The cracks spread like a mirror shattering. Except, in this case, the mirror was the very fabric of reality. Varric pulled Maria closer to him without thinking so she didn't risk falling into the crack opening near her feet. Her sharp eyes locked over his shoulder and he felt her arm move into the waistband of her pants, but he was too focused on the sight of the cracks spreading over her shoulder to pay attention to whatever the hell was going on behind him.

So the crack of the gun going off under his arm startled him, made him pull away and look down. He half expected to see a smoking bullethole in his own abdomen with blood pouring out of his gut.

Instead, he saw Maria's arm holding her gun at his hip, the tip still smoking. He turned just in time to watch one of the wraiths fall backwards with a sparking hole in the stretched, grotesque skin of its forehead. It's grimy hands were still reaching for his back even as it fell.

His own fingers dug tighter into the flesh at Maria's waist, clutching the silk fabric there enough to pull it from where it was tucked into her pants. Her stormy eyes flicked up to his, fierce, determined, and just a little proud.

Well she had every right to brag about an aim like that. "You're a hell of a shot, beautiful."

Instantly, her eyes turned cautious, suspicious. She pulled away and Varric watched as she spun, his mind putting her in slow motion, the way her hair caught the light, the way she raised the gun up in her hands again as she took three sure, leisurely steps forward even as the chaos seemed to pick up speed outside their little bubble.

"I am observing unusual phenomenon." The AI chirped in his ear. Varric watched his own hand slowly slide through the air to touch the earpiece. Felt his own mouth form the words. "What…?"

"I am receiving conflicting readings for the amount of time passing from your personal devices, satellites, and the server. Your devices are falling significantly behind…"

Oh that did not sound good. He wasn't just observing his life in movie-style slow motion. He was living it. Unfortunately, it wasn't even one of the good moments, the kind he could stand to stretch out.

And it wasn't just him.

"Seeker!" He yelled, watching a demon strike out and toss Blackwall against one of the other SUVs. "Cleanse the magic! NOW!"

"It is distorting time!" Solas yelled, the words elongated, the syllables dragging in the air. Varric watched with growing horror as Maria barely dodged a creature's grasping sharp talons as she tried to aim…

Solas and Cassandra both made their move at the same damn time. He felt the full force of Solas's magic to dispel the shit slam into the wall of the Seeker's cleanse. It centered the world, made it all snap back. Just in time for Maria to blow the face off the demon with dripping teeth way too close to her. The creature fell with a screech.

"Where it began!" Solas directed, slicing his jawbone through the air and sending a wave of magic that sliced a wraith clean in two. "Near Blackwall! Try stopping it there!"

"Shit! Shit shit shit!" Sera swung her rifle over her shoulder and whacked one of the menacing demons in the face with the butt of it. Just in time for Cole to materialize out of nowhere and shove a switchblade into the back of its neck.

Varric finished it off with a shotgun blast as Bull charged past him into the melee. "What the fuck are you doing?" He yelled at the man's broad back.

The Qunari didn't deign to answer. Varric was left with little choice but to watch the mountain of a man clothesline one demon with a massive arm. A blast of magic froze another creature closing in on him and Varric took the opportunity to start issuing directives to Bianca.

"Bianca sweetheart, tell me that gate into the city is hooked up to their network."

"Yes. They are using standard WPA3 encryption." Bianca answered quickly. "Even with magical disruptions, the gate is secure."

"I want it open." Varric ordered. "Now. Five minutes ago, if possible."

"I would say distorting time itself is impossible, but evidence has been provided to the contrary." Bianca sounded absolutely delighted by the idea. "The Champion will wish to look at the data."

"Send it to her and get the damn gate open, baby." Varric dodged a blast of blue fire that managed to both freeze and burn one of the barricades. He'd worry about what both Biancas and Hawke could get up to with that data once the imminent risk to his chest hair had passed. "Preferably before any of our team takes permanent damage."

"I am capable of completing more than one task at a time."

Sassed. He was getting sassed by his own damn AI. Proof, if he needed more of it, that the computer spent too much time with Hawke.

He sent one shotgun shell into another creature crowding the Seeker, sending it dissolving into smoke and ash. Just as it vanished, he saw something that turned his blood cold.

A creature, the largest of the ones that had come through, threw its head back to the sky and let out a long, shattering screech. Its gaping maw then turned a bizarre, frightening smile down at the small figure it held dangling in its grasp by one black wool covered arm. Maria's red hair had come almost all undone, a flag waving brightly in the wind. While he watched, she twisted to try and jab it in the skeletal ribcage, but if the demon felt her struggles, it didn't show it.

He was too far away to aim his shotgun with any real accuracy, and even if he wasn't, Varric didn't know if he was a good enough shot to make sure he didn't accidentally shoot Maria Cadash. The demon wrenched Maria up by it's vicious grip on her wrist and Maria screamed, the sound slicing through everything else. Varric lifted his shotgun to try and take the shot, to do something…

"Hey asshole! Try picking on someone your own size!"

Varric never thought he'd see the day someone punched a demon in the face, but the Iron Bull reared back and his fist landed squarely against the demon's jaw. The force of the blow sent it reeling backward and Maria dropped to the pavement with an audible thud Varric saw her catch her weight on her right wrist, which buckled immediately with a broken off screech of her own. Even as she grimaced, she slammed her other open palm down on the crack.

Varric felt the magic in his teeth like a high pitched sound, a drill bit at the dentist, before he heard the audible crack of the worlds separating. The remaining demons vaporized into thin air just in time for Bianca to chime in. "The gate is open and I have taken control of all security systems in Redcliffe."

"Atta girl." He didn't even know who we was talking to, the computer or Maria. The cracks in the pavement remained, but they'd stopped smoking. Their Herald rolled onto her back and threw her left hand quickly over her eyes. Varric threw his shotgun over his shoulder and began to pick his way across the damaged pavement towards her.

Bull let out a mighty whoop, grinning madly. "Yeah! Did you see that boss? Who just punched a demon in the face?"

"You did." Maria muttered from beneath her hand, answer barely audible even as he stopped beside her. "And you called me small."

"Truth hurts sometimes, boss." Bull thrust out his arm with another beaming grin. "Up and at 'em."

"I'll stay here for a moment." Maria whispered dryly. "Thanks."

Bull frowned and cast his eyes down at Varric, but it was Solas who answered as he shoved in between the two of them to kneel next to Maria. "She expends much of herself on each crack. I would prefer she not move more than necessary. Mister Tethras, if you could help her sit…"

"That was AWESOME!"

Harding's joyful exclamation caused all of them to look, except Maria, who simply groaned out one question. "Was she recording or live?"

"Live the whole time." Varric couldn't quite hide his amusement. "I can check and see how many views we had."

"Bea is gonna be so pissed." Maria's voice cracked. "I told her this was safe."

"It was supposed to be." Cassandra's voice snapped, stopping to tower over Maria and Solas. "Are you well?"

"Peachy." Maria muttered.

"Varric, I need her up." Solas ordered again, withdrawing a thermos from his bag. "I have made a tincture to assist in staving off the most serious side effects, but she will need to drink it."

"What are the serious side effects?" Bull asked, uncrossing his arms and furrowing his brow.

"Unconsciousness." Cassandra glared. "Which we do not have time for today."

"Shite. Piss and… those were demons!" Sera was freaking out. Completely normal, Varric thought, but Cassandra threw a concerned look over her shoulder.

"I need to ensure the safety of Blackwall, Sera, and Cole." She grumbled. "Will the Herald…?"

"We have her, Seeker." Varric knelt and slowly, gently, slipped his arm between Maria's back and the concrete. Her muscles stiffened under his fingers, but he didn't acknowledge it. Instead, he gently pushed her up.

Her sharp intake of breath made him stop, instantly concerned. Solas said something in Elven under his breath, Varric had spent enough time with Daisy to recognize a curse when he heard one. But it was Bull that hunkered down, his pants stretching to their limit so that Varric was a bit concerned he was about to get an eyeful of those nug-print boxers. "I thought I heard something snap, boss."

"Wrist." Maria didn't open her eyes. "Right one."

Varric slipped behind her, let her rest against half his chest while his arm curled around her. She held herself tense against him even as Varric gently took hold of her arm to steady it. Solas pressed the thermos into her left hand and held it still while he uncapped it until Maria's hand gripped it securely.

"Drink at least half of that." Solas directed. "And I will see what I can do for the wrist. I am no healer, but if it is a simple fracture…"

Maria pulled the thermos to her nose and then coughed, eyes fluttering open to inspect it skeptically. "This smells like ashes and sunscreen."

"I fear it tastes even worse." Solas murmured, gently rolling up Maria's sleeves.

"Charming." Maria closed her eyes and and tipped the liquid into her mouth. She wrinkled her nose in distaste. With her eyes closed, she didn't see a similar expression cross Solas's face as he traced his long fingers over her swollen wrist.

"This has been broken previously." Solas's voice was devoid of emotion, a careful professional mask. "More than once."

Maria nearly choked on the liquid she swallowed. She managed to get her expression back under control by the time she opened those eyes again. "Yeah. A couple times."

"It was not allowed to heal properly." Solas stated neutrally, meeting her eyes calmly until Maria looked away, eying Bull's loafers like they were the most interesting thing in the world.

Maria's voice was carefully flippant. "Nor, to be completely honest, was it taken care of in a hospital. Wait until you see how fucked up my back is."

"I can mend this fracture, but it is a weak point. You should ask the Seeker for a brace." Solas advised. With Maria looking away, Solas didn't care to hide the fire in his gaze despite the soothing quality of his voice. When he dropped his attention back to the wrist, Varric knew without any other words what Solas thought.

Someone had been repeatedly breaking that wrist.

Before Maria could say anything else, something began to vibrate loudly in her coat. Maria sighed wearily around another sip of the substance in the thermos, eyes closing in defeat. "That's Bea."

"Here." Bull deftly reached his large hands into the small pocket of the coat and pulled out the phone. He confirmed the caller ID and slid to accept the call, standing tall. "Hey little B. How's it going?"

Varric could hear Bea's swearing the whole way back on the ground. Bull pulled the phone from his ear calmly and walked several paces away. Solas's fingers were glowing and seeping warm light into Maria's skin. And slowly, without her consciously being aware of it, Maria was relaxing back against his chest. A side effect of magical healing, one Varric knew very well. He'd gotten some of the best sleep of his life after Anders fixed him up.

"Keep drinking." Solas ordered grimly while he continued to heal. The light was dimming and Solas probed the skin gingerly.

"I'd rather pass out." Maria joked. In spite of himself, Varric snorted.

"Solas!" Cassandra called and the elf looked up, eyes fixed on the scene farther away. "Blackwall may have a concussion."

Solas hesitated, looking back down at the pale skin of Maria's delicate wrist. It looked good as new, but Maria still kept her eyes closed as if she couldn't bear the light and colors of the world around them.

"Go take care of him." Maria ordered, choking on another swallow of the mixture in the thermos and making a face. "I'm not going anywhere."

"I will hold you to that, Miss Cadash." Solas smiled sadly, tapping her wrist gently. "Be careful with this for the next few days."

Solas shot him a stern look as he rose, one that clearly said that if Maria Cadash was left unattended for a moment, Varric would be facing his own mortality at the hands of one bald, pissed off, Elven witch.

Varric had no intention of leaving Maria alone, but honestly, it wasn't like he didn't expect to meet his eventual doom because of a witch at some point in time. He'd made peace with that at Hawke's side years ago.

"You should help them."

Maria held the thermos so tightly in her left hand he was shocked it didn't groan and collapse under the pressure. She kept her right hand completely still as if not quite trusting that it had healed, the pain too recent to be forgotten. Varric was still holding it steady, but he slowly withdrew his hand and placed his palm on the pavement close to hers.

"I am." Varric adopted a wounded tone. "I'm extremely helpful, ask the Seeker. And the most helpful thing I can do now is keep you from passing out."

"I don't need a damn babysitter."

"Nobody says you do." Varric soothed while she take another gulp of the foul concoction. Varric could smell it now and he had to admit, she'd been on the nose with her assessment of sunscreen and ash.

It wasn't the right time by a long shot, but if he waited for another opportunity they may all be dead before it appeared. "I need to apologize anyway. I'm typically shit at it, but let me give it a shot at least."

"Tethras…" Her tone was loaded with warning. Varric ignored it and hoped for the best.

"I fucked up." An underwhelming start if he ever heard one. "I dug through all your records and I construed the absolute worst, despite actually getting to know you and… shit, Princess." Varric stumbled to a stop, almost at a loss for words. "You don't owe me or anyone else your story. Author's curiosity is only so much of an excuse."

"You didn't pull them." She didn't turn to look at him or open her eyes, but if she had he knew she'd see the guilt swirling in his features. Her voice was hard as steel. "You didn't hack into the system and grab my records."

"I read them." He admitted quietly, weakly. He read them because he was a weak man. He was weak and…

"Do you think I murdered him?" Maria asked quietly, her voice barely a whisper. Her muscles were tense again against his chest again, her wrist held so painstakingly carefully still to her side…

Because she was used to it being broken. She was used to it not being able to heal. Varric didn't want to think about someone else's hands around the delicate bones Solas handled with such care. He didn't want to picture how a man could snap those thin bones with a little brute strength and creativity.

"If I would have been thinking clearly…" If he had fucking called Hawke, if he had stopped to think… "I would never have believed it for a second."

The tension didn't quite bleed out of her, that would be too much to hope for. But Varric damn well hadn't actually asked for her forgiveness. He was reluctant to ask for anything when the world was going to demand so very much from her without offering anything in return.

"Okay." Maria said softly.

"Okay." Varric repeated in a sigh. It wasn't forgiveness, but it would do.

"Do you think they'll just let me go home now?" Maria asked grimly, changing the subject deftly.

"Unlikely." Varric jerked his head toward the city gates where a crowd of stunned witches and city police stood, shellshocked. "Gate's open."

"Bold move considering there was a shit ton of demons. Were they coming to rescue us?" Maria took another gulp of the terrible potion and wrinkled her nose.

"Negative. I hacked the gates so we'd have somewhere to go to outrun said demons." Varric felt the tremor of laughter run up Maria's back and she very nearly spat up the concoction slowly bringing color back to her cheeks. She whipped her head around, eyes open, and glared playfully.

"Well if that was a fucking option, Varric, why didn't we do that in the first place? Did you just want to see if Cassandra could force her way in?"

Before he could retort, the AI in his ear chirped. "Chatter in Redcliffe's network has revealed information of note."

Varric held up one finger to Maria. "What's up, baby?"

Darkness flashed over Maria's face too quickly for him to comprehend or make sense of it. She turned away as Bianca continued her report.

"The witches are anxious about the possibility of an alliance with Tevinter, Varric. Should I follow proper protocol and alert Fe…"

"No!" Varric began hastily. The proper protocol, whenever any of them were around anything smacking of Tevinter was to send a quick note to Fenris. A heads up for the person most likely to be concerned about said Tevinter presence. Varric didn't need Broody showing up here at a politically sensitive time feeling stabby. "No, we'll handle the Tevinter thing without outside assistance. Thanks."

Maria sighed wearily and sat the thermos down, rubbing her forehead with her left hand. "What Tevinter thing?" She groaned.

xx

Maria's knowledge of Tevinter was pulled from her patchwork education, most of it way outdated, half of it for sure based on wild rumors. She knew some of the lyrium she smuggled through Ostwick went up north, but she never did. The names she saw and heard were simply foreign background noise.

She maybe should have been paying more attention, but it wasn't like she ever could have predicted landing smack dab in a civil war with Tevinter looming on the edges.

"I don't know anything about Tevinter." She hissed from her spot between Cassandra and Bull. "How am I supposed to fake this?"

"It is a land of vice and blood witches." Cassandra couldn't look more furious. Maria was just waiting for her to pull her gun out and start threatening everyone looking at them with odd mixture of hope and fear on their faces. "That is all you need to know."

Maria cast a despairing look up at Bull who simply shrugged. Somebody, thankfully, had decided Bull should be armed if he was to be the self-proclaimed bodyguard he'd declared himself to be. His assault rifle was bigger than she was, but he wore it so casually it was like a part of him, another arm. "All I know is if you shoot 'em, Vint witches bleed just like everyone else."

"They're so angry at you." Cole whispered, touching her elbow. When Maria looked back Cole indicated some dark looking foreigners lounging next to a deli. "I don't know why."

"I seem to have that effect on people lately." Maria muttered.

"I see we leave 'em, yeah? They made their beds." Sera had her arms crossed under her narrow chest and she glared at a group of civilians pointedly.

"No!" Cole whispered, horrified. "They need your help."

"This isn't making any sense." Varric tapped angrily at his phone screen and glared at it suspiciously.

Maria wanted to point out that nothing ever made sense anymore, but Varric turned the phone towards her before she could. "Look. See, I've got records of communications from inside and outside of Redcliffe. Do you see how all our communications are listed going into Redcliffe? All of Ruffles's emails, phone calls…"

It was a truly impressive amount. Did the ambassador ever actually sleep? She nodded and Varric swiped his thumb across the screen, bringing up another one. "This is communication Redcliffe shows actually coming in and going out. Nothing. Nothing for a whole bunch of dates, like… shit, like nothing happened at all on those days. Not just with us but with any communications."

"So they wiped their records?" Cassandra asked.

"That's the thing, why wipe their internal records? Who did they think was gonna look?" Varric mused thoughtfully.

"You?" Maria stated obviously. Varric shot her a rakish grin, one that went right to her empty stomach like a shot of whiskey. Damn him to the void in back, it wasn't fair. She wanted to stay angry at him. Angry was safe, fury was easy. This…

This wasn't safe. How could she trust a man who dug through her life like an open book? That allowed his maybe girlfriend to dump out the tragedy of her life for his perusal?

"Beautiful, not many people actually know what my baby is capable of. I prefer it that way so I don't have to deal with pesky things like…"

"Legality?" Cassandra offered with arch disapproval. "Ethics?"

"The Seekers." Varric finished with a sly wink in Maria's direction. "Although if I'd known they were all as pleasant as Cassandra here…"

Solas had a faraway, calculating gleam in his eye. "The crack outside the city. It distorted time."

It certainly had felt much worse than the other cracks we have faced."

Maria thought it felt like a living, breathing monster of its own. After she'd slammed it shut, she'd opened her eyes to find she could still see through the world to some sort of ghostly bones underneath, the gray and twisted place she'd seen while climbing up the mountain, one so real she could nearly reach out and touch it.

It made her head throb and she honestly thought she would have passed out if not for the familiar pain of her right wrist breaking, at least the fourth time she'd felt those bones shatter. The agony of it grounded her and the ass-tasting liquid Solas forced on her brought her back to reality.

"Herald?"

There was a small, elven woman approaching her. She looked at least middle aged, her hair graying at the temples. She also looked broken, defeated, drowning in the shapeless sweater and jeans she wore. "It is… good to be introduced to you. I am Minister Fiona, I only wish we had occasion to meet earlier."

"We could have." Maria's surly response was automatic. "Except, apparently, you were fucking with the Inquisition's ambassador while negotiating with Tevinter."

Blackwall and Sera both chuckled, but the elf in front of her didn't look amused. She drew back, a spark of life jumping to light in her eyes. "I resent the accusation. I have had no contact with your Inquisition."

Maria nearly called bullshit, but something stopped her. Maria thought herself a damn good card player, one of the best she knew, and she could spot a bluff or a lie a mile away.

Fiona didn't look like she was lying and that was troubling.

"We were in a perilous situation. The templars will attack any day now and I have children, the old, the ill… this is no order of soldiers such as they are. These are civilians and refugees, not demons to be feared." Fiona declared passionately. "I do not expect you to understand our desperation, but I will not be bullied for action."

Maria knew desperation. She knew the sour taste of it in her mouth, the way it turned your stomach. She swallowed and shook her head. "It's not too late to pick a new path. There's a hole in the damn sky and the last thing people want are magisters wandering around Southern Thedas."

"I… I am unsure. I think perhaps our fate is sealed." Fiona lifted her chin imperiously. "I have been instructed to take you to Magister Alexius. Please follow me."

Their entire group stepped forward and Fiona held her hand out, awkward. "I… I have been instructed to bring the Herald. Alone."

"That is not happening." Cassandra snapped, crossing her arms over her chest and glaring down at Fiona's head.

"There is simply not enough room for all of you…" Fiona cast a discreet look at Bull and looked away. Maria sighed.

"Fine." She looked at Cassandra. "Not all of us, but you should come. Varric and Solas too."

"I'll wait outside this place boss." Bull offered. "Keep an eye on things."

"Keep Cole with you?" Maria asked. Bull nodded and Blackwall bent down to whisper in her ear.

"Sera and I will take a look around. See what we can find out."

"Thank you." Maria nodded at Sera's jaunty wink before she linked arms with Blackwall and dragged him off. Maria turned back to Fiona. "Lead the way."

Fiona led them into a comfortable, but eerily quiet hotel. Maria looked around the, thankfully less opulently Orelsian, lobby and Maria looked around. "Do you have people staying here?"

"We did. Children and non-combatants, mostly." Fiona clenched her hands tightly into fists as she walked.

"Not anymore?" Maria asked suspiciously.

"The Magister required the space."

"The Magister requires a swift kick in the ass." Varric mumbled. Maria agreed completely. Even Cassandra made a small noise of approval. Fiona opened the door to a small conference room and gestured them in before closing the door with a murmured promise to return with the Magister. Varric slipped past her and picked a chair in the corner, near the large plate window, pulling it out and making eye contact with her. Cassandra nodded and took the other chair next to it while Solas quickly examined the window.

"It will do as an emergency exit." He pronounced, pulling chalk from his pocket and dashing something on the windowsill. "I will place a ward here just in case we need to escape."

Maria warily sat in the chair and Varric bent down low over her ear, one hand resting comfortingly between her shoulder blades.

"I'm in the wireless network and inventorying the devices connected now. Give me ten minutes and I'll have a good idea of how many Tevinter roaches are actually here."

Maria turned her head towards him, whispering into his neck and flicking her eyes up towards him. "And what they're doing here?"

Was it just her or did Varric's eyes seem a little darker, a little hungrier? Maria felt her heart thud unevenly, suddenly hyper aware of the warmth of Varric's palm on her back, the steady comforting pressure. She watched Varric swallow hard and he tipped his smile into that playful grin. One that didn't quite hide the heat in his face.

"For you, Princess, I'll try my damnedest." He promised, voice rough and smooth at the same time, like velvet rubbed the wrong way.

Leliana certainly didn't seem like the type of woman to be wrong about her suspicions, but Maria supposed everyone had to get it wrong once in awhile. Despite the fact Leliana felt something was going on between Bianca Davri and Varric Tethras, Varric certainly didn't act like someone in the midst of a long-term torrid affair with his business partner.

But he definitely acted like he wanted her. This little thing, her lips close to his neck, her breath on his skin, had stirred up something primal. Danger, Maria warned herself cautiously. She was in no position to take him up on any offer, no matter how tempting, and her life didn't need to be more complicated with a man who didn't quite trust her.

A smaller, younger part of her wondered what would happen if she traced the open neckline of his shirt with her fingers, how molten those eyes of his could get. How it would feel if his lips were at her neck instead…

"If you two are quite finished…" Cassandra glared pointedly at Varric.

Fucking Cassandra.

Before she could vent on the woman, the door opened. Varric took his seat with an apologetic shrug. Maria straightened in her own chair and watched the man in an expensive black suit stroll in, his glasses perched on the edge of his nose, gray hair and beard trimmed neatly.

When he saw her, his lips curled up into a smirk and Maria's blood ran cold at the familiar, possessive expression on his face.

Fuck if it didn't remind her of Dwyka.