By the time my eyes came back to focus and my head stopped spinning from the dizzying drop, I was only able to hear the final rumbles as the avalanche finally settled over our heads. The cave we now found ourselves in was cold, dark and unwelcoming. Its walls shimmered with a thin sheet of ice that let the echoes of a small drip twitter through out the cavern. It was a lonely sound, made even worse by the slumped over body of the Herald beside me. Her eyes were shut and her bleeding brow furrowed but she was breathing at least.
"Evelyn," I shook her, "Evelyn wake up." She only groaned in response. I swallowed down my rush of panic and ignored the empty feeling in my stomach. I would not let her fall here, I had set out to protect her and by Elganarn's wrath, she would be protected. My eyes scanned the cave again, my ears listened too. The little light and the near deafening silence of them told me they were deep underground, too deep and too unknown to rest in. I couldn't risk staying here the night and wake up to an icicle for a Herald. I had to get her moving.
"Well," I sighed rolling my neck in preparation, "No rest for the wicked." I said, heaving her up with all my might so that her body draped over me like a heavy, lumpy, herald shaped cloak. "No, you just sleep there, Evelyn, I'm grand. No, don't be silly you don't need to walk! I'll carry you all the way to fucking Tevinter if you like." my caustic words coming out in rushed puffs of steam. My frustrations and efforts echoed over the cave as I dragged her slumped body through their shadows. There was something immeasurably undignified about this. She needed to wake up, I couldn't let her continue on like this, what if something attacked us? I shuddered with the cold and the fear. It was all too silent and an eerie feeling crept into my bones.
"Come on Trevelyan, wake up." I hissed, still dragging her like a sack of potatoes through the caves. I'd given up hope that I might wake her now but I spoke to her nonetheless, if only for someone to talk to. To stave off the lonely silence. "I need you fighting fit if we ever hope to get out of here. What would Cassandra say if she saw you sleeping on the job? You can't afford to sleep and as I said no rest for the wicked... Or in your case, no rest for the infuriatingly kind and well meaning. Come on Evelyn, I know you're there. What will I do if I've unwittingly landed us in a wolf den or a bear cave? Or even worse, what if this is a nest for giant spiders! Gods, I do hate spiders. They've got too many legs. Mythal's tits, I don't know what I'll do if this a spider's nest. Suppose I could use you as a human shield, that seems the only real use for you in this state."I saw her twitch and groan quietly when I said that and I know it shouldn't have made me smile, but I was just relieved that she was somewhat conscious.
"That was a joke," I reassured her, "And I do suppose that there are things out there worse than dragging your unconscious friend through a nest of spiders. Never thought I'd say that, sounds like a bad end to a night out." I chuckled to myself, letting the sound of meagre joy bring a little warmth to this icy tomb. But as it's echo subsided and I rounded the next corner, the dull blue light of the caves was interrupted by an eerie flash of green. I stopped dead as I immediately felt that violent tug from the fade. The air around me crackled, The Herald's mark sparked to life and suddenly she was awake. She sprung away from me with a heaving gasp and looked around with frightened eyes.
"There's a rift ahead." She whispered, her tone steady but her words still quivered.
I laid a hand on her shoulder, "And we shall deal with it as we have done with all the others." I said firmly and the fear in her eyes flickered away to that strength that I knew. She wiped the blood from her eye, squared her shoulders and nodded, stopping only briefly to whisper, "Let's try to avoid any 'human shield' situations, Lavellan, if we can."
I smiled at her and followed on as we ran out to face the rift, just us two. I will not lie it was difficult. The demons used the cold around them to their advantage, firing long arms of ice towards us. It sank into my skin and clung to me, seeping its way towards chest. The hooded demons were trying but they were not many and the fighting was over in what seemed like a moment. For some reason, however, the Herald's mark was unpredictable and sporadic. When the demons had fallen and she tried to close it, she jumped back from the shock of power that beamed out from the mark. But she focused hard on it and finally closed it shut. When it was sealed, the remainder of it's magic felt more... Secure. Like it had been welded shut not just sewn. This rift from the fade had well and truly been cut off to this world and I couldn't help the distance I felt in my soul. It made me shiver.
"Shall we continue?" was all Trevelyan said. Her voice tight and her attempt at a smile tighter. I took a step towards her and wiped the blood away from her brow. The cut was deep and she flinched when I touched her, but her smile relaxed and settled into something endlessly sad. Tears welled in her eyes and it was all I could do to encompass her in a hug.
"Oh Evelyn..." I whispered, holding her tighter as her small body shuddered with silent tears. "It's alright, everything is alright." I whispered, kissing her auburn head.
"I'm frightened Nevalla... I want to go home..." she wept and her words broke my heart. What could I offer in comfort? We stood at the precipice of the end, the edge of a knife. One breeze this way or that and we would fall, we all would fall. That weight sat on her shoulders everyday since she awoke in that tumbledown village. She was so strong and kind that I forgot sometimes she was just a girl, and the weight of the world might certainly threaten to crush her.
"I know." I whispered, pulling her back to look at her. "We all wish that we were home, sound in our beds with nothing but the next day on the horizon. But what has happened has happened and nothing we can do will change the past or make it otherwise. But we will go on, as we always have. Life is a stubborn thing, goodness is a stubborn thing. In all the darkest of times, light always finds a way. Take comfort in that, Evelyn. Life finds a way." I tried smiling to her and she returned it, meekly, but it was a start. she stood back from me and sighed, wiping the blood and tears from her face. When she brought her hands away and opened her bright hazel eyes, she was strong again. More sure, more The Herald of Andraste.
"Thank you, Nevalla." she whispered. She said nothing more as she looked sternly down the long throat of the cave ahead. With a firm nod she took a step forward and continued on, myself following ever faithfully behind her. She needed me here, I like to think. As we walked together in silence, I like to think that my presence at her back brought her comfort. Just as hers brought comfort to me. I trusted her. I had to put my faith in her fully and she had yet to make me question it. I didn't think she ever would. She was a good person, that was in short supply in these times. I knew then that someday she would be a great leader.
We were making our way through the caves easily enough, we didn't run into anything too taxing but soon, light appeared at the end and the howling of wind. By the time we reached the mouth it was clear enough that there was a blizzard outside and it roared across the mountains. Evelyn stopped and dared poke her head out only to leap back inside taking deep gasps of air, flakes of snow coating her eyebrows and hair.
"It's too much we must stay here until it subsides." I told her, taking a step back in and setting my bow against the wall.
She shook her head however. "We can't, if we don't go now we'll lose all hope of finding the Inquisition."
I frowned and pointed to the howling sheets of snow beyond us. "Evelyn we can't possibly hope to track the Inquisition in those winds. It'll kill us. We can afford to wait until morning."
"No we can't. It's like you said Evelyn, the Inquisition needs me. And what makes you think we are safe in these caves?" She said, raising her voice to try and match the storm outside.
"You think we'll be any safer in that?!" I shouted now, the storm becoming ever fiercer.
"We can't sit here and hope we survive til morning." she retorted, pulling her cloak tight around her body and making to leave the cave. I jumped towards her and grabbed a hold of her arm.
"Evelyn if we go out in that storm we'll die, it's freezing."
"Either freeze here or freeze out there. At least if we freeze out there we will have died trying!" she shouted, shrugging me off.
"Do you have any idea what you're walking into?" I called after her and she stopped. "Are you willing to let the cold seep into every fibre of your being until it feels like you've known nothing else? Are you willing to feel so weak that you can no longer shiver to keep the cold out. Are you willing to let the ice form on your toes and fingers until they fall off? Will you let it sit in your chest like an iceberg, waiting for it to smother you. That's what awaits you in that storm."
She turned to me and shook her head, something akin to disappointment in her eyes, "Nevalla, we have to try." and without another word she ventured out of the cave and into the storm. Her small cloaked form disappearing in the endless waves of snow and wind. It didn't take me long after that to quickly follow her. It was a foolish decision, but she had made it. Just like before I would be there to make sure she saw an end to her foolish decisions.