Disclaimer: all events and dialogue pulled directly from Dragon Age: Inquisition is the property of Bioware and is not used here for any means of profit.
A/N at the end :) Enjoy!
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Isabeau's feet were suddenly cold and very wet.
Where in one breath she was diving to interrupt Alexius' casting, the floor of Redcliffe's throne room had lurched out from under her boots, Alexius and the others disappearing before that same breath had finished. A great vortex of swirling pressure and energy had briefly engulfed her before she was expelled from the rift, Isabeau's eyes blearily adjusting to the dim, red glow of the crypt-like room around her.
Before she could recover from her disorientation however, two armed men burst around the corner of the cell's doorway in front of her, Isabeau immediately moving to put some distance between herself from the unknown foes. Water sloshed around her legs loudly as she rather clumsily retreated to a far corner of the oubliette she now found herself in, absently noting several monstrous columns of red lyrium that reached to the ceiling on nearly every wall of the chamber.
"Blood of the Elder One! Where did they come from?!" One of the men shook his head in disbelief with the exclamation, Isabeau deftly pulling her sword from its scabbard as her eyes frantically took in what she could of the dungeon she'd quite literally been dropped into. The crystalline formations of red Lyrium added an eerie glow to the room, their radiance and the brazier's flames reflecting off the flooded floor and illuminating the two armored men before her.
"Oh good – It wasn't just me then!" Dorian's voice rang out from across the room, a swell of relief overtaking Isabeau just as her companion's staff ignited with flame, one of their assailants slammed back against the far wall as vicious balls of fire erupted across his chest and consumed him. Capitalizing on the distraction, Isabeau dove at the remaining guard, water swirling up and around her powerful legs as she swiftly drove her sword through the man's rib cage, unceremoniously shoving him away to float face down in the murky waters. Taking several shallow breaths, she slid her sword back into its sheath, turning then to gape with frightened incredulity at Dorian.
"Where… are we?"
He frowned as he seemed to consider her simple question and muttered distractedly, "Displacement of some sort maybe…?" He crouched down to investigate one of the nearby pillars of red lyrium, albeit from a distance. "It's probably not what Alexius intended… but the Rift must have moved us to… to what? The closest confluence of Arcane energy?"
Isabeau rubbed at her temple as she willed the growing distraction of the lyrium's song out of her mind, "The last thing I remember was Alexius' amulet… and a rift opening in the hall."
"That's right. Now, those men who just attacked us? I suspect they were Venatori, if that dreadfully tacky armor is any indication. If so, then we may still be in the castle, which means… Oh!" he gasped as he stood and excitedly brought a fist to his palm with a meaty slap, "Of course! It's not a matter of where, it's a matter of when! Alexius used the amulet as a focus and it, in turn, moved us through time!"
Isabeau's stomach twisted sharply at the insanity of Dorian's claim, "H-how… is that – can that even be done?"
"Normally, I'd say no. Evidently however, Alexius has taken his research to new and exciting heights…" he quipped rather sardonically. "Remember when we first came to the village, the rift outside the main gate? That was essentially the same sort of temporal rift. I suspect this time we… simply passed through one."
Shaking her head as if the act alone could revert their situation, Isabeau began to anxiously pace next to her companion. "Even if it's possible we travelled through time, did we go forward or back? And how far, Dorian?"
Even in facing the severity of their situation, Dorian's eyes seemed to sparkle with a mischievous patience from the flickering reflections off the water. "Those… are excellent questions. We'll just have to find their answers, now won't we?"
She groaned with frustration at her companion's feigned nonchalance, "What do you think Alexius could have possibly hoped to gain by doing this?"
He shrugged, "I suspect he intended to remove you from time itself. Think about it; if you never existed, you never would have been at the Temple of Sacred Ashes to cock up his Elder One's dubious plot. He tried tossing us into the rift, I countered it and… here we are. Make sense?"
"No. No, this… is insane," Isabeau muttered darkly as her head began to spin from more than lyrium exposure, Dorian moving away to search the flooded cell of any items of use as he hummed his agreement.
"I don't even want to think of the ramifications this will have on the fabric of the world itself. We didn't travel through time so much as punched a bloody hole in it before tossing it down the privy."
The sounds of him angrily rummaging through a sack in the corner nearby were not nearly loud enough for Isabeau's tastes. Wherever they were, the mysterious melody that had infested her mind since the Temple's explosion had returned in force; the shock of her surroundings now lessened enough for her mind to grasp the growing distraction. As Isabeau toed at the body of the enemy floating face down in the water, new and unsettling notes of a different trill seemed to invasively spike their way through her own mind's familiar song. Disturbed by the observation, she endeavored to bury the disquieting and inconvenient perplexity, reaching down to fish out a key from the man's tunic before nearly running for the door of the cell.
"Maker… There's no end to it!" She cried out in disgust, swallowing thickly as she found no reprieve from the substance in the adjacent room, twisted and gnarled pillars of the ominous crystals populating the rows of cells stretching the length of the long, flooded hallway. Dorian moved from the first chamber to stand next to her, his mouth forming a grim line as he stared at the cancerous crystals around them.
"Yes, well… do try not to touch it. Did you find anything else?"
Isabeau silently held out the key in her hand before he took it and headed for the stairs at the opposite end of the room, unlocking the heavy wooden door at the top before briskly ushering the Inquisitor out into the mostly empty stairwell. More of the glowing and ominous clusters of crystals grew on the walls and around an imposing statue before them, the sight flanked on either side by two sets of stairs while emaciated and skeletal bodies littered the floor at the statues feet. Isabeau's eyes lingered on the disturbingly disproportionate head resting in the palm of the statue's hands, fighting the urge to close her eyes and listen to the song clawing at her mind as the glow of the lyrium pulsated like a heartbeat around her…
"You're pale. Are you alright?" Dorian asked as he turned to narrow his eyes at Isabeau, breaking her from her fixation as she brought a shaky hand to her forehead, a growing fear percolating at the back of her throat as she considered how much of the carcinogen had infested the castle to affect her so.
She did her best to suppress the bizarre symphony currently troubling her mind. While the mysterious affliction had seemed to abate a fair bit since her survival at the Conclave, Isabeau had only revealed her condition to Solas and Cullen; neither of which were currently around to help her navigate the invasive resurgence of the usually dormant phenomenon. Deciding now was not the time to reveal her queer disorder, Isabeau impatiently waved Dorian's concern away.
"I'm… adjusting, Dorian."
Though his scrutiny lingered on her for several more seconds, Dorian finally looked away and made his way towards one of the two doors they had available to them. "Alexius has certainly made a dreadful mess of the place with his choice in décor. Nonetheless, we need to carry on and try and establish where – in time – the rift has moved us. And try to get back… if we can."
Nodding as she followed behind him, Isabeau chewed on her bottom lip as she considered those who had joined her in Redcliffe's main hall. "What about Cassandra and Solas? Do you think they were pulled in with us?"
"I doubt it was large enough to bring the whole room through; Alexius wouldn't dare risk catching himself or Felix in it – they're probably wherever or whenever we left them… in a manner of speaking," Dorian explained.
"And this 'Elder One' Alexius mentioned… Do you know of him?"
Pausing as his hand reached to open the wooden door at the top of the stairs they'd climbed, Dorian turned and slowly tutted at her. "My, my… we really are living up to our namesake on this adventure aren't we?"
"I just thought I'd ask –"
"No, by all means! I'm a mage from Tevinter, why wouldn't I know who the fucking leader of an insane Tevinter cult is?" he growled in unexpected retaliation, angrily pushing open the door and stomping ahead of Isabeau to pass under a towering pillar of red lyrium, disappearing from her sight.
Alarmed by her friend's sudden and venomously defensive tone, Isabeau anxiously jogged to catch up to him, her boots splashing in the shallow puddles collecting at the lower points of the room's floor. "Dorian, please… that's not what I meant!"
After a brief pause to gaze forlornly at the luminous crystals surrounding them, Dorian sighed heavily and turned to face her, offering Isabeau a dejected shrug in way of apology. "I know… Forgive me for being touchy; perhaps it's our surroundings, but…it's not easy seeing your countrymen perpetuate every stereotype that simultaneously damns them."
"It never should be easy; for what it's worth, I'm sorry. It's this place, Dorian… it's not right," Isabeau offered as she gave his shoulder a final squeeze of encouragement. Feeling the man relax under her touch, Isabeau pulled away then and crossed her arms over her chest as she fought to keep her mind still. "If I may ask one more thing?"
He sighed dramatically, "One more. After that, each is a sovereign from you onto my tab back at Skyhold."
She chuckled softly in assent as she absently appreciated the mage's ability to lighten her spirits, "You… have a plan I hope?"
"Do Ihave a plan? Oh yes, I've definitely had some thoughts, Inquisitor…" he jauntily replied before turning to lead them further into the dank antechamber, the pair now making their way past a row of cells with floors no longer visible beneath the skulls and bones scattered within. "They're lovely thoughts, by the way. Like little gems that sparkle with my own brilliance."
"Arse…" Isabeau breathed as she steadied herself and followed Dorian, the nausea that sat at the back of her throat becoming a permanent fixture as they discovered red Lyrium in nearly every room and hall they searched. Amongst the moldy and blood stained rushes of the dungeon's floors were piles of skeletons, revulsion twisting Isabeau's features as she noted the red crystals that seemed to grow directly from the bones themselves in numerous cells. When her eyes lingered too long on a particular cluster around a broad Templar sword, the muted melody in her head hit an explosive crescendo, Isabeau crying out and doubling over as she shook the pain from behind her eyes.
"Isabeau!" Dorian shouted concernedly as he immediately moved to her side, his hands steadying her as he gently cupped her shoulders. "What is it?"
"It's n-nothing – I'm fine, Dorian," she lied through gasps of air between her teeth. Turning to allow the mage in setting her back straight on her feet, Isabeau nodded at the cell behind her. "It's just the red lyrium... it is unpleasant to be around."
"What did I say? You must not get too close," Dorian instructed with an uncharacteristic firmness as he wrapped a steadying arm around Isabeau's waist and lead them forward. "We need to make haste before we find our senses entirely aligned with this madness."
Soon the pair climbed another flight of stairs that lead them to a bizarre room. On each of the walls of the towering chamber were four balconies, three of which were connected by catwalks made of iron grating. More grating was suspended in the middle of the expansive space in a U-shape around a stone floor center, the edges of the floor itself sharply dropping off several meters short of the surrounding walls. Taking a quick glimpse over the edge, Isabeau's stomach flipped with vertigo; it looked like a long fall down to whatever pit the odd structure sat above.
The Inquisitor had enough time to notice the bridge directly across from her was raised and barring their path forward, when Dorian's warning shout alerted her to the two enemies that stood guard at the doors to her far left and right. Immediately she pulled her shield from her back and unsheathed her sword, bracing as both assailants charged at her with thick Tevinter curses spewing from their lips. Just as Isabeau dived forward to engage, Dorian erected a wall of flame to keep him safely barred from their melee, Isabeau's shield immediately coming up to deflect one blade as her sword simultaneously swiped out and across the bare skin of the other Venatori's exposed bicep. Immediately the man cried out and reeled away as he clutched at the now badly damaged limb, Isabeau grunting as she pushed the other attacker off and away from her.
The injured foe suddenly began to scream as red, glowing glyphs appeared on the floor all around him, each step he took explosively engulfing him in flames. Isabeau immediately diverted her attention to the other enemy as screams filled the room, feeling Dorian's barrier protectively come down over her just in time to deflect an incoming jab of the Venatori's tapered, piercing blade. Raising her arm to slam the pointed edge of her shield into the brute's clavicle, Isabeau swiftly kicked the unbalanced man to the floor, using her sword to knock his weapon out of his hand and immediate reach. Her heavy boot pinned him as she pressed it with all of her weight to his chest.
"Where is Alexius!? Who is the Elder One?!" she roared in demand, releasing his chest from her boot long enough to kick off the helm from the man's head, not wanting to miss any opportunities she and Dorian may have to gather intel. As Isabeau noted the red glow to the warrior's eyes and the sickly cracking of his skin, in way of an answer, the Venatori made a disgusting noise as he cleared his throat and spat a great lob of blood and mucus at Isabeau; the offending bodily liquid hitting her square on the cheek with a disgusting splat.
Before Isabeau could react, the Venatori suddenly reached for her sword with bare hands. Stunned by the absurd action, Isabeau watched in horror as her prisoner swiftly and forcibly yanked her own blade to his throat, the keenly sharpened sword easily penetrating the flesh. Recoiling from the grisly sight as she pulled the blade from the enemy's grasp all too late, Isabeau shook her head in disgust as the gurgling death rattles of the dying man soon filled the expansive and otherwise silent chamber. Dorian appeared at her side then, shaking his head at the scene before resting a comforting hand at her back.
"Well... No one could say he wasn't committed."
Isabeau tugged at the bottom of her armor's tunic, wiping the blood from her blade before hastily sliding it back into its scabbard. "What kind of leader is this Elder One… where death is preferable to life for his men if captured?"
"One who considers red lyrium to be a compelling conversation piece?"
Returning her shield to its place on her back, Isabeau gave a weary sigh as she shook her head at Dorian's inopportune glib, "Not funny."
"These men are fanatics, Isabeau; you'd do well to pay them no more mind beyond that simple recognition," Dorian advised evenly as he lead the way towards the door to their far left, Isabeau silently following behind him as they descended downwards again and into more chambers full of shackles, red lyrium and the echoes of death.
When Isabeau decided to do no more than do a quick scan of the final room they came across, the sounds of her feet sloshing in the shallow water elicited a strangled gasp from the farthest cell in the room.
"Is… someone there?"
Pausing at the sound of the weak and oddly distorted voice that had called out, Isabeau hesitated briefly before she broke off from Dorian's side and cautiously made her way towards a cell door at the back corner of the room. With a horrified gasp, Isabeau's hand instinctively shot to her throat, swallowing repeatedly as she fought the bile that threatened to spill out at the sight.
Trapped within, encased in thick layers of red lyrium, was Grand Enchanter Fiona; her entire body from her ribcage down indistinguishable from the crystals that looked to be consuming her. She turned her head to reveal eyes that were as red as the lyrium itself, a disturbing glow of the same colour emanating from the orbs as she gazed at Isabeau in disbelief, "You're alive… how can this be?"
"Andraste's mercy, Fiona… Is red lyrium growing from your body?!"
"The longer you are near it… eventually you become this," Fiona answered, taking a pain-filled and shaky breath before continuing. "Then… they mine your corpse for more."
Before Isabeau could even grasp an adequate response to the horrifying revelation, Dorian stepped forward, his knuckles nearly white as he grasped at the bars containing the elven mage.
"Can you tell us the date? It's very important!"
"Dorian!" Isabeau immediately cried in reprimand of her companion's boorish questioning. The Inquisitor's own revulsion at the discovery was leaving little room for her mind to consider much else beyond a deep sorrow for the woman trapped before her. Unfortunately for Isabeau, that same emotional tangent also made her keenly aware of every piece of the cursed red crystal they had encountered thus far; the gruesome significance of each cluster provoking a devastating ache deep within her chest.
"Isabeau, I agree that this – " Dorian began before he paused and swallowed thickly, gesturing towards the mangled woman before them, " – Is abhorrent… but it is irrelevant unless we figure out when we are."
The pounding of her heart almost rivalled the music in her head as Isabeau reluctantly nodded her submission, casting a sad and contrite gaze the Enchanter's way. "I'm sorry Grand Enchanter… it is imperative we know the date… if you are able to recall?"
Wearily shaking her head, each word of Fiona's came out in agonized breaths, "Harvestmere… nine-forty-two… Dragon."
Dorian pushed off and away from the cell's bars with an alarmed scoff, "Forty-two? Then we've missed an entire year!"
"Alexius serves the Elder One…" Fiona brokenly continued, her voice growing raspier with each ragged breath she took. "…More powerful than even the Maker. No one challenges him and lives… but if you can stop this, if you can stop this from… happening – you must."
"But the Inquisition…? Surely they would have –" Isabeau implored, half afraid to ask before a bitter chuckle tumbled from the Enchanter's cracked and ruined lips.
"WhatInquisition?"
Though her heart and mind were already woefully over-taxed, Cullen abruptly pushed his way to the forefront of Isabeau's thoughts at Fiona's simple but dark answer. An all-encompassing panic gripping her heart as if clutched within the claws of a terror demon itself. Could he yet be alive in this destitute future… or would this 'Elder One' have ensured the Inquisition's General be removed at the moment of the self-titled God's ascension?
Maker, no… not that; not him.
Suddenly terrified to find herself in a future that not only assured Cullen's own macabre demise, but also was one she may never escape herself, Isabeau stepped back and away from Fiona's cell until her back met with cold stone wall, the Inquisitor slowly sinking down to the moldy rushes of the dungeon's floor. As the waves of shaking overcame her body, she raised an unsteady hand to grind her palm into her eye socket, only distracted by her inner turmoil at the sound of approaching steps. She opened her eyes to see Dorian staring at her with concern… and a thinly-veiled fear that was not dissimilar from her own.
Crouching to kneel before her and take her hands in his, Dorian levelled his gaze resolutely with Isabeau's, "I'm frightened, too… but this doesn't have to be, darling. If we can find Alexius and his amulet… there may be a way to reverse this." Pulling Isabeau back up and onto her feet, his grip slid from her hands to clutch her forearms tightly, "But I need you right now, regardless of what horrors this future may hold… let them do no more than strengthen your resolve to see this never happens in ours."
"If you can… reverse this, you must try," Fiona implored brokenly from her cell. "Your Spymaster, Leliana… she is here. Find her."
Taking heart from Dorian's encouragement and the precious possibility of reuniting with Leliana, Isabeau took a deep and steadying breath as she nodded at Dorian. "I'm sorry, I-I thought of… Cullen – of what all of this means… I'm afraid it overwhelmed me there for a moment."
"No apologies necessary… but do promise to wear your big girl pants from here on out, hm?" Dorian warmly teased as they made their way back to Fiona's cell, the elf clearly having passed out, her head pressed against the arm that rested against wall in front of her. To their immense frustration, the key Isabeau had found failed to release the heavy padlock on Fiona's cell door. Isabeau could not stifle her irritated snarl as she reached for her shield in desperation, grunting with each futile attempt to break the lock. When Dorian's own attempts with magic failed, they were interrupted by Fiona's strangled cry.
"Please… stop!"
"Fiona –"
The Grand Enchanter immediately cut Isabeau's words off, "No – I have no legs, child… there is nothing you can do for me now. I don't want your apologies… or your pity. I don't… deserve it. Now go… before the Elder One knows you're here…"
Isabeau held the destitute woman's gaze for several more seconds before silently breaking it off with a resolute nod of head, Dorian following her as she strode from the room and made her way back the way they had come, saying a silent prayer for the abandoned Fiona. May you find peace at your Creator's side, Enchanter.
While the one bridge still remained hoisted up – Maker be praised – no more enemies had repopulated the precarious catwalks. Assured they were still moving undetected through the castle's dungeon, the pair trekked across to the door directly opposite of them, the hard soles of their boots clattering upon the metal beneath them with each step they took. Hoping the mechanism that would lower the walk way could be found within, she and Dorian descended to the lower cells, the first room offering nothing but more empty cells and red lyrium.
At the second door, Isabeau immediately felt her heart begin to race as she heard a familiar, if warped, voice chant a forsaken prayer. She burst into the room to find two cells, the first of which contained none other than Cassandra; the Seeker sitting cross-legged and defeated in a corner of the dreary cell. The same unnerving glow and red eyes was clearly poisoning one of Isabeau's dearest companions, the usually stern woman beginning to rock back and forth almost in madness as her crimson eyes widened in shock at the Inquisitor before her.
"Maker… it must truly be the end if the dead return to life," she croaked as she scrambled to her feet, the pain and misery across the woman's features causing Isabeau's own eyes to burn and well with tears. "Can it be? Has Andraste given us another chance? Maker, forgive me! I failed you – I failed everyone! I should ha –"
"Cassandra, I'm alive… I never died in the first place," Isabeau gently interrupted her friend's panicked babbling, reaching to squeeze the Seeker's hands through the bars of her cell. At the feel of Isabeau's grasp, Cassandra visibly shrunk and began to shake, Dorian swiftly moving for the cell door as he pulled the key from his pouch and slid it into the padlock. With a cry of relief from Isabeau at the sound, the key slid home and released the lock with a jarring creak, the hinges of the heavy door crying in protest as Doran swung it open, Isabeau immediately darting in to tightly embrace Cassandra.
Pulling back to look over the clearly tortured woman, Isabeau could not subdue her grimace at Cassandra's sallow and discolored skin; the unnatural yet vibrant crimson glow that surrounded her body disconcertingly unnatural. "What have they done to you?"
Cassandra bitterly shook her head, "I… I'm not sure I have it… in me to repeat, Inquisitor." Turning to nod at Dorian in greeting, she nervously wrung her hands as confusion twisted his features. "I don't understand… if you haven't returned from the dead, how is it you are here now?"
"I never died in the first place, I just… I'm not even sure how to explain it, Cassandra."
"But I saw it myself! Alexius obliterated you right before my eyes!"
"He didn't 'obliterate' us, he opened a temporal rift and it sent us forward in time. If we find him, we may be able to return," Dorian explained.
"Go back in time? Then… you could make it that none of this ever happened?" Cassandra suddenly reached to desperately clutch at Isabeau's forearms. "Alexius' master, the Elder One… we couldn't stop him. No one could. Empress Celene of Orlais was murdered and then an army of demons swept across southern Thedas. Nothing stopped them. Nothing."
"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry, Cassandra…" Isabeau breathed in shock, "I-I should have been there."
"You're here now," Cassandra replied simply before pulling away, returning to a posture almost like the one Isabeau had become so familiar with. Almost. The Seeker silently made her way to a chest against the wall across from her cell, opening its lid to pull out various weapons and armor, her gaze sorrowful as it lingered on her now dusty belongings. "It has been… a long time since I felt this sword's weight," she whispered thickly before buckling its sheath around her hips and sliding the blade into her scabbard.
Isabeau moved to assist Cassandra with the hard to reach clasps and buckles of her breastplate, speaking swiftly as she did so, "We found Grand Enchanter Fiona; she said Leliana was somewhere in the castle. If that's true, then do you know if there may be others?"
"She's still alive? Maker have mercy..." Cassandra breathed before slowly nodding her head. "The very last of our companion's that I saw – alive – was Solas; he and I were interred down here at the same time. If he yet lives, he should be in the cell block opposite of this one."
After giving the chamber a final sweep, the three companion's made their way towards where Solas was allegedly jailed, Cassandra leading the way with brisk, determined strides in her newfound freedom. As Isabeau followed the Seeker, it took everything in her power to suppress the intrusive thoughts of Cullen's fate, not daring to ask after him in this hellish world. Whether it was hope or ill-advised denial, Isabeau refused to accept this was to be her – their – future.
After the three made their way down a flight of stairs and into the aforementioned cell block, Isabeau immediately darted to check each cell, her heart growing heavier as each gave her no more than piles of bones and clusters of red lyrium. Finally, in a tiny cell at the end, cluttered with the poisonous crystals, was Solas. He stood with his back to the door, his smooth head and elegant ears undeniable to Isabeau's eyes despite his body sharing the same glow as Cassandra and Fiona's. At the sound of her approaching footsteps, he slowly turned around, her most trusted companion visibly recoiling in shock as his jaw dropped at the sight before him.
"You're alive!" he gasped as Isabeau moved to unlock his cell door, the same key working on its padlock as it had on Cassandra's. Before the door could even fully swing open, Solas was out and pulling her into an uncharacteristically tender embrace, his glowing red hands cupping her face as his eyes darted back and forth across her features, as if reassuring himself the woman in his arms was real, before he closed his eyes and pressed his forehead to hers. "I saw you die… how is it you've returned?"
Though caught off-guard by Solas' unexpected affections, Isabeau allowed herself to sink into his touch and relish the comfort it brought, raising a hand to clutch his wrists at her cheeks. Before she could explain however, Dorian piped up from behind them.
"The spell Alexius cast displaced us in time… we only just got here, so to speak."
Solas' eyes went wide as he released Isabeau from his touch, striding towards where apparently his own chest of belongings sat in the decrepit chamber. Not unlike Cassandra with her sword, he too looked over his staff with a distant sadness before turning back to face the others, "Can you reverse the process by replicating the connatural memory of the arcane force? You could obviate the events of this past year, none of this would have to happen!"
"That's what I intend, yes… if I can get access to the amulet he used as his focus," Dorian concurred.
"You… understand what happened?" Cassandra asked Solas, perplexed.
He ruefully nodded as he cast a forlorn gaze Isabeau's way, "You would think that understanding would stop me from making such terrible mistakes… You would be wrong." Isabeau frowned in confusion at the remark, but Solas continued bitterly before she could speak, "This world is an abomination, it must never come to pass. We must head upwards; I've overheard the guards speak of Alexius locking himself in the throne room. "
Making their way back to where Dorian and Isabeau had first come from, the echoing ruckus of metal meeting solid stone put Isabeau and her companion's on high alert, the opening of the door before them revealing enemies had gathered and lowered the ramp previously beyond their reach. Immediately Solas cast barriers over Cassandra and Isabeau, the two warriors screaming as they charged across the catwalks and at the clustered group of archers and bladed men crowding the small landing. Just as they reached the choke point, a magister appeared on the steps of the stairs behind the enemies, Isabeau and Cassandra bracing behind their shields as a blast of spirit energy crashed into them, sending both the Inquisitor and Seeker hurtling back ass over feet.
"Isabeau!" Dorian screamed before he and Solas unleashed their own magic might, a dispelling wave cast by Solas coming down and obliterating whatever remained of the enemy's own barriers before the floor of the mezzanine was set aglow with Dorian's fire runes. As one they erupted, screams echoing in the towering chamber as the Venatori scrambled and broke formation in their panic to put out the flames engulfing them. As one archer fell to his death over the edge of the catwalk, Cassandra and Isabeau had recovered by then and darted to reengage the stragglers while Dorian and Solas worked together to battle the magister. When Isabeau's own target was finally taken down by an eviscerating slice to his unprotected gut, she dove and rolled to get behind the magister, putting an end to the battle as she drove her sword through his lower back until it burst from his chest.
"We must make haste," Solas panted. "There is only a finite window for you to be successful. If the Elder One learns you are here…"
"Then you may never be able to correct this," Cassandra succinctly finished. "Come - ahead are the torture chambers; if Fiona believed Leliana to still be within the castle, I have no doubts it is there we shall find her."
Dorian let out a low whistle, "Were you all –?"
"…Yes."
Instantly cowed by the weight of the Seeker's simple yet terrible answer, they moved through the door their assailants had come from, finding themselves in what appeared to be a set of barracks. While they were able to replenish their energy with some unspoiled apples found in a sack amongst an assortment of jugs in a nearby corner, Isabeau suspected the other's appetites were just as lacking as her own given their surroundings. After quickly consuming what they could and drinking of some water, they searched through the sleeping quarters adjacent to the dining hall, disturbing journal entries of anonymous Venatori members doing little and less for Isabeau's hope that reaching Alexius would be easy. By the sounds of it, the Magister had grown quite paranoid in his ascension, allowing next to no one into the throne room besides those attendants that brought him his meals. She tucked the various documents into the pockets of her tunics for safekeeping.
"This way," Cassandra directed as she lead the small party up a flight of stairs and into halls similar to the dungeons below. Isabeau chanced a quick look through the crack in a nearby doorway, immediately moving on with the others when she found no enemies lurking within. She had little desire to expose herself to any more horrors of the castle than was necessary; the glimpse of a mangled body, donned in ragged and ruined Inquisition armor, numerous instruments protruding from its flesh like a sick pincushion, proved enough to affirm her decision.
As they silently made their way further down the hall, Isabeau paused to listen as distant voices echoed from further ahead.
"How did Trevelyan know of the sacrifice at the Temple? Answer!"
"Never!"
A brutally audible slap was heard, Isabeau recognizing both her Spymaster's voice and cry of pain before she broke into a full run towards its source.
"Your defiance is futile, little bird – there's no one left for you to protect!" Another meaty slapping sound was heard before the vicious voice cried out again, "Talk!"
Finding the door the voices originated from was hanging wide open, Isabeau barreled in to find her Spymaster suspended in chains, a Tevinter magister threateningly raising a blade to her throat.
"You… will… break."
"I will die first," Leliana seethed as she levelled her gaze with her torturer, her eyes widening briefly as she seemed to finally see Isabeau behind him, the magister turning himself to look and see what the distraction was. "Or you will," she growled fiercely before she quickly snagged his neck and head between her thighs, the Venatori briefly struggling when a loud crack reverberated through the chamber, Leliana having viciously twisted her body until the man's neck snapped.
Quickly darting for the corpse and yanking his key ring from his belt, Isabeau hastily fumbled between various keys before finally finding the right one for the chains suspending Leliana.
"You're alive?"
Nodding at Leliana's breathy exclamation, Isabeau made short work of releasing the shackles from around the Spymaster's wrists, Cassandra appearing next to her to help steady Leliana as the pair lowered her to her feet. Looking her over, Isabeau fought the scowl threatening to twist her features as she took in the sight of the once beautiful woman's now scarred and ruined flesh, the Spymaster barely recognizable were it not for her clothing. Her face was lined with ugly strips of scars, the haggardness to her features so profound she nearly looked like little more than a skull under her hood.
"It's a long story; Alexius… miscalculated," Isabeau offered lamely, the answer seemingly sufficient for Leliana as the severely ruined woman made her way to a table with a bow and a quiver of arrows upon it. After swiping a few of the smaller torture knives from the table as well, Leliana slipped them into the leg of her boot, nodding at her collected companions as she straightened her posture.
"It will be his last mistake. You have weapons, yes?"
Isabeau nodded.
"Good. There is a gate we will need a key for to enter the courtyard; the magister that carries it should be in his chambers on this level," she rasped as she made for the doorway, only pausing as Dorian spoke up.
"You… aren't curious as to how we even got here?"
"No," she replied frankly.
Dorian barreled on as if he hadn't heard her speak, "Alexius sent us into the future – this, his victory, his Elder One… it was never meant to be!"
Leliana stared impassively at Dorian, seemingly indifferent regarding the critical information he had just revealed. Isabeau stretched her arms out entreatingly, desperately wanting to offer some modicum of solace to her battered friend, "If we can get the amulet and reverse the spell, we can return to the present and none of this will have happened."
Leliana sneered at Dorian in disgust, "And mages wonder why people fear them."
"I beg your pardon? Look, I admit; this magic was particularly dangerous and unpredictable… but prior to the Breach, nothing Alexius and I did made the spell wor–"
"This is all pretend to you, some bleak future you hope will never exist!" Leliana fumed in piqued retort, gesturing towards Cassandra and Solas, the other two companions still shrouded in the glowing red energy. "We suffered. The whole world suffered. It was real."
The knot in her stomach worsening from their failed attempt at comforting their friend, Isabeau remained silent and quietly followed Leliana as the hardened rogue lead the way out of the chamber and through the remaining corridors. As they walked, Dorian's daring seemed to return as he cautiously asked what had happened in the year since their disappearance; Isabeau vaguely paying attention as her hands worked at the sides of her head, rubbing towards her forehead as the headache from the lyrium's melody grew within her skull.
"Stop talking," Leliana commanded.
"I'm only asking for more information," he countered.
"No. You're asking to fill silence. Nothing happened that you want to hear about."
With their contention reaching its grim end, Dorian finally fell silent again as Isabeau felt a hand squeezing her shoulder, turning to find a concerned Solas moving to keep pace at her side.
"Is it bothering you?"
Straightaway Isabeau understood her companion's questioning, sighing as she ran a hand through her hair to push several loose tresses from her face. "Worse than ever before… it's enough I can barely hear myself think, Solas."
"And its…" he dropped his voice to a whisper, leaning in closer before continuing. "Its tune… any changes?"
Blinking at the realization, Isabeau slowly nodded in concurrence, "If I am honest, yes – It's still like before but there's these… ugh, I don't even know what to call them. Anomalies? Like a layer of another song has been added, but broken and scattered, as if… as if heard with a different ear."
Solas' mouth briefly formed a thin line as he seemed to consider her words, "There is a great deal of red lyrium currently surrounding you; frankly, I'm not surprised. It is imperative you do not touch any formations of the substance… I fear even lingering too close to myself or Cassandra could incite a similar reaction."
Unable to keep her churning curiosities at bay, Isabeau buckled then under the weight of Solas's own condition. "Solas… what did they do to you?"
"They… I'm infected, Isabeau. The details of what that entailed not being something I wish to repeat. Ever."
Despite his waning seconds beforehand, Isabeau reached to give his hand a consoling squeeze. "And you don't have to. Forgive me, Solas; it was thoughtless of me," she hastily ceded at hearing the strain to his speech, Solas returning the squeeze with his own hand before gingerly removing it, increasing his stride to move ahead and walk next to Cassandra up ahead. Isabeau took a shuddering breath and returned to Dorian's side, the usually impish mage noticeably subdued after his confrontation with Leliana.
"Terribly sad what this world has done to them, isn't it?"
Isabeau could only mutely nod her agreement when the group came to the top of a wide flight of stairs, the hall above alight with the glow of red lyrium, muffled voices coming from one of the chambers nearby. Isabeau and Cassandra swiftly moved into position at either side of the suspected door, Leliana standing fast at the choke point with her bow at the ready. Silently counting down with one hand, the other carefully poised on the latch of the door itself, Isabeau held up a fist when she hit 'zero' and burst into the room, making note of the magister standing in front of a large hoard of red lyrium, before her eyes and sword fell upon the back of the nearest enemy. With a powerful cleave of her bastard sword across his back, the man went down with a scream, another cry of surprise fused with pain following in its wake as Cassandra efficiently cut down her own target.
"You dare attack an acolyte of the Elder Oneughhh – !" The magister's haughty protest was interrupted when Leliana's arrow suddenly impaled him through the throat, blood immediately spurting from between his lips when a second arrow viciously embedded itself in his chest. As the dying man uselessly clutched at the arrows and fell over, Isabeau wondered if she'd been caught in another temporal rift; time appearing to slow with the vague awareness of her legs giving out beneath her. The song in her mind reaching a deafening climax, her senses overloaded as she struggled to process the sight before her.
No… No, I don't want to see this…
Strapped into the remains of a chair, under a colossal mechanism that suspended a great hunk of red lyrium above it, was the Commander of the Inquisition's forces. Isabeau screamed in anguish as she fought to regain what she could of her motor functions in her shock, scrambling to her feet as she moved towards Cullen. She forcibly shrugged away Solas' attempts to grab her as panicked heaving wracked her body, coming to stop at what remained of Cullen's feet and legs, staring in abject horror at the protrusions of the vile crystals all across his flesh and most of his face.
What have they done to you…
Like a festering infection, the largest collection of the sharp, crystalline shards sprouted from Cullen's shoulder and travelled up his neck, turning into smaller clusters that angrily broke through the skin and one eye socket of his ruined and near unrecognizable face. His once broad and impressive chest and shoulders were shrunken, his whole frame emaciated; the only bulk to him being the glowing cancer that had consumed nearly the entirety of his person. Sobs began to wrack Isabeau's own body as she stared at the flesh pulled taught against her paramour's skull, great chunks of his scalp rotten and revealed where once his lovely waves of hair had been.
"He's gone, Isabeau…" Solas entreated softly from behind her.
"No… no, no, no…" she miserably keened as her hands moved to cup Cullen's face, vaguely aware she felt an oddly comforting note layer itself to the disquieting sonnet upon touching the Knight's sunken, crumbling skin. Before she could inch closer however, a strong hand on her shoulder forcibly yanked her backwards and away, Solas firmly anchoring her to his lithe body and turning her sight from her mangled lover. She screamed and thrashed against his hold, the mark on her hand erratically sparking with angry crackles of energy in her distress as the horrible image of Cullen's desolation was burned like a brand upon her memory. Cassandra and Dorian's gentle hands soon joined Solas' in subduing her, Isabeau forced to muffle her anguished wailing into Solas' spoiled tunic as her companions did their best to silently comfort her.
"He's not there, lethallan… and while I know there's nothing you want more right now, you cannot touch him," Solas whispered against the side of Isabeau's head, his hand cupping under chin and raising her bloodshot and glassy eyes to meet his. "Do you hear me? His suffering is over. Now breathe, Isabeau… You. Must. Stay. Calm. We do not know if there's a way for the Elder One to detect your mark… and if there is, you are nothing if not a giant beacon in this state."
"Solas, what…" Isabeau's voice broke as she swallowed deeply and fought to release the tormented words. "What if I can't change this? What if this all doesn't matter and… and I never get to say – get to say – " She croaked pathetically, her words reduced to unintelligible gasping as she managed to pull away from Solas' embrace, her breaths growing more shallow and panicked as the weight of the world seemed to collapse upon her all at once. Again, her mark flared with a great spark, the tendrils of its energy snaking their way up her gauntleted arm as another shuddering sob overcame her frame.
SLAP!
Reeling from the unexpected sting of Leliana's gloved hand across her cheek, Isabeau stumbled away from her companions, her shock at the physical assault enough to instantly sober her rampant emotions as she stared, aghast, at her ghoulish advisor.
"Enough! I have lived this hell… You have but had a taste of it. You need to pull yourself together, Inquisitor; weneed you – Thedas needs you!" A flash of remorse slightly softened the Spymaster's disfigured features before she frowned again, moving to tightly grip Isabeau's arms. "In this future, panicking will only get you killed. You are better than this."
Snapped back to a calmer state of mind by the Spymaster's brutal but efficient sapience, Isabeau sacrificed several more seconds to suck in a few steadying gasps of air, willing her pounding heart to slow as a hand furiously wiped at the dampness upon her cheeks. As each breath returned a modicum of calm to her core and quietened the chorus permeating her thoughts, the shame of reaching her breaking point proved more difficult to subdue than her erratic heart. It's not real… None of this has to be real…
Her reeling thoughts paused as she looked up to gaze at the worried and anxious faces of the tortured companion's before her, a new understanding dawning on her as she took in their disfigurations. No, this pain – their pain – is real... and none of this has to happen ever again.
"Forgive me… all of you. I… I lost myself there," Isabeau began to inelegantly explain before turning and determinedly striding out of the room, using every remaining ounce of her self-control to not look back at the love she felt she was abandoning.
The others soon joined her in the hall, Solas silently closing the door behind them when Isabeau turned back to face her Spymaster. "You're right, Leliana… my time in this nightmare has been but a blink of an eye in comparison to the suffering you've all felt. Know that, in the least, the sight of him…" Her words caught in her throat as she pointed back towards the torture chamber, "…Has made this world more real to me than ever. Alexius and this Elder One took everything from me here… You have my word I will do everything in my power to ensure that never happens ever again."
"Anger is stronger than any pain in this world, Inquisitor. Take what you saw and harness it; you'll need it in order to survive what's ahead," Leliana somberly advised before the party untiringly carried on, finally making their way out of the lower levels of the castle and up and into what appeared to be a cavernous underground dock. After putting down the demons and closing the rift in the vast room that lead to the courtyard's gates, Isabeau could not stifle her astonished gasp as the party emerged from the castle's walls.
"The Breach it's… everywhere!"
Cassandra joined Isabeau in staring up at the swirling green sky that extended as far as the eye could see, "The Elder One and his Venatori were behind the explosion at the conclave. With no one to close it or oppose him, it simply grew… and consumed the sky."
If she wasn't so intensely disturbed by everything she'd already witnessed, Isabeau almost could have marveled at the green clouds and the floating chunks of castle and various statues above them, an odd familiarity striking her the longer she stared. The song that had infested her mind when in the depths of the castle had significantly abated once outside its depressing walls, the curiosity filed away in the same place as the odd sense of acquaintance she was feeling.
More pressing matters required her attention however, various rifts having opened in the courtyard itself, the Inquisitor's attention focused on survival as the small party fought their way through the crumbling and ruined yard. When Isabeau finally sealed the last of the temporal rifts, she nearly collapsed with a groan of exhaustion. For reasons beyond her understanding, these first few rifts she'd closed since being dumped into this timeline had drained her immensely; Isabeau fighting to pull from the precious reserves of her stamina as they methodically fought their way to the pandemonium that was the grand hall of Redcliffe castle.
"More enemies ahead!" Cassandra shouted as she barreled down a flight of stairs and into the fray, Isabeau's mark sparking with energy as she noted the demons that attacked her party and Venatori alike. As she did her best to defend herself from both sets of encroaching enemies, Isabeau worked at disrupting the rift where she could, finally sealing it as Dorian burned the last Shade to the ground. Leliana's bow put down the final Venatori thug before the group reassembled at the massive door that lead to the throne room.
"I've never even seen a door like this before… where could Alexius have possibly found it?" Dorian pondered aloud as he bent to investigate the bizarre grooves in the center of the towering and solid door.
"I found this on the magister I killed… let me try placing it in one of those slots," Solas offered, holding up a small shard of what looked to be red lyrium. With a crackle, it embedded itself into the door, turning a vibrant green as it did so.
"Remarkable!" Dorian gasped in barely contained fascination at the sight. "There's four more slots – if Alexius was only allowing specific servants to attend him, it's likely we'll find the remaining pieces on those toadies."
"If they're even here," Isabeau interjected. "For all we know, they're on holiday in Antiva."
"They are here… and I know where to find them," Leliana stoically affirmed as she led them towards a stairwell opposite of where they first entered. "The royal apartments can be found on the floors above… and they circle the entirety of the great hall. If we split into two groups, we can cover more ground and expedite opening our path to Alexius."
"Very well. Solas, Dorian and I can take the eastern stairs then," Isabeau agreed as she pointed to another alcove nearby. "Hopefully we'll meet in the middle with all the shards we require. And ladies?" Cassandra and Leliana paused at the base of the stairs, turning to look expectantly at her as Isabeau breathed, "Be careful."
Both nodded their understanding before swiftly disappearing up the stairs and from Isabeau's sight, she and her mage companions moving across the hall to do the same. The way forward proved grueling; Isabeau opting on several occasions to simply bash her shield through weakened points of the castle's crumbling walls, ambushing several enemies in the process and coming away with two shards for their efforts. In addition to the shards, several pieces of parchment and a leather bound journal were now tucked safely between Isabeau's chest plate and under tunics, the information contained within possibly invaluable once back to the normal timeline.
"Do you hear that?" Dorian asked as they were making their way down a long corridor, the walls of which had fallen away to reveal patches of the Breach's swirling, green clouds outside. When Cassandra's distinct battle cry echoed off what remained of the fortifications, the three companions sprinted towards its source, exploding into what appeared to once be a library in a flurry of action. Leliana had scorch marks across one arm of her armor as she elegantly released arrow upon arrow upon the Venatori warriors swarming Cassandra. As Dorian and Solas' magic went to work in a symphony of both their offensive and defensive capacities, Isabeau ran and leapt off a nearby balustrade, throwing herself at the magister down below that was furiously casting spells, the two sent careening to the stone floor in a tangle of limbs.
Wrestling with the surprisingly strong mage, Isabeau finally gave a heaving kick, forcing enough space between her and her target to deftly roll away and into a crouching position. In a release of the rage and disgust she'd allowed to build up inside her, she screamed as she drove her sword through the Venatori's heart, the image of Cullen's infected and ruined body springing to her mind as she eviscerated the man from the chest down to his groin.
"…Inquisitor?"
Panting as she rose to her full height, Isabeau waved away Cassandra's concern as she wiped the gore from her blade, reaching down after to find a shard tucked away in a secret pocket built into the dead mage's robes. She looked up and jogged her way back to where the others had gathered by the library's door, holding up the shard in her hand as her exhaustion threatened to catch up with her.
"That makes three for us… were you able to find any?"
"Yes, but only one… Though, it appears it is the last we require," Leliana explained, Solas moving to collect the shard from Isabeau's and the Spymaster's outstretched hands.
"Then let us end this," Isabeau growled as she strode out of the library and retraced her steps back to the main hall, her desire to leave the wretched time line nearly overwhelming her. When finally the last pieces were added to the enchanted door, it swung open with a heavy scraping, the sound of stone moving against stone echoing in the expansive hall. If Alexius had remained unaware of the interlopers up to that point, short of the man having become deaf, their intrusion upon his sanctuary was less than stealthy.
Approaching the elevation where the throne of Redcliffe sat, Isabeau frowned as she saw only two figures at the head of the chamber. The man standing and facing a roaring hearth was undoubtedly Alexius, his robes unchanged in the time that had passed, though it was the crouched and sad looking creature beside him that gave Isabeau pause. With a start, she made the grim connection the ghoul at Alexius' side was none other than his son Felix. Immediately she grieved the abomination the honorable young man had been reduced to, the memory of his infection by the Blight returning as she then cast her disgusted gaze upon the magister's back. Another soul to add to your ruin, Alexius…
"Look at what you've done, Alexius!" Isabeau cried accusingly, her own voice quivering as the weight of her harrowing journey settled upon her. "All this suffering… and for what? Tell me what makes all of this worth itto you!"
Without turning to face them he answered, "For my country! …For my son." His shoulders slumped then, an audible sigh escaping his lips that revealed the emotional burden he was undoubtedly carrying. "But it means nothing now. I knew you would appear again… I just didn't know when. My final failure…"
Dorian took a step towards his old mentor, anguished confusion deeply knotting his usually smooth brow the closer he drew. "Was it worth it? Everything you've done to the world – to yourself?"
"It doesn't matter now, Dorian. All we can do… is wait for the end."
"No!" Isabeau shouted, incensed by Alexius' melancholy. "It does matter and if you give us the amulet, we can undo what you've done."
"You don't understand, Inquisitor; I have tried… The past cannot be undone," he explained forlornly, Isabeau noting movement from the corner of her eye as Leliana silently crept her way towards where Felix sat slumped over. "All that I fought for, all that I betrayed and what have I wrought? Nothing more than ruin and death. The Elder One will come for me… for you… for us all."
At the sound of Leliana roughly yanking the ghoulish man to his feet, blade poised at his throat, Alexius cried out in terror, his arms pleadingly reaching out. "Felix!"
"That's Felix?" Dorian gasped with rage next to Isabeau, clearly having not made the same observation as the Inquisitor. "Maker's breath Alexius, what have you done?!"
"He would have died, Dorian… I saved him!" Panic marred the older man's face, his voice breaking with each word as his one hand remained entreatingly outstretched, the other pulling his staff from its holster on his back. At the sight of him reaching for his weapon, Leliana brought the blade closer against Felix's neck, the sad shell of a man offering no signs of protest as the blade bit threateningly into the skin.
"Please… don't hurt my son. I'll do anything you ask."
"Hand over the amulet and we'll let him go," Isabeau demanded immediately.
"Let him go and I swear you'll get what you want!"
Feeling her stomach drop at the menacing tilt to Leliana's head, Isabeau found herself frozen with shock as her Spymaster venomously hissed, "I want the world back," and deftly cut the blade across Felix's throat; a torrent of blood releasingup and outwards before she unceremoniously shoved his limp body to the floor at Alexius' feet.
"No… NO!" Alexius screamed, a burst of Fade energy exploding from his body with a great WHUMP, Leliana sent flying back through the air to collide against a pillar with a sickening crunch. The crazed magister then turned on Isabeau and her small party, releasing the same devastating attacks their way as Dorian and Solas fought to counter them, simultaneously bolstering Cassandra and Isabeau's defenses as the two warriors made to pinch the mage between their shields.
Just as Isabeau had managed to get close enough to take the man down, a glowing green barrier suddenly encased and protected him from her blade, Alexius then disappearing with an audible whomp before reappearing across the hall.
"Damn it, he's using the amulet!" Dorian cried out just as a rift explosively appeared in the center of the throne room, Solas and Dorian both hustling to put some distance between themselves and the demons that threateningly swept towards them. Isabeau moved to engage the Shade demons closest to her mage companions when suddenly she felt as if her feet were encased in molasses, looking down to see she'd been caught in one of the temporal glyphs that currently populated several areas of the floor around the battle. Fighting with all her might to push herself from the clutches of time itself, Isabeau finally burst free of the glyph's hold, paying much closer attention to the floor around her as she sprinted back into the fray.
Her blade cleaved the Shade harassing Solas near in two, Isabeau nearly crying out in exuberance as a plan formulated in her mind. Taking note again of where on the floor the glyphs appeared, Isabeau submitted the other's to the brunt of the demon's attacks as she raised her arm and began to disrupt the rift. When Cassandra fell the last demon and the rift detonated and disappeared, Alexius had reappeared at the head of the throne room, immediately working to recast his barrier when Isabeau directed her marked hand his way. With an explosive BOOM, Isabeau's suspicions were confirmed, her mark interrupting Alexius' casting so long as he relied on using energy from the Breach.
Crying out in surprise, Alexius reached for what surely was the amulet around his neck, attempting to teleport away from the charging Cassandra when again a beam of green Fade energy burst from Isabeau's hand. Like a rope with Isabeau as the anchor, she yanked Alexius out of the time rift he'd opened to teleport, grunting with the effort as she whipped the man into his own trap upon the floor, Alexius almost completely frozen as he floated in one of the nearby glyphs.
"Dorian, grab the amulet!" she screamed as pain began to spike up the arm of her marked hand, the effort involved in controlling the flow of both the Breach's energy and time itself taking its toll upon her; tears of pain streaming down her face as she felt her bridling of the two dynamisms begin to wane. Watching as Dorian punched an arm through the bubble of time to slowly yank the chain from around Alexius neck, Isabeau finally severed the connection once it was clutched tightly in his hand and clear of the glyph, a great aftershock released from the sudden defusing of the two energies, sending all within the room sprawling onto their backs.
When the dust and rubble had settled, Isabeau stumbled her way to her feet, weak and dizzy from the immense effort she'd expended. Though she believed the ability was not unlike the time magic itself – augmented by the power of the massive Breach – she could not help but feel a rush of amazed relief that her wild and incredibly risky idea had borne fruit.
"Isabeau, that was… remarkable!" Solas gasped as he jogged over to help steady her on her feet. "Are you alright?"
"Yes, I… I think so," she breathed as she scanned the room, relieved to see Cassandra, Dorian and even Leliana limping their way over to where she and Solas stood. "What about Alexius, does anyone see him?"
Dorian gravely shook his head, "Whatever you did, once I was clear of the glyph and you released the energy…" he trailed off as he turned to look at the scattered and bloody remains of Alexius that painted the floor where Isabeau had ensnared him. "I shudder to think what would have happened to my arm, and the amulet itself, had you not been able to hold out long enough for me to remove them." Sighing deeply, Dorian woefully shook his head, "Oh, Alexius… He lost Felix long ago and didn't even realize it…"
"There was no hope for this Alexius, Dorian… but the one in our time might still be reasoned with. You managed to hold onto the amulet?"
He triumphantly held it up for her and the others to see, closely inspecting it as he spoke, "Yes, and it looks like the very same one he used before – the same one we created in Minrathous, in fact. That's a relief. Give me an hour to analyze the arcane memory of the amulet, and I should be able to recreate the spell he used… and get us home. "
"An hour?" Leliana gasped desperately. "That's impossible – you must leave now!"
Before Dorian could argue, a screeching roar erupted from outside the castle, more dust and great chunks of ceiling falling around them as the whole room shook. Isabeau felt the blood drain from her face as she paled, memories of her nightmare of Haven intrusively springing to mind, the terrifying din alarmingly, yet impossibly, familiar.
"The Elder One…" Solas breathed. "You cannot stay here!" He cried before turning to shoot a desperate glance Cassandra's way, the Seeker somberly nodding her understanding. "We'll hold for as long as we can outside the door."
"What? Solas, that's suicide!" Isabeau desperately argued as she darted to clutch at his tunic. "I won't let either of you kill yourselves, there must be another way!"
"Look at us, Isabeau. We were given to death long ago…" Leliana countered evenly before turning to nod her assent at the other two companions. "The only way we can have life… is if this day never comes."
Profoundly humbled by what her friends were prepared to sacrifice – by what they had already sacrificed – Isabeau moved to warmly embrace each of them; tears spilling up and over the lids of her eyes as she held each of them for as long as she dared, Cassandra and Solas saying their somber goodbyes as they clutched her in turn. After Cassandra had then turned and disappeared through the massive door, Solas followed before pausing to turn to look at Isabeau one last time. She did her best to meet his sorrowful gaze through her bleary vision when in the next blink of her eye, he was gone and the solid door had boomed shut behind them.
Leliana pulled the bow from her back as she looked to Dorian, "You have as much time as I have arrows."
Isabeau watched as the Spymaster moved to position herself right in front of the enchanted door, nocking an arrow in readiness as Dorian's quiet chanting and muttering filled the throne room. As the near total silence lingered unbearably on, Isabeau had taken to counting each passing second when the muffled sounds of fighting and the screams of demons could finally be heard from the other side of the door. Suddenly, something slammed powerfully into the colossal stone door; whatever hinges it rested on groaning in protest as shards of the stone itself impossibly crumbled from around its edges.
Isabeau anxiously watched from Dorian's side as Leliana pulled back the string of her bow in preparation, beginning to pray aloud.
"Though darkness closes in, I am shielded by flame..."
Following a second heavier blow, the door exploded open with a devastatingly loud CRASH, green energy venting from the center of the door where the shards had been placed, a Venatori soldier bursting in with a giant Terror demon closely behind him. Isabeau instinctively reached for her sword and shield as she watched the demon release the bloody and broken carcass it grasped within its massive claws, Cassandra's barely recognizable body carelessly dropped in heap next to the demon's feet.
The whistling of one of Leliana's deadly arrows filled the air as she released her shot, the first Venatori warrior taken down as it embedded itself deep into his neck. Fluidly she nocked another as she began her one-woman assault on the approaching enemies, her prayer growing louder with each arrow she loosed.
"Andraste, guide me! Maker, take me to your side!"
Several more enemies went down with grunts of pain, Leliana managing to sink an arrow right in the middle of the Terror demon's forehead, the horrid creature screeching as it collapsed to the floor. Just as Isabeau watched all of the threats closest to Leliana fall, her Spymaster cried out in pain, an enemy's arrow protruding out the back of her shoulder blade. Isabeau made to dart for her, Dorian's firm grasp painfully clutching her arm and holding her in place as the Inquisition's Spymaster was surrounded in front of them.
"You move and we all die!"
Jabbing her bow into the closest soldier's stomach and causing him to double over, Leliana nimbly pressed her back against his, gracefully tumbling over him as she continued assaulting her attackers with nothing more than the unarmed bow in her hands.
Just as Dorian finally managed to open the rift behind him, Isabeau turned to look behind her at Leliana's screaming protest, horrified as she watched a large enemy's arm tightly ensnare the rogue's neck. Leliana's wide – yet oddly peaceful – eyes met Isabeau's one last time before another Terror demon blocked the woman from her view, Isabeau's own screams joining Leliana's as the demon's claws viciously tore the brave woman apart.
Isabeau closed her eyes and turned to follow Dorian into the rift…
… Only to come face-to-face with Alexius, the magister sputtering in confusion as Isabeau menacingly stalked towards him, her fist solidly connecting with his jaw as she channeled all of her emotions from what she had witnessed a second beforehand into her arm. He cried out in pain as he was solidly knocked to the floor, Isabeau looking up from her assault to see Cassandra and Solas' mildly surprised faces staring back at her, her Inquisition agents still waiting at the ready in every corner of the throne room.
Dorian then crouched down in front of the crumpled and defeated Alexius, snatching the amulet from his grasp before winking.
"You'll have to do better than that."
++/++
Author's Note: I know it's been quite the delay for this chapter – as I said in my previous note, the time I have available to work on this fic is sparse and I currently have a lot on my plate from life in general.
One thing that would really help with my motivation to write in my precious spare time would be some feedback from you, the readers – whether constructive criticism, requests for any scenes you'd like to see occur (Seriously. I love writing fluff… and I need a break from Inquisition's plot after this chapter haha) or even just a simple hello, it would really brighten my world to hear from all the visitors and members I see coming to my fic! If you would be so kind and take the time to do so, please take a few minutes to read and review.
But really? Just thank you for reading :) Next chapter is shaping up to definitely be more head canon, less game plot… and a whole lotta Cullen loving.