This chapter is 4000 words, enjoy! =D
Marian decided that after taking care of business at Adamant, she needed a vacation. Somewhere warm, away from Templars, mages, demons, combat and any other kind of destructive force. While she was great at killing things with her staff, she needed a break.
As much as she has enjoyed her time with the Inquisition, there was no way that she was going to stay with the organization. It was getting a little bit too big for her tastes and Marian didn't need people recognizing her as a hero again. She had enjoyed the anonymity that had come with working with the Inquisition, but someone was soon going to realize who she was and that was going to be more trouble than it was worth. She was going to need to walk away from Bethany again and that was going to be hurt. Marian had just started to reconnect with her sister, gushing over her ironic crush on Commander Cullen.
Varric would keep them in contact, hopefully. She didn't want to lose what she had. They had both lost so much in Kirkwall.
Despite everything, Marian also had Anders back, through a miracle. She wasn't sure which gods to thank, her own or the Elven pantheon for bringing her Ven and Ellana Lavellan. If they all lived through this, she was going to make sure that she wrote to them, and maybe even sent a bit of fine linin up to their clan as a thank you gift.
There was a dull roar, and Marian twirled her staff quickly and ducked. A fireball flew over her head, a rage demon seemed to be having a bit too much fun lobbing molten rocks, breaking Hawke out of her revere.
The ramparts were a mess and wardens were fools. Blood magic and demons were never the answer. So many good men and women were dying over a twisted Magister's will. The smell of burning flesh and blood filled her nose and she turned to see the charcoaled remains of an Inquisition soldier. She wasn't going to be able to hold the ramparts much longer.
Marian let out a sigh and fired a powerful ice spell at the creature, stopping it in its tracks for a moment before it suddenly shattered, a knife hilt sticking out it, held by a now visible Inquisitor.
Sneaky woman almost gave Hawke an early heart attack.
"Heard you needed some help up here!" The Inquisitor shouted over the violence before she leapt into the air and brought both daggers down onto an unsuspecting despair demon that crumbled under the pressure of her glowing blades.
"Well, you know how it is with demon hoards. Tend to get out of hand."
The elf grinned as the rest of her group caught up with her. She had brought Solas, Sera and Cassandra, the seeker and mage were giving her disapproving glares.
"You were supposed to wait for us, Inquisitor," Cassandra grumbled, bringing her shield up just in time to block a demon claw from severing her head from her neck.
The Inquisitor brought her blades up and helped the Seeker kill the demon before she replied, "well you were taking far too long. Our men needed me."
Marian swore the remaining soldiers let out a collective breath seeing their Inquisitor in action, defending them from danger.
"Less chatting and more dead demons!" Sera shouted as she brought an end to four more demons with a jar of what appeared to be bees.
It wasn't long…well it was about three more sections of the ramparts and at least six more demon hoards before they had any time to catch their breaths. The group for the most part was unharmed. A few singes here and there, but nothing that was going to stop them from ending this battle. "Where're your brother and Fenris? I thought they'd be here?" Marian asked, glancing at the Inquisitor who was bandaging a burn on Cassandra's left bicep.
"My brother has to do something for the clan. Trust me when I say he wishes he were here more than anything else. The gods forsaken idiot wanted to show his battle magic off. Fenris is his assigned guard, more to keep him out of trouble than anything else. Neither of them are particularly pleased that they are stuck back at Skyhold together, but that's the Keeper's orders," she answered, never taking her eyes off the wound she was treating, "Why do you ask?"
Honestly, Marian had witnessed the power that Ven had used pulling Vengeance out of Anders and was beyond impressed with the Dalish mage's skill. She had really wanted to see him in battle. "He's a powerful mage. I figured we could use him in the fight."
Marian heard Solas give a dry chuckle at her response. "That was his argument as well."
Marian turned to the apostate who was leaning against the far wall. He looked relaxed despite the heated battle going on beyond the walls in front of him. Solas only had a few smudges on his pale face, he barely looked out of breath and Marian was honestly a bit jealous. She had gone through one vial of lyrium already to keep her strength up. It was one of the reasons that no one was healing Cassandra's arm, they were attempting to conserve mana.
"Yes, well, he can't go against the Keeper, so this conversation is pointless. We really need to keep moving," Ellana replied as she rocked back on her heels and stood up admiring her handy work before she picked up her weapons once more. It seemed that they were going back into battle.
And keep moving they did, right into the arms of an Archdemon and into a fade rift.
The Fade sucked, and Marian decided that she was getting too old for this shit.
Solas had never been in the fade physically. It shouldn't have been possible, but then again, Ellana enjoyed doing supposedly impossible things. The Black City was so close, he could see it at every angle from where they landed.
Arlathan was right there and pieces of city all around them. He could see the city floating just out of reach. He could feel the old gods' magic roaring in his ears. They couldn't linger here long without drawing their wrath.
"Where are we?" Stroud asked, looking a bit more than a bit disturbed at their location, which was horizontal on a rock formation before he crashed in a heap on the ground.
"The fucking fade, that's where," Ellana hissed, standing up and rubbing her backside.
"We're physically in the fade?" Hawke whispered in awe and horror, "That should be impossible."
Solas, for once, agreed with the woman.
"Welcome to life of the Inquisitor," Ellana muttered as she helped Sera up, who looked horrified at her slightly green tinted surroundings. This was certainly not something the magic hating elf signed up for. It brought a twisted grin to Solas' face.
"No, no, no. This isn't real, this is a dream," she had her hands over her ears, and her eyes squeezed shut. She was terrified…not an emotion that Solas had honestly ever seen the girl show and for a moment, he felt like an ass for relishing in her pain.
It was a fleeting moment, but it was still there. Sera was young and from what hints Ellana had shared with him about the young archer's past some of her fears were forced onto her by humans.
Ellana squeezed the archer's shoulders slightly in a comforting gesture and waited till Sera removed her hands from her head before moving towards Cassandra, who had already gotten herself onto her feet.
"This is the fade?" The Seeker questioned, straightening herself out with a brisk brush off of some muck that had stuck to her front from the landing.
"I believe so. When the Inquisitor opened the rift, we all fell in," Solas replied for Ellana. There was no need for her to give everyone the same answer.
"So, we're trapped in here?" Stroud asked, and Sera gasped before gripping onto Ellana's shirt.
"No, we just need to find another rift out. There was one open in the center pavilion in Adamant. So, theoretically, there should be another rift somewhere relatively close by," Ellana replied, looking into the distance.
Solas was mildly impressed by her answer. It was the correct one, he could see the large rift in the far distance.
The group hadn't even moved a foot before Ellana gripped her head and fell to her knees, blood was running down her lip from where she bit into it. Solas rushed over to her worried that the old gods had found them and were using the slave mark on her face to hurt or even worse, control her. Oddly enough the marks was nearly silent. Instead a glowing green figure pulled itself out of Ellana, creating a glowing spectral body.
"What the frick?" Sera shouted, bow at the ready. The others quickly readied their weapons.
At first, Solas thought it was an old god come to kill them all, or a spirit that had somehow possessed Ellana through the mark, but that was until more details formed and it spoke.
"How the hell did you manage to fall physically into the fade again and in a realm of nightmares, really?" It was Ven, manifesting himself spiritually in the fade with them. Solas wondered how deep the twins' bonds went if he could find his sister this deep in the fade.
The group took a collective step back from him and Ellana, well, all but Solas. "Ven, how are you here?"
The elf looked put out, crossing his glowing arms. "Cole came to me panicking that Ellana had gone into the fade, so I figured I go to sleep and pull myself to here to help."
Ellana spat a bit of blood out her mouth and glared up at her twin. She had to be in a lot of pain. Solas could see her muscles trembling.
"Do you have any idea how dangerous what you're doing is?" Solas growled looking at Ellana.
"I do, but you're going to need all the help you can get. These shem don't know the fade the way we do."
He wasn't wrong, but Solas was nearly positive he nearly just killed his sister. She wasn't a mage and Ven needed to remember that. She was connected to magic and the fade in the same manner they were. Forcing his magic through her…well, if they weren't blood related, Ven might have murdered someone.
Solas was going to need to check her over as soon as they got out of the fade.
"Speak common, elves!" Cassandra snarled raising her sword towards Ven's translucent form.
"Stand down, Cassandra," Ellana snapped, staggering to her feet, her mark flaring in response to her anger. The Seeker lowered her weapon without argument. "Ven is using his ability as a dreamer to help us. We need to keep moving, not fight like fools."
"As you wish, Inquisitor." She replied briskly, her sword still raised, but nevertheless obedient.
The journey was difficult, but it was going smoothly until they reached the first Eluvian. Both Ven and Ellana stopped to examine it, their eyes raking in every detail of the broken mirrors and then back towards the Black City. They seemed to be having a silent conversation with a few small hand gestures between them. It was their own language without words. Ellana had mentioned once or twice that they were a good hunting pair since they spoke without words. Ven motioned for Ellana to touch the mirror and Solas nearly jumped when it lit up under her hand for the briefest of moments. Ven looked back at him his bright form's glowing eyes boring into him.
Did they know what they were looking at? Were they piecing things together?
Solas dearly hoped not.
It was interesting to watch the twins fight together, even though Ven wasn't at his full power he could still influence the fade enough to fight with them and turn the tide of battle without too much of an effort.
They worked perfectly in sync with one another. More often than not, the two fought back to back and when Ellana would disappear it seemed that Ven would know exactly where she was at all times, covering her with impressive spell fire. If Ellana needed something to land on, Ven would conjure it, if Ven needed an enemy dispatched, Ellana was already there slicing their neck. It spoke of an unyielding trust that they had in each other. It wasn't the way that Ellana fought with anyone else that he'd seen.
It wasn't long before they met "The Divine", who was just another spirit. She was helping guide the group through the demon's traps, so at least they were getting help. Ellana seemed skeptical of the spirit of the "The Divine" before them, as was Solas. He didn't think that anyone could survive in the fade as long as this woman had, unless this woman was really just a spirit that had taken over the qualities of the past Divine, a spirit not unlike Cole. Though, neither of them voiced their opinions with Cassandra so close by.
When the demon realized that they were making their way through his realm with relative ease it began attempting to tear them apart with their own fears. For the most part the group just ignored it. Sera just shouted at it and stuck close to Ellana. Solas swore he saw Hawke flip the demon off from the corner of his eye. "Hawke, you just got your life together…and to lose it all so fast. It's just like Kirkwall, isn't it?"
"By the Maker's soggy breeches, he sounds just like my uncle," Hawke muttered, pinching the bridge of her nose.
Then the demon began to speak in lilting Elven that grated on Solas' nerves more than it should have. To hear the language so perverted was horrific on its own. The demon was broadcasting his fears to the group. Not that most of them could understand it, but the twins could.
"What do they think of your sins, Pride? Two halves of a whole elf those two cursed twins. Conceived of ancient magic, only to be born cut off from it? Do you feel your dreaded crimes crawling on your skin? In your soul? In your very blood?" The demon teased.
Solas snarled, but didn't respond. He wasn't going to give it the satisfaction. Cassandra was getting nervous, her hand going to her sword and eyeing not only Solas, but Ven as well for any kind of what Solas would assume was possession. It was almost comical at her lack of trust at this point.
"Ah, Ven, are you going to be able to save you sister today? Or are you going to watch as her own family ends up killing her from the inside out? You poor useless thing, what has magic touched that hasn't been tainted?" The demon sang, it's voice echoing for the group to hear.
"You're going to need to need to try harder than that to scare me! You've obviously never met our mother!" Ven shouted in common at the demon, giving Solas a single questioning glance before floating off to follow his sister, who hadn't even bothered speaking, just looking ahead as the mark flared in her palm. Ellana honestly hadn't spoken much since they'd found her memories. She had been single-mindedly trying to keep the group together and moving towards the exit. All the demon's taunts sliding off her like a greased nug. Ven seemed to be the one that was taking the insults personally and was goading the demon on further.
"You know, I really don't want to see your mother mad, if this world doesn't scare you," Hawke commented as they reached the apex.
"Ellana, do you think that you're going to live through the year, the next second with the amount of pain coursing through your body on a regular basis? Are you going to be able to save Thedas knowing you aren't the Maker's chosen?"
Solas saw her roll her eyes. "I never proclaimed to be the Maker's chosen and I've lived through the last seven months in pain, I'll last for a little while longer. It's going to take more than my mortality to frighten me!"
"Ah, you little children of sin, it seems that mortality will always be on your minds. And you, Ellana, will be the first to fall," the Demon promised and Solas could almost feel its satisfaction wafting through the air.
The fade rift was in sight, but the battle was far from over. The fear demon finally showed itself and the real battle began. Cassandra and Stroud took to shielding Solas, Hawke, Sera, and to a certain extent Ven as well, but he was all over the battlefield with Ellana. From what Solas had noticed was that Ven couldn't be too far away from his sister without losing his connection to this part of the fade. Much like a spirit seeking out a mage in their sleep. So, instead of staying in the back and fighting by flinging spells he was using a fade-crafted sword to cover his sister, who was slashing the demons apart with brutal efficiency.
Ven's form was supposed to be long dead, one that Vivienne would be jealous of. It was obvious that Ven had been taught by an Ancient in the art. The sheer force behind every swing was accurate and deadly, but never dangerous to any of his allies. Solas almost wished that he was here fighting physically in the fade with them in this moment. The mage would have been extremely helpful at his full power with them.
Even after defeating the demon another one took its place, larger and more dangerous than the last one. Ellana was left with a choice, either Hawke or Stroud were going to have to stay back, since both were rather vocally volunteering. Were humans always this eager to end their lives? "Neither of you are going to die today," Ellana decided as Ven turned to her.
"Ellana, give me your hand, just like we practiced." Ven said suddenly holding his translucent hand out for his sister to take. What had those two been up to?
Ellana took a deep breath and called the power of the anchor forward. Ven began to glow even brighter. Solas was intrigued what were these two planning?
She sighed and nodded. "If I pass out after this and die to this monster, I'll haunt your ass from the rest of eternity," she told her brother and then turned towards the group, "run towards the exit, now!"
Sera and Cassandra didn't need to be told twice. Solas, Stroud and Hawke all moved towards the exit quickly, but waited to see if they'd need to step in. Ellana moved back slowly. Then Ven grabbed her hand with the anchor and nearly became solid as he conjured a fire storm worthy of the ancients, drawing on the power of Solas' foci magic, which should not have been possible for a dream created version of the mage.
The nightmare burned under the intensity of the fire and screamed. Ven began to flicker out and Ellana rushed towards the exit, pulling the group with her through the rift. Ven gave one last wink before disappearing. The four of them tumbled to the ground, Ellana staggering to her feet and closing the rift, sweat and blood covering her face and her eyes tired. Her arm was badly burnt, red and raw from where her brother channeled the power of the anchor.
They were victorious and much to his horror, she did not banish the Wardens, but brought them on as part of the Inquisition. Though, thanks to her and her brother's quick thinking the Wardens had Stroud to keep them in line.
It wasn't long before Ellana was being tended to by Solas in her private tent. He had been going over the anchor with his magic and realized that Ven had actually drained some of the raw magic out of it and removed some of the anchor's taint from Ellana's system. "What did your brother do? He seems to have drained the mark of some of its power."
She gave him a small smile. "I was wondering when that was going to come up." She ran a hand through her matted hair with a sigh before continuing, "We'd figured he might have been able to manipulate the mark while in the fade some time ago. We'd never actually practiced it on that kind of a grand scale or figured how much of a power boost he would receive, but theoretically it would have worked, and it did," she said, but hissed when Solas poked a rather sensitive spot near her elbow.
"You could have died, Ellana. Ven could have killed you!" Solas had healed the majority of the internal damage that Ven's little trip into the fade had caused Ellana. That stunt had potentially shortened her life exponentially if he hadn't treated her right away.
"I'm not dead, Solas! I knew the consequences of letting him use the mark, somewhat. No doubt he'll want to try it again." She replied, "and what right do you have talking to me when it seems that you seem to be planning to betray me, if the demon is anything to go by."
Solas froze half way through casting another healing spell.
"Demons lie, Ellana."
"Yes, but I'm talking about the grave marker, Solas. Dying alone? What are you planning on doing that would merit us all alienating ourselves from you for you to die alone?"
Solas nearly recoiled at the spot-on accusation. She had realized that the fears that were on the headstones were ones that each person could consciously make, and if they weren't careful, each fear could consume them.
"Ellana-" she put a hand over his mouth.
"No, Solas, you listen to me. You aren't alone and I will go to the ends of Thedas to make sure that you stay that way. You have a family here. It might not be the kind you want, but we're here. Don't close me out by lying to me again. Neither of us deserve that after the night we've had."
Her words were underserving and shame clawed at his gut, but he nodded. His chest felt warm, and for a moment he almost wished that her words were true and that he could forget about what he was planning to do to the world. All he wanted to do was bring back the People to their true power.
He finished healing her arm, the dull green glow had faded and he released her hand. "Get some rest, Ellana. It's going to be a long ride back to Skyhold."
"Don't even get me started. Cullen is going to be talking my ears off about Bethany, Sera is going to be telling awful dirty jokes, Cassandra is going to be disgusted by Sera's behavior, you are going to fight with Sera over something stupid and I'm going to have to break all of it up, every day for nearly a week."
Solas smiled tiredly. At least she was alright, for now. This mortal soul was worth protecting.
And Adament comes to a close and the twins weird powers only become stranger and Solas just becomes even more confused. XD Next chapter is the interim between the Adament and the Winter Palace. What has Ven been doing while the Solas was away? Why did he need Fenris watching him? You'll all find out soon.
Thank you for all the reviews, favorites and follows this week! =D
See you all next week,
Animerocker