a/n- A short chapter to be sure but only because the next chapter is huge. Actually, several of the coming chapters are huge. I'm doing a terrible job of cutting back on the descriptions and conversations because I've spent so much time playing this game as well as adding my own scenes, because honestly, who wants to read just the game. I think they are all of crucial importance to the plot. Additionally, chapters in this section are long because this is a huge turning point in the game and I find it important to include both introspection from my Inquisitior and important additional moments. I have neglected my schoolwork this Thanksgiving break and have written close to 20000 words of this fanfiction over break that have still not been posted. Anyway, enjoy this next chapter!
Dubious Victory
The night was dark and the wind that whistled through the needles of the tall conifers that adorned the village with scents of spice and fires. Its cold should have stung their faces, brought tears to their eyes, but the brilliant tangerine light of the fires and the strong mead poured down their throats by Flissa, the kindly tavern-keeper, belayed the gust's knives. The powerful complex rhythm of a jigue floated through the cloudy night, a beat to which the Inquisition's members could dance.
Enya watched the celebrations but did not join them. They had not stopped celebrating from the time they returned to Haven. It had been a day, perhaps a bit more, since she healed the sky. She wondered when the musicians would grow tired, but it seemed each time one did, another member of the Inquisition strode forward to continue the melody or invent a new one. Not all were terribly good and the waves of drunkenness through the Inquisition's recruits led to an ebb and flow of consonant and dissonant melodies. Despite the variant quality, all carried a note of victory that made even the most discordant songs somehow bearable.
Enya crossed her arms, her foot on a supply crate as she balanced. Even from here she could see Varric's grin as he sat by the fire. She wondered if he would leave now that they'd closed the Breach. Kirkwall was his home. The hint of longing that lingered in his eyes when he thought no one was looking, struck a chord. She wouldn't blame him, even if there was more to be done.
Even stoic Blackwall seemed to be enjoying the festive atmosphere. His cheeks were bright with the rosy tinge of mead and he laughed along with some of the recruits. She spotted him leaning against the pole of one of the tents. Dorian doled out siliceous compliments to anyone who passed by him. He'd gathered a following of young women who seemed to think there was nothing more attractive than his mustache. Enya smiled and shook her head, turning her attention instead to the scarred sky.
Solas had remained behind with a few of the Rebel mages when the rest of the party returned to Haven. Cassandra had reminded her that as the Herald of Andraste who had just closed the Breach, it was her duty to be present. Enya hadn't argued, for Cassandra was right. Despite her objections to the title, and the overwhelming legend that had come to surround it, her duty was not only to help the world with what she had been given but to be present for the people in times of victory.
Yet this was only one battle, she reminded herself. Closing the Breach was of course a triumph, but it had not been an accident. Her trip into future revealed as much. The echoes at the Conclave when she'd stopped the Breach from growing still rang her mind. The Elder One the Venatori followed was still out there, hiding from the rest of Thedas, building himself up. There was the threat of a demon army, or the fall of Orlais. Her success came with a price, she realized, for she'd shown her hand, shown the power she could wield, the influence of her misbegotten title. Enya could no longer be dismissed as an accident or inconvenience as Alexius had done.
"Solas confirms that the Heavens remain silent."
Cassandra's voice pulled her from her thoughts. Enya noticed the easiness of her step. Even the Seeker, who spent so much of her time caught up in propriety and rightness had allowed their success to relax her. As she stopped, a faint smile tugged at the corners of her lips.
"The Breach has been sealed." Cassandra affirmed.
Enya nodded, turning to her friend, "And the rifts?"
There remained a small hope that closing the Breach would repair all the damage this "Elder One" had caused.
Cassandra's smile faded a bit as she replied, "They linger. And there are many more questions."
Enya's face fell, and she returned her gaze to the jubilant people dancing about the fire. It had been the tiniest glimmer of hope after all, foolish now she thought of it.
"But you should remember this is a victory." Cassandra pressed. Her Nevarran accent always grew stronger when she was determined or cheered by something. "Word of your heroism has already begun to spread through Thedas."
Enya's eyes jumped to meet Cassandra's, annoyance and surprise rushing through her, "I was not alone. Without the mages, without you, Solas… The Inquisition. Luck put me at the center."
Cassandra chuckled, "A strange kind of luck. Whether we need more or less of it remains to be seen. You are right of course, and this victory will be remembered as one of alliance. However, when the people of Thedas tell this tale it will be you at its center."
Enya tightened her lips, rocking back onto the heel of her right foot. Her acceptance of it had been slow and she certainly would not confirm that she Andraste's Herald, but perhaps there was more harm in denying it than in remaining silent, "The people of Thedas need some in which to place their faith. I don't claim to be sent by Andraste, but if it helps, then let them believe it."
Cassandra let out a satisfied breath. Enya crossed her arms, looking out upon the mountains that surrounded Haven.
"The Inquisition will need new direction, new purpose." The Seeker commented after a few moments of silence.
"Even with the Breach closed, we still have the events of that future," Unbidden she remembered Cassandra's body falling limp and broken from the claws of a terror demon. Enya pushed it away, "The Elder One is the one behind all of this. I doubt he'll…"
Alarm bells broke through the festive music, striking discord with the melodies already played. Enya's heart stopped as she spotted lights blazing to life on the distant slope. Amid the stands of sparse jade pines, the shadows of hundreds of soldiers marching over the rise, turned her blood to ice. The ring of Cassandra's sword as it slipped free of its sheath grounded her thoughts.
Her eyes darted to Cassandra, whose shoulders tipped forward, an instinct brought on to protect the warrior's center. Enya herself had widened her stance in the initial thrill of adrenaline, and her fingers flexed, itching to draw her sword.
"What the… Gather anyone you can find," Cassandra commanded as she started to run.
Enya took off as well, heading toward the tavern and Adan's apothecary, but not before she heard the Seeker's call of "We must get to the gates." The hard resignation in these words rang clear.
Drawing her sword would only hinder her speed, it was too heavy and unwieldy to carry in haste for one her size. Enya longed to hold it in her hands, in the face of this new threat she felt exposed and naked without it between her and the enemy. She was a far cry from the Dalish hunter who'd cringed at the thought of killing anything that wasn't for food.
Enya hurried along the rocks above the steps, her footfalls fleeting in the crusty snow. Flakes swirled through the air around her, born aloft by the wind they'd long ignored. Now it seemed to howl, heralding the arrival of their assailants, loud as any battle horn. She burst past the first cottage and slowed as Solas emerged from the home the Inquisition had provided for him. In his hand he held his staff and the fingertips of his other hand shimmered with crystalline frost. He met her urgent gaze with one of grim questioning, the already solemn curve of his lips thinned and tight.
"We're being attacked. Some great force from over the mountains."
Solas gave a curt nod and faced the horizon, "It is no surprise that sealing the Breach attracted attention."
Enya shook her head, "The Inquisition is…"
A second set of alarm chimes rang a sending her into action again, "I'll meet you at the gates."
She gathered a few warriors from the tavern, parting them from their tankards with great difficulty. Flissa, behind her wooden counter was frozen with fear. Enya pulled her from her state and tasked her with gathering anything that could be used as antiseptic and taking it to the Chantry. The barkeep responded to with the kind of enthusiasm only panic could induce.
Cullen, Josephine and Leliana looked up at her approach. Cassandra came down the hill just as Enya did, followed by several men who rushed past them up the path to the trebuchet.
"Cullen?" The Seeker's voice was abnormally high as she addressed their commander.
"It a massive force, the bulk over the mountain." He answered.
The cold resolve of a seasoned soldier came over him, even more so than Cassandra.
"Under what banner?" Josephine was much the opposite. Her Antivan lilt quavered as she left Leliana's side.
"None," he replied.
Her eyes widened, "None?!"
Several bursts of light broke the shadow under the gate. Enya's attention snapped to their only protection from the oncoming forces. Would it be over all too soon? Did this adversary already have the upper hand? But then a male voice slipped through the cracks in the wood, young, broken and unsure. Fear and desperation threaded through the words.
"I can't come in unless you open!"
Cullen reached out to stop her as she rushed forward. The guard by the door pushed it open revealing a Venatori footsoldier sauntering toward her. Enya's finger grazed the hilt of her sword, just as he fell to the ground revealing a young man, hardly more than a boy, in a wide-brimmed hat. His daggers dripped crimson blood, staining the snow as it hissed through it's crusted surface. He was panting, but he lowered his weapons while she took in the ring of bodies around him. For such a patchwork man, he'd made clean work of these soldier. All bore only a killing wound.
"I'm Cole," he drew himself up from his fighting stance as though a string pulled his head skyward, "I came to warn you."
Cullen stopped at her side, sword drawn. Unlike Enya, it seemed this man's admission only served to make him more suspicious rather than assuaging his concerns. Cole continued.
"The Elder One. He comes with his Templars."
Cullen strode forward and Enya flinched as his blade came close to hitting Cole's hip, "Templars!" the commander turned to Enya, "Is this the Order's response to our siding with the mages?!"
Enya shook her head.
Cole continued, "The Templars went to the Elder One. All red inside." The boy stood very close to her, so close she could smell his breath.
"You know him; he knows you. You took his mages." His gestures caught her attention drawing her closer still.
"There."
He pointed to a tall rise on the far hillside where a disfigured form strode into view. Haven was far enough away that seeing anything beyond the tell-tale scarlet glow of red lyrium that was affixed to his body. Their adversary loomed over another individual. This small, shadowed formed was human to eyes, but Enya spent little time looking for at that moment, the forces gave a great cry.
Enya turned to Cullen, her blood racing, "Give me a plan, Cullen, anything!" she demanded through a tight throat.
She glanced between the approaching army and the Inquisition's commander. Tugging his armoured hand through his wavy blonde hair, Cullen swallowed before answering.
"If we have any hope of surviving this, we'll have to control the battle," He searched the area around them and then his brow furrowed, "If we can keep the trebuchets firing at the mountainside above them…"
Enya's gaze rose to the snow-covered peak, "We could cause and avalanche. Bury them."
He nodded, "We'll have to hit them hard and fast, before they're too close to defeat without endangering Haven."
She nodded and spun, pushing the boy, Cole, back toward Haven. He was too poorly armoured to be of any real help in full battle and Enya worried that his already obvious oddities would become more pronounced in the heat of battle.
Mages and Inquisition Soldiers poured through the gates to line up, backs against the wall in neat rows. Cullen addressed them as she helped Cole get a wounded Cleric into the town. They cried out as their commander asked them to fight. As their battlecry flooded over Enya she closed her eyes and breathed deeply. This was the thunder after lightning split the sky. There was no avoiding this fight.