"If I may," Nyssa asked, "what exactly are we doing?"
Their party left camp not long after dawn and followed the river south. After two days of working for the Inquisition, zie assumed Lavellan would be the one to lead. It was he who usually scouted ahead, eyes up and scanning the surrounding rocks for danger. This time Solas took the lead, striding along with a wild impatience that seemed oddly out of character, even from the brief impression zie had of him.
"We're on a rescue mission."
Zie did not pause at Iron Bull's voice, knowing it would only take a few steps for him to catch up. Although Nyssa was small even for an elf, and had to tilt hir head to meet his eye. He was the first Qunari zie had come into such close contact with, and zie had never realised how massive they were.
"A rescue mission? Who are we rescuing?"
Iron Bull grunted. "Some friend of Solas's got captured around here. Don't ask me how he knows where to look... I'm guessing it has to do with Fade crap."
Zie had to grin at 'Fade crap'. The Qunari showed no small amount of aversion towards the spirits and demons they'd put down in the past two days, but zie could hardly blame him. Zie knew very well what it was like to see creatures from your deepest nightmares come alive before you. To most people, demons were no more than creatures of horror stories; something to be told over campfires at midnight. At least until the Breach had appeared in the sky.
"We're helping Solas's friend," Lavellan called from up front. "It was captured by mages and bound into servitude."
"It?" Nyssa repeated, puzzled. "Oh, it's a spirit?"
"Yes. Or... "
Lavellan paused so suddenly he almost skidded, his boots kicking up dust from the path. Ahead Solas had stopped also, and dropped into a crouch by the side of the path. Nyssa walked ahead curiously, reaching into hir sash.
"One of the mages," Solas said. "Killed by arrows, it would seem."
"Everything here is blurry," Cole said softly, and lifted his head. "It wants to forget, but the rocks are solid."
Lavellan drew his bow. "What do you see, Cole?"
"I don't. But I can feel it. Bound, binding, blinding, seeking the sky. Not the same." He repeated the last sentence to himself, eyes darting about.
Nyssa kneeled by Solas and lifted hir scarf to cover hir mouth and nose. The corpse lay facedown, its robes stained crimson by three arrows buried in its back. Zie turned the dead man over with a nudge from hir staff, noting the slack mouth and stiff limbs.
"Dead for no more than two days at most," zie observed. "Likely bandits. There are a few around, raiding the villages."
Nyssa noted Lavellan's gaze up the path and followed it. He was a Dalish hunter by trade. Tracking was not an easy task if you hadn't the training, but a skilled eye could pick out even the most subtle details: trampled grass, footprints, scuff marks.
"This way," he said, and indicated they should follow.
They found the next two corpses not five hundred feet away. It was easy to see what had happened to them—they were no more than burned, twisted husks. Nyssa dropped to the ground beside them and bent closer, wrinkling hir nose at the smell of scorched flesh. Zie noted slashes across their back and arms. Blood soaked into the grass and dirt around them, spattered over the twigs and foliage.
"These aren't mages," Solas murmured.
Nyssa pointed at a great slash mark in the nearest body's skin, barely recognisable on the tattered, blackened flesh. "No fire would have caused that blood spray. These are claw marks. This one was cut down while running, most likely."
Solas jerked upright, stumbling back as if the body had risen up and attacked him.
"No," he said, a strangled sound forced through gritted teeth. "No, no, no."
"What is it, Solas?" Lavellan asked from somewhere behind them, but the other elf didn't seem to hear. He surged ahead, breaking into a trot. Rocks littered the path up ahead, forcing him to slow, but he didn't stop at the Inquisitor calling his name. Iron Bull and Cole followed promptly, weapons at the ready, and with a sigh Nyssa stood and followed.
They were closer to the river bank now, and the dirt path became uneven and treacherous, until it became easier for hir to hop from stone to stone than to walk between them. Then Solas stopped, fingers slackening so quickly he almost dropped his staff, and gasped.
"My friend!"
Nyssa looked up, cursed and almost slipped on the moss that coated the stone beneath hir feet.
A glowing stone jutted from the ground not twenty feet away, pulsing with an eerie blue-green light. Zie could almost see the strands of magic connecting with it and wrapping around; zie followed hir gaze to another stone a few feet away, and to another two closer to the river. Together they made a circle—no, a summoning trap, Nyssa realised. Something zie had seen in books but never had the use for. Within the trap was a hulking figure. Its spiked outline showed clearly as a silhouette against the mid-morning sun.
A frustrated curse burst from Solas's mouth, and for a moment zie thought he may run ahead again. Evidently Lavellan thought the same, for he laid a hand on the other man's shoulder. Whether it was a warning or a comfort, zie couldn't say.
"The mages turned your friend into a demon," the Inquisitor said quietly.
For a moment, Solas didn't answer. Now that Nyssa had caught up, zie could see the naked fury on his face: a muscle in his jaw worked, his chest rose and fell rapidly, and his nostrils flared. Power radiated from him in waves, making the hairs stand up on hir arms and the back of hir neck.
There was something about the way his magic felt. A sense of familiarity zie couldn't place, and it sent such waves of anxious fear through hir that zie had to stamp down the overwhelming urge to flee. How could anyone else not sense it? Iron Bull and Lavellan stood in his presence without batting an eyelid, and Cole... where was Cole? Finally zie spotted him standing on the rocks near the circle, observing the demon. Zie stepped back, turning hir hasty retreat into a search for a better view.
The creature in the summoning circle looked like a demon of pride, the quintessential ferocious monster that mundanes spoke of in their tales of possession and blood magic. This demon had dropped to one knee, breath puffing from its nostrils. Its claws dug furrows into the ground and its spiked shoulders heaved.
"Eurgh," Iron Bull said from behind hir, and Nyssa glanced over hir shoulder. "Knew it would be a fuckin' demon."
"What's the problem?" Nyssa asked him. "You've got muscles enough to put up a decent fight. You don't think you could kick a pride demon's arse?"
Iron Bull's smile turned lecherous. "You like my muscles, eh? You want me to flex them for you?"
Nyssa let out a startled chuckle, though the invitation didn't surprise hir. It wasn't the first he'd made. Zie had caught him checking out hir ass at least twice while walking around the Plains, and his eye had lingered on hir a little too long across the campfire—when he wasn't looking at Dorian or Lavellan, that was.
(Nyssa didn't blame him for the interest. Lavellan was pleasing to look at, but zie recognised the lingering looks that passed between him and Dorian. Zie had absolutely no chance there, and likely Iron Bull didn't either).
The man was probably as big as his height indicated, though, and for a second zie had to wonder just how that particular experiment would go. Like being spit-roasted, Nyssa thought, and choked back hysterical laughter. It wouldn't do to wound his pride with ill-timed amusement.
"I'll keep it in mind," zie managed.
Dry grass crunched under tentative booted footsteps, and Nyssa glanced over hir shoulder. A human in dusty robes approached Solas and Lavellan, his face covered in day-old scruff. Zie couldn't hear what they were saying, but zie recognised the tone of the conversation. Solas's voice rose and fell angrily, and the rolling lilt of his accent became more and more pronounced. Even Lavellan looked irritated, which was an unusual expression for such a calm man.
"You summoned that demon!" Solas shouted at the mage, who could only stutter in response. "Except it was a spirit of wisdom at the time!"
The mage started to speak again, but Solas cut him off. "You made it kill. You twisted it against its purpose!"
"I-I-I understand how it might be confusing to someone who has not studied demons, but—"
"We're not here to help you."
Lavellan scowled. "Word of advice? I'd hold off on explaining how demons work to my friend here."
"Listen to me!" the mage snapped. "I was one of the foremost experts in the Kirkwall Circle—"
"Shut up."
This was getting nowhere, Nyssa thought. Zie hopped down from the rock and hurried back over to the group, pulling hir staff from hir sash.
"You summoned it to protect you from the bandits," Solas said, glaring at the mage. "You bound it to obedience, then commanded it to kill. That is when it turned."
Perhaps zie was not the only one who felt the force of his anger, Nyssa thought, and noted with interest how the human mage's expression soured. He swallowed, as if trying to force words of protest back down his throat, then muttered, "Yes."
Solas turned to Lavellan. "If we break the summoning circle, we break the binding. No orders to kill, no conflict with its nature. No demon."
"Will that work?" Nyssa interrupted.
Solas glanced at hir, brows furrowing, then nodded. "If we disrupt the bindings quickly, then yes. It would require some power, but with enough... " he glanced at Lavellan. "Inquisitor, please. This will work; you have my word."
The Inquisitor glanced over their shoulders to the summoning circle behind them, where the pride demon climbed to its feet.
"Nyssa," he said after a moment.
"Yes, Inquisitor."
"What do you think?"
Zie frowned. "I know little about summoning circles. I've never forced a spirit into obedience."
"I meant about giving Solas a hand," Lavellan replied impatiently. "I'm not a mage, so clearly I'm useless in this situation."
Solas looked at hir, his expression strained.
"Of course I will," Nyssa said. Zie glanced at the demon, eyes darting between the magical bindings, and a plan began to form in hir mind. "You, Cole and Iron Bull can distract the demon, and keep the mages away. They won't be happy when we break their binding."
Lavellan's eyes glinted. He nodded firmly, then raised his voice. "Bull! Cole! We're on the move."
As he explained the plan to the others, Nyssa touched Solas's arm. He blinked down at hir hand, then up at hir.
"Tell me what I need to do," zie said.
Nyssa avoided the Fade as a matter of caution, so demon encounters had been rare for hir—at least, until zie had come to the Dirth. Demons were almost commonplace here, and you put your life in your hands if you ventured into the remote areas without an escort.
"Have you never encountered a pride demon?" Solas asked as they approached the summoning circle. Lavellan, Cole and Iron Bull flanked them on the west side, preparing to fan out and do what they could to distract the demon.
"No," Nyssa said. When his eyebrows raised zie added, "I don't visit the Fade much outside of dreams."
"Ah. It can be a great effort, for some."
"Actually it's not," zie said neutrally; it would not do to reveal too much. Solas cast hir a swift, searching look, but Nyssa turned away and indicated the glowing stones. "You take the east and south bindings, I will disrupt the west and north ones."
Before he could argue, zie closed hir eyes and reached out hir senses.
The summoning circle made the Veil unstable here, and it felt like grasping handfuls of sand as Nyssa pulled it towards hirself. Zie warped the energy around hir, and braced hirself for the familiar squeezing sensation in hir chest.
The momentum of the spell carried hir forward. The world blurred around hir and reformed in an instant, and zie materialised on the far side of the summoning circle. The demon's ear-splitting roar greeted hir as zie ended the spell.
"Move!" someone shouted to hir left, and Nyssa dove just in time to avoid a swipe from its clawed hand.
The pride demon threw back its head and roared again. It was a terrifying sight this close—every inch of it armoured and spiked. Nyssa picked hirself up and forced hir breathing to deepen and slow. Zie couldn't afford to skitter around like a frightened nug.
Lavellan stood on a rock overhead, bow at the ready. His gaze followed the demon as it stumbled, clawing uselessly at an arrow protruding from its shoulder. The shot had meant to distract, not to wound, and it had given hir time to get out of its way.
Magical energy sparked across the circle, and zie heard Solas shout in elven—followed by a grunt of pain as he hit the ground hard.
This wouldn't do, Nyssa thought, as zie strafed around the edge of the circle. Solas had asked them not to harm the demon if they could, but it was easier said than done to avoid massive flailing arms while breaking the bindings. If zie could just slow it for a second—
Nyssa pulled the Fade toward hir and concentrated.
Roots erupted from the ground in a shower of dirt, spreading outwards from the centre of the circle. The demon's leg tangled in the growth and it bellowed in rage, tearing at the plant as it grew rapidly around it.
Plant magic had its uses still, clearly. Not that zie had ever expected to use it while battling a pride demon. Nyssa gestured and two of the roots split off, wrapping around the north binding. One squeeze and it crumbled, and the magic snapped back like a bowstring.
The demon thrashed and howled, tearing free of the roots, and Nyssa broke into a run, ducking between the creature's legs. If zie could just reach the—
Something hit hir hard from behind, and zie went flying, landing hard on hir side with a dull thud.
"The binding!" Solas shouted; this was followed by another growl from the demon. A glance behind hir showed the creature advancing. Magical energy snapped and sparked in its hand, and hir staff was too far away.
Nyssa pulled the Veil towards hir, drew it taut, then rolled onto hir stomach and released it.
The blast hit the last binding squarely in the centre, and as zie watched, it began to topple. The demon gave a strangled roar, then its outline began to shimmer. Slowly it faded, and in its place was the spirit of wisdom.
To hir the spirit looked like an elven woman, wearing a gown that almost looked like the Fade itself: a floaty, transparent thing made from twisting whorls of glittering green light. The 'fabric' moved in ribbons, turning white as it caught the sunlight… but it didn't look healthy. Its outline wavered weakly as it sank to the ground.
Nyssa climbed to hir feet, ignoring the sting of skinned elbows, and retrieved hir staff. Solas had already kneeled before the spirit, his expression twisted in pain.
"Lethallen," he said softly. "Ir abelas."
"Tel'abelas. Enasal. Ir tel'him." The spirit's voice sounded more like a sob, trembling as its form wavered. Nyssa swallowed hard as tears came unbidden to hir eyes. "Ma melava halani. Mala suledin nadas. Ma ghilana mir din'an."
If it looked like an elven woman, zie wasn't surprised it spoke elven. In hir head zie translated: I'm not sorry. I'm happy. I'm me again. You helped me, now you must endure. Guide me into my death.
Solas closed his eyes briefly, and for a moment he looked tired. Then he nodded. "Ma nuvenin."
The spirit gave a grateful sigh, and Solas passed a hand over its trembling face. Energy thrummed around them, making the hairs on hir arms stand up.
"Dareth shiral," he said quietly, and the spirit vanished. He remained on his knees, head turned away, and Nyssa averted hir eyes. It seemed intrusive to see him in this moment, not the least because he was a stranger to hir.
A second glance at their surroundings and zie spotted the mage they'd spoken to before, approaching with two others.
"Inquisitor," zie warned.
Lavellan glanced up, his hand still on Solas's shoulder, then straightened. His hand drifted to the knives on his pouch.
"Thank you," said the mage from earlier. He plucked nervously at the collar of his robe. "We would not have risked a summoning, but the roads are too dangerous to travel unprotected—"
"You."
Solas's voice cut through the mage's stammering. He climbed to his feet, staff at the ready, and took a step forward.
"You tortured and killed my friend!"
Was anyone going to stop this, Nyssa wondered, as zie glanced between Iron Bull, Cole and Lavellan. Bull kept a carefully neutral expression while cleaning his axe, and Cole just looked confused. Lavellan kept a hand resting on his sash, ready to intervene, but his face mirrored Bull's.
"We didn't know it was just a spirit!" the mage cried as Solas advanced. He took a few steps back along with the other mages, faces white with fear. "The book said it could help us!"
Solas slammed the butt of his staff into the ground, and a corona of magic erupted around them. The mages' screams mingled together with the sound of the spell, and Nyssa felt hir stomach lurch. There was that sense of untapped power again, and the unbearable buzz of his magic made hir heart thunder. Then the spell ended, and the mages were no more than shriveled husks on the ground.
"Damn them all," Solas growled.
Nyssa held hir breath until hir lungs began to burst, willing hir expression to return to neutral. Solas moved past hir, muttering, 'I'll meet you back at Skyhold', and silently they watched him disappear over the horizon.
"Is he alright?" Lavellan asked finally, when several moments had passed. "Cole?"
"Wisdom knows enduring is pain," Cole replied. Impossible to tell what he was thinking, but his voice sounded troubled. "He hurts for her, another of many he couldn't save. He carries necessary deaths."
"Necessary deaths," Nyssa repeated under hir breath.
Lavellan glanced at hir. "What was that?"
"Nothing."
That is a very dangerous man, zie thought, as they began the long walk back to camp, whether or not he meant to reveal that. Solas's anger was a great and vast thing, and beyond it lay a well of power beyond hir understanding. Perhaps Lavellan did not know, or could not sense what zie could.
Zie would have to keep an eye on him.