ACT 1: Murphy's Law
Note: Holy shit. I live. So, this chapter came out HELLA longer than I thought. This is the first half to the end of the arc.
The Storm Coast was left behind as a thundercloud cracked overhead and devoured the land in a torrential downpour. My soldiers were less than happy being left behind, but with the promise of new tents and refreshed supplies, they were appeased. A handful of missives were also sent out between them and ahead to Haven, a hasty addendum that the Blades of Hessarian were to be allies and not obstacles. My three-man-troupe was more than happy to be gone from the constant wetness that was the Coast and into the frozen hands of Haven.
Murphy's Law had struck.
We encountered a mess. What little we had in the way of supplies had been stripped to the barest of bones, the plague that had followed us from the Fallow Mire had taken root in our troops and devastated nearly half of them. Chantry Sisters were scurrying all about the place that the snow normally abundant in the area was stamped out completely. It was with panicked swiftness that I shucked my dirty armor and under clothes for fresh ones at my cabin, twisted my hair into a bun and rolled my sleeves to my elbows before crashing chest first into Adan and Leliana.
"What the hell happened?" I demanded with a growl at Adan. Leliana's eyes were narrowed and in her hand a report gripped nearly to shreds. Adan's face had turned pinked right to his ears and his cheeks were puffed to critical mass.
"One of the soldiers that had come back from the Mire had lied to us." Adan snapped, about as pleased as a pissed off cobra, eyebrows raised. "He hid his symptoms of his illness until his whole troupe came down with the sickness!" The man wasted no more time on me and shoved past my shoulder with a harsh, snapping wave to Leliana. I turned on my Spymaster and watched as her nose flared with quiet anger.
"Twenty-eight so far are dead, Herald." She muttered between tight teeth. "Fifteen others are in dire stages and a handful are showing signs of the illness." For a split second, Leliana's face paled and her eyes wavered under her brow. "It's spread like wild-fire."
"It's a plague, so yeah." I ran a hand over my head. "Christ, where are the sick ones?"
"The southern camp, out by the logging area where the Chargers had taken up." Leliana opened the tattered parchment in her hands. "Josie has been doing her best to keep the plague at bay with supplies, but we're running dangerously short." It was useless to take the paper from her, as numbers were entirely different than letters and I didn't need that headache right now.
"How many troops are currently healthy?" I demanded with a low tone as I walked around her toward the church.
Leliana followed with a quick turn. "A hundred-eight currently here in Haven. Others, thankfully, are away on missions."
"Keep it that way. No one is to come back to Haven unless it's extremely fucking important, and I mean, the whole of Hinterlands needs to be on fire kind of important." I ordered with a heavy pace marching me up through the doors of the church. They were already swung open, the sides of the small cathedral were filled with weary travelers and merchants, a few mages in the wings attempting to assist with the damage.
Leliana and I swept into the War Room like wraiths and Cullen's sunken face brightened considerably at the sight of us.
"Herald," the Commander exhaled in relief, "it's good to see you back."
"Good to be back, Cullen." I answered quickly. "Do me a favor, any and all troops that have been in Haven since I arrived from the Fallow Mire and then left need to come back right now." Josephine had heard our arrival and it was not long after Leliana and I had walked in that her Goldenness followed in, shutting the door behind her heels.
"... that's quite a lot of people, Herald." Cullen hesitated, his hand on the pommel of his sword shaking slightly.
"We have to, Cullen." I switched to a soft plead. "This plague could be like the one back in my world, or worse, or not - we can't chance that. We need to screen these troops and get them back before this spreads."
"She's right." Leliana nodded, leaving her wrinkled report on the table top. "Unfortunately, with so many dead already, we can't risk it spreading further than Haven, and our defenses are weakened."
"That also includes the Chargers." Cullen argued. "If we drag them out of the Hinterlands now, there's no telling what will happen."
"What are you talking about?" My question went wild from the topic at hand. "What's happening out in the Hinterlands? What the fuck else am I missing?"
"Nothing, truly." Josephine added hastily. "It was only within the last day or so that we received word from Lady Cassandra that an influx of mages had arrived and taken up residency in Redcliffe."
"More like invaded." Cullen snapped, his sword swung a bit at this hip, his eyes swift on Josephine before they flashed back to me. "Grand Enchanter Fiona has apparently moved her people from Orlais to the small confines of Redcliffe Castle and its local establishments."
"What?" I demanded to the room at large. "Were they kicked out of Orlais?"
"No, that's the very thing, they just - appeared!" Cullen growled. "Right at the gates of Redcliffe without so much as a how-do-you-do and were marched right into the Castle by one Gereon Alexius."
"Magister of the Tevinter Imperium," Leliana supplied quietly from the left. My head swiveled tightly to glance at her sideways and she continued, "my sources have not been able to bring me much, but it seems that the Grand Enchanter has grown desperate from waiting."
"So she couldn't keep her fucking pants on until I sorted things out?" I grumbled with a glance at the map. The sudden appearance of rebel mages was a cause for a hellhole of concern, especially if they were all concentrated in a singular area that we had only barely managed to wrangle under control from the chaos that was the Breach. Cullen was right, I couldn't pull the Chargers out, because even with Inquisition soldiers intermingled with the citizens there, it wouldn't be enough to safely fill the void at their removal.
"Fucking hell." I muttered and placed both palms to my forehead, tapping them for a second. I needed a lot of things, supplies, soldiers, time. "Alright, game plan. I need Bull, Blackwall, and Vivienne packed up and ready to leave by the end of today. Get Solas to stay with Adan and help with healing or at least holding this disease at bay. Sera and Varric need to keep civilians safe while we're low on troops. Can we do that?"
Cullen blinked at me, but nodded. "Aye, that can be accomplished. I'll have troops cleared by Adan to patrol and keep the borders."
"I wouldn't necessarily trust Sera to lead, but given that the safety of the 'little people' is at stake, she can be made to keep an eye out within Haven." Leliana sighed heavily with her arms folded behind her back. "I can place her with the other archers. Make it a game to keep her satisfied."
Josephine's shoulders slumped slightly, her half smile relieved. "If Varric and Solas remain here, then I may continue to use Varric's merchants to supply our ailing troops for a while longer with Solas' help, but... where are you to be, Herald?"
"I am marching my pissed off ass to Therinfal Redoubt," I growled, glaring down at the map marker of the newly-scouted fort. With the Templars, I could clear out Redcliffe and bring the mages to Haven to solve the problem of our plague. "They want to be important, I'll shove them right into Redcliffe."
-0-
There was a gentle crackle of rain overhead, murmurs of thunder mingled with the crowd of nobles that surrounded us. It had taken a handful of days for Josephine to petition ten houses from Orlais to march with us to the fortress, a feat that Leliana had taken care to remind me as to its difficulty. Getting nobles to agree to anything was impossible, but getting them to leave Orlais and march?
Madness.
I was in the middle of the throng of people. Glittering silver and blinking gold swam past me, men and women of the high court who sniffed and huffed at the dilapidated state of the old and (previously) abandoned fortress. Our scouts had returned with every little in the way of information about what transpired on the inside. The Lord Seeker had keep a tight cap on all within and allowed only a merchant or two to arrive at the gate for food and supplies before sending them away.
Blackwall and Bull stood with me, Vivienne just off to my right with a noble couple, speculating over the events. The bridge to the fort was, itself, in good condition. The rock solid and the lanterns lit with old oil. Over the maw of the arched doorway flapped red flags with emblazoned, sun-kissed swords. The towers that loomed over everything were empty of sentries and I peered at them with narrowed eyes. Either we're not a threat or they're low on manpower. Hopefully the latter, because to return empty-handed without a good number of Templars set the whole plan ablaze.
We nearly cleared the bridge when I heard my title of Herald boldly called from within the crowd. I stopped, my gaze scanning the masked faces for the one who hailed me. He approached with a sway of his hip, a bronze mask over his face and the same ridiculous headdress that was currently the rage within Orlais. Momentarily distracted by the tilt of his head, I refocused on his half-covered face.
He smirked under the lip of his mask, "Lord Esmeral Abernache. Honored to participate. It is not unlike the second dispersal of the reclaimed Dales." I blinked at him, unsure of the reference. Dales I understood, since I glanced at the War Room map more than a handful of times a day, but as to their reclaiming... Wasn't there a war going on through there just now?
"Nothing?" He interrupted my thoughts, his smirk widening, "divinity puts you above such things, I suppose."
"I do tend to avoid offending the nobility, most times." I finally found my tongue. Honestly, the nobles scared the shit out of me. Nothing I could say would be right and anything I forgot to say was wrong. Fuck walking on eggshells around them, it was like trying to dodge the rain in a storm.
He grinned, "Even so, this alliance between us and the Inquisition is a testament to our power. It's compelled the Lord Seeker to hear our petition." My eyebrows ticked over my eyes at his wording. I hadn't seen the nobles as one solid power and glanced at the crowd as it thinned around us, more of them entering the last stretch to the fortress.
There's a them now, is there?
I fought down my snicker.
"Care to mark the moment?" He prompted me, shoulders high and smirk strong, "Ten Orlesian houses walk with you." Comically, I could see Blackwall and Bull stiffen on either side of me, suddenly fearful of my sailor mouth. A wicked grin flashed across my face and I raised my chin into the rain, relishing in the horror that tightened over Blackwall's face.
"It's a shining day to have the best of Orlais in step with the Inquisition." I flashed my grin at Vivienne, who had pulled up to the noble so quickly that I could almost hear her heels skid on the stones, the irony of my statement lost in the rain, "The first of many inspirational and influential partnerships, I hope."
"Ooh," the Orlesian breathed, nodding proudly, "you're a natural. People will give you anything." He walked away from me and I broadened my grin as I hurried past all three of my murderous companions, their glares searing the back of my head. It was an awkward sort of waddle to catch up to the nobleman without outright sprinting from Death that lay behind me.
"Speaking of which," Lord Abernache continued, looking sideways at me as if I had always been there, "I don't suppose you'd divulge what finally got their attention? Rumor will, if you won't."
I frowned, thrown from my internal giggling. "What do you mean?"
"The Lord Seeker won't meet us until he greets the Inquisition in person." He huffed, shoulders ruffled under their padding. "Quite a surprise after the spat in Val Royeaux." My gaze flickered to the ground in thought, the mud parting under my boots. He wasn't wrong, it had been a surprise. Leliana and Josephine doubted even with the help of the nobility that the Lord Seeker would speak to us. It nearly came down to having Cassandra dragged back from the Hinterlands to convince him.
Until the crow arrived at our window with a sudden invitation.
"The Lord Seeker may not be singling the Inquisition out for praise, Lord Abernache." I murmured thoughtfully. In truth, I hadn't the faintest, farty clue as to what had so abruptly changed the man's mind. Cassandra had made it clear that the man we had encountered in Val Royeaux was not the man she knew; his rationality and sensibility all but gone.
Who the fuck was I to judge, really?
Lord Abernache sighed, "A meeting is a meeting. Get his ear, see if you can't bend it to something advantageous." A snort from Blackwall alerted me to the presence of my companions, finally having caught up from my escape. The final stretch of the walk opened before us and the nobleman threw his arms wide at the presentation of more banners and, thankfully, Templars.
"Ah!" He exclaimed. "Here we are, Therinfal Redoubt!" My group came up behind me, Vivienne and Blackwall to either side of my person. Bull, as always, came up behind my back, his chest nearly to the back of my skull. He hummed appreciatively and I took as discreet of a shift forward as I could, hiding my red face.
"Defensible." He muttered. "I like it. Someone worked out some issues building this place."
Lord Abernache cleared his throat. "It appears they sent someone out to greet you. Present well. Everyone is a little tense for my liking." He tipped his head to me in farewell and went to recollect with his kin, leaving my group to the open air of speculation. Vivienne reached out and gently tugged on my shoulder pad, straightening it. The moment sparked a smile and I stepped forward.
"Good thing the nobles are here," Iron Bull followed a pace behind me, "maybe the Templars are attracted to shiny objects."
"Well, the Lord Seeker changed his mind about us rather quickly." I answered, wadding through the crowd to get through the front. People parted their way for Vivienne, the mistress of magic seemingly unaware of the gesture, but that placed them in my path and it made for a maladroit dance with only left feet.
"Maybe he thinks you'll save him from this sea of petticoats." Blackwall rasped from my right, his dark gaze jumped from one Templar to the next as we passed them to make our way inside the entrance. Once inside, the rain continued to patter down over our heads, but the cold fled my body as I realized that the one sent to greet us was the Templar I had seen before.
His green eyes flashed with recognition before shadowing with shame. Lord Abernache had come up next to my group not long after we arrived, his servant passing us by to get between the Templar and his lord. The Templar stood straighter, his hands behind his back with a brief glance at Lord Abernache before they settled onto me.
"I present Knight-Templar Ser Delrin Barris, second son of Bann Jevrin Barris of Ferelden." The servant introduced, his words shooting through his nasal cavity with all the clarity of a fog horn. My mouth twisted with my face, unsure of what I heard through the man's accent, because in reality what I heard and what I understood were too wildly different things. I cast my gaze to Vivienne, desperate, and she murmured the introduction to me, clarifying.
Fucking shit, it sounded like his brain was gonna burst through his nose.
Ser Barris must have heard my thoughts because the faintest smile touched his lips, gone with the next clap of thunder over our heads.
"Ser Barris," the servant droned on, causing me to wince, "may I be so honored as to present Lord Esmeral Abernache -" Having caught my expression a second time, Ser Barris took pity on me and barreled between the lord and his servant, stopping a foot or so from my person. Small splatters of rain bounced off his armor onto my face as I glanced at him. He was thinner than last I saw him. There was a strain around his eyes and his cheeks were gaunt, with a paleness seeped under his darkened skin.
"I'm the one who sent word to Cullen," he exhaled, distraction racing through his words. "He said the Inquisition works to close this Breach in the Veil." He paused, his gaze briefly leaving my face to spy over my head and past my crew to the nobility that crowded the door. "... I didn't think you'd bring such lofty company."
"Barris," Lord Abernache rudely interjected, his voice rippled with insult from Barris' dismissal, "moderate holdings, your family. And the second son?" A scoff escaped him, but both Barris and I blinked at the lord, the counter-insult missing about a mile above our heads. Hard to insult commoners when we got nothing worth pride.
"This... promise of status has garnered interest from the Lord Seeker." Barris continued with mild confusion, his eyes back on me. "Beyond sense. The sky burns with magic, but he ignores all calls to action until your friends arrive."
"The Lord Seeker does realize there's a rip in the Fade hanging above all our heads, right?" I replied, my index finger pointing directly up with a raised brow.
"The Commanders say he's considering the situation." Barris nearly spat. "Maker knows how." Without a breath of warning, Ser Barris stepped up to me, less than a few hands between us, his gaze focused on my face and his voice thrown low to avoid being overhead by Lord Abernache. An electrifying trill shot up my spine at the proximity and I heard a low, menacing rumble from Bull behind me.
Hoooooly shit that's too close, too close!
"The Lord Seeker's actions make no sense," Ser Barris muttered, his gaze intense as thoughts tried to form into words, "He promised to restore the Order's honor, then marched us here to wait? Templars should know their duty, even when held from it." The fervor of his words curled around my throat like a noose, a man desperate for justice and yet caught in shackles he couldn't chew through. I swallowed thickly, swaying slightly on the balls of my heels to get some breathing space.
"A Templar who remembers duty." Blackwall scoffed behind me, arms crossed and face dark. "I thought we'd never find one."
Ser Barris graced him with nary a glance and returned to me. "Win over the Lord Seeker, and every able-bodied knight will help the Inquisition seal the Breach." There was some weird-ass tension going on with Bull and Blackwall behind me and Ser Barris before me. Carefully, so as not to offend anyone's sensibilities, I stepped back from Ser Barris and felt the coiled spring of my men behind me loosen.
Christ shit, you guys. Midol.
"I have a feeling the Lord Seeker is going to take some convincing?" I replied with a sigh. Ser Barris blinked when I stepped away, perhaps coming to his senses or realizing the situation we had placed ourselves in, either way he nodded and forced his shoulders to relax. Vivienne had moved around to Lord Abernache, her attempt at placating the ignored noble (or an escape attempt from the testosterone she stood next to).
"I wish I could reassure you." Ser Barris frowned. "Lately he sees no one but the officers. We've been asked to accept much, after that shameful display in Val Royeaux. Our truth changes on the hour." From the corner of my eye, I caught Lord Abernache hold up a hand to silence Vivienne and he took a step toward us.
"Don't keep your betters waiting, Barris." Lord Abernache sneered. "There's important work for those born to it." Ser Barris and I shared a look. Quietly, I rolled my eyes and waved the Templar off with a tip of my chin. Ser Barris nodded and took the signal with a long stride toward the gate to let us in. I made a face at Lord Abernache's back as the hot potato walked in front of me.
Vivienne pinched the skin of my wrist for my insubordination.
Inside the fortress was utter desolation. The training dummies and equipment that littered the area were in horrid disarray. Cullen would have us running miles for such neglect. Barrels were busted open, iron and steel swords rusted up against the walls, and the wooden stalls were crippling into themselves, sagging under their woes, forgotten. My brow pressed over my eyes at the sight of the banners, though, bright and beautiful, swaying in the gentle breeze of the calming storm. A frayed sun-hat disappeared into a beneath them, a tattered young man with pale skin.
"The Lord Seeker has a... request, before you meet him." Ser Barris jarred my thoughts. With a flick of his hand, he waved me over to three separate anchors that connected to standards high up on the wall. Confused, I turned to Barris for explanation and the man winced, embarrassed. "These are the Standards. An honored rite, centered on The People, The Maker, and the Order."
Barris sighed, "The Lord Seeker asks that you perform the rite so that he may see the order in which you honor them." I peered at the standards; a blazing sun for the Maker (I assumed), a lion for the people, and the sword I had seen before, most certainly for the Order. I glanced at my companions as the gathered behind me, Blackwall and Vivienne studying the banners.
Bull stared right at me, as if willing me to understand.
Frowning, I murmured to Barris, "What if I fail?"
"There's no correct answer." He replied with a shrug. "The ritual simply shows watchers who you are and what you value." I hesitated. What is Bull trying to tell me? His expression had been muted, not the neutral one that usually rested on his face, or the confused pinch of his brow that he wore on the regular. It had been different, a sharp line to his heavy brow and a taunt twitch to his jaw.
What am I missing? I glanced up at the standards again, assessing them. Is this... some sort of personality test? Is the Lord Seeker trying to get the upper hand? I could not, for the life of me, figure out how knowing what I valued most would benefit in a battle of wits. What the Lord Seeker figured out about me would be useless, because I was the epitome of pitiful cognitive malfunction. Can't break what's already broken. I decided to play the game, Bull's warning aside.
"I'm afraid you lot are going to be disappointed," I answered with a quick shot to Barris, "Fancy-mancy title aside, I'm nobody." Barris rounded on me with a heated look, once again stepping dangerously close into my personal space.
"The Lord Seeker changed everything to meet you. Not the Inquisition - you. By name." He whispered to me, his gaze flickering to the nobles for a moment. His green glazed eyes narrowed on me again, the same expression that Bull wore desperately trying to get me to understand something I was not catching.
"Why?" I replied with a low voice.
"I don't know," Barris shook his head, "He's been fixated on you ever since your horde of nobles arrived." So the change is extremely recent, huh? The standards fluttered in the wind and drew my gaze, giving me a moment to think. Barris either had no flipping idea what was going on and wanted me to fix whatever it was, or he knew something and couldn't tell me because of our audience. Neither option sat well for me, and Bull was burning a hole between my ears behind me.
"The Lord Seeker makes us shuffle flags around?" Lord Abernache's trill voice cut through my mind. "Refuse! Let's meet the man already!" There was something I was missing, and if my time trying to keep the wandering ducklings that was the whole of Thedas in a basket taught me anything, it was that patience and playing The Game was key.
I turned to the standards. "We'll complete the ritual as the Lord Seeker requests."
"When you've completed the rite, I'll take you to him." Barris acknowledge with a soft bob of his head. Lord Abernache shouted something behind me, but I ignored him as I stepped toward the anchors that held the standards up. My jaw clenched as I swallowed, nervousness fluttered through my ribs and into my stomach. Not that I hesitated, I knew what I stood for.
The People's banner rose the highest.
The Order came second.
The Maker remained where he was.
I can save people, I thought as I stood back to look at the display. I can't trust the Maker to have my best interest at heart, and if he's tossed me here to save his children, then he's the last one I need to look to for help. Bull and Blackwall held my gaze when I looked for them, Vivienne's face was icy, but she offered me a slight smile as I came back to meet Barris.
The Templar assessed my choices and his gaze trailed down to me. "Traditionally, a participant in the rite now explains their choices to those assembled." Muted alarm popped under my tongue, my eyes wide at the idea of giving a fumbling speech to the Templars and nobles that stood around me. Another swallow and I exhaled through my nose, my teeth hurting.
"... I could give you some flowing prose about the value of life and how people are precious and all that," I murmured, my gaze resting on Barris to keep them from trailing over to where my companions stood, "but that isn't me."
Barris paused, his shoulders relaxed a fraction, his voice soft. "Do try."
"All I have is who I meet," I answered just as softly, the wind would have to carry it, "and if life brought them to me, it must be important." A dead silence settled in the fortress' training yard. Barris stared at me, his jaw tight under his skin, his eyes sharper. Blackwall had taken a sharp inhale from behind me and I could hear another rumble come from Bull. Vivienne chuckled under her breath, perhaps amused at my naive explanation.
You gotta remember, baby, my mother's voice floated up from memory, what's important is who you give love to, not who loves you.
"How naive," Lord Abernache shattered the silence, "to lie would have been better than to sprout such foolishness."
"I suppose those are your intentions." Barris all but snarled in retaliation. A barbed spark flashed up my spine at his words, my gaze bounced between the lord and Templar, concerned that I would have to dive between them. Lord Abernache took a threatening step forward.
"My intent is to deal with people who matter." He snapped. "You helmed louts are wasting the Inquisition's time - and my time. Unacceptable!" Vividly, despite the mounting danger of a brawl between Lord Abernache and Ser Barris, the Earl of Lemongrab flashed through my mind and I almost brought the whole thing to blows had I not turned my laughter into a violent fit of whooping cough.
"It seems the rain has taken hold," Ser Barris took the excuse of my coughing and lead with it, "the Lord Seeker awaits you both. Follow me." Hurriedly, Blackwall came up to my back and patted between my shoulder blades. I waved him off, watery-eyed and wheezing. Bull and Vivienne shot me knowing glances, well aware that my sense of humor was a hazard more than a help.
We were lead toward the main keep, the stones of the old fortress were darker here, a testament to their age and the weathering they suffered in such a place. Inside, the room was spread out with hay and weakened furniture, old trappings and yawning chests all along the sides. A ornate and dustless desk sat at the center and before that, another Templar flanked by his men.
"Knight-Captain," Barris breathed, saluting the man. Cautiously, my troupe and I walked up to the desk, but Lord Abernache strode straight toward the man, ignorant of the malicious stares that followed him. A shiver went through my legs and I slowed my pace, it brought me right up against Bull's side and the Qunari spared a glance about the room to see what had spooked me.
All throughout this, the Mark had been deadly quiet. Now, though, it pulsed deep like a breathless gasp, my palm felt like a void and no matter how hard I clenched my fingers against it, it never filled and continued to beat with slow, thickening pulses. Something was wrong, thoroughly and horribly wrong. Lord Abernache went through his introduction and my gaze found Ser Barris.
"Ser Barris, I'm right to assume that the Knight-Captain has seen better days?" The man at the head of the desk looked to be held up by the rigid plates of his armor, the skin under the helmet was pale and glistened from sweat, the eyes were sunken into his skull and reddening around the edges. His lips were chapped and the smile he gave me made it worse.
"You." The Knight-Captain grinned at me. "Be ready." The threat floated on the dead air of the room. Bull and Blackwall steadied next to me, Vivienne's hand went around her hip to the small of her back, fingers at the ready for her staff.
"Yes," Lord Abernache followed with a look to us, "be ready to be left behind. Knight-Captain Denam?"
Denam smirked, "The Lord Seeker had a plan, but the Herald ruined it by arriving with purpose. It sowed too much dissent." It was slow and then sudden, shouts and screams echoed through the walls and my Mark thudded threateningly in my palm. Eyes wide, Barris shot forward, nearly colliding with the Knight-Captain.
"Knight-Captain, I must know what's going on!" Ser Barris demanded, the screams and shouts of fighting getting louder around us. I scrambled for my maul, Bull pulled away from me swiftly to catch a Templar with a sword raised to stab another, Vivienne's icy wind swirled around us, tripping a few more and Blackwall brandished his shield at my side. Chaos erupted, the Templars that approached us from the furthest doorways wore hoods and no helmets, their pale and clammy skin were stained red and rippled with rivers of protruding veins.
"You were all supposed to be changed!" Knight-Captain Denam barked, glaring at Ser Barris. "Now we must purge the questioning knights!" More knights appeared from the shadows, bows and arrows trained not on us, but on their fellows. Lord Abernache began to speak, but a nimble-fingered Templar shot him down with an arrow to his temple.
"The Elder One is coming! No one will leave Therinfal who is not stained red!" The Knight-Captain commanded. Arrows sang past us, Bull immediately walling me up against himself and Blackwall, Vivienne's freshly learned Barrier spell dropped over the three of us like a coat. Templars tumbled like ragdolls around us, frantically I searched around the Wall Of Fuck Off to look for Ser Barris, but the fighting has smothered us.
Vivienne wasted no time and with a stamp of her staff to the ground, lightning screeched through the air and ping-ponged between the Templars, their armors only withstanding some of the magical force. Fucking hell, that's right, they would have protocols for dealing with mages! I had brought Vivienne for assistance with the nobility, not to place her in an unfavorable fight.
I gripped Blackwall's arm and yanked his ear down to me, growling, "You stick to Vivienne and keep those Templars from subduing her!" Realization struck him to blow his eyes wide as the weight of the situation we were in crashed over our heads. Templars were on even footing with non-mages, they had to swing a sword like the rest of us, but a mage...
Blackwall took two or three long, bounding strides and bumped into Vivienne's back with his own as he covered her for a blow from a sneaking Templar. I pressed my Marked palm to Bull's hip and pushed him forward. Without a word he obeyed and kept his back to me for cover, his maul swinging and jabbing to spook our attackers. He's not hitting them - we couldn't tell friend from foe, Templars forced to fight or die fleeing, the poor bastards.
Cleared from the door way and avoiding the bodies, I took a hard leap from cover and brought my maul's head into the middle of Knight-Captain Denam's back. The man howled, caught off his guard as he stalked down Ser Barris, but I wasn't going to have any of his bullshit. My knees were ready when he turned on me, eyes wild and sword raised. Growling, I allowed gravity to take the weight of the maul's head and hit the floor, using it as a lever from its handle to shove me upward and I brought both legs up like a spring.
I managed to launch the Knight-Captain from his feet as my boots slammed into his chest. Ser Barris took only seconds to recognize his opportunity and caught the stumbling Knight-Captain in his arms for a choke hold. The straps of his helmet and the plates on Ser Barris' arm kept him from escaping and soon enough the man slumped in Ser Barris' hold.
Around me, ten or so Templars lay dead. Some stained red and others pale faced and fading. Vivienne was breathing roughly through her nose, her brow set hard over her eyes and her limbs trembling. Some of the armor had scorch marks or cracks from the heat. She must of poured more than her normal reserve into making sure her magic affected them.
Blackwall stood behind her, face pinched with worry as he looked to her, but we all knew better than to mention anything. Bull's chest struggled to draw breath, his angry eye swiveled to survey the area, but more shouts from further within the fortress pressed us onward.
My attention fell to Ser Barris, "Is the Knight-Captain alive?"
"Barely," he answered, pulling off Denam's helmet to check. "He would need a healing potion soon."
My eyes shot to the few, unmarked Templars that survived and I stormed to them. "You - give me a name."
"Jaxton!" The man choked on his exclamation, brown eyes shaking in their sockets and his shoulders shuddering. "Jaxton Marcus, Your Worship!"
"Jaxton," I greeted with a stern face, my mouth into a forced frown. "If you have any love for your brothers and sisters, help me, take the Knight-Captain and run - five kilometers out and you'll find Inquisition forces stationed with Commander Cullen." Ser Barris dragged the limp body of his former Knight-Captain over and deposited the rotting sod into Jaxton's quaking hold.
"Bring them here, Jaxton." I commanded, my voice low and even, my gaze set to his face. The man swallowed, his back tense as I spoke. "When I come out of this and I find out you disobeyed me, you'll sit right alongside the Knight-Captain. Clear?"
"Aye!" Jaxton and his companion next to him answered hastily. I hated using fear as a tactic (and this being the first time I had used it as such), but with the chaos around me and the last betrayal of Denam, I couldn't keep to trust that these men wouldn't just bolt at the first chance of freedom. I needed Cullen to come up and clear the way, my Mark hammered in my hand and who knew what that could mean.
"Go," I flicked them off with a sharp wave of my hand. The men hauled the Knight-Captain up and booked it out to the open air. Ser Barris held out the keys to the fortress and I snatched them from his open palm. Rage was starting to bubble up in my stomach and not for the first time I wondered how I had become so quick to anger since coming into this world.
My feet led me to the back, the door were a majority of the Templars had flooded in from, and my group followed at a steady pace. Ser Barris drew his sword and took a helmet from one of his clean, fallen brethren. The second I unlocked the door and charged in, maul at the ready, I was greeted by a sword-wielding Templar. Blackwall shot forward with me and we pinned our attacker against the wall. Blackwall's sword dove straight through his chest and then let him fall away to the ground, lifeless.
"Fiends!" Blackwall growled, flicking his sword to get most of the blood off. "Traitors to their kin!"
"I'm more worried about them trying to kill us!" Bull replied heatedly as he followed in with Vivienne and Ser Barris behind him. Watching Bull having to duck through the doorway would have been hilarious had I not been so eager to end the fighting. The shouts of battle continued to echo around us, but the fortress now turned into a maze, stairways and doorways leading to God Fucking Knew Where.
"Barris!" I barked, the man seemingly teleporting into my line of sight. "Lead!" The Knight wasted no time and hunted forward like a bloodhound. We dashed through the darkened hallways and followed in the dim light toward the courtyard of the fortress. It was as I passed through the door into the fading light of day that I heard it, a voice.
From my hand.
-PREPARE THEM. GUIDE THEM TO ME-
I fucking screamed, my maul slipped from my hand as it let go to grasp my wrist. The hammering thud that had echoed in my palm grew worse, it now rattled my ulna and radius bone, vibrating under my skin like soundless maracas that shot goosebumps up my arm straight to my shoulder. Nothing actual hurt as much as it was uncomfortable, but my worst nightmare had suddenly manifested.
Something was coming through my hand.
Didn't fucking matter if it was only a voice, it was the principal of the matter, goddamnit.
Bull was on me in an instant, one hand wrapped around mine that held my wrist and the other encompassed my Marked hand and shut my fingers closed around it, the gleaming emerald hue of the Fade peeking through his fingers and my own. Vivienne stood a healthy distance from me, her eyes glued to my hand and her staff at the ready. Blackwall, as I had asked, stood just in front of her, shield up.
Ser Barris glanced at all of us, unsure of where to turn his blade. "... Your Worship?"
"You didn't - you didn't hear that?" I gasped, blinking hard and trying to flex my hand under Bull's death grip. As if his strength alone would be enough to hold back a rift. Ser Barris, Blackwall and Vivienne shook their heads. Bull shook his head when my gaze fell to him, and a flood of terror came up and swallowed my lungs, freezing them behind my ribs.
I gritted my teeth and stared down at my hand, voice quiet and shaking. "Bull."
"I know." He answered readily. "I'll be ready if anything happens. I'll make it quick, I promise." Tears sprung to my eyes and I nodded. Reluctantly, Bull released my hand and held my elbow to help me stand. My wrist shook out my fingers and the light from the Mark pulsed openly as if insulted by the turn of events. My molars gripped hard at the back of my mouth and I yanked my maul up from the ground.
The courtyard had a handful of Templars waiting for us. Blinded by my tears, I jogged forward with Ser Barris and Bull at my sides. We managed to corner the Templars and hauled the others from their vantage points above us. A few arrows missed me, more out of luck than any skill of mine to dodge, and I climbed up the ladder to get to them. It didn't fucking matter, the voice roared back into my head from my hand, causing me to stumble back to the ground.
-YOU WILL BE SO MUCH MORE-
Get out of my fucking head! My internal screaming went unheeded. The very last thing I needed was to bring about my death preemptively because he thought I lost to whatever the fuck was trying to control me through my goddamn palm. Where is Solas when I need him?! We were going to have a field day with this when I got back to Haven.
If I got back to Haven.
Noodle legs brought me up to an unsteady sway, I had lost sight of my companions as they had moved ahead to fight, except for Bull. The Qunari stayed on my shadow and I could only imagine the difficulty he was having trying to keep his one good eye on the fight and on my state of mind.
-SHOW ME WHAT YOU ARE-
Come out and actually face me, freak. I snarled through my scattered thoughts. My stomach had dropped out through my ass, because if something came flying out of my palm, the Templars could go fuck themselves. It was all bravado in the heat of the moment, but I was almost ten-thousand percent sure that if something happened with the Mark, my first instinct would be to run away from Bull, not toward him.
-I WOULD KNOW YOU-
Christ, not a moment's breath between one pulse and another. Every sentence that came through made the edges of the Mark feel like they were splitting. Time and time again I glanced down at my hand to assure myself that one, nothing had come through or no weird-o Fade creature was peeking at me through it, and two, that my hand hadn't actually split. Hurriedly, I tried to keep up with my companions through the fighting, but numbness had crept into my left arm, and now I was swinging at half-power.
Somehow, Ser Barris managed to lead us into another part of the fortress, a new building that had a pack of five or six untainted Templars fighting off their brethren. Bull rushed in after the rest, my weakened self following with the maul dragging slightly along the ground. Thankfully (for me) the fighting seemed to be at the end, the last of the tainted knights smacked into the ground.
"Good timing!" The knight grinned at us, blood-splattered and shaking from his efforts. "I don't know what's happened, all the officers have been turned into those things! There, fly up the stairs, you'll get to the main court!" Ser Barris waved him out of the building to leave where we had cleared the path out. Blackwall and Vivienne took the steps two at a time, with the other three of us lumbering close after.
A raised training area greeted us, a fight of a handful of Templars here as well. The sound of feminine voices gripped the air, sisters pleading with their kin, but everything they tried failed. Ser Barris rushed past me, the strain on his face and his shoulders clear as he swung awkwardly to defend his untainted knights. It must be killing him to turn on his kin, Christ. Vivienne sent a wave of ice through the earth and captured our opponents, swallowing them into the earth.
"Keep running!" Vivienne shouted. "We cannot afford the delay!" She was right, the longer we stayed behind to fight the minor players, the longer the rest of them suffered. A few for the many, and it was a horrible thought, but I couldn't let this spread to the rest of my troops, to Thedas. Bull stayed ahead of me and true to his name, bull-rushed me forward toward the main hold.
-THE HERALD OF ANDRASTE. IT'S TIME WE BECAME BETTER ACQUAINTED-
My Mark was thrumming at such a fast pace that my fingers had gone completely numb from the sensation. My whole left arm was useless. Frustrated and teary-eyed, I abandoned my maul at the bottom of a long staircase, the stone steps leading me up to statues of hooded figures who held their arms up in offering. Bull growled loudly behind me, he must have spotted my maul, but something was dragging me forward, forcing me to run up to the door at the top.
-COME. SHOW ME WHAT KIND OF WOMAN YOU REALLY ARE-
I took the steps two at a time, my boots smacking against the wet stone with my full-footed leaps to get to the top. The stone statues had their gazes focused down at the landing, their arms stretched out high and casting faint shadows under the stormy sky. The giant, red door loomed from its place at the top of the funneled stairway and at its center with his back to me, appeared to be the Lord Seeker.
He was still as I approached, my companions and Ser Barris climbing the steps to reach us. There was a moment that paused between us as the Lord Seeker turned to glance at me over his shoulder, his body following with the slightest turn. The Mark was humming, growling in the heat of my palm and by the time he finally turned to face me fully, it was screaming through my nerves.
"At last." The Lord Seeker grinned to the edge of his mouth and jerked forward, his hands coming around my throat. My inhale shot down into my lungs and ricocheted between my ribs, my hands swept up to grip the bends of his elbows as he hauled me forward, toward the door.
There was a flash of green as the world when turned white around us.
From one stumbling step to the next, I was ripped through the opening he had created, my Marked hand howling as my eyes opened to the dusky world around me. My maul was missing, since I had dropped it in my mad dash to get to the door. Around me the Fade essence swirled like a fog, glowing and deep, obscuring the furthest view of my sight. Pillars sprung up around me, holding up a ceiling that faded in and out of existence. Torches lit the path down the middle and slowly, I followed it.
Soon bodies began to appear, much like the ones I had seen at ground zero of the Temple of Ashes. One by one, as I passed them, the bodies came alight with fire and their twisted forms had their faces turned up to the ceiling as if praying. Each of them a new form, a new stance, arms raised up high or holding themselves together, faces charred and disfigured and then at the end of my walk, I could see two painfully familiar figures.
Cullen and Josephine.
From between them, just beyond the shimmering shrubbery came Leliana, her face twisted with a wicked smile I didn't recognize. This is impossible. Breathe, Jaime, stay focused. A flare of my nose and I inhaled deeply, the faint smell of smoke and burned hair came into my senses. Leliana stood before me, still grinning, her hands before her and the other Hydra heads flanked her, slow grins taking their faces as well.
"Is this shape useful?" Leliana cooed. "Will it let me know you?" She walked around to Cullen and I could see the glint of a knife in her hand. My brow pinched together and quietly, I watched, wondering at the creature before me. This isn't Leliana. She would never allow so many open movements. She'd never let you see the knife until after she was finished.
"Everything tells me about you." She hummed at me. "Even this: watch." The blade came up to Cullen's throat and the manic smile that had rested on his face slipped off almost in the blink of an eye. Josephine remained unmoved and the whole situation was more confusing than it was unsettling.
"... are you a demon?" I asked tentatively. "Is this supposed to scare me?" Leliana peered at me over the fur of Cullen's cloak, the blade steady against his neck. Slowly her eyes narrowed and the blade drew across the pale flesh of the Commander. His eyes rolled back into his head and his knees buckled, allowing his weight to crash to the ground at my feet.
Leliana stared at me, but her voice echoed as mine, "Are you a demon?" My eyes went wide at the sound of my own voice from a foreign mouth. Leliana backed away and disappeared in a swirl of Fade fog. Movement to my right brought my attention to Josephine, the same blade that had slit Cullen's throat in her hands, her finger tip pressed to the point.
"Being you will be so much more interesting than being the Lord Seeker." She smirked, blade aloft in her hand. Like a snap of fingers, information came rushing back. The ritual. The voice. He's a doppelganger, he's trying to replace me. Josephine walked past me and I swear I blinked for less than a second and she was gone.
"Do you know what the Inquisition can become?" Her voice murmured by my ear. "You'll see." My shoulders hunched with a hard flinch at the proximity of the voice, but I was finding it harder and harder to be afraid. You have no idea what it's like to be me. You could spend years studying me, and no one understands anxiety quite like the anxious do.
-WHEN I'M DONE, THE ELDER ONE WILL KILL YOU AND ASCEND. THEN I WILL BE YOU-
"I mean," I answered to the empty space above my head, my hands raised in a shrug, "Good luck? I'm still in the tutorial stage."
-YOU ARE UNDER THE MISTAKEN IMPRESSION THAT I REQUIRE CONSENT-
"I am fully consenting." I deadpanned. It was very hard to hold onto the terror of possession when you had a monologuing demon. If Bull or Blackwall, or much worse Vivienne, been here with me, I would have been struck dumb at the back of my head by a swift hand to keep my mouth shut. It peeved me in movies when villains paid no mind to the hero asking them to stop. Now I realized why.
"Glory is coming, and The Elder One wants you to serve him like everyone else: by dying the right way." Josephine had appeared at my side again and though I still flinched at the proximity of her appearance, I knew better now. With my expression still dead to the demon's smile, my hand snatched my small knife from my belt and I shoved it up into Josephine's diaphragm.
Alarm flashed across the demon's eyes before Josephine popped into smoke.
"Oh my god," I laughed, "what the fuck are you, a Goomba?"
"I am not your toy," Cullen's deep voice hissed from behind me. If my eyeballs could roll out of my head from the sheer effort I had thrown into rolling them, they would have. The first few times of appearing behind me worked, because this place was dark and dusty and smelled like rotting flesh, but all of that was falling to the wayside at the demon's antics. With a hand on my hip, I faced him, eyebrows raised.
The demon snarled with Cullen's face, "I am Envy and I will know you!"
Stupidly, I grinned at him.
"Tell me, Herald, in your mind." Cullen stormed around me, teeth bared. "Tell me what you think!" A vision solidified into a version of me, metallic and glittering with glowing eyes that matched the Mark on my hand. I glanced down at my palm, but my arm was still completely numb and unresponsive. The demon took a hard stab at her back and she dropped much like Cullen had before.
"I hope I fall with a bit more grace than that when I die." I joked, gesturing to the fallen corpse with my small knife still in my hand. "That was just pitiful." He disappeared and I felt something bump up against my ass. Hot heels turned me around to find the war table pressed to my hip, Demon Cullen towering over the figure pieces.
"Tell me what you feel!" The table vanished as did he, and I heard a gasp behind me. Another turn and the same metallic version of my face came into view, my fake body tumbled forward into my arms, blood staining the front of her stomach. Without pause, I immediately dropped her like a hot potato and she made the wettest of smacks when she hit the ground.
"Oh, that's just nasty." I muttered. It was absolutely surreal to see one's face in three-dimensions beyond a mirror, but when it was copper colored and had glowing eyes, the realism of the idea was lost. I was a very practical woman, after all, and there was only so much disbelief you could ask me to suspend.
-TELL ME WHAT YOU SEE-
A doorway appeared and light shined through it.
"Uh," I puttered for a moment, "... a light at the end of the tunnel? This is very anti-climatic, I'll have you know." Reason told me not to follow along with the demon's plan. This was his world and he could control it as he wished, manipulating it as he saw fit to get the most out of me, but curiosity was starting to win out. He clearly couldn't read my mind, otherwise he would have just done so and killed me, he needed me to answer him.
He needed me to teach him who I was.
"Mother fucker, you are so screwed." I laughed as I walked through the arched doorway. "Even I don't know who the fuck I am." Perhaps the intelligent thing to do was to keep quiet and not answer him, or speak out of turn. The less information he got, the more work he had to do to pass off as me, and if he did somehow manage that, it would be enough to make Bull suspicious.
I laughed harder, "Ooooh, my fuck, dude. You think you'll learn enough about me to pass? I got someone who has been waitin' to kill my ass."
There was no answer, not that I expected one. The demon seemed to be just on the touch side of miffed from our last chat. The room I walked into winked into existence, a shadowed copy of the dungeon I had been jailed in at the start of this whole mess. I stopped and inspected the scene, my mind whirling. Why this memory? I glanced around. Did he only care about the memories that made me The Herald of Andraste?
... or are those the only memories he can see?
My feet stopped and I listened to Cassandra's faded voice accuse the shadow version of myself. I crossed my arms as I watched, curious. Would he only have access to the memories after the Mark was anchored to my hand? It would make sense, then, why he needed me to answer him - because he needed to know what of me was a lie, and what was truth.
My thoughts twittered endlessly at the back of my mind as I continued onward, the next room had Shadow Jaime surrounded by soldiers and I missed half of what they said. Ah, so not just memories, he can create scenes, as well. Good to know. Makes sense, after what I saw with Cullen and Josephine. Gently, I tipped my head back to look up at the ceiling.
"You know what's terrible about humans?" I asked the shadows. "We're fallible. We will always fail."
-HOW PESSIMISTIC OF YOU-
"You know what that means, don't you?" I said, amused. Silence answered me and so I murmured, "It means you will have to fail, too." There was a rumble of a distant growl and it brought a smile to my face. To be human is to err.
-I WILL NEVER FAIL-
"Then you'll never know who I really am, because I am made of failures." I countered. Mistakes made me, shaped me. From the smallest of a skinned knee for riding my bike too fast, to the biggest in letting people die because I was too scared to make a decision. To fail was to be human, and to be human was to fail. We needed to fail to keep going.
-WERE YOU EARNEST IN YOUR PICK OF THE PEOPLE'S FLAG?-
Briefly I tumbled through to the next room, avoiding spitting fires. Veilfire, I recognized, but some of them burned yellow and red, and I was a bit reticent to test it against my (fake?) flesh? Am I real in this world? Was I transported physically, body and soul? Or did he just manifest my soul here? Where was here? Christ Almighty, too many questions.
"I am going to need a fucking drink after this." I grumbled, shoving aside more shadows and listening to the distance voices of the memories he was attempting to create. "You're gonna make me an alcoholic and I hope if you take over, you die from liver failure, you fucker."
-WERE I YOU, I WOULD MAKE SURE THE PEOPLE NEVER FORGET WHAT YOU DID TO THEM-
I raised my hands up beseechingly to the ceiling, "Are you even listening to me? You're gonna fail the pop quiz if you keep ignoring me." The next room was much the same, but it had vomiting towers of wolf-heads that were flooding the floor with Veilfire. The stuff disappeared immediately once it touched the ground so it was a few minutes of fancy-foot work to get me through.
-DO YOU SEE HOW GLORIOUS MY INQUISITION WILL BE AFTER YOU DIE AT THE HANDS OF -
"You're hurting, helpless, hasty," a new voice echoed from behind a nearby door. Startled at the gentle voice, unfamiliar and unchanged by the demon's throaty rattle, I lunged for the door it came behind and strangled the door's handle in my grip, shaking it loose. I flew into the room, looking around for the owner of the voice, my left arm swinging uselessly by my side.
"What happens to the hammer when there are no more nails?"
"Hello?" I called out into the room, spinning a bit on my heel. The walls of the room looked like they were dripping, wet and slick from something. There was no Fade essence or Veilfire here. The furniture was placed neatly, all up on the wall, breaking the laws of physics. I moved to a basket and touched it, pulling the lid off, but when I let go, it dropped against the wall, not the floor I stood on.
-WHAT ARE YOU? GET OUT! THIS IS MY PLACE-
The bed looked to be dry, and the only piece of furniture that wasn't turned topsy-turvy like the rest of its kin in the room. My right hand slid along the end of the bed, the wood was old and cracked. Paintings hung from the wall and were upside down. There was a strange sense of peace that settled in the room. For a moment, my lungs breathed and there was no smoke or burnt hair.
"... thank you, whatever you are." I murmured, glancing around the room once more before I walked out. The breather allowed me to collect my thoughts, and though it could have been another demon, if Envy was furious with it, it gave me a chance to buck him off. Reluctantly, I trudged back to the door, ready to leave.
"Wait."
Everything paused, the voice came once again on a gentle whisper, searching, wanting, and asking. Compelled to listen, my feet stopped and slowly turned me back toward the room. Another glance around and still nothing had changed. My shoulders burned and with a twitch of my neck, I spotted someone behind me.
"Envy is hurting you," the young man whispered to me, his hand outstretched to pacify me, "Mirrors on memories. A face it can feel but not fake. I want to help. You. Not Envy." He sat on the bed, or over it. The image seem to flicker between the two every time I attempted to focus on one.
"Who are you?" I asked gently. "I've... seen you before, haven't I? Out in... the courtyard?"
"...you remember?" His body shimmered again and he reappeared closer with a much more solid form. The same sun-hat I had seen under the banner was tipped over his head, but he stood on the ceiling. "I've been watching. I'm Cole. We're inside you. Or I am. You're always inside you."
I reached out and with my index and middle finger, reached for the brim of his hat and ever-so slowly tipped it to see his face. Pale faced like before, with curious, saddened eyes. Something plucked at my heart as if to tug it from my ribs. He stared at me, motionless.
"It's easy to hear, harder to be a part of what you're hearing." He murmured to me, his face frozen still. "But... I'm here, hearing, helping. I hope." I let go of his hat, but the tilt I had made stayed in place and he stepped toward me, his feet steady on the ceiling.
"Envy hurt you," his face shifted, a frown of sadness touched his lips briefly, "is hurting you. I tried to help. Then I was here. In the hearing. It's - it's not usually like this."
"I know, right?" I replied with half a smile, "Plans always fall apart when you meet the enemy."
He shared my smile, shyly. "Something like that, yes."
There was a scream behind me and it wafted through the door. My attention diverted, Cole disappeared from the ceiling. The door shook on the edges of its hinges, as if something had gripped it hard and was trying to yank itself inside. Cole came back into existence closer to me on the ground and he stared at the door as well.
"I was watching. I watch." He said by way of explanation."Every Templar knew when you arrived. They were impressed, but not like the Lord Seeker."
"The Lord Seeker is an Envy demon, that I get." I answered quietly, my gaze remained on the door, cautious in case anything made it through. "It wants to be me, right?"
"Yes," he nodded, "It twisted the commanders, forced their fury, their fight. They're red inside." I had heard one of the Templars scream something about the red lyrium, the same substance that had alarmed Varric back at the Temple. A hard swallow went down my throat, my right hand coming up to rub at my dead left arm.
"Anyway, you're frozen." Cole tapped his face. "Envy is trying to take your face, I heard it and reached out, and then in, and then I was here."
"You were... you were there." I studied his face. "Under the banners. You were trying to help me?"
"Envy is here. Envy is everything, people, places, phases. It takes strength to make more." Cole shifted away from me and glanced at the fire, his face glowing from the light. "Being one person is hard. Being many, too many, more and more... Envy breaks down. You break out."
"So..." My thoughts raced to follow along. "He's only got so much to work with, after he runs out, because I'm inside my own head, I have the power to break out once he stops burying me in my own thoughts?"
Cole blinked at me, surprised. "... yes. Yes, precisely."
"Then let's fucking go." I muttered, trotting toward the door. With Cole's instruction, we got past more of the Veilfire spouts and broke through another door way, the demon echoing his words in my head. Cole spared me a glance, but I only took giant leaps forward, as far as my legs could throw me. Scenes of a twisted future flashed by me, but I ignored the. The demon growled in my head.
-YOU CANNOT RUN FROM ME-
"I'm not running from you, clown car." I grunted, shoving through another door and dashing down a hallway. Another scene fluttered in front of me, Mother Giselle's voice rang clear in the room and bounced along the walls. Cole was mad on my heels, his gaze intent on my back as I dodged around the shadowy figures.
-YOU CANNOT ESCAPE WHAT WILL BE-
"You have to actually keep up with me first." I was starting to tire. Even as Cole said, that I was within my own head and could wield my own power here, it cost strength and stamina to do so. The next door broke quicker, the room spread out like wildfire, the Fade fog unable to keep up with my hasty pace. Stone walls went up and bars slotted into place. Cole ran before me, to the center of the room, his head tilted curiously.
"You get it. It's dark here, you need to make it light. Think of sparks." He pointed to a brazier that was cupped into the wall. "You understand that the further up you go, the more you are you. That makes you stronger. Keep going."
"Aye, aye, cap'n." I muttered. Quickly, I searched throughout the multi-room vision we were in, ignoring the pleading voices of familiar faces as I went. In one room I managed to find a lit brazier with Veilfire. Tentatively, I reached for a cold torch on the ground and after a few seconds pause, thrust it into the brazier.
The fucking thing lit up.
"Hell to the yes!" Immediately I ducked out of the room and trotted past a bemused Cole. The rest of the rooms had much the same, people and faces I recognized, pleading and begging with me to help, to stop. Pushing past them, I lit the braziers one after another, each one sent a growl through my head as the demon's irritation grew, his presence wavering.
The last one was in the wall in front of Cole. I stormed up to it with heavy footsteps and shoved the torch into the brazier, watching it light up like a broken aerosol can. The wall groaned as it was shoved back, losing stones and pieces as it drew away from me, opening up the area. I turned back to look for Cole, but he had disappeared.
Determined to get out of my own head, I trudged forward.
-WHAT ARE YOU DOING-
Stairs appeared behind a door and, as I had been doing this whole goddamn fucking day, I took them two at a time. My knees were ready to give out, my left arm was starting to chafe from rubbing against my armor, my chest hurt against my ribs, my nose was ready to burst a blood vessel from how dry the air had turned and I was Just About Done with the whole fucking place.
If nothing else, I would never attempt to get lost in my thoughts again because fuck this shit I am out.
Note: Thank you all who read this far, please expect the next part in the next day or so.
