The winds were stronger than even I anticipated. They barrelled into us, rolling over the mountains like great white curtains. And the cold! My skin felt as though it had been shaved away and left raw. I hated this cold. With every step, the ice sank deeper into my chest and all I could think of was that icy cage of my childhood. The frost on the bars, the cold dry air burning with every breath... The howling wind almost sounded like the desperate cries of my mother as they hailed her away... We needed to find shelter or we wouldn't last the night.
At least I could take a small satisfaction in being right: Trevelyan and I would most certainly meet our ends in this storm. I would not say I told you so, however, not when she looked so bloody determined, marching against the walls of wind and snow as she did. She looked frightfully small with her shoulders hunched and arms wrapped under each other as she walked. Her feet sank down into the continuous new snow on the mountain side which shortened her height even further. But still she continued, heaving each leg in front of the other and continuing Northwards. My hands stung me then, the cold biting away all their sensation. I was exhausted, almost so exhausted that I could barely summon enough power to send some warmth to my hands. They tingled gently when I focused long enough however and I sighed in relief against the winds.
A tumble of movement drew my eyes in front of me where the crumpled form of The Herald lay in a heap in the snow, small white flecks gathering quickly on her cloak.
"Evelyn!" I cried, hardly able to hear my own voice in the storm.
I cantered over to where she fell, rolling her over in my arms and cradling her. Her eyes were shut, her rosy cheeks were almost blue and her nose was crusted with ice. I called her again, shook her too, as white hot panic surged up my spine.
"Evelyn, please! Wake up! You must wake up!" I demanded, shaking her shoulders even more violently, "Shit, shit, shit!" I looked around but all I could see was the dark grey white of the storm. The was no shape, no feel of any land below my feet or sky above me. Just the white abyss that circled in violent gusts around me. I pulled her closer to my chest, straining my eyes desperately to find a tree, a rock- any semblance of shelter! There was none and my panic gave way to an emptiness. A heavy acceptance that this was it. This was the end. I pulled her freezing face into the crook of my neck and rocked her stiff body back and forth.
"You're going to be alright, dhalen. I promise." I whispered, repeating it over and over as I shut my eyes and built my focus. I needed heat, and the only sure fire way for me to create that was to focus on my anger.
I shut my eyes tight, so tight that I saw green and purple patterns but I had to look past them, into the dark black abyss in my mind. I steadied my breathing, long deep breaths no matter how much the cold air burned my lungs. I said the words in my mind and the pictures came easily.
Cold, dead faces, marred by blood and ash. The inn keep, the alchemist, all people I had seen, people that I might have known. Dead and butchered in their own village. They had been alive moments before.
The Tevene serving girl, her fearful eyes and her screaming. Strangled words in a language I didn't understand muddied by blood.
And then Friedrich... My friend from Wycome. The ripping of his flesh as the demons claw came down on his back.
The faces of everyone I had ever lost came flooding back to me. The pain, the loss, the anger filled me up until I burned. I shut my eyes tight as the tears rolled down my cheeks, burning in hot white rivulets that threatened to scar. I had to focus on that pain, bring it altogether into an energy that might save the Herald. I felt it flood down my arms and into my hands, the warmth of a fire. I hoped it would help her, hoped she might feel it, if only to let her know that I was here. She was not alone.
"And you never will be." I whispered into her frozen hair. "I promise you now, Evelyn, you'll never be alone." The words were but whispers, barely carrying over the remaining howls of wind.
Her brow furrowed and she mumbled and I laughed in relief. She was still here, still breathing. Gods, but she was a fighter.
I focussed the energy harder now, let it flow out of me and into her. But as I did the world grew darker and colder. So cold...
"I'm here, Evelyn. I always will be. I'll keep you safe." I sighed. I couldn't even hear the words myself but I said them regardless. She wouldn't here them either, but I had to say them. I had to convince myself that I would save her. The grey world around me ebbed in and out of darkness, each blink threatening to be my last.
As I held her tighter and willed myself to stay awake, a strange sound carried across the stormy winds. It was eerie and long and it took me only a moment to recognise the forlorn sound. Wolves. With all the energy remaining to me, I stood up, carefully laying the Herald back on the snow. The winds were dying now, only coming in short gusts and the snow falling softer. As the grey of the storm cleared it wasn't long before I could make out the black figures padding towards us.
The encircled us, taking one carefully laid footprint at a time. I counted six but there was bound to be more, wolves didn't normally hunt in so small a number. I held my breath and felt my fingers twitch with nerves. The closer they drew, the more animated they became. They bared their teeth and snarled, Shook their heckles as they readied themselves for the kill. They must have been tracking us for hours, waiting for us to tire so we'd be easy prey.
"Fenedhis." I spat and reached for my bow. I had come this far, I had just faced down an avalanche. I wasn't about to be conquered by a few dogs. At my movement they barked and growled even more some even crouching back on their hind legs, ready to pounce, but they made no move. Were they taunting me?
"Come on then you mangy mutts! Lets get it over with!" I shouted, knocking an arrow and letting it fly at the one directly in front. It pierced his head and he fell limp. The rest, however, took this as their queue to begin the attack. They fell upon me at once, but as they bounded towards me I was able to take out two more in quick succession. That left only three who now circled me again. My neck shifted left to right in jarring movements following their pacing. My eyes flashed down at the unconscious herald at my side, but that's all they needed: a moment to strike. They barrelled at me again, and with all the power I had I sent out a force of magic. It sent the two closest to me sliding a few feet back into the snow. But the third came up between them as they dazedly clambered back to their feet. He leaped upon me with a frightening speed and sank his inch long teeth into my forearm, which I had raised in a feeble attempt to protect myself. I screamed out in pain as I felt the teeth tear through bone and sinew. He shook his head violently, dragging me to the ground and for the flash of a moment I thought about letting go. Let the bloody thing maul me. The effort to stay alive in that fleeting moment seemed all too much. Then my eyes fell upon Evelyn. If I die she'd die too, and the other two wolves were sniffing a little too close at her crumpled form for comfort.
"NO!" I yelled, heat and lightening surging up from my chest and coursing into the wolf who had me pinned. It shuddered with shock and fell with a pathetic whimper. It drew the attention of the others and soon enough they were back on me, ripping and clawing at my cloak. Hot blood poured from my left arm, so much I thought I could smell it. It was a hazy, powerful aroma that sent white hot images through my head. They were clear as day, the clearest yet. As though this world was the dream and they were not.
"Dear girl, it is only another source of power, nothing to be feared. Give me your hand, this may save your life one day." It was the tall silver haired elf with yellow eyes who spoke to me. We sat in a glade decorated with fine silver arches and seats. It was bright and fresh and alive with magic. Solid gold vines entwined themselves up the nearest trees and I remember thinking they were rather pretty. As the thought appeared in my mind, the vines appeared as fine bracelets on my wrists. The woman smirked and arched a brow.
"Idle tricks will not help you in the middle of a battlefield, Nevalla. I told your mother I'd have you trained and trained you shall be."
I gulped and looked up at her and felt my palms grow sweaty. She held out her long elegant hand with a flourish and waited. My eyes glanced down to the knife in her other hand and I swallowed again. Finally without another word, I gave her my hand. She smiled in satisfaction and in one swift movement had slashed my wrist. I gasped out in pain.
"My lady!" I cried, "You've killed me!"
The woman through her head back in a loud and long laugh, "A flare for the dramatics. Just like your father." The last part was said with a sneer. "Use the power in your veins, girl. Heal yourself. There is nothing more powerful than that which gives you life."
And as though they had never appeared in the first place, again, the memories were gone. Vivid agony replaced them. Not only from my arm but now my leg, as the second wolf sank its jaws into my shin so viciously that I felt the bone crack in two. I screamed and with a surge of mindless adrenaline, slammed my bow down on the wolf's head. It snapped like a twig and only caused the wolf to whimper and stumble back a few paces. The other came at me now, bounded up silently so I did not expect it and had me pinned on my back before I could think. I tried to struggle free but he ripped at my face with his teeth. What I felt then was white hot pain. It buzzed through me and all of my sight turned red. Red with blood. I could smell its power whispering to me. There is nothing more powerful than that which gives you life.
The world stalled then for a moment, slowed to an almost impossible speed. The wolf lifted its head and readied itself for another attack, but all I could feel was the pain and the blood and, Oh, the power... It whispered to me, long and ancient spells that threatened the sundering of the world. I only needed to take out two wolves but world sundering would do nicely at this point. I shut my eyes and let the blood swirl around me, let the power in it surge and surge until it threatened to explode! And then... Thud.
It felt like a thunder strike to my soul when that power released itself. It was violent and free but I had never felt such control over my magic. Before I knew it I was standing, being held up by the force of it. The blood from my wounds encircled the wolves and coursed through them, leaving them shrivelled carcasses of what they had just been.
And then it was done. The power faded, and the pain returned. I collapsed with a cry into the cold snow. My breathing came out in bubbling sighs and my sight was fogged and red. I cried out, fear encompassing me as the unknown of death crawled in around me. The herald still lay beside me, her face almost blue. I tried to call to her but my voice was broken and wet with tears and blood. It couldn't end for her like this. They had to know she was still out here, surely they'd be looking for her.
"Come on!" I told myself through gritted teeth, "One... One last hurrah... Please."
With a long scream I hauled myself to my feet and focused one final time on the fire within me. I pointed my one good arm high into the sky and whispered to myself to do it. It would surely drain me of all I had left... But Evelyn had to go on, even if I could not. With every ounce of strength I had I willed a ball of fire into the night sky. As the heat left me, so did everything else. I fell back into the snow, the pain not even reaching me now. I stared at the night sky, watching as my fireball exploded and cast the cold mountainside in a warm light. It was a comforting thought. Not even Cullen could have missed that.
With my life spent and efforts spent, I contented myself to watch the night sky as it drifted over head. The bright lights peppered across it eventually grew dim however, as darkness encompassed me. I could do nothing to halt it and truly, there was nothing left in me that wanted to.