PLAYER PLOT: Enfenim

[mythalenaste]

WHO: Pel, Sina, Cyril, Beleth, Sorrel, Myr, Saoirse, side of Anders and Alistair
WHAT: A demon has trapped Pel in the Fade.
WHEN: Forward-Dated to 25 Firstfall
WHERE: The Gallows, the Fade
NOTES: Trigger warning bonanza for insects, body horror, corpses, dismemberment/maiming, death, illness, drowning, blood + will update if any more happen.

What am I to do with all of these dolls?
They've covered the floors, they've covered the walls.
They're stacked up chin-high all over the floor,
But my greedy child is screaming for more...

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[arlathvhen]

She doesn't understand.

Or maybe she does. Maybe deep down, it's always been there, that quiet voice that always has hateful words to whisper to her. Not good enough, never good enough, annoying and a burden, they just pity you, they don't really care. Whispers that she ignores. But in the end, she's always known.

She tries to call out to them. Merrick, Sorrel, people that she's loved, as long as she knew how to. It doesn't matter. It's never mattered.

There's a brief moment where she contemplates not running. Pettily deny them their chase, while giving in to the desire for her death. Why not? But she's not given a choice (and really, when has she ever?) and the next thing Beleth knows, she's dashing through the forest. Where is she going--where can she go? The Inquisition? Would she be safe there? If she can even get there.

She's overthinking. Right now, she has to run.

[faithlikeaseed]

Vast and shifting, the Fade's easy to get lost in once you're outside your own dreams. Pel's calling, Sina had said and vanished, leaving Myr to find his own way through the trackless dark. Things oneiric being what they are, there isn't much way to find--but he can rely on certain constants, like how affinity snarls around dreamers and draws them close. Fix a thought of the others in his mind and keep walking long enough, and--

He finds himself in a night-dark forest of a sudden, populated with looming storybook trees that would look monstrous to a shem lost in the dark. To an elf's discerning eyes it's just a forest, the massed trunks far less interesting than the figure darting between them at full tilt. He's never seen her before, never looked on her face--but there's only one Dalish woman who came with them.

"Beleth!"

She's running from something in a panic; it's an instant's decision to dash after her, to draw the hilt from off his belt in anticipation of her pursuers. None too soon--somewhere behind them one of Clan Ashara's hunters nocks, draws, and looses at Beleth's retreating back, the twang of the bowstring the only warning Myr needs to throw himself in the way--

--and swat the arrow from the sky in an azure flash of spirit magic. Already he's looking for his next target, counting up flickers of motion and summing them in his head to an ugly conclusion. One knight-enchanter against a whole Dalish clan? Bad odds. But the demon wants her running and there's two of them-- "Beleth, stand with me!"

They'll have a chance together. He's sure of it.

[arlathvhen]

Her first thought is that another one of her friends has been conjured to torment her. Her second thought is that Myr, it turns out, has very pretty eyes.

Beleth manages to skid to a stop for this, turning to stare in shock as he appears, without a blindfold, and with magic that knocks the arrow out of the air, as though it were nothing more than a fly. She gapes at that, then at Myr, slowly backing away from him, because surely he's here to hurt her, just like everyone else is. He must hate her, just like everyone else--

But he's asking her to stand with him.

"Myr--what--? They're coming for me." It comes out as a breathless plea, between gasps as she catches her breath. "You're going to get hurt too, come on--Sylaise help me, you can't get hurt, too." She moves forward to grab his arm, expression openly terrified. "Not because of me. You have to--I don't know, get out of here, they won't chase you, they're after me."

She glances nervously at the imposing Dalish woman off to the side, arms crossed, watching them with a detached but nevertheless disapproving stare. "It's all my fault, Myr, I'm so sorry you got dragged into this. I'm so sorry."

[faithlikeaseed]

"And unless they're here to fête you the way you deserve, I'm not letting them have you," he replies, with a lopsided smile. "It isn't your fault--I came here myself. This was what I was born for." To take all the powers of creation in-hand and defend those in need of defense--

He spares the disapproving specter a steady look as he traces the shapes meaning barrier through the air with his hands, folding the Fade around both of them as a ward against further arrows. "Besides," lightly said, "I don't like our odds if we run.

"What are you waiting for?" He addresses the challenge to Deheune as he draws his staff down off his back. "What is it you want from her?"

[mythalenaste]

Deheune purses her lips in a familiar manner, then unfolds her arms. Two white horns, reminiscent of both an insect and a halla, begin to grow from her head. She lifts her hand, and in her palm, a blackening hole appears and begins to grow outward. Through it, her face can be seen--only it is not her face, but a white, waxy face of a child with enormous, pale eyes.

"I. Want. PEL!" it screams, and black shadows burst from her palm like snakes, seeking to wrap around both Beleth and Myr.

[eolasemah]

The instant before it can touch them, a flash of green light erupts in front of Myr and Beleth, taking the form of massive, impassable trees. They continue to appear, forming a translucent circle around the demon, its shadows disappearing into the verdant glow like powder in water.

"SU AN’BANAL I’MA," shrieks a fearsome disembodied voice, which seems to come from everywhere and nowhere all at once. "CRY YOUR FALSE TEARS IN THE DARKNESS." The tree nearest to the dreamers abruptly sprouts branches, spaced perfectly up its trunk to serve as a ladder.

[arlathvhen]

There is a lot going on at the moment, and Beleth wishes that she could say she acted with courage and fortitude. In reality, she is first preoccupied with staring dazedly at Myr, wondering what in the world a fête is, and being incredible and genuinely moved by his willingness to help her, protect her.

Congratulations, Myr, you have leveled up your friendship link! Beleth is now willing to die for you. (Video game achievement music here)

Before Beleth can do anything besides stare stupidly at him, Myr’s shouting at Deheune, and oh god, her mother—

If it had been nearly anyone else, she could have stood against it. But that had just been her mother, her Keeper, and all Beleth can manage is a choked sob, taking a few steps back. But it’s not enough, and her body feels so heavy. Her hand reaches for Myr’s, maybe for protection, or for some small measure of comfort before—

And suddenly, there’s a voice shouting, a green light, and a tree. They’ve been saved, that much is clear. It takes her a few seconds of dazed staring to mutter the first thing she can think of. “Sylaise...?” Has her patron goddess managed to reach out for her? They were in the Fade, after all. Surely, if there was anywhere she could reach—but it’s not time to think about that, or to lay down and cry, or a number of things Beleth would like to do. She hurriedly wipes her tears on her sleeve, glances at Myr, then turns, and begins to climb.

BC I'M A COMPLETIONIST

[faithlikeaseed]

He does not know, when it comes for them, how he's meant to fend off that hungry blackness-- But Beleth is reaching for him, Beleth needs help, so he raises his blade and firms their barriers with a word (and takes her hand with his own, holding tight; if this is how they die--)

"Andraste--!" The oath dies on his lips as he starts back from the intervening forest in wide-eyed shock, not immediately sure of the beneficence of this miracle. (Demons have fought over dreamers before; what looks like divine intervention often isn't at the first remove--though Myr'd credit the Maker's hand behind it anyway, who moves in mysterious ways.)

There's hardly time to worry about that, though; Beleth has the right idea, and he spends only a moment longer gawping at their stairway out before following her up it.