***No further chapters until I start getting some reviews.***

Playlist:

Imagine Dragons - Believer

Portugal. The Man - Feel It Still

Pharrell Williams - Runnin'

Rihanna - As Real As You And Me

The Black Keys - Gold On The Ceiling

Fall Out Boy - Centuries

Sheppard - Geronimo

Chapter Six:

My brilliant alcohol addled brain still somehow managed to remember to drink some water before I went to bed the night before. The morning hangover headache was barely a blip on my radar as I got up out of bed. We were supposed to be leaving close to eight bells - eight am - when it was warm enough to travel.

I went through my morning stretches, used the water basin to wash up and pulled on my thermals once more. Armor was next, followed by the coat. I used some more water to comb out my hair. The oil slick colors were still there, though they were fading slowly back into blonde. The stylist was right, demi-permanent colors were the right way to go if I wanted to fade out slowly. Damn, I really wanted the dry shampoo I packed. Wit a sigh, I put my shoulder length hair into a short french braid and bound it with the single hair tie that came through with me.

Wishing my toothpaste and pack of toothbrushes came with me, I set cleaning my teeth with the paintbrush like brush on the side of the water basin.

The world was quiet outside when I left my cabin, the winds whipped unpleasantly, snapping icy cold at my hands and exposed face. I grunted, huddling down into my coat, wrapping my arms around myself and shuffling off toward the tavern to obtain some breakfast. There were already a handful of Inquisition soldiers in there, sitting quietly eating a meal, or talking with a friend. These must have been the night watch coming off duty.

Several of them looked up, then stood up, fists over their hearts when they saw me.

I nodded at them, "Good morning." When the didn't sit down I realized I had to dismiss them. What did someone in charge say? I tried to recall what I'd seen in movies. "At ease." They all went back to their meals.

"Porridge herald?" The server asked.

"Do we happen to have cinnamon and some kind of nuts?"

"Walnuts and some almonds. As for cinnamon, no, but nutmeg with a little sugar seems to work for my son."

"Sounds good. And milk, please."

"Of course herald," the server went off to obtain my meal and I rubbed my forehead. Should have ordered more water. I took a seat at the back by the windows, a few feet from the fireplace. Every single one of the men seemed to be aware of my presence. When my meal came I gobbled it down quickly and left. No point in disturbing their down time.

One last thing to do. Going right out of the tavern, down the steps and began heading toward the abandoned cabin. I went around the boulder and down the snow-covered path. Thin, almost imperceptive tendrils of smoke curled out of the chimney. I stopped. Did someone decide to move in? Doing my best to sneak, I am a warrior after all not a rogue, I eased myself close to a window and peeked around a corner.

Holy shit.

Emma sat crunched up, face pinched pink with cold, warming herself at a meager fire and snacking on a meal bar. I went to the door and knocked.

"Who," her voice croaked, "who's there?"

"This isn't the alchemist that I told you to go to."

The door practically flew open and Emma, in layers of winter clothing, threw herself at me. "Ellie!" She sniffled a bit and her eyes were red-rimmed when she pulled back, but there weren't any tears. "I thought, I thought maybe you died."

"Me, die? Pfft." I walked in and found she'd spread out pretty much everywhere on the floor with the sleeping bags and the food. All four of our bags were lined up against the wall. "Well, you made yourself at home."

"And what do you mean by this isn't the right cabin? You said the alchemist's place."

"I said Adan's place, next to Solas' cabin."

She frowned at me. "Oh."

"Yeah." I went over to the desk in the second room by the bed and searched for the letter. "What if I hadn't decided to pick up these notes for Adan? You'd freeze to death out here."

"I've been okay," she protested, toeing the tip of one sleeping bag. "If you layer one like a blanket, you can stay pretty warm."

"I'll keep that in mind. Let's wrap this stuff up and move you to my cabin, huh?"

"Your cabin?" She asked.

I held up my left hand and opened my palm up to her. "Yeah, my cabin. The Herald's cabin."

Her jaw dropped and for a moment she was completely shocked. Then Emma rushed forward and grabbed my hand, examining it. "This is nuts," she whispered. Her thumbs pushed into my palm around the mark, gently maneuvering the skin. "It's like a tear, but it isn't bleeding." She pulled the area around the mark apart then pushed the edges back together. "Does it hurt?"

"Not anymore."

Emma looked up at me. "But it did?"

"Like it wanted to give me a heart attack and rip my arm off at the same time."

She grimaced. "Oh god, that must have sucked."

"Like a Dyson. Let's get you packed up. I'm supposed to be leaving for the Hinterlands in an hour or so."

She looked excited. "Can I come?"

"How about we just get you settled first? You've been in this drafty old hut for what? Four days?"

"Three," she corrected. Emma had already begun grabbing her garbage off the floor. "It took me another day to figure out what you'd done. I had to sit there forever holding your stuff and mine and trying to figure it out. Right before I felt like I was falling - thanks for the warning by the way - I had this thought about having a real conversation with someone like Hawke and boom, migraine."

I knelt down and began to fold and roll her sleeping bag. "Hits you like a Mack truck doing ninety on a freeway."

"I woke out there," she pointed at the back wall of the cabin. "Near the boulder. I figured this was the place to wait, so I waited."

She stuffed the garbage into a small plastic bag and shoved it into one of the bags. Then she began stamping out the fire with one foot.

"You're not going to put the fire out like that." I looked around, found an empty plate or bowl and went out to gather some snow. I came back in with the plate and dumped it on the fire. The low flames fizzled out. We gathered up the rest of the stuff, I double checked I had the right notes and I took two of the bags from her.

By the stables, men and women were preparing four horses for travel overseen by Cassandra.

Next to me Emma stared. "Is that…?"

"Lady Cassandra Pentaghast."

"She looks intense," Emma whispered.

"She is intense, but I like her. She drank me under the table last night. It was epic." I told her in a low voice. "Left up here, very last cabin."

Varric was at my door when we arrive, knocking and talking to the empty cabin. "Ellie, come on before the Seeker decides to-"

"Barge in and drag me out of bed?" I supplied from behind him.

He turned and his eyes went straight to Emma. He broke out his charming smile, the one he used on all the pretty women that he'd flirt with but never actually do anything about. "Who is this?"

"Emma," I told him and pushed past him to get inside my cabin. "She's from back home. Be nice to her or I'll break your trigger finger."

"Me?" He huffed in feigned indignation, "I am always nice."

"Lies." I tossed my bags on the floor by the bed. "We're going to be gone the better part of two weeks Em. If you're up to it, ask Cullen or Josephine if there's room for you. I'll leave word with them. Otherwise, feel free to sleep in the bed. I'd use the sleeping bag on top, straw mattresses aren't the best."

"Are you sure I can't just come with you?" She asked.

"Your accent," Varric observed, "sounds a lot like Elyria's."

"It should," Emma told him.

"So when you say home," Varric glanced at me, "You don't mean here." By here I assumed he meant Thedas. He whistled a short, low whistle. "You picked one hell of a time for a visit."

"Varric go get ready to leave, please. I don't want to have to get between you and Cassandra when your ass isn't prepared to go." I pointed at the door. "Now."

"I'm going, I'm going," he said backing out of my cabin. Then, aside to Emma, "We'll talk when I get back."

"Go!"

Emma stood there for a good minute staring at the door. "Was that really Varric?"

"How could you miss the chest hair?"

"Oh, believe me, I didn't." She snickered, "I didn't expect him to be good looking."

"Don't go there. He's a flirt with no availability. The blood pump in his chest belongs to Bianca of some Dwarven house or another, and only her. In the time I've known him, I have never once seen him act on any woman that expressed interest no matter how good looking, sweet or well endowed."

Another knock at the door, this time higher up and with a more tentative knock.

"Come in," I called, ushering Emma further into the cabin. "You set up the bed for yourself."

Josephine let herself in. "Good morning Herald."

"Elyria," I corrected, "and good morning Lady Josephine. I'm sorry, I'm in a bit of a rush. Was there something you needed?"

"I passed Varric on my way to the caravan. He informed you that you wished to speak to me. I wanted to assure you-" She paused spotting Emma over my shoulder. "Ah, good morning." Then she looked at me again with an almost mischievous glint in her eyes.

Emma gave a tired, "morning." from behind me.

I couldn't figure out why Josephine was looking at me that way. I turned my head a little to see what she was seeing. All I saw was Emma shaking out an unzipped sleeping back to settle it over the bed. She looked a little rumpled and tired but -

Then it hit me. She thought I slept with Emma! "Get your mind out of the gutter you pervert." I groused at Josephine. "Emma, one of my best friends, arrived this morning. She'll be staying in my cabin until there's a place available for her to stay."

Josephine had the grace to blush in embarrassment. "Ah, forgive me, Herald. I believe I have spent too much time around soldiers." She suddenly found her portable writing desk/clip board interesting. "Of course I would be happy to help your friend settle in." The way she said friend.

I groaned, "You don't believe me."

"I do, Herald."

She didn't. "You don't."

"Of course I do, Herald." She still didn't believe me.

Behind me, Emma tried to cover a giggle with a cough and failed. "I heard that Ems." Sighing a deep sigh for such an early time in the morning, "You were saying?"

Josephine had the decorum to compose herself, and with a business-like tone told me, "Ah, yes, as I was saying, Harritt informed me that your new weapons will be ready in three days, I will have them transported with a supply caravan as soon as they become available."

"No need Josephine. I'd rather we not waste resources. I will be back in a few days."

"As you wish, Herald." She left with one more glance at Emma.

"She definitely thinks you're doing me," Emma said with another giggle.

"That's because she's bi, and probably would do you."

"Or you." Emma tilted her head to the side thoughtfully. "Too bad I'm not into girls."

"Alright," I grabbed the back sheath I'd been using from the desk and pulled it on. "Mi casa is su casa and all that. If you want to speak to Josephine again, she's in the chantry. Cullen is usually out with the soldiers training. Leliana is probably going to corner you for information at some point, be aware of what you say. Don't have too many drinks around her. Pretty much everything is alcoholic except the water so eat with every drink. Hydrate. They're boiling the water before they serve it because it's from that frozen lake out there, but make sure anything you get is boiled again or you use that water purifying stuff you brought."

"Do you want some?" she asked taking a few steps toward her bag.

"No, I'll be fine." I took up the short sword I'd been using and tucked it into the sheath, then slid the dagger into another sheath I acquired from Harritt the day before. "You can go into the chantry to pray and do the church thing if you're inclined, but the religion here is different. Just be careful what you say. Otherwise," she was looking at me like I had two heads. "What?"

Gingerly Emma pulled the stiletto from where I just tucked it. Carefully she touched the side of it. She must have felt it begin to slice because she pulled her finger away. "Holy shit Elyria. That's a real blade."

"I know."

"It could kill someone!"

"Yeah, that's why I'm bringing it with me. You played the game Em, you know how many rogue templars and apostates there are out there just straight up murdering anyone in their path."

"But," she said, looking at me with big eyes, "they're people now."

"And so are the people who live in the Hinterlands that can't come out of their homes for fear of being killed. There are chantry folk out there trying to help the wounded who are defenseless." I took the dagger back, sliding it into the sheath. "Em, I get it, you don't do violence. That's why you're the healer and I'm the warrior."

She tried to laugh but it came out flat. "I guess they're technically just pixels anyway, right?"

I didn't want to tell her the blood stains were pretty real.

It took nearly a full three days to reach the Hinterlands. We arrived at the Inquisition staging point with the sun low in the sky. Thankfully I had the presence of mind to bring my iPod and a charger with me. Guess who spent nearly the whole ride rocking out to the Hamilton soundtrack. This bitch, that's who.

"When you say you already wrote Alistair…" I said to Varric as we coming up to the Inquisition camp. The sun was low in the sky, we had maybe an hour or two before sunset.

"Exactly what I said. If he hurries he'll be at Haven when we get back. If he doesn't, he'll get there a day or so after we return."

I pretended to mull it over for a minute or two. Then, trying as best I could to convey nonchalance. "And Fenris?"

He gave me a look. A look that told me I was in deep shit. "He might come. He might not."

Exactly what I was afraid of. Hanging my head. "If I start saying sorry now, how long do you think I would have to say it?"

"Oh no, don't drag me into it. You left him. You make it up to him on your own."

We arrived a few minutes later, dismounting. Oh, my thighs and butt. Ow. I hadn't ridden a horse in a long, long time and never for three days straight. An Inquisition soldier greeted Cassandra, taking the horses while a dwarven woman with ridiculously pretty auburn hair, freckles, the brightest green eyes I'd ever seen on a person, and eyelashes a beauty influencer would kill for came forward.

"Herald of Andraste," she sounded a little bit like she wasn't sure it was me she was supposed to address. "I've heard the stories. Everyone has. We know what you did at the Breach." She nodded briefly at me. "Inquisition Scout Harding, at your service. I - all of us here - we'll do whatever we can to help."

"Harding, huh?" Varric's voice came from a few feet behind me.

I turned my head a bit to see him, and yep, there was Solas on his right and Cassandra on his left. Again, the surreal moment of knowing I'm living in a video game.

"Ever been to Kirkwall's Hightown?"

Scout Harding's attention went to him. "I can't say I have. Why?"

He smiled at his own joke, "You'd be Harding in…" he seemed to think better of it from the way Cassandra was nearly glaring him into the ground. "No, never mind."

Cassandra made a sound that fell somewhere between disgust and irritation. She'd been making that sound a lot the past few days. Varric seemed to have a knack of rubbing her last nerve.

"Book he wrote," I told Scout Harding. "Hard in Hightown."

She thought it over for a moment. "Never heard of it."

Back to the matter at hand before Varric got the idea in his head to talk about his novel. "Tell me about the situation here."

Instead of staying in one spot like in the game, Scout Harding lead us over to an overhanging area where she began to explain. "We came to secure horses from Redcliffe's old horse master. I grew up here, and people always said that Dennet's herds were the strongest and the fastest this side of the Frostbacks. But, with the mage-templar fighting getting worse, we couldn't get to Dennet. Maker only knows if he's even still alive. Mother Giselle is at the crossroads helping refugees and the wounded. Our latest reports say that the war has spread there too. Corporal Vale and our men are doing what they can to help protect the people, but they won't be able to hold out very long." She looked out into the distance, where the clash of voices and the distant clang of metal came from. "You best get going. No time to lose."

We were high up, and I do mean high. I could hear the occasional shout, the clanging of a blade or two and then there would be a short period of silence. It would start again a moment or two later.

"I'm guessing there are Inquisition soldiers down there defending the path up?"

"Yes ma'am." Harding said.

"And that the poor refugees below are probably holed up somewhere?"

"Yes ma'am." Harding said again.

I look a look up at where the sun was. We had a couple of hours of sunlight left, maybe. I met Cassandra's gaze, then Solas and Varric's. "Let's go relieve those soldiers." In response, the three of them prepared their weapons and we headed down the path. I made notes of the nodes of iron ore to come back to later, and the elfroot nearby, and to pick up the quest in the abandoned house on return.

A second before we reached the fighting, a nasty looking red spell, no doubt fire based, crashed into the wall above our heads. It spilled down the rockface like molten lava. We dogged around it and kept going toward the fighting.

"Inquisition forces," Cassandra said, "They're trying to protect the refugees."

"Let's give them a hand," Varric added.

We made it to the boulders serving as natural barriers for the Inquisition soldiers just as a small group of templars decided to rush the men.

"We are not apostates!" Cassandra attempted to address the templars.

"I do not think they care, Seeker," Solas told her flatly.

Solas, quick on his feet, cast a frost bomb spell that detonated the instant the first templar set foot inside it. Huge spikes of ice shot upward and two of the three templars fell backward from the force. The other was frozen solid.

Varric shattered him with a bolt.

One down. I ducked down, lowering myself into a crouch and peeked out from behind the new ice barricade. The templars were getting up. One took a spell to the back and turned around. Oh, look, the apostates decided to join the fight.

"More the merrier," I said over my shoulder.

"Let them kill each other," Varric said poking his nose out of the other side to see.

"Move back," Solas warned, "the spell will end and you will be in the open."

Varric and I pulled back behind the boulders and allowed the two templars and the three mages to battle it out. Just as Solas predicted the spell dissipated leaving a circle of frost covered grass to indicate where it had been. With a new opening, Varric, the Inquisition soldiers with bows and Solas began to attack again.

Going low again I crab-walked myself out of my hiding spot and over to a large group of bushes off to the left side. The mages, in the meantime had taken care of the templars and were coming, I let them pass me and went at the closest one from behind. Cassandra ran shield-first into the group.

In a chaotic mash of bodies, people, arrows, blades and spells we fought back at the mages until they fell. Once they were down I spotted an all-new group of templars coming in from the left. Solas tried the frost bomb spell again and this time he got all but one. More mages came in from the north. Then another wave of templars from the east.

"There cannot be too many more." Cassandra had begun to sound tired.

It had been a good twenty minutes with us holding the line and small waves of each rebel group, but there didn't seem to be a distinct slowdown of their numbers. "Varric," he moved up to join me. I pointed at the trail out of the area with my dagger. "Do me a favor, send a volley there."

"You sure Ellie?" He asked as he began to take aim.

"Wait for my mark. Solas," I motioned to our elven companion, "can you set that frost trap of yours a couple of feet out from the treeline."

He studied the area for a moment. "You are beating the bushes."

"See, I knew I liked you. Cassandra, you and I will clean up the stragglers. Ready?"

"You are quite good at this," Cassandra observed, readying her shield.

"I like strategy games and real-time simulations " I told her with a grin.

The confused look she gave me made laugh a little.

"Solas, now, Varric hold." Solas cast his spell, the second his staff touched the ground again, "Now Varric." He fired a volley of explosive shots into the treeline.

They scattered like roaches. Several hit the frost bomb. The ones who weren't fully caught by it were blown back or suffered wounds from the spikes. Cassandra and I rushed in. While she taunted I flanked.

Realistically I know the fight took less than a few minutes, but I will misquote the theory of relativity. If someone had been watching us, they might have seen a quick fight, but with us smack in the middle, it felt like I'd been in that fight a lot longer. We took a few more minutes to wait and see if someone else was going to try their luck against us. When they didn't the Inquisition soldiers at the base of the path that had been fighting with us signaled the all clear. A few more soldiers came down, including Scout Harding. All the while the sun had been slowly getting lower in the sky.

"Herald," Scout Harding said, "that was impressive."

"Group effort," I replied feeling uncomfortable with the praise. "Let's get these fires put out and make sure the refugees are safe."

It took a few hours, but the people - refugees all - came out of their hiding spots. Someone somewhere started up a fire to light up the night and warm the cool evening air. I recognized some of them from their reproductions on the computer screen. There was the worried guy whose wife I suspected had asthma and the guy who would give us the quest to bring back food by killing the rams for meat.

Solas stepped to the side to heal a child with a bleeding head wound. Her mother clutched her tight, afraid of him. The girl gripped her mother's skirts, big eyes on Solas.

"It will be alright," he told them both gently. A faint, almost minty green glow began in his hand. "A moment and the wound will be healed." The tip of one finger traced over the area of the head wound. It knitted itself together quickly, and faded into a very tiny scar. "A little oil every night on the scar," he murmured to them, "and it will fade."

"Thank you," the woman said, pulling her daughter's head against her chest.

"You are welcome." He looked sad as he moved away to join us.

We followed an Inquisition soldier to Mother Giselle.

"There are mages here who can heal your wounds. Lie still." Mother Giselle's opening line was the same, as was the soldier's she was talking to.

"Don't," he said, "let them touch me Mother. Their magic is-"

Okay, enough of that bullshit. "All men are the Work of our Maker's Hands, From the lowest slaves, To the highest of kings." I said as we approached. "That includes mages with ability to heal you." That's right, I know the Chant of Light. Parts of it anyway.

What? I lived with a devout Andrastian and my boyfriend, with influence from both Sebastian and Alistair, had begun to attend services. I decided to read up. The Chant is really quite beautiful for non-iambic pentameter poetry.

Either way, my three companions were staring at me as if I'd grown two extra heads. "What?" I said and then shot a pointed look at Varric and Cassandra, "Don't you two even start."

"Hush dear boy," Mother Giselle continued, "allow them to ease your suffering." She motioned to a mage who began to heal the soldier.

"Mother Giselle," I took a single step toward her.

"I am," she studied me a moment. "You must be the one they are calling the Herald of Andraste."

If this were Earth, I'd have offered to shake her hand. This was not Earth though. Instead, I saluted her much the way people had been saluting me and bowed my head a little. "I prefer being called by my name Mother, Elyria." When I straightened, she was no longer studying me, instead, a pleasant little smile had formed, and her eyes had softened a bit.

"Humility in one with power such as yours is as rare as a rose in deep winter." She raised one hand to motion ahead and began to walk, I joined her. "I know of the Chantry's denouncement and I am familiar with those behind it. I won't lie to you. Some of them are grandstanding, hoping to increase their chances of becoming the new Divine. Some," she sighed with a shake of her head, "are simply terrified. So many good people senselessly taken from us."

Once more I felt that pang of guilt. If I'd just stayed, maybe… A deep sigh left me. Maybe nothing. Vengeance, the entity that Anders' rage warped Justice into, could not be reasoned with.

"Fear makes us desperate," she said to my silence, "but hopefully not beyond reason." She gently reached out, touching my chin with thumb and forefinger. Her hands were soft like my aunt's had been. "Go to them, convince the remaining clerics you are no demon to be feared. They have heard only frightful tales of you. Give them something else to believe."

I shook my head. "I doubt they'll listen to me. I'm the one with the mark."

"You need not convince them all," she assured me, "you just need some of them to doubt. Their power is their unified voice. Take that from them and you'll receive the time you need."

"Thank you, Mother," and again, I gave her a bow and salute.

"I honestly don't know if you've been touched by Fate, or sent to help us...but I hope." She looked out on the people, some huddling by the light of the fires, others attempting to cover themselves in thread-bare blankets. Nearby the wounded were treated by mages and chantry sisters. "Hope is what we need now. The people will listen to your rallying call, as they will listen to no other. You could build the Inquisition into a force that will deliver us...or destroy us."

"I would hope the former, not the latter Mother."

"As would we all," she agreed. Inquisition soldiers moved around the refugees offering what I hoped were heavier blankets. There weren't enough. "I will go to Haven and provide Sister Leliana the names of those in the Chantry who would be amenable to a gathering. It is not much," she sounded a tad sorry about her inability to help more, "but I will do whatever I can." Then she walked past me to help a woman that had begun waving her over.

So it begins.

I'm going to be pretty quiet the middle of May. My birthday is coming up, my brother's wedding is a few days away, my friend is coming to visit for a few days and I'm going to be dog sitting.