Abomination
She'd never seen an abomination before today. It just looked like a little boy, and she thought that was the scariest thing of all. How could one even tell? Maybe this wasn't the first abomination she'd seen. Perhaps she'd encountered dozens, and she'd never even known. How easily they could fool the unwary. Terror gripped her anew.
She glanced at Alistair. Surely his templar training would kick in any minute now, and he would leap into action. But, what action? Kill the child? That didn't seem like something the Chantry would support. She'd heard stories of mage children being killed during capture, but that was just anti-Chantry propaganda, right? Templars were there to protect everyone. So, why wasn't Alistair protecting them now?
She caught his eye and mouthed, "What do we do?" The fear in his eyes matched her own, and he shook his head slightly. What did that mean? Someone had to do something! This boy had killed half the town already, and there was no sign that he would let up.
I guess it's up to me, she thought. Her trembling hand reached for the dagger at her belt. She only hoped the demon-possessed child was too preoccupied to notice. Unfortunately, he wasn't.
The boy turned toward her, and his body went soft and blurry around the edges. His face contorted, and he fell to the floor, his limbs convulsing and his eyes rolling back into his head. When he got up, he was no longer a little boy. He towered above them, his skin glowing with a purplish hue, horns sprouting from his head. Her head, Elaine corrected herself, taking note of the demon's very naked and very female torso.
Dinadan was the first to move. He leapt at the demon's throat, but she threw him to the ground with a flick of her wrist. The brave war hound's attack had spurred the rest of the party into action, however, and they all began to advance at once. Guttural words issued from the demon's lips as she summoned more undead and demons to her aid. Sten swung his greatsword, slicing through one of the walking corpses and only barely missing the demon as she evaded his attack. Dinadan, back on his feet, let out a piercing howl that stunned the corpses, allowing Leliana to make short work of them as her flashing daggers ripped and slashed at their rotting flesh.
Elaine drew her bow and took aim at the demon who was defending herself from Alistair and Sten's hacking blades with bursts of magic drawn from the Fade. She cursed as her first shot went wide, and the second was blocked by frenzied corpse. She inhaled deeply, then exhaled, startled to realize it was suddenly so cold in the hallway that she could see her own breath. A frozen enemy fell to the ground at her feet, a trail of ice leading across the floor to the tip of Morrigan's staff. Elaine met Morrigan's eye, nodded her thanks, then again took aim.
Alistair and Sten had weakened the demon; although her back was to Elaine, the warden could see she was moving slower now, and her magical attacks were coming further apart. Elaine observed Leliana, who had left Morrigan and Dinadan to handle the remaining summoned creatures, and was now trying to find an opening in the demon's defenses. Elaine waited until Leliana was nearly behind it, then sent an arrow flying over Leliana's shoulder and into the evil spirit's back. The demon screamed in pain and anger, turned around to attack Elaine, and impaled herself on Leliana's waiting dagger. Alistair stepped forward and quickly stabbed his sword through her heart. She slumped to the ground, blood flowing down her chest and hate emanating from her eyes. And then she was gone.
In her place was the child mage, seemingly intact. Elaine knelt next to him and placed her fingers on his neck. His heartbeat was faint, but it was there. She sighed in defeat. Of course, he couldn't just die in the battle. That would be too easy, she thought. She drew her dagger, then looked up at her companions. Alistair's lips tightened, and he gave a terse nod before turning his head away.
She stalled a moment and looked at the dagger in her hand. She remembered the first time she'd held it, and had naively said, "I'm not going to stab anyone; I don't like blood." An image of her father's bloody face raced through her mind, followed by the slaughter at Ostagar, and then the landscape of Redcliffe, littered with the broken bodies of its slain townspeople. Elaine felt a hand on her shoulder, and she turned her head to find Morrigan's amber eyes looking into hers.
"Do what must be done," the mage said solemnly.
Elaine shuddered, closed her eyes, and bowed her head slightly. She took a slow, deep breath. Then she opened her eyes, looked down at the boy, and drew her knife across his throat.