A/N: If this chapter and dialogue seem awkward, that's because it is. I'm going to post it as is because I just couldn't figure out how I wanted to word things. Hopefully when I go back and edit things...
Sorry for the lack of quality. I'm really getting stuck on these scenes. I know how I want them to react, but I've never been good with dialogue, so this is... practice, for me lol It'll get better. I just need to keep going, do more research, watch more things. Yeah.
It was in Jader that Amaryllis purchased a new set of clothes. It was obvious upon their arrival that their original plan would never work if the human continued to dress like an elf. Though the city might have been along the border of Orlais, it was still part of a country famous for its pompous arrogance and extravagant fashion. The sisters saw enough live birds in broad hats shaped like cages to last a lifetime.
They had also had more than enough of the staring and sneers thrown in their direction, so Amaryllis bought new robes, and Ellana fully took on her role as "servant." They were willing to keep up the facade until they reached Haven. Hopefully, whoever they met along the way would be more forgiving.
Amaryllis felt no need to complain, though. The azure blue dress she bought fell well below her calves and the fabric was heavy enough that it trapped her body heat beneath it. She felt warmer than she had in weeks.
"Why don't you buy something as well?" She suggested quietly to her sister as she handed the shopkeeper the money she owed him. He glared at her through his long-nosed mask. "I don't want you to suffer from the cold, either."
Ellana shook her head and opened their coin purse, looking inside. She shook her head more fervently. "No, I'm fine."
Amaryllis ignored her and turned towards the shopkeeper. "Could we take another look at your winter section?"
He clicked his tongue and frowned and dismissed them with a wave of his hand. "I do not clothe the help. Maybe try the bin?"
Amaryllis turned hot with sudden rage. She pointed an accusatory finger at the man. "We are customers. I just purchased this robe from you, and you have the audacity to turn my coin away?"
"I will not serve a knife-ear." He said, using his finger to push hers away roughly. "Surely you must understand."
"I do not understand," she seethed. Ellana touched her arm to calm her rage, but it only aggravated her further. "She has the coin and is willing to pay. She is a customer, the same as I."
"As I said, I will not serve her. It would ruin my business if people were to see her in my clothing." He sniffed and shooed them away.
Ellana pulled at her arm again. "Let's just go, Lis. It isn't worth it."
Amaryllis shook. She had always wondered what people meant when they said they saw red. She understood it perfectly, now.
"To the void with you," she spat at his feet and began removing the dress from her body, but Ellana's grip on her arm was strong, pulling her out the shop door.
The frigid winter wind swiftly cooled her fury. She wrapped her arms tightly around herself.
"Amaryllis," Ellana's expression was unimpressed. She openly frowned, took a quick look around them, then leaned in closer so no one could hear. The walls in Orlais were known to have eyes. "You must control yourself. This hasn't been the first time, nor will it be the last. You can't act this way every time. You are the human, I am the elf. You are the noble, I am your servant. Now act the part."
"You can't expect me to do that. It's not like I can flip a switch and you're no longer my sister." She hissed back, ripping her arm from Ellana's hand.
"You have to." Ellana demanded. "If this is to work, you will do it."
"It was your idea in the first place." She added, muttering her aggravation at the other woman. She stormed away from Amaryllis and further down the street, then paused and turned halfway towards her, expression unreadable for a moment. "Let's go. We don't have all day."
Amaryllis rolled her eyes and stomped forward, joining her at her side. She slid her arm through her sister's , grumbling, "Is that how you talk to your master?"
She promptly hit the ground with a pained hiss, rubbing at her bruised backside.
The rest of their journey did not go as planned.
From Jader to Haven it should have been about a week on a foot. They should have arrived with a few days to rest, set up camp somewhere outside the village, and begin finalizing their plans. Instead, a storm had come through, dropping over a meter of snow along the path through Gherlen's Pass, and they spent days trekking through snow, soaked to their waists, only to find out they had walked less than ten miles. If they continued at the pace they were going, they would have missed the conclave entirely, and returned to the clan empty handed and penniless.
On their third day along the eastern section of the Imperial Highway, the sun rose high. Bright, warm rays beamed down upon them, slowly melting snow that gave way to a well-trodden path. Amaryllis was beginning to believe that Mythal truly was watching over them. She thanked the creators for small blessings.
On their eighth day along the Imperial Highway, they came across a sign. Not a sign from the creators, but a literal, physical sign. It pointed to a dilapidated road towards the east. "Village of Haven," it read.
There was a sense of muted triumph. The journey had gone a lot better than expected. Only two more days and they would arrive at their destination. They would finish their mission and go home, where they would no longer have to pretend to be something they were not. It seemed too good to be true.
It was.
There were bandits along the path to Haven. Amaryllis wondered how confident they were in their thieving abilities to set up on a much-used path towards a village where hundreds of powerful people would meet. Upon seeing the pile of dead and their stolen armor, Amaryllis had to say "very."
Their numbers seemed to have dwindled, and the rest injured if their limping and groaning was anything to go by.
"We were about to go," one particularly grotesque man spat with a grin. His teeth were slick with what Amaryllis hoped was his own blood. "But you're only two."
"Or you could let us go," Ellana said with a shrug. She appeared aloof, nonchalant, but Amaryllis could see her hands shaking, curling into fists at her sides. "Save yourselves the fight."
"You're just a girl," another laughed. The right side of his face was filthy, streaked with dirt and dried, brown ichor. "Looks like you don't even have weapons."
They amused Amaryllis. "Who says we need a weapon to fight?"
Ellana shot her a look, as if she wanted her sister to back down, but Amaryllis shook her head. These men wouldn't let them go anyway, not with the way they were approaching, circling from all sides. There seemed to be about seven of them.
Any other day this would have possible meant a death sentence. That these men were exhausted and injured only cemented the thought in Amaryllis's mind that she and Ellana truly were being protected.
The first man scoffed while the others chuckled. Ellana reached behind, underneath her cloak, and gripped the pole of her staff. Amaryllis did the same.
"Sounds like you want a fight," yet another said. His voice was rough with use. "Why don't we give them one?"
"Fenedhis," Ellana hissed between gritted teeth. "You had to egg them on?"
"This is excellent practice either way." Amaryllis had the audacity to laugh.
They fought little, other than practicing with the Keeper, and while Amaryllis knew she might have gotten ahead of herself, this was what they needed. What better way to test their skills in battle than to use them in a proper fight?
What better way to assuage Ellana's fears than to show her how capable she was?
One man bellowed - a war cry that sounded more like the bleating of a terrified lamb, if you asked her - and they unsheathed their blades, running forward all at once.
Amaryllis ripped her staff from her back and slammed the pole to the ground, throwing one arm out in front of herself. A round, thick barrier made of the Fade formed around them. The bandits bounced directly off it and onto their bottoms. Amaryllis snickered.
Ellana sighed, pulling her own staff out with a spinning flourish. "How am I supposed to attack? I can't get through the barrier."
"See, I told you we should have attached hidden daggers. Would be easy to stick them where it hurts without having to get close enough to touch."
"Our staves are good enough. We have magic. What do we need blades for?" Ellana saw the bandits circle the barrier, testing its capabilities. One went running forward again, aiming his sword towards it. The barrier bowed inward, then snapped back, sending him flying. The rounded top was dissolving, though. It would not last much longer.
"Wait for the opening, then strike. Watch." Amaryllis waited a moment longer, listening to the meaningless taunting of the asinine outlaws, pooling her mana into the curled tip of her staff. Ellana did the same.
A pinprick, the sound of air seeping in, and the barrier burst like a bubble. The men stumbled forward from where they'd been pressed against it, three fell to their knees while the others struggled to keep their balance. Ellana struck one with a hurried chain of lightning that shocked the others beside him. The first one toppled over, muscles tensed and limbs straight, like a felled tree.
Amaryllis locked another in a thick sheet of ice, not even pausing to observe the slowing twitch of his fingers as they froze before she moved onto the next one. She fade-stepped to his side and shoved him towards her sister with the end of her staff. With one hand outstretched, Ellana pulled her fingers into her palm, then threw them open again. Flames burst from her fingertips, lighting the bandit's breeches on fire. He screamed and took off running into the trees.
A millisecond later, he tripped over a gnarled tree root. The flames overtook him. Flesh sizzled as it fell from bone. He stopped moving. Three down, four to go. Amaryllis wondered if they'd ever come into contact with mages before, for them to be so unprepared.
Ellana struck another down with a barrage of elemental energy. Each blast hit him square in the back. His eyes rolled back in his head and he gasped, then fell face first into the mud and melting snow.
The next was quick on his feet. He came up behind Amaryllis, sword aimed at an angle that was sure to gut her like a fish, but Amaryllis was faster. She stabbed him with the pointed top of her staff and swiftly pulled it back to shove at his torso. He stumbled back, hand to his breast where she struck him, and Ellana took him down, another flash of fire with a snap of her fingers.
Two left. Amaryllis quickly scanned the area and found one, who sat using one arm to prop himself up while his other hand pressed against his punctured thigh to stem the bleeding. He had fallen on his sword and would succumb to his injuries soon enough.
Amaryllis turned to Ellana.
And at the right moment, too. The last bandit came up behind her, while Ellana observed the bleeding man with pity in her gaze. His twin daggers glinted in the sunlight, blinding Amaryllis for a moment. He made no sound as he raised them above Ellana's head, crossing one over the other to bring them down to slice her head clean off her neck.
Or he would have, if Amaryllis hadn't reached out with fury, gathered all of her mana into the palms of her hands, and conjured an iridescent barrier around her sister. His blades bounced off with a ding.
Ellana ducked and punched him in the gut. His breath came out in a strangled huff. One bolt of lightning later and the man was added to the pile beside his brethren, searched for gold, and burned.
Amaryllis would never get used to the grotesque scent of charred human flesh. It was a far worse a smell than any.
The barrier around Ellana lasted for a good ten minutes. Long enough for Amaryllis to sit upon a fallen log and take a long swig of her potion with trembling fingers.
Each time this happened it reminded her of her father, and the time he had taken her with him to give blood. He had expected it to be a valuable lesson. He had expected her to watch him with awe and pride, to know that her father was doing this to help others. Instead, she had watched in terror as he stood, turned paler than a sheet, and subsequently passed out. When he woke a few minutes later the nurses had moved him to a couch and Amaryllis had been given a bottle of juice to feed to him, slowly. His hands had shaken, just like hers did now, when he took the bottle from her grasp.
She had cried. He had asked her to keep it a secret from her mother. When asked later that day if her father had inspired her to do the same, he swiftly changed the subject with a wink. It was their little secret.
Amaryllis downed the rest of her potion and popped the empty vial back into her pack. She watched Ellana make her way towards her. She sat with a thud beside her sister. The log cracked and shook, then stilled.
Ellana huffed and kicked at the ground. Her eyes flitted from her shoes to the line she had created in the snow, towards the makeshift pyre, then back. They sat far enough away from the fire that they could not feel its heat.
"We had to," Amaryllis laid a reassuring hand against her sister's shoulder. "They wouldn't have let us go without a fight."
"I know that." Ellana scowled. "These shemlen knew nothing of compassion. They needed to be struck down." She continued without pause, turning to her sister. The emotion in her gaze was complicated, calculated, something Amaryllis was not used to seeing. She looked more like a hunter. More like her father.
"What is it?" She asked.
"How did you do that?" Ellana gestured vaguely towards her body with a wave of her hands. "That barrier - how did you do it?"
"I don't know," Amaryllis answered truthfully. "I was afraid I wouldn't get to you in time. I believed I could do it, and I did." she paused for a moment, chewing into her bottom lip as she thought. "The Veil can be formed into a singular shape. We both know that much about barriers. This time it felt more like… clay, but smoother. Moldable. I'm not sure what else to say. It's difficult to describe."
Ellana's exasperated sigh showed her dissatisfaction with the answer, though her frustrated expression softened. Her forehead was no longer wrinkled. "I will never understand that. How are you able to conjure such powerful spells?"
"I am no stronger than you, Ellana."
Her sister scoffed. "We both have our talents, yes, but yours differ vastly from mine. I couldn't bring such a powerful barrier into existence by sheer will."
Amaryllis sighed and turned towards the horizon. The mid-morning air was cool, but the sun warmed her exposed skin. She was comfortable under her robes.
Ellana was not. She ran a gloved hand up her arm to rub heat into it, shoulders shaking against the breeze. Amaryllis unclipped her top coat and slipped it over her sister's back, fastening the front. Ellana pulled the extra layer close against her, soaking in the residual body heat. She frowned again, gazing up at Amaryllis, who stood with a slight stretch.
"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have brought it up." Ellana said. "I know we've discussed it before, it's just…"
"No, it's fine." Amaryllis shrugged. "I'm no more special than you are, Ellana, you know that." She grinned and nudged her sister's arm. "Did you see that fireball you conjured? I could never."
Ellana rolled her eyes, unable to fight an answering smile. "Oh, shut up."
She stood as well and elbowed Amaryllis, who stumbled forward in shock. They both laughed.
"Though I'm sure your fire would be no match for my ice." Amaryllis taunted with a light shove back, grateful for the change in atmosphere.
Ellana scoffed, though this time in amusement.
"You're on."