The Eye in Inquisition by Varric Tethras (Varric's narrative of what's going on in the Inquisition, featuring all characters and lots of ridiculous superlatives)
I still don't work for Bioware. I still wish I did. I own nothing (except for Lilah, or 'Wynter' in this case!) Everything else belongs to them, dagnabbit. *sighs* On with it then!
Starting... Here!
Varric put down the letter he'd just received from his publisher and grinned. They'd loved the chapter extract he'd sent them and had ordered two hundred copies to be printed immediately. TWO HUNDRED! That was double what their first order for 'The Tale of The Champion' had been. Clearly they could recognise a good thing when they saw it. They'd also paid him an advance on the first three chapters, so he had to get cracking. He'd only finished half of the first chapter, and Lilah did so enjoy taking him out on their little excursions. He'd have to request a small leave of absence to fulfill his chapter quota. He tucked the letter into his pocket and made his way toward where he assumed Lilah would be.
And funnily enough, there she was, watching the new recruits training with Commander Curly out in the yard. They were both standing with their arms folded, surveying the recruits running drills and practicing with dummies, when Cullen leaned over and mumbled something to her, making her nod in reply. She climbed over the waist high barrier and faced them all, arms folded across her short sleeved cotton blouse.
"Right, you lot. You're coming along nicely, but the Commander wants to give you a challenge. Sooo... You'll be fighting me."
One of the burlier men in the front of the crowd sneered at this, spitting on the ground.
"You don't look so tough, sweetheart. Where's the challenge?"
Lilah raised an eyebrow, and slowly started removing her gloves, a smile quirking up the corner of her mouth.
"Oh, didn't the Commander tell you?"
The group paled as her glowing hand was revealed, and the burly loudmouth stepped back, subdued.
"I thought the element of surprise might help."
Cullen's arms remained folded, but his own half smile echoed hers.
"Alright then, let me introduce myself. I'm only the bloody Inquisitor."
The now quiet recruits all dropped to their knees, bowing their heads before her. Lilah huffed out an annoyed breath, throwing a look at the Commander which clearly read 'Help Me.' His smile grew even wider and he gestured toward the almost prostrate troops before her.
"Well, it looks like the element of surprise didn't help as much as you'd hoped, Inquisitor."
Lilah looked up to the heavens, and sighed.
"Is this going to happen every time? Void take me, I'm not that terrifying, get up! On your feet!"
The recruits stood up, but still wouldn't make eye contact with her. She decided to use the direct approach.
"Right, you. The one who called me 'sweetheart'. What's your name, soldier?"
Burly Loudmouth had turned rather pale by this point, and was practically shaking in his boots.
"Fisher. Julius Fisher, Ma'am. Milady. Your Inquisitorialness?"
Lilah stepped forward, arching her neck back so she could look him in the eye. He almost winced.
"Calm down, Fisher. I'm not going to hurt you... much. Now take up your weapon, and come at me. Let me show you how a real rogue attacks..."
Varric swore he only looked away for a second but when he turned his attention back to the ring, Burly Loudmouth was lying flat on his back with Lilah kneeling on his chest, one blade aimed at his throat and the other at his groin. His mouth was opening and closing like a fish out of water, and his face was growing paler by the second. Lilah looked down at him with a slightly concerned look, then glanced over at Cullen.
"Commander, I think you may need to fetch a medic, this man appears to be about to faint."
Cullen snickered behind his closed fist for a second before ordering one of the other recruits to fetch the medic. He then reached one hand toward Lilah to help her exit the ring. Her legs tangled while she was climbing over the fence and she somehow ended up cradled in Cullen's arms, their foreheads almost touching. They both looked away quickly, blushing.
"Oh, err, sorry. Clumsy me!"
"Not a problem, Inquisitor."
He set her back on her feet and quickly turned away to face the recruits, who luckily hadn't seemed to notice her slightly less than heroic exit from the ring.
"Let this be a lesson to you, soldiers. Never underestimate the unknown."
Lilah sighed once more, and noticed Varric standing off to the side watching.
"Oh great, yet another nickname for me; Lilah Trevelyan: Herald, Inquisitor, and The Great Unknown!"
Varric chuckled, pushing the letter more deeply into his pocket. He couldn't leave Lilah's group to finish writing his chapters, especially if the new crop of recruits were all as green as Burly Loudmouth and friends. She didn't need to add that to an ever increasing list of worries. He'd work around it, write at night while everyone else was sleeping if he had to. Saving the world was slightly more important than making money, after all. Only slightly though.
"Good news, Lize. My publisher wants to pick up 'The Eye in Inquisition'. They're gonna print two hundred copies to start, chapter by chapter, then a collected volume at the end. You're going to be famous!"
Lilah threw a pained look at him, and gestured back towards the starstruck recruits standing behind them.
"Well... Slightly more famous than you already are."
Lilah huffed out another breath and pulled her black gloves back on, heading back towards the main hall.
"More famous? Fantastic. Just fantastic."
~The Eye in Inquisition Chapter One - The Beginning of The Whole Mess (A new serialised novel by Varric Tethras)~
Previously...
Wynter's progress had slowed to a crawl as she reached the top of the stone encrusted hill, the loose rocks making each step treacherous. She reached out to the outline of the woman standing in front of the bright, welcoming light and fell forward, leaving the giant spiders behind for good...
And woke up in darkness again. This time in chains.
"Well. At least I'm alive."
Now...
Wynter looked down at the handcuffs encasing her wrists. They certainly looked sturdy. She gave them a rather fruitless shake and then settled her hands into her lap. Though her left hand felt rather curious... It was tingling, like she'd fallen asleep on it. The chains weren't too tight... Her train of thought was suddenly interrupted by the most intense pain she'd ever experienced as she grasped her now glowing left hand. Maker's Balls, what was happening? The green light crackled over the surface of her skin like lightning, seeming to settle into the large jagged fissure which covered most of the surface of her left hand. That green looked very familiar... She couldn't quite remember where she'd seen it, but she was filled with a terrible sense of foreboding. Then, as quickly as it had appeared, the light (and thankfully the pain) disappeared, leaving both of her hands looking almost normal. Almost normal because she could still see the large translucent scar across her left hand, even though it wasn't alive with electricity.
At that moment, the door to her cell opened, letting in the firelight from the corridor beyond. She looked up quickly as she noticed two unfamiliar figures walking towards her. The taller of the two jerked her to her feet, grabbing the chain attached to her handcuffs. Wynter stumbled to her feet, squinting at the two figures silhouetted in the brighter light from the door, and realised that they were both women. The taller, and more severe of the two, had been the one to jerk her to her feet. The shorter one was hanging back, nearer the door, possibly waiting to gauge her reaction. Wynter stood still, her eyes still adjusting to the change in light, waiting for one or both of them to speak. The taller one spoke first.
"How did you do it?"
Wynter blinked, confused. That was quite an obtuse question to start with. How did she do what, exactly? Breathe? Walk? End up in the cell?
"I'm sorry, what?"
The tall one grabbed the chain and pulled her closer. Wynter could now see the sharp cheekbones and angrily narrowed eyes of the woman glowering down at her. She could also see the nasty looking scar which ran from the woman's eyebrow down to her chin on the left side of her face, marring what would have been a quite startlingly beautiful face.
"Don't play games with me! The Temple of Sacred Ashes lies in ruins! The Conclave has been destroyed, and the Divine lies dead! You alone survived the events, so you are our only suspect! Now tell me, how did you do it?"
She shook the chain again, and Wynter's teeth rattled with the intensity of the woman's rage. The words she'd said had sounded familiar, the Temple, the Conclave, the Divine... She'd been at a temple with her brothers, surrounded by mages, templars and Chantry sisters. Then something had happened, something had happened to the sky, and there had been burning, heat, and red, so many red things... Wynter gasped as the memory flooded through her, and her eyes prickled with tears. Her brothers, Tabitha, the Divine...
"Oh no... All those people..."
The tall woman scoffed, yanking at her chain once more.
"A very convincing act. But why aren't you one of 'those people', huh? How did you survive what killed everyone else?"
Wynter felt numb. Her brothers were all dead. The Chantry sisters and clerics, the mages, the templars... How on earth had she survived? She remembered jumping through a door, then running through that strange darkness away from the spiders, but that didn't explain anything. How had she survived? She didn't have a clue.
"I don't know..."
Her own voice sounded hollow in her ears, and her hand had started tingling again. The pain exploded through her hand again, and she half collapsed with a gasp. The only thing holding her up was the vice-like grip the tall woman had on her chained hands. She lifted the chain higher, dragging Wynter back to her feet, gasping.
"Explain this!"
The woman shook her own glowing green hand in her face, and she turned away from it. Looking at the mark made her feel physically ill.
"I can't explain it, I don't know what that is!"
The shorter, hooded woman finally stepped forward, grasping the taller woman's arm.
"That's enough, Nerida! We don't know for certain that she caused any of this, we only know that she was there."
The tall woman, Nerida, shook the shorter woman's hand off and snorted disdainfully.
"Louisa, do you honestly think that the only survivor of this tragedy, bearing this mark on her hand, had nothing to do with it? I can only hope that you're kidding!"
Louisa stubbornly grabbed Nerida's arm again, forcing her to look her in the eye.
"We have no proof that she did anything. We don't even know who she is."
Nerida dropped the chain, and the immediate release of the chain's tension made Wynter drop to the floor. She sat there, nursing her left hand, staring up at these two odd women. Were they going to kill her? Had she survived only to be executed for being the apparent perpetrator of this senseless tragedy? The shorter woman wearing the hood, Louisa, approached her once again, kneeling so she was closer to her face.
"Who are you? Why were you at the Conclave?"
Wynter licked her lips, and looked up at Louisa's face. Though she seemed the friendlier of the two, Wynter could see the calculating shrewdness in her eyes. Where it seemed like Nerida was the brawn, Louisa was definitely the brains. She decided to answer truthfully and hopefully earn her way out of the cell.
"My name is Wynter Frost, of the Frost Family out of Ostwick. Our family has many Chantry ties, and two of my elder brothers are... sorry, were templars. My father decided that it was in our family's best interests if we came to the Conclave to show our support for the peace talks and encourage other families in the Free Marches to do the same."
Louisa nodded, absorbing the information.
"I've heard of your family. This seems to be a truthful answer, or at least you think you're telling the truth anyway. Unless you're very good at lying. Like me."
Louisa smiled brightly when she said this, but the smile never made it to her eyes. She was definitely the scarier of the pair. She touched Nerida lightly on the arm.
"Remove her chains, and meet me at the forward camp. Hyde will likely want to know that his patient is awake."
Nerida's mouth dropped open for a second, then closed into a tight line.
"Fine. Do what you like. But I'm not going to sugar coat any of this. Until we have further proof... She is still our only suspect."
Louisa sighed.
"Or she could be a perfectly innocent bystander who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Happy now?"
Louisa crossed her arms.
"It's impossible for me to be happy right now. But I am slightly more appeased. Now release her bonds. Gently, if you please."
Nerida puffed out an annoyed breath and unlocked the cuffs around Wynter's wrists, letting them fall to the floor. She stood unsteadily, weaving a little on her feet. Nerida approached her with a leather tie and pulled her hands behind her back, securing them again, though not as tightly.
"This is just for show, Lady Frost. The people of Haven... They have already judged you."
Nerida pushed her lightly through the door of the cell and they set off through the town, followed by dark stares and jeers. Wynter was just thankful that they weren't throwing anything or spitting on her. She was actually kind of thankful that Nerida was walking behind her. Then, as if by magic, Nerida actually started to offer up information from the past few days.
"Three days ago... That was when the sky turned green, and the Temple exploded. When that great rift appeared in the sky. As far as the townsfolk are concerned, three days ago the world started to end. And three days ago, we stumbled upon you, still breathing, lying on a pile of rubble in the broken remains of that Temple. We had one of our mages stay with you for the past two days, then he was called away to help deal with another rift which had opened close by. His name is Hyde. He would have been classified an apostate, but technically all mages are apostates now. After the conclave... the Circles have mostly disbanded, thanks to what happened in Kirkwall. It's all just... such a mess."
Nerida sounded tired, more than anything.
"It must be hard on you remaining templars, keeping everything in order."
Wynter heard Nerida snort again, and wondered what she's said wrong this time.
"You think I'm a templar? Perish the thought. I'm a Seeker of Truth. Or I was..."
Wynter sighed, and went to scratch her head, then realised her hands were still tied. Her itch would have to wait.
"Well, what are you now, then?"
Nerida paused, as if looking for the correct response.
"I am... part of something bigger. We'll explain it to you later, if it comes to that. Open the gates!"
Two surly looking guardsmen opened the heavy gates leading out into the wilderness. Once they were through, Nerida cut the tie from her hands, and Wynter finally got to scratch her head. The giant green vortex in the sky looked larger than she vaguely remembered, and her hand sparked as she looked up at it, causing her to gasp involuntarily. Nerida threw her a concerned look.
"The mark is slowly killing you. As the Breach grows, it also grows, and it will eventually consume you, unless we find some way to seal it. Both the breach and your hand."
Wynter closed her fingers into a shaky fist and re-opened them, the green lightning slowly fading on her hand.
"Do you think this apostate, this Hyde... He can help me?"
Nerida chuckled, running a hand over her short, black hair.
"He's the closest thing that we have to an expert at this point. He's pretty much your only chance."
They started walking across the bridge that led to the other side of the ravine, when they heard a loud whistling sound from above, and saw a lava ball flying towards them, tumbling down from the Breach above.
"Down!"
Nerida yelled the word, then grabbed Wynter as the bridge began to collapse beneath them, and they both tumbled to the ice below...
~Back to Varric and Lilah~
"So this is the second chapter then?"
Varric sighed and shook his head.
"No, it's part two of the first chapter. Turns out it's going to take me a lot longer to finish this than I thought it would. You just keep taking me out on grand adventures, how can I say no to that? More stories for the book."
Lilah thought for a moment and smiled.
"You know, I could take Sera instead of you, if you wanted some down-time. And we could just fill you in on what happened afterwards."
Varric smiled and stretched, re-packing the pages into his backpack as Lilah worked on pulling down the tents.
"What? And leave me all by myself at Skyhold, with all the booze and people wanting to hear about Hawke? What a nightmare!"
He recounted the pages, and frowned.
"Hold up, Lize. I'm missing two pages..."
He was interrupted by Cassandra marching up and shaking the two loose pages at him.
"Varric! What is the meaning of this! 'Where it seemed like Nerida was the brawn, Louisa was definitely the brains'! And why in all of the Void did you name my character Nerida? I refuse to be a part of this, this... travesty!"
Varric threw an exasperated look at Lilah, who shrugged apologetically and mouthed a silent 'sorry' in his direction. Ah. This was her payback for the extra fame. Now he had to placate the Seeker as well. He certainly had his work cut out for him.
END OF PART 02
See, I told you part 2 would be coming soon! Writing this is fun, but then again, writing any Dragon Age fan fiction is fun. Did I mention it was almost 4am? No? Well it is, and as you can see I have fallen back into old habits! As always read, review and enjoy! Part 3 coming soon (but not as soon as part 2!)
Foxfire out!