Ar Vir

Never had anything gone so wrong so fast in Lathalam's life.



One moment, she was sharing a mug of ale, flushed in the cheeks and high off of victory and accolades showered on her by her companions. The next moment, they were fighting for their lives against horrors beyond her imagination. People were screaming from all sides, burning in the fires or run through with blades. Warm blood and snow had mixed into a slurry that the hard ground refused to take in, black, acrid smoke rose into the night sky. Surely, this was just a nightmare?



Lathalam all but threw Adan into the chantry as Chancellor Roderick was brought in by the boy who had come to warn them of the Templars' attack. She was no surgeon, but she could tell from the amount of blood staining his white robes that he wasn't going to live much longer.



Her eyes stayed on the wooden doors, listening to the shouts from outside. Her hands balled into fists, the air around her warming as though a summer's breeze were coming from the back of the chantry.



"The Pilgrim's path..." Roderick, gasped, the pain momentarily dazing him. "You wouldn't know unless you had come during the summer months. She must have shown me. Andraste must have shown me so I could... tell you."



Lathalam nodded, her jaw tensing. The others felt the heat gathering around her as her rage built like a storm. "Lead them to safety." Her words were barely above a whisper, but the others nodded.



"Someone will have to cover our escape." Cullen approached Lathalam from behind, putting a hand on her shoulder.



"Go." She stayed as still as a statue. "Get them to safety." Cullen nodded as Cole took Roderick, helping him to stand as he fled with the others.



Her companions all stepped forward, forming around her to offer their assistance. Lathalam took only a moment to choose.



"Solas, Bull, Varric; with me. The rest of you," She turned her head, looking back to where the rest of her companions stood, grim faces all. "Kill anything that tries to stop you."



They nodded, none commenting on what they saw as she turned her eyes on them.



As soon as the doors were open, Lathalam sprinted out, her long legs eating up the distance in great strides to the first of the trebuchets. A large group of Red Templars had cornered the operator as Lathalam reached up and called down a bolt of lightening to strike the templars where they stood. The operator shielded her eyes from the flash as everything living around her was roasted alive, their ashes blowing away in the wind.



She said nothing as the operator aimed her trebuchet, turning a wooden wheel that rotated the base of the weapon into position. Solas watched the Herald, keenly aware of the rage boiling just below the surface. She burned brightly as she cast spell after spell, fire and lightening raining down on those close enough for her to see. Steam seemed to be rising around her and as Solas watched, her boots melted the snow where she stepped.



One of the horrors sprinted through the veil of a smoke bomb, his daggers aimed directly at Lathalam's chest. She brought up her staff, blocking the blades before kicking her leg out and sending the horror sliding down the hill toward his comrades. She motioned as one would to roll a log down a hill and a wave of ice rose to freeze everything at the bottom of the hill solid.



Varric, sensing an opportunity, loaded an exploding bolt into Bianca and fired, blowing the frozen templars to pieces. Bull, shouting as though he were having the time of his life, had been herding the templars like sheep into Lathalam's line of sight, laughing as they were dispatched with which ever spell she chose to use.



The first trebuchet finely fired, sending a flaming boulder into the bulk of the invading force yet to breech the walls. "Bet they felt that one. Get to the other trebuchet. It isn't firing."



"Will do," Varric shouted over the noise of battle. "You get to the chantry and out the back."



The operator fired off a salute before sprinting toward the chantry doors. Lathalam took off as fast as she could, out the gates and along the frozen lake shore to the last trebuchet. The area around was swarming with templars. Lathalam gave nothing more than a look to Iron Bull before he charged head long into the bulk of the force, scattering them with a swing of Hayder's Razor, taking two of the templars out in one blow. The templars seemed to have been aiming the trebuchet toward the chantry before they were interrupted.



Lathalam got on the aiming wheel and started bringing it back around. The task was arduous and twice she had to hop off the wheel to assist her companions in taking out waves of templars, each more horrifying that the last. One of them looked as though it were carved from red lyrum and animated. One hand had been made into a flail and it shook the ground as Iron Bull lept out of the way of it.



Varric shot the thing multiple times in the face, however all it succeeded in doing was drawing it's attention to the dwarf. Iron Bull took advantage of the distraction to come around to the beast's rear. He got a running start and leaped, bringing his great sword down between it's head and shoulder, using his weight to force the blade through the lyrum, the beast convulsing once before toppling over.



The bulk of the force seemed to be occupied elsewhere as they recovered from the battle. "Get back to the chantry!" Lathalam hopped back onto the aiming wheel of the trebuchet, muscling it into position.



"Herald!"



"No arguing!" Lathalam's voice was strained with the effort, the trebuchet almost into position. "If you die here," Lathalam grunted as she turned the wheel again. "I will find your corpse," she took a deep breath. "and piss on it!"



The three simply nodded as they ran back the way they had come. Lathalam watched them go, the rage that had fueled her magic fading away as the weight of what she was doing hit her square in the chest. She tried not to let fear paralyze her, yet her hands still shook as she turned the wheel the rest of the way to get the trebuchet into firing position.



A roar from above startled her from her task. She was so focused on her task that she had completely forgotten about the dragon harassing Haven and had barely dove out of the way in time to avoid being hit by what ever the beast had breathed out of it's mouth. No sooner had she landed on the ground, she was thrown as fuel for the flaming boulders exploded. She landed on her back, hear head ringing, disoriented and running on the barest hint of adrenaline.



As she rose to her feet, she came face to face with nightmares on both sides of her. Lathalam fought not to panic. "World Breaker..." she whispered, staring into the face of the great black dragon that had cut off her escape.

---

The survivors from Haven had found shelter in an alcove sheltered from the rest of the mountain by large over hangs of rock. Liliana had taken a pair of her spy glasses and pointed them toward Haven. The group, already exhausted form their escape fell to the snow. Some openly wept, others preyed that this was not the start of another blight.



Liliana moved her head slightly, watching the tall figure that had stepped out of the flames. "A talking darkspawn?"



"May I?" Solas held out his hand toward the looking glass Liliana had in her hands. She nodded and handed them to the elder elf.



Solas put them to his face, blinking his eyes until they adjusted to the lenses. His eyes widened at the orb the tall darkspawn took from a satchel at his side. He watched in fascinated horror as the darkspawn used the orb to attempt to extract the anchor from the Herald's hand. From what he could see of her face, the process was excruciating. But the creature seemed to have trouble and so he brought all of his will to bear, the orb glowing with greater intensity.



The entire group looked toward Haven as a scream was ripped from the Herald, loud enough to cause the snow on the mountain sides to rumble.



"What the hell was that," Varric came to the ledge, looking back at Haven.



"We have to signal, now."



"With the Herald still down there, Solas? Are you sure?"



Solas nodded, watching as Varric loaded a signal flare into Bianca. He seemed to hesitate a moment, then pulled the trigger.



At first, it seemed that the signal had come too late. Solas watched as the darkspawn holding the orb tossed Lathalam into the trebuchet. He winced as he watched her crumple to the base. The creature spoke again, motioning for it's dragon to end Lathalam's life. Instead, she kicked the release lever on the trebuchet.



Solas gasped as he realized that the boulder would hit within meters of their position. "Brace yourselves!" Solas sprinted from the ledge, everyone following to get as far away as possible as the boulder exploded against the mountain side, unleashing an avalanche that roared past them.



The survivors cautiously approached the ledge when the roar had subsided, peering into the icy haze. Haven was no where to be found and neither was the dark spawn or his dragon.



Everyone seemed to have the same thought as they looked at each other, the color gone from their faces. We killed the Herald...