A/N looking over the previous chapters I wrote I realized that I've made Elisa way to powerful and have only barely hinted at an explanation outside of the really pathetic "She just is" one. So let me assure you, there is more to Elisa than meets the eye and there is a credible explanation as to how she got this way. Also the darkspawn are way more dangerous in this story than in the game and will function to balance out the sheer power of the characters, which frankly they'll need.
The demon almost laughed at how easy it had been to convince the child to agree to his deal. The foolish creature had actually believed his ruse. How arrogant was the child to believe that she had found a previously unknown neutral spirit and that it took an interest in the knowledge it had to offer. Foolish child. The demon reached out to put its thumb on the child's forehead, taking its mind and gaining passage to the mortal realm.
oOo
The battle was brutal.
The darkspawn had almost doubled in number from the last time they had assembled on this battlefield, if Elisa had not destroyed the general when she did in the last battle then they simply would not have had enough men to defeat the darkspawn, sound tactics or no.
Elisa kept slightly ahead of the other new wardens, dealing death to all she faced. She was not using Blood, instead finding Silence and Loss to be better suited for this part of combat. One thing that had changed was that since she was no longer concealing that she was a mage she could unleash her abilities to the maximum; shrouding herself in the fade and wrapping herself in powerful shields that would protect her from all but the most brutal attacks she was able to fight surrounded by darkspawn with no fear that they might overwhelm her.
The new wardens, while not as singularly as formidable as Elisa, together found that they matched her. With skill born of instinct they fought; Natia and Kallian taking apart any remotely dangerous opponents, Duran drawing the battle to him as he dealt devastating blows with his greatsword, Theron taking out anyone who came near either mage and Neira and Solona making entire groups of darkspawn disappear in storms of fire and ice with a wave of their hand.
oOo
Alistair, Alice and George ran across the bridge just as the battle began. Already the battle was raging and the three were knocked down by a fireball one of the emissaries had managed to land by a ballista. As they ran across towards the tower they were greeted by a guard and a mage. "Darkspawn came up from below" the guard cried out "the tower is under attack!"
"Shit!" Alistair swore "Go get help!" he ordered "you" he pointed at the mage "You're with us!"
As the guard ran off the four of them headed for the tower. Near the entrance, some of the darkspawn had already made it outside and were fighting the scattered guards. They saved what few soldiers were left and pushed the darkspawn back into the tower. Leaving the soldiers to guard the door and prevent any darkspawn from easily attacking the ballista they entered the tower.
oOo
Elisa charged to meet the ogre; the creature seemed surprised to see anyone charge to meet it and hesitated slightly before lowering its head and meeting her charge. Just before they would have collided Elisa went down on her knees and slid across the blood soaked grass; she leaned back to avoid the ogre's head and slid between its legs, bringing Silence across one thigh and Loss across the other, severing both of the creatures femoral arteries. The monster looked almost surprised at the sudden disappearance of its prey and how its blood was draining out onto the grass, the creature swayed for a moment and went to fall on a group of soldiers; reaching out with her magic Elisa telekinetically grabbed the creature and changed the path of its fall to land on a group of darkspawn. Going from facing certain death to seeing their enemies crushed by their own ally the soldiers cheered briefly before engaging another group of darkspawn.
Turning to see an emissary raise its hands to cast what she sensed to be a devastating spell Elisa quickly analysed the situation; there was no one else around and even with an open path she would not be able to get to the creature in time to stop the spell, nor was she sure any spell she cast would get through the creature's shields. Making a split decision she threw Silence at the creature. The blade spun through the air and landed in the chest of the monster, killing it.
Not far from where she was Elisa saw an ogre bearing down a wounded warden; Elisa began to sprint towards the ogre, if she could reach the ogre before it got to the warden she could kill it and hopefully get the warden back on his feet. She successfully reached the ogre with little issue, a hurlock was now wearing one of her daggers in its neck but nothing had really slowed her; upon reaching the charging creature she went down on her knees as she had with the last one but instead of trying to find out where its target had gone this one grabbed her in one of its large fists. As it righted itself the creature brought its fist close to its face; only for a brief moment but it was all Elisa needed. She plunged Loss into the ogre's eye and rolled to a kneeling position next to the wounded warden, whose attempt to stand had resulted in him falling over completely. As she went to heal the leg wound that he had suffered a hurlock charged towards them sword raised. Elisa noticed the creature and grimaced; she could go intangible but the warden would surely be killed. As the monster began to make its swing Elisa caught the sword in her hand.
oOo
Not far from Elisa's position the other wardens were dealing their own brand of devastation. Duran suddenly found both the Hurlock alphas he had been fighting fall over dead as Kallian and Natia moved behind them, cutting the spinal cords then plunging a dagger into the eye. Theron had remained behind to protect Solona and Neira but was drawn off by a particularly ferocious attack that forced him to fall back, leaving Solona and Neira unprotected. The two mages subsequently found themselves facing an ogre on their own; working in tandem the two immediately began casting spells, Neira hexed the creature with vulnerability while Solona froze it with a powerful Ice spell, freezing the creature. Neira then followed up with a spirit cage that she hoped would shatter the monster before the ice wore off, Solona placed her staff on the ground and spun, leaving razor sharp icicles in a semicircle where her staff had been; impaling several charging darkspawn as Neira's spirit cage spell did its job and shattered the ogre.
Realizing what had happened Duran, Kallian and Natia beat a hasty retreat towards Neira and Solona, protecting them from direct attack once again. Neira took the opportunity to take a swig from the one of the numerous canteens of Lyrium potion that she carried in battle while Solona sent a firestorm to eliminate the majority of Theron's attackers, the rest of whom died rather quickly their friends to force the Dalish warrior to fight defensively.
A battle cry drew the group's attention to a darkspawn of remarkable speed and skill, the group members looked at one another briefly; this was clearly one of the darkspawn generals that the wardens had warned them about, they would need to plan this attack carefully if everyone was to survive this fight. Duran took charge and laid out a battle plan, the others acknowledged it and he charged.
As he approached Neira inflicted the creature with horror, while not immobilizing the thing as it would have a normal darkspawn the creature was still slowed, Solona quickly cast a spell that shrouded his weapon in fire, adding to any damage he might inflict. Theron turned away from the group, using his arrows to eliminate any darkspawn that may try to interfere while Kallian and Natia where on either side of Duran but stayed further back, hoping to avoid the creature's notice and get a clear shot.
While weakened by Neira's curse the general was still very powerful; the first blow from the maul the creature used nearly knocked Duran's sword out of his hands, if this lasted longer than a minute he was done for! Natia came up behind him but the creature kicked out at her and she was forced to fall back, hoping to catch him off guard Kallian and Duran struck as one but the general already had regained his balance and elbowed Kallian in the side of the head while parrying Duran's blow. Kallian was knocked to the ground. It resisted Solona's ice spell and the mortality curse that Neira had placed on it before parrying another of Duran's attacks, knocking him off balance. Seeing Duran vulnerable the monster closed in, preparing to finish him; Kallian was still getting to her feet and neither of the mages would be able to cast a spell in time he realized in horror. The general came toward him with its maul raised, ready to finish him when suddenly its leg gave out from under it. Natia plunged her dagger into the back of the neck of the now kneeling general before turning to face it and plunging her other dagger into its eye. Taking her blades from the corpse she followed the recovered Kallian and Duran and they went to regroup with the other three.
oOo
"Maker's breath!" Alistair exclaimed "There wasn't supposed to be any darkspawn here!" there was a lull in the fighting as they climbed the tower and Alistair was using it to vent his confusion.
Alice shrugged "You could tell them they're in the wrong place" she joked.
"Right, because this is just a huge misunderstanding and we'll all laugh about it later" Alistair drawled "At any rate we need to hurry, Loghain is waiting on out signal" The four dashed up the stair but Alice could not shake the memory of Loghain's face during the meeting and found herself wondering if he would charge even if they lit the beacon. She shook her head; Loghain was the hero of Riverdale and unhesitatingly loyal to Ferelden, he would never betray his king.
Right?
Alice pushed the thought to the side; this was not a time to consider Loghain's loyalty, even if he was going to betray them there was nothing they could do about it. All they could do was light the beacon and not get killed.
oOo
Knocking down a darkspawn with a pommel strike, allowing Natia to finish it, Duran wondered why the beacon wasn't lit; the darkspawn army had committed at this point and he could of sworn he'd seen them signal the tower so why hadn't the beacon been lit?
A darkspawn bashed him with a shield, cutting his thought short. In a moment of ineptness Duran dropped his greatsword and found himself unready for the darkspawn bearing down on him. He desperately looked around he had his sword on his belt but he doubted that he would be able to get it out in time, and all the others were too far away to get to him in time. There needed to be something – there! Duran spotted a dragonbone sword impaled in a darkspawn emissary next to him; ripping it out of the corpse he parried the hurlock's attack and finished him off before looking at the sword – it seemed familiar…
A hand presented him with his greatsword and asked "Trade?" Duran looked up to see Elisa. He took his greatsword and handed her her blade, which she placed in its sheath on her back, she was wielding Blood he noticed. "I figured I join up with you guys" she explained in between eliminating a group of darkspawn.
Duran nodded and moved to engage another group of attackers before nodding to where the other new wardens were "let's regroup then." Just as they reached the others the beacon finally lit. A cheer rose out from the men, who believed that the darkspawn would be crushed between them and Loghain's forces behind them.
But the charge never came.
oOo
As Alice and Alistair dashed up the top of the tower, followed by George and the mage, they were greeted by the sight of an ogre. The creature roared at them and charged. They immediately dodged to the side and got out of the ogre's path; seizing the opportunity Alice plunged one of her daggers into the creature's back, hoping the sever its spinal cord. While the attack did not work, the monster still roared in pain, thankfully not immune to being stabbed. George dashed up behind the ogre and sunk his teeth into the ogre's left leg. The ogre roared in pain and shook its leg to get the dog off. George held on briefly before the ogre's flesh tore and he went flying off. The ogre dashed towards the mage, who was in the midst of casting a spell and grabbed him, crushing the mage before he could so much as scream. Alistair dashed in from behind, hoping to hamstring the creature but was stopped by a backward kick that sent him flying. Alice dashed in from the front and when the ogre lowered its face to charge she swung her sword across its face, forcing it to real back; taking the opportunity she leapt onto the monster's chest, plunging her sword into its heart. As the ogre fell back it weakly raised its hands in a bid to crush her before it died; Alice yanked her sword out the creature's chest and plunged it into its eye, finishing it.
As she jumped off the creature Alistair and George limped toward her, wounded but very much alive. She spared a glance at the dead mage before focusing at the task at hand; they needed to light the beacon. "We've probably missed the signal already" Alistair said "just light the beacon and hope it's not too late"
Alice complied.
When the beacon lit and the flanking charge didn't come Elisa swore "get out of here!" she ordered the others "we need to get as many people out of here as possible!"
"What about you?" Neira asked, worry evident on her face.
"I'm going to see if I can get the king to safety, without him Loghain can just say whatever!"
"We'll come with you"
"No, if I fail then we'll need every grey warden we've got, rally as many soldiers as you can and get out of here, meet me by the tower if possible, otherwise head for the tent" with that Elisa turned and headed toward the center of the battle, where Duncan and Cailan would be found.
As Elisa went to rescue the King, Duran quickly looked around the battlefield, searching for the quickest way into the wilds and out of the battle. He spotted a path that would lead them near a group of soldiers that had been cut off from the main army and were fighting for their lives. The soldiers were hard pressed and would have surely been overwhelmed quickly if not for the two soldiers leading them; a young woman with short, black hair and a pair of daggers rallied the rest of her squad and dealt with the most dangerous of darkspawn while a similar looking man held off the main mass of darkspawn with powerful swings from his greatsword.
After indicating their path to the rest of his team, Duran lead the group as they cleaved through the horde to rescue the soldiers and escape into the wilds. Solona unleashed devastating elemental storms that decimated the surrounding darkspawn while Neira cast widespread curses that drained the lives of their attackers or trapped them in their own horrors. Theron picked off the few darkspawn powerful enough to break through the mix of curses and storms that two mages had unleashed. Duran lead the group, leading the frontal assault with Kallian and Natia's aid. Once they reached the soldiers Duran called out "With us!"
Grateful for the rescue the soldiers asked no questions simply following the wardens. The woman quickly ordered the majority of the soldiers to guard the mages while she, the young man with the greatsword and a few others who approached them in skill went to aid Duran. Once they reached the safety of the wilds the woman turned to Duran "What do we do now?" she asked
Duran hesitated for a moment and Theron stepped in "The battle is lost" he stated bluntly "You should flee and spread word of your Teyrn's treachery"
The woman frowned and asked "Should we try to reach the king?"
Duran shook his head "Our friend has gone for him, she's good enough that if she reaches him in time he will live and we cannot do anything to help her. After this defeat the horde will quickly exit the wilds; if you have any family near here I would advise that you get them to safety."
The young man beside her gasped "Bethany and Mother!" he grabbed the woman's arm "Sister, we have to warn them!"
The woman tensed "Our Mother and Sister are in Lothering" she explained
Duran nodded, he was not familiar with human settlements but he assumed that was close "Go then and best of luck to you"
The women turned to leave "And you" she said "I'm Marian by the way, this is Carver" indicating her brother
Duran inclined his head and replied "I'm Duran, this is Theron" he waved towards the Dalish elf "may we meet again someday" Turning, the group folded into the wilds, heading for tower and praying that it had not been overwhelmed.
oOo
The darkspawn were everywhere.
Not five minutes after they had lit the beacon, the darkspawn had stormed the top floor of the tower en masse. They had tried to hold them off but were forced into the open area. Catching a arrow in the thigh Alice went down as another pierced her stomach; the last thing she saw was a large bird swooping down to grab her as it all went dark.
oOo
Elisa was the harbinger of death.
There was no other way to describe her as she carved her way through the darkspawn at a run, never slowing her pace even as she dealt death to the darkspawn she faced. She was using every tool in her arsenal as she headed toward the King; she threw would unleash a firestorm to ride ahead of her as she fought through the creatures or would use a sweeping ice spell to eliminate a flanking charge. Her defenses were working overtime, stopping or slowing many a would be fatal strike; other attacks were met with futility as her attackers found that their swings passed straight through her. She looked ahead to discover that she could see both Duncan and the King fighting side by side; as she dashed ahead she was intercepted by a darkspawn general, flanked by two alphas.
Elisa unleashed a wave of fire that pushed the one of the alphas back and turning the other to ash but the general stood against the attack without flinching. She threw a dagger into the throat of the surviving alpha before bringing Blood toward the knees of the general; it blocked her attack with the maul it was carrying before knocking her back with a punch. Staggering back Elisa wiped blood of the cracked lip the creature had given her and moved to attack, driving Blood towards the center of the general's chest; the monster parried her blow. Elisa took the second of pause that the parry offered to look behind the general and see the ogre crush the life out of her King; she stopped and stared for a second before entering her next attack but that second had cost her and the generals maul came sweeping towards her leg.
She managed to get Blood in the way but she was not able to fully parry the attack and the blade of her weapon was pressed into her leg, drawing blood. The blow brought her to her knees and she looked up to see the general raise the maul above its head to finish her off; she could not block such a heavy weapon like she had a longsword, nor did she have enough mana left to deflect it or go intangible. If the general completed the blow she would die.
Fortunately the general never had a chance; in the last second before it killed her, the general found himself run through by a hurlock. Elisa looked at the wound in her leg and smiled; even if it did sting a little blood was always good for something. Elisa downed a lyrium potion that Neira had given her and healed the wound before dashing to where Duncan kneeled over the ogre that had killed the king; even if she couldn't save the king at least she could save the Warden-Commander.
Elisa dashed to where Duncan was kneeling and hauled him to his feet "Come on!" her voice full of urgency "We have to get you to safety!"
"Leave me" Duncan rasped "I'll slow you down. Listen to me" he grabbed the front of Elisa's armor "The treaties I had your sister and the other wardens retrieve are in a chest by the bonfire. You need to get them and use them! Replace the army we lost here today and end the blight!"
"Do it yourself sir" Elisa replied "I can get you to safety"
"You believe that, maybe you're even good enough to be telling the truth, but you've forgotten one thing: wardens do what they must, no matter the price and you must get to those treaties" Because she had been focused on looking at Duncan's injuries she had not seen the dagger that Duncan had drawn from his belt, she had not seen him bring it up, ready to push it in.
But she saw it now, sticking out of his chest; he had killed himself in order to make sure that she would not lose time trying to save him. She looked down at the man who had trusted her to do the right thing even when she kept such dangerous secrets from him and his men, at the man whose skill had allowed him to hold his own against her when they had spared back in Highever, at the man who had just proved beyond a doubt that he would sacrifice anything to best ensure that they stopped the blight. She would not dishonour his sacrifice.
Elisa turned and headed towards the camp; nothing would stop her from carrying out Duncan's orders.
A/N And so the surviving wardens are set on the path that will lead them to place two rulers on the throne, battle werewolves and abominations and eventually defeat a blight before it even begins.
A few side notes: 1. The child and the demon interludes will occur with varying frequency, right now I think I'll do one every three chapters but that number may go up or down depending on how many of those I come up with and how many chapters I write. I do know this however; the last interlude will be in the last chapter before the Epilogue, and is the only one that is not a flashback – it actually occurs at the beginning of the chapter.
2. I wrote a one-shot set in this universe about Shianni getting drunk after the incident with Vaughan. George is there with her and Kallian shows up at the end. Not really anything to it, it was just bouncing around in my head so I put it on paper, well computer. If you're interested you can find it here: s/8688763/1/An-elf-a-dog-and-a-bottle
3. While writing this chapter I realized I wasn't quite sure why Elisa went to rescue the king alone, I knew that's what she would do but I didn't know why. Did she believe that if she couldn't do it no one could? Did she think that the others would slow her down? Did she not think the king was and didn't want to risk too many wardens to save him? I honestly don't know. I don't know where I'm going with this side note but I just found myself writing it down. Oh well I'll keep it.
Oh, and before anyone asks me "How can you not know why your own characters do stuff?" I would like to say that I don't dictate what my characters do, I decide what they're like at the beginning and what happens to them but not how they react. While they are to some extent controlled by me subconsciously since they're in my head and I can usually guess what they'd do before they do it, I have found at times that I'll be writing and they'll go off and do something that I didn't want them to do (i.e. long bouts of chatter in chapter 4 and how Kallian killed Vaughan in the last prologue, I'd originally meant for her to horribly maim him but let him live)
Anyways I'll shut up now, thanks for reading and please review