Alysia shielded her eyes with the back of her hand, eyes adjusting to the sudden sunlight. Her eyes grew wide from what lay before her.
"Holy hell!" she gasped.
Alysia finally understood why Cassandra suspected her for whatever that thing was in the sky. It was an ill looking green hole hovering above their heads. Cassandra explained how Alysia literally stepped out of it, unharmed. Sort of. She walked closer to inspect the hole in the sky, her mind swimming at the thought of actually being able to have survived that ghastly looking swirl. Alysia inspected the palm of her left hand, breathing in sharply at the sickly green it shared with the sky.
Cassandra watched her intently, suspicion slowly fading as she saw Alysia comparing the two.
Upon hiking to the Temple, the pair stumbled upon trails of mangled corpses. The smell of their fresh blood made her stomach churn.
"It would be best not to linger here," Cassandra said, unsheathing her sword.
If only she had a way to protect herself, Alysia thought.
She eyed about for armed corpses. Something to defend herself with if whatever it was that killed those people returned.
Behind a burnt bush laid a fallen man-at-arms. He had two daggers clenched in his fists. Pleased to have found weapons to protect herself with, Alysia quickly pulled it off his stiffened hands, slightly gagging from corpse's stench. Stopping near a slope, Cassandra let out a shriek as a gooey mass of fire threw itself at her. Cassandra jumped backwards and shielded herself with her silver shield that was strapped to her back. Alysia saw another mass of fire seeping from the ground next to the Seeker and, she immediately ran towards it, with a swift leap, she cut through the demon from the head down. The demon cracked and dispersed into a spray of green gunk.
It was the same color as the gash on her palm and as the breach. She swallowed, hard.
Cassandra glowered at the dagger that found itself to Alysia's hand. She turned her sword towards her face. "Drop your weapon. Now!"
Puzzled by the Seeker's reaction after saving her life, Alysia gripped them even tighter. Noting how the Seeker's face wavered at the thought of cutting her open, Alysia empathized with her and spun her daggers around, hilt-first and offered them to her. "If we ever get attacked again, please return them to me. I'd rather not die after having survived for longer than I should have," she said while grinning.
Cassandra cocked her eyebrow up and then shook her head in understanding.
"I cannot protect you, and I cannot expect you to be defenseless," she said while turning her back to continue the hike back to the Temple and stopped. Hesitating she turned her gaze back to Alysia who was walking slowly behind her, "I should remember you agreed to come willingly."
"I hope I don't regret this…. Maker preserve me." Cassandra mumbled under her breath while turning her heels back to her destination.
Alysia chuckled slightly while trying to jog at Cassandra's pace who was rushing into a fight in progress. A burly looking dwarf with a crossbow was standing back-to-back with a slim elven mage. As she and Cassandra were claiming demons one by one, the mage grabbed Alysia's left hand and aimed her palm towards the swirling green mass in the air from where the demons were slipping out. She felt a surge of energy coming through the back of her hand and it streamed out of her palm towards the swirl in the air. The green light that came out from her palm matched the same energy that the mass in the air did; it felt familiar yet revolting.
Alysia eyes widened at the sight of the green mass that was slowly dissipating. She bit her bottom lip, hard, feeling bewildered as to what was happening before her.
The elf released her wrist slowly as the air returned to normal; she then looked down to examine the gash on her wrist.
"Wh- what was that magic?" she asked, heart racing.
"That was no magic. Your scar, it's connected to the Breach, the hole in the sky," Solas said, briskly.
"So... I did not use... magic?" she asked, confirming.
"No... You are not a mage. And neither can I sense any magical ability from you." Solas replied, eyebrows raised at her odd question. He immediately turned his back to her, strapped his staff to his back and walked towards Varric who was checking if the demons were dead with his feet.
Alysia massaged her left hand and stared at the hole. If it was not magic, then what is it. She felt perplexed at the lack of communication that clearly involved her– well her left arm. Same thing, she thought bitterly in her head.
"What in Andraste's tit is going on?" she exclaimed. Staring wide-eyed at Cassandra.
The Seeker shrugged and turned her face to the elf who was deep in conversation with Varric about being right about the mark on her hand being connected to the rift, but besides that he knew nothing. Alysia sighed in annoyance at her situation, but she might as well get to know the people she was stuck with. Introductions floated around shortly, the elven mage introduced himself as Solas, and the dwarf was named Varric Thethras—crossbow, Bianca. Alysia mentally jotted that last bit down in her head, snorting slightly at the adoration he had when he said the crossbow's name.
"Wait… Varric… Why does that sound familiar?" she asked herself. "Varric…Varric—the author!" she exclaimed aloud while pointing at the burly dwarf.
Varric grinned slightly. "So you've heard of me."
Evelyn chuckled. "Sort of. My sister, Aurelia is a huge fan of your work. Especially Swords and Shields."
Crossing his arms, Varric let out a satisfied hum "And my editor says that, that was the worst book I've ever written."
An annoyed groan let out of Cassandra's throat, she had no time for their gleeful conversation.
Exchanging a quick look, Varric and Alysia snorted when Cassandra moved ahead of them.
She liked him already.
Sensing that there was another rift between the Temple and them, Alysia shot forward, towards it; informing her companions that there was another fight ahead.
Piles of bodies lay waste around the rift. Alysia was sure that whatever the rift was, it was a bad sign. Needless to say, as if the hole in the sky that was spitting demons out of it was not indication enough as to how bad things were already.
She threw herself in front of the rift as tall gangly demon popped out of it.
She pulled out her blades and jumped over the demon. Steadying her balance, she threw her blade at the Pride demon, square in the eye. Appreaciating her quick work, she moved on to the next demon.
After a few bruises and shrills from the demons, Alysia sealed the rift. Her teeth clenched at the pain from closing it and for whatever reason her gash started to pulsate every time she closed a rift, the pain was so close to driving her to her to tears but she stood her ground.
"You fight good," Varric said bowing.
"Likewise," Alysia said, bowing back.
Pressing for time, the group made their way up to the Temple, it became apparent during the journey that Solas knew a fair bit about the hole in the sky.
Alysia found his knowledge to be peculiar and for the life of her, she did not know why.
The thought soon left her as soon as she saw the sight of the forward camp, feeling glad at the reprieve. But her joy was soon cut short when she saw the Left Hand of the Divine, Sister Leliana being yelled at by an older male cleric.
"Sucks to be that guy," Varric said while chuckling.
"How so?" Alysia asked amused at the dwarf.
"I wouldn't push your luck with Nightingale. Roderick will get what's coming to him."
"Let's hope sooner than later," Cassandra said in amusement while passing through a sniggering Varric and Alysia.
Cassandra came to Leliana's defense before the argument got out of hand. The cleric was clearly annoyed at being cut off started pointing at Alysia, imploring for her to be executed. At very exact moment he was yelling at her.
Alysia crossed her arms and scowled at the cleric. Before Cassandra could clear her of her charges, Alysia stood in between the two women and man.
"Listen here Twinky, you see that? That is a giant hole in the sky. And in case you were too blind to notice I just saved all of you from being killed by demons coming out of that shitstorm," she blurted out, furious at the accusation.
"And if… I don't know… was guilty of that, then why don't you try to kill me now?" She challenged.
Chancellor Roderick froze at his spot, slowly lowering his gaze.
"No? Then quit wasting our time. I have better things to do than listen to your empty accusations."
Everyone stared at them in silence, stunned at the scene that was unfolding before their eyes. Chancellor Roderick tried to speak again, but held his tongue.
"That's what I thought," she spat, pressing on past him towards her other companions.
Varric followed her closely behind, trying to muffle his laugh.
"This should definitely be in my next book."
The group decided that the mountain path would be the best option in order to save the stranded unit of soldiers. They made their way up the mountain, fighting demons through a ruined tunnel system.
Sounds of people yelling could be heard shortly after escaping the tunnel. Alysia and her companions raced through a narrow ravine to find Leliana's scouts cornered by a rift. The scouts stood their ground and were glad to see that help had arrived. Alysia dropped to her knees as the rift was promptly sealed, groaning from the ache in her shoulder.
Alerted by her whimpering Solas fell beside Alysia to see if the mark had grown a little bigger. He requested permission to touch her hand, Alysia nodded tiredly, head spinning from the gently unfolded her fingers, and traced his long slender fingers along the edges of her gash on her palm. Alysia felt some form of familiarity with his touch, his grip gentle but wanting at the same time. She felt his gaze fall on her, as if inspecting every inch of her entire being. Her breathing quickened when she saw Solas' face scrunch up into confusion when his fingers stopped briefly on the tip of hers.
He knows, she thought.
"Solas studied your mark while you were unconscious," Cassandra said, interrupting them.
Solas dropped her hand quickly, straightened his back and continued forward. Alysia felt the tips of her fingers burn from the sensation of Solas' touch, but ignored it in fear. She bowed her head in gratitude to the elf, who mutely nodded acceptance.
"You'll get used to him, Snowflake," Varric said as he helped Alysia off the powdered ground.
"Snowflake?" Alysia wondered.
"Your hair."
"Oh? Is that my nickname now? Does everyone around here have nicknames?"
"Some. That's Chuckles," he said pointing at Solas.
"Chuckles? Odd," Alysia's said, her eyebrows raised.
"He'll grow into it."
"Cass here is called Seeker. Simple enough."
"Has anyone given you a nickname?"
The dwarf laughed. "Probably."
"I heard he is commonly known as a rotten bastard," Cassandra yelled out from ahead.
"Fitting," Solas agreed, a hint of a smile appearing on his lips.
"Don't you start now, Chuckles," Varric said in mock-annoyance.
Alysia's laugh grew short when she heard the elf's unexpected humour. She found it rather odd that he had any for that matter. She watched her companions walk off ahead of her, thinking that maybe, maybe her continuous tribulation wasn't so bad after all.
For now.