Chapter 19: Dragon's Breath
After the stuffiness of the Winter Palace and the quiet heaviness of the Crossroads, the night air of the Darvaarad felt, ironically, pleasant. A few stars winked overhead in a rich blue sky. The moon was rising in the east, and a warm breeze, scented with beach roses, wafted over the battlements. In some strange way the coastal air reminded Theo of Ostwick. Perhaps he and Dorian could spend some time in Ostwick after this, if he- no. When it was over. Theo had to keep believing he could make it through this. Like Dorian said, if anyone could triumph over the odds of certain death, again, it was Theo Trevelyan.
Theo stared across the battlements at the dark towers. "Anyone know where we are?" he whispered. They could be anywhere in Thedas, a thought that made Theo even queasier.
The Iron Bull took a deep breath and rolled his shoulders; he was actually smiling. "Didn't think I'd ever get back to Par Vollen," he said, sounding slightly wistful. "They say that home is wherever you are, because so long as you're under the Qun, you're connected to the rest of the Qunari. But damn, if I didn't miss the smell of beach roses and spindleweed."
Par Vollen: the Qunari homeland. So strange that the enemy's land should remind Theo so much of his own home. But it also meant that they were thousands of miles from anyone they knew, and he had given strict instructions that Cullen was not to send reinforcements. This was something that had to be done on a small scale, quick and quiet, and it had to succeed no matter the cost. His hand burned underneath his gloves and his arm ached as the energy slowly built up.
Varric peered through a small spyglass. "Regular patrols on the main walkway. We should be able to make it close and then try to take them out, so long as we're quick and quiet. Luckily, I'm good at that," he said with a grin, pulling back the flap of his coat to reveal an assortment of vials and bombs.
They sneaked across the walkway. Theo didn't know if he was sweating from fear and anxiety, or from the heat and humidity of the night. A muffled roar sounded from far away, but the patrolling Qunari didn't seem startled by it. When they closed in, Dorian waved his hand toward one of the guards. The guard paused and shook his head then kept going. Theo glanced over at Dorian, who put a finger to his lips and shook his head.
They waited. When the guard was joined by two others, Dorian waved his hand once more.
The guard exploded: blood, sinew, limbs flying up into the night. Before the other two guards could react, Varric threw out a bomb that released a thick greenish gas, and Dorian cast a barrier around them. Bull raised his eyebrow. " Saar-qamek?"
"How many times do I have to remind people I was in Kirkwall during the Qunari uprising?" Varric asked with a sigh. He unsheathed his knife. "We should move."
They dispatched the guards and slipped into an unlocked side door. "This room is strangely full of magic for a Qunari compound," Dorian commented. "Even one devoted to studying magical artifacts." Dorian quickly found the bookshelves and started looking over the titles. "Nothing from that ancient elven library, thankfully," he said, pulling down a tome. "I don't think I could live with myself if the Qunari got their hands on one of those books and I couldn't."
"Hey boss, this guy look familiar?" Bull called from another corner. Theo joined him and stared at a chunk of wall the Qunari had brought back from the elven ruins. "Self-portrait of Fen'Harel," Bull translated.
Theo looked over the fresco, which had survived the many centuries, or even millennia, with minimal damage: a slight chip here, a bit of a fade there. The portrait was of a bald elf with a long, straight nose and grayish eyes holding a staff, and wearing a necklace made of a wolf's jawbone.
"Solas," Theo said. "It looks just like him; but what are the odds?"
Dorian joined them; he held a sheaf of papers. A small light sprung out of his fingertips and he examined the portrait. "I will say, the resemblance in uncanny. But look what I found. The calculations are complex, but they're correct. They're examining theoretical magic on a level the Imperium barely acknowledges!" His mustache quivered with excitement. He met Theo's eyes. "With this knowledge we could build a working Eluvian!"
"No." Bull gently took the papers from Dorian's hand. "I want to put an end to this shit, not start more."
"But-"
"Nope."
They both knew better than to look to Theo to moderate this, and in the end Dorian sighed. "It could put an end to some problems," he murmured.
"And start more," Varric chimed in.
Theo pinched the bridge of his nose with his right hand and shook out his left as if that could ease the buzzing and tingling. He heard the faraway roar cut through the night once more. As curious as he was about the magical artifacts the Viddasala's people were collecting, he had a conspiracy to stop and a country or two to save.
They made their way back across the courtyard and to the gatehouse where Bull worked the intricate lock system to open the doors of the Darvaarad. Theo's mark began to pulse, building to a fever pitch as they entered the barracks. The bright green flashes made their arrival obvious, and the pain made it hard for him to move forward. A contingent of Qunari guards ran in from a side door just as Theo fell to one knee and his mark exploded with hot green light. He closed his eyes and let the power flow through him, praying that Dorian and the others had found cover.
Eventually the roar in his ears faded and his hand was left tingling. Theo managed to open his eyes and immediately turned his head to the side and threw up. The air smelled of singed flesh and hair. Charred pieces of bone littered the floor and blood spattered the walls. He glanced down at his hand and nearly vomited again. His glove was in tatters where the energy had burned through it. The mark was a bright green slash across his palm, as usual; but his fingertips glowed pale green, and light seemed to glow beneath his fingernails. His hand was becoming the mark. Or the mark was starting to eat his hand from the inside out.
The roar sounded once more, closer. "You don't think the Qunari are really that literal," Varric asked suddenly, looking in the direction of the sound. "I know you all like your metaphors and such, but…"
Bull shrugged. "I wish I knew. At this point Viddasala could be doing anything. What she's got planned can't possibly be sanctioned."
Theo sincerely hoped Bull was right as they made their way deeper into the Darvaarad, following the sound of the roar. It sounded angry and pained, and Theo sympathized with whatever was making that noise.
They emerged in a large room stacked with the familiar gaatlok barrels. He hoped Cullen had gotten the Winter Palace evacuated. He hoped the places across the Free Marches had discovered the danger they were in, and that his parents' estate in Ostwick hadn't been targeted. Who he was, what he was, was no fault of theirs. A simple mistake had changed the course of his life; they didn't deserve to be targeted by a Qunari plot just because they'd sired him. He chuckled, drawing the confused looks of Bull, Varric, and Dorian. "I was a mistake," he said in a shaking voice. "My family didn't want a sixth child, let alone a son. And then becoming Inquisitor… that was a mistake too. And now everyone's going to pay because of me."
"Stop." Dorian took him by the shoulders and lightly patted his cheek to make Theo snap out of it. "Look at me. This is not happening because of you. This is happening because the Viddasala's zealotry has gone too far. I've watched you carry many mountains, Amatus. Many that you never had to, but did anyway. I will not let you carry this one as well." He gathered Theo into a tight hug. Theo felt some cooling magic seep through his armor and clothes, and a subtle magic nudge in his brain. "He's burning up," Dorian murmured to Bull and Varric. "Take a deep breath, love. We need to stop this Dragon's Breath."
Theo breathed deep and focused once more. He wiped the sweat out of his eyes and pushed his hair back. He was indeed burning up, the fever his body's reaction to fighting a disease it didn't recognize. All he had to do was keep his mind clear enough to end this. Then he could rest.
They'd barely started to cross the chamber when the door opened and the Viddasala stood before them. "I should have known you'd be too stubborn to stay away," she told him, her eyes flashing angrily.
"I'm too stubborn to even die," Theo snapped at her as he nocked an arrow. "Of course I was coming after you." He drew his bow and let the arrow fly; but his left hand was almost numb with the magic from the mark, and the shot missed. He swore; the mark would take even this from him?
Viddasala smiled. "Hissrad, now is your chance to redeem yourself. Kill them, and rejoin us."
Theo's heart skipped a beat as The Iron Bull looked between Viddasala and him with his one eye.
Bull smiled. "All due respect, ma'am, but not a chance." He hefted his axe in his hands and launched himself at the warriors who had come into the room at the Viddasala's command. Dorian and Varric launched spells and arrows and Theo chased after the Viddasala.
He caught himself on a door frame. "Dorian! Bull! Varric! Get out of here!" he called as the feverish energy built up in his hand again. They must have seen the brightening glow because even Bull kicked away a guard and joined Theo. If this mark was going to do this to him, he was going to take advantage of it. He didn't try to hold back the surge this time. Green flames licked the barrels of gaatlok and only too late did the warriors realize what was about to happen.
Bull yanked Theo out of the way and slammed the door as the first gaatlok barrel exploded. More explosions sounded as they stumbled away from the door. They kept running, crossing battlements and running up another set of stairs to another tower, far away from the burning, crumbling gaatlok storage room. "Bitch," Bull muttered, breathing heavily and staring at the flames rising from the section of the fortress they'd escaped. "Even if I had done what she asked, there was no way in the Void the Qunari would take me back. Once Tal-Vashoth, always Tal-Vashoth." He swore in Qunlat. "She's gone too far."
Another roar shook the stones beneath their feet and the light of bright flames shone through the crack between the double doors before them. "You don't think the Dragon's Breath is actually…" Dorian's voice trailed off as Bull pushed through the doors.
" Ataashi, " Bull breathed, staring in reverence at the immense dragon that had been stuffed into the decidedly not dragon-sized chamber. The room smelled of dragon dung and burning.
Theo's first view of a dragon had been one flying over the deserts of the Western Approach just a few months into his career as the Inquisitor. He'd fought Corypheus's red lyrium dragon, and had killed Hakkon. All three of those dragons had been majestic, legends brought to life. But Ataashi , as Bull had called the dragon, was nothing of the sort. Its wings were slightly tattered. Qunari ropework restrained its jaws so it couldn't open its mouth fully. More ropes dug into its legs, and sores had formed in the scaly skin.
Ataashi was pitiful.
It wheeled around and stared at Theo with its rheumy yellow eyes, smoke curling from its nostrils.
A portcullis let in the night air and prevented the dragon's escape. Theo didn't doubt it could snap its bonds easily, if it only had enough room to move about.
Several soldiers were amassing just outside the portcullis. A low rumbling sounded deep in the dragon's throat and the walls reverberated.
Theo stepped down into the pit, his heart pounding. They'd destroyed the gaatlok, but with a dragon breathing venom it wouldn't be hard for the Viddasala to just make more. She didn't deserve that chance, and Ataashi deserved freedom.
"Theodane, love, far be it from me to question your actions, but are you quite well?" Dorian asked pleasantly, but Theo could hear the strain in his voice. He just nodded and drew closer to the dragon.
Theo pulled his knife from his belt holster and sawed through the ropes around one foreleg. The dragon watched him, that growl sounding again in its chest. When the ropes had snapped Theo stepped back and held up his hands in a gesture of peace. He met those watery yellow eyes and waited. Ataashi nodded, or appeared to, and he did the same to the other forelg, then the hindleg. Even in its current state the dragon could easily kill him, but he had to try.
At last he stood before the dragon and met its gaze. Ataashi lowered its head and gently nudged him with its muzzle. Theo's hands were shaking, but he managed to cut away the ropes binding the massive jaws together. The dragon lifted its head and opened its jaws wide. The roar shook Theo to his very core. His hand sparked and his ears rang, and he realized that the roars he'd heard earlier were nothing compared to this. The Qunari on the other side of the portcullis stopped when they saw the dragon's jaws freed. Ataashi lowered its head and nuzzled Theo's shoulder. He reached out a trembling hand and gently strokes the scaly muzzle. "Would you like out?" He asked, and the dragon nudged him toward the gate controls.
Ataashi lunged toward the opening gate and was almost smiling, the sharp, yellowish teeth glinting in the moonlight. Qunari warriors screamed as the dragon emerged and stormed out into the night, breathing fire and venom. It took off, scooping up a couple guards in its claws and letting them fall back to the battlements with sick thuds. The dragon circled, roaring and letting out one more breath of fire as it swooped by. Theo felt the wind of its wings blow through his sweat-soaked hair, and then it was gone.
Dorian, Iron Bull, and Varric stood behind him and together they stared down the Viddasala, who stood before yet another Eluvian. The mark was pulsing again, burning down through his fingertips and up past his elbow. He pushed his friends back and the energy surged through him once again: an explosion of green light and heat that shot into the sky like a flare. It felt like his bones were dissolving, like his skin could barely hold his arm together.
When the moment passed the Viddasala was still standing there with her guards and her pet Saarebas. "I sought to destroy you, Inquisitor," she said, but her voice was softer. "But I see that, like all dangerous things, when left unchecked you will destroy yourself." Theo wished he could disagree with her. "I also thought you were the enemy, but this journey has shown me differently."
"Who's the real enemy then?" he asked through clenched teeth, trying to breathe through the waves of fire coursing down his arm.
"The agent of Fen'Harel."
"We're not with Fen'Harel. I'm not even an elf!" Theo snapped.
"No, but you worked with him," she told him, and at Theo's blank stare a sad smile spread over her face. "Ah. I see it's a surprise to you. He was with your Inquisition from the start; he practically founded it. He knew what the orb was, because he was the one who gave it to Corypheus. He showed you to Skyhold. He guided you and saved your life once before, because if you had died, he would have failed. He pushed our warrior through the mirror and lured you into this game."
The self-portrait of Fen'Harel: a bald elf with a long, straight nose and slightly clefted chin. Fen'Harel, the dread wolf, the trickster god of the elves. Solas, a bald elf with a straight nose who wore a wolf's jawbone around his neck. Solas, who had tricked him and played him like a pawn.
The most powerful man in Thedas indeed.
His hand glowed brightly and another shock of pain made him drop to his knees. He watched through teary eyes as the Viddasala headed through her Eluvian and disappeared.
Other than the hiss and crackle of his mark the night was quiet. "We stopped the Dragon's Breath," Bull eventually said. "We can go tell-"
"No." Theo got to his feet and dragged himself toward the Eluvian, even though his vision was swimming and the pain in his hand was surging up into his shoulder and down the whole left side of his body by now.
" Amatus-" Theo turned to see his friends and his husband all staring at him, clearly worried. "The Viddasala will take care of Solas," Dorian said. "Please. You need help. Let's go back."
"NO!" Theo shouted. He took a shuddering breath. "No," he said more softly. "The Viddasala doesn't get to kill Solas. I'm killing Solas."
He raised his glowing, burning hand to the Eluvian. The glass rippled and he stepped through without looking back.