Cullen nodded to Kels, and then looked past him at where the Inquisitor had entered. "Some of our people have been captured in the Fallow Mire. The Avvar are holding them hostage, demanding to meet you if we want our people alive again."

"I'll gather some people and head out at once."

He blinked. She hadn't hesitated a moment. "Harding will meet you there. Thank you, Inquisitor."

She inclined her head, and then walked back out. He watched her go, and then turned just in time to see Kels give a knowing smirk. He folded his arms and glared, and the lad promptly made himself scarce.

#

Her small force found Harding's camp easily. The dwarven scout waved Ruya over. "Thank you for coming. Maybe you can solve this mess." Worry was written on Harding's face. "Our missing patrols are being held hostage by Avvar. Barbarians from the mountains."

She knew little of the Avvar. "What are they doing in a bog?"

"That's the thing. Their leader..." Harding folded her hands behind her back. "He wants them to fight you. Because you're the Herald of Andraste."

Ruya blinked. "What do they have against Andraste?"

"Well..." Harding shrugged. "The Avvar think there are gods in nature. As in, the sky has a god, and the forest. The Avvar say you're claming to be sent by one, and they'll challenge the will of your god with their own. I think their leader's just a boastful little prick who wants to brag he killed you."

They were holding her people hostage for a trophy hunt? With her the trophy? Of all the... "I've survived demons. I think I can handle myself against some southern barbarians."

"You'd think, but they're a brawny bunch." Harding led her into a tent, out of the light rain, and gestured at a map. "Getting to our troops won't be easy. You'll have to fight your way through undead -" She looked up and grinned. "But you're probably really good at fighting undead after Crestwood, right?"

"It doesn't matter." Ruya narrowed her eys. "I'm not letting the Avvar butcher the Inquisition's people."

"I appreciate it." She touched the map. "The Avvar are holed up in the castle on the other side of the Fallow Mire. Maker willing, the Inquisition's people are still alive."

#

Dorian touched her shoulder, and gestured to a carved obelisk atop a hill. She nodded, and went towards it. Fade energy hummed from a sconce, and she concentrated to light the veilfire. Almost immediately tightness to the air coalesced, and the first demon appeared. Iron Bull brought his axe down as she and Dorian both hit it with bolts of magical energy.

Corpses began to rise, and she put up a barrier on her allies before concentrating to form the magical blade. It worked well against the spirit-inhabited bodies. The rest of the corpses fell as Iron Bull finished off a terror demon.

"Good eye," Ruya said to Dorian. "We could use these, lure those corpses out of the mud and fight on solid ground."

Sera elbowed Blackwall as they continued deeper into the bog. "Look at you, all serious. What do Wardens do when there's no Blight anyway?"

"Whatever it takes to keep the world safe." Blackwall shook his head at Sera fondly.

"Like join Inquisitions." Sera waved her bow.

"If that's what necessary." He jabbed her lightly in the shoulder. "Hey, you're here too."

She laughed. "The Inquisition can't be all broody beards like you and Cassandra."

"She doesn't have the hair for it."

"Oh, I'd bet she does. Places." Sera gestured lewdly.

Cassandra gave them a scandalized look. "That's enough!"

Sera just cackled harder. "Knew it!"

#

Her feet slid a bit on some mud, and she'd have fallen into the water if Solas hadn't reached a hand out to steady her. He wrinkled his nose at the muck. "We will want to launder our clothes later. Or burn them."

"The mud wants my feet to stay," Cole said.

They continued through the swamp. She listened idly as Dorian asked various questions of Cole. Some of the answers were fascinating. Blackwall gave the spirit a strange look. "How does a spirit become flesh anyway?"

"I don't know." Cole turned his pale eyes towards Blackwall. "How does a Warden become Grey?" Blackwall just rolled his eyes. Cole turned his eyes back to Dorian. "You ask a lot of questions, Dorian."

"I'm curious about you." Dorian shrugged. "I had no idea something like you was possible."

"I'm curious about you, too."

Dorian gave him a friendly smile. "You can ask me questions, if you like. I'm not sure why you'd want to, but..."

"Good!" Cole sounded thrilled at the possibility. "Thank you!"

"I'm..." Dorian blinked. "Going to regret this, aren't I?"

#

They lit another beacon, and battled another demon. Ruya noted that Cassandra and Iron Bull had managed to develop a good rhythm with each other as they moved across the field. She called up the sword to intercept a corpse attempting to close with Solas, and a moment later Blackwall was at her side, using his shield to push the corpse back and away. Dorian's style of combat was flashy, and leaned heavily towards fire. Solas used his magic to arc lightning across combatants. She'd noticed he'd started to leave the barriers to her since the last time they'd practiced together and she'd created one that had arced his own spell back at him.

She showed the rune to Solas and Dorian, and both agreed that it and the one they'd found previously were part of a larger set. No doubt she'd need all for them to make sense. "No sign of the Avvar who want to challenge me. Or the Inquisition's soldiers." She'd brought along some healing potions, just in case.

Another beacon could be made out ahead. They started towards it. Blackwall moved to walk next to Solas. "Do you have any advice for fighting demons, Solas?"

"Survive the first thirty heartbeats, and you'll have already won."

Blackwall gave an exasperated head shake. "So I should try not to die? Helpful."

Solas sighed. "I mean that demons are rarely intelligent enough to change their tactics. If you focus on defending yourself, you will see the full range of their abilities within the first thirty heartbeats. By then, you should be able to find a weakness and exploit it."

"Ahh, that is helpful!" Blackwall nodded thoughtfully. "I will try to remember that."

"Also, try not to die." Solas's lips twitched upwards slightly as he spoke, and she hid a smile of her own.

#

The man in front of the rift was easily the largest human she'd ever seen. She wouldn't be surprised if under the paint he was actually a hornless qunari. His hammer probably weighed more than Sera did. She put up a barrier, but he did not move to attack. "My kin want you dead, lowlander, but it's not my job. No fears from me."

Ruya nodded slowly. "Why aren't you with the other Avvar?"

He turned back towards the rift hanging in the air. "Trying to figure out this hole in the world. Never seen anything like its like." He laid his hammer over his shoulder, hooking his arms over it as he tilted his head at the rift. "They spit out angry spirits. Endless. What the sky's trying to tell us, I don't know."

"They're caused by the Breach in the sky. It was some kind of magic gone wrong."

The look he gave her was impatient and irritated. "I know that, lowlander. I'm talking about the Lady of the Skies." He gave her an appraising look. "Do you not know her? Can't you see the warnings she writes through the bird flocks in the air?"

"You use the patterns of flocking birds as an augury, then?" Dorian asked.

"We don't 'use' them." He directed the look at Dorian. "They're sent. You see it, or you don't."

In the air, the rift began to shimmer and open again. Her comrades took their positions as the demons began to come forth. Once again, she and Solas used their magic to disrupt several of the fountains before they could produce demons.

#

"Lady of the Skies!" The Avvar was staring at her. "You can mend the gaps in the air?"

"Pretty great, huh?" Iron Bull laid his axe over one shoulder.

"Maybe you do have a god's favor." The Avvar nodded to her.

"I thought the Avvar wanted to fight me."

He rolled his eyes dismissively. "Our chieftain's son wants to fight you. I'm called in when the dead pile up. Rites to the gods, mending for the bleeding, a dagger for the dying. That's what I do." He gave a disgusted shake of his head. "I don't pick up a blade for a whelp's trophy hunt."

A priest then? "The other Avvar kidnapped an Inquisition patrol. Are they all right?"

"A few were injured in the skirmish, but they were alive. Last I saw them." He leaned on his hammer. "Someone's trained them well. They killed more of us than I thought they would."

#

The next beacon sent forth even more demons. Cassandra was knocked to the ground by a terror demon coming up from beneath her, but Blackwall moved in to shield her before it could capitalize on the advantage. A small cluster of corpses started to aim arrows at Dorian, and a rock seemed to emerge from the Fade itself, slamming into them before vanishing again. She glanced over her shoulder and Solas and saw him nod at her.

Iron Bull managed to cut one of the corpses in half. That was impressive enough, but the fact that he'd done it vertically almost disrupted her concentration as she swept the spirit blade through an oncoming demon.

Sera caught an arrow in the back, but the barrier deflected most of the damage. The archer whirled and sent a retalitory arrow directly into the eye of her assailant.

Blackwall gave Sera a worried look as Ruya used her magic to heal the scratch. "You should learn to watch your back."

"Well, you need to..." Sera twisted around to look at him. "Your arse!" She considered a moment. "No, your mom's arse!"

He sighed. "Great. I'm glad we understand each other."

#

By the fourth beacon, they were working as an effective team. Ruya crafted a barrier, and began moving forward with Blackwall, spirit blade in one hand and staff in the other. Dorian focused his fire on the more dangerous of opponents, while Solas used lightning and giant rocks wherever enemies were foolish enough to stand too close together. Cassandra and Iron Bull moved through the field back to back as though they'd been fighting side by side for years rather than a matter of days.

Cole and Sera picked off enemy archers, Sera with her own bow, Cole with his strange ability to move across the field unnoticed.

Iron Bull kicked a severed head into the swamp. "Hey Blackwall. What's the most limbs you've ever cut off something in one swing?"

"For the Wardens, battle is a sacred duty, a vigil kept to guard the world against destruction. It's not a game."

"Right. Same here."

They'd only gone a few more steps before Blackwall glanced back at Iron Bull. "Do heads count?"

"Heads absolutely count."

"Then..." Blackwall considered a moment. "Three."

"Nice! Down on the collarbone and through, right? That's how I get the good ones."

Cassandra rolled her eyes affectionately.

#

"That's a lot of corpses." Ruya narrowed her eyes. "Push through. Don't engage, just get to the gate. We'll drop the portcullis, and find our people."

"Right, boss."

Ruya took a deep breath and focused her energies into the barrier. "Go."

#

She followed Iron Bull up the stairs, letting the big man clear the path up to the gate control. Dorian put a wall of fire across the gate way as Blackwall and Cassandra stood with their shields on either side of him, making short work of anything that managed to get through the flames.

The lever dropped the portcullis. Ruya regrouped with her companions. Dorian downed a lyrium potion, while both Iron Bull and Cassandra took healing draughts. "Ready?"

Nods and a few smiles answered her.

#

"Herald of Andraste! Face me!" The big Avvar held an axe over his head as he charged towards her. "I am the Hand of Korth himself."

Rather than stand there like an idiot, Ruya focused a barrier on Iron Bull and let him meet the Avvar with a charge of his own. The Avvar may have been big, but Iron Bull had considerably more skill backing up his size. She and Solas called lightning arcs simultaneously, feeding into each other's magic to create a tempest where the Avvar archers stood.

She took a glancing blow from a spear, and swept the spirit blade through her attacker's leg, dropping him to the ground. Cole finished the man off before he could rise to attack again.

A few moments later, it was over. She found the key on a chain around the Avvar leader's neck, and went to free her people.

#

"Herald of Andraste!" Several of the Inquisition soldiers on the other side of the door scrambled to their feet, and the wounded ones tried to follow suit.

"We dealt with the Avvar." She entered the room and knelt next to one of the wounded. "Is everyone all right?" Her fingers glowed white as she did what healing she could. Between her, Solas, and the potions they'd brought, they managed to get everyone on their feet.

She heard awestruck voices whispering among the soldiers. "I can't believe the Herald came for us."

"I told you she'd come."

#

Blackwall was smiling broadly when she emerged. Apparently, the ruined fort had once been a Warden outpost of some kind, and he'd found a few treasures. He carried a banner over one shoulder, while Cassandra carried a book. The woman's face was sad when she looked at the tome, but she shook her head at Ruya when Ruya gave her a concerned look.

The big Avvar they'd met earlier was standing outside the gate as they started to leave. He gave them a respectful nod of his head. "Your god looks after you, Herald." He actually looked pleased when he saw the 'Hand of Korth' on the ground. "There lies the brat. His father, chief of our holding, would duel me for the loss, if he cared enough."

On impulse, she approached him. "The Inquisition has a purpose your chief lacks."

He looked at her contemplatively. "Is this why the Lady of the Skies led me here? To help heal the wounds in her skin?" He nodded. "Aye, I'll join you. Let me make peace with my kin, and I'll find where you set your flag."

#

On the way back, she listened to Cole and Cassandra talking about Lord Seeker Lambert. Ruya was surprised to learn that it had, in fact, been Cole that had killed the man. Through from what she had heard, she wasn't sure he'd been wrong to do so. Not for the first time, she wondered what would have happened if it had been people like Cassandra and Cullen in charge when the trouble first came to a head. Though, if it had been people like Cassandra and Cullen in charge, it was likely the trouble would not have occurred.

Iron Bull was examining a nick in the blade of his axe. He glanced over at Dorian. "Nice work with the magic back there, Dorian. You're pretty good at blowing guys up."

Dorian gave a flamboyant bow. "It's significantly more impressive than hitting them with a sharp piece of metal."

"Hey, whoa." Iron Bull held up a hand. "Let's not get crazy."

Dorian grinned, then glanced over at Solas. "Solas, that little flare you sometimes do with your staff..." He tilted his head. "You're redirecting ambient energy to your personal aura?"

"Yes. The effect clears magical energy and creates a minor randomized barrier to impair incoming magic."

"Fascinating. It's a Tevinter technique. I've never seen anyone in this part of the world do it."

"The technique is not Tevinter. It is elven."

"Oh! That means we..." Dorian's steps faltered slightly. "Never mind, then."

"But do go on about the wonders of Tevinter magic." Solas shrugged, and then turned his eyes to Ruya. "We can show you, if you'd like."

"I was just about to ask." She smiled.

#

They arrived back at Skyhold to a report that the army would be ready to move in the morning.