Chapter 2: The Temple of Sacred Ashes
The demons stood no chance against the two women. Once Yasmin got her hand on a blade, the fight was basically over. She carved through the demons approaching her with wicked abandon, and she only stopped once they had dissipated. She noticed the rest of their enemies were riddled with Leliana's arrows. None of them had even gotten close to the redhead. "You fight good," Yasmin said as they found their way back to the path.
"I fight well. I do not fight goodness. What is it with you Ferelden folk and your poor grammar?" Leliana lilted with a certain amount of genuine Orlesian pride.
Yasmin didn't take the bait to answer Leliana's real question; instead she let out a laugh that was closer to a cackle. She adjusted the bandana on her head, it obscured her forehead, but it also poofed her hair up a little; making her bangs look even more voluminous. Leliana just shook her head slightly in resignation at the slightly grating sound. Well, we can't choose how we laugh I suppose. "I'm not of Ferelden birth, so your jab has missed me."
Leliana smiled inwardly, so that was one thing confirmed. Her spies would get back to her in a couple day's time with more information on this former Seeker Yasmin. "You certainly sound like one," Leliana pressed.
There were wisps that started attacking them, but were silenced from a distance with more of Leliana's arrows. Instead of answering, Yasmin replied, "Same could be said of you, Lady Nightingale. Your Orlesian accent has slipped somewhat; you've doubtlessly spent nearly as much time in this country as I have for your accent to have changed from all that posh."
Leliana's briefly raised an eyebrow in surprise at Yasmin's accuracy. The Orlesian's accent had changed over the years. Even if it was just a little bit. Before she could reply however, they heard the tell tale sound of a skirmish.
There were around a dozen demons besieging a few scouts, an elven mage, and a dwarf with a wicked crossbow. But the thing that drew both women's eyes was the small tear into the fade. A rift. "Cover me from here?" Yasmin asked as she ambled toward the melee with a spring in her step. Leliana rolled her eyes, but by the time she arrived at the fracas, Leliana had already downed a quarter of the remaining demons with her arrows.
Yasmin made quick work of the remainder of the demons. Their smoldering ruins smelt of sulphur and iron. Yasmin was looking at the pulsating rift when a hand clasped her arm and held it up to the rift. It was agony, and something else; though she couldn't really concentrate on the physical pain radiating from the green gash in her hand when the mental horror pushed its way into her head. And then everything changed.
Yasmin looked at the tall elf who had grasped her hand. She jerked her hand away from him. Because it was from him that so much pain came from. Old pain, a barrage of images showing things that simply could not be bombarded her mind; all coming from this elf. The Fade, and the Waking world as one, and then she saw him sunder the world standing atop the ramparts of a castle shrouded in snowy mountains. She had seen so much in just a moment, all rooted in this one man's mistakes. She didn't realise she had cried out. Everyone was looking at her now. The elf in front of her was not what he seemed, and he was dangerous. But she didn't know the whole situation, and if the flash of his greatest regret was anything to judge by, he was insanely powerful. Though he struggled with a single rage demon…that doesn't seem quite right. Yasmin thought as she stumbled back and shook her head. "What was that? What did you do?" she ground out.
"I theorized that your mark could seal rifts; as whatever power punched through the Veil above us put that thing on your hand. The credit is yours, shemlen." His accent was strange. Yasmin knew that Dalish elves had a particular lilt to their accent, and city elves took on the accents of the humans penning them in. But his voice was assured and different enough that it broached her curiosity. Though she also saw him do something in that vision-like transfer of images that she wasn't ready to deal with yet. If he did what she thought he did, then this elf's very existence would shatter the Chantry's teachings, and the Dalish legends.
"Thanks?" Yasmin replied measuredly. "That fucking hurt," she muttered for a good measure, mostly for the others' benefit than hers. Not that she needed to embellish much to cover her moment of insight.
"That's done then? Good. I thought we'd be ass-deep in demons forever," the dwarf said as he reloaded his unique crossbow that looked somehow familiar to Yasmin. "I'm Varric Tethras: rogue, storyteller, and occasional unwelcome tag-along," he added as he raised an eyebrow at Leliana.
"Don't look at me Messer Tethras, your quarrel lies with Seeker Pentaghast," Leliana said with a small smirk.
"You didn't exactly stop her and the other seekers from interrogating me," Varric replied with an edge.
"And If I had been the one to interrogate you, you would've been begging for Cassandra's tender mercies. As it is, your original purpose here is obviously rendered void. You're free to go if you wish," Leliana replied without missing a step.
"If only that were somehow comforting," the dwarf replied with an eye roll. "I think I'll stick around until this shit show is settled. Wouldn't be able to look Sunshine, Daisy, or Hawke in the eyes if I left now." Varric kicked a stone into the bushes before properly taking in Yasmin's daunting appearance. "Huh, you look like Rivaini, if she was taller, darker, and scarier."
"Do you make a habit out of calling people by their country's name?" Yasmin replied with a raised eyebrow.
"Not really. It was either Rivaini or Pirate. And I didn't want her to shank me. Sister Nightingale, already has a nickname. That's 'Chuckles'. I'll come up with one for you soon enough." Varric replied casually as we made our way down the hill.
"If proper introductions are to be made, I'm Solas," the mysterious elven mage said. Yasmin smirked at Chuckles' obvious annoyance at his new moniker.
"I'm Yasmin."
"That was descriptive," Varric replied.
"I know, right?" Yasmin said with a smirk. "There's more demons ahead, look alive," she said as she quickened into a jog and lead them into their next encounter.
There were only a few, and they didn't last long under the onslaught of blade, bolts, arrows, and being turned into ice. "Did you do it?" Varric couldn't help but badger Yasmin further.
"I can't remember; though I was working for Justinia before this mess. Even if she did something heinous enough for me to be inspired to murder her, I would never do it like this. Actually, I have no idea what could've cause an explosion like this. It makes the Kirkwall explosion look trite," Yasmin answered with a shrug as they neared the forward camp.
That got their attention. "You were in Kirkwall?" Leliana asked.
"I thought you knew everything," Yasmin replied. Leliana was not pleased. Yasmin elaborated in the hopes of mitigating Leliana's piercing glare. "I was there on Justinia's business, and not for very long. That's all I'll say about it for now."
"You're with the Chantry?" Solas asked, apparently intrigued.
"I'm not exactly Andrastian, but I also worked for Justinia. She was a great woman. Flawed, very much so, from my perspective, but I think most of the time she was a leader worth following. So I'll let you make up your mind about whether or not I'm with the Chantry." Yasmin replied as they got to the stone bridge. She missed Leliana's titter at the mention of the late Divine's flaws. "And a discussion later will probably sate the rest of your boiling curiosities. For now, we have work to do."
One rift later, and they were on the bridge. Yasmin flexed her left hand; trying in vain to rid herself of the excruciating aftershocks of closing the rift. It didn't work.
Cassandra was on the bridge dealing with a cleric Yasmin did not recognize. They were definitely exchanging heated words. Cassandra swept the inkwell he was using off of the table and over the edge of the bridge. Yasmin smiled at her former mentor with nostalgic glee. Somethings never changed, and Cassandra still had the temper of a hurricane.
"Chain her!" Roderick shouted at the incensed Seeker before him.
"You presume to give me orders? You're a glorified cleric! A Beaurocrat!," Cassandra shot back.
"A pretty poor one at that," Leliana muttered under her breath. Yasmin, who was the only one standing beside her snorted in amusement.
The Chancellor continued to be asinine and Leliana and Cassandra convinced him to stop throwing his weight around. Yasmin lost interest in their conversation fairly quickly as she became mesmerized with the Breach. It looked dangerous, but also oddly beautiful? Yasmin wasn't too comfortable with that sentiment, though it came unbidden and intrusively into her thoughts.
"Well?" Cassandra asked as Yasmin was brought back into the conversation.
"What?" Yasmin asked intelligently. Varric snickered and Solas rolled his eyes smugly.
"Maker preserve us," Cassandra muttered. "The mountain path or charging up the hill? There are missing scouts on the mountain pass, though taking that route will certainly cost soldiers on the slopes."
"And you're asking the prisoner what to do? That's odd." Yasmin replied with more than a little genuine confusion. If Cassie is legitimately asking for me to make the decision here, she must be far more shaken by this catastrophe than I originally accounted for.
"You bare the mark, Yasmin. And it is killing you despite Solas' aide in the last several days. Your time with us looks to be short. Therefore the decision is yours since we are at an impasse," Leliana interceded.
Yasmin spared the elven mage a look. He kept me alive? Wait. How the hell did he know how to even do that. None of the mages or apostates I've encountered could've so deftly navigated unknown magic like this. "It appears a thanks is in order, Solas. Thanks for keeping me alive."
"Well, you are the key to our salvation after all. It would've been foolish to let the mark consume your body," Solas said blandly.
Yasmin nodded to him and then faced Cassandra again. "We'll take the mountain path to try and find what befell the scouts. If we eventually retake this land, we'll need to know about that route anyway; might as well sort it now. Though, if you go with the soldiers Cassandra, they might have a better chance at surviving. You're a force of nature after all."
Cassandra's lips quirked into a small smile at the acknowledgment of her prowess, despite the situation.
"Let's go then, yes?" Leliana said as she strode forward. Yasmin stooped to pick up a couple health potions from one of the nearby supply caches before following after the Left Hand.
The trek through the cold reminded Yasmin that she did indeed hate the Frostback Mountains. Or maybe not hate, but she was rightly peeved at the whips of wind that felt like they cut the flesh of her cheeks and ears every few seconds. Once they got to the corridor in the mountain, they cut through the few demons there. "We found the scouts, Sister," Varric said morosely as they came upon three corpses.
"This isn't all of them. There were several others," Leliana said with an edge in her voice that hadn't been there before.
"Fighting up ahead, and another rift," Yasmin said as she broke into a run down the small decline to the fighting ahead at the edge of the woods.
Charter was not happy. She'd lost one of her closest agents in the pass, along with two others that Leliana had put on her team, and now there was a rift that spawned just when they were catching their breath. The moment the rift came into being, Charter knew they were done for if they couldn't escape. Unfortunately, the rift had them pinned with their backs to a shattered wall; and behind that was a steep fall. For the moment, Charter and her people were just trying to survive the onslaught of demons from the rift and were inevitably nearing their doom. Just as the first wave of demons was dealt with, Charter was blindsided by a Terror demon that portalled itself beneath her feet and knock her on her back. The claws deflected off her blades for the most part, but one talon carved a thick red line from her eyebrow to her hairline. Blood spilled into her eye immediately, though she was more concerned with how everything had just became a blinding white pain as her skull rebounded off the snow-covered rock she landed on. One of her agents yelled her name, but he was occupied with the rage demon that was trying to melt its way through his sword. Charter couldn't stop her reflexive shriek of panic as her daggers went spiralling out of her hands.
Two arrows sank into the Terror's back, but it only slowed it a little. As the Terror raised its claws to render the rest of the elven scout's face to meat, a sword sank itself into the demon's back, protruding through its chest to the hilt.
The Terror screeched as it disintegrated, the great sword clattering to the ground at the scout's feet. The elf looked up to see one of the prettiest humans she'd laid eyes on running up to her. "I'm glad my aim was true," she breathed as she picked up the great sword that was longer than Charter was tall, with one hand, and pointed her other at the rift; causing it to implode and erase itself from existence. Her glowing green hand pulsed with light, and the woman was driven to her knees with an expression of agony on her face; she was visibly clenching her teeth to avoid screaming.
Charter was distracted from her saviour when a familiar voice reached her ringing ears. "Charter! Are you alright?" Sister Nightingale herself asked as she felled the last of the demons with her arrows.
"Lady Nightingale," Charter bowed her head slightly in deference, "We lost Weaver, Tulip, and Badger. The rest of us have minor injuries." Charter seemed to realise that she was indeed bleeding rather badly from her head.
"Here," the giant woman said as she took a health potion off her belt and de-corked it, offering it to Charter. "You need it far more than I do right now."
"Thank you. Ma'am." Charter added the honorific, realising she really had no idea who this was. "You saved my life." Charter gulped down the health potion, feeling the sting of both head wounds dull considerably. In addition, she wasn't dizzy anymore.
"I'm just glad I got here in time to save you. I wish I had gotten here earlier," Yasmin said with a grimace. She cut off one of the sleeves from her tunic at her shoulder and gently began wiping the still wet blood from Charter's brow. "The potion won't heal the whole thing, so you can use this as a bandage to staunch the bleeding for a bit. Just put a little bit of elfroot on it and tie it up like this, and you've got yourself a makeshift poultice." Yasmin said as she finished her narration, tying the sleeve around her head. Charter was loathe to admit it, but she was a little star struck at this new woman paying so much attention to her. She only had to see the slight twitch of Leliana's lip to know her boss would mercilessly tease her about this later; if there was a later.
"Now we match!" Yasmin proclaimed with a small smile; pointing at her own covered forehead. She and Charter would even now have a similar scar, though they were on the opposite eyes.
"We must press on, Yasmin," Leliana broke in lightly. "Charter, are you well enough to follow us?"
"Yes Ma'am." Charter cast a precursory glance to her remaining party and they all seemed alright enough to continue as well. She turned back to Leliana to give an affirmative nod.
It was only a few more minutes to the temple proper. "This is where you were found," Leliana said with a sad sigh. The place she pointed to was non-descript, but everything around it was a shambles.
The smell reached them before they turned the curve in the path. Burned flesh. Yasmin swallowed the bile that rose in her throat and she noticed Varric and Solas had similar reactions. Charter and Leliana had hardened expressions, but they seemed mostly alright. Varric noticed that too. "How can you stand it?" he asked Charter, who was walking alongside him.
"I'm a city elf. Burning the corpses of my People butchered every time the shemlens feel like they want girls to rape or target practice along with those who protect them is common for us. This is no worse." Charters voice was far more casual than it should've been and Yasmin flinched at her matter-of-fact tone. Nobody said anything after that as they walked among charred corpses on their knees until they heard a familiar voice.
"Archers, secure the perimeter!" Cassandra shouted from around the corner.
And sure enough, Seeker Pentaghast stood among her people, gazing up at the green tear in reality.
As Leliana and Yasmin's party arrived, they too saw how far up the hole in the sky was. "I don't say this often, but I might need to stand on a stool to get that," Yasmin said as the mark on her hand flickered again. Varric chuckled at that.
"I believe you only need to seal this smaller rift here, and the Breach may close. It is the first, and the key." Solas spoke up. Yasmin gave him a discerning look that Leliana, Varric, and Charter all caught. None of them knew exactly what to make of it. He knew too much. Leliana knew it, Yasmin knew it, Charter probably suspected, and Varric would know it if he wasn't preoccupied with the eerie red glow coming from somewhere off to their right.
"NOW IS THE HOUR OF OUR VICTORY. HOLD THE SACRIFICE STILL."
"What was that?" Yasmin asked looking around for the dark and oily voice that seemed to come from everywhere.
Nobody had a response. They caught up to Varric who was staring darkly at the massive red shards of lyrium jutting out from the ground. "It's red lyrium Seeker. Don't fucking touch it."
"What's it doing here?" Cassandra asked.
"I don't know, but it shouldn't be here. It's evil," Varric said a little too fast. Yasmin didn't take him for the panicky sort, so this foreign substance must be truly terrifying. She'd take the dwarf's word for it.
"Someone, help me! Why are you doing this? You, of all people."
"That was Divine Justinia's voice." Cassandra gasped.
"KEEP HER STILL," the main assailant's voice echoed around the crater. Then there was the sound of a door smashing open.
"Justinia? Unhand the Divine you monster."
Yasmin gasped at hearing her own voice. "That was your voice," Leliana pointed out quietly.
"I agree, but I can't remember this encounter." Yasmin said frustrated. The Fade bled through and showed them all partial images/memory of the event. The monster was shrouded in darkness with glowing eyes. Yasmin was there too, a hard look on her face, she carried a sword and a shield marked with Templar insignia. So apparently Yasmin had gotten into the conclave under the guise of a Templar.
"RUN WHILE YOU CAN, WARN THEM!" The Divine was obviously shouting at Yasmin to save herself.
"Slay the Templar," the monster ordered someone.
"So, it's treason then," memory-Yasmin smirked viciously as the fade rift began to sputter.
"Dor–the Divine called out to you," Leliana looked at Yasmin in a new light.
"And you stepped up to defend her," Cassandra finished the Bard's thought.
Yasmin looked hard at Cassandra. "Of course I did. I may think much of what your Chantry does is morally repugnant, but Justinia was a good woman. Though I know how blindly you follow the will of you Lord Seeker," Yasmin practically spat. "Besides, shortly before the war properly started, Justinia saw the writing on the wall and gave me a job which she only trusted me to do; which I only completed recently. I imagine that was why I sought out her presence here. The thing that bothers me is that I obviously recognized the people ordered to kill me; or at least their faction. According to all the clues past-me gave, it could've basically been anyone. Damn."
"A mystery for another day," Solas cut in rudely. Though he gave Yasmin a dark look. Probably because of her Templar armour in the images.
"I'm not a Templar, Solas. I wouldn't want you thinking you healed your enemy," Yasmin said with a dark smile.
Though it irked Leliana, she admitted that Solas had a point. They simply didn't have time to ponder everything right now.
"This rift is closed, temporarily. You'll need to open it, and then banish it properly. Though it's likely we'll have company," Solas said. Again, he seemed to know exactly how these rifts worked. Yasmin shook the thought away, she needed to focus on the task, not go questioning someone she quite possibly owed her life to.
"That means demons!" Cassandra shouted to her soldiers. "Leliana, join the other archers.
"No. I'll fight with you and our…new friend." Leliana said while addressing Yasmin. Yasmin smiled lightly at not being referred to as a prisoner anymore, at least by the scariest person there.
"Very well. Whenever you're ready then…Yasmin." Cassandra said softly. Yasmin clapped a strong hand on Cassandra's shoulder before ripping open the rift with her other hand.
Of course it was a pride demon.
The only major injury suffered was when one of the soldiers lost a leg to the lightning whips. Luckily her would was cauterized. Yasmin disrupted the rift enough times to shatter the Pride Demon's armour and Leliana and Solas finally struck the killing blows with a volley of fire and arrows going into its face and out the back of its now flaming skull. "Nice," Yasmin grinned at the macabre combo.
She took Solas' cue and raised her arm. She screamed as the power of the mark burned her down to her shoulder as the rift slammed shut and dissipated. Tendrils of green fade energy lanced up and down her arm as she struggled to stand, but Yasmin blacked out from the agony and fell flat on her face.