"Ellana!"
Amaryllis' answering grin spread so fiercely across her face that her cheeks ached from the force of it. For a moment she forgot their fight, the open rift, the monsters surrounding them, and made to run towards her sister.
Until the rift shifted and struck the ground before her.
Another Terror demon rose from blackened stone. Its long, spiked tail whipped toward her so quickly she had little time to react-it took her legs out from beneath her, and she fell, crying out as she hit the ground with an audible crack. Searing heat spread up through her elbows, and her fingers twitched from the pain, but she kept hold of her staff.
Amaryllis rolled to her side, away from the demon's slashing claws and gaping maw, and pressed the base of her staff into the ground, using all of her strength to thrust herself up and forward. She paused only momentarily to throw up a barrier around herself.
From her periphery Amaryllis saw Ellana jump from the open gates, running toward the fight. When the demon lashed out with its tail again, Ellana dodged it with a swift crouch. She lifted her right hand-her left held her own borrowed staff-and curled it into a fist. Fire gathered along the orb at the tip of the staff, swirling together into a ball.
Ellana opened her fisted hand and waved her fingers in the direction of the demon, driving the fireball across the demon's flesh. Its answering shriek was piercing. She threw one fireball after another, with what looked like all of her strength, until the demon fell into nothing but a dark, oozing puddle of its own flesh, then faded back into the rift.
And all Amaryllis could do was stand, mesmerized by the sight of her sister. Awake. Alive. And whole.
From behind her sister, Varric appeared. Sweat dripped down his temples, running like rivers down his cheeks and dripping into his open tunic below. When Amaryllis met his gaze, he smiled. His eyes were ablaze. "How many rifts are there?"
"We must seal it if we are to get past," Solas said. He stepped forward, along with Cassandra, who had already begun rushing toward the Commander where he stood below the rift.
"Quickly then!"
Ellana slipped her staff into the holster at her back. Her face had paled, but she pressed her lips into a thin line of determination, and spread the fingers of her left hand wide.
Amaryllis watched the way lightning shot out from Ellana's palm, striking the split atmosphere above them. Sweat beaded at her brow, and her eyes filled with tears Ellana looked determined not to shed. Amaryllis found herself awestruck. She hadn't remembered it looking beautiful, she hadn't even thought that anything that horrifying could. But it was.
As the light from Ellana's mark met the rift it twisted, rolling into itself, becoming smaller and smaller until it was more than just green wisps, floating midair, menacingly. It became clear, clearer than glass, and for a moment Amaryllis could see...
The rift screeched, and its edges curled inward the way parchment did as it burned, turning into nothing more than ashes. And then it-exploded. It roared, thunderously, into complete and utter silence.
Her breath came back to her all at once-she hadn't even realized she had been holding it. She turned to look at Ellana in a daze, feeling as if an eternity passed between every beat of her heart.
Ellana grimaced and brought her fisted hand to her chest, holding it tightly against her as if to stem the pain. Amaryllis saw then the blood that streaked her sister's wrist and stained the cuff of her borrowed robe.
"Wila," she murmured, "en ma halani."
She took Ellana's hand, and with what mana she had left, tried to heal the split skin of her sister's palm. She focused on the flesh, on where it fractured, serrated, oozing crimson blood and green Fade. Closing her eyes, she shut out all sounds, any distraction, shut out anything but the magic that floated to her fingertips like blossoms on a breeze, and closed her hand overtop the mark.
When Amaryllis opened her eyes, she saw that the wound hadn't changed.
Her shoulders fell. Even now, after all that had happened, she was still unable to do anything to help her sister.
Ellana pulled her hand away, then bumped reassuringly into Amaryllis' side.
"It's fine, Lis. I'm okay," she whispered. Her gaze locked with Amaryllis' own, and the latter struggled to keep from growing teary.
"I missed you," she said, swallowing thickly past the thick treacle of delight and relief that caused her voice to wobble. "I'm-I'm just so glad to see you awake, Ellana. The last few days have been..." Grueling. Impossible. Unspeakable. An eternity.
Ellana smiled and wrapped her arms around her sister, squeezing her tightly, allowing Amaryllis to lean into it. Even after all that had happened, she still smelled like Ellana, like sandalwood and bergamot. Like Mihris, the sweet fruits of a summer harvest, and the oils he had used to keep his leather. Like peaches and cherries, chilled in the river on a hot summer's day.
Amaryllis pressed her nose into her sister's hair, breathing in her familiar scent, and tried to calm the sudden swell of emotion in her chest. And though she was a head taller than Ellana, wider, larger in all the ways a human was, she felt small and safe in the warmth of her embrace. For the first time in days, Amaryllis felt whole.
At the sound of a throat clearing the two broke apart, though they didn't step away from each other. Amaryllis was tempted to take Ellana's hand, but she could tell by the weighted look Cassandra gave them that her urge to cling would have to wait.
"The rift has been sealed, as before," Solas commented as he came to stand beside them. "You are becoming quite proficient at this."
"Let's hope it works on the big one," Varric said.
From Cassandra's side, Cullen spoke, sounding irate. "You managed to close the rift. Well done." He seemed to be assessing Ellana, but his even expression gave nothing away. "I hope they're right about you. We've lost a lot of people getting you here."
Amaryllis looked away from him and down at the ground. Beneath Ellana's feet were a few drops of her blood, where it had dripped from her hand onto the stone. Stone, where the members of the Conclave had unknowingly walked, just days before, to their demise. Where soldiers had stood and fallen not mere minutes before.
They had lost a lot of people along the way, but not a single one of those losses had been Ellana's fault. None of it was-not the rifts, the breach, the mark on her hand-but it would take more than this, the spilling of her blood and Amaryllis' choice to fight, for the Inquisition to trust them, wouldn't it?
Frustration bloomed bright across her cheeks, making her stand taller, firmer, but Ellana leaned against her, a gentle weight, a comfort, and she felt herself deflate. Her sister faced the Commander and said "you're not the only one hoping that."
But Amaryllis could see his own irritation in the baring of his teeth, behind Cullen's facsimile of a smile. "We'll see soon enough, won't we?"
Without sparing Ellana another glance, he turned to Cassandra. "The way to the temple should be clear," he said with resolve. "Leliana sent her scouts forward to clear a path. She will try to meet you there." The difference in tone when speaking to his counterpart caused Amaryllis to bristle, and she fought not to scream Ellana has done nothing!
"Then we best move quickly." At the Seeker's word the group dispersed-Solas and Varric moved to stand beside her. "Can you give us time, Commander?"
"However much you may need," he assured her. "Maker watch over you-for all our sakes."
Amaryllis watched him rush to an injured soldier and help them stand, holding their weight while together they limped toward the temple's opening. The others followed suit. Emil-Creators, Emil-turned to her in his retreat, removed his helmet, and grinned.
For a moment she felt caught in suspension, and the very idea of it had her furrowing her brow, disconcerted by her hesitation. Then a familiar hand pulled at her arm and she stumbled backward, only turning away from Emil for a split second to catch her footing. When she looked back, he waved, donned his helmet again, and was gone.
The Temple of Sacred Ashes. Again.
The scorched basin where the temple's walls had once stood was no easier to look at than it had been just a few days before. Bodies, burnt beyond recognition, still sat in their positions, staring up at the sky as if in reverence. Amaryllis struggled to tear her eyes away from the flash of breachlight across their faces, illuminating the black holes where their eyes had once been, and the way their charred fingers seemed to reach toward the sky for something that would never come.
Ellana did not stop to take in the scene around her, and Amaryllis couldn't have blamed her. The horror was evident in her expression, in the widening of her eyes and the shaking of her chin. This was not something she would have ever wished for her sister to see.
"Lis," Ellana said, her voice nothing but a terrified whisper. "What is this? What happened here, to all of these people?"
Amaryllis took her sister's hand and shook her head. "I don't know. I was hoping you might."
"That," Cassandra interrupted, motioning with a jerk of her head to the rift below the tear in the sky. "Is where you walked out of the Fade."
"Walked? I don't think it could've been considered walking," Varric said. "It was more of a nosedive, straight into the ground."
"What? I walked out of one of these rifts?" Ellana asked.
Amaryllis squeezed her sister's hand tighter. "We watched you climb out of it. Then you fell, and..."
"Here we are now," Varric finished for her.
"Some of the soldiers claimed they saw a woman in the rift behind you. No one knows who she was."
A woman? Amaryllis thought. She didn't recall seeing anyone other than her sister, but she wasn't about to trust her own memory of the event, either. She'd been a bit preoccupied at that moment to focus on anything but the image of Ellana, falling from a hole in the atmosphere. That alone was enough to mess with anyone's head.
Ellana's brow furrowed further. "I fell... from the Fade?"
"You don't remember?"Amaryllis asked. "Anything at all?"
Her sister shook her head as if perplexed. "I remember running away from something, and then a hand reached out to help me, and then..."
"Nothing from before, from the Conclave, or how you entered the Fade?"
"Nothing."
Cassandra looked doubtful.
"Ellana wouldn't lie about this," Amaryllis tried to reassure her, though after the days she'd spent in the dungeon, she knew that a few words wouldn't do much to sway the Seeker. Still, she had to speak up. "Never about something this important."
Cassandra opened her mouth as if to answer, but was cut short by Leliana's arrival.
"You're here! Thank the Maker. My men have already taken up positions around the temple."
The Seeker nodded, then turned back to Ellana. "This is your chance to end this, are you ready?"
Amaryllis expected Ellana to freeze, just as she would have. The situation was bizarre, and that was putting it lightly. What she hadn't expected was for her sister to nod, her expression now fiercely determined, though her hands still shook at her sides. "Whatever it takes-even if I have to learn to fly to reach it."
For a moment Cassandra looked surprised, pleasantly so, but then her expression slipped back into her usual stony mask, and she nodded.
Solas spoke softly, though his brows furrowed as he glared up at the fractured sky. "This rift was the first, and it is the key. Seal it, and perhaps we seal the breach."
"Let's go then," Ellana said. "The sooner we end this, the sooner we can go home."
The Seeker nodded, and together the group headed for the path that Leliana's men had laid out before them.
Then a voice spoke, reverberating throughout the ruined temple: deep, dark, and eerily pompous. The voice of a man who thought his actions righteous.
"Now is the hour of our victory. Bring forth the sacrifice."
Cassandra seemed to stumble, catching herself against the scorched wall beside her. "A sacrifice? What is this? What are we hearing?"
Solas stayed quiet, surprising Amaryllis. Out of everyone there, she had thought at least Solas would have an answer.
"Whoever it is sounds like a dick," Varric grumbled.
The further they advanced toward the rift, the more Amaryllis' skin began to crawl. Goosebumps rose along her arms, the back of her neck; it was the quick sting of panic, a frightful skittering along her spine. She turned a corner, feeling wobbly on her feet, and gasped as she almost smacked face first into a great, glowing pile of red.
Varric's hand was on her, pulling her out of harm's way before she could actually touch whatever it was. "Shit," he cursed. "That's red lyrium. That shit's evil. What's it doing here?"
"Whatever magic was used here could have drawn on the lyrium beneath the temple, corrupted it..."
They were interrupted once more by the voice.
"Keep the sacrifice still."
But this time, a second, higher voice, sounding afraid. Desperate.
"Someone, help me!"
Cassandra stopped in her tracks, gazing wide-eyed at the breach. The light of the Fade seemed to dance in the reflection of her eyes. "Divine Justinia!"
Amaryllis took Ellana's hand again and forced her to look away from the rift, from where the Seeker stood, her hand moving to grasp the hilt of her sword tightly. "Ellana, what happened here?"
"I don't know," she muttered, then cried out. "I don't know! I don't recognize this place, these voices, I don't-"
Another voice, this time familiar-soft, silvery, and trembling, it spoke. "What's going on here?"
Ellana froze, just before the precipice, the drop into the ravaged, hollow bed of the explosion. Cassandra's gaze fell from the rift to Ellana. Amaryllis didn't need to look to know the others were staring, too.
This time, it was her turn to curse. Well, shit.
A/N: Hi lol
Wila: sister
en ma halani: let me help you.
The elvhen in this chapter was taking from Dalishious' elvhen dictionary.