Daughter of Tethras

Disclaimer: Don't own Dragon Age

A/N:

Chapter 45 (A Last Goodbye)

The next morning, Bianca awoke to her father's voice outside her door. "Wake up, we should get going. Hawke and the others are already at the port, and you know how impatient Isabela can be." She rubbed her eyes and sat up, groaning softly. "We're running late."

"I'll be up in a minute, Dad." She flung the covers off and stared at the windows. The sun was barely poking its head into the sky. It was difficult to get moving, especially now that the day had come to actually leave.

In a week's time, she'd been able to rest from the fight but barely got out of the bed enough to participate in any celebrations. She'd kept up with what would be happening to those staying behind in Thedas. Cassandra was taking charge of the Seekers, changing them and redirecting them into what she thought would be better. Vivenne, oddly enough, had talked the clerics into naming her Divine. Granted, with Leliana leaving Thedas and Cassandra wanting to focus more on the Seekers, there wasn't much else.

Solas still hadn't been located, which was truly heartbreaking, but she tried her best to put that behind in her thoughts. Blackwall had taken part of the Warden's ritual and was now a fully fledged member of the Grey Wardens. She was proud of him and hoped he'd have the life he always wanted.

As she changed into new clothes, she looked around her room. It was bare for the most part, even her bed had been taken down to one sheet on it. Everything that was going on the trip with her, she'd already packed and had transported to Isabela's boat. That way, all she had to do was say her goodbyes and leave.

It wasn't as though she wanted to make a hasty exit, she simply didn't want the hassle of carrying a bunch of luggage. She also wasn't one for emotional goodbyes, but this lot was worth it.

Making her way outside, she saw Varric looking on with a proud glint in his eyes. She smiled at him and gave him a quick hug. "Let me say goodbye to everyone, okay Dad?" He started to nod.

"I wouldn't have it any other way, Bee."

As she started to move, expecting to go hunt everyone down, she looked up and froze when she saw everyone standing in the grand hall. There wasn't a dry eye in the place, with her inner circle doing their best to keep from bawling. Cassandra was the first to step forward. "I…" The woman let out a shaky exhale and put her hand out. "Am truly going to miss our friendship, Bianca. I hope you will always keep me in your mind, in your heart."

Bianca took her hand, then pulled her into a hug. "Always." Tears filled her eyes as an overwhelming surge of emotions came over her. "I'll never forget you, I'll never forget any of you." She took a step back, wiping her tears from her eyes. She noticed Cole and Sera weren't there. "Where's Sera and Cole?"

"They already left," said Dorian, "They said goodbye and went to board the boat. They're anxious for you to join them though." The man loomed over her for a moment, his face growing long. He then scooped her up with a mighty hug. "I am going to miss you so much. You and your weird dad."

"Hey," Varric chortled. Bianca started to laugh and tried to say something, but soon found herself being crushed by Iron Bull's massive arms. She grabbed his arms with her hands and grunted as the Qunari clutched her close.

"I can't believe this is really happening," Bull wept, "I don't usually get emotional but…but I said I wasn't going to cry." He set her down and turned on his side. "The chargers and I will truly miss you. It was an honor. It was."

"It was an honor to have known you." She chuckled once. "I don't think anyone would ever believe I'd have a friend quite like you." That much was certain, for as much as she'd love to tell the stories of the friends she made in Thedas to the people in the new world, it was unlikely any of them would hear about a walking and talking bull.

Even Vivienne was silent, her sorrow reflecting in her eyes. "Don't you dare forget us," Vivienne said, "Or I will find a way to escape Thedas and haunt you myself." Bianca laughed heartily and the woman slowly folded her arms. "There's nothing left here. I suppose you should get going…" The woman turned away and shut her eyes. "Go now, before I start bawling like a child."

She wrapped her arms around Vivienne, holding her tight and burying her face into her side. Her heart burst as an overwhelming sense of emotions coursed through her veins.

It was more agonizing than she thought it would be to say goodbye. Her mind was made up, her heart was ready; but damned it all if saying goodbye to them now gave her second thoughts.

As she let go of Vivienne, she wiped away her tears once more and shook her head. "Promise me you guys won't forget about me either?" Vivienne smiled while Josephine and Cullen nodded.

"None could forget you," Cullen stated, "Miss C-" He paused and Josephine looked to him for a moment. He cleared his throat and his smile grew. "Miss Tethras." Her heart rose and she bounced for a moment on her heels. "Also, the newly chosen Inquisitor is going through her training very well. You chose wisely."

"I'm sure Trina will make a remarkable leader."

"Certainly. You be safe, wherever your journeys take you."

"Thank you, Commander. For everything."

"No, thank you. You've been a valued friend and a remarkable leader in the fight against Corypheus. You will not be forgotten in Thedas."

She felt someone tapping her shoulder and looked to see Varric pointing at a raven. The bird had just flown in and had a paper tied around its leg, its eyes seemed to be staring into their very souls. "They have Leliana sending birds now. I get the feeling we'd better start heading out." Bianca felt the blood rush to her face, then hurried to hug everyone one final time.

As they left Skyhold, her heart felt heavy; but a new feeling of excitement and anticipation was coming over her. Still, something was off. She turned her head and watched as Skyhold seemed to fade behind them, with their friends standing at the drawbridge waving them off.

Her father walked in front, looking around and checking almost every tree they passed. "What's wrong?" Bianca asked after a while. They were almost near the port. Varric looked back and his lips pressed flat.

"I feel like someone's following us. Just this overwhelming feeling that something's not right."

"I feel it too, but I've just been ignoring it. Once we get to port, everything should be fine."

All of a sudden, something flew out of the bushes behind them and exploded in a cloud of smoke. Bianca felt her nostrils and throat fill with the smoke, choking her. It burned her eyes and she screamed out in alarm. Her father cried out in pain and Bianca quickly turned to him. "Dad? Dad! What's going on?"

"Bianca run!" The smoke started to clear and she saw her father on the ground, struggling with a clamp on his left leg. He was pulling at it, trying to pry it apart. She rubbed her eyes and hurried to him. Her heart was pounding furiously as she grabbed the clamp and pushed with all her strength to pry it apart.

While they struggled, someone ran behind Varric, ripping the crossbow from his shoulders. He jerked his head upright and his eyes grew large. "Shit, my bow!" He turned his head around and Bianca froze when she saw her mother standing a few feet away with the crossbow aimed at them.

"Finally," Davri said with a virulent tone in her voice and narrowed eyes, "You didn't think to leave Thedas without saying goodbye to me, did you?" Varric pulled his leg from the clamp and heaved several exhausted breaths, he glared at Davri and grit his teeth. Bianca stayed by his side, studying the crossbow. "Really Varric, after all we've been through? You'd deprive me of the opportunity to see you and my darling child off?"

"We just got through fighting one monster," Varric whispered under a growling tone, "But he was no monster compared to the likes of you." Davri rolled her head back and let loose a loud laugh.

"Oh wonderful, and here I was hoping you'd kill that asshole." Davri squeezed the trigger without hesitation, firing an arrow into Varric's left shoulder. He jerked back and his hand flew to the wound as he cried out in anguish.

"Dad!" Bianca grabbed for the arrow but Varric quickly waved her off.

"No, no, leave it." He sucked in the air through his teeth. "Leave it, I'll have them take it out at port. It will be fine." Davri took a step forward, chuckling low.

"You assume I'm letting you go alive."

Varric shouted at the woman, his voice reached a startling height. "Why are you doing this, woman?"

"Why?" Davri tilted her head. "Because you're content to leave me, that's why." Bianca rolled her eyes, having almost forgotten the reason her mother hated her so much. She was the bargaining tool, so to speak, the one thing that Davri could use to keep Varric close. Now that she'd found her father, the woman had nothing to keep him from leaving her and no longer being a part of the affair she'd forced him into for so long. Here she stood now, prepared to kill them just as they left Thedas forever.

Bianca rose to her feet, sliding in front of her father. She glared into the woman's murderous eyes and felt the corner of her lip twitch when the woman snarled. "You can't stand not being in control," Bianca remarked, "You can't stand that Dad wants nothing to do with you and hasn't wanted anything to do with you for decades." Davri started to smile, her head tilting slowly to the right as the crazed look in her eyes only grew. "I won't let you hurt him."

"Oh don't worry sweetheart." Davri's finger clung to the trigger of the crossbow and her malicious grin only grew. "I'll let you die with him."

She fired another shot and Bianca quickly leapt out of the way, screaming as an arrow burned through her left arm. She threw her hand to the wound and looked over it carefully, relieved that the cut wasn't deep. "If it's a fight you want." She grabbed the axe from her back and grasped it firmly with both hands. "It's a fight you're going to get."

"Splendid." Bianca charged forward, readying her axe for a mighty swing. Davri started to fire another shot at her, so she changed her run to a more snakelike pattern. When she got close enough, she swung her axe outward and struck her mother hard on the right side. Davri shrieked and leapt backwards. "You would dare strike your own mother?"

Bianca glared and spoke with a hushed tone. "You're not my mother. You're just a witch that tried to manipulate and control my father and destroy my life. You kept me locked away with a family that hated me, I was thrown into the Carta and abused by those within it." She leapt in the air, raising her axe and screaming at the top of her lungs. "All for your own selfish reasons."

Davri snapped the crossbow up and fired a shot just as Bianca brought the axe down. The arrow tore into her left side, causing her to flinch and drop to the ground. "You are nothing," Davri explained. Bianca groaned and curled her fingers in the dirt. "You will always be nothing." The woman made her approach and Bianca felt the tip of an arrow being pushed against the back of her head. "You never should have been born."

She heard her father cry out, but he could barely move from his spot. Her body started to tremble as she looked towards her hand, considering opening a rift on the spot to take them both in.

"Back off," someone said. Bianca's heart stopped and her eyes grew large. She heard Davri start to ask who was there, but the woman only screamed and fell away. When Bianca looked up, she was shocked to see a dagger now embedded in the woman's right arm. Davri dropped the crossbow, grabbed the handle of the dagger and tore it from her flesh.

"You will pay for that." Davri snarled and looked around, but the owner of the voice couldn't be seen. "Where are you? Where are you!" Bianca's eyes filled with tears and she began to crawl towards her father. Davri spun towards her and shrieked at the top of her lungs. "Get back here, you." The woman started for her, but stopped when Lantos appeared in front of her, moving out of his stealth.

His narrow eyes were filled with determination and his voice swelled with anger. "I've been hunting you for a long time," Lantos remarked, "I'm not letting you put your hands on them."

"Fool." Davri swung the dagger, thrusting it deep into Lantos's side. He flinched and staggered back. Bianca cried out to him, but he extended a hand to her, shaking it at her.

"I'm fine." He clenched his teeth and grabbed the second dagger on his back. Davri jumped back and reached beneath her cloak, removing a pair of daggers as well. She lunged for Lantos and he spun to the side. With her back turned to him, he lunged with dagger in hand. She twisted around and howled in pain as he cut into her left side.

As the two fought, Bianca looked over her father. He was sweating and his face pale, while his hand was clasped around the wound and arrow as tightly as he could manage, he was losing blood fast. Her own wound was much the same. "It's going to be okay, Dad." He looked up at her with a sad expression.

"I'm just glad I got to be a part of your life."

"Don't talk like that." Fear and panic coursed through her and her voice started to rise. "Don't you dare talk like that." She heard Lantos cry out and flung her head to the left.

He was stumbling backwards, holding his hands on his stomach where a knife had been thrust. "Lantos!" Before him stood Davri, drenched in blood that was oozing from various cuts on her body. She was breathing heavily, her eyes wild and deranged.

"It's over," Davri said with a growl. "It ends now." Lantos turned his head up and huffed.

"I said I wasn't going to let you lay another finger on them while I was alive." He reached into his pocket and Davri glanced down at his hand. "I'm not dead yet." In a swift motion, he removed what looked to be a pellet for poison gas and shoved it as hard as he could into Davri's mouth.

The woman stumbled back, gagging as her eyes began to fill with tears. She opened her mouth to scream, but a green cloud was all that flowed from her lips. Bianca and Varric watched, terrified, as the woman's entire body appeared to bulge as though exploding.

Bianca rose to her feet with as much strength as she could muster, and that was not much, and she made her way towards where she left her axe. One hand held her wound and her other hand picked up the axe. "You won't plague our lives anymore." She faced Davri, who was fanning her hands before her lips and gazing in terror as the life faded from her eyes. "If you're the last thing I see before leaving Thedas, so be it…" All her friends came to mind and she slowly shook her head. "But you won't erase the good memories that I have had during the Inquisition."

With one final cry, she swung her axe and watched as it slicked through Davri's neck. The woman's corpse fell with a sickening thud on the ground and her head landed a few feet away.

"It's over…" Bianca turned away and saw Lantos falling to his knees. "Lan?" He fell onto his back and she hurried to his side. "Lantos! What were you thinking?" He looked up at her, his body pale from the blood that was gushing from every wound.

"I guess." His body shook as he started to cough. "I just wanted to see you off." Her heart broke as she curled her hands over his forearm. Tears filled her eyes and she let out a gasp as his body grew very still. "I'm glad." He smiled at her, but said nothing more.

"Lan?" She shook him again, but he made no reaction. His eyes remained open, gazing forever upwards. "Lantos, you didn't have to do this." She began to shake and dropped her head to his chest, weeping for his loss.

"Bianca." Varric's voice was raspy and thin, his eyes were a pale misty color and he was trying to move for her. She raised her head up and let him drape an arm over her shoulder. "Bianca, he's gone."

"But why? Why did he have to do this?" She looked at her father and quickly shook her head. "He was getting better. He could have found a second chance. He could have redeemed himself."

Varric looked down at Lantos with a deep frown. "I think he just did." He reached down and pushed the young dwarf's eyelids shut. "He saved you one last time. Let's not let his sacrifice be in vain."

Bianca hugged her father's neck and buried her face into his shoulder. "You can barely move, Dad. How are we going to get to the port?"

"I think we'll be okay…" He put a hand on her back. "I saw a few of Leliana's birds nearby. They have to have come looking by now." Varric coughed once and leaned back a bit, his lips curling into a smirk. "She has to know she can't take those birds with her."

Then a voice asked from behind. "Why not?" Bianca gasped out and looked to see Leliana making a swift approach. With her was Bethany, Hawke, and the Warden. They were running as fast as they could, passing her up.

Behind them, Sera and Cole made their approach, their faces etched with worry. "Bethany," said Hawke, "Can you heal their wounds?"

"I can." Bethany knelt beside them. "Maybe the last magic I perform, but that's fine." Bianca let go of her father and pleaded that the woman heal his wound first as he lost the most blood. Bethany gave a nod and put her hand on Varric's shoulder just as Hawke ripped the arrow from the dwarf.

"The hell!" Varric cried out. "Why did you yank it out like that, damn you?"

"Best to do it when you're not expecting it."

Varric bowed his head and closed his eyes, groaning softly as fresh blood oozed down his arm. "Hurry the hell up."

The warden, David, knelt beside Bianca and started to smile. "Well, I was hoping to meet you under better circumstances," he said. Bianca smiled back at him. "Though I know Oghren is your personal hero."

"All of you are," Bianca replied. Her heart swelled as David started to chuckle. He scratched at his bushy beard and looked over the bodies. In that moment, she felt a surge of pain and whatever brief happiness faded. "My mother decided to try and intervene. Lantos…sacrificed himself to save us." David started to nod.

"We'll honor him then. Have a funeral for him aboard the ship." The others murmured their agreements and started to pick up Lantos's body. "We'll have to get him cleaned up of course. What would you have us do with his body?"

She hadn't even thought of that. In some cultures, burning the body was the most honorable thing to do. "We have nowhere to bury him, unless we bury him here." She knew he hated Thedas as much as she did, the cesspit that he had to grow up in was enough. "I think maybe, in different circumstances, he would have wanted to see the world outside Thedas too…So maybe we can scatter his ashes in the sea outside."

"A fine idea." David stood tall and looked to the others. "Let's find a way to get these bodies on the boat."

Varric was hoisted up by his friends, and let out a sharp growl. "You can leave my ex for the wolves for all I care." Hawke put Varric's arm over his shoulder and chuckled.

"I'd say that sounds a bit harsh." Hawke shook his head. "But for what it's worth, I understand. Let's get you two to port."

They survived, but it was close. I think Lantos redeemed himself for sure. All that's left now is the barrier, but will they all truly make it across?