Jacquelyn made the decision that they would stop off at Crestwood on their way to Adamant. The situation there wasn't improving, and the rift in the lake needed to be dealt with, and she was the only person able to solve their problem. They stopped off at the mayor's house to gather what information they could about the rift in the lake and how they could reach it. The mayor was standing near his fireplace, turning to greet them as they entered. Once he had appropriately welcomed them, he turned to Jacquelyn.
"Your Worship, is there any way to stop the dead from rising?" the mayor asked, an earnest look on his face. Siara was leaning against a wall towards the back of his cabin, Anders standing next to her. He hadn't said much at all during their journey here, and a lot of his spare time had been spent with his nose in a book, and when he wasn't reading he was debating something with Solas. Jacquelyn didn't know what, and every time she had started to show the smallest bit of interest, the two of them had suddenly fallen quiet or changed topics.
Bull and Solas were staying near them off to the side, but not as far away from where Jacquelyn and the mayor were having their conversation.
"I believe that the dead are appearing because of a rift in the Fade that has appeared in the middle of the lake," Jacquelyn told the mayor. "Do you know how I can reach it?"
"The light in the lake? It's coming from the caves beneath Old Crestwood. Darkspawn flooded it ten years ago during the Blight. It wiped out the village, killing the refugees we took in."
Jacquelyn saw Siara raise an eyebrow slightly at that. She didn't know why, and opted to ask Siara about it after they were done talking with the mayor.
"We saw a dam on the way over here," Jacquelyn said. "If we use it to drain the lake, I can get to that Fade rift."
"Drain the - there must be some other way!"
Now both Siara's eyebrows were raised, and Jacquelyn couldn't help but agree. There was something strange here. If draining the lake was going to help the inhabitants of Crestwood, then why would the mayor be objecting so strongly to the idea?
"There's not," Bull told him, his voice flat and almost deadpan. "There's really not."
"You'd have to evict the bandits in the old fort to use the dam. I can't ask you to risk your life."
"You'd rather risk your peoples' lives?" Siara asked, folding her arms and tilting her head to the side slightly. Jacquelyn almost wished she hadn't opened her mouth, but she agreed with the Blade.
"We have fought worse than bandits and the undead," Jacquelyn assured him. "We will be fine."
"Then…" he sighed, almost looking defeated. "Then I have no choice. This key unlocks the gate to the dam controls past the fort. The Rift must be in the caves under Old Crestwood. But Inquisitor… I would not linger there."
"Thank you," Jacquelyn said, accepting the key. "We will head off right away. Time is of the essence."
She smiled reassuringly to the mayor, then motioned for everyone else to follow her. She noticed Siara shooting the mayor one last look before she followed. When they were a bit further away Jacquelyn turned to Siara.
"Is everything all right?" she asked. Siara shrugged.
"Something feels fishy about him, that's all."
"I agree," Solas added. "It's strange that he would be so reluctant to accept help when his people are facing such a threat."
"Something's definitely off," Bull added.
"Well, without any evidence of something definitively being wrong, we cannot do anything about him," Jacquelyn told them. "We simply have to do what we came here to do and see what we find."
"I suspect we'll find something," Siara muttered. Jacquelyn frowned, but nodded in agreement. The mayor was definitely acting off about something, and it seemed to be related to Old Crestwood.
The group just stood and looked at the keep for a moment while working out their next move. The gate was open, and there didn't seem to be any patrols in the area. Bull had suggested they could rush it, but Jacquelyn wasn't so sure. They were a strong team, but that didn't mean that they could take a fort just the five of them by rushing it. Instead she turned to Siara.
"Do you think you could get in there and thin their numbers?" she asked.
Siara raised an eyebrow.
"On my own? That's almost more risky than just rushing them."
"Take someone with you."
Siara still didn't seem too convinced, but she turned to Anders anyway.
"Come on, then," she said, and started walking off.
"Uh…" Anders glanced at Jacquelyn's unimpressed look. "Wouldn't you rather take someone else?" he asked. Siara stopped and turned back to him.
"It'll be like old times," she assured him. "Besides, Bull would just attract too much attention. Jacquelyn should stay back a bit because she's the only one able to close the rift, and I haven't worked with Solas in the field enough to know how capable he is in this sort of situation. No offence, Solas."
"None taken."
"If either of you even think of - "
"Relax, Jacquelyn. What do you think we'd do? We're just going to go and risk our necks scaling the wall or something so you guys have an easier time getting in. When you start hearing a commotion, barge on in," Siara motioned for Anders to hurry up. "Let's get a move on."
Jacquelyn watched them for a moment as they headed off to find a suitable place to break into the fort. She hoped she had made the right call, but also knew that a head on attack would have been difficult. Hopefully this would make things safer.
Siara led Anders around the side of the fort, past a noose, and looked up at the fort. She couldn't see any bandits at the top, and the wall seemed reasonably scalable, so she turned to Anders.
"Think it'll do?"
"You know I'm not the best at climbing," he muttered. Siara half shrugged and looked back at the noose, walking over and picking up a coil of rope that had been conveniently left there. She turned back to Anders and showed it to him, smiling smugly.
"Now you have some help," she told him, stepping forward again. She looped the rope around her shoulder, looking up at the wall, inspecting it for the best hand- and footholds.
"You going to be all right?" Anders asked, also looking up at the wall. "It's not exactly a short climb."
"Please, Jacen and I have scaled far worse than this," Siara replied, beginning her climb. "Besides, I have a mage to do a little bit of magic if I do fall, so I'll be fine."
"You assume I can cast a spell that quickly."
"Please, you can cast a spell to slow my fall easily. Mara used to do it all the time when we were kids falling out of trees. Saved me a lot of broken bones."
Anders shook his head, smiling slightly. He somehow wasn't surprised.
It didn't take Siara too long to reach the top of the wall. She quickly glanced both ways before, checking the coast was clear before she hauled herself onto the top, turning and throwing the rope down and tying the other end around a merlon before motioning for Anders to begin his climb. Though he didn't enjoy a second of it, it didn't take Anders too long to join her on the battlements of the fort.
"So now what's the plan?" he asked
"Now we start causing trouble for the bandits."
"Well," Anders said as they started to find their way into the building, "I know one way that could cause a lot of trouble."
"I'm all ears."
"You could practice your magic."
Siara stopped, turning and looking at Anders as though he had grown a second head.
"Are you mad?" she asked. "I don't even know how. So far it's been accidental. And what if someone sees? You're being an idiot."
"No one is going to see," Anders assured her, "and even if they saw some ice blasting, they'd assume it was me. If something goes wrong, I'm here to help, and it's not like friendly fire is much of a risk while the others are still outside the fort. It's a good opportunity for you to work out the basics."
"Oh yeah, working out the basics of magic in the middle of a battlefield is a great idea."
"It doesn't matter if you hurt someone or knock a wall down."
"You think there's a risk of me knocking a wall down?" Siara looked almost horrified at the thought. Anders just shrugged.
"Learning to control magic is chaotic at the best of times," he admitted. "Most mages are showing their abilities around puberty. They're still children when they start learning to control their magic, and sometimes their magic manifests rather spectacularly. I set a barn on fire, and you're definitely a bit older than I was when I started displaying magical abilities."
"You set a barn on fire?"
"It's a long story."
"Not my point. You set a barn on fire and you want me to start trying to blast people here and now?"
"Better here than at Skyhold. And the sooner you start learning to control your powers, the sooner it's safer for everyone."
Siara sighed, turning and facing the door in front of them.
"I hate it when you're right," she muttered, then proceeded to kick the door open. Inside stood three men, all with rather nasty looking weapons. They all spun around at the sound of the door banging open, taking a moment to register that they had been invaded before drawing their weapons.
"So, I probably should have asked this before barging in," Siara turned to Anders, "but what exactly am I supposed to do?" she asked as the bandits started towards them.
"Look inside yourself for the source of your magic."
"And how does one do that?"
"It shouldn't be too hard," Anders assured her. "It's sort of an innate ability. It's something you just know."
"Well, I don't know," Siara was starting to get annoyed, "and those bandits are getting dangerously close."
"You should be able to feel something inside you. Think about what you felt when you killed that man."
"I felt scared for my life!" Siara snapped. "I didn't feel any sort of buzzing magic thing, Anders, I was too distracted trying to stop myself from being killed. If we wait too much longer, then that's just going to repeat itself!" she motioned to the bandits, who seemed a bit confused. "There are three heavily armed bandits not that far from our location, Anders, and I don't have any -"
At that moment, a ball of fire shot out of the hand that Siara had extended towards the bandits. They screamed in pain, running around, throwing themselves on the floor or out the door, flailing in their attempts to put out the flames. Siara just stood there in shock for a moment, then looked at her hand, then back at the bandits.
"Well," Anders said, rather conversationally, "looks like it's not just ice."