Holli sat in her cell, her hands bound with rope in front of her, head leaning back against the cool stone. She wasn't sure what they had done to her, but her mind was a bit higgledy-piggledy. She had thoughts, but they were a bit useless, and certainly couldn't summon the will and focus for magic. Was it a concussion from them knocking her out? Was it some kind of magic that tosser Erimond had cast on her? Had they made her drink something? Injected something into her? Did syringes exist here yet? Had she seen one and couldn't remember?
"Erimond, you wanker!" She yelled.
She had no idea if he could hear her, but there was someone standing outside her cell. Her vision was a bit blurry too, and she was kind of dizzy, so she couldn't make him out at this distance. Too much blue though; Erimond wore a lot of white. Probably a warden.
There were no windows in her cell, so she couldn't tell if it was day or night, and the guy outside her cell didn't speak. In fact, she wasn't sure she had seen him move. Maybe it wasn't a guy, and it was just an armour stand.
"Are you real?" She whispered loudly, squinting her eyes at it to try and focus.
There was an awkward clearing of a throat. "I am."
"Holy shit," she muttered, flinging herself forward and crawling to the bars with a fair bit of difficulty. "Are you a Warden?"
"Yes."
"You have to listen," she slurred, blinking rapidly in a failed attempt to draw a bit of clarity. "Erimond is an absolute shitpile of a person."
"Don't listen to this child," another voice rang out.
Holli tried to look down the hall to see who it was, but the bars stopped that. Didn't matter; he came to stand in front of her anyway. She was pretty sure it was Erimond.
"She's the Herald of Andraste, sir; she closed the Breach."
Erimond laughed derisively. "I assure you, Andraste did not send her. Nothing but lies fall from her mouth."
"What a hypocrite," she snorted.
Erimond reached through the bars and grabbed her by her hair, hauling her up as she let out a pained hiss. This close to his face, her blurry vision wasn't really a problem; she could see him clearly.
"You're going to open a rift for me," he told her. "That is the only reason you're still alive."
"Not because I'm pretty?" She pouted.
His lip curled in disgust.
"I don't know how to open rifts, dipshit."
He smacked her face into the bars, and she cried out.
"Figure it out," he spat.
"How about you go eat a bag of dicks?" She suggested.
Part of her knew she was going to be punished for it, but that spacey part of her didn't give a shit. Really this was his own fault; if she were more in charge of her faculties, she'd probably be more compliant and have a better sense of self-preservation.
"You're a vile little creature," he growled out.
She slapped on her most mean girl voice; every teenage girl had one, couldn't get through high school without one.
"Better than whatever's going on with your face. Your parents weren't siblings, were they?" She summoned as much disgust into her gaze as she could, hoping it was actually coming across.
He let her go, and she dropped to the ground, falling back hard enough to hit the back of her head on the ground. She was too sore and too dizzy to move.
She heard the sound of the cell door being unlocked and opened before she was dragged up again; at least this time it was by her arm and not her hair.
Erimond had a firm grip on her arm as he pulled her out of the cell and down the hallway. She struggled to keep her feet working properly.
A loud, sudden, booming sound had the entire hallway shaking. Dust from above even sprinkled down over them. They both froze for a moment as they waited for the shaking to pass. But then there was another and another. Erimond didn't wait, instead picking up their pace through the hallways.
"What is that?" She muttered.
Erimond ignored her, pulling her along faster. When she started tripping over her own feet, he cursed at her and gripped her tighter, enough to hurt. He dragged her out into the light of day, her eyes squeezing shut at the sudden brightness despite the cloudy skies.
As they carried on, she could hear the sounds of battle, but it was distant. Had Hawke arrived with the army? She thought she could see plumes of smoke coming from other parts of the fortress.
"Hawke?" She wondered.
"He won't get here in time," Erimond told her.
"But he will get here," she said, grinning. "And then you're so fucked," she laughed.
For all his smart assery and lackadaisical demeanour, Hawke was still a kick-ass warrior. And Fenris was the stuff of gory action movies. And that wasn't even counting all the others, all deadly.
Erimond backhanded her across the face so hard she was left reeling, felt like her brain had been smacked right out of her head, leaving her thoughts more scattered than before. Maybe she was fucked too, but hopefully so was he. Because fuck this guy.
-
"There she is!" Cole breathed out, a mix of relief and fear and urgency in those three words.
Solas could see her; she was standing seemingly unaided, but she was swaying, and her eyes seemed dazed, and there were some injuries to her face that he could see. Erimond was beside her as Clarel sacrificed a Warden for her ritual.
"She's not right," Cole said. "Her mind is swirling, and she can't make sense."
The fact that she had thoughts at all was a good sign Erimond and Corypheus were not in control of her via blood magic, at least.
The sacrifice Clarel made was apparently not enough to bring her demon forth, and Erimond ordered Holli to open the rift. Solas could see the veil was already weakened; it wouldn't take much. Despite Holli's lack of experience opening rifts – she had only done it once at the first attempt to seal the Breach – with the veil as thin as it was, it may very well pull for the power from her at the slightest prodding. Solas could even catch glimpses of what awaited on the other side of that rift through particularly thin areas.
"Holli!" Hawke called out, drawing the attention of the Wardens. Holli, however, was nonresponsive. "Fuck, what have they done to her?"
"I don't think she's being controlled," Solas told him. "She's made no move to listen to anyone."
"Stop them!" Erimond ordered, his hand taking hold of Holli's arm, the threat clear. "We must complete the ritual!"
The Wardens drew their blades, their staves, and their bows, ready to obey.
"Clarel, don't do this!" Hawke yelled up to her. "You're making a mistake."
"What, fighting the Blight?" Erimond asked. "Keeping the world safe from darkspawn? Yes, the ritual requires blood sacrifice. Hate me for that if you must, but do not hate the Wardens for doing their duty."
"We make the sacrifices no one else will," Clarel said.
"Is one of those sacrifices the Herald of Andraste? You don't think she sacrificed enough saving the world once?"
"She's not here to be sacrificed; she's here to aid in our ritual. No, it is our warriors who die proudly for a world that will never thank them."
"And then your Tevinter ally binds the mages to Corypheus!" Stroud snapped.
"Corypheus? But he's dead."
"These people will say anything to shake your confidence, Clarel," Erimond told her.
Clarel looked torn for a moment, and Solas thought they might have gotten through to her until she cast a hard gaze at Holli.
"Bring it through. Open the rift," Clarel told her.
That seemed to be all the Wardens needed to advance on them. Holli at least wasn't obeying Clarel's command.
"I trained half of you myself! Do not make me kill you to stop this madness!" Stroud threatened them.
"Be ready with the ritual, Clarel," Erimond said, taking hold of Holli's wrist, the arm that bore the anchor; the other came along, seeing as her hands were bound. "This demon is truly worthy of your strength."
"Blackwall, can you talk some sense into them?" Hawke asked.
He didn't want to kill Wardens if he could avoid it. His sister was a Warden, though thank the Maker she was safe from here.
Blackwall was surprisingly eloquent for a man of few words. Though it could have been his name and reputation that had his fellow Wardens questioning Erimond. Even Clarel looked doubtfully at the man at her side after what he said.
"Clarel, we've come so far; you're the only one who can do this," he tried to convince her.
"Perhaps we could test the truth of these charges, to avoid more bloodshed."
"Or perhaps I should bring in a more reliable ally," he snarled. He pounded the butt of his staff on the stone beneath him. "My master thought you might come here, Inquisitor! He sent me this to welcome you!"
Corypheus's dragon was heard before it was seen, its roar thrumming through their bones. From the darkened sky, it swooped down, unleashing a torrent of magic that bore far too close a resemblance to some of Meredith's powers towards the end. She had been difficult enough, but a dragon with the same power was a terrifying thought.
They dove out of the way, barely managing to avoid its power and its claws. It arced around, its tail destroying towers and statues, causing rock and debris to tumble down and crush anyone too slow.
"We have to get to Holli," Cole said, looking up at where she had been.
One-track mind, that kid. When Hawke looked up, Erimond was fleeing with Holli stumbling beside him. Clarel gave chase.
Hawke and his people had to cut through swathes of demons to follow. But at least for now it seemed the Wardens were no longer against him.
When they finally caught up with Clarel, Holli, and Erimond, they were on a broken bridge. Holli was at the furthest end, lying on the ground, with Clarel a few feet in front of her between her and Erimond.
Everything happened so quickly. Cole went for Holli; Corypheus's dragon returned and snapped up Clarel; Erimond flung a few spells at Hawke and his people; then the dragon was back, and what remained of the bridge was collapsing.
It was a fucking shitshow.