faderift | [OPEN] holes in the sky, pierced by the fire

Entry tags:

[OPEN] holes in the sky, pierced by the fire

WHO: Everyone who's around!
WHAT: A rift has opened in Skyhold. We have to deal with it.
WHEN: The last day of Wintermarch
WHERE: In the courtyard, between the tavern and the dungeon.
NOTES: I will be posting periodically to let you know the results of what your dudes are doing! If you need clarification or want to ask me something, PM me on this account.

It’s a dismal, rainy evening, with Skyhold at the mercy of one of the many winter storms that passes through the Frostbacks. Most of the keep’s denizens have shut themselves inside to sit by a warm fire, have a drink, even go to bed early rather than face the freezing rain and the wind.

The tavern windows are aglow with light and merriment, but in the open area just behind it comes a different kind of glow: flames bursting to life and then dissipating, as a solitary elf in an oilskin cloak practices her fire spells in the relative safety of the rain.

It’s no secret that Sina has been isolating herself as of late, though her mood has taken an even more pointed downturn in the last few days. Her movements as she works are increasingly erratic, frustrated even, as there are times when she casts a serviceable fireball, and others when barely a spark leaves her hands. As she grows angrier, her energy depletes, and she’s barely resting between casts.

Perhaps it is because of this that what happens next occurs at all. In a burst of anguish and fury, Sina wrenches her hands forward, drawing from whatever reserves she has left—and then her shard reacts.

In an explosion of neon green that knocks Sina flat on her back, a rift erupts into the gloomy sky. It crackles and hums insidiously, its strange electricity causing every shard belonging to every Rifter in the vicinity to suddenly spit and pop in recognition.
No doubt drawn to the new opening in the Fade, the dark form of a despair demon slithers from the rift, takes stock of its surroundings, and slowly begins to approach the prone form of the fool that freed it. Moments later, it is followed by several spindly green terror demons, and at last the hulking inferno that comprises a rage demon.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Nahariel is crossing the threshold of Skyhold to join a caravan bound for Emprise, hood of her own cloak raised against the damp chill, when the rift blazes to life in the courtyard.

Her head snaps back, eyes staring, transfixed as if the sickly light it shed were a spear through her heart. Rift. The courtyard. Sina.

Suddenly everything she carried was on the ground, her feet scrabbling in the churned, freezing mud in a desperate bid for speed. Her hood dropped back as the hunter sprinted directly into the wind, the cold rain plastering strands of dark hair to her cheeks. Rounding the turn into the courtyard, her foot slipped beneath her, sending her hard to her knees on the muddy stone. Even as she bared her teeth in pain, she spent no thought on it. She could see the courtyard now, and her rapidly dilating pupils were filled with demons. Demons, and the crumpled form of her beloved First.

A noise tore out of her throat that was not unlike the screeches of the dark creatures themselves, and then she was running again. In such an animal fear was she that her hands made themselves claws, forgetting entirely the blades at her belt.

This was how, with a second shriek, the dark-skinned hunter's body slammed fully into the demon of despair that approached Siuona Dahlasanor.

The veil's a funny thing to most mages. It's there. It serves it's purpose, keeping magic and spirits and demons on the other side. In Skyhold it's never felt particularly thin save around the odd shards the Rifters carry, that Sina carries. To have the veil tear in a rift feels- sounds- even tastes strange in the air to Adelaide; though she's never been around them long enough to document the phenomena.

Then suddenly there's a shriek, a snap of some wild, unknowable power- and demons. Ozone in the air, acrid and ashen, and demons. Adelaide scrambles for the courtyard to see what's happened, where the light is coming from, harried and horrified as she shoves her way past those fleeing the chaos-

Crumpled below the rift, Sina. Struggling with a demon, Nahariel.

Adelaide sprints, calling Compassion like a guiding song to raise barriers around the downed mage, around herself, around Nahariel with a gesture and a word as she skids through the chaos closer to the young Dalish. "Sina!"

Sina, naturally, doesn't react. She's barely aware of what's happening, too busy drowning on dry land. Between her abnormally racing heart and her useless lungs, her chest feels like it will explode, and her mind contains nothing but wordless panic.

The despair demon is alarmed by being crashed into, and it whirls on Nahariel right as Adelaide throws up her barrier. It shrieks, blasting the three with frigid air, all of which is blessedly shielded, as it vaults itself away from them and into the fray with the others.

Beside herself as she was, Nari felt neither the change in the air around her as Adelaide's barrier gathered around her, nor the blast of bone-chilling cold--although the latter was more due to the barrier. As the thing swings away from them in an unnerving arc, the hunter whips around to see if any other demons threaten Sina.

None.

She spins back towards her crumpled clansister, slips halfway there, and finishes the rest of the distance in a grasping crawl, her heart pounding between her ears louder even than the electric crackle of the Rift.

"Sina!" she repeats. Fear makes her voice low and hoarse. Urgent. Is she wounded? Had she been too late? Nari reaches out a hand to touch her shoulder, eyes growing wider, even more panicked at her glazed look, the gulps of nothing she takes like a fish on land.

And the shard... The damned shard was alight with power, crackles of light dancing across Sina's thin chest.

But no blood. No blood.

But it didn't matter. The wound was something she couldn't bandage. No no no no.

"No... NO!"

She looks over her shoulder at the crackle, the fight, and screams--the agonized sound ripping through the air roughly.

"CLOSE IT!"

"Move-" Adelaide takes the window they are given, the brief lull in the demonic attack to scramble that much closer, staff abandoned far behind. Everything she'd ever feared of the shard come alive. A rift, demons, and death- if she does not get her hands on Sina soon. No blood, no breath, and the latter is far more her concern than anything else. "I need to see her-"

She hears the feet and the command before she sees who gives it. For a brief moment, Adelaide is confronted with a snarling Dalish hellion in a ready crouch, the green light of the Rift glimmering along a wicked looking dagger clutched in a white-knuckled grip.

Nahariel is halfway into a vicious lunging strike before recognition fills her dilated eyes, and she pulls back instantly, quickly reversing her grip to turn the point away from the approaching mage.

"Adelaide--! She can't breathe!"

Edited 2016-01-27 04:26 (UTC)

"Nahariel- you need to move." A dagger and danger between her and her patient- she does not have time to calm the huntress when Sina lies gasping behind. Sense returns, thank the Maker, and she's given room to crouch next to that thin frame, that glowing beacon of he fade's power.

"Keep us covered-" Demons are fickle things, they may return at any moment. Pulling Compassion's power about her like a cloak Adelaide pours it into Sina's chest- hands hovering over that crackling shard.

The hunter hesitated for the space of a breath, eyes darting back and forth between the two mages. But she knew Adelaide. No-nonsense, firm, kind, a teacher. A healer.

A shem'len. Her brain supplied, but she tamped it down fiercely, replacing the word: Sina's only hope.

Decision made and action taken, Nahariel's demeanor changed from that of a hunted animal to the hunter. Her back straightened. She nodded seriously, and then flipped her dagger around to the front again, drawing its twin as she did so, turning to hold the line.

The demons are, at least temporarily, occupied with those actively fighting them. That may change! [STAY TUNED FOR THE NEXT EXCITING EPISODE]

Sina takes a sudden, violent gasp of breath, her body surging to life as Adelaide's spirit magic pours into her. She coughs several times, then wheezes again, a burst from her shard jolting her in a seizure-like motion, her head falling back against the dirt. Her senses are screaming; drowning, she's drowning in a green electric ocean. Her heart lurches and stops, starts again erratically, under too much stress between the power of the shard and the lack of oxygen to keep doing its job properly.

No, no- not like this. Not like this. "Breathe-"

Too much power between the shard and the rift- they need to move her further away but with the demons surrounding them it isn't possible. Adelaide doubles over the domed barrier between them and the tear in the veil- hoping it might do something, anything to save her.

Compassion sings and screams, coiling closer to Adelaide's skin as she pours more power into Sina. Forcing her lungs to breathe, her heart to beat, the pain of the shard's crackling wrath away. Too much to mind and she must do this right. Sina cannot die. Not like this. "Breathe-"

It works, at least for a moment or so. Sina heaves in another breath, sighs it out, heaves in another-- her eyelids begin to flutter open, and then the rifters make their attempt.

She has a split-second to scream as her body lurches unnaturally, her chest forward and connected to a beam of green light that leads directly to the rift. It thrums loudly, building energy, and then, like the others, it bursts with enough force to knock back not only her, but probably Adelaide too.

When Sina hits the ground again, her head lolls to one side, and she is still. Sickeningly, the shard continues to crackle and spit in her otherwise silent chest.

It seemed like both moments and days since she'd turned away to ward the demons away from the pair on the ground. The air was full of sound and fury, and her muscles were taught and ready.

And then the rift pulsed, and lances of light came from the rifters shards--or from the rift, she couldn't tell--and then Sina screames behind her, high and thin, and the shockwave of force from the rift sends her oilcloak billowing and snapping behind her.

The rift is still there.

And Sina... A scream was good, yes? It meant she could breathe, right? Nari turns around, eyes searching, widening to see the stillness. She looked at the healer, and her eyes were like a child's.

"--Adelaide?"

Edited 2016-01-27 05:52 (UTC)

Working, it was working, of course it was working they were pouring too much power into Sina for it not to work- she remains on this side of the veil, she yet lives. They will stand for no less. The spell is snapped at the shockwave from the rift, shattering her concentration, her control. She's forced back by the wild crackling power, flung to the ground, coughing and glowing blue from having Compassion so close. Her eyes were impossibly bright, voice resounding with a melodious undertone courtesy of her chosen spirit.

"We must move her from the rift-" She drags herself back to Sina, hands fluttering from her shoulders to her chest- nothing.

Nothing.

"No-" They must move her. Now. She cradles the too still elf to her chest and scrambles away from the demons, from the rift, the endless loop of no, no, Maker no, Andraste please, no- knotting up the back of her mind and her throat.

The elf stared at her for a moment, at the power glowing all around her. The color so calm, so at odds with the green. Her voice had another in it, but the harmony that swirled beneath her words did nothing to change the terrible quiet of that "no". Nor could the brightness of her eyes hide the fear in them--a mirror of the hunter's own. Nahariel felt her throat close, her heart leaden in her chest.

Move. She could move. Yes. Swiftly, she goes to Adelaide's side, sharing the painfully slight weight of Sina's body. Two can move faster than one.

And silently she prays to Andruil, who once had saved the dying Ghilan'nain. And she prays to Ghilan'nain herself, whose sweeping horns covered Sina's brow. And when she has no more words she just wants.

And mostly she carries.

Away from the rift. As far as they can manage without attracting any undue attention but like this- so tense, so focused, so quietly furious with the world and all it's flaws- any demon that turns their attention to them with intent to attack would be dealt with in the most viciously efficient manner possible.

Demons did not earn mercy. Demons did not enjoy Compassion's warmth.

Sina might, Sina will once they have moved far enough away to have the shard in her chest crackling less- to have some space to move and breathe and focus. There is no life in her. No light. No soul. And yet Adelaide cannot let it end thus. She'd sworn to do something, to mend this, to help keep Sina safe from the thing she'd never wanted. To that end she turns her hands to the slim elf again, cradling her close, voice looping over and over in a mantra that may as well be an incantation while she pours all the power Compassion has to spare into Sina. "Réveillez et de respirer, vous n'êtes pas encore terminé. Réveillez et de respirer, vous n'êtes pas encore terminé-"

Although she didn't understand the language, Nari understood the tone. She remembered. And as she stared dumbly at Adelaide bent over Sina, Compassion's power flowing from the woman's hands into her clansister's too too still form, she smelled the acrid char of burning aravels, heard the screams of her Clan, their First's--now suddenly, brutally Keeper--same urgent low murmur of "Tel din'an, hahren" over the lifeless body of Keeper Dhavihal, his blood creeping like shadow across the ground they'd called home.

The flight. The forest. The funeral rites for too many. Isen'hallan's small hand gripping her own like to crack bone. The slow and final straightening of Thalia's back as she took her place as Keeper, the stone settling into her eyes. Mala suledin nadas: Now you must endure.

And then Siuona had been born. Sina the first child of their new home, whose birth meant repair, whose infant babbling had filled the hollow sorrow. Sina who had chosen Ghillan'nain, who had put her small hand on the velvet noses of their few remaining halla and smiled just like Dhavihal had. Sina who had reminded them that there could still be good things.

Sina, still so small, lying still as stone in the rain.

Nahariel felt a scream building inside her like wind, every muscle in her body tensing as she watched.

Edited 2016-01-27 21:18 (UTC)

All was dark and numb. An endless grey ocean in which Sina had been submerged and was sinking steadily, comfortably, her breath no longer troubling her as she no longer had need of it.
She was lighter than air, floating downward into an endless abyss, becoming warmer and more peaceful by the second. She worried about nothing, she thought nothing.

And then a bright beacon rippled through the water in front of her, glaring into her eyes, painfully engaging all her senses. She attempted to turn away, but hands had wrenched her by the shoulders, pulling her up, up, mercilessly back towards the surface. Sina became aware once again of the screaming pain in her chest, moments before the white figure dragged her head above the water and she wheezed in a breath that felt like knives.

Her physical body jolted and she gasped, exhaling with a whine of anguish, her eyelids fluttering open and then squeezing closed again without having seen anything.

"-vous n'êtes pas encore terminé- Sina?" Breathing. She's breathing, her heart beats, she lives. Pain crackles between the shard and Sina's heart, raking across Compassion like so many knives. That she can fix- they can fix. Glowing hands over the glowing shard Adelaide pours her focus into the flesh and bone and blood under Sina's skin. Much like Felix at the end with the Blight it is difficult. The shard is powerful. The energy unfamiliar. She cannot soothe and mend faster than the damage is done.

That does not mean she stops trying. It simply means she can spare her focus for nothing else, the whole of her narrowed down to a single task.

Keep Sina breathing, keep the pain at bay. "Wake up, petite, we have you-"

When Sina took a breath, even one filled with agony, Nari's knees nearly buckled in relief. Not gone, she wasn't gone. Adelaide and Compassion were winning.

But she wasn't safe yet.

The hunter looked around with renewed vigor, senses stretched to the limit. Any demon that found them would find her and her blades first.

Sina hears a voice speaking nonsense, and she pulls in another shallow breath, whimpering on the exhale. She is awake, but blind and senseless with pain, the cursed shard still crackling away, heedless of its living host.
Her face is wet with rain and tears, ghostly pale. Her thin hand grips the nearest limb or bunch of fabric, the only thing keeping her from sinking again.

Pain is easier to manage than dragging someone back from the brink- Adelaide bundles Sina close, shielding her from the rain and the rift with her own body- Compassion curling around and through her to reach their charge. "Breathe, we have you."

More than her and Nari- Compassion just as invested in this small, fragile soul.

It had all happened suddenly, and without warning.

One moment all was fine - and then in the next there was the thunderous crack of something splitting open and people were screaming and fleeing. Bruce himself had been caught by surprise at the initial suddenness of everything, but once the surprise at passed he scrambled to go around and help however he could.

It wasn't easy. The demons were vicious and the civilians were too panicked to be rational. Bruce did his best to help, but with so many of the Inquisition off in Emprise du Lion things were not as easy as they could be.

But eventually, though, he managed, and once most of the civilians were rounded up Bruce hurried over to where the main action was. Left and right were familiar(ish) faces battling the demons, and in the thick of it all--

"Leblanc--" Bruce is rushing to where he sees her, mind whirling as he registers her with the elves - with Sina, in particular. For a moment he thinks the worse has happened to her, but the faint rise and fall of her chest shows otherwise and there is relief.

He glances towards Adelaide, expression concerned and harried. "We should get her out of here."

This time, when more footsteps approached, Nari had enough wit about her to not turn on them swinging like a rabid beast. Which was good, because this one she didn't know--although he exuded the same calm intense energy as Adelaide. She thought she'd seen him in the garden once or twice in passing. Another healer then?

Either way, the suggestion was a good one. In the back of her mind, the hunter wondered what distance away from a demon was considered 'safe'... or if their very existence tore ragged holes in the word.

There weren't too many structures that would offer protection from the elements, but...

"The barn?" she asked. "Farther away, would provide some cover. Could move there quickly with three."

"We can't leave her. The spell will break." And they do not know what that might do to her to lose their soothing power. What breath she would lose, what the shard might do. Eyes narrowed, hands steady she stood as best she could, arms still clasped tight against Sina, glow pouring from her into their patient.

"We're not leaving anybody," Bruce quickly assured Adelaide. It would be foolish to, what with the demons around and all the fighting going on, but staying out here was also dangerous. "I can carry her--" he glances towards the other elf for a moment then before continuing, "--and we can move her to the barn, like what she suggests."

He could tell that Adelaide was exhausted from using her powers to help Sina, and the other elf probably couldn't manage it on her own either. Bruce himself wasn't the most built of people too, but he could at least manage carrying one small, frail elf for a short period of time.

[OPEN] holes in the sky, pierced by the fire

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)