"You have been sneaky, my pet."
Though his words were purring and sickly sweet, Solona could tell that Mouse was less than pleased with her recent activities. The Wonders of Thedas had turned out to have a book on demon lore, and she'd found the tome to be far more helpful than she'd ever expected it to be. But despite her attempts to keep the midnight cram sessions secret, Mouse somehow seemed to know about everything she did these days, and trying to fortify herself against his advances was no exception.
"Not sneaky enough." She replied, tipping up her chin and schooling her thoughts. Learning to control the minds of others had given her a surprising amount of resistance against mental suggestion in the Fade. It had become harder and harder for the Desire demon to trip her up, and even Mouse was beginning to struggle to make the illusions last for more than a few seconds. To say he was displeased was an understatement. "Why don't you give up on this insane quest of yours, Mouse? I am all but beyond your reach now. Plague my sleep no more."
"And watch you slip through my fingers?" Mouse looked stricken, his tone incredulous. "My pet, you have so much raw potential locked away in your fleshy mortal body. Backed by a demon, your power could be devastating! With it, I would rule your mortal realm and laugh as the Spirits watch me in envy! No, my pet, it is no folly that I seek to take what I have worked so hard to try and obtain." He sounded hungry when he spoke of her body like this, the look he was giving her making her shiver. "But you've become too powerful for simple illusions to sway you…" Mouse began advancing on her, and Solona retreated backward for his every step forward, drawing her staff and holding it defensively in front of her.
"No, I will take your body by force and make it mine before you can grow any stronger." The illusion of the handsome young mage began to slip now, his body wavering, then glowing and growing to reveal the huge purple behemoth that the Pride demon truly was. A giggle came from somewhere to Solona's right, and she turned to see the Desire demon floating over a mound of twisted rock, a grin curving her devilish purple features.
The teasing placating Mouse was gone now, the horned flat-faced demon that advanced on her now held no mercy in his beady black little eyes. "You will bow before me!" He thundered, body glowing with power as the very Fade seemed to draw to him and imbue him with strength.
For the first time, Solona began to panic.
•º•.•º•
She was startled awake by a scream. Kallian had never been much of a light sleeper, and ever since her time in prison she had taken to sleeping with a knife under her pillow. The elf had it in her hand now, ready to lash out at anything nearby, fully awake. Her room however was completely empty. Afraid that they had come under attack, she got out of bed quickly and grabbed her dual long knives. Armed, Kallian went to the door and peeked out cautiously. There were no soldiers, nor fire or distressed people running around like the world was ending. Confused, she started to wander the halls in search of the noise and heard it again, this time coming from Solona's room.
Her first thought was that it must have been another nightmare, and so went in without bothering to knock. When she entered the room it was to see the mage writhing in her bed, magic outlining her form in a faint glow and silently crying out. Immediately Kallian rushed to her side, dropping her swords and looking her over fearfully, unsure what to do. "Ammy!" She called and reached out to shake her awake. She drew back sharply with a cry though, the magic cloaking Solona sparking at her. "Maker's breath Ammy!"
Kallian got to her feet and ran out of the room, navigating the halls until she came to the stairs and took them three at a time. Once she was on the top floor, she went over to Aedan's room and pounded on the door as hard as she could. "Aedan! Wake up and get your ass out here!" She yelled through the door. On the other side she could hear Keran barking and soon enough it swung open, revealing a disheveled Aedan wearing only a set of loose pants.
"Kallian?" His voice was rough and groggy, hair tousled and eyes tired. "Blessed Andraste… what are you doing up here? It's the middle of the night."
"It's Ammy." Kallian breathed with her heart racing in her chest, but Aedan seemed unaffected by the news. "She's havin' another nightmare. It's real bad! She's glowin' an' I couldn't wake her up!"
Aedan did react to that, joining Kallian out in the hall, his sleepy state replaced by one of action and worry. "That can't mean anything good. Come on."
The two went back down the stairs and into Solona's room to find the mage as she was before, struggling with whatever Fade dream she was having.
"I've never seen her like this before." Aedan muttered, walking toward her and standing near by, but didn't get too close.
"What do we do?" Kallian asked, sounding a little desperate. "She didn't wake up when I called her earlier, an' I couldn't touch her."
"I know very little about magic." He confessed and knelt next to the bed. The obvious answer would be to call on the Templars and have them sort it out, but he discarded the thought almost immediately. They would probably kill her the moment they laid eyes on her. "I wish I knew what was going on…"
Kallian bit her lip, her thoughts racing to find some kind of answer and finally took a knife from her belt and found Solona's hand without touching her, praying silently to the Maker that the mage would forgive her later if this worked.
"What are you doing?" Aedan asked, eyeing Kallian and the knife warily.
"Tryin' to help." Kallian replied with a vague shrug, but did not meet Aedan's eyes. "Just… be ready fer whatever happens next…" Without waiting for him to react to her warning, Kallian drew the dagger across Solona's palm, red blood immediately springing forward at the knife's contact.
The effect was immediate, the harsh blue that Solona had been surrounded by suddenly turning a fierce red. Aedan immediately recoiled at the change, but Kallian reached out swiftly and grabbed his arm, forcing him to hold his ground.
•º•.•º•
"Have you had enough yet mage?" Mouse screamed, looming over Solona's crumpled body as she struggled to stand. "Will you give up yet?"
"You will have to kill me." She spat with all the vehemence she could muster, unsteadily getting to her feet. With an enraged cry, Mouse made to pummel her and knocked the mage off her feet, sending her flying until she collided painfully with the base of a statue. Her power was waning and nothing she did seemed capable of bringing Mouse down. He was incredibly powerful, and all of her spells had only managed to anger him. He was leaking the demonic Fade equivalent of blood from a nasty burn she had inflicted on his leg, and she'd managed to break off a couple of his horns, but it was nothing fatal. She on the other hand was singed and covered in bruises and bleeding wounds. For a time it had seemed that they were evenly matched with her blood magic, but she was simply running out of energy and power. It took all of her strength just to stand again to face Mouse, and she knew that it was hopeless. The only way out was to get Mouse to accidentally kill her and render her Tranquil. Then he couldn't possess her body and become a threat to the mortal world.
"If I wanted to kill you…" The demon growled, reaching down and plucking up the mage as if she were a ragdoll, squeezing her until it was hard to breathe, "…then I would have done so already. Do not think you can escape me by dying!"
Solona tried to scream as Mouse crushed her, but she couldn't draw the breath to make a noise, silently suffering as the demon increased the pressure. Suddenly, the Pride demon cried out and attempted to throw her away, but was unable. Red engulfed them both and they simultaneously felt as if they had been struck by a bolt of lightning.
"NO!" Mouse screamed, his whole body trembling with the will of move. "GET OUT OF MY MIND, MORTAL! You will NOT take this knowledge from me!"
She wasn't entirely sure what he was talking about, but she could feel the pull of magic between them and somehow knew that if she focused her will and tugged that the two lives she felt beating on the other side of the Fade would come to her. So, that's precisely what she did.
Pain tore through her when the spell activated, an instantaneous flash of heat and power ripping through her body. Mouse seemed to feel it too and finally managed to throw the mage down on the ground, retreating a couple of steps. Light burst around them and cool Fade magic washed over Solona. When she looked up, it was to see Aedan and Kallian standing there, both looking confused and frightened and in their nightwear.
"Imagine yourselves armed and in armor!" She screeched at the two, the words leaping forward without conscious thought. Both of them looked at her like she'd grown a second head. "DO IT!" Startled into action, Solona could see as both concentrated on trying to imagine themselves better armed.
"You've brought friends?" Mouse grumbled, seemingly unimpressed by the feat, though far more annoyed than before. "I will end them!"
"No!" Summoning what was left of her flagging spirit, Solona cast a spell of ice. It traveled along the ground and Mouse stumbled, finding his lower body suddenly frozen in place and roared in frustration, the frost creeping up the rest of his body slowly as the magic clung to him.
"What is this thing?" Aedan called, looking up at the Pride demon. Instantly, his sword and shield materialized, brought forth by his battle instincts when he realized that they were in danger. He looked surprised to suddenly have his weapons appear, and a few seconds later his armor began to materialize, crawling over his body like mist before solidifying.
"A demon of Pride!" Solona shouted back, drawing herself to her feet and breathing hard for the effort. "Mouse."
"This is Mouse?" Kallian was obviously bewildered, looking up at the demon as it struggled to free itself. Her daggers wavered into being, flickering uncertainly before solidifying. "I'd hate to see a rat."
"Less talking, more slaying!" To emphasize her point, Solona drew up another ice spell, more frost creeping over the rest of Mouse's body. Galvanized, both Aedan and Kallian sprung to the attack, Aedan going forward to face off with the huge beast and Kallian moving around back to stab into the fleshier bits of the demon.
"You fools!" Mouse roared, breaking one leg free of the ice around his foot and stomping down. "You will not defeat me!" He brought a massive armored hand down with the intention of crushing Aedan flat. He moved too slowly burdened by the ice and frost to catch Aedan off guard though, and only managed a glancing blow against the warrior's shield. Aedan took the opening to sink his blade into the creature's forearm, and Mouse screamed at the pain, pulling his arm back and tearing his other leg free as Kallian slashed at his legs, the demon's blood spraying out when she landed a particularly fearsome hit. He turned to face the elf and get rid of the nuisance, and was met with a face full of acid. Bellowing in rage, he clawed at his face to try and get rid of the burning sensation and was hit with a bolt of lightning that sent sparks racing across his hide.
Angry that he was being assaulted on every side, he began to call magic to him and let it all out in a fiery burst. The elf and the warrior fell back and Mouse turned on the shield bearing one, lowered himself and charged. The distinct sound of crunching metal and a cry of pain were his reward when the warrior fell, but he didn't get to enjoy the mortal's pain for very long. A dagger sank into his side and he kicked the elf that had put it there, ripping the dagger out of his skin in a jagged line as the elf stubbornly clung to her weapon. The damage had been done, however, the substance the elf had applied to her weapon seeping into his skin and he could feel as his magic drained away from him. Spitting with fury, he wheeled around and bent down to grab the elf that had inflicted the wound on him. He managed to grab her around the waist, and she kicked and screamed when she was lifted into the air. A blade sunk hilt-deep into his hand, but he was too enraged to care. With both hands, Mouse began to squeeze the life out of her, enjoying quite thoroughly her strangled cries and feeling the bones begin to pop and snap under the pressure.
"Put her down!" Solona drew herself up, summoning the power of her blood from any number of wounds that stained her clothes and summoned an arc of lightning that shot across the empty space between her and the demon. Mouse roared when it hit him, but didn't set Kallian down. A second later the demon seemed to arch backward with a startled cry of pain, dropping the elf in a crumpled heap. Aedan was just behind the beast and had sunk his blade into the creature's back but it was ripped from his hands when Mouse swatted him away with a huge armored hand, sending the warrior skidding to the dirt some feet away.
Kallian didn't move from her place on the ground, struggling to breathe and remain conscious, pain stabbing at her with every breath she drew. Solona drew what power she could into healing the elf, able to ease her breathing but not expend enough healing magic to ease her suffering completely. Mouse paid no attention to the elf or the mage, his gaze locked instead on Aedan who had managed to get himself to his feet. The sword he had used to stab Mouse was lodged in the demon's side, the black essence of the Fade beast pouring out around the metal, but the demon didn't seem to care. It wanted these pesky mortals out of his way so that he could continue torturing the mage into submission.
"You were fools to interfere!" Mouse boomed, swiping at Aedan with one huge hand, the warrior managing to dance backward out of the way by the skin of his teeth. "When I possess her body, you two will be the first that I devour!" The demon lunged forward and made as if to crush Aedan, but he rolled out of the way just in time, coming up on Mouse's side and ripping out his sword from the demon's side. Mouse howled and whirled on him, crushing Aedan's shield inward when the warrior instinctively raised it to defend himself. Bone cracked and metal screeched, and he was thrown off his feet by the impact, hitting the ground hard.
"Aedan!" Solona ran to where the warrior had fallen, skidding to her knees in the dirt at his side. He gasped painfully when he tried to sit up, his mangled shield arm dragging limply. "No, no, this can't happen! You two have to get out of here."
Mouse laughed at that. "They couldn't even if they tried!" He declared, stomping over toward them with slow heavy steps, a ghastly grin on his face. "Their souls will be mine to devour. They will strengthen me for my passing into the mortal world."
She narrowed her eyes at the demon, then took Aedan's sword from his hand. "I'll never let that happen!" She yelled up at the huge demon.
"What are you doing?" Aedan reached to take his sword back, but Solona got to her feet and backed away from him. Kallian ran up behind her, but paused just an arm's length away. Even Mouse had stopped advancing.
"If I kill myself," She said, voice trembling, but hands steady as she raised the blade to her neck with both hands, "then I will become Tranquil outside of the Fade. Mouse will never be able to possess me then, or any other demon. I'll no longer be a threat to anybody."
"Are you stupid?" Quick as a flash and despite her wounds, Kallian diarmed Solona with a move that was to quick for her eye to follow, and driven the weapon point first into the ground where it wobbled with a metallic ring. Breathing heavily from the exertion, she turned a simmering glare on the mage. "We ain't going to give up on you easy as that!"
"No, we can't win! He's too strong." Her heart sank when she saw the resolve in Kallian's eyes and looked over to see Mouse laughing at her predicament. It seemed so inevitable now. She had no idea what would happen to Kallian and Aedan if they were killed in the Fade. Mages became Tranquil, but what happened to normal people?
"No, we have to. There's no other choice, right?" With a pained groan, Aedan managed to get off his shield, the twisted hunk of blood-splattered metal shimmering and disappearing entirely once it had been abandoned. Slowly he managed to get to his feet, his left arm hanging limply by his side, blood dripping off his armor and onto the parched ground. "He'll keep us here whether or not you die. So you might as well stick around and help us to kill this thing."
"You'll never be able to defeat me, not as you are now." Mouse said with a laugh, looking over the three with something that amounted to contempt. "You, who couldn't even save your parents? You, who is too weak to reclaim your honor?"
"Shut up." Aedan hissed, gripping his sword hard with his good hand and yanking it out of the dirt with a considerable amount of effort. "You don't know anything."
"Don't I?" The Pride demon spread his hands, his voice returning to a tone that Solona was dreadfully familiar with. "Don't you burn with the knowledge that your family's killer still roams your mortal plain? I could give you the power to change that. Not just the man who slaughtered your family, but all of his conspirators. Those too greedy or cowardly to step forward and stop him when they knew."
Aedan seemed to stagger under a physical weight, his eyes gone blurry. "Get… out of my… head!" He ground out through clenched teeth. He could see in his mind clearly as he charged into Howe's stronghold with a bloody sword in hand and single-handedly cut a swath of blood against every man that stood against him. Howe kneeled at his feet, begged for forgiveness before his head rolled across the room, but the blood didn't end there. His bitterness for Howe's treachery wouldn't be sated simply by his death. The demon was right, he wouldn't be happy until everyone that had conspired against his family felt justice at the end of his blade. Righteous fury burned through him with that thought, and suddenly the demon's temptation didn't seem so bad. What would he sacrifice for a chance to see his revenge fulfilled?
"Aedan, he won't make these things happen for you!" Solona said, breaking through the haze of bloodlust partially, her voice an anchor in the writhing swell of his need for vengeance.
"What does the mage know?" Mouse asked, his voice containing a hint of humor. "She can not know what I can do. But you can see it, can't you? What power I can bestow, what things you can accomplish. Just hand over the mage, and all of it could be yours."
"No way!" Kallian stepped forward so that she stood defensively in front of Solona, rebellion painted all over her face. "Basher, you can't let this thing have Ammy. Whatever he's promisin' ain't worth it!"
"But he must pay…" He moved like a puppet on strings, every word seemingly wrenched from his throat against his will. Aedan turned his back on Mouse and lifted his sword to attack, his body trembling with the effort as the last shreds of his mustered willpower fought the loosing battle against the strong temptation.
"No!" Solona baulked visibly when she realized that Mouse had won over Aedan's consciousness, the vision that the demon had provided too strong for his untrained mind to resist. With fury in her eyes, she whirled on Mouse, her hands moving to shape a spell. "You will not take my friends from me!" The gathered magic burst from her, a sudden storm of ice whipping up, the freezing wind carrying pellets of snow biting at them in the sudden storm. Kallian stumbled forward, nearly tripped by the sudden gust of wind, and Aedan was knocked to the ground by it, landing straight on his injured arm with a pained gasp.
The ice clung to Mouse, the demon the center of the vortex as the magically produced storm flared to life around him, howling like a banshee. The ice coated his purple hide, and his movement to get out of the storm was severely impeded by the frost. In a matter of seconds, he had been covered entirely and stood frozen in the storm, his mouth open in a pained howl. Solona's face paled visibly with the effort it took to sustain the spell, and just as quickly as it started, the storm faded, blowing itself out without her magic there to guide and shape it.
"We need to finish him now." She panted, leaning heavily against her staff for support as her legs trembled with the effort of standing.
Kallian nodded silently, though didn't move for a few seconds, her eyes wide as she contemplated trying to bring the monster down. Mouse twitched, some of the ice encasing his armor falling to the ground, and Kallian seemed goaded into action by the knowledge that what advantage they did have was momentary at best. Her hesitation was costing them precious seconds. She withdrew a vial of poison and coated her blade with practiced swiftness, discarding the used vial on the ground and then without pause rushed the demon, glancing blows on the icy hide and leaving a string of burning acid in her wake. Solona did her best to provide support fire, but stopped when a hand suddenly grabbed her shoulder. She whirled to see that Aedan was on his feet, her heart sinking and she readied to knock him out again.
"Heal me." His eyes were free of the clouded look that had come with the demonic possession, his voice his own. "Just my arm a bit. I'll kill the bastard for getting in my head."
Solona simply nodded, expending the last bit of her energy to mend the bone in his arm, though it was a patch job at best. She collapsed then, sinking to her knees. "I'm counting on you."
Mouse managed to wrench his arm out of its icy encasement. The rest of his body followed shortly, the ice shattering and seeming to explode off of him with a burst of power that rippled over his form. "You are already beaten!" He turned to reach down and grab Kallian, but the elf expertly dodged him, her dual daggers flashing out and catching Mouse in the back of the leg, severing tendons. With an unearthly scream, Mouse went down on one knee, blood-like mist gushing out of the wound. He started to curse and try and lift himself up despite the crippled leg, but when he looked up it was to see Aedan charging him at full-tilt.
The warrior took a running leap, thrusting his sword forward just as he hit the solid mass of Mouse's armored chest. The demon tumbled backward, surprised by the sudden attack and lifted his huge clawed hands to rip Aedan and his sword away before the warrior could kill him. Mouse was too slow to react, the sword slicing at his fingers when he went for the grab, and Aedan brought the sword down with both hands into the center of the demon's short neck and with a ferocious cry drew the blade sideways, nearly fully decapitating the monster. The corpse twitched and writhed as life bled suddenly out of the demon, then went still.
Aedan stood on the uncertain plain of Mouse's chest, covered in the rancid black goo of the demon's blood and ripped his sword out of the creatue's body, winced as every movement caused him pain. He didn't even have the chance to try and make his way down when suddenly his body began glowing, the Fade reshaping and twisting around the three now that the demon holding this particular illusion together was dead. "What's going on?" Nobody answered, for everything was lost in a rush of heat and light.
AN: So, I bet you all just loved reading a chapter almost entirely in italics. Probably about as much as I liked writing it all that way 8'D I really actually don't have very much to say about this chapter. But, I think this will suffice: CLIFF HANGER! TROLOLOLOLOL