Every muscle ached, every emotion was frayed and it felt like every inch of her skin was covered in blood. Varania ran, but instead of away, she was running towards the dragon, towards Clarel. It was utterly insane. It was one thing to take a keep, to overwhelm the Grey Wardens and kill demons but another entirely to chase after a Tevinter Magister and Corypheus's pet archdemon.
But it had to be done. It was why she was here and she did her best to not think about anything except exactly what was to come.
Behind her, her companions did their best to keep up with her, though she assumed they also realized how insane this all was. Solas, Blackwall, Varric with Loghain as their rear guard followed close, all breathing hard except for Solas who seemed oddly exhilarated. Though he never celebrated their victories like the others did, when they drank and cheered at the Herald's Rest, he always seemed so energized by battle. It was a strange and sometimes distracting conundrum. Hawke was supposed to be up ahead on the curtain wall waiting for them. Varania heard Hawke's distinctive cursing up ahead.
They tore up the old crumbling stairs, lungs burning, eyes watering at the smoke and ash in the air. At the top of the wall, she heard a demon scream as she rounded the corner. The glowing amorphous form of a rage demon crackled as it backed a pair of Wardens into a corner. One, a dark haired man, had a bow for a moment before he discarded it in favor of a pair of daggers. He was graceful, but there was some hesitation in his fighting as if he wasn't used to melee. His companion was a woman in unique black leather armor, though still emblazoned with the Warden's griffon on the pauldrons. She fought with a sword, but was that a spell? A crackle of lightning hit the demon and Varania wasn't sure if it was from an enchanted blade or the woman herself.
So far, all the other Warden mages had been puppets of Erimond. She hoped to Andraste it was just a really nice sword.
The demon well distracted by the Wardens, Solas was able to easily hit the demon with an ice spell freezing it in place. Varania followed with a stonefist, shattering it, chunks flying in all directions before disappearing back into the ether. Without taking time to catch her breath, she made her way toward the two Wardens warily. Many of the others had stood down, after Loghain had talked sense to them, but she couldn't be sure what would happen here.
The man had fallen on to his knees and the women was at his side in an instant, the unmistakable rush of magic flowing from her fingers against a wound in his side where the demon hand clawed right through his leather, knitting it shut. Despite the sudden pang of trepidation at the magic use, the healing spell did set her a bit at ease. None of the bewitched Wardens had even attempted to protect their companions, not to mention healing.
There was a moments lull in the fighting around them. Though there were still sounds of conflict in the distance, this section of the wall was empty except for the bodies of Wardens who were no longer going to be a problem. Varania took the moment to breathe and made her way towards the two Wardens, hoping to find allies or at least some information of what was up ahead.
The woman looked up at her approach, her blue eyes wide in her pale face, streaked with blood. When she turned her face to Varania, she opened her mouth to speak but nothing came out. She heard an strangled sound from behind her. Varania glanced over her shoulder. Loghain looked like he'd been stabbed, though he was uninjured.
"Fucking Maker's Balls." Varania turned back as the female Warden spoke instead, apparently having found her voice.
"I think we can safely assume they are not possessed," she heard Solas say behind her with probably an excess of sarcasm. Blackwall only grunted. He'd been suspiciously quiet ever since she insisted he join them.
The two Wardens managed to get to their feet as Hawke rounded the corner. She was breathing hard, her wood staff actually smoking were cinders from her magic or a rage demon had hit it. There was an artful smear of blood across the bridge of her nose, almost as if she'd put it there on purpose.
"You made it," Hawke panted, putting her hand on to the woman's shoulder and pulling her into an embrace. She hugged her fiercely. "I'm glad to see you alive."
The Warden smiled for an instant but it disappeared quickly. "I'm the not the only one to be unexpectedly alive."
Hawke looked sheepish. "Yeah, about that."
"I'm standing right here," Loghain said. He did not sound thrilled, but Varania wasn't certain why.
"Yeah, that's pretty much the entire point." Hawke said and cleared her throat. She turned to Varania. The look on her face was conflicted. She seemed to be trying to push that down and instead, she put her arms around the two Wardens. Clearly, they knew each other. "Inquisitor Varania Lavellan," she continued, being surprisingly formal despite her casual stance. "Meet my cousin, Kya Amell, the Hero of Ferelden and Warden Nathaniel Howe."
"Hey there Mrs. Howe," Varric piped up. "How was the honeymoon?" The female Warden, Kya, looked utterly undone.
"Varric," she said tersely, shaking her head and still leaning against Hawke. "It was too short and we had to kill people."
"Isn't that always the way? Just ask Hawke." Varric looked pleased with himself. Varania felt a bit left in the dark by all these sudden entanglements.
"As interesting as this all is," she interrupted, anxious, "I think we have a dragon to deal with."
Hawke jerked a thumb over her shoulder. "It flew past me when I was taking down a Pride demon, followed quickly by Erimond with Warden-Commander Clarel on their asses."
Varania did her best to gather her wits together. She looked back at Solas and he gave her a little confident smile. She grabbed hold of her best Inquisitor voice and continued.
"Alright, then, ah," she turned to the two Wardens. "Are you both well enough to join us? We could use all the help we can get."
Kya looked over at Nathaniel first but then nodded. "I've killed one archdemon," she said, her eyes flicking away from Varania's face and over her shoulder. Varania followed her eyes to find her looking at Loghain. She continued, focused on him instead. "I can kill another one, if needed."
"Right," Varania said, refusing to dig further into what that meant until there wasn't an army of demons and dragons and Maker knows what else ready to rain down on them. "Let's go."
She lead them down the wall, her strange crew of heroes and champions suddenly larger than she ever expected. It was a bit overwhelming, to say the least, realizing who was behind her. The Hero of River Dane and the Champion of Kirkwall has been odd enough, but now the Hero of Ferelden as well? She tried not to think about it, but they started to talk to each other and she couldn't avoid it.
"I thought you were dead," Kya said. Her voice was cold.
"I honestly expected to be," Loghain replied. His sounded sincere and equally cool. "I think that experience, the one that drove me write you, is the only reason I didn't fall prey to this false Calling." He made a strange noise through his nose. "I have you to thank for my life again."
Kya grunted. "If we survive this, I..." She sounded like she was going to threaten him but then reconsidered. "Andraste's fat ass," she sighed. "I mourned for you."
"I mourned as well and I almost told Clarel to fuck herself and returned to Ferelden," he said. The vulgarity seemed out of charactere, but Varania wasn't sure she knew him well enough to judge for certain. "But then you married the Howe boy, as I hoped you would. I moved on and we were both better off." Loghain's voice was deadly cold now. "We did what we had to."
"Maker, you weren't kidding about being an asshole, Mac Tir," Hawke piped up.
Loghain barked a laugh. "Important to know yourself."
"Fuck," someone muttered and Varania assumed it was Nathaniel, though he hadn't spoken until now. "Would you all just shut up?"
"I hate to admit it, since this is all really juicy material," Varric snarked. "But he's probably right. Let's not get dead first. But then I want all the details."
Kya groaned.
They rounded the corner to find Clarel cornering Erimond on the ruins of a bridge that ran between two sections of the ancient fortress. Now, it led to nowhere, effectively trapping the vile excuse for a mage between Clarel's anger and a wicked drop to the desert below. She had an arcane shield blazing around her. Erimond threw a ball of flames at her and it harmlessly bounced off.
"You! You destroyed the Grey Wardens!" she spat at him as she advanced. She hit him with a ball of arcane stone and knocked him to the ground. He rolled over on to his knees, chuckling weakly at her.
"You did that to yourself, you stupid bitch." He looked up at her with contempt. "All I had to do was dangle a little power in front of your eyes and you couldn't wait to get your hands bloody."
In reply, Clarel snarled fiercely and hit him with a bolt of lightning, throwing him back, bouncing helplessly against the ground. Varania considered stepping in, but she felt no desire to protect him or Clarel for that matter. They were both mad as cats. If they killed each other, it was one less mess she had to clean up.
Erimond was in a ball, twitching against the after effects of Clarel's spell. "You could have served a new god," he whimpered.
"I will never serve the Blight!" Clarel spat at him.
"Clarel," Loghain shouted from behind Varania. Clarel's head whipped around to look at them. "We need to..."
He didn't finish his thought before the dragon swooped down from above and grabbed Clarel as it bounded back into the air, whipping it's horrific head back and forth and landing on the ruin behind them, dropping Clarel's body like a doll. It shrieked at them as it crept toward them, stalking over Clarel's broken body, trapping Varania and her companions between it and the bridge.
Varania raised her staff and felt the familiar wash of Solas's barrier spell come over her. She heard Clarel's ragged voice, amazingly still alive.
"In War, Victory." Clarel's voice was an eerie, hollow sound. "In Peace, Vigilance. In Death..."
"Oh Maker, no!" She heard Kya shout and she rushed forward, Nathaniel on her heels. But if she'd thought to stop Clarel, it was too late. A burst of energy shot out of her into the soft underbelly of the dragon and it screamed in horror, hitting her with its strange red lyrium fire, narrowly missing Amell as it took flight away from the source of the pain. The combined forces of Clarel's spell and the dragon's breath made the stones of the bridge start to shake and crumble beneath their feet.
"Run!" Varania screamed, trying to get them off the bridge before it collapsed underneath them.
She heard Kya scream. "LOGHAIN!"
Varania turned to find him suddenly dangling over the edge. Without a moments consideration, Varania ran back, grabbing his hand and with Solas and Blackwall beside her, helped to drag Loghain back onto the bridge before they all started to run again. Hawke was just in front of her with Varric at her side.
"Come on!" Hawke's voice tore through the din but it was too late as the supports under the bridge gave way and they began to fall. By instinct, the anchor flared on Varania's hand, a rift in the veil tearing open beneath them. As the green glow enfolded them, she heard Kya's voice one last time screaming with visceral horror over all the other sounds; over the rush of the tearing veil and the cracking stones and the dragon shrieking in the distance.
"Loghain!" Kya's voice wailed out over everything else but then was swallowed by the throbbing, black silence of the Fade.