Slamming her staff into the jelly-like center of the Wraith didn't bring Brynn satisfaction so much as relief as the creature crumpled into a pile of goo. Cassandra called out, alerting her that had been the last of them and it was time to close the rift.
With a beleaguered sigh, Brynn pulled off her makeshift glove and stuffed it in her pocket, reaching for the crackling rift above them. The green rope dragged at her incessantly and for the fourth time in two weeks she just barely managed to cut it off before it turned her into a human Capri-sun, sealing it off from the world beyond.
Shaking and sweating, less from the fighting than the drain of the Fade itself, Brynn was having some serious regrets about joining up.
It wasn't even the fighting that was so miserable. She'd almost perfected her advanced technique of running in circles until someone more competent could manage to kill whatever was chasing her. It didn't impress her companions, but she'd also not gotten gutted by any of the Fade monsters that had poured forth, so she wasn't concerned about their disapproval. At least Varric seemed to think it was funny.
Closing the rifts was exhausting too. After the first, Leliana had indicated they would ride on to a nearby encampment of their soldiers and Brynn had tried to laugh at her before crumpling to the ground. After that, it was agreed upon that they would make a brief stop after each rift. But that wasn't the worst thing she'd endured.
The real problem was that Brynn didn't know the first thing about riding horses. Two weeks with her trusty steed, Whinny Houston, hadn't changed that.
Despite going at a fairly leisurely pace, her whole body was pain. Her thighs hurt, her back ached, her ass was killing her, and there was chafing in some very uncomfortable places. Additionally, anything that touched her hands regularly had produced blisters, which had burst and reformed several times over the course of her trip. Traveling was fucking miserable.
To top it off, they'd left Solas behind, giving her only Leliana to complain to, who wasn't as well equipped to understand Brynn's brand of rambling. So, she'd muttered most of her grievances to Whinny, who'd offered very little sympathy on the matter.
When Brynn had finally plucked up the courage to ask Leliana about Solas' absence, she'd explained how they'd thought it unwise to travel under the flag of the Inquisition with two apostate mages- given how the templars and mages still waged their war against each other. Since their 'peace meeting' had ended with an explosion killing hundreds on each side and ripping a giant hole in the sky, Brynn supposed that was, if not sensible, at least understandable to an extent.
"Excellently done, Herald," Leliana said with a small smile.
"Mmhm," Brynn was just short of 'drop like a sack of potatoes' tired, a meager sign of improvement. But human interaction was still a little too much effort immediately after the fact. When she was finished using it as a leaning post, she tucked the staff away on her back.
Cassandra and Leliana tended to their weapons, while Varric dug through the piles of remains, searching for anything recoverable. He offered Leliana a few of her longer arrows when he finished and offered Brynn the long dagger she'd abandoned about halfway through the fight.
"Thanks," Brynn nodded, struggling to put it back in the sheath with her shaking hands. In a moment of frustration, she'd used it like a throwing knife to skewer a particularly aggressive Shade that had been chasing her. In her defense, it had worked remarkably well. But then she'd also been without a blade for the remainder of the fight, which is why Varric gave her that dubious look.
Relying on magic was still an exercise in futility. She'd actually been improving, despite her best efforts. Even Solas had remarked on her progress. Though she doubted he was truly impressed- more just relieved she was finally putting effort into it.
Even with practice though, it was less than predictable. Sometimes she could freeze a lesser terror that was bearing down on her, and sometimes she raised a wall of ice so tall that Cassandra had to spend an hour hacking through it to free her. She was still making amends for the ice wall judging by Cassandra's permanent scowl. It was a bit of a dice roll.
Cassandra was near the horses, having already unrolled one of the bags to offer some food to Leliana and Varric. Though she made some griping comment in response to whatever it was Varric had said. Those two didn't seem to get on particularly well, which was a point of curiosity for Brynn, but part of her surmised maybe it was better to stay entirely out of it.
She accepted the dried jerky from Cassandra with a nod and went to retrieve her water skin when she noticed an issue with the horses.
Namely that hers was missing.
"Anyone seen Whinny?" she turned back to the group. They were familiar enough with the name to know what she was inquiring about, but given the casual shrugs, it was clear they hadn't seen the mare.
"We have not," Leliana said. "Perhaps her reins came loose during the fight?"
The reins that Brynn had meant to tie off before they'd gotten into it with the demons. Which she would have done, had she not fallen sideways off the saddle and been trying to play it off like she hadn't almost eaten shit before they'd even started fighting.
Cassandra seemed to read the look on Brynn's face clearly and shook her head with a disapproving grunt.
"Did you need help finding her?" Leliana offered, reserving judgment. Not because she didn't agree with Cassandra, but because she was a professional and her whole thing was to not reveal her opinions unless she wanted to.
"No, it's fine," Brynn shook her off, already feeling the exhaustion the next thirty minutes of searching was going to cost her. She didn't need any witnesses to her mid-afternoon 'I need a nap' tantrum. "I got it."
She picked her way through the trees, half whistling the tune to 'I wanna dance with somebody' to try and draw the gray-mottled pony out. It was an experiment she'd been conducting on the trip, which she was almost sure was giving results. Only now, wheezing and trudging through the woods, she considered she should have picked an easier song to whistle.
Further down the hill she spotted movement and she breathed a sigh of relief. Another few minutes of walking and she doubted very much she would have been able to find her way back to camp.
Her relief vanished when she heard the sharp crack of a branch to her left and she spun around, arms raised up as though she was going to fist fight something that popped out of the woods.
"Jesus, Whinny," Brynn groaned as the horse nickered at her and plodded forward, snapping more twigs as she went. "Can't sneak up on a girl like that."
Whinny's head jerked back in alarm and Brynn turned just in time to see someone burst from a thicket of bushes behind them.
Before she could gather the breath to scream, she recognized it was just a boy. No older than thirteen, his pale blue eyes were glistening with tears, streaks washing a clear line down his cheeks through the blood and soot that stained them. A nasty wound at his head was responsible for the blood on his face, and there was another stain beneath his hand pressed against his side where he looked to have been cut. The smell of smoke was strong on him too, his hair not just messy, but burnt at the ends and she could recognize what she'd thought was dirt as soot with blisters forming beneath the skin.
"It's okay," Brynn said as the boy watched her wildly. "Here," she offered the jerky that she hadn't bothered to eat. He eyed the jerky and then her horse, and inwardly crumbled.
He fell forward, clutching at her jacket, his voice hoarse as he babbled at her, begging desperately by the tone. She caught 'please' and 'mother' but the rest of it was garbled and the longer he spoke, the weaker his voice got.
His eyes fluttered and he started to collapse, Brynn trying to slow his descent into the ground.
"Kid," she said, noting his eyes had rolled back in his head with some alarm. "Kid you gotta stay awake. There's people that can help-" she looked back the way she'd come, wondering if she screamed loud enough it might bring Cassandra running.
Instead, she nearly screamed when she saw Varric appear from behind a tree. He grinned and clapped his hands as he gestured to Whinny, evidently pleased of her minor victory of finding the beast all on her own. Then he spotted the boy collapsed on the ground next to her.
"I don't know who he is," Brynn shook her head in a panic. "Someone hurt him- I don't know what to do," Brynn's voice was tight as Varric rushed over, helping to roll the boy onto his back.
Varric spoke to the boy quietly, with a little coaxing he managed to get him to open his eyes again. He rummaged through his satchel for a mostly empty healing potion and helped the boy drink. The boy spoke in smaller fragments now, and Varric glanced up once or twice into the trees as though whatever had hurt him was still nearby.
The boy grew quiet again and while she could tell he was still breathing; it was weak and irregular. Varric gestured for her to be silent and withdrew his crossbow from his back as he stalked in the direction the boy had come from.
"Varric, I don't think-"
He turned back and gestured to her to remain silent unless she wanted the meet the unfriendly end of his bow. Evidently now was not a good time to put forth her argument for not investigating the people or animals who might have done this. After a bit of an internal argument, she shrugged out of her jacket and lay it over the boy, so he was at least covered, and she followed Varric's retreating form.
He moved a lot faster than she'd expected and she was nearly out of breath when she finally caught back up with him. He heard her coming and he didn't seem entirely surprised to see her, but he motioned once more to emphasize the need for silence.
The smoke in the trees was obvious now, the smell heavy in the air as they approached what looked to be a clearing in the wood. Beyond where they stood was a small farmstead, or what once had been one.
The barn was engulfed in flames, the siding blackened with soot and half collapsed on one end. The cabin that was nearer to them had only the roof aflame, but it was clear bits of the thatching had collapsed inward already, destroying any use the building might have once had.
Five armored soldiers clustered around a few wagons; their blades drawn as they walked through the fields toward them. Across their chest piece was the image of a flaming sword which looked familiar to Brynn, but she couldn't quite place it.
Her thoughts that it may have been a fire that had simply gotten out of control were quickly dashed as one of the soldiers in the field spotted a groaning man who raised up an arm, clearly asking for help, and ran him through with his blade.
Brynn's stomach twisted uncomfortably, and she'd had to cover her mouth to keep from shouting as she realized these soldiers weren't here to help, they were looking for survivors to be dealt with. Like the boy in the woods.
A shrill cry of a woman near the cabin caught her attention and Brynn instinctively turned to see another soldier. This one wasn't searching the fields, he seemed to have already found his target. He loomed above a blonde and bloodied woman who was clearly too injured to flee as he stalked closer.
Brynn's mouth went dry as the soldier reached for his belt, but instead of drawing a blade, he unhooked his belt. It took another moment to fully process what the soldier intended, and Brynn felt sick.
"Var-" before she could get the words out, he'd already fired. The bolt crossed the clearing and embedded itself deep into the base of his skull. For a moment the soldier wobbled, trying to come to terms with what had happened, and then he dropped to the ground with a groan.
Another of the soldiers spotted the fallen companion, raising an alarm as Varric plugged a hole in him as well. Unfortunately, that brought about the end to their element of surprise.
"Well fuck," Brynn muttered around the same time Varric made a similar pronouncement. Varric nodded for them to split and took off at a run, parallel to the clearing, firing a few more bolts at the soldiers to give the impression of more assailants.
"Oh, fuckity fuck fuck," Brynn hissed as she ran through the trees, headed toward the woman she could see was still desperately trying to crawl away from the massacre. Her cries had drawn the attention of at least one of the soldiers that had been chasing Varric and Brynn leapt from the trees just as he closed in, giving a shout to indicate he should fuck off.
Instead, he took it as a challenge, turning to grimace at her. He laughed when he registered the extent of the threat she offered. His broadsword admittedly looked a great deal more impressive than the dagger she'd pulled from her belt.
"Another terrible idea from the brain department," she hissed between her teeth, trying to keep the blade loose in her hand, ready to parry like Leliana had showed her. Leliana who would be useful in this moment. Likely what Varric had been suggesting she do, run for help.
He raised his sword and brought it swinging down, certainly not slowly, but slow enough she was able to dodge it. That maneuver gave her enough false confidence that she didn't quite react as quickly for the next one. She blocked it instead with the dagger, and the force of it vibrated the blade right out of her hand.
"Fuck!" she yelped, shaking her stinging hand and throwing herself backward as the man took yet another swing. She yanked the staff from her back and without thinking slammed the heel of it into the ground with a shout.
The air fizzled with a hiss, and she felt the shockwave of cold burst out from the staff causing her to shield her eyes. When she risked opening them again, she saw she'd managed another ice wall. This one, however, had driven straight through the soldier. His face had only managed a brief look of surprise before the cold had overtaken him and frozen him solid.
"Got lucky there," she let out a shuddering breath and turned her attention to the woman who was still trying to crawl away. She was covered in a thin sheet of frost, and her leg was bleeding through her skirts. "Come on," she reached down to try and help her upright but instead of being greeted with relief, the woman shrieked, jerking away from Brynn's touch.
"It's okay, I'm not one of them," Brynn gestured to the ice sculpture soldier. "I'm trying to help." The woman's piercing blue eyes were wild with fear and she kept babbling as she tried to retreat from Brynn. While she didn't understand all of what the woman was saying, she did hear the word 'magic' several times. Just because the woman knew Brynn wasn't a soldier, didn't mean she didn't still think she was a threat.
"Look," Brynn set her staff down and held her hands out. "I'm not going to hurt you. I'm just trying to help. Help." She offered the clumsily pronounced word again in the trade tongue.
The woman's gaze was narrowed with doubt as she watched Brynn's movements carefully, but something changed when she recognized Brynn's left-hand glowing with its sickly green mark.
"Herald of Andraste," the woman said with wonder. Brynn needed no translation because she'd heard that phrase often enough at Haven it was tattooed in her brain.
"God damn Andraste and every fuckin thing she did-" Brynn muttered, hating that even out here, people knew her as the revered freak who'd fallen from the sky. "Yep, that's me. Let's get you out of here-" she heard Cassandra's shouts from the forest, and she turned, relief flooding through her when she saw the Seeker emerging from the trees to join Varric in battle.
Brynn was already turning back when the woman barked out a cry of warning, just in time to catch a fist full of metal from another soldier who had been drawn by the battle. Brynn stumbled backward and dropped to her knees, tasting blood and seeing more stars during the day than she was accustomed to.
The soldier laughed as he drew his sword to put Brynn out of her misery. Enough of her senses returned to assemble a half-baked plan of not just sitting there and getting stabbed. She rolled backward toward the frozen soldier and scrabbled for the dagger she'd dropped. She felt the ground thump heavily beneath the weight of a sword just where she'd been kneeling moments before.
"Fffff-" there wasn't time or cognition enough for fully formed curses as she brought up her own blade in a hopeless attempt to block the next attack. But instead of learning she was incapable of stopping the full weight of a sword from the flat of her back, she saw the injured woman launch herself at the soldier with a scream.
"Hot damn," Brynn managed to get to her knees as the woman nearly took down an armored dude twice her size. Her elation was cut short when the soldier finally managed to get the upper hand in the struggle and ran his blade through the woman's ribs. Her rage filled screams turned to gasps and her grip finally relinquished as she dropped to the ground limply. He raised the blade to strike again but Brynn was already on her feet at that point.
"Hey fucker!" she shouted, not waiting for him to turn before she slipped her blade between his helmet and shoulder and dragged it across his throat.
Hot blood spilled over Brynn's hands and down the front of the soldier's chest plate as he let the sword drop forgotten from his grip; confusion creasing his face as he tried in vain to stop the blood that gurgled out from him. He sank to his knees and then finally collapsed, his eyes staring at the sky and registering nothing at all.
"Herald!" she heard the unmistakable voice of Cassandra calling out to her. She briefly glanced in her direction to see that the fighting had ended, Varric and the Seeker looked unharmed. Then she slid her gaze toward the woman who lay on the ground, her breaths coming in sharp uneven gasps.
"You shouldn't have done that," Brynn said, dropping her dagger and knelt next to her. Trying to help stop the bleeding from where the soldier had pierced her. "That was really stupid," Brynn whispered furiously.
The woman nodded slowly, as though she agreed. She opened her mouth to speak, blood staining her lips and teeth, but it came out as a sharp wet cough that turned to ragged gasps.
"Cassandra!" Brynn shouted over her shoulder, urging the need for expedience. But she shouldn't have bothered. The woman gave one last strangled cough before Brynn felt the life go out of her all at once.
Cassandra dropped to her knees next to the woman, a half-used bottle of healing potion already in her hand. Brynn looked up and met Cassandra's eyes and saw the determination had vanished. The woman was dead, and they both knew it.
"Fuck," Brynn hissed in a shaky breath, lifting her hand from the wound. Cassandra was muttering some sort of apology, but Brynn just shook her head.
"Wait-" Brynn snatched the healing potion out of Cassandra's hands and took off at an unstable run. "The boy!" she shouted over her shoulder at Cassandra's clear protests. "There's a boy- in the woods, the- boy!" she tried the trade tongue again, but she didn't really care if Cassandra understood or not, they'd figure it out.
She tore through the forest as quickly as she could, but between the rift and the fighting, her body was spent. She was staggering by the time she spotted Whinny chewing on some grass. The boy was still nearby, laying quietly beneath her jacket.
"He did not make it," Leliana startled her from where she appeared between a couple trees, cleaning fresh blood from a small dagger she tucked away into her sleeve. "I'm sorry."
"What do you mean he didn't make it?" she frowned, looking down at the boy and realizing he was a great deal paler than when she'd left him, and unnervingly still. "Varric gave him some potion, he was talking-"
"He was very badly burned; the potion could not have saved him. He was already cold when I had finished with the templar," she nodded to yet another body in the woods that had an arrow deeply embedded in an armored shoulder and a large dark puddle soaking into the leaves from a torn throat.
"But he got away," Brynn said stupidly. As though that were in any way an argument.
Leliana reached for Brynn and laid a sympathetic arm on her shoulder. "I am sorry, Herald."
"Don't call me that," Brynn hissed, jerking out of Leliana's grip. "Just don't."