Alysia flipped her hair back, and snarled at the Breach above her; its sickly green glow seemed to envelop her as she walked closer to it. Her head felt dizzy from the acrid smell that seeped out from the Breach but she knew that had to seal it before its cracks grew wider and threatened to swallow everyone around her whole. Before she lifted her left arm up towards the Breach, she nodded at Cassandra who re-assured her that the mages were ready to help her seal it. She was afraid, no doubt, and the alcohol she had from the night before had all but dissipated, she had to do this without ale to calm her anxious self. She slowly angled her hand upwards to face the threat looming above her; she felt the air tingle around her as her arm glowed bright green. She let the mark's energy surge through her and burst directly towards the Breach, its trails of green light and her arm connected, and she could feel its energy pass back and forth between her and the hole in the sky. When she saw the Breach distorting itself, she knew entirely that she had succeeded.
She felt a burning sensation throughout her body during the ride back to Haven, she was unsure of why her skin pulsated as if she had doused herself in boiling water. It wasn't entirely unpleasant but she couldn't help but wonder if sealing the Breach had caused her body to radiate with heat. Possibly not, she agreed to herself. She couldn't bring herself to tell anyone, let alone Cassandra about it, she figured that today of all days should be celebrated. Out of all the catastrophic things that had happened to the Inquisition, this was their well-deserved victory. The entire experience had not only left the people of Haven feeling uplifted but it had also left Alysia with a sense of pride and purpose.
The moment she arrived back to Haven, the overjoyed locals cheered and praised Alysia and her companions for sealing the Breach, some called out to the Maker and praised him for protecting their beloved Herald of Andraste. To show their gratitude, a feast was prepared for all those under the Inquisition, steins of ale were passed around freely to celebrate the joyous occasion. Crowds started to gather around a large bonfire lit by Threnn, who oddly enough was celebrating with everyone else. Soon, the bard from the Tavern started to sing tales and the merriment continued; Alysia sat on a large lock next to her sister, who was busy chattering away with Cassandra, who was unusually loquacious. She sat there and saw the people of Haven enjoying themselves, smiles lit up on their otherwise morbid faces. It was true that it was the ale that made them all the more merrier but for the first time in a long time the people of Haven had something to be happy about. And Alysia would let nothing take this happiness away from them.
A large crowd gathered around Varric who was sure enough telling an embellished version of the tale about how Alysia sealed the Breach, gasps escaped their lips as the dwarf continued his story, which apparently involved a catapult. Alysia shook her head at the tale and smirked to herself, she thought of how she had to get used to Varric and Cassandra's impending need of fabricating tales about her. She saw Bull on the other side of the bonfire being surrounded by a group of women who were flaunting themselves at him, he himself had no issue about this as his arms were wrapped around one of their shoulders. Alysia grinned at Bull who winked back at her, clearly enjoying himself at the expense of Dorian who rolled his eyes at him and walked away into the crowd. Alysia raised her eyebrow at the scene, wondering if whatever Dorian was feeling was anger or jealousy, she shrugged at the thought knowing that it was entirely impossible for Dorian to ever feel jealous towards Bull, or anyone for that matter.
The night was slowly winding down, and she found herself sitting alone, her gaze lingered absently on the crowd that were singing and dancing; she silently wondered if she had finally found her sense of place. She wondered if she had finally beaten the sickness within her that her family—her father had despised so much. She took in a deep lungful of air and felt relief wash over her at the thought, she enjoyed the sensation of the cold air, and it smelt crisp against the warmth from the bonfire. But a familiar smell hung around her, the biblichor smell reminded her of warm summer days spent in her father's library, she knew whom the scent belonged to and she welcomed its intrusion. Solas sat beside her and smiled at her.
"Finally free of your books and dreams?" she asked, staring up at him through her dark lashes.
"I figured that now is a good time as any to experience the present," he said, his voice low. He let his eyes linger on hers, and saw a crimson color slowly burn her cheeks.
Alysia turned her gaze away from him and tilted her head sideways. Comfortable silence filled the atmosphere as the both of them stared absently at the crowd of people.
"I'm glad to see you return unscathed," he said, his eyes still lingering on the crowd.
Alysia felt her stomach flutter at what he said but more so from his voice, she could feel his fingers slightly touch hers as he sat next to her, she fought the urge to lean in closer to him and ask if it was intentional.
"Me too," she replied, she bit her bottom lip and cursed at herself for not coming up with anything clever to say to him.
She heard him chuckle at her response, surprise that for once her smart mouth was not present in their conversation.
"Not drinking tonight?" he asked, his entire body angled at her now.
Alysia's face lit up into a smile and she placed both her hands up into the air, as if offended. "Well, not after last night," she laughed, acknowledging that what she did the night before was indeed stupid. "I don't need liquid courage to enjoy a party, good ser. Do you?"
Solas laughed loudly at her, his entire body vibrated from the sound that was coming deep within his belly. Alysia's eyes grew wide at his couth self coming undone, this was the first time she had ever heard him laugh and it was a sight to behold and a wonderful sound to listen to.
Solas covered his mouth with his hand to muffle his laugh when he realized that Alysia was staring at him, her face was shock yet pleased. He held her gaze, her eyes sparkled with awe and her blush was more evident now.
"I need to ask you something—," before he could finish his sentence, the ringing of a loud bell filled the air. Solas and Alysia both leaped up onto their feet at the same time; she saw a guard from the gates yell out to everyone. Worry replaced her the happiness that she felt just moments ago when she saw the people of Haven scrambling to the gates to see what was happening, she saw Cullen standing by the gates, his body grew tense as a guard spoke to him. Of course something wrong was bound to happen, she thought to herself bitterly.
She raced towards to gates with Solas who cursed something in elvhen under his breath, Cullen's voice thundered over the gates, calling his men to arms. Blackwall and Dorian came running down at the exact same time, both of them carrying their weapons.
"Cullen?" Alysia asked, her eyes growing wide with panic.
"One watchguard reported a massive force making its way through the mountain," Cullen cried out, his eyes darting towards the horde or people-rather things, with lit torches that painted over the dark mountaintop.
"Under what banner?" Josephine and Aurelia asked in unison, the both of them were enraged by whoever it was that decided to attack Haven.
"None," Cullen spoke solemnly.
"None?" Josephine repeated, perplexed at the fact that there were people who were readily attacking them in the open, but more so that they were doing this anonymously.
Alysia felt the burning sensation enveloping her again, she saw Solas' eyes dart towards her filled with concern. She cursed him for being so intuitive but now was not the time for anyone to be worried about her; they had to save Haven and its people. A loud bang came suddenly from behind the gate, startling everyone. She saw light flickering from under the wooden gate and a frantic yell.
"I can't come in unless you open," it said.
Alysia ignored Cullen's protest against opening the gate to a stranger, worried that it might be a trap. She knew that whoever it was behind the gate could either save or kill them, but she had to hope to that opening the gate was her best option. She pushed the gates open with the help of Blackwall, and her eyes fell onto a thin boy with an obscenely large hat that was clearly too big for his head, its brim hung low and whatever features of his face Alysia could make out was covered by his blonde hair. His was pulling his knife out of a dead man's back, the masked warrior had a similar looking mark on the back of his armor to the Venatori she had met in Redcliffe.
"My name is Cole. I've come to warn you. To help. There are people coming here to hurt you," he said through heavy breaths. "But you already know," he said, his eyes darting towards the horde of people that were rushing through the mountain. Alysia found his speech to be odd but something in her told her to place her trust in him.
"Who is coming to hurt me?" she asked.
"The Templars—or what they used to be, have come to kill you," he said, his voice low.
"The Templars? Is this their response from forming an alliance with the mages?" Cullen asked, confused, and furious at them attacking the Inquisition.
"The Red Templars have sided with the Elder One. He wants you dead. You took his mages from him. There—", he pointed upwards towards the hill where a monstrous looking person stood next to a man who was much smaller than he was. Alysia recognized the red crystals that jutted out from his skin, his flesh looked somewhat decayed and wrinkly; it was a truly terrifying thing. She saw it turn its face towards the man that was next to him as if to urge him and his troops onward.
"I know that man, but not the other," Cullen spoke, his voice filled with betrayal as he looked at the man adorning another armor instead of the Templar's.
"He has been searching for you," Cole said, walking towards Alysia. "You stole something from him and now he wants you dead," he continued, his blue eyes filled with worry.
Alysia felt the blood drain from her face; she turned her face away from the boy and on to Cullen who was gripping the hilt of his sword tightly.
"Cullen. Give me a plan. Anything."
"We have no choice but to fight, lady Trevelyan," he said while his brows knitted into worry. "Men, to arms! Fortify Haven and fight the advancing forces" he shouted to the people behind him, "Tonight we fight! For ourselves, for the Inquisition, for the Herald!" He raised his sword towards the cold air, and yelled out a rallying cry that echoed around the dark winter night. The soldiers yelled back in reply, their feet scurrying on the snow, activity erupted all around them as Cullen barked orders to his men.
Alysia eyes darted towards the guards who were readying the trebuchet, the yelled out for someone to keep the advancing forces at bay. She ran towards them and soon after everything around her erupted into a flurry of violence as the Templars started to kill on sight. The large chunk of the horde was compromised of used to be Templars that fought with the viciousness of demons but masquerading around as men. Their shrieks were as inhuman as their skin; they had the same red crystals around the surface of their ash grey skin. Alysia had a hard time trying to keep them down as they were everywhere, they crushed the Inquisition's forces with little to no effort at all; she couldn't focus amongst the chaos that was erupting all around her—to make matters worse, a large screech echoed all around the mountainside.
She felt her stomach turn at the sound; her mind reeled from the possibility of what it was. She saw something large and horrifying emerge from the billowy clouds that were rolling in from the mountaintop; her eyes grew wide with panic as it slowly came into view.
"You've got to be fucking kidding me," she cried out to the ferocious creature whose wings beated loudly. The dragon was large and disgusting looking, its eyes were dark and ominous, threatening to kill everyone in Haven. It flew over the town and destroyed whatever it saw, it rained fire wherever the dragon belched. Alysia saw the town that she had come to love burn right before her eyes and she was powerless to save it against a dragon. She heard a bell ring from inside the town, calling its people to fall back into the chantry. It was the only building capable enough to provide any form of safety for its people but Alysia knew that the stone building would soon come crumbling down especially against such a beast.
Alysia finally managed to reach the chantry with her companions, with the help of Blackwall and some guards they managed to seal the door to the chantry with some benches and tables. She tried to look through the rubble in the chantry to find if there was anything she could use to help the wounded. She felt hot tears threatening to form on the side of her eyes as her hands dug through the mess that was the chantry. She was more desolate than shock at how she could help these people, her people from being crushed to death by an angry dragon and its master.
She saw Cullen staring at her, his eyes at a loss of what to do. She knew in her heart that the town would not hold and that most of her forces were dead and what was left of them were gravely wounded. She saw her sister and Solas sitting next to a few dying guards; their words gave them comfort as they slowly slipped away into the darkness. Chancellor Roderick's bloodied body was lying on the frail boy, he was barely breathing.
"He tried to stop a Templar. The blade went deep. He is going to die," Cole said in a monotonous voice.
"What a charming boy," Chancellor Roderick joked through the blood that he coughed out.
"The Elder One will come for you. And you will die. He doesn't care about the people, all he wants is you."
"But why does her want her?" Cullen asked through gritted teeth.
"I told you. He is very angry at you," Cole spoke again, his arms firmly wrapped around Chancellor Roderick's dying body.
"We need to find a way to save these people. I won't let them die, Cullen," Alysia said, her voice shaking with anger.
"Whatever time you have given us has been stolen by the dragon," he said, his voice shook with worry for the people around him.
"Yes… there is a way," Cole whispered to them. "There is something Chancellor Roderick wants to tell you, before he dies."
Chancellor Roderick explained that there was a secret passage out of Haven; only those who had walked the pilgrims' path to the Temple used it. Few knew of its existence but he had walked it before and he could show them, but all he needed was a little bit more time to help everyone get out of there alive.
Alysia knew that she had to buy them some time, some form of diversion for everyone to escape. She locked her eyes on to her sister's who understood her look right away.
"You will not!" Aurelia's voice rang out from behind her. "I will not have you die for all these people, Aly!" she said, anger filling her.
"This is my decision. Not yours. You have saved me many times. Now, it is my turn," she said while turning away from her sister. "Cullen. Give me one last plan," she said to him, her eyes trying to hide her worry.
"All we have left is one last trebuchet but I can't have you risk your life for us," Cullen said. He felt unpleasant at the thought of Alysia risking her life to save all these people from their inevitable death.
"That is a choice I am willing to make," she said, her voice filled with determination. She saw Solas looking at her with concern in his eyes, but she had to pull away from his stare to concentrate on her mad plan.
Cullen and Solas both realized that in this moment that this might be the very last time that they, or anyone would ever see her again. Cullen knew for sure that there was no force on Thedas that could convince her otherwise; she was a stubborn fool, but a brave stubborn fool for the most part.
Alysia knew in her bones that she would die. That her sacrificing herself was the only way to save everyone, and it was the only option.
"Cullen…" she began, her brain trying to process some form of word to ease his worry. She felt his hazel eyes burn into hers, she was afraid that this would be the last time that she would ever have with the people who had made Haven her home, despite everything.
"You promised me. You promised to help. Save them," she said, her voice full of determination as she turned on her heel towards the door. Cullen grabbed her by the wrist, as if to whisper one final confession to her.
"Come back to us. Back to me. Run as fast as you can. Promise me?" he said, his eyes pleading to her through what little words he could muster through this chaotic situation. She smiled warmly at him; grateful for whatever courage his words gave her. She nodded at him and walked out of the door, leaving the people that she loved behind, giving them a fighting chance of surviving the Elder One's attack.