a/n- First, I want to thank everyone who has read this thus far. You are making a writer quite happy that she can draw you into a story that you likely already know. I honestly only expect one or two people to actually make it past the first chapter so the fact that I have 71 visits on it has certainly brightened my day. Second, I want to take a moment to ask you to stick with me. I know this beginning is not the most interesting, and it was certainly more fun to play through than it probably is to read, but hang in there. I promise that the story will get more exciting and compelling as it goes on. And on that note, please enjoy this next chapter.

Of Demons and Rifts

The icy landscape seemed desolate and inescapable. She wondered whether the lack of life was because of the Breach, as Cassandra had alluded to or because of the many soldiers that had recently moved through the area. Either way, Enya was very aware that only the sparse plants were their companions. They were very alone.

"Where are the soldiers?" she asked.

"At the forward camp, all fighting. We are on our own now."

The words echoed slightly off of the rocks, a sense of foreboding coming with that reverberation. Enya's premonition was realized as they came over another rise to encounter two more demons of the same type as the one before, tall without legs, tugging themselves along the ground with forward diving motions. She loosed her sword form its harness and gripped it firmly between her small, Dalish hands.

"There!" Cassandra cried, needlessly pointing them out, "If we flank them we have the advantage."

She jumped from the ridge onto the ice, drawing her sword mid-leap and leading with her shield. Enya hesitated a moment and then took a deep breath, following suit.

The fight was quick and clean. Enya's training with a blade was beginning to come back to her, and she found herself growing bolder, attacking harder. The demons had the decency to vanish when they were dead, falling into the Beyond as blackish green shards. Only the dark blood remained.

They set off again, even faster this time only to be waylaid, but a floating green creature from the Fade that Enya recalled was a wraith and another of the hooded demons, but they quickly dispatched them. The further they moved up the valley the more they encountered, and the larger the groups became. Enya felt herself growing weary as they ascended a tall set of steps up the side of the valley.

"We're getting close to the rift. You can hear the fighting!" Cassandra called out to her.

"Who's fighting?" Enya tried hard to catch her breath, but pain ripped through her chest. She took out another potion and downed it, still running. She would be lucky if she didn't become as attached to this potion as the Templars were said to be to lyrium.

"You'll see soon," even Cassandra's words seemed strained for the air to support them, "We must help them."

Flames covered nearly half of their path here and what they could see that wasn't smoke was a greenish glow emanating from what appeared to be a small version of the Breach, fade energy leaking from it into Thedas. Enya drew her sword as she watched the fighting. Her hand burned again, intensely, and she gasped but did not fall. She followed Cassandra into the battle, diving in to help those who had been staving off the horde.

Enya had not time to catch a glimpse of the other soldiers, only knew that they seemed adept before she was swallowed by fighting a demon on her own. When he finally fell, she felt her hands shaking on the blade. She had not killed before, not like this. Even fighting their way up the valley Cassandra had done the killing, she'd merely weakened their adversary.

As the demon dissolved back into the rift she saw a dwarf with an intricate crossbow and a grim expression look up from his kills. He picked up a few bolts from the ground and stuck them in some leather loops on his belt. His gaze flitted over her to Cassandra, and eyebrow rising. Enya opened her mouth to speak, but a voice cut through the sudden silence before she could utter a sound.

"Quickly! Before more come through!"

A hand wrapped tightly around her wrist and forced her open, marked hand toward the rift. She bit back a scream as light, energy, magic shot from her hand into the rift before her. The seconds passed, and it felt as though blood seeped from her body into the air through her palm and then, quite suddenly, the rift exploded with the sound of a dropped mirror.

Enya jerked her hand away from whoever was holding it and drew it in on herself. Gasping more in shock than in pain for a warm had spread through the shimmering wound on her hand as the rift closed. She now looked up at the man who had grabbed her. With a short intake of breath, she realized he was an elf. Her eyes darted from him to her hand and back to the space in the air where the rift had been. Then the she found her words.

"What did you do?!" she implored.

The elf shifted in his blood spatter robes as he gestured toward her, "I did nothing. The credit is yours."

Enya looked down at her hand again, flexing it as the pleasant warmth that had soothed the pain vanished, "At least this is good for something." She tried to ignore the sticky feeling of the blood drying on her fist.

The elf seemed unmoved by her reluctant comment and launched into an explanation.

"Whatever magic opened the breach in the sky also placed that mark upon your hand," he wrapped his hands casually behind his back, "I theorized the mark might be able to close the rifts that opened in the Breach's wake," his tone lifted slightly from calm to pleased as she listened, "And it seems I was correct."

Cassandra strode forward, "Meaning it could also close the Breach itself."

Enya heard the statement, the question, and the uptick of hope betrayed in her words as she approached the mage. His eyes darkened, and his tone became cautious as he responded.

"Possibly." The elf turned his attention from Cassandra back to her, "It seems you may hold the key to our salvation."

Enya blinked, lowering her eyes to the ground in acknowledgment of his statement. She felt the pain pulse again through her and stared at it, flexing her hand open and closed. Their salvation? She remained silent as a new voice, deep and rich, yet gruff and easy, sliced her thoughts. The elven captive turned to look at the dwarf.

"Good to know! Here I thought we'd be ass-deep in demons forever." He seemed to straighten his sleeve and then wandered over to them. Looking directly at her, he introduced himself, "Varric Tethras: rogue, storyteller and occasionally unwelcome tagalong."

He winked at Cassandra, eyes gleaming. Enya's eyes followed his gaze to her captor, whose face twitched with barely contained irritation. She turned back to him, "Are you with the Chantry or…"

The elven mage next to her let out a laugh, "Is that a serious question?"

Enya looked from him to Varric to Cassandra. It had seemed unlikely and now clearly her initial presumption had been correct. She cut in before they could say anything further.

"I thought it unlikely," She paused, "It is a pleasure to meet you, Varric."

"You may rethink that stance, given time." The mage commented though it seemed to Enya that he did so in good spirits

"Aww. A little patience, Chuckles, I'm sure we're going to be great friends," Varric replied, equally confident.

Cassandra cut in before she could respond, "Absolutely not. You've helped in the past Varric but-"

"Have you been in the valley lately, Seeker?" the dwarf interrupted and this time his tone was serious, "Your soldiers aren't in control anymore," he paused and then cocked his head to the side. "You need me."

Cassandra responded with a disgusted sigh and turned away. Enya could feel her resignation and wondered just how she had come to dislike this dwarf so much. She observed as her captor wandered toward the broken wall away from them.

"My name is Solas, if there are to be introductions."

Enya turned her attention to him as the baritone of his voice pulled her from her musings.

"I am pleased to see you still live." The elven mage smiled slightly.

Enya found that she believed him, though she couldn't understand why he would have any investment in her well-being, what-so-ever.

"He means, 'I kept that mark from killing you while you slept,'" Varric's voice answered her question.

Enya turned her attention toward him in surprise, "You seem to know a great deal about it all."

"Solas is an apostate. His knowledge of magic transcends what most mages would be allowed to learn traditionally," Cassandra offered.

"Free of the Circles, Cassandra, we are all apostates" Solas rebuked and though his tone changed little Enya could tell he defended those with magic through these few words, "It is true, my knowledge is well outside the subjects taught within the Magi. My travels have allowed me to learn much of the Fade. Given the nature of the Breach, I felt I might be of good use here. If it is not sealed, we are all doomed, regardless of origin."

Enya was surprised by this, and by how easily and calmly he explained himself, "That's a commendable attitude."

"Merely a sensible one" he corrected and then added bitingly, "Although sense appears to be in short supply right now."

The elven warrior raised an eyebrow, taken aback, but he had turned away from her, "Cassandra, you should know: the magic involved here is unlike any I've seen. Your prisoner is no mage. Indeed, I find it difficult to imagine any mage having such power."

Cassandra's expression drew grim, "If that is true, then we must make it to the forward camp with all haste."

The human warrior left, as did Varric. Enya turned to Solas as he too made to depart.

"I think I owe you my thanks." She commented quietly.

He shifted his gaze to stare directly at her. With the measured candor of an intellectual, he replied, "I would not thank me yet. If the Breach has closed and you remain then, your gratitude would be well founded."

The elven mage turned away from her. Despite the grimness of his comment, Enya found that she appreciate the honesty it held. She did not truly expect to live through this, and the fact that he did not try to reassure her with unlikely falsehoods or allusions to a future that might not exist were oddly reassuring in and of themselves. She followed after him quickly, not wishing to linger where so recently there had been a rift through the fabric of Thedas' reality.

The second rift was more difficult to close, perhaps because she did not have the aid of Solas' magic and focus to guide her in completing the task. Nevertheless, it exploded, just like the last. Enya gasped, clenching her fist tightly as it twinged again. Cassandra turned to her.

"We are here."

The gates swung inward slowly toward a bridge bearing tents and tables. Enya glanced around herself, noting the thinly veiled expressions on the soldier's faces at seeing her in the flesh. She steeled herself to ignore them, drawing to her tallest height and lifting her chin. As she did so, her eyes settle on the familiar hood of a tall woman. Leliana's arms were crossed over her chest as she argued with a man in Chantry robes. They poured over sheets of paper on the wooden table before them, gesturing. They both looked up at the approach of the group.

"Chancellor Roderick, this is…"

Enya came to a stop near Leliana. Cassandra stood just behind her shoulder, hand on the hilt of her sword.

"I know who you bring here, and I despise it," Roderick looked directly at her, and then shifted his gaze to Cassandra, "Seeker Pentaghast, I expected better judgment from the Divine's Right Hand. You have her unbound, walking freely as if she is a comrade and not the prisoner she is?" he turned his gaze to Enya again his eyes burning with hatred, "She should be in chains in a convoy to Val Royeux to await execution for what she has done. I order you to take her there!"

Cassandra stepped toward him, and Enya moved back away from her.

"You haven't the power to order me, Grand Chancellor. In title only you might seem the more powerful but I am the Right Hand of The Most Holy."

"Divine Justinia is dead, Seeker. You haven't the power you used to." Roderick combated.

"And yet still she carries more than you," Leliana rose to her comrade's defense.

Roderick looked between them, "So it is an alliance between the two of you. You would overthrow the will of the Chantry, make a spectacle of this chaos and delay the appointment of a new Divine."

Enya felt her hand pulse painfully again, and she hissed in pain. The skin on the back of her neck tingled as it subsided, and she flicked her emerald eyes around to catch Solas staring at her hand through narrowed ones. He nodded to her and broke eye contact. Flexing her hand again and gathering her strength, she stepped forward.

"What about the Breach?" she called out and thank the elven gods of old that her voice flowed with strength and ease behind each word, "Should not our mission first be to close it before it swallows our world?"

Roderick looked as though his eyes might fall from his face, "How dare you speak of the Breach as though it was not at your hand. How dare you…" he trailed off under the gaze of the two imposing women before him, "Our fight is hopeless. Call commander Cullen, Seeker, tell him his men should retreat."

"No," Cassandra responded tersely, "I will not ask these men to give up when a solution might be close at hand. We can close the Breach. All we must do is get to the temple."

Roderick laughed "You will be going through a horde of demons to get there, Seeker Pentaghast. Even with the whole army at your back, you would not survive that journey."

"There is another way," Leliana added her soft voice to the mix, "The army could make the charge. You would not be with them." She gestured up at the mountain that towered above them covered entirely in ice and snow.

"It would be suicide," Cassandra replied, "For them and for us. An entire patrol of scouts disappeared up there."

Enya's eyes roamed the side of the mountain, and she shuddered at the thought of the bitter, icy wind tearing at her figure, trying to pull her from the side. A huge rumble shook the valley again and again; Enya cried out as the pain stabbed her hand and forearm like a blade fresh from the forge. As it subsided, she realized that eyes had turned to her.

"And what do you think?" Cassandra asked, crossing her arms over her chest.

Enya blinked a few times, still clearing away the fog of the pain. The rift was growing, and it would keep growing. Even without knowing what had cause the scouts to disappear, it would probably be much quicker, perhaps even the safer route. She looked Cassandra dead in the eye and replied.

"We make for the mountain."

Roderick scoffed from his position behind the table. As they moved off, he called out, "You doom us, Seeker."

Leliana left them as they passed through the gate on the other end. Cassandra grasped her shoulder and uttered, "Bring everyone from the valley. Leave no one behind."

Leliana nodded to her and then ran across the bridge in the opposite direction.