"That was your voice. Most Holy called out to you, but-" Cassandra began, cutting herself off as the rift shifted above.
Ellana winced and lifted her fisted hand, opening it to reveal the mark, leaking emerald like the steaming breaths of a dragon. The rift sparked along with the mark, and Ellana cried out as they burst brightly, blinding all who stood among the ruined temple.
Figures rose through the shadows before them: a faceless silhouette, an old woman dressed in Chantry robes, and her sister.
Amaryllis breathed in sharply and stared, wide-eyed, at the Ellana beside her, and the picture of Ellana that ran toward the old woman and breathlessly yelled "what's going on here?"
"Run while you can," the woman screamed while she twisted, fighting against her restraints. "Warn them!"
The faceless shadow grew two blazing red eyes. "We have an intruder. Kill her, now!"
The picture froze on the image of a horrified Ellana, reaching for her staff, then erupted, sending those standing beneath it back with a blast of air so cold it froze the ends of Amaryllis' eyelashes.
"What was that?" Cassandra cried out, rushing to her sister's side. Ellana stumbled back, grasping her marked hand tightly. "Who attacked? Was this vision true? You are the sole survivor-the only witness to the explosion, and to Divine Justinia's death. You must know what happened."
"I don't know," Ellana spit between gritted teeth. "I've told you, I don't remember!"
"What we saw was an echo of what happened here. The Fade bleeds into this place," Solas explained. "This rift is not sealed, but it is closed, albeit temporarily. I believe that with the mark this rift can be sealed, safely, but it must be opened first-which will likely attract attention from the other side."
"We've seen it close the rifts-makes sense that it can open them, too." Varric added with a shrug. He pulled Bianca out of her holster and grinned. "We're ready when you are."
They stood in silence for a moment until Ellana nodded. Cassandra didn't hesitate to call out her command. "This means more demons. Everyone, in position! Stand ready!"
In a whirlwind soldiers rushed forward, bows cocked, swords at the ready; their blades reflected verdant green that creeped toward them like moss.
Amaryllis could do nothing but watch as Ellana lifted her marked hand to the sky.
Just as before, the light from the mark wound itself up through the air and struck the rift. Just as before, the rift began to scream, low at first, then loud enough to pierce, and burst. And just as before, out of the rift fell a demon.
However this demon was different. Its feet hit the ground with a thunderous boom, causing the earth to shake beneath their feet. Its reptilian skin jutted out, patterned like a mountain range, sharp tipped, though no sharper than the long, twisted horns upon its enormous head. The demon blinked its many eyes and looked about as if taking in the sight before it.
Then it threw its head back, and roared. And while the very sound of it sent a terrified chill down her spine, Amaryllis threw herself in front of Ellana without hesitation and slammed the base of her staff into the dirt, willing a barrier to form around her sister.
"NOW!" The Seeker cried, and together, their forces advanced.
Amaryllis raised the barrier just in time, it seemed. Arrows rained down from above, ricocheting off the demon's armored skin like water spraying from a tap. It laughed then dropped what looked like a whip from its clawed fist and lashed out, striking the soldiers that stood closest. Behind her, Ellana screamed.
Amaryllis quickly threw up a wall of ice to cover them, throwing a worried glance in her sister's direction. "What is it?"
"The mark, it's like it's reaching for something," Ellana groaned. "It feels as if it might tear me apart." Her palm continued to ooze under her white-knuckled grip. "Creators, my hand-"
Light ruptured from her hand and struck the rift again-and just as Ellana fell to her knees, so did the demon. This time, the arrows struck true. Amaryllis stood back and watched until the link between Ellana's mark and the rift ended, and the demon rose again. It waved away their attacks as if they were no more than gnats.
"Ellana," Amaryllis began with a grimace. "You're going to have to keep using the mark. Pride is pulling its power from the Fade. Interrupt that connection, and we may be able to wear it down enough to defeat it."
"I don't think I have much choice," Ellana hissed. Blood trickled from her split palm down to her fingertips. "I can't control it, now. With the other rifts I just aimed and knew that it would work, but I controlled that link. When I pulled back, it would end. This time, it's as if the rift is calling. And the mark is desperate to answer."
She wasn't sure what to say to comfort her sister in the midst of all of the insanity, and was saved from doing so by the demon's whip. It flashed toward them-likely an attempt to get to Ellana-and Amaryllis clenched her fist to reinforce her barrier, pushing it out so that it formed a rigid, inflexible bubble around Ellana. Then, as the whip came barreling down, she let the biting cold of winter flow through her, a relentless blizzard; let it gather in the spaces between her ribs, the cave of her chest, and released it with a soundless cry.
Ice slammed into Pride, barbed and ragged like the edges of a saw. Though its armor was too strong to crack, the force of her spell sent it falling, laying the demon flat on its back. Ellana took the opening and used the mark before Pride could attempt to stand.
"I'll hold it as long as I can," Ellana said through her tears. Amaryllis felt her heart sink, knowing how much the mark had to hurt to cause her sister to cry. "But you've got to end this, before anyone else is hurt!"
Amaryllis nodded, moving closer to the edge of the battle. Cassandra had taken to hacking at the demon's legs, slowly but surely creating divots in its armored flesh, along with some of the other soldiers. For a moment it seemed as if Pride had given up, chosen to succumb to its fate. But that'd be too easy, Amaryllis thought-and she was right. In the lull between one sword swing and the next, the demon roared and hurled itself to its feet. Soldiers scrambled to flee from its path, though it didn't matter in the end-Pride laughed maniacally and crushed one unfortunate soul beneath its clawed foot with such force that the snap of his shattered bones echoed throughout the temple.
The heat of fury rushed through her so swiftly that she no longer felt the chill of winter as she swung her staff above her head. Shards of ice grew from the soil, breaking off with a snap to hover in the air before her. Amaryllis threw them forward and when they sliced through Pride's flesh, embedded in the meat of its arms, she shouted her triumph.
The demon turned to stare across the battlefield at Amaryllis. Pride smirked, ripped the pieces free, and sent them flying in her direction. With a curse she fashioned another wall of ice, then turned to look back at her sister.
Ellana's mark was no longer connected to the rift. Head bowed to her chest, she cradled her hand against her. Her body swayed with each breath she took. Blood spilled down the front of her leathered armor, creating a pool between her knees-so much more than Amaryllis had imagined there would be.
"Ellana!" She screamed. She stumbled back, lifting the ice wall further up, reinforcing the barrier around her sister. It flickered prismatic as she crossed through. "Ellana, give me your hand-"
She was able to see the mark then, the palm of Ellana's hand; a stream of blood, no longer a trickle, from flesh crenulated like a river bank. Torn, just the same as the fabric of the Veil, where the rift flashed above them.
"No," Ellana murmured, growing pale. "No, I've got this. Go, fight. I'm fine. I'm all right."
But Amaryllis ignored her sister's feeble attempts to push her away and crouched beside Ellana, softly stroking her wrist with her thumb. As Ellana relaxed, Amaryllis took her hand, and pressed in close until her nose was but a hair's breadth from the wound. Warmth caressed her like the comfort of the sun at daybreak; a dazzling gleam of orange that bloomed across her cheeks. Focusing there, on that warmth in the midst of battle, she closed her eyes to the noise and chaos, and imagined sewing a loose thread back into a sweater; pulling the peeled skin of an apple back across its exposed flesh; setting that last stone upon the fishing weir.
The Pride demon slammed its fists into the wall of ice, sending chunks skittering across the ground. The wall fell, and down came the demon's fists.
Amaryllis took a deep breath. Inhaled. Exhaled. Lifting her hand toward the demon, she opened her eyes, and with what mana she had left, strengthened the barrier even further. The demon's attack did nothing but glide across its crystalline surface.
She looked back down at her sister's hand and saw that it no longer bled, and that Ellana's eyes were open, too. And though her skin was still pale, her cheeks were flush.
"All right?" Amaryllis breathed.
Ellana's gaze had never looked more alive, it seemed. "Never better," she said with a frown. "You're an idiot."
Amaryllis blinked, then laughed once, feeling that that very moment had to have been the worst time for Ellana to start teasing her. She opened her mouth to say so, but her sister interrupted before she could.
"It's close, I can feel it," she said. She stood tall on wobbling legs and stared up at the rift. "Once more, and it will all be over. Just once more."
The Pride demon roared, lifted its claws, and brought them down on the barrier again with a force so great that the ground beneath them quaked and cracked. Amaryllis gritted her teeth and forced the barrier to widen-put all of her weight into her staff and let the base slip into the fissured stone-then called forth a storm.
Static crackled through her hair and across her arms. With great care not to touch herself and dispel it, she pointed her fingers up at the same time Ellana lifted her marked hand, yet again, and snapped. Electricity zipped across her shoulders and down her arms, then out from her fingertips as lightning. The mark struck the rift just as the lightning struck Pride, and the demon fell to its knees again. Its answering roar caused Amaryllis's ears to pop and ring, and her vision began to roll about as if her eyes were being kneaded into dough. But she pressed ever harder, tensing every muscle in her aching body until she thought she might burst and she had to close her eyes to stay upright.
And all of a sudden, it was over.
The rift burst, filling the air with the scent of battery acid. She could taste something metallic, like copper coins: the tang of nausea. Everything turned white. Amaryllis felt numb-could hear nothing, see nothing, feel nothing-for a moment that felt too long. When it all came back, she felt hands on her arm, pushing her down. Opening her eyes was like trudging through mud with boots too big for her feet.
Ellana sat beside her on the ground, holding her shaking left hand to her chest. She looked terrible.
"Like you look any better," she said. "You are seriously such an idiot."
"What'd I do now?" Amaryllis mumbled. Blinking dazedly like she'd been dragged out of a deep sleep, she glanced around. Everyone seemed to be staring in their direction. "What happened?"
"The rift has been sealed, but the Breach-"
"Take this," Solas came toward them and handed Amaryllis a lyrium potion. "And drink. You seem to have made a habit of pushing your abilities far past what is healthy or sane."
She took a few sips, grimacing, then handed the vial to her sister. "I never said I was sane."
"Drink more, you imbecile." Ellana pushed the potion away. Amaryllis was shocked to see just how pale her sister had grown-her skin translucent, diaphanous; veins visible beneath her skin, dark and blue and pulsing with every beat of her heart-and then she began to sway. "You-you're always like this, doing stupid, stupid things, harming yourself to protect others and Creators, Lis, I hate it. I hate it."
"Ellana, you need to drink this." Amaryllis pushed the lyrium potion into her sister's hands, then when she refused to take it, attempted to bring it to her lips. "You're scaring me, Ellana, please."
"I'm scaring you?" She laughed. Her eyes slipped shut. "I'm not the one who's killing myself."
Amaryllis froze for a moment, blinking past sudden tears. "I'm not-Ellana, just shut up and drink-"
But her sister's face went slack. Solas moved to catch her before she fell and at Amaryllis's frantic expression, said, "Do not fret. You have stopped her bleeding and healed what you could of her wound. She is unharmed. The toll the mark has taken on her, closing the rifts, is what caused her to fall unconscious. She needs to rest."
Amaryllis nodded, looked down at the potion in her hands, and downed the rest of it in a single gulp.
Cassandra came forward, her expression awestruck. "It worked. The rift closed, and the Breach..."
"Has stopped growing," Solas said. He gently laid Ellana down and ran blue-tinged hands above her, then turned her arm to inspect the mark. "Along with the mark, for now, it seems, though I will need time to observe them both."
Cassandra watched him briefly and turned to Amaryllis, looking almost sheepish. Amaryllis wondered if it were a trick of the light, or if the Right Hand of the Divine truly were ashamed. "Thank you. And...I'm sorry. For what it's worth."
Amaryllis didn't hesitate to shake her head. With a smile she said "I've done nothing to deserve your thanks, but I accept your apology."
"Don't sell yourself short, kid. You took down that demon single handedly," Varric said, coming to stand beside her. Their gazes met, and when Varric grinned and stuck out his hand, she took it, allowing him to help her up. She was surprised to note she was steady on her feet. "Your sister was worried about you. She didn't say so, and was pretty silent the way up, but I could see it. You both get the same crease between your eyes when you frown."
Amaryllis laughed and made to answer, but was interrupted by a group of soldiers arriving with a stretcher. They laid it beside Ellana, then stopped to bow their heads as if in quiet contemplation, and gently lifted her onto the stretcher. "Wait, wait, I'll take her-"
"You've done enough, kid. Let someone else take the reins for a minute," Varric said. "Besides, this alone will be a great story for them to tell. 'I carried the Herald of Andraste down a mountain after-"
"I'm sorry," Amaryllis interrupted, eyes widening in bewilderment. "The what?"
A/N: I had more art done of Amaryllis! Which you can find on ao3 or tumblr (arlathmacully on ao3, ar-lath-ma-cully on tumblr)
Leave a review if you enjoyed :) Let me know what you think, if you feel comfortable doing so!