Haven was alive with music and cheers. Graham and the mages had been successful in their assault on the Breach, and if there was ever a reason to celebrate, that was definitely one. Holly was glad to see the Breach reduced to just a scar in the sky, but she was more glad to see that Graham had survived the attempt. After what had happened in Redcliffe, he needed a victory.
She tried to not think about the way he had been acting since they had returned as she wove between all the people celebrating in the heart of the town. It proved to be easier than she thought as she had to focus on not spilling the contents in the two mugs she carried. Flissa had filled them to the point of overflowing. Luckily, her staff helped create a little bubble around her.
She couldn't help but smile as she saw all the people dancing and laughing together. Everyone had been so serious since she had arrived. She was fairly certain that this was the first time many of these people had relaxed in months, years even for a few. She was unsure if certain people had ever relaxed up until that night.
Her steps quickened when she finally spotted Dorian. He leaned back in the chair he had stolen for the evening, watching Varric tell Blackwall, Bull, and Sera a story. She guessed it was likely about Hawke, since most of his stories were. An empty mug sat next to Dorian's foot, and his staff was leaning against the back of his chair.
"Anyone sitting here?" she asked, using her elbow to gesture to the empty chair beside him.
"Not at the moment, no."
She sat, and held out the mug for him to grab. He grabbed it with a thankful look in his eyes.
"Flissa is pouring the good stuff tonight, isn't she?" he said after he took a long sip of the cider he had been handed.
"Well, now is the time."
"Indeed."
Holly cleared her throat after a moment, "I haven't had the chance with all the chaos, but I wanted to thank you, for your help in Redcliffe. You know better than everyone just how horrible things could've been, but more than that, more than you saving the herald, you saved my brother. So, a mug of cider might not be much, but thank you."
"Something to help with this unbearable cold? A perfect way of saying thank you in my book," he said with a large smile.
"Good to know," she chuckled.
"I should say that- what is that?" he began to say, but he was cut off by the sounds of alarm bells and screams.
Holly hopped to her feet. Varric and the rest of the group looked back at her, looking just as concerned and confused as she felt. She realized that they were looking to her for guidance, and her mind stopped working for a moment. It kicked back into action with the next ring of the bell.
"Grab your weapons, and head to the front gate. I'm sure Graham will be there soon, and I know Cullen is already there," she told them. She didn't wait for their responses and took off for the gates with Dorian hot on her heels.
"Never a dull moment for southerners, is there?" he joked. She ignored him.
They rushed past screaming villagers, and nobility. A few people tried to stop her to ask what was going on, but she simply told them to protect themselves. They arrived at the gates at the same time Graham and Cassandra did. He had his bow and quiver, and Cassandra already had her sword unsheathed. As expected, Cullen was already there. Holly had a strong feeling he was the one who started the alarm. What did surprise her was that Josephine was already there as fighting wasn't her forte.
"Cullen?" was all Cassandra said.
"One watch guard reporting. It's a massive force, the bulk of it coming over the mountain."
"Under what banner?" Josephine asked.
"None."
"None?" she repeated.
Graham opened his mouth to speak but was cut off. A flash of red light came from the other side of the closed gates, as a force tried to open them. A slightly panicked and desperate-sounding voice came from the other side. It said, "I can't come in unless you open!"
Cullen motioned to the guards to open the gates and drew his sword. A man in strange-looking armor fell to the ground just as the gates swung open. A boy who strongly resembled a scarecrow wielding two daggers stood over the now dead body. Holly noted a brief look of panic on Graham's face as he and Cullen rushed forward along with her. The boy had his head tilted forward, so his hat obscured his face.
The boy rushed to meet them, his voice a little shaky and rushed when he spoke, "I'm Cole. I came to warn you. To help. People are coming to hurt you. You probably already know."
"What is this? What's going on?" Graham demanded.
Cole stepped forward, "The templars come to kill you."
Holly felt her stomach drop. She knew there would be repercussions for siding with the mages, everyone did, but she had not expected this. She thought that their backlash would've been more political, or skirmishes might've broken out between them and the Inquisition soldiers. Launching an attack on Haven was something she had not anticipated, and as she looked at Cullen, it was clearly not something he had been anticipating either.
"Templars?" Cullen demanded, brandishing his sword a little too close to Cole, "Is this the Order's response to our talks with the mages? Attacking blindly?"
Cole seemed undisturbed by Cullen, and explained, "The red templars went to the Elder One. You know him? He knows you. You took his mages."
Holly paused at "red templars." Something about it set her on edge, but then he said Elder One. She was fairly certain that Graham and Dorian had mentioned him. According to them, he was the one who destroyed the world in the future.
Before she could ask anything, Cole pointed to a hill in the distance, "There."
A somewhat gaunt-looking man stood on the top of the hill, but she couldn't make out many details from where she stood. The only thing she could truly see was the ghastly-looking sword. Then, a monster of a man appeared as he crested the hill. He was several feet taller than the first man and looked as though he had shards of stone, or worse, red lyrium, coming out of his head. The Elder One.
"I know that man… but this Elder one…." Cullen murmured beside her.
"He's very angry that you took his mages."
Graham seemed to snap out of his shock, and turned to Cullen, "Cullen! Give me a plan! Anything!"
"Haven is no fortress. If we are to withstand this monster, we must control the battle. Get out there and hit that force. Use everything you can."
"Does this include letting the mages fight alongside us?" Holly asked
"Yes," he nodded, voice and face terrifyingly grave.
Holly was taken aback by the lack of attitude in his voice. He didn't make a face or roll his eyes at her for being worried about his reaction. She shook it off, and turned to the crowd gathering behind them, "Mages! You have sanction to engage them, to fight alongside the Inquisition soldiers. If we are to make it out of this, we need your help."
Cullen stepped forward, "That man is Samson. He will not make it easy. Inquisition! With the Herald! For your lives! For all of us!"
The soldiers and mages erupted in shouts as Cullen turned, and thrust his sword into the air. They rushed into their places. Some ran for the trebuchets, others ran to defend the paths that led to the village. Dorian and Cassandra were already with Holly and Graham, but the rest of their traveling companions appeared at their side shortly.
"What do we do?" Sera asked.
"Stay with me. We're going to defend Haven as best we can," he said, and frowned towards the advancing army, "We won't let this Elder One win."
He readied his bow and ran for the nearest trebuchet. Holly unhooked her staff and followed quickly behind. They got there just as the advancing army did, and Holly immediately understood why Cole called them red templars. They wore templar armor but had red lyrium growing from their bodies… at best. Holly's eyes widened with horror when she saw the bloated, distorted bodies of the others. They had hunched backs, and their arms stuck out at odd angles. Their screams sounded inhuman. They resembled the abominations they had so feared. Some liked to refer to the templars as monsters, but now… they had truly become them.
An arrow whizzing past her head brought her back to the present. She took a deep breath and drew on her ties to the Fade. The air around her torso became thicker, heavier, like armor. The air beyond that became charged with electrical and magical energy. She swung her staff around her in a large arc, gathering the energy around her. She slammed her staff into the ground before her, and a massive bolt of lightning struck a templar that was about to strike the Bull from behind, and it arced to hit the three templars around them.
Holly saw flashes of blue and orange light come from her fellow mages. Another arrow followed by a bolt flew past her. Cassandra almost pushed her over as she raised her shield to block one of the horrors from clawing at Holly's cloaked back, as Blackwall did the same for Sera. The soldier at the trebuchet was shouting, but Holly couldn't hear her over the sound of her own heartbeat.
She saw another templar swing at one of the Inquisition soldiers, and Holly raised her hand. She drew from the snow on the ground, and a shard of ice as sharp as a dagger flew from her fingertips. She winced as the shard hit the templar, and for a moment she was brought back to Ostwick. Another bolt of lightning striking a templar that got too close to her brought her back to reality.
Wave after wave they came. Every single one of their bodies was destroyed by the glowing, red lyrium. Some had their armor fused to their bodies. Others had massive shards of lyrium for limbs. Holly took solace in knowing that at the very least she was ending their suffering.
When the final templar attacking the trebuchet fell, it launched its boulder. The soldier manning it shouted something over her shoulder about the other trebuchet not firing. Graham didn't say a word as he sprinted away. Holly and the others took off after him.
To Holly's horror, the reason the second trebuchet hadn't fired yet was because the soldiers guarding it had all been killed. The red templars prowled around the bodies as their blood stained the snow. Holly heard Cassandra let out a growl that grew into a blood-curdling yell. She charged forward with her shield up. Blackwall did the same, and Bull overtook them both in three steps. Graham and Sera released their arrows at the same time, both finding their targets in the templars' visors. Holly heard Varric shoot in rapid succession. The air around them all began to smell like smoke, ozone, and that smell that could only be described as the Fade as she and the other mages began to cast their spells.
The red templars didn't last long against them. Holly's hair looked like she had run through a lightning storm by the time the last body hit the cold ground. She looked around frantically at the people around her. They looked largely unscathed, with the exception of Bull, but he just had cuts and from what little she knew about him, they seemed to only make him fight harder.
"We need to aim the trebuchet," one of the soldiers said. They turned to aim it properly, but Graham beat them there.
"Cover him," Holly shouted as she began to conjure a wall of ice. Seeing what she was doing, Solas helped her while Dorian and Vivienne did the same on another path. The small fires from their spells glinted off of Graham's armor oddly, making it seem that he was almost on fire as he aimed the trebuchet. Its arm seemed to move in slow motion as it launched the boulder. They watched with their mouths hanging open as it sailed through the air. She could practically feel the relief radiating from Graham when it collided with the side of the mountain. The cheers were deafening as the avalanche began.
Holly heard the screech before she saw anything. It chilled her to the bone. Then she saw it. A massive high dragon that resembled the red templars. She had just enough time to wrap her cloak around Sera and drag them both to the ground before the dragon dived at them. She used the lingering ice magic to reinforce her cloak as the trebuchet shattered above them.
Her head throbbed as she struggled to her feet. Massive pieces of splintered wood and shattered metal were strewn about the ground. She looked around frantically as she helped Sera up. The others looked more than confused, and a little bruised, but otherwise fine.
Everyone began to utter their own ways of expressing their confusion, but Graham simply held up his hand, "We need to get back to the village. Now."
He got no arguments as they rushed back to the main gates. They ran past Harritt, who was trying to break back into the makeshift blacksmithy. Holly stuck her hand out, and brought it down, casting a little bit of force magic to crush the crates in Harritt's way. He shouted his thanks as they stopped to make sure that he made it back into the village.
Holly relaxed slightly when she saw Cullen waiting for them at the gates. He was helping a limping soldier get inside. When another soldier ran up to help, Cullen turned, and Holly could see the brief look of relief from where she was. Thankfully, he seemed to be uninjured as well.
"Move! Move!" he shouted as they neared the gates. Holly and Graham stopped when they got to where he was standing and waited for the others to enter. Together they pushed the gates closed.
"How are things in the village?" Graham asked.
Cullen was scowling, but Holly could see the worry in his eyes, "Not good. We need to get everyone to the chantry! It's the only building that might stand against that… that beast. At this point, we just need to make them work for it."
Holly didn't like the pessimism in his voice, and she didn't like that they were cornering themselves, but he was right. The chantry was the sturdiest building with all the others being little more than log cabins. It was the best place for everyone to wait out the storm.
"Head to the chantry. We'll make sure everyone gets there. Those who are already there will need reassurance. Holly, you should go with him."
"Absolutely not. I'm staying with you."
"The wounded need you more than I do right now. You're a good fighter, but you're an even better healer. If any of us go down before we can get dragged to the chantry, then there is nothing you could've changed. Now go!"
Holly sighed, "Fine, but you'd better make it to the chantry alive, or I'm dragging your ass to the Grand Necropolis. Maker be with you."
"Maker be with us all," he said.
Cullen drew his sword and reached for his shield again. With a final nod, they took off. Holly's eyes widened as she saw all the cabins up in flames. The smell of smoke almost choked her. Dead bodies lay on the ground. A disturbing amount weren't wearing armor. She tried to not think about it.
She grabbed Cullen's arm when she heard yelling coming from one of the cabins. Cullen stopped running as she approached it.
"Get back from the door!" she shouted. She waited a few seconds before slamming the bottom of her staff into the door. A massive blow of force magic blew the door open, destroying the crates behind it. Inside Seggrit was leaning against the back wall, face covered in soot and ash.
"Cullen!" she shouted over her shoulder, and she jumped slightly when he was already standing right behind her. He pushed right past her. He draped Seggrit over his shoulder wordlessly. Holly noticed one of the rafters was about to fall on them both, but she raised her hand, and a large chunk of ice formed where the beam had burned. It had melted completely by the time Cullen had managed to drag Seggrit out of the building.
They passed Threnn, who just yelled that she had things handled. Graham and the others were still fighting near the gates, so they left her, and entered the chantry. The inside was complete chaos. Holly could hear children crying in the back rooms. Splatters of blood were all over the stonework. Soldiers and able-bodied workers were running back and forth from the rooms. Leliana and Josephine's voices were coming from Josephine's office. Mother Giselle's came from their room, which the blood led to.
"Maker's breath…" Cullen breathed as he watched the soldiers.
"Here, I can support him. I'll find where they're keeping the injured… or where there's room. Tell me when Graham gets here. I'm going to help the other healers for the time being."
"Alright."
Holly stood at Seggrit's other side and wrapped his arm around her shoulders. He had been complaining the entire time Cullen had dragged him there, but they had both ignored him. He continued to complain as she guided him to the bedroom. She could hear Mother Giselle's voice coming from inside. Holly pushed the door open, and all three beds were taken, and there were as many cots on the floor as they could've fit in the room.
"Thank the Maker you're alright," she said as she turned to look at them, "Where is your brother?"
"He's with Cassandra and the others," Holly explained as she helped Seggrit lay on one of the cots, "They're gathering the last few people stuck in the village. He wanted me to come here first to help the injured."
"He is a very smart man."
"Sometimes," Holly joked. She began to check on Seggrit. Luckily, he didn't have any burns on him, just ash and sweat. He simply needed to relax and drink water.
"I don't suppose there are any cups, are there?" she asked.
"I'm afraid not."
"How are the others? Who needs the most help?"
"The ones in here are like Seggrit. They just need rest. The most wounded are in your war room. Everyone else is throughout the chantry. Sister Leliana and Lady Josephine are in her office."
"I'll be in the war room then."
She left and closed the door behind her. She heard the large double doors at the entrance if the chantry opened, and turned to see Lysette helping Adan and Minaeve in. They looked shocked but otherwise alright. Lysette was about to leave again, but Cullen stopped her. Holly could hear them arguing as she entered the war room. The large table had been pushed to the wall and had various poultices, potions, and healing herbs piled onto it. Cots had been laid out on the floor. Heavily injured people laid on them as healers rushed about the room.
Holly set her staff to the side and set to work. The other healers started handing her poultices and telling her what each patient needed without questioning why she was there. She didn't recognize any of the injured, making it easier to stay calm and do her work. She winced slightly at the nasty cuts and burns that wracked their bodies. One person was missing an arm. Another had a broken leg. It was Ostwick all over again. She focused on the warmth from the healing spells to distract herself.
A few minutes passed, and Cullen poked his head through the door. He quietly motioned to Holly. She made sure the man she was working with was stable before she got up. His face was unreadable as she stepped out of the room.
"What is it? Where's my brother?" she asked.
"We've found a way to get out of this alive. To hit the enemy now, we are going to have to bury Haven. Luckily, Chancellor Roderick apparently knows a path we can take to safety, and we need to leave now."
She paused and realized he had said nothing about Graham. She repeated, "Where's my brother?"
He wouldn't meet her eyes, but his voice was soft, "He and the others are launching the trebuchet."
She felt her heart drop, "Without me?"
"He wants you to help the injured escape, and he wants you to be safe."
"Why didn't he tell me? Why isn't he helping?"
"Someone has to fire the trebuchet, and this Elder One is here for him, and he is willing to be the distraction. He didn't have time to get you. Besides, they're going to need as much help as possible to get out of here."
"I don't like this."
"I don't either, but we don't have any choice. It's this, or we all die, and that future your brother and Dorian saw will happen."
She looked past him, towards the entrance of the chantry, "Where's this path?"
"According to the Chancellor, just behind the chantry."
"Let's start getting people out of here before it's too late. Do Leliana and Josephine know?"
"I was going to tell them right after you."
"Do that, then send some soldiers my way. I'll need their help getting the injured out."
"Some are at the entrance already waiting to escort people."
"Thank you," she said as she turned towards the room Mother Giselle was in. She drew her cloak tighter around her shoulders to hide her shaking hands. Graham and Cullen were right, she was needed here, but she would never forgive herself if Graham died.
She informed Mother Giselle of the escape plan and began helping her escort the injured to the soldiers. After she made sure they were ready to go, she ran off to help the healers, and the critically injured. She could see the others trying not to panic as they rushed to stabilize the patients enough to move them. Once she was sure they were stable enough she fetched some of the soldiers and uninjured workers to carry them out. She helped Cullen, Leliana, and Josephine usher the villagers out until they were the only ones left.
She shivered as she stood in the now empty chantry. It had been completely stripped as people ran out. Leliana had somehow managed to convince Josephine to go with the others as they waited for Graham and the others. Her grip on her staff tightened when the chantry doors. Cassandra, Dorian, and the others finally rushed in.
"Where's Graham?" she demanded.
"He… stayed behind," Dorian explained.
"What do you mean he stayed behind?"
"The dragon… whatever it is, returned. He told us to go."
"He can't fight that thing on his own!"
"No, but he could still launch the trebuchet," Cassandra said, "We need to leave now in case he does."
"You're just going to leave him here?" Holly yelled.
"We don't have any other choice."
"I disagree," Holly said and began to charge towards the doors. Cullen stepped in her way.
"Get out of my way, Cullen."
"Not unless you're going to the path."
She didn't say anything as she tried to move around him. He moved faster than she anticipated and wrapped his arms around her waist. She tried to wiggle free as he put her on his shoulder. Her staff had fallen to the ground in the process, and she heard Leliana pick it up.
"What are you doing?" as she struggled in vain.
"I promised your brother I'd get you out alive, so we are leaving. Now," he explained as he carried her to the doors.
She couldn't do anything to get free without actually hurting him, and they both knew it. She continued to try to wiggle free as he carried her to the path. Everyone who walked behind them avoided making eye contact with her. She tried to shock him slightly, but he just shrugged it off. He continued to carry her until they got to the path where Mother Giselle and Josephine were already leading everyone away.
She didn't try to run. Between Cullen walking beside her, and the others walking behind her, she knew better than to try to run back to the village. Cullen shot her worried looks out of the corner of his eye when he thought she wasn't looking. When she had arrived in Haven she never anticipated she would be leaving like this, escaping a massive attack while worrying about Graham's safety as much as she did when she arrived.
They walked in silence for a few minutes before Cullen turned to say something, but his jaw dropped when he saw something behind her. She turned just in time to see a small light in the distance slam into the side of the mountain. She could barely make out the following avalanche.
"He did it," Cullen whispered as Holly fell to her knees. A broken sob managed to escape her before she covered her mouth with a shaking hand. She barely registered Cassandra resting her hand on her shoulder.
Leliana knelt next to her after a few minutes, "I know it hurts, but we have to go. We are not safe here, and he would not want you to put yourself in danger."
She stood, and offered Holly her hand. When Holly was standing again, she handed her her staff. Holly clutched it like it was a stuffed animal. She focused on the feeling of running her thumb on the etched vines in the wood as they followed the crowd into the valley.