"Argh," Losyre groaned as she rolled on her side, the pain waking her from what felt like an endless sleep. She blinked against the light, trying to make out where she was. Losyre didn't recognise the room she found herself in, lying on the ground, not helped by the fact that it was dark, with only some light falling on her face from a small barred window. Then her eyes spotted something familiar, a familiar presence in the cell.
"Fen'harel lasa ar," she muttered under her breath ["Dread Wolf take me,"]* Losyre struggled to sit upright, keeping her eyes on the elf. "Why are you here?" she asked.
The elf cocked his head. "I would have though you would be more curious as to why you are in this cell, chained as you are."
Losyre only now noticed the shackle around her ankle. Her heart sank; all the warnings the Keeper had given her about elves being taken came rushing back, in her youth she had never considered the threats to relate to herself, but now…
"I have tried to explain to them the shackles are not necessary," the elf said, "and barbaric."
Losyre shook her head in confusion. "Who did you tell this? You're not a prisoner then?"
The elf chuckled, "for now, I'm sure their suspicions will turn to me soon enough, once the immediate threat is dealt with."
"The immediate threat? Do you mean me?"
The elf laughed. "No, I was referring to something more destructive."
The cell door opened and two human women entered, one brandishing a sword already aimed at Losyre. Losyre got to her feet, she reached for her daggers, but of course they were not there.
The woman holding the sword looked at the elf, "is everything all right? We heard voices."
"I was talking to your prisoner, Seeker," the elf said.
"Why am I chained?" Losyre demanded.
The woman turned to Losyre, their eyes met, fire burning in both their eyes. "You should be thankful we have not killed you yet," the woman said. "The Conclave destroyed, the Divine… killed, along with any chance of peace…"
"You think I did that?"
"You were found among the rubble," the other woman said.
"Ah, so you think me a murderer and incompetent? You think I would blow up a building I was still in?"
"If you were not responsible, then how do you explain this?" the woman grabbed Losyre's wrist before she had a chance to react. Suddenly a sharp pain shot through Losyre's arm and a previously invisible mark on her hand lit up with a green fire that burned at the ends of her nerves. Losyre gasped, she had seen magic before, but never wielded it and this mark seemed to burn with a magic that had somehow nestled itself under her own skin.
"This was caused by the explosion?" Losyre asked surprised.
"I believe so," the elf said.
"Or it is what caused the explosion," the woman said. "The explosion that ripped the sky apart and killed Divine Justinia!" the woman rushed forward and grabbed Losyre's arm. The other human in the room stepped in. "Cassandra," she took the woman's arm and pulled her away from Losyre, "we could need her help, need the mark, to close the breech."
Losyre's thoughts returned to the Conclave, all those people who had come there, not all of them with the best intentions, but many had sought peace, and now they were dead, and –" Losyre gasped as she finally remembered Jane.
"Were there any survivors?" Losyre asked, her voice tense. The two women seemed surprised to hear her ask that, but it was the elf who answered her, "your friend did, yes."
Losyre's sense of relief was stronger than she would have expected, considering her current predicament and the short amount of time she had known Jane before the explosion.
"What do you remember, did you see what caused the explosion?" the elf asked. Cassandra and the other woman looked keen for the answer as well.
"I…" Losyre tried to remember. "I remember running, and… a woman?"
"A woman?" Cassandra asked, her voice pressing for an answer, almost pleading.
"I think so, I think she…" Losyre shook her head.
"Closing the breech should be our priority," the elf said.
"He is right," Cassandra said, "go Leliana, we will meet you at the forward camp."
"What is the breech?" Losyre asked.
"It's a tear in the veil between this world and the Fade," the elf said.
Losyre looked at him, almost wanting to question his story, but she could tell by the look on Cassandra's face that he was telling her the truth.
"And you think this mark can seal it?"
"We hope," the elf said.
"We have little choice but to try," Cassandra said. "Will you help?"
"Do I have a choice?" Losyre said, shaking the shackles around her leg.
Cassandra looked annoyed by the remark, but she got down on her knees so she could reach the shackles and get them off Losyre's leg. Cassandra slowly straightened herself, keeping her eyes on Losyre, waiting for her next move.
It was the elf who broke the silence when he turned to Losyre. "I suppose there should be some introductions, my name is Solas," he nodded his head. Losyre looked at Cassandra, who then reluctantly said, "Cassandra," Losyre was grateful she hadn't stood on any human rituals. "I'm Losyre," she said to both of them.
Cassandra and Solas went first, Losyre followed, trying to think how she could get away, she would first have to know where she was, they said the conclave was destroyed, so the temple was probably gone, and Losyre didn't remember anywhere near the temple where a prison could be.
Losyre was still running through different ways to escape, when they walked out of the building she had been kept. The landscape was as snowy as it had been around the temple, and as Losyre's eyes went up to the sky, it wasn't difficult to tell where the temple had been. There, in the middle of the clear blue sky, was a green vortex. This had to be the breech, it was enormous, green ripping into the blue, violent motion pushing down a long green arm reaching into the mountains, right where the temple was, or had been.
"Fenedhis," Losyre whispered.
"Quite," Solas said next to her.
"You think I can fix that?" Losyre asked, her voice full of disbelief, even more so now she had seen the breech with her own eyes.
"I think you will try," Cassandra said, gesturing for Losyre to follow.
The march to the forward camp wasn't that long, but with every few hundred feet they travelled, the mark on Losyre's hand seemed to spread; its light sparking a little brighter, the pain a little sharper. They arrived to find the other woman – who Cassandra called Leliana – arguing with a member of the Andrastian Chantry, Cassandra and Solas quickly joined them, Losyre left them to it and looking around the bridge the camp had been stationed on, she spotted a familiar face.
"Jane?" Losyre asked surprised, apparently Losyre was the only survivor they had considered suspect enough to imprison.
"Losyre!" Jane ran directly at her and threw her arms around Losyre's neck. Losyre was surprised by the intimate gesture, but welcomed it, feeling Jane at least would be on her side in this madness. "They told me you were alive, but wouldn't let me see you and I thought I should help fight, well, fight that," Jane pointed at the breech. She wasn't wearing the dress Losyre had last seen her in, instead she was wearing some kind of generic human armour Losyre had seen others wearing around the camp. On her back she had a shield and a sword. "You're a warrior?" Losyre asked surprised.
"What, you thought I was just some fancy noble?"
"Well, not a fancy one," Losyre smiled.
Jane laughed, then she looked over Losyre's shoulder. "You brought Solas and Cassandra?"
"You know them?"
"Cassandra introduced herself, after Solas and I reached Haven."
"Haven?"
"Yes, it's a small village near the temple. I knew it existed and Solas knew where it was."
"Solas?"
"Yes, he said we should see if we could help, after the temple exploded…" Jane bit her lip. "Losyre, you have to know I wouldn't have left you there if I knew you'd survived, but the explosion… it just seemed impossible anyone would survive, I myself only survived because Solas said he had seen a strange statue I might think funny and before we'd even reached it, everything went white…"
Losyre was surprised to hear Solas had apparently helped her friend after the explosion.
"Losyre," Cassandra's voice called out.
"What?" Losyre turned to face her.
"We are discussing our path to the temple," Cassandra said.
"Yes… just tell me when you want to leave."
"We would like for you to decide."
"Me? Decide what?"
"What path we should take," Cassandra said.
Losyre frowned. "I was your prisoner less than an hour ago, and now you want me to advise you on strategy?"
"You have the mark," Solas said.
"The mark isn't giving me much advise at the moment, I'm afraid," Losyre said.
"Do you believe we should charge with the soldiers or take the mountain path?" Leliana asked.
"Whichever option is less likely to get me killed before closing the breech kills me."
"The mountain path then?" Jane suggested.
"You're coming as well?" Losyre asked.
"Of course," Jane said.
And with that, the four of them left for the ruins of the temple. Everyone was quite, perhaps silenced by the threat hanging above their heads, though Losyre was pre-occupied with worrying what was in store for her if she failed to close the breech. Her whole life Losyre had been told elves were not save in human society, and now she was travelling with a human warrior who thought she might have caused the explosion that killed their religious leader.
When they finally reached the temple, the destruction was greater than Losyre had imagined. She couldn't believe she had been in the middle of an explosion this destructive, and had come out of it unscathed. Except for the mark on her hand.
All that was left standing of the temple were some parts of its outer walls, strange red rocks were spread around the area, and in the middle of the ruin the breech connected to a strange shape, almost like a large green crystal, constantly breaking and reforming itself.
"This is your chance to end this, are you ready?" Cassandra asked.
"Ready?" Losyre gestured to the breech. "You expect me to fly up there?"
"We must try, this rift was the first, it's the key, it is our best chance at sealing the breech," Solas said.
"I was not suggesting to give up," Losyre replied, "but I can't reach it, I'm not sure what I would even do to try and seal it."
"Let's find a way down first," Cassandra said.
As they made their way down to the centre of the ruin, a strange voice rang out from the rift, followed by Divine Justinia's voce, and then…
"That's your voice," Cassandra said surprised, "the Divine, she called out to you…"
Before Cassandra could finish her thought, there were flashes of light, the Divine and a dark figure… some kind of ritual… Losyre tried to understand, but she couldn't remember.
"Those are echoes of what happened, the Fade is bleeding into this world," Solas said. "We have to open this rift to be able to properly close it, the mark should be able to open it."
"You seem to know a lot about this thing," Losyre said.
"It is just a theory until we do so," Solas said.
"If you're sure," Losyre said.
"I usually am," Solas replied and suddenly he reached out and grabbed her hand, pulling her arm up in an awkward angle.
"What are you –" Losyre said angrily but before she could finish the rift reacted to the proximity of the mark, pain shot through her hand and the rift cracked open, and immediately spewed out a large Pride demon.
Losyre had never seen a demon before, only renderings of demons, drawn by the mages of her clan. While she knew demons could be summoned into this world, it terrified her to think her mark could do so, or the rifts could do so. If there were rifts all over Thedas, as Cassandra had told her, what did this mean for the world?
Soon the Pride demon wasn't the only threat, as other, smaller demons started coming through the rift. Jane proved quite the capable warrior, rivalling even Cassandra in strength, Losyre concentrated on the smaller demons, too afraid to get close to the pride demon. Only now did Losyre notice Leliana had joined them and was attacking from a distance, she was an archer and had brought more archers with her. It did not take long before they had defeated the demons and Losyre heard Cassandra yell at her to seal the rift, while Solas called out "use the mark."
Losyre lifted her hand like he had before and again the rift reacted to her mark, the pain shot through her again, more overwhelming than before and then everything went dark.
Losyre awoke in a bed this time, no shackles or bars, in fact, she found herself in a small cabin. Before Losyre could wonder what was going on, the door to the small cabin she was in opened, and a pleasantly surprised Jane entered. "You're awake!" Jane said as she rushed forward, hugging Losyre.
"Where are we?" Losyre asked.
"We're in Haven," Jane said. She bit her lip.
"What?"
"A lot has happened, you've been asleep for three days, Solas said I shouldn't worry, but –"
"Solas?"
"Yes, he looked after you, like before," Jane said. "I suppose mages are better at healing than most physicians."
Losyre shook her head. "What has happened?"
"Err… I'm not sure how to tell you, you're an elf, so I assume if you don't believe in… well, you probably… you probably believe in your own gods, but…" Jane shifted so she could sit closer to Losyre. "You should know that people have been calling you the Herald of Andraste," she said it in a tone that made it clear Jane knew this news wouldn't be welcome. "And…" Jane took a deep breath. "And they are using you as a symbol for their Inquisition."
"Inquisition?"
"Yes, they started an Inquisition, I wasn't involved. No one told me beforehand, but Cassandra made an announcement about it in front of all of Haven."
"And I am their 'Herald' because of this," Losyre looked at her mark.
Jane looked guilty, as if she was somehow responsible. "I think people just need to believe the Maker is on their side, what with the world coming to an end."
"The breach isn't closed then?"
"No, it is… stable, I think that's what Solas called it, but it's still there."
"So I am not going back to my clan any time yet."
"I don't think they'd let you leave, everyone knows your mark is the only magic that can close the rift."
The door opened again, it was Cassandra. "Lady Trevelyan, Losyre," she greeted them.
"The guard outside said he heard voices, so I came to see if you had awakened," Cassandra said. "And you have, good." She looked slightly apprehensive. "I'm not sure if you've heard, but –"
"You're an Inquisition now, yes I heard," Losyre said.
"We are, at least, I would like for you to stay, we need the mark to close the rifts."
Losyre shifted in the bed. "And if I want to leave?"
Cassandra looked a little angry now, "I cannot imagine where you would want to go, the rifts are everywhere and the breech is still in the sky, I don't think there is a safe place to hide."
"But I am free to leave?" Losyre pressed.
Cassandra clenched her jaw, "I suppose."
"Good," Losyre said and got up from the bed, "then I'll stay."
Cassandra looked annoyed, "you were testing me?"
"No one likes being a prisoner," Losyre said.
"Very well," Cassandra reached out her hand and Losyre shook it. "Welcome to the Inquisition Losyre," Cassandra said and she turned to leave. "There will be a celebration tonight, in the Chantry, you're both welcome to attend."
"Am I part of the Inquisition as well then?" Jane asked.
"I do not think we're in the position to be turning down the help of skilled warriors," Cassandra said and left.
"I guess only the Herald gets a handshake," Jane said.
"Please don't call me that."
"All right, but I hope you're prepared to hear it a lot from other people. And you might find you want them to believe you're the Herald."
"Why?" Losyre asked.
"I'll admit I have been naïve in my understanding of what elves go through, but I am not entirely blind, I think them believing you were sent by Andraste might at least protect you," Jane said, "besides, it now seems they either believe you caused the breech or can close it, it would be better if they believed the latter."
Losyre sighed, "I really wish I could just disappear back to the Free Marches."
"Not tonight," Jane said, "we really should at least look in on the celebration."
"Meaning you want to go?"
"It might be fun," Jane said.
"A celebration in the Chantry?" Losyre scoffed, but Jane seemed genuinely enthusiastic. "Fine, but if they start reciting the Chant of Light, I'm out of there."
Jane had gotten dressed in the same dress she had worn to the Conclave, it had been cleaned and now smelled faintly of flowers. Losyre was wearing her armour, Jane had tried to get her to wear a dress, but she had refused.
As they were walking to the Chantry, Losyre noticed the whole of Haven seemed abandoned, except for the brightly lit Chantry. The doors were open and from here you could already tell that it was crowded inside. Losyre had never been comfortable around large groups of people, well, unless you counted her own clan, and she felt even less comfortable walking into a Chantry, but Jane wanted to go and Losyre obliged.
Jane entered with genuine enthusiasm, while Losyre reluctantly followed, and she could not have prepared for what happened. The people closest to Losyre noticed her presence immediately and as a consequence they fell quiet, a silence washed over the crowd, as one by one all eyes focused on Losyre, and then the entire room split down the middle, opening a path for Losyre, running all the way through the hall. At the end of the path, Losyre could now see Cassandra and Leliana standing next to a man she'd never seen before, and she slowly started to make her way down the newly formed path, Jane following behind her.
"That's the herald."
"A Dalish elf?"
Losyre quickened her pace, trying to ignore the whispers, behind her she could hear Jane hurry to keep up with her. When she finally reached Cassandra and Leliana she felt relieved, safe among the women even if she hardly knew either of them. Behind her the crowd finally started talking normally again, and soon the path was gone, everyone mingling as they had before.
"Losyre," Cassandra said, "let me introduce you to the commander of the Inquisition's forces," she gestured to the man standing next to her. He was wearing an impressive armour that bore the insignia of the Templars. "This is commander Cullen, Cullen this is the priso–" Cassandra stopped herself a little too late, "this is the Herald."
"I'm not, please don't call me that," Losyre said.
Cassandra narrowed her eyes, "you don't believe you were sent by the Maker?"
"I don't believe in the Maker," Losyre said, unwilling to compromise on her own beliefs.
The tension was palpable until: "I'm pleased to see you are awake," the commander said, bowing his head at Losyre.
Behind her Losyre could hear Jane coughing, clearly trying to attract attention. Losyre moved a little aside so Jane could stand next to her. "This is Jane Trevelyan," Losyre said.
Cullen looked at Jane, "I…" his eyes moving to the ground, "I'm pleased to meet you."
"As am I," Jane said, "to meet you I mean," she added, now looking at the ground as well.
Cullen looked at Jane, shifted on his feet, then coughed. "Well, no one made quite an entrance like you… two… did." He rubbed the back of his neck.
"I like to stand out from a crowd," Losyre said sarcastically. Cullen's eyes were still on Jane, "yes."
Jane looked up just a little too late to catch Cullen staring, nevertheless, she looked slightly nervous as well.
Losyre couldn't help but smile.
"Excuse me," a soft voice came from behind them, Losyre made way for the woman.
"This is our ambassador, Josephine Montilyet," Cassandra said as the woman pushed forward.
"You must be Lady Lavellan," Josephine said.
"I'm not – you can just call me Losyre."
"I think it would help your position in the Inquisition if we show you all proper respect," Josephine said.
Losyre looked puzzled, but she noticed Josephine was looking at the people behind them, Losyre turned and saw a few people staring, at first she assumed it was because she was 'the herald' but then she started to recognise some of the expressions, expressions she had noticed many times before. "I understand," Losyre said.
"Will you be joining my for–" the commander turned red, looking away from Jane. He cleared his throat. "Will you be joining the Inquisition's forces, Lady Trevelyan?"
Jane seemed surprised. "Because I'm a warrior?"
"Uhm… yes," the commander said.
Jane was slightly blushing. "I suppose I could stay, here with… erm… the Inquisition," she glanced at the commander.
"I'm not certain you have the right training for that," Cassandra said, crossing her arms.
"We have many new recruits, I am sure Lady Trevelyan could join them," Josephine said.
Cassandra clenched her jaw but didn't respond.
Jane looked slightly uncomfortable, so Losyre decided to return the favour Jane had done for her the day they had met. "Let's look around the room, maybe there's some food we can find," Losyre said as she started to pull her friend away.
"No frilly cakes, I'm afraid," Josephine said, her expression surprisingly serious considering the subject matter.
Losyre and Jane slowly made their way through the crowd, the whole room seemed to be divided into smaller groups, chatting amongst themselves. Losyre picked up a few snippets, some people were complaining, saying she should've closed the breech, some were complaining about having to sleep in tents, others were discussing the Chantry. Not feeling they could join in any of the conversations, Losyre and Jane eventually sat down on a small table – finding no chairs – to the side of the hall.
"Are you really staying?" Losyre asked Jane.
Jane's face lit up, "are you asking because you want me to?"
Losyre half smiled, "maybe," she admitted.
Jane briefly hugged her, "good, because I am."
Losyre was looking at her hand, even if the mark was not visible at the moment, and Jane noticed. "Does it hurt?"
"Sometimes," Losyre said, tracing her skin where the mark normally was, causing the mark to briefly light up.
"Ah, you must be our Herald then," a voice said.
Losyre looked up and noticed a redheaded dwarf walk up to them, wearing a shirt that seemed to be missing a few buttons.
"Did the glowing hand give it away?"
"That and you're one of the few elves here, so guessing your identity correctly isn't much of a challenge," the dwarf said, then bowed. "Varric Tethras, story teller and prisoner of the Inquisition."
"Prisoner? I had not realised this was a regular recruitment scheme of them," Losyre joked. Varric laughed. "I'm Losyre, and this is Jane." Jane waved.
"I'm sure I'm free to leave, more free than you are I suspect, but I'm not in the habit of walking away from a good story," Varric said.
"So what were you held for?" Jane asked.
"Nothing quite as spectacular as ripping a hole in the Veil and threatening the world," Varric said.
Before Varric could say anything else, Losyre was distracted by seeing Cassandra and Josephine walk by them, looking like they were going to come over, but then Cassandra noticed Varric and kept walking. Varric in turn noticed Jane and Losyre looking at Cassandra, and looked in time to see her walking away from them, followed by a clearly confused Josephine.
"The Seeker seems particularly serious today," Varric said.
"You know Cassandra?" Jane asked.
"We have history," Varric said, "not particularly pleasant history, mind you."
Losyre saw Josephine and Cassandra discuss something before Cassandra abruptly walked away and Josephine turned around and walked up to Losyre, Jane and Varric after all.
"Master Tethras, Lady Trevlyan," Josephine nodded at them before turning to Losyre. "I would like to discuss something with you, Lady Lavellan," she said. Losyre followed Josephine.
"Has anyone mistreated you?" Josephine asked. "This evening in particular?"
Losyre was surprised, "thank you for asking Josephine, but I can handle the odd stare and the occasional 'knife ear' thrown at me."
Josephine sighed, "I have spoken to the servants and asked commander Cullen to talk to the soldiers, but I am not entirely surprised."
"Again, it matters little to me, I have heard and experienced much worse."
"I imagine so," Josephine said, "nevertheless it is behaviour unbecoming of the Inquisition, if we are to work without the Chantry's approval we should at least seem proper." Josephine looked around the room, as if looking for a transgression taking place right that moment. "Not to mention it's behaviour I personally find detestable."
Losyre smiled. "Thank you, for your concern, it… it means a lot to me."
"Of course," Josephine, "now if you'll excuse me, I have to talk to Leliana." Josephine left to join the group, where Varric had now joined the others, Losyre was about to follow, but then noticed Solas had joined them. She hadn't even seen him entering the hall. Losyre felt uncomfortable and decided to just return to Jane. She was scanning the crowd, looking for her friend, when she caught something said by Varric.
"I think Curly is quite taken with Lady Trevelyan, I was watching you before," Varric's voice rang out. Losyre was hidden behind the people standing between her and the group, and she was thankful for the opportunity to eavesdrop. She had noticed Jane's reaction to the commander as well, and was curious what he would say about her friend.
"I… I am not," Cullen's reply came, you could almost hear the blushing in his voice.
"You are!" Leliana laughed.
"I… I…"
"We're just teasing you Curly," Varric said.
"I am surprised to see you enjoying the evening's celebrations, considering the events that led you to be part of the Inquisition," Solas said.
"I am, no use in mopping around, and you might want to cheer up yourself, Chuckles, you're bringing down the entire room," Varric said.
"You might be able to imagine this is not the most pleasant place to be, for an elven apostate," Solas said.
"I highly doubt Ruffles would allow anyone to attack you here, it would be bad manners."
"I imagine so," Solas said.
"Why don't you go talk to our Herald? I'm sure she'd appreciate being able to share the burden of being the elf with all eyes on her."
"Losyre?" Solas asked, sounding surprised. "I cannot imagine what you think I should discuss with her."
"Your people might do well standing together in the face of all the renewed suspicion," Leliana said.
"My people? Losyre is not one of my people."
"Are you referring to her being a Dalish elf?" Josephine asked.
"Quite," Solas answered curtly.
"You might still find you have something in common with her," Josephine tried tentatively.
"And what exactly do you imagine we would have in common?" Solas asked.
"I… I'm sure you can both learn something from each other," Josephine said.
"If she truly is a Dalish elf, I suspect she will be disinclined to listen to me. The Dalish consider themselves perfect, sole keepers of elven lore, what could I possible add to that?"
"Oh, I…" Josephine faltered.
"You truly believe she's like that?" Varric scoffed.
"I have seen nothing to suggest otherwise," Solas said.
Losyre turned around, planning on confronting Solas, but he looked up at just that moment and as their eyes met, Losyre lost her courage. Instead she turned around and decided to leave the celebrations.
As Losyre walked out into the snowy night, she heard Jane calling out after her. "Losyre, wait!" Jane ran to catch up. "Where are you going?"
"Home, or, well, that cabin I'm stationed in for the moment."
"Is something wrong?"
"I'm just tired of all the… elfiness I suppose."
"Is it that elf? Solas?"
"Good guess."
"Not really, he's the only other elf here I've actually met here," Jane laughed nervously. "What happened?"
"Nothing really, I'm used to people disliking me because I'm Dalish," Losyre said. Jane touched her arm in support. Losyre looked up at her friend and smiled, "but I suspect you'd much rather discuss Commander Cullen."
Jane turned red. "I… I…"
Losyre laughed. "I didn't know you liked him that much!"
Jane laughed a little as well, playfully pushing Losyre, "yeah well, just don't tell anyone."
"I'm sure he feels the same way," Losyre said, "in fact, I think you can count on it."
Jane didn't respond, but as they walked together to the cabin, Losyre could see a small smile appear on her friend's face.
Notes:
* While I have no real cannon reason to assume this, I am thinking "Dread Wolf take me" is Elven for 'f*ck me.'
I think this chapter will give you an idea about how I'll combine the two stories, though this was far more DA heavy, for obvious reasons. Much like I did here, I will probably shorten or combine events for the sake of getting all the required story, but not just writing out the game's progression.