A/N:

Spoiler alert for DA:Absolution: So…canon is really twisted in this SE timeline thanks to…you know…. I knew that writing a fic while canon is still evolving would lead to intricacies like this, but hey! Maybe I can still keep the timeline easy to follow despite the changes? Somehow?

*Sweats*

;

In the war room, Cullen revealed that word had just reached them about mages infiltrating Redcliffe Castle. By the time Haven had heard it, the castle would have already been captured. Directed by the skill of Tevinter cultists and a magister, the mass of rebel mages would have stood a chance. The events lined up with Carver's deduction, but when he proposed that the Inquisition should sneak into the castle through a secret passage and send Ellana to distract Gereon, the war room exploded.

Cullen whipped his gaze to Carver. "We can't send our only chance at sealing rifts to her death!"

Leliana frowned. "The secret passage is too narrow for troops. Only a squad of my agents would fit through."

Cassandra crossed her arms. "We would better fare in sieging the castle with our forces."

Josephine consulted her makeshift clipboard. "If we can delay answering Magister Gereon's invitation to the Herald, I can persuade Orlesian houses to bolster our forces."

Leliana shook her head. "We're already calling in all our favours to summon Orlesian nobles to Therinfal Redoubt."

Ellana noted the drain in political capital. "We're short of time. I can't walk nobles to Therinfal Redoubt's gates and simultaneously accept Magister Gereon's invitation. However, I hear the same solution to both problems: stealth, bolstered by strength. I can trust Varric and Sera to withdraw from a situation at the first sign of danger, and Thom would lead the charge to rescue them if they grew overwhelmed. Leliana; if Orlesian nobles draw the Templars' attention to the front gates, is it possible to send your agents with Varric and Sera sneaking into Therinfal Redoubt? For everyone's safety, they should only aim to scout. In an emergency, one of your agents can open the gates and allow Thom and a squad of troops in."

Josephine straightened. "Insight on the Templars' activities would value highly with anyone."

Leliana held her chin in her hand. "A Dalish manoeuvre: send scouts ahead of back-up forces."

Ellana nodded. "The clan must survey elven ruins somehow, before confirming that they are safe to study and explore. The only difference here are that the spiders and bears are Templars."

"My senior agent will lead the scouting party," Leliana decided, "but Varric and Sera will support her as close seconds. What of the envy demon, if any?"

Cullen tossed Carver a look at mention of a demon, but replied, "A number of former Templars are in my ranks. I can send them with W–– with Thom."

Carver glanced at the people in the room. Was Thom's identity a secret? How many of them knew?

Ellana searched Carver's face and sighed. "You already know."

"Deduced," Carver intoned. "He's on the run for trying to defend his fellow wardens from each other."

"Lost his recruiter, Warden Gordon Blackwall, to the mess," Ellana murmured. "Whatever controversy has consumed the Orlesian Order, Warden Gordon paid with his life opposing it. Warden Thom barely escaped thanks to his mentor."

Carver's brows furrowed. "He doesn't know why the wardens are arguing?"

"Only that after hearing the Calling, they've started killing each other," Ellana shared. "Willingly."

"Solo is too far in the Anderfels for quick communication," Leliana shared, gaze softening. "Carver, have you any insight? How is Soldier's Peak faring?"

At the helpless shake of Carver's head, Leliana subtly wilted. Carver couldn't accuse wardens of creating abominations out of each other without proof. If Magister Livius Erimond had indeed preyed on the wardens' desparation over the Calling, Carver didn't know how to search for venatori movement in Orlais to support the hypothesis. So far as Carver could recall, Livius had no villain origin story in a certain timeline. Carver lacked the right to check his journal. Retrieving it from Solas would dishonour the spirit of their bargain, and temporarily glancing through it would risk Solas catching a glimpse of Carver's writings.

Ellana tactfully continued. "While Inquisition agents scout the Templars, I'll accept Magister Gereon's invitation. ––It's my life on the line, here."

Cassandra had twitched at the statement and now gestured passionately. "You alone can seal rifts and inspire meetings with people like Mother Giselle and Magister Gereon. I swore to protect you the moment you agreed to join the Inquisition."

"And you will honour your vow," Ellana replied. The Seekers and the Dalish didn't share the contractual gravity of Antiva's oaths, and indeed the Seekers and Templars observed a promise as fealty while the Dalish treasured words as the People's lifeblood. However, the solemnity of a vow carried across backgrounds. "Magister Gereon must respect my decision to bring token delegates to our meeting. You'll be with me when I see him."

"In a castle brimming with mages?" Cullen remarked. "If the former Templars in our forces assist with Therinfal Redoubt, I'll have only soldiers untrained in battling the arcane to send with you. They can stand by outside of Redcliffe Castle for trouble, but they lack organisation against magical opponents."

Ellana suddenly chuckled, loosening the tautness in everyone's shoulders. "Who better to counter mages than a mage? I'm not the only Fade-touched agent of the Inquisition. Solas and Vivienne shall also accompany me. Vivienne might yet reason with Fiona, given their positions as public-facing enchanters. Dorian will also join Leliana's agents and intercept Magister Gereon's strange magic should the magister attack."

Carver straightened. "I've cleared out Redcliffe Castle once with Leliana and the Hero's party. If worst comes to worst and you have to fight your way out of the castle, I have your back."

Ellana's eyes twinkled with amusement. "You've cleared out a castle before?"

Leliana perked up with a particularly bardic air.

"Thrice," Carver hastily interjected. Château Haine was technically a small castle, or a fortress, and Vigil's Keep had been massive. He could sell himself and didn't need Leliana bursting into horrific song for him. "I'm a soldier, Your Worship, I've seen my fair share of battle. Allow me to guard the party's rear."

He had to prevent Gereon from throwing anyone forward in time – or worse, permanently erasing anyone.

Ellana smiled at Cassandra. "Sounds sufficient: two soldiers, three mages."

Cassandra clicked her teeth. "Too many variables."

"We must rescue Redcliffe and the mages from Magister Gereon somehow," Ellana reasoned. "The Iron Bull and his Chargers can join the troops to be stationed outside of Redcliffe Castle. If danger arises and Leliana's agents manage to open the gates, the bolstered numbers will cover more ground."

Carver raised a brow. "You've considered this thoroughly."

"I was the First of my clan," Ellana shared, "responsible for balancing the cultural needs of the People against the clan's needs. Among the Dalish, clans sometimes send small groups to support each other. I've motioned this tactic before; however, I fear I'll serve less effectively should a different puzzle arise in the future. A nomadic mindset benefits little for a fixed military like the Inquisition's. We can't collectively move and evade trouble like a leaf in the wind."

Carver thought of the devastation a dragon could incur. For a flying calamity, Haven was as much a target on the ground as a castle. He needed to somehow both persuade Solas to share Skyhold's location and convince the Inquisition to relocate to the isolated fortress, while erasing confusion and hesitation with believable responses.

Right.

Haven was screwed.

"Tarasyl'an Te'las," Carver murmured.

Solas glanced at him from where they trailed behind Ellana and the rest of the party. "You've learned ancient elven since we last saw each other?"

"Who's to say it's not one of the few phrases I knew before tripping over you?" Carver grumbled. Ever since realising someone else had transmigrated into Thedas, they had memorised the original phrasing for "the place where the sky was held up." It was a reminder of the possible cost of failing to avoid a certain future for Thedas. If Solas were to succeed in his plans, the sky would literally fall. "The Inquisition requires firm foundations, including a centre of operations. Should the Inquisition succeed at gaining the alliance of mages, Templars, or both, Corypheus will be incited into attacking Haven. A village on the mountainside won't last his ire. Or will you simply whisper a token warning in Ellana's ear?"

Solas' gaze slanted at him. Despite their matching heights, Carver felt smaller. "You are using her just as I am."

"With little effort," Carver revealed. "She structured this operation."

Solas looked ahead to watch Ellana greet a venatori guard of Redcliffe Castle. The guard led the party in. As the bustle of a crowded castle blanketed over them, Solas appraised Carver's stiff posture.

"You don't know where Skyhold is," Solas observed.

Carver muttered. "You just love stating facts, don't you."

"Should Corypheus attack Haven, Ellana will survive," Solas said. "I will make sure of it."

Carver bitterly returned his focus to the front, pushing Solas out of his vision. "Maker forbid the one touched by your power vanishes without your consent."

The party arrived at Redcliffe's throne room, where the guard halted them halfway through. Gereon warmly welcomed Ellana from Eamon's throne, explaining that he only sought the Herald's company. For Gereon and Ellana's initial discussion, they needn't involve attachés. Carver moved to stand in the party's front next to Cassandra as Ellana approached Gereon alone, and the moment a burnished amulet dangled into view from around Gereon's wrist, Carver darted towards them. The amulet resembled the perfectly symmetrical focus stones Carver had seen before in staves.

"Ellana, duck!"

The woman turned just as Carver unsheathed Summer Sword and threw it the way a certain Sten had taught him. Carver tackled Ellana aside from a burst of Fade energy just as Dorian leapt from the shadows with his staff and slashed it between them and Gereon. Magic shields flickered over Carver and Ellana seconds before they splashed into a metre of water.

"Haaaaa!"

The two of them resurfaced with a gasp for air, coughing. The bright interior of Redcliffe had suddenly plunged into darkness, lit only by dim, pulsing crimson and a leap of flames to their right. They turned to see Dorian remarking at his wet clothes while the tip of his staff sprouted with a steady fire. The decrepit remains of a stone cell stood around them, murky water stretching past the range of Dorian's magic torch. Red lyrium speckled the walls. In the distance beyond Dorian's fire, a column of red lyrium loomed, marking the height of the floor's ceiling.

Two venatori in iron helmets sprinted towards the source of the commotion, the venatori's torches revealing that Ellana, Dorian, and Carver were in a water-logged dungeon. Upon the sight of them, the venatori unsheathed two swords with a battle cry.

Dorian and Ellana instantly whipped out twin balls of flashfire, igniting their foes into a panic. When the venatori dove into the water, Carver hastily righted himself and caught one's neck, snapping it. He immediately turned aside and hurled.

A gentle touch warmed Carver's shoulder. Carver slowly stood up and followed Ellana's hand dropping from his shoulder to white-knuckledly grip her staff. Dorian stood over the charred corpse of the other venatori with a brief sway in the mage's stance. The three of them were visibly imbalanced.

"Red lyrium," Ellana held a hand over her mouth with passing nausea, "has consumed this place like fungi."

"We're displaced in location and time!" Dorian burst with sudden, jovial energy. Despite his unsteady bearing, he excitedly whipped his head to Ellana and Carver. "Incredible, Alexius tore a hole in space-time itself! As if the world isn't ruined enough!"

Ellana leaned on her staff for support. "You're cheerfully negative."

"I've laboured over Alexius' theories for the bulk of my youth," Dorian preened. "I can recognise when they've been actualised — through a rift, no less! If we can find Alexius' amulet in this time, I can use it as a focus to reverse the spell and maybe return us to our time."

Ellana squared her shoulders and trudged out of the flooded cell. "Let's leave this place."

Dorian twirled his staff and followed her. "I said maybe. It's equally possible we'll turn into paste."

Carver picked up Summer Sword from the bottom of the cell and followed Ellana and Dorian out. Gereon's rift must have swallowed the blade before touching Dorian, Carver, and Ellana. Gereon wouldn't have allowed the rift to explode large enough to also consume him and his son. Carver carefully wiped his sword of water and sheathed it, watching the party's rear while they climbed stairs for the dungeon's next floor.

Dorian glanced at Carver. "Sorry, should I use lower-class customs of address? Magister Gereon as opposed to Alexius?"

Carver squeezed his cloak of water. "What?"

"Then you must have swallowed a lemon," Dorian decided. "You've been wrinkling your face since my mentioning a punctured reality. Or has my rapid intelligence somehow insulted you?"

"Our situation irks me," Carver answered. "You can't tell if Gereon threw us forward or backward in time, but if it's the former and we return to the past, will this timeline riddled with red lyrium still persist?"

Dorian delighted at the question. "You're suggesting that returning to the past might hatch another timeline."

"In which case if this timeline is doomed, should we not endeavour to save it?" Carver sighed. "This is why I don't like messing with worlds."

"Oh?" Dorian chuckled. "You've time travelled before?"

Carver quirked a brow. "If I have, how would you be able to tell? Perhaps by entering a timeline where I exist, a paradox resulted in the displacement of the original Carver, leading to the continued existence of the one before you."

"And in effect caused a random person's grandparents to never meet," Dorian played along.

Ellana glanced back at them with bell-like laughter despite their situation. "If you two weavers are done with your stories, I believe I hear movement beyond this door."

Dorian's staff flared with fire while Carver drew Summer Sword, before Ellana swung the door open and erected a wall of flames down the hall. Venatori archers cried out in agony while the party made short work of the venatori mages and warriors prowling the dungeons. At the end of the hall, they found Cassandra, Solas, and Vivienne locked in cells bursting with rocky red lyrium formations. Fine crimson dust danced in the air like mist. Cassandra, Solas, and Vivienne's skin, mouths, and eyes pulsed with veins of red energy.

Ellana hurriedly freed them and drew them out of their cells to the hallway. Vivienne shied from her touch. "You shan't, my dear, lest you acquire the infection."

Carver unabashedly held his cloak over his mouth and fixed a distance between himself and the three infected members of their party. The gentle green in Ellana's eyes trembled. She had travelled with Cassandra, Solas, and Vivienne through weeks of nonstop work. Separated from her clan and morally tied to the Inquisition, Ellana had few figures she could personally rely on.

Ellana held Vivienne's hand, undettered. "I'll find a way to heal all of you."

Cassandra raised her chin. "You can't, Ellana. We will join the Maker soon. Through no fault of your own, your best won't be good enough."

"The past year might have been the blink of an eye for me," Ellana insisted, "but I'll not waste the months you endured without me in vain. What have you learned drives red lyrium, and how has it corrupted Redcliffe?"

Solas watched her. "The mark won't undo red lyrium's infestation of Thedas, Ellana. It is Fade-driven and unpredictable, useful only for sealing rifts. The source of red lyrium's spread is instead a self-proclaimed god force-feeding everyone the substance and harvesting it from our corpses."

"His zealots call him the Elder One," Cassandra shared. "No one has personally faced him and lived to describe him beyond those two words. He organised the assassination of Empress Celene and gathered a demon army ever since you seemingly perished in a rift explosion."

"I'll cut this false god down," Ellana promised. "Then we can research red lyrium and find a way to cleanse it from people."

Vivienne made a disapproving noise in her throat. "We're in the dungeon level aboveground. Glance outside the windows."

Ellana and Dorian peered through gaps in the walls formed by invasive lyrium formations. They withdrew, stunned.

"The Breach has consumed the sky," Ellana whispered, left hand hopelessly flexing. "I…I can…."

Dorian bumped her shoulder. "We can still risk becoming paste."

Cassandra blinked. "What?"

Dorian and Ellana explained the situation while the infected members equipped fallen venatori's weapons and the party searched for a path to the castle's throne room. They opened doors to rooms bursting with red lyrium and sprouting legs or withered heads from it. One cell they passed by contained Fiona, looking one week away from becoming a red coffin herself. The grand enchanter's sharp mind managed to provide a date, confirming that Ellana, Dorian, and Carver were exactly one year ahead in the future. The party also reached the torture chambers of the dungeon and failed to rescue an Inquisition agent from dying by a torturer's hand, but chased their failure with blood. The next pained screams they heard received a better outcome.

"Leliana," Carver breathed.

He undid the grey-skinned woman's restraints and caught her as she fell. Leliana barely weighed anything, and smelled worse than the three infected members. Rope burns and scars on her skin implied that the torturer the party had killed had been interrogating her through asphyxiation and flaying. Leliana had been forcibly kept alive and away from red lyrium to ensure that she wouldn't die without answering the venatori's questions, while also providing material for their experiments.

"Gereon…throne room…" Leliana croaked.

Carver hoisted her up, straightening. "That's where we're headed."

The hands that once deftly fired arrows now feebly clutched Carver's cloak. "Take me…with you."

Carver swallowed thickly at her insistence. "The bard often has her way."

He propped Leliana against him and carried her weight as the party advanced out of the dungeons and through a courtyard, finally entering the castle's main keep. With every step, Leliana seemed to gradually accept that the party was real, and regained her strength. By the fourth rift they encountered, she relieved a corpse of its daggers and boldly stabbed a demon. By the sixth, she found a bow and quiver, and began collecting arrows from more corpses.

They ran into a wall at the throne room. Or rather, a pair of massive stone doors. The structure's natural colour and intricate engravings separated it from the castle's original masonry. Five divots encircled the centre of the sealed doors. Dorian knocked on them, confirming the doors were as thick as a man.

The altus spluttered. "How did Alexius even move those things here, much less install them? There's no getting through these doors — not without some manner of shards to unlock them."

Solas had run his fingers over the divots and opened his mouth to speak, before Dorian's last remark had stolen the wind from him. Carver caught Solas' expression and smothered a twitch of his lips. Dorian was naturally brilliant, else Gereon wouldn't have chosen Dorian as an apprentice for his research. Deducing the doors' function didn't require as great a leap of logic as space-time manipulation did.

Carver looted a fallen venatori mage and revealed a carved red lyrium shard that he reflexively dropped. "I believe I found a fifth of our key."

The party tracked their turns and swept through the castle's royal wings for more venatori mages. After gathering four more shards, the infected members of the party inserted the shards into the doors. A green light rippled through the doors' engravings before they scraped open on their own. The party warily stepped into the throne room, searching shadows behind red lyrium formations for Gereon or more venatori, until finally finding Gereon and a shrivelled, hairless figure huddled together on the room's dais. Gereon turned at their approach and hastily picked up his staff, pointing it at them.

"I knew you would come," Gereon tiredly stared at Ellana. "It was just a question of when. I couldn't erase you from history — just from one moment onwards, and for that the Elder One will kill me. He'll kill us all."

Solas' brows furrowed. "You tried to prevent Ellana from gaining the mark. You went as far back as the conclave explosion."

"And no farther," Gereon bemoaned. "I can't save Felix from his sickness, nor my wife from her fate. The Breach limits my magic in ways neither the Elder One nor I can divine. I am defeated."

Carver choked. "How many alternate realities have you created in such madness? How does anyone know we're in the 'true' timeline!?"

"Only one way to find out," Dorian muttered, gaze twitching to an amulet around Gereon's neck.

Leliana suddenly appeared behind the living corpse on the ground and slipped a dagger under its chin. "It's over, Gereon."

The magister staggered, hand outstretched. "No! Release Felix, I'll do anything!"

Dorian paled, visibly shaken. "That's…Felix? Alexius, what have you done?"

Ellana raised her hands placatingly. "No one has to die."

A dark storm passed over Leliana's face. "Everyone dies."

She slit Felix's throat.

A pained howl tore out of Gereon, piercing Carver's heart as the room erupted into rifts, demons, and other warped effects from Gereon's unrestrained magic. Carver quickly shoved Ellana behind him, taking the front and earning himself a blast of Fade energy from a demon.

"Stay behind me!" Carver demanded, gritting his teeth.

There were foundational truths that even Gereon's spells had to respect. Though Carver couldn't explain why Gereon's time travelling had its limits, Carver trusted that the limits proved the existence of laws in reality, and Carver drew on that. Gereon was unlike any magical opponent Carver had faced, but Carver could trust in world order.

His racing thoughts had only lasted a second, before he suddenly calmed. Smiting Redcliffe's throne room?

This would be Carver's second time.

Holy energy bloomed out from him in a sea of white fire, knocking Gereon and demons to the ground. Weaker demons like wisps instantly dissipated. Carver cloaked his sword in a mana-draining strike at Gereon's desperate arcane bolts. Carver slipped past a rage demon with a slash, cutting it down and opening up space between him and the party so that his presence couldn't naturally hinder the mages from casting spells. Arrows, blades, and magic went flying, until finally Carver and Cassandra stood over a slain Gereon with wet swords.

Gereon had kept fighting even when Dorian and Ellana had set him aflame or when Solas and Vivienne had encased him in ice. The magister had been in agony the moment Felix had died.

The throne room abruptly shook with a distant draconic roar.

Leliana murmured, "The Elder One."

Solas set his staff down. "Perform the ritual and undo this past year."

Dorian blinked rapidly at Gereon and Felix's corpses, before clearing his throat with a nod. "Give me an hour."

"There might still be a way to mend the world," Carver interjected. "We can find a way to seal the Breach, then work from there—"

Leliana shook her head. "Carver…."

He met everyone's gaze. "Do you honestly wish to render what you endured over the past year meaningless? What if Ellana, Dorian, and I return to our time and your lives here still continue?"

"They won't," Cassandra stated heavily. She exchanged looks with Solas and Vivienne. "We'll hold the Elder One's forces back for as long as we can."

The three infected members left the throne room with raised heads and closed the heavy stone doors behind them with finality.

Leliana nocked her bow and faced the doors. "You have as much time as I have arrows."

Dorian snatched the amulet from Gereon's neck and Carver grabbed the magister's bladed staff, before they and Ellana raced to the room's dais. An eerie, muffled cacophony of shrieks and battle cries reverberated from the doors with growing volume, counting down to when Corypheus' demon and venatori army would slay everyone in the throne room. A trembling wrinkle in Dorian's brow betrayed his awareness beyond the floating, glowing amulet in his hands and the rift manifesting from it.

When the battle cries faded, Leliana raised her bow.

"Maker, though the darkness comes upon me, I shall embrace the Light."

BANG.

Once, twice, then the doors shattered, unleashing a horde of demons and venatori troops. Vivienne and Solas' bodies tumbled into the throne room, having pressed their backs into the doors till the end, and a towering terror demon shook Cassandra's body loose from its skewer-like claws as it strode in. Leliana's arrows crippled the front row of the army, but the horde seemed to only grow instead of shrink. So multitudinous were they that Leliana slowly walked backwards to maintain an angle on them, but the bard was set on buying Ellana's party time.

"Andraste, guide me. Maker, take me to your side!"

Leliana whipped her bow at the closest foe and drew her daggers in a rain of blood. A venatori suffered a slash to grab Leliana's arm, and immediately another venatori wrestled her into a grip. The terror demon raised a claw over Leliana just as the bard met Carver's gaze. The claw came down.

"Leliana!" Carver cried. He turned to Dorian, then Ellana to not interrupt the altus with a question. "How much longer?"

Ellana shook her head without an answer, readying her staff.

"Don't!" Dorian snapped warningly. "You leave the dais or use magic, we all die!"

The hair rose on the back of Carver's neck as the horde barrelled for them. Carver's presence was naturally hindering Dorian from completing his ritual as swiftly as Dorian had in a certain timeline.

Carver raised Gereon's staff like a spear and hurled it at the closest enemy. The terror demon went down, taking a few venatori with it. A slash of Summer Sword dismembered a sword arm aiming for Dorian's back, while a whip of Ellana's staff took out the feet from another enemy. Carver barely cut down an arrow aimed at his face just as another demon tore Dorian's back open with its claws.

A flash of green, and the three of them stumbled with the sudden loss of ground beneath them.

;

A/N:

I'm taking a page out of Shakespeare's book and am inventing words — or at least, adding meanings. "Draconic" doesn't equate to "dragon-like," but I wrote so much content as if it is, so…we're just going to roll with it.

Like much in DAI, the trip to the future stirs up a lot of theories. When Solas' orb breaks, he decides to absorb Mythal's energy(?), then continues with his mission. However, in the future we see in Redcliffe, he ends up corrupted by red lyrium, doesn't absorb Mythal, and doesn't progress in his mission. I'm not sure about the order or if it's important, but I theorise that getting corrupted by red lyrium is bad for anyone, powerful elven mages included.

I can't wait for DAD (Dragon Age: Dreadwolf, affectionate). Hopefully we'll receive enlightenment on the what, why, and how regarding much of the DA world.