Alysia's heart pounded loudly as she walked through the doors with Solas, she felt a shiver crawl up her spine when she saw Alexius sitting on a large throne waiting for her, his face was curled up into a sinister smirk. She felt her knees grow weak with each step she took, but comfort washed over her when she felt Solas' warm fingers wrap around hers quickly, assuring her that she was not alone in this.
She briefly eyed her surroundings to make sure she could escape if her boys did not come to her in time, the throne room felt eerily cold, adding to that effect were the scarcely lit torches on the rows of pillars, its flames created tall menacing shadows over the walls, and the blood red curtains that draped over the large glass windows painted a gory hue over Alexius' face.
He must really love the darkness, Alysia joked to herself in attempt to compose herself. Alysia dearly hoped that nothing ominous was lurking behind the dark corners of the room. As she reached towards the middle of the room, Alexius suddenly got up from the throne and walked over to her, his tall figure towering over her; his face slowly grew conceited.
"Welcome to my home, the infamous Herald of Andraste," Alexius said, bowing his head as he spoke. The man held his smug grin as he ushered Alysia into the room.
"Thank you for having me, Magister. I'm glad to see that my notoriety has reached your ears; I did not expect tales about me to reach Tevinter so quickly. I must thank my lady Ambassador," Alysia replied to him, oozing confidence out to counter his.
Magister Alexius smiled at Alysia through gritted teeth.
"So, I heard that you could help the Inquisition with letting us… borrow your mages," she said while quickly eyeing the guards who stood on both sides of the throne. Alysia felt sweat roll down her back when she saw them walk closer towards the Magister.
"That is quite right, Herald," Alexius began, his face returning to a smirk. "But I do regret to inform you that you won't be able to borrow them," he said while lifting an amulet in his hand up to the air, as if to signal something—no, he was building a pool of magic around them.
"Well that's a shame since I've come an awful long way for it. Let's make a deal," she said while walking backwards slowly, her heart racing at the green air that was covering the ceiling. "How about if I manage to kill you right now, I get to keep them. Sounds fair?" she said, voice raising louder as she paced backwards, reaching for her daggers she strapped on her back at the last word.
Before the guards or Alexius could react to Alysia, Solas lit a flame wall with his staff to block them from her. Alexius eyes grew mad with rage, as whatever Solas did interrupted him from his spell casting. Alysia's eyes grew wide when she heard a familiar voice call out to her, as she was going to turn around to face the voice, someone tackled her hard to the ground. From beneath her thick hair, she could see bolts of green lights fly through the air and erupting where Alexius stood. She tried to lift her head up to see what was happening but before she could, she saw the room grow darker and everything around her started to dissipate with the darkness, she could not tell what was happening around her except for feeling the intense burn of magic on her skin. When she tried to reach out to gasp for air, she felt her back fall firmly onto a pool of water. She cried out in pain, feeling her lower back bruise on impact. She coughed profously when she tried to breathe in, her lungs burned from the odd dry air that was floating about the room. Before she could lift herself off the wet ground to look at her surroundings, something heavy dropped on her and she felt her back dig further into the ground.
"Get off me," she yelled from beneath the person, who rolled off her and cursed loudly.
"Festis bei umo canavarum," the deep voice spat. Dorian sat next to Alysia, the entire half of his body drenched in water, and he looked completely shaken and confused at where he found himself.
"Excuse me?" Alysia asked in between coughs, confused at whatever he said. She couldn't help but notice how strange the air was around them; it smelt pungent and reeked of blood, and the crumbling walls of the small room seemed to be infested with mold. She scrunched up her face in disgust as she extended her hand out to Dorian.
"Forgive me. It's just been a long day with you around," Dorian said while taking Alysia's hands in his.
"Where are we?" Dorian asked as he finally composed himself.
"No clue. I got here the same way you did. Judging from the structure, we could be in a dungeon or something. And it's… old," Alysia said as she grazed the walls with her hands as she walked out of the room. "In any case, we shouldn't linger here."
They continued pass the eerie hallway, breaths shallow as they try to discern their surroundings. They walked through the dark pathway that led them up a stairs, only for it to be a dead end. Annoyed they turned back and continued down another hallway.
"I need to speak to their interior designer at once, I must tell them how magnificently designed this place is," Dorian said while rolling his eyes.
"Where do you think we are? Are we even still in Redcliffe," Alysia asked, while shuffling her feet on the moss-infested gravel. She groaned in disgust as she heard her boot create a squishy sound on the slimy surface. "What happened to the others?"
Dorian looked at her and let out a heavy breath, "The last I remember was calling out to you and tackling you to the ground when something loomed over you, then everything became dark. I think I just so happen to be caught in whatever it was that Alexius intended for you," he said while tilting his head thoughtfully.
"Perfect. More magic bullshit to deal with," she said sharply while marching through the moist ground. Alysia cautiously walked through the hallway; she narrowed her eyes when she saw pieces of red crystals jutting out of the ground, as she walked over to inspect it, Dorian held out his hand to stop her.
"Some form of lyrium," he said while eyeing it with disgust.
"It's… red lyrium," she gasped as she recognized its sinister swirl that glowed in the middle of the crystal.
"Best keep away from it," he said while leading Alysia up the stairs into a cavern of sorts. A few torches lit the large room and this room had more lyrium than the ones below, mostly every inch of the rooms were filled with it. It emitted a sickly red light that flickered against the walls; casting eerie looking shadows to form on the walls.
"Perfect. More lyrium," Dorian spat. As he was about to maneuver himself around it, a couple of guards spotted them, unsheathing their swords while charging towards them.
"For the Elder One!" one of them cried out as he lunged at Alysia with all of his weight. As he was about to dig his sword into Alysia's chest, she spun out of the way and kneed him in the back, with a swift movement she pulled out her daggers and dug it deeply into his head. She heard Dorian grunting from the far side of the room, he was busy casting spells at the guard who was slashing his way to Dorian heavily. Alysia ran to the man and side-kicked him before he could even reach Dorian. When the man got up, spitting blood out of his mouth, he charge towards Alysia with a deadly blow, Alysia jumped quickly and pierced his neck with her blade, causing him to spurt out blood through his mouth. Alysia watched the man gag on the blood in his mouth, squirming on the floor, but he stopped soon after. She looked up at Dorian who was regarding her handiwork with admiration.
Alysia rubbed the man's blood off her face with the sleeve of her leather armour, gaging on the smell of his blood. It smelt rustier than it should.
"Those men were Venatori," Dorian said as he examined the insignia on the man's back.
"Do you think were in a holding cell of some sort? He didn't really do a good job of keeping us in," she said while examining the dead Venatori with the side of her boot.
"Wherever this is, it doesn't feel right. The air, the lyrium, everything. We should press on and look for the others."
"After you, Master Pavus," she said, extending her arm forward for him to lead. They walked through another dark hallway, this time leading them down a flight of stairs. When they finally reached the bottom, the hallway branched off into two directions.
"Split up?" Alysia asked.
"And risk you I? Not a chance," Dorian replied grimly.
"Fine. Right it is," she said while pointing the direction with her chin.
As they reached the end of the dark hallway, it opened up into a large room that was supposed to house prisoners, the jail cells were old and covered in rubble, a pool of water gathered at the middle of the room although not as much as the room where Dorian and Alysia were previously in. Red lyrium jutted out from the ceilings, its glow was deeper than the ones Alysia encountered. Alysia clutched her daggers tightly as she and Dorian pressed on into the room. As she was walking through the room, she heard a deep voice singing softly.
"Three hundred bottles of beer on the wall, three hundreds bottles of beer… Take one down, pass it around… two hundred and ninety—." When Alysia reached the end she found a familiar face hunched over, singing to himself.
"Bull!" she cried out, clutching the cold iron bars that separated her and him. "Are you alright? What happened?!"
Bull looked up at her, his eyes sorrowful. His voice sounded deeper than normal and strange, as if a demon resided within him. She saw large shards of lyrium growing out of his skin in various places; he looked haggard and slightly deranged.
"The Elder One… not Alexius. Orlais. The Empress. Dead," he mumbled.
"What?" she asked in whispers.
"You died, Boss. We saw you die…" he whispered. "You're not even real. You're not real. Leave me," he continued.
"She what?" Dorian exclaimed, confused.
"But I didn't. I'm still here Bull. I'm here," she cried out to the half mad Qunari.
"You're real? Are you? But you… died. After your death, Alexius followed the Elder One's orders. They killed the Empress of Orlais and after that… shit started to go wrong. He started taking over… everything with his demon army."
Alysia gripped the bars tighter, gazing into his green eyes that were now filled with agony, so much more than she saw before.
"Wait here, I'll get you out," she said through almost tears. "
Alysia stepped backwards from the cell, and looked at Dorian who nodded at her.
"Step back, Bull!" she cried out as Dorian glassed the entire iron bars with ice and she kicked it with all of her might. The bars shattered into several pieces and fell onto the ground; Alysia quickly rushed to Bull's side and held his shaking hands.
"Where are Solas and Blackwall, Bull?"
"They should be somewhere here. I remember them… being taken away too."
"Okay, first things first, we'll regroup and then put the pieces back together. We can't figure out what's going on just on Bull's side of the story alone," Dorian said while peering through the hallway they just came from. There was another flight of stairs through the door on the right; Alysia quickly rushed through it in hopes to find her companions.
As she reached the room that was much similar to where Bull was, she found Solas on the second cell on the right.
He looked much more distant than he used to be, he sat on the floor and rested his face on a lyrium shard that was jutting out from the wall. The crinkles in his eyes were lost; his eyes were empty and cold, as if all of the light in the world had left him. The Solas before her now was a barren shell, something she could never imagine him being. Solas lightly moved his head when he felt someone walk pass him, as his eyes drifted upwards to meet hers, his eyes started to brighten with relief.
"You're not dead…No. Are you a trick?" Solas whispered, his legs fumbling on the floor as he tried to get up.
"No… No… Solas. I'm real," she said as she reached out to the elf, whose hands were cold and rough when it touched hers. She felt something grow in her chest when his skin touched hers.
"Solas, we'll get you out, okay?" she said while gently entwining her hands into his.
She let Solas out the same way she did with Bull, and as soon as he was free, she quickly jumped into his arms and embraced him tightly. Solas sunk to his knees along with Alysia when he felt how real she was, he inhaled the sweet smell that was her and his hands grasped her even tighter, as if she were truly about to die. Feeling slightly embarrassed when she realized that Bull and Dorian were staring at them, she shot Solas a reassuring smile and led him out of the cell.
"Should we give you a moment," Dorian asked cheekily.
"Dorian. Focus," she said as she shook his head at him.
"Over there," Bull said, pointing towards another flight of stairs.
Alysia and her companions rushed through the stairs and quickly pressed on into the dark hallway. She found Blackwall pacing about in his cell, speaking to himself.
"Blackwall," she called out to him. Blackwall looked up at Alysia in surprise, his brows furrowing at the sight of her face.
"You're alive!" he exclaimed. "How? We saw you die."
"I'll explain in a minute, first I have to get you out."
After letting Blackwall out, Alysia felt a wave of relief wash over her. Her friends were all right, now all they had to do was figure out what was going on.
"So what happened after I… died?" Alysia asked, hand to her chin.
"After you…" Bull stopped as if something was caught in his throat. "After the meeting, we were captured by Alexius who kept us down here. He used the mages to help the Elder One build a demon army. He executed Empress Celene and shortly after that, things just started falling apart. Maker knows how many of our people are dead now."
"Hold on… that's not possible. We were there only for a moment," Alysia gasped, trying to wrap her head around all the destruction Alexius could have caused in the time that they were trapped down here.
"No, you've been dead for a year," Solas said, his voice low and full of pain. "You were gone… for much too long…" he continued, grazing his hand gently on hers as he spoke. Alysia turned to look at Solas whose eyes seem to be filled with more life than it did before.
"You've got to be joking! He sent us forward into the future!" Dorian exclaimed while slapping his forehead with force, making the entire room turn to him.
"He what?!" she cried out, her face filled with shock as she turned to the mage who seemed too excited to be sent into the future.
"This is wonderful," he said through his smile. "Solas, you're a genius! Whatever you did to stop Alexius' magic has sent us forward into time. This is perfect!"
"Hold on Dorian. You need to run that by me again," she said, her face now scrunched up into confusion.
She could not comprehend how any of this was wonderful news to the mage whose mind seemed to be working with excitement. Whatever it was that he was thinking about, she hoped that he secretly knew how to fix this mess.