Chapter 16! Woop woop!
Have you read the letters in the Fade? And done the dreamers quest? If not, I strongly suggest it. #FEELS
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Oh, by the way, I'm not just making up elvish phrases and words xD I have worked my butt off to find the right words, the right meaning to the right moment, etc. It's not a complete language, after all, so I've had to work with the bits and pieces that exists. It's a lot of fun, though! (At this point I rarely have to go to the Wikipedia page for Elven language because I actually remember most of the words and phrases by heart. My friend tells me I'm insane.)
Disclaimer: not mine, yo!
-o-
Chapter 16 - Dirth Ma, Harellan
They defeated the first couple of demons quickly, and Hermione walked over to the table where the first dreamer sat.
"All right," she said, sighing, "you see this spirit? It's a dream, or a memory, it's a bit vague. There are five of them in this area, and we can help them find peace. It's not difficult, so I suggest we do it."
Hawke came over and picked up the letter on the table in front of the spirit. "The Pilgrim," she said, paused, and then began reading. "I came to the Temple of Sacred Ashes with the faithful, ready to help at the Conclave."
Hawke paused and glanced at Hermione. "I prayed to the Maker for peace," Hermione continued, knowing the letter by heart, "but the mountains shook and fell and buried me. Alone in the darkness, my legs crushed, I cried in fear of a world with no Maker, fading in and out of dreams of monsters inside the black."
Hawke stared at her with wide eyes, having paid attention to what the letter said as Hermione spoke. "Light my final hours," she said in a moved voice. "Let me go to the Maker without the terrors of darkness confounding me."
Hermione nodded before looking at the spirit. "We will do exactly that, don't worry," she said, and then walked over to find the candle.
The rest watched as she picked up the candle, placed it on the table, and flicked a finger, lighting it. "There you go," she said softly. "I hope you find the light."
-o-
They moved along, met Divine Justinia, several demons, helped some dreamers, and Hermione was glad to see that everything was exactly as it was in the game.
"This is a small child's memory. I bloody hate this place," Hermione said as she picked up a note next to a small door, and began to read. "The door is open. Mother said to run. She said the darkspawn were coming. She wanted me to go. The door is open. It was closed when I left. She said she would be right behind me. She said not to come back, no matter what. The lamps are lit all over the village even during the day, to see through the smoke. Mother should be here by now. But the door is open. I'm going to look inside."
"Oh, Andraste," Evelyn said breathlessly, "that is...horrible."
"Tell me about it," Hermione said, giving Evelyn a dark look. "Let's move on shall we?"
-o-
"Hawke," Hermione said as she saw the narrow passage with the spiders, "just remember that everything the Fear demon says is bullshit. Also, there will be small fears, taking the shape of something you are afraid of. Spiders in your case, Hawke, and you Evelyn. I don't know about the rest of you. Just remember - they are just illusions."
Hawke growled as they listened to the demon, and then the spiders appeared.
Except…it wasn't spiders. Not for Hermione. For some reason, the small fears took the shape of dementors. Hermione reacted instinctively, and cast her Patronus before remembering that they were, in fact, not real.
Oh god, she thought as she noticed the Patronus. This is not the time to think about this, was her next thought as she cancelled the spell and attacked the fears.
She would, however, think about this later.
Because her Patronus had changed.
Her Patronus had changed.
The Patronus shape was no longer her familiar otter. Not at all.
It was a wolf.
Not any wolf, however. Hermione would recognise Solas' shape anywhere.
Her Patronus was The Dread Wolf.
-o-
They reached the graveyard, and Hermione stopped before they entered. "No demons here," she said quietly. "This is not exactly a graveyard. The tombstones in here are inscribed with people's deepest fears. Yours is here, Blackwall. So is Solas', and yours, Dorian. Also Cassandra's, Varric's, Iron Bull's Cole's, Sera's, and Vivienne's. Everyone except Cullen, Josephine, Leliana, and Evelyn have a tombstone inscribed here." She turned around and looked at the rest. "Do we really need to go in here? Well, I need to go in here, to get the item for the dreamer, but I already know what the stones say. Do you really need to know each other's darkest fears?"
"No," the Inquisitor said. "No, we are not going in there."
"All right," Hermione said, and went to get the small phial of Darkspawn blood.
-o-
"Alright, we are going up here to find the final dreamer, and the two Pride Demons strolling around, and then we will go back and down the stairs we passed on the way here."
They did so, and Hermione recognised the place where the demon would talk to Solas. "Just remember, Lethallin," she said quietly, looking at Solas, "that it's basically making things up."
Solas gave her a puzzled look, but then the booming, powerful voice of the Fear demon spoke.
"Dirth ma, harellan. Ma banal enasalin. Mar solas ena mar din."
'I will tell you, trickster. Your victory was for naught. Your pride will lead to your death.'
Solas' eyes widened, so Hermione rolled her eyes. "Banal nadas," she said, giving the sky a dark look. "Tel garas solasan, enfanim. Mala solas him din'an. Ar tu na'din. Ne na halam."
'Nothing is inevitable. Come not to a prideful place, fear. Your pride will be your death. We will kill you. You are finished.'
The demon laughed, and Hermione sighed. Great, she thought. I probably enabled it to address me now.
She was right.
"Ah, yes, the little girl who thinks she knows everything. Then why is it, little girl, if you know everything, why are you so afraid? Your fear of failure vibrates throughout your whole being, torments you in the night, and clouds your mind in the day. It's because you know it is for naught. It's because you know your own insignificance. Because you know you cannot save this world. You know you are too weak, and in the end, your weakness will be your downfall. You will fail, and you will bring the ones you love down with you. You know you are a mistake, little girl, a fraud, and you do not belong here. You do not deserve to be here, nor do you deserve the praise you are given. Their faith in you will doom everything and everyone you love. Ma emma harel, asha."
'You should fear me, girl.'
Hermione sighed as she realised she had stopped walking when the demon began talking to her, and that she was standing there with a rather mournful expression. Taking a deep breath, she raised her eyes to the sky. "Enfanim tu ma then, la las ma sulevin, elgar."
'Fear makes me alert, and gives me purpose, spirit.'
"At least it's not my pride that will be my death, as it will be for you. As for the praise I am given? No, I don't deserve it, but I can try to be worthy of it. I have no idea whether I belong here or not, but let's hope my fear and the faith they have in me will save everyone I love, shall we?"
Squaring her shoulders as to shake it off, she narrowed her eyes at the sky. "And stop being such an arse, will you?" Hermione said, raised her chin, and walked on.
Solas walked next to her, and she gave him a small, but sad smile. "I just adore the Fade," she said, sighing, "let's all talk about our deepest fears, shall we?"
He gazed at her for a moment before speaking in a gentle voice. "Put your worries to rest, Lethallan."
She sighed again. "It's not exactly easy, now is it?"
He gave her a small smile. "Tel'enenfim, da'fen," he said, gazing at the sky for a moment before looking back at her. "Ma tel'u. La ar glandival...ar glandival ma arla sahlin, da'vhenan."
If not for the demons they were closing in on, she would have thrown herself at him and hugged him – possibly kissed him – and then probably cried a bit. Instead, she gave him a soft smile. "Thank you, Solas."
'Never fear, little wolf. You are not alone. And I believe...I believe you are home now, little heart.'
-o-
"So," Hermione said as they entered the tunnel where the bloody demon was waiting for them at the other end. "I told you about the Aspect of the Nightmare, but not the tall-as-a-house-monster, because I have no idea what to do with it. Hopefully we won't need to fight it, but if we do…just stab it with everything you have. Make it bleed. Literally. It doesn't like that. The Fade Rift is on the other side of it, so if we try to fight our way towards it, perhaps we don't have to kill the bloody monster. Other than that? Pray. Just…pray."
-o-
The Aspect of the Nightmare went down surprisingly easy, but then they were - of course - faced with the monster.
"I will distract it-"
"You will do no such thing," Hermione said sharply to Stroud. "I'm here this time. We will damned well try to kill the thing. All of you, be careful!"
Before anyone could object, Hermione took off from the ground, set on finding the bloody head of the thing. It had to have a head, right?
Probably, she thought as the thing seemed to notice her.
Yes, probably, she thought again, because the thing focused on her, trying its best to catch her, and to hit her with bolts of venom, and bolts of...things she didn't want to be hit with.
She was ever so grateful for the countless hours she had spent on her flying skills, because the monster was apparently furious at her, vigorously trying to hit Hermione with something. Hermione was trying to hit the monster as well, and considering the size of the thing, she succeeded quite brilliantly.
If she only could figure out what spell would damage it the most.
Her spells did some damage, that wasn't the problem. The problem was that the thing seemed to heal before she could get in any serious damage.
They couldn't defeat it. They had to run. Except to run, they had to distract it.
Pain worked last time, she thought. It has to hurt even while we're running.
What spell could hurt it continually while they were running?
Well, there was one spell, one she really did not want to use. But she was running out of options. Everything she had tried so far seemed to be no more than a slight inconvenience to the monster, and if they were to get away, she had to do something drastic.
She tried to think about something - anything, but everything she could think of was experimental at best, and she just couldn't risk it.
She was running out of options. And they were running out of time.
Hermione began descending, praying that her plan worked.
"We can't defeat it!" She yelled as she landed behind the others. "Prepare to run!"
Please God, Andraste, the Maker, everyone, please let this work, she thought as she focused with all her fear, anger, desperation - every emotion she could conjure - and pointed her wand at the monster. "Crucio!"
The monster screamed. Screamed. It was working.
"Please run!" Hermione yelled at the rest before focusing on the monster again. "Crucio!"
They ran, and Hermione prayed that she would be able to keep the spell strong enough until they reached the rift.
"Crucio!" She yelled again. "CRUCIO!"
Hermione quickly realised she wouldn't be able to keep up the spell for very long. It was too draining, and it just felt so wrong casting it in the first place that she knew she would falter all too soon.
But they were closing in on the rift.
They were going to make it.
Evelyn was at the rift, waving at the others to hurry.
Blackwall was out.
Hawke was out.
Stroud was out.
Dorian was out.
Solas was...stopping.
No! Hermione thought as she felt her spell falter. No, Solas!
The world began spinning, the monster stopped screaming, and the last thought in her head was 'oh gods, please don't. No...Solas.
He was running toward her.
She managed to give him a pleading look, and to shake her head.
But he was still running toward her.
Then, everything went black.