"I have a question, Nyssa, about the tattoos."
Nyssa hadn't been exaggerating when zie said the ruin was nearby, but by the time the Inquisitor and his companions were ready to leave, another half an hour had gone by and zie was growing impatient. Most of hir possessions had been stashed in a closed room in the ruins, but it had been days since zie had dared to venture inside. Who knew what remained of hir things? Zie doubted demons had any respect for personal property.
The Inquisitor seemed content enough to follow Nyssa's lead through the forest. Dorian the human mage followed close behind, wearing a vaguely disgusted expression as he scooted around moss-covered rocks and rotting foliage. Behind him came the Iron Bull, carrying a large axe over one shoulder, head turning this way and that to watch for movement. The other companion, Cole, flitted between the trees.
It was Dorian who had spoken, or more accurately, shouted from several feet away.
"You would do well to lower your voice," Nyssa replied, as zie came to a stop before a crumbling archway. "Demons lurk in more places than just this ruin. But yes, you wanted to ask about the vallaslin?"
"Yes, that. Didn't that hurt?"
Hir brows furrowed in annoyance, but zie did hir best to curb hir irritation.
"You know, that's the first thing every human asks me," zie said, and heard Lavellan chuckle. "Of course they hurt. They were etched into my skin using a sharp stick and ink, and it took hours. My face didn't feel good afterwards."
Dorian tutted. "And they say my people are mad."
"Hey, now," the Inquisitor said, but he looked amused.
"You are from Tevinter, yes?" Nyssa said.
"What gave me away?"
"Your accent and your clothing. You look like an altus."
"Very good," the man drawled. "Usually the first question you southerners ask is 'So you're a magister?'"
"A magister wouldn't be caught dead in a place like this," zie replied, and he laughed.
The archway and the ivy-covered tunnel behind it led to the ruin, and zie'd taken great pains to conceal it before leaving for the Inquisition camp. To even the most discerning eye it seemed nothing more than the remains of what was once something grand.
"A moment, please," zie said, and pulled out hir shrunken staff. The wood began to twist and grow.
"That's quite the trick," Lavellan said.
"I learned it from an old friend."
Nyssa wrapped hir fingers around hir staff and breathed deeply, inhaling the smell of the polished wood. Having it with hir was comforting, a reminder that zie was not without power, even amongst powerful people. Zie tapped hir staff on the ground twice and the ivy slithered away from the wall, twisting and curling back on itself. Behind it was an intricately carved door, and barring that was a shimmering green barrier.
"It's whispering," a voice in hir ear said, and Nyssa jumped. The boy with the enormous hat stood by hir side, blinking at hir through his hair. Cole, Nyssa reminded hirself. Zie wasn't usually so bad at remembering names.
"It's Veilfire," Lavellan said.
Nyssa glanced at the Inquisitor, a question forming on hir tongue... then paused. Given the events of the last six weeks, perhaps it wasn't so surprising for a non-mage to have some arcane knowledge. There had to be mages in the Inquisition's employ who would have studied it.
Nyssa passed hir hand over the door and the barrier sealing it shimmered, then winked out.
"Be ready," zie warned. "The last time I came here the place was rapidly filling with demons."
They were barely into the vestibule when several shapes materialised in the darkness.
Spirits and demons were not a new sight to hir. In fact, they had been an unfortunate constant in the Dirth, drawn through the Veil by the echoes of death that lingered. These, though, were mere wraiths, with barely enough strength to hold a corporeal form.
Nyssa stepped into the entrance, and four pairs of glowing eyes turned on hir.
"Begone," zie said, and spun hir staff.
A bolt of lightning struck the nearest wraith, lighting up the vestibule in flashes of purple and green. The wraith dissipated with an unearthly shriek, and the lighting arced to another. It collapsed in a plume of black smoke.
The last remaining shade lunged at hir, its maw opening wide – and an arrow struck it between the eyes. It crumbled with a shrill scream.
"Nice shot," Nyssa said, as Lavellan lowered his bow.
"Thanks. Where to now?"
"The hall, or what's left of it. Follow me."
Nyssa led the group through a door left of the main hall, and down the staircase to the lower levels. Zie lit each brazier with Veilfire as they passed it; even the light from hirs and Dorian's staves weren't enough to chase away the shadows entirely.
There was an acrid smell on this level—the scent of burning wood and scorched metal. Zie also felt the familiar tingle of the Veil, though it trembled like cloth in a breeze. Nyssa swallowed hard and crushed down the instinctive fear that made every step zie took seem weighted with dread.
"Solid and secure," Cole said from hir left, and zie fought to keep from starting in surprise. "The walls won't fall. You can get out of here if you want to. You already did once."
"Thank you," Nyssa replied a little stiffly, and tried to ignore the stares zie felt on the back of hir neck. It wouldn't do for hir new companions to realise just how afraid zie really was.
They turned a corner and there was a thud, then a curse in a guttural tongue.
The Inquisitor stopped. "Bull, are you alright?"
"Yeah, boss. Just hit my horns on the wall. It's pretty dark back here."
"I can make you a light," Nyssa offered.
Iron Bull grunted.
"No thanks. I'll just learn to duck."
"What is this place?" Lavellan asked after a few minutes of walking in silence.
"A shrine to Falon'Din," Nyssa said, and conjured a mage light. It bobbed behind Iron Bull, who watched it with an apprehensive look.
An orange glow sputtered to life in the darkness ahead of them, and the Inquisitor held up a hand. "Wait."
"More demons?" Dorian said. "Marvellous."
Lavellan turned to Nyssa. "Where is the rift?"
"We follow this corridor into the shrine proper. A few minutes' walk at most." Zie gestured ahead. "My things are in a room just up ahead. I want to get them before the demons destroy everything flammable."
"You might be too late," Iron Bull pointed out, as they drew closer. "Smoke usually means something's on fire. Or was."
Nyssa rushed forward, cursing, and pushed past the Inquisitor. Hir mage light bobbed after hir as zie ran down the hall.
One, two—three. The third room was where zie had stored hir things, and it was—
"Fenhedis!"
The door was hanging off the hinges of the room, blackened and still smoking. Nyssa flung out hir hand and the wood crumbled into ash and charcoal. A rush of heat swept over hir as zie stopped in hir tracks at the threshold.
The room had been a small study for a priest or a Keeper of Falon'Din in times past, and it was a treasure trove of knowledge: crammed with books and scrolls of varying ages, all of which Nyssa had been cataloguing. What was left of them drifted from the stone shelves in ashes, landing on the blackened streaks covering the floor and walls. Nyssa caught sight of hir pack on the small bed, reduced to a few charred leather straps, and sagged in defeat.
Footsteps in the corridor told hir the others had caught up. Lavellan leaned over hir shoulder and surveyed the room, brows furrowed.
"What happened?"
"I don't know," Nyssa said stiffly. Hir palm began to sting; zie suddenly realised zie had burned hir hand on the stone doorframe. "A demon of rage, maybe. It destroyed all of my work. And my supplies, it seems."
"I'm sorry."
Nyssa turned and blinked up at him in surprise. "It's not your fault, Inquisitor. What have you to be sorry for?"
"It seems like a lot was lost." Lavellan laid a hand on hir shoulder, a brief, tentative gesture of sympathy. "If you need a moment to get your things... "
"There's nothing to get." Zie sighed. "Let's just go."
"Boss," Iron Bull called from outside. "More demons coming our way."
Lavellan went back out into the hall and Nyssa followed, rubbing hir burned hand to heal it.
Flashing blue lights danced around the darkened hall as Nyssa's and Dorian's arcane conjurations weaved around their heads. There was a grunt, a shriek of rage and a wet thud from somewhere up ahead.
"Never mind," Iron Bull said. "Dorian and I just kicked the crap out of them."
Lavellan laughed. "You didn't save any for me."
"Sorry, boss. You're more likely to hit us than the demons in this light."
"Can't have everything, I suppose." Lavellan glanced into the darkness, beyond the silhouette of Iron Bull's horned head. "Come on. We have a rift to close."
The rift was bigger than Nyssa remembered.
Maybe it had been a trick of hir imagination—zie could have exaggerated its size in hir mind as zie'd fled the shrine. Or maybe it had grown, which was the more likely explanation.
Once zie threw open the heavy doors, several pairs of glowing eyes lit up in the darkness. There were the demons, just as zie remembered them: a demon of rage, two wraiths and a terror, a thing of spindly limbs and skin stretched tight over twisted bones.
As the others moved into formation, Nyssa was stuck again by how well they worked as a group. Iron Bull drew the demons' attention while Lavellan peppered them with well-placed arrows. Cole worked close by, his daggers flashing as he faded in and out of the shadows to chop through clawed hands and stab withered flesh. Dorian cast his spells with far more flash than was necessary, but his spells kept demons weakened—and left them vulnerable to Nyssa's magic.
Zie had assumed upon seeing the Inquisitor's companions that they were hired mercenaries or people who owed him a favour somehow, but it seemed more than that. They acted more like friends than subordinates, and even in the midst of battle it showed. It was... intriguing.
But that could wait for later. The shrine had become a battlefield; on one side Lavellan, Cole and Iron Bull cut their way through demons, on the other Dorian and Nyssa filled the chamber with the colours of their magic. In the middle was the rift: a swirling, chaotic burst of green light, beyond which Nyssa could see glimpses of the Fade itself. Despite the battle zie found hirself staring at it, wondering how exactly it worked. If only zie had time to study it—
Suddenly the rift pulsed with a sound almost like a heartbeat, and in hir peripheral vision Nyssa saw a wraith disintegrate into ashes. Then a shimmering vortex appeared beneath hir feet and zie stumbled back, barely missing the burst of energy that followed.
"Hurry!" Dorian shouted at hir. "Dispel those before more demons come through!"
Nyssa swept hir staff in a wide arc, creating a wave of energy that dissolved two portals in a burst of light. The third zie extended hir hand towards, hir fingers moving as zie drew a glyph over it.
Dorian plunged his staff into the middle of the fourth and turned to the fifth, magic crackling—but it was too late. The portal opened and a cloaked figure rose from within.
A demon of despair, Nyssa realised, and took a few cautious steps back. Zie had only seen such a demon once or twice before.
A blast of cold air sent goosebumps rushing over hir skin. Nyssa raised hir hand and the icy hail that followed battered against hir barriers. The demon shuffled across the ground toward hir, its gnarled feet sliding over the mosaic tiles. Why it chose to walk instead of glide was anyone's guess—zie pushed the idle thought aside as a shout reached hir ears.
"Fire in the hole!"
Zie barely had time to enforce hir barriers when something exploded near hir, showering the despair demon in what looked like flaming pitch.
"Ha!" Iron Bull bellowed as the creature shrieked. "Hey, boss! Hurry up and seal this thing!"
Lavellan appeared in Nyssa's view, his armour splattered with ichor. He lifted his hand, free of its gauntlet, and his palm lit up. From it came white-green tendrils of magic that reached for the rift even as the torn Veil drew towards it. Both magical energies connected, flowing back and forth—then the Inquisitor pulled his hand back and the rift disappeared.
"Well," Nyssa commented, when there was silence. "That would do it."
The trip back to camp was made largely in silence. Nyssa let hir pace slow, as zie was no longer needed to guide them, and let hir thoughts wander.
So far almost nothing about the Inquisition had been what zie expected. Zie had assumed it was like its predecessor, another movement for the religious and powerful headed by a zealot. Instead zie had found a fledgling organization lead by a Dalish elf, one of hir own people, who did not look at hir like zie was an inconvenience or a threat. It was sad that basic respect was such a surprise, but Nyssa had curbed hir expectations long ago.
"Aren't you going to ask what I'm doing here?"
Nyssa glanced at Dorian as he appeared alongside hir. For a man who had just fought off demons he looked remarkably clean, with not even a hair out of place. His tunic wasn't even dirty.
"I don't understand the question," zie said, and winced as zie stood on a sharp rock. "Why would I?"
Dorian hummed. "News takes a while to reach the Exalted Plains, I suppose."
"He's talking about the Venatori," Lavellan called from up ahead. "A Tevinter cult. They attacked Haven, along with the remains of the Templar order."
"Oh. No."
"No?" Dorian repeated, his moustache twitching. "You're not curious what someone from Tevinter is doing here? Not even a little?"
Nyssa shrugged. "Curiosity has nothing to do with it. Minding my own business keeps me alive." Zie walked a little quicker to pull ahead, and Dorian did not comment again. A blessing, as zie was too preoccupied for conversation.
That was elven magic branded in Lavellan's hand. Nyssa had not been absolutely certain just by seeing the Breach, especially not from such a distance, but zie had felt the familiar pull of hir people's magic. Worse, Nyssa thought with dread, zie suspected what had caused it. If zie was right...
Well, zie didn't want to think about that just yet.
Nyssa stopped the Inquisitor just outside of the camp's entrance and let Iron Bull, Dorian and Cole pass by before speaking.
"Ma serannas," zie said. "With the rift closed, the ruins can be left alone as they should be."
"I'm sorry about your things," Lavellan replied.
Nyssa shrugged. "We are more than our possessions. I didn't lose everything, and considering what's happening in the world now, my loss is of very little consequence."
"What will you do now?"
Nyssa frowned, opened hir mouth to speak... then stopped. A simple question shouldn't have been enough to make hir hesitate. Yet, for the first time in five years, zie didn't have a ready answer.
"I don't know," zie admitted. "I thought I had a purpose doing what I was doing before, but if it was so easily lost... perhaps not. But rather than wander around aimlessly, I could be of use to the Inquisition."
Lavellan stopped in the middle of rolling his shoulders.
"You want to join?" he asked.
Nyssa nodded. The idea had been on the edge of hir mind the last few hours, but with hir labours of the last few weeks destroyed, zie didn't have many other options, and there was the matter of what zie suspected about the Breach.
"I keep in touch with Dalish clans all over Thedas," zie said. "I'm confident I can persuade at least some of them to come to the Inquisition's aid."
A flash of interest passed over Lavellan's expression, and he nodded. "We have had trouble contacting a lot of clans. You know what our people are like. Most think the Inquisition is a Chantry organisation."
"Isn't it?"
The Inquisitor did not look offended at the pointed question, only thoughtful. "It is true we began on a writ from the human Divine, I'll grant you that. But I am neither a puppet, nor a dictator." He blinked down at hir, then smiled. "It's a collective effort. Manned by an awful lot of shemlen, but they're good folk for the most part."
"Fair enough. Then I will still join, if you'll have me. As for my own skills, our battle should be a fair enough demonstration, yes?"
"I don't doubt your skills," Lavellan replied with a smile. "Or your knowledge."
"What I also know is that mark of yours is borne of elven magic," zie continued, and the other elf's eyebrows quirked in surprise. "And I suspect I also know the artefact that created it. So," zie finished, and fixed the Inquisitor with an even stare. "What do you say?"