It wasn't by a lot. The first wave of rotting, armoured corpses stumbling their way towards the village was intimidating. Most of them holding weapons of some sort, from one-handed swords to maces. They were relentless, holding nothing back as they swung at the first people that came across their path, their form messy. They were already dead, which made them pretty much the perfect soldiers.
As the fight started, it was a lot of clashing of weapons, undead shrieks and groans, a snarling mabari, and the firing of magic coming from Kara who stood quite a bit behind them.
Solora made no move to join them quite yet, instead continuing to just watch from her perch on the windmill. Her talons dug into the wood beneath her claws as she waited. They were holding their own so far, she wasn't needed quite yet.
The fighting continued for about a half-hour, the group managing to keep the undead horde at bay as each horde made its entrance. But of course, this wouldn't have continued to last for long, it didn't.
The sounds of feet desperately making their way to the hill to Solora's left caught her attention, her head turning its attention away from the battle so she could fully focus on the man running up the hill and making his way towards the group who had managed to kill the majority of the undead currently present. They only had a short window of time before more began to funnel in.
"The monsters are... attacking from the lake...!" The man yelled out, stopping for only a few seconds to take a few deep breaths after running all the way up from the chantry. "They're attacking the barricades," The man took another deep breath, managing to straighten himself as he caught his breath. "We need help!"
Kara spun around to look at the man in alarm, only looking away to turn her attention to the path leading towards Redcliffe and weighing their options if they left their position here.
Seeming to decide that they had enough people to defend the path here, the young woman looked towards Alistair. The short moment of eye contact seemed to communicate as much as was needed. Alistair spoke up in place of Kara, gesturing to the guards as he yelled to them. "Knights, stay here and guard the path!"
The Wardens group appeared to have no time to wait for a response, however, as the man who had come for help in the first place was already running off, yelling back to the warden's group behind him. "Come on, we need to hurry!" Wasting no time, The wardens group of four ran after him.
Solora watched the knights left behind for a few moments, weighing her options on if she should stay or follow after them. But, the knights before her seemed more than capable of continuing on without the warden's group helping them. Despite the undead still making their way down the path, their numbers remained roughly the same as before and didn't appear to be getting any larger. Chances are, the bigger part of the horde were about to walk right into the centre of Redcliffe. If she was going to be needed, it was going to be there.
Thus, the shapeshifter wasted no more time sitting there and debating, taking to the skies so she could make her way down the village. From the air, it didn't take nearly as long. Even with the time she wasted debating with herself on following or not, she still managed to make it to the main portion of the village before the warden's group did. It was then, that she realized exactly what the man had been referring to when he went for help.
The undead were everywhere.
Some of the corpses were already taken down, littering the grounds across the village, whilst more continued to make their way in, knocking over the barricades and tripping over the corpses that had already fallen. Despite how hard those already present were fighting, the guards, the mayor, as well as the mage and archer from the warden's group that had been left down here. She could see why they needed help, it would only be a matter of minutes before they found themselves overwhelmed. Even as the group from the windmill finally came to the second group's aid, the horde that was already present was progressively getting bigger.
Solora knew that if she intended on helping, now would be the time. Thus, she scanned the battlefield, watching carefully as the fight played out before her. She just needed the right opening… there.
Just ahead of her, she could see two of the corpses stumbling up behind one of the people from the wardens group. The red-headed archer to be specific. The woman was moving quickly, dealing with the incoming corpses coming from her front. Arrow after arrow was being shot into the corpses in front of her, but she wasn't moving back. It became clear fairly fast that she was aware of the corpses coming towards her, but she was pretty much cornered and only with so many arrows in her arsenal before she would be forced to switch weapons.
Without missing a beat, the mage turned owl swooped down towards the archer - her attention remaining on the two corpses moving up behind the woman as she moved closer. Only when she felt she was close enough did she finally shift forms again, moving from the small barn owl into the significantly larger mountain lion. The loss of wings and heavyweight caused the mage to slam down into one of the corpses, hitting the ground with a heavy thud. The fall caused the helmet on the corpse to roll off as both undead and living were forced into a scuffle.
The undead attempted to wack its mace at its oncoming attacker, but the action proved to be a smidge too slow. The now large cat hopped off the corpse, narrowly dodging the mace as she landed to the side of the undead. Wasting no time, Solora sank her teeth into the lower half of its head. With enough force, she ripped the corpses' head from its neck before discarding it to the floor at its side.
Choosing not to dwell too long on the first corpse once it stopped moving, the shapeshifter turned her attention to the second corpse as it turned its attention on her. Moving a lot faster then one would expect a corpse of all things to move, the rotting flesh-covered creature moved towards her. Solora took a few steps back, managing to stay just out of its way as it swung its sword at her. Slipping off to the creature's right, she clamped her jaws onto it's heel as she moved in.
Thankfully, she managed to pull the creature off balance and fall face-first into the ground. Jumping on top it's back, silently thanking the creators this one hadn't been wearing a helmet as well. Sinking her teeth into the creature's neck, she shook her head roughly - almost like a dog going at a toy as she attempted to pull the creature's head from its shoulders. Ignoring the rotting, foul-tasting dark blood that poured into her mouth as she ripped into the creature's flesh. Solora managed to rip the corpse's head from its shoulders for a second time.
She violently shook her head for a moment in hopes of getting the taste of rotting blood from her mouth, she looked up towards the red-haired woman she helped as she took down another corpse with a blade this time, running the blade over its neck before kicking it away from her. With the undead that had been her immediate threat gone, the rogue looked down at Solora, confusion evident on her face as she simply allowed herself to stare for a moment.
At the sound of another few corpses making their way towards them, she pulled her attention away again. A quick "Thank you" in an Orlesian accent left the rogue before the woman threw herself into the fight again.
Solora knew she was in for some questioning from the warden's companions later. But for now, they had a battle to win.
The fight persisted until early morning, it was only when the sun slowly started peaking over the horizon did the corpses finally stop coming. Those that were left ended up easy enough for those still alive and fighting to pick off.
Everyone was exhausted, as the last of the undead were killed - many of those who had been fighting wound up leaning against walls, sitting on the floor, or even the stairs of the chantry. No one seemed to really care if they found themselves sitting in the foul-smelling blood or not. Solora was no exception.
She remained in the form of the cougar since she had joined the fight that night. Her tongue tainted with the taste of foul-tasting blood from sinking her teeth into rotting flesh the entire time. She didn't even bother taking a look around what had been their battlefield as she dropped onto the ground with a tired huff. Her large head dropped onto the floor as she shut her eyes in exhaustion.
They were finally done.
Solora wasn't sure how long she had been lying there before someone had approached her. Though, it hadn't been enough for her to react at first. She simply flicked her ears in acknowledgement but made no move to look at the person in question, though she sensed magic coming from whoever had approached.
For all she knew, it could have been Kara again.
Then she felt whoever had approached kick into her side. The kick wasn't hard enough to hurt the shapeshifter, but it was enough to get a reaction out of her. Raising her head in alarm, Solora pushed herself into a sitting position and swerved her head around to look at her supposed attacker.
Solora let out a warning growling, though it was abruptly cut short when she made eye contact with the mage in question who had approached her. She had raven-black hair and sharp amber eyes, the glare she had shot to Solora in response to the growl had been enough to shut the shapeshifter up immediately.
"I'd advise you to turn back and drink this," The woman spoke, her tone of voice revealing nothing as she lightly shook the lyrium potion she held in her hand from left to right. "Lest you want to be lying there the rest of the day."
Solora eyed the woman for a moment, surprised by how unsurprised she was at a shapeshifter just sitting in front of her. If anything, she seemed more annoyed by the appearance of a random mage.
Choosing not to question the woman's reasoning, she changed from her animal form and back into her original form. Quietly, she accepted the lyrium potion from the woman, taking a small sip from the potion in question before allowing herself to address the mage in front of her.
"Thank you."
The woman simply rolled her eyes, not seeming to care much for the words of gratitude. Instead, she continued talking like Solora hadn't even spoken. "The wardens want to speak to you, so I would suggest you hurry up."
Solora watched the raven-haired mage nervously as she walked away from her. Letting out a stressed exhale, she downed the rest of the lyrium potion before forcing herself to stand back onto her feet.
Time to get this over with.
A/N: Thank you so much for reading!
I will be honest, this chapter was supposed to be a lot longer. But alas, for some reason I did not feel like touching the Redcliffe battle with a ten-foot pole.
This definitely is not one of my best chapters, but I am HELLA excited for the next chapter (why, you'll have to wait to see).
Hopefully, the next chapter will be out a lot sooner but I won't make any promises on when it will be coming.
Want more information on the Breach Age and the characters involved? Check out the Codex! You can find it linked at the end of each chapter on Archive Of Our Own and Wattpad. My username remains the same on both platforms!
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