The first section of the mountain pass consisted of an old, slippery flight of stairs and then a series of ladders and platforms. It had been cold thus far but the mountain was even colder as the biting winds had full access to them. Thankfully, they had some shielding from the winds as they climbed, and further refuge at the top of their ascent. They now faced a tunnel, carved through the mountain some ages ago.
They entered the tunnel cautiously. Lingering toward the back of the party as they entered, Solas traced his hand over a geometric spot of architecture. "What manner of tunnel is this? A mine?" he asked, directing his question mostly toward Cassandra, who replied.
"Part of an old mining complex. These mountains are full of such paths."
"The missing soldiers here somewhere?" Varric questioned.
"We shall see soon enough," Cassandra replied again.
The structures within the tunnel were clearly man-made, perhaps with the aid of a dwarf or two at some point. Every so often, there were geometrically shaped pillars keeping the ceiling aloft. The floor was some sort of stone, the westward wall was exposed for mining purposes, and the eastward walls were plated with sheets of metal. Old crates and burlap sacks containing various mining equipment were pushed to the edges of the space. It was dark, but nothing torchlight couldn't pierce through.
After walking further into the tunnel, three shades and a rage demon rose from the shadows. They immediately attacked the group.
Being the only melee combatant in the party, Cassandra took the lead, slashing at the demons and keeping a one-woman wall between the demons and the three ranged attackers. Varric delivered heavy blows with Bianca, his crossbow. Solas and Paya stood side by side, firing frozen energy at the Rage demon, cooling its blaze. All of the demons were dealt with in a quick fashion and the party was able to start moving again.
As they neared the exit, they found a number of human corpses lying on the floor-all bearing the same insignia that Cassandra wore on her chest. Varric let out a sigh, sounding all too familiar with these sights.
"Looks like we found the soldiers," he said.
Cassandra scanned their faces, pacing around them and counting them. "This cannot be all of them," she said as she began exiting the tunnel.
"So the others could be holed up somewhere ahead?"
Once outside, they could see a rift not much farther ahead. Solas spoke, "Our priority must be the breach. Unless we seal it soon, no one is safe."
Varric chuckled and gestured toward Paya, "I'll be leaving that up to our elven friend here."
When they approached, they found a small group of soldiers fighting off more shades. Paya's mark flared up, responding to the rift. She gave a look toward Cassandra before both women jumped into the fray, fighting alongside the soldiers. With only a short pause to register the situation, Varric and then Solas also joined the battle.
Once the shades were dealt with, Paya glanced toward her crackling palm before pointing its light toward the rift. The force of the beam that shot out had a decent amount of kick to it, but she remained firm in her stance. The rift blasted outward, causing Paya to jerk her shoulder back, but its particles dissipated and it was gone. One of the soldiers turned toward Cassandra, greeting her as "Lady Cassandra." Cassandra moved around the soldiers, checking on their well-being and relieved to see them alive.
Solas stood beside Paya, still catching his breath from the combat, "Sealed, as before. You are becoming quite proficient at this." He had a soft smile on his face, and they both paused to just look at each other.
Varric interrupted the moment, almost as though it was intentional, "Let's hope it works on the big one."
Cassandra helped a soldier to her feet. She gripped Cassandra's arms as she spoke, "Thank the Maker you finally arrived, Lady Cassandra," she paused to look around at her saviors, "I don't think we could have held out much longer."
Cassandra gestured toward Paya, "Thank our prisoner, Lieutenant. She insisted we come this way."
The lieutenant, confused, looked at Cassandra's face and then Paya's. "The prisoner? Then you…?"
Paya smiled, approaching. "It was worth it to be able to save someone."
Cassandra gestured toward the way they had come. "The valley behind us is clear for the moment. You should go now while you can." The Lieutenant thanked the group again and led the rest of the soldiers away.
The group continued onward, moving nearer to the remnants of the Temple of Sacred Ashes. They had a brief moment of reprieve as the area now seemed void of any obstacles.
"The Temple of Sacred Ashes," Solas announced. Or perhaps it was more a statement of observation.
"What's left of it, anyway," Varric retorted.
They walked along the ruin. Paya moved her head around, trying to see if she could recognize any of the charred corpses. It seemed nothing remotely recognizable remained on their beings, however. They were charred solid wherever they had been when the blast occurred. Some appeared to be in the midst of prayer, others were clearly aware of their inevitable doom.
The closer to the most central point they got, the more charred the ground appeared. Soon, they were completely surrounded by blackened earth, and below them stood a large tower. The tower itself was within a crater, likely caused by the explosion that destroyed the Chantry, and thus was encircled by steep walls. Part of the crater had caved in and allowed for passage in and out of the crater. In the sky, above the tower, was the Breach. It was much larger and looked even angrier up close and every so often it sparked with lightning. It was clouding out the light of the sun at this point, though giving off its own eerie, green, glow. A trail of large chunks of the building and other rubble were suspended in the air, seemingly frozen in motion while they were flung toward or falling from the Breach. Below that, closer to what remained of the tower, was a large glowing rift. All the sound from outside of the crater seemed muffled the closer they got to the Breach. The air smelled of a thunderstorm and everything dripped with magical energy.
Cassandra gestured toward the tower. About eighty feet off the ground was a rift that was larger than the rest they had come across. "That is where you walked out of the Fade and our soldiers found you. They say a woman was in the rift behind you. No one knows who she was." Paya only nodded to her in response.
Instead, Varric spoke, stating everyone's observation "The Breach sure is a long way up."
Like a shadow, Leliana appeared behind them, a few other soldiers approaching from further behind her. "You've made it. Thank the Maker."
"Leliana, have your men take position around the tower," Cassandra said. Leliana nodded and gestured for her soldiers to move. Cassandra then turned toward Paya. "We might be able to end this now. Are you ready?"
"I am but I'm not quite sure how I'm supposed to reach that."
Solas came to stand beside her, watching the rift. "No," he gestured toward the rift, "That was the first rift. It's our key. If we seal it, then perhaps we'll seal the Breach with it."
Cassandra nodded toward him. "Then we should find a way down there," she began walking, "Be careful."
The quartet plus Leliana traveled down the sides of the crater, finding a sort of natural path that they were able to walk down more easily. Every so often there were splashes of color against the black soot of the walls in the form of red, glowing, pieces of rock jutting out from the sides of the crater. Upon this observation, Varric spoke, "This stuff is red lyrium…" His tone was solemn if not concerned.
"Red lyrium..?" Paya asked softly.
Solas suggested, "Magic could have drawn on lyrium beneath the temple, corrupted it…"
Varric shook his head, "However it got here, it's bad news. Whatever you do, don't touch it." He kept a wide berth from the red stone and moved a bit further ahead of the other three.
Continuing, they could hear the booming, baritone voice coming from the rift, "Now is the hour of our victory. Bring forth the sacrifice."
Paya's eyes darted toward the rift, startled by this. "What is that?"
Solas rested a hand upon her shoulder in a steadying manner. "At a guess: the person who created the Breach."
The booming voice continued, "Keep the sacrifice still!"
And then, as if responding, another voice came from the rift, this one sounding like an older woman, "Someone help me!"
Cassandra started to pick up her pace, "That is Divine Justinia's voice!"
They approached a bit of a ledge that dropped down into the base of the crater. Cassandra jumped down first, craning her neck to look up at the rift. The rest jumped down as an image started to appear from the rift.
"What's going on here?" A third voice, whose owner ran into the scene on the rift
"Run while you can! Warn them!" The Divine, who appeared to be restrained by some sort of magical means, responded to Paya's
The first booming voice spoke angrily, his image still unseen, "We have an intruder. Kill her. Now!"
The vision faded and Cassandra turned toward Paya. She began spouting off questions at a rapid rate, "So you were there! Who attacked? And the Divine is she…? Was this vision true? What are we seeing?"
"I have no idea, I still don't remember anything…" Paya replied.
Solas jumped into the conversation, "Echoes of what happened here. The fade bleeds into this place."
Paya turned toward him, "That isn't good news."
He watched the rift for a moment longer. "This rift is not sealed, but it is closed… albeit temporarily," he stopped and looked toward Paya, and then at her marked hand, "I believe that with the mark, the rift can be opened, and then sealed properly and safely. However, opening the rift will likely attract attention from the other side."
Cassandra gripped her sword and started to gesture to the soldiers nearby to approach. "That means demons. Stand ready!"
Paya stood beside Solas and glanced toward her hand for a moment before turning it toward the rift. Similar to how it behaved when she had closed the other rifts, a beam shot out toward the rift before it expanded outward. All stood with bated breath as they waited for the demons to emerge. And so they did.
There were a handful of Shades that spilled out but they were quickly joined by the towering form of a Pride demon-a large, horned being that wielded electricity and had a naturally strong defense.
Cassandra took the front, attacking the Pride demon first. Swift but heavy swings were made at its legs but it didn't create much of a dent. The demon lifted its hand toward her, getting its own sort of personal storm as electricity struck the ground around it.
Solas stepped closer to Paya before turning toward a Shade and encasing it with ice. "I believe that if you disrupt that rift, it will lower their defenses." He spoke quickly, spinning around her to jab the edge of his staff into another shade that approached from behind her.
A bolt from Varric's crossbow shot through the shade, causing it to deteriorate into a material that looked like old rags.
Paya looked between Solas, her hand, and the rift, before lifting the palm toward the rift like she'd done so many other times already.
A shockwave burst from the rift that seemed to ignore the mortal individuals yet knocked the demons back. The lightning around the Pride demon ceased and Cassandra gave the call to go all out. The Shades fell but not before another small wave of them emerged from the rift.
Combat went on for several minutes. The demons' defenses would gradually return and Paya found herself needing to disrupt the rift twice more.
When the pride demon was finally felled, Cassandra called out to Paya, "Now! Seal the rift!"
Paya turned her palm to the rift and, like with all others, energy shot from her hand for a moment before the rift seemingly burst, tossing Paya's arm back. She stumbled backward before falling against Solas's chest.
Her vision blurred as adrenaline left her body. Solas felt her begin to go limp so he acted quickly to lift her off her feet. His timing was impeccable, as she was out as soon as he wrapped his arm around her back.
She seemed so fragile now. He suspected as much. The removal of this rift was an abrupt closing of a wound and would've caused some shock to her system without having to fight demons.
The Seeker was surprisingly concerned over the Dalish elf's well-being. She immediately moved to escort him back to Haven so that the woman he held could be cared for.
This el,f who had stepped out of the Fade with a strange marking on her palm, which was connected to the source of such massive destruction, was no longer a villain, but instead a hero.
Word spread quickly as she slept. The people began calling her a Herald for the Maker's prophetess, Andraste. That would certainly be interesting news to wake up to.