Cassandra knelt to examine the ground next to an abandoned cart, something she had been doing periodically since they left the cave. The bandits may have been better equipped than the average outlaw, but according to the Seeker, they'd made no effort to hide their tracks. Whether this was because they lacked the training or because they did not think it was necessary in a warzone was unclear.
"How many of them are there?" Jane asked.
"Ten, perhaps," Cassandra replied in a low voice, clapping her hands free of dirt as she stood. "Or less. I believe we are getting close." She glanced at Varric, who had bent over to look at the prints himself. He nodded in agreement. The Seeker pulled her sword from its sheath and motioned for Jane to do the same. "We should make as little noise as possible this close to the encampment."
They continued in silence until they reached a crack in the mountain that led to a ravine. Cassandra motioned at Varric with her shield. He went forward, keeping himself flat against the rock. As they waited, Elizabeth began to feel a prickling sensation on the nape of her neck, as if someone was watching her, but when she turned her head, both Solas and Jane were watching for Varric.
He returned a moment later, gripping Bianca tightly. He held up his left hand once and then held up two fingers. Cassandra accepted this with a nod. She made a gesture for Elizabeth and Solas to fall behind Varric, then beckoned Jane to follow her.
As they moved forward, a clearing with several tents became visible. It was obvious to Elizabeth why the men had chosen this spot for their camp: The ravine walls were high on either side, and , if Cassandra had not been searching, they would never have seen these tents from the road. The entrance was thin enough that even a small army would become bottle-necked and unable to attack. Fortunately, the location left the bandits vulnerable to a small ambush, which is exactly what Cassandra had planned.
The bandits were eating their midday meal, another stroke of luck. They did not hear anything until Jane and Cassandra shouted battle cries, and then they all leapt up at once, disorganized and confused.
Elizabeth stayed back with Varric and Solas, maintaining a steady distance from the fight. Watching as Solas raised his staff to attack, she spread her hand out and laid barriers on the warriors, then reached again for her mana.
Every time she used her magic, she felt it move a little more easily through her. Plunging into battle multiple times a day was certainly one way to make up for lost time. It had been painful the first day, but now the sensation almost felt pleasant, like stretching after a bad night's sleep. She dug down into the new depths of her mana, creating a massive fireball, and shot it at one archer.
To her alarm, it went too low, barrelling towards the Seeker. Elizabeth's eyes widened in horror. She let out her breath when it only skimmed by Cassandra's head before hitting its target. The archer yelped as he stumbled backwards, burning, and the Seeker looked up at her, startled.
"Careful!" she shouted, narrowing her eyes.
"Sorry!" Elizabeth called back. She didn't dig quite as deep for the next attack.
Soon, there were just two bandits left. One was a young swordsman, and the other was a beast of a man who did not seem to relent no matter how many times he was hit. His warhammer alone was Elizabeth's height, at least. Cassandra left the swordsman for Jane while using herself as bait to bring the brute closer to Varric and the mages. Elizabeth grit her teeth as she maintained a steady barrier around the Seeker.
"What in the Void is your sister doing?" Varric shouted, breaking her focus. Elizabeth snapped her head around to see Jane fighting with the swordsman. He lunged at her, and she swung her shield at his weapon, hitting it away. The impact made him stagger backwards, leaving an opening for Jane-but to Elizabeth's surprise, her sister didn't take it. The swordsman recovered and thrust forward a second time. Again, Jane parried his blow once without following up with a strike. Cursing, Elizabeth laid a thick barrier on the Seeker and then moved away, trying to position herself closer to Jane.
"Hit him!" she yelled. Jane seemed to move forward at her sister's command, but then withdrew into a defensive stance once again. Elizabeth growled and dug deep into her mana, forming another fireball. She shot it just as she heard Jane cry out, "No!"
The swordsman fell into a mass of flames, and Jane stared at his burning body, horrified. Elizabeth could still hear the clangs of the Seeker's sword behind her and hesitated before spinning around to lay another barrier. As she did, the brute fell to one knee. Cassandra raised her sword to make the killing blow, but Varric's arrow got the man's eye first. The bandit sagged to the ground, dead.
In a heartbeat, Elizabeth rushed to her sister's side. Jane had fallen to her knees beside the burnt corpse. Elizabeth knelt next to her, confused, and placed her hand on one of Jane's shaking shoulders.
"Did you know him?" Elizabeth asked.
"No," Jane replied in a high voice, her eyes not moving from his body. "But he was so young. He couldn't have been older than Lydia."
Elizabeth sighed and squeezed her sister's shoulder. "Jane, he would have killed you," she said. Jane continued to tremble, staring at the body, until her sister drew her into a tight embrace.
"All this killing, Lizzie," Jane murmured into her sister, choking back a sob. "I don't know if I can do it." Elizabeth stroked her hair without saying anything. Jane's voice took on a bitter tone. "'Herald of Andraste'. Why would Andraste want me to do this ?"
"Andraste was a warrior, too," Elizabeth reminded her. "She fought a war because it was the right thing to do. I'm sure… I'm sure it wasn't always easy for her, right?" She paused here, and Jane's shaking seemed to lessen. "But it helped people, didn't it? You're helping people, too, Jane, and that's what's important. That's all you can do."
Elizabeth held her sister for a few minutes as she began to breathe normally again. She glanced back behind them. Solas and Varric were pointedly discussing something a few yards away, their backs turned, and Cassandra was checking the dead for weapons. When she felt Elizabeth's gaze, she looked up with sympathetic eyes.
"You're right," Jane said into Elizabeth's shoulder. Then she pulled away, rubbing her forehead and taking a shaky breath. "You're right." She shook her head. "I'm okay now. Thank you, Lizzie." Elizabeth watched her warily as Jane stood and examined their surroundings, her eyes still bright with tears. Her focus seemed to return. "We should tell Harding about this place. It'd be a good spot for a camp of our own."
Elizabeth pushed herself into a standing position as well. "With the addition of two guards at the ravine entrance, perhaps," she added.
"Of course," Jane agreed, a small smile crossing her lips. She studied the campsite until her eyes rested on the Seeker. "I'll help Cassandra with the weapons-"
"No," Elizabeth interrupted. The last thing Jane needed was more time near the young bandit's corpse. "I'll do that. Why don't you grab Varric and Solas and explore the other end of the ravine? It looks like there's a passage there."
Jane nodded and went off to speak with the others. As the three of them began to stroll towards the passage, Elizabeth joined Cassandra, who was kneeling by two piles of weapons she'd pulled from the corpses.
"That was well-handled," Cassandra said as she approached. "I know this is not easy for her."
Elizabeth avoided the compliment and looked over the swords. "How are you sorting them?" she asked finally. Cassandra looked back towards the ground.
"These," she replied, waving to one pile, "are the ones that we can discard. And these," she waved at the second pile, "are the ones that are decent enough to keep."
Elizabeth examined the two piles carefully. "How can you tell? They look the same."
Cassandra nodded. "Yes. The pommels and grips match. That is unusual for bandits. I suspect that Bellette is correct and that these men are being paid by someone. They were able to upgrade their weapons with their reward, it would seem." She held up one blade from the second pile, inspecting it. "However, the blanks vary in quality."
"The blanks?"
"The blade itself." Cassandra touched the metal edge of the sword she was holding in demonstration. "A blank fits into a pommel and becomes a sword. There are different levels of… well. I will show you." She put down the sword and replaced it with one from the rejected pile. "Here, hold out your hand." Elizabeth knelt next to the Seeker and held out a gloved hand, accepting the sword into her palm. She began to automatically grasp, but Cassandra shook her head as she let go. "Just let it rest."
Elizabeth stared at the sword, which immediately dipped forward and fell out of her hand, landing on its side with a dull noise. "See," the Seeker said. "That is not balanced correctly. It would take more muscle to make an effective strike, and it would be easy to lose grip in battle." She placed the sword back in the rejection pile . "Now try this one," she said. Elizabeth held her palm out again. Cassandra placed a sword from the decent pile in it carefully. This time, the sword wavered for a few seconds before sliding off with a thunk.
"So… they're both terrible," Elizabeth said after a beat, and to her surprise, Cassandra laughed.
"Yes, that is true," she agreed, still chuckling as she turned back to the second pile. "But these are less terrible. The Inquisition needs weapons. Many of our resources were lost at the Conclave."
"If we're that desperate, I can see why Harritt wants me making weapons," Elizabeth said with a frown.
Before Cassandra could reply, a thunderous roar filled the air and both women jumped up, startled. The sound echoed off the walls of the ravine, followed by the steady sound of short gusts of wind, paced out like heartbeats. Elizabeth's staff was in her hand before she could even process what she'd heard.
"What was that?" she exclaimed.
Cassandra looked around with bright, tense eyes. "I believe that was a dragon."
Elizabeth stared at her. "Maker's breath," she muttered, glancing towards the passageway.
Before she could move toward the sound, three figures came bolting toward the camp. Elizabeth almost dropped her staff in relief. Varric, Solas, and Jane slowed to a jog, with Jane throwing a backward glance at the narrow passage, as if to make sure nothing had followed them. As they reached Cassandra's two piles, they stopped. Varric placed his hands on his knees, breathing hard.
"So, uh," he said, looking up. "We probably don't want to go that way."
Despite the various delays, they still reached Dennet's farm by sunset, much to Cassandra's relief. A few of Charter's new scouts were setting up camp by a lake when they arrived. After one of the scouts implied that Dennet might have a thing against mages, Cassandra, Varric, and Jane went to negotiate with the horsemaster. Meanwhile, Solas met with an officer regarding Fade rift sightings and Elizabeth dealt with the rams she and Jane had killed along the way. Elizabeth was hoping Harritt could teach her to make leather from the skins, and Jane wanted to send food back to the refugees.
Elizabeth cleaned and separated meat from skin at a nearby river, rinsing her hands between each ram. The work was slow and bloody, and she had no experience dealing with dead animals. Soon she was wishing that she had spent more time in the Circle kitchens. When she finished, her tunic was more red than gray, and her hands were dotted with stubborn flecks of drying blood. She used a simple ice spell to keep the meat and skin cool, and then climbed the hill back to the camp.
Solas was standing on the edge of the lake, intently studying a map. When he saw her approach, he glanced up, and then jerked his head up at the sight of her.
"I know," she said in response. "It's not what it looks like. I was skinning the rams."
His brow furrowed. "You did not drain the animals first?" he asked.
She paused. "Ah, no. Was I supposed to?" He chuckled as his eyes returned to his map, and she resisted the urge to roll her eyes. "Right. I should probably get some clean clothes before Jane sees me and faints." She began to move toward the tents and then paused. "Oh, Solas?" He glanced back up. "There's a Fade rift by the river."
"So I heard," he said, nodding. "The scouts say it is quite violent when active, but it appears to be stable when left alone." He looked back at his map. "I plan to study it in the morning."
Elizabeth suspected that this was a dismissal, so she turned back towards the tents. She'd only gone a few steps when she heard Cassandra call her name.
"I was looking for- oh!" Cassandra exclaimed, her eyes trailing down Elizabeth's robes.
"It's only ram's blood," she explained. "I was just about to change."
"You must not have drained the blood properly," Cassandra observed.
"Yes, I suppose it slipped my mind," Elizabeth said dryly, glancing over her shoulder. Solas was still looking at the maps, but she was annoyed to see the corner of his lip twitch upward.
Cassandra recovered herself and held out a small stack of parchment. "The horsemaster had a few old weapon schematics that he offered the Inquisition," she said. "I thought you could keep track of them, since you will be working with Harritt."
"Thank you," Elizabeth replied, taking the papers. She glanced through them, though she couldn't understand any of the diagrams yet. "That's very kind of you."
"Yes, well. Please let me know in the future if you need help skinning something," Cassandra said, frowning again at the blood.
Focused on reading the schematics, Elizabeth almost ran into one of the officers right outside her and Jane's tent. The woman began to apologize and then looked at her in horror.
"Ram's blood," she said before the officer could say anything. As she opened the flap to her tent, the woman started to reply.
"Oh! You didn't drain-"
Elizabeth grit her teeth, hoping that Solas was out of earshot now. "Going forward, I will be fastidious about draining them first, I assure you," she replied as she entered her tent and shut the flap behind her.
After she had changed into fresh clothes, Elizabeth took a cloth and returned to the river to wash up before dinner. It was quiet by the water, only the distant murmurings of the camp and the rumbling of the waterfall disturbing the night air. She used the rough side of a rock to remove the dried blood around her fingernails and then ran her fingers through the cold river. The sun had already set, so she had to squint to see her hands in the moonlight.
As she rinsed, she became aware of a third sound-a quiet humming-and she looked toward the waterfall. The softly glowing Fade rift hung in the air above it, bathing the river in a pale green light.
An idea began to form in her mind. Tilting her head, she tried to estimate how far away the rift really was. Even if it did become active, she decided she was at a safe enough distance to call out to the camp before demons could come through. She stood, glancing uphill to make sure no one was nearby, and then she looked up at the sky, raising her mana to her eyes.
Around her, the empty air came alive. The soft light from the moons became distorted through the layers that whipped playfully around her. The Veil was thin here, she noted, more like silk than velvet, trembling in the breeze.
She turned her gaze towards the rift, studying it through the Veil. It was like an open wound, festering, but instead of skin, it was surrounded by frayed threads of green light. Black matter poured down from the other side like blood. She focused her eyes, trying to look deeper into the wound. The tremor of an image stared back at her, a thousand eyes blinking at once, and then the eyes morphed into an endless pit, a depth that seemed to call for her. She did not move, but her stomach pulled violently forward, as if she were falling.
Suddenly, she felt a cold brush of air on her neck. She pulled her mana down and turned her head, startled. Solas stood at the crest of the hill above the river, the camp's fire illuminating him from behind. In the darkness, she could not see his face, though she could tell he was facing her. For a moment, she didn't breathe.
"Your sister wanted me to inform you that dinner is ready," he said evenly, as if he had not just caught her practicing questionable magic for the second time in less than a week, this time next to an unstable tear in the Veil.
She inhaled sharply. "Thank you," she said. "I'll be there in a moment."
He stood a moment longer, then turned to leave. She watched him before squatting beside the river. With shaking hands, she splashed cold water on her face, muttering a string of curses as she did. Afterwards, she rushed back to camp, praying to the Maker that Solas would once again remain discreet, and wondering what in the Void she'd been thinking.