"I have kept her as hydrated as I can," an old woman's voice filtered through my thoughts, pulling me to the forefront of my mind.
"Why hasn't she woken up?" frustration leaked from a familiar voice.
"I've told you many times; I have tried everything I can think of. She just isn't ready to awaken."
"Argh! She needs to wake up!"
"What she needs is rest, Warden." A Spanish accent joined the fray, "She told me she had not slept since the Tower, and that was almost two weeks ago, no? She is exhausted."
"'M fine." Words tumbled from my lips, barely distinguishable.
Silence.
I raised my hands to my face, rubbing my eyes sluggishly, "I'm fine. How," I yawned, "long was I out for?"
"Ana!" Leliana threw herself at me, wrapping her arms around me in a tight embrace.
"What happened, child?" Wynne was watching me keenly.
"I…," I sat up, thinking, "I remember chasing Connor upstairs and finding him in what I assumed was his room. He grabbed me and had this…menacing smile, said I shouldn't have interfered. The next thing I knew, I was in the Fade. I think he put me to sleep? I met the demon, and I tried to reason with it. It didn't want any part of it, though. It said it already had one soul possessed, and it had no need for another. It came at me, and I…. I remember seeing this…white light? And suddenly there were spirits, and they grabbed the demon. After that, I'm not sure. I think I fainted."
"What demon was it?"
"Spirits? You mean more demons?" Alistair.
"Desire." I glanced around, "And no. They were spirits. Purpose. I don't know how I know, I just do."
"Purpose is the opposite of Desire." The mage murmured, "You were blessed, child. The spirits saw your suffering and gave you aid."
"How are you feeling, my dear Warden?"
My eyes locked with Zevran's, "I'm…tired. It might take me a while to recover from whatever happened."
"Go back to sleep, Ana." The red head encouraged, "You need your rest. Especially after-"
Alistair lunged, clapping a hand over her mouth, "That's enough, Leliana."
She held up her hands, waiting until Ali freed her, and offered a small smile as she fled the tent.
"After what?" I raised an eyebrow.
"We'll talk about it after you get more rest. It's not that important." With that, the warrior walked out as well.
Zevran stayed behind after Wynne took her leave, saying she was going to find more herbs.
"What happened?" I demanded weakly, surprising myself by how bad off I sounded.
"When the demon was defeated," he gave me an appraising look, "everyone was released from its control. Including the bard and myself. After-"
"Wait. Leliana IS a bard? I had my suspicions, but I didn't want to just ask. I didn't think she would come out and admit it."
"After that," he carried on like I hadn't spoken, "we searched the castle, trying to find either you or the boy. We found the both of you in his room, on the floor. He woke up first. We waited and waited, but you continued sleeping. The others arrived a few days later, with a handful of mages and Templars. The Templars performed some kind of ritual on you and him, to make sure you were not possessed."
"I assume I'm not?" it came out as a question.
A raised eyebrow, "Correct. The Templars had to make sure, they said. And the boy is fine. He was taken to the Tower, but he will live."
I let out a breath I hadn't realized I'd been holding, "That's good."
"He did not think so. He did not want to leave."
My eyes widened, "Why? What happened?"
"He wanted to see you awaken, to make sure you were alive and well. He put up quite a fight."
"How did they get him to leave?" I cringed.
"The Lady Isolde wept and begged him to go, for his father's sake."
"Eamon! How is he doing?"
"He is-"
"Still unconscious." Morrigan's voice proceeded her, "It appears the poison from the blood mage," here, she gave me piercing look, "has put him in a deep sleep that he will not awaken from."
"Unless given the Ashes of Andraste." Zevran shook his head, "A legend, a myth. The Arlessa is convinced this fictional urn filled with the Bride of the Maker's ashes will cure him."
"I've heard of them." I closed my eyes, going through recent visions.
"Are you looking through what you've seen?" the apostate inquired casually.
"Yes." I sighed, "And I can't find…any…references…."
Crumpling in on myself, I collapsed, fainting dead away.
...
A faint sound brought me to awareness. Ow, my head. Where was I?
"Hello?" I called out, trying to see anything in the dark room.
Hissing sounded close by. Something slithered toward me.
"Be careful out there. There's demons." A female voice spoke flippantly.
Demons? Where the hell was I?
"Where am I?" I asked, barely dodging an outstretched claw.
"You're in the dungeons of the Circle Tower in Ferelden." No nonsense.
"I…. Time jumped. What the actual hell?" I muttered under my breath, summoning a ball of fire to light up the dungeons.
"Ah. You're a child. I can't say I'm not happy to see someone that's not a demon or possessed, but you shouldn't be down here, little girl." The white-haired teenager gestured beyond her cell, "This Tower is out of the Templars' control."
"Yeah, I know." I groaned, "What did you do, to end up down here?"
She shrugged, her hair parting to reveal tipped ears, "I helped a friend destroy his phylactery. Didn't know he was a blood mage, though."
"His name wouldn't be Jowan, would it?"
"Yeah." Eyebrows shot up, "Yeah, he was with one of the Chantry girls here. Apparently, he'd resorted to blood magic, because one of the Senior Enchanters taught him."
"Uldred."
"Yeah, that's the guy. I didn't know that until they locked me down here, and the old man returned. Something about wanting to openly teach blood magic. Needless to say, it didn't go over well."
"Yeah. He started the whole demon possession thing here."
She shrugged, "I wouldn't be surprised. I never liked the bastard. He always rubbed me the wrong way. So. How did you get down here? It couldn't have been easy."
"I…. Do you believe in time travel?" I blurted out.
The girl blinked at me, silent. Several moments passed.
"Are you going to let me out, so I can deal with these demons?"
"Oh. You don't have to do anything. Hang on a second." I closed my eyes, praying. Make them as they were. Maker, make them as they were.
Opening my eyes, I first saw the spirits; they were caught in various positions. Kneeling. Leaning. Reaching. One was hovering not too far from my head.
The next thing I saw was the mage's face. Instead of being scared or freaking out, like I'd thought anyone in their right mind would be after seeing the transformation, she tilted her head, her mouth quirked.
"That was impressive. How about letting me out now?"
I did as she asked.
"And yeah. I guess I believe in time travel. I mean, there's nothing saying it isn't possible, right?"
"'Anything is possible, if you just believe.'" I quoted.
"Right." She shook her head, marching toward the stairs, "You coming, girl wonder, or what?"
I looked at her sharply, "Girl wonder?"
"Yeah, you said it once. A few years ago. Although, I'm surprised you look younger now, Anastasia. I guess you are a time traveler, after all."
"Wait. What?" my jaw dropped, "Who ARE you?"
"Oh. We haven't met yet, I guess. I'm Neria Surana. You told me when I had just joined the Circle that you would come and save me one day. Today happens to be that day. Now, let's stop chit chatting and go see about what's going on."
"I have to be careful. The other me is probably here, right now. The past me. If we ran in to each other-"
"I know all about that. You've already told me. It's fine."
What is my life? I wondered.
...
The Tower was mostly deserted, the other me and everyone else having cleared it before us, supposedly. It was eerily quiet. The kind of quiet that raised the hair on your arms and gave goosebumps.
"Where are we going?" I murmured, having followed Neria for what felt like an hour.
"Up. I need to find Solana. If she's still here. I can't leave without knowing what's happened to her."
"Solana? Was she there, too, when Jowan did his thing?"
"Yeah. She and I had agreed to help him. But she's human, so she got a lesser sentence than me. I was given execution because I'm an elf. They wouldn't tell me what she got." Her pain made me shudder, "Which leads me to believe they made her-"
"You were just here." Toneless words drew our attention.
A beautiful, dark haired teenage girl stood off to the side, in a room filled with old tomes. The sunburst tattoo in the middle of her forehead was hard to look at.
"Solana." Neria's voice broke.
"Neria. You should not be here. You are supposed to be in the dungeons, awaiting execution." The way she said it, if I hadn't seen the tattoo, I would have been angry on Neria's behalf.
"If you haven't noticed, the Tower's been overrun. We have to get out of here."
"You said you just saw me?" I interrupted, her words sinking in.
"Yes." She bowed her head, her hair falling in her face, "You went that way, seeking the Litany of Adralla."
"I don't remember meeting you. Weird." I mused, "I have to go see what's going on. I have to find out why I can't remember the Tower."
The elf glanced back and forth between us, "Why don't you come with us, Sol? Having a Tranq might help us find what we're looking for. And Tranq's are all about helping, right?"
She thought about it, weighing the pros and cons, probably.
"Alright. I will accompany you. I need to aid the mages in this Tower however I am able."
Neria sighed. Whether in relief or pain, I wasn't sure. Probably both.
"Hey, Ana. When we met last, you said you wanted to eventually test yourself against the Summoning Sciences."
I glanced over at Neria, raising an eyebrow, "Remind me what they are."
"You are a mage." It was clearly a question, but without inflections, it came out as a statement.
"Yes." I winced internally.
"You are untrained."
"I learned by myself."
"You are Apostate."
"Well," the elf spoke over us, "we can try it right now, since we're here and all. It's better someone takes them out now, rather than letting the possessed get them."
...
"So, the thing is, there's four different creatures. There's the Spirit Hog, the Trickster Whim, the Fade Rifter aka Bereskarn, and the Arl Foreshadow." She explained when we finally stood in front of the summoning font, "Let me know when you're ready."
"Do I have to fight them all? Or are there tricks to this?" I asked.
She shrugged, not answering.
Solana didn't like that, "There are different ways to deal with each of them. One is not like the other."
"One of these things just doesn't belong." I sang under my breath before saying louder, "I'm ready."
"Right-o." Neria flitted around, touching seemingly random objects. The summoning font, a book called Tome of Spirit Personages, and something that said The First.
The Spirit Hog did appear, but without giving me any time to react, it died. Dropped a garnet. O…kay….
"That was the easy one. Here we go. Round two."
Summoning font, the book Rodercoms Uncommon Calling, the looming statue of Magus Gorvish (I have no idea who that is, still to this day), and The Second.
Trickster Whim stood before us, eyes gleaming.
I swiftly threw a knife, watching as it embedded itself in his forehead. He turned to dust, poofing out of existence.
"Alright. Now for three."
The Tranquil mage bent and retrieved a pair of boots the Trickster had somehow dropped. I'd never understood how creatures left items behind.
Her friend touched the font again. The book Elvorn's Grande Bestiary. Some kind of carving on the large table in the middle of the room. Another book, this one called Spiritorum Etherialis. The statue. A phylactery? It was a vial full of what I'd assumed to be blood. The Third.
A huge bear launched itself at me from literally nowhere. I was slammed to the floor, my head hitting with a loud crack.
"GET OFF ME!" I screamed. My hands, knotted in its fur, lit up. As did the bear as a whole.
The creature roared, swiping at me as it retreated.
"You shouldn't play with your prey." Neria tsked.
I glared daggers at her as the bear collapsed. I had burned it...to death.
I was utterly disgusted, trying to keep my nausea in check.
Wordlessly, she completed the fourth and final sequence. Whatever this one was, it better not just attack straight away, or I would put an end to it before it could reach me. I was not in the mood, now.
The Tome of Spirit Personages, Rodercoms Uncommon Calling, the statue of Magus Gorvish, Elvorn's Grande Bestiary, the table with the carvings, Spiritorum Etherialis, the statue again, the phylactery, and The Fourth.
The Arl Foreshadow shimmered, slowly gaining form. I was behind him when he fully came to be.
This wasn't a fight. Did he have something on him that I had to get in order to be done with this?
Cautiously, I reached forward and dipped my hand in his pocket. Closed my fingers around…coins?
The Arl disappeared suddenly. I hadn't even had time to pull my hand back.
"That's it. All done, now." They walked up to me, "What did you get?"
I slowly unfurled my hand, my eyes widening. Quarters sat on my palm. Money from my world. How had it gotten here? What did my world have to do with the Arl Foreshadow?
"Strange coins? He always gives something the person needs later. That's why we call him Arl Foreshadow." If Neria shrugged one more time, it would be too soon, "Anyway, let's continue on."
"Where to now?"
"Up. To go find your friends." She gave me a serious look, "And here. Take these papers. I'm sure you can use them for something."
She held out almost a dozen pieces of torn paper.
I read through them quickly.
Two things stood out to me: someone was scamming mages, selling them "rare tomes never seen before" for fistfuls of gold.
And the Tower was housing a demon. A rage demon. Shah Wyrd had been confined in the very dungeon Neria and I had crawled out of.
"Should we go back and take care of this?" our eyes met as I held up the papers detailing it.
She shook her head, "Nah. That's part of what you did, I think. When you were here earlier, you probably did it accidentally. Or you had these papers and dropped them."
Her tone was forceful, almost like she was telling me that that was exactly what had happened. But if she had been in a cell…- Future me had met her. Future me had told her. Which meant future me knew what had occurred.
Honestly, it had probably been both. I sighed softly.
We climbed the stairs up to the next floor, entering the large hall. And walked smack in to Sloth.
"Wait!" I threw out my arms, trying to stop them before the demon could put us to sleep.
"Demon!" Neria went in to battle mode.
This wouldn't end well.
"Aren't you tired? You look like you need to rest. You should all take a nap to rejuvenate yourselves."
And down we went, out cold.