If the ritual tower had been a part of Adamant fortress, it would have been dwarfed by the rest of the stronghold. Up close, it may have shown the signs of centuries of wear, but from the short distance where the army stood poised to attack, the fortress looked every bit as impenetrable as its legends had warned. As Cullen had predicted, Warden archers stood on the battlements, their forms only just visible in the fading daylight.
Standing beside Fae, in the middle of their pre-assigned formation, Ellethir instinctively reached back to anxiously tease out the back of her hair, only to remember a moment too late that it was currently covered by a fitted metal helm.
"You ready?" Fae asked, making an attempt at light-heartedness which failed when her voice wobbled a little.
Ellethir took a deep breath. "We have to be."
"Inquisitor!" Cullen maneuvered expertly through the ranks towards them. "The trebuchets are loaded and ready to fire."
Ellethir nodded and looked straight ahead, steeling herself. "Give the order."
Cullen disappeared through the ranks once more, but then his voice boomed out loud and clear from a short distance away. "Fire!"
The first projectile, a huge, flaming stone, sailed through the air and landed on the corner of the right half of the fortress, exploding on contact with an impressive crash and rainfall of shattered stone. The Inquisition forces cheered triumphantly as the other projectiles landed in short succession, drowning out the screams of Wardens caught in the blasts.
"Forward," Cassandra yelled over the din, and the army began its advance, banners held aloft, swords at the ready, arrows notched. The first few lines carried impossibly long ladders to scale the walls, taking over a dozen on each side to push them up into place. The Wardens on the battlements had their work cut out for them from the start, trying to target both the ladders and those pulling the incoming battering ram engine at the same time. The Inquisitor's formation was approaching next to this battering ram, with the aim of getting the Inquisitor inside the gates as quickly and as safely as possible. Stroud and Blackwall were at her back, Cassandra and Solas flanked her on one side with Fae and the Iron Bull on the other. Around them, a squadron of Inquisition soldiers with massive tower shields formed a barricade, protecting them from the constant barrage of flaming arrows.
On arriving at the gates, it took some time for the battering ram to force its way through, although not as long as Cullen had predicted. The first few soldiers had made it up the ladders, and occasionally a Warden or Inquisition soldier would fly over the wall, dead before they hit the ground. Other Wardens had joined the archers, flinging down stones from the battlements, and Fae leapt back as the tower shield in front of her fell with its owner. When the gates finally gave way, there was a weary cheer, and the bulk of the army began to converge on the fortress. As soon as the Inquisitor was inside the gates, the shield wall dispersed, as half a dozen Warden mages descended on the intruders along with their complement of demons.
Cullen rushed in towards the end of this conflict, slicing the head of a rage demon clean off before jogging up to the Inquisitor. "We'll keep the main host of demons occupied for as long as we can," he promised.
A Warden on the ramparts in the distance shouted towards his comrades. "Pull back, they're through!"
"Do what you must," Ellethir commanded. "If we lose here, we lose everything."
"Understood, inquisitor. Hawke is with our soldiers on the battlements. She's assisting them until you arrive," he pointed in the direction the Warden had run, and an Inquisition soldier screamed as they were thrown off the side by a snarling shade.
"There's too much resistance on the walls," Cullen added, as if that had just illustrated his point. "Our men on the ladders can't get a foothold. If you can clear out the enemies on the battlements, we can cover your advance."
"Understood. Good luck, Commander."
"Maker go with you," he nodded, and retreated.
"Stairs up to the lower bailey should be through there," Blackwall pointed to a doorway on the right. The group fought their way through Wardens and demons alike to reach the lower bailey, then up another set of stairs and around to the main bailey. In this courtyard, two separate groups of Wardens faced each other, one group backing away slowly, swords raised, from the Warden mages who followed them, expressions blank, shades in tow.
"Stay back!" one cried out. "We will not be sacrificed for some insane ritual!"
A shade lashed out with its talons, and the fight began in earnest, the Inquisitor's party rushing forward to join in.
"Brothers, can't you see this is madness?" a Warden implored desperately above the clanging of swords and staves.
"It's no use!" Stroud yelled back. "Their minds are not their own!"
The mages and demons were outnumbered two to one, and fell quickly. When the last had fallen, the surviving Wardens' swords faced the Inquisitor.
"Keep your distance!" one of them warned.
"Warden Chernoff, we are not enemies," Stroud said calmly.
Chernoff's sword swung to face Stroud instead. "Why should I trust you, Stroud? You're a traitor to the Wardens. Clarel called for your death!"
"Clarel has clearly lost her way, as you've seen for yourself," Stroud pointed out.
"And you haven't? You've sided with the Inquisition, the ones who attack us!"
"The Inquisition is here to stop Clarel, not to kill Wardens," Ellethir said, hands out placatingly. "If you fall back, you won't be harmed."
Chernoff went to sheathe his sword, but hesitated.
"The Inquisitor is telling the truth, brothers," Blackwall assured him. "Stroud and I would not have joined the Inquisition if it were otherwise. Please, fall back and let us deal with Clarel."
The Warden gripped the hilt of his now-sheathed sword. "All right. My men will stay back. We want no part of this. Deal with Clarel as you must."
"Well said," Stroud said quietly to Ellethir as she turned to leave. "I had hoped some of the Wardens would listen to reason."
"Wait!" Fae ran back to Chernoff and his men. "Is the Hero of Ferelden here as well?"
Chernoff shook his head. "Warden-Commander Neria hasn't been seen or heard from for ages, she left Ser Frederick in charge of the Fereldans, but he went missing a few weeks ago himself."
Fae shot a worried look to Ellethir. "If Neria's not here, she might not be involved in this at all, unless Clarel's done something to keep both Neria and this Ser Frederick away. Or…shit, I don't know. It doesn't make sense."
"My apologies," Chernoff bowed. "As you can tell, not all of our fellow Wardens have been informed of the whole story."
Fae nodded, thoughts still racing. "Thank you for telling us this much, at least. We should be on our way. Sorry to hold everyone up, Inquisitor."
"Not at all. Let's go."
The party continued its ascent up and around winding walkways, all the way to the battlements. They reached the top of the stairs just as a ball of fire landed, knocking prone the two Wardens who had been standing at the ready. To the right, at the walkway's dead end, Inquisition soldiers were engaged with more Wardens in defence of a nearby ladder. The soldiers were trying to reason with the Wardens as they fought off blows, but their pleas fell on deaf, battle-enraged ears, so the Inquisitor's party went to their aid. When it was over, the soldiers thanked them.
"You can press on ahead, your Worship," one of them said. "We'll clear a path for the rest of our forces."
The party then headed in the other direction, hindered by a couple of stray shades as they made their way up a wooden ramp. With those demons dispatched, the ramp led into one of the stronghold's remaining intact rooms, the cries of battle reverberating ominously through the empty space. The door on the far side of the room opened up onto another section of the ramparts, where Hawke flitted in and out of sight around a hulking pride demon, along with several Inquisition soldiers. The party surged forward to join them, and after a short period of fierce fighting, the demon was overwhelmed.
"Inquisitor," Hawke panted. "Always a pleasure. I thought your men could use some help up here," she said, gesturing to the soldiers around them with her staff.
Ellethir patted her arm. "Good work. Stay with them and see that they survive this."
Hawke nodded and winced, still somewhat winded. "I'll keep the demons off them as best I can."
The Inquisitor and her companions continued on, soon coming across another pride demon, this time in combat with a single, exhausted soldier, his comrade lying dead off to the side in a widening pool of blood. This pride demon was smaller, but no less violent, and it took some time to take it down. After it went down, the soldier backed up against the barricade, sliding down weakly.
Fae hurried over. "What's the worst of it?" she asked quickly, and the soldier gestured to his leg, where a nasty gash marred his thigh. She concentrated on the wound, mumbling under her breath, inwardly annoyed at the obvious shaking of her hands as she held them over the soldier's leg.
The soldier sighed in relief. "Thank you."
"It's too deep for me to heal it properly, so don't waste it by splitting it open again," she said shortly. "Bull, can you help move him out of the way? Best he stay out of sight until it's over."
The Iron Bull obliged, hooking his hands under the man's armpits and effectively dragging the soldier into a corner.
"We must hurry," Solas warned. "Our forces cannot stand against the demons for long."
The only way to go from here was downwards, which Ellethir took to mean they'd covered as much of the battlements as they were able to. It was time to seek out Clarel. The soldier Fae healed had pointed vaguely downwards when she asked for Clarel's whereabouts, so downstairs they went, eventually emerging in another section of the main bailey.
Somewhere overhead, a Warden shouted commands to his comrades. "Pull in! The fortress doesn't matter. We must protect Clarel!" There was a scream, and then more shouting. "Hold the line!"
The group ran into Hawke and her squadron once more, along with a couple of Wardens, who were busy ripping into a few remaining demons while the bodies of Warden mages littered the walkway.
"How many more of them are there?" Hawke asked one of the soldiers.
"Fewer, thanks to you," he replied, turning to Ellethir. "Hawke saved a lot of lives on the battlements, Inquisitor."
"Not all the Wardens have stood against us," Stroud noted. "Maker willing, we may be able to reason with Clarel, too."
"The Warden-Commander should be just ahead," one of the Wardens approached, and the soldier who spoke before nodded. "Our scouts say she has a host of Wardens and demons with her."
"Then we have no time to lose," Ellethir said gravely, marching onward.