Chapter Sixty: Fallen Pride

I stare in horror through the broken roof of the tunnel as the twisted, grotesque form that had once been a dragon soars overhead. It's heading in the direction we are, the same direction the Inquisitor's team had gone. Unnatural red light emanates from its powerful body. Red lyrium. I look at my brother, and I see his face is turned upward, the muscles of his jaw twitching slightly as he clenches his teeth together in a grimace. He stops, standing motionless, watching the passing beast with growing alarm.

"We need to get up there!" I shout, trying to push forward out of the tunnel, frustrated with the crush of bodies in front of me. When we finally reach the next open area, I'm disappointed to find another central courtyard, the same as before. This is going to take forever. Our people are fighting with the Wardens, and more demons. I sling an ice spell at a nearby demon, freezing it when it gets too close.

"We need to get to that dragon, Sister," Tenebris warns.

"I know!" I yell, impatient as he is. "Cullen, Tenebris and I are your best chance against that creature. Can you handle this here?"

"Yes. Go!" he answers, between swings of his own sword.

"Varric, Dorian, help Cullen and the others. Follow when you can," I tell them. I place a hand on Alistair's arm, and use the ring again.

The first thing I notice in the raised area isn't the Archdemon, but a massive pride demon in a glowing ritual circle. This is what they were doing? That's a rift, and a big one at that. I spot Declan and his team running ahead chasing after a man in Tevinter robes and a woman in Warden armor with a shaved head and mage staff. That must be Clarel. Good luck, Declan. The Archdemon is perched on a nearby tower, watching everything with malicious interest.

The pride demon, however, doesn't give us time to watch for long, and its guttural laughter sends chills up my spine. A glowing coil forms at its waist, and I recognize that threat immediately.

"Watch out!" We scatter, taking cover as best we, but there are so many here. Thankfully these Wardens appear to be helping us fight. Declan's work, no doubt. Very well, pride demon. Two can play at this game.

I step forward. "Tenebris, back me up," I order as I sheathe my weapon, crossing my arms over my head and chanting a quick boost to my spell. The lightning hilts slide into my hand, as comfortable as my staff, just as I had done back on the Storm Coast. I pull the blinding weapons down from the sky to the stone surface. They lay upon it, sparking and humming. Good, I've got its attention. Speaking of… I look up to the Archdemon, but it's already gone. "Blackwall, Alistair, Declan's going to need you more than we do. We'll catch up in a minute!"

A spell from one of the Warden mages hits the pride demon, causing it to pause long enough for me to accomplish what I had planned: I snap the whip around its leg and give it a little tug. Not enough to actually trip it, just enough for it to believe that's what I'm doing. As it reaches for the whip, an arrow from one of the other Wardens strikes it. "Good, keep going," I encourage them.

I arc the other whip, curling it around its neck. Another distraction, and Tenebris's spell hits. The demon hits its knees, roaring in pain and frustration. It grabs hold of my glowing whips, one in each hand, and before I realize what's happening, it yanks on both, sending my small frame stumbling forward toward the demon, and the rift.

I collapse face-first just outside of the green glow, and let go of my weapons, the magic returning to the heavens the moment it is out of my hands, and I reach for the quickest thing I can: the small lightning dagger I'd found in Toth's shrine in the Hissing Wastes. I glance up at the pride demon looming over me, all spines and horns. A giant hand moves toward me. I slam the dagger into its foot and dive out of the way, rolling quickly back to my feet, grabbing my staff as it threatens to get away from where I normally keep it slung on my back.

The motion costs me, and I feel the lightning energy of the creature's whip grabbing me, pulling me back. I cry out, more in surprise than pain, as I'm yanked back toward the rift. My staff clatters to the stones and is quickly out of reach.

"Ferox!" Tenebris yells, and I hear him command the Wardens, "Don't shoot, you might hit her."

I'm going to have to cast without my staff, but it would be easier if this thing let go of me first. I scramble for anything else I can use, but come up empty. No wait, what's that? A smile forms on my face as I palm the object.

The pride demon laughs again, but it won't be laughing for long. I pull the stopper, and dash the lavender sand from the Hissing Wastes into its many small eyes. It howls, letting me know it did not like that just now, but releases its own whip, which also disappears once it is no longer being wielded.

The demon grasps blindly, trying to find the small human that had caused it pain, but the arm that reaches for me flinches as it's hit from the side from a crossbow bolt.

"Say, hello, Bianca!" Varric bellows, and it's music to my ears. "Nobody touches my girl."

I scramble to my feet, grab my staff, and cast - ice this time, taking no chances. Spears of ice shoot from the ground, piercing its spiked hide from all directions. Finally, the demon's form breaks apart, and is pulled backwards into the open rift. All in all, the fight with the demon took only a few minutes, but I'm exhausted. I lean on my staff, catching my breath. Varric strides purposefully to me and pulls me roughly to him in a fierce hug. "Damn it, don't scare me like that, Firefly."

I wrap my arms around him briefly. "Thanks for the timely rescue," is all I say. My breathing calms and I look at my brother. "One more time?" I ask him.

He nods. He reaches out, and Dorian takes his hand, the two of them blinking out of sight. I smile at Varric, and I'm about to twist the ring when Cullen runs into the courtyard. "Where is the Inquisitor?" he asks.

"Up ahead; he followed Clarel and Lord Erimond. We sent Alistair and Blackwall to help him, and we were just going to join him ourselves."

He frowns, hesitating, then nods. "With this rift open, there will be more demons. We can't afford to leave it unguarded. I'll stay here with the others. Be careful up there."

A thought hits me, and I run back to the area where the demon fell, the green energy still swirling. But what I'm looking for is thankfully outside of it. I pick up the dagger and sheath it back at my side. I return and grasp Varric's hand, looking up to the far top of the walkways ahead, and see a red glow. The Archdemon is up there, I know it. I meet Varric's gaze, and the world blurs away.

It only takes me a split second to realize that we're too late. The broken edge of the ramparts shows where there had once been a walkway, but Declan and the others are already gone.

"They fell, Sister," Tenebris says from behind me. "There was a fight, we got here just in time to witness the end of it. Clarel saw the error of her ways before the end, but it was already too late to save her. She hit that beast with a powerful spell, shattering the stone. I'm sorry."

"Are they...dead?" I ask, looking at the jagged stones of the severed passage. Varric squeezes my hand.

"I'm not sure; there was a strange flash of magic when it all happened. I was planning to go look for them down there. But, I do have a consolation prize," he states, pointing behind him. Tenebris knows binding spells better than anyone, and Lord Erimond is definitely bound tightly. "You're not going anywhere, you filth," my brother states, giving him a shove with his boot for good measure.

"You will all see," Erimond spouts, his finely-groomed facial hair giving him an almost comical appearance now that he's bound and bent. "I serve a god."

My eyes flick to Tenebris. "He doesn't know who we are then?"

"When there is time, Sister, we shall have to educate this ignorant human."

"Right, looking forward to it," I acknowledge. "And where's the dragon?"

"We don't know," Dorian answered, shaking his head. "It fell too, right before the Inquisitor."

I sigh. "Take this Tevinter garbage - no offense Dorian - down to Cullen. He'll know what to do. I'll stay with Varric and Dorian, make sure they both get back downstairs alright, and we'll see if we can find Declan and the others. Be careful. There were still demons down there last we saw, and we don't know where that phony Archdemon is." It's left unspoken that we're probably finding their broken corpses after a fall from this height, but for Varric's sake, I keep my composure.

"You hear that, kaffas? My sister has given you to me for safekeeping." Tenebris's laughter takes on a sinister tone, which amuses me.

"Take care, Brother."

"And you," he says, before using his ring to travel one last time.

I turn to Dorian and Varric. "I need to peek out over the side, to see if I can see what happened to them."

"You are the lightest of us," Varric admitted. "But I don't like it."

"I have an idea," Dorian says, heading back a ways. He returns with a ladder. "Something to hold on to, at least."

They set the ladder flat on the ground, with both of them standing on it for stability. I walk between the rungs, enough that if the ground crumbled under me, I could probably catch my own weight on it. I gingerly walk to the edge, testing the ground with each step before continuing. I peer over the ledge, and see nothing. No Archdemon, no crumpled bodies of our companions, but there is a lot of debris. We need to go sort through it if we can, make sure they aren't in there.

"Nothing from here," I report, turning back around, and then I hear it: the beating of wings. "Run!" I shout, sprinting toward the doorway that leads to the stairs down. We can't fight that thing up here, especially knowing the floor is unstable. I watch as the others turn, their movements seemingly slowed to a crawl in my rush of adrenaline.

I clear the archway to the stairs just as a blast of red energy hits it, narrowly missing my head. The sound of it is awful, like shards of glass hitting stone. I force my feet to keep moving down the stairs. We need a better position. Here, all it has to do is knock is off the side, and we're dead.

"Don't stop," I bark at the other two, "it's right behind us."

A massive head appears on my right, the opening in the stone revealing its features briefly as it flies by. We're never going to make it like this, that thing is too fast.

"I have to distract it. You two keep moving, get to the others. I'll try to pull it away from you."

"Are you crazy?" Varric shouts, his eyes darting behind to look at me. "No, this isn't one of your dragons you can talk to. You saw that thing."

"I have an idea of how I can match its element, but it's going to be ugly."

"Ferox, no." Varric pauses, and I quickly catch up to him. He grabs my hand and we run together. If I had been a normal-sized human, we probably couldn't have accomplished it, but we're able to stay side-by-side. "You're getting out of here, damn it. I'm not losing you like that. Besides, I promised your brother."

"If Lucis cared so fucking much, then he should have been here, but he's not!" I pull my hand away from him and draw the lightning dagger. "I'm doing this for you. It will work. I'm not trying to convince it to help us, or fight it, just distract it. I still have one trip left on my ring. I'll use it if it's not working. I promise. Just go."

Hesitation causes him to stop, but Dorian runs back and grabs hold of his jacket. "Dragon Girl says go, Varric. You can't fight that thing for her, at least not alone. We'll get help."

"You're right, Sparkler," he agrees, then looks at me. "I'll go, but only to bring reinforcements."

I nod. "Alright."

I watch in relief as he continues on. I don't want him to have to see what I need to do next. I'm not about to try to use red lyrium, but there's something else that might work - something I haven't done in a very long time.

Reaching the next flat area, I'm glad to see it's deserted; Dorian and Varric disappear down the stairs as I arrive. This will do. I lay the blade of my storm dagger against the skin of my palm and make a cut. My own power wells, and I feel Toth waking in confusion. No, not you. Peace, old friend. I focus my will on the scarlet droplets, and imbue it all with the power of the storm. Lightning strikes the tower nearby, and the wind whistles through the ancient structure. The blood magic rotates around me in a dizzying aura.

"Come to me dragon!" I demand in Draconic. "I am what your master seeks."

A screech, high-pitched and frightening sounds above me, but I am calm. I am power. I am the storm.

The massive beast crashes to the floor of the tower, its tattered wings surprisingly still able to support its weight. It glares at me, but does not immediately attack. Good. It's curious, at least.

"Whasssssit?" it hisses, barely coherent. Is that because I can't match its element or from what Corypheus did to it? "Whatarrrreyou?"

"I am the Stormbringer," I declare, and there's another flash as lightning strikes the building, throwing stone and dust into the air.

It moves to speak again, but then it bellows instead, howling...in pain, I realize. Oh, that poor thing. Then I see it, in its neck, the glow of tiny red crystals, shifting. Red lyrium is growing inside it.

"He will pay for doing this to you," I promise.

"Noooo, Massssster," it cries, and I can't tell if it wants to protect Corypheus or hates him. He's bound it to his will, it might be both. But maybe if I try, I can overpower his compulsion. Tenebris would be better at this, but it's worth attempting.

"Listen to me, dragon," I start moving closer, allowing the blood magic shield to spread outward, encompassing more of the area around me. "I want to help you, to make the pain stop."

"Sssstop. Hurtssss."

"I know it does, dearest, and I'm sorry. This never should have happened. But if you let me, I might be able to help you."

"Hellllp."

I reach out with the magic, and allow it to wash over the dragon. Nothing happens at first, but I add my will, and the blood glows with a purple light, the light of the storm. There's something in its eyes, an understanding. And then nothing, the moment gone, the eyes gone flat black again. The dragon leaps into the air, wings flapping, the force of the wind knocking me to the ground.

Another screech, no more words, and the beast flies off into the night. I lay there for a second before standing, watching as it leaves, heading back east. At least we know the general direction of where Corypheus is. I stand and end the magic, casting a quick healing spell to close the wound before heading to the stairs.

I half expected my brother or Varric to meet me as I descend, but they are a little preoccupied by what's going on below. Declan stumbles out of the rift in the main courtyard where we had fought the pride demon.

"Where were you?" Tenebris asks upon seeing me. "I felt your magic."

"Talking with an Archdemon," I admit, and he just shakes his head.

I walk to Varric's side, and he puts an arm around me, sighing a breath of relief. "They're back," he says, watching as the others emerged, Blackwall, Cole, Cassandra, Alistair. But then, Declan closes his fist, and the rift closes.

"No…" I whisper.

Varric steps forward toward the Inquisitor, his features contorted with anguish.

"Where's Hawke?"