Dragon Age: The Lost Scrolls, Chapter 12: Welcome to Skyrim

...But the Land of Skyrim, the Skald-King's home,

Is not for the weak and fragile, whether body our soul.

The freezing cold, howling winds, and icy seas,

traversed by beasts primeval, ensures that the cunning

thrive to see true beauty and value, while the dull find

only death.

Canticle of Vestiges 7:7-11

Everyone was getting ready to repair Skyhold since it was now the Inquisition's primary base of operations. But there were a free surprises, mainly with the repairs and what they revealed. For instance, a fallen chandelier was discovered to be dwarven manufacturing, but with no smith-mark. So it was decided to restore it because it showed that the person who had obtained it originally was quite familiar with logistics and finance. But there were a few others.

As it turned out, Skyhold's "Guest of Honor" was indeed Hawke, the Champion of Kirkwall. This did cause an argument between Varric and Cassandra later, but Max made it clear where he stood on this.

"We need to trust each other, Cassandra, and you'd better not be hiding anything else from us, Varric."

But fortunately Varric was able to make it up to Cassandra by presenting her with the next chapter of Swords and Shields, even though he considered it one of his worst serials. But there was one unusual thing that Hawke said that made everyone confused.

"So whatever happened to Andrew the Great?" Max had asked.

"He was overtaken by madness, and is no more." Hawke had answered, much to Max's confusion.

There was also a case where a new guy wanted to join the Inquisition, but he was seemingly destined to do everything wrong. He couldn't swing a blade properly, he had absolutely no stealth or secret-keeping abilities, and he was really bad at diplomacy. But Matthias was able to get him a surprisingly good job for the inquisition "that only someone like him can do", much to everyone's confusion.

Max and Cullen found this out the quickest way possible when they went to Skyhold's smithy. No sooner did they step through the door then someone dropped a brick from the second floor balcony onto his head.

"Ow! Geez!" Said the recruit, "That was a three-star impact, Wally! This helmet needs work."

"Really?" Said Walter, who was in charge of the smithy. "I'm pretty sure those alloys from the Forbidden Oasis would have been one star. One and a half, at best."

"But at least I'm not seeing any birds this time." Said the new recruit.

"I thought about putting that stubbornly thick skull of his to work." Explained Matthias, upon seeing the perplexed looks on Cullen and Max's faces.

—

Another unusual thing was what had happened overnight to Chie and Chikara (though he now called himself Chikaro). Both of them had doubled in height overnight, lost their wings and tails, had had their ears become somewhat less pointed. But the most radical changes to them were their color and form. Chisako had become a bright red with a slightly paler belly and had developed subtle masculine traits (which was, in part, why he now referred to himself as Chikaro), while his sister Chie had become a deep ocean blue with a sapphire underbelly and had developed subtle feminine traits. But they still viewed Matthias as a father of sorts, so Matthias was working on teaching them basic literacy, which helped shatter a presumption that Nords like Matthias were illiterate.

—

A final thing was the result of a summoning circle crafted by the Mages under the direction of the Tengu. While Max allowed the summoning, there were a few Templars nearby just in case. But before the basic summoning spell learned by any mage, there was a brief flash and the resulting spirit was... not what anyone expected.

While he did look mostly human, he was a strange mishmash of features. Slim shoulders and arms, sunken chest, pot belly, wide hips, and a clubbed right foot. But it was his face and head that was even more unusual. Large lips, big nose, almond-shaped eyes, and a misshapen, elongated head.

"Whoa, how did you...?" Said the mage who had been leading the summoning. "Aren't you supposed to wait until we complete the summoning?"

"I knew you were going to complete the summoning." Said the spirit, stepping out of the ring with seemingly no problem. "I read minds. I foresee the future."

"Well, okay." Said Max, "Maybe you can tell us what some of us are thinking."

"First off, you were born in Redcliffe and spent most of your life there." Said the spirit.

"Actually I was born in Ostwick." Said Max, confused.

"When you were only ten years old, a blood mage poisoned your father." Continued the spirit, "And since you were an undiscovered mage, you made a desperate deal with a desire demon to save him."

"Ack!" Exclaimed Connor suddenly, "He read my mind!"

"You! Yes, you!" Said the spirit, "that was whom I was talking about. As for you," he continued, turning to Josephine, "you are having trouble believing that Max's power over Fade rifts is magic cast by Corypheus. You believed that it was a sign that the Maker was at long last ready for return to his children. But you," he said turning to Max, "you believe that the Maker set these events in motion so long ago that we can no longer see his hand in this. That answer is the right one, because it was I that revealed the coming of all this chaos to him 900 years before it would actually begin."

"Uh oh, uh oh, I think we grabbed an Oracle." Said one of the mages who had participated in the summoning. "Can tell the future, uh oh."

"Well no wonder we can't see the Maker's hand in this." Said Max, in a tone that said 'isn't it obvious?', "If foreseeing the future is a very, very difficult thing, imagine how difficult it would be to predict an event that would only happen centuries after your death."

"Also," Continued the spirit, "you may find that the Crossroads in the Hinterlands has become the crossroads for a little more than two roads. Use the anchor on what you find there, go through the result, and you'll find out what land that Matthias is from."

At that Matthias' entire inner circle, minus his advisors since they were helping out with running the Inquisition and the repairs to Skyhold, gathered their gear and weapons together and set out for the Crossroads. While they were leaving, it appeared that the spirit they had summoned had become a bit of a tourist attraction for Orlesian nobles.

"Tell us more, O wise child of the maker." Said one male noble.

"First off," began the spirit, "I cannot believe what you did to your puppy."

—

When they got to the Crossroads, they saw a large crowd gathered around something that had formed there. Though what that something was was a little different than what they expected.

It was clearly an inactive rift similar to the one that they encountered in the Fallow Mire after several Inquisition soldiers got taken captive by Avvar. It was also where Max met the Avvar Skywatcher that was now part of his Inquisition. But what made it different was that it was pale blue, a shade darker than the sky, instead of green.

But when Max applied the Anchor to it, the end result was what looked like a blue-white whirlpool leading to somewhere other than the fade. But Matthias and Inigo recognized it immediately and began walking though it. While everyone else at the crossroads hung back, Max and his inner circle decided to bite the bullet and enter.

—

The land on the other side was as different from the Crossroads as possible.

"Judging from where we landed," said Matthias, giving a good look around, "we appear to be in the volcanic tundra south of Windhelm in Skyrim. So this means that this land IS Skyrim."

Max and his circle were still digesting the fact that they were in another world altogether when a man wearing a white handkerchief on his head came up to them.

"I've been looking for you." he said to Matthias, "Got something I'm supposed to deliver, your hands only." Then after perusing his letters, he pulled it out saying "A letter. Not sure who from, he wouldn't say, just that he was a friend of yours."

But the letter was a little more confusing, but Matthias seemed to know more about who wrote it."

M.

I can't say everything I'd like to in this letter. It's too risky in case the letter gets intercepted. I've been doing my own research into the portals that have been appearing over Skyrim. Meet me at Dragonsreach in Whiterun. I'll meet you there.

Your friend,

L.F.

"Who's this 'L.F.'?" Asked Iron Bull, "Are you certain he's not an enemy."

"I'll introduce him to you myself." Said Matthias, folding the letter up and tucking it inside his armor.

To be continued in Chapter 13: There... and Back Again...