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Cantis pried his eyes open, and blinked in the darkness. Agonizing pain burned in his hand as it glowed... green? Why in the hell was his hand green?
It flared in an emerald flash, and he screamed in torture as it felt like his hand was being ripped apart by hooks dragged from the inside of his hand.
As the haze of pain cleared, he realized that he was in a cold dungeon, alone. He was utterly alone, with only a hazy memory and pain. Where was he? He tried desperately to remember what had left him here...
The last thing in his memory was the battle of Ostwick. Finding his father's fallen figure, walking home alone and bleeding to death, meeting his mother's worried gaze and being unable to answer her when she asked why he was alone.
Wherever he had awoken was eerily silent. Nothing broke the silence except for his own heartbeat and breath. There was no one in the room, no movement. The world was utterly still, as though everyone and everything in it except for him had been raptured.
The doors to the dungeon were thrown open, and two women strode into the dungeon with him, one wearing metal armour, and another in chainmail with a hood drawn over her head.
"Give me one reason I shouldn't kill you right now." The armoured woman, with a serious expression and scowling eyes, hissed.
Cantis shook his head desperately, confused tears in his eyes. "Who are you?"
The woman in armour hit him across the face. "What were you doing at the Divine's conclave?"
"Conclave?" He whispered in terrified confusion. "What co-"
Another slap across the face, the metal in her gauntlet cutting into his cheek. "Look, I don't know what you're talking about."
She grabbed him around the shoulders, and shook him. "You're lying!" Her voice was adamant, but he could feel a shaking in her hands.
The other woman intervened, pulling her away. "Cassandra! We need him alive." She turned to Cantis. "Do you know what happened?"
He shook his head. "I don't even know where I am. The last thing I remember is going to sleep in Ostwick."
The two woman shared a look. "What day is it?" The hooded woman asked him.
"It's..." He paused, thinking back desperately, the haze in his mind making even basic memory a challenge. "T-the twenty-first of Harvestmere."
Again, they shared a look. "It's the thirtieth of Guardian."
His eyes widened, and he felt his jaw hang open. That couldn't be right. Solis was four months four months from now!
"So you don't remember the Divine's Conclave?"
"No!" His voice was hoarse and urgent. "What are you talking about?"
The hooded woman sighed, and rubbed her eyes. "What do we do now?" She asked the armoured woman.
"Do you think he could be lying?" She sounded doubtful.
"No." She looked over her shoulder at him, and shook her head. "From the looks of him, he's telling the truth." She sighed, and hung her head. "What now?"
"Now? We hope that he can close the Breach."
"And if he can't? What do we do then, Cassandra"
"Then we pray that the Maker has mercy on us." She gestured to the door. "Get to the forward camp, Leliana. I will take him there." She turned to Cantis. "It will be easier for him to understand if he sees it himself."
The hooded woman, Leliana, left, and the armoured woman helped him up from off of his knees. "Divine Justinia held peace talks between the Mages and Templars at the Temple of Sacred Ashes." She explained as she guided him down the halls of their dungeon.
"The Temple of Sacred Ashes?!" He asked, stumbling over his feet. "That's a thousand miles away!"
She shook her head. "We're in the village of Haven, just outside the Temple."
He stopped in his footsteps, his knees shaking. "W-where have I been for four months?!" He shrieked, not at her, but rather at the world.
And it was at that point Cassandra realized he was innocent.
As they exited the dank darkness of the fortress, Cantis was blinded by the bright, caldon colour of the skies above the village. He blinked the blinding light out of his eyes, rubbing them as best he could with shackles around his wrists. "What in the hell is that?!" He shrieked, realizing that the light was emanating from a gigantic hole where the sky was torn asunder.
"That," Cassandra murmured in a quiet voice. "Is the Temple of Sacred Ashes." Quieter. "Or what's left of it." She looked down, and closed her eyes in remembrance. "There was a massive explosion, and it destroyed the Temple."
"An explosion can do that?" His voice was strangled and torn in disbelief. Surely nothing had that kind of power.
"This one did." As she spoke, the hole seemed to grow just the slightest bit bigger, and he screamed in agony, the mark on his hand burning again, and he feel to his knees.
Cassandra knelt by him. "Listen to me. We believe that mark on your hand was placed on your hand by whatever caused this. It may be the key to closing it."
"You think it can close that... thing?" Cantis spoke in a pained strangled voice, his hand feeling like it was eating itself from the inside.
"I hope so." She didn't sound confident. "It might not. It is our only chance, however."
Cantis took in a heavy, deep sigh, and nodded. "Alright."
She turned her head hopefully. "Then..."
"I'm with you." He stood in spite of the agony it caused. "I don't know if I can do anything to stop this. But I will give anything for a chance to stop this."
She unlocked his shackles, and the restraints feel to the snow beneath his feet with a solid thud against the winter's tears.
"What happened?" He asked as he followed her towards the gates of Haven. "What was this conclave exactly?"
Cassandra bit her lower lip, thinking for a moment before speaking. "It was an effort for peace between the Mages and the Templars, hosted by the Divine herself." She motioned, and they walked towards the gates. "Ten thousand people were inside the Temple. You're the only survivor."
He stopped in his tracks. "Ten thousand?" His voice was almost angry, but it was more shocked and in disbelief. It wasn't loud, but she could tell the distress in his voice. Cantis had never met ten thousand people in his lifetime, let alone seen that many die one instant...
A moment later he forced himself to keep walking, each step feeling like he had to rip his feet from the ground. "W-was I at the Temple when this... conclave was happening? How did you find me?"
Cassandra shook her head. "I don't know where you were, or what you were doing when the conclave was happening." She looked him in the eyes, and he shivered under the ice in them. "All we know is that you... stepped out of a rift several hours after the Temple was destroyed." She turned her head, and continued walking. "There was a woman in the rift behind you. No one knows who she was." She looked back at him. "Do you remember anything at all?"
He shook his head sadly. "I don't remember anything since my father was killed when the Templars attacked Ostwick. I'm sorry." It hurt in a twisting knot of guilt in his chest. He was desperately trying to remember something, anything, if even the slightest moment, the smallest detail could help them. But there was nothing.
"You have no idea who this woman is?" She asked, hoping to stir something, anything from him, but he shook his head.
"No. I-" He was cut off when a man, dressed in butcher's clothes approached him, anger in his eyes and a knife in his hands.
"You!" He hissed. "You killed the Divine, didn't you?"
"I swear I-" The man swung his knife at Cantis, who ducked under the blade. Before he had a chance to attack again, Cassandra punched the butcher in the side of the head, knocking him down. Two soldiers came up from behind him, and restrained the man, pulling him away.
"We will watch you die, murderer!" The man shouted even as he was dragged off. "I want to watch you put on the gallows, see the noose around your neck and pull the fucking lever with my own two hands!"
Cassandra sighed disappointingly. "The people here have already decided your guilt. They need it to cope with the loss of their divine."
Cantis cringed, feeling remorse at these people's pain, but continued following Cassandra. That man very clearly cared about the people who had been wronged, and he would do whatever he could to stop this insanity.