ACT II: The Ascent To Heaven


Notes: So I know the cave has a hole in the ceiling, but. CTRL+X. Also, my friend did not explore far enough to find the second exit from within the cave, so she is dumb and was very angry with herself afterward.


"There it is. Damn, it really was sitting right under the lake." Bull murmured. He and I stood tight to one side of the entryway, a colossal stone doorway carved in the sharp and angular style of the dwarves. Dorian was pressed against the other side looking in with Blackwall standing just behind him, his arms crossed on his chest.

"I don't like how big it is." I muttered. My temples were throbbing and my left hand was pulsing along with it. I don't like this. I don't like that this power makes me more aware. The Mark had turned into a radar of sorts with longer range when it came to detecting rifts and demons. It was the shittiest.

"Are you alright, my dove?" Dorian asked quietly, his gaze focused on me.

"It's powerful." I answered grumpily. My hands dropped from my temples. "There's gonna be a lot of shit coming out of there."

"Any plan?" Blackwall asked behind Dorian. "Our normal plan of running in and hoping for the best won't work with this one." The rift was one of the biggest I had seen yet. The tendrils of Fade energy reached up to the ceiling of the cave and I knew they could be seen over the surface of the lake before we drained it. The clouds around it were thick and swirled like they had with The Breach.

Hell, this rift was strong enough to bring the dead back to life.

"Do we go back to get reinforcements?" Dorian asked me.

I shook my head. "No, there's no point. More soldiers won't help, because we don't know how many demons that thing is going to spit out. Getting them down here would be a nightmare."

"Pretty boy," Bull called over my head, his only eye narrowed on Dorian. "Don't you have anything that could slow them down, or buy us some time?" Our Tevinter mage considered the question with a frown, but after a while he shook his head.

"Not currently in my arsenal, no. The most I can do is creating a distortion with magic." Dorian lamented with a shrug. "Demons don't fall to terror as well as people do. I could control the dead, but there's no guarantee I can maintain control long enough to dispatch them."

"We have The Mark." I offered. Blackwall shot me a nasty look and my hand rose to stop him. "Look, second time's the charm. I have a better feel for it."

"And what if that doesn't work?" Blackwall shot over Dorian's shoulder, his beard twitching with anger.

"Then we're boned, son." I replied easily. "I'm actually kinda curious to see what would happen if we have two rifts next to each other." My companions stared at me, silent as graves. I pouted and turned to look up at Bull, who stood over me, leaning against the wall.

"You need to stop hanging out with that elf." Bull fought a laugh and shook his head. "If I didn't know him, I would say he's the reason you're insane."

"Still sounds like we're running in there like chickens with no heads." Blackwall grumbled from his place behind Dorian. "This isn't a game."

"Could you stop treating us like we're dead before we're in the ground?" I scolded my Warden. "What part of support don't you understand?"

"The part where I have to watch my comrades dive face first into madness." Blackwall retorted. He stood away from the wall and pulled his massive shield from his back to slot it onto his arm. "Are we going into this, or not?"

"Alright, chill, Batman. Shit." I slipped away from the wall and took the maul from its holster. Bull shifted in front of me and his broad body filled the doorway as we entered. Dorian came in after with Blackwall taking the rear. Dorian's hand came down to my shoulder and the familiar kiss of a barrier blanketed me. In surprise, I turned to him with wide eyes.

"I can make a small one." He whispered with a finger to his lips. "I trust you, darling, but I must keep you safe."

"Thank you, Dorian." I replied just as softly. His barrier magic felt vastly different than Solas'. The one that Solas could create felt warm and electric, energy that burst with each hit. Dorian's coursed over my body like a coiling snake, it sapped warmth and settled like a second skin. A shiver went up my back from its touch, but I was comforting to have it.

"Of course, love." Dorian chuckled, and then leaned into my ear. "No one could handle an enraged Qunari quite like you, I suspect."

"Dorian, I love you, but I will kill you." I said flippantly, pushing at the tip of his nose with my index finger. His chuckle was lost to my ears as the angry hiss and crackle of the rift filled the room. We were at the cusp of the massive room. It dipped down into stairs and the lower level was flooded with murky, dank water. The runoff from the lake, I suspect. Impressive pillars stood at four places, squaring the center area and railing it from the lower level. The platform glowed green from the floating rift at its center.

Snapping, curling tentacles grasped up from the Fade and ripped at the ceiling with enough force to dislodge debris and rocks that tumbled to the ground below. The faint and echoing screech of voices rattled through the air and the Mark pulsed steadily, each one a cramp in my arm. This is going to be so bad.

"Ready?" Bull asked from in front. He held his hammer in both hands and across his chest like a shield. I placed my hand on the small of his back and nudged him forward.

"Go!"

Dorian's magic soared out into a wave in front of us. It flashed over the water, the purple energy clashing with the emerald waves from the Fade. His magic flared up against the barrier the Fade had created, but it was enough to alert the demons that were sheltered within the folds of the Veil. Spirits poured out first, their forms flooded the platform, their mouths twisted long and wide in pained screams.

They hit Dorian's wall and sizzled. They recoiled back from the magic and shuddered into themselves, howling and wailing hard enough to create a cacophony of echoes around us. It was a distraction from whatever else was crawling from the Fade. Bull and Blackwall spotted the Sloths first and charged through the frontline to corral them away from the center.

Dorian delivered a swipe with his staff that cut the air and ripped through the souls that surrounded me. I need to get to the center to hit a majority of them coming through the Veil. With a small dive that let me skid on a knee, I was past the first horde of spirits with my warriors keeping the two Sloths at bay. My hand rose and I focused to create the tether. A shadow shifted behind me.

"Jaime!" Dorian's voice crashed through the chaos. My attention snagged and I turned to him only to find a third Sloth descending on me from behind.

"Oh, holy fuck!" I shouted. With a swift duck of my head, the Sloth's claws swiped over by inches. I kicked my foot out and attempted to flatfoot it from below. The Sloth had no feet and ghosted up my legs, its claws reaching for me. My Marked left hand snatched a claw from the air and yanked down to the ground. The demon tumbled and with its weight I rolled over it, jabbing the pommel of my maul into its sternum.

The Mark's tendrils cracked over the creature's arm, slashing and scoring upward toward it's shoulder. The jerking hunger of the Mark gnawed through my muscle and began to devour the demon's form, its energies being swallowed into my palm. The demon screamed, pitching its voice sharply and wiggling to get loose. With maul and Mark, I held on and pressed in until the demon's body burst from under me. Sweat beaded down my neck and over my lips, my arms were noodles.

Fuuuucking shit. That takes a lot more energy to do! Barely seconds later, I glanced up and raised my Marked hand toward the Veil's rip. Spirits hounded me from behind as Dorian's magic did what it could to snare them and drag them away. With a gunshot bite, the tether from my Anchor latched onto the rip and I gripped it, hauling myself back with both feet. This rift resisted with a yowling, begging sob and our connection coiled tight. Let go already!

Instead, the rift sobbed again. Hundreds of voices cried in pain and rocketed against the tether, shoving me back with a ferocious tackle. I went heels over ass with the blow and nearly tumbled from the platform steps into the water below. With a sputtering cough, a crack from the rift sent a shockwave over my head and slammed me into the ground. I held my head and winced as the Mark flared angrily against my skull. Instinctively, I looked up as a muted thud landed in front of me.

A Terror demon screeched down at me.

Nope! Nonononono!

I dodged with a roll to the left as its claws came crashing down. The stone steps cracked from the force of the blow, as did my back when I slammed into the broken stone behind me. Scrambling like mad, I shot myself with a hard crawl past the demon to reach my maul close to the rift. My right hand landed on the pommel and with only that point of contact, I pulled my maul toward me and swung it down across the ground to trip the demon. Howling, the Terror leapt back into the shadowy corners of the furthest wall and all I could see from there was the green burst of energy as it dove into the ground.

"Fuck!" I screamed, the rift cracking again with another shockwave. Another one! "We've got two Terrors on the loose! Watch your feet!"

"Noted!" Blackwall shouted from the other side of the platform. There was a roar of anger off to the right, close to one of the pillars. Through the chaos and the whipping presence of the Veil's tendrils, I couldn't see what had caught The Iron Bull, but I knew for certain it had pissed him off. Dorian dove from his end of the platform, running at a full spirit to get to the other side were the warriors had been pinned. I tried to get to my knees with the help of the maul, but a long-fingered grip wrapped around my ankle and yanked.

"Sonovabitch!" I smacked into the ground face first, my lip busted against my teeth and my chin bled against the stone. Growling in my throat, I allowed the demon to drag me toward the water before I struck. At the bottom of the steps, once I was nearly sitting in the water and the demon's tangled teeth and mangled jaw opened to strike at my face, I lifted my maul over head and hammered it down. The Terror yowled and swiped a blackened claw at my armored chest and arm as its face was swallowed into the water.

The claws had ripped through my metal armor, discoloring it in places and shambling it to pieces on my arm. A shudder of fear swirled up my spine, but with a hasty kick of my boot heel into the demon's dented skull, I heaved myself up and steadied my footing on the steps to deliver a second blow to the stunned Terror's head. Its legs jerked in an effort to wretch itself free, but I wasn't going to have any of its shit. A third blow came down on its head.

And then a fourth.

At the fifth one, the body cracked and its energies popped into the darkness.

A shudder quaked through the air, our only warning before another shockwave collided with us. I went down on my knees again, winded from the blow. My eardrums throbbed with pain and the world went muted for a moment. There was the sound of distant shouting and I shook my head, trying to clear it as I looked up to find the source of the noise. It was Blackwall, pinned against a pillar by a Sloth, bloodied on the right side of his face, and he was screaming. Seconds passed before his voice came back into focus.

"Bull! Bull's down!" He shoved viciously against the Sloth, but weakened as he was and on poor footing, the Sloth was able to smother him. Dorian had been herded to one corner by a Rage that he slapped at with shards of ice, desperately trying to make his way over to our fallen companion. A Terror ripped at Bull's back.

Hands off, you sack of shit! My heart snarled in my chest, my ribs aching as I stood and yanked up my maul. I was blinded by sweat dripping into my eyes. My foot slammed into the stairs as I hauled my ass up and shoved my way through the rank of spirits that had swarmed the platform. The last of Dorian's shield flared as a spirit struck my back, but I ignored it. I was running and slid across the platform, I slammed bodily into the Terror, my shoulder staked up into its chest.

Its claws came around and caught me across the face, but I took the blow, blood flooded my vision from the gash in my forehead, my mouth choking on the coppery leather taste that touched my tongue. Rage had swallowed my chest, heat boiled at my stomach and dried my throat as I snarled with visible teeth. The Terror shoved me off and shrieked, its claws reaching down to rip back into the ground and escape. The Mark in my hand stung and its light snapped brighter for a second, the energy burning through my fingers.

"You stay here, fuck face!" I screamed. My Marked hand shot up above my head and with grasping fingers, I clung to the Veil and wrenched; Consume! my thoughts tore through my mind.

There was a gentle pulse, one, and then two beats later before the Veil unzipped and its maw yawned wide, the hole within it blackened like space. Seconds paused, and then once the maw was fully extended, time sped back into place and inhaled.

Note to self, I thought in daze as another massive boom went through the room, two rifts opened side by side is a Very Bad Idea.

Two enormous black holes were colliding. The one I had created larger and hungrier than the first. Reality twisted around the swirling forces and the spirits around us blinked from existence. Space within the Rifts mixed violently, slashing at each other as they fought to reform, the ground distorted around us and vertigo shook us like an earthquake. All my joints buckled as my weight seemed to increase a hundred times. I crashed to the floor near Bull and looked up to see the Terror be ripped apart by the chaos.

We were being pulled in and I had only noticed when Bull's body slid a few inches from me. Panic wailed through my chest and I reached for him with hasty hands. My arms locked around one of his and I pulled, throwing us over the stairs to use them as a brace against the swallowing void. Blackwall had hooked himself behind his shield, locking it in place against the pillar behind him and the broken stones in front, tenting himself up under the metal. He held onto Dorian, clutching the man to his chest.

Good idea! I gripped my maul and hammered it into a cracked piece of stairs behind me. I pulled us down further and winced as Bull's face hit the stairs. Sorry, buddy! I held on tight to his arm with my hooked elbow and my other hand gripped the maul. The Veil screamed as it snared the last few demons and swallowed them with unrelenting greed. A sharp, whistling hiss ripped through the air and in a blink of light, the voids shrunk together and bursts into nothingness.

Dead silence fell over our heads. Aside from the rift, there had been no light in the room and so darkness blanketed us as soon as the rips had consumed each other. A layer of icy air settled over our heads and I began to shiver. My neck and spine shuddered with pain and every muscle screamed in protest as I attempted to stand.

"Bull? Hey, hon, you there?" I asked quietly, terrified of the darkness. I couldn't hear Blackwall or Dorian and that intensified my fear. Don't leave me, tears welled up at the corner of my eyes. My left hand was on his shoulder, the Mark cold in my palm, and I shook him gently.

Nothing.

Fear nearly took my head. I closed my eyes and gripped my thoughts to keep them from screaming into the abyss. I searched my belt and found my pouch. Reaching in, my fingers found the cold touch of glass. My potion, I still have one. I left it in my pouch and turned to Bull. Carefully and mindful of his horns, I started to turn him over. His back was slick with blood and I could feel some of the gashes in the darkness. More tears swelled, but we were already shrouded in darkness, so it didn't matter.

I'm so sorry.

There was movement out in the darkness and I paused. Bull had been halfway turned to be on his back, but now I hugged him to my chest awkwardly and waited with held breath. Another shift and I could hear a groan echo through the chamber. Hunching into my shoulders and glancing around uselessly, my small voice called out into the darkness.

"Blackwall? Dorian?" I waited, my heart thundering in my ears.

"I'm here, darling." Dorian's rough voice answered. "Blackwall is unconscious. Maker, I don't know how he managed to hold onto everything." There was a crack in Dorian's voice, a violent emotion had strangled his throat and he cleared it. I hesitated, worried for my companions and their health, but Bull's body was slumping into my lap. Right. I'm sorry guys, I gotta help Bull first.

"Dorian, don't move if you're hurt. L — let me deal with Bull first." I choked on my words. Shifting our bodies together so I could have the strength to gently set him on the stairs, I adjusted his horns and turned his head. Immediately, I placed my index and middle finger to his neck. My heart cracked with relief.

There's a pulse.

My fingers were shaking. I nearly dropped the potion when I pulled it out of my pouch. The cork was in my blood filled mouth and popped open. I couldn't see Bull's face and I didn't have enough awareness in the darkness to guess. My hand found his face and my fingers found his lips. Carefully, I tugged his bottom lip down and tipped the option into his mouth. There was another groan in the darkness and Dorian's quiet voice smoothed it over. Blackwall is awake, then?

"Jaime?" Bull's hand came to my wrist and pulled my hand away from his face.

"Hey handsome," I breathed, setting the glass vial off to the side, "giving you a heads up, you got shit on, dude." A rough cough answered me, the Qunari's body rattling from the force. It sounded wet and I prayed he hadn't brought the potion back up.

"Where are we?" He asked, dazed. The arm I had placed in my lap moved. I reached down to help his elbow find a stair to brace himself. The dim glow of light at the far end of the door wasn't enough to illuminate his features and it was barely enough to give him an outline. My eyes were beginning to adjust to the darkness and so I turned to find our other companions.

"There you are." Dorian murmured as he made his careful way toward us, a disoriented Blackwall leaned up against him for support. I stood to my feet and reached for the Warden to help seat him on the stones nearby, but the poor man slipped and hit the stairs ass first instead. There was a small wince, but no other noise from the Warden. Oh, that's not good.

"Is he okay?" I asked Dorian, my hands on Blackwall's shoulders.

"Yes, for the most part. Minor blow to the head when he caught me." Dorian sighed and sat down next to Blackwall, his shoulder pressed to the Warden's to support his weight as the older man swayed. "We need to get him to a healer, and soon."

"What happened after I went down?" Bull croaked with a tight throat.

"I opened a rift." I answered, a small sense of shame twitched in my chest. "I — panicked, after you hit the ground."

"Had the situation not been so dire, it would have been novel-worthy." Dorian teased tiredly. "You play the knight in shining armor rather well, darling."

I snorted. "Is this before or after I nearly destroy the world?"

"We're still in the same place, then?" Bull asked, shifting in the darkness.

"Yeah, sorry." I replied, realizing I had ignored his earlier question. "The chamber under the lake. We need to get out of here." The dilemma being that Dorian and I were the only one's stable on our feet. Blackwall swayed like a drunkard with a busted skull and Bull's wounds would have been healed by the potion, but it wasn't a complete cure-all for how little the amount had been to drink.

"Dorian," I called into the darkness, "Could you hold Blackwall up enough to walk?"

"Naturally." Dorian replied readily. "I'm a mage, not a wet rag, my love. I'm strong enough to brace him for a time. We might need to do without his armor, though."

"Start taking it off." I ordered. "As best you can. Make him as light as possible, since we'll have to carry him up the ladder at some point." There was a pause as if our collective memory had come back to the forefront all at once.

"Ah." Dorian sighed. "Point. Good point. Let's see here, my good fellow. I should have just enough magic to see." The tiniest spurt of magic flickered from his fingers and lit the darkness in a blue purple hue before it shifted into the familiar Veilfire teal tint. It floated like a ghost just above his head and our features were hit with stark shadows.

"Holy shit," I exhaled. Blackwall's face was smothered in blood, his beard was probably sticky with it. There was a gnarly gash across his forehead and his nose looked broken. Dorian was mildly better with little blood to mark his features.

"It looks worse than it is." Dorian calmed me, his hands already working on the armor. Blackwall didn't fight him and seemed to mindlessly lift and move his arms to assist where Dorian prompted him. "Head wounds always do."

"I can carry him." Bull coughed and moved to stand. His braced ankle popped and quite suddenly, the Qunari slipped and jutted down the stairs. With a flail, I reached for him and gripped his shoulders, moving around to steady his back against my legs. I patted his shoulder affectionately.

"We can handle this, Bull." I tried to settle him. "Dorian will take Blackwall and I'll be your crutch, alright?"

"That's not usually how bodyguarding works, Boss." Bull grumbled, his voice rumbling through my knees.

I chuckled. "Bull, I think you've done enough for today, right? Just let me handle it." The Qunari grumbled for a bit more, but I flicked his ear as he had done mine and it silenced him. I shook my head and turned to look at Dorian, the small fire over his shoulder slowly faded as the last of the armor was shucked off.

"Do you need help standing him up?" I asked gently.

"No, darling. I should be all right. Here we go, gent." There was a heave in the darkness and Blackwall groaned, his voice faint as he murmured something to Dorian. The mage sighed, "I'll say. Let's get you home, Blackwall."

"Bull?" I turned to my Qunari. A snort answered me. I rolled my eyes. "C'mon, Bull. Are you really going to pass up the chance for a hug?" Silence greeted me before Bull's low chuckle reached my ears.

"That's a dirty bribe, Boss." His fingers found my wrist and I turned my hand to grip his and slowly tug him up to his feet. I moved to hook myself under his arm and armpit on his left side. He hesitated to lean on me before I brought my arm around his back as best I could and tugged him closer.

"Are we all set?" Dorian was already leading the way toward the door. Wordlessly, Bull and I followed. There was a bit of a struggle to find a pace we could match with each other, but after a moment of stumbling, we managed. With each passing step, Bull trusted more of his weight onto me and I held steady.

The dim glow from outside helped ease us into the brighter, harsh light of the cave that poured in from the breaks in the ceiling. Navigation around the rocks and slick stone took a good amount of time before we reached the bridge that lead us up toward freedom. Dorian and Blackwall went first, with the mage doing his best to hook his heels into the planks to keep them from slipping backwards.

I held onto Bull's arm over my shoulders and gripped his waist tightly and led him up as well. The Qunari was silent as we went, his breathing labored with each step. The bleeding from his back had stopped, but the wounds hadn't fully healed, as I had suspected. I was careful not to snag any of his flesh on my tattered armor and waited for him each time his bad ankle worked itself up.

"Jaime." He called me gently. Instinctively, I looked up and it caused him to wince once he looked at me.

"What's up, buddy?" I prompted him, turning to look away at the bridge we trudged over.

"What happened to your face?" He asked roughly. I blinked and my left hand was removed from his elbow to touch my face. The tips of my fingers came away with sticky, copper rusted blood. The gashes from the Terror's claws along my face were clotted with blood, but the rest of it had dried up on my cheeks and neck.

"Oh, shit. I forgot about that." I answered with a laugh. "I got tripped and kissed the ground. Ah, fuck, I think my chin got busted in that, too." Tentatively, I reached for my chin and tested the area with my fingertips. I could feel the split skin and the new bloodflow that started from disturbing it. A shudder rocked my shoulders and I shook it out.

"Ew, gross." I lamented. My hand drew away and I reached for Bull's arm, hesitating for a moment before sighing and resigning to the fact that we were all covered in blood, didn't really matter who's it was. Bull stayed quiet and his muscles jumped under my arm as he tensed up.

"Didn't mean to go down like that." He explained quietly, his only eye focused on the duo in front of us. Blackwall's footing was becoming sturdier as we climbed. "The Rage demon had caught me on my left, knocked me out before I knew what the fuck happened."

I winced, "I didn't see that. I only turned around in time to see Dorian trying to deal with it, and Blackwall was shouting that you were down with a Terror demon slashing at your back."

"Is that what I'm feeling?" Bull rolled his shoulders slightly. "Well. Once they heal, they'll just fade into the collection." I shifted as we got to the landing and waited just at the mouth of the bridge as Dorian adjusted his grip on Blackwall.

"You guys doing okay?" I asked, clearing my throat.

"Honestly, I am good to walk." Bull countered and started to lean away from me. A sharp hiss shot through his teeth and he tensed, rolling his shoulders to ignore the pain that probably shot through him. I raised an eyebrow and leaned forward to throw the expression at him.

The bastard had the audacity to boop my nose.

"See. I'm good." Bull trudged forward toward Dorian and Blackwall, reaching out to help. "Besides, you two aren't going to be able to get Blackwall up the ladder. I'll take him." Reluctantly, Dorian released our Warden into Bull's care. He and I shared an exasperated look, but allowed him to do as he pleased. Dorian shook his head at me; Stubborn, isn't he?

I rolled my wrist in a wave at him, unsurprised; What can you expect?

The rest of the retreat was in silence, until we reached the surface.