She was giddy crouching there, body twisted awkwardly as she peered over the outcropping of boulders, and eyes flickering down the incline of the hill.
"A Rage demon. Of course. A few shades as well."
Ellana ignored Solas' unhappy tone. It wasn't bad considering they had come upon rifts that had spat out Terror demons. She shivered thinking about them.
They had left Falon some yards away, the Hart oblivious to their endeavors as it grazed on the moist grass.
It almost felt surreal, to be looking at demons and torn rifts in the Veil so early in the morning. Almost like a strange dream with green meadows in golden sunlight and abominations dwelling about the flowers.
They were a safe distance away though. Both had suppressed their auras as not to be detected by the demons and the incline was high enough to slow the things down should they come for them.
She took the time to observe them, watching the rage demon morph absurdly into itself and burn the ground as it circled the cackling vibrations of the rift above.
"I… always wondered but we never had time to…" She trailed, turning to find Solas anticipating her question already. "What is it they are doing? Why sit here? Why not leave?"
He glanced from the rocks down at them. "I imagine they are not yet strong enough to risk any further than the rift. They feed from the Fade." He said simply, before his voice continued with a quieter intention. "And perhaps they did not want to venture this plane in the first place."
She looked again, to see them in a different light.
"We need to close it."
Solas puffed out air tiredly through his mouth but did not openly disagree. Instead he shrugged off his pack and righted his staff on the ground. "They will know we are here as soon as you tether the rift."
"Then we should do it at the same time, your barrier and my anchor. If we can hold long enough, we shouldn't have to fight."
"By your lead."
He nodded, but Ellana did not miss his slightly creased brow, eyes narrowed with apprehension. It made the small indentation on his skin more prominent and she had the urge to smooth it.
She found better purchase on the boulder, drawing her good leg up for better traction while the splinted one hung limply. The anchor cracked slightly in her palm as she raised her hand, fingers tensing.
Solas stood ready beside her, his own mana pooling in the air around them, a cold shivering sensation like a frosty air about to snap.
Ellana took one last glance at the rage demon and the shades, gliding around the bottom of the hill like a hungry pack of wolves, before looking up at the sparkling tear in the sky.
With a crack she thrust her hand forward and the anchor ignited to life. Heat rushed through her body as she tethered to the rift contrasting the cool sheet of cold cascading over her as Solas threw down his barrier.
She kept her eyes on the sky, the rift pulling, yanking, and fighting to stay open. It yanked physically on her nerves, but the anchor was hot and she could feel herself suck the energy from the torn Veil. Adrenaline spiked when she heard the noises, loud thick screeches of demons.
How close were there already?
The humming of the rift filled her ears, and she could make out Solas' voice just barely, "Once it's ruptured it will be weak to a second wave! You have to close it before more come through!"
She could feel the pull of his mana, his magic thrusting outward through the sky beside her and she wondered if he was already fighting the demons scrabbling toward them.
The humming was louder now, the morphing rift tightening into a hot mass of energy. It coiled tight together and she knew it would combust soon.
Just a little more-
A scream rang out so loud it felt like metal grinding against her bones. Her eyes closed as the ringing pierced her mind and shook through her skin. It was almost painful.
The heightened noises exploded into deafening silence just as the rift backfired on her, the tether snapping and the force shoving her off her feet.
Ellana hit the ground harshly, spine arching as she rolled to the side.
She heard Solas shout, but it was muffled behind her deaf ears.
Her eyes blinked fast as she sat up, trying to see the rift so she could raise her hand to disrupt it and stop demons from pouring through. It would expand first—they would come fast-
But another scream hit her and she finally realized what it was coming from.
There already were more demons.
Solas yelled.
"Despair—!"
The cloaked demon's hands shot out before its body appeared, grim fingers lunging to grasp her throat and shove her down.
Her eyes widened as smoke billowed from its form and its faceless head bared its wormhole mouth, clicking teeth shifting in circles.
Its aura encroached her, the void of its gaping maw sucking at nothing as its hands held her still on the ground. Thick magic began forming inside its mouth and Ellana knew that its next scream would be frost that would rip her apart.
Instinctively she exploded in flames.
Her own magic roared in defense, wildfire that burned hot and made the wretch scream and moan, releasing her to claw at its pain.
She wasted no time in scrambling backward, trying to get to her feet and get away from the Despair demon. But it shrieked for her, its body unfurling in the sky and mouth roaring with ice. The blast barreled toward her fast and Ellana yelled even as she threw up a barrier of her own.
It hit, shattering her meager defense and sending her sprawling to the ground once more. Her skin felt burnt from the cold through her clothes and she felt her leg pang from discomfort. She rolled to her knees, trying to ignore it.
Her eyes caught Solas for mere seconds, his staff rounding through the air above his head as he sent thick frost barreling into the rage demon that lunged for him. She could see him trying to look for her, fighting them off desperately to get over to her aid.
The Despair demon wailed, reminding her of its oncoming attack.
She got to her feet to run in the other direction, but a fissure ripped through the ground and long wiry arms shot through the air from the swirling green.
Terror.
Its long body crawled from the Fade and it screamed in unison with Despair.
"Ellana!"
"Solas—"
She staggered with a limp leg and bent knees, her focus for magic shaken by the shock of two demons cornering her.
"Solas!"
She looked for him, panic beginning to seep into her panting breath and flickering eyes.
A whirlpool of magic energy erupted around him from across the grass, his body crouching low between the onslaughts of shades. She could feel the strange distortion he was causing, sucking mana from the air like a void or a tear in the Fade.
His staff went low in his hands, eyes closing, and in her panic she tried to call for him.
Bright, brilliant light shined in a ring around him before flying out like a ripple of hot sunlight. Burning through the air it seared down the demons around him, making them scream and dissipate like ink in water.
The powerful magic came and went instantly and when it was gone the shades and rage demon were no more than ichor on the grass.
But with a cold shrill hiss she realized that Terror and Despair were still there, angry and lunging for her.
This time Solas was coming for her, his staff a beacon of light flinging hot flurries of intense willpower into the Despair demon. It screamed and cried, desperately trying to hit him with frost.
But Terror wanted her, its long skeletal body sprinting for her as she backed away.
"Ellana run!"
She twisted, and ran, stepping straight through the Fade with all her willpower.
The magic consumed her, body light and weightless as she focused on ghosting across the plain. The sky seemed to shift, vision blurred, and when her body grew heavy again she bent her knees to land.
She realized too late what that would mean.
Her leg snapped in excruciating pain, a loud cracking sound that sent her straight to her knees as soon as she had landed ten yards away. The step through the Fade had been too straining on it. She cried out, voice filling the air as hot tears welled in her eyes.
The pain was near unbearable.
But then haunting green swirled on the grass… Ellana's eyes watched as dread filled her chest and the Terror demon pulled itself out of the ground in front of her.
She tried to crawl away, her leg useless, but those sickly hands groped for her. They snatched her ankle and pulled. Heavy noises dripped from its mouth above her as it loomed, claws digging into her flesh.
She could hear Solas still fighting – so far away now-
With a harsh yank she was lifted to the air, the abomination wailed as it pulled her towards its decrepit mouth. Its hands grasping at her neck and shoulders, she tried to kick desperately, wrestling with its hold.
Her hand smashed against its face and she cringed at the feel of its decayed dead skin. She needed instinct again, magic, something—she just needed to ignore the pain and—focus!
A snap of aura, sudden and brilliant and the ground broke open. Thick earthen tendrils of plants shot out from the ground, impaling the Terror demon. It writhed, hissing and dropping her.
The roots of the earth twisted around the demon, suffocating it in soil and dragging it downward to the ground as if to swallow it.
Warm, familiar, Keeper magic... It laced through her, bent to her will from her raised hands. Panting she tried to strengthen her determination, watching the vines snap the demon in half and reduce it to a steaming waste pile of splintered bones.
Dead.
In the moment of silence she gave a shaky breath, eyes looking up to the rift, still green and crackling.
All she had to do was close it now.
"Ellana!—"
Her eyes snapped to Solas, watching him reach a hand out to her from across the field.
The Despair demon's form disappeared in the sky behind him.
Cold frost filled the air before her, just as it reappeared in front of her.
Its banshee scream filled her vision and its void mouth blocked her from the rift.
Pooling the very last of her energy, the very last of her will and mana, she thrust her arm out and ignited the anchor.
Despair's shrieking went silent as the hot green tether ripped straight through its mouth to the torn Veil. It wriggled, hands burning against the Fade leash, slowly dying until the power of it.
The hole in the sky bent immediately to her command.
It hummed, loud and hot as she focused, thinking nothing but of it gone—closed—ripped—
It exploded in a loud bang that seemed to shake the ground beneath them, her fist pulling backward at the force of letting it go.
The green light was gone in an instant.
Despair's body misted into the sky like dust.
It was closed.
Ellana breathed heavily, letting her fist fall to the ground beside her where she sat.
The morning sun was over the horizon now and shining color into the meadows.
She was numb, eyes blinking at the bare field.
"Ellana!" She heard Solas first and then felt him, hands grasping her shoulders, her hands, her face.
When she saw him she was still in a daze, watching his pale eyes look her over with stark worry. He was burning, or his magic was. It was a cloud of power around him.
She remembered the ring she had seen searing the demons around him, burning them in seconds.
He said something slow and soft in Elvhen, his eyes on her leg.
Finally she looked down.
Her clothes were a mess of demon ichor, dirt, and blood. She felt heavy in the weight of it all, torn leathers and oh…
Her leg was nothing but red. Bright and vivid like corrupted lyrium. It even looked like the crystals, jagged and jutting, her bandages ripped and her skin torn with it… so much so that it all looked the same.
A peek of white jagged bone made her eyes swim.
"I—I broke—"
"Shh—" He quieted immediately, making her look up at his face instead.
Arms were under her, snaking beneath her knees and shoulders, warm and soft and alive with rampant magic. Healing.
There was a whistle, sharp and insistent above her head and she felt the vibration of the action through Solas' chest when he settled her in his arms and stood.
"We closed it." She murmured, almost as if to remind herself.
Distantly, she heard Falon's excited call.
"Yes, we did."
"Not bad." She tried.
Solas laughed a sharp bark that mixed oddly with the anxiety etched into his face. The worry was knotted there in his strong brow.
She reached up in his arms, fingers moving to his face when he turned to look at her.
Her thumb crossed his forehead, pressing down on the little mark there to smooth it gently away. His eyes softened.
And then everything went black.
A/N: I don't know about anyone else, but usually when I come across rifts I always try and disrupt them while my party fights the demons. It weakens them and can make the fight go faster. Usually doesn't work when Terror demons or Despair demons are there to attack and interrupt me though.