Jacquelyn led the others in a charge when they noticed the fire blasting. Bull went first, ramming the doors open and barging in, swinging his hammer to take out anyone who came in range. It was a fearsome sight, but Jacquelyn didn't stop to appreciate his skill. Instead, she found her way in after him, shield bashing a bandit off to the side while Solas blasted fire at bandit rangers on the rooftops. They made short work of the bandits in the courtyard, moving indoors and then up onto the walls where they met up with Anders and Siara.
Siara seemed slightly out of sorts somehow, a frown etched on her face. She was shooting a glare at Anders, her twin blades held loosely but firmly in her hands. There was no blood dripping from them, which Jacquelyn thought a bit strange. Then she decided that the glare Siara was shooting at Anders must be because Anders had blasted all the bandits with fire, not giving Siara a chance to kill any of them. It must have annoyed Siara a bit. Jacquelyn got the impression that the elf enjoyed fighting, possibly even enjoyed killing. Something that Jacquelyn would never understand.
"Well done," Jacquelyn told them, meeting them just outside a room that seemed to be used for some kind of storage.
Siara mock bowed, holding her blades out to the side.
"Why, thank you," she said as she straightened up.
Jacquelyn tried not to roll her eyes at the elf. Couldn't she take anything seriously? Or was she not on purpose, was she just trying to get under Jacquelyn's skin? It was hard to tell sometimes. Either way, it irritated her. It was annoying, almost insulting, that someone could be so cavalier about anything. In Siara's case, it seemed that she didn't take anything seriously.
"We should keep moving," Solas cut in. "We shouldn't give these bandits the chance to gather their forces."
"Agreed," Anders said. "It'll be easier to deal with them while they're still reeling from being invaded."
"Lead the way," Siara motioned for Jacquelyn to take the lead, then fell in behind her.
It didn't take them long to find the leader of the bandits, a large man with heavy armour swinging a hammer around the place. Jacquelyn faced him down, raising her shield but preparing to get out of the way. One blow from that hammer and her arm would be broken, best case scenario. Solas, Anders, and Bull were busy with a few other bandits or highwaymen, blocking arrows, dodging daggers. Siara had just finished off a bandit that had been firing arrows at Jacquelyn, turning to face the Inquisitor before looking around at the chief. She moved to stand beside Jacquelyn, eyeing him up as he clicked his neck, swinging his hammer experimentally.
"What's the plan?" Siara asked.
Jacquelyn didn't take her eyes off the approaching hulk, mind racing as she tried to think of something. Anything. But she could only think of one thing.
"Do not get hit," she said.
"Oh, thanks for the tip. Never would have thought of that myself."
"For once can you please not be quippy?" Jacquelyn scowled.
"Can't help it," Siara shrugged.
Jacquelyn took a moment to glare at her, then went back to forming a plan, her attention snapping back to her enemy.
"I will do my best to keep him occupied," she said, "you do your best to stay out of his sight, try to hit his weak points."
Siara didn't say anything. Instead, she moved a bit away from Jacquelyn. When the chief was in range, Siara moved more so that she could flank him once Jacquelyn had properly engaged him in battle.
It was harder than they thought it would be. The chief seemed to be more skilled than they had expected, managing to keep himself positioned so each time Siara made an advance, he would swing his hammer at her and force her to retreat once more. Jacquelyn would take the opportunity to attack him, aiming for weak points, but despite how unwieldy his weapon was and how heavy the armour was, he would somehow always manage to move so the weak point was no longer exposed.
The only thing they could do was persevere, Jacquelyn directing a flurry of attacks at her enemy. She didn't let up, raining blow after blow down upon him. He seemed to easily block each blow before swiping back at her, forcing her back. Another of the bandits appeared out of seemingly nowhere, aiming for Jacquelyn's head. She raised her shield just in time, the chief charging from the side while she was blocking the blow from the other bandit. There was no sign of Siara, and Jacquelyn tried to push back against the bandit with her shield to dodge the attack from the chief, only just managing. Then there was a blast of fire and the bandit fell backwards, screaming in pain and fear as he dropped his weapons and ran off screaming. Jacquelyn turned back to the chief, raising her shield again as the hammer was swung down. Pain radiated down her arm and she fell to her knees, clenching her teeth together in pain.
Then the hammer fell away, the chief slumping to his knees. Jacquelyn lowered her shield, looking up at Siara. She was stepping off the back of the chief, pulling her blades from his neck.
"Anders," she called, moving over to Jacquelyn, "we need a healer over here."
"I am all right," Jacquelyn muttered as Siara gently helped her remove the shield from her arm, Jacquelyn wincing in pain. Once the shield was removed, she adjusted how she was sitting so she was more comfortable.
"You took a blow from a war hammer," Siara muttered. "You're lucky that it's not your skull that's broken."
"I would not have needed luck if you had been faster," Jacquelyn muttered, though not particularly angrily. The shock was beginning to set in, and she was feeling the disconnection from her body as it did.
"Yeah, sorry about that."
Jacquelyn didn't say anything in reply, simply sat there with her eyes closed. Not long after that she could feel the tell-tale warmth of healing magic spreading up her arm. She opened her eyes and looked around, Anders crouching next to her, his hand lightly touching her injured arm. She could feel the strength returning to it and her senses returning to her. While she wasn't Anders' biggest fan, she was thankful that he was there. He was a better healer than Solas was, though Solas would have been able to help in a pinch.
Siara and Bull were discussing their next move while Anders did his work, Solas listening to the planning and occasionally giving some input. Crossing the bridge to the controls wouldn't be too difficult now that the main population of bandits were dealt with. If luck was on their side they wouldn't even have to fight their way across and could simply walk in, drain the lake, then be on their merry way to find the entrance to the caves.
"We might even be home for dinner," Siara joked, turning to face Jacquelyn again. "How are you feeling?" she asked.
Jacquelyn slowly got to her feet as Anders stepped back, experimentally flexing her fingers. It was as though no damage had ever occurred.
"I feel good," she said, looking to Anders. "Thank you."
"You're welcome," he replied, smiling at her. Jacquelyn found herself almost wanting to believe that he wasn't as bad as the stories would have him seem, then remembered he blew up a Chantry. He had healed her arm. That did nothing to make up for taking countless lives and starting a war.
"Shall we start moving?" Solas suggested. "We still have a decent amount of ground to cover to get to Old Crestwood once we've drained the lake."
"And we haven't worked out exactly where the entrance to the caves is," Siara added.
Jacquelyn nodded, picking her shield off the ground where it had been discarded. She didn't say anything, simply headed to raise the Inquisition flag before heading off to drain the lake.
Seeing Old Crestwood no longer hidden by the lake was hardly pleasant. Jacquelyn could feel a weight in the air as she moved through the collapsed and water soaked houses. There were still a few corpses around the place, and she made a note to inform someone so they could collect the remains and put them to rest. What really got to her, though, was the wandering spirits. They weren't trying to hurt anyone, they were simply… lost.
"It's like they don't know how to move on," Siara muttered, a small frown on her face.
"It's entirely possible that they don't," Solas told her.
"Is there any way for us to help them?" Jacquelyn asked.
Solas and Anders shared looks, then turned back to Jacquelyn.
"Closing the rift might help," Solas said, "but it's hard to know for certain."
"Worth a try," Siara started walking, doing her best not to look at the corpses or at the spirits floating around. Jacquelyn followed, also trying not to look too hard at the destruction around them. The sooner they reached the caves, the sooner the people of New Crestwood would be safe, and the sooner they could get out of there.
The buildings were all either collapsing or collapsed. Barnacles and kelp grew everywhere, and it was always surprising when the group found something intact. There were a few bottles of various alcohols, the seals unbroken. In some places there were chests, which appeared to be rather watertight. But of course, it was hard to forget that everything in Old Crestwood once belonged to someone. Perhaps someone alive in New Crestwood, but there was also a good chance of the items belonging to people who were dead, their corpses in the fallen-down houses the group were searching through.
And it didn't get any nicer the further into Old Crestwood they went. Jacquelyn was almost happy that Siara had taken the lead, but she still felt that she should be in front. She was, after all, the Inquisitor, so she slowly moved her way in front of Siara as they found their way through the drowned town. They made their way to slightly higher ground, towards the hill. Jacquelyn figured that was the most likely place to find caves, and fortunately it didn't take too long to find them. Boarded up, kelp all around it, the smell of damp stone and dying water life filling the air.
"This must be it," Jacquelyn said. "Keep your guard up. We do not know what we will find in there."
"Sure we do," Siara piped up, a grim smile on her face. "Demons and dead people."
"You could stand to be a bit more respectful about it," Jacquelyn scolded.
Siara just shrugged, then motioned to the door.
"Are we headed in or are we just going to stand around arguing about my attitude?" she asked.
Jacquelyn suppressed a sigh, turning back to face the door to the formerly flooded caves. She took a moment to gather herself, then stepped forward and pushed the door open, taking the first steps into the darkness.
A/N: I don't do author's notes very often anymore, but I just wanted to say a quick thanks to the people who have been regularly giving me reviews/feedback on my writing. With the way this site has been in recent times, you are the main reason I'm still updating on this site and not just using Ao3.
I also want to give a heads up that I will be taking a short break from updating, probably just a week off so I can catch up. October was a rough month with my household getting a nasty flu, and so far November is shaping up to be pretty rough too with another cold going through the household. So I'm just going to take a week off from updating so I can get at least a couple of chapters written so I have a buffer for y'all.
Thank you again for the reviews, I really appreciate them, and I hope to be updating again in a couple of weeks!