⇀ Prologue.
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Nimue Lavellan and the Inquisition, with the help of the rebel mages planned to finally close the breach in the sky spilling demons out of it.
She took a deep breath, taking one last look at the people around her, not yet sure of her fate when she closes the hole in the sky, but nonetheless she steps up to it, knowing to save the world she has to do this.
The mark on her hand glowed bright green as she slowly approached the breech, when she did Cassandra yells out, "Mages!"
"Focus past the Herald, let her will draw from you!" Solas yells out, raising his staff.
Nimue, The Herald of Andraste, holds her marked hand up to the breach and focuses all of her power into successfully closing the hole in the sky as the mages helped out.
After several minutes the breech closes, forcing Nimue and some of the surrounding mages flying towards the ground, everyone slowly standing up after.
Cassandra comes walking over to her with a smile, "You did it."
"I did, didn't I?" She says with a proud smile on her face.
The mages and the inquisition, along with the Herald of Andraste make their way back to Haven for a much earned celebration.
Nimue stood staring out at the Frostback Mountains as it snowed, the party continuing on around her as she watched.
Suddenly Cassandra's voice comes from behind her saying, "Solas confirmed the heavens are scarred but calm. The breach is sealed. We've reports of lingering rifts, and many questions remain, but this was a victory. Word of your heroism has spread."
"You know how many were involved Cassandra. Luck just put me at the center. We all did this." Nimue says to her.
"A strange kind of luck. I'm not sure if we need more or less. But you're right, this was a victory of alliance. One of the few in recent memory. With the breach closed, that alliance will need a new focus." Cassandra says before bells start ringing.
Off in the distance you can see everyone scrambling, the lights of many torches approaching them, the voice of Cullen yelling out, "Forces approaching! To arms!"
"What the...? We must get to the gates!" Cassandra yells, pulling out her sword before rushing off before Nimue can even process the situation.
Finally she snaps into action and runs towards the gates as well, meeting up with Cassandra, Cullen, Leliana and Josephine.
"Cullen?" Cassandra questions.
"One watchgaurd reporting it's a massive force. The bulk over the mountain." Cullen replies.
"Under what banner?" Josephine asks.
"None..." Cullen says.
"None?" Josephine asks again.
Suddenly there's a banging on the door before a voice says, "I can't come in unless you open!"
Nimue looks around at them before rushing up to the gates, the guard opening them as she observes the Templar getting stabbed in the back.
The next thing she sees is a man in an oversized hat, two daggers in his hands as he approached them, pointing to her as he says, "I'm Cole. I came to warn you, to help. People are coming to hurt you. You probably already know."
"What is this? What's going on?" Nimue asks confused, fear flashing in her big brown eyes.
"The Templars come to kill you." Cole says.
"Templars? Is this the Order's response to our talks with the mages? Attacking blindly?" Cullen asks the man loudly, frightening him a bit.
"The red Templars went to the Elder One. You know him? He knows you. You took his mages. There." Cole says as he points to a man standing on a rock.
Nimue gulps, feeling her heartbeat pounding in her chest as she tries to process this whole thing before Cullen says, "I know that man... but this Elder One?"
"He's very angry that you took his mages..." Cole says.
Nimue takes a deep breath before looking towards Cullen, "Uh, Cullen, give me a plan. Anything!"
"Haven is no fortress. If we are to withstand this monster, we must control the battle. Get out there and hit that force, use everything you can!" Cullen says to her, pointing to the trebuchet's, "Mages, you have sanction to engage them! That is Samson, he will not make it easy! Inquisition! With the Herald! For your lives! For all of us!"
Nimue takes a deep breath before grabbing her two daggers on her back before she runs towards the trebuchet followed by Cassandra, Sera and Iron Bull.
Once they arrive at the trebuchet everyone starts fighting to kill the red Templars, defending the trebuchet so it doesn't get damaged and can fire.
"Almost ready! Keep them off us!" The soldier manning the trebuchet yells.
"Another group of them from the right!" Iron Bull calls out to the other three.
They all continue fighting, quickly taking down the small group of Templars before the next group approach them.
"Keep them back! We're ready to fire!" The soldier yells again.
"Enemies to the left!" Nimue calls out, the four attacking the Templars after.
It doesn't take long for them to defeat the enemies before they rush back to where the trebuchet is, it firing not long after.
"They felt that! We'll reload, get to the other trebuchet, it's not firing!" The soldier yells to them.
"Alright, we're on it!" Nimue yells as the four start running to the south trebuchet.
When they make it to the trebuchet they immediately start taking down the Templar forces surrounding it, quickly thinning them out.
Once they've defeated them all Nimue runs up the stairs to turn the wheel on the trebuchet, "Watch my back! I'll get this firing."
"More incoming! Keep them off the trebuchet." Iron Bull calls out.
Nimue turns the wheel of the trebuchet while her allies fight the forces starting to slowly surround them again, turning it as fast as she can.
The waves of Templar soldiers get to be too much for her companions to handle on their own so she rushes to help them, the four working together to defeat the men around them.
"We've got time! Crew the trebuchet, start firing!" Cassandra tells to Nimue.
She does as she's told, heading back up the stairs and turning the wheel until her arms feel like jelly, trying to get it firing as quickly as possible.
It finally fires and she stops for a moment to take a breath, watching as it hits the mountain in the horizon causing an avalanche that takes down the forces still approaching in the mountains.
A horn blows and everyone starts to cheer before a dragon swoops in and starts shooting red fire at their trebuchet's.
"Oh sweet maker... a dragon?!" Nimue cries out, looking towards her allies, "Everyone to the gates!"
The four then start running for Haven's gates as fast as they can, Nimue's heart beating like a bass drum in her chest as she tries to not panic about the situation.
On the way the four help some of Haven's people get to safety, arriving at the gates and rushing in as Cullen yells, "Move it! Move it!"
"We need everyone back at the chantry! It's the only building that might hold against that beast! At this point, just make them work for it!" Cullen yells once they're in the gates.
"Come on, we have to help!" Nimue says to the other three as they start running through Haven.
On the way to the chantry the four help everyone of the towns people that they can, rushing everyone to get into the chantry safely.
"Good work Herald, protect the Chantry!" Cassandra yells.
After helping everyone the Inquisition regroups at the chantry, everyone shutting the door behind them once they're in the doors.
"Move! Keep going! The chantry is your shelter." A man yells, soon falling before the man named Cole catches him.
The Herald looks at Cole and the man as he helps him to a place he can sit, "He tried to stop a templar. The blade went deep, he's going to die."
"What a charming boy." The man says, his breathing raspy.
"Herald! Our position is not good. That dragon stole back any time you might have earned us." Cullen says to her with a sigh.
"I've seen an archdemon. I was in the fade, but it looked like that." Cole says.
"I don't care what it looks like! It has cut a path for that army, they'll kill everyone in Haven!" Cullen yells.
"The Elder One doesn't care about the village, he only wants the Herald." Cole says.
Nimue takes a deep breath, bravely saying, "I'd gladly sacrifice myself to save Haven. Why does he want me?"
"I do not know. He's too loud. It hurts to hear him. He wants to kill you. No one else matters but he'll crush them, kill them anyway. I don't like him." Cole says, shaking his head.
"You don't like...?" Cullen starts with a sigh, "Herald, there are no tactics to make this survivable. The only thing that slowed them is the avalanche. We could turn the remaining trebuchet's, cause one last slide."
"We're overrun... to hit the enemy, we'd bury Haven." Nimue says to him.
"We're dying, but we can decide how. Many don't get that choice." Cullen says to her.
She pauses, thinking this through before Cole says, "Yes, that. Chancellor Roderick can help. He wants to say it before he dies."
"There is a path. You wouldn't know it unless you'd made the summer pilgrimage, as I have. The people can escape. She must have shown me. Andraste must have shown me so I could... tell you." Chancellor Roderick says to her.
"What do you mean Roderick?" Nimue asks.
"It was whim that I walked the path. I did not mean to start - the path was overgrown. Now with so many in the conclave dead to be the only one who remembers... I don't know, Herald." He continues, "If this simple memory can save us, this could be more than mere accident. You could be more."
"What about it Cullen? Will it work?" Nimue asks.
"Possibly, if he shows us the path. But what of your escape?" Cullen asks her.
Nimue stands there silently, not knowing what's going to happen to her before Cullen speaks up again, "Perhaps you will surprise it, find a way."
Cullen then walks off before yelling, "Inquisition! Follow Chancellor Roderick through the chantry, move!"
"Herald, if you are meant for this, if the inquisition is meant for this, I pray for you." The Chancellor says before they head out.
"They'll load the trebuchet's, keep the Elder One's attention until we're above the tree line. If we are to have a chance, if you are to have a chance, let that thing hear you." Cullen says before walking off.
Nimue takes a deep breath before she grabs her daggers from her back and head outside the chantry doors, Cassandra, Sera, and Iron Bull hot on her tail.
Once she's made it to the trebuchet she rushed up to it and starts cranking the wheel to get it to turn as her allies fend off the wave of enemies threatening to stop them.
After she's spun it awhile she stops to help her friends finish off the remaining enemies before she's back at the trebuchet, cranking the wheel again as more enemies file in.
"These will put up a fight!" Iron Bull calls out.
Nimue grabs her daggers again rushing to help her allies with the tougher enemies, each wave seeming to get harder and harder to fight off.
In between each of the waves Nimue rushes to aim the trebuchet as her allies try to keep everyone off of her so she can complete her task as quickly as possible.
Suddenly the lyriam consumed Knight Captain Denem starts attacking the four of them and they do everything they can to quickly defeat him before Nimue can continue on with aiming the trebuchet.
Once they've killed him Nimue finishes aiming the trebuchet as the dragon flys over their heads as she yells, "Move, now!"
Nimue's allies start to run away, the dragon blocking the elf from following them and knocking her flat on her back, the girl is sure this is going to be her end.
Suddenly the Elder One comes walking through the flames and towards Nimue as the dragon blocks her only escape from the situation.
"Enough!" The Elder One yells, "Pretender, you toy with forces beyond your ken, no more."
"What are you? Why are you doing this?" Nimue calls out to him.
"Mortals beg for the truth they cannot have. It is beyond what you are, what I was. Know me, know what you pretended to be. Exalt the Elder One! The will that is Corypheus! You will kneel." He says to her, pointing as he does.
"Why are you here? You haven't even asked for anything!" Nimue says to him, confused as to why he's even here.
"I ask for nothing, because it is not in your power to give. But that will not stop me. I am here for the anchor. The process of removing it begins now." Corypheus says.
Nimue's hand starts to throb and glow green, a sharp pain emitting through her whole arm, the Elder One calling out, "It is your fault 'Herald' you interrupted a ritual years in the planning. And instead of dying, you stole it's purpose. I do not know how you survived, but what marks you as 'touched' what you flail at rifts, I crafted to assault the very heavens."
A sharp pain goes through her hand as she screams, falling on her knees to the ground, "And you used the anchor to undo my work! The gall!"
"What is this thing meant to do?" She calls out, clutching her hand.
"It is meant to bring certainty where there is none. For you, the certainty that I would always come for it." Corypheus walks over to her before picking her up by her left arm, holding her in the air, "I once breached the fade in the name of another, to serve the old gods of the empire in person. I found only chaos and corruption. Dead whispers. For thousands of years I was confused, no more. I have gathered the will to return under no name but my own, to champion withered Tevinter and correct this blighted world. Beg that I succeed, for I have seen the throne of the gods, and it was empty!"
Once he's finished his speech he throws Nimue roughly at the trebuchet, the girl screaming out in pain as her mark throbs, still glowing green.
"The anchor is permanent. You have spoiled it with your stumbling. So be it. I will begin again, find another way to give this world the nation - and god - it requires." Corypheus says as he approaches Nimue with his Dragon.
Nimue stands up and grabs a sword that's near her feet, a deep breath as she awaits the flare saying everyone is safe.
"And you, I will not suffer even an unknowing rival. You must die." He finishes.
Nimue knows she won't go down without a fight, she can't, so she holds the sword in her hand high as she yells at him, "You expect us to surrender and kneel, we will not! You'll face us all, when we choose!"
After her short speech and the flare being noticeable in the sky, she kicks the handle on the trebuchet, it firing quickly after and causing a second avalanche.
While he's distracted she takes off the other way, running to get out of the area where the avalanche is about to hit, the dragon then picks up Corypheus and flies off to safety.
Tripping Nimue falls into a hole in the ground, the girl hitting the floor so hard that it knocks the wind out of her body, the girl finding herself in some sort of cave.
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HAVEN HAS FALLEN.
I hope you enjoyed the
pretty long prologue!
I'm so excited to start this
story, Cole is my precious
little baby!
Chapter one will
be out shortly!
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