Sickly Sweet Dreams

"I think I saw him flinch that time."

"Maybe. We'll make you scream yet, apprentice."

Lawrien shivered. She could feel Zevran's pain, his desperation, his anger, his determination, it sunk into her, leaving her aching, but she gritted her teeth and marched forward towards the rack where two Antivan Crows were torturing Zevran. She'd kill them for making Zevran go through this hell again. He had only just escaped it and yet they were dragging him back in. It boiled her blood to see it.

"Zevran!" Lawrien yelled.

"What?" Zevran flinched, startled. He raised his head from the rack, baffled. "W-What are you doing here? You're not supposed to be here!"

"Don't get in the way-" one of the Crows began, but Lawrien threw him aside with a glyph. It sent him flying into the air, and the other threw his dagger at her. Lawrien blocked it with a stone wall, and sent the demon crashing into the other Crow.

"You aren't real Crows," Lawrien spat.

"I- What is going on?" Zevran's brow furrowed, as she hurried over to his side, burning away the ropes binding him. "What are you doing? I need to pass my test-"

Lawrien held his face in her hands, forcing their eyes to meet. "You've done all this already. This is a nightmare, Zevran. Remember the Circle, the tower we were in."

Zevran frowned. "A nightmare? That can't be true... but you speak sense... There is no way you could be here otherwise, Lawrien."

Lawrien paused when he gently took her hands and lowered them from his face. He slipped off the rack with a frown, eyeing it before offering her a small smile.

"I'm feeling a bit better now that those two are dead." He stretched out his limbs, wincing. "That was bracing. Nothing like a good bit of racking, huh? So, what exactly happened to us all?"

"We were all knocked out by a Sloth demon and are now all either dreaming or suffering nightmares," Lawrien explained.

Zevran frowned. "Demons? Great, not something I often deal with, but Faren did warn me that travelling with you Grey Wardens would be exciting."

"I don't think those were the exact words he used." Lawrien smiled.

Zevran chuckled. "Maybe not, but similar enough I suppose. Now what do we do?"

"Follow me and stay close, we're going to go find the others," Lawrien said. "Are you going to be okay? You still feel sore-"

"I'll be fine, dear Lawrien," Zevran said, patting her arm. "But your concern warms my heart nonetheless."

Lawrien tilted her head. He thought her concern was because he needed to be in top shape to help them fight. Weirdo. They were friends, or would be in Zevran's case someday. Lawrien liked him a lot after all.

"Some of my friends are silly," Lawrien said lightly, much to Zevran's confusion. "You guys seem to think I don't care."

Zevran frowned. "Now this is quite the serious topic for such a time."

"True." Lawrien walked up to him and tapped his forehead with the back of her hand. "Then just stay close to me. We'll fight together. I won't let you be lost in your nightmares again."

Zevran watched her silently for some time, thoughtful, concerned, but mildly hopeful too, before he finally chuckled. "Sounds like a good plan. Where to next then?"

.::.

Epona walked in with just Witherfang into a Chantry. Leliana was praying at an altar, knees on the floor, head bowed while an older Chantry woman stood before her in robes.

"Blessed art thou who exists in the sight of the Maker. Blessed art thou who seek His forgiveness," Leliana prayed.

"This is where you pray then?" Epona asked, approaching the altar, Witherfang right next to her, growling softly at the Chantry woman.

"Blessed-" Leliana startled. "What? Who are you?"

Epona raised a brow. "Unusual. The others never forgot me in their dreams."

"I beg you, do not disturb the girls reflection," the Chantry woman said.

"Revered Mother, I do not know this elf," Leliana said to the woman, her voice small.

"You can speak to me, Leliana." Epona crossed her arms. "You're a grown adult in the shemlen stages of life, are you not? Use your own voice than cower behind another. I thought you would be better than that, bard, considering you jumped in to join us to save the world from a Blight."

"I'm sorry, but I don't know what you're talking about." Leliana's brow furrowed.

"Please, do not vex her. She needs calm and solitude, to calm her troubles and heal her heart," the Chantry woman insisted.

"I don't know what went on in your life for you to seek the Chantry for peace, Leliana," Epona said. "All I know is that you left after receiving a vision for your Maker about what could have been the Blight. The world being drowned in darkness. You joined the Grey Wardens to try and help us save the world."

"I am happy here," Leliana insisted. "This is all I ever wanted."

Epona twitched. "I was happy in my own life too, shemlen, before I was poisoned by darkspawn blood and had to join the Grey Wardens. We don't always get what we want, but you chose to come with us, so stop dreaming about the past and seek comfort in what the future might bring." Epona gritted her teeth. "Snap out of this already, Leliana! You're a strong woman who didn't listen to the Chantry when they tried to tell you that you were wrong in your visions. I believe in that and I believe in you. So don't quit here."

"I..." Leliana hesitated. "It is comforting to know that you do believe in me, there aren't many people I would share such a vision with outside of those within the Chantry. I must know you... it wouldn't make sense otherwise..." Leliana's eyes hardened and she stood up properly. "Alright, I'll come with you. Let's go."

"This is your home, child," the Chantry woman said softly. "Do you really wish to leave your place of comfort and safety?"

"I will always carry a piece of the Chantry with me in my heart," Leliana reassured, smiling warmly. "That I know."

"You are not allowed to leave-"

Withergang chose to jump the demon at that moment and rip out its throat. Leliana screamed, horrified, then startled when she saw the body of the Chantry priestess turn into a dead demon, and screamed again.

"A demon?" she cried out.

"Yep." Epona crossed her arms.

"What?" Leliana paled. "Epona?"

"You remember me now?" Epona smirked.

"What is going on?" Leliana gasped, staring at Witherfang. "Wasn't this the wolf in the forest? Witherfang?"

"Yeah."

"I would like some information please!"

"You may speak to the others through the door," Epona said. "I have no time to babysit you. Faren, Cobian, Alistair and Ciara have still yet to be found I believe. We must hurry. Come along."

.::.

"So we're just staying here?" Narascha asked, watching Torph shrug and lie down on the strange floating island... thing...

Okay, Narascha had no idea what this place was, and whenever she looked around her head would spin. So she was staring determinedly at Torph instead. He was real. She knew that. He was real and alive and he felt like a piece of the stone she missed so badly.

By the Ancestors, she wanted to feel the earth beneath her feet again.

"Let the mages handle magey business," Torph said. "The rest of us might get lost in dreams and nightmares again anyway according to Myra."

"I'm surprised you two were placed together..." Leliana said softly.

"Morrigan said something about the demon probably not dealing with dwarves well?" Narascha shrugged. "It just shoved us together in our... dream... nightmare... thing?"

"I wish I could help the young ones..." Wynne said softly.

"Making sure their friends remain awake and aware is the best thing we can do now, Wynne," Niall said. "I... I think it is all I can do now to help..."

"We will just have to trust the others to free everyone else then," Leliana said. "I believe in them. They can do this."

"And hopefully fast," Torph grumbled. "This place is a hellhole."

.::.

"That's coming from the Alienage," Lawrien gasped, watching in horror as a thick black smoke clouded the skies. "Faren's home."

Thick black smoke rose above the walls of Denerim, tainting the skies as they made their way to the gates to the Alienage. It was horrible, but they needed to get in and get Faren out. It was no doubt that this was where Faren would be.

Epona frowned. "The smoke should be choking us. The nightmare thankfully seems to have no effect no us whilst we are aware of it."

Zevran's brow furrowed. "Where is Faren? Shouldn't he be in the middle of all this?"

There were broken bodies everywhere. Some of the elven women unfortunately had their dresses torn to shreds, their naked flesh bare to the world. It made Epona's blood boil. This was Faren's biggest fear. That if he had resisted Vaughan's torment then Vaughan would make his home and his people suffer. Lawrien hissed.

"Those are the Thieves Guild members!" Lawrien pointed up, and hanging from the Alienage's gate were multiple bodies. "That's Faren's Uncle!"

Epona winced and pressed forward, marching past the gate and towards the guards. The guards stirred, glaring at her, but before they could say a word she sprinted into action. Epona cut them down, clean across their throats with her daggers. Witherfang biting and clawing at their necks of the guards she missed.

"We've got to get to Faren," Epona said sharply. "Hurry!"

"Faren was always terrified that Vaughan would destroy everything he loved," Lawrien hissed, rushing along beside Epona and Witherfang, Zevran right at their side.

"This is the man who hired me to assassinate his father, yes? Faren's tormentor?" Zevran asked, quickly looking around, drinking in the destruction around them.

"Yeah. The bastard." Lawrien's fists clenched tightly.

Faren's house was burning to the ground. Lawrien paused in her tracks, eyes wide, but Epona yanked her along.

"He won't be in there," Epona said. "He'll be right where the nightmare is at its thickest."

"With Vaughan..." Lawrien growled.

.::.

Morrigan stared at Calenhad who had been sat waiting for her the moment she walked through the doorway into Cobian's dream. They were in some kind of castle, with large open hallways on the outside, all splitting off into many different rooms. It seemed like a strange layout for a castle, not like the one in Redcliffe, but who was she to judge? She lived in a swamp all her life. All of this was so new and exciting to her.

Calenhad tilted his head at her.

"Did you figure out this was a dream?" she asked.

Calenhad woofed.

"Clever boy, much smarter than Alistair and Wynne," she complimented. "Has Cobian?"

Calenhad woofed.

"Then why is he not here breaking out of it?" she asked, following after Calenhad when he began to walk away, towards the back of the castle.

Calenhad whined.

Morrigan sighed. "He's trying to study the dream, isn't he?"

She had fully expected Cobian to be locked within a dream or nightmare about his family. The one who his 'uncle' figure had murdered. She had expected him to falter, unable to attack, like she had faltered in front of Flemeth's pretender. That memory boiled her blood, but it was soothed a little by the memory of Epona punching the fake Flemeth in the face. That had been a wonderful sight. Morrigan was prepared to go in ready to fight. She was ready to attack demons and blast them into smithereens to rescue the fool, but much to her bafflement, Cobian was sat in a fancy room on his bed, scribbling furiously into his notebook as he interviewed demons.

Morrigan froze mid step.

He was interviewing the demons trying to eat him.

The demons were sat on the floor all around him, in their demon forms. Why weren't they trying to trick him? What was going on?

"This is actually very interesting," Cobian mused, tapping his quill off the notes. "So there are countless more demons that we aren't even aware of? At least nobody really mentions them, such as Despair?"

The Rage demon nodded. "Despair is cold, miserable and cruel."

"I'm even more surprised that there are male Desire demons. I know you said that you don't really have a set gender system as demons, but there are preferences to looks-" Cobian began.

"Cobian!" Morrigan yelled, startling the gathered group.

"Be silent, witch," Rage growled. "We're having an interview here. The human is recording us."

Calenhad sat by her feet and whined.

Morrigan sighed. "I see this is what you have been dealing with then..."

Calenhad barked at that, his tail wagging.