A few days earlier
"No!" Dorian yelled, but nothing could be done. Next thing she knew, Siara was opening her eyes to a completely new scene. There was water coming up to about her knees, and a rather large red lyrium crystal next to them with smaller crystals climbing up the walls. She didn't have enough time to think on it, however, as they were essentially immediately attacked by a couple of venatori. They weren't too hard to dispose of, thankfully, even with the hindrance of the water. Siara spun around to face Dorian. He was already putting his staff away, a thoughtful look on his face.
"Displacement… interesting…" Siara raised an eyebrow at him, not saying anything. "It's probably not what Alexius intended. The rift must have moved us… to what? The closest confluence of arcane energy?"
"Well, last I remember we were in the castle hall. Wouldn't be too much to assume that we're still somewhere in the castle, right?"
"If we're still in the castle, it isn't," realisation dawned on his face, a sort of childlike eagerness seeping onto his face. "Of course! It's not simply where, it's when! Alexius used the amulet as a focus, it moved us through time."
"It did what?" Siara held up her hand, showing she didn't want an answer to that. "Okay. Assuming you're right, when in time? Forward or back, and how far? Looking at the red lyrium, I'd be willing to take a guess at forward in time. Then it's just a question of how far."
"We'll have to find out, won't we?"
"I won't even ask how we're supposed to get back."
"I'm sure we'll figure something out. You seem resourceful enough. With your resourcefulness and my brains, I'm sure we'll be fine."
"Oh, so I'm not just stuck with someone I barely know, that someone I barely know seems mildly condescending. Good to know," she threw him a quick, slightly pressed smile, then started searching the venatori that they'd disposed of. The first thing they had to do was get out of this cell. Then they could think on what to do next. So long as they got away from the red lyrium, she'd be happy.
Getting through the castle wasn't too difficult. Dorian and Siara had to fight a fair few venatori, but fewer than what Siara had been thinking they'd have to. It only got easier when they managed to find Blackwall and Solas, and more alarming. They were already being affected by the red lyrium, even if they weren't yet sprouting crystals. It was when they found Fiona that things really started getting interesting. She was stuck in the stuff, already about half engulfed by red lyrium, telling them that they had travelled forward a year. Siara didn't think that one year would be too bad, not too much damage could have been done… and then they got outside.
The tear in the sky had grown, everything around it seeming to go crazy. In places, even gravity seemed to be warped, and in others time was. Fiona had told them that Leliana was somewhere, and she was the main concern. If they could get to Leliana, maybe they could find out more about what had happened. Blackwall and Solas didn't have much information about what was going on in the outside world, they hadn't been out of the castle in that whole year.
Thankfully, they managed to find Leliana reasonably quickly. The thing that got Siara most about seeing her was that she was so… cut off, so short with everyone. And she looked like a walking corpse. But she had the information that they needed. Haven had fallen, been attacked. Jacquelyn had stood up to the man who attacked them, but she had fallen while distracting a dragon long enough for the inhabitants of Haven to escape. Escape hadn't done them much good. One by one they had died off, until only a handful of them remained.
Leliana and Cullen had agreed that trying to get Solas and Blackwall back was the best course of action, or at the very least, trying to get more information out of Alexius. Cassandra had already gone off trying to find help, and Josephine… well. She'd been among the first to fall, killed by a couple of their own people while trying to calm a dispute. Siara listened with a grim expression on her face, tucking all this information away for use at a later date. They needed to get back to their own time. They needed to stop this from happening.
Escape itself was almost as daunting as the being sent forward in time and seeing the chaos. After defeating Alexius, the demon horde that approached them finished off Solas, Blackwall, and, lastly, Leliana. And all Siara could do was watch in horror as it happened, Dorian concentrating on opening the portal. Siara turned to face the cowering Alexius, her eyes colder and harder than they'd ever been. She hated this man, even as she started blocking out most of the memories. That was over. Done with. She never had to deal with it again. She simply had to find a way to prevent it from happening.
"You'll have to do better than that," Dorian smiled at Alexius as he fell to his knees in defeat. Siara scoffed, a small, unkind smile on her face.
"Is that all you've got?" she asked, shaking her head. "I've had more difficulty from the dark spawn."
"You've won," Alexius sounded so… defeated. "There is no point in extending this charade," he turned to his son. "Felix…"
"It's going to be all right, Father."
"You'll die."
"Everyone dies," Siara didn't seem to react, but she respected Felix. This was a truth that everyone should know. And she knew better than most people. It was only a matter of time before she would befall the same fate as Mara, as Jacen. As Felix would soon face. Inquisition troops walked over and guided Alexius away.
"Well," Siara looked at Dorian, who sounded overly cheerful. "Glad that's over with!" she raised an eyebrow at him as the doors opened, many more soldiers marching through the doors neatly and lining the walls. "Or not…"
A couple of people walked in. Siara recognised them immediately. King Alistair and Queen Anora.
"Grand Enchanter," Alistair said, addressing Fiona directly. "We'd like to discuss your abuse of our hospitality."
Fiona hesitantly stepped forward.
"Your majesties," she said, bowing her head.
"When we offered the mages sanctuary, we did not give them the right to drive people from their homes," Anora sounded pissed. Siara raised an eyebrow.
"King Alistair, Queen Anora, I assure you, we never intended –"
"In light of your actions, good intentions are no longer enough!"
"You and your followers have worn out your welcome," Alistair stepped forward. "Leave Ferelden, or we'll be forced to make you."
"But, where will we go?"
"You'll come with us," Siara stepped forward, stopping beside Fiona and glaring at the king and queen. "The few of you that remain aren't any trouble, and the Inquisition can give you a place to stay."
Alistair blinked a couple of times.
"M… Mara?"
There was disbelief written all over his face. If Siara hadn't been pissed off before, she certainly was now. She drew one of her blades before anyone could stop her, grabbing Alistair by the collar of is shirt and forcing him back against a pillar, pressing the edge of the golden blade against his neck. The soldiers all stepped forward, pointing their swords at Siara. Alistair raised his hand to show them to stay back, looking Siara right in the eye.
"Why did you say that name?" she demanded through clenched teeth.
"It was my mistake," he told her, "but for a moment, you reminded me of someone I used to know."
"You can't have known her. I don't know you, and she died before she could have met you, Grey Warden."
Alistair shook his head, almost sadly.
"No," he said, "she didn't."
Confusion swept over Siara.
"Yes, she did. I watched her die."
"She survived. A Warden named Duncan found her and took her back to Ostagar, had her healed. She became a Warden herself. The Warden."
She felt cold. The blade was lowered, everything suddenly seeming too loud. The sound of horses outside, the quiet movement of armour, her own breath and heartbeat. She shook her head.
"That's impossible," she muttered. "I watched her die. She would have… I would have known if she'd survived, she wouldn't have just left me."
Her eyes flicked back to Alistair's face, confusion replacing the anger. He looked at her with that same sorrow.
"Mara was a good woman," he said. "Gave so much more than she should have had to."
Siara shook her head again.
"No."
She couldn't believe it. She wouldn't. This was too much. Too much too soon. Mara being the Hero of Ferelden was too ridiculous. Mara was a blood mage, Maker damnit all. Alistair wouldn't be acting like this if Siara's sister was the Mara he knew. He couldn't be acting like this. Not with his background as a templar trainee.
"No," she repeated, "it has to be a different Mara. It… it has to be."
"It's not. She talked about you and Jacen a lot. It killed her that she couldn't reach out to you," Alistair pushed away from the pillar, Siara taking a step away from him. "I loved your sister. I know that the only reason she –"
"Enough!" Siara snapped. "Just shut up. I'm done listening to this," she whirled around and faced Fiona. "Get together the mages that are left. You'll be a guest of the Inquisition, and if they refuse to treat you as such, then they'll have me to deal with. We're out of here as soon as you're ready."
Solas kept a close eye on Siara. She didn't say anything as they set off, pointedly ignoring any attempts Alistair made to talk with her. But she refused to show any sign of weakness, kept everything bundled tight within her. And he could see that it would burst eventually, everything would spill to the surface. And the mercenary would have a hard time dealing with it. He also knew that she would be too stubborn to ask for help. But he could do nothing to help with that. She wouldn't accept any offered help, either. Not yet. For now, he had a question.
He spurred his horse closer to hers, Blackwall and Dorian helping the handful of mages that were left after everything Alexius had done.
"Siara," he said, getting a grunt in reply, "you never mentioned that you are Dalish."
"That's because I'm not."
"Yet you speak the language. When you said your name, Namasiara Ar tu na'din, though I am certain that is not your real name."
Siara shrugged.
"The Namasiara part is," she admitted. "Ar tu na'din… definitely not. It's Adahlen."
"Which is still a Dalish name."
"I left them when I was a child. Temporarily went back when I was around eighteen for a job. The idiots tried to give me vallaslin. I was not impressed."
"I am curious," Solas started, not entirely certain what sort of reaction he would get from the question he was about to ask. "Why did you leave your clan?"
"Because of Mara," she spurred her horse ahead, a clear indication that she was done talking. Solas respected her wishes, falling back, a small frown on his face. Siara was becoming more and more interesting by the day, it seemed. Dorian and Blackwall glanced over to him, questioning why Siara had gone on so far ahead. Solas merely shook his head. Siara needed time on her own, something that she was unlikely to get to the full extent that she needed it until they got back to Haven.