I am Lena Wolf, Lena's life as it happens Options

[Renee]

19 Hearthfire, 4E202 - Goblins

Yikes, they are indeed in a mage guild infested with goblins, foul little beasts, I hate the things! Are Dune/Elsweyr goblins different from Cyrodiil goblins? 👺

Ah, an errant mage seems to blame. Messing with teleportation portals in catacombs and such. Tsk tsk.

Exactly, that stupid Dwemer Puzzle box, took ages to find the darn thing. Because the entire time, we're looking for some sort of puzzle involved (at least I was). Meanwhile, the box is right there on a shelf, in plain sight.

Whoa, she hears the conversation she had two centuries before with Uriel in this dungeon, that's chilling.

Yet Baurus thought I was an assassin, judging by the way I moved, he said. It didn't make sense to me at all. I was sixteen years old, I had a rusty dagger and could throw a fireball. I was nothing. And the Emperor trusted me with the Amulet of Kings."

An assassin, wow. Nice to see which tools Lena picked up in the tutorial, where it all began. I love this entire conversation between she and Hauk.

"No, but I won't stand in your way if you wish to leave." Lena's glance wasn't hostile, it was indifferent. Hauk turned around and disappeared through the nearest door. Lena stood alone in an ancient structure of once white stone swallowed by luminous mist. "I am an assassin" - she said aloud.

Oh my gosh.

http://chorrol.com/forums/index.php?s=&...st&p=341531

[Lena Wolf]

Yikes, they are indeed in a mage guild infested with goblins, foul little beasts, I hate the things! Are Dune/Elsweyr goblins different from Cyrodiil goblins? 👺

No, they are the same goblins, mostly. I might have altered a few for those dungeons but generally they are the same.

Whoa, she hears the conversation she had two centuries before with Uriel in this dungeon, that's chilling.

Yet Baurus thought I was an assassin, judging by the way I moved, he said. It didn't make sense to me at all. I was sixteen years old, I had a rusty dagger and could throw a fireball. I was nothing. And the Emperor trusted me with the Amulet of Kings."

An assassin, wow. Nice to see which tools Lena picked up in the tutorial, where it all began.

I remember I was quite surprised when Baurus suggested it... every single time I played the tutorial... I guess it says something about my playing style.

[Lena Wolf]

Midyear, 3E411 - Nunca me perderás

Anders collapsed mid-casting.

"What..?" Dorian knelt over him. "Not dead... then what?" He checked his pulse, touched his forehead... there didn't seem to be anything wrong with Anders, except that he was somehow knocked out. Dorian carried him over to a quiet corner and stayed with him, casting spells from where he stood. This was the second time that Dorian regretted never having studied blood magic seriously.

...

"Spite?" Anders looked around. He was standing on a misty mire and something was tugging at his soul. "Spite?" He called again. "Determination!" But there was no response, just more tugging. "Trouble," Anders decided. "So, what do I do now..?"

The mire was in the Fade, that much was clear, but why was he there? What happened? Whose Fade was that, even? He looked around, the place felt strangely familiar... Yes... The Black Marsh... it was the Black Marsh where they met that witch... the baroness... no, not a witch... an abomination... a Pride Demon abomination... they somehow entered the Fade... there was a fight and the baroness forced everyone back to Mundus... everyone, including one spirit that did not belong in Mundus... Justice... That was the place where Anders first met Justice, where Justice found himself possessing a corpse of a fallen Grey Warden, Kristoff... Yes... Anders paced about... it was all coming back to him... "This is my Fade," he realised. "But Justice isn't here... it's not about Justice... it's about Spite..." He felt another tug at his soul, as if something or someone was confirming his thoughts. "He is in trouble," Anders realised. "Lucanis is in trouble..!"

The mist was hovering low over the water of the mire, it was hard to see anything through it, hard to make out where to step... There were rocks, patches of grass, dirt, water, sand... "Got to see what's about," Anders decided, trying not to step into the water. "Last time... last time there was a portal over there... and corpses all over the place..." He peered into the low mist... and saw corpses rise from the ground. They were still corpses, they didn't come alive... yet... he shook his head and turned away - the Fade was showing him what he expected to see. "Got to find what doesn't belong here," he nodded to himself. "That mansion... is it as I remember it?" An abandoned mansion stood behind a stone wall, he could just see the upper balcony rising behind it. There used to be an entrance through the basement somewhere... and a great gate to the gardens, locked. Was it still the same? He decided to try the gate first, but it was still locked. "No way to get through that," he shook his head. "Just like last time..." he sighed. Last time the basement was a trap, the spirits wanted them dead. "Got to find Spite..." Anders kept pacing about. "Where would he be..? What happened? Why do I feel I've got to hurry..?" Panic was rising in him, he could not see clearly, the mist seemed to thicken, to cover more ground, to confuse him more and more...

There... something seemed to glow under the mist... It wasn't in the mansion, it was out in the clearing... that clearing... of course...

The clearing was littered with darkspawn corpses.

"That's different..." Anders stopped. "No, wait... the mansion is of no importance... it is this place... this was where we found Kristoff's body..." He looked closely at the corpses - one of them would not be darkspawn but a man... "Luca..!" Anders dropped to his knees - he found a man's body, exactly where Kristoff lay back then, but now it was Lucanis, and he was dead. A red cloud was hovering over him, making him appear as a vision inside the mist. "Luca..!" Anders did not bother suppressing his tears. He pressed his hands to Lucanis' chest, but it was much too late for heart compressions... the heart inside that chest was silent.

...

Anders didn't know how long he'd been sitting by Lucanis' body, not able to shake off an overwhelming feeling of grief. It was eating at his soul, it was consuming him from within, it was as if... "As if a demon is holding me here," Anders suddenly realised. He was in the Fade, the body of Lucanis was but an illusion... "Which demon?" Anders wondered, forcing himself to rise and walk away from the body. "Either Sloth or Despair..." Either of them was bad news. He would have to kill the demon to return to Mundus, but there was something else... something important... something that he couldn't quite put his finger on... why was he brought there in the first place? Surely, there was a reason... It seemed he'd spent years there already, he could not remember when or how he got there...

"Remember," a voice said inside his head and he felt a tug at his soul.

"Remember... what?"

"Siempre estas conmigo..." Lucanis' voice said in his head. "You're always with me..."

"Spite!" Memories came flooding back to Anders. Spite now looked like him, and may be there was more to it than just looks... It took some powerful magic to change Spite's appearance from that of Lucanis to Anders. "Always with me..." Anders repeated and tugging at his soul renewed. Lucanis had to make so many choices... He first had to accept Spite as a part of him, or die. He accepted Spite, accepted living as an abomination, always having this spirit inside him, never having a private moment entirely to himself... And then Anders and their affair... Was that love or just curiosity? And if it was really love, then would it displace his love for Mathilda? Or would they co-exist? Why was he even attracted to this man, to this mage, who was in so many ways the exact opposite of Lucanis? But something moved Lucanis to act out of character and to accept this affair without question or analysis, to let it unfold, to follow where it would lead... Yes, it was love, he decided. And no, his love for Mathilda did not die. Not when he wanted to brush it aside, not when he thought the demon had killed it. It recovered every time again, it was still there, the flame might die down for a time, but the embers were always hot, rekindling the flame again. He loved a woman that no longer existed... a woman that changed so much that she was no longer the same person to him. It was love that went nowhere, that only existed in his soul, and yet it refused to die. Then what of Anders? His ways were so different, he was a healer, he gave life while Lucanis took it. He took a risk with Anders... a gay romance was not something Lucanis had ever envisaged, and yet there it was, he started it and Anders picked it up. But Lucanis always knew that, as bright as their passion was burning, it was only temporary. It was new and strange and exciting for both of them, it had both depth and strength, and yet it could not displace Anders' prior attachment just as it could not displace that of Lucanis. Anders may not have understood it, but Lucanis had done: Dorian. Dorian was more than a friend, no matter how hard they were trying to convince themselves to the opposite; Lucanis saw all the signs. But at the same time Anders became a part of Lucanis, just as Spite was now a part of him, just as Mathilda of his youth became a part of him when he refused to let go of the memory. Anders was what stood between Lucanis and death so many times, Anders was the one person who saw his suicide attempts for what they were and quietly reversed them, Anders was the reason Lucanis was still alive... and once Lucanis saw it, it was only natural that Spite would look like Anders. Siempre conmigo... Always with me. "Spite!" Anders exclaimed again, running back to the corpse of Lucanis lying on the clearing. It wasn't a corpse and it wasn't Lucanis - it was Spite, back in Lucanis' form, and dying. Spirits could die, and if Spite were to die, he would take Lucanis with him.

"Siempre contigo," Anders knelt by Lucanis' body, placing his hands on the chest as if for compressions. "Siempre contigo... Always with you... Memories never leave us." He closed his eyes remembering that night when Lucanis' spirit was fighting a demon in the Fade while his body was dying in Mundus, he'd had a cardiac arrest, and Anders kept his heart going, kept massaging it, kept the body from crossing that line from where it could no longer recover. "Spite will not die for as long as Lucanis' soul sustains it," he thought. "But since they are merged, it won't take long for the soul to wither away... This happened before," He opened his eyes with a start. "Illario's red lyrium pin... It had nearly killed Spite and made Lucanis collapse, and then Lucanis had to accept living as an abomination, or else his soul would wither away... exactly like now... except... he had already accepted that..." Anders sighed and shook his head. What else was there to accept? "Accept him fully..." He realised. "They aren't that different, Spite and Lucanis, and now they have to merge, or else Spite will die, and Lucanis with him. But Lucanis isn't here... he is in Mundus, knocked out, and there is no time to talk it through... So what do I do..? Why am I here..?"

He looked at the form of Lucanis on the ground. If that was Spite, then why did he change his form? Perhaps Lucanis did not love him, Anders, anymore... but somehow that seemed unlikely. "Am I just being selfish?" Anders smirked to himself. The proof of that seemed to be before him. The mist on the clearing was starting to freeze, the cold was getting under his clothes, creeping towards Anders' heart... what was the point of it all? If Lucanis wanted to die, then who was Anders to stop him? A blizzard rose around him, etching that thought in his mind and erasing all else. Death would be sweet, indeed.

...

"I am you and you are not dead," Anders heard a hissing voice inside his head. "He needs you... we both do..."

"A demon..." Anders shook his head, his movements sluggish, frozen. "Despair. Despair is when you stop fighting, when you give up, when nothing matters any longer... but may be it still does..." He got up and looked around. The blizzard was coming from further away, was that an iceberg? A giant icicle? A rock covered in ice? A rune stone... a summoning circle... Anders suddenly rememebered. There was a summoning circle back in Black Marsh, back in the real world, and it seemed there was one in this Fade as well... "I cannot fight a Despair Demon," he realised. "Not strong enough... never was..." he sighed. "But if that demon is sustained by the circle... well... that's worth a shot..."

Targeting runestones seemed to have an effect and the blizzard let up. The air was still freezing and the cold was still creeping under the collar and up the sleeves, but it was no longer hugging Anders' heart.

No vento que lanca a areia no vidro
Na água que canta, no fogo mortiço...

An old song from another lifetime floated in the air. >>> Listen to the song

Eu sei, meu amor, que nem chegaste a partir
Pois tudo em meu redor...

The song died down again.

"Estás sempre comigo!" Anders exclaimed, completing the verse and turning the song around. His lover wasn't dead! It wasn't a farewell! That song had a completely different meaning!

A few fireballs took care of the runes in the summoning circle. The blizzard died down and the freezing cold started to melt. The demon wasn't defeated but it was gone for the moment, and that was good enough. Anders ran back to where Lucanis' body lay... his lover. No, he wasn't his lover any longer... and that didn't make any difference.

"Spite! Determination!" He called, placing his hands on the chest of the spirit corpse again. "You are me and I am you!" If Spite had been a mortal of flesh and blood, Anders would have slit his wrist and given him some of his life force. But Spite was a spirit... and Anders had no idea how to heal a spirit. "I grant you a gate to my soul..." His heart jolted when he said that... He was letting a spirit touch his soul again, it was Justice all over... but he was out of options.

"I am not Justice..." He heard Spite hiss in his head. "I won't stay... not with you..."

Anders closed his eyes. It was out of his hands now, it was between Spite and Lucanis... He felt a tug at his soul as Spite touched him taking sustenance and then leaving. No, that spirit was not going to stay, that spirit already had a host...

...

The air on the clearing started warming up with the mist rising and dissolving, and even something resembling a sun ray appeared in the sky.

"You came for me," Anders heard a familiar voice. "Again."

"Always," he smiled, watching Lucanis take a deep breath and sit up.

"Where are we?" He looked around. "I... feel different."

"It is the Fade, of course," Anders looked around, it was still the same place, looking much more welcoming now. "This is where I met Justice, all those years ago. Spite brought me here, or may be Spite followed me here... because of what this place meant to me. How do you feel?"

"Like you are inside me," Lucanis rubbed his chest. "In my heart."

"In your soul, may be, a little," Anders smiled. "And Spite?"

"He... is you... he is here, yet he is no more..."

"Then it worked. He is a part of you now, you are no longer possessed."

"How did you do that?" Lucanis squinted, not sure what to think of such a merger.

"I didn't do it..." Anders slowly shook his head. "I promised you not to interfere... back then, on the balcony in Minrathous. I only allowed Spite to take what he needed from me... but it was you who let him in."

"Because he was you and you were there already," Lucanis nodded. "Well... my friend..."

"My love..." Anders moved closer and took Lucanis in an embrace.

"My love... aye..." Lucanis smiled. "I do love you, I didn't lie. Which is why we are just friends now..."

"I become a memory like Mathilda..." Anders' voice fell.

"Not like Mathilda," Lucanis shook his head. "I want you to be happy. Really happy. And that won't be with me. Dorian was ready to do the same... for me. But no... that isn't right, we both know that. I shall be happy to watch you being happy with him. This is not like Mathilda. You and I have a talking gem," he smiled.

"We keep in touch," Anders smiled too.

"We don't lose each other. Nunca me perderás."

They had to leave before the demon returned, but there was still time for a kiss - the one thing that Dorian insisted was outside of their vows. "Considering all that you mean to each other, I don't think it goes too far," he had said. And this time Anders agreed.

[Lena Wolf]

Midyear, 3E411 - The final push

Lucanis sat up, gasping for air.

"Finally," Avernus smiled, checking his pulse. "For a moment there I wasn't sure..."

"He came for me - again," Lucanis looked up. "I am not dead because of him... for better or for worse."

"For better, definitely for better this time!" Varric was looking at him with interest. "I must say, I've seen resurrections... and reanimations... but nothing quite like this. I mean, you lay there dead. Then you just sat up and said hello. No big bang, no shimmering clouds, no drama. Pathetic, really," he smirked and winked. "But whatever works, I guess..."

"Oh, there was plenty of drama," Lucanis rolled his eyes. "Only it was..."

"For your eyes only," Varric nodded. "Yeah, I noticed that propensity of his to cover things up."

"Well, I guess this is one story that you won't be able to put into a book." Lucanis got up, turning his back to Varric, he started to see what was getting to Anders so much. It wasn't just the nicknames - Varric behaved as if he owned everything, and Lucanis tended to disagree. "You should know there's been a change," he turned to Avernus. "I am now..."

"I can sense it," Avernus interrupted him. "Best keep it to yourself for now."

"Right." Lucanis nodded. He was no longer an abomination, Spite, or the Spirit of Determination, had completely merged with his soul. What that meant exactly, Lucanis was still to discover. He felt different, while also feeling the same... it was confusing, but he could see Avernus' point - it was not the time to get confused, they still had a long battle to fight. And so he brushed it aside and redressed himself. "So. Fiona had fled, I take it?" He looked at his companions. "Where to next?"

...

"Ugh..." Anders opened his eyes, a battle raging around him. He noticed Dorian nearby casting spells at something further away, Harding losing arrows non-stop and Taash... he couldn't see Taash but he was sure she was breathing fire at some darkspawn or other. But Lucanis was safe, and that was all that mattered. Almost.

Anders got up and redressed himself. His wrists were bleeding profusely even though he could not remember slitting them for anything - it must have been an effect of the Fade, he figured. He was losing blood fast and not recovering, and that had to be addressed first of all. Bandages. When magic fails, a mage must not be too proud to resort to mundane means.

"There are more bandages and salves behind that rock!" Dorian noticed what Anders was doing. "You've been bleeding all the while... I did what I could..." He sighed apologetically and resumed casting lightning at something. "That blasted Alpha is getting too close!" He swore at it. "Now, die already!!!"

...

Darkspawn on the hill before the Grey Wardens fortress suddenly stopped fighting and dropped to the ground, dead. Darkspawn on the battlements did the same. The Wardens froze in surprise - this never happened before. Someone just killed all darkspawn. Remotely.

"I thought I'd clear the field for our last dance," Fiona stepped out of a portal, waved her hand and darkspawn corpsed melted into the earth. "Anders. I underestimated you." She smiled watching fresh blood stains appear on Anders' bandaged wrists. "You can take more pain than I thought humanly possible."

"I've had some practice," Anders frowned. "And I brought friends."

"Yes, I noticed! What fun!" Fiona beamed at him. "But they are stuck in the Fade, I'm afraid, at least those that still live... Your strongest and most proficient friends... they are lost. And whom do you have with you here? A Magister from Tevinter that does not practice blood magic... A scout from Ferelden who struggles with a bow bigger than she... A quanari fire breather who denies being a mage... I daresay this will be easy."

Fiona stood there, smiling, but Anders found himself unable to respond. It was all true, what she just said... and he, their leader, was a blood mage who lost too much blood already...

"Wardens!!" A clear, decisive voice came from behind him. "The leader of this Blight stands before you!" Alistair stepped onto the clearing, his sword raised high. "Fiona!" He looked into the faces of the Wardens on the battlements and on the slopes of the hill. They seemed strangely frozen. "Wardens!!" He called again. "Hear the song!! It is not gone, you are still Grey Wardens! This Blight is different, there is no Archdemon, there is just this blood mage twisting your minds! Next there will be demons! Be ready!!" He raised his voice to a shout and most people looked at him, shaking off their stupour. Whatever was going on, he was still their Commander, and if anything, they would simply follow him...

Alistair turned to Fiona, took a few steps and planted his sword into the ground in a mighty cleansing strike that sent shock waves through the entire battlefield. Fiona shrieked, her magic shield shuttering like glass. The dance had begun.

"Fall before me, blood mage!!" Alistair bellowed. "For I am a templar!!!"

...

The battle that followed was ferocious as anyone could have expected. Fiona summoned demons in troves, but by doing so she could not also maintain mind control of the Wardens at the same time. The Wardens snapped out of their trance and attacked the demons, while Alistair was keeping up pressure on Fiona with his endless cleansing strikes. And while it did prevent her from casting more blood magic, it also disrupted magic from the Wardens, Anders and Dorian included...

"Take a break - you can't get through his cleansing strikes!" Anders shouted to Dorian who kept having his spells interrupted. "Let's hope Luco's training rubbed off on me a bit!" He grinned, putting away his staff and switching to his dagger. "Fiona will bleed like her subjects!"

Fiona, however, was not using her own blood for her magic. When Anders circled behind her, he found several mages knocked out and bleeding in an alcove behind some rocks. Fiona came prepared. Looking closer, Anders realised that they had red lyrium crystals protruding from under the skin... "So, she gets their blood, and it's already augmented... How low can you fall, Fiona?" He muttered shooting her a glance. But this was too easy... the victims were not guarded in any way, or at least that's how it appeared. "Only one way to find out..." With his usual recklessness, Anders jumped at the opportunity and slit their throats.

"What did you do?!!!!" A massive explosion erupted all around Fiona, throwing Alistair back and causing Fiona's hair to catch fire. "Stupid boy!!!!" Fiona screamed, putting out the fire. A massive Pride Demon stepped out of a tear in the Veil right behind her, a tear caused by the excess of blood powering her spells - the blood gushing from the throats of the mages that Anders had slit. The flood of blood was brief but intense, sufficient to rip the Veil and summon a demon that was too powerful to be controlled by a mortal mage. The demon roared, a storm gathering in its hands.

"That won't be easy to defeat..." Anders sighed, cursing his lack of caution. "But, on the plus side, it is attacking Fiona..."

That demon wasn't the only one to step through the rip, more were coming. The most important thing to do now was to close that tear... and Anders had no idea how to do that.

"Close the breach!!!" Fiona screamed at him. "Or else we'll all die!!"

"But how?!" Anders screamed back. "How did you open it?!"

"I didn't, you did! You stupid apprentice!!!"

"I haven't been an apprentice for twenty three years!!!"

"You haven't gone through the Harrowing!! I know!!!" Fiona was furious. It was true that Anders never went through the official exam, he never actually graduated from the Ferelden Circle of Magi, he was still, technically, an apprentice... And although no one in their right mind believed it, technically it was true.

"Well then, you close the breach!!!" Anders bellowed. "Since you're qualified, First Enchanter Fiona!! You wouldn't want a mere apprentice meddle in such things!!!"

While they were arguing, more demons were pouring out of the breach and chaos was complete.

Dorian stopped casting and looked around. Another spell woundn't make a difference, nothing seemed to matter any more, and unless the breach was closed, the battle, the war, everything would be lost... "Well, I didn't imagine it like this but... how did it go? Oh yes... 'In Death, Sacrifice'." He nodded to himself, reciting the Grey Wardens motto and stepped through the breach into the Fade.

[Lena Wolf]

Midyear, 3E411 - In Death, Sacrifice

"Close the breach..." Dorian stood in the Fade next to a giant tear in the Veil looking down at the battle in Mundus, as if looking through a window on a street below. What he saw looked like a riot rather than a battle with everyone running in every direction without rhyme or reason. In the centre Fiona was battling a giant Pride Demon... and holding her own. "At least the demon will wear her down," Dorian thought. "We would have a hard time defeating her otherwise. Well done, Anders." He smiled an nodded to himself, turning to the task at hand - closing the breach.

Dorian was not planning on returning to Mundus. He would be trapped in the Fade forever, but it was a worthy sacrifice. With the breach closed, the Wardens stood a chance of defeating the demons and Fiona and ending the Blight. Many more Wardens would fall in that battle, and Dorian was ready to take his place in it. He rolled up his sleeves, took out his dagger and without hesitation made long and deep cuts in his wrists allowing the blood to flow freely. He needed a lot of blood for this. He cast a spell. The Veil around the breach lit up in a cloud of shimmering mist that was pulling it together, knitting up the rip. Dorian had to repeat the spell several times, slitting his wrists again and again, but eventually the breach was closed. He could no longer look at the battle below and no more demons could be drawn into Mundus through the rip in the Veil.

Dorian dropped to the ground. He lost a lot of blood - too much for someone not trained in blood magic. He would not recover. He smiled and closed his eyes.

...

"Where to next?" Lucanis looked at Emmrich with a question. "Can you sense where she's gone to?"

"To Mundus," Emmrich sighed. "She opened a portal and..."

"She took the fight to the Wardens," Avernus nodded. "The song has stopped..."

"Stopped?!" Lucanis wasn't a Warden, but he knew from his time with Anders that the song never stopped.

"Well... for me not entirely," Avernus smiled. "But I am very old. For most Wardens, the song will have stopped. They must be extremely confused."

"So that's her weapon - confusion," Varric scowled and stroked his crossbow. "Don't you worry, Bianca, she can't get to you..."

"I should hope not," Lucanis smirked to himself. There were sides to Varric that were positively endearing, while others were utterly repulsive... how they could coincide in the same person, was a mystery of creation without compare. "We must find her though," Lucanis continued aloud. "We cannot stop."

"You have become very... driven," Emmrich said quietly. "Is that because..?" He stood quite close to Lucanis and spoke very softly, keeping their conversation private.

"Yes," Lucanis nodded. "You can sense it too, I guess. I am Spite now... Or he is me... and we are also both Anders..."

"No-no, you are still you, Lucanis," Emmrich smiled. "You are just that little bit more determined, now that Spite is fully joined with you. And you are also taking more risks, just like Anders always does... but you are still you, have no doubt."

Lucanis smiled and sighed, it seemed he needed to hear it. He could not just brush his doubts aside, it was not that straightforward.

They all felt they had to do something, but no one knew what, they tried to think of something... then suddenly a huge explosion ripped through the air.

"What was that?!" Varric and Lucanis cried out together.

"It sounded like the Veil just got ripped apart..." Emmrich fixed Avernus with his gaze. "Demons will be pouring out of it."

"We must close it," Avernus nodded. "Lead on."

...

"The breach is closed... someone closed it..." Emmrich stopped, looking at Avernus in surprise. "But how could they..?"

"From the inside, I guess," Avernus nodded. "A Grey Warden did it... there is a Warden here in the Fade..."

Between Emmrich's ability to navigate the Fade and Avernus' connection to the Warden in it, it did not take long for them to find him. Dorian was sitting on the ground, his wrists bleeding, his eyes closed.

"Dorian!" Avernus ran up to him. "You are not dead yet, not yet, not like this... not while I am here..."

...

"The breach is closed!" Anders stopped in his tracks, turned around, looking for Dorian... "Dorian..." He shook his head realising what happened. "And should I fall in battle, you will pour your hurt into it and it will heal you," he remembered Dorian's words. Oh yes, the hurt... Dorian would not survive this... closing that breach would take all of his blood... he was no blood mage... Anders felt his heart squeeze into a tight ball and not release; he felt his stomach fall cutting through his liver; he felt a jolt shoot through his legs until he could feel his legs no more... He had enough hurt to kill everyone on the battlefield... but he really only wanted to kill one person: Fiona.

"You will not leave here alive!!!" He bellowed, gathering all of his hurt in a storm cloud. "You will not win!!" He did not need to cut his wrists, he was already bleeding. He did not have enough blood for a storm of that size, and so he used his hurt instead... he could do this... heal pain with more pain... wasn't it what he'd been doing his whole life? But now it wasn't just for his own benefit... now he'd use it in battle! "This is for you!!!" He released the storm in a ball of lightening letting it hover directly over Fiona's head... "In the end my magic proved stronger than his axe," he remembered Dorian telling him about that battle when The Iron Bull turned on them. "He died by my hand... His heart ripped apart by a lightning bolt that flew from my fingers..." The Bull turned on them, there was no choice but to fight him, and Dorian made it count, his love turning to hurt... The Bull turned on them, as he always knew he might, and Wolf knew it too and was ready for him, and Dorian should have known... but his heart refused to accept that it could occur, and so when it did, his heart was filled with hurt, his love turning to pain, all of which he used to kill the man he loved... "And no one ever knew the depth of his feeling," Anders realised. "And now I am doing the same... No meu coração estás sempre comigo... Always in my heart..."

The storm over Fiona's head combined with the lightning that the demon was casting at her, finally causing her to falter. Oh no, she was not immortal! There was a limit to her power, an end to her vitality! She was no longer able to summon demons, she now had to try to survive!

Without any new demons, the battle quickly folded. Even though many Grey Wardens now lay dead, enough of them were still standing, still fighting, still sending those demons back into the Fade. With the weaker demons despatched, the Wardens started attacking Fiona, while still leaving the one most powerful demon for later - their orders had been: Fiona first.

At long last they prevailed. First Fiona, and then all the remaining demons were defeated. The battlefield became eery quiet, and the only bodies on the ground were those of the fallen Grey Wardens; there was no darkspawn and no demonic remains, and even blighted boils and growth had retreated back into the soil. The Blight was over.

"She was one crazy blood mage," Alistair stood over Fiona's body, hoping that she was really dead. "Let's hope she won't rise again..."

"I would not put it past her," Anders smirked, checking her pulse and not finding any. "But she does look pretty dead to me."

"We've done it, Kadash," Taash came up to them. "But it wasn't without cost."

"Yeah..."

The Wardens that survived the battle, were slowly walking around the battlefield looking for anyone still alive, then carefully carrying the wounded back to the fortress. They left the dead on the ground, there would be a pire made for them later...

"But those that went into the Fade... they perished... and we don't even have their bodies to give to the flames..." Some Wardens were saying, shaking their heads. The cost of that victory was high indeed.

It took some time, but then someone spotted a dragon walking through the battlefield... limping through it, barely keeping up...

"Morrigan!" Anders recognised her.

She kept walking in her dragon form, only changing back to human when she reached the fortress. She immediately collapsed and had to be carried - she was badly wounded, and without the strength of a dragon, she was close to death.

"The others are alive," she told Anders. "I led them out of the Fade... they are in the tunnels behind the battlefield... there was some darkspawn, some demons... they need help..."

...

Yes, this story has a happy ending. After all the darkness and despair, the Maker smiled upon the Wardens and their friends. Or may be it wasn't the Maker but sheer luck, we'll never know. However it may be, but Avernus, Emmrich, Varric, Lucanis and Dorian all survived their ordeal and emerged from the tunnels victorious. Of course, a few stray demons and darkspawn could not compare to the horrors that they had overcome before...

No one felt like leaving as yet, no one felt ready to face the life without a constant struggle, and the bodies on the battlefield were still reminding them all of the cost of the lack of such a struggle. This Blight was not crowned with a big feast like the previous one; the Wardens that survived, did not feel like celebrating. Their Order lay in ruin, their Head Quarters destroyed, but just as the archives remained preserved, so was the song in their souls, and each Grey Warden knew that another Blight was already gathering strength, it may be a hundred years or more, but it will surely come, and for that reason they must stay strong, must rebuild and be ready, must watch and wait and carry on their endless vigil...

Join us, brothers and sisters. Join us in the shadows where we stand vigilant. Join us as we carry the duty that can not be forsworn. And should you perish, know that your sacrifice will not be forgotten. And that one day we shall join you.