a/n- well, after three days I am happy to say that I have over 20 readers that have made it through to here. Thank you, so much. I'm going to do my best to keep updating like this but I have a fair bit of work to do for my classes that I'm going to have to acknowledge as some point no matter how much I don't want to. Anyway, this is the longest chapter thus far and contains what I believe to be some of the most fun writing I've had the chance to do in a while. The biggest challenge of this story so far has been unifying the narrative elements of the game with the actual gameplay in a way that makes it seem believable and realistic. Hopefully I have managed that here. And on that note, enjoy!
Once More Unto the Breach
The path was colder than Enya had expected, and much higher than it appeared. Her ribs ached and pinched as she struggled to maintain steady breathing while they climbed the mountainside. She was sorely tempted to take another of the healing potions Cassandra had given her but given their destination, she thought better of it.
No one spoke during the long ascent, not even when Varric slipped on a sheet of smooth ice concealed under the snow. Solas had merely reached out and grabbed the dwarf's elbow to steady him. Varric nodded and then the continued up the long slope. Only when they reached a series of wooden platforms and ladders that had seen better days did anyone utter a word.
"Our target should be just ahead. A cave of sorts, that passes through the mountain." Cassandra commented.
Enya grasped the ladder and started up.
"What is this tunnel that we must pass through? What is its purpose?" Solas called out to the human warrior as she started up the ladder.
"It was a mining complex. They dot these hills like livestock." She replied.
"You think the scouts may still be inside?" Varric called up.
"If they are smart, they would be better to stay in there than out in the open. And I don't expect Leliana's people to be untrained." Cassandra replied.
With tense air, Solas commented, "Let us not forget that they may not be in the tunnel of their own volition. It could be that they are held there against their will."
Cassandra's response was weary, resigned. Enya wondered then how many times she had been on missions like this, humoring her companion's words while charging on herself, with little care for the danger that lay ahead. At least it seemed that way. They zigzagged through the series of old stone and weathered wood, moving upward as quickly as they dared.
Enya crested the top of their climb first and spotted the arched entrance of the tunnel just to her left. She moved forward a few steps but then hesitated. She knew how to wield a sword, but these demons were more than anything she had encountered. If armed and trained scouts could not handle them, it was unlikely she could do much damage herself. Cassandra was the first of her party to reach the top of the climb, and she came to stand by her prisoner. Enya loosed the greatsword from her back as Cassandra drew her blade. There was a click as Varric snapped a bolt into his crossbow. A burst of bluish light surrounded them. They turned the corner and entered the cavern.
When they stepped out the other side of the cavern, it was to relative silence. The part of Enya's mind embroiled with the deaths of the demons under her blade thus far tried hard to shake her resolve but she pushed it away. They were demons, fallen through the Breach to destroy the fabric of Thedas. They did nothing but attack and kill.
Cassandra stopped them a ways down the path with a wave of her hand. Enya spotted the blood, a bright crimson orange across the snow, a trail leading to a hedge. She knew before Cassandra rose what it meant.
"A scout, one of the party we sent up here." She turned back to them, "They were not as lucky as we were."
Enya bowed her head, eyebrows knitted together in consternation.
"We cannot determine the fate of the whole party based on one body," Solas' voice rang out clearly, "Some may yet be alive." He paused and Enya followed his gaze up toward the sky, "But the Breach must be our priority. If we do not meet with them on our way, we cannot afford the time it would take to search for them."
Enya seemed to be the only person who found this statement callous, for both Varric and Cassandra nodded their agreement and set off again. The elven warrior bit her lip and then followed, hooking the sword onto her back again as she did. She needn't have worried that they would leave the rest of the scout party behind on the mountain at the mercy of demons, for halfway down into the valley encountered them, cornered behind a jagged tear in the veil. At first it seemed the demons were no different than the first, wraiths and shades, but then there emerged two taller creatures with long limbs and tails. Their voices were hideous grating screams that assaulted her elven ears. She tried not to shy away from the noise and swung her sword before her with all the strength she could muster.
As the last of the demons fell, she spun around, so close to the rift that its energy rushed across her skin like a hot breeze. She thrust her had forward with greater confidence than she had with the last and the rift burst, dissipating with a few whisps of green energy. She breathed heavily a few times as the pain in her hand abated for the moment.
"Your proficiency is far greater than I had expected."
Enya turned to Solas as he spoke. He was considering her again with that curious, intellectual gaze and she couldn't help but feel slightly affronted by it. He seemed not to notice that in most people, herself included, found intense observation of this sort unnerving.
"I just hope you can do that with the big one," Varric commented as he walked past and held out a hand to help a wounded scout up from the ground.
Cassandra did the same with someone they could only assume was the party's leader.
"Thank the Maker!" the woman commented, "I thought we were finished until you arrived Lady Cassandra. I don't think we had much more in us."
Cassandra nodded and turned her gaze to Enya, "Your gratitude is misplaced, Lieutenant. You should be thanking our prisoner. Taking this path was her decision."
Enya could hear the shock that must cover the woman's face in the timbre of her speech.
"Prisoner? Then you're…" the Lieutenant trailed off.
Enya drew herself up into a defensively proud stance. Her ribs shifted sickeningly and she almost stopped midway, but continued. She turned to Cassandra, wanting not to be forced to explain herself, "We should keep going. The Breach should be our priority."
Only after the words left her mouth did she realized that her words echoed those of Solas earlier, that she had thought so heartless. At least the lives of the missing scouts were no longer being considered forfeit.
Cassandra nodded and turned to the head scout, "We've cleared the path back to our camp. You should go before the demons return."
"At once, Lady," the scout responded.
She and her party moved off as quickly as their injured bodies would allow.
"It seems that the path ahead is clear as well," Solas commented.
"Then let us move before that changes," Cassandra's voice, though confident and strong, betrayed a hint relief, "We have not come this far only to be stopped now."
They set off down the side of the mountain and met with ladders the same as before, long and tall onto platforms that seemed hardly strong enough to bear weight. But they made it to the bottom without incident. Enya rounded a corner and stopped dead in her tracks for now she saw the destruction caused by the Breach, or perhaps the explosion that had torn open the Veil, she didn't know. Jagged spikes of rock rose from the charred black surface of the mountain. There was nothing left of the temple that she could see from where they stood. Green glowing lines wove through the crags of the rocks that had taken its place. They towered over the valley floor as tall as the temple had been itself, if not even taller. She could not stop a small intake of breath both awed by the spectacle of it and terrified by the thought of having been inside when such an event had occurred. The elf finally understood why they thought she must have caused this for it seemed impossible that anyone but the person who knew such an event would occur could have made it out alive. The enormity of it, gripped her and she shuddered.
"That is where you walked out of the Fade," Cassandra commented, "And our soldiers found you."
Enya tore her eyes away from the sight and focused instead on her captor, "I was in there?"
She asked, for want of something to fill the silence other than the violent rumblings of the Breach itself.
"I've heard them say that there was a woman behind you, through the rift. No one has been able to say who she was." Cassandra responded and walked on down the sloping path.
Enya followed her, silent now as she experienced the horror of her surrounding for the first time, to her memory. There were burned bodies half melted into the ground. It was clear they had been running and were fused in place where they stood. Some were still burning, flames jumping from the sockets of eyes or from the gaping holes of mouths frozen forever in a scream. She shut down her mind, focusing on her breathing and on the brisk jog the party had taken up to get to what seemed to be the only entrance to this great jagged crater in the middle of the mountains.
The Breach swirled above them now and Enya's hand pulsed all the more painfully as they drew ever nearer as though something was trying to pull its way out of her mark, as though there was a magnetic attraction between it and the tear in the fabric of reality.
More bodies, worse bodies awaited them inside the temple amid piles of rubble they lay, unidentifiable. She watched as the members of her party spread out slightly in the space, under the green light from the rift. Enya looked up and saw soldiers, living ones, filing through a door they had not noticed. Leading them was Leliana.
"Cassandra!" she rushed over, "I was worried you would not make it."
Cassandra did not respond and turned to look at their surroundings, then she commented, "Have your men guard the perimeter. We will make our way to the center."
If Leliana was hurt by Cassandra's uncaring response, she did not show it. The red-haired woman nodded and hurried back to the soldiers who had followed her. Enya turned back to the Breach, staring at the shifting crystalline structure that seemed to float at its heart. Both were high over the floor at the center of the crater.
"Are you ready to end this?" Cassandra's voice pulled her back to where she stood.
Enya took a deep breath, "I will try," she paused, looking at it again, "I'm not sure how I'd even begin to get up there."
Solas spoke in response to this, "This Breach was the first. Seal it, and we can stop the flood of the demons into our world. You will be able to reach it."
Enya could not tell whether he had meant it as a reassurance or a warning. Regardless of his meaning, she shook it off and looked once more to the center of what had once been the temple.
"We'll need to find a way down," she commented, glancing at the levels below.
There was no response to this from her party. They only began to move off, running around the curve of the temple. A voice, louder than the cracks of the Breach echoed around the crater, reverberating off the mountains and crags.
"Bring the Sacrifice," it ordered rasping and deep.
Enya heard fear in Cassandra's voice for the first time as she next spoke, "What are we hearing?"
"My guess would be the events that preceded the formation of the Breach," Solas answered, his voice calm.
They kept running even as their footsteps fell on blood red crystals that seeped orangey red mist into the air. Varric's voice broke the silence as well then but its usual cockiness was missing.
"This is red lyrium, Seeker," he commented, "Why would it be here?"
"The magic used to create the rift might have drawn it from the stone under the temple and corrupted it." Solas responded, but if he were going to say more on the matter his words were lost as the voices from the Breach began anew.
"Hold the sacrifice still!" the man's dark voice commanded.
Through it there came a second call as they found their way down to the level just below them.
The thick Orlesian accent filled the woman words as she cried out, "Someone help me!"
Cassandra gasped. They stopped running and stood on the precipice of the temple floor.
"That is the voice of the Divine!" Grief painted her statement.
Enya surprised herself by being the first to leap down onto the floor. There were a few soldiers standing there, all of whom backed away as her mark sparked to life with her proximity to Breach. She drew herself up, the glows of the rift casting a green pallor over the features of her face. The Vallaslin that framed her eyes and dotted her chin stood out in stark contrast to the white of her skin.
"Someone, help me!" the voice of the Divine called again, louder as they were nearer.
There was a long paused, and then a response came to her calls. Enya's heart froze in her chest as she heard her own voice answer.
"What's going on here?"
Her eyes darted to the mark on her hand and then back over her shoulder as Cassandra spoke, striding forward several steps.
"That was your voice," she stated halfway between and accusation and plead, "She called out to you!"
If Enya was going to respond, she would not have been able to for as soon as Cassandra's words finished they were engulfed in a bright light. The rift seemed to expand and swallow them. They were standing in a room. Enya saw herself run into a room. Apprehension grew in her chest and she wondered why she had no memory of this.
"What's going on here?" memory Enya asked as she came to a stop, gazing up at Justinia suspended in the center of the room. Her attention turned to the looming, shapeless figure whose eyes burned with red flame.
"Run while you can!" The Divine called out, "Run!"
Memory Enya was too slow to react, however and the tall figure ordered his followers to kill her. The vision ended with a ripping sound and blinding light. Cassandra's small glimmer of trust in her seemed to fall away in an instant. The woman attacked her with accusatory words.
"You were there! Who attacked?" she paused for only a second yet her tone changed filling with the desperate vestiges of hope, "and the Divine is she… Was this vision true? What are we seeing?"
Enya remained silent through her questioning, staring at one small spot on the ground but as her captor's words died off she stepped forward.
"I don't know," she replied with absolute certainty, "I don't remember."
"These are echoes of what transpired. The past and memories bleeding through from the Fade," The mage spoke up from his position near the Breach. He was gazing up at it but as they move to his side her turned around, "This rift has been temporarily sealed, albeit improperly." He fixed his eyes on Enya as she came to a stop, "You will have to open it before you can try to seal it permanently."
"That sounds risky," Varric commented. He had remained silent since their encounter with the red lyrium.
"It is a risk," Solas responded, "but a necessary one." He turned to Cassandra, "Opening the breach will not go unnoticed in the Fade."
"Demons," She growled and raised her voice, "Soldiers, be at your ready!"
Enya watched as the soldiers high above them drew back their bows, fingers drawing level with the edge of their jaw. Other's stepped forward to the perimeter of their leve,l swords, mauls and axes brandished with shields raised before their chests, all bearing the symbol of the Chantry or the one painted on Cassandra's breastplate.
The elf stretched her fingers again and gave her shoulders a quick roll. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Varric directing some of the men to spread out more. She wondered how long he'd been fighting. It seemed that none of it bothered him, but he was most certainly not a warrior. To her left, Cassandra fixed her with a hard stare. Enya met it, knowing that if she did not, it would convey to the woman a guilty conscience or an uncertain spirit, neither of which she wanted to portray. Finally, her captor nodded and drew her sword from its sheath with on deft stroke.
She squared herself with the Breach, tucking a shoulder behind her, making herself smaller to whatever might come through. Her ribs and her hand were damage enough from which she had to heal on the off chance that she somehow managed to survive this battle. She gingerly lifted her hand before her and felt the energy tear from it, arching up to the rift above her head. This was different than before, she was tunneling into it, pulling back section after section to open its awkwardly sealed state. The moment it burst open, she was thrown back.
With a solid painful thud, she caught herself before hitting the ground entirely. Her emerald eyes opened wide as she saw the massive demon emerge from the rift, its skin covered in spikes and its 9 eyes gleaming in the green glow of the door now open to the Fade. A hand grabbed her elbow and pulled her up as the other soldiers, Cassandra, and Varric charged. She nodded her thanks to Solas and drew her sword as he did his staff. The elven warrior dove forward as the demon knocked the arrows that flew, at Cassadra's behest, out of the air as though they were no more than a scattering of pebbles. The beast roared, shaking the ground but she hardly heard. The world seemed muted against the rush of blood in her head as she attacked. Her heart pounded as she fought to weaken it so that she might close the rift. It lashed out with a whip of lightning and she leapt back to avoid it. They wore it down and as it bent of to draw more power, she took her chance to try to disrupt its connection to the fade. And explosion of Fade energy burst from the Breach stunning it. The soldiers around her attacked with renewed vigor but she did not join them.
Two shades emerged from the Breach. She attacked first, drawing them away from those fighting the larger demon. She took on both at once, attempting to rend their hard skin open with each stroke of her greatsword. One fell, then the other and she took a couple breaths before attempting to cut off their adversary's connection again. The burst of green energy stunned the demon again, and again shades fell through. She thanked Mythal that she was faster than they were as she danced around them, using the swings of her heavy sword to give her more momentum, it seemed to be working; they were weakening with each blow. But so was she, Enya realized. With each strike, the next was that much slower and less powerful and in this moment of revelation she failed to see the end of the larger demon's whip of lightning streaking toward her. It struck her in the back and she collapsed to the ground in unconsciousness.
Enya gasped and then coughed as she woke on the cold ground. She glanced around and snapped to her senses as the roar of the huge demon shook the valley again. There was a boot in her immediate field of view, she realized, and roll pushed herself up to inspect its owner. Solas crouched beside her, an impassive expression on his face. He rose and pulled her up by an elbow.
"You should take more care," he warned.
Enya bent and picked up her greatsword, realizing as she did that her ribs no longer hurt. He turned back to the fight, hurling a blast of ice at the demon. She followed his example and ran toward it, her sword balanced between her hands. She swung hard as she got close, the tip cutting into the ankle of the beast. It howled and she swung again, back the way she had come, and for good measure, spun, bringing the sword down hard on its foot. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Varric aim his crossbow at it. The demon screamed as the bolt found its eyes and dissipated into the fade.
"NOW!" Cassandra's yell pierced the air as the crystalline core of the rift disappeared to be replaced by a deceptively calm cloud.
Enya thrust her hand out before her. She poured all of her concentration, her energy, everything she could into it. The mark exploded forth with a force she did not expect. The world ceased to exist to her. It was only the great tear in the Veil before her and the stream of energy that connected her to it that had any meaning. There was a pulse at the center of it that seemed to grow larger as she stared and then quite suddenly that pulse burst and light enveloped everything.
Sound, sight, smell, the sensation of wind on her skin rushed back all at once. Enya staggered a couple steps, coughing slightly. She thought she might have tasted blood. Her body hit the ground like a stone, her eyes fell closed.