"He's invulnerable. Use your Mark!"
In response to Dorian's cry, Herah staggered towards the giant Saarebas, but even at a distance, Sera could see that she was in agony. Green lightning was pouring off of her arm and when she raised it up, her scream was one more of pain than rage. Whatever Herah was feeling though, she still got the job done. The energy of the Mark leapt out from her hand, wrapping around the gigantic, wounded qunari and pulling it apart much as it had once done to Corypheus.
No sooner had the mage been disintegrated then Herah collapsed to her knees, her good hand clutching at her electrified wrist. Sera wanted to run to her wife, but the best she could manage was a limp. One of the Pride Demons had torn up her left leg, and she had already gone through her entire supply of healing potions. Nor were the others in any better shape. Cassandra was bleeding from a dozen cuts while Dorian seemed unable to even get up, still flat on his ass from the crushing blow to the torso he'd taken from Saarebas. Herah might have been the healthiest of them all, if not for the fact that the Mark on her hand was killing her.
No. It's not gonna kill her. It can't. It just fucking can't.
She reached Herah just as her wife pulled herself back to her feet. Sweat was pouring down the Inquisitor's face, and every word she spoke had to be forced out through clenched teeth. "Sera…. I've got to get to Solas now."
Sera bit her lip, trying to make herself focus. Her leg hurt like hell, but if they had to keeping moving, she wasn't giving up. "'Kay then, Buckles. Let's go."
Herah shook her head weakly. "No. Stay." She reached into a pocket of her armor and took out a regeneration potion. "Here. Last one left…"
Her trembling hand passed it to Sera, and the archer took from her it even as a fresh spasm of pain hit Herah. She shook as the energy of the Mark spilled down her arm, staggering away from Sera lest she hurt her too.
"I can't," Sera protested, her voice catching in her throat. "Won't leave you."
"You… you have to. The Mark…. It could kill you too if I…"
"Buckles…"
Before she could make any more protests, Herah bent in for one final kiss. Sera tried desperately to hold on to the feeing of her lips, to not let her wife slip away, but it was only a few seconds before Herah pulled back. "I love you, Sera," she whispered, before turning and jogging in the direction of the eluvian as fast as she could under the circumstances.
"Herah, no…"
Sera was paralyzed as Herah grew more distant. She shouldn't follow, couldn't really on her bum leg, and yet she was unable to do anything but stare at the departing form of her wife. Cassandra, though, didn't let her stay caught in her trance. "Sera, give me the potion," she said, her voice all business, "Dorian needs it."
Sera did as she was told, handing the potion over to Cassandra before letting herself collapse to the ground. Taking the pressure off of her injured leg helped ease her physical pain, but that only let her focus on how terrified she was.
Cassandra opened up the vial and poured its contents down Dorian's throat. The characteristic light of the healing magic filled him, bathing the whole area in a glow that immediately reduced the throbbing in Sera's leg.
Dorian sat up, shaking his head. "If this is what winning looks like, I think we should consider other alternatives."
"On that, we can agree," Cassandra replied.
"Where is the Inquisitor?"
Sera opened her mouth, but for once, no words would come back out, and so it was left for Cassandra to answer him. "She has gone through the eluvian to try and find Solas before it's too late. I… do not think that she has much time left."
"Fucking arse biscuit!" Sera snapped. "Don't say that! She'll be okay. She has to be."
"You have to prepare yourself," Cassandra said, her voice calm but also far more sympathetic than usual, "This may not end well."
"Fuck. Fuck. Fuck…" Sera kept repeating the word like a mantra as she tried to process what was happening. These past few days, she'd been insisting that everything would be okay, that her wife's hand was just responding to the dumb elf-y magic in the mirrors, that it wasn't that bad. But it was that bad, and she'd couldn't lie to herself about it anymore.
All her life, she'd known that the world was a stupid, shitty place where bad things happened to people who didn't deserve it, but for the last two years, she'd started to believe maybe it didn't always have to be. Maybe even people like her and Herah got a chance to have happy endings. And now, everything they'd built was being taken away.
No. She wouldn't give Herah up. Not without a fight. Ignoring the lingering pain in her leg, she pushed herself back to her feet.
"The Inquisitor said to wait here," Cassandra reminded her, but Sera shook her head.
"Bollocks with that." She wiped aside the tears that were gathering around her eyes. "I'm not leaving her."
"But the Mark… If it should explode…"
Sera clenched her fists. "Then I go with her, but she's not going alone. That's what the vows meant, right? We stay together, even when it's the worst times."
To her surprise, Cassandra only nodded. "I have always underestimated you, Sera and I am sorry for that. If you truly mean to do this, I will come with you. She is my friend, too."
"And mine." Dorian had begun to rise as well, using his staff to prop him up. "Perhaps I can shield us from some of the blast if the worst should happen."
"Right, then." Sera sucked in a deep breath, trying very hard not to think about the worst and whether it had already happened. "Let's go do this."
The three of them staggered together towards the eluvian, slowed by their injuries but healed enough by the potion to make the trip. Indeed, Sera scarcely felt the pain in her leg as she walked. All she could think of was the hurt that had filled Herah's brown eyes. If that was the last thing she ever saw there, the last thing her wife ever experienced…
She felt utterly helpless. She would fight anything for Herah, no matter how big, and weird, and terrifying their enemies were, but this was something she couldn't shoot with her bow. All she could do was hope. Hope and be there for the woman she loved, no matter what it cost.
Their party passed through the eluvian, and as they emerged on the other side, they were confronted by an unexpected sight. Everywhere, stone qunari stood motionless, and Sera realized as she looked at their expressions that they weren't statues but scared people who'd been petrified.
Don't any of you be Buckles. Don't you bloody dare.
Thankfully, none of them was, and as Sera made her way out of the forest of statues, she finally got a clear look up the path ahead. And there she was. She was slumped down on her knees, and her back was turned, but Sera would know the curve of those horns anywhere. Dashing in spite of the pain it cost her, she ran to Herah's side, and just before she reached her, she saw it.
Herah's right hand was clutching at her other shoulder, but beneath it, starting somewhere above the elbow, the bulk of her left arm was gone. Abandoning any restraint, Sera threw her arms around her wife, clutching onto her as if she was the only thing in the world that was real. Sera wasn't entirely sure what was going on, but right then she didn't care. It didn't matter where Solas was, or who had turned those other qunari to stone, or really even how Herah had lost her arm. Her wife was alive, and right then, it was enough for her. Sera clung tightly to her, covering her face in kisses. "Right here, Buckles," she said in-between her tears, "Not going anywhere again. Never ever."
Herah hugged her back with the arm she still had left and when Sera looked into her face, she could see pain etched into every line of it. "Oh, Sera," she said weakly, "Maker, it's good to see you."
"Inquisitor!" Cassandra and Dorian had caught up with them, and the Seeker was starring in shock at Herah. "Are you…"
It sounded as if her throat was raw when she replied softly, "I'm alive."
"What happened?" Dorian asked.
"It was Solas. Fen'Harel. They're the same person. He took the arm."
The others were taken aback, but Sera couldn't make herself worry about all that ancient elf crap. Not now. Gingerly, she touched Herah's shoulder above the missing limb. "Does it hurt?"
"Like absolute hell at first, but it's been getting better. It's not bleeding at least." Sera looked down, and indeed there was no blood on Herah's sleeve except a bit on the outside, but she was pretty sure that had come from somebody her wife had stabbed. "He said it was killing me," Herah added, her voice becoming steadier as she kept talking. "That this was the only way to stop that from happening."
"It is certainly better than the alternative," Dorian agreed.
"Can you walk?" Cassandra asked. "We need to return and tell the others what's happened, but if you cannot make it, I will go back and send help to you."
Herah rose, but her legs still looked unsteady beneath her. "No, I can make it." She interlocked her fingers with Sera's, and the archer squeezed down tight, reassuring her wife that she was still there. "Come on. We've got a lot to tell everyone, and not a lot of time."
Herah winced slightly as Vivienne examined the remains of her arm. Drinking a healing potion once they'd returned to the Inquisition's rooms at the Winter Palace had dulled the pain, but the area was still tender. Sensing her hurt, Sera squeezed her thigh a little tighter, a protective gesture Herah appreciated. Her wife hadn't left her side since they'd gotten back, and she was glad of it. Not since getting their asses kicked at Haven had she felt this vulnerable.
"It seems to be a clean cut, Inquisitor," Vivienne reported. "And I can find no trace of the Mark remaining. It has been completely excised."
"Well, I guess that's good, all things considered," she said with a grimace. It was strange having Vivienne do this, she realized. Once, it would've been Solas who treated her, but now, he'd become the one who'd caused her pain. In a way, he always had been. If he hadn't arranged for Corypheus to find that damn orb of his, none of this would have happened.
"Bloody right it's good," Sera agreed. "Glad it's gone. Always said that stupid elf-y crap was bad, and now it almost did for you."
"It didn't though," she reassured Sera. Even if it has cost me dearly. I wonder if Leliana could use a spare enchanted dagger. One is all I need now.
"Inquisitor," Cullen interjected, "I'm loathe to even bring it up at a time like this but the Council is still deliberating and I'm not sure how much longer Josephine can hold them off. We have to tell them what our next move is going to be."
"Sod them," Sera spat. "Bunch of poncy, useless shits, leave us to do all the real work and then bitch about how we do it. They want our bloody castle, they can come and take it."
Vivienne's reply dripped with contempt. "Leaving us to fight among ourselves, while this Dread Wolf plots the world's undoing. Very sensible."
Surprisingly, it was Cassandra who stepped in to her wife's defense. "So you suggest that instead we disband the one force that has proven effective at combating the chaos of the last few years? I, for one, would not be so quick to lay down our arms."
As the arguments continued, Herah took a deep breath, trying to pull herself out of the emotions of the moment and consider their situation more clearly. She understood Sera's anger, shared it even. When the Exalted Council had started, "Go ahead and try it," had been her feeling too. The Orlesians had almost let Corypheus destroy them because they were too busy playing their damned Game to notice, just like Teyrn Logain would've allowed the Blight to consume Ferelden while he made his play for power. What right did any of these people have to condemn or control the Inquisition?
And maybe she'd been arrogant too. After beating Corypheus, crushing the Jaws of Haakon, and exploring the farthest reaches of the Deep Roads, she'd started to believe the Inquisition was invincible but if there was one lesson she could take away from today, it's that no one was. Not Corypheus, not those old elven "gods" Solas had imprisoned, and not her. She might have changed the world, but that didn't mean she didn't have to deal with it too.
"Enough." The sudden firmness in her voice quitted everyone else down, Sera and Cullen, Vivienne and Cassandra all turning to look at her. "You made me the damn Inquisitor, so I'm the one who gets to make this decision."
"Do you have one?" Cassandra asked.
"I do. We're keeping the Inquisition together, but we're going to place it under the control of the Chantry. Of the Divine, more specifically."
Cullen seemed surprised. "Are you certain, Inquisitor? I know that you and Leliana have had your differences…"
"We have. But here's the thing. Sera is right about most of the nobles. Half of them are too dumb to herd nugs if they hadn't inherited the job, and the other half would knife their own mothers for a little more power."
Sera smirked at that, and even Cullen cracked a smile while she continued, "If we just get rid of the Inquisition and leave dealing with Solas to them, we're done for. But I don't want a war with them either, not with this new threat on our doorsteps. We can see that, but I don't trust them to do the same. This avoids the fight. Leliana may have her share of enemies, but the Chantry is something everyone can live with, and it's always had a military arm. Now that the Templars are gone, having the Inquisition replace them will make sense."
Herah paused, rubbing her remaining hand over her head. "Every time one of these crises has come up in the last few years, it's needed the right person to stop it. A Grey Warden like Nissa to beat down the Blight. The person with the damned anchor on their hand to heal the Breech. And this one… I don't know where this thing with Solas is going, but right now, it's a shadow war being waged in the dark by spies. I don't know about you guys, but I can't think of anyone better than Leliana to lead that fight."
Cassandra nodded, a rare smile on her face. "That was quite persuasive, Inquisitor. I will admit, I did not think you so well versed in politics."
She gave the Seeker a wry smile of her own. "Well, I've been doing this damned job for more than two years. I like to think I learned a few things in there somewhere."
"Indeed you have," Vivienne agreed. "Come, let us inform the Exalted Council of your decision."
Herah rose to her feet, and as she did, she looked over at the woman who remained glued to her side. Sera had never wanted to be included in the decisions she had to make as the Inquisitor, but Herah still wasn't sure how she'd take this one. "You good with this?" she asked. "I know it'll be a big change for us."
"No worries, love," Sera replied without hesitation. "You think this is right, I'll back you every time."
"Well, it's good to know you'll stick with me. Somebody has to cover my flank now that I can't quite do it anymore."
Sera gave the hand Herah still had a hard squeeze. "Always, Buckles. Like I said, I'm not leaving you. Not now, not ever."
Herah smiled, her steps a little bit lighter as they continued towards the council chambers. Her whole world might have been turned upside down in the last few hours, but a least there was one thing she could still hold onto.