The smell of mold and standing water stung her nose and what little light there was in the prison made the back of her eyes pound. She knelt on the ground and kept her head down to escape the torches and let her eyes adjust. When the pounding subsided she blinked and squinted, feeling the weight of days worth of sleep on her eyelids.
A green flicker caught her attention. But just as quickly as it had appeared, it was gone though it did not stop the young elf from searching for it. A small draft washed through the stone room freezing her left hand. She investigated, swearing to herself that she remembered wearing gloves. There was a glove on her right hand, but her left was bare. She then noticed she was wearing shackles. She could not recall anything that she might have done to be arrested, or being arrested at all. The last thing she remembered was attending the conclave on her Keeper's orders, an order she was happy to receive.
The young elf investigated her bare hand further, staring at it from all angles. Her hand suddenly burned like someone had stabbed her palm with a white hot dagger and a fluorescent green flash erupted from her palm. She gasped in pain. That was when she heard a door slam open and saw two women enter the prison. One was wearing heavy armor and had dark skin and rough, angular features. The other wore leathers and a hood covered most of her red hair.
She recognized the look in their eyes; it was the same look she saw in wolves' eyes when she stumbled upon them: not a predator eyeing its prey, but a predator glowering at an intruder in its territory.
The young elf heard swords sheath and glanced around to find many heavily armed soldiers surrounding her and grew concerned that she had not sensed them earlier. The hooded woman stopped a couple feet away, but the armored woman circled around the shackled elf, the feeling of subtle panic raised hairs on the back of the young elf's neck. She, like any other sane person, became frighteningly alert when they sensed a threat at their back.
The armored woman leaned in from behind, the young elf felt the woman's body heat on her ear. "Tell me why we shouldn't kill you now." Her breath was hot and her accent was rough, and the young elf could hear a restrained growl at the back of the woman's throat. The body heat disappeared from the young elf's ear and caught the armored woman circling back around in her peripheral vision. The armored woman's voiced changed from threatening to pained as she continued. "The Conclave is destroyed. Everyone who attended is dead." The feeling of being threatened surprisingly intensified as the armored woman stood in front of her and the young elf caught the rage burning inside the armored woman return, the growl in her throat along with it. "Except for you," she finished.
The armored woman could have sworn she saw the elf's ears perk up. The elf felt her heart breaking. "What do you mean everyone's dead?" Her voice was soft, a hint of the Ferelden accent escaping her lips. The armored woman roughly grabbed the elf's hand in a grip that could, if used carelessly, horribly twist her wrist. "Explain this!" the woman growled. As if to address itself, the mark on the elf's hand flashed again and again burned her hand with a hot dagger. When the armored woman let go, the weight of the shackles pulled the elf's hands down to the floor again hitting the stone with a thick loud clang. "I… Can't," the elf answered, her voice breaking, betraying her calm demeanor at the last second. The fire in the armored woman's eyes flared to new heights. "What do you mean you can't?"
"I don't know what that is, or how it got there."
"You're lying!" The armored woman lunged at the elf, gripping her shoulders in a vice, fingers threatening to tear through the rough textile of her armor and dig into her skin. Within a second the painful grip was gone. The hooded woman tore the armored one away. "We need her, Cassandra," the hooded woman stated. The elf detected a soft Orleisian accent in the hooded woman's throat, the words slipped on her tongue rather than rolling off f it. The hooded woman turned to face the prisoner, the hood masking the intention in her eyes. The elf bet that that was its purpose.
The elf's heart slowed from beating wildly to a pace just fast and hard enough to hear the beat in her ears. But her heart became heavy as she thought of all of the people she had seen inside the conclave: mages, templars, mercenaries, soldiers, men, women, even a few children. There were hundreds of people from all races and countries of Thedas at the Conclave. The very thought that so many people dying in an instant threatened to break her will to keep her tears in her eyes. She felt one slide down her cheek so she looked down at the floor and hid her face. "I can't believe it. All those people…" another tear dropped and a sob almost broke her speech; the elf had some trouble forcing the last word out knowing that when she said it, she acknowledged the fact that the world lost a great many good people, that they were- "Dead," she finished.
"Do you remember what happened? How this began?" the hooded woman asked. The young elf looked up, hoping in vain that the women in the room wouldn't be able to tell that a tear had run down her face. The elf thought hard, searching deep inside her mind for her most recent memories. She remembered darkness and that she was afraid; "I remember running," she started, "things were chasing me and then… a woman?" The elf was having a hard time remembering anything else. She felt that as soon as she found something, just as she was starting to focus on anything she thought was fuzzy, something yanked it away from her mind, but the woman stayed in her mind. "A woman?" the hooded woman asked. "She reached out to me," the elf began focusing harder on the woman, "but then…" Like the other memories, what happened next was yanked away from her and she sighed in defeat.
The armored woman, Cassandra, walked toward the hooded woman and both put a little more distance between themselves and the imprisoned elf. "Go to the forward camp, Leliana," Cassandra turned to glance at the elf, defeat evident in her posture, "I will take her to the rift." With nothing but a silent nod, the hooded woman, Leliana, turned around and left, her boots not making a sound on the stone floors.
Immediately Cassandra went to work unlocking the elf from her shackles and replacing them with rope. There was one question that nagged at the prisoner. "What did happen?" she finally asked. Cassandra and the elf looked in each other eyes, Cassandra saw confusion and the elf saw something like pain, but not quite; something she couldn't use words to describe. Cassandra sighed as she pulled the elf to her feet. "It… will be easier to show you." Both Cassandra and the elf left the prison, neither saying a word.
They both exited the prison and the elf was surprised to see the inside of a Chantry. She had never heard of a prison under a Chantry. "Why does the Chantry have a prison?" the elf asked. "This Chantry, as well as all of Haven, used to be occupied by a cult guarding the Urn of Sacred Ashes. They were cleared out by the Hero of Ferelden when she came searching for the Urn and Brother Genetivi," Cassandra explained. The elf was also surprised to see the Chantry so dark, nothing but a few candles offering little light. The opening of a door brought the elf's attention back to following Cassandra. The elf thought she'd have to squint to keep the newfound light from burning her eyes but was surprised to see nothing but heavy overcast, an overcast that did not feel natural.
High in the sky a bright light erupted. She shielded her eyes as best she could, recoiling from the painful flash. Once she thought her eyes adjusted she risked taking a closer look at what had the power to cast a light as bright as the sun. What she saw shocked and confused her, but fear gripped her heart more than anything. There in the sky a hole sat, spewing sickening green light and energy. Rocks orbited the hole, drawn to it. Magic was clearly disrupting the area around it. "We call it the Breach." Surprised the elf broke her gaze from the hypnotic Breach. She was so lost in it the elf had forgotten about Cassandra. "It's a massive rift into the world of demons that grows larger with each passing hour," Cassandra explained further, "It's not the only such rift. Just the largest. All were caused by the explosion at the Conclave." The elf wracked her brain for any knowledge she might have skimmed from "borrowing" her Keeper's notes, scrolls, and ancient texts that might rationalize how a hole into the Fade, or the Beyond as the Dalish called it, of that magnitude could happen. "An explosion can do that?" the elf thought out loud. "This one did," Cassandra answered. "Unless we act, the Breach may grow until it swallows the world."
Suddenly, the Breach expanded again, letting out a sickening, bonebreaking snap and shook the sky and the ground beneath them. The elf screamed in pain as she felt the hot dagger being thrust into her palm again with a vengeance. She fell to her knees and cradled her hand as best she could. Cassandra got down to her level. "Each time the Breach expands, your mark spreads… and it is killing you." The elf watched Cassandra as she spoke, seeing pity in her eyes, something the elf did not expect seeing as how she was a prisoner suspected of killing hundreds and putting a hole to the Beyond in the sky. "It may be the key to stopping this," Cassandra continued, "but there isn't much time."
"You still think I did this- to myself?" the elf asked impatiently. The pain in her hand, the light pounding her eyes, the biting cold of the Frostback Mountains, and the accusations that she alone put a demon spewing hole in the sky tested her nerves. "Not intentionally," Cassandra responded, her voice had, or gave the illusion of having, more patience than the elf, "Something... Clearly went wrong."
"And if I'm not responsible?" Cassandra considered her words carefully. "Someone is, and you are our only suspect. You wish to prove your innocence? This is the only way!" The elf furrowed her brow. She knew Cassandra's reasoning was logical, even if it was a bit brash. The elf had one more question to ask before she decided on anything, the most important question regarding the task she had been given: "You say it may be the key; to doing what?"
"Closing the Breach. Whether that is possible will be something that we discover shortly. It is our only chance however, and yours" The young elf thought hard, but she knew she had to think quick. The task described had an outcome that was uncertain at best, both in completing the task as well as what came afterward. Then she thought of the people who might be fighting the demons, the people who might be trapped out in the mountains surrounded, and the hundreds who have already died. "I understand."
"Then?" Cassandra looked into the elf's eyes and saw compassion and conviction. "I'll do what I can, whatever it takes." She had to admit, whatever the elf's connection, or lack of, to the Breach was, she admired her determination to set things right.
Cassandra caught herself and immediately distanced herself from the elf, something the elf did not notice. She was brought to her feet and led through the village of Haven. The village looked like a last minute military camp. Tents were pitched around houses, houses were used as infirmaries, and stores were used as warehouses. The feeling of a target on her back caused a panicked need to look around. Everywhere she looked the elf saw eyes of vengeance, eyes filled with hate and lust for justice. The elf had no doubt that Cassandra was the only thing keeping her alive at that moment. Cassandra noticed the prisoner looking around. "They have decided your guilt," Cassandra explained, "They need it." Elf saw an armored woman come out of her tent and lean against its main post, her arms crossed, her eyes weary, but she had enough energy to show the elf what she thought of her. Cassandra continued, her voice displaying her pain more openly. "The people of Haven mourn our Most Holy, Divine Justinia, head of the Chantry. The Conclave was hers." The two had passed the main camp and now walked down a dirt road towards a stone arch framing large wooden doors. "It was a chance for peace between mages and templars. She brought their leaders together. Now, they are dead." A lightly armored man opened the wooden doors, the wood scratched at the dirt underneath it. Pass the doors the elf saw a stone bridge built over a ravine in the mountain to the dirt road on the other side. "We lash out, like the sky. But we must think beyond ourselves. As she did. Until the Breach is sealed." Cassandra held her hand in front of the elf, signaling her to stop. She then stepped forward and pulled out a small knife. The elf caught her breath and her heart started to race once again. Then Cassandra turned and cut the ropes and unbound the elf's hands. "There will be a trial," Cassandra assured her, "I can promise no more. Come. It is not far." The elf rubbed at her wrists. "Where are you taking me?" the elf asked, and caught up to Cassandra who had already walked halfway across the bridge. "Your mark must be tested on something smaller than the Breach." The elf figured that Cassandra wasn't willing to answer anything that might give a prisoner ideas of how or when to escape so she decided not to waste her breath.
Looking around, the elf saw crates stacked and spread along the sides of the bridge and a group of men wearing similar leather armor with the same symbol on their chests. Now that she thought about it, a lot of the soldiers in Haven wore the same symbol on their armor no matter what type it was: an eye surrounded by flames pierced by a sword. It was not a symbol she recognized.
At the end of the bridge was another arch, its doors closed. "Open the gates! We are heading into the valley." At Cassandra's orders the soldiers stationed at the arch opened the large doors and both the elf and Cassandra passed through. It was the sight of piles of burning supplies that made them start running towards their destination. As they ran, they found more piles burning and they and they passed a group of soldiers. One was injured and was being carried by another, screaming that it was the end of the world. Over the hill, the flames were everywhere. Burning oak and maple filled their nostrils. The sky snapped and the Breach flared again and the pain in the elf's hand brought her to her knees and she fell to the ground. The pain was much worse than last time. Cassandra came back and helped the elf to her feet, the pain evident on the elf's face. When the elf looked at Cassandra, the light from the Breach behind her turned her body into a silhouette. "The pulses are coming faster now," Cassandra observed, "The larger the Breach grows, the more rifts that appear, the more demons we face."
"There's one thing that I don't understand: how did I survive a blast that put a hole in the sky?" the elf asked. Both passed though a familiar arch and onto a familiar bridge, one that had less soldiers but more crates. "They say you… stepped out of a rift then fell unconscious. They say a woman was in the rift behind you; no one knows who she was. Everything farther in the valley has been laid to waste, including the Temple of Sacred Ashes. You will see soon enough." Suddenly there was another flash but this flash didn't come from the Breach. Before either could react to the explosion, the bridge collapsed beneath their feet and they both fell to the frozen river below.
The elf counted herself lucky that none of the debris fell on top of her but her body ached and could tell that she had one or two broken ribs and a cut on her hairline. She searched for Cassandra and found her only a few feet away making her way to her feet. A sound, something like a whistle, drew the elf's attention to the sky. A ball of green fire came out of the Breach and fell to the world a couple yards away from where they fell. From the cloud of dust and debris rose a Shade. It's growl was a loud rumble in its throat. Where it stood, where feet should have been, there was nothing black smoke, nothing physical at all keeping the demon afloat.
Cassandra unsheathed her sword and readied her shield. "Stay behind me!" she ordered and took off to land the first blow. The elf got to her feet and looked around cautiously. About five feet from her a growling black cloud circled just above the ice. She knew what was coming, and she knew she couldn't take it out unarmed. The elf looked around frantically for anything that could be used to defend herself. Then she saw a bow rested up against a crate that had fallen with them along with a quiver full of arrows; she nearly missed it from her panic. She ran for them thanking the Creators or Maker or whatever god or gods that existed for her luck. Another Shade arose from the cloud, but she was ready. She felt the adrenaline race through her veins but she kept her mind calm. She knew she had to stay cool if she was going to survive the fight.
She was the first to attack. An arrow pierced the Shade's shoulder. It wasn't a fatal blow, but it did agitate the demon. It advanced. She smirked. She backtracked while letting loose arrow after arrow and the Shade got closer and closer. When it was close enough to attempt to lunge, she was ready. When the Shade raised its arms to grab her, she threw a smoke bomb to the ground. When the Shade lunged it grabbed nothing but air, exposing its back and that was all the elf needed. With a carefully placed arrow the demon went down for good leaving no body, just the arrows it had been shot with. The elf quickly grabbed and stored the arrows and got ready to help Cassandra. But there was no need. The elf caught site of Cassandra's fatal blow to the demon. Relieved that Cassandra was unharmed, the elf ran up to her. "It's over," the breathed. Then Cassandra raised her weapon to the elf and advanced towards her. "Drop your weapon," Cassandra ordered, "Now!"
"Alright!" the elf huffed, "Have it your way." She was agitated but did not see the point in wasting her breath arguing. "Wait," Cassandra sighed, interrupting elf before she could drop her bow. "I cannot protect you. And I cannot expect you to be defenseless," she admitted and sheathed her sword. She turned around, took a couple steps forward, then stood in place. Then she looked at the prisoner. "I should remember you agreed to come willingly." She closed the distance between her and elf and produced three small bottles containing sparkling red liquid and the elf recognized them as healing potions. "Take these potions. Maker knows what we will face," Cassandra claimed and turned to start moving forward with their mission.
Her clan didn't like it but they would sometimes have to do business with humans, or "shemlen" as they called them, when supplies were scarce. Truth be told, they didn't like doing business with anyone that didn't have pointed ears and Dalish tattoos, even disdaining elfs who lived in the human cities, calling them "flat ears". The discrimination based on appearances, the same thing that the Tevinter Imperium, and all of Thedas, still relies upon to function, the hypocrisy, was one of the things that drove a wedge between the elf and her clan. Allowing her to be unbound, allowing her to have a weapon, and being given potions to heal herself were the first signs of faith in her she'd seen in years.
"Dirthan," the elf said. Cassandra stopped and turned to face the elf, her confusion was evident. "What?" she asked. "My name is Dirthan." Cassandra visibly softened. "A pleasure, I think," she responded. With that, they both took off towards their goal once again.
"Where are all your soldiers?" Dirthan asked as they jogged towards their destination. "At the forward camp or fighting," Cassandra answered. "We are on our own for now." As they jogged across the frozen river and snow covered roads and hills, Dirthan flexed her hand trying in vain to rid herself of the piercing pain that lingered in her marked hand and the biting cold on her exposed skin. She hoped that it wouldn't harm her ability to aim the bow properly.
When they climbed to the top of a hill it suddenly ended with a cliff over looking more of the frozen river and two more demons, both Shades. Something caught Dirthan's eye, a small green flicker of light of in the distance. It was just bright enough that a sharp eye could spot it. "There," Cassandra pointed at the Shades with her sword as she readied her shield, interrupting Dirthan as she was trying to figure out what it was that she was seeing , "Watch out! If we flank them we may gain the advantage," she pointed out. Bow readied, Dirthan devised a plan. "Cassandra, draw their attention. I'll lay cover fire from here." Cassandra moved without hesitation and Dirthan landed the first blow to the demons. The shivering in her hand made it difficult to aim the bow at first, but the adrenaline returned and the cold disappeared. She let loose the arrow and it landed a devastating blow to the Shade. The shock of a surprise attack stunned it for a few precious seconds. When it turned to locate the source of the arrow, Cassandra cut it down from behind. When Cassandra finished off the Shade, the other came up behind her. When the other Shade moved to lunge at Cassandra, Dirthan let loose arrow after arrow on the demon like a hailstorm, all landing in vital spots. Soon the Shade dissipated into a pile of ash and arrows. Cassandra collected the arrows as Dirthan made her way down the hill and gave them to her as she approached.
The two advanced again down the frozen river and it wasn't long until they stumbled upon more demons. A familiar green light caught Dirthan's eye agains. It was up past a nearby stone staircase and some yards away. Now that they were closer, Dirthan could make out something that looked like the figure of a person surrounded by the same green light. Suddenly the light got bigger and whizzed passed her head and she heard the flame fizzle out on the ice behind her. She corrected herself as she readied herself for battle once again. That light didn't get bigger, it got closer, and it did it pretty damn fast. "There, up on the hill. It attacks from a distance," Cassandra explained as she observed the immediate area more closely. "Yeah, I got that. Thanks," Dirthan shot through clenched teeth. Cassandra spotted another Shade lurking in the shadow of a nearby tree, its dark silhouette stood stark against the snowy background. Cassandra felt its bloodlust. "You focus on the Wraith up the hill. I'll handle the Shade down here," Cassandra ordered. "Splitting up and playing the field by our strengths," Dirthan thought, "seems to be our only option right now." It was either focus on one demon and risk one of them falling to the other or take them both on one-on-one and divide the demons in their attempt to kill them both. Dirthan ran up the hill and Cassandra charged at the Shade.
Dirthan let loose arrow after arrow at the Wraith and the Wraith threw balls of spirit fire in return. While Dirthan felt like she could dodge the spirit fire all day, all of the leaping and tumbling made it hard to hit her target at her current distance. She had to risk getting closer. She changed from dodging side to side to rolling underneath the flight path of the spirit fire. A risky strategy, but in the spur of the moment it was the only one that seemed logical. Closer and closer she came to the Wraith and the time gap between the bursts of fire became shorter and shorter and the strategy got riskier and riskier as she felt the spirit fire singe her skin and armor. If there was ever a time to start firing, it was now. Dirthan pulled the string much farther than normal, storing more power for its release. After rolling under another burst of spirit fire she let it loose. When Dirthan let loose her arrow, the Wraith hurled one last burst of fire before it fell to the powerful arrow which blew Dirthan back several feet. Spirit fire had no heat, but it burned like any fire, burning her armor and skin.
She let out pained moans as she worked her way back to her feet then took stock of her wounds. Turns out it wasn't as bad as it had felt. While spirit fire did indeed feel hot and in its own nature could be classified as fire, it was something that came from from the Fade, or behaved like it. While not a mage, Dirthan, as well as the rest of her clan, are taught the basics on understanding magic and the Beyond, something most Thedosians don't even think about. She expected the spirit fire to be hot, very hot, so it was. It didn't surprise Dirthan that the laws of the Beyond were leaking into the physical world seeing as how they were pretty much right under the biggest hole in the Veil in recorded history and no doubt thinned from the massive amount of death and suffering from the blast.
Remembering Cassandra, Dirthan turned to see her running up the steps of the stone staircase looking like she had suffered more cosmetic damage to her armor than anything serious. Only a cut on her cheek showed that there had been an actual fight. In comparison, Dirthan looked more beaten up than her escort by sporting singed armor and a heavy coat of wet snow and dirt despite only having a few minor burns that can easily be treated with ointment. Both decided that neither's wounds warranted a health potion and moved on advancing through stone covered hills and more of the frozen river.
Green lightning struck the frozen lake just a few feet away from them. Cassandra let out a surprised cry while both she and Dirthan stumbled backwards. From the lighting strike rose two more Wraiths. "They're falling from the Breach," Dirthan examined under her breath. Dirthan acted quickly and threw a smoke bomb at the two Wraiths to hinder their visibility. Cassandra immediately entered the cloud of smoke, earning an eyeroll from Dirthan who decided it best to attack a Wraith if it exited the smoke cloud and not risk blindly shooting and hitting Cassandra. After seconds of spirit fire being hurled in random directions and the woosh of Cassandra's sword echoing through the air, a Wraith finally emerged. Dirthan's focus deepened and she let loose another hail of arrows, none of them missed their mark though it took far more arrows than she'd expected. The smoke dissipated and Cassandra emerged victorious. Dirthan decided to say nothing of Cassandra's rashness seeing as everything turned out okay.
"Behind you!" Cassandra shouted, but it was too late. Dirthan felt talons rake across her back, her back felt like it was on fire and blood soaked her mercenary jacket. She tumbled and rolled away from whatever attacked her, the gashes in her back protested the whole time, and stopped when she heard Cassandra fighting. A Shade had fallen from the Breach as well, no doubt hiding and waiting for a chance to land a sneak attack. With her wounds stinging and burning at her, Dirthan raised her bow and joined the fight, landing blows whenever she saw an opening. The Shade soon went down and Dirthan took the opportunity to down a potion choosing not to wait for some other demons to get the drop on them while she was injured. The burning on her back was replaced by a soft warmth that radiated throughout her entire body and a sigh of relief escaped her lips. No doubt there would be scars. Potions couldn't erase damage done to the body, only heal it.
Dirthan was suddenly and roughly turned around by Cassandra causing the empty bottle to escape Dirthan's hands and shatter upon the ice. She couldn't tell the difference between the ice and the glass. Then she felt the firm grasp on her shoulders leave and saw Cassandra move on. "What was that for?" Dirthan asked as she collected her arrows. "Only to check your wounds," Cassandra explained. "I'm an elf, not glass." Cassandra only rolled her eyes.
Passing between two stone pillars topped with fire, the two ascended a staircase. The two heard growls, roars, the clashing of iron and steel, the twang of something Dirthan couldn't make out, and the casting of spells from somewhere close by. "We're getting close to the Rift. You can hear the fighting," Cassandra observed, quickening her pace. "Who's fighting?" Dirthan asked, following Cassandra's lead and readied her bow once again. "You'll see soon. We must help them."
When they reached the top of the staircase, they turned and saw a battle ensuing in front of a Rift into the Fade in a ruin just passed the entrance of another collapsed bridge. Where a small wooden staircase had been to allow access to the bridge entrance from the ruin where the battle ensued was a pile of splintered and broken wood, damaged beyond repair. Without hesitation, both Dirthan and Cassandra jumped down the eight-foot ledge and joined the fight. A Shade had been turned to ice and Dirthan immediately shattered it with a well drawn shot. Cassandra moved to protect a dwarf shooting off arrows with a large crossbow. Both Dirthan and the dwarf showered a Wraith with arrows. Dirthan caught something out of the corner of her eye and shot down a Shade with one well placed arrow to the face behind another elf wielding a staff. Dirthan felt her mark thrumming as the nearby Rift pulsed with every defeated demon. The Rift roared like thunder in her ears and lit the battlefield with the same sickening green glow as the Breach.
At last there was only one demon left, and it was quickly taken care of by the dwarf wielding the crossbow. Dirthan's hand was suddenly grabbed by large cold hands. When she turned to look, it was the elven mage that she had saved from being attacked from behind. "Quickly," he shouted, "before more come through!" The elven man thrust her marked hand toward the Rift and something both amazing and frightening happened: the mark on Dirthan's hand and the Rift became connected by a stream of green light. The the rip in the veil suddenly turned into a knot of energy, the Fade desperately leaking through until the knot collapsed in on itself and the Rift disappeared. When the stream of light suddenly vanished, the hit dagger returned again for a split second, causing the Dirthan to pull away from the elven man's grasp roughly. She looked back where the Rift had been and was amazed to see it gone. "What did you do?" Dirthan asked the elven man. "I did nothing. The credit is yours," he admitted, gesturing to her. Surprise was evident on her face as she observed her palm. "At least this is good for something," she noted solemnly, her brow furrowing. The mark glowed slightly, once again addressing itself. "Whatever magic opened the Breach in the sky also placed that mark upon your hand," the elven man continued, "I theorized the mark might be able to close the Rifts that have opened in the Breach's wake- and it seems I was correct." That last bit of wit brought a smirk to Dirthan's face. She took the chance to note the man's features. Like all elves he had a slim frame, standing about a head taller than her. He wore worn dull green trousers but no shoes, a practice common among the Dalish though the lack of Vallasline objected that he not was Dalish at all, a ragged hand-stitched vest held tightly to him by a leather belt over a simple grey tunic and a necklace made of twine and half of a jaw bone. His pack made it obvious he traveled a lot if not all his life. And like any mage, he carried a staff. He looked like he was wearing everything he owned. His face was long and thin, he eyes were a soft grey, and had no hair to speak of. Despite his ragged appearance, his posture was dignified and his mannerisms felt as if they were carefully considered. Cassandra entered the conversation both physically and verbally, "Meaning it could also close the Breach itself."
"Possibly," the elven man addressed Cassandra, then turned to Dirthan, his fiddling with his fingers as he addressed the present company gave signs of an introverted personality. "It seems you hold the key to our salvation." Dirthan wasn't so sure she liked the sound of that. "Good to know!" the dwarf joined in, "Here I thought we'd be ass-deep in demons forever." Dirthan observed the dwarfs features as well. Like all dwarves, they were at least half the height of human and elves. He had dirty blond hair, part of it tied up into a short pony tail. He had a thick, square jaw, pierced ears, dark grey eyes, and a scar running across his nose, but he lacked a big burly beard, something all male dwarves had. He wore an open red, silver rimmed tunic, exposing a toned, hairy chest, under a heavily layered longcoat and wore rough studded trousers, and leather gloves and boots. "Varric Tethras: rogue, storyteller, and occasionally unwelcome tagalong," he introduced himself, giving Cassandra a wink and got a glare from her in return. "Are you with the Chantry, or…?" Dirthan asked.
The elven man chuckled. "Was that a serious question?" Dirthan couldn't come up with any reason why her question warranted that kind of a response. "Technically I'm a prisoner, just like you," Varric explained. "I brought you here to tell your story to the Divine," Cassandra corrected. "Clearly that is no longer necessary."
"Yet, here I am Lucky for you, considering current events."
"It's good to meet you Varric." Before Dirthan could offer her name, she heard the elven man chuckle again. "You may reconsider that stance, in time," he commented, his tone making it clear there was no offense in his intentions. "Aww," Varric crooned, "I'm sure we'll become great friends in the valley, Chuckles."
"Absolutely not," Cassandra interrupted, approaching Varric. She let out her frustration with a huff and considered her words more carefully. "Your help is appreciated, Varric, but…"
"Have you been in the valley lately, Seeker? Your soldiers aren't in control anymore. You need me." Varric gave her his best charming smile which only earned him a disgusted groan from Cassandra as she quickly put distance between herself and Varric. The elven man approached Dirthan once again. "I am Solas, if there are to be introductions. I am pleased to see you still live." That last comment resulted in a confused lift of her brow. "He means, 'I kept that mark from killing you while you slept.'" Dirthan had so many questions, but remembered her manners. "I am Dirthan. If I may say so, you seem to know a great deal about it all," she commented. "Solas is an apostate, well-versed in such matters," Cassandra explained. "Technically all mages are apostates, Cassandra," Solas corrected, "My travels have allowed me to learn much of the Fade, far beyond the experience of any Circle mage. I came to offer whatever help I can give with the Breach. If it is not closed, we are all doomed, regardless of origin."
"And what will you do once this is over?" Dirthan asked.
"One hopes those in power will remember who helped and those who did not."
He turned his attention to Cassandra. "Cassandra, you should know: the magic involved here is unlike any I have seen. Your prisoner is no mage. Indeed, I find it difficult to imagine any mage having such power."
"Understood," Cassandra sighed. Dirthan got the impression that she was disappointed. "We must get to the forward camp quickly." Both Solas and Cassandra took off, leaving Dirthan and Varric behind. "Well, Bianca's excited!" Varric quipped and joined the others. Dirthan stood there dumbfounded. "Who's Bianca?" she thought.