faderift | your faith was strong but you needed proof.

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your faith was strong but you needed proof.

WHO: Solas, Thranduil, Adalia, Anders, Beleth, Rey
WHAT: All New, Faded for Her: Fade Rift edition
WHEN: Early this month after their return from the Sunless Lands
WHERE: Exalted Plains
NOTES: Possible warnings for murder, burning alive and all sorts of nastiness depending on the outcome of the quest! Starters are all in the comments!

ALL NEW, FADED FOR HER

"One of Solas's old friends, a spirit, has been summoned against its will and needs his help."

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"You cannot save a demon. No matter how amicable it might appear it is -"

"Shut. Up. You summoned it. To protect you from the bandits. You bound it to obedience and then commanded it to kill."

His fury is clear, rage burning on the tip of his tongue and frustration that makes it seem as though he's close to snapping the man before him in two. He turns to look at the rest of the group, eyes wide and desperate, before he breathes out and tries to make his way forward.

"We have to do something."

"Is there a way to remind it of it's true nature?" Rey pipes up, her eyes not on Solas or any of the others but the creature where the mages had it bound. They've seen demons like that before, and she has to wonder if any of them had also once been spirits that had been corrupted by coming into the mortal world.

Her eyes shift from the demon to Solas, her brows knitted together. "Can you talk to it?"

"The summoning circle. We break it, we break the binding. No orders to kill, no conflict with it's nature, no demon."

Solas' voice gets louder the more he speaks, and the mage at his side moves forward, hands held in front of him and eyes wide. His fear is equally matched by Solas' anger and frustration and it's a little unclear which he is more afraid of; the demon or the apostate standing in front of him, seeming ready to kill.

"The binding is the only thing keeping the demon from killing us. Whatever it was before, it is a monster now."

Making a noise of anguish, Solas turns to the people around him. Some of them are friends, some acquaintances, but he hopes - or, rather, expects with some level of hope - their cooperation in this. There's a desperation there that probably has never coloured his face in their company before, and he moves a step closer to the circle.

"Please."

Solas doesn't even have to make the plea, honestly — Adalia's running through her arsenal of spells trying to think of what will help them free the spirit quickly enough no one has to interface with the demon too much, how to position people to their best use, what to do with these fucking assholes once they've freed Wisdom. She has ideas, and she fully turns her back on the Kirkwall mages to shut them out of the conversation as she lays them out for the group.

"I can cast haste on two people at a time. Those people can attack the pillars, break them, and move on to the next more quickly, while the rest of us distract the demon. I can absorb a little bit of electrical damage, so I think I should be up front to take the most hits so the rest of you don't have to. Who are the ones I should haste?"

All of this said with the expectation that they will agree to Solas' plea and her plan — there's no reason to kill the spirit if the binding is broken, and the spirit is who they're here to help. Obviously they're going along with Solas' idea.

Well, this was fucked up.

Beleth stays silent as the mage speaks—not one of the ones allied to the Inquisition, or he would have said as much—and then to Solas. Then, still listening to the others speaking, her eyes flick to the demon—former spirit. Solas’ friend. Before the Inquisition, she would have been dubious to such a claim. But now, she’s spoken to multiple spirits. She’s made friends with—whatever Cole is.

She and Solas have their differences, but there are similarities, as well. What would she do, if someone did this to Cole?

“I can fire arrows from a distance. I can either use that to destroy the pillars, or to distract the demon. Lead it away. I wouldn’t need haste in either situation, however. Unless it catches up to me, I suppose.” She should probably be responsible here. Do the right thing for the Inquisition. What would people do if they knew they had freed a demon?

It’s a pity that she doesn’t care.

Rey looked at those of them standing here, her hands going to her lightsabers and drawing them both from her belt and igniting them, twirling both in her hands as she did.

"I can destroy the pillars. Padawan can help distract the demon." She looks down at her mabari who gives a bark of agreement. Rey can't tell what the pillars are made of from where she stands, but so far most materials in Thedas haven't been able to hold up long against a plasma-hot blade.

"With the pillars gone the spell should end. I am certain of that. Perhaps there is still some hope for my friend."

He doesn't sound as enthusiastic about it as he might - the anger and frustration have embittered him, and he seems far more dangerous than he has ever appeared before. Striding along passed the mages, he steps up and around towards the pillars, eyes narrowing.

"Shall we go together?"

“A moment,” Thranduil says, stepping forward. He appreciates the support for Solas, the ease with which the group defends his friend and the spirit alongside him, but he has questions for the mages, and it is them who he addresses.

“The pillars, the magic—what is the shape of the original spell? Are they your own, or did you make use of something already present?” He is polite, but firm, back straight and direct.

To Solas, then—“They are Circle-trained. If they made use of a spell designed to contain demons, to buy time in a fight, what is to say that it does not have some protection that will activate upon destruction of the pillars? End the spells, yes, but what alongside it?”

"Does it matter? We don't have time to worry about collateral damage! We need to free Wisdom, now!"

Despite Adalia's impatience, she isn't moving to Leeroy Jenkins into the fight and force their hand — though the way her eyes haven't left the spirit and her twitching fingers may give away just how much she'd like to.

"They are familiar binding spells," Solas intervenes for the mages, waving a hand. "It is the kind of spell used by many who do not understand what they are daring to achieve. Drawing a spirit from the Fade, commanding it, tainting it... It is nothing new."

His impatience is getting the better of him - and, it seems, some of the others - but it is Thranduil who is one of the few who might temper him. Solas grips his staff all the tighter, jaw tight with the tension of the moment, desperation to free his friend colouring every action he makes.

"Whatever comes will be dealt with. My priority is saving my friend." Nothing else matters.

Thranduil inclines his head rather than answer, willing to take Solas' surety as gospel.

"I will go with Beleth," he says, glancing back at her. Ranged attacks will be able to pull the attention off him if Solas' friend comes too close, and he is well-skilled at harrying prey without outright killing it. Any wound might well transfer. He does not want to risk it, and he has faced more fearful things than this creature.

How terrible, to have your nature and being twisted. The idea, and the similar things he has seen, sits, oily, in the back of his mind.

"So we're agreed that we're breaking the pillars?" Rey had been all ready to go until Thranduil had called for caution, and he is the one she knows best, here. She watches the tall elf carefully when he inclines his head, before looking back to Solas.

If there's no further objections she'll head towards the pillars, giving the others time to get into position before she starts to cut them down.

"Yes." Solas turns away from the group and the mages again, drawing his staff and holding it in his hands. If he was less in control of himself his hands might be shaking, but he thinks that the tension is clear all the same - there's an edge of something deadly and dangerous about him as he begins to draw power.

"Let's go."

"Finally."

Adalia reaches out and, after a second's consideration, drops haste on both Rey and Thranduil, without asking either of them if they want it.

"You both have one minute, go."

Then Adalia runs toward Wisdom, screaming to attract its attention.

Whatever is laying over his skin unsettles him, and if it were not for the fact that they were in the midst of pitched battle, he would have it-- undone, whatever it is. The first step has him compensating, the weird lurch of nearly-vertigo throwing him off as he moves too fast, as if he isn't watching himself. He now has to think about his movements, conscious of his body in a way he hasn't been forced to be since he first fell through the Rift and felt his spirit to be half-empty.

No time to fix it. He waits until Beleth has enough distance that she can harry it with her arrows while he offers himself as a more-tempting target than the assembled mages. The other side of the pillars, then, waiting, and as soon as what-was-Wisdom is freed enough to consider attacking Solas and the others, he is there, all speed and flashing swords, but clumsy, all until the minute is up.

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your faith was strong but you needed proof.

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