A/N I haven't played DAO in a while so some of the stuff may be slightly of canon.

Elisa stepped out of the last of the tunnels behind Levi. Before them stood Soldier's Peak, the lost Warden fortress, home to a story of loss and betrayals. Whose, Elisa didn't know, but the way the stories were told someone had been betrayed, someone had gambled everything and lost. And the wardens had been kicked out of Ferelden for centuries.

"This is it" Levi gazed up at the place, recognizing it for the place of legend that it was for him "Soldier's Peak, the warden base in Ferelden until they were thrown out for conspiring to overthrow the king"

Elisa nodded "Anything we should know before heading up?" They began walking towards the fortress, the rest of the group following behind them.

"The fortress has been empty for centuries so there may be some wildlife in there, other than that there's rumors that the fortress is haunted but I'm sure that's a load of -" he was cut off as a rush of ghostly images sprang up. Soldiers, wearing the crest of the Ferelden military moved quickly. "They've fallen back to the fortress, walled themselves up inside." a scout reported

"Then we'll starve them out" A soldier wearing the markings of a general declared

"But sir, that will take months"

"Then we set up for a long siege, They had their chance to fight honourable but they chose to hide like cowards, if they fight like cowards then they'll die like cowards, starving like rats in a trap"

The scene faded from view and Levi let out a shaky laugh "Maker, what was that?"

"Fade's paper thin here" was Elisa's reply "Something - " she was cut off when skeleton's rose out of the snow to attack them.

So close to the fade, with bodies that had been exposed to magic for so long made the skeletons powerful and being powerful made them fast.

Levi screamed as the possessed corpses lunged toward him and jumped behind Elisa as she whipped Blood off her back and moved to engage them.

As the first came towards her, swinging a sword she readied a powerful spell, gathering her strength as she felt Neira doing the same, Henrick, Leroy and Duran stepped forward, shields up to block the undead's attack. Clara and Jowan launched spells at their attackers as Theron did the same with his arrows.

The first wave of skeletons hit them and they were almost knocked back by the sheer speed and skill of their attackers. Duran and Elisa held their own but were faced with the numbers of their enemies and the weakness of their allies; Leroy and Henrick were formidable fighters but they were not the warriors that the two wardens were used to fighting alongside. Theron and the mages provided better support but Neira was unable to cast any spells save the one she was readying, as was Elisa.

Elisa fell back slightly slower than the others; using Blood or her two swords favored having a more open area to fight from. She swung Blood in front of her in what appeared to be a straight line but was in actuality more a wave; weaving around the weapons and armor of the skeletons Blood's blade were striking and cleaving through their spines uninterrupted, killing them all.

As Elisa took point Duran and the two templars fell back, him on one side, them on the other. He used his shield to hold off several skeletons as he used his sword to kill one at a time.

The two templars had been trained together and knew each other's minds quite well. They fought side by side, holding off the skeletons with the help of Clara and Jowan while Theron kept any skeletons who got by them or the other two from attacking the mages. Both grated at the idea of fighting alongside blood mages but to stop the darkspawn they could do it, so long as they were not asked to participate in the foul practice.

The Wardens fought valiantly but the skeletons were too much, more and more poured into the courtyard and attacked the group. Eventually Henrick let one of the skeletons through his guard and the creature's blade slid in between his armour plates and sliced up his knee.

He crumpled

Leroy raised his shield and pushed the undead back, preventing them from finishing Henrick off but even more skeletons poured into the courtyard; the wardens were now outnumbered ten to one. Elisa would be able to escape alive, and possibly one or two of the others but that was it, Levi would die, Henrick would die, Leroy, Clara and Jowan would die. And the expedition would fail, Soldier's peak would remain lost.

Neira and Elisa unleashed their magic.

The raw force of the combined spells was like nothing any of the others had ever seen, the sheer power of the magic swept over everyone's skin, chilling them to the core. A massive, localized storm hit the horde of skeletons, killing them all. Those who were outside of the storms reach were sucked in by some sort of vortex that only affected the skeletons and destroyed, just like their kindred. Everyone was awestruck by the power that the two warden mages had shown but Jowan and the templars, who had never seen a real demonstration of power from them, were most affected we're supposed to equal that? the three thought, in shock that the wardens had thought that they could be considered equal to that sort of power. Duran and Theron were barely in shock at all, having seen what Neira and Elisa had done during the battle of Ostagar. Clara was somewhat in shock but less in awe having survived a focused blast of both Neira and Elisa's power at Kinloch Hold. Levi watched both the combat and the ensuing display of power with open-mouthed astonishment.

Every single skeleton in the courtyard had been destroyed.

Elisa turned around and called out "Everyone ok?"

"Henrick got a nasty wound in his knee" Leroy called out

Elisa looked at Neira, who was already hurrying over to heal Henrick "It's pretty bad" she said "the blade sliced several tendons and screwed up the joint itself, almost as bad as an arrow right under the kneecap. Without magic you'd have trouble walking for the rest of your life, with magic you'll take several weeks to heal. Stay with Levi for the rest of the expedition, I don't want you dying because you your knee gave out during a fight" Henrick frowned but accepted her diagnosis and lay still while she began healing his wound.

Once Henrick's knee had been treated the group gathered themselves and entered the Keep to find what had torn the veil so badly and what warden secrets still lay within this dark and haunted castle.

oOo

"You've got to be kidding me" Elisa snarled as she entered the room and saw what was waiting for them behind the desk of the warden commander.

They had encountered demons and abominations throughout the castle; through thankfully not in the numbers that they had encountered in the courtyard, including one particularly powerful demon who had drawn power from the corpses of several warden mages and dropped a powerful staff that had the name "Winter's Breath" on the shaft. The staff was extremely power and had been given to Clara, who had took to the powerful weapon like a fish to water. That had been in the room that they had just left. Apart from the way they had come in there had been two ways out of that room and one had been block by a barrier. Before wasting power breaking the barrier Elisa had decided that they would investigate this room and see if they could find anything of value or the source of the barrier's power, removing the need to waste energy breaking the thing. Elisa didn't know about the former but she was looking at the latter from across the long room, sitting in Sophia Dryden's body.

Hence the comment.

"Hold" the demon possessing Dryden's Corpse said "I do not wish to fight"

"Well I do" Elisa sapped, patience wearing thin. She was tired, and hungry and some of the demons here had been formidable enough to hurt her "I am fed up with demons and their unrelenting quest to stick their heads in our world. Everywhere I go these days it seems like more of you idiots are there, making what should have been a simple trip into a nightmare focused on killing you assholes, so if don't want to fight you better have a damn good reason, so speak quickly demon, or taste my blade" She held up Blood to reinforce her point.

"I can repair the tear in the veil" the possessed corpse spat out "I am trapped here by the magic of the one in the tower, kill him and I'll repair the veil and be on my way. This body has memories of the world outside and would like to see such things. This one will leave peacefully and without a fight if you kill the one in the tower for me"

Elisa ground her teeth; she would very much like to kill the demon in front of her as it would simplify things considerably. But neither she nor Neira knew how to close a tear in the veil and she didn't fancy learning how to do so on the fly. One thing bothered her however… "Why did you erect a barrier to keep people out of the tower if that's where your enemy is?" she asked

"Keeping people out was not this one's attention. This one seeks to keep the one in the tower trapped here as well. It would be most unfortunate if he escaped and brought help"

Elisa nodded "Fair enough" she turned to the rest of the group "Me and Neira are going to go see what is in the tower, everyone else is going to stay here and keep an eye on the squatter in Sophia Dryden's body, if it does anything cute, kill it and we'll figure something else out along the way, any questions?" There were none "Very well, Let's move"

oOo

She and Neira headed into the other room and then to the tower. they crossed a bridge outside where several skeletons were trying to break into the tower, the two had no difficulty dispatching them.

Inside the tower the two found an antechamber filled with books and research notes. Not wanting to rely solely on the word of a demon to assure them that this was the right course of action they looked about. What they found was quite disturbing. The sole remaining resident of this tower had apparently been conducting experiments on his fellow wardens, trying to improve their speed and strength. In most cases the experiments were fatal, killing the comrades that had apparently survived the siege to take refuge in here with him in agonizing fashions. However it appeared that he had succeeded in his goals and two potions sat on a table, potions that the notes claimed would increase their abilities. Elisa looked over at Neira and grinned "Feeling lucky?"

Neira studied the potions briefly before grinning "Always" she replied and downed to potion. She was immediately wracked with pain as the potion coursed through her body, changing her body, her power, her blood, making her a more effective weapon against the darkspawn, against anyone, really. When the changes were done she straightened up and grinned at Elisa "Good as new, better even"

Elisa picked up the potion and studied it "Bottoms up" she downed the potion.

when the changes were done the two turned and entered the tower's lab, where they would find the one that Sophia Dryden had sent them to kill.

A/N I'm back, in my nice, cold home that is very much not Cuba *sob*I actually pretty depressed right now. On the bright side I have internet, a week's worth of fanfiction to read, a bandwidth that allows me to download a number of the games I bought in the steam sale and you, my beloved readers. Maybe not so depressed after all I guess but still, I'd rather be in Cuba.

Anyways, this is the extent of the writing I got done on vacation so that's that, sorry. I probably would have done more except I had trouble finding an outlet to plug my laptop into - if anyone goes to Cuba bring some adaptors so you can plug your stuff in, they use a lot of European plugs (some North American ones tho, found one in my aunts room on Saturday, which was how I managed to get any writing done at all) - and couldn't use it for most of the trip.

Thanks to Latindragon for his review

As always thanks for reading and please review!