Chapter 61: Ghosts

The Ruins of old Crestwood rose up before them, revealing not just the site of their next battle but a tomb for the unburied dead, the shadows of the past.

The very sight of it made Ana shudder.

Solas, Iron Bull and Sera had accompanied her, she was grateful for their presence; she had not wanted to face this nightmare alone, to see the results of that one horrible night ten years ago.

These poor people, she thought, they never stood a chance.

The old village remained mostly intact, several buildings still stood despite the wall of water that had struck them a decade ago. Everywhere they looked they could see signs of the lives that had once existed here, a cart smashed against a wall here, rusted fishing tools scattered there, coral and bits of lake weed had sprouted as well, showing even more evidence of how quickly the waters had claimed this place.

The worst, however, were the bodies, the skeletons of the dead.

The Inquisitor did not look too close at them, piles of the dead lay pressed against the crumbled walls or in the corners of the remaining buildings, the lake life had claimed most of the cloth and flesh from these, leaving only bleached bones after so long, they found some traces of darkspawn among the dead, bits of armor here or weapons there, but for the most part the bodies were human.

Ana tried not to stare to closely, tried not to think about what these poor people had endured in their final moments. Even Bull and Sera had no comments to lighten the mood. She did not blame them, seeing this…it was worse than any battlefield, on a battlefield at least, soldiers had a chance to defend themselves, this…this was not a battle, it was a tragedy.

A wall of water coming towards them, even as the darkspawn started to burn their homes, some had tried to run no doubt, but the waters were too fast, and victim and monster found themselves both washed away, their lives ended in a flash of whitecaps and crashing waves.

"Are you alright, Ana?"

Solas placed a gentle hand on her shoulder, the elf was not the warmest of men she had ever met, but even he could see how disturbing she found this place. It wasn't just the bodies; it was the hopelessness she felt, the realization that these people had been trapped with nowhere to escape to…

What had happened here…it…it was heartbreaking.

"I'm…uh…I'm fine Solas," she managed a weak smile, but that was it.

"This place…it…it is…unsettling."

"I tend to agree," he said with a sigh, "The veil is so thin here, you can feel the spirits pressing so hard against it."

"Can we just find the rift thingy, and get out of here, yeah," Sera said nervously, her eyed darted back and forth like a frightened deer, her pale skin looking even more pale thanks to the sights and sounds around them. If any place in this world could be called haunted, this would be it.

"I have things to do."

"As soon as we can, Sera," Ana murmured, "I promise."

The elf seemed to take comfort in that, but even that small reassurance vanished when the first of the glowing figures crossed their path.

Again, Ana shivered, that was the other issue she was having with old Crestwood, spirits were everywhere drifting among the dead. They looked almost like glowing skeletons, not really reacting to the world around them, just milling about the ruins purposely, gliding on the wind that now whistled through the holes in the long submerged homes.

Solas shook his head.

"They were pulled through the rift, drawn here against their will, now they drift, lost and alone."

He sighed.

"We are fortunate that it did not warp all of them into demons, or we might have been overrun by now."

One of them drifted past Ana, it stared at her with empty eye sockets, yet she knew in her heart that it could see her.

She did not give into fear, but it was a very near thing.

She found herself thinking of all the ghost stories she had heard as a girl, tales of abandoned towers and forgotten places. She knew that these spirits were not the ghosts of Crestwood's fallen people, but that did not make it any easier not to think of them as such, so much death here, and now these spirits had come, some possessing the very bodies left scattered around them, forcing them to kill those who had survived.

The past had not died here, it had only waited; now it was back, and the people of Crestwood were paying for it.

She needed to end this, for their sake as well the poor people that had died here, they did not deserve to be brought back like this, it was a profanity, it was wrong it was…

"Do not be afraid."

Ana jumped, a squeak escaped her lips, everyone in the party spun at the sound of the new voice, drawing their weapons.

They had not needed to.

The Inquisitor bit back a curse.

"Cole," she gasped, "What are you doing here?"

The spirit boy shrugged, she had not even realized that he had left Skyhold with them; perhaps he had followed, or been with them the whole time and they had simply forgotten that he was there, or had not noticed his presence.

Either was a possibility given his unique…abilities.

"I came to help," he murmured shyly, pulling his hat down farther to hide his eyes, "Please do not be angry with me."

Ana sighed, willing her heart to get out of her throat and slow down. Cole had given her quite a fright, or perhaps this place was just making her more jumpy than normal.

She wasn't angry; they would be having a long talk about this when they got back to Caer Bronach.

Unfortunately, she was not the only one here.

"We don't need your help," Sera spat at him, the elven archer shook with rage. She had never liked Cole, and made no bones about that.

He shrank under her cold eyes.

"You should go back to where…where ever you were before!" she hissed, "We don't need you…you…thing!"

Solas glared at her.

"That it very cruel, Sera," he said.

"It is not like it's a person or something," she answered, "It…it like these things, they don't belong here!"

"Enough," Ana said, silencing the others. Iron Bull had said nothing, choosing to make sure that no undead snuck up behind them. Cole winced as if struck by Sera's words.

Once again, Ana found herself playing peacemaker.

"Cole might be able to help us here," she said, "Perhaps he can convince some of these spirits to go home and not decide to try on one of these bodies and go for a stroll. It is worth it having him along, for that reason alone."

Sera sniffed, but said nothing. Solas nodded, agreeing with her choice.

Cole might have smiled at her, but she could not be sure, it was too dark here, and the shadows cast by the boys had hid most of his features.

He was here now. They could not change that, so they might as well get used to it.

Ana drew her sword.

"Come on," she murmured, we have to find the entrance to the caves beneath this place. We need to seal that rift before anymore demons come through."

The reminder of their mission seemed to end any arguments for now. Everyone fell in behind her as they pushed deeper into the destroyed village, and still the lost spirits watched them, bearing witness to their passing. Old Crestwood was gone, but it was not entirely dead, the past still remained alive.

Ana needed to deal with it, to lay this matter to rest, the Inquisition needed to end this to keep the people here safe.

She sighed heavily.

Andraste save them all.

IOI

It took some time to find the entrance to the caves. Several undead assaulted them as they made their way towards the entrance. Several demons also attempted to stop them, a large rage demon being the worst. Solas battered it with cold while the others hammered it until it fell and crumbled into so much blackened ash.

Still…these small skirmishes did not bother Ana more than what she had seen on the way here, or rather, what they had found as they had made their way through old Crestwood. The sense of unease that she had been dealing with was now replaced with something else.

Curiosity had taken her, that, and a healthy bit of anger.

They had found the mayor's old house, Ana was not sure what had caused her to step through the open door but she had, what they had found there…surprised her.

The house, most likely the sturdiest structure in the old village had survived the flood, its walls and roof still intact, what she had found inside however was a bit surprising.

The home…had been empty.

The other ruins they had seen still had traces of furniture inside, spinning wheels, cupboards and tables though destroyed still showed signs of the life that had existed here. Rusty spoons and forks, broken crockery, that kind of thing, all of these were present in the other abandoned structures. The mayor's home was empty; nothing had been pushed up against the walls by the rush of water. The place was just…just empty. The only thing in the place had been an old chest, Ana broke the lock and examined the contents inside, mostly just dreary paperwork one would expect to find in the home of a local village leader, damp but for the most part protected by the chest in which they had been locked. Among these, they had found a letter from a man named Robert, it informed the mayor that the job was done, and that he was going up into the hills and try to forget.

The letter was dated ten years ago.

Ana had frowned as she had read it.

The hostility in the letter was not the type of thing you expected from someone serving in a small village.

The job is done, what job was that she wondered, and why had the mayor's house looked like it had been evacuated?

Cole had not been silent since they had gotten here, he could feel the pain and loss of this place stronger than any of them could. She showed him the letter.

"The Mayor," he gasped, "His shame…it…it had this shape!"

"What shame?" she asked, "What do you know about this Cole?

The spirit boy fidgeted.

"I…I don't know, but the mayor, he still thinks about this place, so much shame…so much shame."

"He lost his village," Iron Bull said with a shrug, "Maybe he feels that he failed these people. He couldn't save them from the darkspawn after all."

Ana nodded, it made sense, but that little feeling that she was missing something was nagging at the back of her mind.

There was something here…something that she could not see…

…That bothered her.

Finding the caves did little to dispel what she was feeling, the great puddles of water, and the bleached shiny stones. The old steps were in pretty bad shape, they needed to be careful as they made their way down into the dark.

Solas gestured to any torch they passed, lighting the way, making the journey easier, if no less pleasant.

More spirits drifted back and forth here. Cole tried to communicate with them, but they did not respond. He looked a bit dejected by that.

She shook her head.

The only spirit that had spoken to them outside claimed to be a spirit of Command. It refused to return to the fade until something in this world obeyed its orders. She had pledged herself to it, promising to kill a rage demon that had tormented it. Sera had not approved, but if it got the spirit to go home, why not, and besides, the rage demon was a threat to everyone.

It was for the best that it died.

After that, the spirits ignored them, Solas said that this was not surprising, most spirits thought nothing of the mortal world, these likely did not even understand what had happened, to them, the mortal was a dream, it did not obey their wills, therefore was not real.

A strange way of thinking true, but she really could not judge.

At least they are not attacking us; Ana thought glumly, that is a good thing.

The deeper they pushed into the tunnels, that sense that she was missing something only grew stronger. Part of her wished that she had asked the mayor for more information about this place, what had these tunnels been used for, storage of goods? Protection, they would have done better with Caer Bronach and its strong walls.

They found evidence of human habitation, empty food crates, shattered water pitchers.

Had the darkspawn gotten down here? Had they chased the villagers here before this place flooded?

She was not sure that she wanted to know the answer.

She paused, a group of spirits clustered around a shadowy corner off the made path. They seemed more than interested in what was inside.

That discovery, it peaked her curiosity more than anything else.

"This way," she informed the others. They fell in behind her.

The tunnel was cluttered with debris, the spirits let them pass, but continued to watch, no doubt curious about these strange beings that had found their way into dark place.

They pushed past some rather tall stalagmites. What they found made Ana's eyes widen in disbelief.

Even after ten years, it was clear that they had walked into a small camp; she could see where a small fire pit had been made. Muck encrusted bodies lay tangled in what could only be the remains of bedrolls, more broken food crates were scattered around the room.

She swallowed hard.

Had…had people actually been living down here when the village flooded?

The thought made her feel a little faint.

Bull must have come to the same realization that she had, the Qunari shook his head.

"Poor bastards," he murmured.

"What were they doing down here?" Sera gasped.

Cole hugged himself, he whimpered, whispering about closing shadows and bursting lungs.

Solas remained silent, stoic in the face of what they had discovered.

Ana envied his control.

These poor people!

Had they realized what was coming? Had the water rushed through these tunnels sealing these poor people's fates? Had all the torches gone out at once!

The thought made her shiver.

When she had been twelve years old, she had nearly drowned while out with some friends. They had been diving in an old abandoned quarry near Ostwick; her foot had gotten tangled in some old ropes near the bottom of the pool that they had been swimming in. One of her friend's older brother's, Rikkard, had had to dive in and save her. She had only been under for less than a minute, but she still remembered the terror she had felt when she realized that she was caught, the panic, and the intense pressure in her lungs, the futile struggling against the ropes, as her body screamed for air, the darkness that seemed to reach out to claim her.

She…she had had little interest in diving after that.

Mother had been furious when she had heard about that little adventure. Ana accepted that anger, she had been just been grateful to be alive to hear her mother's rebuke.

Maybe that was what was really bothering her about all this. These people had perished in a way that she had nearly died herself. The part of her that was still that little girl, still held onto that fear. It…

And angry hiss split the darkness, shadows seemed to wrap around the dead. The spirits scattered.

Demons had come.

Muck and magic bound the bodies together as they struggled out of the ruined bedrolls, boney fingers turned into sharpened talons. A few of the undead picked up rusted swords and spears.

They lunged at Ana and her friends.

The Inquisitor's shield came up, a weapon clanged harmlessly off it. She beheaded the undead before it could recover.

More snarling creatures emerged from the shadows. Bull roared as he waded into them.

Solas sent jets of cold at the creatures, freezing would work better down here than flame. The smoke of the burning monsters could suffocate in such close quarters. Sera sent arrow after arrow into the beasts. One lunged at her from behind, but was stopped by Cole who grabbed the undead and buried his dagger deep into the soft spot under its chin, the undead collapsed into a pile of muck and bone.

The elf never even saw that he had saved her life.

Ana reached out with the power of the mark, like she had done in the tunnels beneath Haven, the magic exploded into bright savage life, it drew the demons right out of the corpses, them destroying them utterly, or perhaps simply drawing them back across the veil, whatever it had done, it served its purpose.

The angry dead collapsed, returning to a sense of peace.

The chamber again fell silent; the only sound was dripping water from overhead.

Ana gasped for breath…

That had been too close.

They had nearly been overwhelmed.

Bull snorted. Solas tended to small cut on his shoulder, magic knitted it back together.

"We need to get this done, Boss," he growled, "Before anything else tries to stop us."

Ana nodded.

She whole-heartedly agreed.

The group left the forgotten camp, its occupants once again silent in death.

The Inquisitor shook her head. She gave them one last sad look.

"I'm sorry," she whispered.

She left. The camp was once again plunged into darkness.

She shivered trying not to think about it.

This place…these caverns, something very bad had happened here.

Solas said there were no such things as ghosts, only spirits of the fade.

She shook her head.

She was no longer certain of that.

This place was proof.

The dead remained, they haunted this place.

The ghosts of the past lingered.

They were here.

They had waited.

They needed a voice.

She pursed her lips grimly.

She would see that they got it…

…One way…or another.